Partition-Within-Partition
| Published date | 01 September 1998 |
| Date | 01 September 1998 |
| DOI | 10.1177/002070209805300307 |
| Author | Trevor Lloyd |
| Subject Matter | Article |
TREVOR
LLOYD
Partition-
within-partition
The
Irish
example
THE
ISLAND
OF
IRELAND
WAS
PARTITIONED
and
placed
under
two
new
systems
of
government
between
1920
and
1922.
This
was
not
the
sim-
ple
and
straight-forward
process
of
division
to
be
seen
in
places
like
Czechoslovakia,
but
it
has
its
instructive
side.
Independence
for
Slova-
kia
was
relatively
easy
to
arrange
because
the
population
of
the
area
came
very
close
to
agreement
that
they
all
wanted to
be
Slovaks
togeth-
er,
but
cases
like
the
division
of
the
island
of
Ireland
or
of
the
Indian
subcontinent
are
more
complicated.
From the
early
1870s
onwards,
people
used
'Home
Rule'
to
refer
to
a
policy
of
setting
up
an elected
assembly
in
Ireland
to
look
after
prob-
lems
that
were
of
direct
concern to
the
Irish.'
The
Irish
assembly
would
not
have
the
same
powers
as
the
self-governing
colonies
enjoyed
under
'responsible
government.'
Some
Irish
politicians
in
the
first
half
of
the
century
had wanted
to
repeal
the
1800
Act
of
Union
between
Britain
and
Ireland;
in
the
19th
century
such
a
change
would
have
given
Ireland
responsible
government.
Few
people imagined
Home
Rule
meant
as
much
as
repeal
of
the
Union,
but
one
problem
was
that
Home
Rule
could
mean
anything
from
improved
systems
of
Professor
Emeritus,
Department
ofHistory
University
of
Toronto.
iThe
assembly
was
often called
'A
Parliament
on College
Green,'
which
meant
that
it
would
sit
in
the old
18th
century
parliament
house
in
south
central
Dublin
[now
the
Bank
of
Ireland],
but
did not
mean
that
it
would
have
the
same
powers
as
the
i8th
century parliament.
INTERNATIONAL
JOURNAL
Summer
1998
Trevor
Uoyd
local
and
municipal
government
to a
substantial
step
towards
inde-
pendence.
The
Irish
members
of
parliament
(MPs)
who
supported
the
change
always
called
themselves
nationalists,
though
British
politi-
cians
and
commentators almost
always
called
them
Home
Rulers,
a
term
that
fitted
the
facts
of
the situation
because
the
Home
Rule
nationalists
were
eventually
displaced
by
Sinn
Fein
opponents
of
British
rule
who
also
had
a
very
good
claim
to
call
themselves
nation-
alists.
It
is
easier
to
follow
events
if
nationalists
are
understood
to
be
all
Irish
opponents
of
the
status
quo.
Early
in
1886
William
Gladstone,
Britain's
prime
minister
and
leader
of
the
Liberal
party,
provided
a
fixed
and
definite
meaning
for
Home
Rule by
introducing
a
bill
which
would
have
given
Ireland
something
like
the
powers
of
a
Canadian
province
within
confedera-
tion, though
its
constitutional
position would
not
have
been
as
well
established
as
that
of
a
Canadian
province;
because
the
parliament
in
Dublin
that
was
at
the centre
of
his
scheme
would
be
created
by an
act
of
the
Westminster
parliament,
it
could
be
ended
by
another
act
of
the
Westminster
parliament.
Canadian
provinces
had
powers
that
did
not
depend on
Ottawa
at
all,
even
if
they
were
not
certain
whether
they
held
these sovereign
powers
because
they
had
possessed
them
before
1867 or
because
the
1867
act
of
the Westminster
parliament
declared
that
they
possessed
them.
The
new
Dublin
parliament would
owe
its
powers
to
Westminster,
but
it
would
be
accepted
by
the
Irish
because
the
bill
gave
it
control
over
land
legislation.
Most
of
the
popular
force
behind
Home
Rule
came
from
the
hope
that
it
would
enable
the Irish
to
run
agricultural
and
land-owning
poli-
cies
in
the
way
that
suited
them
best,
and
Gladstone
met
this
popular
demand
very
fully.
He
reckoned
that
it
would
make
the
position
of
landlords,
whether
absentees
who
lived
in
England
or
residents who
lived
on
their
estates,
very
difficult,
and
he
proposed
a
scheme
of
land
purchase
to
enable
tenants to buy
out
their
landlords.
The
1886
Home
Rule
Bill
was
defeated
in
the
House
of
Commons,
and
the land
pur-
chase
bill
faded
out
of
discussion,
but
the Conservatives
could
see
that
the
position
of
the landlords
had
become
untenable
and
over
the
next
twenty
years
arranged
for
them
to
be
bought
out
by
their
Irish
tenants.
Gladstone
tried
again
with
a
second
bill
in
1893,
but
it
was
defeated
in
the House
of
Lords.
Home
Rule
was
so
unpopular
in
Britain
that
it crippled
Gladstone's
Liberal
party
for
twenty
years
and
established
the
political
dominance
506
INTERNATIONAL
JOURNAL
Summer
1998
To continue reading
Request your trial