Ireland’s parliamentary response

This chapter recounts the responses of Ireland’s MPs and peers in the British Houses of Parliament between 1853 and 1856; a period when there was no nationalist party that opposed the war. It will be shown that during the conflict Irish MPs and peers were largely indistinguishable from their British colleagues and counterparts. This chapter will show that the holders of Irish seats were largely absent from the ranks of the Conservative rebels and they did not participate in the goading and divisive tactics of Benjamin Disraeli, but also that Irish Liberals were absent from the anti-war and often anti-ministerial section of the Liberal benches. Irish members also responded to a number of distinctly Irish issues, and although they never moulded imperial issues into Irish ones, they did use the perceived valour and actual participation of Irish soldiers and sailors in the war to defend other distinctly Irish interests. It will be seen that the war represents a distinct period in Ireland’s parliamentary relationship with the British Empire, during which Irish members supported its defence and its interests in what they saw as a just and necessary war.