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POLITICS IN REVOLUTIONARY IRELAND.
In the heady days following the Irish Revolution, the populace was united in a way that it hadn't been in quite some time. With a whopping ninety-one percent of Irishmen (and Irishwomen, the Irish constitution being one of the first in the world guaranteeing women's suffrage) in support of the Republic, there was an incredible amount of goodwill as the public proceeded to elect their first Teachtai Dala. Though the government in Paris, and even the government in London, only really classed Irishmen as either "loyal" or "disloyal," there were several political groupings that would have their say.
UNIONISTS
The Faction Anglois
Economic Policy: Conservative
Social Policy: Reactionary
While very small compared to England and France, Ireland had its own population of Anglois as well, particularly in Dublin and Belfast. Usually descendants of colonial administrators imported from London or Paris, they were ultraroyalist, conservative and versed in paramilitary traditions just like their counterparts across the Irish Sea. Unlike in England, however, the Anglois culture never took hold outside the major cities, and even there never reached a majority. As Ireland was never seen as a major culture of the Dual Monarchy, unlike the Occitans, French, Welsh and English, not only was there greater resentment to an Anglois elite that acted more like colonial masters than fellow countrymen but Paris put less effort into building unity around the Anglois culture and the monarchy - especially since the French they spoke did not have the same cachet in Ireland as it did in England. The Irish Anglois were, if anything, just as ferociously loyal to the King of England and France than their British counterparts, but as they were severely outnumbered instead of making up nearly half the population, they only served in support roles to the Royal Army during the War of Independence and were mostly dispatched with ease. During and after the war, much of the Anglois population fled Ireland, fearing retribution (a fear that was occasionally justified.) Those that remained did not give up their ideology or loyalty to the King, but while they were not explicitly censored they conceded that the political environment was exceedingly hostile and would only get worse as the exodus continued. The Irish Faction Anglois, ironically, now takes the same position that former Irish Confederalists did post-'73: total non-participation in politics. They run candidates, but they will not take their seats if elected.
The Reconstructed Irish Independent Party
Economic Policy: Conservative
Social Policy: Conservative
In Irish republican circles, the name of the Irish Independent Party was associated with traitors and sellouts for years before the War of Independence, but despite the overwhelming allegiance of independence-minded Irishmen to the Confederalists, the IIP persisted even after it was outlawed in the aftermath of the First Republic. It was deeply divided on the republican question, and did not arrive at a definitive answer before the revolution came. The RIIP is made up of those who believed in Home Rule but firmly disavowed extraparliamentary steps towards independence, at least on paper. In practice, despite their name they never favored true independence at all, preferring an Irish Parliament with equal status to London and Paris within the Dual Monarchy. Not only was this unpopular, but the War of Independence tore its liberal wing, who eventually came around to the republic, from its conservative wing, which still was fundamentally loyal to Henri XI and dreamed of Home Rule right up until the peace treaty with the Anglois was signed. The RIIP is the latter. Their official position is that Ireland should have the King of England and France take the title of King of Ireland and preside over an otherwise independent kingdom. They are not popular, only really supported by what remains of the ethnically Irish DM elite of the elite and essentially no one else.
MODERATE REPUBLICANS / "REPUBLICANS OF THE DAY AFTER"
The New Irish Independent Party
Economic Policy: Centrist
Social Policy: Conservative
A majority of the IIP, members of the NIIP like to point out, actually did support the Revolution, if quietly and unenthusiastically. The IIP, while it quietly and reluctantly did support the First Republic, was mainly a coalition of co-opted ethnically Irish elites and middle class, milquetoast liberals that had no strong feelings about republicanism per se but did chafe at Ireland's unequal position within the Dual Monarchy. The latter is the core of the New Irish Independent Party. The NIIP broke from the IIP midway through the Revolution, openly siding with the Confederalist parties. They by and large did not support the First Republic, but eventually rallied to the Second as it became clear which way the wind was blowing. Post-independence, with their space as a middle ground between unionism and independence as a moot point, they reformed around economic issues to modest success. They are against some of the more radical provisions of the Irish constitution, including the right to labor and women's suffrage, and are basically a voice for continuity with pre-revolutionary governance, even if they accept the republic.
Liberal Party of Ireland
Economic Policy: Center-left
Social Policy: Center-left
Not all of Ireland voted for nationalists during the days of Anglois rule, and the Liberal Party of Ireland is effectively the Irish descendant of the royalist Independent Liberal Party. Of all the legal post-’73 political parties, the Independent Liberals were widely considered the most sympathetic to the Irish cause. The Unionists did not want English autonomy, let alone Irish autonomy, the Faction Anglois was of course right out, and the English Labor Party was indeed particularly English in character, focusing on English workers, English unions and English separatism. The Independent Liberals thus became the effective voice of Ireland in the DM government, though this was far down the list of priorities even for them. In ‘86, when the revolution came, England’s Independent Liberals joined the cause of the English National Army, and the Irish liberals followed suit, forming the Liberal Party of Ireland even before the completion of the Irish constitution. They are to the left of the IIP politically and economically, and when the left became truly intertwined with the republic, they embraced the republic as well.
RADICAL REPUBLICANS / “REPUBLICANS OF THE DAY BEFORE”
The Irish Confederates
Economic Position: Center-left to left-wing
Social Position: Left-wing
The largest single political grouping in republican Ireland, and indeed in royalist Ireland since the early 1870s, the Irish Confederates are a big-tent nationalist organization that are in no small part responsible for the birth of the Irish Republic, both the Summer Republic and the Second Republic. Being such a large group, it is difficult to pinpoint one single ideology that they subscribe to, other than being uniformly and ideologically republican. It includes unions, suffragists, farmers, the petit bourgeois and more, and so is a fractious grouping at the best of times. Already, it has seen a splinter group in the ISRP, formed when the more radical members of the Irish Workingman’s Association split off from the main body over ideological disputes. They are certain to win the first elections to the Dail, given how much of the Irish political spectrum is behind them, but it is an open question how long the deeply divided liberals and socialists can work together without tearing each other apart.
The Republican Socialist Party of Ireland
Economic Position: Left-wing
Social Position: Left-wing
Inspired by the Communards in France and various other socialist ideologies, particularly anarcho-syndicalism, the RSPI under Henri Connolly is the first group to explicitly break from the Irish Confederates amongst the radical republicans. While most Confederates were, at minimum, sympathetic to socialism, the RSPI would go a step further. The Irish constitution was already extremely radical for its time, enshrining progressive taxation, women’s suffrage, a right to employment and public education, but the RSPI wishes to go further still, fully collectivizing industry and handing it over to the unions. While not yet dominant, they are increasing in strength, inspired by the Communards and the syndicalist communes of the First Republic to set up their own communes across Ireland, where people live and work communally farming or running small factories. While they seperated from the Confederates, they are not opposed to working with them, and would likely support them against other factions.
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((none of this is canon unless Plank says it is, but I was bored so there))
Antonio, they aren’t a votable faction anymore. They were absorbed into the Lemarque government after getting their forces overwhelmed. The valid factions are in the page before this one.
The 12th of March speech from H.L. Bennet in the English Parliament.
"First of all, I must do what many in this parliament wish to do, and that is to congratulate the Irish. For Ireland has done what many of us here dream of, take back control of their own destiny.
But that is not the reason why I stand here today. I wish to address a more pressing issue. I sit here as a representative of the North East Somerset constituency. As many of you know, that lies deeply within the Anglois territories of England. And many of you here are here in the same manner as me, representatives of a constituency that has not elected them, representatives that have never visited their constituency, representatives that have never spoken with their constituents, representatives that have never represented. I wish to change that. Whilst I have not spoken to any of my constituents, I do have a strong feeling that I understand the worries of the Anglois population of our green and pleasant land.
We're afraid. We're afraid that we'll become a people without a home. We're afraid that this land, that is our home, that we have built over the centuries, will become foreign to us and that we'll become foreigners in this land. And that I why we fight, to retain our rights to this land.
And is that not why we, the English, fight? Do we not see ourselves as a people without a home? Do we not see the Anglois control as a foreign control, and thus this country as a foreign one? Are we not just like the Anglois?
We English see the Anglois as a foreign ruling class, but is that the case? For the French Anglois, yes, but those on our side of the Channel, no. Ever since 1066, when William the Conqueror conquered England, have the aristocratic classes of England and France become so intertwined, that they have become one, they are the true Anglois. But what has been their effect on the people they rule over? Here, in Northern England, in Wales, in Ireland, in Brittany, in the French hinterlands and in Occitania, it has been negligible. The control from Paris over those lands has been to small to have any effect on the peoples. But in the heartland of the Dual Monarchy, the regions around Paris, London and the Channel, that hybridized culture created by the merging of the English and French aristocracy has spread into every part of the population.
Have England and France known massive migrations between them ever since 1066? No! That means that the Anglois of Southern England are just as English as we are!
I think this conflict that we are having is a unnecessary one. It pits brother against brother, it pits Englishmen against Englishmen and it pits England against France, wholly unnecessary things. Whilst I'm completely opposed to the union, the split up doesn't need to end in bad relations between the nations that will come out of the wreckage. If we wish to work towards an independent England, we must recognize that both English English and Anglois English have just as much rights to the land as the other! If we wish to overcome the challenges that face England in the following decades, we must do it together, as Englishmen. England for the English, and this means together with the Anglois, for the Anglois are English too.
Til we have built Jerusalem, in England's green and pleasant land."
"First of all, I must do what many in this parliament wish to do, and that is to congratulate the Irish. For Ireland has done what many of us here dream of, take back control of their own destiny.
But that is not the reason why I stand here today. I wish to address a more pressing issue. I sit here as a representative of the North East Somerset constituency. As many of you know, that lies deeply within the Anglois territories of England. And many of you here are here in the same manner as me, representatives of a constituency that has not elected them, representatives that have never visited their constituency, representatives that have never spoken with their constituents, representatives that have never represented. I wish to change that. Whilst I have not spoken to any of my constituents, I do have a strong feeling that I understand the worries of the Anglois population of our green and pleasant land.
We're afraid. We're afraid that we'll become a people without a home. We're afraid that this land, that is our home, that we have built over the centuries, will become foreign to us and that we'll become foreigners in this land. And that I why we fight, to retain our rights to this land.
And is that not why we, the English, fight? Do we not see ourselves as a people without a home? Do we not see the Anglois control as a foreign control, and thus this country as a foreign one? Are we not just like the Anglois?
We English see the Anglois as a foreign ruling class, but is that the case? For the French Anglois, yes, but those on our side of the Channel, no. Ever since 1066, when William the Conqueror conquered England, have the aristocratic classes of England and France become so intertwined, that they have become one, they are the true Anglois. But what has been their effect on the people they rule over? Here, in Northern England, in Wales, in Ireland, in Brittany, in the French hinterlands and in Occitania, it has been negligible. The control from Paris over those lands has been to small to have any effect on the peoples. But in the heartland of the Dual Monarchy, the regions around Paris, London and the Channel, that hybridized culture created by the merging of the English and French aristocracy has spread into every part of the population.
Have England and France known massive migrations between them ever since 1066? No! That means that the Anglois of Southern England are just as English as we are!
I think this conflict that we are having is a unnecessary one. It pits brother against brother, it pits Englishmen against Englishmen and it pits England against France, wholly unnecessary things. Whilst I'm completely opposed to the union, the split up doesn't need to end in bad relations between the nations that will come out of the wreckage. If we wish to work towards an independent England, we must recognize that both English English and Anglois English have just as much rights to the land as the other! If we wish to overcome the challenges that face England in the following decades, we must do it together, as Englishmen. England for the English, and this means together with the Anglois, for the Anglois are English too.
Til we have built Jerusalem, in England's green and pleasant land."
Very interesting aar. I look forward to interacting with it.
Hope I got this right
The Lemarque Ministry and the Armee Royale de France et Angleterre
Hope I got this right
The Lemarque Ministry and the Armee Royale de France et Angleterre
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Come on Comrades! Vote for the Communards!
Aux armes, citoyens,
Formez vos bataillons,
Marchons, marchons!
Qu'un sang impur
Abreuve nos sillons!
Aux armes, citoyens,
Formez vos bataillons,
Marchons, marchons!
Qu'un sang impur
Abreuve nos sillons!