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Fundamental misunderstanding of the situation. He was one of many who simply believed that
>Ireland getting self-governance will mean the end of Empire
>Throwing money at the problem will sort it out
Of course, neither were true.

The same things that brought about the end of Empire would have also brought about Irish self-governance, not the other way around. Even in a distinctively British context, the concept of Irish self governance was centuries old; the Parliament of Ireland was founded in the 13th Century, and while it was heavily restricted in its ability to legislate it still allowed a tradition of an "Irish Government" to entrench itself-unsurprising, as "British controlled Ireland" was:
>Lordship of Ireland (self-government) for 365 years
>Kingdom of Ireland (self-government) for 258 years (plus the brief interim as part of the Commonwealth)

In the late 18th Century, an identity formed amongst the many of the landowning Protestant Ascdenancy which was essentially that of Irishness in a British context; they wanted Ireland to be a nation, one which functioned properly instead of like a colony. It was from this idea that the Constitution of 1782 was born, and the reformist movement which gained the backing of the Catholic Committee as it was seen as a viable path both to reform and an end to religious discrimination-all of this BEFORE the revolutionary separatism made inroads a decade or so later.

The Union was a relatively new concept, and one that the Irish Parliament absolutely did not support. The first several decades of the Union saw endless calls to repeal, and the formation of the Home Rule Movement and the Irish Parliamentary Party ensured that remained the opinion of the vast majority right up until Ireland left altogether.

The attempts by Chamberlain and his ilk to just throw money at land reform to kill Home Rule are the closest Britain ever came to actually governing Ireland properly-and they still fucked it.

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>>18401864
For those curious, this painting is by Francis Wheatly-depicting the Dublin Volunteers (part of the wider Irish Volunteers) in 1780.

The Irish Volunteers were formed to protect Ireland from invasion whilst Britain was off fighting the American rebels, and became a hotbed of the "Patriot Movement" that wanted to reform Ireland. They supported the Irish Patriot Party (basically Irish Whigs) and called for the implementation of benefits/freedoms that existed in England in Ireland.

They didn't want independence, they didn't want some sort of Gaelic restoration-they wanted self governance, free trade, and for most of the autistic colonial restrictions or laws imposed on Ireland to be ditched in favour of alternatives that would allow Ireland to recover from the sorry state England had reduced it to. It is baffling to me that otherwise capable or talented statesmen looked at Ireland and saw
>massive, military backed patriot movement calling for reform
>massive secessionist rebellion backed by revolutionary france
and decided to just shrug and forcibly shutter the Irish Parliament, then continue to neglect and actively undermine Ireland for decades.

You can see them realise how badly they fucked it when they unbanned the Orange Order in the 1840s; previously banned as a source of mass strife and unrest (with roots in agrarian violence), many would assume it'd be consigned to history like many of the other gangs. Instead, it was revived in the late 19th Century in the (retarded) hopes that it would stop Home Rule.

Ireland could have very easily been kept by Britain; the question is simply whether it was incompetence or malice from Britain that lost them it.