100,000 Ulster Volunteers threatening sedition against Her Majesty's" government; the Curragh Mutiny.....The British would have backed down from the Home Rule Bill with or without WWI. And who knows, without the war of independence and the civil war there might have been a truly massive civil war and bloodletting throughout the whole 32 counties.

Also, surely the British government must have been worried that massive bloodshed in Ireland, whether through an all-Ireland civil war, or through allout repression of Sinn Fein, would have made them pariah's in the world and would have even more quickly undermined their Empire, abroad, and more tellingly at home, than what happened in fact.

Keith from Hertford seems to be trying to re-write WWI to make his beloved homeland out to be so noble (or its propaganda system so effective). Sorry, it won't work. WWI changed Europe forever, because of the mass slaughter on all sides of ordinary people as sanctioned and promoted by their "betters", and all for reasons which in retrospect seem fairly insignificant. (In contrast to WWII, at the time and much more so in retrospective.)

Democracy, anyone?

By the way, by what capacity to read people's minds does Keith from H. claim to know why anyone fought in WWI or any war?

Colm JPK