Britain’s troops were expected to keep the peace in Ireland. But in 1914, senior officers at the Curragh camp near Dublin threatened to resign if they had to enforce the Home Rule on Ulster. This ‘Curragh Mutiny’ meant that Britain could not rely on its troops to maintain peace in Ireland, and left the British government under mounting pressure to find an alternative solution to the problem.
The Nationalists were also greatly to blame for the partitioning of Ireland. The potato blight of 1845-1851 destroyed a large majority of the potato crop, the staple food of many Irish peasants, and caused a devastating famine in which 1 million died and 1 million emigrated from Ireland (many to America). Protestant and Catholic churches and local charities made great efforts to provide relief to the rural areas of Ireland, especially the west, where the famine hit worst. The British effort, however, was minimal and very late. It was not substantial enough to help all of the affected areas, and was only offered to those who would work in return. This was not very helpful, as most people were too weak to do any work. Many of the Nationalists affected by the potato famine (and many Nationalists afterwards) saw this British ineffectiveness as proof that the Union between Ireland and Britain as a means to control Ireland was flawed. This created resentment against the British and movements opposed to British rule in Ireland (including radical national movements) were growing.
Between 1890 and 1916, many Irish Nationalists became interested in Irish culture, history and language. They felt as if the British rule was trying to erase any trace of Irish culture, and felt a right to preserve it. This became known as the Gaelic revival. Several Gaelic associations, such as the Gaelic League and the Gaelic Athletics Association, started publishing Irish literature, giving Irish language classes and re-introducing traditional Irish sports. But soon these gatherings became places where radical Nationalist groups met and began enlisting members. The radical movement was strengthened by this new trend in recruiting.
By 1905, a party called Sinn Fein, a radical Nationalist party, was founded by Arthur Griffith, who believed that the Irish should be able to govern themselves through their own Parliament in Dublin. However, during the party’s first few years, their popularity was low. During this time, Nationalists such as John Redmond increased the popularity of more moderate parts of the Nationalist movement. His party, the Irish Parliamentary Party (IPP), was popular, gaining more than 80 seats in the Parliament in London in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. In the early twentieth century, the Liberal Government and Redmond agreed that if the latter’s MPs supported some laws to be passed, the former would grant Home Rule in Ireland. Nationalists were happy that Home Rule was passed in 1912. However, when disagreements over the Home Rule started to rise, so did support for Sinn Fein. Griffith gained support through his vision of self-governing Ireland, and many Nationalists saw Sinn Fein as a party that could realize Home Rule more successfully than Redmond’s IPP.
By 1916, radical nationalism was an increasingly strong, influential movement. To the radical nationalists, the policies of the moderate nationalists had failed and they believed that all that moderation had done was strengthen Unionism. Through the potato famine, Gaelic revival, and the formation of Sinn Fein, the radical nationalist movement grew strong enough to enforce their demands for a separate Irish Republic.
Inspired by the Easter Rising of 1916 (when some radical Nationalists declared parts of Dublin independent for a week), the Nationalists (like the Unionists at Larne in 1914) were prepared to use violence to achieve their aims. In 1919, Sinn Fein MPs declared an independent government of Ireland. The IRA then declared a guerrilla war against the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC), a supposedly ‘non-biased’ Irish police force. The IRA believed that the RUC was working together with the British (their enemies), and they wanted to obtain any arms the RUC owned or were keeping. The IRA aimed to force Britain from occupying Ireland. This became known as the Anglo-Irish War, and several hundred people were attacked, tortured or killed during this war. But by 1921, the war had reached stalemate. Rifts were surfacing among the Nationalist ranks. The Irish people were fed up with the fighting within their own country, and were desperate for a resolution.
Unionists also contributed significantly to the partitioning of Ireland. The Home Rule was something which all Unionists agreed on opposing. If the Home Rule were to go through, it would mean that they would be in the minority in a whole Ireland, and might be subject to discrimination and perhaps even violence. They also believed that staying in a union with the British meant that they would prosper economically. They wanted to ensure that they had political and religious freedom. There were also concerns, both in Britain and in Ireland, that if Home Rule were to be implemented, countries valuable to Britain (like India) might also dmeand Home Rule, which might have had a damaging effect, on trade, economy, and so on. The Unionists were desperate not to have the Home Rule, and it seemed that they would even use violence to stop Home Rule being implemented.
The Unionists were strongly opposed to Home Rule, but they needed someone to lead their cause. Edward Carson, a conservative MP, and James Craig, a Unionist MP, were those people. Carson argued that Home Rule would be economically unprofitable and would not be good for the British Empire; and that Home Rule was a Catholic movement and endangered Ulster Protestantism. Craig concentrated on keeping the Protestant Ulster. Throughout 1912, Carson and Craig and their followers made it apparent that they would create their own government, and use armed force to resist Home Rule. Something needed to be done to make sure that this would not happen.
The fears of the Unionists also led them to form the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF), who acted as an armed force to resist Home Rule. To prove that the Unionists would not let anyone come between them and their political and religious freedom, the UVF landed a massive shipment of illegal arms at Larne port on the 24th -25th August 1914. This was called the Larne gun-running, and was not stopped by local police and army authorities. After the Nationalists formed the Irish Volunteers and armed themselves too, civil war seemed inevitable. Since it was obvious that both sides would use force to get their own way, a solution had to be found to stop the violence.
I conclude that the British Government “partitioned” Ireland because of the country being on the verge of civil war. After both the Nationalists and the Unionists armed themselves, Ireland reached crisis point. It was then that Britain realised that by partitioning Ireland, they might have been able to stop the violence and end the Irish conflict. It was impossible for Britain to satisfy both sides: if they kept control of the whole of Ireland, the Nationalists would have claimed that Britain was denying them independence; if they let the Irish control themselves, the Unionists would have said that their political and religious freedom would be in danger. To Britain, the only compromise seemed to be the partition.