Laurence Ginnell
| Laurence Ginnell | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Teachta Dála | |
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In office 1918–1923 |
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| Constituency |
Westmeath (1918–21) Longford–Westmeath (1921–23) |
| Member of Parliament | |
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In office 1906–1918 |
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| Constituency | Westmeath North |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
9 April 1852 (baptised) Delvin, County Westmeath, Ireland |
| Died | 17 April 1923 (aged 71) Washington, D.C., USA |
| Nationality | Irish |
| Spouse(s) | Margaret Wolfe (1882–83, widowed) Alice King (married 1902) |
| Occupation | Barrister / Author |
Laurence Ginnell was born on April 3rd 1852 ≤Laurence Ginnell: Father of the Irish Republic Movement≥. He was an Irish nationalist politician, lawyer and Member of Parliament (MP) of the House of Commons of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland as member of the Irish Parliamentary Party for Westmeath North at the 1906 UK general election. From 1910 he sat as an Independent Nationalist and at the 1918 general election he was elected for Sinn Féin.
Ginnell was born in Delvin, County Westmeath in 1852. He was self-educated and was called to the Irish bar as well as the England bar ≤Laurence Ginnell: Father of the Irish Republic Movement≥. In his youth he was involved with the Land War and acted as private secretary to John Dillon≤Laurence Ginnell: Father of the Irish Republic Movement≥.
The last great social and agrarian campaign of the home rule movement – the Ranch War (1906 and 1909), was initiated and largely controlled by Ginnell from the central office of the United Irish League. Ginnell was elected an MP in 1906 and on 14 October of that year, launched the "war" at Downs, County Westmeath.
The purpose of the war was to bring relief to the large numbers of landless and smallholders, particularly in the West, who were relatively untouched by the Wyndham Land Purchase Act (1903) and by the larger policy of purchase. The strategy that Ginnell pursued was the Down's Policy, or cattle driving, ≤Laurence Ginnell:Father of the Irish Republic Movement≥ a proceeding designed to harass the prosperous grazier interests, whose 'ranches' occupied large, under populated and under worked tracts. The 'Down's Policy' was also meant to draw public attention to the scandalous inequalities that survived in the Irish countryside. The conservatives within the Home rule leadership were understandably suspicious about the revival of agrarian disturbances, but the mood of the party organisation was hardening in the aftermath of a disappointing devolution bill in May 1907, from the new Liberal government, so that it seemed logical to turn to the traditional mechanism for reactivating the national question: agrarian agitation.
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Wikipedia