1 - Losing Southern Ireland

Summary

Ever since the first failed Home Rule Bill in 1886, nationalist Ireland, led by the Irish Parliamentary Party in Westminster, had patiently sought to achieve self-government through constitutional means. In 1910, for the first time in a generation, this appeared within reach. In that year a closely fought general election handed the Irish party under John Redmond the balance of power in the House of Commons. The Irish formed an alliance with the Liberal Party on condition that Home Rule would be part of the government's programme; over the next three and a half years, the reluctant Liberal Prime Minister, Herbert Asquith, slowly pushed a Home Rule Bill through parliament. He faced stiff opposition. The Protestant unionists of Ulster cried that Home Rule was ‘Rome Rule’ and were prepared to go to any length to stay out of a self-governing Ireland. They were supported to the hilt by the Conservative Party. Matters moved towards civil war when unionists raised a 100,000-strong Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF), which imported arms and was prepared to fight against the government if the Bill was passed. In reaction to this, nationalists formed the Irish Volunteers, eventually comprising 105,000 men, who threatened to fight if the Bill was not passed. The country now boasted two hostile amateur militias that recruited, drilled and procured weapons. In the end the spiral towards violence was interrupted by the outbreak of European conflict in August 1914. The Home Rule Bill was finally passed – with the proviso that north-east Ulster would be excluded – but its implementation was postponed until the end of the war.

It was assumed that the war would be over quickly. Although the fate of the Ulster counties was still uncertain, it appeared that the bulk of Ireland would be enjoying self-government before long. To nationalist Ireland, a great victory had been won, the culmination of decades of parliamentary agitation. John Redmond called on the country to support the war effort, and most Irish Volunteers – renamed the National Volunteers – followed his lead. However, within seven years Ireland had gone through a dramatic revolution. Redmond was dead; the Irish Parliamentary Party had ceased to exist; the moderate nationalist consensus in favour of Home Rule was no more. Instead, a majority now backed a party that had been on the fringes of Irish politics since 1905 – Sinn Féin.