"The failure to address the Irish Q 1886-14 was due to a lack of govt intervention"

P1 - Agree

- Govts failed to acknowledge issues of Ulster -> Gladstone's proposals never made any concession for Ulster and Asquith's proposed 3rd HR Bill also failed to foresee the opposition & anger fomenting in Ulster-encouraged by the Cons and Edward Carson.

- Protestant communities didn't want to be dominated by Catholic majority in Dublin. Cons perhaps more in tune with how Ulster may react.

- HOWEVER: Lyons -> The belligerent pressure of the Ulster Unionists, combined with the onset of the Great War, which persuaded Asquith to suspend &, in effect, kill off the legislation in Sept 1914 eg. UVF (100k men) import 35K rifles from Germany where 57 officers resign in support for Ulster when GB commander Paget informed Curragh officers to quell any resistance in Ulster

P2 - Govt did intervene

- Gladstone's attempts to implement HR: 1868 HE declared it his mission to pacify Ireland& repeatedly tried to address the Irish Question.

- Proposed 1st bill in 1886 but defeated in HOC due to split in Liberal Party - Chamberlain, Hartington etc.,

- Salisbury's Irish policies: Although Unionist govts were ideologically much less likely to provide HR for Ireland, did try to appease Irish by dealing with other issues e.g 1891 Balfour gives £33M in land loans to tenants

- Asquith 3rd HR Bill proposal -> Though he was reluctant to bring it in & largely did so due to his need for INP (Dec 1910 272 seats, Cons 271) & Redmond support in HOC, Asquith did propose HR in 1912. It was passed in the HOC but rejected by the Lords It shows that Asquith did try to act. eg. 1913 Lords, now limited by the Parliament Act, used their powers to delay the implementation of Asquith's Third Home Rule bill & rejected it twice in succession. This delay allowed each side to adopt more extreme positions & WW1 meant it was suspended due to its priority

HOWEVER: Cons as PARTY DEDICATED TO DEFENSE ON EMPIRE allowing Liberal Unionists to join in 1895, Cons Majority HOL meant policies bound to be ineffective, Most significantly was the entrenched divsion between Ulster & It=rsh nationalists eg. UVF & IVF both have 100k men each by 1913 

P3 - Other issues

- Long term factors religious, economic social issues also meant there were deeply entrenched division between the Protestants in the North & majority Catholic population elsewhere.

- Such deeply held prejudices & perceived injustices on both sides would not be easily overcome no matter what the govt did.

- Carson & Cons party leader, Andrew Bonar Law used threat of arms & countenanced the loss of life, to achieve their aims. eg. Carson mobilised 470k Ulstermen to sign the 'Solemn League and Covenant' against HR by which Protestant masses pledged willingness to 'use all means which may be found necessary' to resist HR (some signed in blood would seem to suggest a certain seriousness)

- HOWEVER: Perhaps all due to lack of concessions for Ulster (hint of lack of govt intervention

Conclusion

- Mostly invalids as govts were determined to answer this questioning that was causing immense conflict but social circumstances like WW1 or the violent outbreaks of Ulster's/Irish Nationalists meant and political opposition from parties/lords meant there was lack of ability to implement any solution