Isaac Butt

Isaac Butt QC
Isaac Butt, portrait by John Butler Yeats
1st Leader of the Home Rule League
In office 21 November 1873 – 5 May 1879
Succeeded by	William Shaw
Member of Parliament for Limerick
In office 1871–1879 Serving with George Gavin (to 1874) Richard O'Shaughnessy (from 1874)
Preceded by	Francis William Russell George Gavin
Succeeded by	Daniel Fitzgerald Gabbett Richard O'Shaughnessy
Member of Parliament for Youghal
In office 1852–1865
Preceded by	Thomas Chisholm Anstey
Succeeded by	Joseph Neale McKenna
Personal details
Born	6 September 1813 Glenfin, County Donegal, Ireland
Died	5 May 1879 (aged 65) Clonskeagh, Dublin, Ireland
Political party	Home Rule League (from 1873)
Other political affiliations	Home Government Association (1870–73) Irish Conservative Party (until 1870)
Alma mater	Trinity College, Dublin
Occupation	Professor, lawyer, politician
Religion	Church of Ireland

Isaac Butt, QC, MP (6 September 1813 – 5 May 1879), was an Irish barrister, politician, Member of Parliament (M.P.), and the founder and first leader of a number of Irish nationalist parties and organisations, including the Irish Metropolitan Conservative Society in 1836, the Home Government Association in 1870 and in 1873 the Home Rule League.

Butt was born in 1813 in Glenfin, a district bordering the Finn Valley in County Donegal, Ireland. Glenfin is a short distance west of Ballybofey. He was the son of a Church of Ireland rector but was also descended from the O'Donnells of Tyrconnell, through the Ramsays. Butt received his secondary school education at The Royal School in Raphoe, County Donegal, and at Midleton College, County Cork, before going to Trinity College, Dublin, at the age of fifteen. Whilst there he co-founded the Dublin University Magazine and edited it for four years. For much of his life was a member of the Irish Conservative Party. He became Whately Professor of Political Economy at Trinity in 1836 and held that position until 1841.