1911 AD

1911 AD The Irish population was now at 4,381,951 with the Catholic proportion still at at 73.9 % yet Irish illiteracy was still only at 12 %, while the ability to read and write was recorded at 84 %.

      James Connolly the socialist who was the Ulster Province organizer for the Irish Transport and General Workers Union was involved in a strike of Catholic and non - Catholic seamen and he tried to get them to merge into the Irish Socialist Republican Party inspired by Lalor’s previous "Plan of Campaign" and James Larkin the great Irish Labour leader became the President of the Irish Trades Union Congress.

     The non - Catholics in Ulster now met at Craigavon, the home of James Craig there, in resistance to Irish Home Rule.

    Helena Molony was arrested for participating in a "political"  Sinn Fein Party protest against an English Royal visit and the Irish Womens Suffrage Federation was formed.

    Sir Roger Casement who was born at Ballymena in Co. Antrim in Ulster was knighted by the British Government for services to humanity and this positive trait in his character would cause him to also stand up for the cause of Irish Freedom, which would see him stripped of his knighthood and also executed by the British Imperial Government. 

August: The Conservative controlled  British House of Lords was composed of 800 unelected Lords, including a great number who did not attend, and they were controlled by a majority who had derived their powers of "veto" going back to the Norman Barons who had stood up against King John the early 13th Century Anglo - Norman King of England and during the nearly 800 hundreds of oppression by England on Ireland they had added to the Country's woes because of this, as they continued to frustrate any improvement in the life of the population of Ireland. Now, because of their continued rejection of Supply to the British Liberal Government they were to finally come undone, and the Liberal Government were to win the day after they had threatened to create as many Liberal Peers as it took to enter the unelected House of Lords, to get a majority and the non - elected Conservative controlled British House of Lords finally had to succumb to the elected British House of Commons. Under a new British Act of the Westminster Parliament they were now suddenly deprived of the power of absolute "veto" to reject the wishes of the House of Commons who were the actual elected body on behalf of the majority. This then not only removed their "veto" on the Supply Bills, which had bought it all about, but further restricted their "veto" to 2 years on any other matters, which could then come into law without their consent. They had used this power against the population of Ireland's interests for many Centuries and the Conservative Ascendancy Unionists too had now also lost their greatest medium for control over Ireland with the loss of the "veto" by the Conservatives in the House of Lords, but despite this they still had the Conservatives to themselves. This now meant that John Redmond's prestige had risen as the Irish Nationalists considered that Irish Home Rule was now only a matter of time, although it would still take 2 years to bring it in, but unfortunately this was to leave every thing open to criticism for too long, including the Irish Parliamentary Party.

September: Edward Carson the Ascendancy Unionist M.P. from Trinity College in Dublin was in Belfast in Co. Antrim in the north - east of the Ulster Province where the "Ulster Volunteers" were founded by him at this time as an armed group and began drilling 100,000 men throughout  the local "range Lodges" in direct opposition to the British Liberal Government and the implementation of bringing in Irish Home Rule, as they were ready to form their own Government and believed the argument was to be won not by the "ballot," but by the "bullet," and to this end they were never interfered with, as they were backed by the British Conservatives and the British Army Generals who were in occupation of Ireland, including Sir George Richardson the British Military commander. Their other supporters also included Field Marshall Lord Roberts and the Conservative lawyer F.E. Smith who all said they would not suppress a revolt by the Unionists if it occurredand a "Plan of Resistance" was drawn up, which was uncompromising, where if Irish Home Rule was to pass in to British Law they intended to totally ignore it and set up their own Government there in Ulster. The Ulster Council began to draw up a constitution preparing to take over the civil administration, but despite this Edward Carson was pretty sure that John Redmond the Irish Parliamentary Party leader would not accept Irish Home Rule without the Ulster Province being included and although Edward Carson was a non - Catholic Unionist Dublin lawyer who basically represented the wealthy middle class who controlled the economic and political life in the Ulster Province, it was really to be James Craig the whiskey millionaire Unionist M.P. for East Co. Down that the masses there would eventually turn to as he was one of their own.

November: Arthur "Bloody" Balfour resigned as the Conservative Opposition leader, and Andrew Bonar Law a Canadian born Conservative was now the leader of the Unionist Party in England, who was the son of an Ulster Presbyterian clergyman originally from Coleraine in Co. Derry in the north - east of the Ulster Province who had been born in 1822 AD.         

      The Irish Republican Brotherhood / I.R.B. now suffered a split under John Mac Dermott, who originally hailed from Co. Leitrim in Northern Connacht, who although he was physically challenged and used a walking stick to get around, was still to be the driving force for the forthcoming 1916 Easter Uprising as he rearranged the younger brigade among them who wanted Ireland to be free in their lifetime and the overbearing rule of the British Imperial Government long gone from Ireland, while the older I.R.B. members "retired" from the scene and his I.R.B. followers then began their military drilling in preparation for achieving their intended goal.

     Anna Parnell, the younger sister of Charles Stewart - Parnell the previously deceased Anglo - Irish non - Catholic Land Lord who had previously stood alone in the parliamentary fight for political Irish Freedom, land rights and justice, also died this year at the age of 59 when she was drowned while in England.

    Excavations were carried out on the ancient fort at Lenystone Rath in Co. Kildare in  Central Southern Leinster this year, under the Long Stone / Chloc Fhada, where they uncovered a stone Cist of an Irish Chieftain from the Bronze Age..

   One of the Cairns / Megalith Graves from the Bronze Age situated at Carrowkeel on the Bricklieve Mountains was also opened up, which was 3,000 to 4000 year old, that had been in use for over a 1,000 years. (The Megalith builders built in slate, stone or cut into the rock).

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