Revision:Gladstone made a genuine attempt to remedy Irish grievances

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Evidence for

He had good reasons for wanting to make a genuine attempt

1. He believed that God had presented Ireland as a divine challenge to be met; he recognized there was a moral imperative to do something about some of its problems.
2. He believed passionately in the Union; he saw that if it was to be preserved, one had to convince the Irish that Westminster was capable of ruling in its interests.
3. He knew that his criticism of Austrian behaviour in Italy (which he abhorred) carried no weight unless he himself was seen to be doing something about Ireland’s problems.
4. He feared that the continuation of Ireland’s problems would end-up costing the British Exchequer a lot of money. Since he was passionate about retrenchment, he had to be passionate about ending Ireland’s problems.

Evidence against

1. Most of the legislation did little to solve Irish problems”; the Land Act was next to useless (where did the Ulster custom apply? The rent review panels were no good…), the university never happened and the Disestablishment made little difference to people’s day-to-day lives.
2. Ireland’s problems were things like a chronic shortage of cultivatable land, a lack of industrialization etc. Gladstone’s reforms scarcely touched these things.
3. He never bothered to visit Ireland
4. He only got involved in Ireland because he saw it as a way of healing Liberal Party rifts in the aftermath of the Adullamite rebellion in 1866.
5. Most of his other reasons for getting involved had precious little to do with Ireland eg. Italy, cost to the Exchequer etc. There’s little proof that he had genuine sympathy with the Irish.
6. Gladstone was not immune from coercion; he launched such a policy to quell Fenian activity, alongside of his pacification” strategy, in the late 60s

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