1910 To 1930
1910 IRL: John Redmond and Irish Nationalist MP's hold the balance of power at Westminster. Dublin born and raised, Sir Edward Carson becomes leader of the Unionists who are determined to defeat Home Rule.
World: The Union of South Africa is established, with its parliamentary capital in Cape Town and an administrative capital in Pretoria (May 31). The Portuguese monarchy ends and Teofilio Braga is selected as president of new republic. Japan formally annexes Korea.
1911 Charles T.P.Grierson is appointed dean.
IRL: The Home Rule Bill is imminent. Sir Edward Carson and James Craig stage a massive Unionist demonstration at Craigavon. Carson makes his first speech in Ulster.
World: The first use of aircraft as offensive weapons occurs in the Turkish-Italian War. Italy defeats Turkey and annexes Libya. The Chinese Republic is proclaimed after a revolution which overthrows the Manchu dynasty. Roald Amundsen becomes the first man to reach South Pole. U.S. explorer Hiram Bingham discovers the Incan city of Machu Picchu.
1912 - 1920 IRL: New plans for Home Rule with Partition are announced. It is clear that the Ulster Protestants would not accept Home Rule so in order to avoid violence, the British government comes up with a new solution, namely, Home Rule with Partition. Home Rule will be introduced in the South but six predominantly Protestant counties in the north will stay a part of the United Kingdom. This solution is largely the focus of the problems in Ireland that exist to this day. Nationalists remain committed to the idea of a united Republic of Ireland, while Protestants are unwilling to accept anything less than the Union with Great Britain and a constitutional monarchy.
1912 A Memorial Service to those who floundered on the “Titanic” is held in the cathedral on Sunday April 21st, at which the preacher is Dean Grierson. The Titanic left Belfast where it had been built, on April 2nd, on passage to Southampton for its maiden voyage by way of Cobh to New York. It sank on the morning of April 12th. when 1,523 people lost their lives.
IRL: Home Rule in Ireland becomes a possibility when the Third Home Rule bill is approved by Commons (April 11). Home Rule is to become law in 1914. The Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) is formed. The Protestants in Ulster make it known that they will resist any attempt to introduce Home Rule in Ireland. The Ulster Covenant against Home Rule is signed by 471,414 people on Sept 28th. However the act is put on hold in September because of the outbreak of the First World War.
World: Wars begin in the Balkans resulting from territorial disputes. Turkey is defeated by an alliance of Bulgaria, Serbia, Greece, and Montenegro (Oct.).
1913 IRL: Home Rule Bill passes Commons but is defeated by Lords. ITGWU members are locked out by employers. Formation of the Irish Citizen Army (Nov 19th) and the Irish Volunteers (Nov 25th). Patrick Pearse joins IRB (Dec).
1914 - 18 World / IRL: First World War. Over 200,000 men from Ireland serve. 27,000 Irish soldiers are killed. This has immense effects on the leadership of post-war Ireland. Heavy casualties occur at the battles of the Somme, Ypres and elsewhere.
1914 IRL: The unionist Ulster Volunteer Force smuggles arms into Larne. The nationalist Irish Volunteers do likewise at Howth. There is a mutiny by British officers at the Curragh who refuse to fight Unionsts The First World War commences in August. The Home Rule Bill passes with amendments allowing for the exclusion of Ulster. Its implementation is suspended on Sept 15th after England declares war with Germany. Carson commits the men of the Ulster Volunteer Force to the British Army. Redmond pledges the support of Irish Volunteers in defence of Ireland.
World: World War I begins as Austria declares war on Serbia; Germany on Russia and France; and Britain on Germany. The Austrian Archduke Francis Ferdinand and his wife Sophie are assassinated in Sarajevo by Serbian nationalist Gavrilo Princip. The Panama Canal is officially opened after 10 years of construction.
1915 World: The British oceanliner “Lusitania” is sunk by a German submarine. 1,195 perish. The Second Battle of Ypres is fought. Turkey is responsible for the genocide of an estimated 600,000 to 1 million Armenians.
1916 IRL: The Supreme Council of the IRB decide on insurrection in January . On April 3 the Irish Volunteers prepare for a rising on Easter Sunday. A ship with arms for this is captured on April 20. Eoin MacNeill countermands the order for the rising. However a Republican rising in Dublin commences April 24th - The Easter Rising. About a thousand rebels from the Irish Volunteers decide to take advantage of the fact that Britain appears to be losing the war against Germany . They proclaim an Irish Republic. The Proclamation of the Irish Republic is read by Patrick Pearse on the steps of Liberty Hall. Led by Patrick Pearse and James Connoly they seize Dublin's General Post Office on Easter Monday. British forces pour into Dublin including gunboats that fire on the rebels from the river Liffey. The fighting lasts five days and causes more than 450 deaths and 2,500 injuries. The rebels are forced to surrender. Those who have taken part in the Easter Rising become known as the Irish Republican Army. Seventy rebels are sentenced to death by the British government. 15 leaders are executed by firing squad in Kilmainham Jail (May 3 - 12), and the remainder, including Michael Collins, are imprisoned. The executions lead to a rise in support for Sinn Féin. On Aug 3rd Aug. Sir Roger Casement is hanged for treason in London.
The Battle of the Somme in July brings devastating loss of life to all of Ireland.
James Joyce publishes A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man.
World: Battle of Verdun is fought. Battle of the Somme follows in July.
1917 IRL: Eamon deValera becomes Sinn Féin president; Sinn Fein (which had not been part of the rising) now calls for independent Irish republic.
World: The first U.S. combat troops arrive in France as U.S. declares war on Germany (April 6). Third Battle of Ypres is fought. A world-wide influenza pandemic strikes. Nearly 20 million are dead by 1920. In U.S. alone, 500,000 perish. The Dutch dancer Mata Hari is convicted and executed as a German spy. Government offices are seized and the Romanov's Winter Palace is stormed in Russian October Revolution.
1918 City: Chaim Herzog (1918-1997), President of Israel, 1983-93, was born in Belfast on Sep 17.
IRL: In a General Election (Dec), Sinn Fein wins a majority of Irish seats at Westminster : Sinn Fein 73; Irish Parliamentary Party 6; Unionists 25; Independent Unionists 1.
World: Russian revolutionaries execute the former czar and his family. The Russian Civil War occurs between the Reds (Bolsheviks) and the Whites (anti-Bolsheviks). The Reds win in 1920. Allied troops (U.S., British, French) intervene in Russia (March). The Second Battle of the Marne is fought (July-Aug.) The German Kaiser abdicates (Nov.) and hostilities cease on the Western Front. Japan holds Vladivostock until 1922.
1919 Thomas GG Collins is appointed dean.
IRL: Sinn Fein members refuse to take their seats at Westminster and meet as a parliament - Dail Eireann - in Dublin in January. Eammon de Valera is elected president of the Dail (April 1). The Irish Volunteers (soon re-named the Irish Republican Army) start a violent campaign for independence. The British Government recruits ex-servicemen (The Black and Tans) to join the Royal Irish Constabulary in the south. On Sept 12 the Dáil declared illegal by British.
World: The Versailles Treaty, incorporating Woodrow Wilson's draft Covenant of League of Nations, is signed by the Allies and Germany. It is later rejected by U.S. Senate. Mahatma Gandhi initiates Satyagraha campaigns, beginning his nonviolent resistance movement against British rule in India. In the USA the18th Amendment (Prohibition) adopted.
1919-1921 IRL: The War of Independence. The IRA fights a guerrilla war against the British.
1920-30's City: In the 1920s and 1930s Belfast suffers from mass unemployment.
World: General post-war industrial depression. Shipbuilding suffers a world-wide slump.
1920 IRL: The Government of Ireland Act provides for partition and separate parliaments in Northern and Southern Ireland,Dec 23. Two parliaments are introduced, one in Dublin to serve twenty-six counties and one in Belfast to serve the six northern counties. The twenty-six counties become known as the Irish Free State and are given a measure of independence. The government of these counties is known as the Provisional Government. A Council of Ireland is set up to oversee measures common to both parts. Both parliaments are to be subordinate to the British parliament. The Ulster Special Constabulary is formed. On Oct 25th, the Lord Mayor of Cork, Terence McSwiney dies after forcefeeding on hungerstrike in prison.
World: U.S. Dept. of Justice "red hunt" nets thousands of radicals; aliens are deported. Women's suffrage (19th) amendment is ratified. The Treaty of Sèvres dissolves Ottoman Empire.
1921 IRL: Dublin Customs House is burned down (May 25th). King George V opens the first Northern Ireland Parliament in Belfast City Hall (June 22nd). Sinn Fein win almost all the seats for the Southern parliament but they refuse to take their seats. Instead they carry on meeting in the Dail Eireann. A truce is agreed(July 9th) and is followed by negotiations which lead to an Anglo-Irish Treaty establishing the Irish Free State which in effect partitions Ireland. The Irish Free State Constitution Act is passed on Dec 5th. Eamon de Valera publicly repudiates the treaty (Dec 8th).
World: Major treaties signed at the Washington Disarmament Conference which limit naval tonnage and pledge to respect the territorial integrity of China.
1922 - 24 The structure of the baptistry is completed
1922 IRL: An Anglo-Irish Treaty is approved by the Second Dail (Jan 7th). On Jan 9th. Griffith is elected President. In early 1922 British forces begin to leave the 26 southern counties. Their barracks are handed over to the Irish Volunteers. However, the Volunteers split between those that support partition and those that do not. Those that do become known as Free State soldiers while those that do not are known as Irregulars. Tension between the two groups escalates into Civil War from June 1922-May 1923 and leaves hundreds dead including Michael Collins, the leader of the Free State soldiers. The violence is eventually put down by the Provisional Government and 1100 rebels are interned (imprisoned without trial). Violence escalates in the six northern counties as nationalists show their opposition to Partition. On April 7th a Special Powers Act is passed for Northern Ireland. It will be renewed until 1933 when it is made permanent. The Irish Free State is established (June 16th). A new Dáil is elected. The Leinster House Act (Oct 15th) makes acts of war against the Free State illegal. The Royal Ulster Constabulary and The Garda Siochana are established. The death occurs of Arthur Griffiths. James Joyce publishes Ulysses.
World: Mussolini marches on Rome and forms a Fascist government. Kemal Atatürk, founder of modern Turkey, overthrows the last sultan. The Reparations Commission fixes German liability at 132 billion gold marks. German inflation begins.
1923 IRL: Civil war ends in Southern Ireland (May). On Aug. 27th a General Election sees the first appearance of Cumann na nGaedheal, which receives 409,000 votes against Sinn Féin's 286,000 votes. In September Jim Larkin forms the Irish Worker League as an alternative to the Labour Party and Communist Party of Ireland. In October a hungerstrike commences in Mountjoy Jail. A Censorship of Films Act is passed in Southern Ireland. William Butler Yeats wins the Nobel Prize for Literature.
World: Adolf Hitler's "Beer Hall Putsch" in Munich fails. In 1924 he is sentenced to five years in prison where he writes “Mein Kampf”. He is released after eight months. An earthquake destroys one-third of Tokyo. The Ruhr is occupied by French and Belgian troops to enforce reparations payments.
1924 IRL: Eamon deValera is released from prison (July 16th).
World: Following the death of Lenin, Stalin wins a power struggle and rules as Soviet dictator until his death in 1953. Italian Fascists murder Socialist leader Giacomo Matteotti. The Ottoman empire (founded 1290) ends when Turkish president Mustafa Kemal ends the caliphate.
1925 The first stone of the west front is laid by the Governor of Northern Ireland, the Duke of Abercorn, on June 2nd. The west front is completed as a memorial to the Ulstermen and women who lost their lives in the First World War and as a thankoffering for victory in that war. Foundations also are laid for the crypt crossing and the projected central tower. Pillars outlining the choir are built and the spaces filled by temporary bricks.
IRL: The border between Northern Ireland and the Irish Free State is confirmed. de Valera begins to question abstention policy. RA launches weekly newspaper, An Phoblacht . George Bernard Shaw wins the Nobel Prize for Literature.
World: Conferences at Locarno seek to secure European peace by mutual guarantees. John Logie Baird, Scottish inventor, transmits human features by television. Adolf Hitler publishes Volume 1 of Mein Kampf.
1926 Henry Robert Brett is appointed dean.
IRL: After defeat of motion to end abstention policy in Sinn Féin Ard Fheis, de Valera resigns as President of Sinn Féin and announces intention of forming new political party (March 10th). deValera and supporters formed Fianna Fail (May 16th)
Roddy Connolly and other communists launch the Workers' Party of Ireland as alternative to Worker League. First Fianna Fail Ard Fheis (Nov 24th).
World: A general strike in Britain brings the nation's activities to a standstill. U.S. marines are dispatched to Nicaragua during a revolt; they remain until 1933. Chiang Kai-shek becomes leader of China's revolutionary party following the 1925 death of Sun Yat-sen. Richard E. Byrd and Floyd Bennett fly from Spitsbergen to the North Pole and back.
1927 The west front is completed and dedicated on June 2nd.
IRL: Fianna Fail deputies 'fudge' oath and enter Dail (Aug 11th). Their presence shifts political balance and Cosgrave calls for vote of no confidence, which results in a tie and a General election.
World: The German economy collapses. Socialists riot in Vienna; a general strike follows the acquittal of Nazis for political murder. Trotsky is expelled from the Russian Communist Party. Charles Lindbergh makes the first nonstop solo transatlantic flight.
1928 The baptistry is completed and dedicated on June 2nd.
IRL: The Gate Theatre, Dublin, is founded by Michael MacLiammoir and Hilton Edwards.
World: Kellogg-Briand Pact, outlawing war, is signed in Paris by 65 nations. Richard E. Byrd starts an expedition to Antarctic; returns in 1930. The first of Joseph Stalin's Five Year Plans imposes collectivization on agriculture in the Soviet Union.
1929 The marble and wooden floors of nave are dedicated in memory of Elise Milne Barbour who was born in Pittsburg and married into one of the leading linen famillies of Ulster. The bronze doors for the west front were installed. The designs for the nave floor and the doors are by Sir Charles Nicholson.
City: The Ulster Museum and art gallery is opened.
IRL: The Shannon hydro-electricity scheme is finished. Several issues of An Phoblacht are repressed by Government of Irish Free State.
World: Trotsky is expelled from U.S.S.R. The Lateran Treaty establishes an independent Vatican City. The first large-scale Jewish-Arab violence is caused by a clash at the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem.
