page_title: United Irish League
section_title: Expansion
hierarchical_section_title: United Irish League / Expansion
caption_attribution_description: English: Image is an example of the front page of The Irish People, a weekly newspaper published by William O’Brien MP, from 16 September 1899 to the 7 November 1903 in Dublin and again from 30 September 1905 to the 27 March 1909 in Cork. Originally published as the organ of the United Irish League, an agrarian reform organisation founded by O'Brien in 1898. Its front page generally carried an illustration of a topical political theme, in this case the underlying text reads: ULSTER’S OFFER: ‘The ‘’Ulster Guardian’’, the organ of the Ulster Liberals, the Northern Presbyterians, and the Independent Orangemen, in its last issue, published a remarkable article appealing to have a rallying ground and starting point formed, which would bring into contact and co-operation all forces ready to work for the attainment of great National objects and eager to promote the prosperity of their native land’. The illustration shows an Ulster delegation with a standard bearer holding a banner inscribed “ULSTER for CONCILIATON” as well as the offer of “Conference and Co-Operation”. Standing in front trying to make sense of it, John Redmond MP, leader of the Irish Parliamentary Party, in the background (right) the astonished John Bull .
context_page_description: The United Irish League was a nationalist political party in Ireland, launched 23 January 1898 with the motto "The Land for the People". Its objective to be achieved through agrarian agitation and land reform, compelling larger grazier farmers to surrender their lands for redistribution among the small tenant farmers. Founded and initiated at Westport, County Mayo by William O'Brien, it was supported by Michael Davitt MP, John Dillon MP, who worded its constitution, Timothy Harrington MP, John O'Connor Power MP and the Catholic clergy of the district. By 1900 it had expanded to be represented by 462 branches in twenty-five counties.
context_section_description: Organised by John O'Donnell MP as its general secretary the UIL performed extremely well and threatened the position of the divided Irish Parliamentary Party. As a consequence, it quickly gained popular support among tenant farmer, its branches sweeping over most of the country, dictating to the demoralised Irish party leaders the terms for reconstruction, not only of the party but the nationalist movement in Ireland. The UIL platform included commitments to such themes as language revival and industrial development. The movement was backed by O'Brien's new newspaper The Irish People (Sept. 1899 – Nov. 1903). In it he declared that the new League was the people's organisation and that the people, and not the politicians, should be its base. Its organisation included an elaborate representative structure linked to a National Directory.  This threat to the divided factions of the IPP began a reunification among MPs, led from above, to counter the UIL threat growing up from below.
  The League  immediately took up the issue of land redistribution, which the Irish Land League had campaigned on two decades earlier, but had been sidelined after the IPP split into the declining Irish National League and the Irish National Federation. The League's first electoral target was the county council elections under the new revolutionary Local Government (Ireland) Act 1898.  The Act broke the power of the landlord ascendancy dominated "Grand Juries", for the first time passing absolute democratic control of local affairs into the hands of the people through elected Local County Councils. Next to full Home Rule a no more remarkable concession to popular rights and economic reconstruction.
  The creation of the new councils had a significant effect on Ireland as it allowed local people to take decisions affecting themselves. The County and the sub-county District Councils created a political platform for proponents of Irish Home Rule, displacing Unionist influence in many areas. The enfranchisement of local electors allowed the development of a new political class, creating a significant body of experienced politicians who would enter national politics in Ireland in the 1920s, and increase the stability of the transitions to the parliaments of the Irish Free State.
  The first local government elections under the Act were held in the spring of 1899 when the Leagues' candidates swept the field and Nationalist county and district councillors began to conduct the local administrative functions hitherto performed by landlord-dominated grand-juries. In some areas such as county Cork, where long standing trade union and labour traditions existed, the electorate tended to adhere to representatives of their allegiances. The depth of support for labour was particularly displayed in Mid-Cork, no doubt due to the growth of another organisation, the Irish Land and Labour Association (ILLA), assiduously cultivated by D. D. Sheehan the then editor of the Skibbereen based newspaper, The Southern Star, who assured that UIL and ILLA branch reports were given weekly press coverage, crucial for the expansion and growth of the UIL in Cork. The existence of these two organisations, the UIL centred on popular broad-nationalism, the ILLA based on ‘labour nationalism’ at first apparently corroborative of one another, would within a decade ultimately lead to self-destructive class-tensions, schisms and divisions.
  The UIL tactic at the time of setting the have-nots against the haves naturally appealed to the self-interest of the simpler peasants and was the main reason for the rapid spread of the movement.  By April 1900 the League's listing showed 462 branches, representing between 60,000 and 80,000 members in twenty five counties. Within two years O’Brien's UIL was by far the largest organisation in the country, comprising 1150 branches and 84,355 members.
caption: The Irish People (29 February 1908), the official newspaper of the UIL
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