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[FONT=&quot]"The Liberal Government, after all, is not the British nation, and the British nation will certainly see you righted. Your interests lie with Great Britain. You have helped her, and you have helped her Empire, and her Empire belongs just as much to you as it does to England. Stick to it, and trust the British people." [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]-Edward Carson, 1914[/FONT]




A little over a century since Pitt had united Ireland with Britain, the Third Home Rule bill was forced through the House of Lords by the Parliament Act. Thus began a struggle for power which would tear John Bull's Other Island apart, sending shock-waves through the Empire.


Across Europe, an attempt upon the life of Archduke Franz Ferdinand failed while he and his wife were on tour in Bosnia. The personal intercession of Franz with his father prevented a further escalation. Franz stressed the loyalty of the majority of the peoples of the Balkans. Though there were some calls for military conflict with Serbia, especially from the German Embassy, these were swiftly rejected. Personal correspondence between the Archduke and the German Emperor, then on a cruise in the North Sea, silenced the grumblings in the Reich that a perfect opportunity was being thrown away.


On the 18th of September 1914 the Third Home Rule Bill received Royal Assent. The Irish Parliament was to meet on the first Tuesday in September, 1915, at which point all Irish MPs at Westminster would vacate their seats, and an election for the remaining 42 MPs in the Imperial Parliament would occur. Redmond stood before the old Parliament building in triumph.






Yet, at the very moment Redmond was celebrating the realisation of Parnell's dream, and Asquith that he had achieved what Gladstone himself could not, other forces were at work. In a farmhouse near Lisburn, a soldier looked across a table at a school teacher.
"This fight will be to the end you realise," said the soldier.
"And I welcome it," said the teacher. The final papers were exchanged, the fruits of long weeks of negotiation.

"Then we will clear the way."
"And we shall have our matryr." They stood. The soldier turned away, and walked slowly to the drinks cabinet.

"If you're still there when I turn around," he said, slowly taking out the family decanter, "I'll shoot you myself."
The school teacher grinned . "Póg ma thoin, Cornal." He left the house, mounted his horse and rode west, as the orange sun set amongst the clouds.
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