Modern World Study- Conflict in Ireland

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Modern World Study- Conflict in Ireland

Ireland is divided by two religions that have been fighting for hundreds of years, Catholics and Protestants. Catholics want the whole of Ireland to be an independent state and most of them are nationalists, but Protestants generally want Ireland to stay in control of the United Kingdom, they are unionists. Throughout the fighting over who should rule Ireland there have been many great events in the last century between the two religions, probably the most famous and significant being the Easter Rising in 1916, the deployment of British troops in 1969 and Bloody Sunday on 30th January 1972.

On the Morning of Easter Monday, 1916 about 1250 revolutionary Nationalists started a rebellion in Ireland, and set out to capture the most prominent buildings in Dublin, including The General Post Office. Many Catholics including Patrick Pearse and James Connolly, who were two of the main instigators thought that fighting and dying for England was unacceptable. They thought that the only way to gain an independent state was to start using violence. Patrick Pearse stated that “The day is coming when I shall be shot, swept away, and my colleagues like me. Shot like the others. We’ll all be shot." Which shows he thought that it was an almost suicidal mission, but he carried on anyway. I think that he was hoping that the British would get too scared, especially with the War going on, and just give in to what they wanted, but the British in fact became even less willing to back down.

James Connolly said that the British Government was “a government that even whilst it is calling us to die for it, refuses to give a straight answer to our demand for home rule.” He joined Patrick Pearse and together they and thousands of other loyal nationalists planned to take over Dublin and declare Ireland an Independent Republic in Easter 1916. During the First World War, a man called Roger Casement had persuaded the Germans to sell him and all the other rebels’ shiploads of guns and ammunition. The British found out and captured a ship heading towards Ireland with 2000 rifles and ammunition. Pearse and Connelly didn’t let this deter them, and went ahead with only rifles and no artillery. They hoped that the British Army would not use artillery as too much important property may be damaged, and a lot of it was owned by British companies.

        Instead of gathering at dawn so that not as many people saw them, the rebels marched at midday in full view of everyone on the bank holiday. They were proud of what they were doing. They seized the General Post Office, as well as more than 10 other buildings, on both sides of the river Liffey, and made it their headquarters. Due to lack of people they could not take other very important buildings such as Dublin Castle and Trinity College. The General Post Office was the centre of communication, so they could control what came in and went out. They cut the telephone wires, which was stupid because they had no phone lines between their main bases and had to have messengers to run between them to keep into contact with each other, although after a while this became too dangerous.

The British had had an advanced warning of the rebel’s actions, so they sent more troops out to Ireland and used the weapons that they took off of the German ship. Troops stationed near to Dublin were brought in and Dublin Castle informed Lord French, the most senior British Army Officer based in London what was going on. He was Irish, but a strong unionist and ordered four army divisions to be sent to Dublin. He wanted the rebels crushed.

        1600 men took their positions in Dublin, ready to attack. Patrick Pearse declared that Ireland was now an Independent Republic, even though they were outnumbered 3:1. The British Army surrounded the area of the rebels and brought in artillery that was based in Trinity College. Their plan was to split the rebels in half by driving a wedge between them, as this would make it easier to fight them. the rebels based at Boland’s Flour Mill failed to stop British Reinforcements landing at Dublin’s docks and by the next day they were outnumbered 20:1. They new they had no chance of winning now.

The British started their attack on the rebels on the Wednesday. The rebels had hoped that the British Army would spare the buildings that Belonged to British companies and buildings that were very important, which would have been their protection, but this didn’t happen. The Army destroyed any building that they thought was necessary to demolish. The British fired a gunboat called ‘Helga’ from the river Liffey into Dublin, firing two 18lb guns at close range. The damage was enormous, and many innocent civilians were injured or had died. The fighting went on for a week, causing destruction everywhere, any building that was thought to have a rebel inside was destroyed and many people were shot in cold blood. There were fires raging everywhere, and instead of putting them out the Army thought it would assist with getting rid of the rebels. They also killed anyone who was not in Army uniform, which was why so many innocent people died.

By the Friday the General Post Office was nearly collapsing and the rebels that had been there escaped to a nearby building. In Kings street they tried one last time to stand up for what they believed in but up against 5000 troops the residual rebels had basically no chance.

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On Saturday 29th April 1916 the rebels finally surrendered after 300 civilians, 60 rebels and 130 British soldiers were killed, with over 200 injured, Including James Connolly. On Sunday, the rebels were marched across Dublin to prison. At times they were mocked and taunted by the people of Dublin that had survived, who had seen part of their city wrecked. Damage to central Dublin totalled £2.5 million.

Shortly after the rising the Public were feeling all kinds of emotions, they were shocked, angry and becoming hostile. At first many people were outraged by the Catholics, but soon their opinions changed.

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