Irish Labour and the Home Rule question, 1881-1914

Abstract

The Home Rule question has been neglected in labour historiography, which has focused instead on the wider issue of socialism and nationalism, James Connolly’s writings, and the difficulties of Labour in Unionist Belfast. Most academic historians have regarded nationalism as a barrier to the evolution of Labour politics and seen the Irish Parliamentary Party as socially conservative. It will be argued here that Labour’s disengagement from Home Rule politics was due to mental colonization, that Labour-nationalism would have been a productive option, and that the third Home Rule was positive for Labour, outside Belfast. It will also be argued that the problems of Labour in Belfast were created by Unionism rather than nationalism or sectarianism.