Erin dreaming of Home Rule

Sir John Lavery’s 1923 painting “Kathleen ni Houlihan” — Sir John Lavery’s 1923 painting “*Kathleen ni Houlihan”*

Hibernia, Éire, Erin, Kathleen Ni Houlihan, she goes by many names, but to us Irish, she is known simply as home. Ever since the days of Tacitus and St Patrick, the Emerald Isle was known as a land of unruly Celts on the edge of Europe.

An island of green glens, foggy dew and Atlantic waves. An ancient land shrouded in mystery, for many her story is one shaped by subjugation, injustice, misery, and rebellion.

The Shamrock and the Harp are symbols that define Ireland. St. Patrick himself used the shamrock to preach in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit and the Harp is associated with the “Emperor of the Gaels” Brian Boru.

In contrast England has the Lion, Scotland has the Unicorn and Wales even has a Dragon. To an outsider, a Harp seems rather like a poor choice. Why not a Griffin or a Pegasus? But such is the gentle way of Éire.

She doesn’t pretend to the high notions of Empire and conquest, but is rather content with green fields, a warm fireside and musical cheer.

You can tell a lot about a people by their symbols. These symbols carry meaning, they are an undeniable power, they are deposits of culture, some might even say that they carry the very essence of nationhood.

″The Harp of Erin″ painting by Thomas Buchanan Read 1867

It is then no wonder that when Éire was asserting her difference, her desire for Home Rule and then later independence, these symbols developed deep political meaning and became valuable tools to those who wished to overturn the 1801 Act of Union.

The world has never since seen a power on the scale of late 19th century Great Britain. Yet it was in this context, at the height of British Imperial glory that a small upstart region sought to make its voice heard and advocate for Home Rule.

She was ruled directly from Westminster in London, suffering penal laws, famine and exploitive rents on her own confiscated land. The Irish resented the Act of Union and attributed to it their current ill fortune. The consensus was that a cure could be found in local government, delegated regional autonomy.

Home Rule represented a serious challenge to the unity of the British Empire. For if Ireland, merely on the other side of the Irish Sea, could govern its own affairs, then why not India or Australia?

Of course India and Australia were colonies at the time, whereas Ireland was integrated into the core of Great Britain, known officialy from 1801 till 1922 as the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.

Heros of Ireland like Edmund Burke and Daniel O’Connell, advocated in the British Parliament for regional autonomy and Catholic Emancipation, but with only limited success.

Spurred on by the political success of Daniel O’Connell who achieved partial Catholic Emancipation by 1829, a new generation of Irish parliamentarians arose and rushed to the defence of sweet Erin.

A prominent voice for “The Irish Cause” in the latter half of the 19th century was the publication the “Weekly Freeman”. Their supplementary pictorial issues provide the best 19th century personified representations of Irish nationhood.

The Irish cause in the 19th Century was was shaped primarily by the Great Famine (1845-1849). In this disaster Ireland lost half her population, a quarter to starvation and a quarter to emigration. The Weekly Freeman in July 1881 called this demise “A Terrible Record” and projected even further decline with no end of emigration and landlordism in sight.

Indeed such was the scale of the calamity that befell Ireland that she never fully recovered from it. The Famine was not only largely ignored but was exacerbated by a hostile English dominated parliament.

Figures at the top of the British policy making like Sir Charles Trevelyan sought to use a natural potato blight and exacerbate it into a famine for political benefit, in not a dissimilar way from a Soviet style artificial famine.

Westminister and Dublin Castle used food as a weapon to create dependance, seeking to achieve political and religious conversion of the Irish to what later prime minster Benjamin Disraeli called the conformity to “pure religion”. For Disraeli the Irish were a “wild” and “superstitions race” in opposition to the English way of life and needed to be brought into line.

The British establishment saw Ireland as disloyal and the root of this disloyalty was her allegiance to an outside “political” power, the Pope in Rome. It was for this reason that opponents of Home Rule (especially in the north-eastern corner of Ireland) labeled Home Rule “Rome Rule”.

It was in the context of such hostility and recent tragedy that the Irish Parliamentary Party (IPP) arouse in 1882.

However, the Weekly Freeman featured in December 16th of that year an image of optimism, indicative of the movements faith in the democratic process to deliver Home Rule.

Entitled “A Vision of Coming Events” a dreaming Erin, with harp in hand and Irish wolfhound by her side, stares into the smoke of her fireside, picturing what could be.

However this well meant, perhaps even justified optimism was soon replaced by the harsh reality of the intensity of opposition which the movement faced.

Over the next three months the IPP were subjected to a firestorm of abuse and attributed ill motive in the British Press.

A particular strong effort was made to associate the IPP with Fenian militancy, especially in the wake of the Phoenix Park Murders, whereby the Chief Secretary and the Permanent Undersecretary of Ireland were assassinated by a splinter group of the Irish Republican Brotherhood.

The Irish press in comparison, depicted Parnell, the leader of the IPP, as a knight in shining armour coming to the rescue of Erin from the “English lion” to the east and the “Orange menace” to the north.

The December 15th 1883 issue entitled “Erin testifies her love and gratitude to her Bold and faithful champion”, harks back to the Middle Ages and is one of the best examples of this rescuing of the distressed princess motif.

Parnell and his fellow parliamentary party members were portrayed as noble knights seeking the favour of the youthful mythical figure Erin.

This imagery was ideal for evoking an emotive response in young men particularly. No more was the “Irish Question” an abstract matter about constitutional law and economics but rather about defending the honour of a captive and abused noble lady by the name Erin.

This had the effect of changing the tone of political debate. Accordingly more and more triumphant and politically provokative images of Erin were produced.

Therefore the passing of the “Representation of the People Act” in December 1884, was met immediately by a Weekly Freeman image of a resurrected Erin with Crucifix and Crown in hand prepared to assert her nationhood.

The tombstone behind her reading “Ireland buried here 1171”. 1171 being the year that the Anglo-Norman lordship over Ireland was established under Henry II of England.

In front of Erin lies the broken mast of the UK flag, the symbol of the 1801 Act of Union. A new dawn can be seen on the horizon symbolising a newfound hope for the future. British political figures and John Bull, her symbolic English counterpart, recoil in shock and horror.

Supporters of the Irish cause had indeed reason to celebrate as with the passing of the 1884 electoral reform act, a much broader section of the UK population had gained the right to vote in parliamentary elections and thus the dominance of the IPP in following elections was all but assured.

The reform doubled the Irish voting base, making it more representative of the population at large and returned a more pro-Home Rule Irish delegation in Westminster.

This newfound electoral power was first made manifest in the 1885 election. The IPP went from 63 seats in the 1880 election to an impressive 86 seats in the 1885 election.

This placed the party in the perfect position to play key role in the formation of a new government on one condition: it support Home Rule.

This rewrote the UK political landscape and the IPP would remain the third largest party till the outbreak of the first world war in 1914.

The IPP newfound political weight led to the downfall of William Gladstone’s Liberal party government in 1885.

The 10th January 1885 edition of the Weekly Freeman depicted Parnell once again as a knight, come to rescue captive Erin, held under lock and key in Dublin Castle.

This new reality forced Gladstone and the Liberal Party to reassess Home Rule and in 1886 support the introduction of Home Rule Bill.

The 22nd May 1886 edition conveys how Erin looked in suspense, harp at her feet, as her fate was to be decided in the House of Commons.

Ultimately the bill was narrowly defeated in the House of Commons and with it Erins fate in parliamentary democracy.

The political atmosphere changed and so with it depictions of Erin. No more would she bare a sweet charming face or dreams of a bright future but bore chains and the look of despair.

The 4th June 1887 Weekly Freeman supplement cover shows her reaction to the celebrations of Queen Victoria’s 50 Jubilee. John Bull can be seen leading her to her cell marked “87” (the current year). The noble simplicity of her clothes standing in stark contrast to the jewelled splendour of the Queen.

This is the image of Erin that would endure to today and inspire Sir John Lavery’s 1923 painting of “Kathleen ni Houlihan”, which would be features on the Irish Pound bank note from 1928 till Ireland adopted the Euro in 2002.

Parnell died in October 1891 at the age of 45. His death unified the Home Rule cause, removing division stemming from controversy surrounding his personal life.

Before his death he led renewed efforts to pass a Home Rule Bill and in 1891 the debate was successfully put back on the political agenda. Once more it was Parnell “To The Rescue” as the 4th April 1891 Weekly Freeman edition exclaimed.

Parnell, dressed as an ancient Celtic warrior, stands before opposing politicians, depicted as vultures and harpies, shielding a hand bound despondent Erin, bearing the sign “The Spirit of Irish Nationality to be sacrificed to Whigs and place hunters”.

He is rescuing Erin from the despair of parliamentary defeat and once again provokes the spirit of optimism that so typified 1882.

Once more Erin sat with harp and wolfhound at her side, awaiting her fate, decided largely out of her control. The December 24th 1892 edition provides a powerful Christmas message, a past of landlordism behind her and only a bright future ahead.

This new 1892 optimism however differed from that of ten years prior. The Ireland of 1892 was even more polarised than that a mere decade prior. Riots in Belfast and terrorism on the British mainland made for a tense political climate.

Therefore, it was with amazement and jubilation that under Justin McCarthy and John Redmond a new 1893 Home Rule Bill was passed by the House of Commons. However as so often is the case with Irish history, tragedy struck.

The bill after passing the commons was rejected by the House of Lords. Many peers voting against Home Rule due to personal investments and rental property in Ireland and also fear of alienating and provoking the anger of the “orange” loyalist population in the north eastern corner of the Island.

Many saw no hope in further parliamentary efforts to achieve more autonomy and instead the call for total independence in the form of a republic became louder and louder.

New more nationalist publications were founded, like that of “United Ireland”, which ran with a March 17th 1894 supplement featuring an absolutely mournful Erin, lamented the state of leadership within the Irish cause.

Nationalist publication like this were dissatisfied with moderates such as John Redmond and stressed discontinuity between him and previous Irish nationalist heroes like Wolfe Tone and Parnell.

Over time this new militant tone permeated the Nationalist side of the Irish Question, both Republican and Home Rule alike. Soon, in the December 1900 Weekly Freeman supplement, Erin was to be shown carrying a sword and shield, unthinkable in decades past.

Landlordism was still the archenemy of the IPP and under the guise of United Irish League they aimed to alleviate the plight of the Tenant farmer, whose livelihood was threatened by a rigged system shaped by the penal laws.

This time however was not wasted by the Home Rule movement. Even if Home Rule was again down the political agenda, the party could advocate in Westminster for measures to mitigate the unjust legacy of the penal laws.

The turn of the century saw a popular revival of the Irish language, and Celtic artistic imagery with brooches like that of the great Tara brooch making regular public appearances. Just like the rest of the continent Romantic nationalism took hold in Ireland.

Within Ireland it became accepted fact that Ireland would leave the 1801 union one way or another. However there was a strong consensus that this change such occur in a peaceful democratic way.

Redmonds IPP was steadfast in its demands for Home Rule and rejection of political violence. In this effort he had the support of the overwhelming majority of the Irish people. The best proof of this can be seen in the 1906 UK general election where the IPP won 82 seats in the Westminster parliament, an amazing 73 of which were not contested by other political parties.

However all was not well on the Emerald Isle however. To the north in Ulster a storm had long been brewing. In 1912 this storm would erupt with the third Home Rule bill being put before the Houses of Parliament.

The Bill passed the Commons And with the newly enacted 1890 procedural rules, the House of Lord's could only delay and not veto the bill from eventual becoming law. Optimism was once again the spirit of the times. The bill only waited for the assent of the King. No legal obstacle laid in the way of Home Rule. Yet unionism having lost the political debate still had an ace up its sleeve, the threat of political violence.

1912 John Bull and Hibernia "Entente Cordiale” cartoon by Spex

In response to a third push for Home Rule, Ulster Unionists formed paramilitary groups and signed the Ulster Covenant, pledging to fight to keep Ulster in the Union. Ireland was rapidly descending into a state of civil war.

The Unionists could smuggle German rifles and ammunition into Larne without repercussion and they could rely on the RIC and army to be there to support them.

John Bull had delivered and Home Rule was on the statute books, a future peaceful existence looked possible, but it wasn’t yet a done deal.

March of 1914, in a move more akin to post armistice Weimar Germany than a liberal anglosphere democracy, his majesty’s army in Ireland threatened mutiny.

“Punch” April 1st 1914 — *“Punch*” April 1st 1914

About 60 army officers in the Curragh barracks (the largest military base on the Island), refused to enact the will of parliament with regards to the implementation of Home Rule in Ulster and thus directly intervened in the political system.

For these officers the prospect to having to be deployed to disarm Ulster militiamen in the event of Home Rule being implemented, was tantamount to being active participants in a civil war, fighting against those who they saw as fellow unionist patriots.

For the Irish it was definitive proof that Britain would never give Ireland Home Rule. All the British promises of rule of law and enlightenment values was a mere ruse, a deception designed to show off a good benevolent face to the outside world, particularly America.

The stage was set for an armed showdown, then out of the blue an Austrian Archduke was assassinated by a Serb in Sarajevo. Very quickly in the Summer of 1914 concerns of civil war on the Emerald Isle were replaced with grand strategy and balance of power politics on the continent.

Both sides of the Home Rule question rushed to win favour with the establishment in London and encouraged young men to sign up for military service. For Unionists, to defend the integrity of the empire and show loyalty to their King. For the Nationalistic Home Rulers, it was to answer the call to defend the right of small nations, like Belgium, from Imperial tyranny.

“Weekly Freeman” March 13th 1915 — *“Weekly Freeman”* March 13th 1915

The smallness and Catholic culture of Belgium was emphasised by the Weekly Freeman. Their March 13th 1915 supplement ran with the story of the Munster Fusiliers liberating the Nuns of Ypres.

Home Rule was a question that was to be resolved after the war. For now all subjects of the Empire were called to do their duty and serve their King under arms.

All this changed with the 1916 Easter Rising. Republicans, claiming to serve neither King nor Kaiser, stormed the GPO in Dublin and while suffering a major tactical defeat, with their execution they had won an enormous strategic victory. Having failed to ignite an immediate revolution, the memory of their sacrifice was to become the match that ignite militant Republican Nationalism across the Island.

From then on there was no no going back, the dream of Home Rule would soon give way to the reality of the war of Independence.

Niall Buckley

March 2020