Government of Ireland Act 1914
Act of Parliament | |
Status: Repealed | |
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Text of statute as originally enacted |
Enactment | |
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Act implemented | Never implemented |
Succeeded by | Government of Ireland Act 1920 |
The Government of Ireland Act 1914 (
The Act was the first law ever approved by the Parliament of the United Kingdom that provided for a
Background
During 1909, a constitutional crisis began when the
The Bill
The Prime Minister, H. H. Asquith, introduced the Bill on 11 April 1912.[2] Allowing more autonomy than its two predecessors, the bill provided that:
- A House of Commons) with powers to deal with most national affairs. Each of the four provinces of Irelandwould be represented by ten senators elected by proportional representation.
- A reduced number of members of parliament representing Ireland would continue to attend the Parliament of the United Kingdom (42 MPs, rather than 103).
- The Dublin Castle administration would be eliminated, although with the retention of the Lord Lieutenant.
The financial situation was a concern. Irish taxes had yielded a surplus of £2 million in 1893, but by 1910 that had become a current spending net deficit of £1.5m, which had to be raised by London. An annual "Transferred Sum" mechanism was proposed, so that public spending in Ireland could be continued at the same level.[3]
The Bill was passed by the Commons by a majority of 10 votes in 1912, but in January 1913 the House of Lords rejected it by 326 votes to 69. Later in 1913, it was reintroduced and again passed by the Commons and rejected by the Lords, this time by 302 votes to 64. In 1914, after the third reading, the Bill was passed by the Commons on 25 May 1914 by a majority of 77. Having been defeated a third time in the Lords, the Government used the provisions of the Parliament Act 1911 to override the Lords and send the bill for royal assent.
Ulster crisis
Unionists in Ulster were opposed to a home-rule Ireland governed from Dublin. Hostility to the Home Rule Bill was increasing in the counties of Antrim, Armagh, Down, and Londonderry.
In January 1913, the Unionist Council reorganised their volunteers into a paramilitary Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF), whose members threatened to resist by physical force the implementation of the Act and the authority of any restored Dublin Parliament by force of arms.
Partition
At the Bill's
"I say this to my Nationalist fellow-countrymen, and indeed also to the Government, you have never tried to win over Ulster. You have never tried to understand her position. You have never alleged, and you cannot allege, that this Bill gives her one atom of advantage."[9]
A government amending bill was introduced in the
Passing of the Bill
This section needs additional citations for verification. (May 2017) |
With the beginning of World War I on 4 August 1914, Asquith decided to abandon his Amending Bill, and instead rushed through a new bill, the Suspensory Act 1914, which was presented for royal assent simultaneously with both the Government of Ireland Act 1914 and the Welsh Church Act 1914. Although the two controversial Bills had now finally become statute on 18 September 1914, the Suspensory Act ensured that Home Rule would be postponed for the duration of the conflict[15] and would not come into operation until the end of the war.[16] (Eventually Home Rule was considered by the Irish Convention in 1917–18, and by the cabinet from September 1919; the Welsh Church Act was delayed until March 1920). The Ulster question was 'solved' in the same way: through the promise of amending legislation which was left undefined.[15]
Dublin was a battlefield for a week during the
The end of the war, in November 1918, was followed by the December
See also
- History of Ireland (1801–1923)
- Government of Ireland Bill 1886 (First Irish Home Rule Bill)
- Parliament of Southern Ireland
- Parliament of Northern Ireland
- Solemn League and Covenant (Ulster)
- Unionism in Ireland
- List of acts of the Parliament of the United Kingdom enacted without the House of Lords' consent
Sources
Bibliography
- Childers, Erskine. The Framework of Home Rule.
- Hennessey, Thomas (1998). Dividing Ireland: World War I and Partition. Routledge. ISBN 0-415-17420-1.
- ISBN 0-7538-1767-5.
- ISBN 0-14-029165-2.
- ISBN 0-521-37741-2.
- Lewis, Geoffrey (2005). Carson, the Man who divided Ireland. A&C Black. ISBN 1-85285-454-5.
- Rodner, W. S. (1982). "Leaguers, Covenanters, Moderates: British Support for Ulster, 1913–14". Éire—Ireland. 17 (3): 68–85.
- Smith, Jeremy (1993). "Bluff, Bluster and Brinkmanship: Andrew Bonar Law and the Third Home Rule Bill". Historical Journal. 36 (1): 161–174. S2CID 159691644.
- Shepard, Walter James (1912). "The Government of Ireland Home Rule Bill". The American Political Science Review. 6 (4): 564–573. S2CID 147674647.
- ISBN 0-571-08066-9.
- Government of Ireland Act 1914, available from the House of Lords Record Office
- "Home Rule Finance" Arthur Samuels KC (1912) Text online at Archive.org
References
- ^ ISBN 9780415013482.
- ^ Hansard online, start of the debate 11 April 1912; accessed 20 January 2009
- ^ "Future financial arrangements". Parliamentary Debates (Hansard). 11 April 1912. Retrieved 20 January 2009.
- ^ a b Shepard 1912.
- ^ Stewart 1967, pp. 58–68.
- ^ Stewart 1967, pp. 69–78.
- ^ Ryan, Annie (2005). Witnesses: Inside the Easter Rising. Liberties Press. p. 12.
- ISBN 0-297-84614-0.
- ^ Gwynn, Denis (1932). The Life of John Redmond. London: Harper & Co. p. 255.
- ISBN 9781317897118.
- ^ "Government of Ireland Bill; Amending Bill". Parliamentary Debates (Hansard). 29 June 1914. HC Deb vol 64 cc30–1. Retrieved 2 December 2016.
- ^ a b Jennings, Ivor (1957). Parliament (2nd ed.). CUP Archive. p. 427.
- ^ HC Bill 326: Government of Ireland (Amendment) Bill [H.L.]. Sessional papers. Vol. 1914 HC 3 59. London: HMSO. 15 July 1914.
- ^ Jackson 2003, pp. 161–163.
- ^ a b Jackson 2003, p. 164.
- ISBN 0-415-17420-1
- ISBN 9780582352155.
- ^ Headings of a settlement as to the Government of Ireland. Command papers. Vol. Cd.8310. HMSO. 1916. Retrieved 11 September 2016.
- ISBN 0-7171-2744-3.
External links
- Gladstone's Irish Home Rule speech (beseech in its favour)
- Government of Ireland Act 1914
- "Government of Ireland Bill" (matches 1912–17 relate to the 1912 bill, which became the 1914 act)