Civil War in Ulster: Tory Conferences

Civil War in Ulster

The Tory Conferences 1911-1913

The treatment of the Home Rule issue in the succession of Tory conferences: Leeds 1911, London 1912, Norwich 1913 is worth noting.

In 1911 there were 3 motions, and Home Rule got a passing reference from Bonar Law. In 1912, which took place in November, some time after the Blenheim rally which had taken place on July 27, Carson rattled the sabres: '...it would not be up against Ulster, but against the manhood of the whole English nation...'. Bonar Law in the Albert Hall on Nov 14: '..we shall wreck Home Rule..'.

The Blenheim rally had been attended by trainloads from all over the country; there was a mass meeting in the courtyard, addressed by Bonar Law, F E Smith and Edward Carson. This was the first occasion of the issue of an actual call to arms.

The Home Rule report at the 1912 Conference referred to '..the series of remarkable and impressive demonstration in Ireland, beginning in September 1911...' and castigated Churchill's Dundee speech, in which he had '...advocated the creation of ten or twelve Parliaments in the UK..'. This was held to imply the setting up of '...customs barriers between England, Scotland and Wales in addition to Ireland.....the essential unity of the Empire and the Kingdom would have been broken....the Empire would fall apart..'

On September 13 Churchill, then in the Liberal Government, had spoken at Dundee, proposing a federal UK system, dividing England into 10 or 12 large self-governing areas, on the scale of Ireland, Scotland and Wales. This was taking the 'Home Rule All Round' concept to its logical conclusion, and indeed the concept is emerging again on the current political agenda. Whether Ulster or Ireland as a whole should be the unit in this context was then, as it remains now, a matter for argument.

Clearly the Tories saw themselves as the 'real Government' and Home Rule as a real threat to imperial unity, which the Liberal government was held to be undermining (5.1).

The Norwich conference in 1913 had 5 motions on various aspects of Home Rule but focused on the first one from Carson, which '...views with deep alarm the danger of civil war...' and registered a '..strong determination to support Ulster..'.

Speaking to the motion Lord Willoughby de Broke (5.2) claimed that '...we are enlisting, and enrolling, and arming (laughter and some claps) a considerable force of volunteers who are going to proceed to Ulster to reinforce the ranks of Captain Craig and his brave men when the proper time comes...'.

The Spectator article in the appendix was timed to influence this conference, which took place in November.

Notes and References (Tory Conferences)

5.1 These aspects are developed at length in Dangerfield's 'Strange Death of Liberal England' (Serif 1997, reprint), cf Ch 2 'the Tory Rebellion'.

5.2 For more on Willoughby de Broke see G.D. Phillips in the Journal of British Studies for 1980 (vol. 20) (Peatling).

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