The Identity Of Ireland : The Impact Of Irish Identity

This text is a political speech that Daniel O`Connell, one of the fathers of the Irish Republic, gave at the House of Commons in London in 1836. The aim of O’Connell’s speech was to get equal justice for the Irish people as members of the British Crown, and in the same way that by that time the Scottish, English and Welsh people already had. The majority of the Parliament’s members were protestant and reluctant to give Irish Catholics more rights than they already had.

French political leader Charles de Gaulle said that “nationalism is when hate for people other than your own comes first,” by this definition turning points in Irish Nationalism can be seen not as what changed as in regards love for Ireland, but what changed hatred for the English withinin Ireland. There are numerous significant turning points in Irish Nationalism; it could be argued that The Great Famine is the largest turning point in Irish Nationalism as it encouraged independence through means of violence as well as cementing a deep-rooted hatred of the English in Ireland. Equally, the failure of the First Home Rule Bill can be maintained as the largest turning point as it led to the decline of the liberals, Charles Stuart Parnell and constitutional nationalism. Alternatively, The First World War can be judged as the prime turning point, mainly due to its short term affects. It split the nationalists, which led to the Easter rising, and increased agitation over Home Rule.

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

This book basically analyzes the aspects of whether or not Ireland is a colony, and it also describes its political as well as the culture of its people. Terence McDonough denotes in his introduction that the colonial experience of Ireland cannot be assumed in the development of a complete understanding of the nineteenth century. From McDonough’s point of view, the reluctance of not taking the colonial status into concern is in part due to the influence of Northern Irish conflicts and the need for historical help and comfort of the affected ones during the era. If the nineteenth century Ireland is not recognized

This small step to independence by a group of dissenters was able to use the built heritage site of Tara to invoke within the Irish people a sense of their lost traditionalism and new found fervor for nationalism (Laurence, 2008, p.159). Nevertheless, the continual dominance of British rule saw no substantial social and economic changes for Catholics as they were still”steeped in habitual misery” (Finn & Lynch, 1995, p.24).

Ireland is not the only country to have its identity split by outside imperialism. Similar stories have played out in Sri Lanka, Iraq, and Rwanda. It is worth looking at these conflicts in order to understand that Ireland's struggles were not unique to the Island. Rwanda is especially relevant to Ireland as events transpired in a very similar order with very similar results, with one notable difference. “In Rwanda... Religious affiliation is not a significant organizer of group identity” (Longman, 2001). This shows that non-religious factors can lead to fractures in post-colonial societies.

The Act of Union in 1800 was a significant factor to the nature of Irish nationalism in 1800. Prior to the Act, the society of the united Irishmen, a republican society who wanted parliamentary reform and Catholic Emancipation, fought, under the leadership of Robert Emmet, with physical force for their complete independence. Because of their military strand they differed from their predecessors the ‘Protestant Patriots’, this is because the society was heavily influenced by revolutionary events in France and New America in the late 18th century. The rebellion, although unsuccessful, with its leader imprisoned, had major consequential effects; which was the passing of the Act of Union in 1800. The Act set the tone for the rest of Irish

Following nearly 600 years of varying English rule the Irish people in the late 1800s experienced a voracious onset of nationalist sentiment, influenced by European enlightenment thinkers. The Irish under an initially moderate national leadership pushed for the policy of “home rule,” which would grant the Irish autonomy, self-rule and economic freedom in return for maintaining their position within the United Kingdom. The home rule issue would dominate Irish politics for nearly 50 years until 1919, when extremist nationals would attain control of local governments and officially declare the Irish Republic (Campbell 624-630.) The Irish revolution is commonly attributed to pre nationalistic revolutionary ideas of intolerance, economic propensity towards independence and foreign oppressment creating unity, this is a misplaced assumption though as the war and preceding conflict was fought and won almost

Irish Nationalists attempted to establish continuity with what they believed to be appropriate or suitable aspects of Irish history and culture. These attempts lead to both the revival and invention of a culturally distinct Irish heritage not associated with British rule in order to justify a sense of nationhood and to support the Irish struggle for Independence (Hobsbawm in Laurence, A p176) (Laurence, A p.160).

Despite the Catholic Irish people making up over 80 percent of the population, they were subjugated to the lower classes to live in squalor.

Connolly presents an extensive account of historical, economic and social change in Ireland during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and yet Barnard’s could be described as not more hopefully optimistic, but more surely directed at the British strives for improvements rather than than the tumultuous religious, economic and social conflict. Rather than the analyzation of the workings of individuals singularly or compilation of prior works of Irish writings, Connolly collectively delivers a more pessimistic and yet deliberate viewpoint about the complexities of Irish reform through primary and secondary sources. Yet both Connolly and Barnard could assert the notion that “The replacement of Gaelic lords with New English lords equally meant that continuing differences in customs..were the despised customs of a lower class.. As woods were cleared, roads built and cultivation intensified, protestant interests were at last secure, bringing with it rapid and tangible progress towards civility and prosperity.” (Connolly 168) Although there is some allusion to doubt whether or not the English were successful in transforming Ireland into what Barnard claims as an “english replica,” both Connolly and Barnard assert the fact that with English protestant interference progress in Ireland was achieved, despite the chaos inflicted.

When O’Connell won the Country Clare election in 1828 it seemed impossible for there to be no change of the rules within parliament. The Roman Catholic Emancipation Act was passed in 1829 due overall support in the House of Commons and it could be said that this led to positive change for Irish Nationalism. Many opportunities were sprung open by this act, especially for the middle class, in political and professional jobs in particular. Also, O’Connell teamed up with the Whigs and managed to pass a number of acts such as the Irish Church Act, which could also have been seen to help. O’Connell’s success also seemed to forge a link between Irish nationalism and Catholicism. All of these things seem to suggest that 1829 was a turning point for Irish nationalism.

In the early twentieth century Ireland two poets were well known for their radicals views of the country. Theirs names were Antoine Raftery and Jonathan Swift. Raftery was a blind man that was able to get by from traveling and singing or telling stories about Ireland. A lot of his tales were based on how beautiful all the nature was and how connected the people were to it. He makes this point because of the hard times in Ireland due to the French rule. The French did not care about how poor the majority of Ireland was. Swift is another poet of the time who was more focused on bringing forward the idea to rebel against the French. He would not come right out and say this in his work but would instead suggest different points of action like in his poem A Modest Proposal. Their work did not have a great effect until later when a poet by the name William Butler Yeats, based his poem Cathleen ni Houlihan, off of their inspiration.

Discuss the significance of the political developments within revolutionary and constitutional Irish nationalism from the period 1798 to 1867

Ireland is a country that is rich in culture, traditions, and faith. This country has struggled with over time with famine, religious tension, and even freedom. Many individuals immigrated to America in search of a better life. The person I chose to interview family came over to the United States when Ireland was struggling with famine. They came over on a boat through New York and changed there name to make it more American. For this paper I will further discuss the Irish culture and the person I interviewed.