Roman Catholic Influence On Ireland Research Paper

The book, “The Irish Way” by James R. Barrett is a masterpiece written to describe the life of Irish immigrants who went to start new lives in America after conditions at home became un-accommodative. Widespread insecurity, callous English colonizers and the ghost of great famine still lingering on and on in their lives, made this ethnic group be convinced that home was longer a home anymore. They descended in United States of America in large numbers. James R. Barrett in his book notes that these people were the first group of immigrants to settle in America. According to him, there were a number of several ethnic groups that have arrived in America. It was, however, the mass exodus of Irish people during and after the great

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).

During the early 1700's in Irish history; Catholics were not permitted to vote, marry a Protestant, join the armed forces, bare arms, or have an educated. They made up 70% of the population, but only owned 5% of the land. England had colonized Ireland and because they didn't like Catholics, they made the conditions really harsh for them. Although the English owned most of the land, they predominantly lived in England, so they would rent it out to another protestant who would then divide it between multiple Irish families. The rent would be raised with any land improvements so the tenants would often avoid making any. This then leads to poor food production rates and an overall poorer country. In the essay “ The Modest

England was one of the main contributors to the hatred of Irish Catholics in the America. This is clearly demonstrated as the Know-Nothing Party campaigned against Irish immigration and laws limiting their freedom analogous to British suppression. “... critics branded Irish as lazy, thieving, drunkards, poor material for either labor or citizenry.” This quote sounds very similar to how the British saw Irish Catholics, indicating where these nativists got their prejudices and bias from. Discrimination was evident on signs like, “No Irish Need Apply” hung on many employers’ windows.

There they would adopt several Irish believes, such as their gods and important religious sites. When compared to the population of Ireland at the time the Galeic people were only a minority, but they held the best land in Ireland, which granted them the most power. The Gaels used a monarchical system of government that would spread throughout Ireland. This form of government was mainly localized, so around Ireland during this time there were around 100 small kingdoms. The 100 kingdoms were grouped into 5 major provinces, which are very similar to the current provinces. Each proveniences would have it’s own ruler, who would try to bring multiple provinces together, but there would be no High King of

Roman Catholicism is headed by the pope. For the first 1,500 years of Christianity, there wasn’t any type of Catholicism. Common traditions, beliefs, and worship were the body of Christian believers around the world which is how they were all united; if you were a Christian, you belonged to a catholic church. Any other type of beliefs was considered treachery to the Christianity belief. In our time, there are multiple forms of Christianity besides Roman Catholicism. Being a catholic in this time means that one has certain beliefs, practices, and traditions compared to those of Protestantism, Anglicanism, Greek Orthodox, and all the other various types of Christianity. Roman Catholicism is considered to be the largest group out of them all.

Ireland is a country that is known for it’s strong Irish heritage. Ireland struggled to become independent from Britain. When Ireland was controlled by the queen it was taken advantage of unfairly. Britain demanded exports from Ireland as a part of the unfair sanctions imposed on them. Ireland had to obtain a specific amount of abundant resources to keep the British homeland both secure and well. Ireland was fed up with European dependence upon them but they could do nothing about this because of lack of strength against their controller of the time, Britain (Braa 2). One thing that most countries relied on that the Irish supplied was the Potato as it was vitamin rich and inexpensive compared to other food, so when a famine of the crop came

The main reason for this was that Ireland was distrusted in the other parts of the United Kingdom. Catholic Ireland was an awkward fit for the predominantly Protestant Britain - Anglicanism in England, Methodism in Wales and Presbyterianism in Scotland. Ireland remained a religious outlier on Europe’s western off shore islands. Most of its population never subscribed to the Reformation and, despite centuries of persecution and discrimination, continued to remain faithful to Roman Catholicism. Protestant distrust of Catholicism in Britain had been manifested in the Gordon Riots of 1780, and continued to be an issue for much of the nineteenth century. It showed itself in distrust of Maynooth College (ironically, the recipient of government money

By 1841, the population of Ireland was just over 8,000,000 (Edwards & Williams 4). Before the Act of Union, Ireland was a dedicated Catholic country, which often played into politics. As a result of Catholic belief, the Irish had high nuptiality and very large families (O Grada 9). After the Act of Union, Anglican England brought Protestantism

War, oppression, and massacres. All three took place in English-led Ireland during the Victorian Era, and all three were caused by a few differences in beliefs on how to worship the same God. Mainly due to the evangelization of St. Patrick, the Irish people were devoutly Catholic while their English rulers followed a Protestant Church called the Anglican Church of England. Since the Anglican Church was so dominant in England, the Irish Catholics received very poor treatment from the Protestants in England causing things like the Irish Potato Famine and the Bloody Sunday and Bloody Friday massacres. However, the Irish people were by no means silent under this oppression, leading to many rebellions. Due to the dominance of Protestantism in England

People believed that “Home Rule would be disastrous to the material well-being of Ulster” (10 “Ulster’s Solemn League and Covenant”) and that “All that [was] Protestant—nay, all that [was] loyal –all who [had] land or money to lose…would be at the mercy of [the Irish nationalists]” (1 Salisbury). Northern Ireland, or Ulster, was the site of Protestant English immigrants, while the Catholic Irish dominated Southern Ireland. British members of Parliament feared for the wealth and welfare of the Protestants, or rather the English landowners with money and land, if Ireland were to be separated from England. Their “dread of Catholicism”, as well as a fear of another rebellion such as the “French Revolution”, caused them to fight against Irish Home Rule, and rather put all their efforts into protecting the Protestant Irish (7 The Nation). England’s superiority complex also caused the British to fight against Home Rule because they believed that the Irish “ought to be…grateful” (4 Carson) because it had been the British who did “five-sixths of the work, wealth, and enterprise” of their kingdoms (3 Moonshine). England claimed that they had done all the prospering for Ireland, and that the Irish had no right to be fighting against them

It was not the Irish Catholic identity that was being lost, through the restriction enforced on them they were also losing their political stature. They lost the power to have any say in the running of

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