Conflict In Ireland

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 History

The Conflict in Ireland

Question 1 : Which of theses events had the biggest impact on the history of the conflict in Ireland?

  1. The Easter Rising 1916
  2. The Deployment of troops
  3. Bloody Sunday 1977

The conflict has been an on going issue in Ireland, there have been three main causes, and they are land/power, Politics and religion. Most of the issues began in the 1100s. When in 1171 King Henry II conquered Ireland, he realised there was no resistance and could widen his empire. From then on into the 1600s there have been problems, in 1649 the Cromwelian conquest took Catholic land and gave it to the English. In 1690 King William of Orange took over from the Irish king and brought in penal laws aimed at marginalising the Catholic faith.

I will discus The Easter Rising which happened in 1916 and the two other main events that I will be assessing, the Deployment of British troops and Bloody Sunday. They have all helped to shape the cause of Irish history in the 20th Century. But in this essay I will decide which one had the biggest impact on the conflict in Northern Ireland.

Easter rising

In 1912 Asquith, then Prime Minister introduced the Home Rule Bill. This meant self-government for Ireland, which had been long awaited. Although the Ulster Unionist Movement opposed it was unlikely this was going to stop it. But war broke out and the government decided to back the war effort and postpone the passing of the bill until the war had finished. Many outraged by this built up civilian armies.

On 24 April 1916 a force between 1000 to 1500 men and women based mainly around Dublin, with an of intention political freedom and the establishment of an independent country staged an armed revolt against the British authorities.

 They had been building up an army from 1915, combining the Irish National Volunteers and Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB) later they were joined by The Irish Citizens Army. They seized six places, the GPO, the Four Courts, Bolands Mill, St. Stephens Green, Jacobs Factory and the South Dublin Union. Attempts to seize Dublin Castle and Trinity College failed. The most famous is the post office, where Padrig Pease made his speech. On 29th April they surrendered to British forces, many people died and even more were arrested. Fifteen of the leaders were sentenced to execution including Padrig Pease and James Connolly.

 The impacts of Easter Rising vary, with some only having a small effect. In the 1918 general election Sinn Fein won 75 rising from six seats, compared to the more moderate Irish Parliament party who usually dominated the elections, dropping from 68 to seven. This happened after Eater Rising, even though Sinn Fein was not directly connected to the Easter rising. I do think this would be a short term impact as Sinn Fein’s popularity could easily have decreased or increased by the next election. The popularity of Sinn Fein gave the impression of the support of nationalist means more people maybe interested in violence to get their point across as Sinn Fein was a more hard line nationalist party. However, we know that Sinn Fein had also opposed conscription at this time so this could account for the increase in support.

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 Another short-term effect would be the fact that the media had twisted the story in many different ways, just to get more interest, but after a while the real truth becomes apparent. This would have made peoples views change and more things are stirred up in people’s views. At this time there was also a lot of sympathy for the Nationalist but no sympathy is going to last forever, is it? Especially if violence is rampant. But the fact the Nationalist could and would stand up for their beliefs would always be resting on someone’s mind and maybe worry ...

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