Patrick Egan (land reformer and diplomat)
Encyclopedia
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...
and American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
political leader.
Egan was born in Ballymahon
Ballymahon
Ballymahon on the River Inny is a town in the southern part of County Longford, Ireland. It is located at the junction of the N55 National secondary road and the R392 regional road. Ballymahon derives its name from Gaelic Baile Mathuna Town of Mahon...
, Co. Longford, Ireland
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...
. 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 had been promoted to the post of chief bookkeeper and confidential man. Later he was elected managing director of this, as a stock company, it being the most extensive one in Ireland. He was, at the same time, senior partner in the most extensive bakery establishment in the county. He had been an industrious learner before going into business, and all this time took evening lessons of various instructors, and particularly of a brilliant young Episcopal minister of Dublin named Porte."
Egan became involved with the Irish Republican Brotherhood
Irish Republican Brotherhood
The Irish Republican Brotherhood was a secret oath-bound fraternal organisation dedicated to the establishment of an "independent democratic republic" in Ireland during the second half of the 19th century and the start of the 20th century...
soon after its establishment. He and others (including John O'Connor Power
John O'Connor Power
John O'Connor Power was an Irish Fenian and a Home Rule League and Irish Parliamentary Party politician and as MP in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland represented Mayo from June 1874 to 1885...
, Joseph Biggar
Joseph Biggar
Joseph Gillis Biggar , commonly known as Joe Biggar or J. G. Biggar, was an Irish nationalist politician from Belfast...
and John Barry) resigned from the Irish Republican Brotherhood in August 1877 over the condemnation by its leaders of the use of politics within a revolutionary organisation.
In 1873, Egan was treasurer of the Irish Republican Brotherhood, and with the IRB's supported, participated in the establishment of the Home Rule League
Home Rule League
The Home Rule League, sometimes called the Home Rule Party, was a political party which campaigned for home rule for the country of Ireland from 1873 to 1882, when it was replaced by the Irish Parliamentary Party.-Origins:...
with fellow IRB Supreme Council members John O'Connor Power, Joseph Biggar and John Barry.
At its foundation in 1879, he was elected treasurer of the Irish Land League. He was a close associate 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 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...
. At the end of 1880, he, with twelve others, including Parnell, Dillon, Bigger, Sexton, Sullivan, Sheridan, and Matt Harris, were singled out by the government for prosecution for alleged conspiracy. After a costly trial of sixteen days the jury stood ten for acquittal and two for conviction. The government did not dare arraign them again, but brought in a bill to suspend the habeas corpus act, and to permit the arrest of any one obnoxious to the government, intending to proscribe all members of the league.
Between 1880 to 1882, Egan was nominated a number of times for election to parliament, and was twice unanimously nominated, once for Queen's County
Queen's County (UK Parliament constituency)
Queen's County was a UK Parliament constituency in Ireland, returning two Members of Parliament 1801–1885 and one in 1918–1922.-Boundaries:This constituency comprised the whole of Queen's County now known as County Laois, except for the Parliamentary borough of Portarlington 1801–1885.- MPs...
and again for Meath
Meath (UK Parliament constituency)
Meath was a parliamentary constituency in Ireland, which from 1801 to 1885 returned two Members of Parliament to the House of Commons of the United Kingdom.-Members of Parliament:-References:...
, but he declined because he could not take the oath of allegiance to England required by the government.
Learning that the government was conspiring to arrest him and colleagues, and make him the victim of a pretended trial, he quietly fled to Holland, and later fled to the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, settling in Lincoln, Nebraska
Lincoln, Nebraska
The City of Lincoln is the capital and the second-most populous city of the US state of Nebraska. Lincoln is also the county seat of Lancaster County and the home of the University of Nebraska. Lincoln's 2010 Census population was 258,379....
, where he continued to work strenuously for the Irish Land League and Irish home rule. In 1881 he was elected, at its convention in Boston, president of the National Executive Committee of the Irish National League of America.
Egan was instrumental in exposing the Piggott forgeries.
He subsequently became involved in American politics
Politics of the United States
The United States is a federal constitutional republic, in which the President of the United States , Congress, and judiciary share powers reserved to the national government, and the federal government shares sovereignty with the state governments.The executive branch is headed by the President...
and was a minor power in the Republican Party
Republican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...
until he left it for William Jennings Bryan
William Jennings Bryan
William Jennings Bryan was an American politician in the late-19th and early-20th centuries. He was a dominant force in the liberal wing of the Democratic Party, standing three times as its candidate for President of the United States...
and the Democratic Party
Democratic Party (United States)
The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...
in 1896.
As United States Minister to Chile
United States Ambassador to Chile
The following is a list of Ambassadors that the United States has sent to Chile. The current title given by the United States State Department to this position is Ambassador Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary.-See also:*Chile – United States relations...
(1889–93), he represented the United States when relations were strained during the revolt against President José Manuel Balmaceda
José Manuel Balmaceda
José Manuel Emiliano Balmaceda Fernández was the 11th President of Chile from September 18, 1886 to August 29, 1891. Balmaceda was part of the Castilian-Basque aristocracy in Chile...
. He caused the Baltimore Crisis
Baltimore Crisis
The Baltimore Crisis was a diplomatic incident that took place between Chile and the United States, during the Chilean Civil War, as result of the growing American influence in Pacific Coast region of Latin America in the 1890s. It remains a nodal event because it marked a dramatic shift in United...
. The general Chilean attitude was probably best expressed by Eduardo Phillips, Chief of the Diplomatic Section of the Ministry of Foreign Relations, who described Egan in a letter to one of the newspapers as a person "utterly lacking in all elements of culture and courtesy, and ever-ready to descend to the level of invective and calumny".
Egan supported John Redmond
John Redmond
John Edward Redmond was an Irish nationalist politician, barrister, MP in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and leader of the Irish Parliamentary Party from 1900 to 1918...
and the Irish Volunteers
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"...
in his final years.
Egan was the father of fourteen children, nine of whom survived childhood. His residence in Lincoln was located at 1447 Q street.