While the War of Independence was the first time Ireland would be separated from England in over 100 years, Ireland and England have had a parallel history for far longer than that. Since the Act for the Union of Great Britain and Ireland passed in the parliaments of both England and Ireland in 1800, Ireland has been considered a legal part of the United Kingdom. Prior to this unification by law, Ireland had been under some sort of British control since the feudal rule under the King of Britain started in 1177. Feudal rule was brought to a close by proclamation of Henry VIII, in which he became King of Ireland. The Irish rebellion of 1641 brought a slight bump to this rule, but the re-conquest of Ireland by Parliamentary forces led by Oliver …show more content…
Read from the steps of the General Post Office, the Easter Proclamation declared “the Irish Republic as a Sovereign Independent State” . Almost comically, no one hearing the proclamation seemed to care and when the British military arrived many Dubliners cheered . The Easter Rising was led mainly by The Irish Volunteers, which would later become the IRA during the Irish War of independence. An interesting aspect of the Easter Rising set for the later wars was how it foreshadowed the indifference many Irishmen felt towards the IRA during the later wars, as many seemed to be perfectly content under British rule. Additionally, the war strategy employed by the Volunteers was that of attempting to force a decisive encounter against the British and sought to get help from foreign countries sympathetic to their cause or countries that hated the British. During the Easter Rising the British deployed troops to simply quell the uprising, which they did with ease. Within 5 days, the Easter Rising ended and Ireland would be quiet for another three …show more content…
Unlike in the War of Independence the IRA did not have the backing of many Irish-Americans. Probably the major problem with finding backing amongst their former allies was the fact that they all almost universally welcomed the signing of the Treat. Even Irish strongholds like the city of Boston were pro-treaty, with one James Phelan telegramming the Lord Mayor of Dublin that he loved the treaty saying he expressed the “feeling(s) of all true friends of Ireland and England the world over” . Even the Catholic church in America refused to help the IRA. Former allies in Scotland were also of little help as most were loyal to Joseph Vize, who was a member of President Collins inner circle. With their assets in the United States frozen by Congress, the IRA had little chance of securing enough money to buy firearms. In addition to this the lack of support of the Irish in the United States meant that they would be unable to receive any substantial sum of money nor be able to secure weapons shipments. Additionally, unlike in the previous war they were unable to obtain arms and explosives from sympathizers in Scotland in large part thanks to Collin’s influence over this area. The IRA repeated a mistake they made during the earliest inkling of revolution, as in the Easter Rebellion they were reliant on outside forces acting on their
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.
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.
Also known as the IRA, this movement sprouted in the 20th century aimed to fight Irish republicanism, which focuses on the concept that Ireland should be an independent republic. Despite their cause, they are approaching the situation in all of the wrong ways. These extremists take action with intense violence, even after the split. Many people believe they have received a great deal of their
This culminated in the Rebellion of 1798, lead by Wolfe Tone and the Society of United Irishmen, in which Hugh and Jimmy participated: “The road to Sligo. A spring morning. 1798. Going into battle” (445). But, as these characters soon discovered, the rebellion failed resulting in large executions and the passing of the Act of Union in 1800. This piece of legislation, effective from 1 January 1801, brought Ireland under the direct rule of the British Crown.
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
The war between the republicans and the unionists in Dublin, Ireland gets pretty serious when you read the story (based on an autobiography), "The Sniper" written by Liam O'Flaherty. The republicans want Ireland to stay as a part of the United Kingdom while the unionists want Ireland to be its own country. Because of this war, many people die because of snipers in the army. In my opinion, the sniper can be considered and is a hero. It is because of the reasons he is fighting for, he kills an old lady and his brother,
The Declaration began with a series of arguments, using the multiplication of the sentence “ And Whereas”, in order to prove the illegitimacy of British occupation and to justify Irish freedom from the British rule. “And Whereas for seven hundred years the Irish has never ceased to repudiate and has repeatedly protested in arms against foreign usurpation” (l.2-3): this quote points out the numerous uprising and wars between the British Empire and Irish or even not against the British Empire from the Norman invasion of Ireland in 1168-1171 to the Easter Rising in 1916, showing the continuing attempt at gaining an Irish self-government by the Irish people. Next, the Easter rising is referred: “And Whereas the Irish Republic was proclaimed in Dublin
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 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
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.
During the British invasion and colonization, the Irish endured decades of violence and oppression. During this time, the Irish were stereotyped and made out to be inferior to their British counterparts in an attempt to justify their right to rule. The Irish people were depicted as violent drunks who were more animal than human. They were often likened to pigs, portrayed as poor, dirty, and stupid. Obviously, this contributed to the animosity between the native Irish and their Anglo-Irish neighbors. The country lacked any sort of unified national identity. Even after Ireland received full independence, the effects of this long term injustice definitely left its mark. Once they received full autonomy, Irish society
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 alleged origin of the Irish Republican Army could be traced back to the Easter Rising of 1916 (Alonso, 2001; Arena & Arrigo, 2004; Filardo-Llamas, 2013; Hart, 1997; Page & Smith, 2000). Radical nationalists, who were part of a group called the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB), took the opportunity to take up arms against the British during the war in Europe (Filardo-Llamas, 2013). The Irish Republican Brotherhood was the precursor of the modern IRA. They were a secret society who was
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 precursor to the IRA was a group called the Irish Volunteers who later transformed in the IRA around 1919. The goal from the start was to create the Independent Republic that was not controlled by Britain. The Sinn Fein was the government wing of the terrorist group, who shared the same exact goal but from a diplomatic standpoint. Not everyone who was a part of the IRA was also a part of the Sinn Fein and vice versa but the membership tended to overlap during the IRA’s inception period. The IRA first used terrorism during the war of Irish independence from 1919-1921 against Britain. At the end of the war, Britain had let go of 26 counties and this resulted in a new free Ireland. However, 6 counties remained under Britains control. The 6 six counties that remained were together named Northern Ireland and to this day, Northern Ireland is still a part of the United Kingdom. The first split of the IRA happened during this time between those who accepted 26 counties being set free (loyalist) and those who were upset that 6 remained under Britain control. Those who were not in favor of 6 counties apart of the United Kingdom were named the Irregulars. A civil war occurred between the irregulars and the new Irish government and the irregulars had lost. This did not stop them from recruiting and training, in hopes that their dream of a unified Ireland. The new Irish government made the organization illegal due to its continued