6

• Home Rule Act


  Act granting self-government to Ireland, suspended for the duration of World War I
• Easter Rising


  Breakaway group of Irish Nationalists seized the General Post Office in Dublin and posted up a signed proclamation announcing the establishment of the Irish Republic
• The suspension of the Home Rule Act at the start of the war had only shelved the Irish problem, it had not solved it
• The Easter Rising


  • 'Terrible beauty': the 'terrible' nature of violence and the uplifting 'beauty' of sacrifice
• Key political figures


  • Lloyd George (PM)
  • Redmond (Irish Nationalist leader)
  • Carson (leader of the Ulster Unionists)
  • Lord Lansdowne (Foreign Secretary, Conservative leader in the House of Lords)
• Sinn Fein


  Irish republican political party, led by Eamon de Valera
• Irish Republican Army (IRA)


  Dedicated to guerrilla war against British forces
• 'Black and Tans'


  Police and military force recruited from violence prisoners in British military goals
• The Versailles Treaty established the right of self-determination - the right of people to form a nation and government of their own choice
• Other key figures


  • Austin Chamberlain (MP, Chancellor of Exchequer, Foreign Secretary)
  • Lord Birkenhead (MP)
• Anglo-Irish Treaty


  Essential feature was partition - Southern Ireland was granted independence as the Irish Free State, while most of Ulster remained part of the UK
• A savage civil war broke out in Ireland: the pro-Treaty Nationalists led by Michael Collins and the anti-Treaty Republicans led by de Valera
• The UK is not, and never has been a nation state (Norman Davies)
• The Scottish nationalist Tom Nairn referred to the UK as 'Ukania'
• 'The Red Hand of Ulster'


  Several flags in Northern Ireland
• English presence in Ireland

  1. English colony in Dublin since 12th century

  2. Never completely occupied, always a threat

  3. Reformation - 'Catholic Crusade' against Henry VIII

  4. 1541 Henry VIII declared King of Ireland by Irish Parliament, gained control through 'surrender and regrant'

  5. Increased stability, reduced conflict BUT land could be confiscated by the King
• Plantation


  Colonisation - English settlers granted land belonging to Irish rebels, plantation of Ulster by Scottish Presbyterians after 1606
• English Civil War


  1. Dispossessed Catholics rebelled in 1641

  2. Cromwell crushed Stuart opposition

  3. Atrocities on both sides

  4. Confiscated land given to victors
• Protestant Ascendancy


  • 1688 'Glorious Revolution' - William of Orange and Queen Mary replace Catholic James II
  • 1690 Battle of the Boyne - William and the Orangemen defeat James in Ireland (Marching season in July)
  • Ulster became much more Protestant than the other provinces
  • Penal laws against Catholics - limits on ownership, education, arms, clergy, no voting rights for most of 1700s
• Act of Union


  1. 1801-Irish Parliament abolished itself

  2. Irish MPs (from Protestant Ascendancy) to sit in Westminster

  3. Catholic Association - Daniel O'Connell campaigned for Catholic emancipation= right to sit in the British parliament

  4. 1829 - Catholic Relief Act, O'Connell became MP
• Industrialisation in Ulster


  • Belfast: ship-building, engineering and linen
  • Londonderry: ship-building, linen
  • South remained rural
  • Belfast became a second major center rivaling Dublin
• 19th century: Home Rule & Partition of Ireland

  1. 1845-49 potato blight + laissez-faire= Great Famine

  2. Death (1 million) and emigration (1.5 million)

  3. 1867 Fenian uprising (Irish Republican Brotherhood) - failed

  4. Gladstone's Land Act to pacify Ireland and resolve land injustice (caused by plantation) - failed

  5. 1870 onwards demands for Home Rule (=self-government)

  6. Leader Charles Stewart Parnell

  7. Gladstone's Home Rule Bills (1886,1893) defeated

  8. Opposed by Ulster Protestants - Ulster benefited from industrialization and Empire trade

  9. Gaelic renaissance - language, culture, sport
• Dublin or Belfast - who calls the shots?

  • Liberals power in London - fragile majority
  • Home Rule Party held balance of power
  • 1912 Third Home Rule Bill-> threat of civil war or split with Ulster
  • Sinn Fein 1905, IRB reformed
  • Irish Volunteers (nationalist)
  • Ulster Volunteer Force (protestant)
  • 100,000+ men and weapons
• WWI broke out as Home Rule bill passed (1914)
• Easter Rising


  1916 : Catholic nationalists organized attack in Dublin, failed, most leaders executed, public opinion shifted to nationalist cause
• Eamon de Valera


  President of Sinn Fein - unification of all groups in favor of independent Ireland
• Ireland 'colonized' by English/ British
• Split between north (Ulster) and south

  • Religious
  • Ethnic
  • Economic
• Irish resented English dominance, Britain vulnerable because of Irish unrest
• After the war...more war

  1. Sinn Fein won 73/105 Irish seats in UK parliament, but refused to go to Westminster

  2. 1919 Dail Eireann set up by 27 Sinn Fein MPs - declaration of independence-> Irish Republic

  3. IRA 1919-> guerilla warfare

  4. British curfews - Black and Tans (ex-soldiers)
• Partition


  • 1920 Government of Ireland Act & 1921 Anglo-Irish Treaty - 6 counties of Ulster= Northern Ireland (British, unionist, mainly Protestant), 26 southern counties= Irish Free State (Irish, nationalist, mainly Catholic)
  • IRA split between pro-treaty government forces (Collins) and anti-treaty irregulars (de Valera)
• Irish Civil War 1922-23

  The Wind That Shakes the Barley
• Irish Free State 1922-1937


  1. Resented failure of boundary commission

  2. De Valera (Fianna Fail, 'Soldiers of Destiny') governed 1932 - wanted united Ireland

  3. Antagonized Britain - separate Irish citizenship, removed power of governor-general (Statue of Westminster, 1931)-> British trade sanctions

  4. 1937 new constitution (abdication crisis)-> name changes from Irish Free State to Éire/Ireland
• Separate - but still problems

  • Catholic minority in north (1/3), many pro-nationalist
  • Boundary commission failed
  • Depression more severe in NI - higher unemployment than in UK, and lasted longer
  • Stormont (=parliament) was dominated by Protestant/ Unionists
• Second World War


  1. Ulster - involved in war, Belfast Blitz, strategic importance - Atlantic transport, air base, anti-U-boats patrols

  2. Éire - neutral in WWII, less economic development

  3. 1949 Éire declared independent Republic - continued to gave claims for united Ireland
• Post-war Ulster


  • Widespread anti-Catholic discrimination - unemployment 3x higher than Protestants, excluded from best jobs, restricted access to housing and education, political under-representation (gerrymandering)
• Key groups


  • Britain= Protestants, Unionists, Loyalists/ RUC, Apprentice Boys, B specials, UDA/ Rev Ian Paisley, DUP, Arlene Foster
  • Ireland= Catholics, Nationalists, Republicans/ IRA, Provos, Sinn Fein/ Gerry Adams, Bobby Sands, Martin McGuinness
• 1960s - from bad

  1. Attempts at reform and conciliation with the Republic

  2. 1967 Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association (peaceful demos)

  3. Protestant backlash, Rev Ian Paisley, Democratic Unionist Party

  4. Royal Ulster Constabulary - violent repression

  5. British troops sent to NI to protect Catholics
• ... to worse - 1970s


  1. Labour tried to improve conditions for Catholics

  2. Escalating violence - paramilitary groups set up-> IRA attempting to turn Catholics against Brits

  3. 1971 Internment alienated Catholics

  4. 1972 Direct Rule from London after Bloody Sunday
• The 'Troubles'


  • Terrorist bombings
  • 1980-1 IRA Hunger strikes (10 died, including Bobby Sands, MP)
  • Assassination of politicians and ordinary citizens (1984 attempt on Thatcher)
  • 3,529 dead - 1 786 civilians, 502 British soldiers
  • Ghettos, segregation
  • Separate schools
  • Economic devastation