Dividing Ireland: World War I and Partition

THE IRISH CONVENTION AND CONSCRIPTION 203
the question of such control had been considered and a decision
arrived at by the Imperial Parliament, this decision to be taken not
more than seven years after the conclusion of peace. The first part
of the resolution was put to a vote and carried by thirty-eight
votes to thirty-four, thereby proving acceptable to the majority of
Nationalists. 22
This Nationalist majority, which included MPs Stephen Gwynn,
J.J.Clancy, John Fitzgibbon and John O’Dowd, reached agreement
with the Southern Unionists on this question because they held it
to be of paramount importance that an Irish parliament should be
immediately established. They were largely moved by the belief
that the establishment of an Irish government would be an
effective instrument in obtaining for Ireland, by general Nationalist
and Unionist consent, whatever further powers her material
interests would require. These Nationalists decided that the
proposal to pay into the Irish Exchequer the full proceeds of Irish
taxation, subject only to an agreed imperial contribution, would
give an Irish government the means for internal development, and
prevent the economic ruin they feared was certain to result from
Ireland being liable to the full weight of British taxation and joint
responsibility for the British war debt. But, since the decision upon
Ireland’s claim to full fiscal autonomy was considered to be
postponed only, they put on record their conviction that, according
to all precedents in the Empire, an Irish parliament was entitled to
become the sole taxing authority for Ireland, until and unless, in
the general interest, it saw fit to part with some portion of her
financial independence. They held, however, that in the common
interest of both countries, there should be a free trade agreement
between Great Britain and Ireland. 23 A minority of the Nationalist
delegates, which included MPs Joseph Devlin, Thomas Lundon, and
T.J.Harbison; the Roman Catholic Bishops of Cashel, Raphoe and
Down and Connor; and the proprietor of the Irish Independent,
W.M.Murphy, differed from the Nationalist majority on the issue of
fiscal autonomy. They agreed to the suspension until the end of
the war of the Irish Parliament’s power to collect customs and
excise revenue but demanded that it be conceded immediately
thereafter. 24
The Southern Unionists, in agreeing to these terms, stated that
although their unaltered conviction was that the Union provided
the best system of government for Ireland, they had entered the
convention on the basis of consideration for Allied and imperial
interests, and therefore were committed to devising a constitution
which would meet the aspirations of Irish self-government within
the Empire. They believed that an Irish parliament could only be