Until the 1870s, most Irish people elected as their Members of Parliament (MPs) Liberals and Conservatives 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, who fiercely resisted any dilution of the Act of Union.
Some few years after his death a radical young Protestant landowner, Charles Stewart Parnell, turned the home rule movement, or the Irish Parliamentary Party 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 86 out of the 103 Irish seats.
Having sparked the formation of the Ulster Unionist Party 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 largely orchestrated through parliament on the Irish side by William O’Brien, only to be defeated in the Conservative's pro-unionist majority controlled House of Lords.
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 with 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 . 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 not later 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.
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, 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, first after the Rising 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 in a fatal misconception 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, which resulted in a public swing towards Sinn Féin and physical force separatism. All interest in Home Rule faded.
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 evolved as 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.
Home Rule had an after-life in Northern Ireland lasting up until 1970, when the Thirty Year Troubles erupted. The future of Home Rule lies in moratorium.
Until the 1870s, most Irish people elected as their Members of Parliament (MPs) Liberals and Conservatives 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, who fiercely resisted any dilution of the Act of Union.
Some few years after his death a radical young Protestant landowner, Charles Stewart Parnell, turned the home rule movement, or the Irish Parliamentary Party 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 86 out of the 103 Irish seats.
Having sparked the formation of the Ulster Unionist Party 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 largely orchestrated through parliament on the Irish side by William O’Brien, only to be defeated in the Conservative's pro-unionist majority controlled House of Lords.
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 with 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 . 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 not later 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.
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, 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, first after the Rising 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 in a fatal misconception 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, which resulted in a public swing towards Sinn Féin and physical force separatism. All interest in Home Rule faded.
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 evolved as 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.
Home Rule had an after-life in Northern Ireland lasting up until 1970, when the Thirty Year Troubles erupted. The future of Home Rule lies in moratorium.
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