By 1914, who had the greater success, Irish Nationalists or Ulster Unionists?

The question of the division of Ireland between the predominantly Protestant North and the Catholic South is a long-standing, deep seated and highly complex issue which still continues to be controversial to this day. There have been many attempts to resolve the problems in order to restore peace to this small island, however none have been found. The Irish Nationalists and the Ulster Unionists both had powerful reasons for fighting their own cause, and both sides claimed small victories towards their ultimate goal over the years but 1914 was a year when the balance could have been tipped one way or the other if it had not been for the advent of World War I.

The northern part of Ireland had, by the 16th century, become populated by a large number of Presbyterian Protestants, from Scotland who had a hatred of Popery and Catholicism. The whole of Ireland was, and had been since the 12th Century, part of the British Empire, and therefore expected to be loyal to the British King, who was also the Head of the Anglican Church. Ireland was also predominantly ruled and owned by wealthy Protestant landowners. The vast majority of Irish people were Roman Catholic and the British government was highly suspicious of their connection and possible preferred loyalty to Rome. William III was specially chosen for his strong Protestant background from the Dutch Royal family, the House of Orange, and it was he that established protestant supremacy in Ireland, following the battle of the Boyne in 1690.

During the French Revolution and Napoleonic Wars, the British government became agitated by the Catholic connection between France and Ireland, fearing sympathy between the two nations could lead to France gaining entry to Britain “through the back door”. The Irish had empathy with France’s ideals of liberty from their oppressive aristocracy, identifying with the similar treatment that the majority of poor Irish Catholics were suffering at the hands of their wealthy, uncaring absentee English landlords. Catholicism therefore became a crucial part of their national identity against English oppression. Mistrust between the two sides became so bad, that in 1798 there was open rebellion against the British. This was badly organised and loyalties were split, especially in the north between the Orange Order and the Society of United Irishmen. This made it easy for the English forces, helped by the Orangemen to quash the rebellion. The rebels, in defeat, were subjected to brutality which served to further heighten the bitterness between Catholics and Protestants, and the Irish Nationalists sense of grievance deepened. The British government realised that they had to take control of the situation and their response was to pass the Act of Union in 1800 which brought Ireland under direct rule from Westminster, and superseded the Grattan parliament in Dublin. William Pitt, the Prime Minister also proposed that Catholic Emancipation would follow the act, hoping to placate dissent from the South; however King George III refused to sign the Bill, stating he had promised to uphold the faith of the Protestant Church at his coronation. The Irish felt further cheated, and mistrust and hatred of the British gathered momentum.

The 19th Century, for Ireland, was a fight to repeal these laws. The Irish Nationalists knew that the British had no liking or concern for their plight and they were determined to recover their own parliament to govern Ireland.

Daniel O’Connell, a wealthy Catholic lawyer, had 2 main aims, Catholic emancipation and abolition of the Act of Union. He established the Catholic Association in 1820, introduced Catholic rent as a means of raising money to fight for emancipation, a small amount being collected in church by the priest each Sunday. O’Connell was elected an MP, but unable to take his ...

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This injustice sparked off riots in Ireland and in an attempt to restore peace, Robert Peel passed the Catholic Emancipation act in 1829 even though he personally believed in Protestant supremacy. O’Connell was consequently given his seat in the House of Commons. This was seen as a victory by the Irish Nationalists, as they now had a voice in parliament, and saw it as a significant step towards achieving Home Rule, but the Protestants were troubled by this event and feared that the privileges they had enjoyed by being loyal to Britain would be undermined by Catholic equality.

O’ Connell now turned his full attention to the Abolition of the Act of Union, which had always been his primary goal. A speech he made in 1809 illustrates how passionately he felt about it.

“We have been robbed of our birthrights, our independence. England that ought to have been a sister and a friend – whom we had loved, and fought and bled for – stole upon us like a thief in the night and robbed us of the precious gem of our liberty…..The real cause of the Union is the religious dissensions which the enemies of Ireland have created, separating us into wretched sections…”

He was an astute man who realised that the political climate was not conducive to achieving his aims at the time, so he campaigned to keep the issue fresh in the minds of the Irish, whilst concentrating on internal reforms for Ireland. He soon understood that Westminster was unable to distinguish between Irish and English problems and eventually O’Connell formed a pact with other MP’s to oust Robert Peel’s Conservative government, with the stipulation that he would stop agitating for the repeal of the Act of Union, in exchange for Irish local government reforms. His became more involved in party politics, which diffused his effectiveness in achieving further progress towards the nationalist aim of Home Rule.

The Union was a sham. Successive governments continued to treat Ireland as a colony, rather than part of the same country, and O’Connell once gain turned to political agitation. The Protestants in Ulster feared home rule, as it would be predominantly Catholic, and supported the Union. Robert Peel’s government prohibited a meeting called by O’Connell, and O’Connell and several others were arrested and charged with conspiracy. He was convicted and imprisoned at the age of 70 and was no longer able to lead as he had once done so fervently. Irish Nationalism began to take on a less conciliatory approach, and fuelled by the revolutionary influences of The Irish Republican Brotherhood in the United States of America, and the appalling deprivation caused by the great famine, formed a group in Ireland called the Fenians. Their aims were the same, an improvement of the standard of living and an end to the Act of Union, but they dreamed of total Independence for Ireland.

Historically, the British government had responded to violent threat in the past, so the Fenians adopted a new, hostile approach, in order to get the attention of the government and be listened to. This was the first time that Irish violence reached English shores, deaths of both police and civilians in Manchester and London the consequence.

As a result of the great famine, many farmers turned away from agriculture and took up sheep farming. Many people who had lived on the land were evicted, and roamed, starving around the country looking for work. Once the tenants were evicted, wealthier people took over and paid higher rents. The Land League started as a protest against these evictions. Its first president was Charles Stuart Parnell, accepting the presidency on the condition that the protests of the Land League should be above all, peaceful. He advocated shunning the new tenants of the farms from which people had been evicted, this became known as boycotting. The Land League became increasingly violent, as peaceful methods failed to produce results, and atrocities were committed in their name. Ireland was by this time, close to anarchy.

Parnell was by now, the Irish leader in Westminster and made Home Rule the main policy of the party. The 60 votes of the Irish MPs were important to the other larger political parties, and William Gladstone, leader of the Liberal party on becoming Prime minister, announced his mission was to pacify Ireland. Being a man of high morals and religious convictions, he believed that he could bring peace to the troubled island. The rest of his party and the Conservatives did not support this stance. Gladstone and Parnell worked together to try and end the Act of Union, but there was a vicious attack on two British representatives, Cavendish and Burke, in Ireland, and Parnell was arrested and thrown in jail, even though there was no evidence to link him to the murders. The violence and atrocities continued to rage across the country. Parnell’s personal life also played an important part in the political arena. It was an open secret that he was living with a married Catholic woman, Kitty O’Shea, with whom he had children. Divorce was expensive, socially unacceptable and not recognised by the Catholic Church. Kitty O’Shea was given a letter to take to Parnell in jail from Gladstone, who used her as a go-between. Gladstone offered Parnell a deal, to get him out of prison in return for calming the land League. This was known as the Kilmainham Treaty. Parnell agreed, and was released from jail. His liaison with Mrs O’Shea became public, and in 1890 he was cited in divorce action by Captain O’ Shea. This effectively ended his political career.

The fears of the Protestants living in Ulster were growing with the efforts of Gladstone and Parnell to repeal the Act of Union, and they feared rule by a Catholic majority, their slogan being, “Home rule means Rome rule”.

The majority of Conservatives and many Liberals took up the Unionist cause, rejecting the notion of Home Rule, regarding it as a threat to the unity of the United Kingdom. Ulster was very different from the rest of Ireland, and although it was an agricultural area, it was also an area of industrial growth, with shipbuilding, rope-making and linen-making the main products. Belfast was the fastest growing city in the British Empire, which provided it with ready markets for all its produce all over the world. This meant that there was a special relationship between Ulster and Britain that the rest of Ireland did not have, and it was to the people of Ulster’s advantage that this relationship continued. Urban Protestants in Ulster considered the Catholics in the south as “poor country cousins”, uneducated and inferior. Ulster men considered themselves British, rather than Irish. There began a movement to resist Home Rule by the people of Ulster, that was every bit as fervent as that of the Irish Nationalists. They fiercely opposed any attempt to sever links with the mainland. Gladstone attempted to introduce Home Rule for the first time in 1886 at the risk of splitting his own party, but it was so unpopular, it was defeated on the second reading in the House of Commons, undeterred, he pinned his hopes on the support of Parnell’s group of MPs to tip the parliamentary balance in his favour, but with the break-up of the Irish Nationalist Party, following the scandal surrounding Parnell’s personal life, this chance was destroyed. The second home rule bill of 1893 was defeated in the House of Lords. Parnell’s untimely death in 1891 meant the end for some time to militant nationalism.

The next twenty years of British Parliament was dominated by the Conservative party. The Conservatives were staunchly in favour of the Union, so Ulster enjoyed a period of relative security, knowing that Home Rule would not be pressed by the government of the day. To keep the nationalists quiet, the Prime Minister, Arthur Balfour, attempted to “kill home rule with kindness” by passing a series of reforms such as Wyndham’s Land Act, allowing peasants to purchase their own land. This was not enough to placate the southern Irish, who by now were pressing not only for Home Rule, but for complete independence.

In 1908, a group of nationalists formed Sinn Fein, a political party which upheld the belief that Ireland should be a free nation. Tension over the problems began to gain momentum once more, and the Liberal government, led by Lord Asquith, turned to the newly regenerated Irish Nationalist party for political support, and again brought Home Rule to the forefront of the political agenda. Crucially, at this time, the Parliament Act of 1911 was passed, stipulating that any law passed by the House of Commons in three successive sessions, could not be vetoed by the House of Lords, and would automatically become law. This was a huge victory for the Nationalists, who knew that if another Home Rule bill was successfully passed by the Commons, they would be triumphant.

The House of Commons was divided over Home Rule, split between Unionists and Liberals, so the government heavily relied on the votes of the 84 Irish Nationalist MPs to force the bill through.

The Ulster Protestants reacted violently to the prospect, and swore to fight against any attempt to break up the Union. They signed a covenant pledging to use any means necessary to prevent this from happening.

By 1914, Ireland was firmly split into two camps, the nationalist Irish Volunteers and the unionist Ulster Volunteer Force. The situation became so tense that Asquith had to act quickly to diffuse the situation. He proposed that the North would remain part of the United Kingdom, and the South would be granted Home Rule. Both sides reluctantly agreed to this compromise. With the imminent threat of World War I in July 1914, it was further agreed to suspend Home Rule until the war was over, which was confidently predicted to be by Christmas of that year.

History now reveals how this was far from reality, and once again, the Nationalists, seemingly so close to achieving the goal of Home Rule that they had fought so long and hard to attain, were once again defeated.

Throughout the majority of the 19th Century, the Nationalists seemed to have the upper hand in grabbing the political attention, and forcing successive Home Rule bills to be heard in parliament. The large number of Irish Nationalist MPs always meant that the government of the day needed their political support. However, despite this, and although they came very close to achieving their aim in 1914, they were never able to fulfil their ardent wish for Home Rule or Independence.

The Union, both political and commercial between Ulster and Britain was too strong a bond to be broken, and ultimately, the Ulster Unionists held onto their links with Britain, and therefore achieved the greatest level of success.

Helen Herzberg Page