| In Sexton's youth there was a good
deal of literary and social activity in Irish provincial cities and
towns. The Mechanic's Institute and the Catholic Young Men's Society
were both flourishing institutions in Waterford City and Sexton soon
became the most prominent figure in both. He established a debating
society; when he was only sixteen he lectured on John Banim and
Oliver Goldsmith and, on one occasion, he duelled with a delegation
from the Portlaw Debating Society, a neighbouring rival, on the
vexed topic of emigration. A public dinner was held in his honour on
his departure for Dublin and he received addresses from the
societies in which he had figured so largely.
In Dublin he joined the literary staff of The
Nation having acquired a liking for journalism by writing for
the Waterford News, Waterford Citizen and the
Waterford Chronicle. He became a leader writer on The Nation,
then the most outspoken advocate of Nationalist principles. In
time, Sexton became the the editor of the Weekly News and of
Young Ireland, two publications that issued from the
Nation office. Sexton was shy and easy-going and he never
sought the opportunity of displaying his great oratorical powers. He took his share in all the National movements but it was as a
silent and unknown member of those committees which do the practical
hum-drum work and leave the speech-making to others. In 1879—the
year of the Land League and of social upheaval—Sexton
was brought at last, and almost in spite of himself, into the stormy
arena of public life. He was sent by the Council of the Land League
to address a meeting in Dromore West, County Sligo and he made a
great impression on his Sligo listeners. When the General Election
came he was proposed for his native county but his name was
withdrawn and he was selected to stand in the Sligo constituency. He was opposed by a great magnate, Colonel King-Harman and was
thought not to have any chance of success, but Sexton stumped the
county, roused enthusiasm everywhere and drove his opponent from the
seat.
He represented Sligo in Westminster from 1880 to
1885 and then, after the Redistribution Act, he was member for South
Sligo from 1885 to 1886. He was imprisoned with Charles Stewart
Parnell in Kilmainham Jail, October 1881, and was a signatory of the
'no-rent manifesto' calling on the supporters of the Land League to
withhold the payment of rent.The British government responded by
declaring the Land League an illegal organisation. The text of the
manifesto was as follows.
Mr Gladstone has by a series
of furious and wanton acts of despotism driven the Irish
tenant farmers to choose between their own organisation and
the mercy of his lawyers. You have to choose between
all-powerful unity and unpopular disorganisation; between the
lands for the landlord and the land for the people. We cannot
doubt your choice. Every tenant farmer in Ireland is today the
standard-bearer of the flag unfurled at Irishtown and can bear
it to glorious victory. Stand together in the face of the
brutal and cowardly enemies of your race. PAY NO RENT UNDER
ANY PRETEXT. STAND PASSIVELY, FIRMLY, FEARLESSLY BY while the
armies of England may be engaged in their hopeless struggle
against a spirit which their weapons cannot touch ...
If you are evicted you shall not suffer. The landlord who
evicts will be a ruined pauper, and the government who
supports him with its bayonets will learn in a single winter
how powerless its armed force is against the will of a united
and determined and self-reliant nation.
Charles Stewart Parnell, Kilmainham Jail
Andrew Kettle
Michael Davitt, Hon., Sec., Portland jail
Thomas Sexton, Head Organiser, Kilmainham Jail
Patrick Egan, Treasurer, Paris |
Sexton was released from jail early due to his
ill-health. He was the Irish Party's chief spokesman on finance and
was a brilliant public speaker, known as 'silver-tongued Sexton.' At
the time of the Parnellite "split" he was elected chairman of the
Party but refused to act. He represented North Kerry from 1892-96. He was elected Lord Mayor of Dublin in 1888, an office he performed
with distinction until the following year, having previously
(1887-88) been High Sheriff of the metropolis. He was chairman of
the Freeman's Journal Company from 1892 to 1912 and he was
also chairman of Boland's Ltd., and other companies. He was a
member of the Financial Relations Committee (1894-96) and of the
Irish Railways Commission (1906-10).
Sexton Street (1935-36) in the upper part of
Waterford city is named in his honour. |
Tom Sexton was born,
in 1848, in the house that stood at the corner of Newgate Street and
Mayor's Walk, before the Newgate Street widening took place. He was
the son of Mr. John Sexton and he received his education at Mount Sion schools in the city. He was only twelve years of age when he
entered a competition for a clerkship in the secretary's office of
the Waterford & Limerick Railway Company. Of thirty youths who had
applied Sexton was the youngest, but he obtained first place. He
remained in the secretary's office until 1867 when he was about
twenty years of age and then, like most young men of ability and
enterprise he was drawn to the capital city. However, he did not
leave Waterford unnoticed or unappreciated.