Did anyone support British rule in the republic of Ireland before 1922?

Answer 1

Of course, there was no 'Republic of Ireland' before 1949...., but assuming you mean 'did anyone before 1922 support British rule in the 26 counties that came to form the Republic of Ireland?', the answer depends on how far you wish to go back.

In 1801, for instance, the year that Ireland was formally brought into the United Kingdom, the Union was supported by pretty much every Catholic, since they felt that union with Westminster was the best way to break the power of the Protestant Ascendancy that had been exercised via the Irish Parliament.

By 1922, the situation had been reversed so that pretty well every Protestant wanted to preserve the Union, whereas pretty well every Catholic wanted Home Rule at least, independence if possible, at best.

Prior to the 2004 EU Elections, the last all-Ireland election was held in 1918, though it must be stressed that these were not elections to an Irish Parliament, but of (105) Irish MPs to a Westminster Parliament.

Sinn Fein, who had come prominence following the Easter Rising of 1916, swept the Catholic vote, replacing Irish Nationalists in virtually every seat in which the Nationalists stood (interestingly, nearly all the Nationalist successes came in the future Northern Ireland).

Sinn Fein interpreted their electoral success as a popular mandate for all of Ireland to secede from the Union, even though they only won 47% of the vote, so all their MPs came together in Dublin to proclaim a Republic. Most, though not all, of these MPs came from the 26 counties, some came from what was to become Northern Ireland.

However, just as not everyone in the North was a Unionist, so also not every MP elected in the 26 counties was a Sinn Feiner. Dublin for example elected three Unionist MP's in 1918. All the Unionists headed off for Westminster, as per usual, and the War of Independence began.

So the answer to your question, as I have re-phrased it, is "Yes, there was some support for the Union throughout the 26 counties in the years leading up to 1922, but this was small in comparison to the support for Sinn Fein, who had won 73 of the 105 seats contested in 1918. However, since SF's share of the popular vote was only around 50%, SF's mandate for independence was more shaky than their tally of seats won might suggest."