Brief History of Ireland

IRELAND

There are two parts of Ireland. There?s the Republic
of Ireland, which is an independent country, and Northern Ireland, which
belongs to the United Kingdom. Northern Ireland has got six counties:
Fermanagh, Tyrone, Armagh, County Down, Antrim and Derry. The principal cities
in Northern Ireland are Belfast (the main city), Derry, Armagh, Enniskillen and
Omagh. Gaelic is the native language.

With the exception of Belfast, which is famous for the
manufacture of linen (and which is still a shipbuilding city), Northern
Ireland  is, like the rest of Ireland,
largely agricultural. I has several areas of spectacular natural beauty. One of
these is the Giant?s Causeway on its north coast, so-called because the rocks
in the area form what look like enormous stepping stones.

2.1 Historical moments

1170: The
Norman Invasion

Henry II of England attempted to attack Ireland. He
succeeded in establishing control in a small area around Dublin known as the
Pale. Over the next four centuries this area was the main place for the kingdom
of Ireland, adopting English administrative practices and the English language
and looking to London for protection and leadership. A number of attempts were
made to extend English control over the rest of Ireland, but the major
expansion of English dominion did not take place until the sixteenth century.

1608: The
battle of the Boyne

In 1608 there was the battle of Boyne, that confronted
James the Second of England and William the Orange, who came from Holland. They
were fighting in Ireland but the reason why they fought was who should be the
king of England. William the Orange (who had mostly protestant troops) won the
battle and James the Second (who had mostly catholic troops) fled.

1609: The
Plantation of Ulster

By the end of Queen Elizabeth’s reign, military
conquest had established English rule over most of the island of Ireland, with
the principal exception of the northern province of Ulster. The Ulster clans,
under Hugh O’Neill, had succeeded in overcoming their instinctive rivalries to
create an effective alliance against Elizabeth’s armies. After a long and
damaging campaign, Ulster was eventually brought under English control and the
Irish leaders left the island for Europe. Their land was confiscated and
distributed to colonists from Britain. By 1703, less than 5 per cent of the
land of Ulster was still in the hands of the Catholic Irish.

The Plantation of Ulster was unique among Irish
plantations in that it set out to attract colonists of all classes from
England, Scotland and Wales by generous offers of land. Essentially it wanted
to adapt a society to Ireland. The native Irish remained, but were initially
excluded from the towns built by the Planters, and banished to the mountains.
The aim of the Plantation of Ulster was the introduction of a foreign
community, which spoke a different language, represented an alien culture and
way of life. In addition, most of the newcomers were Protestant, while the
native Irish were Catholic. The same territory was occupied by two hostile
groups, one believing the land had been usurped and the other believing that
their tenure was constantly under threat of rebellion. They often lived in
separate quarters. They identified their differences as religious and cultural.

1801: Act of Union

The Act Of Union made Ireland a part of Britain. The
Irish parliament and government were abolished by an Act of Union and its
responsibilities taken over by Westminster. During the nineteenth century a
succession of movements attempted to overthrow the union. Some of these
movements, including the Repeal movement in the 1840s and the Home Rule
movement from the 1870s, were parliamentary. Others, like the Fenians and the
Irish Republican Brotherhood, were dedicated to overthrowing the union by the
use of physical force. During the First World War an armed rising was attempted
in Dublin during Easter week, 1916. The rising failed and the leaders were
executed, creating a wave of sympathy for the IRA and its political wing, Sinn
Féin. In the 1918 election Sinn Féin effectively replaced the old Irish
Parliamentary Party and established its own Irish parliament. The resulting War
of Independence between Britain and the IRA was eventually ended by a treaty in
1920.

Since the 1880s, many Ulster Protestants had become
increasingly concerned about the possible establishment of home rule for
Ireland. From 1918, Ulster Protestants increasingly settled for a fall-back
position and set out to ensure that the northern counties of Ireland, at least,
should be excluded from any Home Rule arrangements. The 1920 Government of
Ireland Act, which came into effect in the following year, recognised and
confirmed their position by partitioning the island. The Irish people made many
rebellions, for example, the Feinian Rising (1848) and the Easter Rising
(1916), which led to the war of independence (1916-1921). The end of the war,
was possible because both sides signed a treaty, where they agreed to a
partition of the country. Since then, the six counties of Northern Ireland have
been a part of the United Kingdom. But there were many Irish who were against
this partition, and there was a civil war in Ireland.

1921: Partition
 

The 1921 settlement caused a civil war in the southern
26 counties, between those willing to accept the settlement and those who
believed it was a betrayal. Northern Ireland, the name given to the new six
county administration, had been created through demographic compromise. It was
essentially the largest area which could be comfortably held with a majority in
favour of the union with Britain. The new arrangements established a
subordinate government in Belfast with authority over a number of devolved powers, including policing,
education, local government and social services.

The establishment of these institutions was a
challenge to what some Irish republicans saw as unfinished business. The
objective of securing a united independent Ireland, by force if necessary,
remained, and there were IRA campaigns in the 1920s, 1940s and 1950s. For many
unionists the union could only be maintained with constant vigilance. Emergency
legislation was introduced on a permanent basis; a police force and police reserve
was established which was almost exclusively Protestant; local government
electoral boundaries were openly gerrymandered, a stratagem also used by
nationalists when they were able to do so; and a system of economic
discrimination was introduced against the Catholic minority in Northern
Ireland. This minority formed about one third of the population for most of the
twentieth century, and currently represents around 40 per cent.

Civil Rights:
1969

By the 1950s there were growing signs that some Catholics
were prepared to accept equality within Northern Ireland rather than espouse
the more traditional aim of securing a united Ireland. In 1967 the Northern
Ireland Civil Rights Association was formed to demand liberal reforms,
including the removal of discrimination in the allocation of jobs and houses,
permanent emergency legislation and electoral abuses. The campaign was modelled
on the civil rights campaign in the United States, involving protests, marches,
sit-ins and the use of the media to publicise minority grievances. In 1968
there were the Civil Rights marches, where Catholics asked for basic rights,
like better jobs and equal employment opportunities. One year later, in 1969,
the British government sent the army, because the situation in Northern Ireland
between Catholics and Protestants  was
really problematic (houses being burned, etc.).

The local administration was unable to handle the
growing civil disorder, and in 1969 the British government sent in troops to
enforce order. Initially welcomed by the Catholic population, they soon
provided stimulus for the revival of the republican movement. The newly formed
Provisional IRA began a campaign of violence against the army. By 1972 it was
clear that the local Northern Irish government, having introduced internment in
1971 as a last attempt to impose control, was unable to handle the situation.
Invoking its powers under the Government of Ireland Act, the Westminster
parliament suspended the Northern Ireland government and replaced it with
direct rule from Westminster. This situation continued into the 1990s.

On paper the civil rights campaign had been a
remarkable success. Several of its objectives had been conceded by the end of
1970. By that time, however, proceedings had developed their own momentum. The
IRA campaign developed strongly from 1972. Instead of the riots between
Catholics and Protestants which had characterised 1969 and 1970, the conflict
increasingly took the form of violence between the Provisional IRA and the
British Army, with occasional bloody interventions by loyalist paramilitaries.
The violence reached a peak in 1972, when 468 people died. Since then it has
gradually declined to an annual average of below 100.

In 1985, the Irish and the British, signed a document
where it was said that the British government would have to consult the Irish
government about the affairs in Northern Ireland. This document was called the
Anglo-Irish-Agreement.

Us ha agradat aquest article? Compartiu-lo!