‘What does Mr Parnell say?’

Abstract In Dillon’s absence, Parnell pushed Irish nationalists along a parliamentary, non-revolutionary path, his progress impeded only by the re-surfacing of stories of his connections with violent revolutionaries of the P. J. Sheridan type in the Land League era. He played both English parties off against each other before finally accepting in 1886 that Gladstone was the most likely to deliver Home Rule. The prospect of such a triumph was enticing for Dillon, who returned from exile but explicitly refrained from supporting Parnell’s more moderate views on the land question. Indeed, he openly subverted them. In the disappointing juncture of parliamentary defeat for Home Rule, followed by the Tory and Unionist election victory, Dillon sought to relaunch the land war whilst Parnell supported a path of moderation and patience.