Political Conditions of Modern Ireland - Essay Example

Modern Ireland By 1700 England dominated both Catholics and Protestants in Ireland politically, socially, economically, religiously, and legally. A number of different groups challenged and contested the subordination of Ireland to English control between 1640 and 1840. Which was most successful and why? The occupation of Ireland from Britain in the past has been one of the main reasons for the hostility that still characterizes the relationship between these two countries. In the specific case, it seems that Britain tried to impose its political and social ideas in the Irish society. In fact, the study of Smith (1997, 7) showed that “the history of British involvement in Irish affairs is seen in terms of Britain’s attempts to use its power systematically to drain Ireland of its human and material resources through underdevelopment, restricted markets, famine and emigration, and the imposition of alien institutions”. The above ‘strategy’ followed by Britain had as a main target the occupation of Ireland in order to use it for governmental plans in all industrial areas. However, it has been noticed that this behaviour of British troops led in fact to the opposite result, i.e. the improvement of relationships between these two countries that are sharing many common political and social structures. On the other hand, the political conditions in Ireland were extremely unstable, a situation that could perhaps ‘favour’ the appearance of other political powers who want to establish their authority in Ireland. In this context, the republicanism that characterizes the country’s central political power, led gradually to the appearance and the development of a series of rebellions (referring in the past), the most significant of which seem to be the following ones: the revolts of the United Irishmen in 1798, the Young Irelanders in 1848, the Fenians in 1867 and, most importantly, the Easter rising of 1916 (Smith, 1997, 26). The above political ‘wave’ helped towards the independency of Ireland from England. For this issue, Wolfe Tone,”one of the figures in the rebellion of the United Irishmen in 1798 and hailed in the modern era as the founding father of the republican tradition, declared: ‘from my earliest youth I have regarded the connection between Ireland and England as the curse of the Irish nation.” Furthermore, in order to understand the development of the rebellion of 1798 we should primarily refer to the major characteristics of the this rebellion – at least at its primary stages. In this context, it is mentioned that “since 1691 and the end of the Williamite war, Ireland had been controlled by a Protestant Ascendancy loyal to the British Crown, which governed the majority Roman Catholic population by a form of institutionalised sectarianism codified in the Penal Laws; as the 18th century progressed, liberal elements among the ruling class were inspired by the example of the American Revolution and sought to form common cause with the Catholic populace to achieve reform and greater autonomy from Britain” [1]. In fact the occupation of the country by Britain was never been accepted by the local population who was repeatedly ‘gathered’ in order to decide on the plans that were going to be used against the ‘eneby’. In its primary form, the rebellion of 1798 began by a group of Protestants liberals in Belfast in 1791. In the above group all religious ‘teams’ of population participated, like the Protestants, the Roman Catholics, the Presbyterians and the Methodists. At a first level the particular group “openly put forward its policies of further democratic reforms and Catholic emancipation, reforms that the Irish Parliament had little intention of granting and the British government were just as unwilling to enforce, until pressured to do so in 1793” [1]. From its early stages, the particular group tried to incorporate all social classes supporting the rights of different political and social teams that have a common enemy: Britain. The foundation of the United Irishmen took place in 1791 (Autumn). Because of the significant pressure made on the British government, it was decided by the latter to grant certain ‘rights’ and to proceed to particular reforms in order to retain its ‘position’ in the local society. The rebellion of 1798 can be characterized as one of the most significant for the Irish population although the level of deaths was extremely high. To a more detailed presentation of the issue, it is noticed in a report published in Wikipedia that “the 1798 rebellion was probably the most concentrated outbreak of violence in Irish history and resulted in an estimated 15,000-30,000 deaths over the course of just three months; research into casualty figures suggests that a maximum of 1,500 troops and 1,000 civilians died at the hands of the rebels and that the remainder were killed by Government troops and loyalist militias” [1]. In accordance with the above, both sites suffered significant losses due to the ‘strategy’ followed by the Irish Government. In Ireland, the conflicts appeards relatively early, approximately in 1066 when “the Normans conquered England; just over 100 years later, in 1169, they landed in Ireland; although they quickly spread across the country, they exerted greatest control over a small area of Ireland around Dublin, which by about 1500 was called the Pale; Anglo-Norman and English settlers arrived sporadically during these centuries” (Ogier, 1998, 53). On the other hand, with a reference especially to the local population, the patterns of behaviour revealed through the activation of many is a really severe action, which should be punished by law. The rebellion of 1798 in Ireland can be considered as crucial towards the ‘independency ‘of the country from Britain offering at the same time all material related with the particular “movement”. On the other hand, it should be expected that the results of the rebellion of 1798 were significant for the company. However, these results were rather observed in the long term. More specifically, in accordance with the ‘check’ made by the authorized governmental body and the studies that followed from the side of the literature [1] “recent writing shows that eighteenth-century Irish society was both less and more divided than was supposed by Lecky, whose History of Ireland in the eighteenth century dominated so much subsequent historiography; Because Lecky enjoyed access to records that were subsequently destroyed his work will never be entirely redundant, but this article looks at ways in which his views have been and continue to be modified”. The initiatives taken by the above society in order to ‘force’ British to leave the place produced their results although the percentage of death of rebellions and civilians was extremely high. A significant aspect of this rebellion was its ‘structure’. More specifically, rebellions from all classes were asked to participate in this ‘collective’ effort trying to get free from England. However, the latter managed to retain its power in the area until recently. In fact, the above rebellion should be characterized as the most ‘representative’ part of the Irish republicanism which first appeared in 1790s. In this context, it is noticed by McBride (1997, 63) that “The United Irish movement – the radical coalition of Protestant and Catholic reformers which emerged in the wake of the French Revolution – represents a unique departure from the confessional alignments that have shaped modern history”. Another issue that needs to be mentioned is the fact that rebellions in Ireland were extensively supported by rebellions in other countries internationally, mostly in France, and were offered even military support. However, the Irish conflicts were made almost at their whole percentage by locals who managed to face successfully the militants of the government. Works Cited Hill, J. (2001) Convergence and conflict in Eighteenth Century Ireland. The Historical Journal, 44: 1039-1063 Holloway, D. (2005) Understanding the Northern Ireland conflict. The community dialogue critical issues series Irish Rebellion of 1798 (2007) Wikipedia, available at [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_Rebellion_of_1798 McBride, I. (1997) When Ulster Joined Ireland: Anti-Popery, Presbyterian Radicalism and Irish Republicanism in the 1790s. Past and Present, 157: 63-93 National 1798 Visitor Centre, available at http://www.iol.ie/~98com/english.htm The 1798 rebellion in Ireland (2007) available at http://flag.blackened.net/revolt/andrew/1798.html The Irish in Uniform (2007) available at http://homepage.eircom.net/~tipperaryfame/ireland.htm [2] Ogier, D. (1998) Night Revels and Werewolfery in Calvinist Guernsey. Folklore, 109: 53-57 Smith, M. (1997) Fighting for Ireland? The Military Strategy of the Irish Republican Movement. London: Routledge Read More