Irish Parliamentary Party
Encyclopedia
The Irish Parliamentary Party (IPP; commonly called the Irish Party or the Home Rule Party; in Irish
Páirtí Parlaiminteach na hÉireann) was formed in 1882 by Charles Stewart Parnell
, the leader of the Nationalist Party
, replacing the Home Rule League
, as official parliamentary party for Irish nationalist Members of Parliament (MPs) elected to the House of Commons at Westminster
within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
up until 1918. Its central objectives were legislative independence for Ireland and land reform. Its constitutional movement was instrumental in laying the groundwork for Irish self-government through three Irish Home Rule bills.
founded by Isaac Butt
after he defected from the Irish Conservative Party
in 1873, to gain a limited form of freedom from Britain
in order to protect and control Irish domestic affairs in the interest of the Protestant landlord class, after William Ewart Gladstone
and his Liberal Party
came to power in 1868 under his slogan Justice for Ireland, when Irish Liberals gained 65 of the 105 Irish seats at Westminster. Gladstone said his mission was to pacify Ireland and with the Irish Church Act 1869 began with the disestablishment of the Anglican Church of Ireland
whose members were a minority who made all political decisions in Ireland and would have largely voted Conservative
. He also introduced his first land bill which led to the First Irish Land Act 1870
, implementing limited tenant rights, thereby infringing on the powers of the Irish landlords to indiscriminately evict tenant farmers. At first the Catholic hierarchy supported Gladstone supervising Irish affairs, hoping to gain financial aid for a Catholic University. But his educational programme of 1873 did not provide for a denominational university.
The Home Government Association
adopted educational issues and land reform into its programme, the hierarchy then favouring a Dublin based parliament. The increasing Catholic numbers within the association frightened off its Protestant, landlord element. The association was dissolved and Butt replaced it by the Home Rule League
, formed after a conference in Dublin in November 1873. Gladstone unexpectedly called a new election in February 1874
, which helped bring the League to the foreground. Since 1872 the Secret Ballots Act
had been introduced, so that voting was to be done secretly for the first time from then on. The League put denominational education, land reform and release of political prisoners at the centre of the movement. It had difficulty finding reliable candidates to support its Home Rule issue, though succeeded in winning fifty-nine Irish seats, many with ex-Liberals.
A minor group of impatient young Irish members, the genuine "Home-Rulers" distanced themselves from Butt’s lack of assertiveness and led by Charles Stewart Parnell, Joseph Biggar
, John O'Connor Power
, Edmund Dwyer Gray
, Frank Hugh O'Donnell
and John Dillon
, some of whom had close connections with the Fenian
movement, adopted the method of parliamentary "obstructionism
" during 1876-77, to snap Westminster out of its complacency towards Ireland by proposing amendments to almost every bill and making lengthy overnight speeches. This did not bring Home Rule closer but helped to revitalise the Irish party. Butt consider obstructionism a threat to democracy, its greatest benefit undoubtedly that it helped bring Parnell to the fore of the political scene. An internal struggle began between Butt’s majority and Parnell’s minority leading to a rift in the party, Parnell determined to obtain control of the Home Rule League.
who missed out on Gladstone’s earlier amnesty freed, including Michael Davitt
, who was very impressed by Parnell. After his release in 1877, Davitt travelled to America
to meet John Devoy
, the leading Irish-American Fenian and raise funds. During 1878 Parnell also met with leading members of the Irish American Fenians. In October Devoy agreed to a New Departure
of separating militancy from the constitutional movement in order to further its path to Home Rule. Throughout 1879 Parnell continued to campaign for land reform and when Davitt founded the Irish National Land League
in October 1879 Parnell was elected president, but did not take control of it, favouring to continue to hold mass meetings. Isaac Butt died of strain later that year and Parnell held back in grabbing control of the party. Instead he too travelled to America with John Dillon
on a fund raising mission for political purposes and to relieve distress in Ireland after a world economic depression slumped the sale of agricultural produce.
At the general election of April 1880
, sixty-four Home Rulers were elected, twenty-seven Parnell supporters, facilitating in May his nomination as leader of a divided Home Rule Party and of a country on the brink of a land war. He immediately understood that supporting land agitation was a means to achieving his objective of self-government. The Conservatives
under Disraeli had been defeated in the election and Gladstone was again Prime Minister. He attempted to defuse the land question with Balfour
’s dual ownership Second Land Act of 1881 which failed to eliminate tenant evictions. Parnell and his party lieutenants, William O'Brien
, John Dillon, Michael Davitt, Willie Redmond
, went into a bitter verbal offensive and were imprisoned in October 1881 under the Irish Coercion Act
in Kilmainham Jail for "sabotaging the Land Act", from where the No-Rent Manifesto was issued calling for a national tenant farmer rent strike
which was partially followed. Although the League discouraged violence, agrarian crimes increased widely.
, a truce not dissimilar to truces to follow, marked a critical turning point in Parnell’s leadership, though it resulted in losing the support of Devoy’s American-Irish. However, his political diplomacy preserved the national Home Rule movement after the Phoenix Park Murders
in May of the Chief Secretary for Ireland
and his Under Secretary. For the next twenty years Fenians and physical-force militancy ceased to play a role in Irish politics.
With the Land League suppressed and internally fracturing, Parnell resurrected it in October as the Irish National League (INL). It combined moderate agrarianism, a Home Rule programme with electoral functions. It was hierarchical and autocratic in structure with Parnell wielding immense authority and direct parliamentary control. Parliamentary constitutionalism was the future path. The informal alliance between the new, tightly disciplined National League and the Catholic Church was one of the main factors for the revitalisation of the national Home Rule cause after 1882. Parnell saw that the explicit endorsement of Catholicism was of vital importance to the success of this venture. At the end of 1882 the organisation already had 232 branches, in 1885 increased to 592 branches. He left the day-to-day running of the League in the hands of his lieutenants Timothy Harrington as Secretary, William O’Brien editor of its newspaper United Ireland and Timothy Healy
.
with extended suffrage under the 1884 Reform Act. The Reform Act had increased from 220,000 to 500,000 the number of Irishmen who had a right to vote, many of whom were small farmers. The election increased the total Irish Party representation from sixty three to eighty-five seats, which included seventeen in Ulster. In January 1886 the INL had developed to 1,262 branches and could claim to contain the vast body of Irish Catholic public sentiment. It acted not merely as an electoral committee for the Irish Party, but as local law-giver, unofficial parliament, government, police and supreme court. Parnell’s personal authority in the organisation was enormous. The INL was a formidable political machine built in the traditional political culture of rural Ireland. It was an alliance of tenant-farmers, shopkeepers and publicans. No one could stand against it. After another Reform Act in 1884
, the IPP emerged from the 1885 General Election
holding the balance of power. However, the Liberal Party split on the issue of Irish Home Rule, leading to another general election in 1886
in which the Conservatives were the largest party and were enabled to form a minority government by the fragment of Liberalism opposed to Home Rule, the Liberal Unionist Party
.
Unusually, the party even secured a seat in the English city of Liverpool
, where T. P. O'Connor
won the Liverpool Scotland
seat in 1885 and retained it in every election until his death in 1929 - even after the demise of the actual party (O'Connor being returned unopposed in the elections of 1918, 1922, 1923, 1924, and 1929).
Parnell’s new Irish Parliamentary Party emerged swiftly as a tightly disciplined, and on the whole, energetic body of parliamentarians with strict rules. The inauguration of the ‘party pledge’ in 1884 decisively reinforced that each member was required to sit, act and vote with the party, one of the first instances of a whip
(Richard Power
) in western politics. The members were also paid stipends, or expense allowances from party funds, which helped both to increase parliamentary turnout and enabled middle-class members such as William O’Brien or later D. D. Sheehan
attend parliament, long before other MPs first received state pay in 1911. The profiles of the 105 Irish MPs had changed considerably since 1868 when 69% were landlords or landlords’ sons, reduced to 47% by 1874. Those with professional background increased from 10% to 23% in the same period, by the early 1890s professionals exceeding 50%.
with Home Rule, but the Liberals were divided. Parnell then sided with the Conservatives, bringing down Gladstone’s government. Both parties now courted Parnell. In the 1885 general election
Parnell’s IPP Home Rulers had 86 seats, the 335 seats for the Liberals robbing him of his bargaining position with the Conservatives who only achieved 249 seats. Gladstone by now converted to granting Home Rule, on introducing the first Home Rule Bill 1886 and after a long and fierce debate, made a remarkable Home Rule Speech, beseeching parliament to pass the bill which was however defeated by 341 to 311 votes.The Bill caused serious riots in Belfast
during the summer and autumn of 1886 in which many were killed.
Since 1882 Parnell’s successful drive for Home Rule created great anxiety amongst Protestants and Unionists north and south alike, fearing Catholic intolerance
from a nationalist parliament in Dublin under their control. It resulted in the revival of the Orange Order to resist Home Rule and the forming of an Irish Unionist Party
. With the Conservatives playing the "Ulster card" and sections of the Liberal faction voting against the bill, Gladstone hinted that eventually a separate solution for Ulster might need to be sought. His observation echoed far into the next century. With the defeat of his bill he dissolved parliament and called an election for July 1886
, the result swinging in the other direction, Conservatives and Liberal Unionists between them winning a clear majority.
The Irish Party retained 85 seats and, in the years up to 1889, centred itself around the formidable figure of Parnell who continued to pursue Home Rule, striving to reassure English voters that it would be of no threat to them. During this period the National League was out of contact with him and primarily concerned with its own vested interests, keeping up local agitation to further the not fully resolved land question, and bringing Liberal voters to slowly increase their support for Home Rule.
Parnell successfully exposed a devious Conservative intrigue to associate him and his party with crime and violence through forged "Pigott Papers" from which he was vindicated in February 1890. Gladstone invited Parnell to his house to discuss a renewed Home Rule bill. This was the high point of Parnell’s career. However, since 1880 he had had a family relationship with a separated woman Katharine O'Shea who bore him three children. Her divorce proceedings first came to court late in 1890, in which Parnell was named co-respondent. This was a political scandal for English Victorian society
. Gladstone reacted by informing Parnell that if he were re-elected leader of the Irish Party, Home Rule would be withdrawn. Parnell did not disclose this to his party and was selected leader on 25 November.
A special meeting of the party a week later lasted six days at the end of which 45 "anti-Parnellites" walked out, leaving him with 27 faithful followers, J. J. Clancy
one of his key defenders. Both sides returned to Ireland to organise their supporters into two parties, the former Parnellite Irish National League (INL) under John Redmond
and John Dillon’s anti-Parnellite Irish National Federation
(INF). By-elections in 1891 were fought with bitter venom by the INF anti-Parnellites, Dillon and Healy making extremely personal attacks on Parnell. The INF was also supported by the Catholic clergy who went to aggressive extremes to ensure that INF candidates were returned.
Parnell worked untiringly between Ireland and Britain making speeches for support which he actually got from the (IRB) Fenians who rallied to him. He was married in June 1891 to Mrs O’Shea. After an election tour in the west of Ireland, his health deteriorated seriously, dying in October in their Brighton home. His funeral in Dublin was attended by 200,000 people. In his speeches he was convinced of an Ireland completely separated from Britain, but was ambiguous, never committing himself nor distancing himself, from the use of physical-force.
that followed, Redmond’s
Parnellites won a third of the votes but only nine seats, the anti-Parnellites returned 72 MPs divided between Dillonites and a fragmented minority of six Healyites
- the People's Rights Association. Gladstone and the Liberals were again in power, the divided Home Rulers holding the balance of power. He brought in his promised second Home Rule Bill in 1893. It was master-handled through three readings of the Commons by William O’Brien and passed in September by 301 votes to 267, during which Unionist conventions called in Dublin and Belfast to oppose the bill, denounced the possibility of partition. A week later 419 peers in the Lords
rejected it, only 41 supporting. Gladstone retired in 1894.
The Conservatives and Liberal Unionists returned to power in the 1895 general election
, remaining in office until 1905. During those years Home Rule was not on their agenda. Instead, with Arthur Balfour
’s Constructive Unionism approach to settling the Irish Question they enacted many important reforms introduced by the Irish members, who, on the other hand, made no effort to settle their party differences. This bred apathy amongst the Irish public towards politics, much needed financial contributions from America ebbing away. In this period of political disarray and disunity of purpose young Irish nationalists turned instead to the country’s’ new cultural and militant movements, enabling the Church to fill the political vacuum.
The unresolved land reform situation was again the mainspring for renewed political activity. William O’Brien had withdrawn from parliament to Mayo and in 1898, driven by the plight of the farming community’s need for more land, formed together with Davitt a new land movement, the United Irish League
(UIL). It quickly spread first in the west, the following year nation-wide like the old Land League and attracted members from all factions of the two split parties, O’Brien threatening to displace them and take them both over.
in 1899 was condemned by both Irish factions, their combined opposition helped to bring about a measure of understanding between them. By 1900 the threat of O’Brien swamping and out-manoeuvring them at the upcoming elections forced the two divided parties, the INL and the INF, to re-unite. He was the prime mover in merging them under a new programme of agrarian agitation, political reform and Home Rule into a new united Irish Parliamentary Party. Redmond, leader of the smaller INL group, was chosen as its leader mainly due to the personal rivalries between the INF's Anti-Parnellite leaders. After the party returned 77 MPs in the September 1900 general election
a period of considerable political development followed.
The UIL, explicitly designed to reconcile the fragmented party, was accepted as the parliamentary nationalist’s main support organisation, with which O’Brien intensified his campaign of agrarian agitation. Encouraged by the Chief Secretary George Wyndham
and initiated by moderate landlords led by Lord Dunraven the December 1902 Land Reform Conference
followed, which successfully aimed at a settlement by conciliatory agreement between landlord and tenant. O'Brien, Redmond, T. W. Russell (who spoke for Ulster tenant-farmers) and Timothy Harrington represented the tenant side. Its outcome became the basis for O’Brien orchestrating the unprecedented Wyndham Land Purchase Act (1903) through parliament, which abolished landlordism
, enabling tenant farmers buy out their landlord’s land at favourable annuities, settling the age-old Irish land question
.
, again viciously attacked by Dillon. O'Brien's UIL then taken over by Dillon’s protégé and ally, Joseph Devlin
, a young Belfast MP, as its new secretary. Devlin had founded a decade earlier the Catholic sectarian neo-Ribbon
Ancient Order of Hibernians
(AOH), organising its rise first in Ulster and after he had control of the UIL, eventually across the south, largely displacing the UIL. The Irish Party came to have an increasing dependence on the AOH, though the party's attempts to crush out Healyite
and O'Brienite
'factionism' were carried out through its national organisation, the UIL.
The 1906 general election
saw the Liberals back in power with 379 seats, an overwhelming majority of 88 over all other parties, after they had promised Home Rule. Redmond’s
IPP now with 82 seats, at first delighted until the Liberals backed down on Home Rule, knowing it had no chance in the Lords. The IPP rift with O’Brien deepened after he guided the Bryce
Labourers Act through parliament, which provided large scale government funding for a programme of extensive rural social housing. In the following five years over 40,000 labourer owned cottages standing on an acre of land and purchases at low annual annuities, were erected by Local County Councils. The Act, and the follow-on Birrell Labourers Act of 1911, housed over a quarter of a million rural labourers and their families and thereby transformed the Irish countryside.
In 1907 Richard Hazleton
became the new party secretary. O'Brien rejoined the party again that year for the sake of unity, but was soon to be driven out by the party’s vigorous militant support organisation, Devlin’s "Hibernians", after which O’Brien founded his own political party in 1909, the All-for-Ireland League
(AFIL).
lost their majority, and became dependent on the Irish (IPP and AFIL) Party's 84 seats, as well as Labour's. Redmond
, holding the balance of power in the Commons, renewed the old "Liberal Alliance" this time with H. H. Asquith
as Prime Minister. For budget reasons, Asquith had no choice but to agree to a new Home Rule Bill and the removal of the veto power of the Lords. The passing of the Parliament Act 1911
limited the Lords to a two year delaying power and ensured that Redmond’s reward of a Government of Ireland Bill for the whole of Ireland introduced in 1912 would subsequently achieve national self-government in Dublin by 1914.
This prospect after 40 years of struggle was greeted optimistically, even when self-government was initially limited to running Irish affairs. But for Unionists, convinced the Union with the United Kingdom was economically best for Ireland, and for Protestants, now that Devlin’s paramilitary AOH organisation had saturated the entire island, fearing a Church dominated nationalist government, it was a disaster.
After the Bill passed its first readings in 1913, Ulster Unionists' opposition became a repeat scenario of events in 1886 and 1893, their leader Sir Edward Carson
approving of an Ulster Volunteer militia to oppose Home Rule. Unionists and the Orange Order in mass demonstrations determined to ensure that Home Rule would not apply for them. Nationalists in turn formed their own armed group, the Irish Volunteers
to enforce Home Rule. The initiative for a series of meetings leading up to the public inauguration of the Volunteers came from the Irish Republican Brotherhood
(IRB). The Volunteers had 180,000 members by May 1914. Redmond, worried by the growth of nationalist mass movement outside the Party, quickly tried to take control of the Volunteers. He demanded and was given a position on its leadership council and rapidly filled its ranks with IPP supporters.
Unfortunately Redmond and his IPP nationalists, as later those who succeeded them in 1919, had little or no knowledge of Belfast, underestimating Unionist resistance as a bluff, insisting "Ulster will have to follow". William O’Brien who in 1893 worked closely on passing the Second Home Rule Bill, warned to no avail, that if adequate provisions were not made for Ulster, All-Ireland self-government would never be achieved.
The Bill was the centre of intense parliamentary debate and controversy throughout 1913–14 before it passed its final reading in May, denounced by the O’Brienite Party
as a "partition deal" after Carson forced through an Amending Bill providing for the exclusion of Ulster, permanent or provisional to be negotiated, which ultimately led to the partition of Ireland. This was deeply resented among northern nationalists and southern unionists
who felt themselves abandoned. The Third Home Rule Act 1914
received Royal Assent in September 1914, celebrated with bonfires across southern Ireland.
in August led to the suspension of the Home Rule Act for the duration of the war, expected to only last a year. Ireland's involvement in the war
defused the threat of civil war in Ireland and was to prove crucial to subsequent Irish history
. After neutral Belgium
had been overrun by Germany
, Redmond
and his party leaders, in order to ensure Home Rule would be implemented after the war, called on the Irish Volunteers to support Britain’s war effort (her commitment under the Triple Entente
and the Allied cause
).
The Volunteers split on the issue of support for the British and Allied war effort. The majority (over 142,000) forming the National Volunteers
, compared to roughly 10,000 who stayed with the original organisation. Though initially there was a surge in voluntary enlistment for the Irish regiments of the 10th (Irish) Division and the 16th (Irish) Division of Kitchener's New Service Army
formed for the war, the enthusiasm did not last.
Unlike their 36th (Ulster) Division counterparts and the Ulster Volunteers who manned it with their own trained military reserve officers, the southern Volunteers possessed no officers with previous military experience with the result that the War Office
had the 16th Division led by English
officers, which with the exception of Irish General William Hickie
, and the fact that the division did not have its own specific uniforms, was an unpopular decision. The War Office also reacted with suspicion to Redmond’s remark that the Volunteers would soon return as an armed army to oppose Ulster’s resistance to Home Rule.
Around 24,000 of the National Volunteers did enlist but the remainder, or about 80% did not. Moreover the organisation declined due to lack of training and organisation as the war went on. "The resulting collapse of the National Volunteers presaged that of the Irish Party itself, though this was less obvious. Its support for the War was gradually revealed to be a major political encumbrance". The Under Secretary for Ireland
, Mathew Nathan, writing in November 1915, thought that Redmond's stance on the War ultimately cost him and his party their pre-eminent position in Irish life, "Redmond has been honestly imperial, but by going as far as he has, he has lost his position in the country"
When the war situation worsened, a new Conservative-Liberal coalition government was formed in June 1915. Redmond was offered a seat in its cabinet, which he declined. This was welcomed in Ireland but greatly weakened his position after his rival, unionist leader Carson accepted a cabinet post. As the war prolonged, the IPP’s image suffered from the horrific casualties in Gallipoli
and the Dardanelles as well as on the Western Front
.
The party was taken by surprise by the Easter Rising
in April 1916, launched by the section of the Irish Volunteers who had remained in the original organisation. The Volunteers, infiltrated to a large degree by the separatist Irish Republican Brotherhood
, declared an Irish Republic
and took over much of the centre of Dublin. The rebellion in Dublin was put down in a week of fighting with about 500 deaths. The manner in which British General Maxwell
dealt with its leaders won sympathy for their cause. A total of 16 were shot within weeks of the Rising and another hanged several weeks later. The Rising began the decline of constitutional nationalism as represented by the IPP and the ascent of a more radical separatist form of Irish nationalism. John Redmond, protesting at the severity of the state's response to the Rising, wrote to Asquith, "if any more more executions take place, Ireland will become impossible for any Constitutional Party or leader".
Further problems for the party followed Asquith's abortive attempt to introduce Home Rule in July 1916 which failed on the threat of partition. Again Lloyd George
's initiative to disentangle the Home Rule deadlock after Redmond called the Irish Convention
in June 1917, when Southern Unionists
sided with Nationalists on the issue of Home Rule, ended unresolved due to Ulster
resistance.
overran the Allied front causing a severe manpower shortage which resulted in a clumsy cabinet dual policy decision by Lloyd George linking implementing Home Rule with extending conscription
to Ireland. The Irish party withdrew in protest from Westminster
and returned to Ireland to join forces with other national organisations in massed anti-conscription demonstrations in Dublin. Although conscription was never enforced after America’s late intervention in the war guaranteed a supply of fresh troops, the threat of conscription radicalised Irish politics. Sinn Féin, the political arm of the Volunteer insurgents, had public opinion believe that they alone had prevented conscription.
The Irish party held its own and returned its candidates in by-elections up to the end of 1916, the last in the West-Cork by-election of October 1916. The tide then changed after it lost three by-elections in 1917 to the more physical-force republican Sinn Féin movement, which in the mean time had built up 1,500 organised clubs around Ireland and exceeded the strength of the old UIL
, most of the latter members now joining the new movement. At the end of the war in November 1918 when elections were announced for the December general election, the Irish electorate of nearly two million had a threefold increase due to a new Representation of the People Act
. Women were granted franchise for the first time (confined to those over thirty) and a vote to every male over twenty-one years of age. This increased the number of voters from 30% to 75% of all adults.
Although elsewhere the Party's share of votes was over 21%, it lost practically all of its seats. This was due to the "first past the post" British electoral system. Votes cast for the IPP were 220,837 (21.7%) for merely 6 seats (down from 84 out of 105 seats in 1910). Sinn Féin votes were 476,087 (or 46.9%) for 48 seats, plus 25 uncontested totalling an impressive 73 seats. The IPP simply did not win a fair share of seats, as when the election had been run under a "proportional representation" system. Unionist (including Unionist Labour) votes were 305,206 (30.2%) – by which Unionists increased their representation from 19 to 26 seats. The Irish Party leader Dillon lost his seat and the party was dissolved. The remnants of the IPP later re-established itself with six members to form the Nationalist Party
in Northern Ireland under Joe Devlin
.
Twenty-seven of the newly elected Sinn Féin MPs assembled in Dublin on 21 January 1919 and formed an independent Irish parliament, or First Dáil Èireann
of the thirty-two counties. Their remaining MPs were either still imprisoned or impaired. Britain did not recognise the Dáil's unilateral existence, which led to the Anglo-Irish War. The government remained committed to introducing Home Rule in Ireland, and in 1921 implemented the Fourth Home Rule Act
, which partitioned Ireland
into Northern Ireland
and a non-functioning Southern Ireland
prior to the Anglo-Irish Treaty
.
, the IPP had more or less held their ground against the Sinn Féin insurgency, (Éamon de Valera
soundly beaten by Joe Devlin
in the Falls division). The IPP regrouped to become the Nationalist Party
of Northern Ireland
.
In the South after the Irish Civil War
, the political estate of the Irish Party inherited by Sinn Féin evolved into the two nationalist parties of the post-1922 state. On the pro-Treaty side, some Cumann na nGaedheal / Fine Gael
leaders (apart from James Dillon) had 'Redmonite' backgrounds, the most notable being John A. Costello
, a later Taoiseach. The core of this party group was however solidly Sinn Féin, IRB and IRA in background. On the anti-Treaty Sinn Féin side that developed into Fianna Fáil
, there was no continuity with the Irish Party at elite level. Many former AOH/IPP followers also lingered on as a pro-Treaty support organisation, some AOH adherents later fought on the Francoist side in the Spanish Civil War
, the quasi-fascist Blueshirt movement of the 1930s maybe owing much to its Ribbon tradition. Veteran MP Timothy Michael Healy
was the first Governor-General
of the Irish Free State
(1922–1928), an enlightened choice to bridge the gap between the old order and the new generation of Cumann na nGaedheal politicians, although highly partisan (his nephew was Minister for Justice Kevin O'Higgins
; Healy made a public attack on Fianna Fáil and Éamon de Valera
, which led to republican calls for his resignation). Former party MP Hugh Law was elected as a Cumann na nGaedheal TD during the 1920s.
The conservative nationalist National League Party operated between 1926 and 1931, founded by former IPP MPs Captain William Redmond (son of Irish National League and IPP leader John Redmond) and Thomas O'Donnell
. It quickly faltered, with many of its prominent members (including Redmond, Vincent Rice
, John Jinks and James Coburn
) joining Cumann na nGaedheal / Fine Gael, although O'Donnell became an active member of Fianna Fáil. A short lived National Centre Party
was formed in 1932, absorbing the remnants of the conservative Farmers' Party
and led by Frank MacDermot
and James Dillon (son of IPP leader John Dillon). The success of Fianna Fáil prompted the National Centre Party to amalgamate with Cumann na nGaedheal to become Fine Gael
in 1933. Both MacDermot and Dillon later left Fine Gael, and both argued for Irish entry into World War II in the Allied side, but MacDermot joined Fianna Fáil while Dillon returned to Fine Gael and became party leader 1959-1965.
in Ireland, and its three attempts to introduce All-Ireland Home Rule
, were a repeated failure, admittedly in the third instance due to the intervention of World War I
; while its supporters maintain that one of the greatest achievements of the IPP was the introduction to Irish society of a parliamentary constitutional tradition which in turn paved the way for the creation of Dáil Éireann
, but the Dáil had scarcely started to function, before it began to utilise and to build on the constitutional tradition it inherited.
However this is controversial given the success of the revolutionary First Dáil Éireann, which the Irish Parliamentary Party did not participate in, and success of Sinn Féin-controlled local government during the Irish War of Independence
, made apparent by the fact that Irish-controlled local government
had previously existed since 1898.
Debate in Ireland over the merits of Home Rule versus Republicanism continues to this day. On the occasion of the 90th anniversary of the Easter 1916 rising two former leaders of Fine Gael
and former Taoisigh
, Garret FitzGerald
and John Bruton
, expressed opposite views: FitzGerald defended the rebellion as the last chance to save Ireland as a distinct country, Bruton said he would have accepted home rule as a way of maintaining Irish unity.
Irish language
Irish , also known as Irish Gaelic, is a Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family, originating in Ireland and historically spoken by the Irish people. Irish is now spoken as a first language by a minority of Irish people, as well as being a second language of a larger proportion of...
Páirtí Parlaiminteach na hÉireann) was formed in 1882 by Charles Stewart Parnell
Charles Stewart Parnell
Charles Stewart Parnell was an Irish landowner, nationalist political leader, land reform agitator, and the founder and leader of the Irish Parliamentary Party...
, the leader of the Nationalist Party
Nationalist Party (Ireland)
The Nationalist Party was a term commonly used to describe a number of parliamentary political parties and constituency organisations supportive of Home Rule for Ireland from 1874 to 1922...
, replacing the Home Rule League
Home Rule League
The Home Rule League, sometimes called the Home Rule Party, was a political party which campaigned for home rule for the country of Ireland from 1873 to 1882, when it was replaced by the Irish Parliamentary Party.-Origins:...
, as official parliamentary party for Irish nationalist Members of Parliament (MPs) elected to the House of Commons at Westminster
Palace of Westminster
The Palace of Westminster, also known as the Houses of Parliament or Westminster Palace, is the meeting place of the two houses of the Parliament of the United Kingdom—the House of Lords and the House of Commons...
within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was the formal name of the United Kingdom during the period when what is now the Republic of Ireland formed a part of it....
up until 1918. Its central objectives were legislative independence for Ireland and land reform. Its constitutional movement was instrumental in laying the groundwork for Irish self-government through three Irish Home Rule bills.
Severing the union
The IPP evolved out of the Home Rule LeagueHome Rule League
The Home Rule League, sometimes called the Home Rule Party, was a political party which campaigned for home rule for the country of Ireland from 1873 to 1882, when it was replaced by the Irish Parliamentary Party.-Origins:...
founded by Isaac Butt
Isaac Butt
Isaac Butt Q.C. M.P. was an Irish barrister, politician, Member of Parliament , and the founder and first leader of a number of Irish nationalist parties and organisations, including the Irish Metropolitan Conservative Society in 1836, the Home Government Association in 1870 and in 1873 the Home...
after he defected from the Irish Conservative Party
Irish Conservative Party
The Irish Conservative Party, often called the Irish Tories, was one of the dominant Irish political parties in Ireland in the 19th century...
in 1873, to gain a limited form of freedom from Britain
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was the formal name of the United Kingdom during the period when what is now the Republic of Ireland formed a part of it....
in order to protect and control Irish domestic affairs in the interest of the Protestant landlord class, after William Ewart Gladstone
William Ewart Gladstone
William Ewart Gladstone FRS FSS was a British Liberal statesman. In a career lasting over sixty years, he served as Prime Minister four separate times , more than any other person. Gladstone was also Britain's oldest Prime Minister, 84 years old when he resigned for the last time...
and his Liberal Party
Liberal Party (UK)
The Liberal Party was one of the two major political parties of the United Kingdom during the 19th and early 20th centuries. It was a third party of negligible importance throughout the latter half of the 20th Century, before merging with the Social Democratic Party in 1988 to form the present day...
came to power in 1868 under his slogan Justice for Ireland, when Irish Liberals gained 65 of the 105 Irish seats at Westminster. Gladstone said his mission was to pacify Ireland and with the Irish Church Act 1869 began with the disestablishment of the Anglican Church of Ireland
Church of Ireland
The Church of Ireland is an autonomous province of the Anglican Communion. The church operates in all parts of Ireland and is the second largest religious body on the island after the Roman Catholic Church...
whose members were a minority who made all political decisions in Ireland and would have largely voted Conservative
Conservative Party (UK)
The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...
. He also introduced his first land bill which led to the First Irish Land Act 1870
Irish Land Acts
The Land Acts were a series of measures to deal with the question of peasant proprietorship of land in Ireland in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Five such acts were introduced by the government of the United Kingdom between 1870 and 1909...
, implementing limited tenant rights, thereby infringing on the powers of the Irish landlords to indiscriminately evict tenant farmers. At first the Catholic hierarchy supported Gladstone supervising Irish affairs, hoping to gain financial aid for a Catholic University. But his educational programme of 1873 did not provide for a denominational university.
The Home Government Association
Home Government Association
The Home Government Association was a pressure group founded by Isaac Butt in 1870 in support of home rule for Ireland.Its inaugural public meeting was held on 1 September 1870.It became the Home Rule League in 1873....
adopted educational issues and land reform into its programme, the hierarchy then favouring a Dublin based parliament. The increasing Catholic numbers within the association frightened off its Protestant, landlord element. The association was dissolved and Butt replaced it by the Home Rule League
Home Rule League
The Home Rule League, sometimes called the Home Rule Party, was a political party which campaigned for home rule for the country of Ireland from 1873 to 1882, when it was replaced by the Irish Parliamentary Party.-Origins:...
, formed after a conference in Dublin in November 1873. Gladstone unexpectedly called a new election in February 1874
United Kingdom general election, 1874
-Seats summary:-References:* F. W. S. Craig, British Electoral Facts: 1832-1987* British Electoral Facts 1832-1999, compiled and edited by Colin Rallings and Michael Thrasher *...
, which helped bring the League to the foreground. Since 1872 the Secret Ballots Act
Ballot Act 1872
The Ballot Act 1872 was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that introduced the requirement that parliamentary and local government elections in the United Kingdom be held by secret ballot.-Background:...
had been introduced, so that voting was to be done secretly for the first time from then on. The League put denominational education, land reform and release of political prisoners at the centre of the movement. It had difficulty finding reliable candidates to support its Home Rule issue, though succeeded in winning fifty-nine Irish seats, many with ex-Liberals.
Party inaugurated
After the election forty-six members assembled in Dublin and organised themselves into a separate Irish parliamentary party in the Commons. The political outlook appeared encouraging at first, but the party displayed no initiative to achieve anything, the Liberals and Gladstone having lost the election. Butt displayed lack of leadership, did not commit his party to anything. He made some excellent speeches but failed to persuade any of the major parties to support bills beneficial to Ireland, nothing worthwhile reaching the statute books.A minor group of impatient young Irish members, the genuine "Home-Rulers" distanced themselves from Butt’s lack of assertiveness and led by Charles Stewart Parnell, Joseph Biggar
Joseph Biggar
Joseph Gillis Biggar , commonly known as Joe Biggar or J. G. Biggar, was an Irish nationalist politician from Belfast...
, John O'Connor Power
John O'Connor Power
John O'Connor Power was an Irish Fenian and a Home Rule League and Irish Parliamentary Party politician and as MP in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland represented Mayo from June 1874 to 1885...
, Edmund Dwyer Gray
Edmund Dwyer Gray (Irish politician)
Edmund Dwyer Gray was an Irish newspaper proprietor, politician and MP in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland...
, Frank Hugh O'Donnell
Frank Hugh O'Donnell
Frank Hugh O'Donnell , born Francis Hugh MacDonald was an Irish writer, journalist and nationalist politician.-Early life:...
and John Dillon
John Dillon
John Dillon was an Irish land reform agitator from Dublin, an Irish Home Rule activist, a nationalist politician, a Member of Parliament for over 35 years, and the last leader of the Irish Parliamentary Party....
, some of whom had close connections with the Fenian
Fenian
The Fenians , both the Fenian Brotherhood and Irish Republican Brotherhood , were fraternal organisations dedicated to the establishment of an independent Irish Republic in the 19th and early 20th century. The name "Fenians" was first applied by John O'Mahony to the members of the Irish republican...
movement, adopted the method of parliamentary "obstructionism
Obstructionism
Obstructionism is the practice of deliberately delaying or preventing a process or change, especially in politics.-As workplace aggression:An obstructionist causes problems. Neuman and Baron identify obstructionism as one of the three dimensions that encompass the range of workplace aggression...
" during 1876-77, to snap Westminster out of its complacency towards Ireland by proposing amendments to almost every bill and making lengthy overnight speeches. This did not bring Home Rule closer but helped to revitalise the Irish party. Butt consider obstructionism a threat to democracy, its greatest benefit undoubtedly that it helped bring Parnell to the fore of the political scene. An internal struggle began between Butt’s majority and Parnell’s minority leading to a rift in the party, Parnell determined to obtain control of the Home Rule League.
Land-war mainspring
Parnell first worked successfully to have FeniansIrish Republican Brotherhood
The Irish Republican Brotherhood was a secret oath-bound fraternal organisation dedicated to the establishment of an "independent democratic republic" in Ireland during the second half of the 19th century and the start of the 20th century...
who missed out on Gladstone’s earlier amnesty freed, including Michael Davitt
Michael Davitt
Michael Davitt was an Irish republican and nationalist agrarian agitator, a social campaigner, labour leader, journalist, Home Rule constitutional politician and Member of Parliament , who founded the Irish National Land League.- Early years :Michael Davitt was born in Straide, County Mayo,...
, who was very impressed by Parnell. After his release in 1877, Davitt travelled to America
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
to meet John Devoy
John Devoy
John Devoy was an Irish rebel leader and exile.-Early life:Devoy was born near Kill, County Kildare. In 1861 he travelled to France with an introduction from T. D. Sullivan to John Mitchel...
, the leading Irish-American Fenian and raise funds. During 1878 Parnell also met with leading members of the Irish American Fenians. In October Devoy agreed to a New Departure
New Departure (Ireland)
The term New Departure has been used to describe several initiatives in the late 19th century where Irish republicans, who were committed to independence from Britain through use of physical force, attempted to find a common ground for cooperation with groups committed to Irish Home Rule through...
of separating militancy from the constitutional movement in order to further its path to Home Rule. Throughout 1879 Parnell continued to campaign for land reform and when Davitt founded the Irish National Land League
Irish National Land League
The Irish Land League was an Irish political organization of the late 19th century which sought to help poor tenant farmers. Its primary aim was to abolish landlordism in Ireland and enable tenant farmers to own the land they worked on...
in October 1879 Parnell was elected president, but did not take control of it, favouring to continue to hold mass meetings. Isaac Butt died of strain later that year and Parnell held back in grabbing control of the party. Instead he too travelled to America with John Dillon
John Dillon
John Dillon was an Irish land reform agitator from Dublin, an Irish Home Rule activist, a nationalist politician, a Member of Parliament for over 35 years, and the last leader of the Irish Parliamentary Party....
on a fund raising mission for political purposes and to relieve distress in Ireland after a world economic depression slumped the sale of agricultural produce.
At the general election of April 1880
United Kingdom general election, 1880
-Seats summary:-References:*F. W. S. Craig, British Electoral Facts: 1832-1987* British Electoral Facts 1832-1999, compiled and edited by Colin Rallings and Michael Thrasher *...
, sixty-four Home Rulers were elected, twenty-seven Parnell supporters, facilitating in May his nomination as leader of a divided Home Rule Party and of a country on the brink of a land war. He immediately understood that supporting land agitation was a means to achieving his objective of self-government. The Conservatives
Conservative Party (UK)
The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...
under Disraeli had been defeated in the election and Gladstone was again Prime Minister. He attempted to defuse the land question with Balfour
Arthur Balfour
Arthur James Balfour, 1st Earl of Balfour, KG, OM, PC, DL was a British Conservative politician and statesman...
’s dual ownership Second Land Act of 1881 which failed to eliminate tenant evictions. Parnell and his party lieutenants, William O'Brien
William O'Brien
William O'Brien was an Irish nationalist, journalist, agrarian agitator, social revolutionary, politician, party leader, newspaper publisher, author and Member of Parliament in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland...
, John Dillon, Michael Davitt, Willie Redmond
William Hoey Kearney Redmond
William Hoey Kearney Redmond was an Irish nationalist politician. He was a Member of Parliament in the Irish Parliamentary Party for 34 years, a land reform agitator imprisoned three times, a determined advocate of Irish Home Rule, a barrister and a First World War fatality.-Family background:He...
, went into a bitter verbal offensive and were imprisoned in October 1881 under the Irish Coercion Act
Irish Coercion Act
The Protection of Person and Property Act 1881 was one of more than 100 Coercion Acts passed by the Parliament of United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland between 1801 and 1922, in an attempt to establish law and order in Ireland. The 1881 Act was passed by parliament and introduced by...
in Kilmainham Jail for "sabotaging the Land Act", from where the No-Rent Manifesto was issued calling for a national tenant farmer rent strike
Rent strike
A rent strike is a method of protest commonly employed against large landlords. In a rent strike, a group of tenants come together and agree to refuse to pay their rent en masse until a specific list of demands is met by the landlord...
which was partially followed. Although the League discouraged violence, agrarian crimes increased widely.
Truce and treaty
In April 1882 Parnell moved to make a deal with the government. The settlement involved withdrawing the manifesto and undertaking to move against agrarian crime, seeing militancy would never win Home Rule. The so-called Kilmainham TreatyKilmainham Treaty
The Kilmainham Treaty was an agreement reached in May 1882 between the United Kingdom Government under William Ewart Gladstone and the Irish nationalist leader Charles Stewart Parnell...
, a truce not dissimilar to truces to follow, marked a critical turning point in Parnell’s leadership, though it resulted in losing the support of Devoy’s American-Irish. However, his political diplomacy preserved the national Home Rule movement after the Phoenix Park Murders
Phoenix Park Murders
The Phoenix Park Murders were the fatal stabbings on 6 May 1882 in the Phoenix Park in Dublin of Lord Frederick Cavendish and Thomas Henry Burke. Cavendish was the newly appointed Chief Secretary for Ireland, and Burke was the Permanent Undersecretary, the most senior Irish civil servant...
in May of the Chief Secretary for Ireland
Chief Secretary for Ireland
The Chief Secretary for Ireland was a key political office in the British administration in Ireland. Nominally subordinate to the Lord Lieutenant, from the late 18th century until the end of British rule he was effectively the government minister with responsibility for governing Ireland; usually...
and his Under Secretary. For the next twenty years Fenians and physical-force militancy ceased to play a role in Irish politics.
With the Land League suppressed and internally fracturing, Parnell resurrected it in October as the Irish National League (INL). It combined moderate agrarianism, a Home Rule programme with electoral functions. It was hierarchical and autocratic in structure with Parnell wielding immense authority and direct parliamentary control. Parliamentary constitutionalism was the future path. The informal alliance between the new, tightly disciplined National League and the Catholic Church was one of the main factors for the revitalisation of the national Home Rule cause after 1882. Parnell saw that the explicit endorsement of Catholicism was of vital importance to the success of this venture. At the end of 1882 the organisation already had 232 branches, in 1885 increased to 592 branches. He left the day-to-day running of the League in the hands of his lieutenants Timothy Harrington as Secretary, William O’Brien editor of its newspaper United Ireland and Timothy Healy
Timothy Michael Healy
Timothy Michael Healy, KC , also known as Tim Healy, was an Irish nationalist politician, journalist, author, barrister and one of the most controversial Irish Members of Parliament in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland...
.
Parnellism reigns
The result of these reforms and reorganisation were fully reflected in the first general election of November–December 1885United Kingdom general election, 1885
-Seats summary:-See also:*List of MPs elected in the United Kingdom general election, 1885*Parliamentary Franchise in the United Kingdom 1885–1918*Representation of the People Act 1884*Redistribution of Seats Act 1885-References:...
with extended suffrage under the 1884 Reform Act. The Reform Act had increased from 220,000 to 500,000 the number of Irishmen who had a right to vote, many of whom were small farmers. The election increased the total Irish Party representation from sixty three to eighty-five seats, which included seventeen in Ulster. In January 1886 the INL had developed to 1,262 branches and could claim to contain the vast body of Irish Catholic public sentiment. It acted not merely as an electoral committee for the Irish Party, but as local law-giver, unofficial parliament, government, police and supreme court. Parnell’s personal authority in the organisation was enormous. The INL was a formidable political machine built in the traditional political culture of rural Ireland. It was an alliance of tenant-farmers, shopkeepers and publicans. No one could stand against it. After another Reform Act in 1884
Representation of the People Act 1884
In the United Kingdom, the Representation of the People Act 1884 and the Redistribution Act of the following year were laws which further extended the suffrage in Britain after the Disraeli Government's Reform Act 1867...
, the IPP emerged from the 1885 General Election
United Kingdom general election, 1885
-Seats summary:-See also:*List of MPs elected in the United Kingdom general election, 1885*Parliamentary Franchise in the United Kingdom 1885–1918*Representation of the People Act 1884*Redistribution of Seats Act 1885-References:...
holding the balance of power. However, the Liberal Party split on the issue of Irish Home Rule, leading to another general election in 1886
United Kingdom general election, 1886
-Seats summary:-See also:*MPs elected in the UK general election, 1886*The Parliamentary Franchise in the United Kingdom 1885-1918-References:*F. W. S. Craig, British Electoral Facts: 1832-1987**...
in which the Conservatives were the largest party and were enabled to form a minority government by the fragment of Liberalism opposed to Home Rule, the Liberal Unionist Party
Liberal Unionist Party
The Liberal Unionist Party was a British political party that was formed in 1886 by a faction that broke away from the Liberal Party. Led by Lord Hartington and Joseph Chamberlain, the party formed a political alliance with the Conservative Party in opposition to Irish Home Rule...
.
Unusually, the party even secured a seat in the English city of Liverpool
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...
, where T. P. O'Connor
T. P. O'Connor
Thomas Power O'Connor , known as T. P. O'Connor and occasionally as Tay Pay, was a journalist, an Irish nationalist political figure, and a Member of Parliament in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland for nearly fifty years.-Biography:O'Connor was born in...
won the Liverpool Scotland
Liverpool Scotland (UK Parliament constituency)
Liverpool Scotland was a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elected one Member of Parliament by the first past the post system of election....
seat in 1885 and retained it in every election until his death in 1929 - even after the demise of the actual party (O'Connor being returned unopposed in the elections of 1918, 1922, 1923, 1924, and 1929).
Parnell’s new Irish Parliamentary Party emerged swiftly as a tightly disciplined, and on the whole, energetic body of parliamentarians with strict rules. The inauguration of the ‘party pledge’ in 1884 decisively reinforced that each member was required to sit, act and vote with the party, one of the first instances of a whip
Whip (politics)
A whip is an official in a political party whose primary purpose is to ensure party discipline in a legislature. Whips are a party's "enforcers", who typically offer inducements and threaten punishments for party members to ensure that they vote according to the official party policy...
(Richard Power
Richard Power (Irish politician)
Richard Power was an Irish nationalist politician and MP in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and as member of the Home Rule League and the Irish Parliamentary Party represented Waterford City from February 6, 1874 until his death at the early age of 40, in...
) in western politics. The members were also paid stipends, or expense allowances from party funds, which helped both to increase parliamentary turnout and enabled middle-class members such as William O’Brien or later D. D. Sheehan
D. D. Sheehan
Daniel Desmond Sheehan, usually known as D. D. Sheehan was an Irish nationalist, politician, labour leader, journalist, barrister and author...
attend parliament, long before other MPs first received state pay in 1911. The profiles of the 105 Irish MPs had changed considerably since 1868 when 69% were landlords or landlords’ sons, reduced to 47% by 1874. Those with professional background increased from 10% to 23% in the same period, by the early 1890s professionals exceeding 50%.
Home Rule delayed
Now at his height Parnell pressed Gladstone to resolve the Irish QuestionIrish question
The Irish Question was a phrase used mainly by members of the British ruling classes from the early 19th century until the 1920s. It was used to describe Irish nationalism and the calls for Irish independence....
with Home Rule, but the Liberals were divided. Parnell then sided with the Conservatives, bringing down Gladstone’s government. Both parties now courted Parnell. In the 1885 general election
United Kingdom general election, 1885
-Seats summary:-See also:*List of MPs elected in the United Kingdom general election, 1885*Parliamentary Franchise in the United Kingdom 1885–1918*Representation of the People Act 1884*Redistribution of Seats Act 1885-References:...
Parnell’s IPP Home Rulers had 86 seats, the 335 seats for the Liberals robbing him of his bargaining position with the Conservatives who only achieved 249 seats. Gladstone by now converted to granting Home Rule, on introducing the first Home Rule Bill 1886 and after a long and fierce debate, made a remarkable Home Rule Speech, beseeching parliament to pass the bill which was however defeated by 341 to 311 votes.The Bill caused serious riots in Belfast
1886 Belfast riots
The 1886 Belfast riots were a series of intense riots that occurred in Belfast during the summer and autumn of 1886.-Background:In the late 19th century Catholics began to migrate in large numbers to the prosperous Protestant city of Belfast in search of work. By the time of the riots Catholics...
during the summer and autumn of 1886 in which many were killed.
Since 1882 Parnell’s successful drive for Home Rule created great anxiety amongst Protestants and Unionists north and south alike, fearing Catholic intolerance
Rome Rule
"Rome Rule" was a term used by Irish unionists and socialists to describe the belief that the Roman Catholic Church would gain political control over their interests with the passage of a Home Rule Bill...
from a nationalist parliament in Dublin under their control. It resulted in the revival of the Orange Order to resist Home Rule and the forming of an Irish Unionist Party
Irish Unionist Party
The Irish Unionist Alliance was a Unionist party founded in Ireland in 1891 to oppose plans for Gladstonian and Parnellite Home Rule for Ireland. The party was led for much of its life by Colonel Edward James Saunderson and later by the William St John Brodrick, Earl of Midleton...
. With the Conservatives playing the "Ulster card" and sections of the Liberal faction voting against the bill, Gladstone hinted that eventually a separate solution for Ulster might need to be sought. His observation echoed far into the next century. With the defeat of his bill he dissolved parliament and called an election for July 1886
United Kingdom general election, 1886
-Seats summary:-See also:*MPs elected in the UK general election, 1886*The Parliamentary Franchise in the United Kingdom 1885-1918-References:*F. W. S. Craig, British Electoral Facts: 1832-1987**...
, the result swinging in the other direction, Conservatives and Liberal Unionists between them winning a clear majority.
The Irish Party retained 85 seats and, in the years up to 1889, centred itself around the formidable figure of Parnell who continued to pursue Home Rule, striving to reassure English voters that it would be of no threat to them. During this period the National League was out of contact with him and primarily concerned with its own vested interests, keeping up local agitation to further the not fully resolved land question, and bringing Liberal voters to slowly increase their support for Home Rule.
Zenith eclipse
Parnell successfully exposed a devious Conservative intrigue to associate him and his party with crime and violence through forged "Pigott Papers" from which he was vindicated in February 1890. Gladstone invited Parnell to his house to discuss a renewed Home Rule bill. This was the high point of Parnell’s career. However, since 1880 he had had a family relationship with a separated woman Katharine O'Shea who bore him three children. Her divorce proceedings first came to court late in 1890, in which Parnell was named co-respondent. This was a political scandal for English Victorian society
Victorian era
The Victorian era of British history was the period of Queen Victoria's reign from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. It was a long period of peace, prosperity, refined sensibilities and national self-confidence...
. Gladstone reacted by informing Parnell that if he were re-elected leader of the Irish Party, Home Rule would be withdrawn. Parnell did not disclose this to his party and was selected leader on 25 November.
A special meeting of the party a week later lasted six days at the end of which 45 "anti-Parnellites" walked out, leaving him with 27 faithful followers, J. J. Clancy
J. J. Clancy (MP)
John Joseph Clancy , usually known as J. J. Clancy, was an Irish nationalist politician and Member of Parliament for North County Dublin from 1885 to 1918, one of the leaders of the later Irish Home Rule movement and promoter of the Housing of the Working Classes Act 1908, known as the Clancy Act...
one of his key defenders. Both sides returned to Ireland to organise their supporters into two parties, the former Parnellite Irish National League (INL) under John Redmond
John Redmond
John Edward Redmond was an Irish nationalist politician, barrister, MP in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and leader of the Irish Parliamentary Party from 1900 to 1918...
and John Dillon’s anti-Parnellite Irish National Federation
Irish National Federation
The Irish National Federation was a nationalist political party in Ireland. It was founded in March 1891 by former members of the Irish National League who had left the Irish Parliamentary Party in protest when Charles Stewart Parnell refused to resign the party leadership as a result of his...
(INF). By-elections in 1891 were fought with bitter venom by the INF anti-Parnellites, Dillon and Healy making extremely personal attacks on Parnell. The INF was also supported by the Catholic clergy who went to aggressive extremes to ensure that INF candidates were returned.
Parnell worked untiringly between Ireland and Britain making speeches for support which he actually got from the (IRB) Fenians who rallied to him. He was married in June 1891 to Mrs O’Shea. After an election tour in the west of Ireland, his health deteriorated seriously, dying in October in their Brighton home. His funeral in Dublin was attended by 200,000 people. In his speeches he was convinced of an Ireland completely separated from Britain, but was ambiguous, never committing himself nor distancing himself, from the use of physical-force.
Party divided
In the 1892 general electionUnited Kingdom general election, 1892
The 1892 United Kingdom general election was held from 4 July to 26 July 1892. It saw the Conservatives, led by Lord Salisbury, win the greatest number of seats, but not enough for an overall majority as William Ewart Gladstone's Liberals won many more seats than in the 1886 general election...
that followed, Redmond’s
John Redmond
John Edward Redmond was an Irish nationalist politician, barrister, MP in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and leader of the Irish Parliamentary Party from 1900 to 1918...
Parnellites won a third of the votes but only nine seats, the anti-Parnellites returned 72 MPs divided between Dillonites and a fragmented minority of six Healyites
Healyite Nationalist
The Healyite Nationalists were Irish Nationalist politicians who supported Timothy Healy MP.Healy was the most outspoken member of the anti-Parnellite majority in the Irish Parliamentary Party...
- the People's Rights Association. Gladstone and the Liberals were again in power, the divided Home Rulers holding the balance of power. He brought in his promised second Home Rule Bill in 1893. It was master-handled through three readings of the Commons by William O’Brien and passed in September by 301 votes to 267, during which Unionist conventions called in Dublin and Belfast to oppose the bill, denounced the possibility of partition. A week later 419 peers in the Lords
House of Lords
The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster....
rejected it, only 41 supporting. Gladstone retired in 1894.
The Conservatives and Liberal Unionists returned to power in the 1895 general election
United Kingdom general election, 1895
The United Kingdom general election of 1895 was held from 13 July - 7 August 1895. It was won by the Conservatives led by Lord Salisbury who formed an alliance with the Liberal Unionist Party and had a large majority over the Liberals, led by Lord Rosebery...
, remaining in office until 1905. During those years Home Rule was not on their agenda. Instead, with Arthur Balfour
Arthur Balfour
Arthur James Balfour, 1st Earl of Balfour, KG, OM, PC, DL was a British Conservative politician and statesman...
’s Constructive Unionism approach to settling the Irish Question they enacted many important reforms introduced by the Irish members, who, on the other hand, made no effort to settle their party differences. This bred apathy amongst the Irish public towards politics, much needed financial contributions from America ebbing away. In this period of political disarray and disunity of purpose young Irish nationalists turned instead to the country’s’ new cultural and militant movements, enabling the Church to fill the political vacuum.
The unresolved land reform situation was again the mainspring for renewed political activity. William O’Brien had withdrawn from parliament to Mayo and in 1898, driven by the plight of the farming community’s need for more land, formed together with Davitt a new land movement, the United Irish League
United Irish League
The United Irish League was a nationalist political party in Ireland, launched 23 January 1898 with the motto "The Land for the People" . Its objective to be achieved through agrarian agitation and land reform, compelling larger grazier farmers to surrender their lands for redistribution amongst...
(UIL). It quickly spread first in the west, the following year nation-wide like the old Land League and attracted members from all factions of the two split parties, O’Brien threatening to displace them and take them both over.
Reconstruction
The outbreak of the Second Boer WarSecond Boer War
The Second Boer War was fought from 11 October 1899 until 31 May 1902 between the British Empire and the Afrikaans-speaking Dutch settlers of two independent Boer republics, the South African Republic and the Orange Free State...
in 1899 was condemned by both Irish factions, their combined opposition helped to bring about a measure of understanding between them. By 1900 the threat of O’Brien swamping and out-manoeuvring them at the upcoming elections forced the two divided parties, the INL and the INF, to re-unite. He was the prime mover in merging them under a new programme of agrarian agitation, political reform and Home Rule into a new united Irish Parliamentary Party. Redmond, leader of the smaller INL group, was chosen as its leader mainly due to the personal rivalries between the INF's Anti-Parnellite leaders. After the party returned 77 MPs in the September 1900 general election
United Kingdom general election, 1900
-Seats summary:-See also:*MPs elected in the United Kingdom general election, 1900*The Parliamentary Franchise in the United Kingdom 1885-1918-External links:***-References:*F. W. S. Craig, British Electoral Facts: 1832-1987**...
a period of considerable political development followed.
The UIL, explicitly designed to reconcile the fragmented party, was accepted as the parliamentary nationalist’s main support organisation, with which O’Brien intensified his campaign of agrarian agitation. Encouraged by the Chief Secretary George Wyndham
George Wyndham
George Wyndham PC was a British Conservative politician, man of letters, noted for his elegance, and one of The Souls.-Background and education:...
and initiated by moderate landlords led by Lord Dunraven the December 1902 Land Reform Conference
Land Conference
The Land Conference was a successful conciliatory negotiation held in the Mansion House in Dublin, Ireland between 20 December 1902 and 4 January 1903. In a short period it produced a unanimously agreed report recommending an amiable solution to the long waged land war between tenant farmers and...
followed, which successfully aimed at a settlement by conciliatory agreement between landlord and tenant. O'Brien, Redmond, T. W. Russell (who spoke for Ulster tenant-farmers) and Timothy Harrington represented the tenant side. Its outcome became the basis for O’Brien orchestrating the unprecedented Wyndham Land Purchase Act (1903) through parliament, which abolished landlordism
Absentee landlord
Absentee landlord is an economic term for a person who owns and rents out a profit-earning property, but does not live within the property's local economic region. This practice is problematic for that region because absentee landlords drain local wealth into their home country, particularly that...
, enabling tenant farmers buy out their landlord’s land at favourable annuities, settling the age-old Irish land question
Irish Land Acts
The Land Acts were a series of measures to deal with the question of peasant proprietorship of land in Ireland in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Five such acts were introduced by the government of the United Kingdom between 1870 and 1909...
.
Renewed rift
This masterful strategy of bringing about agreement on land purchase between tenants and landlords under the Act, though supported by Redmond, was condemned by Dillon who strongly opposed negotiations with landlords and by Davitt who equally opposed peasant proprietorship, demanding land nationalisation. Both campaigned against O’Brien, ferociously attacking him for putting Land Purchase and Conciliation before Home Rule. Alienated from the party, O’Brien resigned in November 1903, engaging with the Irish Reform AssociationIrish Reform Association
The Irish Reform Association was an attempt to introduce limited devolved self-government to Ireland by a group of reform oriented Irish unionist land owners who proposed to initially adopt something less than full Home Rule...
, again viciously attacked by Dillon. O'Brien's UIL then taken over by Dillon’s protégé and ally, Joseph Devlin
Joseph Devlin
Joseph Devlin, also known as Joe Devlin, was an Irish journalist and influential nationalist politician...
, a young Belfast MP, as its new secretary. Devlin had founded a decade earlier the Catholic sectarian neo-Ribbon
Ribbonism
Ribbonism, whose adherents were usually called Ribbonmen, was a 19th century popular movement of Catholics in Ireland. It was active against landlords and their agents, and was ideologically and sometimes violently opposed to the Orange Order.-History:...
Ancient Order of Hibernians
Ancient Order of Hibernians
The Ancient Order of Hibernians is an Irish Catholic fraternal organization. Members must be Catholic and either Irish born or of Irish descent. Its largest membership is now in the United States, where it was founded in New York City in 1836...
(AOH), organising its rise first in Ulster and after he had control of the UIL, eventually across the south, largely displacing the UIL. The Irish Party came to have an increasing dependence on the AOH, though the party's attempts to crush out Healyite
Healyite Nationalist
The Healyite Nationalists were Irish Nationalist politicians who supported Timothy Healy MP.Healy was the most outspoken member of the anti-Parnellite majority in the Irish Parliamentary Party...
and O'Brienite
All-for-Ireland League
The All-for-Ireland League , was an Irish, Munster-based political party . Founded by William O'Brien MP, it generated a new national movement to achieve agreement between the different parties concerned on the historically difficult aim of Home Rule for the whole of Ireland...
'factionism' were carried out through its national organisation, the UIL.
The 1906 general election
United Kingdom general election, 1906
-Seats summary:-See also:*MPs elected in the United Kingdom general election, 1906*The Parliamentary Franchise in the United Kingdom 1885-1918-External links:***-References:*F. W. S. Craig, British Electoral Facts: 1832-1987**...
saw the Liberals back in power with 379 seats, an overwhelming majority of 88 over all other parties, after they had promised Home Rule. Redmond’s
John Redmond
John Edward Redmond was an Irish nationalist politician, barrister, MP in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and leader of the Irish Parliamentary Party from 1900 to 1918...
IPP now with 82 seats, at first delighted until the Liberals backed down on Home Rule, knowing it had no chance in the Lords. The IPP rift with O’Brien deepened after he guided the Bryce
James Bryce, 1st Viscount Bryce
James Bryce, 1st Viscount Bryce OM, GCVO, PC, FRS, FBA was a British academic, jurist, historian and Liberal politician.-Background and education:...
Labourers Act through parliament, which provided large scale government funding for a programme of extensive rural social housing. In the following five years over 40,000 labourer owned cottages standing on an acre of land and purchases at low annual annuities, were erected by Local County Councils. The Act, and the follow-on Birrell Labourers Act of 1911, housed over a quarter of a million rural labourers and their families and thereby transformed the Irish countryside.
In 1907 Richard Hazleton
Richard Hazleton
Richard Hazleton was an Irish nationalist politician of the Irish Parliamentary Party. He was Member of Parliament for North Galway from 1906 to 1918, taking his seat in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.-Early life:The son of Thomas Hazleton, of Dungannon...
became the new party secretary. O'Brien rejoined the party again that year for the sake of unity, but was soon to be driven out by the party’s vigorous militant support organisation, Devlin’s "Hibernians", after which O’Brien founded his own political party in 1909, the All-for-Ireland League
All-for-Ireland League
The All-for-Ireland League , was an Irish, Munster-based political party . Founded by William O'Brien MP, it generated a new national movement to achieve agreement between the different parties concerned on the historically difficult aim of Home Rule for the whole of Ireland...
(AFIL).
Notable legislation
During the previous years many notable Acts of social legislation were pressed for and passed in Ireland’s interest:- The creation of the Congested Districts BoardCongested Districts Board for IrelandThe Congested Districts Board for Ireland was established by the Chief Secretary, Arthur Balfour in 1891 to alleviate poverty and "congested" living conditions in the west of Ireland....
in 1891, which built public works for, and provided employment in, the poor districts of western Ireland. - The extensive 1898 Local Government ActLocal Government (Ireland) Act 1898The Local Government Act 1898 was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that established a system of local government in Ireland similar to that already created for England, Wales and Scotland by legislation in 1888 and 1889...
abolished the old landlord-dominated Grand Juries and replaced them by forty-nine county, urban and rural district councils, managed by Irish people for the administration of local affairs. The councils were very popular in Ireland as they established a political class, who showed themselves capable of running Irish affairs. It also stimulated the desire to attain Home Rule and to manage affairs on a national level. A less positive consequence was that the councils were largely dominated by the Irish Party, becoming the wielders of local patronage. - Irish Department of Agriculture Act and Technical Instructors Act (1899) (initiative of Horace Plunkett)
- Tenant Land Purchase Acts: (WyndhamGeorge WyndhamGeorge Wyndham PC was a British Conservative politician, man of letters, noted for his elegance, and one of The Souls.-Background and education:...
Act 1903 and BirrellAugustine BirrellAugustine Birrell PC, KC was an English politician, barrister, academic and author. He was Chief Secretary for Ireland from 1907 to 1916, resigning in the immediate aftermath of the Easter Rising.-Early life:...
Act 1909) (the O'BrienWilliam O'BrienWilliam O'Brien was an Irish nationalist, journalist, agrarian agitator, social revolutionary, politician, party leader, newspaper publisher, author and Member of Parliament in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland...
Acts), contributing greatly to the solution of the contentious land question - Labourers (Ireland) Acts (BryceJames Bryce, 1st Viscount BryceJames Bryce, 1st Viscount Bryce OM, GCVO, PC, FRS, FBA was a British academic, jurist, historian and Liberal politician.-Background and education:...
Act 1906 and Birrell Act 1911) (the SheehanD. D. SheehanDaniel Desmond Sheehan, usually known as D. D. Sheehan was an Irish nationalist, politician, labour leader, journalist, barrister and author...
Acts), providing rural labourers with extensive housing - Town Tenants Act (1906)
- Evicted Tenants Act (1907)
- Old Age Pensions Act (1908)
- Irish (Catholic) University Act (1908)
- Housing of the Working Classes (Ireland) Act (1908) (the ClancyJ. J. Clancy (MP)John Joseph Clancy , usually known as J. J. Clancy, was an Irish nationalist politician and Member of Parliament for North County Dublin from 1885 to 1918, one of the leaders of the later Irish Home Rule movement and promoter of the Housing of the Working Classes Act 1908, known as the Clancy Act...
Act)
Home Rule succeeds
Following the January 1910 general election a second December 1910 general election was called, in which the LiberalsLiberal Party (UK)
The Liberal Party was one of the two major political parties of the United Kingdom during the 19th and early 20th centuries. It was a third party of negligible importance throughout the latter half of the 20th Century, before merging with the Social Democratic Party in 1988 to form the present day...
lost their majority, and became dependent on the Irish (IPP and AFIL) Party's 84 seats, as well as Labour's. Redmond
John Redmond
John Edward Redmond was an Irish nationalist politician, barrister, MP in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and leader of the Irish Parliamentary Party from 1900 to 1918...
, holding the balance of power in the Commons, renewed the old "Liberal Alliance" this time with H. H. Asquith
H. H. Asquith
Herbert Henry Asquith, 1st Earl of Oxford and Asquith, KG, PC, KC served as the Liberal Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1908 to 1916...
as Prime Minister. For budget reasons, Asquith had no choice but to agree to a new Home Rule Bill and the removal of the veto power of the Lords. The passing of the Parliament Act 1911
Parliament Act 1911
The Parliament Act 1911 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It is constitutionally important and partly governs the relationship between the House of Commons and the House of Lords which make up the Houses of Parliament. This Act must be construed as one with the Parliament Act 1949...
limited the Lords to a two year delaying power and ensured that Redmond’s reward of a Government of Ireland Bill for the whole of Ireland introduced in 1912 would subsequently achieve national self-government in Dublin by 1914.
This prospect after 40 years of struggle was greeted optimistically, even when self-government was initially limited to running Irish affairs. But for Unionists, convinced the Union with the United Kingdom was economically best for Ireland, and for Protestants, now that Devlin’s paramilitary AOH organisation had saturated the entire island, fearing a Church dominated nationalist government, it was a disaster.
After the Bill passed its first readings in 1913, Ulster Unionists' opposition became a repeat scenario of events in 1886 and 1893, their leader Sir Edward Carson
Edward Carson, Baron Carson
Edward Henry Carson, Baron Carson PC, PC , Kt, QC , often known as Sir Edward Carson or Lord Carson, was a barrister, judge and politician from Ireland...
approving of an Ulster Volunteer militia to oppose Home Rule. Unionists and the Orange Order in mass demonstrations determined to ensure that Home Rule would not apply for them. Nationalists in turn formed their own armed group, the Irish Volunteers
Irish Volunteers
The Irish Volunteers was a military organisation established in 1913 by Irish nationalists. It was ostensibly formed in response to the formation of the Ulster Volunteers in 1912, and its declared primary aim was "to secure and maintain the rights and liberties common to the whole people of Ireland"...
to enforce Home Rule. The initiative for a series of meetings leading up to the public inauguration of the Volunteers came from the Irish Republican Brotherhood
Irish Republican Brotherhood
The Irish Republican Brotherhood was a secret oath-bound fraternal organisation dedicated to the establishment of an "independent democratic republic" in Ireland during the second half of the 19th century and the start of the 20th century...
(IRB). The Volunteers had 180,000 members by May 1914. Redmond, worried by the growth of nationalist mass movement outside the Party, quickly tried to take control of the Volunteers. He demanded and was given a position on its leadership council and rapidly filled its ranks with IPP supporters.
Unfortunately Redmond and his IPP nationalists, as later those who succeeded them in 1919, had little or no knowledge of Belfast, underestimating Unionist resistance as a bluff, insisting "Ulster will have to follow". William O’Brien who in 1893 worked closely on passing the Second Home Rule Bill, warned to no avail, that if adequate provisions were not made for Ulster, All-Ireland self-government would never be achieved.
The Bill was the centre of intense parliamentary debate and controversy throughout 1913–14 before it passed its final reading in May, denounced by the O’Brienite Party
All-for-Ireland League
The All-for-Ireland League , was an Irish, Munster-based political party . Founded by William O'Brien MP, it generated a new national movement to achieve agreement between the different parties concerned on the historically difficult aim of Home Rule for the whole of Ireland...
as a "partition deal" after Carson forced through an Amending Bill providing for the exclusion of Ulster, permanent or provisional to be negotiated, which ultimately led to the partition of Ireland. This was deeply resented among northern nationalists and southern unionists
Irish Unionist Party
The Irish Unionist Alliance was a Unionist party founded in Ireland in 1891 to oppose plans for Gladstonian and Parnellite Home Rule for Ireland. The party was led for much of its life by Colonel Edward James Saunderson and later by the William St John Brodrick, Earl of Midleton...
who felt themselves abandoned. The Third Home Rule Act 1914
Home Rule Act 1914
The Government of Ireland Act 1914 , also known as the Third Home Rule Bill, was an Act passed by the Parliament of the United Kingdom intended to provide self-government for Ireland within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.The Act was the first law ever passed by the Parliament of...
received Royal Assent in September 1914, celebrated with bonfires across southern Ireland.
Europe intervenes
The outbreak of World War IWorld War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
in August led to the suspension of the Home Rule Act for the duration of the war, expected to only last a year. Ireland's involvement in the war
Ireland and World War I
During World War I , Ireland was part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, which entered the war in August 1914 as one of the Entente Powers, along with France and Russia, when it declared war to halt the military expansion of the Central Powers, consisting of the German Empire, the...
defused the threat of civil war in Ireland and was to prove crucial to subsequent Irish history
History of Ireland
The first known settlement in Ireland began around 8000 BC, when hunter-gatherers arrived from continental Europe, probably via a land bridge. Few archaeological traces remain of this group, but their descendants and later Neolithic arrivals, particularly from the Iberian Peninsula, were...
. After neutral Belgium
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
had been overrun by Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, Redmond
John Redmond
John Edward Redmond was an Irish nationalist politician, barrister, MP in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and leader of the Irish Parliamentary Party from 1900 to 1918...
and his party leaders, in order to ensure Home Rule would be implemented after the war, called on the Irish Volunteers to support Britain’s war effort (her commitment under the Triple Entente
Triple Entente
The Triple Entente was the name given to the alliance among Britain, France and Russia after the signing of the Anglo-Russian Entente in 1907....
and the Allied cause
Allies of World War I
The Entente Powers were the countries at war with the Central Powers during World War I. The members of the Triple Entente were the United Kingdom, France, and the Russian Empire; Italy entered the war on their side in 1915...
).
The Volunteers split on the issue of support for the British and Allied war effort. The majority (over 142,000) forming the National Volunteers
National Volunteers
The National Volunteers was the name taken by the majority of the Irish Volunteers that sided with Irish Parliamentary Party leader John Redmond after the movement split over the question of the Volunteers' role in World War I.-Origins:...
, compared to roughly 10,000 who stayed with the original organisation. Though initially there was a surge in voluntary enlistment for the Irish regiments of the 10th (Irish) Division and the 16th (Irish) Division of Kitchener's New Service Army
Kitchener's Army
The New Army, often referred to as Kitchener's Army or, disparagingly, Kitchener's Mob, was an all-volunteer army formed in the United Kingdom following the outbreak of hostilities in the First World War...
formed for the war, the enthusiasm did not last.
Unlike their 36th (Ulster) Division counterparts and the Ulster Volunteers who manned it with their own trained military reserve officers, the southern Volunteers possessed no officers with previous military experience with the result that the War Office
War Office
The War Office was a department of the British Government, responsible for the administration of the British Army between the 17th century and 1964, when its functions were transferred to the Ministry of Defence...
had the 16th Division led by English
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
officers, which with the exception of Irish General William Hickie
William Bernard Hickie
Sir William Bernard Hickie was an Irish born Major General of the British Army and an Irish nationalist politician....
, and the fact that the division did not have its own specific uniforms, was an unpopular decision. The War Office also reacted with suspicion to Redmond’s remark that the Volunteers would soon return as an armed army to oppose Ulster’s resistance to Home Rule.
Around 24,000 of the National Volunteers did enlist but the remainder, or about 80% did not. Moreover the organisation declined due to lack of training and organisation as the war went on. "The resulting collapse of the National Volunteers presaged that of the Irish Party itself, though this was less obvious. Its support for the War was gradually revealed to be a major political encumbrance". The Under Secretary for Ireland
Under Secretary for Ireland
The Under-Secretary for Ireland was the permanent head of the British administration in Ireland prior to the establishment of the Irish Free State in 1922....
, Mathew Nathan, writing in November 1915, thought that Redmond's stance on the War ultimately cost him and his party their pre-eminent position in Irish life, "Redmond has been honestly imperial, but by going as far as he has, he has lost his position in the country"
When the war situation worsened, a new Conservative-Liberal coalition government was formed in June 1915. Redmond was offered a seat in its cabinet, which he declined. This was welcomed in Ireland but greatly weakened his position after his rival, unionist leader Carson accepted a cabinet post. As the war prolonged, the IPP’s image suffered from the horrific casualties in Gallipoli
Battle of Gallipoli
The Gallipoli Campaign, also known as the Dardanelles Campaign or the Battle of Gallipoli, took place at the peninsula of Gallipoli in the Ottoman Empire between 25 April 1915 and 9 January 1916, during the First World War...
and the Dardanelles as well as on the Western Front
Western Front (World War I)
Following the outbreak of World War I in 1914, the German Army opened the Western Front by first invading Luxembourg and Belgium, then gaining military control of important industrial regions in France. The tide of the advance was dramatically turned with the Battle of the Marne...
.
The party was taken by surprise by the Easter Rising
Easter Rising
The Easter Rising was an insurrection staged in Ireland during Easter Week, 1916. The Rising was mounted by Irish republicans with the aims of ending British rule in Ireland and establishing the Irish Republic at a time when the British Empire was heavily engaged in the First World War...
in April 1916, launched by the section of the Irish Volunteers who had remained in the original organisation. The Volunteers, infiltrated to a large degree by the separatist Irish Republican Brotherhood
Irish Republican Brotherhood
The Irish Republican Brotherhood was a secret oath-bound fraternal organisation dedicated to the establishment of an "independent democratic republic" in Ireland during the second half of the 19th century and the start of the 20th century...
, declared an Irish Republic
Irish Republic
The Irish Republic was a revolutionary state that declared its independence from Great Britain in January 1919. It established a legislature , a government , a court system and a police force...
and took over much of the centre of Dublin. The rebellion in Dublin was put down in a week of fighting with about 500 deaths. The manner in which British General Maxwell
John Maxwell (British Army officer)
General Sir John Grenfell Maxwell GCB, KCMG, CVO, DSO, PC was a British Army officer and colonial governor. He served in the Mahdist War in the Sudan, the Boer War, and in the First World War, but he is best known for his role in the suppression of the 1916 Easter Rising in Ireland and subsequent...
dealt with its leaders won sympathy for their cause. A total of 16 were shot within weeks of the Rising and another hanged several weeks later. The Rising began the decline of constitutional nationalism as represented by the IPP and the ascent of a more radical separatist form of Irish nationalism. John Redmond, protesting at the severity of the state's response to the Rising, wrote to Asquith, "if any more more executions take place, Ireland will become impossible for any Constitutional Party or leader".
Further problems for the party followed Asquith's abortive attempt to introduce Home Rule in July 1916 which failed on the threat of partition. Again Lloyd George
David Lloyd George
David Lloyd George, 1st Earl Lloyd-George of Dwyfor OM, PC was a British Liberal politician and statesman...
's initiative to disentangle the Home Rule deadlock after Redmond called the Irish Convention
Irish Convention
The Irish Convention was an assembly which sat in Dublin, Ireland from July 1917 until March 1918 to address the Irish Question and other constitutional problems relating to an early enactment of self-government for Ireland, to debate its wider future, discuss and come to an understanding on...
in June 1917, when Southern Unionists
Irish Unionist Party
The Irish Unionist Alliance was a Unionist party founded in Ireland in 1891 to oppose plans for Gladstonian and Parnellite Home Rule for Ireland. The party was led for much of its life by Colonel Edward James Saunderson and later by the William St John Brodrick, Earl of Midleton...
sided with Nationalists on the issue of Home Rule, ended unresolved due to Ulster
Ulster
Ulster is one of the four provinces of Ireland, located in the north of the island. In ancient Ireland, it was one of the fifths ruled by a "king of over-kings" . Following the Norman invasion of Ireland, the ancient kingdoms were shired into a number of counties for administrative and judicial...
resistance.
Crisis and change
Home Rule’s prominent figurehead John Redmond died in March 1918 at the close of the Convention, John Dillon taking over the IPP leadership. In April the German Spring OffensiveSpring Offensive
The 1918 Spring Offensive or Kaiserschlacht , also known as the Ludendorff Offensive, was a series of German attacks along the Western Front during World War I, beginning on 21 March 1918, which marked the deepest advances by either side since 1914...
overran the Allied front causing a severe manpower shortage which resulted in a clumsy cabinet dual policy decision by Lloyd George linking implementing Home Rule with extending conscription
Conscription
Conscription is the compulsory enlistment of people in some sort of national service, most often military service. Conscription dates back to antiquity and continues in some countries to the present day under various names...
to Ireland. The Irish party withdrew in protest from Westminster
Palace of Westminster
The Palace of Westminster, also known as the Houses of Parliament or Westminster Palace, is the meeting place of the two houses of the Parliament of the United Kingdom—the House of Lords and the House of Commons...
and returned to Ireland to join forces with other national organisations in massed anti-conscription demonstrations in Dublin. Although conscription was never enforced after America’s late intervention in the war guaranteed a supply of fresh troops, the threat of conscription radicalised Irish politics. Sinn Féin, the political arm of the Volunteer insurgents, had public opinion believe that they alone had prevented conscription.
The Irish party held its own and returned its candidates in by-elections up to the end of 1916, the last in the West-Cork by-election of October 1916. The tide then changed after it lost three by-elections in 1917 to the more physical-force republican Sinn Féin movement, which in the mean time had built up 1,500 organised clubs around Ireland and exceeded the strength of the old UIL
United Irish League
The United Irish League was a nationalist political party in Ireland, launched 23 January 1898 with the motto "The Land for the People" . Its objective to be achieved through agrarian agitation and land reform, compelling larger grazier farmers to surrender their lands for redistribution amongst...
, most of the latter members now joining the new movement. At the end of the war in November 1918 when elections were announced for the December general election, the Irish electorate of nearly two million had a threefold increase due to a new Representation of the People Act
Representation of the People Act 1918
The Representation of the People Act 1918 was an Act of Parliament passed to reform the electoral system in the United Kingdom. It is sometimes known as the Fourth Reform Act...
. Women were granted franchise for the first time (confined to those over thirty) and a vote to every male over twenty-one years of age. This increased the number of voters from 30% to 75% of all adults.
Decisive election
The Irish Parliamentary Party was for the first time confronted with double opponents from both Unionists and Sinn Féin (the Irish Labour Party agreed to abstain so as not to complicate matters for Sinn Féin by introducing socialist proposals). In the past the IPP only faced opposition from candidates at conventions within the Home Rule movement. It never had to compete a nation-wide election, so that the party branches and organisation had slowly declined. In most constituencies the new young local Sinn Féin organisation controlled the electoral scene well in advance of the election. As a result in 25 constituencies the IPP did not contest the seats, and Sinn Féin candidates were returned unopposed.Although elsewhere the Party's share of votes was over 21%, it lost practically all of its seats. This was due to the "first past the post" British electoral system. Votes cast for the IPP were 220,837 (21.7%) for merely 6 seats (down from 84 out of 105 seats in 1910). Sinn Féin votes were 476,087 (or 46.9%) for 48 seats, plus 25 uncontested totalling an impressive 73 seats. The IPP simply did not win a fair share of seats, as when the election had been run under a "proportional representation" system. Unionist (including Unionist Labour) votes were 305,206 (30.2%) – by which Unionists increased their representation from 19 to 26 seats. The Irish Party leader Dillon lost his seat and the party was dissolved. The remnants of the IPP later re-established itself with six members to form the Nationalist Party
Nationalist Party (Northern Ireland)
The Nationalist Party† - was the continuation of the Irish Parliamentary Party, and was formed after partition, by the Northern Ireland-based members of the IPP....
in Northern Ireland under Joe Devlin
Joseph Devlin
Joseph Devlin, also known as Joe Devlin, was an Irish journalist and influential nationalist politician...
.
Twenty-seven of the newly elected Sinn Féin MPs assembled in Dublin on 21 January 1919 and formed an independent Irish parliament, or First Dáil Èireann
First Dáil
The First Dáil was Dáil Éireann as it convened from 1919–1921. In 1919 candidates who had been elected in the Westminster elections of 1918 refused to recognise the Parliament of the United Kingdom and instead assembled as a unicameral, revolutionary parliament called "Dáil Éireann"...
of the thirty-two counties. Their remaining MPs were either still imprisoned or impaired. Britain did not recognise the Dáil's unilateral existence, which led to the Anglo-Irish War. The government remained committed to introducing Home Rule in Ireland, and in 1921 implemented the Fourth Home Rule Act
Government of Ireland Act 1920
The Government of Ireland Act 1920 was the Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which partitioned Ireland. The Act's long title was "An Act to provide for the better government of Ireland"; it is also known as the Fourth Home Rule Bill or as the Fourth Home Rule Act.The Act was intended...
, which partitioned Ireland
Partition of Ireland
The partition of Ireland was the division of the island of Ireland into two distinct territories, now Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland . Partition occurred when the British Parliament passed the Government of Ireland Act 1920...
into Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland is one of the four countries of the United Kingdom. Situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, it shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west...
and a non-functioning Southern Ireland
Southern Ireland
Southern Ireland was a short-lived autonomous region of the United Kingdom established on 3 May 1921 and dissolved on 6 December 1922.Southern Ireland was established under the Government of Ireland Act 1920 together with its sister region, Northern Ireland...
prior to the Anglo-Irish Treaty
Anglo-Irish Treaty
The Anglo-Irish Treaty , officially called the Articles of Agreement for a Treaty Between Great Britain and Ireland, was a treaty between the Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and representatives of the secessionist Irish Republic that concluded the Irish War of...
.
After dissolution
The results, while a triumph for the republicans, showed that the IPP's politics still had a significant constituency across the island. In the North East, and especially in BelfastBelfast
Belfast is the capital of and largest city in Northern Ireland. By population, it is the 14th biggest city in the United Kingdom and second biggest on the island of Ireland . It is the seat of the devolved government and legislative Northern Ireland Assembly...
, the IPP had more or less held their ground against the Sinn Féin insurgency, (Éamon de Valera
Éamon de Valera
Éamon de Valera was one of the dominant political figures in twentieth century Ireland, serving as head of government of the Irish Free State and head of government and head of state of Ireland...
soundly beaten by Joe Devlin
Joseph Devlin
Joseph Devlin, also known as Joe Devlin, was an Irish journalist and influential nationalist politician...
in the Falls division). The IPP regrouped to become the Nationalist Party
Nationalist Party (Northern Ireland)
The Nationalist Party† - was the continuation of the Irish Parliamentary Party, and was formed after partition, by the Northern Ireland-based members of the IPP....
of Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland is one of the four countries of the United Kingdom. Situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, it shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west...
.
In the South after the Irish Civil War
Irish Civil War
The Irish Civil War was a conflict that accompanied the establishment of the Irish Free State as an entity independent from the United Kingdom within the British Empire....
, the political estate of the Irish Party inherited by Sinn Féin evolved into the two nationalist parties of the post-1922 state. On the pro-Treaty side, some Cumann na nGaedheal / Fine Gael
Fine Gael
Fine Gael is a centre-right to centrist political party in the Republic of Ireland. It is the single largest party in Ireland in the Oireachtas, in local government, and in terms of Members of the European Parliament. The party has a membership of over 35,000...
leaders (apart from James Dillon) had 'Redmonite' backgrounds, the most notable being John A. Costello
John A. Costello
John Aloysius Costello , a successful barrister, was one of the main legal advisors to the government of the Irish Free State after independence, Attorney General of Ireland from 1926–1932 and Taoiseach from 1948–1951 and 1954–1957....
, a later Taoiseach. The core of this party group was however solidly Sinn Féin, IRB and IRA in background. On the anti-Treaty Sinn Féin side that developed into Fianna Fáil
Fianna Fáil
Fianna Fáil – The Republican Party , more commonly known as Fianna Fáil is a centrist political party in the Republic of Ireland, founded on 23 March 1926. Fianna Fáil's name is traditionally translated into English as Soldiers of Destiny, although a more accurate rendition would be Warriors of Fál...
, there was no continuity with the Irish Party at elite level. Many former AOH/IPP followers also lingered on as a pro-Treaty support organisation, some AOH adherents later fought on the Francoist side in the Spanish Civil War
Spanish Civil War
The Spanish Civil WarAlso known as The Crusade among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War among Carlists, and The Rebellion or Uprising among Republicans. was a major conflict fought in Spain from 17 July 1936 to 1 April 1939...
, the quasi-fascist Blueshirt movement of the 1930s maybe owing much to its Ribbon tradition. Veteran MP Timothy Michael Healy
Timothy Michael Healy
Timothy Michael Healy, KC , also known as Tim Healy, was an Irish nationalist politician, journalist, author, barrister and one of the most controversial Irish Members of Parliament in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland...
was the first Governor-General
Governor-General of the Irish Free State
The Governor-General was the representative of the King in the 1922–1937 Irish Free State. Until 1927 he was also the agent of the British government in the Irish state. By convention the office of Governor-General was largely ceremonial...
of the Irish Free State
Irish Free State
The Irish Free State was the state established as a Dominion on 6 December 1922 under the Anglo-Irish Treaty, signed by the British government and Irish representatives exactly twelve months beforehand...
(1922–1928), an enlightened choice to bridge the gap between the old order and the new generation of Cumann na nGaedheal politicians, although highly partisan (his nephew was Minister for Justice Kevin O'Higgins
Kevin O'Higgins
Kevin Christopher O'Higgins was an Irish politician who served as Vice-President of the Executive Council and Minister for Justice. He was part of early nationalist Sinn Féin, before going on to become a prominent member of Cumann na nGaedheal. O'Higgins initiated the An Garda Síochána police force...
; Healy made a public attack on Fianna Fáil and Éamon de Valera
Éamon de Valera
Éamon de Valera was one of the dominant political figures in twentieth century Ireland, serving as head of government of the Irish Free State and head of government and head of state of Ireland...
, which led to republican calls for his resignation). Former party MP Hugh Law was elected as a Cumann na nGaedheal TD during the 1920s.
The conservative nationalist National League Party operated between 1926 and 1931, founded by former IPP MPs Captain William Redmond (son of Irish National League and IPP leader John Redmond) and Thomas O'Donnell
Thomas O'Donnell (MP)
Thomas O'Donnell was an Irish nationalist politician of the Irish Parliamentary Party who served as Member of Parliament for West Kerry from 1900 to 1918. He was an active promoter of agrarian reform. M.A. . Chairman of the Tralee and Dingle Railway...
. It quickly faltered, with many of its prominent members (including Redmond, Vincent Rice
Vincent Rice
Vincent Rice was an Irish politician and lawyer. Rice was first elected to Dáil Éireann as a National League Party Teachta Dála for the Dublin South constituency at the June 1927 general election...
, John Jinks and James Coburn
James Coburn (Irish politician)
James Coburn was an Irish politician and builders foreman. Coburn was first elected to Dáil Éireann as an National League Party Teachta Dála for the Louth constituency at the June 1927 general election...
) joining Cumann na nGaedheal / Fine Gael, although O'Donnell became an active member of Fianna Fáil. A short lived National Centre Party
National Centre Party (Ireland)
The National Centre Party, initially known as the National Farmers and Ratepayers League, was a short-lived political party in the Irish Free State...
was formed in 1932, absorbing the remnants of the conservative Farmers' Party
Farmers' Party (Ireland)
The Farmers' Party or Farmers' Union was an agrarian political party in the Irish Free State between 1922 and 1932. It was concerned almost exclusively with the interests of the agricultural community, and never sought to widen its scope beyond the countryside.The party won seven seats in Dáil...
and led by Frank MacDermot
Frank MacDermot
Frank C. J. MacDermot was an Irish barrister and politician.MacDermot was born in Dublin, the seventh and youngest son of Hugh Hyacinth O'Rorke MacDermot, Prince of Coolavin. He was educated at Downside School and the University of Oxford and qualified as a barrister...
and James Dillon (son of IPP leader John Dillon). The success of Fianna Fáil prompted the National Centre Party to amalgamate with Cumann na nGaedheal to become Fine Gael
Fine Gael
Fine Gael is a centre-right to centrist political party in the Republic of Ireland. It is the single largest party in Ireland in the Oireachtas, in local government, and in terms of Members of the European Parliament. The party has a membership of over 35,000...
in 1933. Both MacDermot and Dillon later left Fine Gael, and both argued for Irish entry into World War II in the Allied side, but MacDermot joined Fianna Fáil while Dillon returned to Fine Gael and became party leader 1959-1965.
Party’s legacy
Legacy disputed
The legacy of the IPP has been disputed. Its detractors hold that the IPP's endurance of United Kingdom administrationDublin Castle administration in Ireland
The Dublin Castle administration in Ireland was the government of Ireland under English and later British rule, from the twelfth century until 1922, based at Dublin Castle.-Head:...
in Ireland, and its three attempts to introduce All-Ireland Home Rule
Irish Home Rule Movement
The Irish Home Rule Movement articulated a longstanding Irish desire for the repeal of the Act of Union of 1800 by a demand for self-government within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. The movement drew upon a legacy of patriotic thought that dated back at least to the late 17th...
, were a repeated failure, admittedly in the third instance due to the intervention of World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
; while its supporters maintain that one of the greatest achievements of the IPP was the introduction to Irish society of a parliamentary constitutional tradition which in turn paved the way for the creation of Dáil Éireann
Dáil Éireann
Dáil Éireann is the lower house, but principal chamber, of the Oireachtas , which also includes the President of Ireland and Seanad Éireann . It is directly elected at least once in every five years under the system of proportional representation by means of the single transferable vote...
, but the Dáil had scarcely started to function, before it began to utilise and to build on the constitutional tradition it inherited.
However this is controversial given the success of the revolutionary First Dáil Éireann, which the Irish Parliamentary Party did not participate in, and success of Sinn Féin-controlled local government during the Irish War of Independence
Irish War of Independence
The Irish War of Independence , Anglo-Irish War, Black and Tan War, or Tan War was a guerrilla war mounted by the Irish Republican Army against the British government and its forces in Ireland. It began in January 1919, following the Irish Republic's declaration of independence. Both sides agreed...
, made apparent by the fact that Irish-controlled local government
Local Government (Ireland) Act 1898
The Local Government Act 1898 was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that established a system of local government in Ireland similar to that already created for England, Wales and Scotland by legislation in 1888 and 1889...
had previously existed since 1898.
Debate in Ireland over the merits of Home Rule versus Republicanism continues to this day. On the occasion of the 90th anniversary of the Easter 1916 rising two former leaders of Fine Gael
Fine Gael
Fine Gael is a centre-right to centrist political party in the Republic of Ireland. It is the single largest party in Ireland in the Oireachtas, in local government, and in terms of Members of the European Parliament. The party has a membership of over 35,000...
and former Taoisigh
Taoiseach
The Taoiseach is the head of government or prime minister of Ireland. The Taoiseach is appointed by the President upon the nomination of Dáil Éireann, the lower house of the Oireachtas , and must, in order to remain in office, retain the support of a majority in the Dáil.The current Taoiseach is...
, Garret FitzGerald
Garret FitzGerald
Garret FitzGerald was an Irish politician who was twice Taoiseach of Ireland, serving in office from July 1981 to February 1982 and again from December 1982 to March 1987. FitzGerald was elected to Seanad Éireann in 1965 and was subsequently elected to Dáil Éireann as a Fine Gael TD in 1969. He...
and John Bruton
John Bruton
John Gerard Bruton is an Irish politician who served as Taoiseach of Ireland from 1994 to 1997. A minister under two taoisigh, Liam Cosgrave and Garret FitzGerald, Bruton held a number of the top posts in Irish government, including Minister for Finance , and Minister for Industry, Trade,...
, expressed opposite views: FitzGerald defended the rebellion as the last chance to save Ireland as a distinct country, Bruton said he would have accepted home rule as a way of maintaining Irish unity.
Party Leaders (1882–1921)
- Charles Stewart ParnellCharles Stewart ParnellCharles Stewart Parnell was an Irish landowner, nationalist political leader, land reform agitator, and the founder and leader of the Irish Parliamentary Party...
(1882–1891) - John RedmondJohn RedmondJohn Edward Redmond was an Irish nationalist politician, barrister, MP in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and leader of the Irish Parliamentary Party from 1900 to 1918...
(Parnellite minority) (1891–1900) - Justin McCarthy (anti-Parnellite majority) (1891–1892)
- John DillonJohn DillonJohn Dillon was an Irish land reform agitator from Dublin, an Irish Home Rule activist, a nationalist politician, a Member of Parliament for over 35 years, and the last leader of the Irish Parliamentary Party....
(anti-Parnellite majority) (1892–1900) - John RedmondJohn RedmondJohn Edward Redmond was an Irish nationalist politician, barrister, MP in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and leader of the Irish Parliamentary Party from 1900 to 1918...
(reunited party) (1900–1918) - John DillonJohn DillonJohn Dillon was an Irish land reform agitator from Dublin, an Irish Home Rule activist, a nationalist politician, a Member of Parliament for over 35 years, and the last leader of the Irish Parliamentary Party....
(1918) - Joe DevlinJoseph DevlinJoseph Devlin, also known as Joe Devlin, was an Irish journalist and influential nationalist politician...
(1918–1921)
External links
- Department of the Taoiseach – Irish Soldiers in the First World War
- BBC History – 1916 Easter Rising – Profiles – Irish Parliamentary Party