The Ulster Crisis

Timeline

• 1877 — Parnell becomes leader of the Irish Home Rule Party.
• 1879 — The Land League, the Irish Republican Brotherhood (revolutionary nationalists) and the Home Rule movement come together in the ‘New Departure’ under Parnell’s direction. The ‘land war’ begins in earnest.
• 1880 — The boycotting of Captain Charles Boycott.
• 1881 — Parnell and other nationalist leaders arrested.
• 1882 — In jail, Parnell is concerned by the rising level of violence in the land campaign; he agrees to support Gladstone’s new Land Act and is released from prison in order to calm the situation.
• 1886 — The first Home Rule Bill is defeated in the House of Commons.
• 1890 — Parnell removed as party leader after the Kitty O’Shea scandal.
• 1893 — The second Home Rule Bill is defeated in the House of Lords. The Gaelic League is founded to promote Irish language and culture. Wyndam’s Land Act allows smaller farmers to purchase their land.
• 1905 — Arthur Griffith founds Sinn Fein.
• 1910 — The Liberal government announces its intention to introduce a third Home Rule Bill.
• 1911 — Edward Carson accepts the leadership of the Ulster Unionist cause.
• 1912 — In April, a massive demonstration in favour of the Union is held at Balmoral, and the third Home Rule Bill is introduced. In September, on ‘Ulster Day’ over 100,000 unionists sign the Solemn League and Covenant to oppose Home Rule by any means necessary.
• 1913 — In January the Ulster Volunteer Force is formally established. A provisional government for Ulster, backed by the UVF, is set up in case Home Rule should be introduced. In November the Irish Volunteers are set up.
• 1914 — In April the UVF brings 35,000 guns into Ulster. The Home Rule Bill is passed through the House of Commons. In July, at the Buckingham Palace Conference, unionist and nationalist leaders fail to agree. The Irish Volunteers run guns through Howth; there are fatal shootings involving British troops. In August the First World War breaks out. In September, Carson and the nationalist leader John Redmond pledge their volunteers to the war effort. The Home Rule Bill passes through Parliament but its implementation is suspended for the duration of the war. The Irish Volunteers are divided, with one group maintaining that it is Britain’s war, not Ireland’s.
• 1916 — In April the Easter Rising takes place in Dublin; in May its leaders are executed. In July, the Battle of the Somme is fought.
• 1918 — At the general election following the war, Sinn Fein receives huge support. It refuses to take its seats, and sets up an Irish parliament instead.
• 1919 — The IRA begins a War of Independence against the British, which will last two years.
• 1920 — The Government of Ireland Act sets up two separate home-rule parliaments in Belfast and Dublin. This is accepted by unionists but rejected by nationalists.
• 1921 — In July a truce is declared in the Anglo-Irish war, and in December the Treaty is signed; this confirms partition and sets up the Irish Free State in the south with similar status to the dominion of Canada within the British Empire.
• 1922 — The IRA is divided and a civil war breaks out, which is won by the pro-Treaty forces.