Having read that post of yours Jim I'll ask "What 5 questions?"
What you have detailed in that post was one question and you have offered one opinion.
Home Rule BILL had been to the Lords for the third and final time. Because of the Parliament Act 1911 the Lords had now run out of road and there was absolutely nothing they, the Conservative Opposition or the Unionists could do to stop it getting Royal Assent and becoming Law.
In April 1914 the temporary Partition Amendment was floated and a "trial period" of six years was arrived at. At this stage they did not know whether the area to be given this exclusion from direct rule from Dublin was going to be nine, six or four counties.
Through the summer discussions were held with Redmond and with Carson, neither side wanted this arrangement but eventually by the 8th July 1914, the Government, the Nationalists, the Unionists, the Conservatives and the Lords realised that what was proposed was the only way forward. Now had the German Kaiser not been so keen to start a war in Europe the Irish Home Rule Bill 1914 would have been enacted the same day it received Royal Assent, the size of Ulster would have been agreed upon, Home Rule on Dominion Status would have been granted and then there would have been six years for the Dublin Government to convince the Unionists in the North that they had nothing to worry about - After all it was only the Unionists that wanted reassurance on this. Unfortunately the Kaiser couldn't wait and he went ahead with his scheme and all through that July things heated up until Germany finally invaded Luxembourg and Belgium and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland declared war on Germany.
Now having far bigger fish to fry the Imperial Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland turned it's attention to a war it had to fight and politically the first casualty was Asquith's Amending Bill for the 1912 Home Rule Bill. When the Home Rule Bill of 1912 became the Government of Ireland Act 1914 on the 18th September 1914 its implementation was immediately suspended along with another Act until after hostilities had ended.
Once Hostilities did end because of various things that had happened in Ireland (1916 Rising & the starting of a war of independence) it was obvious to all that agreements previously reached were no longer acceptable to either the Republican Sinn Feiners who simply refused to meet and the Unionists who were now set on Permanent Partition wanting no part of an independent Republican Ireland, a stance that they had decided upon immediately after, and as a direct result of the 1916 Rising. So the 1914 Act was now no good so it was repealed by the Westminster Parliament and replaced with the Government of Ireland Act of 1920 which was enacted. The Largely (Almost entirely) Sinn Fein Government of their self declared Republic over in Dublin paid no attention to this 1920 Act at all and carried on with their War of Independence while up in the now decided six county Northern Ireland they were given Home Rule as outlined in the 1920 Act and they were to be excluded from direct rule from Dublin as a temporary measure for six years (At no time at all between 1912 and 1921, despite everything Jim Carroll has said was Ulster or the Unionists EVER offered Permanent Partition - and to-date he has not offered up one shred of evidence to back up any claim that they were).
The War of Independence sort of lapsed into a stalemate mainly due to lack of interest, the "Republicans" could only interest less than 0.5% of the Irish population in fighting it (So great was the support) and the "Brits" who had been trying their best to get shot of the place for almost 10 years just couldn't be arsed about it. So a truce was called in June 1921 and this truce resulted in Peace Talks that were held in London. The British side honoured their assurance to the Unionists that they would not be forced into any sort of United Independent Ireland against their will and written into the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921 was a clause that allowed Northern Ireland (Created by the 1920 Act) to opt out. The 32 county Irish Free State was created and came into existence on the 6th December 1921 and almost immediately on the 7th December 1921 the Parliament of the six counties that formed Northern Ireland exercised its rights under the Anglo-Irish Treaty and seceded from the Irish Free State to re-unite itself with the United Kingdom to become the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.