Focusing on four case studies, author William Beattie Smith traces the evolution of British policy from 1969-73 and depicts how easily a conflict over national identity can turn into bloodshed, grief, and horror; and how difficult it is once a serious fight has started to restore peace.In each of the case studies, Smith highlights a discrete policy followed by the British government in tackling political disorder in Northern Ireland, and examines why the policy was chosen or pursued. He outlines three broad strategic options reform, coercion, and powersharing and identifies factors influencing which of the three will be selected in practice. Focusing on policy outcomes rather than the details of the negotiating process, the author evaluates the relative importance of rational calculation, patterns of understanding, party politics, diplomatic pressures, organizational structure, and official doctrine in shaping policies and initiating radical changes. While rooted in policy analysis, the book ventures into the territory of political history and conflict studies. The author addresses issues such as the legitimacy of state authority, the vulnerability of democratic institutions to the opposition of disaffected minorities, and the tensions that exist between public order and individual rights. His conclusion derives strategic lessons from the British experience in Northern Ireland and provides guidance for policymakers confronting challenges arising from comparable cases."

In the years preceding the First World War, Britain faced its gravest political crisis since the days of Cromwell and Charles I. The Liberal government was determined to grant home rule to Ireland against the wishes of 100,000 armed Ulster Protestants.

The Home Rule Bill, passed by the British parliament in 1912, was due, when it came into effect in 1914, to give Ireland some control over her own affairs for the first time since the Act of Union in 1800. However, this was postponed when the First World War broke out and by the time the war had ended the political landscape in Ireland had changed irrevocably. The nationalist movement split into the followers of John Redmond who chose to fight for the British in the war in the hope that their loyalty would be rewarded and those on the other side who felt that this was just a delaying tactic and that 'England's difficulty [was] Ireland's opportunity'. Meanwhile the Unionists were violently opposed to any form of Irish self government, believing that 'Home rule is Rome rule' and this led to the signing of the Ulster Covenant and the establishment of the Ulster Volunteers. The respected historians who have contributed to this book examine the reaction to the Home Rule Bill across many shades of political opinion across these islands and give a fascinating analysis of what might have been if external events had not overtaken local ones.

"Between 1885 and 1921 Irish Home Rule became increasingly focused on the province of Ulster, and especially on Ulster Unionist resistance to the prospect of submission to a Nationalist dominated parliament in Dublin. British, Irish and imperial issues were consequently fought out on narrow ground. As Ulster Unionists moved from defiance to the threat of armed resistance, raising the possibility of civil war throughout the United Kingdom, they helped to radicalise Irish Nationalism. this present British political parties, and the public, with a serious moral dilemma: how justifiable was it to place a distinct community under a majority whose supremacy was hated and feared by the Ulster Protestant minority? Furthermore, how did the resolution of this question help to turn the Ulster Protestant minority into a majority in six counties in Ulster? Using new material and new theoretical approaches, this collection of wide-ranging essays explores these issues from various angles. In so doing, it illuminates one of the most significant political and moral questions ever to confront the United Kingdom, and the attempts made to resolve it. Together these essays provide the first recourse for students and teachers, and are essential reading for all with an interest in the history of this troubled region of Northern Ireland." -- Back cover.

Uncovers the transnational movement by Ireland's unionists as they worked to maintain the Union during the Home Rule era. The book explores the political, social, religious, and Scotch-Irish ethnic connections between Irish unionists and the United States as unionists appealed to Americans for support and reacted to Irish nationalism.

Irish Liberty, British Democracy charts the years of political crisis arising from the 1912 Irish Home Rule Bill, revealing the controversy to have been not only a defining moment in Irish history, but a significant episode, too, in the consolidation of democracy in Great Britain. It reveals the power over the governing Liberal Party wielded by Irish nationalist leader, John Redmond, his decisive role in securing a historic stride for British democracy, and the forcefulness with which he stood up to ostensible friends and foes.