The Segregation of Éire
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 traces of the split can be seen nearly five hundred years ago during the Protestant Reformation in the sixteenth century. During King Henry VIII’s rule, Henry had wanted a divorce from his first wife, Catherine of Aragon, to marry Anne Boleyn. When the Pope would refuse to allow a divorce between Catherine and Henry, Henry would decide to start his own church so that he could be in a position of power to proceed with the divorce. This church would become the Church of England. Through this radical break away from the social norm, Henry VIII would be remembered as a man who would go to great lengths to get what he wanted. This break would also signify the beginning of the Protestant Reformation across Europe. This event marks the first time that two groups are seen as a national friend and foe recognition. As Bartlett notes, “By the 1570’s loyal and disloyal ...
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...ehind leaders such as Wolf Tone, pledging their support in the form of the United Irishmen. Even though the 1798 Uprising would ultimately fail, this milestone in Irish history had the other citizens of Ireland that the Catholics were willing to lay aside their past differences for the betterment of their nation. This begs the question that will they continue to work together in the future. Based off the past evidence, Protestants and Catholics have little to lose in assisting each other and having Ireland progress into a nation that is one unified completely. What needs to happen though is that each side has to lay out the terms with no outside influence. There can be no ambiguous statements surrounding these terms and officials have to free of bias, as much as a person can be, to effectively write equal terms that ensure economic progress and religious tolerance.
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Show More“Ireland must be governed in the English interest” as Document 1 states. The Irish and English relationship is one of ethnic superiority over the other and geographical divide. The English feel like it is their duty to make the Irish people like themselves and they believe that their religion is the crux of what makes them inferior and the Irish just want to be left alone. The geographical divide between the nations is the mainly protestant, Ulster, and the Catholic rest of the island as Document 9 suggests. This has caused many disputes because of the fact that Irish Nationalists want the whole island unified.
After King of England, Henry VIII (1491 – 1547) separated the Church of England from the authority of the Pope, the Crown took control of the church in the country. As such, after the English Reformation in the 16th century, the Crown ordered...
Another major religious change was Henry VIII’s break with the Catholic Church. He created the Church of England, which aligned itself more closely with Protestantism than Catholicism. ...
There are many differences and similarities between Anglicanism and Catholicism. Anglicanism was derived from Catholicism and its principle ideas are similar to catholic beliefs. However, some ideas, such as the separation of church and state, differentiates Anglicanism from Catholicism. The fundamental reason for the Anglican split was caused by King Henry VIII in the 16th century; His wish to divorce Catherine of Aragon was denied by the pope and he seized action by establishing the Church of England. Mary of Tudor, however, restored Catholicism in England, and she persecuted Anglicans. In 1558, Elizabeth I reversed Mary’s policies and reestablished the Church of England1. Elizabeth’s Act of supremacy caused turmoil against Catholic Spain in 1585 causing an Anglo-Spanish war2. The split in religion within England led to a shift between the kings court and the parliament, leading to a civil war. When Charles I married a Catholic, Henrietta Maria, he upset the Anglicans in England causing riots and eventually a civil war in 16423. Decades of religious turmoil and wars led to a larger shift between the two religions. The
Religion in James Joyce's Dubliners Religion was an integral part of Ireland during the modernist period, tightly woven into the social fabric of its citizens. The Catholic Church was a longstanding tradition of Ireland. In the modernist spirit of breaking away from forces that inhibited growth, the church stood as one of the principal barriers. This is because the Catholic faith acted as the governing force of its people, as portrayed in James Joyce’s Dubliners. In a period when Ireland was trying to legitimize their political system, religious affiliations further disillusioned the political process. The governing body of a people needs to provide a behavioral framework, through its constitution, and a legal process to make delegations on issues of equity and fairness. When religion dominates the government that is in tact, it subjects its citizens to their religious doctrines. In terms of Catholicism in Ireland, this meant that social progress and cultural revolutions were in terms of what the church would allow. The modernist realized that this is what paralyzed the Irish society of the times. In the stories of Dubliners the legal system is replaced by the institute of religion, and it is the presence and social context of the Catholic Church which prevents the Irish community from advancement. ...
The Reformation changed England in many ways. To understand the Reformation fully, we must look at how it began. The English Reformation started in the 16th century with the reign of Henry VIII. Henry’s wife, Catherine of Aragon, was unable to produce a son, who would become the next heir to the the throne. Henry decided that he needed to move on to another wife who might provide him with a male heir, since Catherine of Aragon was unable to produce a male heir. Henry already had another woman in mind who he wanted to marry, Anne Boleyn. However, in order to get rid of Catherine of Aragon, Henry would need to divorce her. The Roman Catholic Church believed that marriage should be for life, and you could not simply remarry someone else. Pope Clement VII refused to allow Henry to divorce his wife.
Henry VIII and Queen Elizabeth I may have been the English Reformation’s greatest benefactors, all because of self interest. Henry VIII was not originally Protestant, but after the pope denied him of his divorce, Henry VIII took things into his own hands. Due to the power kings had in the Middle Ages, Henry VIII was able to control Parliament and force it to do whatever he wanted. So in 1534, Henry VIII forced Parliament to pass a law he made known as the Act of Supremacy. The Act of Supremacy stated that the king ought to be the head of the Church of England. This law gave the king complete power over the Church of England, instead of the pope. However, the type of church and state relationship did not change. Rather all the Act of Supremacy did was take power from the pope and give it to the king. Surprisingly, the Catholics did not retaliate against this strong change. The pope had always been the head of the church, but now the king had taken his position. This serves as an example of nationalism. The Catholics did not think about how removing the pope could harm their religion in any way. However, instead the people blindly followed Henry VIII because he was the leader of the nation and they assumed he was right. Also, by imposing other laws that punished Protestants, Henry VIII did not give the people much of a choice. Fortunately, for Henry VII, nationalis...
The modern political history of Ireland can be separated into two time periods. The first period is it’s time spent under British rule as only one territory of the United Kingdom. The second period, which represents the beginning of the modern Irish state, took place during the early twentieth century. The road to national sovereignty was neither easy nor short as Britain was far from eager to let its dependent state go. The first organized movement towards independence occurred in 1916 when revolutionaries declared Ireland to be free from British rule on Easter of that year. Despite the ultimate failure of this initial push towards freedom Britain eventually granted the southern 26, of 38, counties dominion status in 1921. Further steps were taken in 1937 when Ireland drafted its constitution and was granted full sovereignty. The final phase in southern Ireland’s independence came in 1949 when its status as a British commonwealth ended and the nation was declared a republic. However, even after disassociating itself from the United Kingdom the southern counties of Ireland wouldn’t be completely satisfied as long as the remaining 6 counties that comprised Northern Ireland were still a part of Britain’s empire. The predominantly protestant northern counties of Ireland have been a barrier to peace in the region from the first days of the Republic up to today. These counties are considered as a separate state but can also be considered as the same nation. This topic will be explored in more depth after the explanations of both the current Irish state as well as what can be considered the Irish nation.
The Protestant Reformation can be described as a religious movement of the 16th century that began as an attempt to reform the Roman Catholic Church and resulted in the creation of Protestant churches around Europe*. Henry VII during this time wanted Ireland to follow the religious changes which he was making in England and therefore started a reform against the Catholic Church in the country. These changes dealt mainly with the way the Church was run as he closed down monasteries and ordered the bible and other catholic scripture to be written in English. Other rulers after Henry VII tried other methods of reform by attempting to change the beliefs of the Irish people such as Elizabeth I who declared the leader of the Church of Ireland to be an English monarch and she also introduced fines on the failure to attend mass on Sunday. Despite these attempts by the English to spread a reform around Ireland it was largely a fail but certain aspects of the reform have had an effect and can still be seen to this day. This essay will discuss when the Protestant Reformation occurred in Ireland and the reasons why it failed.
Conflict in Ireland has been going on for hundreds of years, some may say all the way back to 12th century, but in 1606 some British settlers also named “planters” immigrated to Ireland and took control of the Plantation of Ulster, Because of this a physical and mental fight began between the Planters(Protestant’s) and the Irish(Catholics). Over the next 100 years, thousands of Catholics would be forced to move elsewhere in the country and have to resettle their lives because more and more land would be seized by the English Protestants. In fact by 1703, 90% of the land in Ireland was owned by English nobles. During that time the Catholics also had to follow by the Penal Laws, which were a series of laws passed against the Catholics, some laws included restricting rights to their ed...
The English reformation was a period of time where King Henry tried to break away from the church. What cause Henry to break away was because King Henry wanted to divorce his first wife Catherine of Aragon because she failed to give Henry a son and so Henry after finding out that his wife is too old to have any more kids he decides to divorce her to marry another wife named Anne but he ran into a problem because he try to divorce his wife but husbands could not simply decide that their marriage was not working and leave their wife, the church simply does not allow that because in the catholic belief it is said “that the marriage is for life” so towards the end King Henry simply ex-communicated from the pope but that has a consequence this meant
- How did the Protestant maintain almost a century of peace in Ireland during the Protestant Ascendancy?
Since the potato famine Ireland has had its ups and downs. In the 1850’s the Irish fought for land and would eventually become known as a main idea for Irish politics. Throughout the years the Irish had created leagues and organizations that appealed to many to fight the ongoing battles of Irish culture. At first there was the Irish Tennant League that dealt with the land distribution. (Douglas, 52) Then a secret militia of Irish veterans came together on Saint Patrick’s Day to create an Organization that would lead the crusade of Ireland. Most of the organizations were made up of the lower-middle class and the lower-class population. These gave way to bombings, riots, rebellions, and movements. (Douglas, 53-54)
The Catholic Church’s roles as a provider of many services all over Ireland provided for many families. The church was involved in the running of many institutions such as schools and hospitals. However, today it is indisputable that the status of what it once held has deteriorated because of the many falling vocations and the many abuse cases that have come to light in the past few years. What was once a strong community has been left betrayed by what was once seen as the pillar of society.
Hepburn, A.C.. “Language, Religion and National Identity in Ireland since 1880.” Perspectives on European Politics & Society 02.2 (2001) <http://search.epnet.com/direct.asp?an=9846113&db=aph> Academic Search Premier