Questions on Irish Home Rule (IHR) 1900-1914 – From Tranquillity to Turbulence in Four Years

Question 1

What is meant by brinkmanship?

Answer 1

Brinkmanship means the practice of pushing a dangerous situation or confrontation to the limit of safety to force a desired outcome without actually going beyond the limit of
safety.

Question 2

How and why can brinkmanship lead to dangerous and unintended consequences?

Answer 2

• Violence used
• escalation of violence
• mistake and misperception can lead to war.

Question 3

What qualities are vital to an effective strategy of brinkmanship?

Answer 3

• Open threats
• creditability (believed)
• incremental steps that do not cross the line into war.

Question 4

Summarise how Irish trade unionism threatened stability in Ireland and differed from its counterparts in England?

Answer 4

• Larkin and Connolly set up the armed Irish Citizens Army to defend workers during the Dublin lockout 1913
• English trade unions had never armed themselves.

Question 5

Name the leaders of Irish trade unions.

Answer 5

• James Larkin and James Connolly organised both Catholic and Protestant striking dock workers in 1908
• established the Irish Trade and General Workers Union (ITGWU)
• membership of 60,000.

Question 6

Using detail, explain the Unionist policy of ‘killing home rule with kindness’?

Answer 6

• Using land purchase to solve the land question e.g Wyndham’s Act 1903
• Plus local govt reform; local govt dominated by the INP

Question 7

What were the effects of land purchase on protests over land, Irish governance and the Protestant ascendancy?

Answer 7

• Land purchase and the concurrent establishment of local government in Ireland by the Conservatives silently revolutionised Irish society since the Protestant Ascendancy was diminished
• the land issue was effectively dead
• Protestant landlordism reduced
• local government became dominated by the INP.

Question 8

Summarise the decline and rise of the INP between 1891 and 1900 following the demise and death of Parnell.

Answer 8

• Weakened by loss of Parnell
• split in the party between Parnellite (Dillon) and anti-
  Parnellites (Healy’s Catholic populism and flirtation with Fenianism)
• still 80% of Irish seats but Redmond (Parnellite) in 1900 united party after expulsion of Healy.

Question 9

Assess the significance of the Gaelic movement to Catholic Irish identity and its relationship
to both republicanism and the descendants of Scottish and English settlers.

Answer 9

Ingredient of cultural and ethnic nationalism – radically different from Parnell’s nationalism,
‘Irishing of Ireland’; Gaelic Athletic Association infiltrated by IRB; Caelic cultural activities
promoted an Irish identity created before settlement of protestants in 17 th C; Protestants
seen as ‘sour faced foreigners’’ as some identified Irish with Catholic; Boers supported in
war against British empire. De Valera, Pearse and Collins in the Gaelic League.

Question 10

10. What was the Irish republican Brotherhood?

Answer 10

Refounded in 1907, secretive and conspiratorial paramilitary group dedicated to Irish
independence not IHR.

Question 11

Identify the component parts of Irish Unionism and identify what principle held it together.

Answer 11

Orange Order, loyalists, liberal Irish Unionists and, outside Ulster, southern Unionists; all
dedicated to the Union, many virulently opposed to Catholicism and certainly to IHR and the
IRB.

Question 12

Why was the Ulster Unionist Council set up, when and why did it become synonymous with
Irish Unionism?

Answer 12

1905, Protestant ascendancy stronger in Ulster than anywhere after the effects of land
purchase; organised all Irish Unionists as one organisation.

Question 13

What different arguments can be made explaining the Liberal’s adoption of IHR for the third
time in 1909 and why had they avoided it previously?

Answer 13

HCB had avoided IHR since it caused Libs problems in England but it was a popular policy
with Lib activists, the remaining reform of liberalism so there was authentic commitment to it. Asquith’s Albert Hall speech of Dec 1909 on the constitutional crisis described the
previous failure as ‘an undeniable failure of British statemanship’ and said a new Lib govt.
would be free to introduce it (possibly seeking the support of the IPP in January 1910).

Question 14

14. How did Bonar law describe the Liberal’s adoption of IHR and why is his description
    important in assessing the approach of Bonar law subsequently?

Answer 14

Adoption of IHR seen by Bonar law as a ‘corrupt bargain’ created by the parliamentary
arithmetic of January 1910 election and so he thought the government could be forced to
abandon it by brinkmanship and be defeated in a subsequent election

Question 15

15. Summarise the terms of the IHR bill 1912.

Answer 15

Bi-cameral Irish parliament for Irish affairs; 42 MPs in Westminster; limited powers of
taxation for Irish parliament and defence, trade and foreign policy reserved for Westminster;
Lord Lieutenant in Dublin, appointed by Westminster; coercion and religious policy under
Westminster control.

Question 16

16. Identify the responses of Irish and English Unionists to the idea of IHR.

Answer 16

English: stepping stone to break up of the Union and ultimately the empire; Ulster: ditto but
also refusal to live under a Catholic majority seen as ‘Pope Rule’ which they argued would
destroy the progress achieved in Ireland. Ulster opposed 1HR in 1909 and Bonar Law
emphasised the obvious opposition of Ulster and the need later for permanent exclusion of
Ulster from IHR.

Question 17

What political-geographical qualification to the IHR bill did DLG and Churchill propose and
why was it rejected? Do you think Redmond would have accepted it at that time?

Answer 17

County option: exclusion of all or some of counties of Ulster; Redmond opposed any
exclusion in then and would have withdrawn support for the govt.

Question 18

Who was Carson and what words would best describe his response to IHR?

Answer 18

KC barrister, articulate and determined leader of UUC and utterly opposed to IHR. Defiant
and stubborn but later able to consider the county option.

Question 19

Explain the party-political opportunity that IHR presented to Bonar Law and his party.

Answer 19

Force another general election and win it on the issue of IHR as Salisbury had done twice
before in the 19 th C.

Question 20

20. Define sedition, treason and bluff.

Answer 20

Overthrow the govt; disloyalty by overthrowing the govt; deceptive behaviour to mislead
others about intention or aim.

Question 21

Summarise the significance of the following three events in the summer of 1912: the
Balmoral meeting, the Ulster Covenant and the Blenheim Palace speech.

Answer 21

Balmoral: military marching by Ulster; 500,000 signing for resistance to IHR by all means
necessary; ‘some things are more important than parliamentary majorities’.

Question 22

How did Asquith describe the Blenheim Palace speech? Do you agree with him?

Answer 22

‘Grammar of anarchy’; Bonar Law played a risky game since he tied himself to the UUC
which threatened civil war, a war against the forces of the Crown.

Question 23

What was the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF), when was it set up and what connection did it
have to mainland Unionism?

Answer 23

Armed paramilitary force of the UUC; early 1913; British League for the Support of Ulster
(led by Milner, the politician who engineered the Boer War in SA), English Unionists helped
in gun-smuggling. Carson saw the UVF as a bargaining -chip in brinkmanship to get IHR
abandoned. UVF never fully armed but trained by ex-officers of the British army.

Question 24

24. Evaluate the view that Asquith’s policy of ‘massive calmness’ was an effective one.

Answer 24

Asquith’s response in 1912 to Unionist fears/threats of civil war was proved wrong; he saw
bluff but Carson was not bluffing; Asquith wasted 1912 & 1913 with ‘wait and see’
approach, ignored Churchill’s advice to prepare militarily. He waited with unresolved talks,
had larkin arrested for sedition and discovered the threats were not a bluff, a situation
worsened by Curragh ‘Mutiny’.

Question 25

25. Define the Irish Volunteers (IVs) and explain why Redmond was not fully in control of the IVs.

Answer 25

Armed paramilitary group of the IPP but poorly controlled by Redmond; infiltrated by the IRB

Question 26

Why could it be argued Asquith’s policy was dependent on Ulster Unionism by the end of 1913?

Answer 26

The extent of Ulster’s resistance and opposition meant a compromise was needed to avert the threat of civil war but any compromise required the agreement of Ulster.

Question 27

Summarise the solution to the IHR crisis discussed in the talks of March 1914 and identify how it differed from 1913.

Answer 27

1913: Redmond opposed any form of exclusion (from IHR) along county lines; Carson would only accept permanent exclusion; no agreement on 4,6 or 9 counties. March 1914: Asquith proposed 6 county exclusion of Ulster for 6 years

Question 28

Summarise the response of Carson and Redmond to the solution offered in March 1914.

Answer 28

Carson rejected it as ‘a sentence of death stayed for 6 years’. He implicitly accepted 6 counties if permanent so limited progress as indication southern Unionists would be left alone and Ulster prioritised. Redmond compromised and accepted temporary exclusion of 6 counties (keeping 3 catholic counties of Ulster and hoping other counties could be added by referendum after 6 years until a rump Unionist Ulster would be unsustainable.

Question 29

Explain the significance of the Curragh ‘mutiny’ with reference to brinkmanship, the UVF and the compromise offered in talks.

Answer 29

In 1913 the UUC had threatened an Ulster provisional govt if IHR implemented; gun- smuggling ongoing. Curragh indicated that British army was unreliable to stop it and unable to fully enforce IHR. Undermined government’s authority in vital part of brinkmanship has they seemed to lack power when faced by the UVF, the IVs and the threat of civil war. Churchill threatened an armed response and sent battleships to Belfast, Seely sacked but damage done to credibility of govt.

Question 30

What happened at Larne and Howth and how did it influence the IHR crisis?

Answer 30

Gun running by UVF and IVs respectively; UVF smuggled 35,00 rifles and 5m rounds of ammunition. Openly as part of brinkmanship and with help of English Unionists but still 60,00 of UVF unarmed. 40,000 armed. Authorities cracked down on the IVs not the UVF, helping the IRB not Redmond. After Curragh, it appeared Ulster would be the coercive force in Ireland not the govt.

Question 31

Summarise the Buckingham Palace talks of July 1914, assess whether they lead to success and explain why Asquith surprisingly experienced a sense of relief when the 1WW started (!).

Answer 31

Agreed: 6 county exclusion; but Carson wanted it permanent and Redmond wanted it for 6 years with referendum afterwards so no final agreement. 1WW, to relief of Asquith, meant IHR put on statue book but agreed not to implement it until the end of the war. The county option was not fully agreed so the govt withdrew its amending bill to the IHR Act which had intended to introduce a temporary exclusion of 6 counties.