British Civil War in 1914

Having learned something of the complexities and the controversies of the Irish Home Rule Bill (the instrument by which a Liberal government of the Early 20th Century intended to relieve tensions between the British and their Irish fellow-Subjects, not a few of whom would far rather have been neighbours and Independent neighbours at that), as well as having become aware of the fact that the reaction in Protestant Ulster against the very real possibility that they would be obliged to endure a partnership with their Catholic neighbours can more accurately be described as "Militarisation" than "Consternation" (with the Ulster Volunteers armed and equipped to a standard more military than paramilitary, triggering an equal and opposite reaction from the Home Rulers), one can hardly say that I disagree with the Historian who suggested that had the First World War not broken out in 1914 then Ireland would have been torn to pieces by Civil War between these two armed factions.

Yet given the Curragh Mutiny (where serving British Army officers resoundingly refused to side with the Home Rulers against the Protestant Ulstermen whom these Officers considered their natural allies - and who in an astonishing number of cases actually numbered amongst their relations - no matter what their masters in Parliament might require of them) and other small yet less-than-subtle expressions of real division & discontent one must wonder just how long it would have taken for Civil War in Ireland to leap St George's Channel and see the United Kingdom divided as it had not been since the Wars of the Three Kingdoms.

Given that Great Britain and Ireland were at the heart of the largest (and arguably still the most powerful) Empire in the World, it is hard not to suspect that a British Civil War in the second decade of the 20th Century would have had a seismic impact on the Politics of the Era and the History of the World.

Yet I admit to being no expert on the period and so I wish to ask: do those of you better-acquainted with the Period and its Principal Players believe that a British Civil War might have broken out as a result of the Home Rule Crisis in Ireland had the Great War not provided a distraction from Domestic Difficulties?

What form might this conflict have taken?

What repercussions might such an event have on World History?
 
It seems like it would've been the Troubles on steroids. Not a British Civil War, but an Irish Civil War, and not the historic war by that name.

Yes, there was lots of tension in Britain itself too, but I'm confident anyone remotely smart could have defused said tension (for a time) with well-placed reforms like they did in the 1830s to keep the situation constrained to Ireland. There's always the Irish in Liverpool and elsewhere to worry about, but they can be suppressed too, right? If not, then the war possibly becomes a general socialist revolution, a socialist revolution that reflects on the democratic nature of Britain and ends up very different than the Russian Revolution (far less autocracy/brutality!). But I think the ruling classes in Britain would do something before it got to that point.

This won't reflect well on Britain, however, and Germany and the US have much to gain in international opinion and discussion as sorts of "new" world leaders since Britain is having all this trouble.
 
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