Irish Government Bill 1886

infobox home rule
Bill=First Home Rule Bill

_act=Irish_Government_Bill,_1886
country=Ireland
year=1886
govt=Gladstone (Liberal)
HoC=No
HoL=Not applicable
RA=Not Applicable
house=House of Commons
stage=2nd stage
vote=Aye: 311; No 341
date=8 June 1886
unibi=unicameral
subd=2 Orders
name=not given
size=1st Order - 100 (25 peers, 75 elected)
2nd Order 204-206 members
westminster=none
executive=Lord Lieutenant
body=none
PM=none
to=no
imple=not applicable
succeeded=Irish Government Bill 1893|The First Home Rule Bill (official name: "Irish Government Bill, 1886") was the first major attempt made by a British parliament to enact a law creating home rule for part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. It was introduced on 8 April 1886 by Liberal Prime Minister William Gladstone to create a devolved assembly for Ireland which would govern Ireland in specified areas. The Irish Parliamentary Party under Charles Stewart Parnell had been campaigning for home rule for Ireland since the 1870s.

The Bill, like his Irish Land Act 1870, was very much the work of Gladstone, who excluded both the Irish MPs and his own ministers from participation in the drafting. Following the Purchase of Land (Ireland) Act 1885 it was to be introduced alongside a new Land Purchase Bill to reform tenant rights, but the latter was abandoned. [Alvin Jackson, "Home Rule: An Irish History 1800—2000" p.69.]

The key aspects of the 1886 Bill were:

Legislative

* A unicameral assembly (deliberately not called a parliament to avoid links with the former Irish parliament abolished in 1800 under the Act of Union) consisting of two "Orders" which could meet either together or separately.
**The first Order was to consist of the 28 Irish representative peers (the Irish peers traditionally elected by all Irish peers to sit in the House of Lords at Westminster) plus 75 members elected through a highly restricted franchise. It could delay the passage of legislation for 3 years.
**The second Order was to consist of either 204 or 206 members. [It had not been decided whether to have two members elected by the graduates of the Royal University to match the two members traditionally elected by graduates of the University of Dublin (Trinity College).]
*All Irish MPs would be excluded from Westminster altogether.

Executive

* Executive power would be possessed by the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland whose executive would not be "responsible" to either Order.

Reserve Powers

*Britain would still retain control over a range of issues including peace, war, defence, treaties with foreign states, trade and coinage.
* No special provision was made for Ulster.
*Britain would retain control of the Royal Irish Constabulary until it deemed it safe for control to pass to Dublin. The Dublin Metropolitan Police would pass to Irish control.

Reaction

When the bill was introduced Charles Stewart Parnell had mixed reactions, he said that it had great faults but was prepared to vote for it. In his famous beseeched parliament to pass the Bill and grant Home Rule to Ireland in honour rather than being compelled to one day in humiliation. Unionists and the Orange Order were fierce in their resistance, for them any measure of Home Rule was denounced as nothing other than Rome Rule.

The vote took place after two months of debating and, on 8 June 1886, 341 voted against it (including 93 Liberals) while 311 voted for it. Parliament was dissolved on 26 June and the UK general election, 1886 was called.

Historians have suggested that the Bill was fatally flawed by the secretive manner of its drafting, with Gladstone alienating Liberal figures like Joseph Chamberlain who, along with a colleague, resigned in protest from the ministry, while producing a Bill viewed privately by the Irish as badly drafted and deeply flawed. [Jackson, op.cit. P.74.]

Footnotes

See also

* Charles Stewart Parnell
* Irish Home Rule Bill 1893 (Second Irish Home Rule Bill)
* Government of Ireland Act 1914 (Third Irish Home Rule Bill)
* Government of Ireland Act 1920 (Fourth Irish Home Rule Bill)
* History of Ireland (1801–1922)

Further reading

* Robert Kee, "The Green Flag: A History of Irish Nationalism", (2000 edition, first published 1972), ISBN 0-14-029165-2.
* Alvin Jackson, "HOME RULE, an Irish History 1800-2000", (2003), ISBN 0-7538-1767-5.
* Thomas Hennessey, "Dividing Ireland", World War 1 and Partition, (1998), ISBN 0-415-17420-1.