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British- Irish relations over the past three hundred years have been troubled. There have been many tensions caused by religion in Northern Ireland and Britain's unfair rule of Northern Ireland. The British are guilty of many of the indignities suffered by the Irish people. They are also guilty of causing all of the religious and territorial conflicts between Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland.
The division between Northern and Southern Ireland dates back to the 16th century. A succession of English monarchs had used the planting of Protestant English and Scottish people on lands seized from Irish Catholics as a way of increasing loyalty to the British Crown. This is an example of how the British treated the people of Ireland unfairly.
In 1912 British parliament gave home rule to Ireland. Home rule is when a country who is ruled by another country is giving the ability to govern its self. However some people in Irelands Northern counties did not want home rule. They wanted to remain governed by Britain. So the people in the Northern Counties (Antrim, Armagh, Down, Fermanagh, Londonderry and Tyrone) remained under British rule while the Southern Counties formed the Republic of Ireland. Shortly after the formation of Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland hostilities pushed these two countries to the brink of civil war. This was prevented by the start of World War I.
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.
“It began with a blight of the potato crop that left acre upon acre of Irish farmland covered with black rot.”(The Irish Famine, 1) This of course is in reference to the Irish Famine. The Irish Famine was another cause of the tensions in Ireland. As crops across Ireland failed, the price of food soared. This made it impossible for Irish farmers to sell there goods, the good which the farmers relied upon to pay their rent to their English and Protestant landlords.
* Pearce and Adelman B believed that Ireland benefited from the Union, especially after 1829, and ‘maintenance of the Union therefore became the bedrock of British policy for almost the next 100 years’. * Policies were often based on ignorance of the situation – the British tended to try to get away with as little as possible. For example, the Maynooth Grant 1845, Land Acts 1870 and 1881, the attempt to push Home Rule on the Irish in 1920 * ‘Irish practical problems were turned into English political ones’ (e.g. land) – something that they were n’t. Legislation was considered and judged in an English context, not in an Irish one.
The Irish Famine 1845-1849 “Is ar scáth a chiéle a maireann na daoine” “It is with each other’s protection that the people live” From the Fifteenth through to the Nineteenth centuries English Monarchies and Governments had consistently enacted laws which it seems were designed to oppress the Irish and suppress and destroy Irish Trade and manufacturing. In the Penal laws of 1695 which aimed to destroy Catholicism, Catholics were forbidden from practicing their religion, receiving education, entering a profession, or purchasing or leasing land; since Catholics formed eighty percent of the Irish population, this effectively deprived the Irish of any part in civil life in their own country. In the eighteenth century the Irish condition had improved: The Irish merchant marine had been revived and ports improved, and the glass, linen, and clothing industries developed. Agriculture had also been improved and in 1782 the Irish Constitution was formed.
The Irish began immigrating to North America in the 1820s, when the lack of jobs and poverty forced them to seek better opportunities elsewhere after the end of the major European wars. When the Europeans could finally stop depending on the Irish for food during war, the investment in Irish agricultural products reduced and the boom was over. After an economic boom, there comes a bust and unemployment was the result. Two-thirds of the people of Ireland depended on potato harvests as a main source of income and, more importantly, food. Then between the years of 1845 and 1847, a terrible disease struck the potato crops. The plague left acre after acre of Irish farmland covered with black rot. The failure of the potato yields caused the prices of food to rise rapidly. With no income coming from potato harvests, families dependent on potato crops could not afford to pay rent to their dominantly British and Protestant landlords and were evicted only to be crowded into disease-infested workhouses. Peasants who were desperate for food found themselves eating the rotten potatoes only to develop and spread horrible diseases. ¡§Entire villages were quickly homeless, starving, and diagnosed with either cholera or typhus.¡¨(Interpreting¡K,online) The lack of food and increased incidents of death forced incredible numbers of people to leave Ireland for some place which offered more suitable living conditions. Some landlords paid for the emigration of their tenants because it made more economic sense to rid farms of residents who were not paying their rent. Nevertheless, emigration did not prove to be an antidote for the Famine. The ships were overcrowded and by the time they reached their destination, approximately one third of its passengers had been lost to disease, hunger and other complications. However, many passengers did survive the journey and, as a result, approximately ¡§1.5 million Irish people immigrated to North America during the 1840¡¦s and 1850¡¦s.¡¨(Bladley, online) As a consequence of famine, disease (starvation and disease took as many as one million lives) and emigration, ¡§Ireland¡¦s population dropped from 8 million to 5 million over a matter of years.¡¨(Bladley, online) Although Britain came to the aid of the starving, many Irish blamed Britain for their delayed response and for centuries of political hardship as basi...
The potato famine in Ireland from 1845-1852 sent thousands of poor farmers to America in hope of finding jobs. The Irish were overly dependent on the potato for a means of income, so when it faltered, so did their source of income. In America, the Irish worked in factories with
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.
During the mid 1840’s, blight in the potato crops in Ireland caused widespread starvation and migration of Irish citizens to the United States. Yet, the massive loss of life and massive exodus could have been avoided if British taxation upon the working class of Ireland was nullified. Though the struggle for liberation was already taking place, the potato famine furthered the cause and helped spread awareness. Furthermore, the potato famine made the average Irish family more reliant upon the government for subsidies and supports to get by.
Let's take a minute to look at the history of Ireland. Saint Patrick (c.389-461), the patron of Ireland, came from England to Ireland to convert the inhabitants to Christianity. At the time, the only Christian religion was Catholicism. He came to educate the people and succeeded beyond any rational expectation, as Ireland eventually became almost exclusively Christian, as well as a center of scholarship and culture. Even when the Protestant Reformation swept through Europe and England in the 16th Century, Ireland remained staunchly Catholic, thereby triggering the Catholic versus Protestant conflict that plagues Northern Ireland today.
The Differences Between Treatment of Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland There was a drastic difference in the way Protestants and Catholics were treated by the government of Northern Ireland. The parliament was Protestant and local governments often favoured Protestants over catholic, even when it was just an individual against a family, regarding the allocation of housing. As well as this, Catholic who applied to university or colleges stood a much chance of being rejected than Protestants because of this, Catholics found it much harder to get high paid jobs and were much less likely to be promoted to higher positions. Catholics found it difficult to change their status socially and often, whole generations families would be forced to live in one, small, house being forced with people not being able to afford to move out.
The Irish Potato Famine: The Ignorance of England The Irish Potato Famine, occurring in Ireland from 1845 to 1849, began as a natural catastrophe of great magnitude, with its effects exacerbated by the actions and inactions of the British government. Consequently, millions of people died of starvation while others tried to flee the merciless conditions through emigration (Donnelly). This event also inspired Jonathan Swift to compose a horrific solution in “A Modest Proposal,” which stated that the Irish should sell their children as a commodity to stimulate the food market and provide an income source for the poor.
The Great Potato Famine was a huge disaster that would change Ireland forever. The people in Ireland were extremely dependent on potatoes and when the blight came the economy went down. When the fungus attacked the potato crops slowly crop by crop throughout Ireland, people began to lose their main source of food. With the people in Ireland’s huge dependency on the potato, people began to starve or get sick from the potatoes. No one had any food to eat. The potatoes were black inside with molds through out it that came from the fungus from something in nature. The weather that brought the blight also was one of the causes because they could not control how the weather was bringing the fungus. Ireland was under the British government and did not help Ireland when they needed Britain. The aftermath of the Great Famine was not only a huge drop in population, but emigration, and much more.
The Irish and British governments fought for many years over the ownership of Northern Ireland. Britain had main control over Northern Ireland, and Ireland did not think that was fair. Be...
According to the sources, the event of Bloody Sunday aggravated tensions between the Irish nationalist and British forces to a large extent. However, this event was not the first to aggravate tensions and many other smaller events, issues and factors which contributed to this aggravaProtestantted tension. Source A shows that pre1972 there were multiple events and mistreatments which led to hatred and mistrust between not only the Irish and the British nationalists, but also between the Irish and the Protestants. As stated in source one, Catholic Ireland was ruled by Great Britain for a lengthy period of time despite numerous revolts by the Catholics.
Home Rule can be defined as, “self-government in local matters by a city, province, state, or colony that is part of a national government.” “From the early 1870s to the end of the Great War – Home Rule was both the single most important feature of the Irish political life and a major influence within British politics.” (Jackson 3) England was in power over Ireland and ruled over its lands. Ireland wanted home rule so they could govern themselves without interference from Britain. The Irish Parliament Party had been campaigning for home rule since the beginning and with the citizens’ support, they pushed for a bill to be passed. “Nationalist politicians described Home Rule as the 'promised land'” (McConnel 18) “It was not until 1886, however, that the first attempt to legislate Home Rule was made.” (McConnel 10)
In Irish attempts to establish a republic and gain political freedom, the country underwent a series of civil battles. This civil strife began in September 1914 when the British government suspended the Home Rule Bill which protected political autonomy in Ireland. A new ...
Irish citizens took upon themselves the responsibility of overthrowing the British Government in Ireland during the “Easter Rising of 1916”, which was the result of centuries of rights violations against the Irish by the British. Oppression of the Irish began in A.D. 1367 with the Statute of Kilkenny, which restricted the traditions of the Irish and placed them under the authority of the English in Ireland. (Hardiman) Oppression of the Irish was expanded in the late 1600s and early 1700s with a series of penal laws. These laws were directed at “Papists” or Irish Catholics, and restricted everything from education to the right to own weapons. (umn.edu)