Ireland As A Nation With A Strong Cultural Identity

     One may question, what did the Irish have against the English? The answer one will find is, plenty! In Ireland, the landlords and agents and in American there were bosses and mine owners. The landlords in Ireland lived on large estates in the Irish countryside and charged

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.

1. The Scotch-Irish were staunch libertarians, and acted upon their feelings. Sex ways and dress ways had close ties to each other in the backcountry. To talk about sex and sexual behavior was also acceptable in this culture. The dress women and men wore was meant to arouse the opposite sex. Anglican missionary Charles Woodmason wrote, “They draw their shift as tight as possible round their Breasts, and slender waists (for they are generally very finely shaped) and draw their Petticoat close t their Hips to show the fineness of their limbs– … –indeed nakedness is not censurable without ceremony.” Woodmason was appalled at how these women carried themselves, but to the women, they were sexy. Men even dressed in ways to show off

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.

(Sharpe 844). The war with Scotland worked against the plan for stability, and Charles soon discovered that the war would be expensive and could not be won through current methods. So, in 1640, after several years without parliament, Charles called Parliament hoping to acquire more money in order to quell the uprising in Scotland. He failed to convince Parliament to do so, and dissolved it like the others (Sharpe

In the 16th century, Henry VIII turned England into a Protestant country, but most of the Irish people remained Catholic. Being that no one listened to the king, he sent in soldiers to push them to change religions. The land owners fled their land when the soldiers came in. New protestant colonists came in to settle on the island. The Catholics rebelled and tried to get their country back, but were not successful and were left without power and land. While Great Britain gained full control of the whole island in the 19th century, Ireland has joined Wales, England, and Scotland to become the United Kingdom.

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

Ireland has always had religious problems between, Pagans, Catholic, Protestant and Jewish people. Ireland has always been a place of interest in English eyes so Ireland was continually concord over and over by the English and the currency, traditions and religions changed with every English King, Queen or Irish Rebel. Between 1641 and 1691 Oliver Cromwell changed everything, Irish Catholics, Pagans and Jews were killed or shipped off to be slaves. The influence to immigrate was very strong, their options were to go to a new world of which they knew no one and had nothing, be killed for your religion, or be gathered up and shipped away as a slave. It was a hard decision they all were forced to

In the ninth century, Vikings began to raid Ireland, eventually conquering and settling on the island. The strong Irish culture influenced the Viking conquerors’ way of life, rather than an invader’s long-term domination would suggest.

Throughout history, Ireland has developed a strong sense of cultural identity and independence as a result of incessant discrimination from Britain. However, their story is often left out of history books, a common occurrence among oppressed groups of people. Often, powerhouse nations like to leave out the more revolting parts of their past so as to keep their stability. American history classes, for example, ignore a lot of major racially motivated injustices, such as Japanese internment. The same concept applies to the Irish people, especially before the Republic of Ireland was formed, a nation separate from the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland.

Violence, terror, suffering and death. The conflict that has been burning in Northern Ireland seems to be an unstoppable battle and it has flooded over the land of Northern Ireland. The struggle for power and the persistence of greed have fueled the raging fires of the opposing groups. The conflict in Northern Ireland has been discussed continually over the past few decades. Ever since the beginning of the “Troubles,” organizations have been scavenging to find a plan that will cease the violence. Throughout my research for this project, the questions of what are the main sources of conflict in Northern Ireland and why have they continued today guided me to many fascinating pieces of evidence that

Consequently, Charles had to prepare an army for what would be known as the Bishops wars. This was the Bishop’s war because many saw it as the aim of Charles to restore the bishops to their authority in Scotland. England was unprepared for this war as they were just coming from a long period of peace, so there was a lack of experience in war. Charles also lacked the funds to send an army to war as well as support from his nation. Many didn’t want to go to war with the Scottish; many puritans felt it would be “an act of faithlessness on an unparalleled scale” (Rebellion, p. 182). After many years to finally raise funds, England lost the first Bishops war. A year later in 1640 was the second Bishops war. England lost this battle to the Scots as well as they were, again, unprepared. Both of these losses resulted in England having to form treaties with Scotland and disheartened English. The Treaty of Ripon resulted from the second Bishops War. With that treaty Charles had to pay the Scottish. This resulted in what became known as the Long Parliament as Charles had no choice but to call Parliament because it was his only way to raise the money to pay the costs of the failed Bishops’

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).

Not since the 100 years’ war has a conflict had such a storied history; many people often try to determine a specific cause for the on-going violence in Northern Ireland today. However, there is a variety of catalysts; such as the atrocities of Bloody Sunday, the Good Friday Agreement and other events that have played a role in the hostilities that have scarred Irelands land and people.

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