THE rise to public life and fame of Joseph Devlin (1871-1934), former co-leader of the Home Rule Party and leader of the Nationalist Party in the North until his death, is worth recalling. Born in Hamill Street in the Lower Falls in 1871, his parents having come to reside there from the shores of Lough Neagh, he received his early education at the Christian Brothers' school in Divis Street where he passed the Intermediate Examination (Junior Grade) at eleven. Leaving school at an early age he found employment in a local public house and continued to study after hours, later joining The Irish News as a reporter. While just 14 he started the Sexton Debating Society in St Mary's Hall, the other members being boys of his own age. There he developed those gifts of oratory which were to become such a driving force in Irish politics in later years. The first big event in Devlin's public life occurred when he was selected as Belfast representative at the Irish Race Convention held in Dublin in 1897 and presided over by Bishop Patrick O'Donnell of Raphoe (afterwards Cardinal and one of the rising politician's closest friends). Devlin made a great speech and roused the vast audience. Indeed, the eloquence of the young northerner won him an established place in Home Rule politics and he soon became a national figure.
The subsequent 1798 centenary celebrations found 'Wee Joe' in great demand to address meetings including one at Hannahstown, attended by 100,000 people. As further proof of his ability, Devlin was selected by John Redmond (the Home Rule leader) to accompany William Redmond, MP on an American tour in 1902. During his time in the States he was returned unopposed as MP for North Kilkenny. In 1905 he headed a delegation sent by the Irish Party to collect funds in New Zealand. He was accompanied by his friend, John T Donovan, a Belfast solicitor. They collected £25,000.
Perhaps Devlin's greatest triumph was in 1906 when he won West Belfast for the Nationalists by the narrow majority of sixteen votes. At Westminster his eloquence and personality quickly impressed all parties. During the Home Rule campaign (1912-14) he addressed large gatherings in all parts of Ireland and Britain.
On Devlin's powers as a debater, his colleague T P O'Connor, Nationalist MP for Liverpool, gives us a unique insight: "There rose from the Irish benches a little man. The head is large and striking, the face clean-shaven, boyish, suggesting strength of mind and temperament. Though the voice is powerful, it has all the hardness of the Belfast accent.
A few minutes elapse and suddenly, you realise there is flowing a great, broad, fierce stream of passionate, eloquent words. Loud and almost fierce cheers are succeeded by bursts of delightful laughter. The Tories sit in dumb despair while on the Liberal and Irish benches there are triumphant shouts and triumphant smiles."
The defeat of the Irish Party in the 1918 general election and the subsequent partition of Ireland left Devlin and a few colleagues the uphill task of fighting the battle for the Catholic minority in the new Northern Ireland parliament. Elected for West Belfast and Co Antrim at Stormont, he sat for TyroneFermanagh at Westminster from 1929 until his death in January 1934. In 1922, he stood as an Independent candidate in Liverpool Exchange but was narrowly defeated by the Conservative.
Edited by Eamon Phoenix e.phoenix@irishnews.com