home rule, Irish

Movement to repeal the Act of Union of 1801 that joined Ireland to Britain, and to establish an Irish parliament responsible for internal affairs. In 1870 Isaac Butt formed the Home Rule Association and the movement was led in Parliament from 1880 by Charles Stewart Parnell. After 1918 the demand for an independent Irish republic replaced that for home rule.

The British prime minister William Gladstone's home rule bills of 1886 and 1893 were both defeated. A third bill was introduced by the Liberals in 1912, which aroused opposition in Ireland where the Protestant minority in Ulster feared domination by the Catholic majority. Ireland appeared on the brink of civil war but the outbreak of World War I rendered further consideration of home rule inopportune.

In 1920 the Government of Ireland Act introduced separate parliaments in the North and South and led to the treaty of 1921 that established the Irish Free State.