The reforms imposed on Ireland by Gladstone's Liberal government caused some Protestants and supporters of the union to look again at the idea of a self-ruled Ireland. Foremost among them was the Donegal-born barrister Issac Butt. Having started as a firm supporter of the union and an opponent of O'Connell, his experience as a defense attorney for Young Irelanders softened his attitude on the grievances of tenants and Catholics. As a Conservative member of parliament he doubted the benefit to Ireland of free trade. In 1870 he formed a Home Government Association, most of whose members were originally Protestants. He was convinced that a local Irish government could better satisfy Catholic and tenant grievances and thereby promote Anglo-Irish accord. This curious vision of conservative Protestants and aggrieved Catholic and tenants collaborating to oppose the influences of British liberalism seemed unrealistic. However, very rapidly, numerous political organizations, including local governing authorities, endorsed the idea and within a few years there were 14 members of parliament attached to the Home Government movement and the appearance of chapters in England and Scotland lead to the formation of a Home Rule Confederation with Butt as its president.
In 1872 Gladstone secured legislation establishing the secret ballot, a development that would have substantial consequences for Irish politics. But in 1874 he began to lose the not very deeply felt sympathy of the Irish Catholic hierarchy. Their alliance with English liberalism was temporary and prompted solely by issues such as the disestablishment of the Church of Ireland and the advancement of reforms as an alternative to violent Fenianism. The particular issue on which the bishops turned on Gladstone was that of the universities question.
When Peel's Queen's Colleges had been set up in the 1840s the bishops had disapproved of their secular character, especially since Trinity College would continue to be sectarian under the Church of Ireland. While the Queen's Colleges of Belfast, Cork, and Galway had been established, with only the former really thriving, a Catholic university had been established in Dublin privately with Cardinal John Henry Newman as its first president.7 But that university was not allowed to give degrees and it received no endowments. The bishops continued to hope for public assistance for this distinctly Catholic university. Gladstone's 1874 university's bill proved to be quite disappointing to them, as it would simply include the Catholic university in a new national university along with Trinity (which was in the process of removing its religious tests for fellowships or scholarships) and the Queen's Colleges, but would not give it an endowment. Gladstone did not want to offend secularist Liberals within his own party by subsidizing a Catholic university nor alienate Protestants by being too favorable to Catholics. Ultimately, Gladstone alienated everyone and when his measure was defeated he dissolved parliament.8
In the subsequent general election, the first held with a secret ballot, the results in Ireland were astonishing. The Home Government Association had been dissolved the previous year and replaced with a Home Rule League. The movement came under the control of men sympathetic to Home Rule, but also to advancing denominational education and tenant rights, in other words, to becoming more Catholic. The hierarchy that had earlier been indifferent became more sympathetic. Home rule supporters were elected to 59 seats, only two of which were in Ulster. Those elected met afterward and committed themselves to presenting a disciplined and united front in parliament, which would be adhered to by most members elected from Ireland for almost the next half century.
While still the leader, Butt found himself in an increasingly uncomfortable position as some of the new members began to advocate a policy of obstruction, that is, using parliamentary rules in a way to impede any business being conducted unless that desired by the obstructionists would be heard. The champions of the obstruction tactic included a Belfast provisions merchant, J. A. Big-gar, a Protestant who had become a Fenian, and Charles Stewart Parnell, also a Protestant and a County Wicklow landlord whose great grandfather had been a major parliamentary defender of the Ascendancy in the late 18th century and who had opposed concessions to Catholics and the original Act of Union.
Butt continued to espouse tactics in conformity with the gentlemanly spirit of parliament as the best means of winning support for Home Rule rather than employing provocative obstruction. He remained the leader of the Home Government Association, but the obstructionists gained increasing popular support in Ireland. While the Irish Republican Brotherhood expelled Biggar for his involvement in constitutional politics (he became a Catholic soon after), it is unlikely that he had shed his Fenian beliefs nor they their regard for him. But it was Parnell to whom popular attention was most drawn. The Home Rule Confederation of Great Britain, whose members were mainly Irish in Britain, replaced Butt as its leader with Parnell in 1877. But Parnell did not yet challenge Butt's leadership of the parliamentary group.
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