As it’s nearly Easter and exactly 100 years since the Easter Uprising.
What If:-
Only No War – so what happens next?
· Civil War
· Compromise
· British Army Mutinies
· ???
What If:-
- Britain had not gone to war (either no WW1 or Britain keeps out how).
- So August 1914 – no war
- Promised by the Liberals in order to ensure Irish Parliamentary Party’s support in 1911
- First Reading April 1912
- Irish unionists form 100,000 “Ulster Volunteers” – Parade through Belfast to protest in April 1912
- Passed by Commons, rejected by Lords January 1913
- Irish Nationalists form the ‘Irish Volunteers’ to defend ‘Home Rule
- Curragh incident of 20 March 1914 – A number of British Army (Irish) officers publically threaten resignation if ordered to impose Home Rule on the Unionist
- Home Rule Bill is re-introduced mid-1913
- The Bill is finally passed by 77 votes 25th May 1914. It is rejected in the Lords but the Government invokes the Parliament Act to by-pass the Lords and submit the bill for Royal Assent.
- July 1914 The Liberal Government introduces an Amending Bill to temporarily exclude Ulster from Home Rule – this is part of proposed compromise.
- July 1914 Buckingham Palace Conference – 2 MPs from each party attend - Liberals, Irish Nationalists, Irish Unionists, Conservatives hold – talks are inconclusive but productive.
- August 1914 – War breaks out – only it doesn’t’
- Irish Government Act 1914 – gets Royal Assent in September (but is suspended in OTL)
Only No War – so what happens next?
· Civil War
· Compromise
· British Army Mutinies
· ???