1)To Understand What Home Rule Was, Who Supported/Opposed It and Why

Subject: Leaving Certificate History Teacher: Mr Kelly Week: Week 7 Lesson: Ireland in Ferment Part I (1914-16)

7.0 Learning Intentions

1)To understand what Home Rule was, who supported/opposed it and why.

2) To appreciate why Ireland was at the brink of civil war in 1914.

7.1 The Act of Union

The Act of Union (1800) was the piece of legislation that determined the type of government and politics in Ireland throughout the nineteenth and early twentieth Century. Under this Act, Ireland was ruled directly by London and Irish MP’s sat in parliament at Westminster.

In 1886 and 1893, two Home Rule Bills were introduced in the House of Commons that if passed would have given Ireland a Parliament with very limited powers over local issues. Ireland would remain part of Britain and its army and navy would continue to be stationed there. Britain would still be responsible for foreign policy, taxation, coinage and the Post office.

HOW WAS A LAW PASSED?

In order for the Home Rule bill to be made into law it had to pass through two key stages. A bill had to be introduced by the Government and passed firstly by a majority in the House of Commons and then secondly, be accepted by a majority in the House of Lords. In 1886 and 1893 the Home Rule Bills were defeated.

The main problem for those who wanted Home Rule for Ireland (Nationalists) was that the House of Lords had a permanent majority of Peers (Conservatives & Unionists) who opposed Home Rule for Ireland. This meant that they could always veto any Bill that came before them meaning Ireland would never be able to gain a Home Rule Parliament.

WHAT CHANGED?

Under the Parliament Act of 1911, the Peers in the House of Lords could no longer reject a bill but instead could only delay its passage into law for two years.

In 1912, the Liberal government under Prime Minister Asquith, who needed the support of the Irish Parliamentary Party, under John Redmond, to stay in power, introduced the Third Home Rule Bill.

UNIONIST OPPOSITION TO HOME RULE

Unionists opposed Home Rule in Ireland for three main reasons. 1. POLITICAL: Unionists were loyal to the British Monarch and wanted to remain fully within the United Kingdom under a single parliament. 2. ECONOMIC: North-East Ireland was the only industrial region (Shipbuilding, Linen) in Ireland and Unionists feared that a Home Rule Parliament in Dublin would destroy this prosperity. 3. RELIGIOUS: their slogan, ‘Home Rule is Rome Rule’, summed up their fears of being dominated by a Catholic-controlled Parliament in Dublin.

ULSTER UNIONISTS AND SOUTHERN UNIONISTS

In North-East Ulster, Unionists were in the majority and included Protestants of all social classes who were united in opposing the introduction of Home Rule in Ireland.

Unionists outside of Ulster, know as southern Unionists, were in the minority but generally were quite powerful and important figures like, landlords, judges, Lawyers or businessmen. Sir Edward Carson became leader of the Unionist Party in 1910. Carson was born in Dublin and studied law at Trinity College. Carson’s main political ambition was to keep all of Ireland directly under the Parliament in Westminster.

His leading assistant in the Unionist Party was Sir James Craig, the son of a leading whiskey distiller. Craig was the chief organiser of resistance to Home Rule. Craig threatened rebellion in response to Home Rule but hoped that in the event of Home Rule being introduced, he would manage to keep as much of the northern part of Ireland within the Union itself.

THE SOLEMN LEAGUE AND COVENANT AND THE ULSTER VOLUNTEERS

Craig and Carson were supported by the British Conservative Party under its leader Andrew Bonar Law.

On 28 September 1912, just under half a million Unionist men and women signed the Solemn League and Covenant, some in their own blood, to oppose Home Rule in Ireland by any means necessary.

To back up this threat a military (terrorist) group, the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF), was established by Craig and Carson in early 1913. This decision meant that the Unionist side now was threatening the use of violence against a law passed by the British Parliament, to whom they professed their loyalty to.

THE FORMATION OF THE IRISH VOLUNTEERS

In November 1913 Professor Eoin MacNeill wrote a famous article entitled ‘The North Began’ calling for the formation of an organisation of Nationalist Volunteers in order to put pressure on the British Government to introduce Home Rule for all of Ireland. On 25 November 1913 the Irish Volunteers were founded at a meeting at the Rotunda Hall in Dublin. Unknown to MacNeill, of the 3,000 volunteers who joined, a number of the leading members of the group were members of the Irish Republican Brotherhood. These secret society members viewed the Volunteer movement as a way of organising an armed rebellion against British Rule in Ireland.

IRELAND ON THE VERGE OF CIVIL WAR 1914

The British Prime Minister, Asquith, was faced with the real possibility of a civil war in Ireland between Unionists and Nationalists when the Home Rule bill was due to be introduced in September of 1914. To try and solve this problem Asquith began looking at the possibility of Special treatment for Ulster.

Ø Ulster had four counties with clear Unionist majorities; Antrim, Armagh, Down, and Londonderry. Ø Three counties had overwhelming Nationalist majorities; Donegal, Cavan and Monaghan. Ø Two counties were divided equally between Nationalists and Unionists; Tyrone and Fermanagh.

The possibility of excluding part or all of Ulster was discussed between the Unionist Party leader Carson and the Irish Parliamentary Party leader in Westminster, John Redmond. These negotiations proved too controversial to agree on. 3

THE CURRAGH MUTINY, MARCH 1914

In March 1914, British Army officers at the Curragh army base offered to resign their posts rather than impose Home Rule on Ulster. They mistakenly felt that Asquith would ask them to engage the Ulster Volunteer Force. When Asquith assured them that no such operations were planned, Unionist morale was given a huge boost.

THE LARNE GUN-RUNNING

On 24 April, the Ulster Volunteer Force imported large amount of guns and ammunition from Germany. The incident became known as the Larne Gun- Running. The British government made no attempt to arrest those involved fuelling the belief amongst Unionist that they would be able to prevent Home Rule in Ulster at the very least.

THE HOWTH GUN-RUNNING

Many nationalists now feared that they would have to rely on their own resources in order to obtain Home Rule. On 26 July the Irish Volunteers landed arms and ammunition aboard the Asgard at Howth. Unlike at Larne however, the British sought to confiscate the weapons and capture the persons involved. Later that day at Bachelor’s walk in Dublin city centre, British soldiers opened fire on jeering crowds, killing three people. This incident increased animosity towards the British authorities in Ireland.

FAILURE TO AGREE

As the deadline when Home Rule would become law (September 1914) approached, King George V offered Buckingham Palace as the setting for discussions between the British government (Liberal Party), the Conservative Opposition and Unionist and Nationalist representatives. No agreement could be reached on Fermanagh and Tyrone and as a result the conference ended in failure on 24 July 1914.

Events in Ireland however, were overtaken by events in Europe, when on the 4 August 1914, Great Britain entered the First World War. The British government decided to pass the Home Rule Bill but suspended its coming into effect until the end of the War. 4