The Irish History - Essay Example

The Irish History The history of Ireland is one of the most demoralizing ones to This is when we have in mind the events that surrounded the Irish Conquest and the events that followed after. My paper seeks to address the history of Ireland, especially concentrating to the Irish Conquest and the Irish response to it. It will also assess the Irish interaction with other countries such as the US and the UK during the various moments of upheavals. In addition, it will critically assess the relationship between Protestants and Catholics especially during and after the Irish Conquest. How various people responded to the Great Famine of 1845-1852 will also be discussed. Moreover, it will address the role of women in the history of Ireland, as well as the contributions of the Hollywood and Bill Clinton family to promoting peace in Ireland. The Irish Conquest came to a close during the reigns of Queen Elizabeth and King James. This was after several years of struggle, which was characterized by very brutal conflicts. There was an Irish Parliamentary meeting in 1541, during which Henry the eighth ascended to power as the new King of Ireland. This consequently made sure there was a government in place. Therefore, having a friendly king in Ireland, the English saw it as a rare opportunity to acquire further control of over their Kingdom of Ireland to its other claimed territories. This process took them close to a century to eventually succeed in their new endeavors. The process was characterized by various fighting and negotiations between the English administrators and independent Irish and conservative English lords (Moody and Martin 31). As stated above, the conquest only ended during the times of Elizabeth and James. After a complete conquest, the English realized their first real governance of Ireland. They then established a centralized government all over, an event which was immediately followed by a complete disarmament of the local lordships. However, I would like to argue that this conquest cannot be termed as fully successful by 1603. I admit that by this time they had established a strong control over this territory, at least physically. Some structures, however, still remained unchanged. The Irish had been dominantly Catholics, a fact that had not changed a big deal by 1603. The Irish had not yet adopted the English Protestant ideology by 1603, and there was no sign that that would happen in the near future. The English were also employing very crude methods to strengthen their hold the territory. Methods such as martial law only attracted more resentment from the natives. There was also the introduction of the infamous plantation system which meant total colonization. The English had simply just failed, at least from the ideological perspective (Moody and Martin 31). The Irish gave another life to William of Orange as a Protestant savior even after years of irrelevance among the non-Protestants. William had preached the Protestant ideologies as the ideals. He had worked so hard within the Orange Order, an organization which had emerged after the “Battle of Diamond.” The ideology of “biblical Protestantism” emerged again under the new Orange Order, with the stronger principles of reformation. This Order also only accepted those who subscribed to the Protestant ideologies (Johnson 180). William had also successfully convinced not only other Orange Order members but also other protestant Irish that it was important to help The United Kingdom rein forever. Under the English rule, the Protestants were assured of security and prosperity, since it would highly enrich them while discriminating against the Catholics. Therefore, William’s ideas for Unionism, which opposed any form of Irish re-unification or even the independence of Scotland, was an admirable gesture that would ensure that Protestants rule over Irish Catholics forever. Therefore, William was always seen as the Protestant savior against any fall (Johnson 180). The Catholics were continuously treated as the second class citizens in Ireland. There were still more raids in the Northern Ireland. Protestants had strongly associated the constant attacks with the Catholics, whom the Protestants felt that they deserved no fair treatment. This led to the establishment of the B-Special, which embarked on widespread attacks on the Catholics as a way of meting vengeance on them. In addition, there was the establishment of states, of which of the Northern ones comprised mostly of the Protestants. Therefore, in the north, Protestants controlled virtually everything, to the extent that Catholics were not allowed to freely participate in politics since they would confuse people with their Catholic ideologies. The Belfast administration also made sure that there were insufficient funds allocated to the Catholic schools. Moreover, only Protestant territories benefitted from funds for infrastructural upgrading. There was also a move by the English administration to take land from the Catholics and give it to the Protestants. The Protestants always came before the Catholics, such that when the Protestant areas were granted self-rule in 1921, the Catholic areas still remained under the English rule (Du Preez 15). I do not think the 1798 rebellion can be considered a non-sectarian uprising at all. Since there was a general belief that Catholics were IRA supporters, giving power would the worst move for Protestants. Therefore, they had to be stopped as much as possible. But they would not just sit there and watch this happen. They also embarked on protecting their interests. This led to the formation of sectarian organizations before the rebellion. The Catholic groups carried out attacks on Protestants. They had desire to avenge their mistreatment and carried out bad attacks such as the one which saw over 300 Protestants lose their lives in the Vinegar Hill region. There was also inhuman killing of Protestants in Rathangan (Du Preez 16). The rebellion was sectarian in all ways. The Act of Union of 1800 made the relationship between Ireland and Britain even worse. When George the third failed to fulfill the promise of emancipating the Catholics, they protested. They actually felt a deep sense of betrayal, and moved on to break from the Union in 1922. The result of this break was a fierce civil war, which aimed at revoking their promise of recognizing the King. This destroyed their relation with the Monarch completely (Du Preez 16). Even though some Irish sympathized with the monarch, most of them opposed any association with them. The UK used this Act to establish their constitution, but disintegrated the Irish economy, leading to disaster after another. Britain gained more while Ireland died day after day (Du Preez 17). Daniel O’Connell left a legacy for his successful campaign for the emancipation of the Catholics. His Association also worked towards achieving the demands of the Catholics. He did everything to involve as many Catholics in the Association, giving them an identity and a point of reference. His move was generally successful at first, but in later years its flaws came to the fore. His move only helped few landlords to rise to powerful positions in the legislature. The majority of Catholics still languished in suffering (Johnson 179). In addition, the emancipation only strained the relationship between Catholics and Protestants even more. Catholics found this as a golden chance to kill the Protestants. Moreover, even though the Association helped more Catholics to get into parliament, their important right to vote was scrapped off. Therefore, they did not get full emancipation, since this would only be achieved if the emancipation was accompanied with the power to participate in important decision making (Johnson 179). I totally agree with John Mitchell’s statement that “God created the blight, but the English created the Famine.” During this time almost all land belonging to the Irish had been taken by the English. This left them with no place to plant their crops. Moreover, most of the country’s wealth had been grabbed by the few English aristocrats, leaving the natives to live on begging. The English leaders were also too self-centered to think of the plight of the ordinary natives. This made them to turn a blind eye to a situation which would have been avoided (Du Preez 18). During the famine many Americans sent relief to the hungry Irish. The y offered corn on subsidized prices from the North to be exported to Ireland. They also formed groups which helped in collecting relief food and funds for the Irish. One such group was the Native American Choctaws who helped in raising $ 170 for the Irish. There were also religious and non-religious organizations which offered relief services. Americans also donated through British organizations which were offering relief services. Americans really tried their best in the process (Moody and Martin). Irish faced upsurge in the rate of emigration occasioned by the prolonged famine that scotched the country mainly after the failure of potatoes. Before the actual famine in 1845, emigration was estimated at the rate of 50000 per year. Upon the fall of the actual famine, emigration was heightened to the rate of 250000 persons per year (Coleman and Coulter 75). The effects of famine that contributed to immense emigration involved uncontrolled death of human beings resulted by hunger and starvation. Estimates depict that between 1841 and 1859, a total of 1.3 million Irish immigrated to other countries in the Northern America, Australia and Britain. Emigration from Irish was somehow affected by the reports of fever and outbreak of diseases that caught people while on board to the states of their migration (Coleman and Coulter 75). The emigrants also encountered poor sanitary conditions that led to the death of many emigrants. Fenian movement was formed in Ireland and extended its operations to America and England. Fenian movement had one major target of liberating Ireland from the rule of the British colonialists. Fenians became angry against the British government to express their dissatisfaction with the rule in 1848 (Ellis 206). America played a very important role in boosting the operations of the Fenian movement as it provided the organization with financial support and training as well as literary support. Significance of America in the operations of the Fenian movement can also be linked to the training and skills obtained by Thomas Kelly who ever participated in the American Civil war. It is through the supervision of Kelly that the Fenians and entire Irish made the significant steps to mooting tyrannical British rule from Ireland. It is also in America that O’Mahony gathered the Irish emigrants to form the first group called the Irish Republican Brotherhood (Ellis 206). The emergence of cultural nationalism played a great role in the definition and identification of Ireland. The cultural nationalism led to the development of education system that encouraged teaching of Irish language in the learning institutions. In addition, cultural nationalism resulted to the establishment of socially accepted political system that ruled over the citizens of Ireland (Ellis 207). Cultural nationalism of Ireland resulted to the abolishment of the Protestant church brought by the British rulers and adoption of the Catholicism that have to date remained the main church of preference for most of the Irish (Ellis 206). Furthermore cultural nationalism saw restoration of Ireland into an agricultural nation with government expanding its support in the form of land provision or financial assistance. Moreover, cultural nationalism in the 1900s witnessed Ireland undergoing through land reforms and the beginning of devolved local government (Akenson 502). Irish women took part in the fight in Easter Rising to secure recognition in the Irish Labor movement while also seeking equal employment terms. Women also joined the military forces of the Ireland that led to the achievement of women rights and the general societal rights (Akenson 49). Women also engaged in the United Irishmen participated in the unification of Catholics and Protestants in the year 1798. Furthermore, Irish women joined the Irish National Land League to in 1878 and contributed towards preventing forceful eviction of the tenants from their settled lands. In 1890, Gaelic League was formed and women joined the union, which later worked to overturn the directives barring women from membership into organizations. The Irish Women’s Franchise League also illuminates the strength of women in fighting oppression and slavery imposed on women. The process of partitioning of Ireland into two different regions namely the Northern and the Southern territories resulted into more problems than it was before the division. First, the defense force of both the two partitions weakened as none used to exist lonely. Secondly, the division added the British rulers more power and courage to continue dominating over the perceived weakened territories. The problems resulted by the partitioning of the Ireland led to the outbreak of civil wars between the two territories. In addition, the partitioning of Ireland led to dire implications on the tourists who moved between to the Northern territory due to thorough searches and checkups they underwent on crossing the boarders (Ellis 8). Furthermore, partitioning of Ireland gave to birth to navigation problems considering differences in the road signs and traffic regulations. Moreover, partitioning of Ireland witnessed rise in the differences in the prices of commodities on transaction in the both the territories. It is not fair for sober individual to consider the1916 events of Easter Rising as blood sacrifice doomed to fail. First one has to realize the significance of the 1916 as the stamp for the inception of long struggle towards liberation of Ireland. The Easter Rising of 1916 coupled with spill of blood of the liberals was just the best preparatory moment and a sign of determination towards achievement of the independence and unity in the entire Ireland. The Hollywood film featuring Michael Collins was created by Neil Jordan. The Hollywood film depicted Collins as romantic, rebellious, passionate, and peacemaker. Collins is presented as the leading fighter in the Easter Rising that took place in 1916. The film also depicts Collins as an influential man who served as minister for finance under the government of Sinn Fein formed in 1918. In addition, the Hollywood protracts Collins as the director of the military intelligence and key organizer of the IRA. The mythology attached to Collins in the history of Ireland also reflects back to the role he played in leading in the Irish government in the peace talk intended for independence of the country from the British rule. The Irish hunger strike of 1981 culminated as a result of perpetual criminalization maltreatment of Irish prisoners by the British authority even after the government and the public raised alarm of dissatisfaction with the practice. The maltreatment of the prisoners led to the death of ten Irish Republican Army and Irish National Liberal Army in 1976 (Ellis 259). Prisoners were stripped off their civilian clothes and left to suffer in cold wrapped in blanket for twenty four hours. The Irish government also used the strategy of hunger strike to signalize and push the British authority out of the internal affairs of Ireland. On organizing hunger strike, the IRA and INL attacked various prisons and killing the British prison wardens thereby leading to flee of the British armies and rule in Ireland. The move by the 42nd US President Bill Clinton and his Secretary to Foreign Affairs in restoration of peace and sanity in Ireland was very timely and to the point. In 1994, the US administration under President Bill Clinton gave a visa to Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams a visa to visit US. The move to support Sinn Fein candidate was a strategy to ensure the leadership of a strong political parties that had expressed leadership qualities with concrete public trust. The visit made by President Clinton to Ireland depicted good relationship that existed between the two countries and essentially a sign of US recognition of the ruling government in the US. The close relation developed by the first lady Hillary Clinton with the Irish women mainly worked to pacify and develop a common ground between women in the both spectrum of political divide. Furthermore, the fact that Bill Clinton had ancestral links in Irish, he stood the best chance to get hearing from the two conflicting sides to dissolve their differences and set to work in peace. Work Cited Akenson, Donald. An Irish History of Civilization, Volume 2, Book 3. Montreal, NY; McGill-Queen's Press, 2006. Print. Ellis, Peter. Eyewitness to Irish History. Hoboken, NJ; John Wiley and Sons Publishing. 2004. Print. Coleman, Steve and Coutler Colin. The end of Irish history? critical reflections on the Celtic tiger. New York; Manchester University Press, 2003. Print. Du Preez, Max. Pale Native: Memories of A Renegade Reporter. South Africa: Zebra, 2003. Print. Moody, T.W. and Martin, F.X. The Course of Irish History. New Zealand: Robert Rinehart. 1995. Print. Johnson, Ross. Sentenced to the Cross the Raging Sea. Louisville: Wild and Wolley, 2004. Print. Read More