The Review: A Journal of Undergraduate Student Research

Volume 5 Article 8

2002

Irish Home Rule

Galen Lewis St. John Fisher College, [email protected]

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Recommended Citation Lewis, Galen. "Irish Home Rule." The Review: A Journal of Undergraduate Student Research 5 (2002): 84-90. Web. [date of access]. .

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Abstract In lieu of an abstract, below is the essay's first paragraph.

By the spring of 1914, the question of Irish home Rule had been completely transformed into a question of the coercion of . The traditional bulwarks of resistance to Home Rule had been effectively removed by the emasculation of the House of Lords, following their rejection of the " People's Budget" of 1909, and by John Redmond's successful resurrection of the Irish Parliamentary Party from the ashes of self immolation following Parnell 's meteoric downfall. Protestant Ulster, with the apparent hour of "Rome rule" drawing nearer, abandoned the advice of moderates and logicians and began to take up arms against the crown in order to maintain it. Were it not for a wrong tum by the Archduke Franz Ferdinand's driver in Sarajevo, Englishmen would likely have found themselves talked into a Civil War by a loud minority of Irishmen.

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1.-ish II omc Rule by Galen Lewis

By the spring of 1914, the question of total populati on of I, 14 7,000, roughly 8 out Irish I lome Rule had been completely of I 0 were Protestants of various transfonned into a question of the coercion denominations (890, I 08) (Buckland 16). of Ulster. The traditional bulwarks of The ci ty of , holding a huge but resistance to Home Rule had been proportional sway over the province, was a effectively removed by the emasculation of tremendous source of pride and wealth to the House of Lords, following their rejection the Protestant ascendancy and the only city of the " People's Budget" of 1909, and by in Ireland to bear the brunt of the Industrial John Redmond's successful resurrection of Revolution. The resultant self-identity, the Irish Parliamentary Party from the ashes strong, confident and British, was to be a of self immolation following Parnell's huge force in the Home Rule debates. meteoric downfall. Protestant Ul ster, with One prominent Unionist attributed the apparent hour of "Rome rule" drawing Ulster's success to the fact that she had nearer, abandoned the advice of moderates "turned her back on rainbow chasing, and and logicians and began to take up arms has perseveringly trodden the hard, rough, against the crown in order to maintain it. path of constant attention to work, low Were it not for a wrong tum by the living and strenuous effort, with the careful Archduke Franz Ferdinand's driver in husbanding of the money that was the Sarajevo, Englishman would likely have reward" (Buckland 30). This melancholy found themselves talked into a Civil War by Protestant ethos was believed to be a loud minority of Irishmen. unintelligible to the province's Catholic The situation as it stood in 1914 does minority who were thought suited for little beg a very significant question, that being more than soldiery or servitude, and then why hadn't such bellicose resistance arisen only assuming that they had stem discipline from Ulster during the two previous Horne looming menacingly over them. Protestants Rule debates? And furthermore, why hadn't acted, for the most part, courteous and civil the previous two bills been transformed to toward their Catholic neighbors, but were revolve around Ulster, and not Ireland as a horrified at the thought of them acting in whole, as the last was destined to? The numbers, either physically or politically. answer is not completely clear, as it seems Like their notions of superiority, Protestant that perhaps the same resistance did in fact fears were rooted in history. The Orange arise, the difference lying in the two years Order drank to "The glorious, pious and the bill (introduced in April of 1912) was immortal memory of the great and good allowed to fester, the Ulstermen to sabre­ King William, who saved us from popery, rattle, and Asquith's cabinet hinting of slavery, knavery, brass money and wooden coercion. shoes"1 and the Revolt of 1641 was cited as How different was Ulster that it dreaded further proof of Catholic treachery. Society Home Rule to such an extent? The three was indeed fractured (Buckland 22). provinces of Munster, Leinster, and Connacht were, for the most part, rural, poor 1 The references of wooden shoes being to the and overwhelmingly Roman Catholic. French, although this is quite ironic in that we now Ulster boasted nearly the reverse. Out of a tend to associate wooden shoes with the state of William's birth, Holland.

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Prosperity in Ulster generall y, and birthplace of the , found itself Belfast specifically, was seen solely as a able to govern without the aid of His result of the Act of Union. In the words of Hol iness. As if the dark shadow of Rome in a Belfast delegation meeting with Gladstone general wasn't frightening enough to a large in 1893: segment of the community, most assumed that the church would sink its claws into the All our progress has been made under yo ung under a mandatory apparatus of the union. We were a small, Catholic education, or worse yet, Protestants insignificant town at the end of the last would be excluded from government century, deeply di saffected and hostile to resulting in their being reduced to "hewers the British Empire. Since the Union and of wood and drawers of water for their under equal Jaws, we have been wedded Catholic masters" (Buckland 32). Certain to the Empire and made progress second contemporary events did not help Irish to none (Buckland 30). Catholics to shake this image, namely church involvement in Parnell's spectacular Jt was common for Ulstermen to point to fall and the ill-timed Ne Tempere decree of the Act of Union as a simple answer for 1908; however, Protestant fears of Rome what was, in reality, the complex result of a were, in hindsight, obviously a vestigial series of mostl y global economic factors. legacy of a bygone era (Buckland 30-32). The real reasons for Protestant Ulster's The second line of resistance followed affection for Union and resistance to Home economic reasoning based on a shaky Rule were probably more in line with the foundation of Protestant superiority. The opinion of a Derry doctor, who believed that province's leading businessmen, Protestant Ulster was "prosperous, content and happy, nearl y as a rule, believed that a parliament and why she should be afraid to take a blind primarily hailing from a rural environment leap into the dark is easy to understand" would be incapable of understanding (Buckland 30). Ulster's economy, global and urban. Many The "dark" was rule by a , and feared the erection of huge protective tariffs overwhelmingly Catholi c, parliament. in an attempt at self-sufficiency coupled There were two main thrusts to arguments of with some backhanded Tammany Hall style resistance to Horne Rule, the evils of Popery of government that would see them all and the evi ls of southern economics. Many ruined. These fears resulted in an economic Protestants at the tum of the last century, panic in Belfast when Gladstone's first and not just in Ulster, believed that the Pope Home Rule bill was announced in J 886 and was intent on once again wielding power is further evidenced by Lord Pirrie's over the entire globe. This 17th century decision to move the whole of Harland & mindset fostered a legitimate fear of the Wolffs operations to the Clyde in the event Papacy. Jonathon Bardon writes that that Home Rule passed (Bardon 404). "Catholicism was regarded as an oppressive As Protestant Ulster stewed in and backward religion and the fear that sectarian fear, the Irish mandate for Home Home Rule would result in Rome rule was rule grew, and grew quickly. Charles genuine" (Bardon 407). It seemed to occur Parnell's Land League apparatus had been to few that the Tri sh parliament would act turned into a powerful force at Westminster independently of Rome as did the and by 1885 nearly 80% of the country governments of nearly every other modern supported Home Rule. The Irish mandate Catholic nation at the time, for even Spain, found a receptive ear in William Gladstone.

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The "Grand Old Man" of British politics, limited to Ulster, appearance. The Ulster Gladstone picked up the standard of Irish Loyalist Anti-Repeal Union (ULARU), If omc Ruic towards the end of the election predominantly Conservative, also drew in campaign of l 885, drawing criti ci sm and the , revived by Colonel accusations of ill motive from all -sides. His Edward Saunderson in 1883, and quickly motives were, and are, heavily debated. He became the most vocal cross-party body, the likely felt that Britain owed a debt to the Order having proven incapable of uniting people of Ireland and that certainly fits in Unionists on its own as a result of its violent with his actions regarding the Balkans, rhetoric and penchant for hurling paving where he championed nationalism and an stones. anti-imperialist mindset. It is also likely that The Anti-Repeal Union focused its the balance of power in parliament, held by efforts on lobbying Westminster and the Irish Nationalists, figured prominently consolidating Unionist power in Ulster, but into his decision, as did the chance to finally also devoted a fairly large portion of its time remove the problems of governing Ireland to spouting alanning rhetoric and extra­ from the halls of Westminster. Regardless political organization. At a 20,000-man of his reasons, the result was an angry Ulster rally on April 26, 1886 it was declared that and the staunch opposition of the if Home Rule was granted, "We shall not Conservative Party, strengthened by many acknowledge that government; that defectors from Gladstone's own benches. we... will refuse to pay taxes imposed by it; When introducing the Home Rule and ... that we will resist to the utmost all Bill on April 8, J 886, Gladstone stated that attempts to enforce such payments" he could not "allow it to be said that a (Buckland 2). The ULARU found its most Protestant minority in Ulster, or elsewhere, vocal and powerful supporter in Lord is to rule the question at large for Randolph Churchill , then at the height of his lreland ... but 1 think that the Protestant power and considered an eventual minority should have its wished considered Conservative Prime Minister. Churchill, to the utmost practicable extent in any form having early on decided "that if the G.O.M. they may assume" (Stewart 2 1). That would went for Home Rule, the Orange Card not be good enough for Ulster, the question would be the one to play" and praying that it was, would she find a collective and tuned out to be "the ace of trumps and not representative voice to say so. the two" accepted an invitation from the The Ulster of 1885 was seriously split ULARU to speak at Belfast's Ulster Hall in along party lines, resulting in many February of 1886 (Buckland 9). After Nationalist gains in the general election. warning the province to prepare so that Liberal and Conservative Unionists Home Rule would not come upon them "like contested seats that went to Pamellites on a thief in the night," his words became a Election Day. With Home Rule at the fore harbinger of a future crisis: "I do not hesitate of British politics following Gladstone's to say.. .in that dark hour there will not be election, it was realized by many that it wanting to you those of position and could never be successfully resisted by influence in England who are willing to cast anything but a solid Protestant political bloc, in their lot with you, whatever it may be, arranged not along traditional party lines, and who will share your fortune and fate" but by a desire to preserve the Union. From (Stewart 22). Churchill went on to say in a the outset, these measures bore a public letter a few days later: distinctively regional, that is to say mainly

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If politi cal parties and political leaders separating the two was time. The di vision should be so utterl y lost to every feeling fo r the First Home Rule Bi ll occurred on and dictate of honour and courage to June 8, 1886, the debate had been in the fore hand over coldly ... the li ves and liberties a mere two months. By the time the Great of the loyalists of Ulster to their War intervened in 19 14 Home rule had hereditary and most bitter foes, make no occupied the politicians, and the nation, for doubt on this point; Ulster at the proper near! y two and a half years. moment will resort to the supreme Despite an eloquent and providential arbitrate of fo rce; Ulster will fi ght, and plea by Gladstone, in which he exhorted Ulster will be right (Stewart 23). Parliament to "think well , think wisely, think not for the moment but fo r the years The saying was to long outlive Lord which are to come, before you reject this Randolph Churchill; people are still dying bill" (Stewart 23), the First Home Ruic Bill fo r it in today. The speech was defeated by thirty votes, 93 Liberals was to put in the nation's mind the spectre having voted against their own leader. The of armed Ulster resistance, a spectre whose Conservative Party rejoiced as did the features would become clearer with each rioting loyalists of Belfast, who had been passing year. read the Riot Act fou r days previous a fler The method by which Ulster planned to having run every Catholic out of the Lagan resist " the thief in the night" was a 60,000 shipyards and continued on in sectarian man volunteer fo rce, fo rmed into two fu ll fervor to bum their homes. The city was in army corps by the end of May. Just as was a state of anarchy with mob violence to be the case in 19 12-1 9 14, prominent army erupting in every section of the city where offi cers had pl edged their support and the Catholics and Protestants fou nd one another Fourth Sea Lord had stated that he would in proximity. The riots continued for four resign fro m the Admira lty before he would more days before they were suppressed, enfo rce Home Rule. Non-commissioned only to erupt anew a month later (Bardon offi cers were solicited to begin drilling the 380-2). It must have seemed unlikely to King's men (Buckland 12). Before the many on the English side of the Irish Sea division on the first Home Rule bill, the MP that such people were even worthy of self­ for West Belfast stated that " there can be no govemment. doubt that the Loyalists are arming," and it Ulster Unionism did not immediately seems that the movement was not limited to subside following the defeat of Home Rule the sections of society that historically had a as many assumed it would. The autumn certain appreciation for anything involving election of 1886 saw a Unionist candidate guns, loud explosions, and dead people retake the Derry seat Jost to the Nationalists (Bardon 382). Quite on the contrary, "The a year prior; the balance of Ulster was once word ' Resist! Resist! ' was on the lips not again Unionist, 17 scats to the Nationalist's merely of Orangemen, but of Liberals, of 16. Unionist clubs were functioning well at those who by their profession were men of the grassroots, constituency level despite the peace, merchants, manufacturers, bankers, loose ties that bound them to the central medical men, and even clergymen" (Bardon Unionist Club Council. Under the auspices 383). Just like the Crisis surrounding the of these clubs, U nionists did not oppose one third Home Rule bill, a huge cross section of another, ending the fratricidal sapping of society was at least tacitly in support of strength that had plagued them in prior armed resistance. The vital difference contests. By 1890 the Grand Old Man had

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entered hi s eightieth decade, hardly the recently evicted Prime Min ister, Lord image o f man with fi ght le ft in him. The Salisbury, deli vered a benedicti on o r Irish Parli amentary Part y had nearl y sclf­ Unionist acti on. 1le spoke to the effect that destructed following Pamell 's public fall. in the past Ulster had resisted the The Nationalists that sat in Westminster unconstitutional acti ons o r James 11 and were hardly an inspiration for Home Rule. today could be counted on to resist the It mi ght have seemed likely that the Irish unconstitutional actions of a treacherous storm had passed (Bardon 408). parliament, for he did not think that "the The election o f 1892 proved that the people of Ulster had lost their sturdy love of storm had merely blown out to sea for six freedom nor their detestation of arbitrary years. G ladstone once again sat on the power" (Buckland 15). Arthur Bal fo ur Treasury Bench and was once again spoke more menacingly: "Ulster can at all dependent on the Nationalist vote, albeit events fi ght; the last refuge of brave men now fractured between anti-Pamellites and struggling for their freedom cannot be adherents of the dead man. Once again the denied them" (Buckland 18). Unionist apparatus sprung into action at all As in 1886 talk of resistance was not levels, with the central Club Council taking merely limited to words. In March of 1893 on an ever more important role in the mold the Ulster Defence Council was fo rmed of the ULAR U in 1886. under the auspices o f the Unionist Club In June, 1892, resistance was centered Council; its executive consisted of the on Belfast, the site of an immense Unionist province's parli amentari ans. Once again old rally. Under the largest tent in Ireland the soldiers were lined up to take charge of the sons of Ulster spoke to their resolve group and feelers were put out to foreign surrounded by miles of bunting and anns manufacturers. Once again hundreds of Union Jacks. A ft er the keynote preparations were made for Ulster's armed speaker, the Duke of Albereon, appealed to resistance to Home rule, and once again time the "men of the north" to resist, Liberal MP would keep the spectre at bay. Thomas Sinclair raised more applause by Vocal support for Home Rule was much stating: harder to come by, apart from that which sprang from the mouth from Gladstone Fellow countrymen, Mr. Gladstone's himself. His passion was not shared by threat is a serious one, but, nevertheless, many of his fellow Liberals and the efforts we can never falter in our resolve. We of Nationalists were still hamstrung by their are the children of the Revolution of very public schism . Despite the 1688, and, cost what it may, we will inauspicious omens, sheer numbers carried have nothing to do with a Dublin Home Rule across the floor of the Commons parliament. If it be ever set up we shall in the summer of 1893; no other 19th simply ignore its existence. Its acts will Century bill had occupied as much of the be but waste paper; the police will find House's time (Bardon 41 ). The measure, our barracks pre-occupied with our own however, would find a far less receptive constabulary; its judges will sit in empty audience in the staunchly Conservative court-houses (Buckland 16). House of Lords. The bill was defeated by the Lords on Sinclair's tone was more restrained than September 9, 1893 by 378 votes. Only two that of his colleagues in Britain. At the members were absent without legitimate annual meeting of the Primrose League, the excuse and even the infirm had been

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wheeled in to pass through the "nay" door. Catholics and equally a product of Ulster's Bardon cites the fact that no constitutional status as the last bastion of Protestant crisis resulted from a plain challenge to the landlordism, growing apprehension was representatives of the people, as ample evident in Unionist ranks. Irish policy once evidence that the bill had little support again was spurred by Ireland's most vocal among Britons in general. ln fact, it seemed minority after the MacDonnell affair was most were glad lo sec the Iri sh question "discovered" by the press. Lord di sappear and a return to the normal party MacDonnell was the Catholic squabbles, familiar to all and threatening to Undersecretary of State for Ireland. His few. The exceptions were quite obviously leanings were avowedly nationalistic and he Gladstone, who handed Queen Victoria his was a member of the Irish Reform resignation, and the Nationalists, who Association, a group dedicated to the couldn't muster the strength to yell over one achievement of Home Rule in Ireland. In another to coherently argue the fact (Bardon September 1904, the Reform Association 413). published a scheme to form an Irish national More so even than in 1886, Home Rule council that would have some powers of seemed utterly vanquished. When writing devolutionary government. MacDonnell of his father's career in I 904, Winston publicly endorsed the scheme without the Churchill described reading the approval of the Conservative government or parliamentary debates of the subject was like his immediate superior, George Wyndham. walking over a long deserted battlefield, the A deafening uproar was emitted by Ulster's issues, and even the armies, having been Unionists, who cited the plan as a half-baked obscured by time. Churchill need only to and backhanded attempt to grant Ireland have looked to Ulster to clear his vision. Home Rule on the sly. Unionism was The Unionist movement did not disappear seldom held back by logic and this time with the "cold storage" of Home Rule. It would be no exception. They were only had little reason to: "The impressive placated by the removal of Wyndham, the commercial and industrial strength of Ulster, man responsible for the final eradication of especially in and around Belfast, as the the Irish land problem by his Land Act of Victorian Age was succeeded by the 1903. Apart from reminding the Edwardian, provided Unionists with Westminster that they still held sway over formidable powers of resistance when Home many powerful men, Ulster reminded itself Rule once more became the central issue at of the threat, in any form, of Home Rule. Westminster" (Bardon 384). The controversy spurred a reform of the Ulster's Unionists would not have club council system into a more efficient needed to be reminded of this by Mr. and centralized body. The Ulster Unionist Bardon. They were well aware of the power Council (UUC) was formed in March 1905 of their position after successfully contesting and from its inception was the model for the Home Rule twice, and were determined not gathering of Unionist support. It to drop their guard, even after Home Rule incorporated a fixed number of had been long eclipsed by the Boer War, representatives of the Orange Order, free trade, and constitutional reform. officials of every grassroots county club, as The Conservative policy of killing Home well as all of Ulster's Unionist MP's and Rule with kindness was met with little Lords. By 1910 a secret committee of the support from Ulster's Unionist community. UUC was meeting to determine its plans to Partly a result of institutional distrust of import arms and a Major Fred Crawford,

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who had founded Young Ulster in 1892, was "simply ignores its existence." The formally charged with that duty (Bardon difference between resistance to the Third 431). Bill and those previous lay not in an absence It is Bardon's belief that "Despite of an Ulster dimension before l 9 12, as that occasional dark threats of popular resistance, is what drove the defeat of Home Rule far since J 886 the Ulster Unionists had put their more than "the preservation of the empire" faith in parliamentary action. Now- still or any other argument against a quasi­ uncertain of the Tory resolve at Westminster independent Ireland, but in the fact that and disgusted by the apparent indifference Home Rule was certain to pass by 1914. of the British electorate-- Northern Loyalist The Ulstermen felt forced to throw down leaders firmly embarked on an their pens and pick up their rifles, as they unconstitutional course" (Bardon 431 ). By would have done, and prepared to do, both this reasoning Home Rule would not acquire in 1886 and J 893. a real and dangerous Ulster dimension until the introduction of the Third Bill in April, 1912. But did not the Loyalist leaders Works Cited pursue both courses every step of the way, abandoning their rifles only when the battle Bardon, Jonathan. A flist01y of Ulster. had been safely won in Parliament? It Belfast: The Blackstaff Press, 1994. seems certain that segments of Ulster society would have resisted violently to the Buckland, Patrick. Ulster Unionism: Two. imposition of Home Rule. An Orangeman Dublin: Gill and MacMillan, l 973. represented by a Catholic parliament is a hard sell today, and would have been Lee, J.J. ire/and 1912-1985: Politics and ludicrous a century ago. It seems likely that Society. Cambridge: Cambridge Press, the resistance would grow among all 1989. members of Protestant society as that parliament, in conjunction with the British Stewart, A.T.Q. 111e Ulster Crisis: government, attempted to impose itself on a Resistance to Home Rule 1912-1914. province that in Thomas Sinclair's words Belfast: Blackstaff Press, 1967.

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