Kilmainham Treaty - Background

Background

The agreement extended the terms of the Second Land Act of 1881, with which Gladstone intended to make broad concessions to Irish tenant farmers. But the Act had many weaknesses and failed to satisfy Parnell and the Irish Land League because it did not provide a regulation for rent-arrears or rent-adjustments (in the case of poor harvests or deteriorated economic conditions).

After the Second Land Act became law on 22 August 1881, Parnell in a series of speeches in September and October launched violent attacks on William Forster the Chief Secretary for Ireland and even on Gladstone. Gladstone warned him not to frustrate the Act, but Parnell repeated his contempt for the Prime Minister. On 12 October the Cabinet, fully convinced that Parnell was bent on ruining the Act, took action to have him arrested the following day in Dublin.

Parnell was conveyed to Kilmainham Gaol where he would join several other prominent members of the Land League who had also protested against the Act. There together with William O'Brien, he enected the No Rent Manifesto campaign. He was well aware that not all of the Liberal Cabinet - in particular Joseph Chamberlain were in favour of mass internment of suspects as then taking place across Ireland under the Irish Coercion Act. The repressions did not have the desired effect, the predicted improvements expressed by W. E. Forster did not materialize. It resulted in him becoming isolated within the Cabinet. Coercion was increasingly unpopular with the Liberal Party, now that it did not appear to be working.