Ireland Coursework

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Ireland Coursework

There are two communities in Northern Ireland, Catholic and Protestant. Back in the 1500's all of the Irish people were Catholic but towards the late 1500's English Protestant rulers decided to take over Ireland. In order to keep control they put people in Ireland. This is called plantation. The people who were 'planted' were Protestants. This caused problems because the majority of Ireland was Catholics. Catholics began to rebel against English Protestants, they were called Nationalists. They were people who wanted Ireland to be as one country. The U.K responded by 'planting' more Protestants over in Northern Ireland. Most of the Protestants wanted to stay apart of the U.K, they were called Unionists. There were also Loyalists who wanted to stay apart of the U.K but used violence to do so. Republicans used violence to stay apart of the Republic of Ireland.

The potato famine increased hatred between Catholics and Protestants. The Protestants demanded rent off the Catholics; the peasant farmers used corn to pay it and ate potatoes. When the potatoes became famined, they had a choice- they could starve to death and pay their rent or get chucked out and loose everything!

Home Rule is when a country wants to rule itself; Ireland did not have this as they were ruled by the English. They were fed up because they wanted their own government and when William Gladstone became Prime Minister of England he made sure of it. Gladstone wanted to give the whole of Ireland a Government and Parliament set up in Dublin; this meant they would control all Irish MP's in Westminster. This caused a big impact on Northern Ireland because most of the population were Protestant which meant that a lot of the Government would be Catholic. The Protestants felt like they were being ruled by Catholics and didn't like it. However, the first Home Rule Bill was defeated in 1886 in the House of Commons. Gladstone was defeated in the general election polls in 1886 but was elected again in 1892. In 1893 The Home Rule Bill was passed in the House of Commons but was defeated again in the House of Lords, Gladstone tried once again but failed to get it through Parliament.

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During World War I, On Easter Monday 1916, around 1600 Irish rebels took up positions in different areas of Dublin ready for attack. The rebels wanted a national Ireland, one of the leading rebels Patrick Pearce, stood on the steps of their base- a post office and proclaimed what the rebels wanted. They basically wanted The Irish Republic to own and be entitled to rule and govern their own country, instead of the English. This caused the British forces to attack the rebels using gunboats across from the River Liffey. 220 civilians had been killed and £2.5 millions' worth of ...

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