Overview

Historians have not systematically investigated the movement in British public opinion towards the acceptance of Irish self-government in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The result is that British acceptance of political independence in Ireland has been regarded as the result of a combination of self-interested machinations by politicians and a weak and distracted response to political violence. This book posits a different explanation, which emphasizes the influence of international developments on the ideological context of British attitudes to Ireland in these years. The book largely consists of three case studies of ideological movements which contributed significantly to this change. The first part is concerned with the British followers of Auguste Comte in the late 19th century. Comtean Positivists, although marginal to the political process, ultimately played a significant role as pioneers of the idea of Irish self-government. The second part concerns new Liberalism, and delineates a tradition within radical Liberalism which was persistent and coherent in its support of Irish self-government from 1886 until the Anglo-Irish war of 1919-21. The final section concerns Imperialists (or advocates of Imperial consolidation ) in the first quarter of the 20th century. Unlike the other two groups, these were not home rulers by conviction. However, they came to regard some form of Irish autonomy as inevitable, and, in some cases, assisted the establishment of the Irish Free State in official capacities. This study concludes that these three movements are revealing indicators of the state of British opinion towards Ireland in this period. However, it also shows that because British attitudes were changed by events exogenous to Ireland itself, problems remained after 1925 both within Ireland, and in British perceptions of the country.

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