As I have said, Alfred Crilly and I were generally expected to take the initiative in any new Irish movement in Liverpool.  Accordingly, towards the end of 1871, we were asked to make a move in connection with the new organisation in Ireland.  We formed a small committee, and invited Isaac Butt to our projected opening demonstration.  He was not able to come to our first gathering, but we had many opportunities during the years that followed of making his acquaintance; and, personally, I received many kindnesses at his hands.  With Alfred Crilly I was sent to Dublin by the Committee to find influential speakers for our public inaugural Liverpool demonstration, to be held on the 3rd of January, 1872, our association having been opened some months previously.  We secured the services of Mr. A.M.  Sullivan and Professor Galbraith of Trinity College.

When we returned to Liverpool it became our duty to find a chairman for our meeting worthy of the occasion.  Mr. Charles Russell, who was first asked, suggested that we should get some one of more influence than himself.  “Why not ask Dr. Commins?” he said.

Dr. Commins was a barrister on the same circuit as Charles Russell.  We did ask him.  He cheerfully consented, and from that hour he was for a long time the leading figure in the struggle for Home Rule in Great Britain, being for several years President of the organisation.  There is no more homely and unassuming man, ever accessible to the humblest of his fellow-countrymen, than “the Doctor,” as his friends affectionately call him.

He had a brilliant university career, and was a man of such wide attainments that I think there was a general belief amongst Liverpool Irishmen that he knew everything.  Accordingly, they used frequently to go to him to settle some knotty point beyond the ordinary conception, and they seldom came away unsatisfied.

Dr. Commins is an accomplished poet, and was for many years a contributor to the columns of the “Nation” and the “United Irishman” (of Liverpool).  In 1876 he was elected as a Home Ruler to represent Vauxhall Ward in the Liverpool Town Council.  He has ever since been a member of that body, being now an Alderman of the city.  In due time he became a member of the Irish Parliamentary Party, of which several other Liverpool Irishmen have been members.

Liverpool was not alone in forming its Home Rule Association; most of the large towns had them in due course, but for some time there was no bond of union between them.  This, however, was formed in due time, the man to take the first step in bringing us together being John Barry, then residing in Manchester, and the chief man in our organisation there.

John was, therefore, practically the founder of the great organisation which, under its various names—­of the Home Rule Confederation of Great Britain.  Irish National Land League of Great Britain, Irish National League of Great Britain, and United Irish League of Great Britain—­has been in existence since 1873, working in accordance with and taking the name of whatever has been the recognised organisation for the time being in Ireland.