The Revolution

Abstract The land question became more important in Irish and indeed Anglo-Irish politics as an economic downturn beckoned. Parnell adopted a radical position in which Dillon, reluctantly at first, followed him. In America to gather funds for the Land League movement both radicalized. Parnell made gains in the general election of April 1880 and the Land League moved out of its original small farmer basis in the west to become a truly national movement. In the summer of 1880 Parnell met Katharine O’Shea; Dillon immediately detected a restraining influence on Parnell. Dillon’s language became more extreme; Parnell was increasingly uneasy on that score. His politics remained hybrid: superficially full-blooded radicalism but always with a visible undertow of conservatism and pragmatism now quite absent in Dillon. The gap between the two men widened and, in fact, remained significant until Parnell’s death.