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23-475: The Irish Statesman was a weekly journal promoting the views of the Irish Dominion League . It ran from 27 June 1919 to June 1930, edited by Warre B. Wells , assisted by James Winder Good , and with contributions from W. B. Yeats , George Bernard Shaw , and George Russell ('AE') . The League's manifesto was first published in the journal's first issue. The title was revived in 1922, after

46-664: A "General Meeting of the members and friends of the Irish Society for Women's Suffrage" in Blackrock, County Dublin . On 26 October 1875, Spring Rice married Elizabeth Butcher (d. 27 April 1908), the oldest daughter of the Most Rev. Rt. Hon. Samuel Butcher , Bishop of Meath , in County Meath . Together they had three children, who were brought up to speak fluent Irish. His eldest son predeceased him, therefore he

69-719: A compromise in the face of the escalating conflict between the Irish Republican Army and the British. It operated between 1919 and 1921. The League was launched in June 1919 by Sir Horace Plunkett , with a 12-point manifesto signed by Plunkett and 43 others, including many who had participated in the Irish Convention of 1917–18 and several Anglo-Irish members of the House of Lords . Plunkett had founded

92-491: A federal union through devolution, and Liberal peers supporting the government's own bill, Monteagle's bill was defeated at second reading on 1 July 1920, by 28 votes for to 41 votes against. He caused indignation in the unionist community in Ireland when, in a February 1920 letter to The Times , he called for an end to the deportation and internment without trial of recently elected Sinn Féin politicians. Lord Monteagle

115-455: A leading figure among moderate Southern Unionists. As a resident of Ireland he witnessed the deterioration of the political situation during the 1890s. He gradually became of the opinion that unionists had to recognise that in order to protect the Union, a compromising and workable agreement would need to be reached with Irish nationalists. In 1911, he was a founding member, and later president, of

138-409: A moderate who still believed in the principle of Union but recognised that it was not working for the majority of Irishmen. He was anxious that Ireland should not be divided and in 1919 he left the fractured Unionist Alliance to join the Irish Dominion League . The League was under the leadership of his close friend and cooperative colleague, Sir Horace Plunkett . He subsequently became chairman of

161-481: A reviewer, for libel. They claimed that the defendants published an article on the 19th of November 1927, in the course of which it was stated that in the collection, which consisted of seventy-five airs, there was no note stating the source of airs or words. They also claimed that there were allegations of slovenliness and ignorance on the part of the authors and that they had taken up a disproportionate amount of space broadcasting their own merits and platform successes in

184-679: The Government of Ireland Act 1920 . The League was dissolved in November 1921 following the establishment of the Irish Free State . In 1922 Warre B. Wells wrote, "The Irish Dominion League did not attract a great deal of active support in Ireland, but it was hardly expected to do so inasmuch as it was chiefly a propagandist organisation". Within Ireland, the moderate position of the League failed to convince sufficient members of either

207-526: The Proportional Representation Society of Ireland , believing that proportional representation would help to prevent conflict between unionists and nationalists in a self-governing Ireland. In 1917, he helped to arrange the Irish Convention , using his personal connections to ensure that the interests of Sinn Féin were represented after the party leadership refused to attend. The same year, he publicly identified himself as

230-683: The House of Lords. He was initially a member of the Liberal Party , and in 1885 wrote a pamphlet entitled Liberal Policy in Ireland . The following year he became a Liberal Unionist out of a fear that Gladstone's 1886 Home Rule bill would lead to full independence for Ireland, and the dissolution of the United Kingdom. As a consequence, Lord Monteagle sat with the peers of the Irish Unionist Alliance and he became

253-709: The Irish Reconstruction Association at the time of the November 1918 election , after the failure of the Irish Convention. The new League merged the Irish Reconstruction Association with the Irish Centre Party , founded months earlier by Stephen Gwynn , formerly of the pro- home rule Irish Parliamentary Party . The Unionist Anti-Partition League of St John Brodrick, 1st Earl of Midleton discussed joining but decided

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276-599: The League was defunct, and it was merged with the Irish Homestead . George Russell was appointed editor, and he was supplied with good staff and contributors. A major contributor was Russell's friend and confidante, Susan L. Mitchell , who died in 1926. In 1927 Maighréad Ní Annagáin and her husband, Seamus Clandillon , authors of a song collection called Londubh an Chairn , sued the Irish Statesman Publishing Company Ltd. and

299-473: The League, Thomas Spring Rice, 2nd Baron Monteagle of Brandon , introduced a Dominion of Ireland Bill in the House of Lords in 1920 in line with the League's views. The debate surrounding the proposed bill helped to raise the prominence of the League, although it failed to gain support in the British parliament. Monteagle's bill was defeated at second reading on 1 July 1920 and the government of David Lloyd George proceeded instead with its own bill, which became

322-551: The London branch of the League, and attempted to encourage David Lloyd George 's government to grant dominion status to a united Ireland in line with the League's views. In June 1920 he arranged meetings between representatives of the British government and the nationalist George Gavan Duffy . A month later he proposed the Dominion of Ireland Bill in the House of Lords, at the same time as the government's Government of Ireland Bill

345-597: The following issues of the magazine. They sought £2,000. The Irish Statesman lost the case. This ultimately led to its ceasing publishing due to financial difficulties in 1930. On the demise of the Irish Statesman , the Irish Times wrote: "Russell, and the Statesman, was often accused by the more bigoted and ultramontane sections of the population of being pagan and anti-Irish, but what they really meant

368-509: The platform was too nationalist. The founders also approached John Dillon but were rebuffed. Many of the League's senior members were drawn from the Irish Agricultural Organisation Society . The manifesto was based on an earlier "Proposals for an Irish Settlement" drafted anonymously by Diarmuid Coffey and Frank Cruise O'Brien (father of Conor Cruise O'Brien ). The chairman of the London committee of

391-571: The unionist or nationalist communities to support its position. At Westminster, the League's small group of supporters were caught between the more numerous Liberals , who believed that the partition of Ireland should take place, and the Conservatives , who argued against any home rule for Ireland. The Irish Statesman , a weekly journal promoting the views of the Irish Dominion League, ran from 27 June 1919 to June 1920. It

414-712: Was appointed a Knight of the Order of St Patrick on 9 February 1885; his armorial banner hangs in St Patrick's Hall, Dublin Castle alongside those of other knights. He served as the Deputy Lieutenant for the County of Limerick. He was a founder of the Irish Agricultural Organisation Society alongside Plunkett, succeeding him as president of the society, and was a proponent of agricultural cooperative economics. He

437-529: Was being debated in the British parliament. His bill would have granted extensive home rule to a united Ireland, with responsibility over all domestic matters as a dominion within the empire. Monteagle argued that the foreign affairs and defence of Ireland should, however, remain the responsibility of the Westminster government. Opposed by both the Conservative Earl of Dunraven , who argued for

460-471: Was edited by Warre B. Wells , with contributions from W. B. Yeats , George Bernard Shaw , and George William Russell . The League's manifesto was first published in the journal's first issue. The title was revived in 1923, after the League was defunct, with the new series running till 1930. Thomas Spring Rice, 2nd Baron Monteagle of Brandon Thomas Spring Rice was the eldest son of Hon. Stephen Spring Rice (1814–1865) and his wife, Ellen Frere. He

483-655: Was educated at Harrow School and Trinity College, Cambridge . He became 2nd Baron Monteagle of Brandon in 1866 on the death of his grandfather, the former Chancellor of the Exchequer Thomas Spring Rice, 1st Baron Monteagle of Brandon , as his father predeceased him in 1865. Spring Rice became an active member of the House of Lords and spent much of his time at Mount Trenchard House in County Limerick, from where he managed his estates. He also owned property in London. In 1872 he attended

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506-483: Was succeeded in his peerage by his youngest son. After his son died without an heir in 1934, his peerage passed onto Thomas' brother, Francis Spring Rice (1852–1937). Their sister was the poet, Lucy Knox . Lord Monteagle was a cousin of Sir Cecil Spring Rice , British Ambassador to the United States from 1912 to 1918. Like his grandfather, Lord Monteagle was a moderate unionist when he assumed his seat in

529-668: Was that he stood for intellectual liberty at a time when almost everyone else was clamouring for some restrictions everywhere." Irish Dominion League The Irish Dominion League was an Irish political party and movement in Britain and Ireland which advocated Dominion status for Ireland within the British Empire , and opposed partition of Ireland into separate southern and northern jurisdictions. It attracted modest support from middle-class Dubliners of moderate unionist and nationalist backgrounds, anxious to achieve

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