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William Edward Forster was a Liberal politician who served as Chief Secretary for Ireland from 1880 to 1882 in Prime Minister William Gladstone’s Liberal government. Tasked with suppressing the escalating unrest and violence fueled by the Irish Land League, he was hugely unpopular with Irish Nationalists and was nicknamed ‘Buckshot’ supposedly due to his ordering of police to fire on crowds. Following the arrest of Irish Nationalist politician and leader of the Home Rule League, Charles Stewart Parnell in October 1881, several attempts were planned and made on Forster’s life. On 2 May 1882, Parnell was released as part of the Kilmainham Treaty, after renouncing violent extra-parliamentary action. Forster strongly opposed this decision, believing it undermined his efforts, and resigned in protest. Tenniel’s cartoon portrays William Edward Forster boarding a ship back to England, whilst the Irish population celebrates. His successor as Chief Secretary for Ireland, Lord Frederick Cavendish, was murdered by Irish Nationalists on the afternoon of his succession, just four days later on 6 May 1882.
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