Talk:Thomas Pile

Pile's political affiliation

I have been going through a lot of old newspapers about the Dublin Corporation in the 1890s, and it seems Pile often worked quite closely with nationalists. In 1892, he is referred to as a Parnellite/Redmondite by both the Irish Times and Freeman's Journal. However, I can't find any other sources that refer to him as such, and later sources (including this page) seem to suggest he was a Unionist. Does anyone have any information on this?

Irish Times, 26 November 1892: https://www.proquest.com/hnpirishtimes/docview/516274599/fulltextPDF/852F6563C9EC4A7BPQ/11?accountid=14404&sourcetype=Newspapers

Freeman's Journal, 26 November 1892:

https://irishnewsarchive-com.elib.tcd.ie/cgi-bin/inab2b?a=is&oid=FMJ18921126.1.5&type=extractpagepdf&e=-------en-20--1--img-txIN----------1-1-1-1-1-1-community-------INA%2CRNA-mr-all------- SraithPictiúr (talk) 03:32, 13 April 2026 (UTC)

I've looked through a few more sources, including James Murphy's The Politics of Dublin Corporation, 1840-1900 and Joseph O'Brien's Dear Dirty Dublin, as well as looked back through some other newspaper sources and all of these consistently refer to Pile as a "Protestant home ruler" or "nationalist" or something similar. Pile is similarly not included in the list of Unionist candidates published by the Irish Times on 16 January 1899 for that year's election. https://www.proquest.com/hnpirishtimes/docview/517528383/3B491B5A76244061PQ/76?accountid=14404&sourcetype=Newspapers#. Unless anyone has any sources to contradict this, I think I will change the article to reflect this. SraithPictiúr (talk) 20:40, 13 April 2026 (UTC)

That's fine, as long as you have reliable sources to prove it. Spleodrach (talk) 07:06, 14 April 2026 (UTC)