Irish Parliamentary Party

The Irish Parliamentary Party was formed in 1874 by Isaac Butt, who led the Nationalist Party. It replaced the Home Rule League and became the main political group for Irish nationalist Members of Parliament elected to the House of Commons in Westminster. These members were part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland at that time.

The party had two main goals: to work for legislative independence for Ireland and to improve laws about land ownership. They supported peaceful and legal methods to achieve these aims. Their efforts helped prepare the way for Irish self-government, especially through three important Irish Home Rule bills that were introduced in Parliament.

Origins

The Irish Parliamentary Party began as the Home Rule League, started by Isaac Butt after he left the Irish Conservative Party in 1873. The League wanted more freedom for Ireland to handle its own affairs while still part of the United Kingdom. This idea grew after William Ewart Gladstone and his Liberal Party won many seats in the 1868 election, promising fairness for Ireland. Gladstone also passed laws to help Irish tenant farmers and changed the way the Church of Ireland was managed.

The Home Rule League focused on education, land reform, and freeing political prisoners. In the 1874 election, the League gained attention and won many seats, helping to shape the future of Irish self-government.

History

Party inaugurated

After the 1874 general election, forty-six members came together in Dublin and formed a new Irish parliamentary party in the Commons. At first, things looked promising, but the party couldn’t achieve much because the Liberals and Gladstone had lost the election. Isaac Butt gave some popular speeches but couldn’t convince any major parties to support helpful bills for Ireland.

A smaller group of eager young Irish members, led by Charles Stewart Parnell, Joseph Biggar, John O'Connor Power, Edmund Dwyer Gray, Frank Hugh O'Donnell, and John Dillon, used a method called “obstructionism” from 1876 to 1877. They tried to get Westminster to pay more attention to Ireland by proposing changes to almost every bill and giving long speeches. This didn’t bring closer to Home Rule, but it helped revive the Irish party and brought Parnell to the front of the political scene. This caused a split in the party between Butt’s majority and Parnell’s minority.

Land-war mainspring

Parnell worked to free Fenians who missed out on an earlier pardon, including Michael Davitt. After his release in 1877, Davitt went to America to meet John Devoy and raise funds. In 1878, Parnell also met with American Fenian leaders. In October 1879, Davitt founded the Irish National Land League, and Parnell was elected president but didn’t take control, preferring to continue holding mass meetings. Isaac Butt died later that year, and Parnell held back from taking control of the party. Instead, he went to America with John Dillon to raise funds for political purposes and to help relieve distress in Ireland after a world economic depression affected agricultural sales.

At the 1880 general election, sixty-four Home Rulers were elected, with twenty-seven supporting Parnell, leading to his nomination as leader of a divided Home Rule Party. He understood that supporting land agitation was a way to achieve self-government. The Conservatives under Disraeli had lost the election, and Gladstone was Prime Minister again. He tried to address the land question with the Land Law (Ireland) Act 1881, but it failed to stop tenant evictions. Parnell and his party went on a verbal offensive and were imprisoned in October 1881 under the Protection of Persons and Property (Ireland) Act 1881 in Kilmainham Jail for “sabotaging the Land Act,” from where the No Rent Manifesto was issued, calling for a national tenant farmer rent strike.

Truce and treaty

In April 1882, Parnell made a deal with the government. The settlement involved withdrawing the manifesto and agreeing to act against agrarian crime. This truce, known as the Kilmainham Treaty, was a turning point in Parnell’s leadership. However, it cost him the support of American-Irish leaders. But his diplomacy kept the national Home Rule movement alive after the Phoenix Park Murders in May, where the Chief Secretary for Ireland and his Under Secretary were killed. For the next twenty years, Fenians and physical-force militancy no longer played a role in Irish politics.

With the Land League suppressed and splitting apart, Parnell brought it back in October as the Irish National League (INL). It combined moderate land issues, a Home Rule program, and electoral functions. It was structured hierarchically with Parnell having great authority and direct parliamentary control. The alliance between the new National League and the Catholic Church helped revive the national Home Rule cause after 1882. By the end of 1882, the organization had 232 branches, increasing to 592 branches by 1885. Parnell left daily management to his lieutenants Timothy Harrington as Secretary, William O'Brien as editor of its newspaper United Ireland, and Tim Healy.

Parnellism reigns

Parnell’s new Irish Parliamentary Party quickly became a tightly disciplined and energetic group of parliamentarians with strict rules. In 1884, the “party pledge” was introduced, requiring each member to sit, act, and vote with the party. Members were also paid stipends from party funds, which helped increase parliamentary attendance and allowed middle-class members like William O'Brien or later D. D. Sheehan to attend parliament.

Parnell pressed Gladstone to resolve the Irish Question with Home Rule, but the Liberals were divided. Parnell then sided with the Conservatives. Gladstone’s second government fell, and Lord Salisbury’s Conservatives formed an administration. Both parties now courted Parnell.

The reforms and reorganization by Parnell were shown in the general election of November–December 1885. This was the first election under the extended suffrage of the Representation of the People Act 1884, which increased the number of Irishmen who could vote from 220,000 to 500,000, many of whom were small farmers. The election increased the Irish Party’s representation from 63 to 85 seats, including seventeen in Ulster. By January 1886, the INL had grown to 1,262 branches and claimed to represent the majority of Irish Catholic public sentiment. It acted as more than an electoral committee; it was a local lawgiver, unofficial parliament, government, police, and supreme court. Parnell’s authority in the organization was enormous. The INL was a powerful political machine built in the traditional political culture of rural Ireland. It was an alliance of tenant farmers, shopkeepers, and publicans. No one could stand against it.

The party won a seat in the English city of Liverpool, which had a large Irish Catholic community. T. P. O'Connor won the Liverpool Scotland seat in 1885 and kept it in every election until his death in 1929 – even after the party ended (O'Connor was unopposed in the elections of 1918, 1922, 1923, 1924, and 1929).

The IPP came out of the 1885 general election holding the balance of power. The Liberals had won 335 seats, but the IPP’s 86 seats were enough to keep the 249 Conservatives in power for the time being.

Home Rule delayed

Early in 1886, Gladstone supported Home Rule. Parnell’s party switched sides, allowing Gladstone to form his third government. Gladstone introduced the first Home Rule Bill 1886 and, after a long and fierce debate, made a remarkable Home Rule Speech, asking Parliament to pass the bill, which was defeated by 341 to 311 votes. The bill caused serious riots in Belfast during the summer and autumn of 1886, with many killed.

Since 1882, Parnell’s drive for Home Rule caused anxiety among Protestants and Unionists north and south, fearing Catholic intolerance from a nationalist parliament in Dublin. While most of Ireland was agricultural, six counties in Ulster had heavy industry and would be affected by any tariffs. This led to the revival of the Orange Order to resist Home Rule and the forming of an Irish Unionist Party. With the Conservatives using the “Ulster card,” and some Liberal factions voting against the bill, Gladstone suggested that a separate solution for Ulster might be needed. His comment echoed through the next century.

The Liberal Party split over Irish Home Rule. With the defeat of his Home Rule bill, Gladstone called a general election for July 1886, which swung the other way. The Conservatives became the largest party and formed a minority government with the support of the Liberal faction opposed to Home Rule, the Liberal Unionist Party.

The Irish Party kept 85 seats and, in the years up to 1889, centered around Parnell, who continued to pursue Home Rule, trying to reassure English voters that it wouldn’t threaten them. During this time, the National League was out of touch with him and focused on its own interests, keeping up local agitation during the Plan of Campaign to address the unresolved land question, which slowly increased Liberal voters’ support for Home Rule.

Zenith eclipse

Parnell exposed an attempt to use forged papers to link him and his party to crime and violence; he was cleared in February 1890. Gladstone invited Parnell to his country house in Flintshire to discuss a new Home Rule bill. This was the peak of Parnell’s career. However, since 1880, he had a relationship with a married woman, Katharine O'Shea, who had three children with him. Her divorce proceedings began late in 1890, naming Parnell as co-respondent. This was a scandal in English Victorian society. Gladstone said that if Parnell were re-elected leader of the Irish Party, Home Rule would be withdrawn. Parnell didn’t tell his party and was re-elected leader on 25 November.

A special meeting of the party lasting six days at the end of November ended with 45 “anti-Parnellites” leaving, leaving him with 27 followers, one of whom was J. J. Clancy. Both sides returned to Ireland to organize supporters into two parties: the former Parnellite Irish National League (INL) under John Redmond and John Dillon’s anti-Parnellite Irish National Federation (INF). By-elections in 1891 were fought bitterly by the INF anti-Parnellites, with Dillon and Healy making personal attacks on Parnell. The INF was supported by the Catholic clergy, who went to great lengths to ensure INF candidates were elected.

Parnell worked tirelessly between Ireland and Britain, getting support from the Fenians. He married Mrs O'Shea in June 1891. After a tour in the west of Ireland, his health worsened seriously, and he died in October in their Brighton home. His funeral in Dublin was attended by 200,000 people. In his speeches, he was convinced of an Ireland separate from Britain but was unclear about using physical force.

Party divided

In the 1892 general election, Redmond’s Parnellites won a third of the Home Rule/nationalist votes but only nine seats, while the anti-Parnellites returned 72 MPs divided between Dillonites and a small group of Healyites – the People’s Rights Association. Gladstone and the Liberals were back in power, with the divided Home Rulers holding the balance of power. Gladstone introduced his promised second Home Rule Bill in 1893. It passed in September by 301 votes to 267, but was rejected by 419 peers in the Lords. Gladstone retired in 1894.

The Conservatives and Liberal Unionists returned to power in the 1895 general election, now in coalition, and stayed in office until 1905. During these years, Home Rule wasn’t on their agenda. Instead, they enacted many reforms introduced by Irish members, who didn’t try to settle their party differences. This led to apathy among the Irish public towards politics, and financial support from America decreased. In this period of disunity, young Irish nationalists turned to cultural and militant movements, allowing the Church to fill the political gap.

The unresolved land reform issue sparked renewed political activity. William O'Brien left parliament to Mayo and, in 1898, formed the United Irish League (UIL) with Davitt, driven by farmers’ need for more land. It spread quickly, first in the west and then nationwide, attracting members from all factions of the split parties. O'Brien threatened to take over both parties.

Reconstruction

The outbreak of the Second Boer War in 1899 was condemned by both Irish factions, bringing some understanding between them. By 1900, the threat of O'Brien overwhelming them in upcoming elections forced the two parties, the INL and the INF, to reunite. O'Brien was the main mover and is seen as an architect of the 1900 settlement, merging them under a new program of land agitation, political reform, and Home Rule into a new united Irish Parliamentary Party. Redmond, leader of the smaller INL group, was chosen as its leader mainly due to rivalries among the INF’s Anti-Parnellite leaders. After the party won 77 MPs in the 1900 general election, a period of political development followed.

The UIL, designed to reconcile the fragmented party, was accepted as the parliamentary nationalists’ main support organization. O'Brien intensified his campaign of land agitation. Encouraged by the Chief Secretary George Wyndham and initiated by moderate landlords led by Lord Dunraven, the Land Reform Conference in December 1902 aimed to settle issues between landlords and tenants. O'Brien, Redmond, T. W. Russell, and Timothy Harrington represented tenants. The outcome led to O'Brien orchestrating the Wyndham Land Purchase (Ireland) Act 1903 through Parliament, allowing tenant farmers to buy their landlords’ land at favorable rates, while giving landlords a premium price. The last landlords sold out in the 1920s, ending the long-standing Irish land question.

Renewed rift

William O'Brien’s strategy of agreeing on land purchase between tenants and landlords under the act was too successful, leading to a rush of landlords to sell and tenants to buy. Dillon, the deputy party leader, opposed the Act because he didn’t want to negotiate with landlords. Michael Davitt opposed peasant proprietorship, demanding land nationalization. Together with Thomas Sexton, editor of the party’s Freeman's Journal, they campaigned against O'Brien, attacking him for prioritizing Land Purchase and Conciliation over Home Rule. O'Brien’s appeal to Redmond to suppress their opposition was ignored. After saying he was making no progress with his policy, he resigned his parliamentary seat in November 1903. This turned close friends into enemies. O'Brien later engaged with the Irish Reform Association in 1904–1905 and the Irish Council Bill in 1907, which he saw as a step toward “Home Rule by instalments,” but it was condemned by his opponents.

O'Brien’s UIL was taken over by Dillon’s protégé and ally, Joseph Devlin, a young Belfast MP. Devlin had founded the Catholic sectarian Ancient Order of Hibernians (AOH) a decade earlier, organizing its rise first in Ulster and later across the south, largely replacing the UIL. The Irish Party became increasingly dependent on the AOH, though its attempts to crush out Healyite and O'Brienite factions were carried out through its national organization, the UIL. The 1906 general election saw the Liberals back in power with 379 seats, a majority of 88 over all other parties, after promising Home Rule. Redmond’s IPP now had 82 seats but was delighted until the Liberals backed down on Home Rule, knowing it had no chance in the Lords.

The IPP’s rift with O'Brien deepened after he helped guide the Bryce Labourers (Ireland) Act 1906 through Parliament, providing large-scale government funding for rural social housing. Over 40,000 laborer-owned cottages on an acre of land were built by local county councils over the next five years. The act, and the follow-on Birrell Labourers Act 1911, housed over a quarter of a million rural laborers and their families, transforming the Irish countryside.

In 1907, Richard Hazleton became the new party secretary. Outside the party were MPs William O'Brien, Sir Thomas Esmonde, T. M. Healy, Charles Dolan, John O'Donnell, Augustine Roche, and D. D. Sheehan. Proposals to reunite the party were made by Redmond and a meeting was called for the Mansion House, Dublin in April 1908. O'Brien and others rejoined the party temporarily for unity. But on his demand for more treasury funding for land purchase, O'Brien was driven out for good at a Dublin Convention in February 1909 by the party’s militant support organization, Devlin’s “Hibernians.” After this, O'Brien founded his own political party in March 1909, the All-for-Ireland League (AFIL).

Notable legislation

During these years, many notable Acts of social legislation were pushed for and passed in Ireland’s interest:

• The creation of the Congested Districts Board in 1891, which built public works and provided employment in poor districts of western Ireland.
• The extensive 1898 Local Government Act abolished the old landlord-dominated grand juries and replaced them with forty-nine county, urban, and rural district councils managed by Irish people for local affairs. The councils were popular in Ireland as they established a political class capable of running Irish affairs. It also stimulated the desire for Home Rule to manage affairs nationally. However, a less positive consequence was that the councils were largely dominated by the Irish Party, becoming the wielders of local patronage.
• Irish Department of Agriculture Act and Technical Instructors Act (1899) (initiative of Horace Plunkett)
• Tenant Land Purchase Acts (Land Purchase (Ireland) Act 1903 and Birrell Act 1909), greatly contributing to solving the contentious land question
• Labourers (Ireland) Acts (Bryce Act 1906 and Birrell Act 1911) (the Sheehan Acts), providing rural laborers with extensive housing
• Town Tenants Act (1906)
• Evicted Tenants Act (1907)
• Old Age Pensions Act (1908)
• Irish (Catholic) University Act (1908)
• Housing of the Working Classes (Ireland) Act (1908) (the Clancy Act)

Home Rule succeeds

In the January 1910 United Kingdom general election, the Liberals lost their majority and became dependent on the Irish (IPP and AFIL) Party's 84 seats. Redmond, holding the balance of power in the Commons, renewed the old “Liberal Alliance” this time with H. H. Asquith as Prime Minister. Asquith needed the support of Irish MPs to pass the People’s Budget and, after a second general election in December 1910 produced almost the same result, he agreed to a new Home Rule Bill. The Parliament Act 1911 abolished the House of Lords’ veto over most matters and limited it to a two-year delaying power, ensuring that Redmond’s Government of Ireland Bill for the whole of Ireland introduced in 1912 would achieve national self-government in Dublin by 1914.

This prospect after 40 years of struggle was welcomed, even if self-government was initially limited to running Irish affairs. But for Unionists, convinced the Union with the United Kingdom was economically best for Ireland, and for Protestants, now that Devlin’s paramilitary AOH organization had spread across the island, it was a disaster.

After the Bill passed its first readings in 1913, Ulster Unionists’ opposition repeated events from 1886 and 1893, with their leader Sir Edward Carson approving an Ulster Volunteer militia to oppose Home Rule. Unionists and the Orange Order mass demonstrated to ensure Home Rule wouldn’t apply to them. Nationalists formed their own armed group, the Irish Volunteers, to enforce Home Rule. The initiative for meetings leading to the public inauguration of the Volunteers came from the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB). The Volunteers had 180,000 members by May 1914. Redmond, worried by the growth of nationalist movement outside the Party, tried to take control of the Volunteers. He was given a position on its leadership council and quickly filled its ranks with IPP supporters.

Redmond and his IPP nationalists, like those who succeeded them in 1919, knew little about Belfast, underestimating Unionist resistance as a bluff, insisting “Ulster will have to follow.” William O'Brien, who worked closely on passing the Second Home Rule Bill in 1893, warned in vain that without adequate provisions for Ulster, All-Ireland self-government would never be achieved.

The Bill was the center of intense parliamentary debate and controversy throughout 1913–1914 before it passed its final reading in May, denounced by the O'Brienite Party as a “partition deal” after Carson forced through an Amending Bill providing for the exclusion of Ulster, permanent or provisional to be negotiated, which ultimately led to the partition of Ireland. This was deeply resented among northern nationalists and southern unionists who felt abandoned. The Government of Ireland Act 1914 received Royal Assent in September 1914, celebrated with bonfires across southern Ireland.

Europe intervenes

The outbreak of World War I in August led to the suspension of the Home Rule Act for the duration of the war, expected to last only a year. Ireland’s involvement in the war defused the threat of civil war in Ireland and was crucial to subsequent Irish history. After neutral Belgium was overrun by Germany, Redmond and his party leaders called on the Irish Volunteers to support Britain’s war effort (her commitment under the Triple Entente and the Allied cause).

The Volunteers split over support for the British and Allied war effort. The majority (over 142,000) formed the National Volunteers, compared to roughly 10,000 who stayed with the original organization. Initially, there was a surge in voluntary enlistment for the Irish regiments of the 10th (Irish) Division and the 16th (Irish) Division of Kitchener’s New Service Army formed for the war, but enthusiasm didn’t last.

Unlike their 36th (Ulster) Division counterparts and the Ulster Volunteers who manned it with their trained military reserve officers, the southern Volunteers had no officers with previous military experience, so the War Office had the 16th Division led by English officers, with the exception of Irish General William Hickie, and the division didn’t have its own specific uniforms, which was unpopular. The War Office also suspected Redmond’s remark that the Volunteers would soon return as an armed army to oppose Ulster’s resistance to Home Rule.

About 24,000 of the National Volunteers enlisted, but the remainder, or about 80%, did not. Moreover, the organization declined due to lack of training and organization as the war continued. “The resulting collapse of the National Volunteers presaged that of the Irish Party itself, though this was less obvious. Its support for the War was gradually revealed to be a major political burden.” The Under Secretary for Ireland, Mathew Nathan, wrote in November 1915 that Redmond’s stance on the War ultimately cost him and his party their pre-eminent position in Irish life, “Redmond has been honestly imperial, but by going as far as he has, he has lost his position in the country.”

When the war situation worsened, a new Conservative-Liberal coalition government was formed in May 1915. Redmond was offered a seat in its cabinet, which he declined. This was welcomed in Ireland but greatly weakened his position after his rival, unionist leader Carson, accepted a cabinet post. As the war dragged on, the IPP’s image suffered from horrific casualties at the Cape Helles landings at Gallipoli as well as on the Western Front.

The party was surprised by the Easter Rising in April 1916, launched by the section of the Irish Volunteers who remained in the original organization. The Volunteers, infiltrated by the separatist Irish Republican Brotherhood, declared an Irish Republic and took over much of central Dublin. The rebellion was put down in a week of fighting with about 500 deaths. The manner in which British General Maxwell dealt with its leaders won sympathy for their cause. A total of 16 were shot within weeks of the Rising and another hanged several weeks later. The Rising began the decline of constitutional nationalism as represented by the IPP and the rise of a more radical separatist form of Irish nationalism. John Redmond, protesting the severity of the state’s response to the Rising, wrote to Asquith, “if any more executions take place, Ireland will become impossible for any Constitutional Party or leader.”

Further problems for the party followed Asquith’s failed attempt to introduce Home Rule in July 1916. Lloyd George’s initiative to disentangle the Home Rule deadlock after Redmond called the Irish Convention in June 1917, when Southern Unionists sided with Nationalists on the issue of Home Rule, ended unresolved due to Ulster resistance.

Crisis and change

In contrast to Parnell, John Redmond lacked charisma. He worked well in small committees but had little success in arousing large audiences. Parnell always chose nominees to Parliament. Now they were selected by local party organizations, giving Redmond numerous weak MPs over whom he had little control. Redmond was an excellent representative of old Ireland but grew outdated as he paid little attention to new forces attracting younger Irishmen, such as Sinn Féin, the Ancient Order of Hibernians in politics, the Gaelic Athletic Association in sports, and the Gaelic League in cultural affairs. He never tried to understand the forces emerging in Ulster. Redmond was further weakened in 1914 by the formation by Sinn Féin members of the militaristic Irish Volunteers. His enthusiastic support for the British war effort alienated many Catholics. His party had been increasingly hollowed out, and the major crises—notably the Easter Rising in 1916 and the Conscription crisis of 1918—were enough to destroy it.

Redmond died in March 1918 and John Dillon took over the IPP leadership. In March, the German spring offensive overran part of the British front. Lloyd George’s cabinet took a dual policy decision by clumsily linking implementing Home Rule with alleviating the severe manpower shortage by extending conscription to Ireland. The Irish party withdrew in protest from Westminster and returned to Ireland to join forces with other national organizations in mass anti-conscription demonstrations in Dublin. Although conscription was never enforced in Ireland, as fresh American troops began to be deployed to France in large numbers, the threat of conscription radicalized Irish politics. Sinn Féin, the political arm of the Volunteer insurgents, had public opinion believe that they alone had prevented conscription.

The Irish party held its own and returned its candidates in by-elections up to the end of 1916, the last in the West-Cork by-election of October 1916. The tide then changed after it lost three by-elections in 1917 to the more physical-force republican Sinn Féin movement, which had built up 1,500 organized clubs around Ireland and exceeded the strength of the old UIL, most of whose members now joined the new movement. At the end of the war in November 1918 when elections were announced for the December general election, the Irish electorate of nearly two million had a threefold increase under the Representation of the People Act 1918. Women were granted the franchise for the first time (confined to those over thirty) and a vote to every male over twenty-one years of age. This increased the number of voters from 30% to 75% of all adults.

Decisive election

The Irish Parliamentary Party was for the first time confronted with double opponents from both Unionists and Sinn Féin (the Irish Labour Party founded in 1912 did not participate). In the past, the IPP only faced opposition from candidates at conventions within the Home Rule movement. It never had to compete a nationwide election, so the party branches and organization had slowly declined. In most constituencies, the new young local Sinn Féin organization controlled the electoral scene well in advance of the election. As a result, in 25 constituencies, the IPP did not contest the seats, and Sinn Féin candidates were returned unopposed.

The Party lost 78 of its 84 seats. This was due to the “first past the post” British electoral system. Votes cast for the IPP were 220,837 (21.7%) for merely 6 seats (down from 84 out of 105 seats in 1910). Sinn Féin votes were 476,087 (or 46.9%) for 48 seats, plus 25 uncontested totaling 73 seats. Unionist (including Unionist Labour) votes were 305,206 (30.2%) – by which Unionists increased their representation from 19 to 26 seats. The Irish Party leader Dillon lost his seat and the party was dissolved. The remnants of the IPP later re-established itself with six members to form the Nationalist Party in Northern Ireland under Joe Devlin.

Twenty-seven of the newly elected Sinn Féin MPs assembled in Dublin on 21 January 1919 and formed an Irish parliament, or Dáil Éireann of a self-declared Irish Republic. Their remaining MPs were either still imprisoned or impaired. The UK state did not recognize the Dáil’s unilateral existence, which led to the War of Independence. The government remained committed to introducing Home Rule in Ireland, and in 1921 implemented the Fourth Home Rule Act, which partitioned Ireland into Northern Ireland and a non-functioning Southern Ireland before the Anglo-Irish Treaty.

After dissolution

The Irish Parliamentary Party still had many supporters across Ireland even after it dissolved. In places like Belfast, they managed to keep their position strong despite challenges from other groups.

After the Irish Civil War, the ideas and members of the Irish Party helped shape new political groups in Ireland. Some leaders joined groups like Cumann na nGaedheal and later Fine Gael. Others became part of Fianna Fáil. The political landscape changed, but the influence of the Irish Party could still be seen in many ways.

Party leaders (1874–1921)

The Irish Parliamentary Party, also known as the Irish Party or the Home Rule Party, was formed in 1874. It was created to represent Irish nationalist members in the UK Parliament. The party aimed to achieve two main goals: gaining independence for Ireland through laws and improving land rights for farmers. Their efforts helped lay the foundation for Ireland to govern itself, which was supported by three important bills called Home Rule bills.

General election results