IRELAND: A BRIEF HISTORY OF

KEY EVENTS AND PEOPLE

NORTHERN IRELANDQUICK FACTS

GOVERNMENT Member of the UK (England, Wales, Scotland,

and NI) Legislature

Northern Ireland Assembly located in Belfast Since Good Friday Agreement (1998) it has been

largely self-governing in most internal matters.

NORTHERN IRELANDQUICK FACTS

The Ulster Banner flying over a loyalist area (foreground), and Irish Tricolors flying over republican areas

(background).

Internationally, NI is probably best known as the site of a violent ethnic, sectarian, nationalist, and political conflict between the nationalists, who see themselves as Irish and are predominately

Roman Catholic, and the unionists, who consider themselves British and are predominately

Protestant (additionally, there are also people from both sides who consider themselves as

Northern Irish) Simply put, the unionists want NI to remain as part of the UK

(“loyalists”), while the nationalists want NI to reunify with the Republic of Ireland, independent of British rule (“republicans”)

Since 1998, nearly all of the paramilitary groups involved in the Troubles (e.g. IRA and UDA) have ceased their armed campaigns.

A Brief History of the Troubles: Early 1600s

•The Plantation of Ulster refers to the organized colonization of Ulster – a province in northern Ireland– by Protestants from Scotland and England.•Private plantation by wealthy landowners began in 1606.

A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE TROUBLES 1690 – a system of Protestant English rule is imposed which

is designed to materially disadvantage the Catholic majority and Protestant dissenters (Known as Catholic Penal Laws) This system continued up to 1998.

1801 – Act of Union the entire island of Ireland becomes part of UK

Daniel O'Connell (6 August 1775 – 15 May 1847), often referred to as The Liberator or The Emancipator, was an Irish political leader in the first half of the 19th century. He campaigned for Catholic Emancipation—including the right for Catholics to sit in the Westminster Parliament, denied for over 100 years—and repeal of the Act of Union which combined Great Britain and Ireland.

1905 – Sinn Féin political party is established by Catholics with the intention of freeing Ireland from British rule

1913 – Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) a paramilitary group created by Protestants who oppose the concept of Irish Home Rule.

A Brief History of the Troubles

1916 – The Easter Uprising, April 24 Political and sectarian conflict over whether Ireland

should remain part of the UK culminates in the Easter Uprising, when Irish Catholics seize strategic buildings in Dublin, notably the general post office.

An est. 20,000 British soldiers enter the city and fire on the rebels. The fighting lasts for five days and the rebels are forced to surrender. Seventy are sentenced to death and 15 are executed, fueling support for Sinn Féin – the political party representing the nationalist cause.

Catholic rebels become known as the Irish Republican Army (IRA).

A Brief History of the Troubles 1919-1922 – War of Independence & the

Partitioning of the Ireland Following the Easter Rising, Sinn Féin won a

majority of seats in Ireland and set up the First Dáil (Irish Parliament) in Dublin.

Ireland essentially seceded from the UK. The Irish War for Independence followed, leading to the establishment of the Irish Free State.

In Ulster, however, and particularly in the six counties which became Northern Ireland, Sinn Féin fared poorly in the 1918 election, and Unionists won a strong majority.

A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE TROUBLES The Government of Ireland Act 1920

partitioned the island of Ireland into two separate jurisdictions, Southern Ireland (comprising the 26 southern counties – each with a Catholic majority) and Northern Ireland (comprising the 6 Ulster counties – each with a Protestant majority), both as devolved regions of the United Kingdom.

This partition of Ireland was confirmed when the Parliament of Northern Ireland exercised its right in December 1922 under the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921 to opt out of the newly established Irish Free State.

Violence escalates as Catholics oppose partition.

A Brief History of the Troubles The Anglo-Irish Treaty provided for a self-

governing Irish state in the south, having its own army and police.

However, rather than creating the independent republic, which was favored by nationalists, the Irish Free State would be an “autonomous dominion of the British Empire” with the British monarch as head of state, in the same manner as Canada and Australia.

A Brief History of the Troubles 1922-26 - The Irish Civil War

waged between two opposing groups of Irish nationalists: the forces of the "Provisional Government" that established the Free State in December 1922, who supported the Anglo-Irish Treaty, and the Republican opposition, for whom the Treaty represented a betrayal of the Irish Republic. The war was won by the Free State forces.

The Civil War claimed more lives than the War of Independence against Britain that preceded it, and left Irish society further divided and embittered.

Bloody Sunday: The day began with an Irish Republican Army (IRA) operation organized by Michael Collins to assassinate the Cairo Gang, a team of undercover agents.

National Army soldiers during the Civil War

A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE TROUBLES

1948 - Irish Free State is granted full independence from Britain and formally becomes the Republic of Ireland.