IRELAND 



3052 



IRELAND 



main contention in these early years was for 

 Catholic emancipation, and the chief leader 

 was the able and patriotic Daniel O'Connell. 

 In 1829 the government found itself unable to 

 resist further, and Catholics were given the 

 right to hold office and to sit in Parliament. 

 They were still forced to pay tithes to the 

 established, or Anglican, Church, which the 

 Catholics hated bitterly, and not until 1871 

 was disestablishment brought about. 



The reforms of 1832 in England helped Ire- 

 land a little, but not enough to quell the de- 

 mands for Home Rule, and about 1841 open 

 insurrection was narrowly averted. Between 

 1845 and 1847 the suffering of Ireland came to 

 a climax. The potato crop failed; upon this 

 the poorer people depended almost entirely, 

 and famine resulted. Thousands died, hun- 

 dreds of thousands emigrated, and the popula- 

 tion of the island has never recovered from this 

 loss. Gradually the English leaders came to 

 look with greater favor on the pleas of Ireland, 

 and certain reforms were carried out in the 

 land laws which relieved the distress, and agri- 

 cultural and industrial conditions improved 

 decidedly; but it was something more thor- 

 ough-going that the Irish were fighting for, 

 and the struggle for Home Rule became more 

 and more intense. 



Later Phases of the Home Rule Question. It 

 is the Home Rule question which has domi- 

 nated Irish political history through the last 

 half-century. In 1886 Gladstone became Prime 

 Minister of England, and at once introduced 

 a bill providing for legislative independence, 

 or as it is more commonly called, Home Rule. 

 This was rejected, as was another which he 

 brought forward seven years later. Other acts 

 for the advancement of Ireland, however, were 

 more successful. The establishment of a de- 

 partment of agriculture ; the Local Government 

 Act of 1898, and above all the Land Purchase 

 Bill of 1903, which declared that tenants might 

 purchase their holdings from the great land- 

 lords, worked decided and lasting changes, but 

 still did not satisfy. In 1912 a third Home 

 Rule Bill, officially known as the Government 

 of Ireland Bill, was introduced by Premier 

 Asquith, with the effect of stirring up imme- 

 diate protest in the Irish province of Ulster. 

 For the Protestant population of that province 

 did not desire Home Rule, preferring rather 

 "equal citizenship in the United Kingdom" 

 than rule by the Catholic majority. 



Twice the Home Rule Bill passed the House 

 of Commons and was rejected by the Lords, 



but on its third passage by the House in 1914 

 it became a law according to the Parliament 

 Bill of 1911 which allows the lower house to 

 pass a bill despite the continued disapproval 

 of the upper (see GREAT BRITAIN, subtitle 

 Government). But the excitement was by no 

 means allayed, for the Ulster Unionists refused 

 to be bound by the terms of the bill, and 

 various .amendments were introduced exclud- 

 ing Ulster from the jurisdiction of the new 

 Irish Parliament. But Ulster is not all Prot- 

 estant, and its Catholic inhabitants were en- 

 thusiastic Home-Rulers. It seemed as if 

 nothing could avert civil war, but the outbreak 

 of the great War of the Nations in August, 

 1914, brought about an immediate truce. The 

 two parties, Unionists and Nationalists, vied 

 with each other in their offers of assistance 

 to England. The actual execution of the new 

 measure was suspended until "such later date 

 (not being later than the end of the war) as 

 may be fixed by his Majesty by Order in 

 Council." In 1916 a temporary plan of Home 

 Rule was proposed, to be operative for a year 

 after the end of the war, but it was rejected. 

 A proposal was made in 1919 to erect Ireland 

 into a Dominion, with powers similar to those 

 enj oyed by Canada. 



The War of the Nations. Upon the outbreak 

 o'f the War of the Nations, it is said that Ger- 

 many believed Great Britain would not be 

 drawn into the conflict because it would face 

 revolt and civil war in Ireland over the excit- 

 ing Home-Rule campaign. The diplomatists 

 of Germany doubtless counted upon England's 

 internal troubles to keep that great power neu- 

 tral, but such conclusions were quickly shat- 

 tered. When Britain was put in peril the Irish 

 dropped their political differences and thou- 

 sands of volunteers joined the armies destined 

 for service in France, Belgium, Egypt, Asia 

 Minor and the Balkan Peninsula. In 1916, 

 when conscription was ordered, Ireland was 

 excluded from the provisions of the act, for 

 the island's leaders in Parliament convinced 

 the government of the wisdom of such excep- 

 tion. In April of the same year, a rebellion, 

 led by armed members of the Sinn Fein So- 

 ciety (see SINN FEIN), broke out in Dublin, 

 but it was promptly quelled by the British 

 authorities. Over 500 people were killed in 

 the course of the rebellion and several million 

 dollars' worth of property destroyed. Sir 

 Roger Casement, the chief leader of the upris- 

 ing, and several of his confederates were found 

 guilty of treason and were executed. E.M.T. 



