Joseph Biggar

Joseph Gillis Biggar (c. 1828 – 19 February 1890), commonly known as Joe Biggar or J. G. Biggar, was an Irish nationalist politician from Belfast. He served as an MP in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland as member of the Home Rule League and later Irish Parliamentary Party for Cavan from 1874 to 1885 and West Cavan from 1885 to his death in 1890.

He was the eldest son of Joseph Bigger, merchant and chairman of the Ulster bank, by Isabella, daughter of William Houston of Ballyearl, Antrim. He was educated at the Belfast Academy, and, entering his father's business of a provision merchant, became head of the firm in 1861, and carried it on till 1880.

His surname was originally spelled Bigger, but he changed the spelling upon conversion and taking up his political career; which caused some confusion about his namesake (also a Protestant nationalist from Belfast, and Joseph Gillis' cousin once removed) Francis Joseph Bigger. He became a wealthy Belfast provision merchant and city councillor. He is believed to have converted to Catholicism in 1875 in solidarity with Irish nationalism. He lacked physical presence, being a 'diminutive hunchback'.

From 1869 onwards, he took an active part in local politics at Belfast. In 1871, he was elected a town councillor, and he acted for several years as chairman of the Belfast Water Commission.

Biggar's parents were Presbyterians, but in 1877 he was formally received into the Roman Catholic Church. Biggar is reported to have said that he took Catholic communion to "annoy his sister". One biographer has opined that he converted to the majority church in Ireland "more from 'patriotic' than religious motivations".

Meeting Biggar in 1879 in Boulogne, John Devoy recalls bringing up the subject of his conversion to Catholicism:

He is known for introducing in 1874 a new, more aggressive form of obstructionism in the British House of Commons. This new form was directed not just at the Government but at the institution of parliament itself, and lacked the previous traditional restraint exercised by oppositions who realised that they could expect like treatment when they attained government. This involved giving long speeches to delay passage (also known as filibustering) of Irish coercion acts and to generally obstruct the business of the House to force the Liberals and Conservatives to negotiate with Irish nationalists. Obstruction was opposed by Home Rule Party leader Isaac Butt but approved of by most Irish nationalists.

T. P. O'Connor refers to Biggar's attributes:

The Freeman's Journal reported Biggar's obstruction of the Threshing Machines Bill on 27 February 1877:

T. D. Sullivan refers to Biggar's preparation and delaying technique:

Biggar sympathised with Fenianism but considered reliance on physical force Irish republicanism to be unrealistic. He joined the Irish Republican Brotherhood after his election to parliament in 1874 and accepted a seat on its Supreme Council, but 'only with a view to winning fenian support for parliamentary politics'. However, his involvement in constitutional politics did not sit well with his more radical IRB colleagues and he was expelled from its Supreme Council in 1876 according to Alvin Jackson. According to T. W. Moody he was expelled in March 1877 on the expiration of the August 1876 ultimatum of the I.R.B.'s supreme council to its members to cease involvement with the home rule movement.

In March 1879, in a meeting arranged by Michael Davitt, Biggar and fellow MP Charles Stewart Parnell met in Boulogne with John Devoy, the head of what was then the main Fenian organisation in America, Clan na Gael. Devoy described a "new departure" for the Fenians. They would abandon plans for armed revolt and support the drive for Irish home rule, provided the Home Rule League backed the campaign of tenant farmers against landlords.

Biggar served as a nominal joint treasurer on the executive of the Irish National Land League from its formation on 21 October 1879, and was charged on 2 November 1880, together with the other Land League leaders, with conspiracy to prevent the payment of rent as violence broke out in the Land War.

As part of Parnell's attempt to widen the area of land reform agitation while remaining within constitutional bounds, Biggar on 26 March 1882 was elected to the executive committee of the new National Land League of Great Britain.

In early 1886 Parnell insisted on nominating Captain O'Shea, the separated husband of Katharine O'Shea with whom he lived in a family relationship, as the nationalist candidate for Galway – a move widely viewed as an attempt to buy O'Shea's silence. T.M. Healy, who initially opposed the nomination together with Biggar, describes Biggar's attitude to the issue:

On 9 February 1886 Parnell declared to the voters of Galway that "If my candidate is defeated, the news will spread round the universe that a disaster has overwhelmed Ireland. The world will say, 'Parnell is beaten. Ireland has no longer a leader.'" Biggar split with Parnell over this, declaring "Mr. Chairman, all I have to say is, I can't agree with what you state, and if Mr. Lynch [O'Shea's opponent] goes to the poll I'll support him!". Despite their differences, Biggar and Parnell retained their close alliance in subsequent years. Biggar died from heart disease in London – some months before the O'Shea scandal ended Parnell's career – and was buried in his native Belfast.

Following the defeat of a Women's Disability Bill in 1871, there was little debate in Parliament on votes for women until after Biggar's death in 1890. But Biggar did attend meetings in Belfast of Isabella Tod's North of Ireland Women's Suffrage Society. He did so alongside William Johnston, the unionist MP, nominee of the town's "Protestant Workingmen's Association", and a senior Orangeman, who, in the nineties, revived the legislative struggle for women's suffrage. When Johnston died in July 1902, The Irish News, commented on the courteous and friendly relationship between the two, otherwise fearsome, political opponents.

The first GAA club in Ulster was founded in Ballyconnell in 1885 and named Ballyconnell Joe Biggars in his honour.

• Clements, Paul (8 December 2007). "An Irishman's Diary". The Irish Times.
• Beiner, Guy (2012). "Revisiting F. J. Bigger: A "Fin-de-Siècle" Flourish of Antiquarian-Folklore Scholarship in Ulster". Béaloideas. 80. Folklore of Ireland Society: 142–162. JSTOR 24862874.

Attribution

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Norgate, Gerald le Grys (1901). "Biggar, Joseph Gillis". In Lee, Sidney (ed.). Dictionary of National Biography (1st supplement). London: Smith, Elder & Co.

• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Joseph Biggar