Ireland British Rule

British rule of Ireland In 1167 men started to arrive from England, where the Normans were in charge, and started taking over parts of Ireland. Gradually more and more of Ireland was taken over, until the Normans were in charge of both England and Ireland. They changed the way the country was organised by making it into a feudal system, the same as in England, rather than the Celtic style of society.

Feudal system In the feudal system, the King owned all of the land, and gave parts of it to his Lords to run. In return, the Lords followed the King’s orders, and fought in his wars when they were needed. The Lords then gave parts of the land to farmers or other people to live on and to farm, and they fought for the Lords and gave them money or food. So each class of people was ruled by the class above.

Irish Lords Although the King of England controlled Ireland, the Lords in Ireland were not all Normans. Some Irish Lords had managed to stay in charge of their lands, by making deals with the Normans from England, and were too strong for the Normans to totally take over. They sometimes tried to take back Ireland from the Normans, but could never win.

Ireland is defeated Eventually, the Normans decided that Ireland needed to be totally under their control and started to attack the Lords who did not fully support them. Eventually all of Ireland became totally under the direct control of the Normans, and the King of England declared himself to be the King of Ireland as well. The remains of the Irish political system were thrown out, and the English government was in charge of everything.

Protestants in Ireland Although the government of Ireland was controlled by England, the people refused to convert from their catholic religion to the English protestant religion. When the last native Irish leaders were defeated, the King started to send people from England to live in Ireland, taking over land that the Irish people had been living on. These English people were protestants, and mostly lived in the Northern part of Ireland.

Catholic against Protestant During the 17th century, the King in England was a Catholic named James II, and was thrown out and replaced by a Protestant, William of Orange. James II ran away from England, but went to Ireland to find people to support him, because the Irish people were also Catholic. There was a war, and the catholics were defeated, and the protestants in Northern Ireland still celebrate this victory.

18th century During the 18th century, the Irish people were encouraged by the success of other countries like America to gain independence, and there was more fighting. The Government in England got sick of it, and in 1800 Ireland was formally made a part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. This included England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland.

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland So in 1800 the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was formed. A new flag was created by putting the flags of the different countries together to form a new flag, called the ‘Union Flag’. All of the parliaments of the separate countries were moved to the central parliament in London, and the United Kingdom was ruled from there.

The flag of St George, the national flag of England The flag of St Andrew, the national flag of Scotland The flag of St Patrick, the national flag of Ireland

The Union Flag

Catholic Discrimination When the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was formed in 1800, there were still laws stopping catholics from working in many parts of the government, and they were not allowed to be members of parliament. This discrimination against catholics, which had been going on for many years, was ended in 1829, when the laws were changed to end this discrimination.

The Great Famine From the year 1845 until 1848 many people in Ireland did not have enough to eat, due to the Great Famine. The Famine was caused by a disease which destroyed the potato crop in Ireland, making the potatoes rot in the ground. Because the people of Ireland ate mostly potatoes, when the potato crop was destroyed they had nothing to eat, and about one million people died of hunger.

The Great Famine About another million people left Ireland to get away from the famine, and to try to find a new life somewhere else. Many went to places like America, but the crowded ships that they went in were also very dangerous, and many died on them due to disease caused by poor diets. Even after the famine was over, Irish people kept leaving, until the population by 1900 was only about 4.5 million, while before the famine it had been about 8 million.

The Great Famine Today the population of Ireland is still only about 6.3 million, much less than before the famine. Many people in Ireland were very angry at the government of the UK for not doing more to help the hungry population, and the Irish people overseas were also angry, and would in the future support the Irish people trying to gain independence from the UK.

Republicans, Nationalists and Unionists During the late 1800’s the poor people in Ireland still had a very difficult time surviving, due to high rent on farmland, and high taxes. At this time, there were three different groups who each wanted a different type of government in Ireland. The Republicans wanted a completely independent Irish Republic, separate from the United Kingdom.

Republicans, Nationalists and Unionists The Nationalists wanted Ireland to be a country with its own parliament, but still connected with the United Kingdom. The Unionists wanted to stay a part of the United Kingdom and be ruled from the parliament in London. The Unionists were mostly rich Protestants, and so even though there weren’t as many of them in Ireland, they had a lot of power and support from London.

Republicans, Nationalists and Unionists The Nationalists had some seats in the UK parliament, and called themselves the Home Rule Party, because they wanted the UK to make laws to allow Home Rule in Ireland, which meant that Ireland would have its own parliament, but still be in the UK. The Home Rule party was very successful in parliament, because they made a deal to support the Liberal Party, if the Liberal Party supported home rule for Ireland.

Republicans, Nationalists and Unionists Because the Liberal party in the UK needed to win a vote in parliament, they agreed to the deal. So the UK parliament set up Home Rule for Ireland, but it gave each county (which is a province in Ireland) the choice whether it wanted to be part of home rule or remain ruled from the UK. This was done so that the Northern part of Ireland, mostly protestant supporters of the UK, could remain in the UK.

Republicans, Nationalists and Unionists Each side was worried that the other side would try to force them to do something, so they formed military forces to protect themselves. The Unionists formed the UVF, Ulster volunteer force, and the Nationalists formed the IVF, the Irish volunteer force. When the UK went to war against the Germans in 1914, both the UVF and the IVF sent soldiers to fight with the British.

Republicans, Nationalists and Unionists Back in Ireland, some of the Republicans saw the war in Europe as a chance to take over Ireland, because there weren’t many British soldiers left to fight. They took over parts of Dublin on Easter Monday, but after only a few days of fighting, the British soldiers captured them all, and killed the leaders, blaming them for helping the Germans.

Republicans, Nationalists and Unionists Many Irish people, although they had not thought the Republican attack a good idea, were angry that the British had killed the leaders. The Republicans had a political party called Sinn Fein, which became very popular because of this. In the next few UK elections, Sinn Fein won more and more seats, but refused to attend parliament

Sinn Fein and the IRA In 1919 the members of the UK parliament who belonged to the Sinn Fein party decided to form their own parliament in Ireland. Although it had no real power, it was meant to represent how Sinn Fein thought Ireland should be run, with its own parliament. Also in 1919, the catholic republicans who called themselves the Irish Volunteer Force (IVF) changed their name to the Irish Republican Army (IRA), and started to fight for independence.

Sinn Fein and the IRA The guerrilla war which then began was called the War of Independence. At first the Irish people did not like the way the IRA killed policemen and soldiers, but the soldiers and police killed many innocent people who were not in the IRA, and so support for the IRA grew larger. The UK government set up two new parliaments to run Ireland.

Two Parliaments in Ireland The first parliament was in Northern Ireland, where the protestant people lived, most of whom supported Britain. The second parliament was for the rest of Ireland, who were mainly catholic, and did not really like the British. Both of these parliaments still had to follow the orders of the UK government.

Two Parliaments in Ireland The people in Northern Ireland were happy to have their own parliament, but still be part of the UK, and so they voted to form a government there. Sinn Fein was not happy with the rest of Ireland being part of the UK, and refused to be a part of that parliament, even though they had won most of the seats. During this time the IRA kept fighting the British forces and also attacked people in Northern Ireland.

The Irish Free State The IRA kept fighting, and eventually the British agreed to do a deal with them to stop the war. The main part of Ireland would become the Irish Free State, which would be almost totally independent of the UK, if the the IRA agreed to accept that Northern Ireland would remain part of the UK. The leader of the IRA agreed, and the Irish Free State was formed.

The Irish Free State The new army for the Irish Free State was made up mostly of members of the IRA, but not all of the IRA agreed with the deal. Some of the IRA wanted Ireland to be totally independent and also wanted Northern Ireland to be part of the country. These IRA men split with the main group and started the Irish Civil War.

The Irish Civil War The Irish civil war lasted for almost a year. As time went on, the parts of the IRA who had disagreed with the deal grew less popular with the people of Ireland, because they were seen as making too much trouble. The new army of the Irish Free State succeeded in driving the IRA into the mountains, and finally they gave up.

Northern Ireland’s Troubles In Northern Ireland, problems began to develop between protestant supporters of the British and catholics who wanted to be part of the Irish Free State. Most of the people who lived in Northern Ireland were protestants, but there were still many catholics, and each side would occasionally murder members of the other side.

The Irish Free State In the Irish Free State, the new government was busy organising the way the country would be run. The British and Sinn Fein legal systems were thrown out, and a new legal system was made up. Education was made compulsory, and the native Irish language was taught in schools. A new Irish flag was designed.

The Irish Free state In the Irish Free State, everyone was now free to have whatever religion they liked, without any discrimination. The new Irish flag was made to represent this religious freedom It was made up of three colours, orange to stand for the protestants, green to stand for the catholics, and white to stand for peace between the two religions.

The flag of the Irish Free State

The Republic of Ireland The Republicans slowly became more popular in Ireland, and the last ties with the UK were cut in 1949 when the Republic of Ireland was formed. Ireland left the Commonwealth, and was now fully independent. Northern Ireland was still part of the UK, and mostly protestant, and protestant people were favoured in many ways such as employment.