Andrew Kettle
Encyclopedia
Andrew J. Kettle: was an Irish
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...

 nationalist
Irish nationalism
Irish nationalism manifests itself in political and social movements and in sentiment inspired by a love for Irish culture, language and history, and as a sense of pride in Ireland and in the Irish people...

 politician, progressive farmer, agrarian agitator and founder member of the Irish Land League.

Born in Dublin, was a tenant farmer with properties in County Dublin
County Dublin
County Dublin is a county in Ireland. It is part of the Dublin Region and is also located in the province of Leinster. It is named after the city of Dublin which is the capital of Ireland. County Dublin was one of the first of the parts of Ireland to be shired by King John of England following the...

. He married Margaret, daughter of Laurence McCourt of St. Margaret’s Finglas
Finglas
-See also:* List of towns and villages in Ireland* List of abbeys and priories in Ireland...

, north co. Dublin
County Dublin
County Dublin is a county in Ireland. It is part of the Dublin Region and is also located in the province of Leinster. It is named after the city of Dublin which is the capital of Ireland. County Dublin was one of the first of the parts of Ireland to be shired by King John of England following the...

. They had twelve children, one of whom was Thomas Kettle
Thomas Kettle
Thomas Michael "Tom" Kettle was an Irish journalist, barrister, writer, poet, soldier, economist and Home Rule politician. As a member of the Irish Parliamentary Party, he was Member of Parliament for East Tyrone from 1906 to 1910 at Westminster...

, an Irish Volunteer
Irish Volunteers
The Irish Volunteers was a military organisation established in 1913 by Irish nationalists. It was ostensibly formed in response to the formation of the Ulster Volunteers in 1912, and its declared primary aim was "to secure and maintain the rights and liberties common to the whole people of Ireland"...

 who died in World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

. He and his father were members of Repeal Union
Repeal Association
The Repeal Association was an Irish mass membership political movement set up by Daniel O'Connell to campaign for a repeal of the Act of Union of 1800 between Great Britain and Ireland....

. As a member of the Tenant Right League
Tenant Right League
The Tenant Right League, established in 1850, was an organisation which aimed to secure reforms in the Irish land system. Formed by Charles Gavan Duffy and Frederick Lucas , it united for a time Protestant and Catholic tenants, Duffy calling his movement The League of North and South.The political...

 in the 1850s, he was influenced by the policies of Isaac Butt
Isaac Butt
Isaac Butt Q.C. M.P. was an Irish barrister, politician, Member of Parliament , and the founder and first leader of a number of Irish nationalist parties and organisations, including the Irish Metropolitan Conservative Society in 1836, the Home Government Association in 1870 and in 1873 the Home...

 following the publication of Butt’s Plea for the Celtic Race (1866), so was from an early age in the constitutional movement to achieve Irish home rule. Kettle later became a close supporter of Michael Davitt
Michael Davitt
Michael Davitt was an Irish republican and nationalist agrarian agitator, a social campaigner, labour leader, journalist, Home Rule constitutional politician and Member of Parliament , who founded the Irish National Land League.- Early years :Michael Davitt was born in Straide, County Mayo,...

 and was instrumental in persuading Charles Stewart Parnell
Charles Stewart Parnell
Charles Stewart Parnell was an Irish landowner, nationalist political leader, land reform agitator, and the founder and leader of the Irish Parliamentary Party...

 to support the land agitations of the late 1870s. He presided at the first meeting of the Land League in October 1879, at which Parnell became president and Kettle its honorary secretary.

In 1881 Kettle proposed that the answer to the British government’s Coercion policy
Irish Coercion Act
The Protection of Person and Property Act 1881 was one of more than 100 Coercion Acts passed by the Parliament of United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland between 1801 and 1922, in an attempt to establish law and order in Ireland. The 1881 Act was passed by parliament and introduced by...

 was that ‘’the whole Irish Party should rise and leave the House of Commons
British House of Commons
The House of Commons is the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, which also comprises the Sovereign and the House of Lords . Both Commons and Lords meet in the Palace of Westminster. The Commons is a democratically elected body, consisting of 650 members , who are known as Members...

, cross over to Ireland and carry our a ‘no rent campaign’.’’ This policy of confrontation though opposed by Parnell, was adopted in modified form. Kettle was imprisoned for organising resistance to coercion. He was a signatory of the ‘’No-Rent Manifesto’’ .

Following the Kilmainham Treaty
Kilmainham Treaty
The Kilmainham Treaty was an agreement reached in May 1882 between the United Kingdom Government under William Ewart Gladstone and the Irish nationalist leader Charles Stewart Parnell...

 he retired from active politics to spend more time working his farms. He adhered to Parnell
Charles Stewart Parnell
Charles Stewart Parnell was an Irish landowner, nationalist political leader, land reform agitator, and the founder and leader of the Irish Parliamentary Party...

 in his crisis of 1890, giving support to Parnell’s policies. As Parnell's right hand man, Kettle shared a lot of his opinions, and wrote of his own views:
I confess that I felt [in 1885], and still feel, a greater leaning towards the British Tory party than I ever could have towards the so-called Liberals.
Historians believe that Parnell, and Timothy Healy
Timothy Michael Healy
Timothy Michael Healy, KC , also known as Tim Healy, was an Irish nationalist politician, journalist, author, barrister and one of the most controversial Irish Members of Parliament in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland...

, shared that viewpoint.

Kettle stood for election as a nationalist
Irish nationalism
Irish nationalism manifests itself in political and social movements and in sentiment inspired by a love for Irish culture, language and history, and as a sense of pride in Ireland and in the Irish people...

 candidate on several occasions.

On the occasion of his death the following obituary appeared in the Cork Examiner:

VETERAN NATIONALIST. Sincere and widespread regret will be felt at the announcement of the death of Mr. A. J. Kettle, father of the late Lieut. T. M. Kettle, which occurred at his residence, St. Margaret’s co. Dublin. The deceased gentleman had reached the ripe age of 83. From the start of the constitutional movement he had been one of the most active spirits, and the faithful counsellor of its leaders. He was one of the founders of the Dublin Tenants’ Defence Association, and in that capacity was one of the deputation that induced the youth Parnell
Charles Stewart Parnell
Charles Stewart Parnell was an Irish landowner, nationalist political leader, land reform agitator, and the founder and leader of the Irish Parliamentary Party...

 to challenge the Tory
Irish Conservative Party
The Irish Conservative Party, often called the Irish Tories, was one of the dominant Irish political parties in Ireland in the 19th century...

 hold on County Dublin, in the contest against Colonel Taylor, which was Parnell’s baptism of fire in Irish politics. When Davitt
Michael Davitt
Michael Davitt was an Irish republican and nationalist agrarian agitator, a social campaigner, labour leader, journalist, Home Rule constitutional politician and Member of Parliament , who founded the Irish National Land League.- Early years :Michael Davitt was born in Straide, County Mayo,...

 unfurled the banner of the Land League he joined him in the foundation of the organisation, and was one of the most prominent members of the Land League Executive. Upon the arrest of Parnell, Dillon
John Dillon
John Dillon was an Irish land reform agitator from Dublin, an Irish Home Rule activist, a nationalist politician, a Member of Parliament for over 35 years, and the last leader of the Irish Parliamentary Party....

, Davitt, and the other leaders in 1861, he assumed with Mr. Patrick Egan
Patrick Egan (land reformer and diplomat)
Patrick Egan was an Irish and American political leader.Egan was born in Ballymahon, Co. Longford, Ireland. His family later moved to Dublin and at the age of fourteen he entered the office of an extensive grain and milling firm, the North City Milling Company, in Dublin, and before he was twenty...

 the control of the organisation; and was one of the signatories of the No Rent Manifesto. His arrest under the Forster Coercion Act speedily followed, and he was imprisoned first at Naas
Naas
Naas is the county town of County Kildare in Ireland. With a population of just over twenty thousand, it is also the largest town in the county. Naas is a major commuter suburb, with many people residing there and working in Dublin...

 and afterwards at Kilmainham. At the General Election of 1880 he had been put forward by the Land League as a candidate for County Cork
County Cork
County Cork is a county in Ireland. It is located in the South-West Region and is also part of the province of Munster. It is named after the city of Cork . Cork County Council is the local authority for the county...

 in opposition to Colonel Colthurst. Though powerful forces were in operation against him, he secured a substantial vote, which however, failed to carry him to victory. After the lamentable events of 1890 he adhered to Mr. Parnell, and stood as a candidate for the representation of County Carlow
County Carlow
County Carlow is a county in Ireland. It is part of the South-East Region and is also located in the province of Leinster. It is named after the town of Carlow, which lies on the River Barrow. Carlow County Council is the local authority for the county...

, upon the death of O’Gorman Mahon. Again he was defeated in his Parliamentary candidature after a tough fight Strenuous as he was in battle, there was no more tolerant and generously minded man, and none welcomed more eagerly the re-union of the Nationalist forces. The passing away now of this great veteran Nationalist will be deeply mourned by Irishmen in every quarter of the habitable globe .
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