137. Two giants facing off across the Irish Sea

As the end of the parliament elected in 1874 approached, Gladstone confirmed that his re-emergence from retirement hadn’t been a one-off. He was ready to launch himself once more into full-time politics. The result was the Midlothian campaign, ostensibly intended to win him a new parliamentary seat in Edinburgh, though in fact assisting the Liberal Party to a national majority and re-establishing him as its dominant figure. When the Liberals won the 1880 election, it became impossible to deny Gladstone the premiership, and he formed his second administration.

Meanwhile, across the Irish Sea, Charles Stewart Parnell was emerging as the leading figure of Irish politics. When excessive rain in 1879 damaged the harvest and raised again the spectre of famine, he emerged as the president of a Land League campaigning for tenants’ rights, despite being a landlord himself. Despite that, Home Rule with the re-creation of an Irish parliament remained his top priority. The 1880 election strengthened his hand within the Home Rule group of Irish MPs and he won their leadership too.

Gladstone as prime minister and Parnell as leader of the Irish opposition were now facing off to each other, ready for the Irish conflict that would dominate the following years.

Illustration: Charles Stewart Parnell as President addressing a public meeting of the Irish Land League. Public Domain
Music: Bach Partita #2c by J Bu licensed under an Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivatives (aka Music Sharing) 3.0 International License.