Government of Ireland Bill 1886
(Redirected from
First Irish Home Rule Bill
)
Irish Government Bill 1893 |
The Government of Ireland Bill 1886,home rule for Ireland since the 1860s.
The
Irish Land Act 1870, was very much the work of Gladstone, who excluded both the Irish MPs and his own ministers from participation in the drafting. Following the Purchase of Land (Ireland) Act 1885 it was to be introduced alongside a new Land Purchase Bill to reform tenant rights, but the latter was abandoned.[2]
: 69
Key aspects
The key aspects of the 1886 bill were:
Legislative
- A Act of Union[citation needed]) consisting of two Orders which could meet either together or separately.[3]
- The first Order was to consist of the 28 Irish representative peers (the Irish peers traditionally elected by all Irish peers to sit in the House of Lords at Westminster) plus 75 members elected through a highly restricted franchise. It could delay the passage of legislation for 3 years.[4]
- The second Order was to consist of either 204 or 206 members.[4] It had not been decided whether to have two members elected by the graduates of the Royal University to match the two members traditionally elected by graduates of Dublin University (Trinity College).[citation needed]
- All Irish MPs would be excluded from Westminster altogether.
Executive
- Executive power would be possessed by the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland whose executive would not be responsible to either Order.[citation needed]
Reserve powers
- .
- No special provision was made for Ulster.
- Britain would retain control of the Royal Irish Constabulary until it deemed it safe for control to pass to Dublin. The Dublin Metropolitan Police would pass to Irish control.[citation needed]
Reaction
When the bill was introduced,
Unionists and the Orange Order were fierce in their resistance; for them, any measure of Home Rule was denounced as nothing other than Rome Rule. In the staunchly loyalist town of Portadown, the so-called 'Orange Citadel' where the Orange Order was founded in 1795, Orangemen and their supporters celebrated the Bill's defeat by 'Storming the Tunnel'.[5] This was the headline in the local paper where it was reported that a mob attacked the small Catholic/Nationalist ghetto of Obins Street.[6]
The vote on the Bill took place after two months of debate and, on 8 June 1886, 341 voted against it (including 93 Liberals) while 311 voted for it. Parliament was dissolved on 26 June and the 1886 United Kingdom general election was called. The Liberal Unionist Party was formed to contest the election and won 77 seats. They formed a coalition government with the Conservatives and continued allying with them in subsequent elections until the parties merged in 1912.
Historians have suggested that the 1886 Home Rule Bill was fatally flawed by the secretive manner of its drafting, with Gladstone alienating Liberal figures like Joseph Chamberlain who, along with a colleague, resigned in protest from the ministry, while producing a Bill viewed privately by the Irish as badly drafted and deeply flawed.[2]: 74
| Government of Ireland Bill 1886, Second Reading | ||
| Ballot → | 7 June 1886 | |
|---|---|---|
| No (Conservatives (248), Liberals (92), Crofters (1)) | 341 / 670
| |
| Yes (Liberals (224), IPP (84), Crofters (2), Lib-Lab (1)) | 311 / 670
| |
| Abstentions | 18 / 670
| |
| Sources: Hansard[7] | ||
See also
- 1886 Belfast riots
- Government of Ireland Bill 1893 (Second Irish Home Rule Bill)
- Government of Ireland Act 1914 (Third Irish Home Rule Bill)
- Government of Ireland Act 1920 (Fourth Irish Home Rule Bill)
- History of Ireland (1801–1923)
References
- ^ Hansard 1803-2005 - GOVERNMENT OF IRELAND BILL, April 1886
- ^ a b Alvin Jackson, Home Rule: An Irish History 1800—2000
- ^ "Government of Ireland Bill 1886". Article 9, Act of 1886.
- ^ a b "Government of Ireland Bill 1886". Article 10, Act of 1886.
- ^ Orange Citadel
- ^ UUC History Faculty: The 1886 Home Rule Riots Archived 4 February 2012 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "SECOND READING. [ADJOURNED DEBATE.]". Parliamentary Debates (Hansard). 7 June 1886. Retrieved 9 May 2020.. Although the IPP had won 86 constituencies in 1885, Edmund Gray and T. P. O'Connor were both returned for two constituencies.
Further reading
- University College Cork, History Faculty: Home Rule, The Elections of 1885, 1886
- MacDonagh, Michael: The Home Rule Movement, Talbot Press, Dublin (1920)
- ISBN 0-14-029165-2.
- Hennessey, Thomas: Dividing Ireland: World War I and Partition (1998), ISBN 0-415-17420-1.
External links
- Full text of the Home Rule bill of 1886 Appendix A of What home rule means now. (1893, Dublin), The Liberal Union of Ireland; from the Internet Archive. Full text without schedules.
- "Government of Ireland Bill" matches from Hansard; matches 1886–92 relate to the 1886 bill.
- Speech by Charles Stewart Parnell in the House of Commons on the second reading of the bill