Isaac Butt
Butt, Isaac
Born Sept. 6, 1813, in Glenfin, County Donegal; died May 5, 1879, in Dublin. Irish political figure.
Butt was a professor of political economy at Dublin University (from 1836), a journalist, and an attorney. In the 1860’s he was prominent as a defense attorney in several trials of participants in the Irish liberation movement. In 1870 he was one of the founders of the Association for the Home Government of Ireland (after 1873, the Irish Home Rule League) and one of the leaders of the Irish opposition in the British Parliament. In the struggle for Irish self-government Butt supported moderate tactics and criticized the method of parliamentary obstruction. As a result, Butt lost his influence in the Home Rule League, and Charles Parnell became its leader.