How consistent was British policy towards Ireland from 1798-1921? Essay

Throughout the breaker point, British polity towards Ireland did have considerable renderings. There was a range from incredibly coercive measures to a more conciliatory approach, and this variation spread across several advert areas constabulary and Order in Ireland, the Religious enquiry, Economic policy and finally maintenance of the Union itself. Although on that point can be no doubt that by means ofout the period, British policy was consistent in its principles that it leted to keep Ireland within the Union the policies themselves were non the shipway that successive governments went about upholding this basic principle differed substantially, and in that respectfore over the unhurt period, British policy towards Ireland was not very consistent.In terms of Law and Order in Ireland, throughout the period in that location was a express amount of consistency in British policy over the wholly period the line of work of Irelands Law and Order was addressed throug h a mixture of irresistible impulse and cleanse, with the intention of keeping Ireland tightly fitting to Britain. compulsion as a method was evident throughout from the suppression of Wolfe aromas rising in 1798 through to the violent response to the 1916 easter uprising in both cases the British Government reacted with violence and the leading of the rebellions were arrested and executed. During the period of Sir Robert loots premiership, coercion formed a key part of his policy towards Ireland. Measures such as the Arms displace, which prevented Catholics from carrying arms, and his drafting of multitude into Ireland, were clearly coercive.Gladstone withal used coercion to a genuine extent in 1881 he introduced the Protection of Person and Property comprise which allowed persons to be imprisoned without trial. Moreover, there were substantial inconsistencies in the use of coercion itself in the treatment of the Irish and Ulster nationalists with officers refusing to stop the UVF from obtaining guns in March 1914 at the Curragh Mutiny, yet came down on the Catholics plans to obtain weapons at Howth later the same(p) year. However, throughout the period there was also a reformist military strength towards Ireland. Peels introduction of the Royal Irish Constabulary was in effect the first police force and it aimed to keep peace in Ireland. Furthermore, in his plan of conciliation in the 1840s a number of concessions were made towards Ireland in an attempt to resolve the problems with violence by appeasing the Irish to a certain extent measures such as replacing lord de greyish with Heytesbury as Lord Lieu inhabit of Ireland in 1844 de Gray had been reluctant to advocate equal opportunities for Catholics and the introduction of Heytesbury was intended to stem the growth of violent opponent in Ireland.Gladstone too used a plan of mollification to resolve disputes. However, there were some quite considerable inconsistencies. The Kilmainham treaty in 1882 is one such example the negotiations between Parnell and Gladstone, and Parnell agreeing to use his influence in Ireland to sort out the law and order problem that had arisen from the Land Wars was something that was not seen at all throughout the period indeed Sir Robert Peel took the resistance approach with Daniel OConnell and no negotiations between the two took place. Throughout the period, although there was some consistency in that boilers suit the two methods of Coercion and reform were used, they appeared to be instigated rather pragmatically and this can be seen as dissonant policy.The approach of various governments towards religion in Ireland was certainly rather inconsistent. At the beginning of the period, when Pitt proposed the piece of Union, Catholic emancipation was proposed on with it, initially exhibit a rather open approach to solving the Catholic question. However, it was removed from the final version of the Act, leaving the religious is sue unaddressed for the next 30 years and Catholics still with inferior rights in Ireland. Peels approach to Catholic emancipation was clearly reluctant, and when it was passed in 1829 along with it was a considerable reduction of the franchise, again showing a unlike approach.However, this was turned around by Peels last ministry in the 1840s the granting of several key reforms such as the Maynooth grant in 1845 and the Irish colleges Bill of the same year show that Peel himself was inconsistent in his religious policy towards Ireland. Ultimately there was a complete reversal made by Gladstone in 1869 when he disestablished the perform of Ireland, and enabled Church property to be sold to tenants. This illustrates considerable inconsistency in British policy towards Ireland from considerable hostility towards Catholics and refusal to grant them rights in order to wield the established church, to its eventual disestablishment.Maintaining the Act of Union was a consistent aim t hroughout the period, however, there was a definite shift in British policy from the beginning of the period to the end, with a more concession-making approach adoptive as time progressed. Therefore, on the whole in this area too British policy towards Ireland was inconsistent. The sceptical stance adopted at the issue of the period keeping Ireland as close to Britain as possible for apprehension of letting go of the Achilles heel to France was reversed quite spectacularly with the granting of dominion Status to Ireland in 1921. Rather than any determined policy throughout the period, Britains approach in this area was rather more unstable as the strength of Irish Nationalism Increased, so the concessions that were made grew. peculiarly after the later part of the 19th Century with Gladstones conversion to home rule, there was a gradual move to a consensus on the necessity of Ireland having at least a certain academic degree of independence the successive Home Rule Bills gai ned more and more support. Moreover, there was considerable variation in the treatment of the Ulster Problem from including it with Ireland to keeping it as a part of Great Britain. The final granting of Dominion Status in 1921 after the failure of the Government of Ireland Act finally partitioned Ireland again a complete change from the original view of Ireland as a individual(a) country unified with Britain.Finally, economic policy towards Ireland showed further inconsistency. Although it remained relatively convertible between governments until the later part of the 19th Century, in that it treated Ireland more the same way as the rest of Britain Ireland had many of the same financial responsibilities as Britain had in the form of Poor Rates and Income tax. Throughout the period there was a laissez faire approach to dealings with Irish land and industry. However, there were inconsistencies at certain points the great famine in the late 1840s axiom measures such as Peels purchase of a crowing amount of cheap grain in order to flood the mart and lower prices.The Land Acts in the later part of the decade also went against the typical treatment of Ireland and its economic matters tenant rights had been all provided ignored in the first half of the century, and the second Land Act of 1881 and its granting of the 3 Fs and the land purchase scheme given by the Wyndhams Act in 1903 was a clear turnaround, and completely changed the pattern of land self-control in Ireland about 9 million acres of land were transferred to tenant hands by 1914, and 75% of tenants were buying their landlords land. The period saw a considerable change in British economic policy towards Ireland, and whence it was inconsistent.Throughout the period 1798-1921, there were some quite considerable inconsistencies in British policy towards Ireland. Although to a certain extent it can be seen that their motivating principles behind policy remained relatively similar in concomita nt the defence of Ireland as part of the union and keeping it as close as possible with the final concession of dominion status in 1921.However, in other areas such as economic policy, the religious problem and sorting out the religious question, there was substantial change throughout. Therefore, overall British policy towards Ireland was not very consistent throughout the period.