Davitt: a freelance radical

Davitt: a freelance radical

Claire Egan

A large crowd assembled at The Michael Davitt Museum, Straide last night (Monday) for the launch of ‘Michael Davitt, Freelance Radical and Frondeur’ with Fine Gael leader Deputy Enda Kenny performing the official launch duties.
Speaking to The Mayo News, Mr Laurence Marley, author of the publication, explained that the book documents the life of Davitt post Land War period (1879-82).
“A former historian, author and lecturer, TW Moody, covered the first half of Michael Davitt’s life and it was very much his chosen subject area. He had committed himself to documenting all of Davitt’s life but unfortunately he passed away in the early eighties and therefore that left an opening for other interested parties to pick up where Moody had left off. I have focussed on Davitt’s life post Land War period and his role internationally and in the UK,” said Laurence.
Born in 1846 in Straide to Martin and Catherine Davitt, the young Michael emigrated with his parents and three siblings to England in November 1850 to escape the horrors of the Famine period. The family had been evicted from their small cottage a few months previously and rather than languish in the workhouse opted for a boat to Liverpool.
Despite the adversity he faced in his youth, Davitt went on to establish himself as a social agitator and proved an interesting and enduring figure for national and international audiences.
Co-incidentally, his profile and popularity was so high during the late 1880s that a waxwork image of Straide’s most famous son was put on display at the renowned Madame Tussaud’s waxworks, London.
The description of Davitt as a ‘Freelance Radical and Frondeur’ is, according to Marley, entirely fitting.
“Davitt was extremely radical for his generation. He disagreed strongly with Parnell over the Kilmainham Treaty and would have been on poor terms with him. After the Land War, he proposed the idea of land nationalisation, which was extremely radical at this juncture and received a poor reception in Ireland, but was welcomed in the UK. In light of the fact that he grew up in Britain he had a great attraction to the country. There are many facets to Davitt as a man campaigning for social justice, labour issues and of course his anti-imperialist views. He was also an accomplished author and journalist and through his writing he established a public platform for himself,” said Laurence.
While the former NUI, Galway doctorate graduate admits that this latest publication on Davitt is predominantly an academic work and of great interest to avid history enthusiasts, it also contains plenty of material for the general reader.
“The book documents the Mayo connection in the opening chapter and then, as I mentioned, it deals with his life after the Land War and his other activities. He is an extremely interesting and iconic figure in Irish politics not to mention internationally and there is plenty in the book for anyone with a general interest in the subject,” concluded Laurence.