British parliament accepts irish home rule law

March 31st , 1920

The Home Rule movement was a movement that campaigned for self-government (or “home rule”) for Ireland within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. It was the dominant political movement of Irish nationalism from 1870 to the end of World War I.

Following the Easter Rising of 1916, particularly the arrests and executions that followed it, public support shifted from the Home Rule movement to the more radical Sinn Féin party. In the 1918 General Election the Irish Parliamentary Party suffered a crushing defeat with only a handful of MPs surviving, effectively dealing a death blow to the Home Rule movement.

The elected Sinn Féin MPs were not content merely with home rule within the framework of the United Kingdom; they instead set up a revolutionary legislature, Dáil Éireann, and declared Ireland an independent republic.

Britain passed a Fourth Home Rule Bill, the Government of Ireland Act 1920, aimed at creating separate parliaments for Northern Ireland and Southern Ireland. The former was established in 1921, and the territory continues to this day as part of the United Kingdom, but the latter never functioned.

Following the Anglo-Irish Treaty that ended the Anglo-Irish War, twenty-six of Ireland’s thirty-two counties became, in December 1922, the Irish Free State, a dominion within the British Empire which later evolved into the present Republic of Ireland.

More From This Day

Related Countries

blog Ireland

bagpipes of ireland

bagpipes of ireland

blog Ireland

great irish warpipes

great irish warpipes

blog Ireland

Pastoral Pipes

Pastoral Pipes

blog Ireland

minstrel boy

minstrel boy

blog Ireland

wearing of the green

wearing of the green

blog Ireland

celtic fiddle

celtic fiddle

blog Ireland

flute

flute

blog Ireland

low whistle

low whistle

blog Ireland

tin whistle

tin whistle

blog Ireland

uilleann pipes

uilleann pipes

No related content found.