by Alvin Jackson (Author)
This is a comprehensive narrative history of British and Irish efforts to establish a devolved parliament and government in Ireland. It explains Home Rule's invention as a means of uniting the Irish people when they were decimated by famine and divided under British rule, and traces its history up to the present day - the Belfast Agreement of 1998 and the faltering Northern Ireland Peace Process. The history of Home Rule is shown to be a history of peaceable compromise - an attempt to contain powerful pressures for self-government without ending British sovereignty. Such attempts failed to deter Ireland's departure from the Union in 1921. It remains to be seen whether the modern inheritors of Home Rule will be any more successful in averting the final breakup of the United Kingdom.
Format: Hardcover
Pages: 360
Publisher: Weidenfeld & Nicolson
Published: 15 May 2003
ISBN 10: 1842127241
ISBN 13: 9781842127247
Book Overview: Home Rule dominated both Irish and British politics for 50 years. Its history features the key figures in British and Irish history including Gladstone, Charles Stuart Parnell and Michael Collins, Jerry Adams and Tony Blair. Home Rule is the basis of Scottish and Welsh devolution, as well as the Northern Ireland peace process. This book questions whether these reforms can avert the final breakup of Great Britain.