April 8, 1886

The first Home Rule Bill was introduced in British Parliament on this day in 1886. The Irish Parliamentary Party and Irish advocates such as Charles Stewart Parnell had been campaigning for Irish home rule since the 1870s. The bill, which proposed the formation of a devolved governing body for Ireland, was introduced to Parliament by the liberal Prime Minister William Ewart Gladstone. After two months of debate and discussion, the bill was defeated, 341 – 311. It would be the first of four proposed Home Rule Bills, the last of which was finally passed in 1920.