Irish Parliamentary Party - Europe Intervenes

Europe Intervenes

The outbreak of World War I in August led to the suspension of the Home Rule Act for the duration of the war, expected to only last a year. Ireland's involvement in the war defused the threat of civil war in Ireland and was to prove crucial to subsequent Irish history. After neutral Belgium had been overrun by Germany, Redmond and his party leaders, in order to ensure Home Rule would be implemented after the war, called on the Irish Volunteers to support Britain’s war effort (her commitment under the Triple Entente and the Allied cause).

The Volunteers split on the issue of support for the British and Allied war effort. The majority (over 142,000) forming the National Volunteers, compared to roughly 10,000 who stayed with the original organisation. Though initially there was a surge in voluntary enlistment for the Irish regiments of the 10th (Irish) Division and the 16th (Irish) Division of Kitchener's New Service Army formed for the war, the enthusiasm did not last.

Unlike their 36th (Ulster) Division counterparts and the Ulster Volunteers who manned it with their own trained military reserve officers, the southern Volunteers possessed no officers with previous military experience with the result that the War Office had the 16th Division led by English officers, which with the exception of Irish General William Hickie, and the fact that the division did not have its own specific uniforms, was an unpopular decision. The War Office also reacted with suspicion to Redmond’s remark that the Volunteers would soon return as an armed army to oppose Ulster’s resistance to Home Rule.

Around 24,000 of the National Volunteers did enlist but the remainder, or about 80% did not. Moreover the organisation declined due to lack of training and organisation as the war went on. "The resulting collapse of the National Volunteers presaged that of the Irish Party itself, though this was less obvious. Its support for the War was gradually revealed to be a major political encumbrance". The Under Secretary for Ireland, Mathew Nathan, writing in November 1915, thought that Redmond's stance on the War ultimately cost him and his party their pre-eminent position in Irish life, "Redmond has been honestly imperial, but by going as far as he has, he has lost his position in the country"

When the war situation worsened, a new Conservative-Liberal coalition government was formed in June 1915. Redmond was offered a seat in its cabinet, which he declined. This was welcomed in Ireland but greatly weakened his position after his rival, unionist leader Carson accepted a cabinet post. As the war prolonged, the IPP’s image suffered from the horrific casualties in Gallipoli and the Dardanelles as well as on the Western Front.

The party was taken by surprise by the Easter Rising in April 1916, launched by the section of the Irish Volunteers who had remained in the original organisation. The Volunteers, infiltrated to a large degree by the separatist Irish Republican Brotherhood, declared an Irish Republic and took over much of the centre of Dublin. The rebellion in Dublin was put down in a week of fighting with about 500 deaths. The manner in which British General Maxwell dealt with its leaders won sympathy for their cause. A total of 16 were shot within weeks of the Rising and another hanged several weeks later. The Rising began the decline of constitutional nationalism as represented by the IPP and the ascent of a more radical separatist form of Irish nationalism. John Redmond, protesting at the severity of the state's response to the Rising, wrote to Asquith, "if any more more executions take place, Ireland will become impossible for any Constitutional Party or leader".

Further problems for the party followed Asquith's abortive attempt to introduce Home Rule in July 1916 which failed on the threat of partition. Again Lloyd George's initiative to disentangle the Home Rule deadlock after Redmond called the Irish Convention in June 1917, when Southern Unionists sided with Nationalists on the issue of Home Rule, ended unresolved due to Ulster resistance.