Edward Blake - The Irish Canadian Politican

While many Irishmen have travelled the globe to take up State roles, one politician has travelled in the opposite direction. Edward Blake’s father was from County Wicklow and Edward was born in 1833 in what is now Ontario, Canada. In 1858 he married the daughter of an Anglican Bishop, Margaret Cronyn.

Edward joined the legal profession and began to practice in what became one of Canada’s biggest law firms. He entered politics and was elected as a Provincial MP for the Blake South Constituency in the Ontario Parliament. His Irish background was an important factor as two thirds of Irish immigrants at the time lived in the province of Ontario.

By 1868, Blake had become leader of the Ontario Liberal Party then in opposition. On December 20th 1871 he was appointed Premier of Ontario and under a dual mandate rule whereby he served in both the provincial and the Federal parliament he helped bring down the scandal ridden government of Sir John McDonald and while he was offered the Premiership of Canada he turned it down due to ill health. Following the 1874 General Election, Blake was appointed Minister for Justice in the Government of Liberal Party Leader Alexander McKensie. Following the party’s electoral defeat in 1878, McKensie resigned and Blake became the leader of the Liberal Party now in opposition. They lost the subsequent election of 1882 and 1887 to the Conservative Party.

Ill health was again playing a factor in his life and he decided to quit Canada and found himself in London. He was then recruited by the Irish nationalist party to stand in the July 1892 General Election in the South Longford constituency in Ireland. He officially represented the Irish National Federation that emerged during the split in the Irish home rule movement following Charles Stewart Parnell’s affair with the married Kitty O’Shea. He was elected a Home Rule MP defeating Liberal Unionist candidate George Miller garnering 88% of the vote with strong local clerical support. An estimated crowd of 8000-10000 gathered in a field outside Longford to hear a victorious speech from their new MP Edward Blake. The gathering was described by the Toronto World newspaper as ‘the greatest demonstration ever seen in Ireland’

Many described it as similar to the great meetings of Daniel O’Connell and his speech was described as in the mould of the great orator.

At meeting in London attended by Prime Minister William Gladstone in August 1892

‘All of Canada’s experience with home rule justified Ireland in seeking the same measure of self government’ declared Blake. He was returned unopposed in 1895,  1900 and 1906 as an Irish Nationalist as the split was healed after the tumult of Parnell’s departure. Blake raised thousands of dollars in Canada to save the Irish Parliamentary Party from financial ruin

Blake’s political foresight led him to write in the early years of the twentieth century

‘If home rule were not granted, Irelands discontent will increase perhaps to the point where nothing sort of complete separation will satisfy her’

Following a stroke he retired 1907 as an MP on health grounds and returned to Canada. In 1912 he died in Toronto.

Irish Statesmen Abroad - The Series

The 1916 Easter Rising generated a generation of Irish leaders and statesmen but as a small island we have punched well above our weight providing statesmen for nations across the world.                    This series published everyday over the next two weeks looks at their stories.

Episode Five - A Nation Named after an Irishman

Many Irish men have traveled away from the Emerald Isle he be part of democracies around the world but one Irishman went one step further and had a country named after him. Die Republiek van Upingtonia or the Republic of Upingtonia was a Boer republic from 20th October 1885 until 1886 when it was placed under the protection of the Germans in what was then called Damaraland.

What is now part of Nambia, the Republic of Upingtonia was named after Tomas Upington. Upington was born in Rathnee, near Mallow in Cork on 28 October 1844. He was educated at Cloyne Diocesan School, Mallow, and at Trinity College Dublin. 

In 1874 he immigrated to the Cape Colony in South Africa where four years later he was elected to the State legislature. He was immediately appointed Attorney General of the Cape Province a position he held until 1881.

He became the fourth Prime Minister of the Cape Colony in 1884, after the growing Afrikaner Bond Party compelled the government of Premier Thomas Scanlen, the son of Irish parents to retire. He was appointed to form a government but held office for only two turbulent and strife-torn years, in what subsequently became known as the "Warming-pan" Ministry. During his Premiership other politicians with more pro British leaning described Upington as both a Fenian and a Parnellite. While trying to push the boundaries of the economic success of the Cape Colony he was attacked from all sides of the political divide and internal conflict with Boer mini republics of Goshen and Stellaland brought an end to his Ministry in 1886, citing ill health for his resignation. He died on 10 December 1898 leaving behind a wife Elizabeth Geurin also born in Cork and four children.

In 1885, William Jordan a hunter and trader bought almost fifty thousand square kilometers of land from a local tribal chief Kambonde for three hundred pounds which was paid as twenty-five firearms, one salted horse, and a cask of brandy. Chief Kambonde had hoped to rely on the help of Jordan to defeat his rival for power, Nehale.

Between 1876 and 1879, many Boers crossed the area, heading for Angola. In 1885 some of these trekkers returned and settled at Grootfontein on farms of land given to them free of charge by Jordan in April 1885. The Republic of Upingtonia was declared on 20 October 1885 under a treaty signed by forty six Boers. At that time, the population of Upingtonia was estimated at five hundred settlers but it was rich in copper deposits. According to the book ‘A drink of Dry Land’ Upingtonia was a ‘complicated place’ and ‘a new world from restless people’.  The state was named after Upington who was by then prime minister of the Cape Colony from whom the new state was hoping for support. However, none was forthcoming. Under the influence of the Boers returning to the Transvaal in 1886 the name of the new State was changed briefly from the Republic of Upington to Lijdensrust. Upingtonia's capital was Grootfontein originally known by the locals as Leopard’s Hill, and appointed a head of State, President George Prinsloo.

The new state fought the nomadic tribesmen of the Herero tribe and according to ‘Sovereigns, Quasi Sovereigns, and Africans: Race and Self-determination’

By Siba N'Zatioula Grovogui the new state attempted to align itself with Portugal but in an alliance between the British to the South in the Cape Colony and the Germans to the north in Damaraland Upingtonia became dependent on German protection. Upingtonia had sought the assistance of the British Governor of Natal Sir Arthur Havelock but he declined and so they came under the protection of the Germans who were extending their dominion in South West Africa. In July 1886 Jordan was murdered by members of the Ovambo tribe and Kambone’s brother Nehale and the republic collapsed. The following year the area was incorporated into South-West Africa.

According to Leader newspaper in Melbourne, who took an in depth look at the Republic of Upingtonia in 1887 said that Upingtonians claimed almost an area of 33,000 square miles which was three quarters the size of The Orange Free State.

Corkonian Thomas Upington also has the South Africa town of Upington named after him and according to the town’s tourist website

‘Like Wild West towns, Upington had its share of skirmishes and its share of fortune-seeking scoundrels. One of these was a man called George St Leger Gordon Lenox, alias 'Scotty Smith'. An adventurer born in Scotland, he bought and sold illegal diamonds, stole horses and masterminded highway robberies. His gravestone is one of Upington’s tourist attractions.’

His eldest son Beauclerk who was just one years old when the family moved to the Cape was like his father educated at Trinity College Dublin and created one of the largest legal firms in South Africa and was from 1913 – 1922 President of the South African soccer federation.

Irish Statesmen Abroad - The Series

  The 1916 Easter Rising generated a generation of Irish leaders and statesmen but as a small island we have punched well above our weight providing statesmen for nations across the world.                    This series published everyday over the next two weeks looks at their stories.

Episode Four - The Premier's of the Australian State of Victoria

Born in Ballinahow, County Tipperary John O’Shanassy would become the Australian state of Victoria’s second Premier. He initially held the post for a month March – April 1857 but his Government fell and he was replaced as Premier by the man he himself had replaced William Haines. On March 10th 1858 he once again became Premier of Victoria and a powerful Irish Catholic alliance dominated a mainly protestant Victoria with O’Shanassy’s Deputy Premier Charles Gavin Duffy. This led to sectarian tensions in the state but relations between the two men deteriorated as Irish politics came between the two politicians, the two men on opposite sides of the 1848 Irish Rebellion.

Their Government fell in October 1859 but O’Shanassy was back in the Premier’s seat one final time from14th November 1861 to 27 June 1863. In 1866 he returned briefly to Ireland where he was presented with a banquet ‘fit for a king’ in his native Tipperary. He was asked by the Cork Examiner if he had seen any change in Ireland since he had departed the newspaper reported,

'When a man returned to Ireland after a long absence, a natural question was, do you see any great change in the country? He answered at once 'I do.' He saw the agricultural position of the country was better than when he left it. He saw an improved price for labour, making a very considerable difference in the condition of the labouring population. He saw railways opened, and an excellent system of roads, which, were a great improvement upon what existed when he was there before. And he saw, what was peculiarly pleasing that Ireland had been complimented by politicians on every side because in the matter of ordinary crime her calendar was almost a blank. He had also noticed a marked development in ecclesiastical architecture in this country — the united zeal of the people and their pastors building magnificent churches, that were strong proofs of the sincerity of religion conviction of those who worshipped in them. In social matters, too, he saw marked progress, for now men of every shade of opinion, religious and political, could come together to promote a common object. ‘

He retired from the Victoria State Parliament in February 1883, shortly before his death in May of that year in Boroondara, Victoria, Australia.

Having served as Deputy Premier under O’Shanassy, Gavin Duffy would go on to be the 8th Premier of Victoria with a history of rebellion left behind in Ireland before his departure to Australia.  Duffy was born on Dublin Street, Monaghan Town, and the son of a shopkeeper. Both his parents died while he was still a child and his uncle, Fr James Duffy, who was the parish priest of Castleblaney became his guardian for a number of years with an education achieved in Belfast. Gavan Duffy was one of the founders of The Nation and became its first editor; the two others were Thomas Davis and John Dillon, who would later become Young Irelanders. All three were members of Daniel O’Connell’s Repeal campaign. The paper, under Gavan Duffy, transformed from a literary voice into a "rebellious organisation"

As a result of The Nation's support for Repeal, Gavan Duffy, as owner, was arrested and convicted of seditious conspiracy as the result of a Monster political Meeting that was planned for Clontarf in North Dublin city. This was also a period of rebellion with the Young Irelanders 1848 rising that centered on County Tipperary, more familiarly known today as the ‘Cabbage Patch rebellion’.

In 1852 he was elected an MP to the British House of Commons for the constituency of New Ross, retaining his seat until his resignation in November 1855. Tiring of the malaise that was Irish politics, Gavin Duffy decided to cross the world to Australia and arrived in Victoria State. He was feted when he arrived and a public campaign changed the rules for those who could be elected to the state legislature. In 1856 Gavin Duffy entered Victorian politics being elected for the constituency of Villiers and Heytesbury

 .

In 1871 Duffy led the opposition in parliament to Premier James McCullough’s plan to introduce a property tax on the grounds that it unfairly penalised small farmers. When McCulloch's government was defeated on this issue, Duffy became Premier and Chief Secretary (June 1871 to June 1872). Victoria's finances were in a poor state and he was forced to introduce a tariff act to provide government revenue, despite his adherence to the then British principles of free trade.

As an Irish Catholic Premier he was very deeply unpopular with the Protestant majority in the state and Duffy was accused of favouring Catholics in government appointment. In June 1872 his government was defeated in the Assembly on a confidence motion allegedly motivated by sectarianism. He was succeeded as premier by the conservative James Francis and later resigned the leadership of the liberal party.

In 1874 he returned briefly to Ireland and was offered a seat by the Irish Parliamentary Party in the House of Commons but he declined returning to Victoria. In 1880 he left Australia for good and moved to the south of France. He died in 1903 having outlived three wives. His body was returned to Ireland for a large funeral through the streets of Dublin. 

The Irish Statesman Abroad - The Series

The 1916 Easter Rising generated a generation of Irish leaders and statesmen but as a small island we have punched well above our weight providing statesmen for nations across the world. This series published everyday over the next two weeks looks at their stories.

Episode Three - New Zealand

Much has often been written about the ancestral connections of US Presidents with Ireland but Irish citizens have travelled the world becoming much loved and treasured statesmen in other nations. Ireland has produced three Irish born Prime Ministers of New Zealand. These are their stories.

DANIEL POLLEN

On July 8^th 1875 Daniel Pollen became the Prime Minister of New Zealand. Daniel was the son of Hugh Pollen, a dock master at the mouth of the newly opened Grand Canal as it entered the River Liffey and Elizabeth O’Neill. Daniel was born on June 2^nd 1813 when the family lived in what later became known as Pollen Cottage in Ringsend. Hugh Pollen received both the house and an annual salary of £100 per annum for his role as dock master.

Little is known about the early part of his life, but it is supposed that he grew up in Ringsend before emigrating to New Zealand in 1840, shortly after his father died in 1837 and the role of dock master and use of the house was taken over by Thomas Pollen, brother of the late Hugh. He arrived at the Bay of Islands settling in a town called Parnell near Auckland which probably made him feel right at home. He practiced as the local doctor but Daniel also became actively involved in politics with the formation of the Auckland Province in 1852 and was well regarded as a great debater and famous for his wit.

Two years after he was appointed the local coroner in 1846 he had married Jane Henderson a daughter of a Royal Naval officer and they went onto to have four sons and four daughters. Pollen entered politics first serving on the local provincial council representing Auckland East and then became a member of the New Zealand Parliament on May 12^{th 1873}.  He rose through the political ranks and served in the Government of Julius Vogel as Colonial Secretary but when that Prime Minister left New Zealand to travel to Great Britain, Daniel Pollen from Ringsend in Dublin was appointed July 6^th 1875 as Prime Minister of New Zealand. He held the position until the return of Vogel on February 15^th 1876 when he returned to the position of Colonial Secretary and continued in that position under the following Prime Minister Harry Atkinson before he retired from politics.

Pollen died at his residence ‘The Whau’ in Avondale in 1896.

JOHN BALANCE

The 14^th Prime Minister John Balance was born in Ballypitmave near Lisburn in County Antrim in March 1839. Born into a farming community to father Samuel, John Balance was the eldest of eleven children. As an eighteen year old he headed for Belfast City before crossing the Irish Sea to live in Birmingham. While there in 1863 he married a butcher’s daughter Fanny Taylor. His new bride became ill and the decision was taken in 1866 to immigrate to New Zealand where Fanny’s brother lived.

Once in New Zealand after a brief period as salesman he studied to become a journalist and from journalism he found his way into local politics. The move for the Balance couple down under proved futile as two years after their arrival down under Balance’s wife passed away. Two years later he married Ellen Anderson and the couple adopted a daughter Kathleen.

He was first elected to parliament in 1879 only to loose his seat in the subsequent election by just four votes when a horse drawn coach shed a wheel and seven of his supporters inside failed to register their vote. He won the seat back in 1884 and joined the Julius Vogel cabinet as Minister for Native Affairs. Out of Government, Balance accepted the role as leader of the then opposition Liberal Party. When the Government of Prime Minister Atkinson resigned, Balance became the Prime Minister in January 1891.

As Prime Minister he attempted to turn his Liberal party into a nationwide party rather than just regionally based. He was not known as a charismatic leader or a good public speaker, he was described as honest, courteous and displayed great patience and integrity. His wife became a leading figure in the fledgling feminist movement in New Zealand. His success as a Prime Minister was short lived as he developed cancer and passed away on April 27^th 1893 receiving a state funeral in his home town of Wanganui. His wife Ellen outlived her husband by forty two years. 

WILLIAM MASSEY

The 19^th Prime Minister of New Zealand was William Massey who was born in Limavady, Derry in March 1856. He was a member of the Reform Party, a political force he helped to found, when he became PM in 1912. Born into a farming Presbyterian family, the family moved to New Zealand in October 1862 without young William who remained in Ireland to complete his education. He followed the family over to the far side of the world in December 1870.

He became involved in local politics through the local school board before being elected in an 1894 by election for the constituency of Waitemata before contesting the 1896 General Election for the neighbouring constituency of Franklin which he represented until his death in 1925.

After founding his reform Party in 1909, they became the largest party after the 1911 General Election but the incumbent Liberal Party remained in power with the support of Independents. The Liberals lost a vote of confidence in Parliament and Massey was invited to form a new administration and officially became Prime Minister on July 12^th 1912. His first years in power were a period of great industrial unrest and his use of force to break strikes did not endear him to either his electorate or party colleagues but like many other politicians across the world the intervention of the First World War diverted attention from domestic matters. In the 1914 General Election no party won enough seats to be effective as a Government and Massey invited the leader of Liberal Party Joseph Ward to be party of a national unity Government in time of war.

Massey signed the Versailles Peace treaty on behalf of New Zealand at the end of the war. With war at an end the unity coalition fractured and in the 1919 General Election despite the rise of the new Labour Party, Massey and his Reform Party won a majority. He governed a troubled New Zealand both socially and economically until the 1922 General Election where he failed to win his majority winning just 37 of the 80 available seats but clung to power with the support of Independents.

His health deteriorated in 1924 and he passed away in 1925. 

Irish Statesmen Abroad - The Series

  The 1916 Easter Rising generated a generation of Irish leaders and statesmen but as a small 
island we have punched well above our weight providing statesmen for nations across the world.                       This series published everyday over the next two weeks looks at their stories.

Episode Two - The U.S.A.

There have been six US Presidential visits to Ireland, Obama, Clinton, Kennedy, Nixon, Reagan and Bush but the only US President to have direct connections with Ireland was Andrew Jackson, the seventh President of the United States of America. His father Andrew senior was born in Carrickfergus, County Antrim and his mother Elizabeth was also born in Northern Ireland both of Presbyterian Scots origin. In 1765 Andrew, Elizabeth and two older sons Hugh and Robert immigrated to the United States arriving in Philadelphia. The future President Jackson was born on March 15th 1767 just fourteen days after the death of his father in a logging accident. His now widowed mother raised the three boys in Waxhaws, South Carolina. He was elected President in 1829 serving two terms and he is considered as the founder of the present day Democratic Party. He died in Nashville, Tennessee in June 1845.

Before the thirteen colonies of the original United States of America gathered together under one President, George Washington many of these colonies had their own Presidents and some of them were Irish born.

GEORGE BRYAN

George Bryan was born in Henry Street, Dublin in August 1731 to Samuel and Elizabeth Bryan. George was a middle child of five, two older sisters Elizabeth and Amy, two younger brothers Arthur and Samuel. Samuel Bryan was a well known merchant in Dublin whose trade also included exports to continental America. Young George who would eventually earn the nickname ‘The Dublin Boy’ attended Trinity College before accepting an offer in 1752 from a partner of his father to cross the Atlantic to learn business management in Philadelphia. He quickly settled into life in Pennsylvania becoming a well known and wealthy merchant and in 1757 he married Elizabeth Smith with the couple going on to have ten children. With the onset of the American war of Independence he became quickly involved in the politics of the day especially in the colony of Pennsylvania. When the first President of Pennsylvania Thomas Wharton died in office he was replaced by George Byran who served as President from May 23rd 1778 to December 1st 1778. When the Pennsylvania Assembly head a formal meeting to replace their first President Byran lost the vote to Joseph Reed but was appointed Vice President, a position he held for two years. During his tenure as President one of his achievements was on June 28th 1778 the Assembly returned from exile in Lancaster to the colony capital Philadelphia, the exile had been forced on this by the British occupation of Philadelphia.

JOHN McKINLEY

Another Irish born colony President was John McKinly who was President of Delaware from February 12th 1777 to September 22nd 1779. He was born in Northern Ireland in February 1721 and moved to Wilmington Delaware in 1742. He became involved in the local militia and was a Lieutenant during the French and Indian war. Described as Federalist he married Jane Richardson. In 1776 he was involved in some of the battles as the new colonies sought independence from Britain. He was elected to the Delaware Assembly in 1776 and the following year was elected President of Delaware. The colony due to the on going was in turmoil politically, militarily an economically. The British raided the President home and arrested him imprisoning his on board a warship. He was replaced in September 1777 by Thomas McKean. He was freed in August 1778 but left politics to concentrate on his medical profession founding the Delaware Medical Society in 1779. He died in August 1796. 

CHARLES THOMSON

In 1776, the United States continental congress signed the declaration of Independence. The Continental Congress was the then rebel Government of the United States’ then thirteen colonies. On October 28^th 1777, the President of the then United States John Hancock unexpectedly resigned as being denied permission to take a leave of absence. As the Congress debated his successor in these turbulent revolutionary times the position was temporary taken by Charles Thomson who served as President from October 29^th to November 1^st 1777 when Henry Laurens was elected President.

Thomson was born near Maghera, Derry in November 1729. Following the death of his mother in 1739, his father decided to emigrate with Thomson’s younger brothers to America. Their father died as they crossed the Atlantic and the penniless brothers were separated upon their landing. He married the sister of Benjamin Harrison whose son and grandson both became Presidents of the United States of America.

He became secretary of the Continental Congress and his name appears on the first published edition of the Declaration of Independence. His diligence of recording all the debates is now a valuable historical resource as the United States struggled militarily to free themselves from British dominance.

He is also credited with designing the Great Seal of the United States along with William Barton. He resigned his position as the new constitution gave life to the present United States and the election of George Washington in 1789. In his retirement he worked on a translation of the bible and developed a passion for beekeeping. He died in Pennsylvania in 1824 at the ripe old age of ninety four.