Land League founder Michael Davitt has never received the tributes he deserved in spite of being at least 100 years ahead of his time, former president Mary Robinson has said.
Mrs Robinson said that Davitt, in making the transition from armed revolutionary to political organiser and then parliamentarian, had forged a path that was later followed by many others.
She was speaking yesterday at a conference in Dublin held to mark the centenary of Davitt's death. Mrs Robinson drew parallels between many of the issues Davitt campaigned for in the 19th century and present-day challenges.
While Davitt had been motivated by the plight of the landless poor, in the modern world there was still massive displacement of people. In Darfur, Sudan for example, up to two million people were displaced, and lacked proper protection in spite of the promises of the world.
Davitt would have appreciated the need to address the land issue in post-colonial situations, she said. Where the issue was not resolved, as in Zimbabwe today, events were likely to end in tragedy.
Davitt also valued the role of women more than any of his colleagues, and was ahead of his peers in arguing for common cause between the English working class and Irish peasants, she added.
Former Labour minister Justin Keating told the conference that Davitt was the bravest politician of the 19th century. He was the first political leader to say terrorism was not the way forward, and therefore the first to tread a path that many Irish politicians would later walk.
Davitt had a "Mandela-like nobility of the soul" and had made the transition from being an Irish politician to being an international politician, he added.
The weekend conference in St Patrick's College, Drumcondra, was one of a number of events organised this year to mark the centenary of Davitt's death. Davitt's family was evicted from their farm in Co Mayo during the Great Famine and emigrated to Lancashire. He spent seven years in jail for arms smuggling but later renounced violence and founded the Land League in 1879.
