How consistent was British policy towards Ireland from 1798-1921?
Throughout the period, British policy towards Ireland did have considerable variations. There was a range from incredibly coercive measures to a more conciliatory approach, and this variation spread across several key areas; Law and Order in Ireland, the Religious question, Economic policy and finally maintenance of the Union itself. Although there can be no doubt that throughout the period, British policy was consistent in its principles - that it aimed to keep Ireland within the Union – the policies themselves were not; the ways that successive governments went about upholding this basic principle differed substantially, and therefore over the whole period, British policy towards Ireland was not very consistent.
In terms of Law and Order in Ireland, throughout the period there was a limited amount of consistency in British policy; over the whole period the problem of Ireland’s Law and Order was addressed through a mixture of coercion and reform, with the intention of keeping Ireland close to Britain. Coercion as a method was evident throughout – from the suppression of Wolfe Tone’s rising in 1798 through to the violent response to the 1916 Easter uprising – in both cases the British Government reacted with violence and the leaders of the rebellions were arrested and executed. During the period of Sir Robert Peel’s premiership, coercion formed a key part of his policy towards Ireland. Measures such as the Arms Act, which prevented Catholics from carrying arms, and his drafting of troops into Ireland, were clearly coercive. Gladstone too used coercion to a certain extent; in 1881 he introduced the Protection of Person and Property Act which allowed persons to be imprisoned without trial. Moreover, there were substantial inconsistencies in the use of coercion itself – in the treatment of the Irish and Ulster nationalists – with officers refusing to stop the UVF from obtaining guns in March 1914 at the Curragh Mutiny, yet came down on the Catholics’ plans to obtain weapons at Howth later the same year. However, throughout the period there was also a reformist attitude towards Ireland. Peel’s introduction of the Royal Irish Constabulary was effectively the first police force and it aimed to keep peace in Ireland. Furthermore, in his ‘plan of conciliation’ in the 1840s a number of concessions were made towards Ireland in an attempt to resolve the problems with violence by appeasing the Irish to a certain extent – measures such as replacing lord de Gray with Heytesbury as Lord Lieutenant of Ireland in 1844 – de Gray had been reluctant to promote equal opportunities for Catholics and the introduction of Heytesbury was intended to stem the growth of violent opposition in Ireland. Gladstone too used a ‘plan of pacification’ to resolve disputes. However, there were some quite considerable inconsistencies. The Kilmainham treaty in 1882 is one such example – the negotiations between Parnell and Gladstone, and Parnell agreeing to use his influence in Ireland to sort out the law and order problem that had arisen from the Land Wars was something that was not seen at all throughout the period – indeed Sir Robert Peel took the opposite approach with Daniel O’Connell and no negotiations between the two took place. Throughout the period, although there was some consistency in that overall the two methods of Coercion and reform were used, they appeared to be instigated rather pragmatically and this can be seen as inconsistent policy.
