english vs irish 1800-1916

The history between the English and the Irish from 1800 to 1916 had been rough due to religious disagreements, tradition, political struggles, and nationalism in both countries. Ireland wanted to be an independent nation and England wanted to keep it for their selves. According to the British, they have had an immense amount of cultural and political

influence over the Irish since 1171, before Ireland was even a unified country. Since they had been apart of the history of Ireland, they deserved to maintain its lands. The Irish believed that since they cultivated the land, and lived off of it, they deserved independence. Being ruled by a King of a different religion across the sea did not seem to make sense. After many Irish rebellions and Ireland had unified, the British put the Act of Union into affect in 1801, which said that Great Britain and Ireland were joined to make the United Kingdom. William Pitt felt that “Ireland must be governed in the English interest” (Document 1). As a result, the Irish rebelled yet again, but without any outcome other than being repressed. Ireland is, by majority, a Roman Catholic nation (Document 9) where as King Henry VIII made England a Protestant nation due to a conflict between him and the Pope. However, there were some Irish Protestants who wanted the Act of Union to remain in place to uphold the history between the two countries (Document 2). The Catholics believed that “time would heal the evil” of the Protestants and their hatred towards the Catholics; eventually common sense would endure and everyone would live in religious harmony (Document 10) People in England were preaching of the heathen Irish who worshipped a Pope who committed adultery (Document 4). Due to this scandalous worship, English was burdened with the task of governing Ireland.

During this time, England was going through “the age of optimism” where the sun never set on the British Empire, and they wished to keep this status. Nationalism was also running strong in Ireland as newspapers wrote of the Celtic race and all its beauty while degrading the English crave of power (Document 13). The English still felt a strong tie

to the history of Ireland. They claimed that “all of civilization, arts, comfort, wealth that Ireland enjoys she owes exclusively to England” (Document 5). Ireland even composed the Irish Republican Brotherhood who swore and oath of allegiance to the ...

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wanted to re-establish the independence or Ireland. They encouraged the Celtic language, history, music, and art in order to block out any English influence in Ireland (Document 8). Many unsuccessful rebellions resulted from all of the pride in the Irish. Until, in 1867, the IRB had support of Irish Americans who had emigrated during the potato famine. After gaining military arms from the Germans, the out break of World War One was seized as the perfect opportunity to rebel in what is called the Easter Rebellion. Meanwhile, the bill for the “Home Rule” was being debated in Parliament.

British Parliament was running Ireland without any Irish say because Catholics were not allowed in the Parliament of the United Kingdom, at least not until 1828 when Daniel O’Connel was omitted in. Still, his attempts to repeal the Act of Union failed. The idea of ruling “the best part of Ireland” to get “control of the worst” was England’s plan

(Document 7). Some Irish did not want the Home Rule to pass and wished to stay apart of the United Kingdom in order to spread the ideas of Protestants, starting with Ulster, a predominately Protestant area (Documents 9 and 12). Most of the citizens of Ireland thought that the land of Ireland belonged to them and only them. The English reaped it for profits, but did not cultivate it, and the Irish in turn, gained no profit. With the English no longer in charge, the Irish could live independently from profits they would keep. As it was, they were capable of maintaining an army with the money they had (Document 6).

In 1916, the Irish Republic was at last recognized as a Sovereign Independent State with “guaranteed civil liberty, equal rights, and equal opportunities to all its citizens” (Document 14). The religious conflicts were resolved and put in the past as the pursuit of happiness and prosperity was to be the goal of the new nation. The Easter Rebellion was a success, proved by the issuing of the Proclamation of the Irish Republic in 1916. Ulster still remained apart of the United Kingdom, as was wasted. Without the strength of nationalism and religious beliefs, Ireland would not have been where it

is today.