Civil War in Ireland in 1914

Civil War in Ireland in 1914

Introduction

The third home rule bill sparked Unionism to be born whose members

opposed the bill, which in turn brought about Nationalism who sought

to protect it. These two paramilitary groups brought Ireland to the

brink of civil war by 1914.

When Liberals won power in 1906 they tried to keep the Irish question

in the background ensuring it stayed well down the political agenda.

But in 1910 things changed and the election lead to the Irish

nationals holding the balance of power, this meant Liberals were only

able to reduce the Lords power with the support of the Irish

Nationalists but in return the Liberals had to bring the home rule

bill back to light.

When the Parliament Act of 1912 was passed it removed a huge obstacle

in the way of the home rule bill due to the fact that the House of

Lords could not reject the bill if had passed the House of Commons

three times and could only delay the bill for up to two years. So in

1912 the third home rule bill was introduced by the liberals and

having made it through the Commons by Jan 1913 it was rejected by the

Lords but would only have to wait until 1914 to become law under the

new parliament act.

Understandably the introduction of a third home rule bill sparked a

major political crisis and the time between the bill being rejected

and the time it became law was more than enough time for both

Unionists and Nationalists to mobilise support and opposition for the

bill.

Unionists in Ulster had began preparations for a resistance to the

bill as early as September 1911 and was lead by two key leaders Edward

Carson, leader of the Irish Unionist Parliamentary Party and James

Craig, Leader of the Ulster Unionist Council. These two people

organized mass rallies in order to put pressure on the government to

stop the bill bring put forwards. Edward Carson even drew up a

covenant which 250,000 people signed committing them to oppose the