ULSTER

The Problem with Colonising Ireland

The Irish problem in the 16th Century

16th century English clothing

16th century Irish Clothing

Edmund Spenser on Ireland

“ Some of them [the colonists in the Pale] are now much more lawless and licentious than the very wild Irish … And first I have to find fault with the abuse of language; that is, for the speaking of Irish among the English, which as it is unnatural that any people should love another's language more than their own … The next is the marrying with the Irish, And, indeed, how can such matching succeed well, seeing that commonly the child taketh most of his nature of the mother? Therefore are those evil customs of fostering and marrying with Irish most carefully to be restrained … The end will, I assure me, be very short, and much sooner than can be in so great a trouble, as it seemeth, hoped for. Although there should none of them fall by the sword nor be slain by the soldier, yet thus being kept from [farming] ... by this hard restraint they would quickly consume themselves and devour one another. The proof whereof I saw sufficiently exampled in these late wars of Munster, for, notwithstanding that the same was a most rich and plentiful country, full of corn and cattle, … yet ere one year and a half they were brought to such wretchedness as that any stony heart would have rued the same. Out of every corner of the woods and glens they came creeping forth upon their hands, for their legs could not bear them. They looked like anatomies of death; they spake like ghosts crying out of their graves; they did eat the dead carrions, happy where they could find them; yea, and one another soon after, insomuch as the very carcasses they spared not to scrape out of their graves. And if they found a plot of watercresses or shamrocks, there they flocked as to a feast for the time, yet not able long to continue there withal; that in short space there were none almost left, and a most populous and plentiful country suddenly left void of man and beast.” – from A View of the Present State of Ireland (1633).

Statutes of Kilkenny: Established in the 14th

century for English colonists in Ireland • It was illegal to marry a native Irish woman (most colonists were men)

• It was illegal to sell weapons to the native Irish

• It was illegal to speak Irish

• It was illegal to follow Irish laws

• It was illegal to play Irish sports (hurling)

• It was illegal to dress in the Irish way

• It was illegal for the native Irish to enter into the Pale

Early depiction of the Irish Sport called ‘Hurling’ (here called ‘Shinty’)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TmzivRetelE

Irish musical instruments

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-mjWhMn-VnU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZtccQ7ggk4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-Tt9HgPXDo

‘Keening’ the dead

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W22gpBv00gg

16th -17th c. ‘plantations’ in North America

View of Scotland from the north of Ireland

Project for Calvinist Plantation in Ulster

Scottish Lowland Calvinists

Persecution of Non-Conforming Protestants in Britain

Calvinist planters in America

Project for Calvinist Plantation in Ulster

Advertisement for the Plantations of Ulster

Art thou rich?

Hurry and you shall do God and your Prince excellent service.

Art thou a tradesman, a Smith, a Weaver, a Mason, or a Carpenter?

You will be in demand and get rich quickly.

Art thou a gentleman that likes to hunt?

There are plenty of foxes, wolves and stags and lots of open space. There will be plenty of fishing.

Art thou a Minister of God's word?

Hurry, hurry, there are thousands of untaught ignorant people waiting for you. You will be made an Archangel in the next world.

The Great Ulster Plantation: from 1610

‘Undertaker’ Planters

• Were granted 12km2 of land if they promised to bring 48 British Protestant men and 20 British Protestant families to Ulster

• Were given bigger plots of land if they succeeded in eliminating all native Irish from the territory

• Were allowed lower rents if they only employed British workers

Serviters

• British military who were given land as a reward for service to the monarch

• Were allowed to employ Irish workers, but had to pay higher rents

The Guilds

• Trade companies, who were sold land in Ulster as a commercial venture – with low rents and high income.

• Mostly based around the native Irish settlement of Derry, which was re-named ‘Londonderry’

Political allegiance in Northern Ireland Today

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kdV8W96AGQ0

The Second Colonisation: Cromwell’s Conquest of Ireland

Oliver Cromwell (1599-1658)