Cohen Corner

Home Rule in a Nutshell was first published in November 1911 by Sealy Bryers & Walker of Dublin. It was a “a pocket book for speakers and Electors,” prepared by Jeremiah MacVeagh, an Irish nationalist politician, who was elected for the Irish Parliamentary Party in South Down in 1902, 1906, and the two general elections of 1910.

In his preface to the pamphlet, MacVeagh explained that he had “endeavoured to present a bird’s-eye view of the case for Home Rule for Ireland.” His objective was to “collate the facts in a popular form, and to leave the reader to follow up in other quarters any particular branch of the subject which may appeal to him.”

An introduction by Winston Churchill, then serving as First Lord of the Admiralty, was added to the “revised. Sealy, Bryers & Walker continued to be designated as the publisher in Dublin, but now placed in a clearly subordinated position on the cover and title page.