The Irish Home Rule Movement articulated a longstanding Irish Ireland (pronounced [ˈaɾlənd],; Irish: Éire, pronounced [ˈeːɾʲə] ( listen); Ulster Scots: Airlann) is the third largest island in Europe and the twentieth largest island in the world. It lies to the northwest of continental Europe and is surrounded by hundreds of islands and islets. To the east of Ireland is Great Britain, separated from desire for the repeal of the Act of Union of 1800 The twin Acts united the Kingdom of Great Britain and the Kingdom of Ireland to create the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. The union came into effect on 1 January 1801 by a demand for self-government Devolution is the statutory granting of powers from the central government of a sovereign state to government at a subnational level, such as a regional, local, or state level. It differs from federalism in that the powers devolved may be temporary and ultimately reside in central government, thus the state remains, de jure, unitary within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was the formal name of the United Kingdom from 1 January 1801 until 12 April 1927. It was formed by the merger of the Kingdom of Great Britain and the Kingdom of Ireland, with Ireland being governed directly from Westminster through its Dublin Castle administration. The movement drew upon a legacy of patriotic thought that dated back at least to the late seventeenth century.[1] Home Rule In the United Kingdom, it has traditionally referred to self-government, or devolution or independence, of constituent nations , and at one point Ireland. In the United States and other countries organized as federations of states, the term usually refers to the process and mechanisms of self-government as exercised by municipalities, counties, or held out the promise of a new constitutional order and harnessed the energies of a more recent militant tradition, providing an alternative to nationalist militancy.[2] For almost half a century – from the early 1870s to the end of the Great War World War I was a military conflict centered on Europe that began in the summer of 1914. The fighting ended in late 1918 in western Europe and by 1922 in eastern Europe. This conflict involved most of the world's great powers, assembled in two opposing alliances: the Allies and the Central Powers. More than 70 million military personnel, including – Home Rule was both the single most dominant feature of Irish political life and a major influence within British politics.[3] It united over a period the Irish past with the present, bound militants with constitutionalist, Irish with British politicians. For the British father of Home Rule William Ewart Gladstone William Ewart Gladstone was a British Liberal Party statesman and four times Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (1868–74, 1880–85, 1886 and 1892–94). He was also Chancellor of the Exchequer and a champion of the Home Rule Bill which would have established self-government in Ireland, Home Rule was about the reconciliation of Irish nationalism Irish nationalism comprises political and social movements and sentiment inspired by a love for Irish culture, language and history, and a sense of pride in Ireland and the Irish people. Today, the term generally refers to support for a united Ireland to the British state. For other politicians, the Conservatives The Conservative and Unionist Party is a political party in the United Kingdom. Founded in its present form during the early 19th century, it has since been the principal centre-right party in the UK and Ulster Unionists The Ulster Unionist Party – sometimes referred to as the Official Unionist Party (OUP) or, in a historic sense, simply the Unionist Party – is the more moderate of the two main unionist political parties in Northern Ireland. Before the split in Unionism in the late 1960s, when the former Protestant Unionist Party began to attract more hard Home Rule presented a fearful spectacle, their opposition to it so complete that a civil war seemed to offer the only path towards a resolution .[4]

Contents

Historical background

Under the Act of Union 1800 The twin Acts united the Kingdom of Great Britain and the Kingdom of Ireland to create the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. The union came into effect on 1 January 1801 the separate Kingdoms of Ireland The Kingdom of Ireland was the name given to the Irish state from 1542, by the Crown of Ireland Act 1542 of the Parliament of Ireland. It was based on the contested legitimacy of the right of conquest. The new monarch replaced the Lordship of Ireland, which had been created in 1171. King Henry VIII thus became the first recognised King of Ireland and Great Britain The Kingdom of Great Britain, also known as the United Kingdom of Great Britain, was a sovereign state in northwest Europe, in existence from 1707 to 1801. It was created by the merger of the Kingdom of Scotland and the Kingdom of England, under the Acts of Union 1707, to create a single kingdom encompassing the whole of the island of Great were merged on January 1, 1801, to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was the formal name of the United Kingdom from 1 January 1801 until 12 April 1927. It was formed by the merger of the Kingdom of Great Britain and the Kingdom of Ireland, with Ireland being governed directly from Westminster through its Dublin Castle administration. Throughout the 19th century Irish opposition to the Union was strong, occasionally erupting in violent insurrection. In the 1830s and 1840s attempts had been made under the leadership of Daniel O'Connell Dónal Ó Conaill , known as The Liberator, or The Emancipator, was an Irish political leader in the first half of the 19th century. He campaigned for Catholic Emancipation—the right for Catholics to sit in the Westminster Parliament, denied for over 100 years—and repeal of the Act of Union which combined Ireland and Great Britain to repeal the Act of Union and restore the Kingdom of Ireland, without breaking the connection with Great Britain. These attempts to achieve what was simply called repeal failed.

Until the 1870s, most Irish voters elected as their Members of Parliament (MPs) Liberals The Liberal Party was one of the two major British political parties from the mid 19th century until the rise of the Labour Party in the 1920s, and a third party of varying strength and importance up to 1988, when it merged with the Social Democratic Party to form a new party which would become known as the Liberal Democrats and Conservatives The Conservative and Unionist Party is a political party in the United Kingdom. Founded in its present form during the early 19th century, it has since been the principal centre-right party in the UK who belonged to the main British political parties. The Conservatives, for example, won a majority in the 1859 general election in Ireland. A significant minority also voted for Unionists Unionism in Ireland is an ideology that favours the maintenance or strengthening of the political and cultural ties between Ireland and Great Britain, who fiercely resisted any dilution of the Act of Union.

Different concepts

The term ”Home Rule”, first used in the 1860s, meant an Irish legislature with responsibility for domestic affairs. It was variously interpreted, from the 1870s was seen to be part of a federal system for the United Kingdom: a domestic Parliament for Ireland while the Imperial Parliament at Westminster The Palace of Westminster, also known as the Houses of Parliament or Westminster Palace, is the meeting place of the two houses of the Parliament of the United Kingdom—the House of Lords and the House of Commons. It lies on the north bank of the River Thames[note 1] in the heart of the London borough of the City of Westminster, close to the would continue to have responsibility for Imperial affairs. The Republican concept as represented by the Fenians The Fenians, both the Fenian Brotherhood and Irish Republican Brotherhood , were fraternal organisations dedicated to the establishment of an independent Irish Republic in the 19th and early 20th century. The name "Fenians" was first applied by John O'Mahony to the members of the Irish republican group which he founded in America in 1858 and the Irish Republican Brotherhood The Irish Republican Brotherhood was a secret oath-bound fraternal organisation dedicated to the establishment of an "independent democratic republic" in Ireland during the mid-19th and early 20th centuries. Its counterpart in the United States of America was organized by John O'Mahony and became known as the Fenian Brotherhood (later, strove to achieve total separation from Great Britain Great Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island. With a population of about 61.8 million people in mid-2009, it is the third most populated island on Earth. Great Britain is surrounded by over 1,000 smaller islands and islets. The island of, if necessary by physical force, and complete autonomy for Ireland. For a while they were prepared to co-operate with Home Rulers under the "New Departure". Charles Stewart Parnell Charles Stewart Parnell was an Irish Protestant landowner, nationalist political leader, land reform agitator, and the founder and leader of the Irish Parliamentary Party. He was one of the most important figures in 19th century Ireland and Great Britain and described by Prime Minister William Gladstone as the most remarkable person he had ever sought through the ‘constitutional movement’, as an interim measure a parliament in Dublin Dublin is the largest city (primate city) and the capital of Ireland. It is officially known in Irish as Baile Átha Cliath [bˠalʲə aːha klʲiəh] or Áth Cliath [aːh cliə(ɸ)]. The English name comes from the Irish Dubh Linn meaning "black pool". It is located near the midpoint of Ireland's east coast, at the mouth of the River with limited legislative powers. Arthur Griffith Arthur Griffith was the founder and third leader of Sinn Féin. He served as President of Dáil Éireann from January to August 1922, and was head of the Irish delegation at the negotiations in London that produced the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921 envisaged a dual monarchy along Austro-Hungarian Austria-Hungary, also known as the Dual Monarchy or the k.u.k. Monarchy, was a monarchic union between the crowns of the Austrian Empire and the Kingdom of Hungary in Central Europe. The union was a result of the Ausgleich or Compromise of 1867, under which the Austrian House of Habsburg agreed to share power with the separate Hungarian government, lines. For Unionists Home Rule meant a Dublin parliament dominated by the Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with more than a billion members. The Church's leader is the Pope who holds supreme authority in concert with the College of Bishops of which he is the head. A communion of the Western church and 22 autonomous Eastern Catholic churches (called to the detriment of Ireland’s economic progress. In England the Liberal Party The Liberal Party was one of the two major British political parties from the mid 19th century until the rise of the Labour Party in the 1920s, and a third party of varying strength and importance up to 1988, when it merged with the Social Democratic Party to form a new party which would become known as the Liberal Democrats under William Ewart Gladstone William Ewart Gladstone was a British Liberal Party statesman and four times Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (1868–74, 1880–85, 1886 and 1892–94). He was also Chancellor of the Exchequer and a champion of the Home Rule Bill which would have established self-government in Ireland was fully committed to introducing Home Rule whereas the Conservatives The Conservative and Unionist Party is a political party in the United Kingdom. Founded in its present form during the early 19th century, it has since been the principal centre-right party in the UK tried to alleviate any need for it through ‘constructive unionism’, passing many acts of parliament beneficial to Ireland.

Struggle for Home Rule

In the 1870s a former Conservative barrister Isaac Butt who was instrumental in fostering links between Constitutional and Revolutionary nationalism through his representation of members of the Fenians The Fenians, both the Fenian Brotherhood and Irish Republican Brotherhood , were fraternal organisations dedicated to the establishment of an independent Irish Republic in the 19th and early 20th century. The name "Fenians" was first applied by John O'Mahony to the members of the Irish republican group which he founded in America in 1858 Society in court, established a new moderate nationalist movement, the Irish Home Government Association. Under the later chairmanship of William Shaw, it reconstituted itself to become the Home Rule League in November 1873. Under it, Ireland would still remain part of the United Kingdom but would have limited self-government.

Some few years after his death a radical young Protestant landowner, Charles Stewart Parnell Charles Stewart Parnell was an Irish Protestant landowner, nationalist political leader, land reform agitator, and the founder and leader of the Irish Parliamentary Party. He was one of the most important figures in 19th century Ireland and Great Britain and described by Prime Minister William Gladstone as the most remarkable person he had ever, turned the home rule movement, or the Irish Parliamentary Party The Irish Parliamentary Party was formed in 1882 by Charles Stewart Parnell, the leader of the Nationalist Party, replacing the Home Rule League, as official parliamentary party for Irish nationalist Members of Parliament (MPs) elected to the House of Commons at Westminster within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland up until 1918. Its as it became known, into a major constitutional political force. It came to dominate Irish politics, to the exclusion of the previous Liberal, Conservative and Unionist parties that had existed there. The party's growing electoral strength was first shown in the 1880 general election in Ireland, when it won 63 seats. By the 1885 general election in Ireland it had won 85 out of the 103 Irish seats, with one Home Rule MP being elected in Liverpool.

Adversary Lords

Two attempts were made by Liberals The Liberal Party was one of the two major British political parties from the mid 19th century until the rise of the Labour Party in the 1920s, and a third party of varying strength and importance up to 1988, when it merged with the Social Democratic Party to form a new party which would become known as the Liberal Democrats under British Prime Minister The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the political leader of the United Kingdom and the Head of Her Majesty's Government. The Prime Minister and Cabinet are collectively accountable for their policies and actions to the Sovereign, to Parliament, to their political party, and ultimately to the electorate William Ewart Gladstone William Ewart Gladstone was a British Liberal Party statesman and four times Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (1868–74, 1880–85, 1886 and 1892–94). He was also Chancellor of the Exchequer and a champion of the Home Rule Bill which would have established self-government in Ireland to enact home rule bills. Gladstone, impressed by Parnell, had become personally committed to granting Irish home rule in 1885. With his famous three-hour Irish Home Rule speech Gladstone beseeched parliament to pass the Irish Government Bill 1886, and grant Home Rule to Ireland in honour rather than being compelled to do so one day in humiliation. His bill was defeated in the Commons by 30 votes.

The Bill caused the Liberal Unionist The Liberal Unionists were a British political party that split away from the Liberals in 1886. Led by Lord Hartington and Joseph Chamberlain the party formed a political alliance with the Conservatives in opposition to Irish Home Rule . The two parties formed a coalition government in 1895 but kept separate political funds and their own party Association to split from the main Liberal party, and they allied with the Lord Salisbury's Conservatives until 1914 on the issue of Home Rule.

Having sparked the formation of the Ulster Unionist Party The Ulster Unionist Party – sometimes referred to as the Official Unionist Party (OUP) or, in a historic sense, simply the Unionist Party – is the more moderate of the two main unionist political parties in Northern Ireland. Before the split in Unionism in the late 1960s, when the former Protestant Unionist Party began to attract more hard in 1885 to oppose the threat of home rule, the bill caused Gladstone to temporarily lose power. Returned to power after the 1892 general election Gladstone, undaunted, made a second attempt to introduce Irish Home Rule following Parnell’s death with the Irish Government Bill 1893 which he controversially drafted in secret and thereby flawed. Eventually it was steered through the Commons The House of Commons is the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, which also comprises the Sovereign and the House of Lords . Both Commons and Lords meet in the Palace of Westminster. The Commons is a democratically elected body, consisting of 650 members (since 2010 General Election), who are known as "Members of Parliament& by William O’Brien, with a majority of 30 votes, only to be defeated in the Conservative The Conservative and Unionist Party is a political party in the United Kingdom. Founded in its present form during the early 19th century, it has since been the principal centre-right party in the UK's pro-unionist Unionism in Ireland is an ideology that favours the maintenance or strengthening of the political and cultural ties between Ireland and Great Britain majority controlled House of Lords The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, the United Kingdom's national legislature. Parliament comprises the Sovereign, the House of Commons (which is the lower house of Parliament and referred to as "the Commons"), and the Lords. Membership of the House of Lords was once a right of birth to.

On this defeat the new Liberal leader Lord Rosebery Archibald Philip Primrose, 5th Earl of Rosebery, KG, PC was a British Liberal statesman and Prime Minister, also known as Archibald Primrose (1847–1851) and Lord Dalmeny (1851–1868) adopted the policy of promising Salisbury that the majority vote of English MPs would have a veto on any future Irish Home Rule Bills. The Nationalist movement divided in the 1890s and their opponents remained in power until 1905.

Home Rule Bills

The four Irish Home Rule bills A bill is a proposed law under consideration by a legislature. A bill does not become law until it is passed by the legislature and, in most cases, approved by the executive. Once a bill has been enacted into law, it is called an act or a statute introduced in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom The House of Commons is the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, which also comprises the Sovereign and the House of Lords . Both Commons and Lords meet in the Palace of Westminster. The Commons is a democratically elected body, consisting of 650 members (since 2010 General Election), who are known as "Members of Parliament& during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, were intended to grant self-government and national autonomy to the whole of Ireland within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was the formal name of the United Kingdom from 1 January 1801 until 12 April 1927. It was formed by the merger of the Kingdom of Great Britain and the Kingdom of Ireland, with Ireland being governed directly from Westminster through its Dublin Castle administration and reverse parts of the Act of Union 1800 The twin Acts united the Kingdom of Great Britain and the Kingdom of Ireland to create the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. The union came into effect on 1 January 1801. Of the two that passed the Parliament of the United Kingdom The Palace of Westminster, also known as the Houses of Parliament or Westminster Palace, is the meeting place of the two houses of the Parliament of the United Kingdom—the House of Lords and the House of Commons. It lies on the north bank of the River Thames[note 1] in the heart of the London borough of the City of Westminster, close to the the Third Bill, enacted as the Home Rule Act 1914 The Home Rule Act of 1914, also known as the Third Home Rule Bill, and formally known as the Government of Ireland Act 1914 (4 & 5 Geo. 5 c. 90), was an Act of Parliament passed by the Parliament of the United Kingdom intended to provide self-government ("Home Rule") for Ireland within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and then suspended, while the Fourth Bill, enacted as the Government of Ireland Act 1920 An Act to provide for the better government of Ireland, more usually the Government of Ireland Act 1920, was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom established two separate Home Rule territories in Ireland, of which the one was implemented by the Parliament of Northern Ireland, but the second Parliament of Southern Ireland was not implemented in the rest of Ireland. The bills were:

Home Rule in sight

Ten years followed in which the Conservatives were in power. The significant Local Government (Ireland) Act 1898 (following the English Act of 1888) introduced for the first time the enfranchisement of local electors, bringing about a system of localised home rule in many areas. In the 1906 general election the Liberals returned an overall majority, but Irish home rule was not yet on their agenda until after the second 1910 general election when the nationalist Irish Parliamentary Party under its leader John Redmond held the balance of power in the House of Commons. Prime Minister H. H. Asquith came to an understanding with Redmond, that if he supported his move to break the power of the Lords in order to have the finance bill passed, Asquith would then in return introduce a new Home Rule Bill. The Parliament Act 1911 forced the Lords to agree to a curtailment of their powers. Now their unlimited veto was replaced with a delaying one lasting only two years.

The Third Home Rule Bill introduced in 1912 was as in 1886 and 1893 ferociously opposed by Ulster unionists, for whom Home Rule was synonymous with Rome Rule as well as being indicative of economic decline. Edward Carson and James Craig, leaders of the unionists, were instrumental in organising the Ulster Covenant against the "coercion of Ulster", at which time Carson reviewed Orange and Unionist volunteers in various parts of Ulster. These were united into a single body known as the Ulster Volunteers in January 1913 [5] . This was followed in the south by the formation of the Irish Volunteers to restrain Ulster. Both Nationalists and Republicans, except for the All-for-Ireland Party, brushed unionist concerns aside with "no concessions for Ulster", treating their threat as a bluff. The Act received Royal Assent and was placed on the statute books September 18, 1914, but suspended for no longer than the duration of World War I which had broken out in August. The widely held assumption at the time was that the war would be short lived.

Changed realities

With the involvement of Ireland in World War I, the southern Irish Volunteers split into the larger National Volunteers and followed Redmond’s call to support the Allied war effort to free Europe from oppression and ensure the future implementation of Home Rule by voluntarily enlisting in Irish regiments of the 10th (Irish) Division or the 16th (Irish) Division of Kitchener's New Service Army. The men of the Ulster Volunteers joined the 36th (Ulster) Division. During 1914-18 Irish regiments suffered severe losses.

A core element of the remaining Irish Volunteers who opposed the nationalist constitutional movement towards independence and the Irish support for the war effort, staged the 1916 Easter Rebellion in Dublin. Initially widely condemned by Irish and British alike, the British government's mishandling of the aftermath of the Rising, including the rushed executions of its leaders by General Maxwell, led to a rise in popularity for an Irish republican movement named Sinn Féin, a small separatist party taken over by the rebellion's survivors. Britain made two futile attempts to implement Home Rule which both failed because of Ulster unionists' protest at the proposed implementation of Home Rule for the whole island of Ireland; first after the Rising and then at the end of the 1917-18 Irish Convention. With the collapse of the allied front during the German Spring Offensive, Britain had a serious manpower shortage and the Cabinet agreed on 5. April to enact Home Rule immediately linked in a "dual policy" of extending conscription to Ireland. This signalled the end of a political era[6], which resulted in a public swing towards Sinn Féin and physical force separatism. Interest in Home Rule began to fade as a result.

Home Rule enacted

After the end of the war in November 1918 Sinn Féin secured a majority of 73 Irish seats in the general election, twenty five of these seats taken uncontested. In January 1919 twenty-seven Sinn Féin MPs assembled in Dublin and proclaimed themselves unilaterally as an independent parliament of an Irish Republic, ignored by Britain. The Anglo-Irish War ensued.

Britain went ahead with its commitment to implement Home Rule by passing a new Fourth Home Rule Bill, the Government of Ireland Act 1920, largely shaped by the Walter Long Committee which followed findings contained in the report of the Irish Convention. Long, a firm unionist, felt free to shape Home Rule in Ulster's favour, and formalised dividing Ireland into Northern Ireland and Southern Ireland. The latter never functioned, but was replaced under the Anglo-Irish Treaty by the Irish Free State which later became the Republic of Ireland.

The Home Rule Parliament of Northern Ireland came into being in June 1921. At its inauguration, in Belfast City Hall, King George V made a famous appeal drafted by Prime Minister Lloyd George for Anglo-Irish and north–south reconciliation. The Anglo-Irish Treaty had provided for Northern Ireland's Parliament to opt out of the new Free State, which was a foregone conclusion. The Irish Civil War followed.

The Parliament of Northern Ireland continued in operation until 30 March 1972, when it was suspended in favor of direct rule by the Northern Ireland Office during The Troubles. It was subsequently abolished under the Northern Ireland Constitution Act 1973. Various versions of the Northern Ireland Assembly reestablished home rule in 1973-74, 1982–86, intermittently from 1998–2002, and from 2007 onward. The Assembly attempts to balance the interests of the unionist and republican factions through a "power sharing" agreement.

See also

Notes

Constructs such as ibid. and loc. cit. are discouraged by Wikipedia's style guide for footnotes as they are easily broken. Please improve this article by replacing them with named references (), or an abbreviated title. The op. cit. construct is less problematical, as long as it clearly and specifically refers to a particular source citation which is present in the article.
  1. ^ Jackson, Alvin Home Rule: An Irish History 1800—2000 Ch.1, "Shared Histories", pp.10,3, Phoenix Press (2003) ISBN 0-75381-767-5
  2. ^ Ibid Jackson, Home Rule p.3
  3. ^ Ibid Jackson, Home Rule p.3
  4. ^ Ibid Jackson, Home Rule pp.4,5,7
  5. ^ Stewart, A.T.Q., The Ulster Crisis, Resistance to Home Rule, 1912-14, p.70, Faber and Faber (1967) ISBN 0-571-08066-9
  6. ^ Jackson, Alvin Home Rule: An Irish History 1800—2000 Ch.9, pp.212-213, Phoenix Press (2003) ISBN 0-75381-767-5

Further reading

External links

Categories: 1886 in Ireland | 1893 in Ireland | 1914 in Ireland | 1920 in Ireland | Irish Nationalist Movement | Home Rule in the United Kingdom | United Kingdom Acts of Parliament 1914 | United Kingdom Acts of Parliament 1920 | History of Ireland 1801-1922 | History of Northern Ireland | Unionism

 

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