A HISTORY OF IRELAND, 1800–1922
Anthem Perspectives in History
Titles in the Anthem Perspectives in History series combine a thematic overview with analyses of key areas, topics or personalities in history. The series is targeted at highachieving A Level, International Baccalaureate and Advanced Placement pupils, firstyear undergraduates and an intellectually curious audience.
Series Editors Helen Pike – Director of Studies at the Royal Grammar School, Guildford, UK Suzanne Mackenzie – Teacher of History at St Paul’s School, London, UK
Other Titles in the Series Britain in India, 1858–1947 Lionel Knight
Disraeli and the Art of Victorian Politics Ian St John
Gladstone and the Logic of Victorian Politics Ian St John
King John: An Underrated King Graham E. Seel
A HISTORY OF IRELAND, 1800–1922
THEATRES OF DISORDER?
Hilary Larkin
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This edition first published in UK and USA 2014 by ANTHEM PRESS 75–76 Blackfriars Road, London SE1 8HA, UK or PO Box 9779, London SW19 7ZG, UK and 244 Madison Ave #116, New York, NY 10016, USA
Copyright © Hilary Larkin 2014
The author asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.
Cover image:The Irish Girl(1860) by Ford Madox Brown, courtesy of the Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Fund
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British Library CataloguinginPublication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Library of Congress CataloginginPublication Data Larkin, Hilary. A history of Ireland, 1800–1922 : theatres of disorder? / Hilary Larkin. pages cm. – (Anthem perspectives in history) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 9781783080366 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Ireland–History–19th century. 2. Ireland–History–1901–1910. 3. Ireland– History–1910–1921. I. Title. DA950.L37 2013 941.708–dc23 2013044577
ISBN13: 978 1 78308 036 6 (Pbk) ISBN10: 1 78308 036 1 (Pbk)
This title is also available as an ebook.
Out of Ireland have we come. Great hatred, little room, Maimed us at the start. I carry from my mother’s womb A fanatic heart. —William Butler Yeats, Remorse for Intemperate Speech(1933)
PrefaceList of Abbreviations
Introduction
1. Forging the Union
C
2. Dawn of a New Century
3. Catholic Mobilisations
O
N
T
E
4. The Achievement of Emancipation
5. Ireland under Whig Government
6. The Campaign for Repealing Union
7. The Age of Peel
8. Explaining the Famine
9. Response to Famine
10. PostFamine Ireland
11. MidVictorian Ireland
12. Gladstone’s First Mission
13. Parnell and the Land League
N
14. The Irish Liberals: A Union of Hearts?
15. Constructive Unionism, 1886–1906
T
S
ix xi
1 9 19 27 37 49 63 75 87 95 107 119 133 147 157 169
viii
A HISTORY OF IRELAND, 1800–1922
16. Celtic Renaissance
17. The Story of Irish Socialism
18. The Home Rule Crisis
19. World War and Insurrection
20. The Rise of Sinn Féin
21. The Anglo–Irish War
22. North and South Settlements
23. Conclusion
ChronologyNotesBibliographyGlossaryQuestionsIndex
179 191 201 211 227 237 247 259
262 265 299 313 316 320
P
R
E
FA
C
E
I approached writing about nineteenth and early twentiethcentury Irish history with more than a slight sense of trepidation. Previously, I had researched the rather more manageable and less emotive topic of European influences on Ireland during the Enlightenment. But there is nothing that is not compelling about the history of this period and a desultory interest, in due course, became a fascination. I should like to thank those who have encouraged the project: Suzanne Mackenzie, Thomas Bartlett, Alvin Jackson, Aisling Byrne and Anna Rose O’Dwyer. A longterm debt of gratitude is overdue to all my former teachers in Irish history in University College Dublin: Ronan Fanning, Michael Laffan and Tadhg Ó hAnracháin, who communicated such a passion for the subject, a passion even earlier communicated by an inspirational teacher, Maura Farrell. My senior students at St Paul’s School, London have been an excellent sounding board for my ideas about British and Irish interactions and their questions and interests have helped to clarify my own. Latterly, I should like to thank Paul Kelton, who provided me with a research position at the University of Kansas; this has enabled me to complete this project transatlantically, making use of their library, the National Library of Ireland and the British Library. The University of Kansas indeed has inherited the 25,000 item collection of Irish books which once belonged to no less a person than P. S. O’Hegarty, whose name will appear in these pages. This has been an invaluable resource. I should add also that Renata Rua at the Irish Cultural Center here in Kansas City Missouri has been a great support in helping me chase up final references. Great thanks are due to Tej Sood, Rob Reddick, Janka Romero, Meredith Ramey and the whole editorial team at Anthem Press. Family and friends have been good enough to express their interest and their support; they have put me up and put up with me on numerous research visits to England and Ireland. I dedicate this book to my parents, John and Patricia, whose only substantial disagreements were, happily enough, about Irish history and politics.
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A HISTORY OF IRELAND, 1800–1922
The subtitle comes from Thomas Bartlett’s description of Irish history as a theatre of disorder. To what extent this is the best summation of this period will be the question behind this book. I have chosen Ford Madox Brown’s Irish Girlfor the cover. This hauntingly lovely picture depicting a young but worldly wise girl, complete with red paisley shawl, is currently housed in the Yale Centre for British Art. Completed in 1860, it reminds us that the feminine representation of Ireland not only had a long trajectory in Irish poetry and prose but that it was central to British conceptions about the Irish. The Celtic other was deemed to be feminine, wild, uncontrollable, beyond the reach of Anglicisation and alluringly romantic. Few pictures better hint at the troubled nature of being Irish and the role that perceptions would play in shaping interactions and conflicts.