The Making of a Modern, Independent Ireland - stthomas.edu · •1798: Rebellion riddled with...

The Making of a Modern, Independent IrelandApril 17, 2018

The United Irishmen•Irish Protestant Nationalism on the rise

•Wolfe Tone (and Napper Tandy)

•1791: Society of United Irishmen formed in Belfast, then in Dublin

•The Northern Star

•Government repression makes it more powerful

•French intervention not particularly helpful

•1798: Rebellion riddled with sectarian violence

•1800: Act of Union

Act of Union

•1800-Act of Union passesGoes into effect January 1, 1801

One Parliament in Westminster (London)100 Irish MPs out of 658 in the House of Commons

32 peers out of 360

United Church of England and Ireland

No Catholic Emancipation

Trade freer but not free

•Robert Emmett leads a “rebellion” in 1803

Emmet’s Speech from the Dock• September 19,1803

• “Let no man write my epitaph…”

Fragile Peace…•There isn’t another rebellion in Ireland until 1848

•Was the Union working?

•The Second Reformation (post-union through ≈1829)

• Idea that religious unity leads to national unity

• Irene Whelan, The Bible War in Ireland

Daniel O’Connell

• Born in 1775 in County Kerry• Father was a small landlord• Raised in a peasant cottage

as a foster child• Impressed by the thinkers of

the Enlightenment & French Rev

• Tied Irish Nationalism & Liberalism together

• Became a barrister in 1798

Catholic Emancipation•Must come before other reforms

•Still could not do the following

• sit in Parliament

• be judges

• hold any military rank

• be ministers in the government

• hold anything but the lowest offices in the civil service

The Catholic Association•Formed in 1823•Besides emancipation they wanted the following• Repeal of the union• Security for farmers• No more tithes• Secret ballot—more democratic vote

• Banned•Goal = mass membership so…• Catholic clergy • “Catholic Rent”

The elections of 1826 & 1828

GENERAL ELECTION, 1826

•Catholic vote largely = tenant farmers

•Get people to vote according to their religion—not their landlords

•Local clergy involved

CLARE BY-ELECTION, 1828

•MP for Clare appointed to ministerial office so by-election for his seat

•Catholic Association nominated Daniel O’Connell

•Priests led people to the polls

•O’C won 2,057 votes to 982

The British Response

•Duke of Wellington (PM) and Robert Peel (Home Secretary)

•Implicit threat of the Catholic masses

•Commons = divided; Lords = opposed

•Wellington & Peel put forth a C.E. bill in 1829

•Very small number of Catholics could aspire to any of those higher positions

•Victory for organized public opinion—and constitutional means (??)

The Great Famine oran Gorta Mór

1845-1851

PM Tony Blair in 1997“The famine was a defining event in the history of Ireland and of Britain. It has left deep scars. That one million people should have died in what was then part of the richest and most powerful nation in the world is something that still causes pain as

we reflect on it today.”

Statement issued at a concert marking the 150th anniversary of the Famine

Modern Money economy

•Mostly in NE Ulster

•Belfast: linen, ship-building, railroads

•DublinGuinness Brewery

Service economy

Horrible slums

Population Explosion

•1700: 2 million

•1801: 5 million

•1841: 8 million

•1845: 8.5 million

•1851: 6.5 million

•1871: Population down by 1/3 (from 1841)

•1911: 4.4 million

•1945: 3 million

•Population growth greatest among the poorest!

The First Failure (1845)

THE START OF THE FAMINE

1845-1847: bad weather1845: Phytophthora infestansSept. 1845: appeared in Wexford and WaterfordLimited failure this time around

BRITISH RESPONSE

PM was Robert Peel

Created Relief and Scientific Commissions

Importing of food to IrelandCorn Laws of 1815

Public works projects began

More spent in this year than any other

1846—Second Failure

•Hit whole country

•Some 9-10 million tons of potatoes were destroyed

•Lord John Russell as PM (Whig/Liberal)

•LAISSEZ-FAIRE!

•Charles Edward Trevelyan

•Public works projects

•Soup kitchens & “souperism”

Black ‘47: 3rd failure

•Deadliest year (1847)

•Government had declared the famine over!

•Public Works projects stopped in January

1848 & 1849: ENCUMBERED ESTATES ACTSPlan was to create only large farmsMass evictions begin

•People starving until 1851

•By 1849: some 932,000 supported in workhouse for at least some time

Death tolls

•Around 1 million dead

•Another 1 million emigrated

•Difficulties of knowing precisely how many

•Losses heaviest in Connacht & western Munster

Causes of death

•Starvation (obviously)

•Diseases—due in part to weakened immune systemsDropsy (Edema)MeaslesDiarrheal diseasesTuberculosisRespiratory diseases (namely whooping cough)Intestinal parasitesCholera (especially later on)

Overview of Government reaction•Peel: the most helpful?

•More doctrinaire approaches after Peel

• Laissez-Faire

• Punishment from God

• Solution to over-population• Thomas Malthus, An Essay on the Principle of Population (1798)

•Debates over the cost of “relief”

The Blame Game

•John Mitchel: blight sent by God but the famine was man-made

•Exporting food out of Ireland

•Mass evictions

•Debates about the cost & who should bear it (1849 English cartoon on right)

•Would Irishmen of the same classes (in Parliament) have responded any differently? Did they from the UK parliament?

Reaction to the Famine1. The Times (London)

“for our parts we regard the potato blight as a blessing”“the indolent Irish [were being punished] for their preference for relief over labor”Looked forward to the day when an Irishman in Connemara would be as scarce as a red Indian in Manhattan!

2. Charles Edward TrevelyanFamine brought “by a direct stroke of an all-wise and all-merciful providence (as) the appointed time of Ireland’s regeneration”Private worries that the Famine would not do away with all of Ireland’s “surplus population”

3. Nassau William Senior (English economist)"would not kill more than one million people, and that would scarcely be enough to do any good.“

The Great Famine Fundamentally Changes Irish Society

1) Emigration

2) Family structure

3) Marriage patterns

4) The size of farms

5) Agricultural output

6) Religious practice

7) Political outlook

8) Urgency of land reform

Outcomes of the Famine: Emigration

•Began in mid-18th Century

•One year of famine saw 250,000 emigrate

•Boats to Liverpool, then the U.S.

•Gov’t would help if you went to a British colony

•1850-1900 or so: 4 million Irish emigrated to the U.S.

•Some did stay in England

•Boats known as “coffin ships”

Outcomes of the famine: Nationalism and Social Structures• Famine focused people’s sense of misery on British rule

• Pushed the question of land & the agrarian system to the forefront

• Increased tension, resentment, & even hatred between landlords & tenants

• Spread Irish nationalism through the Irish Diaspora

• Also lead to fewer marriages or later marriages; people had fewer children

The last half of the 19th Century•Dominated by two issues—

• Land

• National independence

•Constitutional and violent strands for both

•Land & independence merge around 1880 due to Charles Stewart Parnell & Michael Davitt

•There is no immediate success but there will be eventually

The Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB) & the Fenian Brotherhood

•Founded simultaneously in Dublin & New York in 1858

•Named after “Fianna” (or Fian in the singular)

•Physical force to achieve independence

•Always a minority movement within nationalism

•1866-1867: Fenian raids into Canada

•Failed uprising in 1867

•Lasting impact• Isaac Butt & the Home Government Association• PM William Gladstone convinced of need for reforms

Fenian Oath (1859)I, A.B., in the presence of Almighty God, do solemnly swear allegiance to the Irish Republic, now virtually established; and that I will do my utmost, at every risk, while life lasts, to defend its independence and integrity; and finally, that I will yield implicit obedience in all things, not contrary to the laws of God, to the commands of my superior officers. So help me God! Amen.

The Land War (1870s-90s)•Land League in 1879

•The first “boycott” in 1880

•Rent strikes → evictions → Coercion Acts

•Land Act of 1881 (second one)

•1885: Ashbourne Act & Parnell in on land question

•1903: Wyndham Act

A community effortPeople helped work the land of those imprisoned for participating in the Land War

Eviction sceneBoth evictions and images of evictions became commonplace; throwback to famine

Gaelic Revival•The end of the 19th C

•Preserve and/or revive pre-conquest Irish culture

•Differentiate being Irish and being English

•Gaelic League formed 1893• Conradh na Gaeilge

•1884 Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA)

Home Rule(Or Rome rule)

Land war to home rule•Land question solved?

•Focus shifts back to the nationalist cause

•Home Rule was the mainstream option

•Canada (dominion status) as precedent

•1870: Isaac Butt form the Home Government Association

•1874: 59 Home Rule delegates in Parliament

Thomas Bartlett in Ireland: A History

“Home Rule, like the Land War, was about undoing the Conquest and, so far as Ulster Unionists were concerned,

it was about undoing the plantation.”

Home Rule Bills #1 & 2

FIRST BILL (1886)

•1884 Reform Act

•Gladstone’s proposal

•Proposed a limited two-house Irish Assembly

•Irish seats at Westminster

•HOC vote 341:311 against

•Playing the Orange card

SECOND BILL (1893)

•Passed HOC but crushed by HOL

•Forced Gladstone to resign

•New Liberal PM was Lord Rosebery• Less concerned with Ireland

•1909: People’s Budget forces reform of the HOL• 1911: Parliament Act

• 1912: 3rd Home Rule Bill

Unionist Postcard

•Churchill, “Orange bitters & Irish whiskey will not mix”

•Conservatives play the Orange Card

•Unionists have 3 years to prepare for doomsday

•Andrew Bonar Law

•On Unionist Postcard to right:

Colonel Wallace

Sir Edward Carson

Captain Craig

The Solemn League and Covenant•September 1912

•Over 250,000 signatures

•Never accept home rule

•1643 version

•Declaration for womenSome 240,000 signed that

Ulster DeclarationWe, whose names are underwritten, women of Ulster, and loyal subjects of our gracious King, being firmly persuaded that Home Rule would be disastrous to our Country, desire to associate ourselves with the men of Ulster in their uncompromising opposition to the Home Rule Bill now before Parliament, whereby it is proposed to drive Ulster out of her cherished place in the Constitution of the United Kingdom, and to place her under the domination and control of a Parliament in Ireland.Praying that from this calamity God will save Ireland, we here to subscribe our names.

You never can have enough armies…•In 1914, Ireland had

• UVF

• Irish Volunteers

• Irish Citizen Army

• British Army

• During WWI, anti-recruitment campaign in Ireland for British Army

The big picture

Fight for & Delay of Home

RuleEaster Rising

Irish War of Independence

Anglo-Irish Treaty & the Creation of

Two Irelands

Irish Civil War

The Easter Rising•Planned by IRB

•Padraig Pearse proclaims the Irish Republic on Easter Monday from steps of the GPO

•April 24-30, 1916

•1400-1500 rebels in Dublin

•Irish Volunteers & Citizen Army vs. British Army, Royal Irish Constabulary, & Dublin Metropolitan Police

•508 killed; 2520 wounded

The Destruction

Why did it fail?•Lack of supplies

•Poor strategic value of targets

•Lack of communication between rebel sites

•Only Dublin being mobilized

•Lack of public support• Families of WWI soldiers• “dupes of the Germans”

From Jeers to Martyrdom

•15 executions in 2 week period

•Secret court martials

•The story of James Connolly

•All who were executed were Catholic• The 1916 Wing of Kilmainham Gaol in

Dublin

Memorializing the Martyrs

PLAGUE FOR ALL THE MARTYRSCROSS MARKING CONNOLLY’S PLACE OF EXECUTION

Restoring order?•David Lloyd George appointed to pacify Ireland

•Home Rule with partition proposed

•Release remaining internees from prison

•Pressure from Irish-America & American gov’t

•Campaign against the now dying IPP

•Oct. 1917: De Valera = President of Sinn Fein and the Irish Volunteers

•April 1918: conscription for Ireland

The Rise of Sinn Fein•Founded in 1905 by Arthur Griffith

•Sinn Fein as “the party of the Rising”

•Home Rule out; Republicanism in

•Election on November 18, 1918

• Sinn Fein won 73 seats

• IPP won 6 seats

• Unionists won Ulster & the Trinity College seats

•British gov’t does not take Sinn Fein’s overwhelming victory as a mandate from the Irish people that they want a republic

Pushing the Issue…•Sinn Fein members refuse to take their seats at Westminster

•Set up a government in Dublin• Lower house of assembly called the Dáil Éireann• Was a senate as well (Seanad)• Separate court system• Industrial Disputes Board

•Eamon De Valera (PM), Griffith (Deputy PM), Michael Collins (Minister of Finance & Head of Army)

•Sent delegates to Paris Peace Talks in 1919

•Irish Volunteers become the Irish Republican Army (IRA)

The Anglo-Irish War•A.K.A. The War of Independence or even “The Tan War”

•From 1919-1921 but no real time of peace from 1916 in Ireland

•Two Years of violence much of which was in fact perpetrated by the British/crown forces

• Royal Irish Constabulary

• British troops (incl. the Black and Tans)

•Both IRA & the British state were gearing up for war from 1916-1919

•Guerrilla war centered on cities with civilian targeting and atrocities on all sides

Bloody Sunday•November 21, 1920

•Dublin vs. Tipperary at Croke Park

•Collins had ordered the execution of the “Cairo Gang”

•Black & Tans responded by opening fire at the Gaelic Football match

•31 killed

• 14 Irish

• 14 British

• 3 Republican Prisoners

Lloyd George & de Valera

The Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921•Truce from July 1921

•First offer rejected

•Negotiations begin in London in October of 1921

•Lloyd George in charge for the British

•De Valera sent Collins & Griffith to London

•Don’t sign anything without approval of the Dáil & do not compromise

•Treaty signed on 12/6/1921

Civil War, 1922-23•Lasts for 10 months

•Free State provisional government vs. Irregulars (anti-treaty IRA)

•Fighting starts in Dublin (The Four Courts)

•Majority fought guerrilla style in hills & bogs

•Fighting stops in May 1923 but no negotiations, no compromise, no treaty, no amnesty

•Left the Irish Free State in a precarious position for its entire existence

•Bitter legacy because of lack of true victory or any compromise on either side

•Main political divide remained pro or anti treaty

Trouble in the North•Irregulars made issue of partition again during the civil war

•Unionists made it easy to make it an issue

•Special Powers Act of 1922

• Passed by Parliament at Stormont

• Lasted until 1973!

• Only party to ever govern under it was Ulster Unionist Party (UUP)

WWII

•Irish Free State was neutral or “neutral”?

•No conscription

•North & South contribute same # of soldiers

•South contributed more workers

•Yet North gets Churchill’s praise at the end of the war

•NI as training ground

•300,000 U.S. soldiers

Belfast Blitz•April 15-16 and May 4-5, 1941

•Not prepared

•Killed 1000

•Damage to 16,000 homes

Post-war Ireland

THE REPUBLIC OF IRELAND

Officially a Republic as of 1949

1950s: economic hardship & increased emigration

Mid-1950s: begin economic planning by the state that will slowly increase growth

NORTHERN IRELAND

Concerned with economic development

Benefitted from creation of British social welfare state

Some cross-border cooperation

Economic reform? Yes. Political reform? No.

Catholics as second-class citizens•The fundamental flaw of Northern Ireland

•Craig: “a Protestant Nation for a Protestant People”

•Brookeborough & O’Neill: employment discrimination

•Gerrymandering & plural voting

•Special Powers Act and issue of policing

Rise of a new Catholic middle-classEducation Act of 1947Their issue was discrimination

•By the 1960s, Ian Paisley & other fringe Protestant radical groups gaining in influence

The Troubles: Key Parties & PeopleDemocratic Unionist Party (DUP)

Ian Paisley

Social Democratic & Labour Party (SDLP)

John Hume

Sinn FeinGerry Adams

Ulster Unionist PartyDavid Trimble

British PM

Northern Irish PM

Taoiseach

Chief Constable of the RUC

Secretary of State for Northern Ireland

General Commanding Officer (GOC) of the British Army in NI

Five Key Events•Civil Rights Campaign (1964-1972)• Housing, employment, electoral practices• Derry March (400 people, next march had 10,000)

•Internment (1971-1975)• Reintroduction• 1981 detained• 1874 were Catholic/Republicans• 107 were Protestant/Loyalist

•Ulster Workers’ Council Strike (1974)• Brought down the power-sharing NI Executive• Response to Sunningdale Agreement

Five Key events cont…•Hunger Strike (1981)

• IRA prisoners wanted political prisoner status

• Maze Prison led by Bobby Sands

• 10 died

• Big propaganda victory

•Peace Process (1993 to the present)

• 1998 Good Friday Accords

Battle of the Bogside, Aug. 12-13, 1969•Apprentice Boys march nearby →rioting

•Resulted in declaration of “Free Derry”

•Also resulted in deployment of British troops

Bloody Sunday

•Jan. 30, 1972 in Derry

•Protest March against internment

•Some IRA present

•Parachute Regiment of the British Army opened fired

•14 killed, another 14 or so injured

•Widgery tribunal (lasted 10 weeks)

•Savile Inquiry (1998; report in 2010)

Ireland Today•Immigration (especially from Eastern Europe)

•Breakdown of the power of the Church

• Nov. 24, 1995: Vote to end constitutional ban on divorce• Prohibited in the 1937 constitution

• May 22, 2015: Vote on constitutional amendment to permit same-sex marriage

Passed by 62.07%