Editing Northern Ireland (section)

===Home Rule Crisis===
{{main|Home Rule Crisis}}

[[File:RMS Olympic's propellers.jpg|thumb|[[RMS Olympic]], sister ship of [[Titanic]], photographed in dry dock, [[Belfast]]]]
[[File:Carson signing Solemn League and Covenant.jpg|thumb|Signing of the [[Ulster Covenant]] in 1912 in opposition to Home Rule]]
By the late 19th century, a large and disciplined cohort of [[Irish Parliamentary Party|Irish Nationalist]] MPs at Westminster committed the [[Liberal Party (UK)|Liberal Party]] to [[Irish Home Rule movement|"Irish Home Rule"]]—self-government for Ireland, within the United Kingdom. This was bitterly opposed by [[Unionism in Ireland|Irish Unionists]], most of whom were Protestants, who feared an Irish devolved government dominated by Irish nationalists and Catholics. The [[Government of Ireland Bill 1886]] and [[Government of Ireland Bill 1893]] were defeated. However, Home Rule became a near-certainty in 1912 after the [[Government of Ireland Act 1914]] was first introduced. The Liberal government was dependent on Nationalist support, and the [[Parliament Act 1911]] prevented the House of Lords from blocking the bill indefinitely.<ref name=Lydon326>James F. Lydon, [https://books.google.com/books?id=yKA9AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA326 ''The Making of Ireland: From Ancient Times to the Present''] {{Webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210508132513/https://books.google.com/books?id=yKA9AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA326 |date=8 May 2021 }}, Routledge, 1998, p. 326</ref>

In response, unionists vowed to prevent Irish Home Rule, from [[Conservative Party (UK)|Conservative and Unionist Party]] leaders such as [[Bonar Law]] and Dublin-based barrister [[Edward Carson]] to militant working class unionists in Ireland. This sparked the [[Home Rule Crisis]]. In September 1912, more than 500,000 unionists signed the [[Ulster Covenant]], pledging to oppose Home Rule by any means and to defy any Irish government.<ref>[[A. T. Q. Stewart|Stewart, A.T.Q.]], ''The Ulster Crisis, Resistance to Home Rule, 1912–14'', pp. 58–68, Faber and Faber (1967) {{ISBN|0-571-08066-9}}</ref> In 1914, unionists [[Larne gun-running|smuggled thousands of rifles and rounds of ammunition]] from [[German Empire|Imperial Germany]] for use by the [[Ulster Volunteers]] (UVF), a paramilitary organisation formed to oppose Home Rule. Irish nationalists had also formed a paramilitary organisation, the [[Irish Volunteers]]. It sought to ensure Home Rule was implemented, and it [[Howth gun-running|smuggled its own weapons into Ireland]] a few months after the Ulster Volunteers.<ref>Annie Ryan, ''Witnesses: Inside the Easter Rising'', Liberties Press, 2005, p. 12</ref> Ireland seemed to be on the brink of civil war.<ref>Collins, M. E., ''Sovereignty and partition, 1912–1949'', pp. 32–33, Edco Publishing (2004) {{ISBN|1-84536-040-0}}</ref>

Unionists were in a minority in Ireland as a whole, but a majority in the province of [[Ulster]], especially the counties [[County Antrim|Antrim]], [[County Down|Down]], [[County Armagh|Armagh]] and [[County Londonderry|Londonderry]].<ref name="StephenGwynn">{{cite book |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IWnrSFoQVw0C&q=%22northern+ireland%22+partition+two+counties+nationalist+majority+tyrone+fermanagh&pg=PA525 |first=Stephen |last=Gwynn |author-link=Stephen Gwynn |chapter=The birth of the Irish Free State |title=The History of Ireland |year=2009 |orig-date=1923 |publisher=Macmillan |isbn=978-1-113-15514-6 |access-date=19 October 2020 |archive-date=13 April 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210413214537/https://books.google.com/books?id=IWnrSFoQVw0C&q=%22northern+ireland%22+partition+two+counties+nationalist+majority+tyrone+fermanagh&pg=PA525 |url-status=live}}</ref> Unionists argued that if Home Rule could not be stopped then all or part of Ulster should be excluded from it.<ref>O'Day, Alan. ''Irish Home Rule, 1867–1921''. Manchester University Press, 1998. p. 252</ref> In May 1914, the UK Government introduced an Amending Bill to allow for 'Ulster' to be excluded from Home Rule. There was then debate over how much of Ulster should be excluded and for how long. Some Ulster unionists were willing to tolerate the 'loss' of some mainly-Catholic areas of the province.<ref>Jackson, Alvin. ''Home Rule: An Irish History, 1800–2000''. pp. 137–138</ref> The crisis was interrupted by the outbreak of the [[World War I|First World War]] in August 1914, and [[Ireland and World War I|Ireland's involvement in it]]. The UK government abandoned the Amending Bill, and instead rushed through a new bill, the [[Suspensory Act 1914]], suspending Home Rule for the duration of the war,<ref>Hennessey, Thomas: ''Dividing Ireland, World War I and Partition'', ''The passing of the Home Rule Bill'' p. 76, Routledge Press (1998) {{ISBN|0-415-17420-1}}</ref> with the exclusion of Ulster still to be decided.<ref>Jackson, Alvin: p. 164</ref>