Publisher's Synopsis
The crisis over the third Irish Home Rule Bill of 1913-14 is remembered as a dramatic political controversy that brought Ireland to the brink of civil war. It remains an intriguing episode for students of history, not least because the unexpected outbreak of the First World War left its denoument permanently in suspense. James Doherty demonstrates that the leadership of the Liberal Party was out-of-step with the impulses of popular Liberalism, which viewed Irish Home Rule as a major components of a drive to democratise a British constitution still heavily weighted in the aristocracy's favour. Offering a fresh clue to the demise of the British Liberal Party, Doherty argues that a progressive groundswell demanded Home Rule not just as a solution to the Irish problem, but as the crucial instrument for the advance of British democracy.
