Ireland was officially merged with England in 1801 under the Act of Union 1800. The island was governed by the UK Parliament in London through its Dublin Castle administration in Ireland. Despite this union, Ireland faced considerable economic difficulties in the 19th century. Both liberal and conservative groups rose up in support of continued union with England and Home Rule. Supporters of Home Rule included Isaac Butt, who established the new moderate nationalist movement called the Home Rule League, as well as William Shaw and Charles Stewart Parnell, both of whome turned the moderate movement into the Irish Parliamentary Party, which campaigned for the right of Ireland to govern herself as a region within the United Kingdom. William Ewait Gladstone introduced the first Home Rule Bill in 1886, and its subsequent defeat was a primary cause of the Belfast Riots later that same year. Various riots and violent incidences related to this political issue broke out throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries.

The United Ireland Scrapbook consists of 1 scrapbook containing newspaper clippings and political cartoons dated from 1884 to 1886. The colored cartoons, which make up the majority of the scrapbook content, are relative to the political conflict over the "Home Rule" movement, the Irish Parliamentary Party, the abolition of landlordism, and increasing tensions between Unionists, who supported continuing the union between Ireland and Great Britain, and Home Rule supporters, who supported an Irish legislation with responsibility for domestic affairs. There is one newspaper clipping from 1969 included and describes Patrick Pearse's execution address to be auctioned in London; Patrick Pearse was a political activist and one of the leaders of the Easter Rising in 1916. Key politicians are depicted in the political cartoons, including Gladstone, Cobain, and Parnell, and many other politicians are depicted in handrawn portraits.