Irish Home Rule

The 19th century had been more stable between Ireland and Britain than the 20th
- 1800 Act of Union brought together Ireland with Britain to form 'Great Britain'
- Irelands Parliament became directly elected as MP's in the commons
- The ANGLICAN CHURCH was established even though it was mainly a catholic country, and this did cause resentment until the disestablishment
- Ireland suffered from terrible Potato Blight in which one million died and two million emigrated
- Depressed condition of economic farmers, as the land was owned by English Landlords
with no tenacy agreements or protection. Gladstone did attempt to tackle with two acts.
- Republican groups emerged demanding independence such as the Irish Republican Brotherhood and some Irish Nationalists and wanted Home Rule which was 'Political independence but not TRADE' Gladstone agreed to in 1886 and 1892 but both bills were defeated in parliament
- The Conservatives of Salisbury offered more tenacy rights and loans in order to kill home rule with 'kindness'
- The Ulster problem also emerged as the ulster region was predominately Protestant and hated the idea of being seperate from Britain to be dictated to by a Roman Catholic government.

The British however, thought ireland could never be seperated for varying reasons.
- Too many influential businessmen had land, and even opposed offering home rule.
- Ireland's Economy was a major factor to the british government
- The home rule would lead to disasterous effects on the british empire
- Most Importantly it was strategic, as this could have compromised security if ireland was to side with a continental power against Britain.

Gladstone was keen to fight another Gen Elect over Irish Home Rule in 1903, his colleagues (cabinet) believed there was no support whatsoever for home rule and they were correct. Gladstone resigned and he was replaced by Lord Rosebery who shelved the issue.
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Ireland, in the next 15 years experienced an increase in Nationalism as many irish though it would never have passed anyway and could be left to when political conditions improved. What followed was a revival in culture, with irish sports and the irish language flourishing and the general feel of the revival was 'anti-british' and condemened the 'West Britonism' which ireland was seen as just another geographical landmark of Britain.

The Liberal Unionist/Conservative Coalition between these years hoped to shelve home rule for good by
- Wyndhams Act which completely transfered land from landlords to tenants. The Irish National Party could hardly condemn this, but they saw that they'd lost a good weapon against the government, and only consoled by thinking that the liberals were pledged to home rule. This did appear to pay off when the Landslide victory of Liberals turned around, this was a situation that Gladstone had dreamt of. However the liberals were more committed to their program of Social reformation.

At this time, Irish National forces began to appear. James Connolly directed a labour movement, and was marxist in belief. He wanted a social workers republic to be set up, and encouraged many in ireland and dublin to be part of the seperatism movement. Sinn Fein opposed to 'Citizens Army' of Connolly, rejecting marxist idea's AND the INP's constitutional response. Sinn Fein believed in peaceful resistance, to simply defy the british government and set up their own government. Irish Nationalism was divided, and so the INP was still the firm representation party.

The Constitutional Crisis saw the 1910 election give the INP a balance of power in the commons which the liberals relied on to pass the Budget AND the Parliament Act in return for Home Rule. Home Rule then became top of the agenda once again, as the Home Rule bill could only be postponed now. Asquith however intended to introduce a partial home rule that the Unionists of ulster could not protest against. Most ministers believed that in the end, a seperate deal would have to be devised to not include Ulster from home rule, as violence may even strike out. The Parliament act ensured home rule to be passed but gave two years so that opponents to and for home rule would take extreme positions.
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The Third Home Rule bill in 1912 was introduced in april, with the terms of
- Irish parliament with two chambers
- 42 irish Mp's still at parliament
- Ulster INCLUDED.
It was rather moderate and constituted a limited creation of an irish government, and John Redmond of the INP saw it as barely acceptable as a starting point, with the Unionists in ulster also rejecting as they were included in home rule. Andrew Bonar Law was also trapped into an extreme stance saying that he could imagine ' no length of resistance to which ulster can go, in which i should not be prepared to support them' this included mass violence. The conservatives attempted to deny for reasons such as
- Been out of office, 1905 and denying home rule would make them popular
- Liberals didnt have a mandate
- believed liberals were forced
- saw it as an attack on the empire

Meanwhile this bill passed in the commons, and was denied by the lords, and eventually had passed once more by 1913. The Unionist resistance began to mount with Sir Edward Carson wanting some provinces of ulster that had RC majority, and so this was an impossible situation.

Ulster Resistance mounted with Edward Carson drawing up a 'covenant to resist home rule' and so the 'Ulster Volunteer Force' was set up with 100,000 men. This provoked a nationalist group, the 'Irish National Volunteers' who aimed to support the INP, but the Irish Republican Brotherhood actually infiltrated, meaning a group of very extremist opposition groups and a civil war was a threat leading to asquith banning arms being transported to Ireland. The government worked frantically to bring a compromise, for both sides, as they had sympathy for the Ulster Unionists. Leading ministers saw that Ulster had to be offered a seperate deal, but this would end INP support to the Liberals meaning a Conservative victory. Asquith persuaded Redmond of the INP eventually that seperation was temporary for six years, but the UVF prevented comprimise. What hurt the government next was the Curragh Mutiny, in which if the UVF proved to be a problem, the government expected that the military units based in ireland would prevent a threat. However, the soldiers were predominately protestant and would resign if they had to. Seely, the Secretary of State for War, offered leave for those officers but that failed. The meeting that followed to close home rule was abandoned. Ireland was on the brink of Civil War with the UVF successfully smuggling in 20,000 rifles into ireland and the INV also smuggled in weapons, being met with some resistance, Carson understood that to stop civil war, a comprimise had to be met. The next week, world war one broke out.

War overtook the home rule question at a crucial stage, as all sides in the meeting realised compromise was probably inevitable, and Carson was far more moderate than led to believe, all sides allowed home rule to be shelved to concentrate on war, and the Home Rule was passed but suspended because of war. This was a bad outcome for Ulster but Anglo-irish connections were at a high point with both Ulster/Ireland going to war to stop germany. Redmond said the INV would protect ireland from invasion and even urged them to go overseas, this was pushing it too far.

The Easter Rising was because of the split in the INV for support of the war, with most supporting redmond, but a minority split due to 'betrayal of irish claim' and pushed them closer to James Connolly's Citizen Army. A small group planned the rising, James Conolly, Patrick Pearse and Tom Clarke, who were all deeply committed. The rising however was ill-planned and timed
- leaders kept plans secret to maintain security
- counted on support from germany (arms shipment) but was intercepted.
- commanding officer of INV Eoin McNeil was not informed until latest possible point, he reluctantly supported but when he learned that the arms shipment had been lost, he tried to stop the rising. The leaders however tricked him with a letter saying the british were going to disarm them and so he was forced to fight.

It was doomed to fail from the start however as the INV were inadequately armed and were too small to have the desired effect. Although they successfully took area's of the city (post office), they were too small to keep them. Even with more support the odds would be against them. Immediately most Irish condemned the rising as they wanted to support Britain and the war. However the fighting took a week and some fought courageously with great skill to put english forces at bay. Dublin however was reduced to rubble by Artillery and the INP urged for leniency on those captured, as over 90 were sentenced to death, only 14 leaders were shot including Pearse and Connolly with 1 execution but this changed the temporary pro-british ireland to fear the execution policy.

The aftermath that followed changed the atmosphere of Ireland completely, and the rising became known as the Sinn Fein rising for no apparent reason. The leaders however became 'heroes and martyrs', and wanted their release, and it was difficult to get a lenient result from treason, and opinion was split:
- unionists 'rebels got what they deserve
- RC nationalist 'heroes need releasing'

The British Government however offered immediate home rule, with a provision for six counties to be excluded. Sinn Fein had become popular and the remnants of the rebels, and they refused to attend the Asquith convention to discuss the 'length of time' that ulster would be seperate. Britain then extended conscription to ireland, The INP refused to accept but the shift of power had gone to Sinn Fein and in the 1918 Coupon election Sinn Fein became the largest Irish Party, and set up their own government in Ireland to be the only 'legitimate legislative authority' for Ireland.

Civil war was soon to follow as the Irish Parliament or Dail as it was known was ruled by the Griffiths, De Valera (a commander in the rising) and Collins. De Valera became president of the Sinn Fein, and Collins organised the Irish Republican Army. The Irish hoped that the US would force home rule upon britain but woodrow wilson required LG at the versailles treaty signing. The IRA remained bitter, and independent groups took arms and acts of terrorism followed. The British government acted by drafting in Royal Irish Constabulary, with too many few police uniforms they became known as the Blacks and Tans. Ex Army officers became the auxiliaries and so Ireland fell into terror vs terror. The IRA fought for independence and the B&T/A fought for the crown.
- The British government were embarrassed by the situation as they co-operated for peace after the war
- press in britain were critical of Tans actions
- IRA desperately short of men and weapons
- Irish leaders willing to negotiate a truce.


The coalition had to seek a comprimise. The conservative party were strong unionists, and the conservatives were a majority. LG already proposed Partitioning, with seperate parliaments for northern and republican ireland, and ireland Ulster favoured this. However the nationalists were completely against this and ulster strangely began to accept the possibility of home rule. George V opened the Northern Ireland Parliament and used this to deliver a plea for peace. De Valera responded and signed an armistice, which lead to the 'FINAL SETTLEMENT'

The final settlement and Lloyd George offered independent status, and accidently offered northern ireland under Dublin parliament. De Valera responded immediately but LG overstepped the mark. He had to withdraw Ulster and LG threatened war to crush the IRA unless accepted. LG wanted to set up a boundary commission so that Ulster would definately return to IRELAND, and DE VALERA accepted even though dublin would be divided, and Ireland was still answerable to the crown.

This oath to the crown was too much for nationalists to bear, with divisions between collins and De Valera, collins won a small majority in the Dail. Bitter resistance broke out and collins rushed to crush opposition from opposing IRA, with a huge number of murder and execution, amd collins himself was assassinated. As LG lost office, the boundary commission never happened, and so NI parliament simply refused.

SUMMARY
1800 act of union with Irish parliament at Westminster. Anglican Church established in RC Ireland, resentment caused.
British land control in Ireland; Irish workers had no tenancy rights, Gladstone attempted to tackle. British occupation/church led to IRB and INP.
Gladstone two home rule bills failing and there was the ULSTER PROBLEM
Why did Britain oppose?
- Land ownership
- Major part of the economy
- Weaken the Empire
- Mainly defence, could pose a threat.
Gladstone’s government saw it didn’t have popularity, it was shelved.
Ireland cultural revival, condemning ‘west britonism’
Coalition government tried to shelve completely by
- Wyndhams act giving all tenants the LAND. 1906 saw a majority but libs more social reform orientated.

Constitutional reform, INP had some power 1910. Home rule in return for parliament bill. Asquith intended partial home rule bill. Most realised Ulster would have to be separate. Next two years could mean completely opposite and extreme positions.
Third home rule
-Irish parliament two chambers, 42 at Westminster with Ulster included
INP hated it. Ulster unionists also hated. Bonar Law trapped into agreeing
Mainly because
- Cons wanted to be popular, this was an attack on empire
- Liberals did not have public support, no mandate and pressured.

The Unionists, 3RDHR bill came around again
UVF was created, 100,000 men. The INP reacted with the INV. Two opposition groups, civil war looked likely. Compromise had to be met.
Curragh mutiny – Army would not stop the UVF force
Home rule passed but suspended due to war.
Easter Rising occurs, doomed to fail A whole week but eventually crushed
Fear of execution spread over Ireland But changed to ‘martyr’s of irish cause.
British government – Immediate home rule excluding Ulster 6 counties
Sinn Fein now had power, old nationalist joining.
They made own government ‘dail’
Civil war followed, as terrorist attacks happened against British to push for full home rule. British ‘Tans and Blacks’. IRA struggled with fewer men and supplied, called for a truce. Sinn Fein against partitioning. Lloyd George threatened to crush Sinn Fein eventually unless they accepted Ulster seperatation. He promised it was only temporary, but he was out of office and so it was the end of the Irish question