No historians, no links - thanks for the confirmation

If Wiki not good enough, here is the BBC History site.

"While Arthur Griffith, the leader of Sinn Féin, initially denounced the 1912 Bill as a 'grotesque abortion' of the national demand, he quickly rallied and called on separatists to make preparations for becoming the principal party of opposition in the Irish parliament.

John Redmond envisioned a rural and traditional society in which peasant virtues were safeguarded against urban and modern worldliness.

But many proved less optimistic. One advanced nationalist, who later fought during the 1916 Easter Rising, recalled: 'It did really look as though some Bill would actually become law. Those of us who thought Home Rule utterly inadequate were a very small minority.'"

"According to recent research, the ultimate failure of Home Rule involved the 'loss' to Ireland of a generation of Catholic university graduates who eagerly looked forward to self-government and the role they would play as statesmen, civil servants, and intellectuals.

In fact, such optimism (leavened by self-interest) was evident in a wide range of spheres.

In August 1914, for example, the annual meeting of the Irish Association of Gas Managers was told that devolution was 'bound to come' and that the 'prospects of the gas industry under Home Rule' were extremely promising.

Others anticipated a cultural and architectural renaissance in Dublin, with Home Rule informing, for example, debates on the housing of Hugh Lane's art collection through to the suitability of the old parliament in College Green as a modern European legislature."

"In the same week as the Government of Ireland Bill was introduced at Westminster in April 1912, the trade journal for Irish bakers, Master Baker, led with the editorial 'Decline in Hot Cross Buns'.

Only Unionists would find out if the reality of Home Rule measured up to their predictions.

Clearly not everyone was preoccupied with Home Rule. Nonetheless, many groups, organisations, and individuals were. Not only because of party and religious affiliations, but also because they interpreted it through their own experiences and expectations.

Of course, the Irish War of Independence (1916-1921) forced the great majority of Irish people to imagine their future in the light of very different circumstances."