A Short Ireland History in a Long Blog Post

Recently I finished a little Irish history book. It was a great summary of the big events and main characters that made Ireland what it is today. Part of my reason for snatching it up a few months ago when Kristy and I were at Powells was the "Interpretations" section at the end of each chapter giving the big ideas of various interpretations that significant historians have offered through the years.

I must admit, history has always been a bit boring to me when presented as a bunch of dates and facts. It's much more fascinating and exciting when presented with ideas of how it has made our world what it is today. It especially gets interesting when it engages the human imagination by asking questions regarding why things happened the way they did and what factors may have influenced (or changed) the outcome. That's when the study of history goes beyond knowledge to understanding.

For me, I was keeping an eye out for the things in Ireland's history that have made it what it is today. Why has Catholicism been such an intrinsic part of Irish national identity? How much of Irish culture has really been shaped by it's struggle with it's close neighbour, Great Britain?

The following is a list of things that I learned about the history of Ireland, particularly the biggies.

• The ancient Celtic people found their origins in Central Europe and Northern Britain, being well established in Ireland by 150 BC.

• The roots of Catholicism in Ireland go way back to before St. Patrick in the fifth century AD.

• When Henry VIII officially separated Britain from the Catholic church in 1529 and established the Church of England in 1534, he never effectively enforced this change in Ireland. For the rest of history, Catholicism would be something that the Irish would cling to in order to distance themselves from the oppressive British.

• King James led an organized effort to Anglocize the Irish in the northern part of the country by granting land to Protestant English and Scottish settlers in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. From then on, Northern Ireland shadowed the agricultural and industrial innovation of its British neighbour.

• In the late 17th century, England enforced Penal Laws on Ireland that required the Catholic Church to pay tithes to the Church of England. For centuries, Catholic priests passed on the memories of that discrimination to their congregations.

• Through the influence Daniel O’Connell, a Catholic Emancipation bill was passed in London, giving Catholics the right to sit in parliament, hold military ranks, and hold all but the highest government offices. Later, O’Connell gained other reforms for Catholics, like abolishing the tax that Catholics had to pay to the Church of England. “It is possible, therefore, that O’Connell and his movement raised the political consciousness of Catholics and his movement raised the political consciousness of Catholics to an extent that Catholicism and Irish nationalism came to be seen as the same thing in later decades.” (Coohill, 45)

• The population of Ireland reached 8.5 million by the early 1840’s. (Present day population is approximately 4 million!) During this time, most of Europe (as well as Northern Ireland) was undergoing industrialization, while Ireland stayed largely rural and agricultural.

• As a result of the potato famine, beginning in 1845, roughly one million people died of starvation and disease. Another million Irish emigrated to the U.S. and Europe. The poor handling of the crisis by the British government caused further deep roots of animosity in the Irish psyche.

• Sinn Fein (now considered the political arm of the IRA) was originally formed by Arthur Griffith in 1905 to promote total autonomy from Britain (versus home rule status that retained political connections with London and the monarchy.)

• During World War I, Irish nationalists were split on whether or not to ally themselves with Britain. In 1916, Irish rebels requested arms from Germany for an Easter Uprising on April 23rd. When a British ship intercepted the Germans, the rebel ranks were thrown into confusion and the rebellion was initially called off. However, two rebel leaders, Patrick Pearse and James Connolly led a small rebel contingent of about 1,770 men to get on with the rebellion, capturing the General Post Office in Dublin. After shelling the GPO, British troops defeated the rebellion on April 28th. Within weeks, fifteen rebels were tried and executed, including Pearse and Connolly.

• In 1919, lead by Michael Collins, the Irish Volunteers militia group became the Irish Republican Army (IRA) and waged a guerrilla warfare campaign against the Royal Irish Constabulary, a British paramilitary police force. A truce was called in 1921 while the British government and the Irish nationalists negotiated 1) the partition of Northern Ireland (Ulster) and 2) allegiance to the British Crown. On December 6th, Michael Collins and Arthur Griffith signed the treaty, establishing the Irish Free State and the Province of Northern Ireland as separate political entities.

• In 1922, civil war broke out between those who thought that Ireland should be totally autonomous and united with the north (this anti-treaty group retained the name Sin Fein) and the Irish Free State. Both Michael Collins and Arthur Griffith were killed during the civil war, but the opposition was finally crushed in April, 1923 and Ireland was able to begin repairing the damage and building a country.

• Eamon de Valera, who had allied himself with Sin Fein in the Irish Civil War, won the election of 1932. In 1949, he was successful in removing allegiances to the British Crown and transitioning the Irish Free State into the Republic of Ireland.

• Ireland stayed neutral during World War II, though it favoured the Allies by interning German pilots who crashed in Ireland and rescuing Allied pilots, returning them to Britain. Thirty-four people were killed in Dublin when it was bombed in May of 1941.

I know there are lots of things that have happened in the last fifty years in the Republic of Ireland, but as far as I can tell, it's mainly been a heck of a lot of emigration and slow catching up with the rest of the world in terms of technology, the economy, and social issues. From my understanding, the last ten years have brought a lot of economic growth, due in part to the country's involvement in the EU. The population has also begun to grow slightly rather than shrink. Aside from these things happening in The Republic, most people are aware of the violence and terrorism happening in the North, which has also had implications in the south.

It'll be a lot of fun to actually live there and interact with the people and the culture at large. Some things (especially cultures other than one's own) you just can't fully learn or appreciate without experiencing them for yourself.

Categories: Europe, Ireland