The Idea of Irish History: An Extremely Long Summary

If you’re thinking “This is a weird thing to have on your blog,” you’re right" — it started as Chapter 1 of my undergraduate thesis, Troubled: Churches and Church Leaders in the Conflict in Northern Ireland. Since nobody reads undergraduate theses (or graduate ones, in my experience), I thought I might as well turn it into a blog post for anyone interested in why Fanny and Anna Parnell were way fucking cooler than their brother. Enjoy!

With our modern emphasis on factuality, it’s easy to forget how history actually works. Although the events that make up history certainly have a direct effect on the people involved, shortly afterward they begin to assert themselves in a different way: through people’s perceptions of them.

Like ripples on the surface of a pond, perceptions change as time and distance carry the factual truth further away, and misconceptions or elaborations color what comes to be known as history. This isn’t to say that perceptions are false — the effects they have are very real. But perceptions can differ greatly, even among people who experience the same event. Often two or more groups will base their actions on very different interpretations of history, and the different sets of legend and folk tradition surrounding that history.

In Ireland, much of what is known of the country’s history seems overlaid with a second system of mythological, or perhaps metaphorical, meanings. Even the lives of well-documented figures are often suffused with details from earlier traditions, local mythology, or religious belief. The long tradition of oral history and storytelling have merged, much to the chagrin of a historian seeking literal truth about much of anything in Ireland.

Still, successive generations of people have learned, lived, and built upon interwoven narratives of legend and history, rendering a product nearly as important as (or perhaps more important than) what actually happened. Complicating the matter is the fact that political factions rely on different interpretations of historical events and separate and oppositional folk traditions. These popular histories often attempt to tie modern political action and policy to questionable events, personages, and affiliations as well as to the historical record.

Particularly important are the ideas of ethnicity and nativity. Sectarian groups have regularly drawn on opposing systems of cultural narrative and traditional symbolism in support of their causes. For centuries, Irish people have been using their shared history, however they understand it, to interpret their present.

The intercourse between the past and the present goes both ways; not only do modern people invoke historical events to support modern ideologies, but also use their present-day perspectives and interests to understand history. Brian Walker writes that there is no reason for history to be any more important in Ireland than elsewhere, but the bulk of the Irish people believe that it is, and by their belief, they make it so.

Ancient and Celtic Ireland

Basalt columns like those at Giant’s Causeway are formed by rapidly-cooling lava fields.

The Ice Age rendered Ireland uninhabitable until around 10,000 BCE, when the sheets of ice and snow thousands of feet thick melted, and the first humans made their way to the newly uncovered land. They likely did so by means of a land bridge from Scotland to the region north of what is now Belfast, an area that was rich in flint, making it ideal for a people who were still dependent on hunting.

The farming tradition began in around 4500 BCE, and metal technology became available in the 2400s. The Irish, like early people all over Europe, developed farming techniques, learned how best to make use of natural resources, and created distinctive art and folklore. By around 1100 BCE, Ireland had begun to develop into a warrior aristocracy, which defined Irish politics and society for millennia.

The geography of Ireland has played an important role in its political, economic, and social development from the time of the earliest inhabitants. Mountains, bogs, and drumlins create natural divisions between the northern and southern areas of the island, as well as between the east and west. This geographical layout influenced not only the settlement of the native Irish, but also directed the conquest of the Romans, the Norse, and the English.

The first conquest of Ireland was carried out by a people known as the Celts. Although the term “Celtic” has become synonymous with “Irish” to the modern ear, the Celts were in fact a people from central Europe, diverse in ethnicity but sharing a common group of languages. Though they were not literate, the Celts had a strong oral tradition, and were excellent poets and storytellers. Julius Caesar’s description of the Celts depicts them knowing the Greek alphabet but refusing to commit their knowledge to writing, not out of ignorance, but out of a belief that such knowledge was special and should not be made commonplace and accessible to all.

This practice also served as a social control, because education was only available to Celts of certain classes. When the Celts established themselves in Ireland circa 350 BCE, their strong oral skills gave a platform to the already rich Irish culture. The modern Irish language developed from the language of the Celts, and along with Scots Gaelic is the last descendent of its mother tongue still in use. The Celts and the earlier Irish soon became indistinguishable, and for most scholarly purposes they remain that way. After the Irish began to record their stories and knowledge in writing, the earlier tales were incorporated into the existing Celtic myths.

Much of what has survived from this early amalgam of folklore is about early races of people, warrior men and women who accomplished amazing feats, and about the gods and goddesses who interacted with them.

One of the ways in which the Celts left their lingering stamp on Ireland was through their religion, which has survived through its incorporation into Christianity, as well as its inclusion in secular tradition. The ancient Celts passed on the belief that after their invasion, the tribe they conquered retreated underground to live as deities. Carmel McCaffrey and Leo Eaton write: “Throughout the descriptions of this early religion there is always the feeling that the deities are never far away and that the Otherworld…is only just barely hidden from view…”

Nowhere is this more obvious than in the druidical tradition, practiced by priests and priestesses who supervised rituals and counseled the royals. Their most important responsibility involved the celebration of festivals for the gods and goddesses, feasts which often coincided with important natural occurrences like solstices. Many of these celebrations were later absorbed into the Christian tradition as the feast days of saints, and were then presided over by the Christian clergy.

Another important feature of druidical life was the wealth and power that the druids held. Sometimes ritual executioners, sometimes counselors and sometimes sacrifices themselves, they occupied a place of supreme reverence in their society. The Irish devoted much of their wealth in the form of silver, gold, precious stones to the practice of their religion, in the form of beautiful metalwork and other ritual items. The mingling of wealth, beauty, power and sacredness was later revived after the organic Christianity of the newborn Irish church was overtaken by a more self-indulgent hierarchy.

In addition to traits of druidical religion, the most notable contribution of the Celtic conquerors was their warrior aristocracy, the influence of which reached far beyond the battlefield. Not only in war, but in peace as well they sought to solve problems through blood. The war gods demanded enemy prisoners and the harvest gods demanded infants, while the severed heads of adversaries adorned temples, palisades, and even the belts of warriors. Though these practices did not survive the onset of Christianity, the perpetual warring of tribal chieftains that characterized much of Irish history echoes the earlier Celtic values.

The Birth of Celtic Christianity

In the early days of the fifth century CE, Ireland began to undergo major changes due to two concurrent factors: the first Christian missionaries arrived, as did a widely usable system of writing. The Latin alphabet was much more elegant and practical than the previous style of writing, a simple yet cumbersome set of markings called “ogham” which was used between the fourth and seventh centuries to inscribe memorial markers.

Corcomroe Abbey, County Clare, Ireland (founded c. 1190)

Fortunately, the fact that these two monumental changes happened simultaneously means that the historical record contains written works from the earliest days of Christianity in Ireland; for example, Ireland’s patron saint, Patrick, bared his soul in his Confessions, in which he repeatedly and humbly apologizes for his lack of education or eloquence. A deep and reverent love of language and lyricism inclined the Irish people to excel in the written word, and within a few centuries, their devotion to preserving texts would help save European civilization from ruin. The people responsible for this were the Christian monastics who, through the years, had become the protectors of literature and learning.

Patrick the naturalist

Although Christian missionaries had reached Ireland before, the coming of Saint Patrick marks the beginning of Irish or Celtic Christianity, and his individual influence is undeniable. He was taken to Ireland as a slave, and spent years shepherding in the hills of Antrim. This slavery and isolation in the lonely but intensely beautiful country of the North of Ireland informed and even defined his faith.

The Christianity that developed in Ireland during and after Patrick’s ministry, which spanned much of the fifth century, was one that at least in principle valued every person, slave and chieftain, man and woman alike, and held a deep respect for the natural world, traits which appealed to the straightforward Irish people. Patrick and others made progress among the Irish chieftains, and worked determinedly against the native warrior culture. They even went so far as to place the bishops near the seats of the Irish kings to keep tribal warring in check. This trend of merging political and religious centers continued, and was reinforced during the time of Viking attacks, when people fled to monasteries for protection from the onslaught.

Christianity as presented by the early missionaries took hold in Ireland so strongly for a variety of reasons. Rather than force a foreign faith on the resolute Irish, Patrick and others willingly blended Christian doctrine with earlier pagan beliefs and rituals, particularly those surrounding the natural world. Also, rather than directly attacking beliefs and practices like blood sacrifice, missionaries tried to divert the aggressive Irish Celtic energy into Christian ideals. The early Christian church in Ireland understood Christ as the final sacrifice to the gods, releasing converts from the cycle of shedding blood, and demanding instead that they sacrifice their lives through daily devotion and service.

Some of the early Christian leaders of the Irish church were later canonized, and innumerable stories from their lives were composed, retold, and recorded. Many of these stories draw on pre-Christian religious traditions, myths, and propaganda. It is for this reason that they are valuable in historical analysis — they may not be accurate, but they give valuable insight into the values of the Irish people. The naturalistic egalitarianism embodied by Patrick is certainly one such example, but St. Brigid is perhaps the best example of fusion between Irish culture and Christianity.

Brigid the host

As with Patrick, Irish sensibilities sculpted St. Brigid’s approach to the faith, but unlike her well-documented predecessor, the historical Brigid is nearly impossible to separate from the myth. The woman who came to be known as St. Brigid founded the abbey of Kildare around the year 500 CE. Stories about her life demonstrate wit, generosity and warmth, qualities that even now are associated with the Irish.

A tenth century poem attributed to Brigid begins, “I should like a great lake of ale/ For the King of kings; I should like the family of Heaven/ To be drinking it through time eternal.” Brigid began a tradition within the Irish church of commitment to traditional hospitality; her influence also counterbalanced the ascetic traditions, valuing enjoyment of life instead of distancing monasticism from the daily life of the people. In this way, Catholicism supplemented the Irish lifestyle, incorporating earlier pagan traditions, and bound itself to culture rather than distancing itself from the larger society.

Under Brigid’s influence, early Irish Christianity allowed women to hold leadership positions, another example of syncretism between the church and preexisting culture. Brigid held a position of power among church leaders of her time, and one tradition even holds that, through divine intervention, she was ordained a bishop. Though women were not equal to men in early Ireland, they possessed rights unknown to their sisters in other parts of Europe.

Old Irish law, also called Brehon law, developed over millennia, and had elaborate systems of judges, advocates for both parties, and fines to atone for crimes. Laws governing marriage and divorce caused women to have a central importance in Gaelic and Anglo-Irish politics, and in certain circumstances, a female heir could lead a lordship and act either militarily or diplomatically to protect it. Marriage, divorce, and property laws all allowed women more freedom in the 6th century than they were to have in the more centralized society of the 17th century.

It seems possible that the social context that affirmed Brigid’s authority also contributed to the synthesis of the legends of the goddess and the life of the saint. Certainly, the symbolic parallels between the goddess and the saint are many; both are associated with sacred oaks, bonfires, and abundant hospitality, and the stories of Brigid’s life obviously draw on mythology. Nonetheless, Brigid in her many forms has become an Irish archetype, and lends a version of her name to the male ideal of feminine purity and virtuosity – the Bride.

Columcille the rebel

Another important characteristic of the early Irish church was its commitment to the preservation of art and learning. St. Columcille, called Columba outside Ireland (not to be confused with Columbanus, another Irish saint), was dedicated to this cause, and indeed was expelled from Ireland because of his love of books. Information about his life in Ireland is unreliable, but tradition holds that Columcille was an impressive presence, born into a royal family and trained in the ways of the Filí, a hereditary class of poets that was protected by kings in spite of their sometimes-scathing honesty.

This noble poet was never quite able to subvert either his literary bent or his pride in favor of Christian meekness, and the most famous story about his life reflects that struggle. Well into his adulthood, Columcille returned to visit his teacher, Finnian, who owned a magnificently illuminated text of the Psalms. Columcille, fearing that Finnian would refuse him permission, secretly made his own copy at night.

When Finnian discovered the copy and demanded it, Columcille appealed to the local chieftain King Diarmait, a rival of his family, who ruled against him. Later, when that same king ordered the death of one of Columcille’s followers, the offended noble-turned-priest exacted his revenge by calling on his clansmen to wage war. Legend holds that only one of Columcille’s men died, while three thousand of King Diarmait’s troops were killed.

Unsurprisingly, the beloved copy of the Psalms was returned to its maker, and has ever since been called the Cathach, which in Irish means “warrior”. For taking up arms, Columcille was exiled from Ireland, a crushing punishment for such a man. He sailed to the island of Iona in Scotland, where he founded one of the many monasteries in that country which are attributed to him.

A page from the Book of Kells, c. 800 CE

In the spirit of Columcille, the early period of Irish Christianity is bound to literacy; while continental Europe was foundering in the wake of barbarians created after the fall of the Roman Empire, Irish monks were frantically copying texts, preserving any and all written knowledge that they could find.

Irish Catholicism would soon be tested, however, in the form of the waves of Viking raiders from Scandinavia and the Low Countries that mercilessly pounded Ireland during the 9th and 10th centuries CE. The first recorded Viking raid was carried out on an island near what is now Dublin in 795, but by 820, the small raiding parties had become huge, well-organized fleets that razed the coast and took anything from money and valuables to slaves.

Monasteries in particular were at risk, both for their own wealth and because villagers frequently entrusted their valuables to the monks for safekeeping. The monks were often tortured or killed, and even their circular, vault-like towers failed to protect them. Ireland’s greatest monasteries, from Brigid’s Kildare to Patrick’s Armagh, were destroyed during the Viking raids. Apart from the lives of the occupants, the greatest casualties of the raids were the rare copies of texts that the often-illiterate Vikings destroyed.

In spite of the immeasurable destruction that the Vikings brought, they forced the Irish people into a new way of life, and in doing so pushed Ireland toward modernity in the form of medieval towns and cities, which in large part developed around monasteries. Though the monasteries had always served as population centers, the raids caused them to become the only protection for the people of the surrounding lands and thereby encouraged their growth. This shift toward semi-urbanity was also encouraged by the Viking outposts, which became ports and trading centers.

The High Kings of Ireland

The age of Viking raids came to an end in 1014, when the chieftain of Thomond, Brian Ború, defeated the Vikings at Clontarf. By the time of Brian’s youth, the Vikings had established themselves as a permanent fixture in Irish life; many Irish chieftains were even soliciting Viking support in clan wars, and indeed Brian won his own political supremacy with their help.

After his beloved elder brother was killed by a rival chieftain with the help of Vikings, Brian was elected king of his ancestral seat of Thomond, according to the Irish system of succession. After defeating the Vikings who had assisted in the killing and negotiating a tribute from them, Brian Ború went on to kill the king who had been responsible for his brother’s death, and took over his lands and title.

The other clans were becoming increasingly uncomfortable as Brian gained the allegiance of various Irish and Viking towns and gathered the smaller kingdoms under his rule. He met with mixed success, and in spite of opposition, he found himself in an unstable High-Kingship over much of Ireland. The Uí Néill clan of the North in particular felt threatened, but skirmishes with Brian’s men convinced them that a settlement with the powerful king would be prudent. They retained the North, while Brian consolidated his holdings in the South.

Brian Ború’s attempts to unite Ireland by force provoked his rivals, and they began to recruit Vikings in Ireland and abroad to help them defeat the new high king. The culmination of this plotting came in 1014 at a beach known as Clontarf, just north of Dublin, which was developing into an important population center. Although it is true that there were no more Viking attacks after the battle, Brian wasn’t really fighting to defeat the Viking invaders, as popular tradition holds, but rather the Irish chieftains who disputed his claim.

His ultimate goal was to unite Ireland under a strong high-kingship, while allowing the chieftains authority over their ancestral realms. The dream within reach, and in spite of his victory in battle, Brian Ború was killed at Clontarf and thus unable to establish any support for the new political system. Instead, the chieftains who had consolidated their power during his rule returned to the bloody power struggle, only now the position of High King was more powerful and therefore more coveted. This infighting would later prove a fatal weakness when it distracted the Irish nobles from the true threat: Anglo-Normans from England.

Ireland Becomes More europeAN

Brian Ború had introduced a form of kingship much closer to the European system. However, unlike the hereditary European monarchs, Irish kings had traditionally been elected by the elders of their clan. This bred conflict after Brian’s death, because without the European system of primogeniture there was no mutually agreed-upon rule of succession, and in the absence of a strong leader, the many minor kings began fighting for power.

In spite of warring among clans, the age following the battle of Clontarf was one of economic prosperity. Many of the Vikings’ outposts and trading centers were becoming permanent settlements, and were occupied by Viking settlers and the Irish alike. Dublin grew into a wealthy city of political importance.

Associated with the king of Leinster and having powerful ties from its days as a Viking trading post, Dublin became in effect the capital of Ireland, a position that was cemented when the high kings began to be inaugurated there instead of Tara, the traditional political seat. In addition to their influence on the development of Irish cities, the Vikings had a great influence on arts and crafts, metallurgy, and weaponry.

As major economic and political changes were occurring in Ireland, the Roman Catholic Church was gaining power in Europe. Rome was making an effort to standardize religious doctrine and practice, and the English bishopric of Canterbury contributed to this through the influence it exerted on the Irish churches and monasteries, which had exercised a degree of independence.

By the middle of the twelfth century, the Irish church was undergoing major changes. A synod held at Kells in 1152 restructured the Irish church, establishing the order that remained into modern times. The synod made other changes as well, demoting the abbess of Kildare from her position as a bishop, abolishing hereditary succession in the clergy and the enforcing mandatory celibacy for clergy members.

The papal representative to the synod reported that the changes successfully reformed the Irish church to fit the Roman model. The reform of the Irish church had mixed results; while it standardized the church and prevented dynastic families of church leaders, it also stripped women of leadership roles and undermined the role of the monasteries as centers of learning. The European monastic orders, which were brought in to replace the earlier unorthodox Irish monks, never reached the level of academic accomplishment that the Irish orders had.

The Anglo-Norman Invasion of Ireland

While the unrest in the religious world was building, the parallel world of Irish politics was about to explode. The kings of the various provinces were still vying for the high kingship, and once again they looked outside Ireland for the support they needed to defeat their rivals. In a fateful misjudgment, the Leinster king Dermot MacMurrough traveled to France in 1166 to ask the Anglo-Norman king Henry II, who was leading his troops against the French, to help him regain power. This move gave the Anglo-Normans the opportunity to invade Ireland.

Corcomroe Abbey, County Clare, Ireland (founded c. 1190 AD)

After their success reforming the rebellious Irish church, the Roman Catholic Church had an opportunity as well. The current pope, Adrian IV, was the only Englishman ever to hold the chair of Peter, and the English Catholic Church asked him to assist in their conquest.

Thus, at the same time, political and religious forces in England had independently planned to seize power in Ireland. Through a papal bull known as Laudabiliter issued in 1155, Pope Adrian IV granted Henry II both England and Ireland as “papal fiefs,” in essence giving the king permission to invade Ireland in order bring the people under the jurisdiction of the Roman church. The opportunity to bring his homeland into a political relationship with the church must have appealed to Adrian. He commissioned Henry “to proclaim the truths of the Christian religion to a rude and ignorant people, and to root out the growth of vice from the field of the Lord.”

However, Henry did not act on the Bull immediately; in fact, he didn’t act on it personally until he felt threatened by the increasing presence of his nobles in 1171. After Dermot MacMurrough’s request for support in 1166, Henry sent a small force composed of the private armies of his supporters that arrived in 1169. When they proved unsuccessful at establishing him as the ruler of his new papal fief, he turned to England once again.

But MacMurrough hadn’t yet exhausted his options. The Earl of Pembroke, Richard de Clare, was a well-connected noble eager to gain status, and Dermot offered him a tempting bribe. In exchange for the military support de Clare could bring to Ireland, MacMurrough offered him the hand of his daughter Aoife and the right of succession to his kingdom, which would be a violation of Irish law. De Clare accepted, and came with troops and weapons that far outstripped the capabilities of the Irish.

After MacMurrough died and de Clare claimed the throne of Leinster, Henry II began to worry that his nobles, who had been so successful in Ireland, were becoming too powerful. With a large army and the blessing of the new pope, the king traveled to Ireland to assert his sovereignty. Though the kings of Ireland continued to struggle against Henry II and the Anglo-Norman nobles, they were eventually forced to submit to him as their overlord, and signed the Treaty of Windsor with him in 1175.

Ireland Under English Rule

The treaty left the high king, Rory O’Connor, the unconquered parts of Ireland, though the Anglo-Normans disregarded that stipulation and continually pushed further into Irish lands. O’Connor’s power gradually eroded until his death in 1198. From this point on, Ireland had little control over the influence of England on their church and society. After Rory O’Connor, the high-kingship faded. This was connected to the fact that, while some lands remained in the hands of their traditional Irish overlords, Anglo-Norman rulers had taken over many others.

As the invading Norman lords battled Rory O’Connor and the other Irish kings, one Anglo-Norman nobleman, John de Courcy, conquered his way north. After defeating the last of the “Ulster” kings, he established himself as the “prince” and ruled Ulster as a semi-independent state. He enjoyed more support from the locals than most of the conquering nobles, likely because he was known for his fascination with local saints and his ability to read Irish. De Courcy was eventually defeated by a rival Norman in 1244, but his rule was notable for its syncretism of Anglo-Norman and Irish culture. Centuries later, the descendants of the conquering Anglo-Norman nobles, known as the Anglo-Irish, would adopt many Irish customs and traits; threatened by this, England tried to legislate the language, dress, lifestyle, and even horseback-riding preferences of her displaced citizens.

It was not long after the Anglo-Norman invasion that yet another group came to pursue its interests in Ireland. In 1315 the Scots landed in Ulster, led by Edward Bruce, younger brother of Robert Bruce. They hoped to join with their Irish allies for a Celtic revolt against the British, but failed to gain as much support as they had imagined among the Irish. As the battles raged, both the Anglo-Normans and the Scots destroyed everything in their paths. The Scots’ lack of success, combined with the death of Edward Bruce, effectively ended the invasion.

However, the link between Ireland and Scotland would only grow stronger. By that time, Ireland had begun to suffer from a famine, which had spread across Europe, leaving the people starving in the wake of a power struggle that destroyed their homes, crops, and places of worship. As the Anglo-Norman families established themselves in Ireland, they began building castles – heavy stone strongholds unlike the previous fortifications of earth and wood. By 1250, Irish castles were beginning to exhibit the distinctive architectural style that has become so well known.

Dunguaire Castle, County Galway, Ireland (16th century)

The thirteenth century in Ireland brought a new style of colonization, one that changed the very structure of Irish society. Not only had the Anglo-Normans brought political domination, but they also brought a dependence on agriculture accompanied by new farming methods and technology. This was a huge shift away from the old Irish system, which had measured wealth in cattle and used more land for grazing than growing crops; the change also had repercussion in the form of competition for arable land. Thus it was during this time that the modern idea of “traditional” Ireland developed, an Ireland of gently sloping hills covered by a patchwork of green farmland, dotted with castles and gothic churches: an Ireland which was, in fact, created by the Anglo-Normans.

The English, the Irish, and the Anglo-Irish

In the mid-14th century, the Black Plague struck Ireland as it did the rest of Europe. Most intense in urban areas, the plague is estimated to have killed around one third of the population. As revenues dropped, the royal government raised taxes on the colony. At the same time, the pastoral Irish began to gain ground against the weakened colonials. Faced with higher taxes and the threat of rebellion, the colonials became increasingly unhappy with the failure of the Lord of Ireland, the king’s representative, to protect them.

The tensions between the English settlers born in Ireland and the King Edward III’s English-born agents were building, and the king sent his son Lionel with troops to alleviate the situation. One way that Lionel chose to do this was by strengthening a sense of English identity, which was eroding with the succeeding generations. To re-instill a sense of Englishness in the errant colonists, Lionel presided over a parliament that produced the Statute of Kilkenny in 1366. Among other things, the statute forbade the Anglo-Irish to speak anything but the English language, to intermarry with the Irish, or for Anglo-Irish and Irish families to foster each other’s children in accordance with old Irish customs. The Statute required them to use the English forms of their names, to dress in the English fashion, and to cease patronizing Irish bards, musicians, and storytellers. To break any of these prohibitions was high treason.

Greed, Bribes, And Rebellion

The Statute of Kilkenny and other measures protecting English identity had little effect, and by the end of the century, many parts of the colony were paying protection money to local chieftains, who were beginning to reclaim the kingships that they had lost. This of course was threatening to the English king, Richard II, who during a relative political lull assembled a large army and fleet and sailed to Waterford. After landing in 1394, he quickly defeated the local king, which by extension brought the other upstart chieftains into line.

To keep them in line, he offered the chieftains legitimacy as English lords through a system called now known as “surrender and re-grant.” Many accepted, including the leaders of the O’Neill, O’Conor, MacMurrough and O’Brien clans, all of whom were knighted in March of 1395. Having achieved what seemed to be success, Richard sailed back to England, only to have it fall apart nearly as soon as he had left. A scant four years later, he returned to Ireland, but his campaign was barely begun before he was forced to return to England because of an uprising that later ended in his beheading.

For a time, Ireland was left to fend for itself, and by the mid-1400s, all that remained of English municipal structure was an area north of Dublin called the Pale, as well as scattered fortified towns. However, in 1449, King Henry VI appointed his heir-apparent, Richard, Duke of York, to the Lordship of Ireland. The colony welcomed Richard’s presence, both because of his status and because he was the heir to multiple Irish titles.

Relations between the colony and the English crown had always been unstable, but the reign of Henry VIII, which began in 1509, was a time of uncommon unrest for Ireland. For centuries, the weather patterns had been fluctuating, to the great detriment of agriculture. For that reason, the sixteenth century saw an increased dependence on the export of pelts, timber and textiles, and domestically, an overwhelming reliance on cattle. Also during Henry’s reign, the Atlantic took on a new meaning because of advances in navigation, and in turn, Ireland gained a new strategic importance. As a result, the English crown paid closer attention to where the power lay in Ireland.

For many years, the extremely well-connected Earl of Kildare known as Gerrold Mór held much of Ireland’s political power, and also maintained good relations with the English monarch. As the King’s Deputy to Ireland, he was an agent of the English government, but the Irish and Anglo-Irish as well as the English respected him nonetheless. He held this position for thirty years under five kings, and even crowned the sixth, Edward VI, at Dublin.

When Gerrold Mór died, his son Gerrold Óg took over his position as the Lord Deputy of Ireland under Henry VIII. Henry’s reign was eventful enough in England, but in Ireland, it was experienced as general chaos and anarchy, much of which was blamed on mismanagement by Gerrold Óg and other Anglo-Irish lords and Irish chieftains. However, Henry had a genuine desire to be king in Ireland, to govern well and, as he said, “to heal the great decay of that fertile land for lack of politic governance and good justice.” Henry even allowed that if the Irish chieftains felt the English laws were too stringent, they could suggest their own law code, as long as it was “good and reasonable.”

Henry’s attempts to gain control of Ireland diplomatically were largely unsuccessful, and in 1534 he faced a rebellion led by “Silken” Thomas Fitzgerald of Kildare, so named for the ribbons his soldiers wore. Though it succeeded in capturing Dublin, the rebellion ultimately failed due to lack of support. The rebellion of Silken Thomas came at a difficult time in English history. In 1533, Henry VIII had married Anne Boleyn, having divorced his former wife Catherine, a decision that caused him to split from the Catholic Church.

Thomas of Kildare intentionally associated his rebellion against Henry with the cause of the papacy, and naturally, his failure did not bode well for Ireland. In 1536, Henry declared himself the head of the Church of Ireland, and the next year began a program of political and religious reorganization. Included in the plan was the dissolution of the monasteries, which were in some cases converted into strongholds for the advancing troops. To cement his supreme rule over Ireland, Henry also took the title King of Ireland, and tried to establish formal relations with Irish nobles, using the “surrender and re-grant” policy to bring their lands under his control, granting them English titles in place of their Irish ones.

After Henry died in 1547, the crown passed to his young son Edward, who died, and then to Mary, a Catholic, who tried to undo the reformation in England and restore relations with the pope. Henry’s other daughter, Elizabeth, succeeded her half-sister in 1558. Elizabeth faced resistance on a scale far greater than any of the other Tudor monarchs. England’s always-precarious relationship with Ireland forced Elizabeth to exercise her considerable political acumen, and as her reign progressed, she made progress in many parts of Ireland.

Elizabeth faced a definite threat from Spain, and feared that Ireland could be used as a base for an attack on England; this made it necessary for her to assert herself in Ireland. Threats from Ireland came up regularly; one of the most notable from Shane O’Neill and later from Hugh O’Neill, who had been brought up at court specifically so that Elizabeth could make sure he did not follow in the footsteps of his kinsmen. As a political leader, Hugh O’Neill succeeded at holding together the fragile network of alliances among the Irish lords.

He also knew that outside help would be necessary for victory; as Elizabeth feared, the Spanish king agreed to send a force to Ireland, but it arrived too far south. On the march to meet the Spanish troops, the O’Neill’s forces were defeated by Lord Mountjoy at Kinsale. O’Neill was forced to negotiate with Mountjoy to retain his title at the price of his independence. Though he didn’t know it, the Queen had died days before he signed the treaty with Mountjoy.

The new monarch, James I, had great ambitions for Ireland, particularly the northern province occupied by Hugh O’Neill. To make way for the settlers he intended to plant, James and his advisors accused O’Neill and Rory O’Donnell, Hugh’s son, of plotting against the crown. O’Neill had the foresight to know that the only way to survive was to flee to supporters in Europe, and in 1607 O’Neill, O’Donnell, and 50 family members left Ireland in what is remembered as “the Flight of the Earls.” The escape increased the crown’s holdings in Ulster, because in leaving, the earls forfeited their land in Tyrone, Tyrconnell, and half of Fermanagh. The English viewed the flight as a confession of treason, but Irish supporters interpreted it as proof of intolerable persecution by the English.

The Plantation of Ulster

Hugh O’Neill was correct; there was no way to stop James from taking Ulster. Within months of the flight, James’s agents had confiscated the lands of the earls, along with the property of anyone else they could charge with treason. They eventually abandoned the pretense and took land indiscriminately and began to prepare a scheme of plantation, which was enacted in 1610.

English and Scottish settlers were granted large portions of the four million acres that had been confiscated from the clans. Many of the native Irish were driven out and forced into the hill country, while others remained and lived as tenant farmers or laborers on the new estates. The plan of segregation of the races failed, and before long, the Irish were somewhat intermingled with the settlers, who were increasingly of Scottish origin. Some of the Irish chiefs who had fought with the English under Hugh O’Neill had been awarded land along with the English and Scottish settlers – in fact, about 20% of the land was granted to such men. Yet King James was clear that his motive was the “removal of natives,” and this left the Irish Catholic landowners very wary.

Thus, they were leaders and even instigators of the rebellion in 1641 by the native Irish against the settlers. Though it violated the official policies of the Irish leaders of the rebellion, there were hundreds of murders of Protestant settlers by the Irish revolutionaries. The killings were not systematic and lasted only until the leaders got their armies under control, but the English believed the murders to be proof that the Irish were barbaric and treacherous people, and their retribution was swift and brutal. The feeling of insecurity that the settlers felt as a result of the rebellion was its most lingering effect, and the “siege mentality” found among modern Ulster Protestants is often attributed to the rebellion of 1641.

The rising of 1641 galvanized two separate communities — not the English and Irish, but the Catholics and Protestants. Shortly after the rising had begun, the English government blamed it on the “evil-affected Irish papists,” much to the surprise of the Old English families, themselves Catholic. The proclamation served to drive the Old English further away, and shortly thereafter, they took up arms themselves, to join the Irish, who assured them that it was a fight for rights, not against the king, who at this time was Charles I.

The English parliament, meanwhile, met and passed the “Adventurers’ Bill,” encouraging speculative investment in the re-conquest of Ireland; the king himself still hoped to confiscate even more land in Ireland, and take revenge on those who had risen up against him. At this time, Catholics owned approximately 59% of the land in all of Ireland, a figure that would drop dramatically over the next century.

Loyalist mural of Oliver Cromwell, Shankill Road, Belfast

The fighting continued between the Irish and Anglo-Irish Catholics and British Protestants; leaders rose and fell, among them the great Owen Roe O’Neill. After the execution of King Charles I in 1649, Oliver Cromwell landed near Dublin with a large, well-armed force. They quickly took Drogheda, taking revenge on its inhabitants for the 1641 uprising, and after that initial victory English armies were able to traverse Ireland with partial success. The forces that had gathered under yet another O’Neill had disbanded after Owen Roe’s death, and so the insurgents were unprepared for Cromwell’s onslaught.

By 1653, Cromwell had all but eliminated remaining rebels, and parliament passed a law allowing them to execute many remaining leaders and confiscate the tracts of land they had promised to investors under the Adventurers’ Bill. Huge numbers of Irish men and women left the country to fight in foreign armies or as to serve as indentured servants in America or the West Indies. In addition to confiscating property and terrorizing the population, Cromwell also forbade the practice of Catholicism; the few priests that were able to remain disguised themselves by practicing other trades, or even by taking to the hills and offering what comfort they could to their scattered parishioners.

The pseudo-peace enforced by Cromwell ended when Charles II took the throne in 1660, restoring the English monarchy. Though the time before the restoration had been unstable for England, social structure had remained intact. However, when Cromwell’s iron hand lifted, chaos and confusion characterized Irish life. Nobles, investors, and claimants of every ilk fought over land. Charles attempted to placate all of these groups, but, understandably, he found this impossible.

Ultimately, he handed most administrative duties over to the Irish Protestant earl of Ormond, who brought considerable managerial skill to his office. Though he upheld Protestant interests, he eased the restrictions on his Catholic compatriots, allowing the clergy to practice once again. Importantly, Ormond also devoted his energies to rebuilding Ireland’s infrastructure; he built schools and hospitals, and was a great patron of the arts and learning. Ireland grew under Charles II, both materially and in population, but England’s trade restrictions eventually capped that growth.

Charles’s death in 1685, however, brought a new monarch to the throne: James II. James’s Catholicism evoked an emotional response from all parties. Although taking any action to relieve Irish Catholics risked angering the Protestants, James made concessions such as appointing Catholic judges.

Loyalist mural of William of Orange defeating James II at the Battle of the Boyne, Lower Shankill Road, Belfast

He also replaced the Protestant army with Catholics under Catholic leadership, the cause of the famous incident of the apprentice boys of Derry, who, disgusted by the inaction of the Protestant leaders of the city, reportedly shut the gates on the king’s approaching troops themselves.

Poor decision-making left James in an unstable situation, in both England and Ireland, and his son-in-law William of Orange rose up against him in an attempt to take the British throne. William defeated James at the Battle of the Boyne near Dublin in 1690, and immediately after the battle James fled to France.

William’s conquest of Ireland was not complete after Boyne, but went on for the next several years. In spite of that, the Battle of the Boyne has become a symbol of Protestant triumph, and unionists and loyalists across Northern Ireland celebrate the victory each year on the twelfth of July.

The Penal Code and Protestant Ascendancy

Although William tried to take steps toward religious tolerance, the outcry from his Protestant followers made it impossible. Soon the Irish colonial Parliament began passing laws that attempted to strip Catholics of nearly all rights, and in many cases put their properties and persons at risk.

By 1691, the entirely Protestant Irish parliament was doing everything it could to endorse Protestant ascendancy. They passed a system of anti-Catholic legislation that came to be known as the “popery code,” and was intended to keep the Catholics in a state of lasting subjugation. One of the primary objects of the code was to divest any remaining Catholic landowners of their property, and this goal was very nearly met; by 1714, only 7% of land was owned by Catholics, compared with 59% in 1641.

Additionally, the laws were intended to bar Catholics from any civic or military role and, finally, to destroy the organization of the Catholic Church in Ireland in part through the exile of all clergy members. While the penal laws were attempting to secure the Protestant position in Ireland, the Irish who had fled the penal code were distinguishing themselves on the continent and elsewhere in the world. The Spanish, Austrian and Russian armies had Irish commanders, and the Irish soldiers in the French army were so numerous and distinguished that they were nicknamed the “Wild Geese.”

Eventually, not only Catholics but also other non-Anglicans were shut out of certain government functions. The Ulster Presbyterians were one such group, and in response, many of them emigrated from Ireland to Europe and America. Though the eighteenth century is often referred to as the time of Protestant Ascendancy, this was only true for some Protestants — namely, Anglicans. The spurned Presbyterians joined with the Catholics against the favored Anglicans, adding yet another dimension to what is usually represented as a duality.

The 1700s also saw the rise of many great Irish patriots, known in Ireland and beyond. The famed satirist Jonathan Swift, for example, wrote pamphlets in the 1720s urging people to boycott completely English manufactured goods, and continued writing in support of Irish causes throughout his career. The 1740s began with a famine that hit the west severely; this was tragic not only because of the death of the people, but also for the loss of the culture which had hitherto been preserved through their remote lifestyle. Major political changes were on the way, however, and in adversity the people would gather behind great leaders like Wolfe Tone, Robert Emmet, and Daniel O’Connell.

In the late 1770s, Ireland was almost bankrupt, and the taxes had reached the upper limits of what the people could bear. The government of Ireland had to borrow from England and even from private banks. Thus, when in 1779 various Irish statesmen took up once again the cause of free trade, it was in the best interest of both England and Ireland to significantly ease the restrictions on Irish trade which had been in place for centuries. The year before, the English Parliament had voted to give Catholics back full property rights. Shortly thereafter, in 1782, the British Parliament granted Ireland legislative independence.

During the next several decades, both Protestant and Catholic organizations and secret societies began to grown in popularity. The most well-known of these, the Orange Order, emerged in 1795. There had long been Protestant secret societies, but the new ones were more openly violent and anti-Catholic. The original oath for members of the order swore loyalty to the English monarch, as long as he or she continued to support the Protestant ascendancy. There were of course Catholic groups as well, though most were local and focused on the issue of land reform. In the 1780s, a group called the Defenders both unified these smaller movements and brought them to a new level of sectarian violence.

The Society of United Irishmen was founded in 1791 under the leadership of Theobald Wolfe Tone to counteract the increasingly sectarian atmosphere by bringing together Protestants and Catholics to work for common causes. The Society worked for the passage of the Catholic Relief Act of 1793, which returned voting rights to Catholics, though not the right to sit in parliament.

Uprisings plotted by the United Irishmen from 1796-98 forcefully took revenge on Protestant soldiers and citizens for their ascendancy, but, because of poor discipline and organization, failed to have the desired lasting effect. In spite of its lack of success, the 1798 Rising resulted in about 30,000 casualties in less than three months. The uprisings had barely ended when the movement for union with Great Britain began. Some saw it as the only solution to Ireland’s serious problems, while others saw it as an opportunity to gain control, and yet others saw it as an imminent threat to their independence and livelihood.

The much-debated Act of Union was passed in 1800 by the Irish parliament, only after much bribery and coercion. In effect, the Irish MPs had voted themselves into extinction, but Ireland was in a crisis and the people’s fear of losing their status or control had driven them to accept an extreme solution. Under the terms of the Act, Ireland did contribute members to British Parliament, and gained benefits such as membership in the UK free trade area, as well as some pooling of resources between the two kingdoms.

Catholic Emancipation

During the time that the Act of Union was proposed and passed, a young lawyer named Daniel O’Connell was among those who protested the measure. A surprising number of Catholics supported the Act, due to the lobbying of Cornwallis, who at the time was the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. O’Connell, just beginning his career, experienced the repercussions of the failed uprising led by Robert Emmet in 1803, including the enforcement of martial law and repeated suspensions of habeas corpus.

O’Connell was devoted to universal liberty and equality, and was an uncompromising idealist. His use of the Catholic Church, however, lost him the support of sympathetic Protestants. It also caused Irish Nationalism to become indistinguishable from Catholic nationalism, binding Irish religion and politics in an unprecedented way.

Meanwhile, O’Connell was also struggling to defend his Catholic Association against repeated attempts at suppression by the government. The Association encouraged the participation of the poor, and this admission of the masses to the political process was deeply unsettling to the government. In 1828, O’Connell’s influence over the Catholic population was demonstrated when he was elected to represent County Clare in Parliament.

The next year, he succeeded in getting Catholic Emancipation included in the parliamentary agenda. It passed in 1829, though the final bill curtailed the number of Catholics that were eligible to vote, eliminating many of the poorer voters. However, this did not slow Catholic participation, and as O’Connell’s influence continued to organize the Catholic vote, the Protestant “ascendancy class” which had become established during the time of the penal laws began to feel threatened by the sheer numbers. After the Catholic Emancipation legislation had been passed, O’Connell turned his energies to the repeal of the Act of Union and the founding of an autonomous Irish legislature.

While O’Connell and others were working against the domination of upper-class Protestants, working-class Protestants began to organize in support of a more general idea of Protestant religious superiority, encompassing Protestants of all classes. By 1835, the ranks of the Orange Order had swelled to more than 100,000 members.

Not all of the Irish nationalists were in support of O’Connell, especially in the 1840s. A growing faction of the younger generation was put off by his overly pragmatic approach, which seemed to them to be limited and sectarian. These young people began to form a movement known as Young Ireland, and though they never developed a comprehensive ideological approach, they promoted an idea of nationhood composed of race, culture, and language. The movement was responsible for introducing many of the symbols that are today considered to be traditionally Irish, such as the shamrock, the harp, and images of revolutionary patriots like Brian Ború and Owen Roe O’Neill.

The Young Irelanders attempted to distance the nationalist movement from the church to avoid unnecessarily alienating sympathetic Protestants from their cause. At the same, O’Connell made statements suggesting that after the repeal of the Act of Union, Ireland would be more pluralist, as the Young Irelanders demanded. This differed somewhat from his position on education, and as his platform began to lose focus, Irish politics began to slip into a state of confusion. The 1845-46 growing seasons were calamitous, with crop failures followed by blight. The agricultural disaster drew the focus away from constitutional issues, and the efforts of Irish politicians redirected their efforts to the famine conditions.

During the early 1800s, Ireland’s population had increased rapidly, and over eighty-six percent of its people were living in rural areas, the majority of whom lived as subsistence farmers. The potato became the crop of choice, because it could be grown on relatively small plots of low-quality land, and many farming families survived almost entirely on the tuber. Potatoes are, however, susceptible to blights and other diseases, and if the crops failed, people simply went hungry because there were no other crops to fall back on.

The year of O’Connell’s death, 1847, was not only a time of mourning for the Irish, but also a time of suffering, for the Great Famine had reached its peak. Between 1845 and 1849, about a million Irish people perished from starvation or disease, and another two million emigrated. Although there were charitable and political efforts to feed the starving Irish populace, the measures were hugely insufficient, and horrific accounts of desperation came from all corners of the country. The effects of the famine were the worst in the western counties, where economic factors like a higher proportion of large farms left many tenant laborers without recourse.

The response of the current monarch, Queen Victoria, and her administration was immensely insufficient. In 1860, in his The Last Conquest of Ireland (Perhaps), John Mitchel wrote, “The Almighty, indeed, sent the potato blight, but the English created the Famine.” Whether completely accurate or not, the sentiment was taken up by the emigrant Irish who, free from famine conditions, adopted a passionate revolutionary attitude. Later, the leaders of the fight for independence would call on the Irish emigrants in America and elsewhere, and would receive overwhelming support.

The Roots of Modern Sectarianism

By 1858, the influence of the Irish MPs in parliament was weakening, and the next year the independent Irish party dissolved. In response to the seeming death of the constitutional movements and the mass exodus from Ireland due to famine, a more radical group of Irish nationalists sprang up which came to be known as the Fenians. In 1858, a secretive organization originally known as the Irish Revolutionary Brotherhood was founded, which together with its American, British and Canadian branches became synonymous with the Fenian movement. The IRB, later renamed the Irish Republican Brotherhood, was criticized by the church for its secrecy; the relationship was not helped by IRB’s stance on the involvement of the clergy in politics.

In March of 1867, the Fenians staged an unsuccessful uprising that was easily quelled. The salvation of the Fenian movement, ironically, was its willingness to compromise. When the need arose, the Fenian leaders were able to temporarily shift their support from revolution to other causes like land agitation, constitutionalism, Catholicism and modified republicanism. This combination helped produce a period of time when the major political movements were able to “overcome the normal particularism of Irish politics as a whole” and band together.

In 1869, British Prime Minister William Gladstone succeeded in removing official status from the Church of Ireland, a move which angered Protestant Conservatives, who were overwhelmingly Anglican. His proposal of the first Land Act a year later only exacerbated the situation, and simultaneously upset both the Protestant Conservatives, who felt that too much had been conceded, and the Catholic farmers, who felt it was too little. The series of land acts, beginning with the relatively weak but symbolically important 1870 version and continuing through 1909, progressively bought up agricultural land from the large plots of the property owners and sold it to the tenants, who could reimburse the state through the payment of annuities.

After O’Connell’s death in 1847, Ireland experienced a dearth of political leaders, and Irish representation in parliament was weak. However, in 1875, a young man named Charles Stewart Parnell from an old landed Anglo-Irish family was elected MP for Meath and began to distinguish himself as a politician. In 1877, Parnell was elected president of the Home Rule Federation, an organization devoted to promoting Irish self-government within the UK. Parnell’s victory was over his long-time rival Isaac Butt, who was known as the father of the home rule movement.

Shortly after Parnell’s rise to power, the land issues in Ireland had caused nearly famine conditions among the tenants. Tragically, the 1879 crop failed, and land agitation rhetoric was becoming increasingly violent. In an effort to bring coherence to the land agitation movement, supporters founded the Irish National Land League in 1879 with Parnell as the president. Some desperate farmers were resorting to violence, and there were beginning to be attacks on landlords and their agents, and even on tenants who refused to cooperate with the Land League.

In 1879, the land problem had become a crisis, and a true famine was threatening Ireland once again. The year before, the number of evictions had doubled, and the number doubled again in 1879. The small farmers were suffering due to the crop failure and unable to pay their rents. As the situation grew more desperate, Parnell expanded his efforts. In 1880 he traveled to the United States to garner support, and relief money poured in from Irish-Americans.

However, their support of Irish causes may not have been as patriotic as it seemed; many contributors believed that if Ireland became an independent nation, they would gain legitimacy and respect as Irish immigrants in America. However, regardless of the motivation, the relief money was extremely beneficial, and prevented a full-on famine. The Land League continued its work, and was increasingly seen as a threat by the British government.

At the same time, Irish nationalist women were working for land reform through their own organization, the Ladies Land League, led by Parnell’s very capable sisters, Fanny and Anna. Their mother was an American, and the sisters joined with her to found the Famine Relief Committee in New York City, raising funds by appealing to the city’s Irish-Americans, who were still a distinct ethnic group. The famine relief office that they opened continued to bring in funds, but the sisters were working on a new project as well.

For years, Irish nationalist men had been working for land reform by means of the Land League, and while in America, Fanny called on Irish-American women to form a supplementary organization, the New York Ladies’ Land League. When Anna returned to Ireland, she founded the Irish branch of the Ladies’ Land League. The money the sisters had raised in America helped to alleviate the effects of the famine, but the LLL also gave them an opportunity to protest the increasing number of evictions and even to help build huts for the evicted families.

Charles and other members of the men’s Land League were jailed for their actions, and the crown’s reticence to imprison women allowed the LLL to flourish. By late 1881, the LLL had become the most influential nationalist organization among the people of rural Ireland, with 420 branches in Ireland and the United States. The British government felt it necessary to suppress the Ladies’ Land League, but ardent demonstrations prevented the enforcement of the ban.

During this time, the women of the LLL had shown themselves to be more politically extreme than their brothers at the Land League, with a greater number of better-organized boycotts, more rent strikes, and increased agrarian crime. The women had even earned the censure of the church for their unladylike behavior. In the end, the fatal blow to the LLL came from their own men, who had not expected them to become a commanding political presence instead of a ladies’ charity. Once Charles and the leaders of the Land League got out of prison, they moved quickly to disband the LLL and forced the women into clerical roles within the men’s organization. Anna Parnell never spoke to her brother again.

By 1885, Irish MPs were gaining ground under Parnell’s leadership. The general election of that year yielded 86 Home Rule MPs, who functioned as a tightly knit unit under Parnell’s leadership, and pledged to vote as a group. The next year, Gladstone, convinced of the justice of the demand for home rule, proposed his first Home Rule Bill, which provided for an Irish executive and parliament. The Bill was attacked from all angles, and failed to pass in a vote of 343 to 313, but the issue of home rule remained very much in the public eye.

Parnell’s popularity reached its peak in 1889 and 1890, but his career was threatened by his involvement in an adulterous relationship with the wife of another political figure. Parnell believed the scandal to be unimportant, but it split his party into factions. In 1891, Parnell backed three candidates from his party and campaigned enthusiastically for them. As a result of the strain of campaigning, he caught rheumatic fever and died shortly after.

The Irish party in Parliament was weaker following the death of Parnell, and a social movement rose up during the lull between the period of Parnell’s influence and the coming flurry of legislation regarding land as well as home rule. The atmosphere in Britain and Ireland was, unsurprisingly, one that favored all things English, and attempted to Anglicize nearby nonconformists. The general disgust of “Irishness” shown by British politicians and public figures led to the formation of the Gaelic League, founded in 1893.

The League began an educational movement, attempting to preserve and revive Irish language, music, literature, folklore, and sports. It promoted a kind of cultural nationalism reminiscent of Young Ireland, and was responsible for the revival of “Irish Ireland” which continues in other forms to this day. The poet William Butler Yeats embraced the movement, and wrote many stirring politically motivated poems and plays during his life.

The turn of the century ended the brief political interlude, and in 1903 another Land Act, known as the Wyndham Act, took a conciliatory approach and led to the redistribution of 280,000 land holdings, funded by the British Treasury for eighty-six million pounds. Politically, the act brought nationalist divisions to the forefront again.

In 1912, the third and final version of the Home Rule Bill was presented, and handed back and forth between the houses of Parliament until both finally passed it in 1914. During the discussion of the bill, Prime Minister Herbert Asquith had been open about his belief that the only way to avoid a civil war between Irish factions was to partition Ulster, and an amendment to the bill was proposed granting the counties of Ulster exclusion from the jurisdiction of the Irish parliament.

The Rise of The Paramilitaries

Loyalist paramilitary mural, Shankill Road, Belfast

As Britain was drawn into WWI, Home Rule was passed to win the cooperation of Irish nationalists in the war effort, but appeased unionists by suspending the enactment of the Act until after the war. This delay only served to strengthen the extremism of the opposing factions.

The nationalist factions opposing home rule wanted nothing short of complete independence, and began to organize into the militant groups that were the forbears of modern republican paramilitaries; meanwhile, loyalist citizens were organizing into similar groups.

The loyalist Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) was founded in January of 1913, followed by the republican Irish Citizen Army and Irish National Volunteers in November. The Irish Volunteer Army was also founded in the autumn of 1913. By the following year, enlistments in the Irish Volunteers had grown at a rate of over 15,000 per week.

The Easter Rising

In 1914, the Irish Republican Brotherhood began planning a rebellion, to take place on Easter Sunday of 1916. Among objections of the nationalists to British rule was use of Irish troops for the escalating war. The republican factions had pushed for Irish neutrality in the war, and had even solicited military help from the Germans, who promised to provide weapons during Easter week.

As the paramilitaries grew in strength, nationalist women created a group called Cumann na mBan, the League of Women, was founded in 1914 as an auxiliary to the Irish Volunteers. Although it was originally created as a way for nationalist women to work for independence by supporting the men’s groups, Cumann quickly became an autonomous women’s group with its own political agenda.

According to plan, the Easter Rising began in Dublin on Sunday, April 23, 1916. The following Monday, Irish paramilitaries seized post office and other strategic buildings, read a proclamation of their demands, and raised the republican tricolor flag. During the week of fighting, the British suffered a considerably larger number of casualties than the insurgents, but the number of civilian casualties was huge in relation to losses on either side. The rebellion continued until the following Saturday, when the nationalists were forced to surrender.

Loyalist mural for the East Belfast Concerned Women’s Group, Belfast

Though their numbers were relatively small, the women of Cumann na mBan played a large part in the Easter Rising. They acted largely as messengers, scouts, couriers and nurses. Not all women were restricted to secondary roles, however; for example, Dr. Kathleen Lynn was the chief medical officer for the Citizen Army at one outpost. The most famous woman involved in the Rising was Countess Constance Markiewicz, an Irishwoman who had married a Polish nobleman. In 1910 she had founded the Fianna, a republican group designed to give boys and young men military training. She later became the president of Cumann na mBan and by 1915 she was helping to train the Citizen Army.

After the Rising was quelled, 3,430 men and seventy-nine women were arrested, and all but six women were released after inquiry. Markiewicz was the only woman to face a court martial, and was sentenced to death. Her sentence was later commuted to penal servitude for life. The motivation of the women of the Rising was often difficult for men to understand. The officer of the court who assessed the female prisoners reported that except for the few he detained, the women were not aware of what they were fighting for, and had been compelled by poverty, as well as a general sense of excitement and a desire to belong.

Meanwhile, the women who had not been detained evacuated the injured rebels and destroyed incriminating documents. The women, who supposedly did not know for what cause they were fighting, organized a delegation to the US and even presented a Cumann petition to President Wilson. The women of the Easter Rising were among the most visible in Irish politics to date, with Markievicz becoming in 1918 the first woman ever elected to the British Parliament, though she was not able to take the seat.

Contrary to the hopes of the rebels, the rising failed to inspire the population to rise up and throw off colonial rule. However, as the British response to the Rising dragged on, and the number of executions grew steadily, public opinion began to shift in favor of the rebels. The lack of normal legal proceeding in addition to the executions made the British actions seem like retribution rather than justice. As popular support of the nationalist cause increased, the tide began to turn against the constitutional methods. In 1916, the soon-to-be Prime Minister Lloyd George decided on the immediate enactment of the Home Rule Act, with the partition of six of the counties of Ulster.

In the early years of the twentieth century, a political party called Sinn Féin, meaning “ourselves,” had been formed as an umbrella organization to unite the many small nationalist groups. During the elections following the Easter Rising, Sinn Féin began to win elections and gradually took over leadership from the old parliamentary party. In 1917, the newly elected MPs announced that they would abstain from the Parliament in Westminster and instead form their own Irish Parliament, known as the Dáil Éireann.

Several years later, the Dáil began to establish a government by appointing ministers; Eamon de Valera became the president of the assembly, and Constance Markiewicz was made the Minister of Labor. Though the Dáil was an unofficial body, it was well supported by the general population and began to build an infrastructure of government, including a system of courts for arbitration and a bank. Sinn Féin continued to be increasingly successful in the general elections, and the Dáil continued to gain popular support as well as allies at the higher levels of government.

The political separation became a violent conflict in 1919, which forced Britain to bulk up the Irish police force and the army presence. In 1920, Britain sent a force of ex-servicemen called the Royal Irish Constabulary, who became known as the “Black and Tans” because of their distinctive uniforms. The British show of force caused the Irish to respond with guerrilla tactics, giving the British troops license to respond in kind.

The conflict became known as the Anglo-Irish War, and as time passed, it became increasingly clear to the British that it was more than a rebellion. In an attempt to solve the problem of partition, Parliament passed the Government of Ireland Act in 1920, which established two home rule parliaments in Dublin and Belfast. The measure was largely ignored in the south, where the Dáil was the recognized governing body. The northern unionists, however, embraced the Belfast Parliament as an alternative to being forced into the jurisdiction of a united home rule parliament.

The northern counties, too, were experiencing riots and clashes with police, as well as widespread exile of northern Catholic workers and families, many of whom fled south. This caused the Dáil to urge the boycott of goods from Belfast, and even led to attacks on trains transporting goods from the North.

The Government of Ireland Act failed to resolve the conflicts in either part of the country, and the war continued to rage across Ireland. As British forces lost any semblance of control, the crown granted its operatives extraordinary powers to arrest and detain anyone suspected of an illegal activity, even to the point of imprisonment without trial. The military thereafter acted with no regard for the rights of citizens, and attempted to restore order by whatever means necessary.

By 1921, both sides were beginning to tire. A truce ended the Anglo-Irish War and began the negotiations for a treaty between the Irish and British. In its final form, the treaty provided for the twenty-six counties of southern Ireland to function independently, with the exception of some naval and military bases that would be retained by Britain. The relationship of this new “Irish Free State” to Britain would be one of a free partner in the commonwealth.

Not all of the Irish factions accepted the treaty; De Valera led the debate against it in the Dáil in 1922. After all sides had presented their arguments, the treaty was ratified by sixty-four votes against fifty-seven, and De Valera resigned in protest. In the following weeks, the British began to evacuate and turn over power. The violence was not yet over for the new Ireland: until May of 1923, IRA commanders conducted a brutal civil war against Irish supporters of the Anglo-Irish Treaty, endorsed by De Valera and others who rejected the Free State.

Yet the change had come. Through the Anglo-Irish War, Ireland became the first country of the twentieth century to win freedom from a colonial power, and like many other emerging nations, Ireland suffered from civil unrest and instability. However, after hundreds of years of conflict, Ireland had gained a degree of freedom it had not known since before the time of the Vikings. The Irish poet William Butler Yeats, who experienced the rebirth of his native land, showed remarkable foresight when he wrote

“All changed, changed utterly:
A terrible beauty was born.”

Yeats was right, all had changed utterly, and indeed the changes facilitated the great and terrible beauty of modern Ireland.

Northern Ireland after Partition

The partitioning of Ireland formalized the divisions between Protestants and Catholics; now, each group had a state to see as their own and a state in which to be the minority, allowing each group to feel both entitled and persecuted. Just after partition, Ireland was embroiled in a bitter civil war, which accomplished little and destroyed many lives. In 1927 those in government who had rejected the Anglo-Irish Treaty, under Eamon de Valera, took the oath of allegiance and joined the Dáil Éireann, now legitimately Ireland’s elected body.

In Northern Ireland, now the primary focus of this historical overview, the establishment of a new parliament was underway. Under the leadership of Sir James Craig, the new governing body was formally opened on 22 June 1921 by King George V. During the 1920s, the Northern Irish Parliament worked out its scope and its methods under James Craig, Lord Craigavon. In 1929, he abolished proportional representation in parliament. This didn’t hurt either of the dominant parties, who consistently won the same seats, but it did serve to streamline the North’s political dualism by weeding out independent parties and factions, most of which were unionist.

Queen’s jubilee flag in front of an August bonfire in Belfast

The 1930s were a dark time for Northern Ireland, characterized by high unemployment rates and sectarian rioting. In Belfast, 37% of housing was unfit or overcrowded. Infant and maternal mortality were the highest in the United Kingdom. Conditions in the city attracted young nationalist men to the IRA, while mobilization grants from the B-Specials of the Royal Ulster Constabulary helped unemployed unionists survive.

It was during this time that both sovereign states made clear the links between the state and the majority community. In 1934, Lord Craigavon gave a speech in which he said, “I have always said I am an Orangeman first and a politician and a member of parliament afterwards… we are a Protestant parliament and a Protestant State.” His admission was not surprising; until 1970, virtually all unionist MPs were Orangemen, and membership was nearly a precondition for election.

In 1937, several years after Craigavon declared Northern Ireland a “Protestant State,” Ireland made explicit its “special relationship” with the Catholic Church in its new constitution. It was also during the 1930s that the Special Powers Act of 1922 was made permanent, giving the government of Northern Ireland power to deal with outbreaks of sectarian violence. The Act, originally intended to be a temporary measure, gave the Minister of Home Affairs the power “to take all such steps…as may be necessary for preserving the peace and maintaining order.”

Meanwhile, in the Irish Free State, the Irish government under De Valera was attempting to separate itself from Britain as much as possible, asserting its sovereign independence at every turn. Culturally, this manifested itself as an emphasis on “Irishness.” Between 1936 and ’38, De Valera’s government developed an Irish constitution, which among other things renamed the Irish Free State Éire, the Irish word for Ireland, and claimed sovereignty over the whole of Ireland, including Ulster.

The early post-partition governments each reflected the majority values and interests, but they had different approaches to the minority groups within their borders. Though Catholics routinely accused the Northern Irish government of systematic discrimination, they rarely charged it with institutionalizing a Protestant religious ethic. Conversely, in the Irish Free State (and later in Éire), Protestants suffered little deliberate discrimination, and their complaints were centered around the position of the Catholic Church in state and society.

While Éire was in a phase of self-definition, Ulster was in a period of heavy reliance on Britain. During the late 1930s, the UK treasury funded agricultural subsidies for Northern Ireland, and covered any deficit at Stormont, where the Northern Irish Parliament met, as long as the deficit was not the result of lower taxes or higher social welfare than in Britain. Rearmament in preparation for the coming World War I also gave Northern Ireland an economic boost, because the shipyards, aircraft factories, and other manufacturers were getting surplus contracts from Britain.

As Europe was drawn into World War I, and Britain made preparations for war, Éire remained neutral, which only strengthened its separation from Britain. However, the Irish people came north to take advantage of the economic opportunities in the wartime industries. The Prime Minister made it clear to these workers that they would not be allowed to stay and become voters (a unionist fear), and would be required to register and obtain a permit.

Meanwhile, those from Ulster who could afford to do so took vacations in the South. When Britain instituted conscription, the Northern Irish Prime Minister Lord Craigavon proposed that Ulster be subject to conscription as well. There was much debate about the issue, but in the end a decision as made to exclude Northern Ireland, though members of the Ulster Special Constabulary were asked to enlist.

Ultimately, except for its manufacturing and transport roles, Ulster was divested of any role in determining Britain’s defense policy. The Government of Ireland Act impeded the functioning of the Britain’s wartime government, and so during the war the Act was overridden, in essence negating the role of the Northern Irish Parliament. Not only was the function of Ulster’s governing body suspended, but its MPs were not included in discussion or decision-making. A 1940 ruling gave full responsibility for defense to Westminster and forbade Northern Irish MPs from criticizing its policies.

In 1940 and 1941 the war became real for Northern Ireland. Blackouts and air strikes snuffed out the glimmer of hope that the short-lived economic surge from the war effort had kindled. Northern Ireland was left almost completely undefended. Only seven heavy guns protected Belfast, and no other towns or cities had any defenses at all. The first air raids of April of 1941 killed 700 people and did massive damage.

After the raids on Belfast in April and May, about 100,000 people were homeless, and refugees flooded nearby towns. The raids revealed the terrible condition in life in Belfast’s slums. The Northern Irish government had built up the police force at the expense of health care, and the revelation caused by the air raids led directly to the creation of the Ministry of Health. The Housing Acts of 1945 and ’46 attempted to remedy the slum-like conditions that had existed before the war.

The war forced the government at Stormont to address internal problems like health and poverty, which had been possible to ignore due to the mere fact of their consistency. Also, the realities of the war were shared by citizens of all political groups. Tommy Henderson, the Independent Unionist MP for Shankill, a historically Protestant area, described seeing people he grew up with dead in the street. He said, “[the Catholics and Protestants] are talking to one another…They all say the same thing, that the government is no good.” For a while, at least, the universal destruction that the war inflicted on Belfast shifted the guerrilla was between the RUC and IRA into a private feud.

When Basil Brooke, later Lord Brookeborough, came to office in 1943, he let go of “the old guard,” most of whom had been in office for more than twenty years. Brooke was open about his Protestant outlook; at one point, he publicly urged Protestants to employ only other Protestants, because, he claimed, 99% of Roman Catholics were disloyal. It is unsurprising that an administration comfortable with making that kind of statement publicly might also produce discriminatory policies. As Stormont provided the legislative infrastructure for Northern Ireland, it became obvious that the “two communities” not only believed differently, but also functioned differently.

After many years of being disenfranchised by the establishment, nationalist communities had developed their own schools and hospitals. When an Education Act attempted to standardize the primary school system according to the English pattern in 1947, the nationalists were reluctant to hand over their schools for incorporation into the school system. The “voluntary” schools, as they were called, were religious, and as such were funded by the Catholic Church. Unionists saw any governmental financial support for these schools as subsidizing the Catholic Church, and were strongly opposed to the idea.

The nationalists were understandably averse to giving up control to the government, which was obviously not dealing equally with the two communities. Their decision to hold on to their assets caused them to be penalized politically and financially. Their assessment of fund distribution was accurate, though; there was no parity in distribution of government funds, especially in health and education. While two million pounds were invested in state primary schools, the private voluntary schools were allocated just £160,000, though the two types of schools had roughly the same number of students. There was a similar situation with hospitals, with similar imbalances in distribution of funding. The experiences of the Catholic/nationalist communities in Northern Ireland for most of the twentieth century were characterized by this kind of systemic discrimination.

Unionist bonfire during marching season, Belfast

During the first half of the century, the United Kingdom funded Ulster’s developments in housing, health, education, and social security, but politically, the UK was beginning to grant Northern Ireland increasing degrees of independence. In 1949, Westminster passed the Ireland Act, which contained two important provisos. Firstly, Northern Ireland’s constitutional position cannot be changed without the consent of the Northern Irish Parliament, which would be tantamount to the consent of the people. Secondly, the British government cannot intervene in Northern Irish internal affairs unless there is a breakdown in law and order. Also in 1949, Éire was declared a republic by the current Taoiseach, or Prime Minister. Political changes in 1949 led, in effect, to two reasonably autonomous political entities with an antipathetic history, unavoidably linked by the two communities they shared.

The post-war period of the 1950s was not extremely active for Irish or Northern Irish politics. In the Republic, the Dáil allowed their legislative agenda to be influenced by ecclesiastical policy, and at one point even withdrew a piece of legislation because the Catholic Church felt that it went against Catholic teaching. This was often cited as an example of what northern unionists feared most: “Rome Rule,” the domination of the state by the Catholic Church.

Another unionist fear was sustained by the events of the ‘50s – namely, the fear of violent republicanism. The IRA was active in both the North and the South, violently “campaigning” for a united Ireland, a goal only nominally supported by the people of Éire. The IRA was illegal in both countries, and while Ulster was convinced that IRA activities received secret approval in the South, the Dublin government imprisoned 100 IRA members from 1956-1962.

The Beginning of the Troubles

Historians usually date the period known as the Troubles from 1967 or ’68 until the Good Friday Agreement in 1998. Pivotal events, which led to the situation in the late ‘60s, began several years earlier. In 1964, Reverend Ian Paisley, a very conservative unionist and founder of the Free Presbyterian denomination, triggered one such event. During the period leading up to a local election, a nationalist politician had displayed an Irish tricolor flag in his headquarters in a Catholic neighborhood in Belfast. The display of the Irish flag was illegal in Northern Ireland, and Rev. Paisley threatened to lead his followers to remove personally the flag if the police did not.

Paisley’s threat forced the home affairs minister at Stormont to send in the police to remove the flag, which triggered rioting. The riots were evidence that the period of uninterrupted Unionist dominance was ending. People of both political persuasions were beginning to make their voices heard through political and special interest groups like the UVF and the Civil Rights Association, an organization that at its founding was bipartisan, but which became predominantly Catholic as its methods became more pragmatic. Though the political situation in Northern Ireland encouraged civic involvement, after a fashion, it also brought the division between unionists and nationalists to a new level.

A temporary lull in sectarian activity in 1965 provided the new Northern Irish Prime Minister, Terence O’Neill, with an opportunity to take steps toward a working relationship with the government of the Republic. He and the Taoiseach Sean Lemass met in both Belfast and Dublin. The meetings provoked an immediate protest, especially from Paisley and his supporters, who saw it as an accommodation of Roman Catholics and a betrayal of Ulster history. O’Neill was also the first Prime Minister to visit nationalist towns and Catholic schools, and it was during his administration that joint North-South projects were undertaken, including the Foyle fisheries commission and the refurbishment of the Great Northern Railway. The goodwill earned during the O’Neill-Lemass collaborations lasted until sectarian violence in 1968-’69 proved the atmosphere in Northern Ireland to be as unstable and dangerous as it had been before partition.

The American Civil Rights Movement and its leaders provided much of the inspiration for the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association, which was largely based out of Queen’s University Belfast. The NICRA was founded in 1967 with a six-point platform that “was the nationalist wish list, the minimum of the radicals and what any decent Englishman would support.” One of their main goals was to restore voting rights in council elections to non-property owners; at the time, some businessmen (mostly unionists) had up to six votes. Because the local councils allocated housing and other resources, returning voting rights to thousands of poor Northern Irish people was a major priority. The NICRA’s agenda was reasonable and their methods moderate, and they were off to a good start.

The first civil rights march in Northern Ireland was in protest of housing allocations, and went from Coalisland to Dungannon in August of 1968. It drew twice as many protesters as the organizers had expected, with a final count of 2,500. Police blocked the march before it reached its destination, and a counter-protest was organized by Ian Paisley and his supporters, but the day ended without violence. That luck turned at a march in Derry in October. The planned route took protesters thought the city walls into a square called the Diamond, which was considered exclusively Protestant territory.

The NICRA was unaware of the degree to which this would be viewed as an invasion, but local organizers were spoiling for a fight. Derry had, for generations, been beset by unemployment, public health problems, and the corresponding morale. Only the young and naïve had any hope that social action would make a difference; non-violent protest was seen as “relying on weakness to win,” and Derry citizens had little hope in the methods of the NICRA, and radical groups used the upcoming march as an opportunity to distribute their own propaganda and push their own agendas.

The October 5th march was banned by the authorities, but this had little effect. The total number of protesters at the march was not as large as expected, but when the crowd reached the police cordons in the city, the police reacted with surprising force. By all accounts there was no instigating event, but the police began clubbing the marchers who were closest to the barriers. This continued as the police put cordons behind the crowd as well. By the end of the day, nearly one hundred persons were treated at the local hospital for wounds sustained during the protest, and intermittent rioting continued into the night.

The police brutality was unexpected and shocking, and the fact that some attacks were filmed, including one on an MP, brought the issues of Northern Ireland to the world’s attention, forever altering the situation. The actions of the police at Derry are understood by some to be the beginning of the period in which law and order broke down, eventually leading to the collapse of the O’Neill government. Another march took place in November, and this time the police were unable to resist the 15,000 marchers.

As the Civil Rights Movement progressed, the NICRA was increasingly seen as an instrument of republicanism. As was the case in Derry in October 1968, marches were often identified as territorial challenges. Also, though the NICRA claimed the green, white, and orange tricolor flag as a non-sectarian symbol of peace, opponents viewed it as a republican party emblem. In addition, unionists tended to classify the bars of the tricolor as “green, white and yellow,” in order to identify the Irish flag with the papal colors of yellow and white. Even the worldwide protest song “We Shall Overcome” was interpreted according to the unionist siege mentality.

Peace lines like this one began to be built in 1969 to physically separate republican and unionist communities

The escalating atmosphere continued on into 1969, and a march that took place in the first several days of January was characteristic of the violent tone of protest that had evolved. On January first, a group of Catholic students known as the People’s Democracy (PD) held a very small but long march from Belfast to Derry, and met with great anger and resentment from loyalists gathered along the route. The PD marchers received very little protection from the police, who were nonetheless present nearly the whole way; a number of off-duty RUC joined the mobs in harassing the protesters.

The crowds assaulted the marchers, throwing stones or using clubs and sticks studded with nails to attack them. One of the leaders of the PD march was Bernadette Devlin, a twenty-two-year-old student soon to be elected an MP to Westminster; Devlin was among those attacked and severely beaten by the loyalist mob as eighty RUC stood by and watched. More people joined the march as the procession got closer to Derry, and by the time they had reached the city, the PD crowd was around two thousand. The attacks got worse, and began to include petrol bombs. After much tribulation, the march made it to the Guildhall, and in so doing made the march a great victory for the PD.

Stability was gone, if any had remained. In March, a bombing disrupted Belfast’s electricity and water supplies. The general population assumed it was the IRA, but in actuality, it was loyalist terrorists. Such events undermined O’Neill’s already precarious government, and in April he resigned his position as Prime Minister of Northern Ireland and was replaced by his cousin Major James Chichester-Clark. Also in April, Bernadette Devlin was elected MP for Mid-Ulster, and from the beginning used her seat to bring attention to the grievances of her community.

The summer of 1969 was full of bloody conflict, but it reached a fever pitch in Derry on August 12, the celebration of the apprentice boys who blocked the army of James II from Derry in 1688. The protestant celebration enraged the Derry’s Catholic and nationalist population to the point that they attacked the protestant marchers and then the police. After two days of bloody conflict, the police subdued the riots and regained control of the Bogside, Derry’s Catholic slum.

In response to these events, extremists in Belfast from both sides and the RUC B Specials, a largely protestant auxiliary police force, began what has since been called a civil war. It began with a flash of violence on the night of August 14 that killed eight people and burned whole streets of homes and businesses in West Belfast. Before long, local and regional law enforcement proved insufficient, and in response to a request for support by the Northern Irish government, Britain deployed several thousand soldiers to the area, beginning the longest continual occupation in British history. At this time, there were only about three thousand soldiers, but by July of 1972, the number had increased to twenty-one thousand.

Though the troops had originally been hailed as deliverers, within a year, Catholic citizens began to believe they were “brutal partisans of the Stormont government,” which pushed the IRA into the role of defending Catholics against perceived British brutalities, such as those that took place during arms raids. Instances of brutality did occur, and were directed disproportionately against Catholics, but were also atypical, at last at the beginning. One responsibility of the troops was to quell riots in working-class neighborhoods, both Catholic and protestant. Unsurprisingly, the loyalists blamed riots on the IRA, and the IRA said the riots were due to loyalist provocation. However, from this point on, the conflict between troops and locals began to shift from soldiers against the UVF to soldiers against the IRA.

There was disagreement within the IRA about how to defend its community. The IRA leadership in Dublin was divided about how to respond to the events of the summer of 1969; some believed that continuing pursuit of political means was worthwhile, while others believed that it was time to take up arms. Members of the Belfast branch of the IRA broke away because they were frustrated with the tendency of their leadership toward “Marxist political action.” They formed the Provisional IRA, known as the “Provos,” and beginning with their first murder of a British soldier in 1971 they built up a violent campaign intending to bring down the government.

In response, the Northern Irish government under the new Prime Minister Brian Faulkner instituted internment without trial, which naturally met with huge opposition in the Catholic community. After the IRA split, the Provisional IRA flourished and the other branch, the Official IRA, began to fade away with further factioning and the absorption of its leaders into the political arena. The Provos, now the dominant republican force, pursued an active northern guerrilla campaign against the British.

In response to increasing IRA presence and influence, loyalists developed groups to protect their communities from the IRA. The Ulster Defence Association (UDA) formed from an alliance of these neighborhood groups, and though individual members had weapons, the UDA was not officially armed. Later, more dangerous groups like the Ulster Freedom Fighters and the Ulster Volunteer Force arose to meet the desire in the loyalist community for a more violent approach. Thus the 1970s began with an increasingly panicked government and two communities that were organizing and arming themselves.

From the ‘70s forward, violence was a constant part of life for Northern Irish citizens. Today, statistically, nearly every person over 45 years of age knows or knew someone who was a victim of sectarian violence. The PIRA leveled its attacks against the personnel and institutions of the state, while loyalist paramilitaries took their revenge on Catholic citizens. One quarter of the total deaths during the troubles took place between 1969 and 1972, spiking in ’72 with a shocking 467 deaths. The media focused on the IRA bombings rather than the more localized loyalist killings, which created a distorted public perception of Northern Irish violence that persists to this day.

One effect of the Troubles was the overturning of traditional political parties in favor of newer parties with different visions or approaches. In 1970, the rather self-explanatory Nationalist Party lost support in favor of the newly formed Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP), which was committed to socialist principles and the eventual reunification with full consent of both North and South. The SDLP was founded by six opposition members from different parties at Stormont, and though it didn’t include all oppositions groups, it was a step forward, and provided a much-needed moderate nationalist voice.

The Ulster Unionist Party began to fall apart, a process quickened by the rise of the Democratic Unionist Party, founded by the ever-charismatic Reverend Paisley. He announced the formation of the party in the rubble of an IRA bombing, dramatically setting to tone for the party, which, in effect, gave a political presence to all those of militant loyalist ilk. Faulkner’s Northern Irish government, in an attempt to control IRA violence, began to implement internment on a large scale. The Catholic community, alienated by the heavy use of internment on top of their previous complaints, began to strike and protest with a new intensity.

Bloody sunday

Perhaps the most famous incident of the Troubles was one such protest, the NICRA march held in Derry on January 30 1972 that became known as Bloody Sunday. British paratroopers fired on unarmed protesters, killing thirteen and demonstrating complete British misunderstanding of the situation in Northern Ireland. There was intense investigation into the events, and much debate about how justified the attacks may or may not have been, but inquiries into Bloody Sunday have been unable to produce any defense of the actions by law enforcement.

The situation continued to escalate, and both parties began to fear that London would revoke all devolved powers and impose direct rule. The unionists as well as the nationalists were against such a step; many still saw any loss of control as a step toward unification, even if that control was lost to Britain. However, Britain saw direct rule as the most likely path to peace, or even to an acceptable level of violence, since it removed the most obvious institution of unionist domination. Britain imposed direct rule in March of 1972, effectively dissolving the parliament at Stormont. The official adjournment came on April 18, just under a month later.

Direct Rule and Attempts at Devolution

Also in March of 1972, Northern Ireland’s Secretary of State William Whitelaw invited representatives of all seven political parties in Ulster to a conference to discuss the possibility of a settlement. Although only three parties attended, the UUP, the Alliance Party, and the Northern Irish Labour Party, the conference produced a document called The future of Northern Ireland: a paper for discussion, which was an altogether remarkable work for its practical approach and insightfulness.

The British government used the basic points of the document as the basis for Northern Ireland constitutional proposals, produced in March 1973. These proposals were developed into the Northern Ireland Constitution Act, which became law in July. The act provided for a new elected assembly and the gradual devolution of extensive powers to that assembly, as well as a standing advisory committee on human rights to prevent discrimination. Though the law gave less autonomy than Northern Ireland had held before direct rule, but nonetheless it provided for a higher degree of self-government than any other part of the UK.

The first meeting of the new Northern Ireland Assembly was scheduled for July 31, and was preceded by a series of arrests of those republican leaders who had not gone into hiding. The IRA continued its violent campaign with a series of assassinations, including the killings of British ambassadors to Ireland and the Netherlands and a cousin of the Queen.

The Northern Ireland Constitution Act, meanwhile, provided the means to pursue a peace process by trying to placate both nationalists and unionists. The act attempted to reassure the unionist community that the status of Northern Ireland would not change without the consent of the people, while also proposing a peace process that made accommodations to the nationalists. The act also established a “broadly-based” cabinet that provided for power sharing.

This legislation was followed shortly by the resurrection of an old idea, namely an intergovernmental council of Ireland, to include representatives from both Northern Ireland and the Republic. The UUP and the SDLP, the unionist and nationalist parties involved in the negotiations, had different ideas about the role of the council. The UUP wanted it to act in a consultative fashion, while the SDLP promoted an executive role. The UK government succumbed to nationalist pressure on that point, and unionists feared that the proposed council was “an embryonic all-Ireland government.”

In December 1973, all involved parties came together for the Sunningdale Conference in England to discuss the structure of the Council. They ended up with a Consultative Assembly and a Council of Ministers, both composed of equal numbers of representatives from each country. At this time, the Irish constitution held Ulster to be a part of Éire, and the issue of the removal of this constitutional claim was key to the Sunningdale Agreement.

A British delegate claimed that Ireland’s participation in Sunningdale as an international/intergovernmental negotiation was tantamount to an admission that Northern Ireland was part of the United Kingdom. Informally, the Irish delegation had left the issue open, but immediately after the agreement, the Taoiseach Liam Cosgrove made an announcement, saying “there is no question of changing our constitution.” The implications of whether Ireland was in a legal sense treating Northern Ireland as a domestic or an international affair forced the Irish government to reframe Sunningdale as an enunciation of policy rather than a binding agreement.

“Not everything is possible at every time”

— Heinrich Wölffin

By March, all progress made in the Sunningdale Agreement had halted, and the Executive had failed, in large part due to a strike by the unionist Ulster Workers Council. Describing the failure of Sunningdale, Thomas Hennessy writes, “the acceptance of an internal consociational settlement by Unionists was only possible if constitutional stability was accepted by nationalists in the longer term. In all probability, such a settlement was not possible in 1973-1974.” In essence, both parties would have had to compromise on the issue most necessary to their traditional positions: the unionists would have to accept power sharing rather than majority rule, and nationalists would have to let go of their legal claim for a united Ireland. As Heinrich Wölffin writes, “Not everything is possible at every time.”

Hunger Strikes, The Blanketmen and Dirty Protests

Republican mural for prisoners of war, Falls Road, Belfast

During all of this time, Britain had continued to use internment without trial as a tool against paramilitary violence. Several years after the last detainees held under internment were finally released in 1975, the European Court of Human Rights began investigations into interrogation techniques and possible human rights violations. They found that although internees were not subjected to torture, the methods used had been “inhuman and degrading.”

In the mid to late 1970s and early 1980s, much of the attention shifted to the status and treatment of paramilitary prisoners. In 1972, such prisoners had been given special-category status, but in 1976, new paramilitary convicts were once again considered common criminals. Thus, by 1980, some prisoners were incarcerated for terrorism were considered criminals and others were designated political prisoners. The new British government under Margaret Thatcher refused to renew the prisoners’ political status, and it was this that triggered the infamous hunger strikes and dirty protests of the early 1980s.

The first prison protest was simple; because the prisoners were demanding political status, they refused to wear the uniform of the common criminal. Instead, they wrapped themselves in prison-issue blankets. However, the situation deteriorated when guards refused to allow prisoners to use the toilets unless they were wearing uniforms. Rather than comply, the prisoners refused to bathe or shave, and smeared their own excrement on the walls of their cells.

Although the male prisoners began the protests, female prisoners in the women’s prisons participated as well. Displeased with the results of the blanket and dirty protests, some of the republican prisoners decided to begin a hunger strike. Ultimately, ten people starved to death during the protest, and their deaths caused a similar reaction in the nationalist community to the execution of the leaders of the Easter Rising in 1916.

Republican mural of Bobby Sands, Falls Road, Belfast

The deaths also stimulated the nationalist population to support the PIRA in a more active (though not necessarily more violent) way. The most famous hunger striker, Bobby Sands, became a hero and martyr for the nationalist population, and his image still adorns murals on the sides of buildings in Belfast.

The atmosphere of investigation included the actions of the police, and the British government established a special commission to look in to the matter. The Bennett Commission’s report, released in 1979, admitted that there was evidence of maltreatment. The Bennett Commission was not the only international body to confirm mistreatment, torture and physical abuse of Irish prisoners by the RUC; the Strasbourg Commission on Human Rights and Amnesty International had both done so as well. In response, the US House of Representatives amended the State Department appropriations bill to end the sale of weapons to the RUC. The house passed the bill, ironically, on July 12 1979, the yearly celebration of the Battle of the Boyne.

Ongoing Terrorism And The Anglo-Irish Agreement

Acts of terror by the IRA continued through the 1980s. High-profile events like a bombing at a London Harrod's department store during the holidays kept media attention on the conflict. The IRA also bombed the British Conservative Party annual conference in 1984, which was attended by dignitaries including the Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, who escaped unharmed.

Obviously, the IRA was holding its ground, and Sinn Féin was beginning to make progress. Both the Irish and the British government feared that Sinn Féin would overtake the SDLP, which they believed would decrease the chances of reaching a settlement. Meanwhile, beginning in 1982, Britain began a process of “rolling devolution” which increased devolved powers to the current assembly as long as the assembly won cross-community support for continuing devolution.

Protestant parade during marching season, Belfast

Several years into this process, the British and Irish governments produced the Anglo-Irish Agreement in another attempted to find a satisfactory settlement, this time giving the Republic a consultative role in the running of Northern Ireland. Both governments confirmed that any change in Northern Irish status could only happen with the consent of the majority. They tactfully failed to clarify what the province’s status was, and yet again made the move toward a power-sharing assembly.

The leaders of both governments feared that the Anglo-Irish Agreement would cause them to lose support, but they took the risk for a number of reasons. Margaret Thatcher, a stalwart defender of British sovereignty and independence, agreed to power sharing in large part because of the stability offered by cooperating with the Republic on security issues, as well as because the agreement gave her the opportunity to contribute to the defeat of the IRA.

The republican movement publicly opposed the agreement, but there is evidence that leading members privately supported it. The unionists opposed the agreement not only because it gave too much power to the nationalists, but also because the British government had not consulted them during the negotiations. The unionist population demonstrated and even rioted. One protest even drew 250,000 people, and a petition in 1987 raised 400,000 signatures. In response to the agreement, a number of UUP and DUP MPs resigned their seats at Westminster.

The Peace Process of the 1990s and Attempts at Government

The 1990s saw the beginning of substantial efforts at peace, which gained strength as the decade progressed, and began to produce visible benefits in the mid-1990s. IRA violence was still present, and one of the most visible acts of terrorism was a mortar attack on Downing Street, the British Prime Minister’s residence, occupied at the time by John Major. The first attempt at inclusive negotiations, in 1991, ended without an agreement, but it was nonetheless a step in the right direction. The next year, the British and Irish governments and the Northern Irish political parties tried again, but the negotiations ended with not proposals after several months.

A major landmark came in 1994, when the PIRA announced the “complete cessation of military operations” and affirmed their commitment to the democratic peace process. The declaration was matched by most loyalist paramilitaries. The IRA ceasefire created a situation that the British and Irish governments would go to great lengths to protect. In 1995, the British and Irish governments jointly issued the “Framework Documents”; the agreement angered the unionists because it was perceived to be sympathetic to the nationalists in an attempt to preserve the ceasefire.

In 1996, US Senator George Mitchell—who would go on to lead the negotiations that produced the Good Friday Agreement—completed a report he had been commissioned to produce about the situation in Northern Ireland. In response to Mitchell’s report, John Major announced plans for an elected body for Northern Ireland.

The IRA broke the ceasefire in 1996 with bombs in London and Manchester, but this did not prevent the elections for the Northern Ireland Forum or the beginning of inclusive party talks. Sinn Féin was not able to participate because the IRA had broken the ceasefire, and talks commenced without them. The largest nationalist party, the SDLP, pulled out of the talks before long, leaving the negotiating table without representatives of the major nationalist parties.

A landslide victory for the British New Labour Party in 1997 put Tony Blair into office as the new Prime Minister. It was also in 1997 that Bertie Ahern became the Taoiseach of Ireland. The two men were leading players in the upcoming negotiations, and both made significant contributions.

The IRA restored their ceasefire in July, and shortly after, Sinn Féin agreed to the mandatory principles of negotiation developed by Chairman George Mitchell’s team and entered all-party talks. The peace process caused yet another split within the IRA, and those who felt that negotiations were not consistent with the goals of the IRA were dubbed the “Real IRA” (RIRA) by the media.

The entrance of Sinn Féin into the negotiations had been distressing to the unionist parties, who were fundamentally opposed to negotiating with those they felt to be terrorists, and some unionist negotiators had pulled out of the negotiations in response. In September of 1997, the UUP delegates returned to the negotiating table, and in a little over seven months, the negotiators produced the historic Belfast Agreement, also known as the Good Friday Agreement. The citizens of Ireland and Northern Ireland then voted on the agreement; almost 72% of voters in the North, and a full 96% percent of voters in the Republic were in favor.

Elections were held for the new Assembly, and the two leading parties nominated the First Minister and Deputy First Minister, David Trimble of the UUP and Seamus Mallon of the SDLP respectively. Although tensions were elevated as the summer’s “marching season” approached, no major incidents interrupted the progress of peace. The Loyalist Volunteer Force declared a ceasefire in August, and in September, the first prisoners were released under the terms of the Irish National Liberation Army ceasefire. A scheme of accelerated release for paramilitary prisoners had been included in the agreement, and all had been released by the end of July 2000.

The Difficult Transition to Governance

As the year progressed, the process of setting up the government began. Six cross-border bodies were created, the various departments were established, and a Human Rights and Equality Commission was established. Progress was interrupted, but not derailed, by a bomb planted in Omagh by the RIRA in 1998.

The process of establishing a government was difficult. The assembly was having trouble establishing the power-sharing executive. Blair set an absolute deadline of June 30 for them to do so, but they failed to meet the goal. In July, the UUP, DUP, and Alliance Party all refused to nominate ministers for the power-sharing executive, which halted the transfer of legislative powers from Westminster.

The failure to establish an executive also triggered a review of the Agreement, which was once again led by Senator Mitchell. During the month of July, and in fact during all of the summer of 1999, both republican and loyalist paramilitaries were active; naturally, actions taken by the IRA were more understated due to the ceasefire, but loyalist fringe groups were responsible for acts of violence, albeit on a relatively small scale. Despite UUP accusations about the IRA activity, Blair’s government publicly supported the IRA’s claim that the ceasefire was still intact. The issue of decommissioning weapons was a driving force behind the policies of the Northern Irish parties, and the UUP felt that any power sharing should be immediately followed by the decommissioning of arms.

In November, both the UUP and Sinn Féin announced their commitments to the full implementation of the agreement, and all other main political parties did the same. On November 18, Mitchell’s review ended, concluding that the basis for a power-sharing executive and devolution still existed, and thus that it was still possible to implement the Belfast Agreement. The UUP, whose resistance had been key, voted to support Mitchell’s decisions and endorse the Executive, pending a final decision to be made in February of 2000. Ian Paisley and the DUP completely rejected any negotiations with Sinn Féin, the SDLP, or the Irish Government, but the UUP controlled most of the Unionist vote. On November 29, Northern Ireland Assembly met and 10 ministers were appointed for the Executive. The next day, both houses of Parliament voted to approve the order for devolution, ending direct rule. The new devolved government finally became operational on December 2 of 1999. On the same day, Ireland made a historic concession by surrendering its claim on Ulster.

Fish and chip shop “For Cod And Ulster,” featuring cartoons of Ian Paisley (DUP) and Gerry Adams (Sinn Fein), Belfast

Sadly, the new executive didn’t last very long. The failure of the IRA to make any progress on decommissioning, and the fact that they actually pulled out of disarmament talks in February of 2000, caused the British government to suspend the executive on February 11. Several months later, in May, the IRA pledged to render it weapons “completely and verifiably beyond use.” Shortly thereafter, Northern Ireland’s power-sharing institutions were restored. David Trimble, an able politician dedicated to the peace process, demanded a guarantee on decommissioning from Sinn Féin in order coax his party back into the executive.

One year later, however, the IRA had still not begun to decommission. David Trimble, still the First Minister of the Assembly, promised to resign by July 1 if the IRA did not begin decommissioning, and followed through on that commitment when the decommissioning had not begun.

Perhaps this had an effect, or perhaps not, but at any rate, the IRA announced the beginning of the decommissioning process in October of 2001. Trimble returned to office shortly thereafter. Also in 2001, the infamous RUC were renamed the Police Service Northern Ireland (PSNI), and began operating with a recruiting policy demanding equal numbers of protestants and Catholics. More IRA decommissioning took place in April of 2001; things seemed to be going according to plans.

However, once again, the power-sharing government did not last very long. In October of 2002, a republican spy ring within Stormont caused the collapse of the government. The police arrested those involved in the espionage and the British government again suspended the assembly and imposed direct rule. Blair, who consistently showed himself to be committed to the peace process, flew to Belfast and demanded that the IRA carry out “acts of completion,” bringing and end to their brand of paramilitary violence.

During this period of direct rule, much attention was given to the extent of paramilitary activity. One investigation was directed at collusion between security forces and loyalist paramilitaries, and found evidence that such cooperation was widespread. On May 1, 2003, the British and Irish governments issued a joint declaration calling for “an immediate, full and permanent cessation of all paramilitary activity.” A report issued one year by the Independent Monitoring Commission found that paramilitaries were still responsible for a range of violent and criminal activities, regardless of ceasefires.

In July of 2005, however, the IRA formally ended its military campaign and committed to pursuing exclusively peaceful means. Two months later, the International Commission on Decommissioning confirmed that the IRA’s arsenal of weapons, explosives and ammunition was beyond use.

By 2006, even the most resistant to power sharing were beginning to accept the change. In response to an agreement between the British and Irish governments, even Ian Paisley showed willingness to share power with Sinn Féin as long as they made concessions on the issue of policing, which they did in January of 2007. In March of 2007, elections were held for the Assembly, and a deadline was set for the two majority parties to select their candidates for First Minister and Deputy First Minister.

In the elections, the DUP prevailed over the UUP, and Sinn Féin held the second position. The DUP nominated Ian Paisley for First Minister, and Martin McGuinness was selected by Sinn Féin to be the Deputy First Minister. The formation of the government was delayed until May 8, but at that point, a stable power-sharing government began between the nationalist and unionist majority parties. In July, the British Army pulled out of Northern Ireland, marking the end of a tempestuous and complicated period in the history of Northern Ireland.

Since 1966, 3,722 people have died as a result of the Northern Irish conflict, the majority of whom were civilians. Over 45,000 people were injured and well over 15,000 bombs were planted. As historian T.W. Moody observed, the situation was and is “shifting, murky, and infinitely complicated.” Despite what seems like an unending game of political see-saw, the factions in Northern Irish politics have managed to find a settlement. Finally, the streets of Belfast throb with life: young professionals and schoolchildren vying for seats on the bus, teenagers loitering around city hall, and couples lounging on picnic blankets in the Botanical Gardens on a rare sunny day. People are living their lives, no longer overshadowed by the constant threat of violence. Again, it is a hard-won peace, but a most welcome one.