A-level
HISTORY
Component 2M Wars and Welfare: Britain in Transition, 1906–1957
Friday 7 June 2024 Afternoon Time allowed: 2 hours 30 minutes
Materials
For this paper you must have:
• an AQA 16-page answer book.
Instructions
• Use black ink or black ball-point pen.
• Write the information required on the front of your answer book. The Paper Reference is
7042/2M.
• Answer three questions.
In Section A answer Question 01.
In Section B answer two questions.
Information
• The marks for questions are shown in brackets.
• The maximum mark for this paper is 80.
• You will be marked on your ability to:
– use good English
– organise information clearly
– use specialist vocabulary where appropriate.
Advice
• You are advised to spend about:
– 1 hour on Question 01 from Section A
– 45 minutes on each of the two questions answered from Section B.
IB/M/Jun24/G4006/E4 7042/2M
, 2
Section A
Answer Question 01.
Source A
From a speech in the House of Commons by Sir Edward Carson, Ulster Unionist,
15 February 1911. This was before the Liberal government introduced its Home Rule Bill
for Ireland.
I freely admit, that upon the question of Home Rule for Ireland, I am bitter. I loathe the
idea because, in my opinion, it would be of no possible advantage to my country. I have
never heard of any single financial or civil benefit that Home Rule can offer. When you
have given us our separate Parliament I should like to know where you are going to get
the taxes that are to run that Parliament, and where you are going to get the money 5
which will enable you to implement those great reforms which we are always told can
only be granted under a separate Parliament in Ireland. I prefer to depend for my
liberties and my rights on the Imperial Parliament of a great United Kingdom. No civilised
state in the world enjoys greater liberty than we have already. Home Rule is an issue
that reaches to the very heart of the constitution, yet it is being sneaked through without 10
being put to a people’s vote.
Source B
From a public speech by Andrew Bonar Law, 27 July 1912. Bonar Law was speaking at
a Unionist rally attended by 13 000 people at Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire.
The government is attempting to force through Home Rule at the bidding of Mr Redmond,
against the will of the British people. The Conservative Party does not acknowledge the
Liberals’ right to carry through a revolution by such means. We regard the government
as a revolutionary committee, which has seized autocratic power by fraud. In our
opposition to the government, we shall use any means to force them to face the people 5
whom they have deceived. Even if the Home Rule Bill passes through the House of
Commons, what then? I said in the House of Commons, and I repeat here, that there are
things stronger than parliamentary majorities. I doubt that the government would ever
attempt to impose its will on the people of Ulster by force of arms, but if the attempt were
made they would succeed only in lighting the fires of civil war. I can imagine no length of 10
resistance to which Ulster will go in which I shall not be ready to support them.
IB/M/Jun24/7042/2M
, 3
Source C
From recollections submitted to the Irish National Archives by Kevin O’Shiel, March 1959.
O’Shiel joined the Irish Volunteers in 1913 and later became a leading member of
Sinn Féin.
In 1912, we Irish Nationalists were full of optimism. We were all Home Rulers in Ireland
in those days. Redmond’s prestige was never higher. We regarded him as a kind of
prophet, leading his people out of slavery towards freedom. Yet, it was a strange
contradiction that as we turned our back on violence, the Unionists wholeheartedly began
to embrace it. At first, our general attitude to the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) was one 5
of contempt. We felt it would soon fizzle out and that, if it became serious, the Liberal
government would promptly suppress it. The ridicule was understandable, for I confess it
was rather amusing to see adult men tramping along the Ulster roads dressed in bowler
hats and suits carrying ridiculous wooden guns across their shoulders. However, the
UVF continued to expand, acquiring considerable supplies of arms and ammunition, and 10
the Liberals increasingly began searching for compromises with the Unionists. By 1914
Redmond seemed to be losing what little we had achieved.
0 1 With reference to these sources and your understanding of the historical context,
assess the value of these three sources to an historian studying the Irish Home Rule
crisis.
[30 marks]
Turn over for Section B
IB/M/Jun24/7042/2M Turn over ►
HISTORY
Component 2M Wars and Welfare: Britain in Transition, 1906–1957
Friday 7 June 2024 Afternoon Time allowed: 2 hours 30 minutes
Materials
For this paper you must have:
• an AQA 16-page answer book.
Instructions
• Use black ink or black ball-point pen.
• Write the information required on the front of your answer book. The Paper Reference is
7042/2M.
• Answer three questions.
In Section A answer Question 01.
In Section B answer two questions.
Information
• The marks for questions are shown in brackets.
• The maximum mark for this paper is 80.
• You will be marked on your ability to:
– use good English
– organise information clearly
– use specialist vocabulary where appropriate.
Advice
• You are advised to spend about:
– 1 hour on Question 01 from Section A
– 45 minutes on each of the two questions answered from Section B.
IB/M/Jun24/G4006/E4 7042/2M
, 2
Section A
Answer Question 01.
Source A
From a speech in the House of Commons by Sir Edward Carson, Ulster Unionist,
15 February 1911. This was before the Liberal government introduced its Home Rule Bill
for Ireland.
I freely admit, that upon the question of Home Rule for Ireland, I am bitter. I loathe the
idea because, in my opinion, it would be of no possible advantage to my country. I have
never heard of any single financial or civil benefit that Home Rule can offer. When you
have given us our separate Parliament I should like to know where you are going to get
the taxes that are to run that Parliament, and where you are going to get the money 5
which will enable you to implement those great reforms which we are always told can
only be granted under a separate Parliament in Ireland. I prefer to depend for my
liberties and my rights on the Imperial Parliament of a great United Kingdom. No civilised
state in the world enjoys greater liberty than we have already. Home Rule is an issue
that reaches to the very heart of the constitution, yet it is being sneaked through without 10
being put to a people’s vote.
Source B
From a public speech by Andrew Bonar Law, 27 July 1912. Bonar Law was speaking at
a Unionist rally attended by 13 000 people at Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire.
The government is attempting to force through Home Rule at the bidding of Mr Redmond,
against the will of the British people. The Conservative Party does not acknowledge the
Liberals’ right to carry through a revolution by such means. We regard the government
as a revolutionary committee, which has seized autocratic power by fraud. In our
opposition to the government, we shall use any means to force them to face the people 5
whom they have deceived. Even if the Home Rule Bill passes through the House of
Commons, what then? I said in the House of Commons, and I repeat here, that there are
things stronger than parliamentary majorities. I doubt that the government would ever
attempt to impose its will on the people of Ulster by force of arms, but if the attempt were
made they would succeed only in lighting the fires of civil war. I can imagine no length of 10
resistance to which Ulster will go in which I shall not be ready to support them.
IB/M/Jun24/7042/2M
, 3
Source C
From recollections submitted to the Irish National Archives by Kevin O’Shiel, March 1959.
O’Shiel joined the Irish Volunteers in 1913 and later became a leading member of
Sinn Féin.
In 1912, we Irish Nationalists were full of optimism. We were all Home Rulers in Ireland
in those days. Redmond’s prestige was never higher. We regarded him as a kind of
prophet, leading his people out of slavery towards freedom. Yet, it was a strange
contradiction that as we turned our back on violence, the Unionists wholeheartedly began
to embrace it. At first, our general attitude to the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) was one 5
of contempt. We felt it would soon fizzle out and that, if it became serious, the Liberal
government would promptly suppress it. The ridicule was understandable, for I confess it
was rather amusing to see adult men tramping along the Ulster roads dressed in bowler
hats and suits carrying ridiculous wooden guns across their shoulders. However, the
UVF continued to expand, acquiring considerable supplies of arms and ammunition, and 10
the Liberals increasingly began searching for compromises with the Unionists. By 1914
Redmond seemed to be losing what little we had achieved.
0 1 With reference to these sources and your understanding of the historical context,
assess the value of these three sources to an historian studying the Irish Home Rule
crisis.
[30 marks]
Turn over for Section B
IB/M/Jun24/7042/2M Turn over ►
