In 1690 the Penal Laws were passed which strengthened the Protestant power. Catholics couldn’t vote, own land, own a horse or a gun they could become an M.P or join the army.
The Act of Union, which was passed in 1800 and took effect on January 1 1801, joined Great Britain and all of Ireland into the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. The merger followed a fierce but unsuccessful rebellion against British rule in Ireland. The Irish were allocated 32 members in the British House of Lords. The Roman Catholic Irish were denied the right to hold political office.
Whilst under the Act of Union the famine in British-ruled Ireland was caused by the failure of the Irish potato crop and British government inaction. Most of the landowners were Catholics and they relied on the potato crop. In 1846 the crop failed and the results of the famine drove away many Irish Catholics to emigrate abroad. English landlords were blamed for the famine, as the tenants couldn’t pay their rent. The British Government where seen as unresponsive to the plight of Catholics. This action showed the division between Catholics and Protestants. This showed that the protestants were behaving as they had intended, being English and different from Irish Catholics and holding political power.
The Fenians were the Irish Republican Brotherhood, Irish Nationalists. They wanted a united Ireland and free from foreign control and they were willing to break a revolution. The movement was composed of two divisions. A secret society in Ireland called the Irish Republican Brotherhood. Branches of the movement were established among people of Irish origin in Britain. The Irish divisions were organized concurrently around 1858 and were called the Irish Republican Army (IRA). The wee also known as the Revolutionary Nationalists and they wanted an end to British Rule in Ireland and they wanted their own Irish republic and they were willing to use violence to achieve this.
The Parliamentary Nationalists were willing to use peaceful means to achieve their aim of the return of the Irish parliament. They wanted Home Rule of Ireland so that they stay part of the U.K.
The unionists don’t want to see an end to the Act Of Union, which joined Great Britain in 1800. Their only fear is being out number by the Nationalists and the loss of their privilege and power.
The IRA today have had many attempts on war such as in February 1996, when they ended their 17-month ceasefire by exploding a huge bomb in London’s Docklands. Over the next nine days another two bombs were planted in London; the first was defused; the second went off, killing the bomber and another man, and injuring more people. On June 15 a huge IRA bomb exploded in Manchester city centre, although nobody was killed, hundreds were injured. The Irish government therefore announced that it would have to re-evaluate its relationship with Sinn Fein, and backed Britain’s insistence on a permanent IRA ceasefire.
The Easter rising was the armed uprising of the Irish Nationalists against the rule of Britain in Ireland. The chief objectives were the attainment of political freedom and the establishment of an Irish republic. Centuries of discontent, marked by numerous rebellions, preceded the uprising. The new crisis began to develop in 1914, following the outbreak of World War I, when the British government suspended the recently enacted Home Rule Bill, which guaranteed a measure of political independence to Ireland. During the World War I both Catholics and Protestant and to fight and live together which could have set some foundations for some resolution to the conflict between the religions.. Suspension of the bill stimulated the growth of the Irish Volunteers, a nationalist organization; and of the extremist Sinn Fein.
The leaders of the rebellion proclaimed the independence of Ireland and announced the establishment of a provisional government of the Irish Republic. Bitter street fighting developed in Dublin, during which the strengthened British forces steadily dislodged the Irish from their positions.
The uprising was the first of a series of events that culminated in the establishment of the Irish Free State in Ireland. Similar social and religious conflicts led the English and Scottish parliaments to take common action against Charles, and the Solemn League and Covenant was adopted by the two parliaments in 1643 during the English Civil War between Royalists and Parliamentarians.
The Partition of Ireland was a political division between an independent Irish State, the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. This was where the protestant majority had preferred to remain part of the UK. This partition had its roots of the Ulster plantation back in the 17th century. Today the system of integration would bring both nationalists and unionists together and they would live as one Irish State. This would not necessarily bring peace but it would bring solutions to some the problems between the two groups. The partition was seen as a permanent solution to the problem by separating the two religions. But today we can see that this was no the case. The nationalists want a united Ireland restored to what it was original and break free from the British government, but the unionists don’t want this they want to still have contact with Britain and remain part of the United Kingdom. The north of Ireland was very industrial and the south of Ireland was mainly agricultural so both were economical and would survive the partition.
A movement for the partition of Ireland first arose during the Irish Home Rule crisis of the 1880s, brought about by an Irish parliamentary party under leadership of an Irish Protestant, Charles Parnell. The Ulster unionists began to see their interests as diverging from those of unionists.
After the 1916 Easter Rising by the Irish Volunteers abortive attempts were made to find a way of advancing the introduction of Home Rule. These efforts failed because of the reluctance of Ulster Unionists to accept anything short of the exclusion of the whole of Ulster from Home Rule. In the December 1918 election, Unionists won 24 of the 39 Ulster seats, with separatist Sinn Fein securing 10 of the 15 seats won by nationalists.
December 1918 to the British House of Commons from Ireland declared the independence of the Irish Republic. The Dáil continued to meet as a revolutionary body until a truce with Great Britain and they met in 1921 and the following year, accepted the British proposal for the establishment of the Irish Free State.
A truce agreed between the Dáil and the British authorities in July 1921 led to negotiations in October-December and the signing of an agreement, the Anglo-Irish Treaty. This agreement provided that within one month of the establishment of an all-Ireland Region of the British Commonwealth, to be known as the Irish Free State.
Later, in negotiations that led to the Anglo-Irish Agreement of 1938, the issue of partition was raised, to no effect. However, in July 1940 an offer of Irish unity was made, without the knowledge of the Northern Ireland government, by the administration of Winston Churchill, in return for Irish participation in World War II.
Between 1954 and 1962 the IRA organized a campaign of cross-border raids. However, the persistence of discrimination against the Catholic Nationalist minority in Northern Ireland in relation to housing, employment, and the local government franchise provoked in the second half of the 1960s a civil rights campaign; and a hard-line response to this by the Northern Ireland government eventually led to rioting, to attacks on nationalist areas in Belfast, and to the introduction of the British army to restore order. This in turn led to a revival of the dormant IRA and to 25 years of terrorism and counter-terrorism. An increase of violence between Protestants and Catholics in Northern Ireland in the late 1960s was followed by the formation of the Provisional IRA.
In the late 1970s and early 1980s the Irish government faced difficult problems: increased terrorism in the North by the provisional IRA. In 1985 the Anglo-Irish Treaty was brought in and signed by the English prime minister.
Anglo-Irish Agreement was the official agreement on security cooperation between the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland.
The Agreement was a response to continuing violence in Northern Ireland between extremists from Catholic and Protestant communities, and to the continuing terrorist activities of the IRA, attended by growing Catholic support for the IRA’s allied party, Sinn Fein. It recognized formally that no change could occur in Northern Ireland’s political status without the consent of the majority of people living there. It also established an Intergovernmental Conference the British and Irish governments, could meet and discuss matters in Northern Ireland. Irish ministers were given an opportunity to raise matters of concern to the Catholic nationalist minority within Northern Ireland. The conference was intended to accommodate the rights and identities of nationalists and unionists in Northern Ireland, and to work towards the establishment of devolved government in Northern Ireland.
It was hoped that the Irish government’s influence on the administration of Northern Ireland would safeguard nationalist interests and weaken both Sinn Fein and the IRA’s support within the nationalist community. In 1985 the agreement was seen as a major symbolic advancement for nationalists in Northern Ireland. However, the Agreement did not substantially undermine Sinn Fein’s share of the popular vote, which was already in decline prior to the signing of the Agreement.
The announcement on August 31, 1994, of a ceasefire by the IRA was welcomed by Reynolds, who was prepared to accept it as permanent before the British government; he met with Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams and John Hume, a week after the announcement. In October the government announced proposals to revoke the 1976 emergency powers act.
In October 13, 1997, the Sinn Fein leaders met the new British prime minister, Tony Blair, for the first time at Stormont Castle, the first Republican encounters with a British premier since Michael Collins negotiated the partition of Ireland in 1921. In January 1998 Sinn Fein formally rejected the British and Irish governments’ new proposals for a settlement and the next phase of the talks was aborted because of a series of Republican and Loyalist killings. These were succeeded by various Republican bomb attacks in the North during March and April.
Several days of frantic activity between the Irish and British governments and all parties finally led to the Good Friday Agreement, signed by the Irish and the British prime ministers, on Good Friday, April 10, 1998.
The main principles of the agreement are:
1) Change in the status of Northern Ireland can only come about with the consent of a majority of its people, and if that situation changes, there is a binding obligation on both governments to comply with the wishes expressed by the people of the North.
2) The right of the people in Northern Ireland to hold both British and Irish citizenship remains, and would not change even if the status of Northern Ireland changed.
3) Proposed new North-South bodies are to be set up.
4) A 108-member assembly is to be elected by proportional representation; key decisions of the assembly must be taken on a cross-community basis. For a decision to be made by simple majority, there must be a majority between both Nationalist and Unionist members. The assembly will meet first as an interim body without legislative and executive powers.
5) A new British-Irish Agreement will establish a new British-Irish Conference, which will subsume the inter-governmental machinery established under the 1985 Anglo-Irish Agreement.
All of the peaces agreements, which have been passed the 1985 Anglo-Irish Agreement, the Peace Agreement 1995, and the Good Friday Agreement are all showing the recognition of Catholics with the South. Although these agreements are seen as recognition to Catholics but the only problem is that the Protestants might not agree with them and there is a much larger problem. For these agreements to work they must appeal to both Nationalists and Unionists.
The Irish government was bound by the Stormont Agreement to hold a referendum to amend Articles 2 and 3. This referendum was held in the Republic on May 22, the same day as the referendum in the North; the result in the Irish Republic was an overwhelming 94.39 per cent vote in favour of the agreement.
In Northern Ireland’s referendum, over 71 per cent of voters endorsed the agreement; a clear majority of Unionists taking part in the referendum voted “Yes”, despite the efforts of the “No” campaign’s leaders. The Unionist vote was 54 per cent to 46 per cent in favour. There was a turnout of almost 81 per cent, higher than at any election and surpassing all expectations.
Recent events in Ireland show the some sort of decommissioning of arms by the IRA. This has enabled the peace process to be saved and now can get back on track. This means that Ireland could have a power sharing government, which enables both unionists and nationalists to share the Parliament in Northern Ireland. This is a good sign for Ireland and even Ulster Unionist Leader David Trimble said that he is satisfied with the IRA’s Decommissioning of arms.
The advantages of integration are that Moderate Protestants would be happy and this would help solve some of the fighting and conflict between nationalist and loyalists. With these Protestants happy then there would be a small minority of extremist who still believe that Ireland should be ruled and remain part of the UK.
This integration too could stop a lot of terrorism and it could also stop extremist groups such as the IRA and nationalist terrorism. If the Protestants were happy there would be no need for them to start the conflict because the Catholics would agree to the situation and there would be no reason to fight or cause harm to anyone. Also nationalist and loyalists are prepared to work together and come to an agreement. This is shown in a referendum where 70% of the population voted in favour of a united Ireland and there is no evidence to suggest that the whole of the nationalists majority in the population that voted for this, it could have been some of the loyalists too.
The united Ireland would be economically stronger than two separate countries; Ireland would then have a bigger industry and be able to support themselves.
There would have to be fully fair elections but there might be cases of Gerry Mandering so that people try to fix votes and select a parliament or government that people don’t want. Also there is a larger majority of Catholics than Protestants so there would be a chance that the election would be unfair to the Protestants. This was done by the Protestants to try and keep political power, but this fair election would give other MP’s a chance to make a success of a United Ireland. The government will have to think about the Protestants in elections and the majority of the population is catholic. Both parties need to be thought about in order
It may also end the decline in the population of Ireland. If people can see that a part of the problem has been solve people will return who once emigrated from America, England and from the rest of the world. People will also want to move from England and come to live in Ireland because some of the terrorism has stopped and people could see that the integration was a good idea. It could cause an increase in Ireland’s population and people will come and see the country in its true beauty.
The nationalist majority would be happy with the solution because the population is approximately 70% catholic. The integration of Ireland is surely the future as 70% of the population of the Republic of Ireland voted for this showing that they are willing to compromise and try and achieve both a united Ireland but also remain part of the U.K. They would be happy because it would be what they wanted what they have believed in for a long time. But not all nationalists may want this some would prefer to be separated or even become part of the United Kingdom.
There would no longer be the need for the presence of the British military because problems may have been solved with the integration. There would no longer be a need for war terrorism because the both nationalists and loyalists would be happy with this system. This would be beneficial to England as there would be more soldiers to help in other problems which England have to face. The British Military presence in Ireland is leaving Britain with fewer soldiers, which are needed by Britain for other problems. But would the Catholics and Protestants just give up this fighting just because of this solution, would the British Military just leave them to themselves. I think that the British Military need to be there because they conflict will not stop because of a political decision.
There would be many disadvantages to the scheme because it could just cause even more problems in Ireland. Many of the loyalists would not be happy with the situation because this is not what they wanted. They wanted to remain part of the UK. But integration would the two religious groups joining together as one. This means Ireland would be one country in itself. Many of the loyalists would be in fear of the nationalist rule, because of the majority of nationalists to loyalists. It would be an unfair rule of Ireland because it would hear the voices mainly of the nationalists.
Northern Ireland is economically stronger there are not enough jobs in Ireland and many people end up on the dole and live in council accommodation. This is a downside to the industrial city, its economically large.
There would an extreme rise in terrorism from the loyalists. This is what they didn’t want. It would just another problem, the nationalists would have won and they loyalists would feel defeated. There would hatred to because they took away what the loyalists intended. There would have been no thought about them. The loyalist would feel betrayed by the Nationalist winning over power and money just causing more problems with Ireland.
My solution to the problem would be to try and separate Ireland into two countries Northern Ireland being for the loyalist and they would be ruled from England. The southern part of Ireland would be for the nationalists. The only problem with this is that the nationalist would have a much larger country and they would be economically stronger than the other. The only way to solve violence would be splitting the two groups apart but that would be virtually impossible. There is going to be some extreme groups and some moderate groups to the sides. The Partition of Ireland from 1921 has caused a lot more problems. If the two had remained together then the idea of integration would seem the only option. By splitting the two has made conflict grow more between the sides.
I think that there will never be a solution to the problem. People need to considerate other people. In Britain there is none of this violence or racial hatred because people have learnt over the years to accept each other and in a realistic world in Ireland they need to do this. They need to try and put this hatred behind them and live in the future and see what they are doing to their country. There will never be a solution with violence because people will retaliate out of anger and sadness.
I think that attempts by the loyalist to stop a united are using the wrong message to show their beliefs, why did they have to resort to bombs to get their message clear. Innocent people would have been killed for a reason to show that the loyalist didn’t want a United Ireland. Although in the past the IRA hasn’t been able to keep to their decommissioning recently they did do this and this does show a good sign for Ireland for the future. Before the IRA made it difficult for talks to take place which they may have been able to help the situation in Ireland. Also in a United Ireland there would a higher number of nationalists compared to the number of unionists. This in this past has led unionist to believe that they may feel under threat by the nationalists and it wouldn’t be fair to them to join and become one state. I think that this is true that nationalists do have the majority and some may use it against unionists. The majority is also because of the small number of Protestants, which were planted into England by King James. This majority as led to a lot of violence in the past.
Would there be an end to the IRA because they make money from terrorism so the IRA would loose out on a lot of money. The IRA are a strong terrorist group with extremists would they be able to give this up for peace in Ireland. I think personally there will never be an end to the Ira, if this was such a big business and they made lots of money they wouldn’t give all that up for a United.
The British Government I think sees Ireland as a defence unit for Britain. If Britain help and try and give both nationalists and loyalist what they wanted they could probably bring in other terrorists groups and open fire in England.
In every party there are moderate and extremists and if a solution was to be proposed the moderate people might agree but what is to say that the extremists would. The extremists are going to fight and put forward their views and use violence the moderates are willing to make sacrifices unlike the extremists.
Realistically there will never be a solution. People are too strong-minded in their beliefs, which they have been given and brought up by parents and grandparents. They need to forgive and forget but it will never be that simple. Even if the government were to agree this doesn’t mean to say that the people of Ireland will agree to it because they might not believe in the same things as the politicians do and to them it seems that they don’t have a say on what happens in their country. It’s the people in Ireland that need to come up with a solution, because it will affect their lives. I think that there might not be a solution because of the government even though they are only trying to help Ireland but if only the people were to have a say then their might be a solution out there and people themselves maybe willing to come together and live as one Irish State.
