Choose two events from the last 100 years, which are particularly important in shaping the views of today's Protestants and Catholics.

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Question 2                        History Coursework                        Lorna Hullah                                

        Choose two events from the last 100 years, which are particularly important in shaping the views of today’s Protestants and Catholics.

        Many events in the last 100 years have played a role in shaping the views of Irish citizens whether they are Protestant, Catholic or of no apparent religion. The never-ending argument in Ireland has been going on for so long that people can no longer remember the primary causes of this quarrel. Ireland has been developed over a number of years into a stereotyped country, which has been unfairly, artificially divided.

The two events that I have chosen to discuss in further detail are Bloody Sunday and the Easter Rising. I feel that these two events have played major roles in shaping the views of today’s Protestants and Catholics. I will be using Bloody Sunday to portray the views of the Catholics and the Easter Rising to put forward a Protestant view.

I will begin this assignment by discussing the Easter Rising. This event took place

On, the 24th April 1916, at the time, the British were participating in the war against Germany. A number of Irish people had put their hatred and views behind them and gone to war with Germany in order to support the British people. Everything seemed to be fine for the Protestants. It wouldn’t have seemed as though all of the problems between Protestants and Catholics had gone away but, it may have seemed at the time that the Protestants and Catholics were getting along better with no other motives. So, when the British ceased a ship containing fire arms intended for the IRB, the Protestants would have felt extremely betrayed and disappointed with the Catholics. The Catholics were behaving like traitors trying to hit the Protestants at the worst possible time, when they were at war. Action had to be taken by the British, they didn’t have any other option. Meanwhile, in Ireland a man called Patrick Pearse (Part of the IRB) and a man called James Connolly armed with his socialist Irish Citizen Army, marched with a small following to the General Post Office in Sackville Street. When they arrived at the Post office, Connolly began to read out a document, which, happened to contain the words that would change Ireland’s history forever. There were only around 1500 men at the Post office supporting Pearse and Connolly. They proclaimed the existence of an independent Irish Republic. The British authorities eventually got the upper hand over the rebels by flooding Ireland with troops. It was not long before the gunboat Helga was plunged into action to shell the centre of the rebels operation. The damage that this ship, along with the authorities did was outstanding.  A day later, Major General Sir John Maxwell arrived in Dublin to take control of the civil and military authorities, and they set out to destroy Irish Revolutionary nationalism. On the Friday evening, pearse and Connolly, carried on a stretcher left the General Post office and agreed to signing a cease-fire order on the basis of unconditional surrender.  It was this dramatic gesture of defiance that turned out to be the beginning of the end of British rule in twenty-six of Ireland’s thirty-two countries.

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Both the Catholics and the Protestants suffered great losses. 250 civilians, 64 rebels, and 132 members of the crown forces were killed and 2, 600 people were injured. Pearse, Connolly and about a dozen rebel leaders were executed in Kilmainham jail.

If you were a Protestants in this position, you would be engaged in a war with Germany, with some of the Irish fighting for you and your country, and then you find that a number of Catholics have planned a rebellion against your country you would be very angry and upset. The Protestants must have felt stabbed in the ...

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