Ireland, Britain, UK ?
Irish History
Twentieth century Ireland has been home to bombings, civil rights protests and terrorists.
Conflict between Britain and Ireland began in the 12th century, with invasion and occupation by the Norman kings. Under the Tudor Monarchs (1485 - 1603) the plantation policy took land from Irish Catholics who rebelled against Elizabeth I and distributed it to Protestant supporters. Catholic landownership fell from 79% to 5%. This was a form of discrimination, promoting sectarianism (the idea that one religion is superior to others) and favouring English and Scottish Protestant settlement in Ireland. |
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1641 REBELLION
The 1641 Rebellion lasted for almost 10 years, and spreading through Ireland. This rebellion began with an Irish massacre in Ulster of Protestants and ended in 1649 with a Protestant massacre of thousands of Catholics, led by Oliver Cromwell, in Drogheda and Wexford.
These massacres were not forgotten by the Protestants and Catholics of Ireland, and became imprinted on their psyche. For more information: |
THE PENAL LAWS (1697 - 1727) & PROTESTANT ASCENDANCY
By the time Cromwell died in 1658, his policy of giving Catholic land to Protestant supporters, meant that only a small part of all Irish land remained in the hands of the Catholics (1600 more than 90% of the population of Ireland were Catholic, owning around 80% of the land. 1750, 75% of the population is Catholic, yet only own 5% of the land).
With the Irish parliament controlled by Protestants, laws were deliberately passed to restrict the lives of the Catholic majority. The main restrictions were:
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1798 REBELLION
Inspired by the French Revolution, the Society of United Irishmen came together to secure reforms in the Irish parliament. Their aim was to unite Protestant, Catholic and dissenter Irishmen in order to bring about changes.
The result of this unsuccessful rebellion was the loss of the Irish parliament and closer ties to England. For more information: |
ACTS OF UNION 1800
In response to the 1798 uprising, it was deemed necessary to further tie Ireland to England. There was a fear that Ireland's independence would result in harbouring enemy nations close to England.
Despite much opposition, both the British and Irish Parliaments passed the Act of Union in 1800, to be implemented in 1801. The Act of Union abolished the status of Ireland as a separate kingdom, and in future, Irish MPs would have to sit at Westminster. Terms of the act included:
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1803 IRISH REBELLION
Led by Robert Emmett, the unsuccessful 1803 uprising did little at the time, but ultimately created a folk legend for others to aspire to. As with the rebellions before this, the leaders were seen as martyrs to the cause and were an inspiration for future revolutionaries.
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CATHOLIC EMANCIPATION ACT 1829
Opposition to the Act of Union, which meant political representation was only available for wealthy Protestants, grew with demands for Catholic freedom and a repeal of the act.
Dublin lawyer Daniel O'Connell led the crusade to free the Irish socially, economically and politically. His ultimate goal was to achieve Home Rule, and Emancipation was the first step towards this aim. The Catholic Emancipation Act, passed in 1829, removed the bar on Catholics M.P.s, and holding most public office positions, but also reduced the number of Catholics eligible to vote. For more information: |
FAMINE 1845 - 51
Potato blight, a crop destroying disease, had devastating effects on impoverished Irish peasants. Many peasants relied on potato crops, and the result of the blight was a famine that lasted from 1845 to 1851, taking around a million lives.
Irish nationalism was fueled by bitterness, though high emigration figures, as people left to seek a better life elsewhere, as well as the death toll, would have effected the success of uprisings such as the Young Ireland Movement uprising of 1848. This bitterness continued and resulted in the formation of the secret group The Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB) or Fenians, who were dedicated to creating an independent, democratic republican Ireland. A subsequent uprising in 1867 by the Fenians was also unsuccessful, though this did not stop the group from maintaining influence in Ireland. |
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Home Rule
Home Rule was the demand that the governance of Ireland be returned from Westminster to a domestic parliament in Ireland. The idea of Home Rule dates from 1870.
Charles Stewart Parnell was chairman of the Irish Home Government Association party in the 1880s. By coupling the demand for Home Rule with the intensifying agitation for tenant rights in Ireland, Home Rule became an extremely powerful force in politics. Did the Home Rule movement achieve anything? On three occasions, a Home Rule bill was introduced to the House of Commons. In 1886, Prime Minister William E. Gladstone introduced the first Home Rule bill. However, this move split his governing Liberal Party and the bill was defeated in the House of Commons. In 1893, a second Home Rule bill managed to pass through the House of Commons but it was thrown out by the House of Lords. Once more, in 1912, a Home Rule bill passed the House of Commons. The powers of the House of Lords had been curtailed in 1911 and, under the new parliamentary mechanisms, the Lords could only delay rather than reject the bill. At the beginning of 1913, the Liberal Lord Crewe, former Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, opened the debates on the bill in the Lords. The rejection of Home Rule by the Lords was a fait accompli but, with only the power of delay remaining to them, the real danger to the passage of the bill came from outside of Parliament, where Unionist Ulster was organising in earnest its resistance to the imposition of the bill on the North East. How does Home Rule fit into the wider British context? Home Rule was an extremely important concept in the British Empire in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. To fully appreciate its significance, it must be viewed in an imperial rather than a purely Irish concept. Before the outbreak of the First World War, the nature of government in the British Empire was changing. Greater independence and forms of domestic governance were granted to Canada, Australia, and South Africa in 1867, 1900, and 1909 respectively. Thus, Britain can be seen to have been gradually liberalising its system of imperial governance, at least for ‘civilised’ components of the empire. This contrasts starkly with the disorderly and chaotic nature of de-colonisation that was experienced by Britain, France, and other European powers following the Second World War. From: http://www.rte.ie/centuryireland/articles/home-rule-for-ireland-q-a |
Whilst politicians in England gradually came to realise that reforms were necessary if the Union was going to be maintained without alienating the whole of the Catholic population of Ireland. As a result, reforms throughout the century led to the introduction of the first Home Rule Bill by PM William Gladstone.
However, this Bill now alienated the Protestants of Ulster. The Protestant majority in Ulster felt that Home Rule, and a separate parliament, would lead to an independent Ireland. This would then lead to Catholic supremacy over the Irish Protestants. |