Protestants and Catholics were partitioned into two political categories of person which were known as Unionists and Nationalists.
Unionists are from the Protestant community. Many Unionists descended from Scottish and English Immigrants who came to Northern Ireland (Ulster) during the 17th century plantation. Unionists now form the majority of the population in Northern Ireland (Ulster) and they want to remain part of Great Britain. Unionism came about in 1800 when the act of Union was setup.
Nationalists are from the Catholic community and want Ireland to be a democratic country again. Nationalists want their land back which was taken away when the penal laws were introduced in 1695. There were two types of Nationalist; a peaceful, non-violent Nationalist and a violent Nationalist.
The Nationalists were the more violent political side and they were determined to make Ireland into a democratic country again. To do this they set created the Home Rule bill. Home Rule was a political bill which was created by the Nationalists and approved by the House of Commons which was supposed to help Ireland become a democratic country again but each time the bill was blocked by the House of Lords.
The Penal Laws were setup after William of Orange won the battle of Boyne in 1690. The defeat by the Protestant side took away a great deal of authority from the Irish and handed it over to the English, but still the Catholics had the potential power to overthrow the protestants living in Ireland because the Catholics owned more land than the Protestants at this time. The Penal laws were designed to relieve all the power of the Catholics so Protestants could have full control of Ireland. The Penal Laws which all Catholics were made to abide by were: Catholics were prohibited from voting, Catholics were not permitted to purchase land, It was illegal to lease land for more than 31 years, It was illegal to teach the Catholic religion to adults as well as children, It was illegal for Catholic bishops to remain in Ireland or to enter Ireland from abroad, No Catholic could possess a weapon, It was illegal to harbour or otherwise assist Catholic bishops and any lands which a Catholic managed to own had to be divided equally among all of his sons at the time of his death. This added to the reason why Ireland was partitioned because after the Penal Laws were introduced the Catholics began to rebel again.
During the 1800’s the main food source was the potato but in 1845 the potatoes became infected with a fungal disease which wiped out the crop and crippled the following crops for the next five years because the fungal disease was still evident in most areas of Ireland. One to two million people died of starvation due to the great potato famine. Most of the people who died of starvation during the great potato famine were poor Catholic farmers who couldn’t afford the low quantities of imported food from Northern Ireland (Ulster) and the United Kingdom. It was the fact that the English didn’t provide enough aid to the Catholics dying of starvation which led to the hatred of the English by Catholic farmers. The angry Catholics wanted to rebel against the English protestants so they formed a large group known as Violent Nationalists. The Violent Nationalists called themselves the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB) which later went on to form the Irish Republican Army (IRA).
In 1914 Ireland was on the verge of a civil war because of two main factors. The first factor was violent protests and fighting between the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) and the Irish Volunteers. Up until 1914 both sides were not really taken seriously but in 1914 both sides started to use large scales of illegal weapons. This caused the amount of violence to grow. The second factor which allowed Ireland to be on the verge of a civil war in 1914 was the Curragh Mutiny which occurred when several senior officers based at the Curragh Army Camp near Dublin threatened to resign if they were ordered to enforce the Home Rule bill. This problem caused a lot of pressure to fall on British Prime Minister Asquith.
After the Anglo-Irish war broke out between 1919 and 1921, the Anglo-Irish Treaty came about to end the violence once and for all. The Anglo-Irish Treaty came up with an agreement in 1921 that twenty six counties of Ireland would become an Irish free state (Republic of Ireland) whilst the remaining six counties (Ulster) were free to join the United Kingdom and were to serve under the British Government.
Ireland was partitioned in 1921 to stop the violence once and for all between Catholics and Protestants by satisfying the Unionist’s and Nationalist’s terms. To give both sides what they wanted Ireland had to be partitioned into two parts which are known today as the Republic of Ireland (Eire) and Northern Ireland (Ulster). The land was divided up so that twenty six counties belong to the Republic of Ireland (Eire) where the Catholic Church is free dominate and into Northern Ireland (Ulster) where Protestants are free to retain links with the U.K. Northern Ireland consists of the six remaining counties which used to make up Ireland as a whole country.