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Article: "We are alienating the splendid Irish race": British Catholic response to the Irish conscription controversy of 1918.
- Article from:
- Journal of Church and State
- Article date:
- June 22, 2006
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2006 J.M. Dawson Studies in Church and State. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Ireland was something of a paradox during the First World War. She was the "one bright spot," from the British point of view, at the time of the July-August crisis in August 1914 because the threat of civil war in Ireland was greatly diminished when the Great War commenced. Furthermore, just when Britain accepted the inevitability of, and offered to grant her, Home Rule at the height of the conscription controversy in 1918 the Irish rejected the offer. Unlike the rest of the United Kingdom, which accented conscription as a necessity in January 1916, Ireland refused to have conscription imposed on her, even in 1918, when Britain faced its greatest peril. Led by their ...