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From *

roots to present

The Irish Problem

History to 1914

Before English colonists began massacuring the natives of North America, the aborigines of Australia the Bantu of South

Africa, before even John Hawkins-

found out the profit to be had in transferring the black gold of West Africa, to Savannah, the English had successfully carried out a

classic example of colonial ex-,

, ploitation in Ireland.

During the twelfth, thirteenth, and fourteenth centuries, English kings, their attention diverted by European prizes, kept Ireland half conquered, half free. By the end of the fifteenth century however the conquest was com- pleted and Ireland was governed by great Anglo-Irish aristocrats. When Henry VIII decided that he, not the Pope, was the temporal God of Britain, the strategic im- portance of Ireland grew. The peasants of Ireland were Catholic and resisted all attempts to con- vert them to the English Church.

Ireland, with its many harbours, its hostile population was there - fore a convenient invasion point for England's continental enemies.

By theend of Elizabeth’s reign, by which time the Irish had been thoroughly crushed, the Catholic religion was the symbol of Irish nationalism and defiance of the Protestant English overlords.

The next two hundred years of Irish history saw the systematic destruction ,of _ the small Irish bourgeosie and what remained of the Irish nobility. English and Scots colonies were established as a deliberate policy of strenthening the English control. English lan- dlords ruled over their plantations with nearly the same power over their Irish peasants, as the Americans held over their slaves.

In northern Ireland, Scots far- mers seized. and tilled'the land themselves, complicating the colonial situation, No longer was Ireland a simple case of English overlord. English bourgeosie and Irish peasant, the Scots of Ulster became the “white trash" of Ireland. Scarcely better off than their Catholic Irish class com- panions, they demonstrated their superiority by a possionate at- tachment to the Protestant faith, and later to the English monarchy.

The danger of Ireland to England

was made evident in 1690 when.

'James II, recently deposed

Catholic king of England, faced

William of Orange, Protestant, soon to be William III of England, at the battle of the Boyne, mid-way between Dublin and the present

' border. James, seeking his lost

throne landed in Ireland, and

3 received enthusiastic support from

the peasants; William in. Ulster,

was declared king by .~;_t_he, Prostestant colony, and often be,

had trounced Jamhoaewarded the Protestants)!!! m' them to enforce a peoaicodotbat pineal

th Irish situation is. at best. very difficult To discus e ff. does. An explosive. often mis

trouble. telling how they have bee

Robert Voakes. of the Silhouette sta

his article giving the original causes of the ’ showing the true perspective of a 'civiiiaed country.

years. and

since most of us simply do not know the facts. understood country is profiled in n compounded over the

Catholics in Ireland under every possible political and- social disadvantage.

Time passed, the English land- lords became more entrenched, consolidating their power through their political dominance of the English House of Lords and by the establishment in 1795 of the Orange Order, a masonic type of secret society whose sole purpose wasto maintain the protestant hegemony in Ireland.

The state of the peasants grew steadily worse as their numbers increased while the potato crop, the staple food, remained static.

The Catholics after much pressure in England and Ireland, causing several political crises were finally granted something approaching emancipation in 1829,

- four years before slavery was abolished thoughout the Empire.

The stigma of being, Catholic .

remained however, for the traditional argument that Catholics gave their allegiance to the Pope rather than the monarch continued to be widely accepted.

Nationalism grows

During the rest of the nineteenth century the nationalism of the Irish grew, political activity for in- dependance, or at least home rule being in the British Parliament by Irish M.P.‘s and more identity by the Fenians whose campaign of terror reached a height with the murder of two cabinet ministers as they strolled in Dublin’s Phoenic Park.

In 1884 Giadstone’s liberal party committed to Irish Home Rule was betrayed by its aristocratic, land- woning Wing in the House of Lords, who threw out the Home Rule bill of that year. Pressure for Home Rule mounted however and by 1914 Britain was on the verge of civil war. The Irish nationalists gained arms from Germany and were prepared for rebellion. The Protestant die-bards in the north formed the Ulster Volunteers with

the connivance of the Con- servative 'Party in Parliament, at that time in opposition to the governing liberal party still at- tempting to achieve Home Rule. No soluthn seemed possible, civil war in Ireland, which was part of Great Britain .was unavoidable. For tuitously the outbreak of the First World War froze the situation, as the bitterest enemies embraced a common crusade against the Hun. ,

Rebellion crushed

The Sinn Fein however, Irish Nationalists, were impatient, in faster 1916 They rebelled only to be blood ily defeated and martyred by British troops. The reprisals that followed turned most Catholics away from the moderated nationalists demand for Home Rule, to the Sinn Fein demand for complete independence of all Ireland from Britain. '

With the end of the war in 1918, the demand was immediately heard for immediate Irish 'in- dependence. The prevarication of Lloyd George, Prime Minister, encouraged rident action which, reSulted in the Anglo-Irish War, Spring 1919 — July 1921. Beginning as sporadic attacks by the Irish Republican Army upon British troops, v the war escalated, providing a classic example of an anti-imperialist urban gueriila warfare with assassination, kid- napping, arson and atrocities by both sides becoming increasingly common. When the I.R.A. suc- ceeded in shooting most of the British intelligence section in Dublin, the security forces retaliated by spraying the crowd at a local football game with machine

guns.

Border established

Peace was finally achieved by the agreement that Ireland received independance, with‘some

imperial links remaining to save British prestige.» Nine countries in Ulster however were to be able to choose whether in to join the new Irish Free State or retain its links with England.

Only in four of these counties were the Protestants clearly in the majority, however the influence of the Orange Order in the ruling is eliteofBritainwassuchasto ensure six counties were held from the independent Irish state to the south. The inclusion of two Catholic dominated counties in Ulster en- sured the continuance of friction, andifthiswerenotenough. since 1921 until today Catholics in Ulster have been systematically excluded from most positions of importance.

The political position of Ulster was that of a province of Great

‘Britain. Assuch it sent M.P.’s to

the London Parliament. However, Ulster also had its own govern- ment, the Stormont, which had virtual independence from Britain in all domestic matters.

The Irish nationai'nts of the Free State, now the Republic of Ireland have never been reconciled to the position, and during the 1930's and even in the 1950’s expressed their displeasure by isolated acts of terrorism in Ulster and in England. The worst single act took place in Coventry, England in August 1938 when five people were killed and seventy wounded.

The bitterness of the Free-State to England was made clear in 1939, when Ireland was the only member

' of the Commonwealth not to fight

with Britain in the Second World War.

The years after ms saw the Republic finally disentangling the links which still held herto Britain and in 1949 the Free State, now

'known as Eire, left tie Cam-

monwealth.

The “problem of Irelanc ’ wan-sh had been the self-imposed bane of England seemed after 3959 to be solved at last. The Cathoiirtm of