Young Ireland

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Young Ireland, a romantic nationalist group active 1842–8. Initially led by Thomas Davis, Charles Gavan Duffy, and John Blake Dillon, and focused on the Nation newspaper, the group comprised mainly middle‐class graduates, from both Catholic and Protestant backgrounds, of Trinity College, Dublin. It sought to create a non‐sectarian public opinion in Ireland infused with a sense of cultural nationality, and believed it necessary to promote a national literature and to revive the Irish language, although few practical steps were taken towards the latter objective. The group was fully involved in the repeal campaign, but rejected Daniel O'Connell's pragmatic overtures towards federalists in 1844, and clashed with him over the Queen's Colleges bill in May 1845. Davis, a convinced advocate of mixed education and a fierce critic of sectarianism within the repeal movement, failed to grasp Catholic sensitivities on this subject, while O'Connell's son John saw the group as potential rivals for the leadership of the movement.

The Nation group were first labelled Young Ireland in late 1844 by observers who noted similarities with romantic nationalist groups on the Continent, but the term was used pejoratively from 1845 to distinguish them from the Old Irelanders around the O'Connells. In 1846 O'Connell responded to Young Ireland criticisms of his negotiations for a new Whig alliance by requiring members of the Repeal Association to renounce the use of force. Although Young Ireland had no plans for rebellion, they refused to accept these peace resolutions, and, with William Smith O'Brien, they withdrew from the association on 28 July. The split was formalized with the establishment of the Irish Confederation.

Young Ireland had little popular support outside Dublin or amongst the Catholic clergy, and was divided over its political strategy. O'Brien and Duffy hoped to attract the support of the patriotic gentry to a broad campaign against the government's famine policy, while the militants, led by John Mitchel and inspired by James Fintan Lalor, looked to a spontaneous peasant‐led social revolution. News of the revolution in France in February 1848 helped restore some degree of unity, but the rebellion of 1848 was an abject failure and the movement's leaders fled abroad or were transported. Their legacy lay not in the insurrectionary fiasco of 1848, but with their success in inculcating a romantic sense of nationality into subsequent generations of Irish nationalists.

Bibliography

Davis, R. , The Young Ireland Movement (1987)

Peter Gray

Young Ireland was a group of patriotic middle-class intellectuals associated with the repeal movement of Daniel O'Connell: its original leaders included Thomas Davis (1814–45), John Blake Dillon (1816–66), and Charles Gavan Duffy (1816–1903). Gavan Duffy's journalistic experience was essential to the success of the Nation, a newspaper founded in 1842 to promote the inclusivist nationalism of the Young Ireland movement. Growing tensions between Young Ireland and O'Connell's Repeal Association came to a head in July 1846, when a split occurred on the issue of physical force: the more militant Young Irelanders seceded from the Association, and, led by William Smith O'Brien (1803–64), formed the Irish Confederation. The fall of the July monarchy in France, combined with pre-emptive arrests of Confederation leaders by Dublin castle, further stimulated the militants, and the organization staggered into rebellion in July 1848. This was easily suppressed, and the Confederation broken; but the intellectual legacy of Young Ireland, expressed in the secular cultural nationalism of Davis, or in the vitriolic republican polemic of John Mitchel (1815–75), has had a lasting influence.

Alvin Jackson

Young Ireland was a group of patriotic middle‐class intellectuals associated with the repeal movement of Daniel O'Connell: its original leaders included Thomas Davis (1814–45), John Blake Dillon (1816–66), and Charles Gavan Duffy (1816–1903). Gavan Duffy's journalistic experience was essential to the success of the Nation, a newspaper founded in 1842 to promote the inclusivist nationalism of the Young Ireland movement. Growing tensions between Young Ireland and O'Connell's Repeal Association came to a head in July 1846, when a split occurred on the issue of physical force: the more militant Young Irelanders seceded from the Association, and, led by William Smith O'Brien (1803–64), formed the Irish Confederation. The militants staggered into rebellion in 1848, which was easily suppressed, but the intellectual legacy of Young Ireland had a lasting influence.

Young Ireland An Irish nationalist movement of the 1840s. Led by young Protestants, including Smith O'Brien (1803–64) and John Mitchel (1815–75), who, inspired by Mazzini's YOUNG ITALY, set up their own newspaper, the Nation. It called for a revival of Ireland's cultural heritage. At first the members of Young Ireland were associated with Daniel O'CONNELL in his campaign to repeal the Act of UNION, but later they turned to more radical solutions. In 1848 they attempted a rebellion, which was easily suppressed, O'Brien and Mitchel being sentenced to transportation.