Matthew Harris

Who was Matthew Harris?

Matthew Harris was an Irish Fenian, Land Leaguer, nationalist politician and MP. in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland as a member of the Irish Parliamentary Party he represented Galway East from 1885 until his death in 1890.

Harris was born in Athlone to Peter and Ann Harris, he spent most of his adult life in Ballinasloe, Co Galway, where he worked as a building contractor. His grandfather, Peter Harris, was executed in Monasterevin by British forces for his role in the Irish Rebellion of 1798.

He was involved in all the major 19th-century political movements of Irish nationalism, and was in the turn a Repealer, a Young Irelander, before moving to join the Fenians, where he became the main Fenian representative in East Galway and South Roscommon.

From 1865 to 1880 he was an active Fenian and the representative of the West of Ireland on the Supreme Council of the Irish Republican Brotherhood. In 1880 with Michael Davitt, he was retired from the Supreme Council, and thereafter his energies were devoted primarily to the land struggle. In the same year, he worked on the T. P. O'Connor's election campaign in the Galway Borough election.