1914 - 1 / January to  June

January: The Dublin area strike, originally carried out under the leadership of James Larkin, for better pay and conditions for the workers in Ireland, came to an end after 5 months, with a victory once again to the employers.

March: Herbert Asquith, the British Liberal Prime Minister, was now in dire need of the votes of the M.P.s in the Irish Parliamentary Party to have any chance of surviving as the Imperial Government in England, and John Redmond the Irish Parliamentary Party leader was still keen on Irish Home Rule, so he reached an agreement with Herbert Asquith, to allow any of the 9 Counties in the Ulster Province to be excluded from Irish Home Rule for 6 years a plan strenuously objected to by the Irish Volunteers, who were totally against any form of "artificial partition" of Ireland, and this only went to show how out of touch John Redmond was at this time with the general Irish population. To this end, Herbert Asquith, put forward an Amendment to the British Westminster Parliament along the lines to which they had agreed, but even then it was "rejected" outright by Edward Carson the Ascendancy Unionist leader in the Ulster Province while John Dillon, another of the Irish Parliamentary Party members also still supported Irish Home Rule along with John Redmond, as did Joseph Devlin another Irish Parliamentary Party member whose seat was in the Ulster Province itself, who was also willing to accept that the 6 Counties could be excluded for the present to pacify the Ascendancy Unionists there. For the very first time ever in Britain's history, there was now an all "British Labour Party," who could take on the Liberals, the Conservatives / Tories and the Liberal Unionists, and this now gave a stronger voice to the other side of British politic and it really began to make a difference to the lives of the ordinary common people in Britain, giving them an opportunity to be heard, especially countermanding the views of all the Conservatives in the House of Commons and especially the Conservative controlled and unelected House of Lords in the Westminster Parliament.   

      John Redmond, the leader of the Irish Parliamentary Party, began to realise that the Irish National Volunteers in Ireland, had grown much stronger then he had previously anticipated, and he decided to bring it under his personal control, by demanding that 25 of the M.P.s f rom the Irish Parliamentary Party, should be nominated to the committee of the Irish National Volunteers, or he would split the organization while at the same time he was also encouraging Irish men to join the British Government's Imperial Army, and many from Co. Clare in the north - west of the Munster Province did. Arthur Griffith, one of the founders of the Gaelic League, and the "political" Sinn Fein Party, was against their involvement, as he was totally for Ireland to be self - reliant, and to this end he opposed any Irish man joining the British Government's Imperial Army, just as he had done during the Boer War in South Africa, and was to continue this same policy throughout his remaining life. 

March: John Redmond, the leader of the Irish Parliamentary Party, had tried to reach a compromise with Herbert Asquith the British Imperial Liberal Government and the Ascendancy Unionists by allowing the possibility of the 9 Counties in the Ulster Province, being left out out of Irish Home Rule for the present, and remain under the British Imperial Parliament in Westminster, but Edward Carson the leader of the Ascendancy Unionists in Ulster said no and Winston Churchill, the British Government's First Lord of the Admiralty, had made arrangements for British Imperial Naval and Military manoeuvres to be carried out in the vicinity in the north of Ulster, to offset the threats to the British Imperial Liberal Government from the Ascendancy Unionists there in Belfast in Ulster. Sir Arthur Paget, the British Liberal Government's Commander - in - Chief in Ireland, went to England to find out what he was expected do, should his British Imperial Military officers refuse to assist in bringing in Irish Home Rule, and he was advised to either dismiss them, or have them disappear altogether and on returning to Ireland, he put the question to Sir Hubert Gough and the other 57 British Imperial Military officers of the 5th Cavalry Brigade H.Q at the Curragh, below Dublin, and they all opted for dismissal from the British Imperial Army, and this became known in the press reports as the, "Curragh Munity."  Sir General Douglas Haig the British Military Commander in Chief in England, informed Herbert Asquith the British Liberal Prime Minister, that the Aldershot Command there, would also refuse to serve in the Ulster Province, as they supported Sir Hubert Gough's attitude, so the British Imperial Liberal Government who had been elected by the people, submitted to the will of the British Military Army officers. The British Liberal Government then forwarded a letter to the British Military Army stationed in Ireland, stating that they would not enforce Irish Home Rule, and despite the British Military Army officers' refusal to carry out their democratically elected representatives policy, they were still all to retain their positions, while the general public was in a state of shock, and the British Liberal Government's prestige under Herbert Asquith was to suffer accordingly.      

     William O Brien, the old Irish Labour stalwart from Co. Cork in Southern Munster, had voted against the 3rd Irish Home Rule Bill, as he also was against any "artificial partition" of Ireland, and he attended the I.R.B / Irish Republican Brotherhood Conference, regarding the future 1916 Easter Uprising in Ireland, which was proposed to be carried out by the Irish Nationalists against the British Imperial Government's refusal to bring about any chance of Irish Independence / Freedom.

April:  The Ascendancy Unionists in the north - eastern area of the Ulster Province, held a protest meeting in the Ulster Hall in Belfast in Co. Antrim, were they came out strongly against any form of Irish Home Rule, as they were now full of confidence in their attitude towards the British Liberal Government, as they had a Volunteer Force of 100,000 men in Ulster, preparing to establish a government of their own there in Ulster.

April 25th: The Ascendancy Unionists in Ulster were by now also further bolstered in their overall attitude following the recent negative results expressed by the British Imperial Army officers, and they now wanted to completely arm the 100,000 Volunteers they now also had in Ulster and they had Major Frederick Crawford, the Belfast merchant, who had previously smuggled in guns and ammunition, arrange for an open gun running operation into Larne and Donaghdee in Co. Antrim, where their Unionist Volunteer Force, under his direction, was involved blatantly in bringing in 40,000 rifles and 5,000,000 rounds of ammunition purchased originally in Germany, to be used against the British Liberal Government in opposition to Irish Home Rule, and once again no action was taken against them by the British Liberal Government. 

      Meanwhile Thomas Mac Donagh, a Professor of Literature, became the Director of Training for the Irish Volunteers, and was responsible for their reports, orders and despatches, and their Official Organ that was edited by Laurence de Lacy and Frank Aiken who would also join the Gaelic League and eventually become the Chief of Staff of the Anti - Treaty I.R.A. in the future and Robert Childers - Barton, a British Army officer from Co. Wicklow in the south - east of Southern Leinster, who had been educated at Oxford in England, and was a progressive Anglo - Irish Land Lord, was also to make a stand for Irish Independence, as one of their leaders.

    By now John Redmond's authority, as the leader of the Irish Parliamentary Party was well and truly slipping away from him, and the Irish Republican revolutionary forces in Ireland were also by now well and truly on the march, taking over the Irish Nationalist movement, and with Ireland on the brink of Civil War, the Irish Nationalists were preparing now for any armed conflict, if it should arise in the future with 80,000 Irish National Volunteers.    

April 29th:  Non - Catholic Trade Unionists now also protested at the alliance of British Labour and the followers of John Redmond from the Irish Parliamentary Party to bring in Irish Home Rule.

     At this time, Sir Edward Harland, who was English, and the Scotsman Sir George Clark, founded the Harland & Wolfe shipyards in Belfast in Co. Antrim in the north - east of the Ulster Province.

June: John Redmond, the leader of the Irish Parliamentary Party, was successful in getting his 25 M.P. nominees added to the executive of the Irish National Volunteers, as the Irish Nationalists complied with his request to ensure that there was no split in their ranks, as the Irish Republicans / I.R.B. / Irish Republican Brotherhood were still biding their time and during this period also, the Unionist Volunteer Force in the Ulster Province was still growing in strength, with Lord Roberts, chosen to command their 84,000 men, while the British League in who were in support of the Unionists were recruiting further recruits in England, to also go over to Ireland, under Lord Willoughby de Broke and F.E. "Galloper" Smith who was on Willoughby's executive. Milner, who was a British Empire Imperialist, wanted Dominions introduced instead, while the Duke of Bedford, Lord Rothschild, and William Astor, supported the Ascendancy Unionists in Ulster, with funds and Herbert Asquith while the British Liberal Cabinet was negotiating with the Irish Parliamentary Party and the Ascendancy Unionists in Ulster, and Edward Carson the Unionist leader, stated he could not hold onto 4 Counties on their own, but could handle 6 out of the 9 Counties, if they were "artificially partitioned" from the Ulster Province in Ireland.

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