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The Harp and Crown: An Irish AAR

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orlanth2000: Yep. :)

robou: It is a concern alright...

ComradeOm: Perhaps... though Prussia is strangely isolationist and Ireland fought a war against Russia less than twenty years ago.

Sir Humphrey: Thank you. :)

KanaX: "Those sandal- wearing goldfish tenders? Ha ha! Bosh! Flimflaw!" ;)

Deaghaidh: Well a mixture of both really. :) We have entered an era of fictional Bonapartes now, but I did look up Charles Lucien.

demokratickid: Heh, thank you. :D

Colonel Bran: I hope not - I'm not even sure! :)
 
So Meagher takes a popular decision, could we be seeing a man who might go onto a third term? Is that allowed in Irish politics? Anyhow, at least Ireland now has some form of power to thrust herself into the modern imperial age; not that she wasn't already. This will no doubt help.
 
That maybe as such, but will the navy be bloodied?
 
Subscribed
 

africanwar.png

The Royal Munster Rifles in action in the Sudan


Into Africa
(1870 - 1880)​

"Are we trying for another ten thousand miles of nothing?!"
- The Crown Prince, upon being told of the war with Egypt.

The Dark Continent was not quite so dark these days; the Prussian, French and British flags flew on headlands over many a heathen shore and the mass of unclaimed territory shrank by the day.

To the Irish Government nothing could be more frightening than that Ireland should be locked out of the great scramble for territory and wealth. Yet it took until the 1870's for a serious attempt to be made, by which time it was almost too late. For years the only Irish presence in Africa were isolated missionaries and explorers. The money was all being sunk in the Far East.

That changed largely thanks to the efforts of one man: Captain Joseph Francis Kelly of the Royal Munster Rifles. A career army officer, Kelly was the assistant Irish military attaché in Constantinople... which is to say he was a spy. His observations of the increased British presence in Egypt were included in his bestselling 1873 memoirs Travels in the Levant in terms so inflammatory they were not published abroad for fear of provoking an incident with Britain. In Ireland itself the book provoked a national demand for a foothold in Africa to safeguard the Irish presence in the Orient.

The key issue was the Suez Canal.

massowa.png

The port of Massaua​

The British had control of the Canal, both financially and literally through their military forces in Egypt. The Khedive was nearly powerless in his own country and London very clearly held the leash on all diplomacy in the country of the Nile. The Irish avenues in Egypt proper were very limited; short of deliberately provoking a war with the British they were reduced to mere diplomacy, and words alone would not go very far in Cairo.

So Meagher turned his attentions to the Red Sea. The French had established a presence at French Somaliland (Djibouti) and it had given them a voice in the area with an open conflict with Britain. Perhaps the Irish could manage the same trick. The obvious target was the old Ottoman port city of Massaua in Eritrea. Currently it was administered by Egypt with the theoretical consent of the Sultan. This was unlikely to be a problem given the friendship between the Irish and the Turks. Much more serious was the attitude Britain might take. Meagher was taking a major gamble that the British would not object to an Irish seizure of the city.

So great a risk was Meagher that he only informed the King after the expedition had set sail, for fear of being countermanded. His Majesty was not exactly pleased, but delayed his wrath to hear whether the risk paid off. When the fleet cabled home from Constantinople, Conor hesitated before reluctantly giving his assent. They had gone too far to turn back now.

The Irish forces steamed into Massaua on the morning of 12 June 1876. General Tyrconnel dispatched a launch with the personally sealed letters given to him by the Sultan, authorising the transfer of ownership. Unhappily, but predictably the Egyptians refused to recognise the order and when the four hour ultimatum passed with no reply, Tyrconnel landed troops. Ireland was at war with Egypt.

For the next sixteen months the Irish fought across first the Sudan and then Egypt proper. Stung by their earlier humiliation by the British the Egyptians refused to negotiate until Tyrconnel himself was hammering on the gates of Cairo. The Irish won all the battles, but the unexpected stubbornness of the Khedive raised fears that perhaps the British would intervene after all. The war had to end, and end soon.

At the beginning of October 1877 soldiers of the Royal Dublin Regiment captured Tewfik Pasha, son of the Khedive. The Egyptian ruler was forced to come to the negotiating table, but insisted on British and Turisk participation which the Irish felt compelled to agree to. On 23 October 1877 the Treaty of Alexandria was signed by Ireland, Egypt, Britain and the Ottoman Empire. Egypt agreed to hand over Massaua (and Eritrea) to the Irish, but were absolved of any war indemnities. As a concession to British pressure the Irish agreed not to station a permanent naval presence in the city.

It was not the glorious result that some had hoped for, but Ireland now unarguably had a foothold in Africa. The route to China was secure.

eritrea.png

The newest Irish colony​
 
Sorry for the long, long delay in posting. :eek:o I'm happy to say that this AAR is alive once more, so if anyone is still reading, er... keep doing so. :)

demokratickid: Thank you very much. :)

robou: Meagher can keep in power for as long as he keeps winning elections - unless the King dismisses him of course!

Dr. Gonzo: Thank you. :)

Sir Humphrey: Perhaps, perhaps. Wait and see. :D

Cinéad IV: Well, they look very pretty sitting at anchor at the moment, but that could change. :)

hyme: Welcome. :)
 
Hardly the victory I suppose was planned; but you have to start somewhere. And at least you now have an avenue to attack into the centre of Africa. No Adowas, though, please.
 
Ireland in 1881 - An Overview​

worldmap1881.png


Colonies & Protectorates

Alaska
Patagonia
Tigray
Zhangjiang
Shanghai
Ningbo
Taiwan
Mikronesia
Northern Melanesia
Northern Polynesia
Eastern Polynesia
Melanesia
New Guinea
East Borneo
Click to expand...

indexireland1881.png


~~~​

Just a brief overview to give people an idea of the situation Ireland is in at the moment. :)

demokratickid: Thanks, and it is! Tigray (Eritrea) is not my first choice but a lot of the easier colonies had been gulped up already.

robou: I'll try my best. :D

asd21593: Heh, perhaps. ;)
 
Nice to see an overview of the empire. It spans all the continets :wacko:
 
No better time to relaunch an Ireland AAR. Those Pacific Islands will no doubt come in useful when it comes to putting together an Irish rugby team in this timeline!

Interesting events in Egypt and that you only took the original port (in a campaign that could have easily produced all of norther Sudan or the Nile valley) suggests that Ireland is still very much a small fish in a big sea. I wonder when this aggressive expansionism will bring Ireland in conflict with the big boys. Surely there can't be that many empty tracts of land left on the globe?
 

parnell.jpg

Charles Stewart Parnell, 1885

Meet The New Boss...
(1881 - 1886)​

"Who?"
- Thomas Francis Meagher on hearing the Liberals had chosen Parnell as their new leader.

For decades the great political force in Irish life had been Clann Éireann. By 1881 it had been in power for sixteen years straight and showed few signs of being kicked out. The party won the votes of both the rural poor (through social conservatism) and the rural rich (through fiscal conservatism). Almost to a man the soldiers and sailors of the Army and Navy backed Clann Éireann, as did the mandarins of the Sino-Irish Company. The Irish Times, themselves no friend of Clann Éireann, may have put it best in an editorial of that year when they said:

"His Majesty may be the King of the Irish... but Thomas Francis Meagher is undoubtedly the Chief."
Click to expand...

At this time of his life Meagher was approaching sixty, but still in fine health save his legendary fondness for the drink. He may well have supposed that he could forward to another decade of power before a graceful retirement, secure in his legacy as the man who made modern Ireland.

The once great Irish Liberal Party was no more. Throughout the 70's membership had declined as the old warhorses retired or died while the few younger members had defected to John Mitchel's more dynamic National Centre Party. The aging Isaac Butt with his gentlemanly political manner and cautious leadership was simply no match for the fiery Meagher. Still, when the long expected challenge to his leadership finally arrived in December 1878 few had expected it to come in the unlikely form of one of the youngest party members: Charles Stewart Parnell.

Parnell was not an obvious leader. Of landlord background, a Protestant and a Cambridge man he lacked the talents considered essential to Irish political life: humour, a Hail fellow well met populism and grand oratory. He was a man of tremendous intensity, icy and commanding at once. Though he ultimately lost his challenge to Butt he had made his mark, and when Butt passed away a year later he had been unanimously acclaimed leader.

Parnell's first move was a merger with the NCP. John Mitchel had died in 1875 and since then Patrick James Smyth had led the party. He was growing older however and was willing to step aside for this formidable young dynamo. In the aftermath of the 1880 election Parnell united the parties under the NCP name which he felt would have more resonance with the voter than the arthritic Liberal.

He was not a natural political speaker (though he could deliver a stump speech well enough) but where Parnell truly shone was in discipline, organisation and strategy. Knowing that a great - and growing - portion of the populace did not vote, he set over to win them to his standard.

victoriandublin.jpg

Dublin 1878 - a city on the grow​

Ireland was industrialising rapidly in the last third of the 19th century. Between 1881 and 1885 two major factories (a winery and a canned goods factory) sprang up in Dublin, employing thousands of new craftsmen and clerks. In twenty years perhaps a million men had left the fields to move to the cities and work in industry. The capital thronged to the sound of commerce and manufacture. These potential voters, largely ignored by the rurally based Clann Éireann had concerns that the NCP was now willing to actively court.

A major problem for the old Liberals had been funding; there was no counterbalance to the pockets of the Sino-Irish Company. Now a parade of capitalists appeared from out of the woodwork, captains of industry who were willing to back Parnell. In a single year (1883) the NCP earned enough in donations to wipe out a decade worth of debt. The election of 1885 would be fought on a more level playing field.

Perhaps more than any of other factor was simple exhaustion. The Government had grown decrepit in power, out of ideas, out of imagination and out of vision. Popular as he was in the country, the iron grip of Meagher had been part of the problem, stifling the rise of new blood in the party in favour of familiar cronies and yes men.

Clann Éireann, tarnished in the press with tales of corruption, arrogance and a lack of any new policies fought a lacklustre campaign, hoping that Meagherism would its spell once more.

It was not to be. When the voters cast their ballots on 25 May 1885 they brought an end to twenty years of Meagherism.

The Age of Parnell had begun.

ncp85.png
clanneireann85.png
labour85.png
unp85.png


Irish General Election Results - May 1885

Total Seats: 206
Minimum Needed For Majority: 104
Outgoing Government: Clann Éireann
Winner: National Centre Party

Clann Éireann (Thomas Francis Meagher) - 69 seats.
National Centre Party (Charles Stewart Parnell) - 108 seats.
Labour Party (Patrick Malone) - 23 seats.
Ulster National Party (Thomas McClure) - 6 seats.
 
demokratickid: Mine too! :D

KanaX: Actually it does... I hadn't noticed that before. :eek:

ComradeOm: Not many no, and I regret not getting to Africa sooner. Still I am sure I will find a few opportunities (and dangers). :)
 
I recognize O'Connell Street from a trip I took in '05 :D

Great AAR, keep it up.
 
Parnell looks a bit like Stonewall Jackson.
 
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