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Course Proposal: Home Rule in Ireland and Britain, 1800-2000
Professor Alvin Jackson
Second Semester, 2004-5
1. Course Outline
The devolution of political power from Westminster has been a key theme
in British and Irish politics throughout the 19th and 20th centuries: it
has a particular contemporary resonance, given the creation of assemblies
in Northern Ireland and Wales and a parliament in Scotland by Tony
Blair’s Labour government. This module considers different Irish and
British efforts to create devolved political institutions while retaining the
political sovereignty of Westminster. It considers the variants of Home
Rule in Ireland and Scotland, as well as successive British attempts to
redefine and revitalise the Union through federal and other devolved
political structures.
2. Aims
This module has a variety of purposes. It is hoped that it will introduce
you to an important theme in modern British history, which links the
experience of Ireland, Scotland, Wales and England. The module is also
designed to serve as a means of developing and complementing the British
and Irish history which some of you may have encountered in your first
two years at Edinburgh.
3. Learning Outcomes
Students should be able to demonstrate, through the examination and
assessed essay, an understanding of the key issues raised by the module.
Students should have a grasp of the key historiographical debates
associated with the development of this theme. They should be able to
write informed analyses of the historical problems associated with the
main theme of the module.
4. Assessment
This module is assessed by both examination and assessed essay. Two
thirds of the credit for the module is available through the examination,
and one third through the essay.
The examination will be [--] hours in length and will require you to answer
[-] questions out of a choice of around [--]. The assessed essay is due by the
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end of the [--] week of the semester. Essays submitted after this date will
be penalised. Essay titles will normally be made available to you by the [-] week of the semester. The essay will be marked by internal examiners
and made available to the external examiner. It will not be returned to
you. It should be around 2000 words in length, and be either typed or in a
legible hand.
5. Teaching Arrangements
This module is taught through seminar classes. These will last for around
90 minutes to two hours, and be held once a week. Each class will meet in
Alvin Jackson’s room at a time to be decided at the beginning of the
semester.
6. Suggested Class Arrangements
Please note that these arrangements are provisional, and are subject to
change.
Week No.
Theme
One
Business Class: Arranging times & hand-outs
Two
Federalists and Repealers in early 19th Century Ireland
Three
Gladstone’s Vision of Home Rule for Ireland
Four
Parnellite Home Rule
Five
Home Rule in late Victorian Scotland
Six
Unionism in Ireland and Scotland, 1880-1920
Seven
Federalist Thought in Britain, 1910-20
Eight
Why did the Home Rule movement in Ireland fail?
Nine
Why did the devolved government at Stormont fail?
Ten
Home Rule in Twentieth Century Scotland
Eleven
(1998)
The Historical Antecedents of the Belfast Agreement
Twelve
Devolution in Scotland, Wales - and England.
7. Suggested Text Books and General Reading.
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You will find it useful to acquire a textbook on this theme or (more widely)
on modern Irish or Scots political history. For Ireland there are a number
of these in print, including Alvin Jackson, Home Rule: An Irish History,
1800-2000 (Phoenix Paperbacks: London, 2003) and Alvin Jackson,
Ireland 1798-1998: Politics & War (Blackwell: Oxford, 1999). Not
everyone agrees with my interpretations of different issues and episodes,
so you should use these for orientation or as a starting point, and
certainly not as the last word. Other books are also worth highlighting.
These include Vernon Bogdanor, Devolution in the United Kingdom
updated edition (Oxford, 2001), D.G. Boyce, Nationalism in Ireland third
edition (London, 1995) and John Kendle, Ireland and the Federal Solution:
The Debate over the United Kingdom Constitution, 1870-1921 (Kingston
& Montreal, 1989). Alan Ward’s The Irish Constitutional Tradition:
Responsible Government and Modern Ireland, 1782-1992 (Dublin, 1993) is
also a valuable text, laying out (as it does) the content of key
constitutional reforms and the details of relevant debates.
The two
classic modern introductions to Scots history are T.M. Devine, The
Scottish Nation, 1700-2000 (London, 2000) and Michael Lynch, Scotland:
A New History (London, 1992), while I.G.C Hutchinson, A Political
History of Modern Scotland, 1832-1924 (Edinburgh, 1986) is also relevant
and important. See also R.J. Finlay, A Partnership for Good? Scottish
Politics and the Union since 1880 (Edinburgh, 1997), Christopher Harvie,
Scotland and Nationalism: Scottish Society and Politics, 1707-1994 second
edition (London, 1994), Catriona MacDonald (ed), Unionist Scotland,
1800-1997 (Edinburgh, 1998), James Mitchell, Conservatives and the
Union (Edinburgh, 1990) and James Mitchell, Strategies for SelfGovernment: The Campaigns for a Scottish Parliament (Edinburgh,
1996).