The citizen-Republican. (Scotland, Bon Homme County, S.D.) 1???-19??, 1914-03-26
HISTORY OF HOME RULE
AGITATION IN t2Et ann

Ireland mas striyen for home rule
Wlthout a moments cessation ever since
the Irish parliament was abolished and
the legislative union of Great britain
and ireland was proclaimed on january
l, 1901. In the 113 years that have
passed since that date, the agitation
ldas gone on under various forms, pa
cine and violent, led BY such patriotic
as Daniei O'Connell, William Smith
OBr1en, Charles Stewart ParnelI
oDonovan Rosa and Michael Davitt,
TO mention only a few of the more
prominent. These were succeeded by
the Redmonds and the Healeys, who are
IN the forefront of the movement today.
Inc patriotic movement was sup
pressed time after time by coercion acts
passed by the British parliament only
10 take another form. The Molly Ma
cures, the Young ireland party, the
Land league and the National league
were all Irish political societies which
had their day.
thousands of Irish nationalists served
terms of imprisonment for their par
~ticipation in the fight for legislative in
dependence from Great Britain. Hun
dreds were exiled, many of them pro-
ceedlng to the United States.
Marked by Violence.
The agitation sometimes took on the
aspect of extreme violence as when
Lord Frederick Cavendish, the chief
secretary for Ireland, n t. Ell. Burke,
permanent secretary, were assassinated
by 'inVincibleS'' on May 6, 1892. In
Phoenix park, Dublin.
The parliamentary fight for home
rule was waged for many decades and
gave rise to extraordinary e in the
usually staid British parliament, often
bringing about the expulsion of mem
bers and the ~stsppage Of business.
The first effort of the British gov
eminent to meet the demand for Irish
home rule, was made by the late Will
liam Ewart Gladstone, when premier in
1886. The bill was rejected after it's
Introduction had brought about a great
split in the liberal party, which caused
the secession of Joseph Chamberlain
and other liberal leaders, who since on
Irish questions have acted with the con-
sentative party. Since then several
Irish home rule bills have been intro
duced by liberal governments and the
last one passed the house OF
but was rejected by the house of lords.
This led to the passage three years ago
of the parliament act under the proyi-
sions of which any bill not an anpro-
p~riation bill rejected by the house OF
lords becomes automatically a law on
passing the house of commons in three
successive sessions.
The present agitation has been
manly brought about by the practical
certainty of Premier Asquith,s Irish
nome rule bill becoming law without
the consent of the house Of lords SIR
Edward Carson is at the head OF the
agitation against home rule among the
unionists of Ulster. He and several
other leading men took the initiative
IN o~rganlzing an army Of Ulster volup-
teers to resist the introduction OF bome
rule for Ireland in it's entirety. They
insisted that Ulster should be left OH,
of its operation.
The chief point at issue in relan is
the religious one. Out Of a total popu-
lation of abou 1850, 900, ~approximately
100000 are Protestants of various de-
nominations. Most of these are found
IN the four Ulster counties of London-
derry, Antrim, Armagh and Downe.
The other five counties of Ulster are
predom1nantly Catholic. AS a mater
of fact Ulster returns II nationalist
and only lie %unionists to parliament.