Sir, – Barra Ó Seaghdha (August 28th) has a point when he says that Home Rule, as passed 100 years ago, was a "scheme of provincial autonomy" within the United Kingdom. As viewed by its opponents at the time, however, it was of much more significance.
Nearly half a million unionists signed a covenant to “use all means necessary” to stop it being implemented. Unionists threatened to set up a “provisional” government in Belfast if a parliament was set up in Dublin with even very limited powers of administration for the whole island.
Andrew Bonar Law, leader of the Conservative opposition, and some of his parliamentary colleagues went so far as committing treason by expressly backing threats of civil war against home rule.
Whether it was, as Redmond described it, a “final settlement”, its opponents did not see it as such.
Whatever its historical significance, the reality is that whether the passage of the Home Rule Act should be denigrated, remembered, analysed, commemorated or celebrated at the present time is very much down to present political viewpoints. – Yours, etc,
ANTHONY LEAVY,
Shielmartin Drive,
Sutton, Dublin 13.