Home Rule was the law of a global empire

I am loath to get into historical disagreement with a learned professor like Ronan Fanning, but his description of the Home Rule Act, giving self-rule to the island of Ireland, as merely “a fudged compromise” and an illusion, has to be challenged [Opinion, August 16].

The act, to set up a parliament in Dublin, was passed by the most powerful parliament in the world. It was, as he says himself, “put upon the Statute Book” by being signed by the monarch of a worldwide empire.

That government in London took upon itself the job of keeping law and order for the population of a good part of the globe. That law and order applied to what Fanning calls “seditious Ulster’s unionists”, as it did to everyone else.

The Home Rule Act became the law of the empire, and though introduced in 1912 it could not be enacted before the summer of 1914. During that time, as Fanning describes it, a crisis caused by “embittered unionists” “suppurated” outside parliament.

It also became the law of the same empire, despite the fact that the conservative opposition’s backing for threats of civil war against it was based on treason.

The Home Rule Act, as passed, was neither a fudge, nor a compromise nor an illusion.

Given those facts, there was no excuse for the most powerful parliament in the world not standing up for the rules of democracy by implementing the Home Rule Act.

Anthony Leavy

1 Shielmartin Drive

Sutton

Dublin 13