Northern Ireland conflict?

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Doc

I'll give you a list of a few key events to research; but as several have said, there is no short history here; the political situation in Ireland has had about 800 years to become what it is today. These are some of the highlights:

1168--the King of Leinster (the eastern province of Ireland), Diarmait Mac Murchada, is dethroned by Toirdhealbhach Ãši Conchobhair. Diarmait solicits help from England's King Henry II to be restored to his throne. Henry sends the Earl Richard de Clare, also known as Strongbow, who is promised land and Diarmait's daughter to marry. This event is where the "800 years of British oppression" figure originates.

1532--King Henry VIII of England founds the Church of England, with himself as the supreme head of the Church.

1609--Plantation of Ulster (the northern province) begins. Wealthy English and Scottish landowners, loyal to the Crown, begin to displace the poorer, mostly Catholic population.

1641-1650--Irish Rebellion of 1641 begins, to remove the wealthy British Protestant landowners from Ireland. England can do little about this, since it is in the grip of its own civil war. The rebellion is eventually crushed by the forces of Oliver Cromwell, who begins a brutal program of oppression of the native Irish population.

1689--Siege of Derry.

1690--The forces of the Catholic King James II of England are defeated by those of William of Orange at the Battle of the Boyne. James flees to France. Penal Laws, restricting the legal rights of Catholics, begin to be passed.

1798--large-scale rebellion of the native Irish population against British rule.

1801--Act of Union, by which all of Ireland is declared part of the United Kingdom.

1829--Daniel O'Connell helps bring about Catholic Emanicipation from the Penal Laws.

1845-1849--the Great Hunger (An Gorta MÃ³r), more commonly known as the Potato Famine. Millions die or emigrate to North America.

1880-1889--Charles Parnell's Home Rule Movement.

1916--Easter Rising. Padraig Pearse, in his Proclamation, declares Ireland to be a free nation, independent of British rule. The War for Independence begins.

1920--The U.K. and Ireland agree to end the conflict, in the Anglo-Irish Treaty, which allows 26 of Ireland's 32 counties to be granted the status of the Irish Free State, a member of the British Commonwealth, similar to the status of Canada or Australia. But six counties, of the nine in the northern province of Ulster, will remain part of the U.K., as a statelet to be known as Northern Ireland.

1921-1922--Civil War in Ireland, as forces of the new Irish Republican Army, who believe that the Treaty wasn't enough--that the conflict must continue until all 32 counties are part of a unified and independent Ireland--clash with those forces of the new Free State, who are prepared to accept the Treaty.

It is important to understand that Northern Ireland has been British for over two hundred years, since the Act of Union, and that a slim majority is content to let it remain so. There is very much more to the conflict in the 20th and 21st centuries. It is not a matter of the U.K. being "hell-bent on having" the Six Counties--it is a matter of maintaining peace and security in their own territory. It is good to research the matter yourself, with as much objectivity as possible. I have my own sympathies and opinions, based on my research, but as an American, I am fully aware that there is very much I can't directly understand, because I've never lived in Ireland, on either side of the border. Also, we as Americans can't logically take the simple stance of "Brits Get Out!" unless we're prepared to give our land back to the people we took it from as well.

Misty Blue

There is no short story.

EarthCalling

There is no short history. See William of Orange onwards. Throw in Oliver Cromwell and the potato famine just for starters.
If you are really interested and obviously you are not- information abounds in both libraries and the internet.

Tid

What kind of a narrow minded comment is that?? The catholics 'produce' faster cos they don't believe in contraception??!! Is that why the "catholics" were travelling to the North not so many years ago to avail of contraception, oh thats right, them thick catholics thought they were smarties, on a budget. What a fool.
Anyways, you should check it up on wikipedia, they might have tried to shorten it. (sorry but a**holes with comments like that are just fools)

slipstreamer

The words "short" and "history of the Irish" don't really go together. Read up on the back story of the recent troubles on wikipedia, it will help a lot. There's 800 years of history between the two countries. I don't know where to begin to tell you the truth. Too much to be summed up adequately.

irishgirl2009@ymail.com

england took over ireland years ago, they sent over all these soldiers out of prison on the streets of ireland which caused terror for years and years, the british done terrible things to the irish...eventually after all the fighting the british gave back 26 counties and kept 6 they are up in the north,,,the ira are fighting for these countys to be part of ireland,but the prodistants in the north want it to stay england! its so hard to explain but i tired my best

Ally Boyce

Basically bout half of Northern Ireland are catholics and wanna be seperate from Britain and the other half are protestants who wanna be part of Britain. So really theres no simple answer to it without upsetting one side of the argument. The IRA want to be seperate so throughout the 70's to 90's did a load of terrorist attacks but that has supsided over the past decade so this recent attack is a bit out of the blue. The fact is the protestants in Northern Ireland wanna be part of Britain so it isn't simply a case of England being hellbent on keeping a little bit of Ireland.

Alan M

Its really very simpl;e. Ireland used to be all British then Britain let it govern most of the whole Island except 6 counties. However The IRA terrorists could not accept this and bombed the civilians in northern Ireland daily to force Britain to leave. The civilians however defended themselves forcing the IRA to do a peace deal. Now its that simple. Presently most people in 6 counties around 98% wish to remain British according to a referendum last year. Thats a lot .

Scotty1111

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