| Michael Davitt was born in Straide, County Mayo | | | | becoming organising secretary for Northern |
| in 1846 at the height of the Great Famine. He | | | | England and Scotland. He was arrested in 1870 for |
| was the second of five children born to peasant | | | | arms smuggling and sentenced to fifteen years |
| parents. When Michael was only four years old his | | | | penal servitude. He was released after seven |
| family was evicted and they were forced to | | | | years following persistent agitation seeking |
| emigrate to Lancashire in England. He began | | | | amnesty for Fenian prisoners, rejoined the IRB |
| working in the cotton mills at the age of nine, | | | | and became a member of its Supreme Council. |
| tragically losing his arm after it got entangled in a | | | | In 1878 Davitt travelled to America, embarking on |
| cogwheel. When he was fifteen he enrolled in night | | | | a lecture tour organised by John Devoy, whom in |
| classes at the local Mechanics Institute where he | | | | collaboration with Davitt formulated a new policy |
| was granted access to the library. He began to | | | | for the national movement, the essence of which |
| read about Irish history and the Irish social | | | | was an alliance of constitutional and revolutionary |
| situation becoming more radical with regard to | | | | nationalists on both self-government and the land |
| land nationalisation and Irish independence. | | | | issue. However, both the Supreme Council of the |
| In 1865 he joined the Irish Republican | | | | IRB and Parnell both refused to accept the new |
| Brotherhood, rising quickly through the ranks | | | | policy. |