| Bill: | First Home Rule Bill |
| Act: | Government of Ireland Bill 1886 |
| Country: | Ireland |
| Year: | 1886 |
| Govt: | Gladstone (Liberal) |
| Hoc: | No |
| Hol: | Not applicable |
| Ra: | Not Applicable |
| House: | House of Commons |
| Stage: | 2nd stage |
| Vote: | Aye: 311; No 341 |
| Date: | 8 June 1886 |
| Unibi: | unicameral |
| Subd: | 2 Orders |
| not given | |
| Size: | 1st Order – 100 (25 peers, 75 elected) 2nd Order 204–206 members |
| Westminster: | none |
| Executive: | Lord Lieutenant |
| Body: | none |
| Pm: | none |
| To: | no |
| Imple: | not applicable |
| Succeeded: | Irish Government Bill 1893 |
The Government of Ireland Bill 1886,[1] commonly known as the First Home Rule Bill, was the first major attempt made by a British government to enact a law creating home rule for part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. It was introduced on 8 April 1886 by Liberal Prime Minister William Gladstone to create a devolved assembly for Ireland which would govern Ireland in specified areas. The Irish Parliamentary Party had been campaigning for home rule for Ireland since the 1860s.
The bill, like his Irish Land Act 1870, was very much the work of Gladstone, who excluded both the Irish MPs and his own ministers from participation in the drafting. Following the Purchase of Land (Ireland) Act 1885 it was to be introduced alongside a new Land Purchase Bill to reform tenant rights, but the latter was abandoned.[2]
The key aspects of the 1886 bill were:
When the bill was introduced, Charles Stewart Parnell had a mixed reaction. He said that it had great faults but was prepared to vote for it. In his famous Irish Home Rule speech, Gladstone beseeched Parliament to pass it and grant Home Rule to Ireland in honour rather than being compelled to one day in humiliation. Unionists and the Orange Order were fierce in their resistance; for them, any measure of Home Rule was denounced as nothing other than Rome Rule. In the staunchly loyalist town of Portadown, the so-called 'Orange Citadel' where the Orange Order was founded in 1795, Orangemen and their supporters celebrated the Bill's defeat by 'Storming the Tunnel'.[5] This was the headline in the local paper where it was reported that a mob attacked the small Catholic/Nationalist ghetto of Obins Street.[6]
The vote on the Bill took place after two months of debate and, on 8 June 1886, 341 voted against it (including 93 Liberals) while 311 voted for it. Parliament was dissolved on 26 June and the 1886 United Kingdom general election was called. The Liberal Unionist Party was formed to contest the election and won 77 seats. They formed a coalition government with the Conservatives and continued allying with them in subsequent elections until the parties merged in 1912.
Historians have suggested that the 1886 Home Rule Bill was fatally flawed by the secretive manner of its drafting, with Gladstone alienating Liberal figures like Joseph Chamberlain who, along with a colleague, resigned in protest from the ministry, while producing a Bill viewed privately by the Irish as badly drafted and deeply flawed.[2]
| Government of Ireland Bill 1886, Second Reading | |||
| Ballot → | 7 June 1886 | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| No (Conservatives (248), Liberals (92), Crofters (1)) | |||
| Yes (Liberals (224), IPP (84), Crofters (2), Lib-Lab (1)) | |||
| Abstentions | |||
| Sources: Hansard[7] | |||