Buckingham Palace Conference

and avert what a feared civil war on the issue.

Background

Since the 1870s a concerted campaign had been made by Irish Nationalist leaders in Westminster to have home rule (regional self-government) introduced into Ireland. [Four Home Rule Bills, two of them enacted, were introduced. The House of Commons voted down the first attempt in 1886 while the House of Lords vetoed the second in 1893. Bills were enacted in 1914 and 1920. The latter Act created Northern Ireland.] This demand however was opposed by the leaders of Irish Unionism, who feared being placed under a Catholic Nationalist-dominated Irish parliament in Dublin. For Unionists the ultimate safeguard to prevent home rule had been the existence of the power of the House of Lords to veto legislation. The Lords, with an inbuilt pro-Unionist Conservative Party majority, had exercised its veto in 1893 to block the Second Home Rule Bill. As a result of a dramatic change in powers under the Parliament Act 1911, the Lords lost the ability to veto Bills. In 1912 the government of Herbert Asquith introduced the Third Home Rule Bill. Under the Parliament Act, the Lords could only block a Bill for three sessions. As a result the Bill finally completed its passage and received the Royal Assent in mid-1914.

The threat that the Bill would this time become law led to protests among Unionists. The leaders of the opposition Conservative Party opted to play the "Orange Card", with leader Andrew Bonar Law threatening to support for whatever actions Unionists took, whether legal or illegal, to prevent home rule. Lord Randolph Churchill told a rally "Ulster will fight and Ulster will be right".

Illegal gun-running occurred among both Unionists (at Larne) and Nationalists (Dublin port). Faced with what seemed to be imminent civil war, King George, a strong hibernophile since his days as a Naval officer based in Cork, intervened to stop what be believed was the slide to civil war and took the unprecedented step of inviting the leaders of both communities, along with the British government, to the Palace for a conference.

The Conference

The conference assembled in Buckingham Palace in late July 1914. Though the issue of home rule had been on the political agenda since the 1870s, the 1914 conference was the first time that a formal peace conference had been called involving both Nationalists and Unionists. Among those who attended were Prime Minister Herbert Asquith, Irish Parliamentary Party leader John Redmond, his deputy, John Dillon and the Leaders of Irish Unionism, Edward Carson and the Earl of Midleton.

The conference broke up after three days without agreement. All sides however argued that it had been a useful exercise, with Unionists and Nationalists for the first time having meaningful discussions on how to allay each other's fears about the other. The conference was overtaken by developments in Europe. In little over a month the First World War had begun, leading to the suspension of home rule for its duration.

Longterm impact

The King's idea of hosting all-party talks on Ireland had echoes in later negotiations that produced the power-sharing executive in the Sunningdale Agreement in the 1970s, and in the negotiations that produced the Belfast Agreement in the late 1990s.

Later interventions by George V on Ireland

King George himself intervened on a number of subsequent occasions on Ireland. In 1920 he made clear his opposition to the behaviour of the Black and Tans paramilitary force being used by the British Government during the Irish War of Independence, while unsuccessfully intervening to try to save the life of hunger striker Terence MacSwiney. In 1921 he made a passionate appeal for reconciliation in Ireland at the opening of the Parliament of Northern Ireland which led directly to a truce between the Irish Republic and the United Kingdom, paving the way for the Anglo-Irish Treaty. In 1932 he defused a row between the President of the Executive Council of the Irish Free State Éamon de Valera and the Governor-General of the Irish Free State James McNeill by getting de Valera to withdraw a request for McNeill's dismissal, and then getting the McNeill to take early retirement.

Footnotes

ources

* Dorothy Macardle, "The Irish Republic" (Corgi, 1968)
* Harold Nicolson, "King George V"
* Frank Packenham, "Peace by Ordeal"