‘Character is better than wealth’ – exhibition celebrates legacies of Michael Davitt

Posted on: 10 February 2026

Best known today as one of the founders in 1879 of the Irish National Land League, Michael Davitt was also an investigative journalist, republican activist and campaigner for prison reform, non-denominational education and pension rights.

A new exhibition in the Library of Trinity College Dublin highlights the many legacies of Michael Davitt as a social reformer and celebrates his lifelong efforts to combat poverty, injustice, and oppression wherever he found them. 

“Although the formation and leadership of the Irish National Land League, set up to abolish landlordism in Ireland, was one of his most important contributions to Ireland’s history, it is far from Michael Davitt’s only legacy,” explains Ciara Daly, Michael Davitt Papers Project Archivist at the Library and curator of the exhibition. 

“Davitt’s life was marked by integrity, compassion, unwavering altruism, and the conviction that ‘character is better than wealth’. The exhibitions trace key moments in Davitt’s life from the loss of his arm in a cotton mill accident at the age of 11, his imprisonment and campaigning for prison reform, to his investigative journalism in Russia and his advocacy work for tenants’ rights, non-denominational education, and pension rights.” 

Entitled Character is Better than Wealth: The Enduring Legacy of Michael Davitt, the exhibition in the Long Room and accompanying online exhibition, features photographs, letters, diaries, and autobiographical writings.

The exhibition forms part of the Michael Davitt Papers Project at Trinity Library which is cataloguing, conserving and digitising this collection of national importance to make it more widely available.

Librarian and College Archivist, Helen Shenton, said: “Michael Davitt’s extensive archive was generously donated to the Library of Trinity College Dublin by the Davitt family. The archive includes up to 7,000 items including letters, photographs, diaries and notebooks, newspaper cuttings and pamphlets. 

“It is impossible to consider almost any aspect of Irish history of the period without referencing these papers, and unsurprisingly, the Michael Davitt Papers archive is one of the most heavily used in Trinity’s modern research collections. It is being brought to new audiences through the Virtual Trinity Library programme, an ambitious multi-year initiative which is conserving, digitising and researching unique collections of national importance such as these.”

Highlights from the two exhibitions include:

• Davitt’s prison manuscript Jottings in solitary written during his incarceration in Portland Prison during 1881-1882. The proverb “‘Is fearr clú ná conách” (“character is better than wealth”) is written on the front page. 
• Questionnaire found in his papers which gives an unseen insight into the man behind the legacy, such as his favourite colour – light purple!
• Extracts from his autobiographical sketches of his early life outlining his experience of losing his arm at eleven years old.
• His diary from when he returned to Dartmoor as part of the Prison reform committee, twenty-one years after his release.
• Writings from his time in Boer camps in South Africa and his resignation letter from Parliament in protest to the atrocities of the Second Boer war
• Letter from Oscar Wilde after his release from Reading Prison, asking Davitt to bring public attention to the case of Prisoner A.2.11 who was suffering harsh treatment in prison.

Trinity historian Professor Patrick Geoghegan said: “Michael Davitt was a radical reformer whose influence extended far beyond the shores of Ireland. He exposed atrocities in Russia, defended the rights of oppressed people in South Africa, Australia, Venezuela and further afield, and was a powerful voice for human rights and human dignity, winning the admiration of writers such as Oscar Wilde and Leo Tolstoy, and inspiring Mahatma Gandhi who credited him as a direct influence. Within Ireland his legacy was immense, and his leadership of the Land League transformed Irish nationalism, changed the land question forever, and gave rights and security to people long denied them. 

“Trinity has a long and distinguished connection to Davitt and his family, through the leading scholarship of Professor T.W. Moody and others over the years, as well as through the Library as custodians of his papers, records, writings and photographs. I’m delighted to see this new exhibition sharing his life and legacy with new audiences.”

Character is Better than Wealth: The Enduring Legacy of Michael Davitt exhibition in the Long Room of the Old Library forms part of the Book of Kells Experience. It runs until the end of June. See here to book tickets. The online exhibition can be viewed on the Library’s website.

• Tags:
• Culture
• Research