Imperial Politics, the Dominions, and the Irish Question, 1907–21

Abstract It has long been recognized that the “Irish Question” was also an imperial question. The vast Irish diaspora in the settler colonies ensured that Home Rule had enormous consequences for the wider empire. But scholars have yet fully to appreciate the part that political elites in the self-governing Dominions played in this story. This article explores the role of colonial statesmen in Anglo-Irish affairs. Figures like Australia’s Billy Hughes or South Africa’s Jan Smuts were able to navigate the emotional complexities of Irish nationalist politics in a manner that transcended British party politics. In the process, they framed “colonial” Home Rule as a compromise between British rule and independence. This article shows how Irish nationalist politics became enmeshed with imperial politics in a manner that blurred the line between the local, national, imperial, and global.