Home Rule and the Ulster crisis
Irish nationalists come close to winning self-government within the UK, while Ulster unionists arm to resist it.
- Home Rule: An Irish History, 1800–2000 — Alvin Jackson, Weidenfeld and Nicolson (2003)
- Modern Ireland 1600–1972 — R. F. Foster, Allen Lane (1988)
- Ireland 1912–1985: Politics and Society — J. J. Lee, Cambridge University Press (1989)
Parnell’s Irish Parliamentary Party won 85 of Ireland’s 103 seats in 1885, and Gladstone’s Liberals adopted Home Rule, a Dublin parliament for domestic affairs within the UK. The first bill was defeated in the Commons in 1886 and the second in the Lords in 1893.
- Home Rule: An Irish History, 1800–2000 — Alvin Jackson, Weidenfeld and Nicolson (2003)
- Parnell, Charles Stewart — Dictionary of Irish Biography, Royal Irish Academy
- Modern Ireland 1600–1972 — R. F. Foster, Allen Lane (1988)
After the Lords lost its veto in 1911, the third bill of 1912 was certain to pass. Ulster unionists, led by Edward Carson and James Craig, organised mass resistance. On 28 September 1912, 237,368 men signed the Ulster Covenant and 234,046 women signed a parallel declaration, pledging to use “all means which may be found necessary” to defeat it.
- The Ulster Covenant — Public Record Office of Northern Ireland, nidirect
- Carson, Edward Henry — Dictionary of Irish Biography, Royal Irish Academy
- Home Rule: An Irish History, 1800–2000 — Alvin Jackson, Weidenfeld and Nicolson (2003)
- Home Rule: An Irish History, 1800–2000 — Alvin Jackson, Weidenfeld and Nicolson (2003)
- Modern Ireland 1600–1972 — R. F. Foster, Allen Lane (1988)
Home Rule became law in September 1914, but was suspended for the duration of the First World War, with a promise of special treatment for Ulster. Tens of thousands of Irishmen, nationalist and unionist, volunteered for the British army.
- Home Rule: An Irish History, 1800–2000 — Alvin Jackson, Weidenfeld and Nicolson (2003)
- Ireland 1912–1985: Politics and Society — J. J. Lee, Cambridge University Press (1989)
A modest, democratic demand backed by most Irish voters was blocked by a minority's threat of force, with the support of the British Conservative party.
- Home Rule: An Irish History, 1800–2000 — Alvin Jackson, Weidenfeld and Nicolson (2003)
- Ireland 1912–1985: Politics and Society — J. J. Lee, Cambridge University Press (1989)
"Home Rule is Rome Rule": a Dublin parliament would be dominated by the Catholic Church and would wreck Ulster's industrial economy and British identity.
- Home Rule: An Irish History, 1800–2000 — Alvin Jackson, Weidenfeld and Nicolson (2003)
- Carson, Edward Henry — Dictionary of Irish Biography, Royal Irish Academy
- The Ulster Covenant — Public Record Office of Northern Ireland, nidirect
Why it matters today
The Home Rule crisis set the shape of partition. Unionists' readiness to defy parliament by force, and nationalists' answer in kind, introduced the gun into modern Irish politics. The Ulster Covenant remains a founding text for unionists.
For unionists the Ulster Covenant of 1912 is a founding document and Carson a founding father; the crisis proved, as they see it, that Ulster would not be coerced. For nationalists it showed that a determined minority, backed by guns and the Conservative party, could override the democratic wishes of most of Ireland. Both lessons shaped the century that followed.