Butt’s Unanswered Committee
In 1876 Ireland remained part of the United Kingdom, yet the year made especially plain how incomplete that constitutional settlement felt to many Irish people. The most conspicuous political event came on 30 June, when Isaac Butt, Home Rule MP for Limerick and leader of the loose Home Rule parliamentary alliance, asked the House of Commons to appoint a select committee. It was to investigate the nature, extent and grounds of the demand for an Irish parliament empowered to manage domestic affairs. Butt did not seek an immediate break with Britain. His model was federal: Ireland would regain authority over internal concerns while the imperial parliament retained control of the Crown, defence, foreign relations and the wider empire.