Home Rule is mentioned in Ulysses only three times, but Charles Stewart Parnell who was closely associated with this movement is mentioned a number of times. He was a Protestant landowner who turned the home rule movement, or the Irish Parliamentary Party as it became known, into a major constitutional political force. It came to dominate Irish politics in the late years of the nineteenth century and the early years of the twentieth century.

The following, taken from Wikipedia, discusses the Irish Home Rule Movement:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_Home_Rule_Movement

Parnell and Kitty O'Shea had an adulterous affair for many years with only a wink and a nod from her husband, Capt. William Henry O'Shea. When Capt. O'Shea brought the divorce suit and the affair was in the open it led to the ruin of Parnell's political career.

Chuck