A Brief history of the whole northern ireland thing
story
Belfast photo (c) Alain Le Garsmeur
Note – Those who believe that the entire island of Ireland should be free of British rule are known as Republicans or Nationalists. Those who believe in the continued union between the northern part of Ireland and the island of Britain are known as Unionists or Loyalists. As I am not entirely sure of the nuances in the differences between the different terms I have used them interchangeably throughout the text.
All of Ireland´s modern history has been defined by its relationship with Britain.
Before the English came Ireland was not a united country, but was comprised of multiple smaller kingdoms. Although borders were readjusted numerous times over the centuries, the best-known iteration was the era of the “cuige;” five kingdoms which roughly correspond with the modern provinces of Ireland; Munster in the south (where the cities of Cork and Limerick are,)
Connaught in the west (where Galway is,) Leinster in the east (where Dublin is,)
Ulster in the north (where Belfast is) and the “middle kingdom” of Meath. Each kingdom had its own king and they were all governed over by the High King of Ireland who sat at the Hill of Tara in Meath. He acted as a kind of supreme justice who arbitrated on disputes between the other kingdoms. Apart from Meath, (which has since been absorbed into Leinster) these regions are still in existence today as the four provinces that comprise the country, although nowadays the distinctions are purely geographical and have no administrative importance.
In the 11th century AD, Diarmuid MacMorrrough the King of Leinster was involved in a dispute with Ruairi O'Connor, the King of Connacht and High King of Ireland. MacMorrough invaded territories belonging to Tiernan O'Rourke, a vassal under O' Connor's protection, in what is now modern-day County Cavan and kidnapped O'Rourke's wife Derval. The High King ordered that MacMorrough be banished as punishment for his actions. In order to resolve the matter to his satisfaction, MacMorrough sought help from the English to intervene on his behalf. King Henry II of England sent an army on the promise that the warrior and prince Richard De Claire (who had the magnificently cool nickname of Strongbow) would be given MacMorrough's daughter Aoife and the eventual kingship of Leinster as his reward. This proved to be the worst decision in Irish history as Strongbow actually liked the place so much that he decided he wanted to stay and invite all of his friends over too.
England mounted a full-scale invasion and eventually took over the entire island. This was a very gradual process but within the first 100 years after the initial invasion, England controlled about 75% of the country. Ireland, along with Wales which the English spent an even longer period of time assimilating, essentially became the first part of what would eventually become the British Empire, centuries before England had even added Scotland to create what is now the United Kingdom.
England´s control over Ireland fluctuated over the following centuries with the only region where they had consistent dominance being an area known as ¨The Pale,¨ Dublin, and parts of the neighboring counties of Kildare, Louth, Wicklow and Meath. Even today many Irish people in rural parts of the country (particularly Cork) still resent Dublin and regard them as long having been sell-outs who are more British in their outlook and culture than truly Irish.
The expression ¨beyond the Pale¨ still exists in English to refer to something that is taboo or outside of the confines of polite behavior.
England really solidified its dominance over the whole country after a rebellion that took place in Ulster in the early 17th century. Ulster was still one of the wildest and most underdeveloped places in all of Europe, under the control of the local chieftains, principally the clans of the O'Neills and the O'Donnells. The chieftains staged a rebellion against the Engish that was unsuccessful and resulted in most of them fleeing the country to Europe leaving their territories without a leader.
England capitalized on this uncertainty and staged the biggest and most successful of their plantations in Ireland. Plantation was a technique that had been used to divide the Irish and rule them more easily. Irish farmers had their land confiscated from them and given to people who were loyal to the crown; soldiers, aristocrats, noblemen, and merchants, with the original farmers, then being forced to work for them for slave wages or face starvation.
This tactic had been attempted in other parts of the country before but with limited success, whereas the plantation of Ulster was enormously successful and changed the course of Irish history forever.
Although I am not an expert in history, I think the crucial difference between the plantation of Ulster and other plantations was that while in the other plantations the original Irish tenants had been ruled over by aristocratic English masters the colonizers only made up a tiny minority of the population in the areas they planted. This left the traditional Irish culture of the area to continue as before (albeit sometimes underground in times of persecution, such as the Penal Laws, which punished people for practicing the Catholic faith.) In Ulster the colonizers eventually went on to make up the majority of the population in the area.
At its closest point, the east coast of Ulster is only 12 miles across the water from Scotland with the Scottish shore being visible from the Giant´s Causeway on clear days.
As Scotland had by now entered into an uneasy political union with England, when the lands of Ulster were confiscated and divided up between the rich of Britain many working-class Scots made the short trip across the sea to start new lives cultivating the excellent farmland of Ulster, incentivized by money and the promise of better living conditions from the British government (as well as on some occasions various different forms of persecution by the English.)
Over the years more than a million Scots and people from the north of England are estimated to have moved to Ulster as part of the plantation, to the point where eventually the native Irish were a minority in the province.
As this took place over a number of centuries many of the descendants of the settlers embraced their new home and were happy to give their nationality as Irish.
It is possible that over time these descendants would have grown to see themselves as the same as their indigenous neighbors and have been just as readily in favor of an independent Ireland as the rest of the island´s population, had it not been for the crucial difference of religion.
In the 1520s King Henry the 8th of England desired to divorce his wife Catherine due to her inability to bear him children. However, his Catholic faith forbade him to do this, despite having asked the Pope of the time for his blessing. Henry decided to sidestep the problem by declaring that he was now a Protestant, a radical new sect of Christianity that had been created by the German monk Martin Luther. Luther had founded his new church in protest against the growing corruption that he saw within the Vatican, as well as their willingness to change and break rules when it suited them regardless of what it said in the Bible, which Luther believed was the literal and unalterable word of God. Regardless of his personal religious convictions, it's reasonable to assume that Henry principally adopted Luther´s philosophy to suit his own agenda as it permitted divorce. In doing so he forcibly converted everybody in England along with him and declared himself the head of a new church, Anglicanism (literally ¨The English Church¨ in Latin; the Queen is England is still the official head of the church today.)
Scotland and Wales soon followed, with the Scots going on to embrace even stricter and more extreme forms of Protestantism such as Presbyterianism and Lutheranism, whereas Ireland resisted the new faith and remained doggedly Catholic, almost certainly at least in part as an act of defiance. The Scottish and English settlers in Ulster were united in their hatred of the ¨subhuman¨ Irish Catholics (an idea propagated from the pulpit and through political satire over centuries) whose lands they were occupying and saw it as their divine duty to civilize the land and its people, meaning that even the passing of time could never erase the divisions between the peoples.
Ulster flourished during the colonization. While the other three provinces of Ireland were principally agricultural communities, Ulster developed as a heartland of industry (access to Scotland for markets and education meant a different economic outlook existed, as well more official support and security for tenants and employees), similar to the north of England, which much of its employment coming from factories. Belfast, little more than a small town before the plantation, developed into the centre of Ulster´s industry and became the unofficial capital for the region, its most famous industries being its shipbuilding yard which famously built the Titanic in 1912 and its linen factories.
In the opinion of many people, Belfast became the second city of the British Empire after only London, deemed to be central to Britain´s global expansion through its production of industrial and technological goods. In the 19th century, 9 out of 10 manufacturing jobs in Ireland were found in Ulster. The region had a standard of living equivalent to that of many major English cities while the rest of the country suffered in poverty, most famously during that century's almost Biblical famine.
Of course, to enjoy the benefits of the Ulster way of life you had to be a Protestant, with having a typical Irish name like Murphy or O´Donnell plus a record of having gone to a Catholic school being enough to see you removed from consideration at most job interviews, as well as putting you further down the list for public housing, making it harder to be accepted to university, to be admitted to positions in the government or the military, etc.
Although this is possibly a hyperbolic statement, it has been said that to be Catholic in Ulster during the past two centuries was similar to being black in South Africa during apartheid.
There were numerous attempts over the centuries to win independence for Ireland (the rebellion of 1798 is still celebrated in folk songs and folk history today) but all had, unsurprisingly, failed against what was at the time the greatest military force the world had ever known. The calls for at least some degree of local political representation throughout the country became louder towards the end of the 19th century. The Irish Parliamentary Party was founded as part of the growing wave of nationalism around Europe that saw the formation of many nation-states out of the ashes of empires. The Irish Parliamentary Party was universally known as the Home Rule party due it, basically, only having one policy goal; the foundation of a local Irish parliament in Dublin. At the time Irish members of parliament were sent to represent their communities in the British parliament in Westminster in London.
The Home Rulers were not aiming for a completely independent Irish Republic but only ¨dominion status¨ similar to Canada at the time; remaining a part of the British Empire but with a local parliament that would control internal affairs while London remained in control of issues such as the military, foreign affairs and taxation.
After 50 years of negotiations and near misses, their wish was granted in 1912 but ended up being postponed indefinitely by the outbreak of the First World War two years later.
Approximately 75% of the population of Ireland supported some degree of independence.
Only the Protestant minority opposed it, fearing they would lose their privileged position in a Catholic-dominated Irish republic.
The Ulster protestants mobilized in 1912 when half a million men signed a document known as the Ulster Covenant, pledging to take up arms against the new state if they were forced to be part of an independent Ireland. Fearing that Home Rule was inevitable many prominent conservative Ulster politicians began to propose the idea of Ulster separating from the rest of Ireland and remaining as part of the UK.
The delay of Home Rule caused by the onset of the First World War prompted the more extreme agents of Irish Republicanism to strike. On the most famous date in Irish history, Easter Sunday 1916, a small group made up of members of the Irish Volunteers, the Citizens Army and IRB (the Irish Republican Brotherhood) seized control of strategic buildings around Dublin to take advantage of the reduced military presence in the city due to the War. Knowing they had little chance of success, the volunteers decided to go ahead with the Rising, rightly calculating that ¨blood sacrifice¨ would inspire the Irish public into demanding a greater degree of independence.
They calculated correctly; originally viewed as a nuisance by the citizens of Dublin, many of whom cheered when the British army escorted them through the streets to prison at the end of the Rising, after they were executed, the leaders of the rising became martyrs in the Irish public. A wave of hard-line Republican politicians were elected during the general elections of 1918, wiping out the more moderate Home Rule party.
The IRA (the Irish Republican Army), the successors to the IRB, initiated a hit and run war throughout the country, They targeted military and strategic targets ( courthouses, county council administration buildings, and civil service offices) which were always armed with greater numbers and more advanced weaponry, but succeeding in pulling off numerous impressive victories by striking and vanishing into the countryside with the help of the now willing public after each attack.
Despite initially attempting to put the rebelling down through force, the British government was conscious of the fact that their most powerful ally the United States had agreed to join the War on their side in order to fight for the freedom of small nations and that this course of action smacked of hypocrisy. Having had enough bloodshed as the war had just ended, the British agreed to negotiations with the rebels. A treaty was offered that gave a far greater degree of independence than they had originally been expecting, (exactly what had been promised prior to 1914) although Ireland still remained part of the British empire until 1949 when the final parts of the treaty were finally dismantled after years of gradual negotiation.
The most contentious sticking point in the treaty, and the one which still has ramifications today, was the status of Ulster. The British government arrived at a compromise position attempting to assuage violence on both sides, creating an Irish Free State but allowing Ulster to opt-out and remain in the UK. They did this, depending on whom you believe, either because of genuinely wanting an end to war and or to hold onto Ulster´s manufacturing power for their own benefit.
Originally, the plan was to draw the border around the traditional boundaries of the province of Ulster but Unionist politicians soon realized that doing this would put themselves at a disadvantage. The population of the province only had a slight Protestant majority of about 55%, leading to the possibility of them being forced into a United Ireland either through another uprising or even a democratic vote further down the line.
Provinces had long since ceased to be used for local government purposes, being replaced by the English system of smaller subdivisions called counties.
Ireland consisted of 32 counties, with 9 in Ulster. The 3 Ulster counties that had very large Catholic majorities, Donegal, Cavan and Monaghan were drawn outside of the new border and joined the Free State, leaving a new artificially constructed micro-state consisting of
just 6 counties. This state became known as Northern Ireland.
The population of Northern Ireland at the time of its creation was 1.5 million;
1 million Protestants and half a million Catholics.
The Catholics were now even worse off than they had been before, now being a minority in a Protestant-controlled state.
Although the desire was initially for London to rule Northern Ireland directly, a parliament was created in Belfast to manage local affairs. Due to illegally manipulating the boundaries of election districts, Unionists managed to guarantee seats in almost every constituency throughout the state, completely robbing the Republican community of their voice.
The northern Catholics began to not only resent the British and their Protestant Unionist neighbours but also the Republic of Ireland, feeling that those in the south had sold them out, having bought their freedom at their expense.
Despite discrimination in housing, employment and education Northern Ireland remained relatively peaceful for most of the next 50 years.
The 60s brought some improvements in conditions for Catholics. The global economy was good, providing more upward mobility and opportunity for Catholics than before.
The Northern Irish first minister of the time Terence O´Neill was also relatively liberal compared with his predecessors and made some efforts towards reforms for greater equality in the public service. Young people, inspired by the global hippie movement and its mantra of peace, love and equality, began to socialize across the religious divide in a way that
had not been seen before that.
Sadly, everything changed for the worse in 1969.
The violence that plagued the province for a quarter of a century was actually sparked by good intentions. In the early 60s John Hume, a Catholic teacher and social activist from Derry, Northern Ireland´s second-largest city, founded the Northern Irish Civil Rights Association.
Inspired by his hero, Martin Luther King, Hume and his followers began holding peaceful marches, protests and sit-ins. They were not demanding a United Ireland but simply an end to anti-Catholic discrimination. The movement was regarded with fear and suspicion by the Unionist community who feared its peaceful exterior was a front for the by now long-dormant IRA. Fears of a resurgence of the IRA led to the official revival of the UVF (Ulster Volunteer Force), the Protestant military organization that had been formed in the 1910s with the intention of keeping Ulster British through military intervention.
A poisonous atmosphere began to grow around the province with many Civil Rights events ending in riots. The flames of distrust were stoked among the Unionists by the likes of
Ian Paisley, a fiercely anti-Catholic Presbyterian preacher whose popularity soon saw him entering the world of politics and eventually becoming the unofficial leader of Ulster Unionism.
In 1969 the boiling tension came to a head when a Protestant march through the Bog Side,
an impoverished Catholic area of Derry, ended in a major riot which soon engulfed the whole city. Sympathy protests by Catholics throughout the North lead to further clashes with Unionists and widespread rioting. The Northern Irish police were driven from the Bog Side and after three days Prime Minister O´Neill requested that London send in the British army.
Despite initially being welcomed by both communities, the army´s presence soon lead to even more unease on the streets. Catholics believed that the army were doing too little to protect them and began to view the soldiers with resentment as an occupying force. Ironically, the arrival of the army did eventually lead to the reemergence of the IRA that Unionists had mistakenly feared the Civil Rights movement had been a front for.
The IRA and the army and local Northern Irish police forces soon became embroiled in a guerilla war. The UVF and other Protestant groups such as the UDA (Ulster Defense Association) soon entered the fray leading to the outbreak of a full-scale civil war that devastated the small country.
The Belfast government was suspended and London took direct control of the province. The period of bloody civil war lasted for 25 years, infecting every aspect of Northern Irish life and claiming 3,500 lives. The conflict became euphemistically known as The Troubles, perhaps due to the British government´s unwillingness to admit that a part of the UK (not some far-flung commonwealth member, but an area that was “as British as Finchley” as Finchley's most famous MP Margaret Thatcher once infamously claimed) was at war with itself.
During this period the Republic of Ireland was possibly the most economically underdeveloped country in western Europe. The country was stagnating and producing nothing of note in almost any field, so at the time The Troubles were the only thing going on on the island that earned any international attention, although fortunately, despite the devastating impact they had on the lives of people north of the border, they only very occasionally spilled over into the south. Subsequent British governments lost a huge deal of popularity over their handling of Northern Ireland, with the general international opinion being that the British were unequivocally the bad guys in the story and were illegally occupying another country, much as is the global view of Israel today. The conflict finally ended in 1994 with the IRA declaring a ceasefire and the UVF and UDA following suit a few weeks later.
After four years of peace talks with the British, Irish and American governments acting as intermediaries, a document officially known as The Belfast Agreement, but universally referred to as The Good Friday Agreement,was drafted in 1998 and put before the peoples of Northern Ireland and the Republic as a referendum.
In the terms of the agreement, the Republic of Ireland would agree to remove the article in its constitution which claimed Northern Ireland as part of its territory.
Northern Ireland would adopt a new set of laws allowing that, while Northern Ireland would remain with the UK for now, the British government would agree that if it public opinion demanded it the UK secretary for Northern Ireland could call another referendum asking the public of the North to vote on joining a United Ireland.
The Good Friday Agreement also returned direct control of Northern Ireland´s internal affairs to Belfast and set up a new local government that operated on a power-sharing basis.
Those running for office would have to declare to be Republican or Unionist and the two largest parties from both communities would have to govern in coalition together, regardless of numbers.
One of the greatest miracles in modern political history occurred in 2007 when Ian Paisley became the First Minister of the region as leader of the ultra-conservative DUP (Democratic Unionist Party) and was forced to work in a partnership with Martin McGuinness, the deputy leader of Sinn Fein, the political wing of the IRA. The liberal, socialist McGuinness (who was open about his former position as the IRA´s chief military commander) and Paisley were completely opposed to each other on almost every issue but not only managed to work together successfully but also, apparently, to actually become friends.
