Gladstone and Ireland - Politics, Religion and Nationality in the Victorian Age

On 8 June 1886 William Gladstone urged a crowded House of Commons to think ‘not for the moment, but for the years that are to come’ and vote for a Bill conferring domestic self-government on Ireland. This dramatic scene has only a handful of parallels in British history and marked the culmination of Gladstone’s engagement with the ‘Irish Question’. This question had many aspects- political, economic, social, religious, intellectual and constitutional - raising moral issues and provoking a debate on the character and composition of the British nation.This book explores Gladstone’s personal and professional journey towards reconciling Irish nationalism with the British state, assessing its impact on his reputation as a statesman, on the Liberal Party and its opponents, and on the people of Ireland, one quarter of whom bitterly opposed Home Rule under a Roman Catholic dominated regime in Dublin.