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Second Home Rule Bill
In 1893 the Second Home Rule Bill was submitted, again by the British Prime Minister William Ewart Gladstone. The Second Home Rule Bill proposed a separate legislature for local matters and an Irish representation in the Parliament to vote on Irish taxation issues.
This time the House of Commons voted in favour, but the House of Lords crushed it with an overwhelming majority of 419 against 41.
Irish Cultural Revival
Since the Great Famine the interest in Irish language and culture had fainted. At the end of the nineteenth however the Irish National Land League had learned the farming community to stand up for themselves and, aided by a more tolerant government in London, sowed the seeds for self-confidence and awareness.
With the establishment of the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA), an association supporting and encouraging Irish sports like football and hurling, in 1884 the seeds germinated.
In 1893 the seedlings started to grow with the establishment of Conradh na Gaeilge, or Gaelic League, by Douglas Hyde, the future first president of Éire in 1937, and Eoin MacNeill. The main goal of the Gaelic League was to re-ignite the interest of the people in the Irish language and culture.
Pádraic Pearse, who would be a leader of the Easter Rising in 1916, joined the Gaelic League around 1900. Soon Pádraic Pearse was the editor of the weekly newspaper An Claidheamh Soluis, meaning The Sword of Light. As an editor and poet he used ancient Irish legends and tales to increase the self-confidence of the Irish. In the course of time Pádraic Pearse found out for himself that these methods were insufficient to achieve an independent Ireland, his ultimate goal, and he joined the Irish Volunteer Force and the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB) in 1913.
Pearse's career was not unique. Several Irish men and women joined a political or paramilitary organisation, such as the Irish Volunteer Force (IVF), the Cumann na mBan or Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB), after they had been member of a cultural organisation, like the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) or the Gaelic League, for some years.
After two rejected Home Rule Bills the Irish people got impatient. Confidence in parliamentary organisations was on the wane and the support for more extremist groups increased.
Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB)
The Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB) raised again by efforts made by Bulmer Hobson, Dennis McCulloch, Sean MacDiarmada and Thomas Clarke. Around 1915 the Irish Republican Brotherhood was a secret organisation with approximately 2000 members. Several other organisations got either founded or infiltrated by members of the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB).
Bulmer Hobson and Countess Markievicz, the latter would be involved in the women organisation Cumann na mBan, or League of Women, which was linked to the Irish Volunteers, combined forces by founding a youth organisation Na Fianna Éirrean, or Warriors of Ireland, in 1909. Na Fianna Éirrean was in fact a combination of the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) and the Gaelic League. Education in the Irish heritage and language was alternated with sports and military exercises, making Na Fianna Éirrean an ideal breeding ground for future Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB) members.
Sinn Féin
In the years 1905-08 Sinn Féin, usually translated as Ourselves Alone or We Ourselves, came into being by a combination of three organisations: Cumann Na Gaedheal, the National Council and the Dungannon Clubs.
Both the Cumann Na Gaedheal and the National Council were pressure groups founded by Arthur Griffith. Cumann Na Gaedheal was the economic counterpart of the Gealic League and urged people to buy Irish products. The National Council was founded for just one purpose: protesting against the visit of King Edward VII to Ireland.
The Dungannon Clubs were founded in Ulster by Bulmer Hobson, a member of the Belfast circle of the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB), and Dennis McCulloch and promoted the separation of Ireland in the den of the lion.