The Tories and Ireland

This book marks the first comprehensive study of the British Conservative party during the struggle over Home Rule between 1912 and 1914. A struggle in which the Tories, rather than see Ireland achieve self-governing status along similar lines to Canada, Australia and South Africa, eschewed constitutional precedents, destabilised the British state, encouraged civil disobedience and fomented Ireland s drift into civil war. The purpose of this work is to explain how and why these extraordinary actions occurred.