Irish Home Rule
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
The Review: A Journal of Undergraduate Student Research Volume 5 Article 8 2002 Irish Home Rule Galen Lewis St. John Fisher College, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://fisherpub.sjfc.edu/ur Part of the Political Science Commons How has open access to Fisher Digital Publications benefited ou?y Recommended Citation Lewis, Galen. "Irish Home Rule." The Review: A Journal of Undergraduate Student Research 5 (2002): 84-90. Web. [date of access]. <https://fisherpub.sjfc.edu/ur/vol5/iss1/8>. This document is posted at https://fisherpub.sjfc.edu/ur/vol5/iss1/8 and is brought to you for free and open access by Fisher Digital Publications at St. John Fisher College. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Irish Home Rule 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 Ulster. 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. This article is available in The Review: A Journal of Undergraduate Student Research: https://fisherpub.sjfc.edu/ur/ vol5/iss1/8 Lewis: Irish Home Rule 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 Belfast, 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. 84 Published by Fisher Digital Publications, 2002 1 The Review: A Journal of Undergraduate Student Research, Vol. 5 [2002], Art. 8 Prosperity in Ulster generall y, and birthplace of the inquisition, 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 Dublin, 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. 85 https://fisherpub.sjfc.edu/ur/vol5/iss1/8 2 Lewis: Irish Home Rule 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 Orange Order, revived by Colonel accusations of ill motive from all -sides.