Independent Opposition Party

Independent Opposition Party (Independent Irish Party), the realization of an idea occasionally mooted during the O'Connell era but difficult to achieve because of the affinity of Irish Catholic MPs (including the Liberator himself) for the fellow‐ship and patronage of the Whig–Liberal family. The ecclesiastical titles bill so alienated some Catholic members that they systematically opposed not only the bill but unrelated government measures also. Most prominent among them were John Sadleir, William Keogh, G. H. Moore, and Thomas Reynolds; they were dubbed ‘the Irish Brigade’.

The Irish Tenant League (founded 1850) intended to field candidates at the next elections, so that its leaders had little choice but to come to an arrangement with the Brigadiers, which they did in August 1851. The alliance won widespread support in the general election of 1852; subsequently, at one or other of two conferences in Dublin, 42 MPs formalized their election promises by pledging to remain ‘independent of and in opposition to’ any government that would not make specific concessions. The group voted as a bloc in the defeat of the Tory government in December 1852. In the same month rudimentary party structures were agreed upon but these were never implemented.

When a new government emerged in January 1853 it offered no concessions but, being led by Lord Aberdeen (who had opposed the Ecclesiastical Titles Act), it was more favourably disposed towards Catholic interests than any conceivable alternative. It was supported by a number of the ‘pledged’ MPs, and two of them, Sadleir and Keogh, actually accepted appointments. A bitter split ensued, with those faithful to the pledge adopting the designation of ‘Independent Opposition’, while the others reverted to the Whig–Liberal allegiance.

The Independent Oppositionists were drawn preponderantly from the tenant right group, but their more prominent members included G. H. Moore. Any semblance of countrywide organization the party possessed was provided by the Irish Tenant League. With the advent of a minority Tory government in 1858 the party enjoyed some leverage but only about a dozen members remained and they split almost equally in the crucial reform bill vote on 31 March 1859.

Down to 1865 Independent Opposition had a significant following at the polls. Its last and best recruit was John Blake Dillon, elected for Tipperary in 1865, who reunited the scattered remnant in the Commons and led it in 1866 into an alliance with the reforming Liberals.

Richard Vincent Comerford