Mitchelstown’s September Dead
Arthur James Balfour became chief secretary for Ireland on 7 March 1887. His appointment came after the failure of Gladstone’s first Home Rule Bill in 1886 and at a time when the Irish Parliamentary Party, led by Parnell, remained a formidable force at Westminster. Balfour’s answer to Irish unrest combined two apparently opposed approaches: exceptional powers against organised agrarian resistance, and limited concessions intended to ease defects in the land system.