Isaac Butt

Isaac Butt, was an Irish barrister, editor, politician, Member of Parliament (M.P.) in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, economist and the founder and first leader of a number of Irish nationalist parties and organisations. He was a leader in the Irish Metropolitan Conservative Society in 1836, the Home Government Association in 1870 and in 1873 the Home Rule League. Colin W. Reid argues that Home Rule was the mechanism Butt proposed to bind Ireland to Britain. It would end the ambiguities of the Act of Union of 1800. He portrayed a federalised United Kingdom, which would have weakened Irish exceptionalism within a broader British context. Butt was representative of a constructive national unionism. As an economist he made significant contributions regarding the potential resource mobilization and distribution aspects of protection, and analysed deficiencies in the Irish economy such as sparse employment, low productivity, and misallocation of land. He dissented from the established Ricardian theories and favored some welfare state concepts. As editor he made the Dublin University Magazine a leading Irish journal of politics and literature.