Edward Carson, Baron Carson

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Edward Carson
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Edward Henry Carson, Baron Carson, PC (9 February 1854 – 22 October, 1935) was a leader of the Irish Unionists, a barrister and a judge.

Contents

1 Early life
2 Politics
3 Wilde trial
4 Unionism
5 Cabinet member
6 Judge
7 Later years

Early life

Carson was from a wealthy Dublin Protestant family. He was educated at Portarlington School, Wesley College Dublin and Trinity College, Dublin where he read law, and was an active member of the College Historical Society. He was called to the Irish Bar in 1877. He soon gained a reputation for fearsome advocacy and supreme legal ability. He was made a Queen's Counsel in 1889.

Politics

He began a political career in 1892 when he was appointed Solicitor-General for Ireland on 20 June, although he was not then in the House of Commons. He was elected as MP for the University of Dublin in the 1892 general election as a Unionist, although the party lost the election to the Liberals. He was admitted to the English Bar by The Honourable Society of the Middle Temple in 1893 and from then on mainly practised in London. He was appointed Solicitor-General for England on 7 May 1900, receiving an ex officio knighthood. He served in this position until the Conservative government resigned in December 1905, when he was rewarded with membership of the Privy Council.

Wilde trial

In 1895 he was engaged by the Marquess of Queensberry to lead his defence against Oscar Wilde's libel action. This meant his job was in effect to prosecute Wilde, who had been his contemporary and rival at Trinity College. When Wilde heard of his appointment, he remarked "No doubt he will pursue his case with all the added bitterness of an old friend". Carson's cross-examination of Wilde is a supreme example of a battle of wits.

Unionism

In 1910 it became clear that the House of Lords' veto on the Third Irish Home Rule Bill was about to be lifted. When James Craig and other leading Unionists asked Carson, who was their most effective speaker, to assume their leadership, he accepted. He was a natural choice but was not ideal because the vast majority of Irish Unionists came from Ulster with which Carson had no special connection.

Sir Edward Carson signing the Solemn League and Covenant

Carson campaigned against Home Rule using a variety of means, both constitutional and illegal. He spoke against the Bill in the House of Commons and organised rallies in Ireland. At one such rally, 100,000 strong, Carson told the crowd that a provisional government for "the Protestant province of Ulster" should be ready, should a Third Home Rule Bill come into law. On 28 September, 1912 he was the first signatory on the Ulster Covenant, which bound its signatories to resist Home Rule by "all means necessary". In January 1913 he established the Ulster Volunteer Force, the first loyalist paramilitary group. The UVF received a large arms cache from Germany in April 1914 (see Larne gunrunning). Imperial Germany was very eager to promote political tension in the United Kingdom at the time and readily allowed the delivery of arms to both sides of the political divide in Ireland.

A fact largely ignored about Carson is that, if judged by the numbers who heard him speak, he was one of the most popular politicians in Edwardian Britain. He addressed 250,000 supporters in Liverpool in September of 1912; 30,000 in Wallsend on Tyne in October 1913; and anything up to half a million in Hyde Park in April 1914. He also drew tens of thousands of supporters out on to the streets in Glasgow, Durham, Manchester, Blackburn, Dundee, Norwich, Leeds, Edinburgh, Inverness, Plymouth, Sheffield, Birmingham, Bolton, Ipswich, Truro and Herne Hill, amongst other places in Britain, between 1911 and 1914. Indeed, a simple head count would suggest that his campaign in Britain to rouse support for Ulster was numerically more impressive than Gladstone's famous Midlothian Campaign.

Despite Carson's best efforts, the Home Rule Bill was passed by the Commons on 25 May 1914 by a majority of 77 and due to the Parliament Act of 1911, it did not need the Lords consent, so the bill was awaiting royal assent. To enforce the legislation, given the activities of the Unionists, Herbert Asquith's Liberal government prepared to send troops to Ulster. This sparked the Curragh incident on 20 July. Ulster was on the brink of civil war when the outbreak of the First World War led to the suspension of Home Rule.

Cabinet member

On 25 May, 1915, Asquith appointed Carson Attorney-General when the Coalition Government was formed after the Liberal government was bought down by the Shell Crisis. However he resigned on 19 October, over his opposition to Government policy on war in the Balkans, which had left two English and one French division in Salonica instead of being dispatched to support the Serbs who were being attacked by Austria from the north and Bulgaria from the east. However some say his real reason was a hope of destabilizing Asquith's government. He then became the leader of those Unionists who were not members of the government, effectively Leader of the Opposition in the Commons.When Asquith resigned, he returned to office on 10 December, 1916 as First Lord of the Admiralty, becoming a Minister without Portfolio on 17 July, 1917.

Early in 1918 the government decided to extend conscription to Ireland, and that Ireland would have to be given home rule in order to make it acceptable. Carson disagreed in principle and again resigned on 21 January, 1918. He gave up his seat at the University of Dublin in the 1918 general election and was instead elected for Belfast Duncairn. He continued to lead the Unionists but when the Government of Ireland Act 1920 was introduced, advised his party to work for the exemption of six Ulster counties from Home Rule as the best compromise (a compromise he had previously rejected). This proposal passed and as a result the Parliament of Northern Ireland was established. After the partition of Ireland, Carson repeatedly warned Ulster Unionist leaders not to alienate northern Catholics, as he accurately foresaw this would make Northern Ireland unstable. In 1921 he stated: "We used to say that we could not trust an Irish parliament in Dublin to do justice to the Protestant minority. Let us take care that that reproach can no longer be made against your parliament, and from the outset let them see that the Catholic minority have nothing to fear from a Protestant majority." His calls went unheeded.

Judge

He was naturally asked by the Unionists to lead them into the election and become the first Prime Minister of Northern Ireland. However, Carson declined due to his lack of connections with Ulster. Instead, he was appointed as a Lord of Appeal in Ordinary and created a life peer on 1 June, 1921 as Baron Carson, of Duncairn in the County of Antrim.

Later years

Lord Carson retired in 1929. After his death on 22 October, 1935, the Northern Ireland Government gave him a state funeral and he was buried in St. Anne's Cathedral, Belfast, as yet the only person to have received that honour. In 1932 he had unveiled a large statue of himself in front of Parliament Buildings at Stormont, Belfast.

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