Abstract
‘Whether it begins with Ireland and ends with Wales, or begins with Wales and ends with Ireland’ home rule is objectionable, said Arthur Balfour in 1898 in the House of Commons debate on the resolution for ‘Home Rule all-round’.1 In 1898 there was a Tory ministry and the discussion was still largely academic, but by 1910 the home-rule dispute was again coming to the fore. Then Balfour stated his own and the Tory Party’s concern that the United Kingdom constituted one nation and that home rule would lead to its disintegration. He argued that, ‘while I admit differences of degree, I will never admit that the Irishman is one race of inhabitants and England or Scotland or Wales is another race’.2 The debate on home rule neither began nor ended during the Edwardian age, but during that time it developed special characteristics. Moreover, the debates revealed much about the potential and adaptability of British institutions. But perhaps the most surprising element of all is that the home-rule disputes occurred — much less that they reached such dangerous intensity. The Edwardians displayed remarkable energy in attacking national ills, yet seemingly by 1914 they had allowed the country to hover on the brink of civil war over Ireland, while feelings about the disestablishment of the Church in Wales were scarcely more tempered. Why did this remarkably resourceful generation prove so resourceless when facing the question of domestic arrangements in the Celtic parts of Britain?
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Bibliographical Notes
The literature on Wales is not voluminous, but she is well served by K. O. Morgan’s Wales in British Politics, 1868–1922 (Cardiff, 1963) and now D. Howell’s The Land and the People in Nineteenth Century Wales (1968). Nationalism in Scotland can be viewed though H. J. Hanham’s Scottish Nationalism (1969). Ireland has an extensive literature, though much of it should be approached with caution. F. S. L. Lyons, The Irish Parliamentary Party, 1890–1910 (1951) and John Dillon (1968) offer good traditional interpretations of official nationalism. The best study of the 1912–14 crisis remains A. T. Q. Stewart’s The Ulster Crisis (1967). More generally, Unionism is effectively treated by P. Buckland in Irish Unionism, vols 1 and 11 (Dublin, 1972 and 1973) and in his pamphlet published by the Historical Association, Southern Irish Unionism (1974). A recent biography by J. V. O’Brien, William O’Brien and the Course of Irish Politics, 1881–1918 (Berkeley, Cal., 1976), tells the story of an explosive nationalist figure, and D. Gwynn’s The Life of John Redmond (1932) remains the standard life of the Irish-party leader. D. Miller’s Church, State and Nation (Dublin, 1974) considers the shifts in the political attitudes of some members of the Irish Roman Catholic hierarchy during the period. Ruth Dudley Edwards provides a highly interpretative account of the fortunes of potential and real extremists in Patrick Pearse (1977), while Leon Ó Broin’s Revolutionary Underground (Dublin, 1976) also looks in this direction. His The Chief Secretary (1970) is a favourable portrait of A. Birrell, the long-serving minister for Ireland in Liberal and coalition governments. F. Prill’s Ireland, Britain and Germany, 1870–1914 (Dublin, 1976) and A. J. Ward’s Ireland and Anglo-American Relations, 1899–1921 (1969) are important accounts of how Ireland impinged on other countries: the former is especially noteworthy in showing the problem in a European context. G. Dangerfield’s The Strange Death of Liberal England, 1910–14 (1935) attempts to place the Irish crisis in an English context and remains a classic account of the ills of the late Edwardian years. His The Damnable Question (1977), however, does not advance new insights resulting from an additional forty years’ reflection. More general treatments are numerous, and J. Lee’s The Modernization of Irish Society, 1848–1918 (Dublin, 1973), F. S. L. Lyons’s Ireland Since the Famine (1971) and O. MacDonagh’s Ireland (British edn, 1977) merit particular notice. Irish Historical Studies, which is not always easily accessible, contains many articles on the period.
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© 1979 Walter L. Arnstein, Suzann Buckley, Peter Cain, Dennis Dean, T. R. Gourvish, Colin Nicolson, Alan O’Day, G. R. Searle
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O’Day, A. (1979). Irish Home Rule and Liberalism. In: O’Day, A. (eds) The Edwardian Age: Conflict and Stability 1900–1914. Problems in Focus Series. Palgrave, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-15854-6_7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-15854-6_7
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