The Success of Sir Robert Peel’s Irish Policy Essay

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.

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

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

Ireland’s long term suffering from British oppression built the foundations for anti-British hostility and the mass discontent sparked the Easter Rebellion of 1916. The Battle of the Boyne 1690 was a pivotal event in Irish history, facilitating Protestant ascendancy in Catholic

In 1791, in an effort to end English rule, the Society of United Irishmen was founded in Belfast (McGarry, 2010). Membership was mostly Catholic and Presbyterian in Belfast, however, in Dublin Catholics and Protestants joined the group equally. This group called for Catholic emancipation (McGarry, 2010). Following the suppression of the Dublin branch in May 1794, the Society of United Irishmen became a secret society promoting armed insurrection. They mounted a rebellion in 1798. The society disappeared following a failed rebellion in 1803, but their Republican creed influenced the separatist movements of the 20th century (McMahon & O'Donoghue,

Ireland under the British rule was subject to the harsh treatment of the English government. The liberals, “Whigs,” in office were of the mindset that it was not the governments place to intervene (The Great Famine, 2012).

Another cause common to both groups of nationalists was “getting Ireland for the Irish”, as O’Connell said during his efforts for Repeal, or ensuring that the Irish people had control of their own affairs. This might not seem like a major problem today, but at that point, Ireland was being governed from another country that many felt didn’t have their best interests at heart. William Ewart Gladstone, the British Prime Minister in 1886, brought up this issue when introducing the first Home Rule bill to the House of Commons. Because the law came to Ireland “with a foreign aspect, and in a foreign garb”, it didn’t feel to the people to be truly Irish law or coming from their needs. Because of this, even legislation with good intentions were met with distrust and displeasure. He argued that sometimes it wasn’t enough that the laws were good; they needed to come from the right source as well. There were, however, points to be left to the Crown, including imperial affairs, the armed forces, and foreign relations. They also shouldn’t pass a law favoring one religion over another. The Home Rule Conference agreed on these points, asking only for control over domestic affairs to be placed in the hands of an Irish Parliament. They also agreed in the belief that increasing Irish autonomy would strengthen and honor the Crown rather than weakening or degrading it.

The only motive for Britain was to do everything in their power to drive away Irish and Catholics from Ireland and these laws were a great start.

The continuous strive for religious freedom and ultimate desire for a united Irish state, while an ideological goal, proved contradicting. Since the Northern counties of the Irish territory were primarily protestant and heavily influenced by the Church of England it proposed a problem of true unity, since the Southern counties of Ireland were overwhelmingly traditional Catholics. Evidence exists for both religious freedom and Irish

Emancipation would be the focus of the Irish Question from this point onwards. Daniel O'Connell became the key individual at this point as he formed the Catholic Association in 1823 and he believed that Emancipation was a step towards Home Rule. He campaigned by using peaceful methods and mass organization. This was therefore a new way of addressing the Irish Question and gaining middle class support, which wouldn't want to support violent rebellion that might harm their property. O'Connell convinced the population that there was a link between political equality and economic prosperity, by saying that if they got the vote they would also gain economic benefits and the Ascendancy would end as Catholics gained positions of power.

The modernisation of Ireland through the period of 1534-1750 was monumental in the development of Ireland itself. While it would be impossible to delve into detail of all the occurrences and reforms that modernised Ireland in this period, it must be acknowledged that the reformation, restoration, plantations, constitutional changes and various monarch’s interests and activities in Ireland greatly affected the changes in the country. Throughout this essay the focus shall be directed towards political changes, plantations and Oliver Cromwell’s activities in Ireland that led to a modernised early modern Ireland by the end of the 18th century. In the year 1534 Thomas FitzGerald, the 10th Earl of Kildare, publicly renounced his allegiance to Henry

Still after the official Irish Independence in 1922, the Irish people needed to find an identity free of the English influence but also of the Catholic morality and the values celebrated by the Revival, an identity which could be in step with the times and truly represent them. It was a particularly difficult task for intellectuals and writers. They found themselves almost shut up by Irish censorship and rejected by the bigotry that mostly characterized the middle-class society for decades after the Independence.

Moffatt, Lewis, b. (1886). The Irish land question: scheme for a peasant propriety in Ireland . Edition. (E-book) Toronto: C. Blackett Robinson, page 3. Available at: https://archive.org/details/cihm_11156 URL [Accessed

Irish Home Rule gained ferocity during the 1860s with Irish Catholics resenting the Protestant minority who had most of the power and land in Ireland. Prime Minister William E. Gladstone introduce various reforms to protect tenants, although ineffective. And thus, “intensifying Irish awareness of cultural and national