Here follow some extracts and notes by RJ relevant to the background of the Century narrative in the period 1901-1910; see also some additional notes, added in 2007, on the political background under the Tory 'kill Home Rule with kindness' regime, based on Andrew Gailey's 1987 book on that theme, published by Cork UP.

TW Russell was the Liberal Unionist MP for South Tyrone. He supported tenant purchase and argued that if the land question was resolved the demand for Home Rule would subside. In 1907 he succeeded Horace Plunkett as the Minister in charge of the Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction. Russell although Unionist had attracted nationalist support earlier; Maume instances Richard Lyttle '...a non-subscribing Presbyterian minister from Moneyrea, Co Down, a pro-Boer, Gaelic Leaguer and friend of Alice Milligan...'. Maume however tends to regard manifestations of Protestant sympathy for an integrated Irish nationhood as '...provoking a new, more aggressively populist Ulster unionism and in encouraging nationalists to underestimate unionist strength'.(p43)

Maume has an interesting summary of the evolution of the views of Arthur Griffith, whose paper the United Irishman consciously picked up on the Young Ireland tradition, especially Mitchell, and was the successor to the Shan Van Vocht of Alice Milligan and Anna Johnston, published in Belfast from 1896 to 1900. Griffith linked the Davis tradition with the Dublin artisan tradition of self-help. This was in contrast to DP Moran's aggressive and exclusivist Catholic cultural nationalism, as expressed in the Leader. Following Mitchell Griffith expressed extreme hostility to individualist and utilitarian political economy, demonising Adam Smith and Francis Bacon. His adoption of the German economist List was related to the Dublin artisan tradition of hostility to imported goods. He held that JB Dunlop, the inventor of the pneumatic tyre, had been persuaded by British vested interests to leave Ireland, and that the coal deposits of Antrim and Tyrone were unworked because of the Durham coal interests of Lord Londonderry. He wanted Irish-American capitalists to help develop Ireland.(p49-50)

DP Moran and the Leader expressed the frustrations of the rising Catholic middle-class, who found promotional opportunities blocked. '.... Moran harnessed Irish revivalism and its critique of 19th century nationalism to the view that the central struggle was not between Britain and Ireland but between Catholic and Protestant, that total separation was impossible - perhaps undesirable - and that the Catholic community should assert itself economically and culturally until it was strong enough to force Britain to accept a Catholic elite as managers of an autonomous Ireland linked to Britain n external affairs...'. An important vehicle for this political process was the Catholic Association, founded in 1902.(p61)

The United Irish League emerges in the pages of Maume as a factor to be reckoned with, having however a Catholic clericalist flavour. It had a Young Ireland Branch which was the only one to admit women. Hanna Sheehy Skeffington was a member, and used it as a platform for the women's suffrage movement, hitherto dominated by Protestant middle-class women. This was circa 1906.(p65)

The origins of the Partition concept may be attributed the Catholic Nationalist clique associated with DP Moran and the Leader. The prime mover for this approach was Arthur Cleary, who was a contemporary of Joyce and Kettle in UCD. Cleary argued cogently for the separate nationality of Ulster protestant, horrifying Eoin MacNeill. This was in the 1905-06 period.(p74)

There was in 1907 on the political agenda an Irish Council Bill, aimed at constructing an assembly out of local government, with a large nominated element. There were echoes of Indian administrative practice; Sir Anthony MacDonnell (later Lord MacDonnell, and RDS influential), Wyndham's under-secretary, had Indian experience. Griffith regarded the 1904 Dunraven proposals as having been better, though he had attacked them at the time. Maume has it that '...its large nominated element was more reminiscent of the Council of Agriculture presided over by the hated Plunkett..'.(p88)

(Why was Plunkett hated, and by whom was he hated? I suspect by the small-town Catholic commercial bourgeoisie, whose parasitic hold over the agricultural primary producers Plunkett tried to break with the aid of the co-operative movement. JJ revered him, and dedicated his 1951 Irish Agriculture in Transition to his memory. See also Trevor West's 1986 biography of Plunkett, and Plunkett's controversial Ireland in the New Century published in 1904. RJ.)

Lord MacDonnell subsequently intervened in the Home Rule debates, demanding a more generous approach to Home Rule finance.(p90)

Liberal support for Home Rule among the Ulster Protestants included JB Armour of Ballymoney, WH Dodd MP for N Tyrone, Sir JB Dougherty who was a Professor in Magee College, and Lord Pirrie who was the proprietor of the Harland and Wolfe shipyard, who subsidised the Liberal Ulster Guardian newspaper.(p93)

The foundation of the National University of Ireland could be presented as a solid achievement of the Liberal alliance; it was denounced as de facto a Catholic University only by a small group of Unionist diehards. The question of compulsory Irish in matriculation drew opposition from the Catholic Hierarchy, on the grounds that they feared the Catholic middle-class might go to Trinity. The agitation in favour of Irish led by MacNeill and others however felt it would give lower-class students, stalwarts to the Gaelic League classes, and advantage over the 'Clongowes snobs'. On the other hand Francis Sheehy Skeffington opposed it because he felt that the clericalist Irish-Irelanders would use Irish as a shield against modernity.(p98)

The 1910 General Election was interesting in the attitudes and alliances which showed up. Griffith attacked Redmond as a tool of the Liberals, and William O'Brien attempted to use the All for Ireland League as a means of renewing the United Irish League on a more inclusive basis, helped by Dunraven. The AFIL however remained as a Cork splinter-group.(p103ff)

I put in the above Dunraven link having encountered it when looking at the Asquith papers as background to JJ's 'Civil War in Ulster'. Maume on p104 also instances this 'wealthy Whig' connection, castigated by Redmond as 'Orange dogs creeping out of their holes'. Maume admits the need for further research to identify whether this Cork Protestant support for AFIL was '...opportunism, adaptation to the prospect of Home Rule, or genuine O'Brienism..'. My own view is in support of the second hypothesis; it would be in the same spirit as Armour and Pirrie in the North.

Some navigational notes:

Copyright Dr Roy Johnston 1999