Ireland's Troubled History

Authors Avatar
Ireland's Troubled History

Updated: April 1999

The first British involvement in Ireland began in 1169, when Anglo-Norman troops arrived at Bannow Bay in County Wexford. During the next half millennium, successive English rulers attempted to colonize the island, pitching battles to increase their holdings - moves that sparked periodic rebellion by the Irish.

As the English gradually expanded their reach over the island by the 16th century, religious persecution of Catholic Irish grew - in particular after the accession of Elizabeth I, a Protestant, to the throne in 1558. Oliver Cromwell's subsequent siege of Ireland in 1649 ended with massacres of Catholics at Drogheda and Wexford and forced the resettlement of thousands, many of whom lost their homes in the struggle. By 1691, with the victory of Protestant English King William III over the Catholic forces of James II, Protestant supremacy in Ireland had become complete.

Catholics in Ireland suffered greatly in the subsequent period of British occupation, enduring laws that prevented them from bearing arms, holding public office and restricting their rights to an education. While many of those rights were eventually restored, the animosity between Catholics and Protestants remained. With the passing of the Act of Union in 1800, a law that joined England and Ireland as one, the island became officially governed by London.

Home Rule

During the next century, several movements sprang up to push for a more independent Ireland. One of them, the so-called "Home Rule" movement founded in the 1870s, pushed for the establishment of a separate Irish parliament to govern domestic affairs. Through the early 20th century, Home Rule became the focus of political debate, drawing bitter opposition from the island's Protestants, who vowed to resist the movement with violence.

The intervention of World War I prevented the enactment of Home Rule, which was passed by the House of Commons for the second time in 1914. Still, the movement for Irish self-rule continued.
Join now!


Easter Rising and the Partitioning of Ireland

In 1916, Irish nationalists stormed the General Post Office and other key buildings in Dublin during Easter week, proclaiming the formation of an Irish republic. The uprising failed and most of the leaders were eventually executed. However, the action would create a wave of sympathy for the recently formed Sinn Fein (which advocated Irish independence) and its leader Eamon de Valera, who had barely escaped execution for his role in the uprising. The popular support ran over into the 1918 general election: Sinn Fein won 73 seats to 31 for ...

This is a preview of the whole essay