Irish Historical Studies Publications Ltd

Parnell to Pearse : Some Recollections and Reflections by John J. HorganReview by: F. S. L. LyonsIrish Historical Studies, Vol. 6, No. 23 (Mar., 1949), pp. 231-232Published by: Irish Historical Studies Publications LtdStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/30006598 .

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Reviews 2 3 Irish from Rinuccini. Sir Lewis's own contacts with Ireland were of less importance, but he crossed over to Ulster from the Isle of Man some time after 5 October 1649, bringing with him a royal commission for Viscount Montgomery of the Ards. He remained in Ireland until the following June, when he returned to the Hague. There he some- what rashly published a pamphlet on Irish affairs which gave umbrage to Inchiquin and complicated his own relations with Ormond and Charles II. There is a copy of this pamphlet entitled A letter from Sir Lewis Dyve to the lord marquis of Newcastle . . . in the Thorpe collection in the National Library, Dublin. The narrative occupies pages 3-56 of the pamphlet. This is followed by 23 pages of 'letters mentioned by Sir Lewis Dyve in the foregoing discourse'.

Mr Tibbutt has drawn on two previously published accounts of Sir Lewis Dyve's career. One appeared serially in the Gentleman's Magazine for 1821, the other in W. H. Harvey's History of the Willey Hundred. These earlier works, however, as well as Sir Charles Firth's article in the D.N.B., neglected the last eighteen years of Dyve's life, which receive a more balanced treatment here. In addition, the author has brought to light many hitherto unpublished letters. It is a pity, however, that his admirable industry is not served by an equal skill in presentation. The work is extremely difficult to read, and indeed must be taken piecemeal. The author, however, is not concerned to write a finished biography of his hero but to assemble very fully the materials towards such a life, and this he has done very thoroughly.

The O'Neill whose christian name is unidentified in the index (p. I54) is Daniel, and Tecroghan, the seat of Sir Luke Fitzgerald (whose daughter married Owen Roe's son) is in co. Meath and not in co. Clare as stated (p. 98).

DONAL F. CREGAN

PARNELL TO PEARSE : SOME RECOLLECTIONS AND REFLECTIONS. By John J. Horgan. Pp. viii, 359. Dublin: Browne & Nolan. 1948. I55.

MR HORGAN has produced a volume of memoirs which adds considerably to our still very imperfect knowledge of the period with which he deals. He does not, however, claim to have made an objective approach to his subject,- and in fact asserts in his foreword that ' a point of view is not only inevitable, but even necessary'. His own point of view is that of a warm, though not entirely uncritical, admirer of John Redmond, and of a firm supporter of the constitutional movement whose decline he witnessed at first hand, and the story of whose varying fortunes forms the substance of this book.

Mr Horgan was not, however, a member of the Irish Parliamentary Party, and this, combined with the fact that he entered fully into many

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232 Reviews other spheres of Irish life from which the party leaders tended to hold aloof, allowed him to see something of both Irelands-the Ireland which looked forward into a troubled and violent future, and the Ireland still mesmerised by the parliamentary achievements of Parnell. The author's own active interest in politics dated from 1909, and it is to the period

90o9-18 that he devotes two-thirds of his space; it is perhaps a weakness in his book that he tells us so little about the preceding decade, a period whose history is still very obscure and confused.

Basing his political action upon the belief that dominion status was the best solution of the Irish question, Mr Horgan devoted himself between 1913 and 1918 to attempting to bridge the gulf between the representatives of the old and of the new Irelands, and the chapters in which he describes his efforts are the most important in the book. He made two attempts to achieve his aim. In December 1913, he endeavoured to bring the Volunteers and the party together in much more favourable circumstances than those attending the junction of the two bodies a few months later; to this end he 'corresponded with Eoin MacNeill on the one side and John Muldoon on the other, and the letters which he prints (pp. 228-31) are interesting evidence, both of the conciliatory tone of MacNeill and of the blank hostility of the party. His second and more ambitious attempt to avert the isolation of the party was made in the autumn of 1918, only a few weeks before the general election virtually destroyed the constitutional movement as an effective political force. His object was to bring all Irish nationalists together so that they might present to the peace conference a united demand for self-determination. In his zeal for mediation, however, Mr Horgan appears on this occasion to have over-simplified the situation. In a letter to Richard Hazleton, M.P. (pp. 346-7) he wrote: '. . . there is now very little difference in principle between the Sinn Fein Party and ourselves. The only real difference is a difference as to method, more especially the value of parliamentary action.' But to describe this difference merely as a difference of method was surely to misconceive the character and purpose of Sinn Fein. It is evident that Mr Horgan to some extent shared the fatal disability of the constitutionalists, the failure to appreciate the immensity of the changes which had overtaken the country during the previous decade. His overture was rejected by John Dillon, who could not agree to any policy involving abstention from the house of commons, and shortly afterwards Mr Horgan with- drew from his long association with the party organisation.

The author's activities, whether in the Gaelic League, the United Irish League, the volunteer movement, or in other organisations, brought him into contact with most of the eminent Irish nationalists of the day. His vivid sketches of these personalities, together with the numerous letters which he prints, greatly enhance the value and interest of the book. The style of the narrative is lucid and, with allowance made for Mr Horgan's angle of vision, commendably restrained.

F. S. L. LYONS

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