Dillon, John (1851–1927), MP for Tipperary (1880–3) and for East Mayo (1885–1918), the most influential nationalist politician between
Parnell and
de Valera. Son of John Blake
Dillon, he qualified in medicine but lived comfortably on private means. A lifelong hypochondriac, his melancholia was reinforced by a succession of eight premature family deaths. From 1907 he raised six young children alone.
A militant agrarian in the 1880s, he served four prison terms; anti‐landlordism remained a motif throughout his career. He and William
O'Brien often clashed with Parnell over their continued agrarianism, but were reluctant anti‐Parnellites in 1890. Dillon became leader of the main anti‐Parnellite movement in 1896, giving way to
Redmond in 1900 to facilitate the reunion of parliamentary nationalism. Although not personally close, the two became an effective team: Redmond the dignified orator, living mostly in London and using a hotel when in Dublin; Dillon based in Dublin, at the centre of a great web of grass‐roots contacts. He opposed the policy of ‘reconciliation’ with the landlords which underlay the 1903
Land Act, almost breaking with Redmond, but the outcome was instead a final split with O'Brien. He remained unplacated by social and administrative reforms, though continuing to expect them from Liberal governments.
Dillon was the
Nationalist Party's most accomplished parliamentarian, a classic radical liberal in his attitudes to imperialism and rearmament. He opposed compulsory Irish in the
National University, and later declined to lend active support to the British war effort. He and Redmond were at the centre of all
home rule negotiations between 1910 and 1916. His bitter speech denouncing the 1916 executions reflected an early awareness of the changing national mood. Solitary, aloof, and fastidious, he lacked the politician's bonhomie, but his vision of Irish nationality was broad and liberal. Earnestly Catholic, he opposed clerical leadership in politics. His analysis of Irish politics was often as accurate as it was pessimistic, and had he led the reunited party after 1900 its defeat by
Sinn Féin in 1918 might have been less complete. That he could not have been that leader is a measure of his limitations.
Bibliography
Lyons, F. S. L. , John Dillon: A Biography (1968)
A. C. Hepburn
