Striving for a world transformed by justice and peace - a TL from 1827

[pipisme]

Here are the number of seats in the House of Commons in the nations of the United Kimgdom, won by each party in the general election (April 1882 general election):
England:
Conservative: 228 (207)
Commonwealth: 196 (226)
Liberal: 47 (38)
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Total: 471 (471)
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Ireland:
Irish National: 43 (47)
Conservative: 13 (11)
Commonwealth: 10 (9)
Irish Conservative: 2 (1)
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Total: 68 (68)
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Scotland:
Commonwealth: 37 (38)
Conservative: 18 (16)
Liberal: 12 (11)
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Total: 67 (67)
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Wales:
Commonwealth: 21 (23)
Liberal: 9 (9)
Conservative: 4 (2)
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Total: 34 (34)
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Universities:
Conservative: 7 (7)
Irish Conservative: 2 (2)
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Total: 9 (9)
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[pipisme]

Roisin Allen was re-elected Commonwealth MP for Belfast South by a majority of 93 over Conservative. (1). In the April 1884 by-election caused by the murder of her mother, Nancy Allen, by the Ulster Volunteers in which she was elected, she had a majority of 522. In the 1882 general election, Nancy had a majority of 147. Mrs Amie Hicks was elected Commonwealth MP for Whitechapel. She was a former Assistant General Secretary of the Commonwealth Party.

After the general election the number of women MPs for each party were as follows (after 1882 general election):
Commonwealth: 37 (20)
Liberal: 7 (6)
Conservative: 6 (5)
Irish National: 4 (3)
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Total: 54 (34)
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The Commonwealth Party conference in October 1884 passed by an overwhelming majority a resolution which stated that in constituencies in which a Commonwealth MP retired, there must be a woman on the short list for the party's candidate to contest the constituency.

In the five counties of Antrim, Armagh, Down, Londonderry, and Tyrone, in the north of Ireland, there were 12 Conservative, 6 Irish National and 3 Commonwealth MPs elected.

Goodwyn Barmby, the former hard left Commonwealth MP for Wakefield, left the party in May 1882, and sat as an Independent, because he supported negotiation with the UlsterVolunteers. In the general election he contested Wakefield as an Independent and teceived only 114 votes. The constituency was regained by Commonwealth.

 

[pipisme]

Stafford Northcote appointed his cabinet on 19 and 20 April 1886. Here is the list of ministers (party allegiance) :
Prime Minister: Stafford Northcote (Con)
Lord Chancellor: Lord Halsbury (Con)
Lord President of the Council and Leader of the House of Commons: Sir Matthew White Ridley (Con)
Lord Privy Seal; Earl Spencer (Lib)
Chancellor of the Exchequer: William Henry Smith (Con)
Foreign Secretary: Sir Charles Dilke (Lib)
Home Secretary: Sir Michael Hicks Beach (Con)
First Lord of the Admiralty: Sir Henry Campbell- Bannerman (Lib)
President of the Board of Agriculture: Henry Chaplin (Con)
Colonial Secretary: Edward Stanhope (Con)
President of the Board of Education: Henry Fowler (Lib)
President of the Health and Local Government Board: Arthur Balfour (Con)
Secretary of State for India: Lord George Hamilton (Con). Member of the House of Commons.
Secretary of State for Ireland: Sir James Corry (Con)
Postmaster-General: Henry Matthews (Con)
Secretary of State for Scotland: Marquess of Lothian (Con)
President of the Board of Trade: Charles Ritchie (Con)
Secretary of State for Wales: George Osborne Morgan (Lib)
Secretary of State for War: John Gorst (Con)
First Commissioner of Works: Arthur Swinburne (Con).
There were fifteen Conservative and five Liberal ministers,

 

[pipisme]

The Liberal junior ministers were as follows:
Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster: Marquess of Hartington. He was a member of the House of Commons,
Solicitor-General: Sir Robert Reid
Financial Secretary to the Treasury: William Harcourt
Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasury (Government Chief Whip) : Robert Duff, joint with Thomas Salt (Conservative),
Parliamentary Secretary Board of Agriculture: Charles Dyke Acland
Parliamentary Secretary Health and Local Government Board: Louisa Twining
Under-Secretary of State Home Office: George Shaw-Lefevre
Under-Secretary of State India Office: Earl of Rosebery
Under-Secretary Scottish Office: George Trevelyan
Parliamentary Secretary Board of Trade: Thomas Brassey.
Louisa Twining was the only woman minister in the government.
There were 61 ministers in paid government posts, of which 46 were Conservative and 15 were Liberal.

 

[pipisme]

On 20 April 1886, Alfred Robertson, the leader of the Ulster Volunteers (UV) ordered an immediate ceasefire by all volunteers. The next day, the Secretary of State for Ireland, John Corry, lifted the ban on the UV and on Orange Order parades. This was strongly condemned by the Commonwealth and Irish National parties. The end of the ban on the UV because they were still armed, and on Orange Order parades because they stoked sectarian tensions.

On 22 April, the General Secretary of the Commonwealth Party notified all constituency party secretaries that all constituency party offices could re- open that day.

 

[pipisme]

On Tuesday 4 May 1886 the House of Commons met for the first time after the general election. MPs unaninmously again chose Sir John Mowbray (Oxford University - Conservative) as Speaker. That meant that the government's majority was now reduced by one to 26.

The Government of Ireland Bill was published on 17 May 1886. It removed the counties of Antrim, Armagh, Down, Londonderry, and Tyrone, and the parliamentary boroughs of Belfast, Derry/Londonderry, and Newry from the jurisdiction of the Irish parliament and government. It received its second reading in the House of Commons on 26 May, after two days debate. It was then considered clause by clause by a Committee of the Whole House. That is by the House of Commons sitting as a committee presided over by the Chairman of Ways and Means, not the Speaker. After receiving its third reading on 29 June 1886, it went to the House of Lords, where it received its second reading on 1 July. After passing through all its stages in the Lords, it received the Royal Assent on Thursday 8 July 1886. The bill was heavily opposed by the Commonwealth and Irish National parties every step of the way.

A consequence of the Government of Ireland Act 1886 was that the number of members of the Irish Parliament was reduced from 141 seats to 105 seats. The 36 seats which were abolidhed were 17 Conservative, 8 Irish National, 6 Cwommonwealth. 3 Liberal and two Irish Conservative, But Conservative Members of the Irish Parliament did not take their seats. The number of seats for each party in the Irish Patliament were now as follows:
Irish National : 74
Commonwealth: 16
Irish Conservative: 14
Liberal: 1
Irish National majority of 43 over the parties.

 

[pipisme]

The Government of Ireland Act 1886 was designated as a constitutional Act, which meant that the House of Lords had the right to veto any bill to amend or repeal it. The Ulster Volunteers (UV) kept their weapons, but promised the British government that they would not use them.

On Saturday 10 July 1886 the Orange Order and the UV had victory parades and rallies in Belfast, Derry/Londonderry and other towns in the north of Ireland. The rally in Mount Stewart, the country house of the Marquess of Londonderry in County Down, was addressed by the 6th Marquess. He was a Conservative Peer and Paymaster-General. He paid tribute to the ' brave men of the Ulster Volunteers who fought and gave their lives for the freedom of Northern Ireland.' He congratulated them on their well deserved victory.

On Tuesday 13 July, there was a debate in the House of Commons, requested by the Commonwealth Party, on the rallies and parades by the UV. Roisin Allen (Belfast South - Commonwealth) condemned them passionately and eloquent. She said that there was a UV rally in Ormeau Park in her constituency. It was in that park on 8 March 1884 that her mother, Nancy, and forty-one other women, thirty-one men, nine girls and five boys were killed by the UV, and two hundred and sixty people injured, at a Peace Crusade rally. The UV rally was an egregious insult to those killed and injured by the UV. Her father, Michael, had been shot dead by UV gunmen on the doorstep of his house in Belfast in February 1882.

Her speech was interrupted by the Secretary of State for Ireland, John Corry, who said "Calm down, woman, You must not be learn not to be so emotional." Allen told him not to be patronise her. Of course she was emotional because her parents and thousands of people were killed and injured by the UV.

 

[pipisme]

Mrs Alice Richardson, who left the Conservative Party and joined the Commonwealth Party in May 1884, because of Conservative support for the Ulster Volunteers, was re-elected in Fulham by a majority of 180 votes over Conservative.

3057 people died in the war in Ireland between 9 July 1880 and 20 April 1886. This includes people who died in Britain, and those who did not die immediately, but later from their injuries.
This number was made up as follows:
British Army: 419
Royal Irish Constabulary: 517
Ulster Volunteers: 528
Civilians: 1593
of which men: 726
women: 791
boys under 18 years old: 34
girls under 18 years old: 42.

 

[pipisme]

The executive committee of the Peace Crusade met in Belfast on 1 May 1886, to decide its future now that the Irish War had ended. They decided to become the Remembrance Project. They would publish a book of people's memories of the loved ones and friends who had been killed, and of people's experiences of the war. These would be by theb British army, the police in Ireland and Britain, the Ulster Volunteers, and civilians. The book would be provisionally entitled Our Memories of the Irish War and Those We Have Lost . It was agreed that advertisements would be placed in newspapers throughout Ireland and Britain, asking people to write to the Remembrance Project with their stories, or to arrange a meeting with a trained volunteer from the Project, to whom they would give their oral testimony in confidence.

The Peace Crusade and its successor the Remembrance Project, had offices in Ireland only. The Executive Committee decided that they would open offices and recruit staff and volunteers in Britain.

 

[pipisme]

The book Our Memories of the Irish War and the People We Have Lost , was published by the Remembrance Project in 1890. It has never gone out of print. Most of the contributions were from civilians, or the families and friends of civilians. There have been a huge number of books about the Irish War of 1880 to 1886, ranging from academic tomes to popular histories, novels and poems, including by William Butler Yeats. There have also been many films, plays, and radio and television dramas with the war as their subject.

The British government refused request by the Commonwealth and Irish National parties for a memorial to commemorate the army, police and civilians kiiled in the war, but not Ulster Volunteers. They said it was divisive and provocative, and the need was to move on from the war.

However the Irish government agreed to have such a memorial for Dublin. It was the work of the sculptor, Mary Redmond, and completed in 1895. (1) It is outside Leinster House, the Irish Parliament. It is imposing, but not monumental and overpowering. The dedication is to "The men and women who gave their lives for Ireland in the Irish War 1880 to 1886." It features a weeping woman who represents Hibernia,

(1) For Redmond see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Redmond.

 

[pipisme]

Sian Owen, Aneurin's lover, gave birth to a baby girl on Sunday 17 October 1886, in her house in Oystermouth. Sian endured a long, difficult and painful labour and died in childbirth. She was thirty years old. Nye, Maire and Elizabeth Kelly, the midwife, were there. While she was dying, Sian looked at Maire and held her hand. She repeated the words "I'm sorry.. I love you." She asked Maire if she was going to Hell. Maire assured her that she was not. She was going to Heaven. "I love you. I forgive you." She told Sian. Maire felt a deep love for Sian, but also guilt that she felt relief that she was going from hers and Nye's lives. "Look after my baby and children for me" She asked Maire. "Of course I will. " Maire assured her.

Sian did not look or speak to Nye while she was dying. That deeply hurt him. He blamed himself for Sian's death. If she were not his mistress and he had not got her pregnant, she would be still be alive. He wept from grief at Sian's death, but also from gulit, and because she ignored him when she was dying. He and Maire hugged each other. He repeated the words, "I'm sorry, my love." She told him that she loved him and forgave him.

Nye named his new born daughter, Nerys, That was the name she and Sian had chosen if she had given birth to a girl. She was their second daughter and fourth children. Their other children were Rhys born 14 September 1881, David born 21 November 1882, and Rhian born 25 March 1884.

That night Maire and Nye made passionate love. As usual in their love making she enjoyed an orgasm.

 

[pipisme]

Maire and Nye took baby Nerys and Sian Owen's other three children home to their house in Ferryside. Maire had given birth to a daughter on 5 March 1885, She and Nye named her Sinead. On 13 July 1886 she gave birth to a girl. She and Nye gave her the name Niamh. They now had eleven children - seven daughters and four sons. Maire breastfed both Niamh and Nerys.

 

[pipisme]

After Niamh was born, Maire did not want to have any more children. She went to the priest at St. David's Priory Catholic Church in Swansea, and told him that she wanted to use birth control to stop getting pregnant. She had eleven children and did not want anymore. She loved her husband and would never give up physical intimacy with him. The priest gave her permission to use contraceptives, and told her that doing so would not be a sin. Physical love between husband and wife was more important than Church rules.

When Maire arrived home she told Aneurin. He was pleased with her decision. When she inserted a vaginal sponge for the first time before having sexual intercourse with Aneurin, she felt a great sense of joy, and relief that her days of getting pregnant were over. Also she enjoyed their love making more.

 

[pipisme]

Aneurin and Maire went to Sian Owen's funeral on 23 October 1886. It was held in a Church of Wales church in Swansea because Sian had been baptised and bought up in that Church, though she had not been to church since she was a teenager. Maire was there although it was not in a Catholic church, because she wanted to support her husband in his grief.

Nye poured out his love for Sian, and sorrow at her death, in a collection of deeply moving poems called Memories of Sian . It was published on 25 November 1886. It was a great critical and popular success. He showed the poems to Maire before publication. She told Nye that they were very good. Nye ended the tenancy on the cottage in Oystermouth which he had rented for Sian.

There were now 16 people living in Nye' s and Maire's four bedroom house in Ferryside, Maire and Nye and their eleven children, and Sian's three children. So it was crowded. Also much as Maire liked living in Ferryside, it was bleak on cloudy and wet days. Also she missed friends and relations in Swansea, and there were more job opportunities for her children there. So she and Nye decided to move to Swansea.

On Saturday 6 November 1886 they and their children moved into a three storey, six bedroom mid terrace house in the suburb of Uplands in the west of Swansea. (1) The rent was seventeen shillings a week. They paid eleven shillings a week rent for their Ferryside house. Because their new home was furnished, as was their Ferryside house, they did not move any furniture. It had a very small front yard and a narrow and fairly long back garden.

(1) For Uplands see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uplands,_Swansea.

 

[pipisme]

The garden of Aneurin and Maire Griffiths' house in Uplands, Swansea, was an eighth of an acre (650 square feet) . It faced west so it got the evening sun. There was a lawn in the middle which was surrounded by flower beds. Plants grown were roses, geraniums, petunias, honeysuckle, winter jasmine, forsythia, and wallflowers. There was also an apple tree which produced apples in season. They both enjoyed gardening, Maire more than Nye,

They also obtained an allotment from Swansea Borough Council on which they grew fruit and vegetables, which Maire used in her cooking.

 

[pipisme]

Mairead O'Brien, Maire's youngest sister, worked as a maid in a hotel in Ferryside. She became friends with a fisherman who lived in the village. His name was Arthur Thomas. They fell deeply in love and got engaged. They were married in St. David's Priory Catholic Church on Saturday 1 August 1885, ten days before Mairead's 19th birthday on 11 August. Arthur was 21 years old. He was not a Catholic, unlike Mairead.

They moved into a rented two bedroom cottage with a garden in Ferryside. Later in August Mairead became pregnant. She gave birth to a boy on Friday 23 April 1886. Maire acted as midwife. She and Arthur named their son Emrys. She left her job as a maid on 3 April 1886. She was paid a week's wages to which she was entitled. When her baby was born she received Mothers Allowance of twelve shillings a week.

 

[pipisme]

In August 1886, Maire wrote to her younger brother, Padraig, telling him that she was using contraception, her parish priest having given her permission. Padraig was the parish priest at the Jesuit Catholic Church of St. Francis Xavier in Liverpool.

He wrote back to Maire. He told her that he had given permission to dozens of wives and mothers, in his largely working class parish, to use contraception. He believed that eventually the Vatican will allow married couples who have children to use birth control. Several articles in the Catholic journal the Dublin Review had discussed this issue. Some contributors had argued for a change in the Church's teaching, while others were vehemently opposed. Padraig also told his sister that he allowed female altar servers, and women to sing in the church choir.

 

[pipisme]

On 7 October 1886 British troops invaded the Burmese Empire. (1) The invasion was from Lower Burma, which was part of the British Empire, and was in contravention of the treaty signed by the previous British government in February 1886, which guaranteed the independence of the Burmese Empire. (2)

The British government defended the invasion on the grounds that Emperor Thibaw was a tyrant and had called upon his countrymen to liberate Lower Burma. Also the Conservative and Liberal parties had opposed the February 1886 treaty.

(1) See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Upper_Myanmar#/media/File:Burma_indo_china_1886.jpg. It is the area coloured orange. The pink coloured area was part of the British Empire.

(2) See post #1784 on page 90.

 

[pipisme]

The invasion of the Burmese Empire was passionately condemned by the Commonwealth and Irish National parties. They condemned it as an act of aggression against an independent nation, and a violation of a treaty signed by a British government. They organised massive anti war demonstrations in cities throughout Britain and Ireland.

However British troops advanced steadily against dogged Burmese opposition. They entered the capital, Mandalay, on 29 November 1886 and Emperor Thibaw surrendered. He and his family were sent into exile in the Andaman Isles. All of Burma became a province of British India. This was analagous to the Third Anglo-Burmese War of April 1885.

 

[pipisme]

The Prime Minister, Stafford Northcote, died suddenly on Wednesday 12 January 1887 in 10 Downing Street. (1) He was 68 years old. He had been Prime Minister for only seven months. He was survived by his wife, Cecilia Frances, and their children. The next day, William Henry Smith, the Chancellor of the Exchequer and of the eponymous newsagents and book shops, became Prime Minister. (2) He was widely regarded as Northcote's heir apparent. Smith was Conservative MP for the blue chip constituency of Westmimster Grosvenor (which included Belgravia and Mayfair) since 1866. He was Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Trade from October 1869 to August 1870.

Smith made the following changes to his government:
Charles Ritchie from President of the Board of Trade to Chancellor of the Exchequer; Arthur Balfour from President of the Health and Local Government Board to President of the Board of Trade. Robert William Hanbury was promoted from Parliamentary Board of Education to President of the Health and Local Government Board.

The Tiverton by-election caused by the death of Northcote was held on 5 March 1887. The percentage votes for each party were as follows (April 1886 general election):
William Walrond (Conservative): 48.9 (53.6)
Commonwealth : 27.7 (15.8)
Liberal: 23.4 (30.6)
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Conservative majority: 21.2 (23.0)
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(1) Northcote's sudden death was as in OTL.

(2) Here is the Wikipedia entry for Smith: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Henry_Smith_(1825-1891)