6 May 1882
Phoenix Park murders

Previous event | Timeline | Next event

The chief secretary for Ireland, Lord Frederick Cavendish, and his under-secretary Thomas Burke are murdered in Phoenix Park, Dublin, by republican group The Invincibles, in protest against coercion. Predictably, new coercion measures follow, to allow the trial of suspects without juries (five of those convicted of the murders are eventually hanged). Parnell eloquently denounces the murders in Parliament, while fiercely opposing coercion.

Parnell moves away from agitation. He re-forms the Land League as the National League and makes home rule, not land nationalisation, its first aim. He also tightens up party discipline: from 1884, all Home Rule MPs take a pledge to vote together in the Commons.

In 1887, The Times suggests that Parnell was involved in the murders. He denies it, but the government sets up a commission to investigate. In 1889, he is absolved, when a journalist admits using false information.

Top