The Home Rule Crisis

The Home Rule crisis of 1912–1914 arose from the Liberal government’s Third Home Rule Bill, which proposed an Irish parliament in Dublin. Although the Parliament Act of 1911 limited the House of Lords to delaying the bill, this window allowed fierce opposition in Ulster to organize armed resistance under Sir Edward Carson, backed by Conservative leader Bonar Law, bringing Britain close to civil war amid events such as the Curragh Mutiny and the Larne gun-running. Prime Minister Asquith attempted compromise by allowing Ulster counties to opt out temporarily, but negotiations collapsed over which areas would be excluded, and the Buckingham Palace Conference of July 1914 failed to resolve the crisis. The outbreak of the First World War suspended the conflict: Home Rule passed into law but was postponed for the duration of the war, leaving the fundamental problem unsettled.