Essay on Northern Ireland

Loyalist fears: The Catholics in Northern Ireland had a lot of reasons to make them feel displeased. The Protestants made their lives very miserable, mainly I think because they felt very apprehensive of them. They were afraid that in a United Ireland Catholics would outvote them and they would lose control over the education of their

The United States has always been known as "The Land of Immigrants." People from all parts of the globe have traveled to America, to be free from oppression, disease, and hunger, or simply to start a new life. Many different people of different culture, race, and religion have made their mark and helped to shape the American culture. One of the most influential immigration movements in American History is the Irish Immigration.

In 1790s Glasgow there were no more than thirty-nine Catholics living in the City, yet there were forty-three anti-Catholic societies. Ironically, it could be argued that it was only after the question of Irish independence had been essentially removed from politics in Scotland, that the Catholic Church discovered a sense of nationalism in the journey for political power and influence. Moreover, the Catholic Church could not put a stop to their flock’s identification that voting Labour was a basic issue of class. This invoked a scenario that can only be described as institutional religious bigotry especially in the inter-war period. Anti-Irish prejudice was far more prominent in this era - and not simply discrimination uniquely identified

After the first world war the leaders of europe came together to discuss the boundaries of europe. British rule decided to separate ireland into two sides. North Ireland was created when the british government of Ireland Act in 1920 divided Ireland into two areas; the Irish Free State and the Northern Ireland Roman Catholics, who made up around one-third of the population of Northern Ireland, were largely opposed to the separation. The British took over , but only after many revolts and riots against them from the people of ireland. In 1969 the IRA (Irish Republican Army) was formed. They were a Catholic Irish nationalist group that used guerrilla tactics like bombings and assassinations to oppose British rule and oppression in Ireland. Their main goal was to fight the british that took over their home. The IRA would Fight using guerilla and terrorist tactics including bombings, assassinations, kidnappings, punishment beatings, extortion, smuggling, and robberies. But over time the IRA became more of a dangerous militia then patriots defending their home.

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

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

Anglo-Norman invaders arrived in Ireland in 1169, attempting to colonize the island over the next 500 years. The invaders began to expand their influence across the island by means of force. These attacks caused rebellions from the Irish people, as they were no strangers to aggression from the East. “Religious persecution of Catholic Irish grew – in particular after the accession of Elizabeth I, a Protestant, to the throne in 1558. Oliver Cromwell's subsequent siege of Ireland in 1649 ended with massacres of Catholics at Drogheda and Wexford and forced the resettlement of thousands, many of whom lost their homes in the struggle. By 1691, with the victory of Protestant English King William III over the Catholic forces of James II, Protestant supremacy in Ireland had become complete. Catholics in Ireland suffered greatly in the subsequent period of British occupation, enduring laws that prevented them from bearing arms, holding public office and restricting their rights to an education. While many of those rights were eventually restored, the animosity between Catholics and Protestants remained.” (Washington Post, 1999).

Throughout Belfast Diary, Conroy works through dense and complex information regarding the various police forces, paramilitaries, and British military groups that reside in the North with the Catholics and Protestants. While reading Conroy’s pages long analysis of the variety of groups, it becomes clear that these groups within Northern Ireland cannot be deemed “good” or “bad”. Labeling a group with such complexities would be falling into the trap of being an ill-equipped outsider. Rather, Conroy implies that one needs to develop an understanding that each group serves a purpose for the community that it’s serving. Conroy explains that each group benefits the community they’re serving almost equally as much as it is disadvantaged by the group. In other words, Conroy explains that the relationship is give and take, it’s not something that is understood at

The Protestant reformation and separation from the Catholic Church occurred in the 16th century and led to many struggles for Irish Catholics throughout the 1600’s, 1700’s, and 1800’s. A major prosecutor of the Irish was Oliver Cromwell. Cromwell reduced the Irish population by two thirds through killing Irish soldiers in battle and sending Irish people to work on plantations in the Caribbean. From 1641 to 1652, more than 300,000 Irish people were sold into slavery by the English (Irish Immigration to America, 2013). In 1691, the Protestant English King William III overcame the forces of Catholic Irish James II and Ireland was in full Protestant supremacy. Catholic Irishmen suffered greatly under the control of the English. The English passed laws preventing Irish from bearing arms, holding public office and restricting their rights to an

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

Years of British occupation and oppression led to a sustained campaign to regain freedom from Britain beginning in the early twentieth century. Both the loyalist (supporters of the Union with Britain) and the republicans (supporters of a united Ireland) were willing to use violence for their cause. This took form in the 1916 Easter Rising, where Irish rebels declared the independence of the Irish Republic and fought in Dublin against the British to regain control of their homeland. The rebels were unsuccessful and were forced to surrender. This lead to the later Irish War of Independence, and the introduction of the Government of Ireland Act in 1920 and the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921, which resulted in the partitioning of Ireland into six counties in the North ruled by Britain and twenty-six counties in the south, newly named the Irish Free State. However, a significant minority in the North of around forty percent were Irish nationalists who wanted independence from Britain. “Therefore, from its creation in 1920, Northern Ireland was a state whose citizens differed over their national allegiance.” This situation in the North caused a great deal of tension, as the leaders of the Protestant, unionist majority discriminated against the Catholic, nationalist minority. So, by the 1960s, Catholic nationalist frustration was manifested in a campaign for civil rights, to which the state responded with vicious intensity. Those who were

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).

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-

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