Home Rule for Ireland
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- Created by: Ella Green
- Created on: 01-06-14 08:57
The Emergence of Home Rule
- Gladstone's Irish policy during his First Ministry = little acknowledged success
- He was the first British politician to show any interest/understanding of the Irish problems
- Tackled the problems of lack of equal/fair treatmet in religion and land
- Reforms were directed at suppressing Fenian demands for the repeal of the Uion
- Gladstone was not interested in Home Rule at this point
- Demand for Home Rule could be regarded as the most significant outcome of his intervention
- Gladstone had made temporary friendships with the Catholic heirarchy with the Irish Church Act
- However, he had not yet on over the Catholic population as disestablishment was not a main grievance
- Dissatisfaction grew with the failure of Gladstone's land reforms
- Still poor and oppressed by their Protestant Masters
- Easy prey for violent extremists who tried to whip up anti-English feeling
- Gladstone's reforms = succeeded in disturbing the Protestant Ascendancy as its hold o power would never be secure
- Not altogether clear at the time = deep sense of unease among the Anglo-Irish heirachy
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The Emergence of Home Rule
- Disgruntled Irish Protestants lent their support to the Home Government Association (HGA)
- Launched in Dublin by Isaac ****
- Start of the Home Rule for Ireland Movement
- Backing of moderate nationalists, some Catholics and some Fenians
- Support came from both Irish Conservative and Irish Liberal MPs
- ****'s involvement with the Fenians led to his capaign for the repeal of the Act of Union (Home Rule)
- **** believed in achieving political independence for Ireland through peaceful means
- He wanted to gain self-government for Ireland legitimately through Westminster
- Aimed for the Irish to have complete control over their domestic affairs
- Ireland would enjoy the advatage of a separate parliament without breaking the union
- 1873 = HGA became the Home Rule League
- Irish Protestant support drifted away and was replaced by strong Catholic support
- Irish MPs began to voice the grievaces of the Catholic tenants against the Land Act in Westminster
- General Election 1874 = 59 Irish Home Rule supporters won seats
- Marked th ed of Conservatism and Liberalism in Irish politics
- Victory for constitutional Nationalism - their aim was to achieve some sort of self-goverment for Ireland
- Agreed to act together on this issue
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The Emergence of Home Rule
- The Strong Home Rule representation in Parliament was a great achievement for ****
- However, the Home Rulers lacked discipline and cohesiveness to ring pressure to Westminster
- They lacked a strong leader
- **** did not possess the dynamismm to keep Home Rule at the top of the political agenda
- Believed that the Home Rule case would succeed if they were patient
- 1874 election = Disraeli brought into power who was more concerned about abroad than Ireland
- After ****'s death, Parnell took over the leadership of the Irish Party in the House of Commons
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Trouble in Ireland
- The movement gathered momentum during the 1870s against the background of the depression
- Ireland was badly affected by the depression in agriculture as it was its main industry
- Tenant farmers faced eviction
- This encouraged the activities of the Land League, which campaigned for reform
- Gladstone came into office in 1880 and sought to repress disorder and reform discontent
- Policy of coercion and concilliation
- 1886 = Gladstone introduced Home Rule which split the Liberals and brought Unionism into the party
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The Question of Home Rule
- There were several factors that brought the question of Irish Home Rule to the political agenda
- Made it increasingly difficult to ignore
The Influence of Isaac ****:
- Home Rule Movement stemmed from the ideas of Isaac ****
- Set up the Home Government Association (HGA)
- Worked towards a federal solution with a separate parliament in Dublin
- Ireland could run its own affairs
- 1874 = **** replaced the HGA with the Home Rule League
- Wide-based support among the Irish
- 1874 General Election = retureed 59 Irish MPs on a Home Rule platform
- Group formed the nucleus of a strong Irish Nationalist/Home Rule Party
- Actions directed Irish politics for the next decade
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The Question of Home Rule
The Consequences of the Ballot Act of 1872:
- One of the reasons for success of the Home Rulers in 1874
- Ability of the Irish voter to express himself freely at the Ballot Box
- No fear of reprisal or eviction from Protestant pro-Union landlord
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The Question of Home Rule
Gladstone's Failures:
- Made himself unpopular among many of his own supporter with his Irish legislation
- Ireland had been dealt with rather genorously
- Gladstone's legislation had been ol and innovative
- However, it did not satisfy the Irish people
- 1870 Land Act = failure
- Left an increasing number of tenant farmers with the feeling that independence from Britain was the only solution
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The Question of Home Rule
The Great Depression:
- Increase in economic and social distress as the effects of the depression began to be experienced
- Particularly in the rural south and west of Ireland
- Increase in the number of evictions
- Caused resentment among the tenant farmers against British dominance and the system of land tenure
- Opportunities for Irish immigrant workers in England and Scotland had dried up
- Created anti-British feeling and a desire for separation
- Many joined Michael Davitt's Land League
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The Question of Home Rule
Impact of Pressure Groups:
- Agitation of Irish tenants against eviction and refusal to pay rents, directed by the Land League, brought considerable pressure on Gladstone's new government in 1880 to introduce Land Reform
- Strengthened by the Land League's loose alliance with the Home Rule League led by Parnell
- Parnell agitated in the House of redress for evicted tenants
- Pressure contribute to Gladstone's major reform of the Land Act in 1881
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The Question of Home Rule
The Parnell Factor:
- Parnell emerged on the Irish political scene shortly after ****'s death
- Home Rule movement needed a leader with his strength of purpose and dynamism
- Decision to cooperate with the Land League was inspired and gave great momentum to Home Rule
- Skilful management of the Irish MPs led to a strong Irish Nationalist Party
- Held the balance of power in parliament
- Parnell's leadership was a major factor in finally persuading Gladstone to support Home Rule
- Parnell became the leader of Irish Nationalism
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Gladstone's Conversion to Home Rule
- June 1885 = Irish Nationalists voted with the Conservatives over a budget amendment
- Gladstone's government was defeated and Gladstone resigned
- Robert Cecil formed a minority Conservative government
- Only survive with the support of the Irish Nationalists
- Salisbury was quick to introduce two concessions to the Irish and then call an election in 1885
- Policy of coercion was ended
- Land Purchase Act was introduced
- Set aside £5m to assist tenants to buy their holdings from the landlord
- Parnell called on the Irish immigrant population to vote for the Conservatives
- Believed Salisbury may support Home Rule
- In Ireland - not one Liberal won a seat
- 16 Ulster Conservatives who formed the nucleus o fthe future Irish Unionists
- Every Irish Nationalist supported Parnell
- Ireland had, in effect, voted Home Rule
- Election produced an interesting result
- Liberals had a majority of 86 over the Conservatives
- Irish Nationalists returned with 86 seats and held a powerful position between the two main parties
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Gladstone's Conversion to Home Rule
- Salisbury continued as PM of a minority government until January 1886
- Conservatives were defeated on a vote on the Queen's Speech
- Salisbury resigned with no election called
- Gladstone formed a new Liberal government
- Prior to this, Gladstone dropped the 'Hawarden Kite'
- Leaked to the press that he had altered his position on Ireland
- He now supported Home Rule
- Proved to be one of the most momentous political decisions of the 19th century
- He believed the governmet should remain consistent in its Irish policy
- Sudden ending of coercion by Salisbury had led to new outbreaks of violence
- He may have feared the Conservatives might introduce Home Rule
- Some historians believe that Gladstone would have preferred to that to happen and thus avoid the inevitable split in his own Liberal Party
- 1886 = Gladstone back in office as prime minister for the third time
- Almost immediately introduced a Home Rule Bill
- Lord Hartington declared his unwavering opposition to Home Rule
- Gladstone continued without the support of Chamberlain
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Gladstone's Conversion to Home Rule
- First Home Rule Bill proposed that Ireland should have its own parliament in Dublin to take charge of all internal affairs
- Foreign affairs, defence and external trade would be left under the control of Westminster
- No representation of Irish MPs at Westminster
- Bill was met with opposition on all sides
- Hartington faction opposed it and Churchill led to Conservative attack
- Chamberlain resigned his post
- Led an attack on the bill that was defeated 343 votes to 313
- Personal blow for Gladstone and split the Liberals
- Defecting Liberals, led by Chamberlain, called themselves Liberal Unionists and voted Conservative
- Put the Conservatives in power for 20 years
- Created conditions for an increasingly bitter divide between those who wanted independence and those who wanted to stay in the union
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Impact of the Home Rule Issue
- After Kilmainham Goal, Parnell emerged in 1882 and turned his attention directly to a campaign to fight for Ireland's right for some measure of political independence
- Home Rule Movement was a powerful political force that had dramatic and far-reaching repercussions on a variety of aspects of British and Irish political, social and cultural life
- New Irish Nationalist party quickly gained the majority of Irish seats previously held by Liberals or Conservatives
- Created a third party in Parliament
- Parnell was able to make or break governments
- Created a short period of political instability with long-term effects
- Parnell's irritation with Gladstone led to the Irish Nationalist Party voting with the Conservatives
- Realised that Salisbury would not go as far as Home Rule - Parnell switched back to Gladstone
- Liberals won the 1886 election but Irish Nationalists held the balance of powe
- 1886 and 1893 = Home Rule was defeated
- Gladstone resigned
- Home Rule was dictating the frequency and outcome of elections
- Dominated the career of Gladstone
- Once committed - Home Rule became accepted part of the Liberals
- Asquith also had to introduce Home Rule as a result of the Irish Nationalist balance of power
- Liberals failed to focus on the serious problems of poverty
- Damaged Liberal reputation among working-class people
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Impact of the Home Rule Issue
- Began to look towards the emerging Labour Party to cater for their needs
- Gladstone's insistence caused a long-lasting split in the Liberal Party
- Allowed the Conservatives to dominate British politics for 20 years
- Liberals lost Chamberlain
- Chamberlain and the Unionists were eventually absorbed into the Consevative Party
- Became the Conservative and Unionist Party
- Historians believe that this contributed to the rise of the Labour Party
- Gladstone returned in 1892
- Home Rule was still at the top of his agenda
- Majority was so samll that he was completely dependent on the Irish Nationalist support
- Bill proposed an Irish Parliament at Dublin but provided for 80 Irish MPs to sit at Westminster
- Question of Ulster was ignored again
- Aroused fierce debate in the Commons, but was thrown out by the Lords
- Defeat of Gladstone's 1893 Home Rule Bill raised the question of constitutional position of the House of Lords and its ability to veto reforms passed by the Commons
- Gladstone wanted to dissolve parliament and call an election on the question of the revision of the power of the Lords
- Overruled by his Cabinet
- Home Rule issue created a deep problem between Nationalists in the south and the Unionsts in the north
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Impact of the Home Rule Issue
- 'Bitter polarisation' on the question of Home Rule
- Caused an uprising in 1916 and the permanent division of Ireland into Ulster and the Irish Free State in 1922
- Home Rule issue brought religious tensions to the surface
- Campaign severely disrupted in 1890 when Parnell became involved in a divorce scandal
- Rocked his party to its foundations
- He clung to power until he died to following year
- Sustained support for Home Rule from the Irish Nationalists throughout period of 1880-1901
- It was inevitable that the impact of the Home Rule issue would reverberate for years to come
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The aftermath of the Home Rule Defeat
- Violence was never far away
- Parnell was disappointed over the defeat of the Home Rule Bill in 1886
- He put forward proposals to parliament to ease the distess of the Irish tenants
- Rebuffed by Salisbury
- Ireland = 'a plan of campaign'
- All the tenants of one landlord would act together to refuse to pay the high rents demanded
- Give support to anyone who was evicted as a result
- Rerun of the Land Wars
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Salisbury and Ireland
- Entered office in June 1886
- Determined to give Ireland 'resolute government' and limit the influence of Parnell
- Gladstone had dealt with Ireland through coercion and coniliation hand-in-hand
- Salisbury thought the government had become too soft
- Adopted a hard-line policy from the start
- Planning to use tough action to deal with the perpetrators of the violence and unrest
- Only then could they address Irish grievances
- He appointed Balfour Secretary for Ireland in 1887
- He introdued a generous Land Act (1887) to demonstrate to the Irish tenants the government's desire to address their main grievance
- Improved on Gladstone's Act and allowed for further rent review
- Balfour outlawed the plan of campaign and followed this up with a new Crimes Act
- Gave police and magistrates special powers to deal with trouble makers
- Violence escalated at Michelstown in 1887 - police killed three of the demonstrators
- 'Bloody Balfour'
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Salisbury and Ireland
- Levels of violence subsided
- Rents were paid
- 1890 = Balfour relaxed the Crimes Act and tried to inject a rescue plan
- Introduced Public Works
- A Congested Districts Board was set up that gave grants for industrial development in overpopulated, Western areas
- Light railways were constructed
- Opened up remove parts of the country
- Balfour rewarded the Irish peasantry with further financial assistance for the voluntary land purchase scheme
- 1891 = £33m was set aside to guarentee tenants' loans for buying land
- 1890s = Prices were rising again and conditions were improving
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Irish Nationalism
- Irish Nationalist push for self-government had faded after the Second Home Rule Bill in 1894
- Bitter internal feuding kept the Home Rule Party weak and divided
- Party split after the death of Parnell in 1891
- Underlying support remained but there was little open rebellion
- Salisbury's tough policy to deal with disorder followed by reform quietened the calls for HR
- 1903 = Wyndham's Land Purchase Act
- Brought in terms that were avourable to the majority of tenants to buy the land they worked, and the landlord was content with the amount he paid
- Government poured £86m into the scheme
- 1915 = almost 2/3 of the Irish farmers owned their land
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Re-Emergence of Home Rule
- John Redmond reunited the Irish Nationalists in 1900
- Asquith needed the promise of the Irish Nationalist vote in the Commons to deal with the constitutioal crisis over the House of Lords
- Given by Redmond
- Reward = the 1911 Parliament Act
- Lords would no longer be able to block the passing of a Home Rule Bill
- Asquith introduced another Home Rule Bill in 1912
- Passed by the Common but rejected by the Lords
- Parliament Act = only allowed a tw year delay
- Expected that this Home Rule Bill would become a law in 1914
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Ulster, 1912-14
- Protestant Ulster Unionists threatened to revolt if they were pushed unwillingly into a Catholic-dominated Ireland and forced to sever ties with Britain
- The Ulster Unionists began to resist the introduction of Home Rule by mobilising forces
- Led by Carson
- Whipped up support for separate treatment for Ulster
- Recruited an 'army' of 100,000 Ulster volunteers - the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF)
- Illegal organisation prepared to use force
- Carson brought guns from Germany
- Organised the signing of the Ulster Solemn League and Covenant, which was a Protestant plege to defend their right to remain part of the union
- New Conservative Leader = Bonar Law
- Resented the Parliament Act and the power it gave the Irish Nationalist MPs
- Relations between the politicians at Westminster became tense
- Conservatives sought means to preserve the union
- Bonar Law dropped a bombshell by promising Conservative help for the Ulster rebels in their defiance of the will of parliament
- Asquith was faced with a dangerous and seemingly intractable situation
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The Curragh Mutiny
- Liberals accepted the need to offer a special concession to Ulster
- This would appease its Protestant majority
- Asquith inserted an exclusion clause in the Home Rule Bill
- It would allow the people of any Irish county to vote to opt out of a united Ireland
- Temporary measure that would be reversed after 6 years
- Compromise was dismissed by Carson with contempt
- Danger of civil war became very real
- Alarm was increased at rumours that British army officers stantioned at the Curragh would prefer to accept dismissal than fight against fellow Protestants
- Bonar Law was implicated in this act of near treason
- War Minister was forced to resign after he agreed not to use the army in Ulster
- Aquith can be criticised for weak handling of this situation in which army officers appeared to be dictating government policy, and for underestimating the seriousness of the threat from Ulster
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Re-Emergence of Irish Nationalism
- Various movements for Irish Nationalism were emerging at the turn of the 20th century
- Formation of the Gaelic League in 1893 encouraged an Irish Literary Revival
- The Irish Republican Brotherhood resurfaced in Ireland at this time
- Sinn Fein - argued for a separate independent Ireland
- Made little political impact before 1914
- The Irish Labour Movement campaigned for a socialist society
- Set up the Irish Citizen Army
- Nothing much was heard until the Home Rule Crisis
- They shared a dislike of English domination of Ireland
- Preferred independence rather than Home Rule
- November 1913 = the Irish Volunteers were formed as a response to the Ulster Volunteers
- Nominally under Redmond's control
- Soon infiltrated by the Irish Republican Brotherhood
- Ready to challenge the government if Ireland was denied its freedom
- Sinn Fien increased its influence as Redmond's controls lipped and move towards a demand for outright independence
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Home Rule for Ireland
- The Home Rule Bill passed through the Commons for the third tie in May 1914
- Still no solution for Ulster
- All-party conference in July failed to find an acceptable compromise
- Arms smuggling and gun running by both the UVF and the Irish Volunteers brought Ireland on the edge of civil war
- Home Rule was due to become a law in September 1914
- It was agreed to suspend the operation of Home Rule until the end of the war
- Carson's UVF immediately signed up to join the war effort
- Redmond persuaded the Irish Volunteers to do the same
- Both sides hoped that their loyal action would bring the government around to their point of view
- Aquith was relieved to shelve the problem
- Criticised for his 'wait and see' attitude
- Home Rule failed to offer solution to Ireland that it needed
- Majority of Irish Volunteers followed Redmond
- A small extreme goup split and prepare for insurrection against the British government
- Carried this out at Easter 1916
- After the war, there were many troubled years ahead for both the Irish people and the British government
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