The newspaper was fortunate in its Honorary Secretary, for William John Oliver was one of the most enthusiastic workers we ever had in the Home Rule movement.  He was at this time engaged in commerce in Liverpool, having previously been an officer in the Royal Navy.  He was ever willing to be “the man in the gap” in case of an emergency, and that was how he became for a time the Honorary General Secretary of the Home Rule Confederation.  He was always a cheery and, at the same time, an eminently practical man.  He took a leading part in our local elections in Liverpool from the time we began to fight them on Home Rule principles—­when the necessity arose, as I have elsewhere explained, to have public men who were not afraid to identify themselves with the national cause.

Hugh Heinrick, our editor, was a brilliant writer, who had, for several years, been a strenuous worker in the Home Rule cause.  He was a frequent contributor of poetry to the “Nation” and other national journals, generally over the signature of “Hugh Mac Erin.”  He was born in the County Wexford in 1831.  Before taking up the editorship of the “United Irishman” he was for many years resident in Birmingham, where he was a schoolmaster.  He died in 1887.

Daniel Crilly, one of the most active and eloquent advocates of the Irish cause in Liverpool, succeeded him—­this being his maiden effort in journalism.  He was afterwards on the staff of the “Nation,” and also did good service while a member of the Irish Parliamentary Party.

Among other contributors to the “United Irishman” were Isaac Butt, Dr. Commins, Frank Hugh O’Donnell, Michael Clarke, Captain Kirwan, and Frank Byrne.  Our poetry was a strong point with us—­Dr. Commins, Frank Fox, John Hand, Patrick Clarke, Heber MacMahon, and Miss Bessie Murphy being among the contributors.

When the “United Irishman” was started, the offices of the Home Rule Confederation, which had previously been in Manchester, were for convenience removed to my place of business.  As the executive meetings and the meetings of the newspaper directors were held there, I frequently had the pleasure of meeting under my own roof Irishmen who either then were or afterwards became prominent members of the Irish Parliamentary Party, including Isaac Butt, Charles Stewart Parnell, and Joseph Biggar.

Mr. Biggar and I were always great friends.  He had the reputation of being close-fisted and penurious; but that this was not so I knew from many circumstances, though it is quite true he would not allow himself to be defrauded of a penny.