Clifford Cory - Politics - Irish Home Rule

Irish Home Rule

Cory and his family were devoutly Protestant and hostile to the Roman Catholic religion. Cory was noted for his interest in temperance and Low Church evangelism. He was a particular friend of Capel Zion at Ponthir in Monmouthshire. He was also a vice-president of the council of the Christian Service Union, an organisation with the aim of providing work and training for unemployed and vagrant boys and youths. In 1898, Cory was the head of the Welsh Protestant League, which had a reputation for being rabidly anti-Catholic. This background undoubtedly influenced his strong support for the Protestant, Unionist, opponents of the traditional Liberal policy of Irish Home Rule. He voted against the government in 1911 supporting an amendment which would have excluded any Home Rule Bill from the operation of the Parliament Bill. In April 1912, Cory was the only Liberal MP to vote against the government in the first reading of the Home Rule Bill. He voted against the Bill again on second reading repeated his rebellion on the third reading of the Bill on 7 July 1913. On 14 May 1914, Cory presided at an anti-Home Rule meeting at Caxton Hall, Westminster. He said he was in a unique position in that he was the only Liberal member returned as a declared opponent of Home Rule. At each of the last three elections he had distinctly put in his address that he would oppose Home Rule.

However Cory does not seem to have ever contemplated joining the Liberal Unionists and his pronounced views against Home Rule probably did him no harm against Liberal Unionist opponents in St Ives in 1906 and the two elections of 1910. The Unionist newspaper, Western Morning News attributed Unionist gains in Devon and Cornwall in December 1910 to the issue of Home Rule, as did the Liberal Westminster Gazette yet at this election Cory marginally increased his majority and share of the vote, benefiting from anti-home rule feeling. Local sentiment there was strongly against Irish independence on economic grounds, as it was seen as a particular threat to the livelihood of the fishermen and other maritime employees who made up much of the electorate. Opposing Home Rule also appealed to non-conformist sympathy in the constituency with the Protestant Irish and their fears that a free Ireland would be dominated by the Catholic majority, giving great weight to the influence and opinion of the Roman Catholic Church to the detriment of the civil and religious liberties of Protestants