The relationship between Ireland and Great Britain between 1801 and 1921

In 1815 Ireland was part of the union though by 1921 it was partitioned. The years in between saw group and individual efforts in trying to change the relationship between Ireland and Great Britain. Parnell’s campaign for Home Rule is seen as a key turning point that potentially was the most important kick starting change within the union. 1886 was undoubtedly a turning point as it gave hope for ‘both a just and feasible solution to the problem of the Irish government’. In 1886 the Liberal Party Prime Minister of the UK, William Gladstone, decided that in order to end the problems in Ireland, some action would have to be taken.

Parnell and the Irish Parliamentary Party were also in a great position at this point as they had 86 seats in the House of Commons which was the exact amount between the Liberals and Conservatives. This meant Parnell could truly push for Home Rule. Gladstone felt that giving Ireland back their local parliament, which was removed in the Act f Union of 1800, would solve the problem. So in 1886, Gladstone introduced the first Home Rule bill. However, it was defeated in the House of Commons because others, especially the Conservative Party, were against Home Rule which they thought would weaken the union.Although it failed, the first Home Rule bill could be seen as a significant turning point for Irish Nationalism.

It appeared to have brought Ireland ‘within sight of the promise land’ as it was the first time Home Rule had seriously been discussed and the Prime Minister, ‘the greatest politician of his day’ had heavily backed it which meant that it was on the political agenda. It could also be said that the Home Rule bill was insignificant and even counterproductive due to the fact it failed to create any change between Great Britain and Ireland.Also despite the fact that ‘the commitment to Irish Home Rule remained a part of the [liberals] party programme’ the failure of the bill consequently brought in a Conservative Government, therefore meaning Home Rule, and a lot of constitutionalist movements, were off the agenda for the next twenty years. Moreover, the Ulster Unionists, who heavily opposed Home Rule, began to mobilise in preparation for any discussion of Home Rule in the future and it would be this group that would ultimately prevent Home Rule. However, it also seemed to spark an interest in Irish cultural identity e. g.

the Irish language.The significance of this could be that later it became linked with Sinn Fein and extreme nationalist movements. So, 1886 did not change the relationship in two key developments for the future. The following second and third Home Rule bills could possibly be seen as significant as they had much more support that the one in 1886. The significance of 1886 can be seen in the fact that Home Rule did resurface again in 1893 when it was defeated in the Lords and again in 1912 when thanks to the removal of the Lords veto it would be law in two years.What may have been seen as equally important though, was the fact that the bill being passed encouraged extremism in Ulster, in which the people were worried about separation from the Union.

The Liberal government now found itself opposed by the strong resistance of the Ulster unionists who had ‘turned to armed militancy to oppose the imposition of Home Rule’ and this eventually led to the Ulster crisis. Thus resistance would ensure that by 1914 Home Rule for the whole of Ireland looked unlikely. It could be argued though that Home Rule would not have been possible without Roman Catholic Emancipation in 1829.For the first time significant legislation was passed to benefit Catholics and O’Connell had successfully linked Catholicism and nationalism. Daniel O’Connell was a key figure during the main turning point for Irish Nationalism in 1829; the Irish Emancipation Act. To get to that stage, O’ Connell gained support from the middle classes and the Catholic Church with a wide aim of Emancipation.

When O’Connell won the Country Clare election in 1828 it seemed impossible for there to be no change of the rules within parliament.The Roman Catholic Emancipation Act was passed in 1829 due overall support in the House of Commons and it could be said that this led to positive change for Irish Nationalism. Many opportunities were sprung open by this act, especially for the middle class, in political and professional jobs in particular. Also, O’Connell teamed up with the Whigs and managed to pass a number of acts such as the Irish Church Act, which could also have been seen to help.

O’Connell’s success also seemed to forge a link between Irish nationalism and Catholicism.All of these things seem to suggest that 1829 was a turning point for Irish nationalism. However O’Connell’s hopes that emancipation would lead to repeal did not materialise. The Act has succeeded in its intention to keep the union intact. The middle class gained most from it and became content. They did not support the repeal campaign, and was a reason for its failure and furthermore, there was no support in parliament for repeal of the union.

There has at least been serious consideration of change in the union in 1886.By the end of the repeal campaign O’Connell was receiving criticism from more extreme groups such as Young Ireland. The Great Famine was a key event in changing the relationship between Great Britain and Ireland in the long term as it eventually led to the Young Ireland rebellion and Fenians whose movement grew imputes by the famine. The famine and the failure and death of Daniel O’ Connell was also important in paving the way for more extreme Irish Nationalists such as Young Ireland and The Fenian brotherhood who believed change within the union would come through republican methods.

It might be expected that the famine while seen by many Irishmen as a failure of the Union, would lead to a decline in constitutional methods and create more support for extreme nationalist movements. In the short term, this was not the case as Ireland fell in to apathy and it seemed ‘the most dramatic consequence of the Great famine was on the population of Ireland’. Although the Irish people would never forgive the British Government for the neglect they showed in the times of the Great Famine, a significant result of the decrease in population was the development of balanced farming, a rise in living standards and larger farms.This meant that a lot of the middle class farming population became more interested in demands over land rather than separating from the Union.

However, people who had emigrated from Ireland during the famine took their hatred of Britain and the Union with them and there was a rise of a politically influential Irish community in the US which saw the Fenian movement arising throughout America as well.Therefore the Famine ‘became a central feature in the operational mythologies of Irish nationalism’ and although the group never managed any real successes in this period, ‘In death the Fenians became powerful’ and they left a long term legacy of martyrdom. The Easter Rising was a definite turning point, despite its failure, for use of republican methods in trying to create change within the union. It was an armed rebellion staged in Ireland during Easter Week, 1916.Romantic revolutionary groups had been developing and there had been a swing in popularity in the use of republican methods as opposed to constitutional ones whose use in their view, were becoming ‘increasingly remote’.

The splinter group of a splinter group were under no impression that they would cause a full blown revolution, Connolly a member of the group saying ‘we are going to be slaughtered’. Gaining support for the cause became a struggle and it ‘was no national rising’ as both Redmond and the Catholic Church opposed it. The British quickly crushed the rebellion so that it did not create any change.What did happen though was that the bad treatment of prisoners and heartless executions of the rebels turned the public’s idea of these men from hateful rebels to martyrs. It seems Pearce’s idea of ‘blood sacrifice’ had taken the effect he’d hoped for.

Despite the fact that Sinn Fein were not in charge of the rebellion, they were associated with it and it began to grow in popularity as a result. The group used the Irish people’s new found hatred towards the British government and to ‘launch a campaign of mass resistance’ against conscription in 1918.This made Sinn Fein a massive political force who gained 73 seats in the 1918 election. By this point constitutional methods were off the cards in most nationalist’s minds and this was shown through Sinn Fein’s refusal to sit in Westminster and the setting up of their own Irish Parliament. Home Rule was now not enough in their eyes.

But what actual change within the union was there? Although it remained formally unaffected, it had become obvious that Irish nationalists wanted nothing less than an independent Ireland, and their support was growing.Though still, the union remained and Britain declared the dial illegal. After Sinn Fein’s huge success in the election of 1918, Lloyd George knew that the Irish question was bound to resurface as an important priority. By this time Sinn Fein and the South of Ireland knew what they wanted, and when the Government Act of 1920 emerged, ‘in the south…the Act was virtually a dead letter’. It seemed the Government were constructing ‘to solve the Irish problem as it stood in 1914 not in 1920’. Thus, the Act was not adopted in the South, who were fighting got what they truly wanted.

At the same time as The Government Act of 1920 was failing, British government was also trying to cope with violent IRA activity. It was this activity that the Government initially ignored, naming them members of a ting ‘murder gang’, which would lead to the escalation of violence between Sinn Fein and the IRA against the Black and Tans. This ultimately would cause possibly the most important turning point between 1801 and 1921: The Anglo-Irish Treaty. The treaty said Ireland would have full control of domestic affairs but still be a part of the British Empire and keep allegiance to the Crown.Throughout the whole of the 120 year span, there had been no constitutional change of this size, and due to this could easily be seen as the most significant turning point over that time span. Alternatively you could suggest that without all of the successes and failures that preceded this Act, it may never have happened.

In conclusion, although Home Rule may have commenced trying to practically change the relationship between Great Britain and Ireland, it could be argued that it only really ‘set it on its legs’ as ultimately it failed and the Union remained unchanged.In terms of key turning points in creating actual change, it could be suggested that the rise and shift to republicanism, in particular Sinn Fein, proved to be the most significant, and although it took the Anglo Irish war to bring events to a conclusion, Sinn Fein fuelled great change during the war. Although Ireland was partitioned it had ‘now obtained a greater degree of independence that had been envisaged by O’ Connell or Parnell’.