For Ulster Unionists the Irish Convention provided a dilemma. Hugh De Fellenburg Montgomery argued, that if they boycotted it, Nationalist Redmonites could produce a home rule scheme acceptable to England, with Britain insisting on Ulster's acceptance. With the recent South Longford victory for Sinn Féin they feared they might be asked to accept an Irish Republic. They even regarded a twenty-six county Irish parliament coupled with the rise of Sinn Féin a greater danger to the realm than home rule originally would have been. Edward Carson, the Ulster leader, saw those anxieties less dramatically. He pointed out that since the 1914 Act could not be repealed from the Statute Book, Ulster representatives to the Convention would need: