Oppression In Ireland

Many poor Protestant and Catholic farmers and citizens were swayed towards nationalism between 1845 and 1851 when Ireland suffered from a tragic famine in which many people died. Both the English and Catholic churches and many local charities rushed in to help, yet English aid was not very helpful and inadequate to the large Irish population. Many of the Irish emigrated and England's rule over Ireland was questioned. With religious and historical conflicts the two communities found it very difficult to reach an understanding and an agreement as to what they both wanted.

The Protestants were suspicious of the Civil Rights Movement. They suspected the IRA may be involved. The Unionists got the RUC to stop one of their marches and this led to serious rioting. In the end the British troops were sent over to Northern Ireland to try and keep order.

     While the Workingmen’s Benevolent Association’s members were of many different nationalities, the Irish continued with their local chapters of the Ancient Order of the Hibernians. The middle and upper classes, although it consisted of all classes, mainly ran the AOH. Therefore the Irish workers had a difficult time, even with their own “brothers”, gaining support for their struggle for better working conditions in the mines.

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.

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

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.

There were two distinct groups in the Irish community. There were the Roman Catholic Irish and the Protestant Irish based on their faith it divided the Irish community. It was such an

Everybody knows something about the American Revolution. But how many people know about the eerily similar, yet drastically different Irish Easter Rising and subsequent revolution? Causes, leaders, battles, treaties, resolutions, and effects are a part of every country. Sometimes they are similar, and other times not, as is the case with America and Ireland.

Every March 17th, more than 150 million Americans put on their green hats, and begin celebrating in the memory of St.Patrick, the missionary who first converted the Irish isles to catholicism. More than one hundred years ago, however, such celebrations would have caused rioting- and even turf wars between Irish Catholics and ‘Native American’ Protestants. In today’s society protestant-catholic sectarianism is limited to the far flung corners of Ulster and Belfast. However, in the mid 1800s, cities like New York or Philadelphia were on the verge of civil war, stopped only by the toils, kindness and wisdom of ‘The Dagger’ John Hughes, the naturalized Irish born archbishop of New York in the mid 1800s.

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.

This research paper will outline the causes and traits of oppression in America. Dynamics such as the social, historical, and psychological systems that serve as vessels of oppression will be addressed. Using academic research, the goal for this essay will be to discuss the characteristics of oppression and how those characteristics are connected to its origin. The research will develop major themes that will serve to define agents, including classism, discrimination, and the intersectionality of different types of oppression. Discussions on strategies for addressing and ending the current oppression in America and recommendations for the future will be highlighted as well.

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

The English were making the Irish poor to force them into the protestant church. Under the Penal Laws the Irish Catholics were deprived them of any right to be represented in local government, to vote, or to even own land. Under these harsh conditions it is no wonder woman and children of the time bumbled around town just to find some way to survive as a catholic while protestantism is being shoved down one 's thought.

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-