• the British Empire at the turn of the century; "age of high imperialism"

• 1890s-early 1900s: pressure-cooker period

• complexities of nationalism and unionism

the Gaelic revival

Standish O'Grady (1846-1928)
    History of Ireland (1878-1880)
    Celtic culture, history, and folklore (Cuchulain)

Gaelic Athletic Association (1884)
        Michael Cusack

GR Sims Living London (1902)

Tipperary (Thurles), team members of the first All-Ireland hurling final in 1887

Gaelic League (1893)
    Eoin MacNeill and Douglas Hyde
    Hyde's "The Necessity of de-Anglicizing Ireland" [text]

the Literary Revival
    National Literary Society (1892)
    William Butler Yeats, James Joyce, George Bernard Shaw, Oscar Wilde, John M Synge, Sean O'Casey   
    Abbey Theatre (1904)

The Abbey Theatre

W B Yeats Collected works

 

II.  Parliamentary politics [Coohill, 103-5, 119-24]

Parnell's Funeral

John Redmond vs. John Dillon

Gladstone's second home rule bill (1893)

Unionist governments (Salisbury, 1895-1902, and Balfour, 1902-05)

"killing Home Rule with kindness"     

Wyndham Act of 1903 [Coohill, 113]

poor relief, infrastructure, reform

effects of the home rule crisis

obstruction of parliamentary business

polarization of politics/ Unionist Party

parliamentary reform (Parliament Act of 1911)

impact on Unionism

significance of constitutional nationalism

III.  Unionism

a political tradition vs. a organized political movement

factors contributing to the organization of Unionism

Unionist organizations

Irish Loyal and Patriotic Union (1885)
Ulster Loyalist Anti-Repeal Union (1886)
Irish Unionist Party    

Lord Randolph Churchill

southern unionism
1880s: 250,000 unionists in the south

Ulster Unionist Council (1904)