story of ireland

1. In 1172 King Henry II of England became Lord of Ireland as well. Ireland came under English control.

2. Henry II’s descendant, Henry VII lost control of Ireland during the Wars Of The Roses in the 1450s.

3. Henry VIII changed the religion of England to Protestant, however, Ireland remained Catholic. The English worried that Ireland could be used as a staging post by other Catholic countries to invade England.

4. Elizabeth I brought the area around the capital, Dublin, under English control in the 1500s. This was known as the Pale. She was worried that Ireland could be used as a staging post to invade England.

5. James I “planted” Protestant landlords to rule over the Catholic Irish from 1610 onwards. These were called the “Plantations” and they were extremely resented by the Irish.

6. The Irish hated being ruled over by Protestant landlords. In 1641 there was a famous Catholic uprising in which hundreds of Protestants were massacred. Rumours of their murder in England became wildly exaggerated and the Irish were seen as barbarous savages by the English.

7. In 1649 the English Oliver Cromwell took revenge for the 1641 massacre and committed atrocities in Drogheda and Wexford. Famous events such as these continued to be referred to by both sides throughout the modern conflict.

8. In 1690 the Protestant William III famously defeated the Catholic James II, who was attempting to claim the English throne, at the Battle of the Boyne. Today, Loyalists celebrate this victory with Orange Marches every 12th July.

9. In 1798 Wolfe Tone led a famous rebellion against the English for the sake of Irish independence, however, this was crushed.

10. In 1800 the Act of Union created the United Kingdom. This meant that Ireland would be ruled from the English Parliament in Westminster, rather than an Irish Parliament in Dublin. This basically meant that the Irish had no representation.

11. In the 1840s the Potato Famine caused two million deaths in Ireland, while another two million fled to America. The horrific starvation was caused by the system of English absentee landlords and Irish peasant tenants.

12. The late 1800s were characterised by Irish hatred of English rule and demands for “Home Rule”. There was a Fenian Uprising. The Irish Parliamentary Party, the Home Rule Party, the Gaelic Association and Sinn Fein were created. There were Home Rule Bills brought before Parliament in 1886 and 1892 but they failed.

13. In 1914 the Third Home Rule Bill was passed, but only after huge opposition. Loyalists hated the idea of Home Rule because they felt threatened by the Catholic majority. They said Home Rule meant Rome Rule. The Bill would have meant that Ireland would rule herself, however, World War I meant that it was not enacted at this time.

14. In 1914 the Larne Gunrunning Incident meant that the Ulster Volunteers were armed and prepared to fight against Home Rule.

15. By 1913 and 1914 the Irish Volunteers, the IRB and the Citizens Army opposed the Ulster Volunteers. They were armed after the Howth Gunrunning Incident and were prepared to fight for Irish independence from English rule.

16. The Curragh Mutiny took place in 1914. Army officers in Dublin were supposed to protect the munitions depot from the Ulster Volunteers. However, many of them were English and sided with the Ulster Volunteers, so they refused. The British Government made it clear they would not have to fire against the Ulster Volunteers. The soldiers were happy but the Irish were angry.

17. The Easter Rising famously took place in Dublin in 1916. Padraig Pearse led a group of rebels and declared an Irish Republic. However, they were vastly outnumbered by the English Army and it became a blood sacrifice. The English Government executed the ringleaders and imprisoned the rest. This created huge resentment amongst the Irish population.

18. In 1916 and 1917 the rebels who had been interned as a result of the Easter Rising were released. Michael Collins became very influential as leader of the Irish Republican Brotherhood I.R.B.

19. In 1919 Sinn Fein MPs boycotted the English Parliament in Westminster and created the Dail Eireann (Parliament) in Dublic. Eamon De Valera was elected President. The British reaction was to declare the Dail illegal.

20. The Anglo-Irish War was 1919 - 1921. Michael Collins led the IRA in a guerrilla campaign against the Royal Irish Constabulary R.I.C, the Black & Tans, the British Army and British Intelligence.

21. Bloody Sunday took place in 1920. The IRA killed 12 British Intelligence officers. In revenge, the Black & Tans fired randomly into the crowd at Croke Park football stadium, killing 12 and injuring more than 60. This event created huge hostility to the English amongst the Irish population.

22. In 1921 Michael Collins negotiated a Treaty with the English Parliament which created an independent Ireland, known as the Irish Free State, while the six counties of Northern Ireland were separate. This was known as Partition.

23. Many in Ireland were unhappy with the Treaty, so there was a Civil War from 1921 – 1922. Eamon De Valera led the Irregulars against Michael Collins. Collins was murdered in an ambush in 1922.

24. Although the Civil War had ended, opposition to Partition remained after 1922. De Valera and Sinn Fein continued to call for a united Ireland. These calls were also the basis of the modern conflict in the 1970s and 1980s.