Third Irish Home Rule Bill - Definition and Overview

To look at the Home Rule Bill 1912-1914 we must first look back to 1909. In this year the Liberal Prime Minister Herbert Asquith faced a crisis. His budget had been rejected by the House of Lords. Then there were two general elections in 1910 in which John Redmond's Irish Nationalists held the balance of power. Asquith made a deal with Redmond in which if he supported his move to break the power of the Lords then Asquith would introduce a Home Rule Bill. The Parliament Act 1911 was passed in which the Lords agreed to a curtailment of their powers. Now they had no powers over finance bills and their unlimited veto was replaced with a veto which lasted two years, if the House of Commons passed a bill in the third year and was then rejected by the Lords it would still become law.

In April 1912 the Prime Minister offered Ireland the Third Home Rule Bill. It stated that:

• An Irish Parliament would be set up in Dublin with two chambers to deal with domestic affairs.

• The bill still had Irish MP's in Westminister (passed to please the Unionists)

The Bill was passed by the Commons by a majority of 10 votes but the House of Lords rejected it 326 votes to 69. In 1913 it was re-introduced and again passed the Commons but was again rejected by the Lords by 302 votes to 64. In 1914 the bill passed the Commons on 25 May by a majority of 77 and this time due to the Parliament Act 1911 it did not need the Lords consent and the bill was awaiting royal assent when World War I broke out.

See also

• Curragh incident