Government of Ireland Act 1914

Government of Ireland Act 1914

Act of Parliament
Parliament of the United Kingdom
Long title	An Act to provide for the better Government of Ireland.
Citation	4 & 5 Geo. 5. c. 90
Territorial extent	Ireland
Dates
Royal assent	18 September 1914
Commencement	Postponed by Suspensory Act 1914
Repealed	23 December 1920
Other legislation
Amended by	Suspensory Act 1914
Repealed by	Government of Ireland Act 1920
Relates to	Government of Ireland Bill 1886 Irish Government Bill 1893 Local Government (Ireland) Act 1898
Status: Repealed
Text of statute as originally enacted

Third Home Rule Bill

Name and origin
Official name of legislation	Government of Ireland Act 1914
Location	United Kingdom
Year	1914
Government introduced	Asquith
Parliamentary passage
House of Commons passed?	Yes
House of Lords passed?	No; passed under Parliament Act 1911
Royal Assent?	Yes
Defeated
Which House	House of Lords, three times (overruled)
Date	1912, 1913, 1914 (overruled)
Details of legislation
Legislature type	Bicameral
Name(s)	Upper: Senate Lower: House of Commons
Size(s)	Senate: 40 House of Commons: 164
MPs in Westminster	42 MPs
Executive head	Lord Lieutenant
Executive body	Executive Committee of the Privy Council of Ireland
Enactment
Act implemented	Never implemented
Succeeded by	Government of Ireland Act 1920

Constitutional documents and events relevant to the status of the United Kingdom and its countries
List per year Treaty of Union 1706 Acts of Union 1707 Succession to the Crown Act 1707 1707 Septennial Act 1716 Wales and Berwick Act 1746 Constitution of Ireland (1782) 1782 Acts of Union 1800 1800 HC (Disqualifications) Act 1801 1801 Reform Act 1832 1832 Scottish Reform Act 1832 1832 Irish Reform Act 1832 1832 Judicial Committee Act 1833 1833 Judicial Committee Act 1843 1843 Judicial Committee Act 1844 1844 Representation of the People Act 1867 1867 Reform Act (Scotland) 1868 1868 Reform Act (Ireland) 1868 1868 Irish Church Act 1869 Royal Titles Act 1876 1876 Appellate Jurisdiction Act 1876 Reform Act 1884 1884 Interpretation Act 1889 1889 Parliament Act 1911 Aliens Restriction Act 1914 Status of Aliens Act 1914 1914 Government of Ireland Act 1914 1914 Welsh Church Act 1914 Royal Proclamation of 1917 1917 Representation of the People Act 1918 1918 Church of England Assembly (Powers) Act 1919 Government of Ireland Act 1920 Anglo-Irish Treaty 1921 Church of Scotland Act 1921 1921 Irish Free State (Agreement) Act 1922 Irish Free State Constitution Act 1922 Ireland (Confirm. of Agreement) Act 1925 1925 Balfour Declaration of 1926 1926 Royal and Parliamentary Titles Act 1927 Representation of the People Act 1928 1928 Eire (Confirmation of Agreement) Act 1929 1929 Statute of Westminster 1931 HM Declaration of Abdication Act 1936 1936 Regency Act 1937 1937 Regency Act 1943 1943 British Nationality Act 1948 1948 Representation of the People Act 1948 1948 Ireland Act 1949 1949 Statute of the Council of Europe 1949 Parliament Act 1949 1949 Regency Act 1953 1953 Royal Titles Act 1953 1953 European Convention on Human Rights 1953 Interpretation Act (NI) 1954 HC Disqualification Act 1957 1957 Life Peerages Act 1958 Commonwealth Immigrants Act 1962 1962 Peerage Act 1963 Royal Assent Act 1967 Commonwealth Immigrants Act 1968 1968 Immigration Act 1971 EC Treaty of Accession 1972 NI (Temporary Provisions) Act 1972 European Communities Act 1972 Local Government Act 1972 UK joins the European Communities 1973 Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973 NI border poll 1973 NI Constitution Act 1973 House of Commons Disqualification Act 1975 Referendum Act 1975 EC membership referendum 1975 Interpretation Act 1978 Scotland Act 1978 1978 Wales Act 1978 1978 Scottish devolution referendum 1979 Welsh devolution referendum 1979 British Nationality Act 1981 Representation of the People Act 1983 1983 Representation of the People Act 1985 1985 Single European Act 1985 Maastricht Treaty 1993 Local Government (Wales) Act 1994 Local Government etc. (Scotland) Act 1994 Referendums (Scotland & Wales) Act 1997 Scottish devolution referendum 1997 Welsh devolution referendum 1997 Good Friday Agreement 1998 Northern Ireland Act 1998 Government of Wales Act 1998 Human Rights Act 1998 Scotland Act 1998 House of Lords Act 1999 Representation of the People Act 2000 2000 Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000 Constitutional Reform Act 2005 Government of Wales Act 2006 2006 Northern Ireland Act 2009 2009 Lisbon Treaty 2009 Constitutional Reform and Governance Act 2010 Parl. Voting System and Constituencies Act 2011 Welsh devolution referendum 2011 Alternative Vote referendum 2011 European Union Act 2011 2011 Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011 Scotland Act 2012 2012 Succession to the Crown Act 2013 2013 Scottish independence referendum 2014 House of Lords Reform Act 2014 Wales Act 2014 2014 HL (Expulsion and Suspension) Act 2015 Recall of MPs Act 2015 European Union Referendum Act 2015 EU membership referendum 2016 Scotland Act 2016 2016 Wales Act 2017 2017 EU (Notification of Withdrawal) Act 2017 Invocation of Article 50 2017 European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018 EU Withdrawal Act 2019 2019 EU Withdrawal (No. 2) Act 2019 Early Parliamentary General Election Act 2019 EU (Withdrawal Agreement) Act 2020 UK leaves the European Union 2020 UK Internal Market Act 2020 EU (Future Relationship) Act 2020 Dissolution and Calling of Parliament Act 2022 Elections Act 2022
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The Government of Ireland Act 1914 (4 & 5 Geo. 5. c. 90), also known as the Home Rule Act, and before enactment as the Third Home Rule Bill, was an Act passed by the Parliament of the United Kingdom intended to provide home rule (self-government within the United Kingdom) for Ireland. It was the third such bill introduced by a Liberal government during a 28-year period in response to agitation for Irish Home Rule.

The Act was the first law ever approved by the Parliament of the United Kingdom that provided for a devolved government in any part of the UK proper (as opposed to colonial territories). However, the implementation of both it and the equally controversial Welsh Church Act 1914 was formally postponed for a minimum of twelve months with the beginning of the First World War. The continuation of the war beyond 1915 and subsequent developments in Ireland resulted in further postponements, meaning that the Act never became effective; it was finally superseded by a fourth home rule bill, enacted as the Government of Ireland Act 1920, which partitioned Ireland, creating Northern Ireland and Southern Ireland, both intended to have Home Rule.

During 1909, a constitutional crisis began when the House of Lords rejected David Lloyd George's Finance Bill. Two general elections occurred in January and December 1910, both of which left the Liberals and Conservatives equally matched, with John Redmond's Irish Parliamentary Party having the balance of power in the House of Commons. The Irish Parliamentary Party, which had campaigned for home rule for Ireland since the 1870s, pledged to assist the Liberals in return for the introduction of a home rule bill.^[1] The Parliament Act 1911 then replaced the unlimited veto of the Lords with one lasting only 2 years, ensuring that a bill passed by the Commons could not be blocked for more than two years.^[1]

The Prime Minister, H. H. Asquith, introduced the Bill on 11 April 1912.^[2] Allowing more autonomy than its two predecessors, the bill provided that:

• A bicameral Irish Parliament would be established in Dublin (a 40-member Senate and a 164-member House of Commons) with powers to deal with most national affairs. Each of the four provinces of Ireland would be represented by ten senators elected by proportional representation.
• A reduced number of members of parliament representing Ireland would continue to attend the Parliament of the United Kingdom (42 MPs, rather than 103).
• The Dublin Castle administration would be eliminated, although with the retention of the Lord Lieutenant.

The financial situation was a concern. Irish taxes had yielded a surplus of £2 million in 1893, but by 1910 that had become a current spending net deficit of £1.5m, which had to be raised by London. An annual "Transferred Sum" mechanism was proposed, so that public spending in Ireland could be continued at the same level.^[3]

The Bill was passed by the Commons by a majority of 10 votes in 1912, but in January 1913 the House of Lords rejected it by 326 votes to 69. Later in 1913, it was reintroduced and again passed by the Commons and rejected by the Lords, this time by 302 votes to 64. In 1914, after the third reading, the Bill was passed by the Commons on 25 May 1914 by a majority of 77. Having been defeated a third time in the Lords, the Government used the provisions of the Parliament Act 1911 to override the Lords and send the bill for royal assent.

Unionists in Ulster were opposed to a home-rule Ireland governed from Dublin. Hostility to the Home Rule Bill was increasing in the counties of Antrim, Armagh, Down, and Londonderry.^[4] Early in 1912, some of the residents of that area began forming small local militias. By April 1912, the Irish Unionist Alliance's managing politician, Sir Edward Carson, could review 100,000 marching Ulster Volunteers. On 28 September 1912, more than 500,000 Unionists signed the Ulster Covenant pledging to defy Home Rule by all means possible. The Covenant was developed by Carson and organised by Sir James Craig.^[5] This Covenant specifically pledged not to acknowledge any Parliament out of Dublin, nor to obey its laws, nor pay any taxes levied by its government. This would be problematic especially since Ulster was the wealthiest and most prosperous part of Ireland.^[4]

In January 1913, the Unionist Council reorganised their volunteers into a paramilitary Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF), whose members threatened to resist by physical force the implementation of the Act and the authority of any restored Dublin Parliament by force of arms.^[6] On 28 November 1913, Irish Nationalists responded by forming the Irish Volunteers "to secure the rights and liberties common to all the people of Ireland".^[7] The government's willingness to effectively oppose the Unionist threat was rendered highly questionable by the Curragh Mutiny of 20 March 1914, when many British Army officers at Curragh in County Kildare, the main Army camp in Ireland, threatened to resign or accept dismissal rather than deploy against the Ulster Volunteers, forcing the government to cancel planned troop movements.^[8]

At the Bill's third reading in the Commons on 21 May 1914 several members asked about a proposal to exclude the whole of Ulster for six years. Asquith was seeking any solution that would avoid a civil war. During the emotional debate which lasted until 25 May 1914, Sir Edward Carson made the statement:

"I say this to my Nationalist fellow-countrymen, and indeed also to the Government, you have never tried to win over Ulster. You have never tried to understand her position. You have never alleged, and you cannot allege, that this Bill gives her one atom of advantage."^[9]

A government amending bill was introduced in the House of Lords on 23 June 1914 (before the Lords had considered the original Home Rule bill itself) and passed there with amendments on 8 July.^{[10][11][12][13]} Carson and the Irish Unionist Party (mostly Ulster MPs) backed the amending bill, which provided for "temporary exclusion of Ulster" from the workings of the future Act. The Lords' amendments to the amending bill were unacceptable to the government.^[12] What was still to be negotiated were the number of counties excluded (four, six or nine) and whether exclusion would be temporary or permanent. The compromise proposed by Asquith was straightforward. Six counties in northeast Ulster were to be excluded "temporarily" from the territory of the new Irish parliament and government, and continue to be governed as before from Westminster and Whitehall. The length of the exclusion remained an issue of some controversy. To save prolonged debate in parliament, George V called the Buckingham Palace Conference with two MPs each from the Liberal, Conservative, IPP and Irish Unionist parties. The conference, held between 21 and 24 July 1914, achieved very little.^[14]

This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources in this section. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Government of Ireland Act 1914" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (May 2017) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

With the beginning of World War I on 4 August 1914, Asquith decided to abandon his Amending Bill, and instead rushed through a new bill, the Suspensory Act 1914, which was presented for royal assent simultaneously with both the Government of Ireland Act 1914 and the Welsh Church Act 1914. Although the two controversial Bills had now finally become statute on 18 September 1914, the Suspensory Act ensured that Home Rule would be postponed for the duration of the conflict^[15] and would not come into operation until the end of the war.^[16] (Eventually Home Rule was considered by the Irish Convention in 1917–18, and by the cabinet from September 1919; the Welsh Church Act was delayed until March 1920). The Ulster question was 'solved' in the same way: through the promise of amending legislation which was left undefined.^[15]

Dublin was a battlefield for a week during the Easter Rising of 1916. This rebellion would have a major effect on the Home Rule passage and many Home Rulers would be troubled by this event.^[17] After the Rising, two attempts were made during the First World War to implement the Act. The first attempt came in June 1916, when Prime Minister H. H. Asquith sent David Lloyd George, then Minister for Munitions, to Dublin to offer immediate implementation to the leaders of the Irish Party, Redmond and Dillon. The scheme concerned partition,^[18] officially a temporary arrangement, as understood by Redmond. Lloyd George however gave the Ulster politician, Carson, a written guarantee that Ulster would not be forced into a self-governing Ireland. His tactic was to ensure that neither side would find out before a compromise was implemented.^[19] A modified Act of 1914 had been developed by the Cabinet on 17 June. The Act had two amendments enforced by Unionists on 19 July – permanent exclusion and a reduction of Ireland's representation in the Commons. When informed by Lloyd George on 22 July 1916, Redmond accused the government of treachery. This was decisive in determining the future fortunes of the Home Rule movement. Lloyd George, now Prime Minister, made a second attempt to implement Home Rule in 1917, with the calling of the Irish Convention directed by Horace Plunkett. This consisted of Nationalist and Unionist representatives who, by April 1918, only succeeded in agreeing on a report with an 'understanding' on recommendations for the establishment of self-government.

The end of the war, in November 1918, was followed by the December 1918 general election. In the Irish part of the election, the majority of seats were won by the republican separatist Sinn Féin. In January 1919, the Irish War of Independence broke out, so that the 1914 Act was never implemented. The future of Home Rule was determined by the Government of Ireland Act 1920. It established Northern Ireland, with a functional government, and Southern Ireland, the governmental institutions of which never functioned completely. Following the Anglo-Irish Treaty, Southern Ireland became the Irish Free State.

• History of Ireland (1801–1923)
• Government of Ireland Bill 1886 (First Irish Home Rule Bill)
• Parliament of Southern Ireland
• Parliament of Northern Ireland
• Solemn League and Covenant (Ulster)
• Unionism in Ireland
• List of acts of the Parliament of the United Kingdom enacted without the House of Lords' consent

• Childers, Erskine. The Framework of Home Rule.
• Hennessey, Thomas (1998). Dividing Ireland: World War I and Partition. Routledge. ISBN 0-415-17420-1.
• Jackson, Alvin (2003). Home Rule: an Irish History 1800–2000. Phoenix. ISBN 0-7538-1767-5.
• Kee, Robert (2000) [1972]. The Green Flag: A History of Irish Nationalism. Penguin Adult. ISBN 0-14-029165-2.
• Lee, J.J. (1989). Ireland 1912–1985. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-37741-2.
• Lewis, Geoffrey (2005). Carson, the Man who divided Ireland. A&C Black. ISBN 1-85285-454-5.
• Rodner, W. S. (1982). "Leaguers, Covenanters, Moderates: British Support for Ulster, 1913–14". Éire—Ireland. 17 (3): 68–85.
• Smith, Jeremy (1993). "Bluff, Bluster and Brinkmanship: Andrew Bonar Law and the Third Home Rule Bill". Historical Journal. 36 (1): 161–174. doi:10.1017/S0018246X00016150. S2CID 159691644.
• Shepard, Walter James (1912). "The Government of Ireland Home Rule Bill". The American Political Science Review. 6 (4): 564–573. doi:10.2307/1944652. JSTOR 1944652. S2CID 147674647.
• Stewart, A.T.Q. (1967) [1979]. The Ulster Crisis, Resistance to Home Rule, 1912–14. London: Faber and Faber. ISBN 0-571-08066-9.
• Government of Ireland Act 1914, available from the House of Lords Record Office
• "Home Rule Finance" Arthur Samuels KC (1912) Text online at Archive.org

• Gladstone's Irish Home Rule speech (beseech in its favour)
• Government of Ireland Act 1914
• "Government of Ireland Bill" (matches 1912–17 relate to the 1912 bill, which became the 1914 act)