Lloyd George’s role in the Dublin riots
I have no brief for Lloyd George as ‘that priapic old goat’, but there are surely worse failings in a prime minister. In his desire for power, Lloyd George betrayed the legacy of the Liberals in alliance with the Irish Parliamentary Party in the achievement of a constitutional solution to the Irish question in the form of the Home Rule Act of 1914.
He compounded that error by his decision to inflict the Black and Tans on the Irish populace.
The riots in O’Connell Street and Nassau Street on February 25 remind me that we are still suffering the consequences of the alienation ultimately derived from these failures of statesmanship. Perhaps it is time for us to revisit other aspects of Lloyd George’s political reputation.
Gerald Morgan
School of English
Trinity College Dublin
