Government of Ireland Bill 1886

First Home Rule Bill
Name and origin
Official name of legislationGovernment of Ireland Bill 1886
LocationIreland
Year1886
Government introducedGladstone (Liberal)
Parliamentary passage
House of Commons passed?No
House of Lords passed?Not applicable
Royal Assent?Not Applicable
Defeated
Which HouseHouse of Commons
Which stage2nd stage
Final voteAye: 311; No 341
Date8 June 1886
Details of legislation
Legislature typeunicameral
Unicameral subdivision2 Orders
Name(s)not given
Size(s)1st Order – 100 (25 peers, 75 elected)
2nd Order 204–206 members
MPs in Westminsternone
Executive headLord Lieutenant
Executive bodynone
Prime Minister in textnone
Responsible executiveno
Enactment
Act implementednot applicable
Succeeded byIrish Government Bill 1893
This map, named "Modern St. George and The Dragon", satirizes the Irish Home Rule crisis of 1886 and appeared two years later in the Conservative St Stephen's Review. Lord Salisbury as St George spears the dragon Gladstone.

The Government of Ireland Bill 1886,[1] commonly known as the First Home Rule Bill, was the first major attempt made by a British government to enact a law creating home rule for part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. It was introduced on 8 April 1886 by Liberal Prime Minister William Gladstone to create a devolved assembly for Ireland which would govern Ireland in specified areas. The Irish Parliamentary Party had been campaigning for home rule for Ireland since the 1860s.

The bill, like his Irish Land Act 1870, was very much the work of Gladstone, who excluded both the Irish MPs and his own ministers from participation in the drafting. Following the Purchase of Land (Ireland) Act 1885 it was to be introduced alongside a new Land Purchase Bill to reform tenant rights, but the latter was abandoned.[2]: 69 

  1. ^ Hansard 1803-2005 - GOVERNMENT OF IRELAND BILL, April 1886
  2. ^ Alvin Jackson, Home Rule: An Irish History 1800—2000