Irish History

Ireland has had a long and difficult history since it was first raided by the Vikings in 795. This section of History Empire will examine the troubled history of this island, concentrating on it's relationship and conflicts with Britain, especially during the early twentieth century.

While there are many origins of the conflicts beginning in 1912, the immediate cause was the constitutional crisis caused by the 1909 'People's Budget' which the Lords rejected. The subsecuent election in January 1910 led the Liberals to loose their overall parliamentary majority and therefore had to form a minority government with the Irish Nationalists (who had far more seats than the Labour Party at this time). This led to Liberals to a position where they had no choice but to introduce a Home Rule bill when the Parliament Act of 1911 passed (introducing one before this would have found the bill defeated in the House of Lords).

In April 1912 the Third Home Rule Bill was introduced to the House of Commons by the Liberal government and provoked an immediate reaction from the Unionists including their leader Bonar Law who announced his support for any 'length of resistance to which Ulster can go' to defeat this bill. From here on the sides were dialectically opposed, leading to several years of tensions that were only resolved by the starting of the first world war. During this period the foundations for the ultimate independence of Ireland were laid, starting when Sir Edward Carson proclaimed the 'Solemn League and Covenant' in September 1912 where over 470,000 people signed to use 'all means which may be found necessary' to defeat the Home Rule bill. This led in January 1913 to the founding of the Ulster Volunteer Force to enact what had been promised by the covenant and soon found itself with 100,000 members. The natural reaction to this was the founding of the Irish National Volunteers.

In order to try to prevent what might appear to be an inevitable civil war, Herbert Asquith, leader of the Liberals, issued a Royal Proclamation in December 1913 in order to attempt to prevent any imports of arms or ammunition to Ireland. Furthermore, Asquith was attempting to moderate the Home Rule Bill, and managed to convince John Redmond, leader of the Irish Nationalist Party, to agree to Ulster being excluded from Home Rule for three years. Sir Edward Carson, however, would never agree to any division of Ireland and therefore rejected this compromise. To the government it now started to look like if civil war was inevitable, it would need to use the army to confront the UVF and INV, however the events of March 1914 would dispell this hope. The Curragh Mutiny occured bacause Jack Seely, the Secretary of State for War, issued instructions to the Commander in Chief of Ireland, Sir Arthur Paget, to give temporary leave from duty to officers who lived in Ulster. This led 58 officers to resign, and led to a propaganda victory for the Ulstermen. After the failings of further ammendments to the Home Rule Bill a conflict was arguably only stopped by the impact of World War 1 which saw nationalism on both sides towards the British Empire leading to a lowering of hostilities.

A minority of the Irish National Volunteers however broke away from the majority which was led by John Redmond. Some joined the trade union leader and anti-war activist, James Connolly who had formed the Citizen Army and with Patrick Pearse and Tom Clarke would lead the Easter Rising.