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discusses Chamberlain’s whole life, including his Irish involvement, but only concentrates on Ireland in a nine-page sub-chapter. There is very little attempt in the numerous writings on Chamberlain to trace the early experiences which moulded his view of Ireland and the Irish.
Lord Randolph has received rather less biographical treatment than Chamberlain. His son, Winston, published two volumes in 1906 which were more an exercise in filial duty and self-justification than serious biography.11 The two volumes were not only an attempt to vindicate Lord Randolph’s life, but also to justify the shift in political allegiance planned by the author himself at the time of writing.12 Another biography was produced in 1906, after Winston sought to incorporate into his biography a memoir on Lord Randolph written by Lord Rosebery. Permission was refused but Rosebery decided to publish his memoir as a small biography.13
Two much later biographies, one by Robert Rhodes James in 1959 and the other by R.F. Foster in 1981, attempt a complete treatment of Churchill’s personal and political life respectively but, as a consequence, his Irish involvements are not studied in detail.14 There are two articles on Churchill and Ireland: R.E. Quinault, ‘Lord Randolph Churchill and Home Rule’; and R.F. Foster, ‘To the Northern Counties Station: Lord Randolph Churchill and the prelude to the orange card’.15 Quinault is concerned to refute what he describes as The Governing Passion’s ‘new and idiosyncratic interpretation of Churchill’s involvement with Ireland and home rule in the period 1885–6’.16 Quinault is the only historian to attempt to explain Churchill’s Home Rule views by emphasising his background, but his article is too short to do justice to Churchill’s total involvement with Ireland. Quinault is primarily concerned with Churchill’s Home Rule views, not his broader Irish policies.
Foster’s article, while providing a very useful discussion and analysis of Churchill’s Irish involvement, ends as its title suggests with Churchill playing the ‘Orange card’ in 1886. Very little attention is paid to subsequent events, particularly Churchill’s opposition to the second Home Rule Bill. A failure to study the whole background of Churchill’s Irish involvement leads to assertions, such as that by