Augustine Birrell

Home > ... > Literature and the Arts > Literature in English > English Literature, 19th cent.: Biographies > ...

Essential reading Compare
side-by-side The Oxford Companion to Irish ... The Concise Oxford Companion ... The Columbia Encyclopedia, ...

Augustine Birrell

Augustine Birrell , 1850-1933, English essayist and public official. As chief secretary for Ireland (1907-16) his failure to end the plotting that resulted in the Easter Rebellion of 1916 led to his retirement from politics. His works include the pleasant and urbane critical essays Obiter Dicta (3 vol.; 1884, 1887, 1924) and biographies of Charlotte Brontë (1887), William Hazlitt (1902), and Andrew Marvell (1905).

Create a link to this page

Copy and paste this link tag into your Web page or blog:

<a href="http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/.aspx#1E1-Birrell" title="Facts and information about Augustine Birrell">Augustine Birrell</a>

Give this article a thumbs-up on StumbleUpon

Cite this article
Pick a style below, and copy the text for your bibliography.

MLA
Chicago
APA

"Augustine Birrell." The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. 2008. Encyclopedia.com. 16 Nov. 2009 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

"Augustine Birrell." The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. 2008. Encyclopedia.com. (November 16, 2009). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1E1-Birrell.html

"Augustine Birrell." The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. 2008. Retrieved November 16, 2009 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1E1-Birrell.html

Learn more about citation styles

Birrell, Augustine

The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature | 2003 | | Â© The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature 2003, originally published by Oxford University Press 2003. (Hide copyright information) Copyright

Birrell, Augustine (1850–1933), chief secretary for Ireland, 1907–16, made his name as an author with a volume of lightweight essays, Obiter Dicta (1884), which he followed with further essays, and works on Hazlitt (1902), Marvell (1905), and others.

Create a link to this page

Copy and paste this link tag into your Web page or blog:

<a href="http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/.aspx#1O54-BirrellAugustine" title="Facts and information about Augustine Birrell">Augustine Birrell</a>

Cite this article
Pick a style below, and copy the text for your bibliography.

MLA
Chicago
APA

MARGARET DRABBLE and JENNY STRINGER. "Birrell, Augustine." The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature. 2003. Encyclopedia.com. 16 Nov. 2009 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

MARGARET DRABBLE and JENNY STRINGER. "Birrell, Augustine." The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature. 2003. Encyclopedia.com. (November 16, 2009). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O54-BirrellAugustine.html

MARGARET DRABBLE and JENNY STRINGER. "Birrell, Augustine." The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature. 2003. Retrieved November 16, 2009 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O54-BirrellAugustine.html

Learn more about citation styles

Birrell, Augustine

The Oxford Companion to Irish History | 2007 | Â© The Oxford Companion to Irish History 2007, originally published by Oxford University Press 2007. (Hide copyright information) Copyright

Birrell, Augustine (1850–1933), Liberal politician and Ireland's longest‐serving chief secretary (Jan. 1907–May 1916). A London barrister and wit, he gave the name ‘birrelling’ to light essay‐writing. A cabinet career characterized by legislative failure—the 1906 education bill (England) rejected by the Lords, the Irish council bill rejected by the Nationalist Party, the Home Rule Act (1914) stifled by the Ulster Unionists—ended in disaster at Easter 1916. After 1910 Irish policy was directed by Asquith and Lloyd George, Birrell's wife's terminal illness being part of the explanation. His achievements were the Universities Act of 1908, which provided colleges acceptable to Catholics, and the 1909 Land Act which revised Wyndham's 1903 act in the tenants' favour. Strongly pragmatic, he saw off the formidable MacDonnell. The key to his approach was strong Liberal–Nationalist alliance; the confrontational policies of his successors were no more effective. He commended and, with Things Past Redress (1937), practised posthumous autobiography.

A. C. Hepburn

Create a link to this page

Copy and paste this link tag into your Web page or blog:

<a href="http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/.aspx#1O245-BirrellAugustine" title="Facts and information about Augustine Birrell">Augustine Birrell</a>

Cite this article
Pick a style below, and copy the text for your bibliography.

MLA
Chicago
APA

"Birrell, Augustine." The Oxford Companion to Irish History. Oxford University Press. 2007. Encyclopedia.com. 16 Nov. 2009 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

"Birrell, Augustine." The Oxford Companion to Irish History. Oxford University Press. 2007. Encyclopedia.com. (November 16, 2009). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O245-BirrellAugustine.html

"Birrell, Augustine." The Oxford Companion to Irish History. Oxford University Press. 2007. Retrieved November 16, 2009 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O245-BirrellAugustine.html

Learn more about citation styles

Free newspaper and magazine articles

Reds on a roll.
Newspaper article from: Linlithgowshire Journal & Gazette (Linlithgowshire, Scotland); 9/29/2006

Facts and information from other sites

Related articles from newspapers, magazines, and more

	Churchill's memorable first visit to the Province.(Features) Newspaper article from: The News Letter (Belfast, Northern Ireland); 2/2/2002; 700+ words ; ...Rule] has begun in Ulster." Augustine Birrell, the Chief Secretary for Ireland...responsibilities. More importantly, Birrell feared Churchill's intervention...Liberals, with some prompting from Birrell, decided to hold their meeting...
	The Easter Rising Newspaper article from: The Washington Post; 4/26/1999; 696 words ; ...of Dublin after 24 hours of most serious fighting, Augustine Birrell, chief secretary for Ireland, announced in the house...there has been rioting in other parts of Ireland Mr. Birrell did not say. But there is no doubt that the Dublin...
	Twentieth-Century Britain: A Political History.(Book Review) Magazine article from: Albion; 6/22/2004; ; 700+ words ; ...only thirty-eight. Minor and forgotten figures like Augustine Birrell, Asquith's hapless Chief Secretary for Ireland...subjected to the kind of character sketch, and in Birrell's case withering scorn, largely reserved for prime...
	The Gladstone Diaries. Magazine article from: The Economist (US); 10/1/1994; 700+ words ; ...labours) is that of April 10th 1890: Wrote to Mr Noble--Mr W. Mitchell. Walk & conversation with Mr Birrell [Augustine Birrell, 1850-1933; barrister, author and liberal MP Fife 1889-1900; later Irish secretary]. Read "The Absentee...
	Guinness to get stamp of approval; 250TH YEAR.(News) Newspaper article from: The Mirror (London, England); 2/25/2009; 329 words ; ...Ryan to issue a new stamp to mark the centenary of the Birrell Land Act. It allowed tenants to buy large tracts of land from landlords and is named after Liberal MP Augustine Birrell who served as chief secretary for Ireland from 1907...
	Not great but definitely good Magazine article from: The Spectator; 3/22/2003; ; 700+ words ; ...subject of a hefty, pious Victorian biography, since when she has been pretty much forgotten. The Edwardian wit Augustine Birrell buried 19 volumes of her collected works in his garden for compost. She owes her disinterment to the fashion for...
	How touch-feely Mo blunted the Tony charm Magazine article from: The Spectator; 7/10/1999; ; 700+ words ; ...changed to Bloody Balfour; he was on a trajectory which took him to the premiership. A later Chief Secretary, Augustine Birrell, arrived in post with a greater reputation than the young Balfour had enjoyed, but lost it and his political career...
	Anniversaries Newspaper article from: The Independent - London; 1/19/1994; 538 words ; ...1809; Sir Henry Bessemer, engineer, 1813; Ferdinand Laub, violinist, 1832; Paul Cezanne, painter, 1839; Augustine Birrell, author and politician, 1850; Boris Blacher, composer, 1903; Iris Guiver Wilkinson (Robin Hyde), novelist...
	INSIDE POLITICS.(Nation)(Inside Politics) Newspaper article from: The Washington Times; 2/11/1998; ; 700+ words ; ...CHANGE "If the U.S. had a parliamentary system, the Clinton presidency would already have been consigned, in Augustine Birrell's felicitous phrase, to the great ash heap called history," writes Kent Weaver, a senior fellow in governmental...
	A Woman of Masterful Persuasion Newspaper article from: The Washington Post; 7/16/2009; ; 700+ words ; ...the masterpieces. An understandable mistake. After all, there were so many similar litterateurs of that era -- Augustine Birrell, Edmund Gosse, Alice Meynell, Robert Lynd, Logan Pearsall Smith. In truth, Repplier is old-fashioned, approaching...