Catalogue Number
NMLH.2025.23.2
Object Name
badge
Title
'Great and Greater Britain'
Place
UK, Ireland
People
Liberal Party, H. H. Asquith, David Lloyd George, Irish Parliamentary Party (UK Parliament), John Redmond
Events
Elections, Partition of Ireland
Description
A round gold badge with a central image of the national plants of England (rose), Wales (daffodil), Scotland (thistle) and Ireland (shamrock) growing out of a single root. Writing around the edge says 'Liberal League. Great and Greater Britain'.
This badge was created by the Liberal League, part of the Liberal Party which was one of the major political parties in the UK until the 1920s, and a forerunner of the Liberal Democrats political party. The badge was most likely made in the 1910s, and shows the national plants of England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland growing from a single root, to symbolise the Liberal League's belief in the union of Great Britain and Ireland at a time when Ireland was fighting for independence from colonial rule.
The Liberal Party led by H.H. Asquith won both of the 1910 elections, but were only able to form a majority government with support from the Irish Parliamentary Party led by John Redmond, who required the Liberals pass an Irish Home Rule bill to create a devolved parliament in Ireland. The bill was passed in 1914, but the First World War suspended the establishment of the Irish Parliament, until the Partition of Ireland by the Liberal government in 1920 created Northern Ireland and 'Southern Ireland', both as colonial entities, each of which had their own parliaments. Ireland became the first British colony to have a form of self governance. 'Southern Ireland' rejected their colonial status and following an independence war in 1921, became an independent state, the Republic of Ireland.
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