1906-1916 Ireland

By: Sharon White
Submitted: 2007-01-17 11:24:30
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The United Kingdom had problems with Ireland since the very beginning of its administration in the country. Political history of Britain changed dramatically during the period of 1906-1916. The Easter uprising led to the foundation of the separation of Ireland from the rest of the UK, and the Ulster crisis brought a fear of a civil war.One of the most eminent consequences of the Irish problem was the thorough decline of the liberal. It had been replaced by the labour as the third largest political party in Britain after First World War. The home rule, which gave Ireland absolute control over their domestic affairs, in the first place, caused the split within the party. Some supported home rule on the one hand, whereas others stand against it and alginate themselves with unionist, where it had been restrained severely, and the integrity was hardly remained. It had thereby laid the way for the further conflict later in the wartime, because a atmosphere of split had been created ever since. Propose of the home rule bill had just passed through House of Commons with Irish nationalists support in 1912.

Meanwhile, the way the government dealt with Irish problem had also exposed the incompetence of the liberal government, while, a constant decreasing popularity had been seen since 1906, the year they won a biggest majority ever. The government under Asquith didn’t manage to comfort that Irish as well as English electorate, because they did not take necessary action when it was required. Failure to take Ulster as a separate case from home rule was a failure where a series of unrest and even protest was carried out that radicalised both southern Irish and Ulstermen. To make it worse, alongside the industrial unrest and suffragette, this problem also conducted the discontent of English electorate, which brought to the liberal’s constant death after the war.

Easter uprising was a catalyst to the break- up of already-worsen relation between Irish and the British government, which brought to the independence of the Irish southern counties. Although the act of union and potato famine had deeply provoked Irish, they would still satisfied by a home rule. However, a more radical group Sinn Fein was aiming to the separation. When the British government was increasingly engaged in the war affair against, the radicalists saw a chance to separate Ireland, but the attempt to seize the power in Dublin was outnumbered by the police and armies, where no one came to aid them. Nevertheless, the bloody assassination of all the rebel leaders increased the public concern rapidly, where people came to realise that the whole nation of Irish had been mistreated throughout history that they should separated from British administration, it is therefore mood of mobilization, which the prospect of civil war grow out. Sinn Fein grew fiercely after all, and became the biggest political party in Ireland which shown in the election results in 1908 which they gained 73 seats out of 84. It revealed the inevitable solution of this problem is partition.

Ulster crisis is mostly responsible for the growing intention within the government and polarisation of Irish people. It had, in the first place, given unionist a chance to stand against government. When Ulster unionist claim themselves were faithful to the king George, and would take military action if necessary, unionist saw another chance to get a ally to fight against liberals, where unionist’s leader, law Bonar, proclaimed that they would stand with Ulstermen fight for the only empire, and the government was trying to sweep away the minority rights. Although House of Lords had lost their veto power, they still delayed the bill without any hesitation. Therefore the intension between liberal with Irish nationalists and unionist with Ulster unionist was growing vigorously, which even involved the king George. Thereafter, a meeting in Buckingham palace was held between all party leaders, which were ended up without any agreement. The intension created now had a long effect even into war time, where it was concerned about the coalition government. Moreover, Ulster crisis could be seen as a main reason for the polarisation of both nationalists and unionists. When the intension grew to its peek, there was a fear of the civil war, where rumours came out that the liberal was going to deploy the army forces. However, the army office was largely occupied by Ulstermen, when the government was going to deploy the forces in the Ulster to handle the possible violence, there was a fear that half of the army officers would go on to strike. It made the government abandon the military operation embarrassingly, where the most of electorate within Ireland was discontent, where either put themselves standing for independence, or the absolute union, which ruled out the possibility of implementing home rule.

In conclusion, Ireland problem brought a huge impact to the British political history that had a direct influence of the modern politics. The death of liberal, which was partially caused by the disagreement within the party on the home rules about Ireland problem. Also the separation of southern Ireland and the remaining of northern Ireland was a direct consequence of the problem between 1906to1916, as well as, the growing intension which had revealed vigorously during the wartime was also intensified by Irish problem. All in all, the Ireland problem was a vital event that directly resulted the modern formation of British political history.

Article source: Expert Articles