It seems that all, throughout history, Protestants and Catholics are always butting heads. Tensions were particularly high between Ireland and Britain with Ireland being Catholic and Britain Protestant. This religious discrepancy had a real effect on the Irish people, interfering with their Catholic tradition. The Irish people had longed for independence from the British for a long time; but, Britain really managed to agitate the Irish when they sent settlers from Britain and Scotland to settle in Northern Ireland. This agitation eventually grew into the Northern Ireland War, as the Protestants began to take control. If the Protestants had just settled into Northern Ireland and went about their life, there may have never been a war. The root cause of the Northern Ireland War was the suppression and ignorance of the Protestants towards the Catholic people. The Protestants proceeded to destroy the identity of the Catholic people by influencing their culture, and religious ways. The stripping of political and human rights by the Protestants and the economic burden, left on the Catholics fuelled the anger of the Native Irish.
It can be argued that the Northern Ireland War was the result of Catholic hostility towards their Protestant arrivals. Throughout the history of Ireland, the Irish have been forced to defend their territory, but at times they did it in ways that was most violent. Hostility of the Catholics occurred in the massacre of the Protestant settlers during the early 1600s, which resulted in many Protestant deaths. During the war, the IRA (Irish Republican Army) also did not help their case when they began acts of terrorism on the Protestant population. The Protestants also lived in fear of a Catholic majority because the...
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Haward, Katy. "Defusing the Conflict in Northern Ireland." EU Border Conflict studies. http://www.birmingham.ac.uk/Documents/college-social-sciences/government-society/polsis/research/eu-border-conflict/wp02-defusing-the-conflict-in-northern-ireland.pdf (accessed January 13, 2014).
Imbornoni, Ann Marie, Borgna Brunner, and Beth Rowan. "The Northern Irish Conflict: A Chronology." Infoplease. http://www.infoplease.com/spot/northireland1.html (accessed January 12, 2014).
"In the trenches of a language war." The Economist. http://www.economist.com/news/christmas-specials/21591737-northern-irelands-devolved-government-driving-revival-irish-language-not (accessed January 13, 2014).
Orange, William. "Penal Laws." Laws in Ireland for the Supression of Popery. http://library.law.umn.edu/irishlaw/offices.html (accessed January 13, 2014).
occasions, but this was the first time it had been used in the UK. By
Meagher, Timothy. “The Columbia Guide to Irish American History.” Columbia University Press- New York, 2005
The tense relationship between Ireland and England lasted for many years. There were constant attempts from the English government to exercise control over its neighbors, which were, at the same time, answered with several insurrections.
The Act of Union in 1800 was a significant factor to the nature of Irish nationalism in 1800. Prior to the Act, the society of the united Irishmen, a republican society who wanted parliamentary reform and Catholic Emancipation, fought, under the leadership of Robert Emmet, with physical force for their complete independence. Because of their military strand they differed from their predecessors the ‘Protestant Patriots’, this is because the society was heavily influenced by revolutionary events in France and New America in the late 18th century. The rebellion, although unsuccessful, with its leader imprisoned, had major consequential effects; which was the passing of the Act of Union in 1800. The Act set the tone for the rest of Irish history; once emancipation failed to materialize directly after the union, the Catholic issue began to dominate both Irish and English politics.
Bone, Martyn. "Ireland Historical Summary 18th-19th Centuries ." Our Family History. Martyn Bone , 11 Mar. 2006. Web. 17 May 2010. .
In the early 1900s, Irish nationalists were fed up with the British rule that had dominated Ireland since its existence. The Irish in this situation closely resemble the American Colonists prior to the American Revolution. The Irish felt as if the British did not represent them well and they wanted to run their own country and govern themselves. There were many small rebellions and confrontations between some Irish citizens and the British army all throughout Ireland’s history with the purpose of lowering the morale of British troops that occupied Ireland, or in rebellion to specific actions by the British. However, there never was any organized uprising with a goal of completely eliminating the British like the Easter Uprising in 1916.
English persecution of the Irish people is one cause of the tensions in Northern Ireland. Before 1793 Irish Catholics were persecuted by British law. Catholics were not allowed to buy and sell land, get proper education, marry Protestants or vote. This fueled problems in Ireland. After 1793 Britain was afraid, after loosing America, that a revolution would happen in Ireland. So the restrictions on the Irish Catholics were done away with. This however angered the protestants who formed the Orange Order, who was against the Catholics. This all came to a head when in 1798 when a small rebellion broke out.
Ireland has a very conflicted history. Just when that history may seem to take a turn for the better, it seems that there is always another event to keep the trend of depression ongoing. The separation of the Protestant and Catholic Church would be the center of these events. However, the two different groups could potentially work together for the betterment of the nation. Through an analysis of why Protestants and Catholics split in the first place, disadvantages that Catholics would face in the coming years and also how these disadvantages were lifted, an argument will be developed in that there is perhaps the chance that they may end up working together in the future for the betterment of Ireland. Although these two groups would fight over the countless decades, they need to join into one entity if they wish to see a better future for Ireland.
The British occupation of Ireland began in the 1640’s and lasted until 1922. No other occurrence throughout Irish history has had a greater impact on the lives of the citizens of the country. Along with the act of occupation came the emergence of Protestantism, which conflicted with the traditional religion of Ireland, Catholicism. The English occupation of Ireland affected many aspects of Irish history from the potato famine to the War for Independence. However, Irish nationalism came to a boiling point April of 1916, in what is now known as the Easter Uprising. The uprising lasted 6 days and resulted in massive casualties, but furthered the liberation cause for the Irish.
Kiberd, Declan, Inventing Ireland: the Literature of the Modern Nation, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, 1996.
...oodshed, Northern Ireland finally received some relief. The Good Friday Agreement brought the diplomacy needed to the country. Northern Ireland is to this day still home to many religious disputes but nothing as severe as the disputes from several decades ago. Residents are now free to be considered citizens of either or both countries, and the countries are able to work together without any deadly and unnecessary controversy. Hundreds of innocent people are spared their lives every year because the preventable religious and governmental fights have dwindled. Ireland may not have the most control over Northern Ireland, and religious disputes still arise, but the country has come a long way from the way things were. Things may never be perfect for the country of Northern Ireland, but there is no doubt that diplomacy was a great decision for the country as a whole.
As we see with history, it was almost inevitable that Ireland would experience civil war once she achieved ‘independence’. However, it was not just the history of other countries which dictated this, but also her own. When one person dies they leave behind a hundred mourners. As we can see by the strong words of Mary MacSweeny many of the families of Irish ‘martyrs’ wanted to see their deaths avenged. This was a strong force behind the Civil War and saw it as a ‘natural’ conclusion to previous years. There were also many rifts within the IRA prior to the Treaty and once they had no common enemy they were prone to fight themselves. With all this evidence pointing to the Civil War’s ‘natural’ occurrence it is hard to see how it could not have happened.
Allison, Fiona. "The Irish War of Independence 1919-1921." suite101.com. suite101, 11 Jan 2010. Web. 16 Jan 2011.
The reason for why there was no resistance to the signing of Penal Laws in 1695 was not only because the powerlessness of the Catholic population, but rather the relatively fair conditions promised by the Protestant. The Treaty of Limerick, predecessor of Penal Laws that was signed right after the end of the Williamite War in 1691, did guaranteed for freedom of religious exercise for the Catholic and even offered to share religious sites between the two sects (Lecky 140).
McCann et al. Belfast: Institute of Irish Studies, 1994, 95-109).