Phoenix Park murders

(May 6, 1882) Assassination in Dublin of British officials.

The newly arrived chief secretary of Ireland, Lord Frederick Cavendish, and his undersecretary, Thomas Burke, were walking in Dublin's Phoenix Park when they were stabbed to death by members of the Invincibles, a radical Irish nationalist secret society. The murders caused a revulsion against terrorism and enabled Charles Stewart Parnell to subordinate the Irish National League to the more moderate Home Rule Party in Parliament.

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▪ crime

      (May 6, 1882), an assassination in Dublin that involved the stabbing of the British chief secretary of Ireland, Lord Frederick Cavendish, and his under secretary, T.H. Burke. The chief secretary had arrived in Dublin only that day and was walking in the city's Phoenix Park in the evening when set upon by members of a nationalist secret society, the Invincibles.

      The event occurred just after Charles Stewart Parnell (Parnell, Charles Stewart), leader of the Irish Home Rule Party in the British House of Commons, was released from Kilmainham jail, Dublin, where he had been confined for his violent speeches against the Land Act (1881), which he considered insufficient land-reform legislation. The result of the assassinations was a revulsion against terrorism. Parnell, who had just compromised with the British government over the land question, was consequently able to subordinate the Irish National League, a nationalist organization, to the more moderate Home Rule Party in Parliament.

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