1914: What will the British do? The Irish Home Rule Crisis in the July Crisis

Abstract

The Irish Home Rule crisis has never been fully explored as a factor in the chain of events leading to the outbreak of the First World War. Yet, as archives reveal, Germany and Austria-Hungary believed that the Irish question could or would paralyse British foreign policy. Contacts between the Central Powers and advanced Irish nationalists had taken place several years before the onset of the hostilities. France and Russia had doubts whether their British ally could be relied upon. During the final phase of the July Crisis, events in Ireland seemed to indicate that the British government would not be able to intervene in a possible war on the continent.