ABSTRACT
With the land issue temporarily settled and British reactions to the Phoenix Park murders subsiding, Parnell was ready to redirect Irish attention to Home Rule. Although Gladstone had done him the favor of outlawing the Fenian-tainted Land League in 1881, the Ladies Land League still existed to express agrarian radicalism. Much to the consternation of its president, his sister Fanny, Parnell terminated the organization in 1882. He then appropriated the funds of the defunct Land League and added them to new American money to restructure the Irish party. He recruited bright, energetic young men as parliamentary candidates. In the Young Ireland and Fenian traditions, many of them were journalists. The Irish party paid their election expenses and gave them a living allowance so that they could survive in London when Parliament was in session. An efficient election machinery, Irish-American money, good candidates, the secret ballot, and the 1884 reform bill, which created a household rural male suffrage, guaranteed Irish constitutional nationalism eighty-five Westminster seats. No longer was it hostage to political opportunism. Parnell’s party was disciplined. Its MPs pledged solidarity on all Irish issues before the House of Commons. A parliamentary committee of sixteen MPs, dominated by Parnell and his chief lieutenants, determined party policy. During the 1880s, Home Rulers were the most efficient, best-organized party in the House of Commons. Their front benches displayed as much talent as either of the two British parties. They inspired the reorganization of both the Liberals and the Conservatives.
