1877 - 1886: The Land League, Home Rule and Unionism

After the Famine, the price of food rose rapidly and Irish farmers began to get better off as they made money on this market. In response, the Irish landlords raised taxes. However, after 1876, the food-bubble burst and many farmers fell on hard times. Despite this, as well as poor harvests in 1877-1879, the landlords did not reduce the taxes. Many farmers found they could not pay their rent and were evicted from their cottages and land. Many of these evicted farmers, who were now homeless, formed a new land-reform movement headed by Michael Davitt, a farmer from Mayo. They wanted to change the law to reduce the power of landlords and allow peasants to own their land.

At the same time another man, Isaac Butt, had started the Home Rule Party. The aim of this party was to repeal the Act of Union and reinstate Ireland's Parliament. He wanted a regional Irish Parliament that could pass laws separately from the main Parliament in London, but did not want complete Independence from Britain. This was viewed by some as a perfect in-between solution for Ireland. In 1874, the Home Rule Party won 59 seats in Parliament. In 1879, Charles Stewart Parnell, had become the leader. His problem was apathy - most Irish didn't really care about regaining their own Parliament.

However, his fortune changed when Davitt invited Parnell to speak out against evictions and to call for an increase in peasant land rights. He got massive support, and by merging the Home Rule and Land campaigns, he had boosted his own cause as well. In 1879, the Land League was formed and Parnell became its President. Its aims were to get more rights for tenant farmers and reduce evictions. He also believed that an Nation could be forged out of the people living in Ireland. This belief was called 'Irish Nationalism', (which is today often confused with Irish Republicanism, which is a belief in making Ireland an independent republic).

The first tactic by the Land League was to boycott any peasant who moved into a farm where the previous farmer had been evicted. This was designed to force the new peasant to leave, so that the landlord would get no rent. However, between 1879 and 1882, the violence from these boycotts got so bad that it became known as the Land War. The Parliament tried to solve the problem in 1881 by passing the Land act. This set up fair rates of rent, and many Irish farmers saw their rent reduced by 20%. However, it did not help many of the poorest farmers, so the violence continued.

There were now several groups in Ireland. The Home Rulers wanted the Act of Union repealed and Ireland given back its own Parliament, but not made an independent country. Against the Home Rule movement were those who felt that the Act of Union was good for Ireland and wanted to retain it. These were called the 'Irish Unionists'. They were mostly wealthy Protestants, because Catholics had not recovered from the years of segregation that had gone before. Against the Unionists were those who felt that Ireland could be made into a self-governing nation. These were called the 'Irish Nationalists'. The Nationalists had to tackle several problems because some aspects of what constituted a nation (a unique and widely spoken language and a common religion) were missing. Irish was only spoken in small areas and the Irish were both Protestant and Catholic. The final group was those who wanted to create a self-governing republic in Ireland. These were called the 'Irish Republicans'. They differed from Nationalists in that they wanted an independent country above anything else. Nationalists were more interested in nationhood on the island, and did not place as much emphasis on independence.

1886 - 1893: The First and Second Home Rule Bills

In 1886, the Liberal Party Prime Minister of the UK, William Gladstone, decided that in order to end the problems in Ireland, some action would have to be taken. He felt that giving Ireland back their local Parliament, which was removed in the Act of Union of 1800, would solve the problem. So in 1886, Gladstone introduced the First Home Rule Bill. However it was defeated in the London Parliament because others, especially, the Conservative Party were against Home Rule which they thought would weaken the United Kingdom.

After this attempt to introduce Home Rule, the Irish Unionists formed an organisation called the 'Irish Unionist Alliance' to fight Home Rule. This organisation was very influential, despite being small in numbers, and received large donations from rich businessmen in Dublin, Cork and Belfast. These were the people who stood to lose most from Home Rule. The IUA also gained support with the opposition in the UK Parliament (the Conservatives) because they felt that if Ireland broke away from the UK, other parts of the British Empire would try to as well. These people were called the 'British Unionists'. This meant that the two sides in the London Parliament were against each other when it came to the issue of Home Rule.

After the First Home Rule Bill had failed, the Conservative leader had come to Ulster, where Irish Unionism was significantly stronger than anywhere else. He told the Unionists that they could count on British Unionists to help them resist Home Rule. He famously commented that 'Ulster will fight and Ulster will be right'. In 1892, the Unionists started to use the slogan 'Erin go bragh' which is Irish for 'Ireland for ever' to show their commitment to maintaining Ireland's position as a part of the UK. There was also some sporadic rioting in Belfast, because the Unionists in Ulster had begun to be regarded as anti-Catholic. This was a charge they didn't face in the rest of Ireland, where there was less trouble. In 1886 alone, 50 people were killed in the city of Belfast.

In 1884, the Irish Nationalists began the first phase of forging a single Irish national identity. This started with the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) to promote Irish sports. In 1893, the Gaelic League was founded by two (Nationalist) Protestants. Its purpose was to promote the Irish language. The Irish language was mainly of Celtic origin with some Scottish influence. Both organisations were extremely successful, attracting thousands of members. Together, they instituted what is now referred to as the 'Gaelic Revival' in Ireland.

In 1886, the anti-Home-Rule Conservatives came to power. Their policy was to introduce new and fairer laws for Ireland. These laws, called the 'Plan of Campaign', gave more rights to tenant farmers and helped them to become financially much better off . The purpose of this policy was to show the Irish, by kindness, that Home Rule was unnecessary. It worked well, and between 1885 and 1905, most of Ireland's land changed hands from the landlords to the tenant farmers.

In 1892, the Liberals regained power. Despite threats from the Unionists at their 1892 conference, William Gladstone introduced the Second Home Rule Bill in 1893. In a victorious vote, it was passed by the House of Commons. However it was defeated in the UK's upper house (the House of Lords), where there were many more Conservatives than Liberals. A Bill can't become law in the UK unless both houses pass it.

1893 - 1914: The Third Home Rule Bill and Ulster's Opposition

In 1900, the Irish Republican Brotherhood (the 'Fenians' or IRB) began to regroup: they had been doing very little since their failed rebellion of 1867. They were a group of hard-line Irish Republicans who began to recruit volunteers for a future rebellion against British Rule. In 1905 a Dubliner named Arthur Griffith set up a new political party, called Sinn Fein. It was a Republican party and was vehemently against Home Rule, which it regarded as falling too short of what was needed. It supported a completely independent republic consisting of the whole island of Ireland.

In the 1909 General Election, there was a hung Parliament when the Liberals and the Conservatives both won exactly 272 seats. For John Redmond, the leader of the 84-seat Home Rule Party, this was an ideal situation to get what he wanted - both sides needed the support of his party to form a government, so he could ask for almost anything he wanted. The way things were at the time, the only way the Hung Parliament situation could be resolved was if the power of the House of Lords was reduced. The Liberals introduced the Parliament Act to make this change, but they needed more than 272 votes to ensure that it was passed. Redmond agreed to support the Liberal's Parliament Act in return for another Home Rule Bill. The Act was duly passed, and the House of Lords' powers were reduced.

The Liberals were now obligated to introduce the Third Home Rule Bill, in 1912. They were more reluctant than they had been in the past, but the Conservatives had more Unionist support than ever before. When the Bill was discussed, the Conservatives fiercely campaigned to have the Unionist north east of Ireland treated separately from the rest of the island. They argued that the Protestants of Ulster constituted a separate Irish nation. They hoped this argument would stop Home Rule being introduced, since it would, they believed, result in a volatile Ireland containing two national identities. The two prime Unionist speakers were Sir Edward Carson (leader of the Unionists) and Sir James Craig.

In Belfast, tensions were so high over the Bill that spontaneous rioting kept breaking out between the Catholic and Protestant residents of the City. On 28 September 1912, Craig introduced the 'Ulster Covenant', which people could sign to pledge their determination to defeat the Third Home Rule Bill. It was a huge success and 450,000 Irish people signed it, some in their own blood. The week came to a climax on 28 September 1912, which was known as Ulster Day. The whole event was remarkably peaceful, considering the tension, and received huge publicity in Britain.

As the Bill was discussed, one proposition put forward was that the 4 counties with a Unionist majority (Antrim, Down, Londonderry and Armagh) could be left out of the Home Rule scheme. This was proposed as a compromise, since both sides were threatening to use force if the other got their way. At first the Unionists were horrified, since it made Home Rule much more likely, but they quickly resigned themselves to the idea. Many of them decided they would need a back up military force as 'insurance' to make certain that at least Ulster was left out of Home Rule. So in January 1913, the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) was set up. Thousands of Unionists joined, and they met in Orange Halls around Ulster. The only thing missing was weapons. On 24/25 April 1914, 25,000 rifles and 3,000,000 bullets were illegally landed by the UVF at Larne, Bangor and Donaghadee, all near Belfast. Since the police in these areas did not try to stop the landings, the Nationalists felt that the police were in league with the UVF.

By the end of 1913 (the Bill was still being debated) the Nationalists realised that the Liberal government was likely to agree with the Conservatives and leave part of Ulster out of Home Rule. They were horrified, as they felt an Irish nation could only be forged with the whole island included in Home Rule. So some of them set up their own military force, the Irish Volunteer Force (IVF) in November 1913. It recruited even more men than the UVF. Since many Nationalists felt that the Home Rule leader, John Redmond, was ready to compromise Ireland, Redmond was frightened by the size of the IVF. The IVF landed 1,500 rifles and 45,000 bullets at Howth, near Dublin, on 26 July 1914. In this case, the police did intervene and shot 3 people dead. It looked as if the police were treating the UVF and IVF very differently.

In March 1914, the government introduced a new scheme, which it hoped would prevent a Civil War between the UVF and IVF. This was called the 'County Option Scheme', under which each county in Ireland would vote whether or not to join Home Rule. If it said No then it would be outside Home Rule for 6 years. Under this, the 4 eastern counties in Ulster (Antrim, Armagh, Down and Londonderry) would be out of Home Rule. But the Unionists felt that if the dug in their heels, they could get counties Tyrone and Fermanagh out of Home Rule too, even though they had a slim Nationalist majority (about 56%).

1914 - 1919: The First World War, Easter Rising and rise of Sinn Fein

In August 1914 the UK went to war with Germany as the First World War began. In order to concentrate on the war effort, the government decided to postpone the Third Home Rule Bill until after the war, and this left the Nationalists and Unionists wondering what action would be best on their part. Both decided that if they fought alongside the British in the war, they would have a bargaining tool for use after the war.

Most of the Nationalist IVF did go to war alongside the British. However a small splinter group disagreed with this policy of helping the British and stayed at home. In order to disassociate themselves, the majority of the IVF renamed themselves the National Volunteer Force (NVF) while the splinter group remained the IVF. Thousands of Irishmen joined the war, and these men became the British Army's 10th and 16th divisions.

Many of the UVF men also joined the war, along with other Unionists. These men became the 36th Ulster Division. On 1st July 1916, in France, the 10,000-strong 36th Ulster Division took part in a major offensive known as the Battle of the Somme. This offensive turned out to be one of the worst military routs of the war, and there were 5,000 casualties among the 36th Ulster division alone. London viewed this sacrifice, on the part of the men of Ulster, as an indication that Ulster could not now be forced into Home Rule.

When the war had begun in 1914, the government had told troops that they would be 'home by Christmas' (in other words that the war would be over by the end of 1914). By 1916 the war was still at a stalemate, and Nationalists began to realise that the war could go on for years. So the Irish Republican Brotherhood and the splinter IVF planned a huge rebellion to drive the British out of Ireland, taking advantage of the fact that the British had few troops to spare. It was led by a Dubliner, Patrick Pearse, along with Thomas MacDonagh and Joseph Plunkett. The rising was planned for Easter 1916, and was to be supplied with German weapons by Roger Casement. Despite the fact that the weapons were captured by the British, the rebellion went ahead on Easter Monday (24 April) 1916.

1,500 rebels took over the Dublin Post Office and other key buildings in the city. They then raised the Irish Flag and read a proclamation of independence and formation of the Republic of Ireland. A fierce battle ensued between the rebels and the British. On 29 April, after 5 days of mortars, shells and gunfire, the rebels surrendered after 450 volunteers had been killed. Huge areas of Dublin city centre were in ruins and many locals sided with the British and shouted abuse as the rebels were lead away. Their opinions changed, however, when it was announced that the leaders should be executed for treason and collaboration with the enemy (Germany). Almost 100 men were shot after nominal trials. The British wrongly blamed Sinn Fein for the rising (it had actually been the Irish Republican Brotherhood) and this contributed greatly to the Home Rule Party's defeats and Sinn Fein's success in the next election.

In July 1917, Eamonn de Valera became the President of Sinn Fein. He had taken part in the Easter Rising, but had not been executed. He stood in the Clare East by-election, openly declaring his belief in an Independent Irish Republic. He won easily, but refused to take up his seat at Westminster as part of Sinn Fein's policy of abstention. The Sinn Fein candidates became popular because the British had blamed them incorrectly for the Easter Rising and had then executed the leaders of the rising. This provoked much sympathy towards Sinn Fein amongst Irish voters, and Sinn Fein did not attempt to set the record straight.

Sinn Fein gained even more support when they led the successful fight to prevent conscription in Ireland to feed the First World War trenches in 1918. After the war, which ended with German defeat in 1918, Sinn Fein won 73 seats compared to the Home Rule Party's 6. The Irish Unionist Party won 26 seats, mostly in Ulster. All 73 Sinn Fein MPs refused to go to Westminster, and instead sat in their own Parliament in Dublin. Called Dail Eireann, it first met on 21st January 1919, although it had no power to exercise.