The late nineteenth century was a time of optimism in Anglo-Irish politics. During the course of a decade, Parliament considered two Home Rule Bills for Ireland, one in 1886 and one in 1893. Each of these bills proposed a radical reorganization of the Act of Union. Although Ireland would remain a subject of the British Empire, it would regain an autonomous parliament, one largely responsible for Irish domestic affairs. In this way, Home Rule would actually divide sovereignty, allowing both England and Ireland control over the same territory. The debate over Home Rule was extremely contentious, the road to settlement strewn with obstacles. The first Home Rule Bill was defeated, 341 votes to 311. The second passed by an equally slim majority (307 to 276), only to be vetoed by the House of Lords.

Despite these struggles over legislation, however, contemporaries and historians alike believe that Home Rule was effectively negotiable. By 1885, Irish nationalists and British Liberals agreed that Home Rule was the best solution to the Anglo-Irish conflict. Although some British politicians – most notably the Conservative Party – opposed Home Rule, they, too, believed that sovereignty over Ireland was divisible, that they could reach a negotiated settlement with the Irish nationalists over Ireland's rule. So divisible was the conflict that by the early twentieth century, Home Rule for Ireland seemed not only possible, but inevitable.

This chapter examines why Ireland was divisible, why it was that in the nineteenth century, shared sovereignty over the country was conceivable.