New Departure (Ireland)

The term New Departure has been used to describe several initiatives in the late 19th century by which Irish republicans, who were committed to independence from Britain by physical force, attempted to find a common ground for co-operation with groups committed to Irish Home Rule by constitutional means. The term refers to the fact that Fenians were to some extent departing from their orthodox doctrine of noninvolvement with constitutional politics, especially the British parliament. It was coined by John Devoy in an anonymous article in the New York Herald on 27 October 1878 in which he laid out a framework for a new policy.

In 1868–69, Irish Republican Brotherhood (hereafter IRB) member John O'Connor Power forged links with Mayo MP George Henry Moore in what has been described as an early 'New Departure'. However Moore died in April 1870 and O'Connor Power successfully shifted his efforts to win Fenian support for Isaac Butt. O'Connor Power pioneered co-operation between revolutionary and constitutional activists, with Moore to have been the leader.

Michael MacDonagh writes in "The Home Rule Movement":

"He [John O'Connor Power] more than any other man, had induced the Fenians to give the Home Rule movement a chance. It was he who originated the idea of a nationalist movement with two wings, the one carrying out extreme action in Parliament, and the second pursuing revolutionary methods in Ireland, each acting independently of the other in its separate field, but both working towards one common end – the realisation of the completest measure of self-government that was possible, as circumstances changed from time to time."

The strategy was a course of parallel action, the revolutionary and constitutional wings, a secret movement and an open movement, to run in tandem.

O'Connor Power and Patrick Egan's efforts led to what T. W. Moody has described as the first 'New Departure', when Fenians supported the forming of the Home Rule League in November 1873. The IRB's attitude was that while it waited for the right moment for war with England, it would support movements that could advance the cause of Irish independence "consistently with the preservation of its own integrity". The IRB became disillusioned with the lack of results achieved by Home Rulers and on 20 August 1876 dissolved the partnership and gave its members six months to withdraw from active co-operation with the Home Rule movement. The IRB supreme council enforced its resolution in March 1877 and John Barry and Patrick Egan resigned from the council. John O'Connor Power and Joseph Biggar refused to resign and were expelled.

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