.gif)
Henry Harrison (MP)
Encyclopedia
Captain Henry Harrison was an Irish
politician and MP.
in the House of Commons
of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
and as member of the Irish Parliamentary Party
represented Mid Tipperary
from 1890 to 1892. He later served as an Irish regiment officer with the New British Army
in World War I
, was an extensive writer, and proponent of improved relations between the United Kingdom
and Ireland
.
, Harrison was the son of Henry Harrison of Holywood
and Ardkeen
, Co. Down and of Letitia Tennent. She was the daughter of Robert James Tennent, who had been Liberal
MP for Belfast from 1847 to 1852. Later, when widowed, she married the author Hartley Withers.
Harrison went to Westminster School
and then to Balliol College, Oxford. While there he developed an admiration for Charles Stewart Parnell
and became secretary of the Oxford University Home Rule Group
. At this time, the Land War
was in progress and in 1889 Harrison went to Ireland to visit the scene of the evictions in Gweedore
, Co. Donegal. He became involved in physical confrontations with the Royal Irish Constabulary
and as a result became a Nationalist celebrity overnight. The following May, Parnell offered the vacant parliamentary seat of Mid-Tipperary to Harrison, who left Oxford, still aged only 22, to take it up, unopposed.
Only six months later, following the divorce case involving Katharine O'Shea, the Irish Parliamentary Party split over Parnell’s leadership. Harrison strongly supported Parnell , acted as his bodyguard and aide-de-camp, and after Parnell’s death devoted himself to the service of his widow Katharine. From her he heard a completely different version of the events surrounding the divorce case from that which had appeared in the press, and this was to form the seed of his later books.
At the general election of 1892
, Harrison did not defend Mid-Tipperary. He stood at West Limerick
as a Parnellite instead, but came nowhere near winning the seat. In 1895 general election
, he stood at North Sligo
, polling better but again far short of winning. In 1895 Harrison married Maie Byrne, an American, with whom he had a son. He came to prominence briefly again in 1903 when, in spite of his lack of legal training, he successfully conducted his own case in a court action all the way to the House of Lords.
Otherwise, however, he disappeared from public view until his war service with the Royal Irish Regiment
when he served on the Western Front with distinction in the New British Army
formed for the First World War, reaching the rank of Captain and being awarded the MC
and bar and military OBE. He organised patrols in "No Man’s Land" so successfully that he was appointed special patrol officer to the 16th (Irish) Division. He was invalided out in 1919.
He then made a return to Irish politics, working with Sir Horace Plunkett as Secretary of the Irish Dominion League
, an organisation campaigning for dominion status for Ireland within the British Empire
. Harrison was a lifelong opponent of Irish partition
. He was Irish correspondent of The Economist from 1922 to 1927 and owner-editor of Irish Truth from 1924 to 1927.
Harrison’s two books defending Parnell were published in 1931 and 1938. They have had a major impact on Irish historiography, leading to a more favourable view of Parnell’s role in the O’Shea affair. F. S. L. Lyons
commented that he "did more than anyone else to uncover what seems to have been the true facts" about the Parnell-O'Shea liaison. The second book, Parnell, Joseph Chamberlain and Mr Garvin, was written in response to J. L. Garvin
's biography of Joseph Chamberlain
, which had ignored Harrison’s first book, Parnell Vindicated: The Lifting of the Veil. Later, Harrison successfully repulsed an attempt in the official history of The Times to rehabilitate that newspaper’s role in using forged letters to attack Parnell in the later 1880s. In 1952 he forced The Times to publish a four-page correction written by him as an appendix to the fourth volume of the history.
During the difficult years of the Anglo-Irish Trade War
over the land purchase annuities, declaration of the Republic, Irish neutrality during World War II
, and departure from the Commonwealth
, Harrison worked to promote good relations between Britain and Ireland. He published various books and pamphlets on the issues in dispute and wrote numerous letters to The Times. He also founded, with General Sir Hubert Gough
, the Commonwealth Irish Association in 1942. By the time of his death, he was the last survivor of the Irish Parliamentary Party led by Parnell, and as a member of the pre-1918 Irish Parliamentary Party, he seems to have been outlived only by John Patrick Hayden
, who died a few months after him in 1954 and by Patrick Whitty
and John Lymbrick Esmonde who were only MPs for a very short time during the First World War.
He is buried in Holywood
, Co Down.
Irish people
The Irish people are an ethnic group who originate in Ireland, an island in northwestern Europe. Ireland has been populated for around 9,000 years , with the Irish people's earliest ancestors recorded having legends of being descended from groups such as the Nemedians, Fomorians, Fir Bolg, Tuatha...
politician and MP.
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
in the House of Commons
British House of Commons
The House of Commons is the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, which also comprises the Sovereign and the House of Lords . Both Commons and Lords meet in the Palace of Westminster. The Commons is a democratically elected body, consisting of 650 members , who are known as Members...
of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was the formal name of the United Kingdom during the period when what is now the Republic of Ireland formed a part of it....
and as member of the Irish Parliamentary Party
Irish Parliamentary Party
The Irish Parliamentary Party was formed in 1882 by Charles Stewart Parnell, the leader of the Nationalist Party, replacing the Home Rule League, as official parliamentary party for Irish nationalist Members of Parliament elected to the House of Commons at...
represented Mid Tipperary
Mid Tipperary (UK Parliament constituency)
Mid Tipperary was a UK Parliament constituency in Ireland, returning one Member of Parliament 1885–1922.This constituency comprised the central part of County Tipperary. Prior to the 1885 general election the area was part of the Tipperary...
from 1890 to 1892. He later served as an Irish regiment officer with the New British Army
Kitchener's Army
The New Army, often referred to as Kitchener's Army or, disparagingly, Kitchener's Mob, was an all-volunteer army formed in the United Kingdom following the outbreak of hostilities in the First World War...
in World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, was an extensive writer, and proponent of improved relations between the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
and Ireland
Republic of Ireland
Ireland , described as the Republic of Ireland , is a sovereign state in Europe occupying approximately five-sixths of the island of the same name. Its capital is Dublin. Ireland, which had a population of 4.58 million in 2011, is a constitutional republic governed as a parliamentary democracy,...
.
Biography
A Protestant nationalistProtestant Nationalist
Irish nationalism has been chiefly associated with Roman Catholics. However, historically this is not an entirely accurate picture. Protestant nationalists were also influential supporters of the political independence the island of Ireland from the island of Great Britain and leaders of national...
, Harrison was the son of Henry Harrison of Holywood
Holywood
Holywood is a town in County Down, Northern Ireland. It lies on the shore of Belfast Lough, between Belfast and Bangor. Holywood Exchange and Belfast City Airport are nearby. The town hosts an annual jazz and blues festival.-Name:...
and Ardkeen
Ardkeen
Ardkeen is an eastern suburb of Waterford, Ireland. It contains the Waterford Regional Hospital, and two large shopping centres, with various chain stores and some good restaurants, plus the Uluru Australian theme pub. It is close to some prestigious schools and has good access to the city centre,...
, Co. Down and of Letitia Tennent. She was the daughter of Robert James Tennent, who had been Liberal
Liberal Party (UK)
The Liberal Party was one of the two major political parties of the United Kingdom during the 19th and early 20th centuries. It was a third party of negligible importance throughout the latter half of the 20th Century, before merging with the Social Democratic Party in 1988 to form the present day...
MP for Belfast from 1847 to 1852. Later, when widowed, she married the author Hartley Withers.
Harrison went to Westminster School
Westminster School
The Royal College of St. Peter in Westminster, almost always known as Westminster School, is one of Britain's leading independent schools, with the highest Oxford and Cambridge acceptance rate of any secondary school or college in Britain...
and then to Balliol College, Oxford. While there he developed an admiration for Charles Stewart Parnell
Charles Stewart Parnell
Charles Stewart Parnell was an Irish landowner, nationalist political leader, land reform agitator, and the founder and leader of the Irish Parliamentary Party...
and became secretary of the Oxford University Home Rule Group
Home Rule League
The Home Rule League, sometimes called the Home Rule Party, was a political party which campaigned for home rule for the country of Ireland from 1873 to 1882, when it was replaced by the Irish Parliamentary Party.-Origins:...
. At this time, the Land War
Land War
The Land War in Irish history was a period of agrarian agitation in rural Ireland in the 1870s, 1880s and 1890s. The agitation was led by the Irish National Land League and was dedicated to bettering the position of tenant farmers and ultimately to a redistribution of land to tenants from...
was in progress and in 1889 Harrison went to Ireland to visit the scene of the evictions in Gweedore
Gweedore
Gweedore is an Irish-speaking district located on the Atlantic coast of County Donegal, part of the Province of Ulster in Ireland. Gweedore stretches some 16 miles from Meenaclady in the north to Crolly in the south and around 9 miles from Dunlewey in the east to Magheraclogher in the west, and...
, Co. Donegal. He became involved in physical confrontations with the Royal Irish Constabulary
Royal Irish Constabulary
The armed Royal Irish Constabulary was Ireland's major police force for most of the nineteenth and the early twentieth centuries. A separate civic police force, the unarmed Dublin Metropolitan Police controlled the capital, and the cities of Derry and Belfast, originally with their own police...
and as a result became a Nationalist celebrity overnight. The following May, Parnell offered the vacant parliamentary seat of Mid-Tipperary to Harrison, who left Oxford, still aged only 22, to take it up, unopposed.
Only six months later, following the divorce case involving Katharine O'Shea, the Irish Parliamentary Party split over Parnell’s leadership. Harrison strongly supported Parnell , acted as his bodyguard and aide-de-camp, and after Parnell’s death devoted himself to the service of his widow Katharine. From her he heard a completely different version of the events surrounding the divorce case from that which had appeared in the press, and this was to form the seed of his later books.
At the general election of 1892
United Kingdom general election, 1892
The 1892 United Kingdom general election was held from 4 July to 26 July 1892. It saw the Conservatives, led by Lord Salisbury, win the greatest number of seats, but not enough for an overall majority as William Ewart Gladstone's Liberals won many more seats than in the 1886 general election...
, Harrison did not defend Mid-Tipperary. He stood at West Limerick
West Limerick (UK Parliament constituency)
West Limerick was a UK Parliament constituency in Ireland, returning one Member of Parliament 1885–1922.Prior to the United Kingdom general election, 1885 the area was part of the Limerick County constituency. From 1922 it was not represented in the UK Parliament.-Members of Parliament:Notes:-* 1...
as a Parnellite instead, but came nowhere near winning the seat. In 1895 general election
United Kingdom general election, 1895
The United Kingdom general election of 1895 was held from 13 July - 7 August 1895. It was won by the Conservatives led by Lord Salisbury who formed an alliance with the Liberal Unionist Party and had a large majority over the Liberals, led by Lord Rosebery...
, he stood at North Sligo
North Sligo (UK Parliament constituency)
North Sligo was a parliamentary constituency in Ireland, which returned one Member of Parliament to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1885 to 1922....
, polling better but again far short of winning. In 1895 Harrison married Maie Byrne, an American, with whom he had a son. He came to prominence briefly again in 1903 when, in spite of his lack of legal training, he successfully conducted his own case in a court action all the way to the House of Lords.
Otherwise, however, he disappeared from public view until his war service with the Royal Irish Regiment
Royal Irish Regiment (1684-1922)
The Royal Irish Regiment, until 1881 the 18th Regiment of Foot, was an infantry regiment of the line in the British Army, first raised in 1684. Also known as the 18th Regiment of Foot and the 18th Regiment of Foot, it was one of eight Irish regiments raised largely in Ireland, its home depot in...
when he served on the Western Front with distinction in the New British Army
Kitchener's Army
The New Army, often referred to as Kitchener's Army or, disparagingly, Kitchener's Mob, was an all-volunteer army formed in the United Kingdom following the outbreak of hostilities in the First World War...
formed for the First World War, reaching the rank of Captain and being awarded the MC
Military Cross
The Military Cross is the third-level military decoration awarded to officers and other ranks of the British Armed Forces; and formerly also to officers of other Commonwealth countries....
and bar and military OBE. He organised patrols in "No Man’s Land" so successfully that he was appointed special patrol officer to the 16th (Irish) Division. He was invalided out in 1919.
He then made a return to Irish politics, working with Sir Horace Plunkett as Secretary of the Irish Dominion League
Irish Dominion League
The Irish Dominion League was an Irish political party in 1919–21 which advocated Dominion status for Ireland within the British Empire, and opposed partition of Ireland into separate southern and northern jurisdictions...
, an organisation campaigning for dominion status for Ireland within the British Empire
British Empire
The British Empire comprised the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom. It originated with the overseas colonies and trading posts established by England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. At its height, it was the...
. Harrison was a lifelong opponent of Irish partition
Partition of Ireland
The partition of Ireland was the division of the island of Ireland into two distinct territories, now Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland . Partition occurred when the British Parliament passed the Government of Ireland Act 1920...
. He was Irish correspondent of The Economist from 1922 to 1927 and owner-editor of Irish Truth from 1924 to 1927.
Harrison’s two books defending Parnell were published in 1931 and 1938. They have had a major impact on Irish historiography, leading to a more favourable view of Parnell’s role in the O’Shea affair. F. S. L. Lyons
F. S. L. Lyons
Francis Stewart Leland Lyons was one of Ireland's premier historians.-Biography:Lyons was born in Derry, Northern Ireland, in 1923, but soon moved to Boyle in County Roscommon where his father was a bank official...
commented that he "did more than anyone else to uncover what seems to have been the true facts" about the Parnell-O'Shea liaison. The second book, Parnell, Joseph Chamberlain and Mr Garvin, was written in response to J. L. Garvin
James Louis Garvin
For the basketball player, see James Garvin James Louis Garvin , was an influential British journalist, editor, and author...
's biography of Joseph Chamberlain
Joseph Chamberlain
Joseph Chamberlain was an influential British politician and statesman. Unlike most major politicians of the time, he was a self-made businessman and had not attended Oxford or Cambridge University....
, which had ignored Harrison’s first book, Parnell Vindicated: The Lifting of the Veil. Later, Harrison successfully repulsed an attempt in the official history of The Times to rehabilitate that newspaper’s role in using forged letters to attack Parnell in the later 1880s. In 1952 he forced The Times to publish a four-page correction written by him as an appendix to the fourth volume of the history.
During the difficult years of the Anglo-Irish Trade War
Anglo-Irish Trade War
The Anglo-Irish Trade War was a retaliatory trade war between the Irish Free State and the United Kingdom lasting from 1932 until 1938...
over the land purchase annuities, declaration of the Republic, Irish neutrality during World War II
Irish neutrality during World War II
The policy of Irish neutrality during World War II was adopted by Dáil Éireann at the instigation of Éamon de Valera, its Taoiseach upon the outbreak of hostilities in Europe and maintained throughout the conflict. De Valera refrained from joining either the Allies or Axis powers...
, and departure from the Commonwealth
Commonwealth of Nations
The Commonwealth of Nations, normally referred to as the Commonwealth and formerly known as the British Commonwealth, is an intergovernmental organisation of fifty-four independent member states...
, Harrison worked to promote good relations between Britain and Ireland. He published various books and pamphlets on the issues in dispute and wrote numerous letters to The Times. He also founded, with General Sir Hubert Gough
Hubert Gough
General Sir Hubert de la Poer Gough GCB, GCMG, KCVO was a senior officer in the British Army, who commanded the British Fifth Army from 1916 to 1918 during the First World War.-Family background:...
, the Commonwealth Irish Association in 1942. By the time of his death, he was the last survivor of the Irish Parliamentary Party led by Parnell, and as a member of the pre-1918 Irish Parliamentary Party, he seems to have been outlived only by John Patrick Hayden
John Patrick Hayden
John Patrick Hayden was an Irish nationalist politician and MP. in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and as member of the Irish Parliamentary Party represented South Co. Roscommon from 1897 to 1918. He was also editor and proprietor of the Westmeath Examiner,...
, who died a few months after him in 1954 and by Patrick Whitty
Patrick Whitty
Patrick Joseph Whitty was, for a brief period, an Irish nationalist politician and MP in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and as member of the Irish Parliamentary Party he represented North Louth from 1916 until 1918...
and John Lymbrick Esmonde who were only MPs for a very short time during the First World War.
He is buried in Holywood
Holywood
Holywood is a town in County Down, Northern Ireland. It lies on the shore of Belfast Lough, between Belfast and Bangor. Holywood Exchange and Belfast City Airport are nearby. The town hosts an annual jazz and blues festival.-Name:...
, Co Down.
Selected publications
- Parnell Vindicated: the lifting of the veil, London, Constable, 1931
- The Strange Case of the Irish Land Purchase Annuities, Dublin, M. H. Gill, 1932
- Ireland and the British Empire, 1937: Conflict or Collaboration?: A study of Anglo-Irish differences from an international standpoint, London, Robert Hale & Co., 1937
- Parnell, Joseph Chamberlain and Mr Garvin, London, Robert Hale, 1938
- Ulster and the British Empire 1939, London, Robert Hale, 1939
- The Partition of Ireland: How Britain is responsible, London, Robert Hale, 1939
- The Neutrality of Ireland: Why it was inevitable, London, Robert Hale Ltd, 1942
- Parnell, Joseph Chamberlain and “The Times”: A Documentary Record: tempora mutantur, Belfast, Irish News; Dublin, Brown & Nolan, 1953