After the passing, with the support of the Irish Parliamentary Party, of the Parliament Act 1911, which restricted the power of the Lords to veto bills, Prime Minister H. H. Asquith introduced the Third Home Rule Bill on 16 April 1912.
The Unionists, led in Ireland by Edward Carson and in Britain by Tory leader Bonar Law, formed a private army, the Ulster Volunteers, to resist enforcement of the act, and Carson proposed an amendment excluding Ulster from the scope of the bill.
Birrell was opposed to the exclusion of any part of the country and when David Lloyd George proposed a compromise involving the exclusion of six of the nine counties of Ulster for a period of five to six years Birrell responded by offering his resignation.
Historian Ronan Fanning, in a newspaper article, has described him as "the arch hypocrite" because of his public criticisms of such exclusion proposals, but private acceptance of same.
The proposal was rejected by both Unionists and Nationalists and Birrell stayed on.
In fact, by that stage Lloyd George had effectively replaced Birrell as the Liberal government's negotiator in the Home Rule discussions.
 The crisis continued through 1913 and into 1914.
The bill was introduced for a third time in July 1914, this time along with an amending bill allowing for the exclusion of some of the Ulster counties, but with the outbreak of World War I the bill was passed without further debate, with its implementation suspended until after the war.
However, on the collapse of Asquith's Liberal-dominated government in May 1915 and its replacement with a coalition involving Carson, the implementation of Home Rule at any stage became moot.
After the passing, with the support of the Irish Parliamentary Party, of the Parliament Act 1911, which restricted the power of the Lords to veto bills, Prime Minister H. H. Asquith introduced the Third Home Rule Bill on 16 April 1912. The Unionists, led in Ireland by Edward Carson and in Britain by Tory leader Bonar Law, formed a private army, the Ulster Volunteers, to resist enforcement of the act, and Carson proposed an amendment excluding Ulster from the scope of the bill. Birrell was opposed to the exclusion of any part of the country and when David Lloyd George proposed a compromise involving the exclusion of six of the nine counties of Ulster for a period of five to six years Birrell responded by offering his resignation. Historian Ronan Fanning, in a newspaper article, has described him as "the arch hypocrite" because of his public criticisms of such exclusion proposals, but private acceptance of same. The proposal was rejected by both Unionists and Nationalists and Birrell stayed on. In fact, by that stage Lloyd George had effectively replaced Birrell as the Liberal government's negotiator in the Home Rule discussions.  The crisis continued through 1913 and into 1914. The bill was introduced for a third time in July 1914, this time along with an amending bill allowing for the exclusion of some of the Ulster counties, but with the outbreak of World War I the bill was passed without further debate, with its implementation suspended until after the war. However, on the collapse of Asquith's Liberal-dominated government in May 1915 and its replacement with a coalition involving Carson, the implementation of Home Rule at any stage became moot.
Augustine Birrell