DUNNE, Michael (1800-1876), of Ballymanus House, Stradbally, Queen’s County

Dunne was born at Ballymanus, the son of a prosperous tenant farmer on the estate purchased for Henry Grattan by the Irish Parliament in gratitude for his services.2He was ‘the senior member of the Dunnes of Brittas’, although the junior branch of the family had converted to Protestantism in 1771 and therefore owned the ancestoral estate. [See Francis Plunket Dunne] It was later claimed that Dunne was Grattan’s ‘representative’ at Westminster: P.F. Meehan, The Members of Parliament for Laois and Offaly, 1801-1918 (1983), 44; Freeman’s Journal, 12 July 1865. Educated in England, Dunne ‘belonged to the class of “gentleman farmers” of independent property’, and his older brother, Jeremiah, served as lord mayor of Dublin in 1848.3Morning Post, 8 June 1852; The Handbook of the Court; the Peerage; and the House of Commons (1862), 272. He was involved in the campaign for Catholic emancipation, co-chairing a meeting at Heath chapel to pay tribute to Daniel O’Connell in January 1829. He requisitioned Thomas Wyse to stand for Queen’s County at the 1830 general election, and seconded the radical candidate, Robert Cassidy, in 1835.4HP Commons, 1820-32, iii. 860; The Times, 23 Jan. 1835. He was appointed a county magistrate in spite of the opposition of the lord lieutenant, viscount de Vesci, in September 1836, and remained active in reform politics, joining the opposition to Lord Stanley’s Irish registration bill in 1841.5Bristol Mercury, 3 Sept. 1836; Morning Chronicle, 2 Nov. 1839; Freeman’s Journal, 13 Jan. 1841. He was one of the ‘repeal magistrates’ dismissed by the Irish lord chancellor in July 1843, for attending a repeal meeting in the county, but was restored to the commission of the peace in September 1846.6Freeman’s Journal, 3 July 1843, 14 Sept. 1846.

Dunne was described as ‘a plain, shrewd, clear-headed man’ and a ‘warm friend of free trade’. A Liberal, he favoured the ballot and an extension of the franchise, the repeal of the Ecclesiastical Titles Act and ‘a final and satisfactory settlement’ of the Irish land question.7The Times, 21 July 1852; Freeman’s Journal, 7 June, 3 July 1852. With the support of the tenant-right party he was unexpectedly returned for Queen’s County in 1852, having been brought forward only after John Sadleir had declined to stand.8Freeman’s Journal, 25 May 1852. Sadleir was then receiver for the estates of Lord Portarlington: J. O’Shea, Prince of Swindlers: John Sadleir M.P., 1813-56 (1999), 249-50. Campaigning for ‘happy homes and altars free’, he overturned the powerful Fitzpatrick interest and became one of 48 Irish Liberal MPs committed to a policy of parliamentary ‘independence’.9Morning Chronicle, 21 June 1852; Freeman’s Journal, 7 July 1852; E. O’Leary & M. Lalor, History of the Queen’s County (1914), ii. 711; G.L. Bernstein, ‘British Liberal Politics and Irish Liberalism After O’Connell’, in S.J. Brown & D.W. Miller (eds.), Piety and Power in Ireland 1760-1960. Essays in Honour of Emmet Larkin (2000), 43-64, at 53.

Dunne was the only tenant farmer to be returned at the election, although given his social background he was ‘hardly … a typical one’. He was, however, the first tenant-right candidate to be returned for an Irish county, and attended the conference of the Tenant League in September 1852, seconding one of its resolutions.10J.H. Whyte, The Independent Irish Party, 1850-9 (1958), 49; Freeman’s Journal, 20 July 1852. He was also present at the religious equality conference called by the Irish Brigade’s extra-parliamentary arm, the Catholic Defence Association, in October 1852.11Morning Post, 10 Sept. 1852; Freeman’s Journal, 29 Oct. 1852. A supporter of free trade, he voted for Villiers’s resolution on the subject in November 1852 and opposed Disraeli’s budget, 16 Dec. 1852.12Daily News, 3 Nov. 1852; Freeman’s Journal, 29 Nov. 1852; Lloyd’s Weekly News, 19 Dec. 1852. He joined the ranks of the ‘Sadleirites’, who approved of their leader’s decision to take office under the Aberdeen ministry, being one of only five men to oppose the Tenant League’s motion of censure on Sadleir and William Keogh, 11 Jan. 1853.13Freeman’s Journal, 12 Jan. 1853; C. Gavan Duffy, The League of North and South. An Episode in Irish History, 1850-1854 (1886), 243; O’Shea, Prince of Swindlers, 321. He is thought to have been obligated to Sadleir for funding his return, and soon afterwards denied allegations that he intended, if necessary, to resign his seat in his colleague’s favour.14Freeman’s Journal, 20 Jan. 1853; The Times, 24 Jan. 1853. Following Sadleir’s by-election defeat at Carlow in March 1853, however, Dunne is said to have agreed to make way for him, and only strong opposition to the transaction from the local Catholic bishop prevented Dunne from leaving parliament.15O’Shea, Prince of Swindlers, 339-40; Freeman’s Journal, 4 Apr. 1853; The Times, 5 Apr. 1853; Daily News, 5 Apr. 1853. He thus attracted particular criticism from those Irish Liberals who remained in opposition, Charles Gavan Duffy later concluding that as ‘a tenant farmer supposed to represent the interests of his class’, he instead ‘proved in the end to be a creature of Sadleir’.16Duffy, League of the North and South, 211. Nevertheless, Dunne attended a meeting of the Irish independent Liberal MPs that March, and in October was still being regarded by the Freeman’s Journal as a member of the ‘Independent Opposition’.17Freeman’s Journal, 5 Mar., 5 Oct. 1853; O’Shea, Prince of Swindlers, 343.

By January 1854, however, Dunne’s allegiance to the Irish party appeared doubtful. Yet, despite a ‘natural tendency … to co-operate cordially with Lord Aberdeen’s Government’ (Dunne habitually sat on the government benches), he opposed Gladstone’s budget over the issue of income tax, 2 May 1853, and was not among the ‘so-called “Liberal” Irish members’, castigated by the Freeman’s Journal for proclaiming ‘Lord John Russell as their parliamentary leader, their guide, and prophet’.18Whyte, Independent Irish Party, 180-1; Morning Chronicle, 12 May 1853; O’Shea, Prince of Swindlers, 343; Freeman’s Journal, 12 Nov. 1853. A precise idea of his political allegiances is, however, difficult to ascertain given his infrequent attendance at Westminster. He was absent from important divisions on issues of particular importance to Ireland, such as the second reading of William Shee’s tenant right bill, 7 Dec. 1852, and voted in only 20 of the 257 divisions in 1853. He did not participate in any of the important divisions on the prosecution of the Crimean War, but did vote in 44 of the 198 divisions of 1856.19Daily News, 21 Sept. 1853; J.P. Gassiot & J.A. Roebuck, Third letter to J.A. Roebuck: with a full analysis of the divisions in the House of Commons during the last session of parliament (1857), 30.

Dunne was, however, generally regarded in his constituency as ‘an active and steady friend of the popular cause’. He had been one of the ‘warmest and most ardent supporters’ of the Queen’s County Independent Club from its foundation, and drew widespread support from the Catholic clergy and county freeholders. He sat on the committee of creditors established to negotiate a compromise settlement after the collapse of John Sadleir’s Tipperary Joint-Stock Bank in 1856, but does not appear to have sat on any parliamentary select committees or introduced any bills. He continued to lend support to the Tenant League and the faction of the Irish party led by George Henry Moore and Frederick Lucas, voting for Shee’s ill-fated tenants’ improvements compensation bill, 4 May 1855.20Freeman’s Journal, 21 Aug. 1876; P.F. Meehan, Members of Parliament for Laois and Offaly, 44; The Times, 8 Nov. 1856. He was absent from the division on Moore’s Irish tenant right bill, 4 June 1856, but present to oppose Disraeli’s motion for the abolition of income tax, 23 Feb. 1857, and joined the opposition to Palmerston’s policy towards China, 3 Mar. 1857.

Dunne, being one of two remaining ‘Sadleirites’ in parliament, was reported to have displeased the Catholic clergy of his native county. However, he held his seat at the ensuing general election, being described as a ‘moderate Young Irelander’, and came second in the poll after a violent contest involving another challenge from Fitzgerald.21Lloyd’s Weekly News, 19 Apr. 1857; Freeman’s Journal, 8 Apr. 1857; Freeman’s Journal, 21 Aug. 1876. His wife died later that year: Freeman’s Journal, 5 Oct. 1857. He denied entering into a compromise with his opponent to resign his seat at the end of the session, but was expected to be amongst those Irish Liberals who ‘would be found obedient on all occasions’ to the government whip.22Morning Chronicle, 21 Apr. 1857; Examiner, 1 Aug. 1857. He paired for a period in the middle of 1857, but returned to cast his vote for that session’s tenant right bill.23Freeman’s Journal, 11 June 1857. He supported Palmerston on the conspiracy to murder bill, 19 Feb. 1858, but voted in the minority for John Francis Maguire’s tenant compensation bill, 9 June 1858, and was not among those of Moore’s followers who cooperated with Lord Derby’s ministry in 1858-9.24Whyte, The Independent Irish Party, 182. He duly opposed the Conservative reform bill, 31 Mar. 1859, and in June 1859 joined other Irish Liberal members to protest against the ‘unjust and impolitic’ laws regulating Irish land tenure.

At the 1859 general election he proclaimed his adherence to the cause of independent opposition, claiming never to have ‘asked for or received any government private favour’, and endorsed land reform, the ballot, the repeal of the Ecclesiastical Titles Act and denominational education. He was duly endorsed by the Catholic clergy of his native county and returned unopposed.25The Times, 27 Jan. 1859; K.T. Hoppen, ‘Tories, Catholics, and the General Election of 1859’, Historical Journal, 13:1 (1970), 48-67 [63]; Freeman’s Journal, 18 Apr. 1859. He voted with the Liberals on the address, 10 June 1859, and supported the abolition of church rates, 19 June 1861, and the borough franchise bill, 10 Apr. 1861, but did not participate in the Irish Liberal revolts against the ministry precipitated by the withdrawal of the Galway steam-packet subsidy in 1860, and failed to divide over the repeal of paper duties in May 1861, or participate in the defeat of the deceased wife’s sister bill in March 1862. He rarely spoke, but in April 1862 pressed the Irish chief secretary, Sir Robert Peel, to state the government’s intentions on the compensation of Irish tenants who improved their holdings, an issue he considered to be of ‘vast importance to Ireland’.26Hansard, 4 Apr. 1862, vol. 166, c. 630; Freeman’s Journal, 7 Apr. 1862. He continued to pursue the claims of Irish tenant farms along the lines of the ‘3F’s’ of fair rent, free sale and fixity of tenure, believing that landlord-tenant relations in Ireland could not be sustained by free contracts.27O’Leary & Lalor, History of the Queen’s County, ii. 712. In supporting Maguire’s motion for the appointment of a royal commission on Irish land tenure in June 1863, he argued that until ‘a just arrangement between landlord and tenant’ was made, ‘Ireland would never be able to compete with foreign nations in agricultural products’.28Hansard, 23 June 1863, vol. 171, cc. 1366-7; O’Leary & Lalor, History of the Queen’s County, ii. 711. He supported the county franchise bill, 13 Apr. 1864, but ignored Irish calls to oppose Palmerston’s ministry in the division on the Schleswig-Holstein question, 8 July 1864.

A ‘country gentleman’, Dunne was regarded as a ‘kind and indulgent’ landlord, a ‘just’ magistrate and was ‘ever the kindly host, the cheerful companion’. A renowned ‘turfman’, he owned a number of famous thoroughbreds and took a prominent part in ‘all the racing events of the province’, reviving Heath Races in 1844, and becoming ‘one of the oldest patrons of Irish racing … a sportsman from birth, and popular with all classes’.29York Herald, 2 Jan. 1877; Freeman’s Journal, 21 Aug. 1876, 3 July 1844; Baily’s Magazine of Sports and Pastimes, xxix (1877), 185. His horse Cartolvin won the Irish Grand National in 1867: Meehan, Members of Parliament for Laois and Offaly, 44. In June 1865 he joined the deputation in reference to the Curragh of Kildare that was interviewed by Earl De Grey at the War Office.30Freeman’s Journal, 15 June 1865.

Dunne was said to ‘possess many of the more important qualifications necessary to constitute a popular representative’ but, despite enjoying ‘the entire confidence’ of the popular vote in Queen’s County, and being ‘urged in the strongest manner to allow himself to be put in nomination’, he retired at the 1865 general election, citing ill health.31Freeman’s Journal, 5, 12 July 1865. He remained active in local politics, however, and was approached to stand in 1868 by the Queen’s County Independent Club. He declined, opting instead to support the Gladstonian candidate, and is thought to have tried unsuccessfully to induce Sir Charles Coote, 10^th bt., to stand for the county as a home ruler in 1874.32Freeman’s Journal, 11 June, 21 Oct. 1868, 28 Apr. 1875; The Times, 4, 29 July 1868; Meehan, Members of Parliament for Laois and Offaly, 44. He died at his residence in Ballymanus in August 1876 and was succeeded by his eldest son, William (b. 1844).33Freeman’s Journal, 19 Aug. 1876; E. Walford, County Families of the United Kingdom (1888), 326. In 1852 his daughter, Margaret, had married Richard Lalor (1823-93), Nationalist MP for Queen’s County (1880-5), and the Leix division of Queen’s County (1885-92).34The Times, 27 Nov. 1885; Stenton & Lee, Who’s Who of British MPs, ii. 206.