TheUlstecronflict part 2 DAVE MANSELL The first part of this article (see INTERROGATIONS 10) broke off in 1893 at the point where Gladstone's second attempt to bring in a Home Rule act had been defeated by Conservative-unionist majority in the British parliament's second chamber, the House of Lords. Gladstone was returned to power in August 1892 once more dependent on the votes of the Irish nationalist M.P.s for his House of Commons majority, and thus under an obligation to try to introduce Home Rule legislation. But even befare the election campaign proper the mere prospect of Gladstone returning to power pledged to introduce Home Rule had galvanised lrish unionists, with the enthusiastic support of British unionists, into re-organizing themselves to resist any Home Rule proposals. THE ULSTER CONVENTION The first fruit of this re-organization was the promotion of a spectacle - an Ulster Convention - by the Ulster Loyal anti-Repeal Union, a front for Belfast's Conservative new industrialists and entrepreneurs. The idea of such a Convention had already been put forward at the time of the :first Home Rule crisis in 1886, but not put into practice. As a further period of office for Gladstone became a distinct probability during early 1892 the idea was revived by Joseph Chamberlain (the Liberalunionist leader whose defection along with his supporters from the Liberal side had scuppered the 1886 Home Rule bill) and taken up by the ULa-RU in March 1892. In April an organizing committee, with Liberals and Conservatives equally represented, was set up. It appealed for political unity in Ulster, and called on unionists in the South to 34
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