Irish issue in British politics
Charles Stewart Parnell mobilised the Catholic vote so that the Irish Parliamentary Party held the balance of power in the Parliament of the United Kingdom.
[4] Although the Catholic majority was regaining its rights, Ireland's economy, politics, society, and culture were largely dominated by the Anglican landowners, who comprised the Protestant Ascendancy.
The main organising force was the Society of United Irishmen, a republican revolutionary group influenced by the ideas of the American and French revolutions: originally formed by Presbyterian radicals angry at being shut out of power by the Anglican establishment,[5] they were joined by many from the majority Catholic population.
Following some initial successes, particularly in County Wexford, the uprising was suppressed by government militia and yeomanry forces, reinforced by units of the British Army, with a civilian and combatant death toll estimated between 10,000 and 50,000.
When a potato blight struck Ireland in 1846, much of the peasant population lost their staple food, as cash crops were reserved for export to Great Britain.
[6][7] While large sums for relief were raised by private individuals and charities, inadequate action by the government, which believed in laissez-faire policies, and the protectionist Corn Laws, which made wheat unaffordable, led the problem to metastasize into a catastrophe.
The class of cottiers, or farm labourers, was virtually wiped out through death and emigration, in what became known in Britain as 'The Irish Potato Famine' and in Ireland as the Great Hunger.
After Butt's death the Home Rule Movement, or the Irish Parliamentary Party as it had become known, turned into a major political force under the guidance of William Shaw and in particular Charles Stewart Parnell.
Parnell operated independently of the Liberals, and won great influence by his balancing of constitutional, radical, and economic issues, and by his skillful use of parliamentary procedure.
His party fillibustered the Protection of Persons and Property Act 1881 for seven weeks until the Speaker made a very rare change to British constitutional convention to close a debate after the IPP halted all progress on a Government Bill for five days in a row.
Parnell's movement campaigned for "Home Rule," by which Ireland would govern itself in domestic affairs inside the United Kingdom, in contrast to O'Connell who wanted complete independence subject to a shared monarch and Crown.
Two Home Rule Bills (1886 and 1893) were introduced by Liberal Prime Minister Ewart Gladstone, but neither became law, mainly due to opposition from the House of Lords.
Retaining Ireland in the Union was the declared intent of all parties, and the Nationalists, as part of the majority that kept Asquith in office, were entitled to seek enactment of their plans for Home Rule, and to expect Liberal and Labour support.
[17] The cabinet committee (not including Asquith) which in 1911 planned the Third Home Rule Bill opposed any special status for Protestant Ulster within majority-Catholic Ireland.
[20] As the crisis deepened, with the Ulster Volunteers drilling openly, Churchill arranged for a Royal Navy squadron to cruise off Belfast[21]: 148 without first raising the issue in Cabinet.
[25] This led to a resolution in the House of Commons on 26 June 1907, put forward by Liberal Prime Minister Henry Campbell-Bannerman, declaring that the Lords' power ought to be curtailed.
Their representation in parliament dropped heavily, but they retained a majority with the help of a significant number of Irish Parliamentary Party (IPP) and Labour MPs.
[29] However, home rule for Ireland was the main point of contention, with (UK) Unionists looking to exempt such a law from the Parliament Act procedure, by means of a general exception for "constitutional" or "structural" bills.
[40] The new Conservative leader, Bonar Law, campaigned in Parliament and in northern Ireland, warning Ulstermen against "Rome Rule", that is, domination by the island's Catholic majority.
[44] As the Commons debated the Home Rule bill in late 1912 and early 1913, unionists in the north of Ireland mobilised, with talk of Carson declaring a Provisional Government and Ulster Volunteer Forces (UVF) built around the Orange Lodges, but in the cabinet, only Churchill viewed this with alarm.
[47][48] On 12 May, Asquith announced that he would secure Home Rule's third passage through the Commons (accomplished on 25 May), but that there would be an amending bill with it, making special provision for Ulster.
London knew trouble was brewing but decided to be extremely cautious, fearing that a full-scale clampdown on the IRB would have highly negative repercussions in the United States,[citation needed] which remained neutral in the war until April 1917.
Instead they set up the First Dáil (parliament) in Dublin, announced an independent Irish Republic and declared war against the British government, which was still in control in Ireland.
The coalition government in London had three choices: implement the 1914 Home Rule Act with an amending bill to exclude Ulster; repeal it; or replace it with new legislation: it took the third route.
The IRA, led by Michael Collins, consisted of roughly 3,000 rebels and used asymmetric warfare against British forces, which included the Black and Tans and the Auxiliary Division.
The new factors included Lloyd George's bargaining skills; new, more and flexible Conservative leaders; relaxation of die-hard determination after the guarantee of permanent union of most of Ulster in the UK; and general disapproval of the policy of coercion.
[57] With the Free State at arm's length and Northern Ireland securely part of the UK, the Irish issue faded away and became much less central to British politics.
(Either would have had the effect of avoiding the need for the Northern Ireland Protocol in the 2020 withdrawal agreement, negotiated after the DUP had lost the balance of power following the 2019 election.)
Many Brexit-supporting Conservative and DUP MPs opposed the Northern Ireland backstop because it lacked a specified end-date, potentially tying the UK to many EU rules indefinitely.
At the 2019 United Kingdom general election (December 2019), the Conservative Party achieved a substantial majority and no longer needed DUP support.
