The New British
Cabinet and Irish Chief Secretary
The Chief Secretary for Ireland, Edward Shortt,
is replaced by Ian Macpherson. (Shortt is
promoted to Home Secretary.) Macpherson was a Highland Presbyterian Scot
and Liberal MP. Although a Liberal MP, according to O’Halpin, Macpherson’s “views were
indistinguishable from those of a unionist diehard”.
This appointment was made at a meeting of the new British Cabinet
headed by Lloyd George. Phoenix notes that the new British cabinet contains
such “intractable unionists as Bonar Law, Walter Long and F. E. Smith
(Birkenhead)”.
Walter Long is made First Lord of the Admiralty and continued, as
French described him, to act as Dublin Castle’s “liaison officer with the
[British] Cabinet”.
Comment on Long
Peter Hart has commented that
“Long’s influence on Irish affairs came from his role as the self-appointed expert on Ireland with the British Conservative
Party”. Even though he was English himself, his power derives from “his ability
to act as a kind of liaison or broker between Irish and British unionism,
derived from his close links with Irish unionists, particularly among the
landed élite”. For example, his wife Dorothy Boyle was the daughter of the
Ninth Earl of Cork.
Long was often to read Irish nationalists
incorrectly – see, for example, Jan-12-19/1.