The Dillon family legacy

ON a regular basis but particularly around elections, some radio programmes are flooded with callers demanding that children of politicians should not be allowed run for the Dáil. This is akin to saying that children of doctors cannot study medicine, children of teachers cannot become teachers themselves or any other profession you care to think of.
Admittedly, being the child of a politician is no guarantee that the next generation will be competent but there have been many families down through the years, which have produced gifted politicians in different generations. With over 125 years of continuous public involvement, the Dillon family of Ballaghadereen were one such.
John Blake Dillon was a member of O’Connell’s Repeal Association and with Charles Gavan Duffy and Thomas Davis, set up The Nation newspaper. Joining the Young Irelanders, he took part in the 1848 rebellion, leading in the battle at Killenaule, County Tipperary. He emigrated to America but returned to found the national association and was elected MP for Tipperary in 1865.
James Dillon founded the Centre Party in 1932, which was one of the groups, which came together to form Fine Gael a year later. His career was unusual in that he helped found Fine Gael, resigned from the party and then returned to lead it. He resigned in protest against the policy of neutrality during the Second World War, was Minister for Agriculture in both inter-party governments and succeeded Richard Mulcahy as party leader in 1959.
In the generation between John Blake Dillon and James, John Dillon, like his father, was MP for Tipperary and, later, for Mayo East. He served four prison terms for his activities in the Land Movement in the 1800s. A member of the Irish Parliamentary Party, he often clashed with Parnell when Dillon felt the party was moving away from the land question. He strongly opposed Parnell when the scandal arose over Kitty O’Shea and became leader of the Anti-Parnellites. In 1900, he gave way as leader to John Redmond to facilitate the reuniting of both factions of the party but became party leader again on Redmond’s death.
Where Redmond worked mainly from London, Dillon, based in Dublin, was very much in contact with the mood of the country. As a result, he remained true to his first involvement in national issues by opposing some of the Land Acts giving tenant ownership because he felt they were too conciliatory to the landlords. He differed from Redmond on the Great War and refused to back the British war effort. He was also quick in reflecting the national mood after 1916, when he strongly decried the British policy of executions and warned of the consequences. This reflection of the public mood did not save his career and his was one of the seats swept away when Sinn Féin routed the Irish Party in 1918. He lost to Eamonn de Valera by over 4,000 votes.
Nevertheless, he lived on to see the foundation of the State before his death in 1927.
John Dillon MP, leader of the Irish Parliamentary Party and a member of a family, which was involved in all aspects of Irish public life from O’Connell to the first moves to join the EEC, died on August 4, 1927, 84 years ago this week.