Chapter 9
"O'Donnell 28. Parnell 52."
Results of Conservative party leadership vote. 5 January 1880
"Parnell was to be the first truly Irish leader. He was the first Prime Minister who realised that what was good for Ireland might not necessarily be down the same path as Britain."
Ireland and the World, 1860-1900
On January 2nd 1880 Prime Minister Joesph McNally retired from politics after a severe health scare. This left the Conservative party in a lurch, government was meeting again on the 6th and not having a Prime Minister was out of the question however the majority of Conservative party members where already in Dublin and as such an emergency vote was called. The vote came down to two men, Joseph O'Donnell who was a Dublin industrialist and darling of Westminster who was known to spend more time in London then Dublin. On the other hand there was Charles Stewart Parnell, a conservative member of parliament for Alaska who in his career so far had been the assistant to the Governor of Alaska, had been heavily involved in establishing the Commonwealth agreement and had been a captain in the Irish navy serving during the war with Japan. He also had a very organised group of supporters and as such there was rapidly no contest. As such Charles Stewart Parnell was elected leader of the Conservative party and as such Prime Minister of Ireland.
PM Charles Stewart Parnell
And the Nation was never the same again.
Parnell was quick to listen to his advisers regarding the stagnation of Industry in Ireland. To coincide with his views that Ireland couldn't always rely on Britain for Military support, he was in favour of expanding the Connaught steelworks and encouraging the Cork and Belfast shipyards. He also wanted to establish industry bases to make Ireland more self-sufficient in Industry. The two main industrial goods that Ireland was importing were Machine Parts and Paper and Parnell wanted this importing of these goods to end and for these goods to be produced in Ireland. These goods were mostly bought from Britain and when British industrial lobbyists managed to get Westminster to protest the ideas of these expansions Parnell replied with his now famous quote of
"No man shall have the right to fix the boundary to the march of a Nation." (1) While this caused a few grumbled curses in Westminster protests against his plans were quickly dropped.
As well as his Industrial plans Parnell was responsible for over seeing the establishing of colonies in the Pacific. The Soloman Islands, Mikronesia and Eastern Polynesia quickly became part of the growing "Irish Empire" as well as planned expansion in Irish West Africa.
Then on December 25th 1880 an unexpected action on behalf of the Westminster government saw the most surprising thing happen to Ireland since the restoration of Home Rule.
Ireland was given ownership of Rome. Following wide spread condemnation from Catholics internationally and military uprisings in Rome itself Britain faced the possibility of losing an extraordinary amount of face internationally. As such the Westminster government felt it would be wise to allow Rome to be controlled by a Catholic country and as Ireland was internationally recognised as one of the prime examples of a Catholic country(2) the Irish were chosen to be the new owners of Rome and the guardians of the Pope. Christmas mass in Dublin that year was understandably a bit more over the top then usual.
Following this momentous occasion Irish life quietened down. A general increase in Economic prosperity and new Industrial growth coupled with the establishment of the Irish colony of Namibia(3) saw a general peaceful existence fall across Ireland.
This peace was shattered on April 7th 1881 when three Irish sailors serving aboard the Merchant Vessel
Irene were arrested and executed in Abu Dhabi for being drunk in public. In Dublin the public went mad. The press whipped up the masses into a Jingoist fury cling on the government to punish these backwards heathens, in Rome the Pope condemned the actions of Abu Dhabi as "an evil of Islam"(4) and all throughout the empire anger fermented at the actions of the Abu Dhabi authorities. Parnell appealed to the British government for permission to seek retribution and on April 10th received that permission. Unknown to Westminster was that Parnell planned to go ahead even without their permission. So on the 10th of April 1881 at four o'clock in the afternoon (Irish Time) Ireland declared war on Abu Dhabi.
By September 28th Abu Dhabi was defeated, occupied and annexed into the Irish Empire. Apart from the establishment of the Vatican Guard in 1883 this would be the last exciting thing to happen to Ireland before 1885. However Parnell was waiting to take advantage of this new peace and territory. Riding on a wave of Nationalist glory the military started to expand.
Si vis pacem, para bellum
###########
Questions, Comments, Criticisms?
(1) Originally a quote in favour of Home Rule I think it works here as a quote to say that Ireland is growing up.
(2) Even though at this time it's Prime Minister is a Protestant and so is a good quarter of it's population.
(3) For the simple fact that I want Rhodesia and it's tobacco/Iron resources.
(4) The views of the Pope do not in anyway equal the views of the author.
(5) I needed an event that would give me a picture to take and I like to think that by waiting for approval the British would have been reassured that the Irish weren't going behind their backs and feel grateful. Also this marks the first of possibly many instance of Ireland being an independent nation for about three days so that it can get it's war face on.