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In 1534, in the middle of the Protestant Reformation sweeping through
much of Europe, the English king Henry VIII signed and sealed the Act of
Supremacy, making himself the head of the English Church. No more Pope.
Though he did it more from pragmatism than from passion, the fighting he
started in England between Catholic and Protestant wasn't done for over 200
years. In Ireland it's going on still. ![]() Not quite. In 1605, with Elizabeth two years in the ground, there was a failed plot by a group of Catholics (including the much-effigized Guy Fawkes) to blow up the English Parliament with the Protestant king, James I, inside, and at the end of the century King James II, a self-proclaimed Catholic, had to flee his throne and his country to avoid disaster from rising Protestant forces led by the Dutchman William of Orange (later King William III of England). James' supporters and heirs fought unsuccessfully to regain a Catholic throne of England at the Boyne River in Ireland in 1690 and in the Jacobite (named for James) rebellions, one in 1715 and another, under Bonnie Prince Charlie, in 1745. But back to Henry and Ireland. England took over Ireland in the twelfth century after the Pope, Adrian IV, obligingly told Henry II of England he could have it. It was never a happy conjunction but it was Henry VIII who poked into the Church, making it even worse, and in 1541 he became "King" instead of merely "Lord" of Ireland The Reformation was a time of increasing fear of Catholic invasion in England and Henry wanted no problem from the Irish. He crushed what he could of the old ways and replaced them with a Protestant Church of Ireland. It didn't take hold the way it did in England and relations between England and Ireland deteriorated even further. Irish rebellions continued through the 16th century though they were harshly put down. Under Elizabeth's successor, James I ( a Scot who succeeded the childless queen), the north of Ireland-- largely the province of Ulster-- was settled by English and Scottish Protestants, and many Irish Catholics lost their land. In the mid 17th century another Irish rebellion led to more land confiscations and the loss of many thousands of lives. And more Protestant landlords and settlers in the north. In response to Irish support for the deposed Catholic James II at the Battle of the Boyne, the Irish Parliament, controlled by English Protestants, stripped Irish Catholics of all power. At the beginning of the eighteenth century, only about 10 per cent of the land in Ireland was owned by Catholics. As a group, their situation was increasingly dire. In 1800, after yet another Irish rebellion, British Prime Minister
William Pitt decided that the solution to the Irish problem lay in
abolishing the Irish Parliament completely and incorporating Ireland into a
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. He also wanted full rights for
Catholics but opposition within England was too great. It took until 1829
before the Catholic Emancipation Act passed through parliament, reversing
hundreds of years of restrictions on Catholic rights. But reversing the
effects of those restrictions was even more difficult than reversing the
laws. ![]() At mid-century, the main source of food in Ireland was destroyed. Years of potato blight from 1845-49 led to the Great Potato Famine. A million people starved, a million and a half emigrated, most of them to the U.S. The population of Ireland dropped by a third. The only advantage to Ireland to come out of this most terrible natural disaster was that emigrated Irish formed the Fenian Movement (from Fianna Eireann, mythic Irish Warriors) and worked for Irish independence from afar. There was a small victory in 1869 when the British prime minister, William Gladstone, ended the official status of the Protestant Church of Ireland, and during the 1870s the drive for Irish "Home Rule" picked up steam. In the north of the country, in the counties of the province of Ulster, Protestants became nervous. Finally, in 1914, Home Rule was enacted (though Ulster was to be excepted for six years), just in time for World War I to cause it to be suspended. Civil war seemed a possibility. In Ulster the Protestants formed a militia. In the rest of the country the Catholics did the same.
In 1916, with The Great War still raging, the Irish Republican
Brotherhood staged a rebellion against Britain on Easter Monday. Though the
uprising was limited to Dublin and ultimately failed, the leaders were
executed, giving the event an emotional value of enormous proportion and in
1918 the Irish nationalist Sinn Fein ("we, ourselves") party won an
overwhelming victory in parliamentary elections. Instead of reporting to
parliament in England they declared an Irish Republic. The British outlawed
them. The Irish Republican Army was formed, grew increasingly violent. The
British sent troops, the hated Black and Tans. And there was always an Irish Republican Army. For a decade after
partition they violently agitated for re-unification of Ireland using guns
and bombs liberally. During WWII, though many internationally-minded
Irishmen fought on the side of the Allies, the IRA openly supported the Nazi
cause while Ireland, though officially neutral, permitted both German and
Japanese agents into the country. In April 1998, the Good Friday peace accord was
signed. It was a tentative deal that included both the Ulster Unionists
(Northern Irish who wish to remain allied with Britain) and Sinn Fein (the
political wing of the IRA, Catholics who wish to rejoin Northern Ireland to
Ireland.) The historic agreement provided for a new governing council, or
executive, with Protestant and Catholic representation. The Ulster Unionists refused to sit with Sinn Fein until the IRA sent an unequivocal message that it would disarm. Sinn Fein would give no such assurances, and fears grew that the Good Friday accord would die and Northern Ireland would lapse back into the killing of neighbours and of neighbours' children. To the IRA, without the defence budget of a major industrialized nation behind it, replacing weaponry is no small or inexpensive job and moving slowly toward giving up its leverage is a quite practical issue. And it's not as if the Irish Republican arsenal could be kept like a deposit by the British, to be returned if the deal doesn't work out. The historic day finally arrived on the last Monday of November, 1999, when the 108 members of the Northern Ireland Assembly voted to form a coalition government, with an executive of Protestant and Catholic members. For the first time, Protestant Unionists and Catholic Republicans pledged to share power. The deal worked out at the meeting of the Assembly in Belfast created an Executive made up of members from the four main political parties. The Ulster Unionist Party (UUP), lead by David Trimble, would hold four seats on the Executive. Trimble also became the First Minister. The moderate Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP), contributed four Catholic members to the Executive, one of whom became the deputy First Minister. The hardline Protestant Democratic Unionist Party and Sinn Fein each were given two seats on the Executive. The Executive will take over the running of Northern Ireland's affairs, except for taxation and security matters. The British government officially transferred power to the Executive by the end of the week, marking the first time since 1974 that the volatile British province experienced home-rule government. Another historic event was expected in Dublin at the end of the week, when the Irish parliament would approve a constitutional amendment revoking its claim to the territory of Northern Ireland. This was regarded as an important step in convincing the majority of Protestants in Northern Ireland that they would not be forced into a union with the Republic without their approval. The IRA and other paramilitaries agreed to appoint
disarmament representatives to deal with the contentious issue of stockpiled
weapons. This was to be worked out between the IRA and General John de
Chastelain, a Canadian heading the disarmanent commission.
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