Editing Edward Carson (section)

== Unionism ==

In September 1911, a huge crowd of over 50,000 people gathered at a rally near Belfast where Carson made a speech in which he urged his party to take on the governance of Ulster. With the passage of the [[Parliament Act 1911]], the Unionists faced the loss of the [[House of Lords]]' ability to thwart the passage of the new [[Home Rule Act 1914|Home Rule Bill]]. Carson disliked many of Ulster's local characteristics and, in particular, the culture of [[Orangeism]] (although he had become an Orangeman at nineteen he left the institution shortly afterwards).<ref>Marjoribanks, ''The Life of Lord Carson'', Vol. 1, Camelot Press, 1932 p. 68</ref> He stated that their speeches reminded him of "the unrolling of a mummy. All old bones and rotten rags."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/issues/politics/union/fcchap2.htm|title=CAIN: Issues: Politics: Cochrane, Feargal (1997) 'The Unionists of Ulster: An ideological Analysis'|work=ulst.ac.uk}}</ref>

[[File:Carson signing Solemn League and Covenant.jpg|left|thumb|Sir Edward Carson signing the [[Ulster Covenant]]]]

Carson campaigned against [[Home Rule]]. He spoke against the Bill in the [[British House of Commons|House of Commons]] and organised rallies in Ireland promoting a provisional government for "the Protestant province of Ulster" to be ready, should a [[third Home Rule Bill]] come into law.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.proni.gov.uk/exhibiti/ulstday/ulstday2.htm|title=Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI) – nidirect|date=4 March 2016}}</ref>

On Sunday 28 September 1912, "Ulster Day", he was the first signatory on the [[Ulster Covenant]], which bound 447,197 signatories<ref>The number eventually exceeded 470,000 in England and Scotland.</ref> to resist Home Rule with the threat that they would use "all means necessary" after Carson had established the [[Ulster Volunteers]], the first [[Ulster loyalism|loyalist]] [[paramilitary]] group. From it, the Ulster Volunteer Force was formed in January 1913 to undergo military training and purchase arms.<ref>M McNally, ''Easter Rising 1916: Birth of the Irish Republic'', Osprey, 2007, pp. 8–9.</ref> In Parliament Carson rejected any olive branch for compromise demanding Ulster "be given a resolution rather than a stay of execution".<ref>McNally, ''Easter Rising 1916'', p. 11.</ref> The UVF [[Larne Gun Running|received a large arms cache]] from Germany on the night of 24 April 1914.<ref>known as Operation Lion. Stewart, ''The Ulster Crisis'', p. 88.</ref> Historian Felician Prill says Germany was not trying to start a civil war, for the Ulster cause was not popular in Berlin.<ref>{{cite book|author=Felician Prill|title=Ireland, Britain and Germany, 1871–1914: Problems of Nationalism and Religion in Nineteenth-Century Europe|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=k5BnAAAAMAAJ|year=1975|page=133|publisher=Gill and Macmillan |isbn=9780064957298}}</ref> Later that year, a further shipment of arms from Germany was delivered to the pro-Home Rule and IRB-influenced [[Irish Volunteers]] at [[Howth gun-running|Howth]] near Dublin.<ref>[[Asgard (yacht)#cite note-ring95-99-1]]</ref>

The Home Rule Bill was passed by the Commons on 25 May 1914 by a majority of 77 and due to the [[Parliament Act 1911]], it did not need the Lords' consent, so the bill was awaiting royal assent. To enforce the legislation, given the activities of the Unionists, [[H. H. Asquith]]'s [[Liberal Party (UK)|Liberal]] government had prepared to send troops to Ulster. This sparked the [[Curragh Incident]] on 20 March. Together with the arming of the Irish Volunteers, Ireland was on the brink of [[civil war]] when the outbreak of the [[First World War]] led to the suspension of the Home Rule Act's operation until the end of the war.<ref name="stewart">[[A. T. Q. Stewart]],  ''The Ulster Crisis, Resistance to Home Rule, 1912–14'', p. 235 (Faber and Faber, London, 1967, 1979), {{ISBN|0-571-08066-9}}</ref> By this time Carson had announced in Belfast that an Ulster Division would be formed from the U.V.F., and the [[36th (Ulster) Division]] was swiftly organised.<ref name="stewart"/>

Brown examines why Carson's role in 1914 made him a highly controversial figure:
{{blockquote|But his commitment was unqualified, both to Ulster unionism and to its increasing extremism. Under Carson's leadership, with [[James Craig, 1st Viscount Craigavon|Craig]] as his lieutenant, discipline and organization were imposed on their supporters; proposed compromises were rejected; and plans were drawn up for a provisional government in the north, if the bill was passed, with its implementation to be resisted by the paramilitary Ulster Volunteer Force, which had been armed by illegal gun-running. It is this apparent willingness to carry resistance to virtually any length, even to risk civil war, that makes Carson so controversial.<ref>Brown, ''Carson'', p. 227</ref>}}In 1914, suffragettes [[Flora Drummond]] and Norah Dacre Fox (later known as [[Norah Elam]]) besieged Carson's home, arguing that his form of Ulster "incitement to militancy" passed without notice whilst suffragettes were charged and imprisoned for same action.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.oldsuffragette.co.uk/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120113154415/http://www.oldsuffragette.co.uk/|url-status=dead|archive-date=2012-01-13|title=Home – Mosley's Old Suffragette: A Biography of Norah Dacre Fox|date=2012-01-13|access-date=2020-03-03}}</ref>

In a 1921 speech opposing the pending [[Anglo-Irish Treaty]], Carson attacked the "Tory intrigues" that had led him on the course that would partition Ireland, an outcome he opposed almost as strongly as Home Rule itself. In the course of the speech, Carson said: {{blockquote|What a fool I was! I was only a puppet, and so was Ulster, and so was Ireland, in the political game that was to get the Conservative Party into Power.<ref name="Stewart">{{cite book | last = Stewart | first = A. T. Q. | title = Edward Carson | publisher = Gill and Macmillan Ltd | year = 1981 | page = 125 | isbn =  0-7171-1075-3}}</ref><ref name="Murphy">{{cite book | last = Murphy | first = Brian P | title = The Catholic Bulletin and Republican Ireland | publisher = Athol Books | year = 2005 | page = 222 | isbn = 0-85034-108-6}}</ref>}} Later in the speech, Carson said:

{{blockquote|But I say to my Ulster friends, and I say it with all sincerity and solemnity: Do not be led into any such false line. Stick to your old ideals of closer and closer connection with this country. The Coalition Government, after all, is not the British nation, and the British nation will certainly see you righted. Your interests lie with Great Britain. You have helped her, and you have helped her Empire, and her Empire belongs just as much to you as it does to England. Stick to it, and trust the British people.<ref>[https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/lords/1921/dec/14/address-in-reply-to-his-majestys-most Address in Reply to His Majesty's Most Gracious Speech], HL Deb 14 December 1921 vol 48 cc5–56.</ref>}}

Although considering himself proudly British, Carson also considered himself a proud Irishman stating "I am very proud as an Irishman to be a member of the British Empire".<ref>{{cite web|url=https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/lords/1929/dec/03/irish-free-state-appeals-to-the-privy|date=3 December 1929|title=IRISH FREE STATE: APPEALS TO THE PRIVY COUNCIL. (Hansard, 3 December 1929)|website=[[Hansard|Parliamentary Debates (Hansard)]]}}</ref>