bloody sunday assignment 1

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Ireland Assignment 1

        

Ireland is divided into two, religiously and politically. Religiously it is divided into the Roman Catholics, and the Protestants. This effects the country politically as the Catholics are Republicans and the Protestants are Unionists. It has lead to the split in Ireland, and causes a lot of violence. This violence has gotten so extreme that it has led to British troops entering Northern Ireland to help the situation.

Why were British Troops sent into Northern Ireland in 1969?

        

Ireland’s history has always been affected by England, due to how close it is.  As in the 16th century Ireland had a majority of Roman Catholics in the country and England was going through its Protestant Reformation (because King Henry VIII wanted a divorce as the Pope refused to grant him an annulment) Ireland’s stance politically became of interest to England. It was thought of as a “backdoor” to England, especially since Hitler had talked of Ireland being a base for attack on the west ports of England. As Ireland was still a Catholic country along with many others, it became more of a potential ally for those who were also Roman Catholic rather than Protestant England.

        This led to the Plantation of Ulster in the 17th century, as England took over Ireland. This encouraged English and Scottish Protestants to settle in Ireland, so that the Protestant population would increase. Scottish Protestants mainly settled in the north-east of Ireland and were known as Presbyterians. Land was stolen from Catholics, causing a revolt in 1641.

William III came to be the new Protestant King of England as he defeated James II, the previous Catholic King of England. The battle took place at the Boyne River, so it is known as the Battle of the Boyne. The Protestant minority now controlled the Catholic minority. As England went to war with Catholic France, William III passed a series of laws to object the alliance of France and Ireland. These were called the penal laws, and were as follows:

  • Catholics could not bear arms;
  • Catholic children could not be educated;
  • Catholics could not own a horse valued above £5;
  • Catholic Archbishops and Bishops had to leave Ireland;
  • Priests were not replaced when they died;
  • Catholics could not buy property;
  • On the death of the owner, catholic estates ad to be divided equally between the sons (although if a son became a Protestant he would obtain all the land);
  • Catholics could not have leases on land for over 32 years;
  • No Catholics could be lawyers, army officers of public officials;
  • Catholics could not vote or be MPs.

This repressed most rights that the Catholics had, so there was more violence between the Catholics and Protestants, as they began to invade and burn each other’s homes. To retort to this the Protestants formed the Orange Order in 1795, to maintain Protestant supremacy. The Protestant minority remained in control throughout the 18th century. Presbyterians became allies with Catholics, by the 1780’s, as they were not Anglicans themselves. They convinced the United Kingdom government to relax some of the penal laws as the Presbyterians were also treated like the Catholics. The parliament did not fulfil what most of the people wanted, and a new protest began. In 1791, The Society of United Irishmen was set up in Belfast and Dublin; this united the Presbyterians and the Catholics and demanded equal rights with the Anglicans. They were led by Theodore Wolfe Tone, and in 1798 he and his men led a bloody rebellion against British Rule. This inspired by the French Revolution, and when war broke out between England and France they were given the opportunity and help by the French. This rising was defeated, but as long as the war with the French went on there was still a threat of another rebellion.

The United Kingdom government thought that the best way to prevent further rebellion was to make Ireland part of the United Kingdom, this is known as the Act of Union and was passed in 1800. This meant the closure of the Irish government and current Irish MPs had to go to the parliament in Westminster. This meant that the Irish Mps would be a small minority, therefore would not have enough power to develop a separate policy for Ireland. This caused a major problem between Ireland and England.  Protestant and Catholics grew further apart; as many Catholics wanted Home Rule (which meant Ireland to be governed by the Irish for internal affairs and not British, but international affairs would still be left to the parliament at Westminster). This made them the Republicans, and as most of the Protestants wanted to be ruled by the United Kingdom they were the Unionists.

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This bitter feeling grew stronger in the 19th century, firstly as Ireland went through a famine in the 1840’s- the British government were blamed for the starvation and emigration of two million Irish, as they did not act efficiently. The north-east of Ireland then went through an industrial revolution- which attracted many Catholics from the south to the majority Protestant North. They were given the lowest paid jobs and tended to settle in their own religious communities. This caused more bitterness between the Protestants and Catholics and led to more violence between the two.

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