Irish Nationalists Struggle for Independence from Britain

In the first place, my maternal grandfather instilled a pride and understanding of my Irish roots. Specifically, he brought me over to Belfast to learn and experience the culture. At the time, the hostility between the Protestants and Catholics was evident. Additionally, I saw people living under the threats of terrorism and bombing, propaganda graffiti, and a city under a police state. Similarly, I witnessed families torn apart because a mother was one

When presenting the Irish population in the given time period, Connell uses estimates based on the returns of heath-money collectors between 1725-1791 and official census data for the remaining time frame. After correction for errors in these estimates, the figures show a significant increase in population growth rate starting in 1780’s (p.278).

The Irish were promised the Home Rule Act, but it was taken away at the start of the Ester Uprising. “This modest promise was swept away the Easter Uprising of 1916, when a small band of rebels paralyzed the city and the Irish Republic was proclaimed from the steps of the GPO” (Hegarty). Padhraic Pearse led about 2000 people into the Easter Revolution, only a small fraction of the people that had lived in Dublin at the time. Most of the Irish were involved in World War I. “They had little support – many Irish volunteers had joined the war effort and the rebels were perceived to be traitors to the great cause” (Hegarty). It would take more violence and rebellion against the British to bring attention to their cause both locally and abroad.

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

The conflict in Northern Ireland has persisted because of religious affiliations, their identities and the struggle for overall power. The morals and identities of the people and organizations of Northern Ireland

However, The British government itself was going through a hard time in trying to keep the people of England healthy. It wasn’t until 1916 when a call for reform was widely spread and would create the Irish Republican Army (IRA) that would begin to fight the British army in order to gain independence. The IRA use guerrilla warfare by organizing small attacks that would be widely spread out. Although, the British would see these attacks as terrorist attacks which continued for five years. With no end in sight the British offered on December 6, 1921 the Anglo-Irish treaty which would divide Ireland into two.

Clearly, a large portion of the turmoil experienced during this type could be put down to the changing government of the period. Though democratically elected and in more direct control of the Irish nation, the Home Rule government what the Irish called the Free State in its first years was not as responsive to the people as some desired (Ferriter, n.d.). An effective civil service providing for many needs was set up, but the ruling party and government experienced internal strife over significant differences of opinion throughout this decade (Ferriter, n.d.). The government was a democracy, but a very young democracy, and with all of the problems that this youth entails in a newly freed and democratically empowered nation and population.

The biggest difference between Corkery’s The Hidden Ireland and Scally’s own work is while Corkery maintained the poor farmers of Ireland had their own distinctness and culture, Scally asserts that Irish peasants lived as a mass, almost as if they were one face who could only separate as they left their beloved nation. Corkery believed “Hidden Ireland” exists because historians have painted the Irish as a mob, rather than distinct beings. He believed the Irish poor were “residual legatees of a civilisation that was more than a thousand years old,” which is not necessarily untrue, but does not look further into the issue beyond his analysis of folk poetry (Corkery 28). Scally instead argues that while they were not a mob, they were hardly individualistic. Corkery and Scally both agree Irish nationalistic pride is prevalent overseas. Corkery pointed out that “that nationality is vigorous today, not only at home, but in many lands abroad” (Corkery 29). Scally, on the other hand, also maintains that an Irish identity is important to those emigrants travelling to North America, as “in mind though not in body” they never left Ireland (Scally 235). Yet, they “all had shared in a common experience at the moment of their departure,” which Scally insists is the first of their kind (Scally 235). Irish emigrants were no longer bound to the communities that held them in, but were now aware of a much

By the late 1960’s economic recession on the mainland was affecting N. Ireland badly. Unemployment rose dramatically and the slum clearance stopped. By 1967 the ‘Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association’ (NICRA) was formed in the midst of growing discontent. Amongst other things they made the

Identity is pivotal to the story and holds its own innate power, but what is even more pivotal is that the Irish do not necessarily all share the same views. The Irish find their history very important because it is the foundation of the language. Hugh says, “It is not the literal past, the ‘facts’ of history, that shape us, but images of the past embodied in language” (88). It is evident then that Hugh finds the historical meanings of

During this time it is clear that many changes were occurring in Ireland, a land that was once dominated by tradition was now becoming a modernized country. Where then does

The campaign had ultimately led to the creation of the Act of Ireland of 1920. This created a twenty-six county Irish Free State and six counties in Northern Ireland (Filardo-Llamas, 2013; White, 1989). This act also allowed Northern Ireland to choose whether or not to stay with Britain or become part of the Free State. Northern Ireland ultimately decided to stay with the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland created its own parliament in Stormont in Belfast (Bosi, 2012; Filardo-Llamas, 2013). The Free State was mostly inhabited by Catholics while Northern Ireland was populated mostly by Protestants (White, 1989). But the road to have a Free State did come at a price. Over 7,500 people lost their lives or were wounded between 1917 and 1923. Many lost their homes, family and friends (Hart,

The Effectiveness of Irish Catholic and Nationalist Leaders in Advancing Their Cause in the Years 1801 and On

Hyde’s speech argues that the Irish had by that point indiscriminately adopted all that was English with little thought as to its value, that the Irish had “[ceased] to be Irish without becoming English.”2 He criticizes those Irish who claim to hate British dominance, yet speak only English, anglicize their Irish names, and remain ignorant of Gaelic literature. His central view is that the Gaelic language is the most important aspect of an Irish identity distinct to that of the British, and that only a return to Ireland’s native language can halt the process of Anglicization. However, he is careful not to make the claim that nothing English is of value, but emphasizes the necessity of not neglecting that which is essentially Irish.

The 1916 Easter Uprising symbolizes the first major act of force since the United Irishmen Rising in 1798 . During the time of the Great Famine from 1845 to 1847 the majority of the Irish population lost faith in the British government because they did not listen or take their grievances seriously . The Irish immediately became second class citizens to the British . Germany during World War One thought that England would be too occupied with the Irish to enter into WW1 . An immediate cause of the war was the threat of the Northern Ireland’s to oppose domestic self-government known as Home Rule through a rebellion . Ulster’s laws were enforced to prohibit arms from being sent to Ireland . Germany believed that because of the large number of