interest in the welfare of the workers on the tram system, and revolutionised the conditions of service. Working hours were reduced from 70 to 54 per week, and increasing pay and a week's paid holiday made work on the trams a sought after employment. The trams contributed a large sum in relief of rates, and while Boyle made sure that there were always funds to re-invest in the system, other Councillors tended to just see the trams as a milch cow to help keep the rates down. There were some accusations by political opponents that you had to be Irish to get a job on the trams, accusations angrily rejected at a public election meeting in November 1906. That same year he was the only municipal candidate endorsed by the local Trades Council. In 1906. Boyle was offered the post of managing director of the Manchester District Omnibus Company. The undertaking declared their intention was not to enter into competition with the tramways, but to operate feeder bus services to the tramway system. Nevertheless, to allay any grounds for suspicion, Boyle tendered his resignation as Chairman of the Tramway Committee to the Lord Mayor. Political views Boyle operated within two distinct (though connected) political arenas. In England, he identified with the Liberal Party, partly because it was sympathetic to Irish political autonomy, but also because he identified with Liberalism. He was President of the North East Manchester Liberal Association, an Executive Member of the Manchester Liberal Union, and Vice President of New Cross Liberal Club. However, he was on the progressive wing of the party, supporting the municipalisation of essential services, and decent working conditions for council employees. Indeed, on many issues he had more in common with the emerging Independent Labour Party than many members of his own party. On 29 January 1904, the Manchester Guardian quoted him as stating that it was a public duty on the part of both local and central government to relieve distress. Boyle was, of course, an advocate of Irish independence, but he believed that Home Rule could be achieved constitutionally through the activities of the Irish National Party in the Imperial Parliament. He aspired towards Ireland obtaining Dominion status within the British Empire. The 1910 Election The January 1910 general election produced a result in which the Liberal Party found it necessary to rely upon the support of the Irish Nationalist MPs