Editing Isaac Butt (section)

==Political career==

He began his career as a [[Tory (British political party)|Tory]] politician on [[Dublin Corporation]]. He was [[Member of Parliament (United Kingdom)|Member of Parliament]] for [[Youghal (UK Parliament constituency)|Youghal]] from 1852 to 1865, and for [[Limerick City (UK Parliament constituency)|Limerick]] from 1871 to 1879 (at the [[1852 United Kingdom general election|1852 general election]] he had also been elected for the English constituency of [[Harwich (UK Parliament constituency)|Harwich]], but chose to sit for Youghal).

The failed [[Fenian Rising]] in 1867 strengthened Butt's belief that a federal system was the only way to break the dreary cycle of inefficient administration punctuated by incompetent uprisings.{{sfnp|Lyons|1978|p=42|ps=}} Having defended the leaders of the [[Fenians|Fenian]] revolt, Butt then from June 1869 became president of the Amnesty Association formed to secure the release of imprisoned Fenians,{{sfn|Jackson|2003|pp=30-31}} supported actively amongst others by [[Philip Francis Johnson|P. F. Johnson]].

In 1870 Butt then founded the [[Home Government Association|Irish Home Government Association]]. This was in no sense a revolutionary organisation. It was designed to mobilise public opinion behind the demand for an Irish parliament, with, as he put it, "full control over our domestic affairs".{{sfnp|Lyons|1978|p=42|ps=}} He believed that Home Rule would promote friendship between Ireland and her neighbour to the east.

In November 1873 Butt replaced the Association with a new body, the [[Home Rule League]], which he regarded as a pressure-group, rather than a political party. In the [[1874 United Kingdom general election in Ireland|general election]] the following year, 60 of its members were elected, forming then in 1874 the [[Irish Parliamentary Party]]. However, most of those elected were men of property who were closer to the [[Liberal Party (UK)|Liberal]] cause.{{sfnp|Lyons|1978|p=46|ps=}} In the meantime [[Charles Stewart Parnell]] had joined the League, with more radical ideas than most of the incumbent Home Rulers, and was elected to [[Parliament of the United Kingdom|Parliament]] in a by-election in [[Meath (UK Parliament constituency)|County Meath]] in 1875.{{sfnp|Lyons|1978|p=49|ps=}}

Butt had failed to win substantial concessions at [[Parliament of the United Kingdom|Westminster]] on the things that mattered to most Irish people: an amnesty for the Fenians of 1867, fixity of tenure for tenant-farmers and Home Rule. Although they worked to get Home Rulers elected, many Fenians along with tenant farmers were dissatisfied with Butt's gentlemanly approach to have bills enacted, although they did not openly attack him, as his defence of the Fenian prisoners in 1867 still stood in his favour.{{sfnp|Lyons|1978|p=55|ps=}} However, soon a Belfast Home Ruler, [[Joseph Gillis Biggar]] (then a senior member of the [[Irish Republican Brotherhood|IRB]]), began making extensive use of the ungentlemanly tactic of "obstructionism" to prevent bills being passed by the house.