The New Zealand Labour Party’s ‘Irish Campaign’, 1916-1921

Abstract

For many years before the 1916 Easter Week Rising, Irish Home Rule had been an issue in New Zealand. Liberal leaders such as Stout, Grey, Ballance and Ward had shared platforms with touring Irish Nationalist MPs, while Irish immigrants had subscribed generously to Home Rule funds. In the first decade of the 20th century, infant Labour organisations, having, in spite of the Catholic hierarchy’s frequent denunciations of socialism, many Irish supporters, were consequently compelled to take cognisance of the problem which agitated Irishmen throughout the world.