38.

THE WAR AT HOME: THE IRISH QUESTION SINCE 1800

THE MIDDLE AGES
 Henry II (1154 – 1189) and the conquest of Ireland
o Marcher Lords. When the Irish King of Leinster invited some Norman
Noblemen from Wales to help him with the conflict with other Irish kings.
o Richard de Clare, Earl of Pembroke (Strongbow) who layer inherited the
kingdom of Leinster initiating the English conquest of the East of Ireland
o This is also the time when Henry II became worried about the influence that
Strongbow had on Ireland and came to Ireland declaring himself the Lord of
Ireland.
 Ireland divided: The Pale (area around Dublin being most anglicized)
1315-1318 – the Scottish invasion in Ulster
1366 – the Statute of Kilkenny- Irish Parliament dominated the English one.
Statues mostly aimed at separating the English from the ‘negative influence of
Irish culture’.
THE TUDOR AND STUART EPOCH
 Henry VII
o “Poynings’ Law” (Statue of Kilkenny reenacted). Edward Poyning was
Tudor soldier nominated Lord Deputy of Ireland by Henry VII and it was
after her arrived in Ireland with a small army to deal with the local
trouble. He made Irish Parliament enact a law by means of which Irish
Parliament would believe that any law made by the Irish Parliament
would become law only if confirmed by Parliament of England
 Henry VIII (1509-1547)
o The Reformation: the religious division. We’ve got now the Irish
Catholics loyal to the Celtic tradition and the Irish Protestants mostly
descendants of English settlers.
 Elizabeth I
o English colonization (Walter Raleigh, Edmund Spencer)
 The Commonwealth (1649-1660)
o Cromwell’s invasion of Ireland: 1649-1650 when the Irish did not want
to accept the new government
 The siege of Drogheda (1649)
 The sack of Wexford (1649)
 Brutality an massacres
 Catholic services forbidden
 Catholics lose land
 The Stuart Epoch
o The landing of James II in Ireland (1689)
o 1690 – the battle of the Boyne. Arrival of King William with mostly his
Dutch soldiers which culminated in the battle of the Boyne in which the
Protestant forces of William were victorious and sea roots – the English
domination of Ireland taking away any hope that the Irish might have for
a Catholic king leading them some kind of autonomy or independence.
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 38. THE WAR AT HOME: THE IRISH QUESTION SINCE 1800
THE NINETEENTH CENTURY
 1798 – the Irish rebellion
o The Society of United Irishmen mainly led by Protestants but by
Presbyterians who were also deprived of many rise that the Irish
Anglicans reserved for themselves so they were very much disappointed
with rule in Ireland
o Rebellion was supported by the French with some French troops landing
in Ireland but was defeated by the English forces and the Irishmen loyal
to the crown.
 1801 – the Act of Union. Ireland would choose its own MPs would be
represented in Westminster Parliament and becoming part of UK.
 1828-1829 – Catholics permitted to hold local offices and sit in Parliament
 The Tithe War (1831-1838). Local people refusing to pay Tithe were made to do
it through penalties.
 Protestant landlords
 1845-1851 – the Irish famine:
o Potato blight – disease that affected potato crops. Potatoes was a stable
food for the majority of the Irish
o One million dead
o Evictions
o One million emigrate
 Irish Nationalism: Home Rule
o Charles Stewart Parnell
o Revolutionary societies; Irish Republican Brotherhood opting for Ireland
as a republic free of the English domination
o 1881 – the Coercion Act: imprisonment without trial of people suspected
of revolutionary activity
o 1881- the murder of Lord Cavendish (chief British politician) in Dublin:
the Invincibles – organization responsible for it.
o Boycotting (Charles T. Boycott): the Land War in which the Irish
Landlick tried to relieve Irish tenants from the control of the land by
absentee owners residing in Britain.
Boycotting: those managers in farming estate which exploited the
tenants which didn’t pay they dissent wages. One of these people was
Charles T. Boycott. The refusal to work for boycotts.
o 1887 – the Crimes Act: the prevention of boycotting, intimidation,
unlawful assembly
o 1886, 1893 Gladstone’s Home Rule Bills rejected

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 38. THE WAR AT HOME: THE IRISH QUESTION SINCE 1800
THE GAELIC REVIVAL
 1894 – the Irish Agricultural Organization Society
- Cooperativism
 1903 – the Gaelic League which organize different attempt to keep the Irish
language spoken in Ireland, introduce it as the language of communication and
expression of national identity; also to support Irish language literature, poetry,
reintroduce Irish sports.
 1903 – Arthur Griffith and Sinn Fein- a nationalist organization (translated as “We
are selves”) which would become the most important political party organizer
of the resistance to the British rule in the years to come.
THE IRISH REVOLUTION
 1916 – the Easter Rising
o The Irish Republican Brotherhood
o Irish Volunteers
o Irish Citizen Army
o Organized uprising against the English. They occupied several
government buildings in Dublin and hoped that their call for revolution
that would give Ireland Independence would be answered.
 Proclamation of the republic
 Defeat, arrests and executions
 Aftermath
 1918 – Sinn Fein wins 73 of the Irish seats in the UK Parliament
 January 1919 – Ireland’s independence proclaimed 
THE WAR with Britain:
 Irish Republican Army (IRA) – Michael Collins. Military arm of Sinn Fein
 British Auxiliaries, the notorious “Black and Tans” who fought the Irish and at the
same time persecuted the local population leading further to the rising
oppositions towards the British rule in Ireland
THE IRISH INDEPENDENCE
 1920 - the Government of Ireland Bill: one parliament for Northern
Ireland(majority were protestant there and in favour of Ireland remaining in the
UK) and one for the 26 counties
 1921 – the Anglo-Irish Treaty by the representatives of the new Irish
government and the British.
o The Irish Free State created but without the counties in Northern
Ireland which were excluded by the government of Ireland Bill. Many
nationalists did not accept it because it led to the division of the country.
 1921-1923 – the Civil War in Ireland
o Death of Michael Collins
o Victory of pro-Treaty forces in 1923

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 38. THE WAR AT HOME: THE IRISH QUESTION SINCE 1800
 1932-1946 – Eamon De Valera – head of the government
 Elimination of British influence still insisting on unification if Ireland
 1937 – Eire / Ireland established and left the British Commonwealth of Nations
 A terrorist campaign by the IRA in Great Britain
 1939 – 1945 Eire remains neutral in WW II
 1949 – Eire becomes the Republic of Ireland
THE CONFLICT IN NORTHERN IRELAND
 1955 – the IRA begins a campaign of terrorism in Northern Ireland (NI) aimed at
British institutions there
 1968 – a civil rights movement in NI aimed at the improvement of the situation
of the Irish Catholics in NI who were second-category citizens deprived of social
welfare, not given the same rights to public services such as housing. Movement
was built as Protestants and Catholics who participated in such events as
Protest Marches.
 1972 – British troops sent to NI to keep order there
 January 1972 – Bloody Sunday when peaceful march by the civil rights
movement in Londonderry was interrupted by British soldiers who started
shooting at the demonstrators and then some of them shot back at them. Death
of more than a dozen people. Put practical end to the movement. Convinced
many Irish nationalists that the only way to make NI part of the Republic of
Ireland was through armed struggle.
 1971-72 – internment and direct rule
 1970s-1990s:
o IRA terrorist campaign in UK and Ireland
o Protestant terrorism
THE PEACE PROCESS IN NI
 1985 – the Anglo-Irish Agreement in which the 2 sides promised each other that
any settlement in NI would be taken only with the agreement of both
governments and the people of NI
 1994-1996 – The IRA’s cease-fire which could lead to a faster resolution of the
conflict in NI is interrupted by:
 February 1996 – the IRA bomb in the Docklands in London

 The Republic of Ireland – an economic boom (the were called a tiger of Europe in
economic development)

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 38. THE WAR AT HOME: THE IRISH QUESTION SINCE 1800
 The Good Friday Agreement, 1998 – not only repeated the guarantees of the
Anglo-Irish agreement but also made provisions for a future joint government
of NI.
o Northern Ireland Assembly(local legislative body) and Northern Ireland
Executive will represent the interests of both sides will work as:
o Joint institutions
o Decommissioning of weapons

 August 1998 – the Real IRA bomb attack in Omagh that in a way answered this
agreement with attacks
 The Orange Order marches (July) celebrating the battle of the Boyne. The
marches would raise through the Catholic districts angering the Catholics
because in this way the Protestants would remind them of their domination.
 2002 – NI Assembly suspended – DIRECT RULE

 2005 – The IRA agrees to decommission al its weapons

 2007 – Democratic Unionist Party and Sinn Fein agree on sharing power
o Northern Ireland Executive: coalition government
o Ian Paisley – First Minister(a long-time leader of the Protestant
movement in NI) and Gerry Adams – Deputy First Minister
 January 2020:
o First Minister: Arlene Foster, Democratic Unionist Party
o Deputy First Minister: Michelle O’Neill, Sinn Fein
BREXIT
 “the Irish backstop” – measures to prevent border controls between NI and the
Republic of Ireland which neither side wants to happen