in the 1500’s was a very unstable country. The country’s English rulers fought with the local Irish civilians and the Irish nobles. The Irish nobles also fought among themselves. The English landlords owned the land that the peasants lived and farmed on. As a result of this continual fighting, it was hard for the peasants to grow enough food to feed themselves. The British passed laws to deny the Irish peasants freedom. They were forbidden to speak their own language, to practice their own religion
Irish mythology is a slew of history and myth, blurring the lines of understandable and reliable Irish history (Dersin, 16; Kinniburgh). This unique literature, demonstrates the Celtic peoples sense of the connection between the natural and supernatural realms (Dersin, 15). In Irish myth, the Tuatha de Danaan are the human like gods that reside in the Otherworld after being fought off by the first Irish people when they came from Spain (Dersin, 16). They are immortal beings with shape-shifting abilities
During the 18th and 19th centuries, the Irish rapidly flowed into the United States. The Irish immigrated in different waves and for various reasons, only to be greeted with significant barriers when landing in America. The Irish were essentially pushed out of Ireland because of the awful economy and the great potato famine. Upon arriving in the United States, the Irish had a difficult time with jobs, discrimination, housing, and money in the populated urban cities in which they settled. Having
The Influence of Chinese and Irish Laborers on the Transcontinental Railroad The Chinese and Irish laborers answered strongly when asked to help build the Transcontinental Railroad that connected the Pacific and the Atlantic Coasts. During the long process the immigrant workers encountered harsh weather and living and working conditions. Their work produced the Great Iron Trail in an incredibly short time with minimal resources and equipment. Their struggles are often overlooked and their overseers
Populated by 8 million people, Irish, with a majority of Roman Catholic, are among the poorest people in the western world. Only about a quarter of the population could read and write, and their life expectancy was relatively short. Ireland was an exceedingly impoverished country. Under the english rule, citizens lost many of their political and religious rights. They were separated between protestants, who represents the continued presence of England, and Roman Catholics, who were hostile to Britain
since time has passed the Irish stereotypes were made are developing and have become well-known. Most stereotypes are made through misguided interpretations or assumptions of people and in this case that is what majority of the Irish stereotypes follow. Many of these stereotypes of the Irish give them a label that all Irish people are the same. The media hasn’t helped these assumptions that are put on the Irish and these misguided ideas which end up spreading the Irish stereotypes causing them to
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
Irish Literature and Rebellion In the heart of every Irishman hides a poet, burning with nationalistic passion for his beloved Emerald Isle. It is this same passion, which for centuries, Great Britain has attempted to snuff out of the Catholics of Ireland with tyrannical policies and the hegemony of the Protestant religion. Catholics were treated like second-class citizens in their native home. Centuries of oppression churned in the hearts of the Irish and came to a boil in the writings and literature
Irish in America America is a melting pot of different cultures, religions, ideas and identities, a country which over the years has been molded, shaped and changed by its people. There are many historical factors that gone into creating the country as we know it today, but none so influential as the immigration of millions to “the land of opportunity”. The millions of people who came to the United States in hopes of finding a better life greatly affected the course of American history
Bay or the Scottish Isle of Arran , largest inhabited island of the County Donegal and with 7 square miles of land is 2nd of all inhabited Irish islands. It has a permanent population of around 650, summer pop of 1000. Settled in pre-Celtic times, an old fort and several middens-ancient landfills survive as reminders. And 62% of the population is native Irish speakers and the land did not have clean, piped water until mid-1970’s and it only had 47 business telephone lines until 1986 when an automatic
six years from 1845 to 1851 the Irish Famine caused approximately one million deaths from a population of eight and a half million. It is during this period that two million Irish people emigrated with a further three million emigrating in the subsequent 50 years. Historians including Ó Gráda illustrate the longevity and significance of the Famine on Irish society, showing how the event shaped Ireland both economically and indeed politically. Although the Irish famine was not the most devastating
their ethnic group. Such is the case of the Irish who migrated to Quebec from 1815 to the Potato Famine of 1847. What causes and factors drove these people to cross an ocean and leave their homeland for the unknown prospects of Quebec? To examine and fully answer this question, one must look at the social, economic and religious conditions in Ireland at the time, as well as what drew the Irish to Quebec rather than somewhere else. To know why the Irish left Ireland, one must look at what was going
The Irish Potato Famine was a period of starvation, disease and emigration, and was known as one of the biggest tragedies from 1845 to 1847. Many people depended on potato crops to survive; however [comma] the potato crops acquired blight, a disease that caused the potatoes to rot while still in the ground. No good crops could be grown for two years [comma] causing Irish tenant farmers unable to pay rent and was forced off their land causing over 21,000 people to die of starvation. The Irish Potato
Revival of the Irish Culture People of Irish decent share a pride in their national heritage perhaps unlike any other culture today. Many Irish homes are decorated with clovers, flags, and other Gaelic symbols even today. This enthusiasm for Irish culture has not always been around. In fact, this source of pride can be traced back to one cultural revival movement in Ireland during the 1800’s. During this time, the people of Ireland formed the Gaelic League to unify their country, and to give
The Great Irish Famine The great famine of Ireland began around the year of 1845, when a deadly fungus reached the crops, leaving thousands of acres of land filled with black rot, and diseased crops (Szabo). This disease has become commonly known as the blight. The blight was a “mysterious disease” that “almost universally affected the potatoes on the island” (Kinealy 31). This suspicious “blight” had traveled to Europe from North America, affecting mostly Ireland (Bloy). The blight turned
Irish Immigration to Canada 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
Irish Immigrants in Boston The life of Irish immigrants in Boston was one of poverty and discrimination. The religiously centered culture of the Irish has along with their importance on family has allowed the Irish to prosper and persevere through times of injustice. Boston's Irish immigrant population amounted to a tenth of its population. Many after arriving could not find suitable jobs and ended up living where earlier generations had resided. This attributed to the 'invisibility' of the
Irish Bagpipes (Brian Boru pipe) The bagpipes have been a huge part of Irish music for many years. Today the bagpipe is synonymous with Scotland, but the pipes really came from Ireland. The earliest bag pipes date back to 4000 B.C. in the Middle East, where a bagpipe is found in Chaldean sculptures. This evidence shows it is ancient, certainly as old as the harp and nearly as old as the drum. Greeks, Egyptians and Romans all marched to the sound of the pipes to battle. As for Ireland, a seventh-century
In the early 1800s life in Ireland wasn’t easy, Irish citizens got by day to day by farming and relying on the potato. The potato was their main source of food and money. With out the potato the Irish would have nothing. No one was prepared for what was about to happen in 1845, the beginning of the Great Irish Potato Famine. The Irish Potato Famine was the worst tragedy in the history of Ireland. The outcome of the famine would result in hundreds of thousands dead, an failure of the economy in
The Irish Troubles: Yeat's Poetry William Butler Yeats, born in Dublin, Ireland [June 13, 1865], is considered by many to be one of the greatest English-language poets of the 20th century. The following exposition, grounded on the hypothesis that Yeats’ poetry was resolutely influenced by the political occurrences of that time period, will give biographical information, a recounting of the political upheaval during that period, specific poetry excerpts/critical analysis and validation of hypothesis