Augustine Birrell
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Augustine Birrell KC | |
 Sketch of Augustine Birrell |
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| In office 1907 – 1916 |
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| Born | January 19, 1850 Liverpool, England |
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| Died | November 20, 1933 (aged 83) London, England |
| Nationality | English |
| Political party | Liberal |
| Spouse | Margaret Mirrielees (dec.) Eleanor Tennyson |
Augustine Birrell, KC (January 19, 1850 - November 20, 1933), was an English politician, barrister and author. He was Chief Secretary for Ireland from 1907 to 1916, resigning in the immediate aftermath of the Easter Rising.
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[edit] Early life
Birrell was born in Wavertree, near Liverpool, the son of a Baptist minister. He was educated at Amersham Hall school and at Trinity Hall, Cambridge. He practiced at the bar, becoming a KC in 1893. From 1896 to 1899 he was Professor of Comparative Law at University College, London.[1][2]
His first wife, Margaret Mirrielees, died in 1879, only a year after their marriage, and in 1888 he married Eleanor Tennyson, daughter of the poet Frederick Locker-Lampson and widow of Lionel Tennyson, son of the poet Alfred, Lord Tennyson.[1][3] They had two sons, one of whom, Frankie (1889–1935) was later a journalist and critic and associated with the Bloomsbury Group. Birrell found success as a writer with the publication of a volume of essays entitled Obiter Dicta in 1884. This was followed by a second series of Obiter Dicta in 1887 and Res Judicatae in 1892. These, despite their titles, were not concerned with law, but he also wrote books on copyright and on trusts. Birrell wrote, and spoke, with a characteristic humour which became known as birrelling.[4]
[edit] Entry into politics
Birrell was elected to parliament for West Fife at a by-election in 1889, as a Liberal. He retained his seat in the general elections of 1892 and 1895, but in the general election of 1900 he stood in Manchester North East and was defeated. He was returned for Bristol North at the general election of 1906, in which the Liberals won a large majority, and was included in the cabinet of Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman as President of the Board of Education.[1][5] He introduced the Education Bill 1906, intended to address nonconformist grievances arising from the Education Act 1902. It passed the House of Commons, but the House of Lords amended it to such an extent that it was effectively a different bill. The Commons rejected the amendment and the bill was dropped.[6] This made it impossible for Birrell to continue in his post, and in January 1907 he was appointed Chief Secretary for Ireland, to replace James Bryce who had been made Ambassador to the United States.
[edit] Chief Secretary for Ireland
[edit] Council Bill, Universities Bill and Land Bill
Birrell's Under-Secretary was Sir Antony MacDonnell, who had worked successfully with a previous Chief Secretary, George Wyndham, on the Land Purchase Act 1903. MacDonnell's proposals for what was called "devolution" – the transfer of local powers to Ireland under a central authority – had encountered strong opposion from Unionists, leading eventually to Wyndham's resignation. Birrell modified MacDonnell's proposal and on 7 May 1907 introduced the Irish Council Bill. The bill was welcomed by Nationalist leaders John Redmond and John Dillon, and opposed, for different reasons, by unionists and by more radical nationalists who wanted nothing less than Home rule for Ireland. At a convention of the United Irish League, opposition was so strong that Redmond changed his position; the convention rejected the bill and the government was unable to proceed with it.[7] Birrell suffered further embarrassment when he sought to discontinue the use of the Irish Crimes Act 1887, a coercive measure introduced by Arthur Balfour to deal with agrarian crime, only to be faced with an increase in cattle-driving.[8] Another affair, in which Birrell was not directly involved but for which he had to take part of the blame, was the theft of the Irish Crown Jewels from Dublin Castle (where the Chief Secretary had his offices) in July 1907.[9]
Birrell had more success with his next two bills: his excellent relations with both Catholic and Protestant Church leaders ensured the successful passage of the Irish Universities Bill 1908, which established the National University of Ireland and Queen's University Belfast and dissolved the Royal University of Ireland; and contemporaries praised his achievement in carrying the the Irish Land Act 1909, which allowed for compulsory purchase of large areas of land for the relief of congestion, through a hostile House of Lords.[10]
[edit] Home Rule Bill
After the passing, with the support of the Irish Parliamentary Party, of the Parliament Act 1911, which restricted the power of the Lords to veto bills, Prime Minister H. H. Asquith introduced the Third Home Rule Bill on 16 April 1912. The Unionists, led in Ireland by Edward Carson and in Britain by Tory leader Andrew Bonar Law, threatened to use force to oppose the bill,[11] and Carson proposed an amendment excluding Ulster from the scope of the bill. Birrell was opposed to the exclusion of any part of the country and when David Lloyd George proposed a compromise involving the exclusion of six of the nine counties of Ulster for a period of five to six years Birrell responded by offering his resignation.[12] The proposal was rejected by both Unionists and Nationalists and Birrell stayed on. The crisis continued through 1913 and into 1914. The bill was introduced for a third time in July 1914, this time along with an amending bill allowing for the exclusion of some of the Ulster counties,[13] but with the outbreak of World War I the bill was passed without further debate, with its implementation suspended until after the war.
[edit] Easter Rising
A further threat to Birrell's administration had arisen with the formation in November 1913 of the Irish Volunteers, ostensibly to safeguard Home rule but in fact, under the influence of the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB) aiming to break the union with Britain altogether. Feelings in nationalist Ireland were further aroused by the possibility of conscription. Sir Matthew Nathan, Birrell's Under-Secretary since October 1914, told him in September 1915 that the Nationalist Party was losing ground in the country and that extreme nationalists, often referred to as Sinn Féiners, were gaining support. Nathan took measures such as suppressing newspapers and forcing Irish Volunteer organisers to leave the country. The Irish Party leaders, Redmond and Dillon, cautioned against taking direct action against the 'Sinn Féiners' and the administration kept to that policy.[14] Birrell himself felt that the danger of a bomb outrage was greater than that of an insurrection.[15] His assessment was proved wrong when the Easter Rising began on 24 April 1916.
Birrell had spent Easter in London, where Nathan had telegraphed him with news of the capture and scuttling of the arms ship the Aud and the arrest of Sir Roger Casement. He had just sent approval for the arrest of the movement's leaders on Easter Monday morning when he was told by Lord French, Commander-in-Chief of the British Home Forces, that the Rising was on.[16] He maintained contact with Nathan by telegraph and answered questions in Parliament on Tuesday and Wednesday, then travelled by destroyer to Dublin, arriving in the early hours of Thursday morning. From there he wrote to the Prime Minister, giving him his assessment of the situation.[17] In one of his letters he wrote that he 'couldn't go on'. On 1 May, the day after the Rising, Asquith accepted his resignation 'with infinite regret'.[18] The Royal Commission on the 1916 Rebellion (the Hardinge commission) was critical of Birrell and Nathan, in particular their failure to take action against the rebels in the weeks and months before the Rising.[19]
[edit] Later Life
Birrell did not defend his seat in the 1918 general election, nor did he ever return to Ireland. He returned to literature with a further volume of essays and book reviews, More Obiter Dicta (1920) and a book on his father-in-law, Frederick Locker-Lampson. He died in London on November 20, 1933, aged eighty-four. His autobiography, Things Past Redress was published posthumously.
[edit] References
- ^ a b c Augustine Birrell, in the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition
- ^ Ó Broin, Leon, The Chief Secretary: Augustine Birrell in Ireland, Chatto & Windus, 1969 pp. 3-4
- ^ Ó Broin, The Chief Secretary, p. 136
- ^ Ó Broin, The Chief Secretary, p. 206
- ^ Ó Broin, The Chief Secretary, pp. 4-5
- ^ Havighurst, Alfred F., Britain in Transition: The Twentieth Century, University of Chicago Press, 1985, pp. 89-90: see Google Books
- ^ Ó Broin, The Chief Secretary, pp. 11-15
- ^ Ó Broin, The Chief Secretary, pp. 18-19
- ^ Ó Broin, The Chief Secretary, pp. 25-26
- ^ Ó Broin, The Chief Secretary, pp. 20-24
- ^ Ó Broin, The Chief Secretary, pp. 57-58
- ^ Ó Broin, The Chief Secretary, p. 85
- ^ Ó Broin, The Chief Secretary, p. 106
- ^ Ó Broin, The Chief Secretary, p. 149
- ^ Ó Broin, The Chief Secretary, p. 166
- ^ Ó Broin, The Chief Secretary, p. 173
- ^ Ó Broin, The Chief Secretary, p. 174
- ^ Ó Broin, Leon, Dublin Castle & the 1916 Rising, Sidgwick & Jackson, 1970, p. 116
- ^ Ó Broin, Leon, Dublin Castle & the 1916 Rising, p. 161
[edit] External links
| Parliament of the United Kingdom | ||
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| Preceded by Robert Preston Bruce |
Member of Parliament for West Fife 1889–1900 |
Succeeded by John Deans Hope |
| Preceded by Sir Frederick Wills |
Member of Parliament for Bristol North 1906–1918 |
Succeeded by Edwin Stanley Gange |
| Political offices | ||
| Preceded by Marquess of Londonderry |
President of the Board of Education 1905-1907 |
Succeeded by Reginald McKenna |
| Preceded by James Bryce |
Chief Secretary for Ireland 1907–1916 |
Succeeded by Henry Edward Duke |
| Academic offices | ||
| Preceded by Earl Curzon of Kedleston |
Rector of the University of Glasgow 1911—1914 |
Succeeded by Raymond Poincaré |
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