16th Century Ireland Research Paper

During the 18th century, Ireland was oppressed by England to the point that the Irish would consider eating and selling their children for money and that the Irish were incapable of making their lives better. During that time there was also a significant religious disdain and prejudice of the Anglo-Irish (English Protestants) to the Irish Catholics.

The Easter Uprising of 1916 was an event that happened at the tail end of a long list of events that would forever change Ireland. The Uprising or Rising, as some call it, took place mostly in Dublin but was felt throughout Ireland. The point was to gain independence from Great Britain who had ruled Ireland for the past couple hundred years. At the turn of the 19th century England believed that Ireland had too much independence and made the Act of Union. “The result was the Act of Union of 1801: the Irish parliament voted itself out of existence and England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales were formally politically unified for the first time” (Hegarty 2). Around the time of the First World War, Ireland began

Catholic Ireland tried to break away from England after the Reformation, but Elizabeth’s troops crushed the Irish uprising in the 1570’s and 1580’s.

The start of the Irish’ peoples struggles began when the British came and destroyed their way of life. The Penal laws of 1691 stripped Irish Catholics of their freedoms by taking away their rights to become officers

No matter their religion, language, or struggles they faced upon arrival in America throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the one thing all Irish had in common was their reason for leaving Ireland; the English. Whether Catholic from southern Ireland or Presbyterian from the Ulster region, the Irish were systematically oppressed by the Anglican Church of England. For those who could afford the passage, America meant freedom to worship as they chose and for the Ulster Presbyterians; recognition that their church was valid. For the southern Irish, unfortunately, during the 1800’s America was a heavily Protestant country that harbored severe suspicions of Catholics and rumors the Pope was plotting to destroy their country. This meant

The majority of my research was finding scholarly articles and books that pertained to my research questions and disciplines. Throughout all of the information and sources that I gathered, I selected five articles and one book. The book “Beyond Violence: Conflict Resolution Process” by Mari Fizduff was by far the most inspiring source in my collection of evidence. (Citation) It gave keen insight into the sources of the conflict but most importantly, it presented strategies and solutions to end the violence. With my foundation evidence set in my book, my other evidence allowed me to find more specific patterns of the sources of conflict from a sociological and theological stance. “For God, Ulster or Ireland: Religious Identity and Security in Northern Ireland” by John Bell provided examples of the religious affiliations and how each conserved its own identity. The article focused on the Catholic and Protestant communities and how each contributed to the conflicts. (Citation) My additional evidence provided great background information about certain aspects and patterns that significantly benefited my main research focus.

While the War of Independence was the first time Ireland would be separated from England in over 100 years, Ireland and England have had a parallel history for far longer than that. Since the Act for the Union of Great Britain and Ireland passed in the parliaments of both England and Ireland in 1800, Ireland has been considered a legal part of the United Kingdom. Prior to this unification by law, Ireland had been under some sort of British control since the feudal rule under the King of Britain started in 1177. Feudal rule was brought to a close by proclamation of Henry VIII, in which he became King of Ireland. The Irish rebellion of 1641 brought a slight bump to this rule, but the re-conquest of Ireland by Parliamentary forces led by Oliver

Irish independence has been fought for a long time ever since the British occupied Ireland in 1172. The King of England invaded and controlled Ireland. The invasion led to religious and territorial conflicts. There was an effort to create a church comparable to the Church of England in the 1500s. Catholics who live in Ireland were against the idea and a conflict for independence has emerged (Arena & Arrigo, 2004). The suppression of Irish nationalism by the British in the 20th century led to the creation of martyrs for the cause led by the Irish Republican Army (Combs, 2011).

During sixteenth century Europe a wave of religious dissatisfaction swept the European continent. There were cries for the restructuring of the Catholic Church. These cries grew into more than just a simple remodeling of the Catholic faith they grew into the Protestant Reformation. Martin Luther is credited for the reformation movement against the Catholic Church that began in 1517.

The Protestant Reformation called the Protestant Revolt and known too many as The Reformation. This movement was the European Christian reform movement this was the beginning of Protestantism the branch of

The Protestants wanted to remain a part of Britain but the Catholics wanted to become independent and separate form Ireland. This abhorrence between Catholics and Protestants resulted in

For hundreds of years, since approximately AD1171, when King Henry III invaded Ireland, England had had control of Ireland. Nevertheless, Ireland became a separate nation in 1949, after many years of struggling to be independent of Great Britain. The English, predominantly Protestant, had treated the mostly Catholic Irish badly, while the Catholics had started uprisings against British rule. One of these was the Easter Uprising of 1916; the cruel reaction of the British Army to this revolt gained support for the militarist movement, which had not been seen before as the solution to the problem of English rule in

The Irish had suffered long before in the hands of the English when Cromwell had been in control and had taken away land held by the catholic majority of the country to members of the protestant minority. This created a large tension among the population with the oppressed majority and the rather entitled minority who by Trevelyan’s snooty tone did indeed see themselves as the superior people in the country. (Trevelyan’s tone is probably the most dismissive when in discussion of the Irish, mayhaps showing his own true dislike.) (Trevelyan, p. 116-

and New English to finally set the rising in motion. Religion was still one of the main issues tearing the country apart. Thomas Wentworth, the Earl of Strafford was appointed as Lord Deputy of Ireland when*** and set about rising taxes in order to make more money for the crown. Additionally, he brought in reforms on religious practices in an attempt to make the Church of Ireland identical to its English counterpart, the Church of England. “In consultation with Laud, [Strafford] set out to give the Irish church an enforceable code of discipline compatible with that of its English counterpart” (Connolly, 2008, 14). Anything that could be considered popery was to be removed and “a new style of worship, organized round a raised and railed-in

against the Protestants. In 1829 Catholics were not suitable for schools throughout Ireland they were only suitable for Protestants. The Catholic peasantry were still called on to pay tithes, and they continued to be harassed by the exactions of tithe-proctors and others, who if the money was not forthcoming, seized the poor peoples cows, furniture, beds, blankets, kettles, or anything they could lay their hands on (History Of Nations 12 Ireland-Scotland p.224).The Catholics were a minority in Ireland much like in the history of Quebec where the English conquered the French, the French were considered lower forms of humans they weren’t up to English standards. As the years past the Catholics started to get back at the Protestants forming the I.R.A. I.R.A. and Protestant killings continued into the early 1900s, Britain began launching multi party- talks with the goal of forging a new assembly for northern Ireland and new relations between the north and Irish republic. By 1999, Protestant and Catholic negotiators had