Why was Ireland Partitioned

 The struggle for home rule continued, and Gladstone introduced a second bill in 1893, only to see it defeated in the House of Lords. The Parliament Act of 1911 reduced the peers' veto on legislation to a delaying power. At this time there were three strands of Unionism - the Ulster Unionism of Craig and the Unionist Council; the Irish Unionists with Edward Carson; and the British Unionism and Bonar Law. The Irish position changed when Carson, M.P., for Trinity College, was invited to lead Ulster Unionists in February, 1910. A meeting was held at "Craigavon", Craig's home, to receive the new leader on 23 September, 1911; 100,000 people attended. The meeting marked the beginning of the campaign against the Home Rule Bill of Asquith which was to go before Parliament in 1912. This bill was rejected by the Lords, but became law in 1914.

On the 28th September (Ulster Day) the Solemn League and covenant was signed by Unionist men only. This showed their opposition to Home Rule. Some to show their intent signed it with their own blood. In January 1913 the Ulster Volunteer force (UVF) was founded. Men paraded and drilled with wooden weapons at first. At the end of April 35,000 rifles and 5 million rounds of ammunition were landed at Larne by the Unionists. No moves were made by the army or police to thwart them and this caused much anger amongst Nationalists.

 policy of ‘wait and see’ was not doing much for the situation and he failed to realise the intent of the Unionists. It was only in late 1913 that he began to take Ulster opposition seriously. The Curragh mutiny of July 1914 was a blow that showed his complete lack of power over Ulster. The prospect of Ireland being partitioned began to be considered as a serious option around this time when Lloyd George suggested the temporary exclusion of parts of Ulster. Bonar Law stated that this should be permanent and Carson also refused to compromise. In July 1914 King George, recognising the looming crisis called the Buckingham Palace conference in an effort to make some progress. This conference was attended by Asquith, Lloyd George, Bonar Law, Carson, Craig, Redmond and Dillon.

At the conference Carson immediately stated that he would not consider anything other than partition. The question was the area for exclusion and the time for which it would be excluded. Redmond suggested that each county could be given a plebiscite whether to opt in or out of Home Rule. Carson disagreed and said Ulster should vote as a block. This was unacceptable to Redmond. Neither side would concede the counties of Tyrone and Fermanagh. It was here that the conference broke down.

 The original intention of the Unionists was to defeat Home Rule for all Ireland. However, as time went on the idea of partition began to appeal more and more to them. They began to see the safety from interference it would give them. What had began as a device for killing home rule had become an end in itself. The implementation of Home Rule had to be delayed for the duration of the Great War. A coalition government was set up and both Carson and Redmond were invited to become members. Redmond turned it down. This was to place him at a disadvantage that was to have severe consequences.

 Carson accepted his place immediately. Urged by Redmond many nationalists signed up to fight in the war. The Unionists also fought. Both sides suffered terrible casualties notably at the Battle of the Somme. The war also brought with it the chance the Irish republicans had been waiting years for. The old saying ‘England’s difficulty is Irelands opportunity’ rang clear as they started a Rising on Easter Monday 1916. As William Butler Yates later wrote about the event ‘alls changed, changed utterly’. All had changed. After the executions that followed 1916, the Irish people would no longer be happy with Home Rule. Overnight Redmond and the Home Rulers lost much of their power. Lloyd George organised talks in September 1918. He talked to Carson and Redmond separately. Carson was told he could have immediate permanent Home Rule for the six counties whilst he convinced Redmond it would only be a temporary measure until the war ended. The Irish Convention was an assembly called by  which sat in  from July 1917 until March 1918 to address the . However it did not have much success in resolving the problems.

By the end of the war John Redmond was dead, the Irish party was a spent force and Sinn Fein had come to power. Dail Eireann had been set up by the republicans as  their own parliament to ignore Westminster. The British Government would have let Home Rule slide was it not for the fact it was still on the books. Walter Long was a   politician. From October 1919 onwards, he was largely concerned with Irish affairs, serving as the chair of the cabinet's Long Committee on Ireland. The purpose of this committee was to deal with the Irish question. He would only consider a settlement which was in the Unionists favor. In this capacity he saw them first reject the county by county option. Instead it was proposed that there would be two parliaments one in Dublin and one in Belfast. Both were directly answerable to Westminster. This move would give Unionists control over their own destiny.

 The British government’s official stance was in favor of ultimate unification. The Unionists were first offered nine counties. This was turned down as they feared nine was too big for them to retain full control over. Instead they demanded six counties. The government of Ireland bill was introduced on the 26th of February 1920. It caused much hostility in the border counties and rioting in Belfast between June and September. On 3rd May it came into effect, creating separate home rule governments for  and , the latter he endowed with wider powers than its southern counterpart. Although in southern and western Ireland, this was soon superseded by the , which gave the new  a much greater share of independence. The king opened the new parliament in Ulster in May 1921.

In conclusion, this essay has examined the reasons behind the partition question in Ireland and had accessed the causes of this divide in detail. It is ironic that the Unionist people fought so hard and so long against Home Rule just to later adopt it for themselves.

 

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