Sir, – Prof Geoffrey Roberts of University College Cork asserts (January 19th) that the Home Rule Act of 1914 meant there would have been an independent Ireland after the first World War. Section 2 of the Act sets out matters in respect of which the planned Irish parliament could not make laws. These include treaties with foreign states, trade, aid for exports, quarantine, postal services with other countries, beacons, legal tender, trademarks, land purchase and old age pensions. For good measure, schedule 2 of the Act lists stamp duties that could not be altered by the parliament. Some independence!
What would have resulted would have been a southern version of Stormont (old style).
The fact of the matter is that, while the Act made it on to the statute book in 1914, it was a dead letter, particularly after the British coalition government was formed in 1915 – a government which included for a while that defender of the rule of law, Edward Carson.
The Home Rule Act 1914 made no provision for a separate parliament for Northern Ireland.
Is the professor suggesting such an Act would ever have been implemented without significant changes? – Yours, etc,
BRENDAN CALLAGHAN,
Clontarf,
Dublin 3.