History of Ireland
[
"A Protestant State" (1921-1971)
From 1921 to 1971, Northern Ireland was governed by the Ulster Unionist Party government, based at Stormont in East Belfast. The founding Prime Minister, James Craig, proudly declared that it would be "a Protestant State for a Protestant People" (in contrast to the anticipated "Papist" state to the south). Discrimination against the minority nationalist community in jobs and housing, and their total exclusion from political power due to the majoritarian electoral system, led to the emergence of the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association in the late 1960s, inspired by Martin Luther King's civil rights movement in the United States of America. A violent counter-reaction from conservative unionists and the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) led to civil disorder, notably the Battle of the Bogside and the Northern Ireland riots of August 1969. To restore order, British troops were deployed to the streets of Northern Ireland at this time.
Tensions came to a head with the events of Bloody Sunday and Bloody Friday, and the worst years (early 1970s) of what became known as the Troubles resulted. The Stormont parliament was prorogued in 1971 and abolished in 1972. Paramilitary private armies such as the Provisional Irish Republican Army, the Official IRA, the Irish National Liberation Army, the Ulster Defence Association and the Ulster Volunteer Force fought each other and the British army and the (largely Unionist) RUC, resulting in the deaths of well over three thousand men, women and children, civilians and military. Most of the violence took place in Northern Ireland, but some also spread to England and across the Irish border.
| Irish Police forces |
|---|
| ---Defunct Irish Police Forces--- |
| Royal Irish Constabulary (1822—1922) |
| Dublin Metropolitan Police (1836—1925) |
| Irish Republican Police (Irish Republic 1920—1922) |
| Royal Ulster Constabulary (1922—2001) |
| ---Current Irish Police Forces--- |
| Northern Ireland |
| Belfast Harbour Police (1847) |
| Larne Harbour Police (1847) |
| Royal Military Police (1946) |
| Belfast International Airport Constabulary (1994) |
| Police Service of Northern Ireland (2001) |
| Ministry of Defence Police (2004) |
| Republic of Ireland |
| Garda Síochána (1922) |
| Póilíní Airm (1922) |
| Garda Síochána Reserve (2006) |
[
Direct rule (1971-1998)
For the next 27 years, Northern Ireland was under "direct rule" with a Secretary of State for Northern Ireland in the British Cabinet responsible for the departments of the Northern Ireland executive/government. Principal acts were passed by the Parliament of the United Kingdom in the same way as for much of the rest of the UK, but many smaller measures were dealt with by Order in Council with minimal parliamentary scrutiny. Throughout this time the aim was to restore devolution, but three attempts - the power-sharing executive established by the Northern Ireland Constitution Act and the Sunningdale Agreement, the 1975 Northern Ireland Constitutional Convention and Jim Prior's 1982 assembly - all failed to either reach consensus or operate in the longer term.
During the 1970s British policy concentrated on defeating the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) by military means including the policy of Ulsterisation (requiring the RUC and British Army reserve Ulster Defence Regiment to be at the forefront of combating the IRA). Although IRA violence decreased it was obvious that no military victory was on hand in either the short or medium terms. Even Catholics that generally rejected the IRA were unwilling to offer support to a state that seemed to remain mired in sectarian discrimination, and the Unionists plainly were not interested in Catholic participation in running the state in any case. In the 1980s the IRA attempted to secure a decisive military victory based on massive arms shipments from Libya. When this failed - probably because of MI5's penetration of the IRA's senior commands[citation needed] - senior republican figures began to look to broaden the struggle from purely military means. In time this began a move towards military cessation. In 1986 the British and Irish governments signed the Anglo Irish Agreement signalling a formal partnership in seeking a political solution. Socially and economically Northern Ireland suffered the worst levels of unemployment in the UK and although high levels of public spending ensured a slow modernisation of public services and moves towards equality, progress was slow in the 1970s and 1980s, only in the 1990s when progress towards peace became tangible, did the economic situation brighten. By then, too, the demographics of Northern Ireland had undergone significant change, and more than 40% of the population are Catholics.
[
Devolution and direct rule (1998-present)
More recently, the Belfast Agreement ("Good Friday Agreement") of April 10, 1998 brought a degree of power sharing to Northern Ireland, giving both unionists and nationalists control of limited areas of government. However, both the power-sharing Executive and the elected Assembly have been suspended since October 2002 following a breakdown in trust between the political parties. Efforts to resolve outstanding issues, including "decommissioning" of paramilitary weapons, policing reform and the removal of British army bases are continuing. Recent elections have not helped towards compromise, with the moderate Ulster Unionist and (nationalist) Social Democrat and Labour parties being substantially displaced by the hard-line Democratic Unionist and (nationalist) Sinn Féin parties.
On July 28, 2005, the Provisional IRA announced the end of its armed campaign and on September 25, 2005 international weapons inspectors supervised the full disarmament of the PIRA.
[
Flags in Ireland
The state flag of the Republic of Ireland is the Irish Tricolour. This flag, which bears the colours green for Roman Catholics, orange for Protestants, and white for the desired peace between them, dates back to the middle of the 19th century.[9]
The state flag applying to Northern Ireland is the Union Flag of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. The Ulster Banner is sometimes used as a de facto regional flag for Northern Ireland.
The Tricolour was first unfurled in public by Young Irelander Thomas Francis Meagher who, using the symbolism of the flag, explained his vision as follows: "The white in the centre signifies a lasting truce between the "Orange" and the "Green," and I trust that beneath its folds the hands of the Irish Protestant and the Irish Catholic may be clasped in generous and heroic brotherhood". Fellow nationalist John Mitchel said of it: "I hope to see that flag one day waving as our national banner."
After its use in the 1916 Rising it became widely accepted as the national flag, as was used officially by the Irish Republic (1919-21) and the Irish Free State (1922-37).
In 1937 when the Constitution of Ireland was introduced, the Tricolour was formally confirmed as the national flag: "The national flag is the tricolour of green, white and orange." While the Tricolour today is the official flag of the Republic of Ireland, as a state flag it does not apply to the entire island of Ireland.
Since Partition, there has been no universally-accepted flag to represent the entire island. As a provisional solution for certain sports fixtures, the Flag of the Four Provinces enjoys a certain amount of general acceptance and popularity.
Historically a number of flags have been used, including:
- Saint Patrick's Flag (St Patrick's Saltire, St Patric's Cross) which was the flag sometimes used for the Kingdom of Ireland and which represented Ireland on the Union Flag after the Act of Union,
- a green flag with a harp (used by most nationalists in the 19th century and which is also the flag of Leinster),
- a blue flag with a harp used from the 18th century onwards by many nationalists (now the standard of the President of Ireland), and
- the Irish Tricolour.
St Patrick's Saltire was formerly used to represent the island of Ireland by the all-island Irish Rugby Football Union (IRFU), before adoption of the four-provinces flag. The Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) uses the Tricolour to represent the whole island.
[
See also
|
Life in the Republic of Ireland |
|---|
|
Culture
Economy
General
Society
Politics
Policies
|
- Protestant Nationalist
- Timeline of Irish history
- History of Belfast
- History of Cork
- History of Derry
- History of Dublin
- History of Galway
- History of Limerick
- History of Waterford
- History of rail transport in Ireland
- History of the United Kingdom
- Irish Americans
- Irish battles
- Irish Historians
- Irish Nationalism
[
Footnotes
- ^ Moody, T.W. & Martin, F.X., eds. (1995). The Course of Irish History. Roberts Rinehart, 31-32. ISBN 1-56833-175-4.
- ^ History news netwok2004-09-09. Retrieved 2007-04-01.
- ^ Myths of British ancestry Stephen Oppenheimer. October 2006, Special report. Retrieved 2007-04-01.
- ^ Y-chromosome variation and Irish origins (pdf)
- ^ Yes, the Romans did invade Ireland. British Archaeology.
- ^ *Philip Rance, ‘Attacotti, Déisi and Magnus Maximus: the Case for Irish Federates in Late Roman Britain’, Britannia 32 (2001) 243-270
- ^ *Carmel McCaffrey, Leo Eaton "In Search of Ancient Ireland" Ivan R Dee (2002)PBS 2002
- ^ M.E.Collins, Ireland 1868-1966, (1993) p431)
- ^ The Irish State www.irlgov.ie
[
References
- Irish History, Séamus Mac Annaidh, Bath: Paragon, 1999, ISBN 0-76256-139-1
- Irish Kings and High Kings, Francis John Byrne, Dublin, 1973.
- A New History of Ireland: I - PreHistoric and Early Ireland, ed. Daibhi O Croinin. 2005
- A New History of Ireland: II- Medieval Ireland 1169-1534, ed. Art Cosgrove. 1987.
- Braudel, Fernand, The Perspective of the World, vol III of Civilization and Capitalism (1979, in English 1985)
- Plumb, J.H., England in the 18th Century, 1973: "The Irish Empire"
- Murray N. Rothbard, For a New Liberty, 1973, online.
[
Further reading
- S.J. Connolly (editor) The Oxford Companion to Irish History (Oxford University Press, 2000)
- Tim Pat Coogan De Valera (Hutchinson, 1993)
- Norman Davies The Isles: A History (Macmillan, 1999)
- Nancy Edwards, The archaeology of early medieval Ireland (London, Batsford 1990).
- R. F. Foster Modern Ireland, 1600-1972
- J.J.Lee The Modernisation of Irish Society 1848-1918 (Gill and Macmillan)
- FSL Lyons Ireland Since the Famine
- Dorothy McCardle The Irish Republic
- T.W. Moody and F.X. Martin "The Course of Irish History" Fourth Edition (Lanham, Maryland: Roberts Rinehart Publishers, 2001).
- James H. Murphy Abject Loyalty: Nationalism and Monarchy in Ireland During the Reign of Queen Victoria (Cork University Press, 2001)
- http://www.ucc.ie/celt/published/E900003-001/ - the 1921 Treaty debates online.
- John A. Murphy Ireland in the Twentieth Century (Gill and Macmillan)
- Frank Packenham (Lord Longford) Peace by Ordeal
- Alan J. Ward The Irish Constitutional Tradition: Responsible Government & Modern Ireland 1782-1992 (Irish Academic Press, 1994)
- Robert Kee The Green Flag Volumes 1-3 (The Most Distressful Country, The Bold Fenian Men, Ourselves Alone)
- Carmel McCaffrey and Leo Eaton In Search of Ancient Ireland: the origins of the Irish from Neolithic Times to the Coming of the English (Ivan R Dee, 2002)
- Carmel McCaffrey In Search of Ireland's Heroes: the Story of the Irish from the English Invasion to the Present Day (Ivan R Dee, 2006)
- Hugh F. Kearney Ireland:Contested Ideas of Nationalism and History (NYU Press, 2007)]
- Nicholas Canny "The Elizabethan Conquest of Ireland"(London, 1976) ISBN 0-85527-034-9.
[
External links
- http://hnn.us/roundup/entries/7406.html
- http://www.prospect-magazine.co.uk/article_details.php?id=7817
- http://www.pbs.org/wnet/ancientireland/
- History of Ireland: Primary Documents
- History of Ireland guide
- Ireland Under Coercion - "The diary of an American", by William Henry Hurlbert, published 1888, from Project Gutenberg
- The Story of Ireland by Emily Lawless, 1896 (Project Gutenberg)
- Timeline of Irish History 1840-1916 (1916 Rebellion Walking Tour)
- A Concise History of Ireland by P. W. Joyce
For more information review our copyright contact and privacy policy.