Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Strife, Resistance & Home Rule
Although Irish culture was thriving at the start of the 20th century, the country's peaceful
efforts to free itself from British rule were thwarted at every juncture. Dublin's slums were
the worst in Europe, and the emergence of militant trade unionism introduced a socialist
agenda to the struggle for self-determination.
In 1905 Arthur Griffith (1871-1922) founded a new political movement called Sinn Féin
('Ourselves Alone'), which sought to achieve Home Rule through passive resistance rather
than political lobbying. It urged the Irish to withhold taxes and its MPs to form an Irish
government in Dublin.
Meanwhile, trade union leaders Jim Larkin and James Connolly agitated against low
wages and corporate greed, culminating in the Dublin Lockout of 1913, where 300 employ-
ers 'locked out' 20,000 workers for five months. During this time, Connolly established the
Irish Citizen Army (ICA) to defend striking workers from the police. Things were heating
up.
Home Rule was finally passed by Westminster in 1914, but its provisions were suspen-
ded for the duration of WWI. Bowing to pressure from Protestant-dominated Ulster, where
140,000 members of the newly formed Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) swore to resist any
attempts to weaken British rule in Ireland, the bill also made provisions for the 'temporary'
exclusion of the north from the workings of the future act. How temporary was 'temporary'
was anybody's guess - and it was in such political fudging that the seeds of trouble were
sown. To counter the potential threat from the UVF, Irish nationalists formed the Irish Vo-
lunteer Force (IVF), but a stand-off was avoided when the vast majority of them enlisted in
the British Army: if Britain was going to war 'in defence of small nations' then loyalty to
the Allied cause would help Ireland's long-term aspirations.
When World War I ended in 1918, 50,000 Irish citizens had lost their lives.
 
Search WWH ::




Custom Search