Dominion of Ireland.
- Thread starter lounge60
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How does it come about? The dominant political movement in Ireland at the time was advocating for Home Rule, autonomy within the United Kingdom, not separation.
And even that couldn't get through Westminister, a Dominion is ASB at this stage...
I don't think its asb its just very hard too do. Of course I wonder what a modern uk including Ireland would look like. For one their combined GDP might be larger then France's. this make the UK #2 in the EU if it existed. Perhaps the Irish could support Newfoundland joining the UK instead of Canada?
If Home Rule couldn't get passed, how could Dominion status? Short of the Act of Union never coming to pass and the Kingdom of Ireland somehow ending up a Dominion (again unlikely IMO).
In terms of the rest of your post, I'm doubtful that would be entirely true, many of the differences that improve Irelands GDP wouldn't exist reducing the GDP while it's likely GB funds would be directed to Ireland.
Sorry I was thinking of dominion status as being more like devolution in Scotland then dominion status for Canada.
I think its GDP would be pretty close to what it currently is based on its population, and education system. It might get there differently though.
But a significant chunk of that is based off tax policies and incentives that even Scotland doesn't have the power to do right now, let alone through the the 20th century.
Instead I could see Ireland remaining a much more rural/agricultural nation for the most part with Ulster still having a heavier base, with the incentive still to go to the rest of the UK for higher end jobs. It's unlikely you'd see the Multinational invest to the size and scale of what we have now, or the support industries that sustain it. At the same time supporting a NHS system would be costly, would the UK invest in building up the infrastructure of Ireland?
There are plenty of butterflies but I think it's more than a bit off to suggest that automatically we'd end up with the same combined GDP (particularly as the Multinational's outsize Irish GDP, better to look at GNP)...
In practical terms I think it would be hard to stop a Home Rule government leveraging itself into a def-facto 'with concessions Dominion'.
Parnell and his successors would eke out every advantage they could. Unless a Dublin based Government was unusually incompetent or fantantical they should be able to push the limit quite far outside of pure defence and free trade and work with the 'true' dominions to twist London's arm - it would take a brave British government, or one utterly uncaring of opinion in Canada or Australia to intervene in Irish internal affairs.
The trouble with Home Rule is that its opponents were fundamentally right. It was a bad policy designed to create a half way house that would please nobody.
Edit: To be clear I recognise getting Home Rule in the first place would be very difficult, but subsquently I think it would evolve (and evolve quickly) into something that more in common with a dominion.
Parnell and his successors would eke out every advantage they could. Unless a Dublin based Government was unusually incompetent or fantantical they should be able to push the limit quite far outside of pure defence and free trade and work with the 'true' dominions to twist London's arm - it would take a brave British government, or one utterly uncaring of opinion in Canada or Australia to intervene in Irish internal affairs.
The trouble with Home Rule is that its opponents were fundamentally right. It was a bad policy designed to create a half way house that would please nobody.
Edit: To be clear I recognise getting Home Rule in the first place would be very difficult, but subsquently I think it would evolve (and evolve quickly) into something that more in common with a dominion.
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