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The Troubles was a conflict between Irish Republican organizations and the British Army and its Unionist paramilitary supporters in Northern Ireland.
The conflict was characterized by bombings and assassinations by militant groups, barricades and self governing of certain areas of the North such as Free Derry,as well as sectarian violence committed against innocent civilians, primarily by Protestant unionist groups against Irish Catholic civilians.
Background
Early British Occupation: 1169-1898
See main article: Early History of Ireland
The first British occupation of Ireland took place in Anglo-1169 while England was ruled by Henry II, when Wexford was occupied. British influence over the island continued to grow with successive invasions, putting Anglo-Irish lords in power around 1250 and creating the Irish Parliament in 1297.[1]
In 1541 Henry VIII had his title changed from Lord of Ireland to King of Ireland, marking the point Britain fully controlled Ireland.[1]
Henry VIII also began the spread of Protestantism in Ireland, which continued in 1558 under Elizabeth I. The spread of Protestantism, often through the suppression of Catholicism was fought back against both by the general public in Ireland and by some Anglo-Irish Lords, beginning a series of revolts and rebellions from 1569 to the 1580s.[1]
Several other rebellions occurred, including one led by Hugh O'Neill in 1595, a Gaelic chief, revolts supported by Spain in the early 1600s.[1]
In 1605 plans to create plantations in Ulster were proposed and followed through with in 1606. These plantations were one of the first widespread examples of settler-colonialism, with predominantly Protestant Scottish and English settlers settling in the North.[1]
In 1642 a civil war between Charles I and the English Parliament began. The same year a rebellion in Ireland, mostly organized by the native Irish Catholics, began. Among the leaders of this uprising was Owen Roe O'Neill, who due to his exploits became a folk hero in later years.[1]
After the end of the civil war in 1649 and the execution of Charles I, Oliver Cromwell emerged as the dominant political figure in England. He led an invasion of Ireland with the goal of destroying the rebellion and crushing Catholic dissent. The massacres committed by his army are widely recognized as genocide. After the invasion the development of Protestant plantations increased.[1]
in 1658 Cromwell died and in 1660 Charles II became king. In 1661 the Irish Parliament was reestablished.[1]
Suppression of Catholicism began to increase, with official positions being limited to members of the Church of Ireland in 1666. In 1678 allegations were made of a Catholic plot to overthrow Charles II. In 1681 Archbishop of Armagh Oliver Plunkett was executed for alleged involvement in the plot.[1]
In 1685 the throne of England passed to the Catholic James II. In 1688 his daughter Mary, a Protestant, and her husband Prince William of Orange arrived in England, claiming the throne. They agreed to rule in 1689, and James II arrived in Ireland, claiming the throne. The next century included several risings by supporters of Charles II and his royal line, called Jacobites. These risings had a large base of support in Ireland, which was often on the front lines.[1]
In 1762 the Whiteboys, and agrarian Catholic organization began to resist oppression of the Irish peasantry.[1]
The enlightenment led to the growth of Liberalism, Republicanism, and Proto-socialism, setting the stage for the United Irishmen rising of 1798.[1]
United Irishmen to Young Ireland: 1791-1848
The Society of United Irishmen was founded in 1791 in Belfast. It mostly consisted of Presbyterian radicals inspired by the French Revolution. In 1792 Theobold Wolfe Tone was appointed Secretary of the Catholic Committee, a group which advocated for rights for Catholics. He also became a leading member of the United Irishmen.[1]
The United Irishmen went underground following suppression by the British government in 1794. Wolfe Tone and other leaders departed from Ireland to seek aid abroad, particularly in France.[1]
Conflict between Catholic and Protestant farmers grew in 1795, with the Catholic Defenders fighting the Protestant Peep of the Day Boys. The Protestants were victorious and the Orange Order was formed.[1]
In 1796 Wolfe Tone attempted to land on Ireland with a French fleet, but was unsuccessful. In 1797, with an uprising imminent, martial law was imposed.[1]
The Irish Uprising of 1798 began in May with several small rebellions throughout Ireland. A larger uprising throughout the island was planned to begin then by the United Irishmen, but this was delayed by the arrest of leaders of the organization. In August a French force arrived in Mayo. The rebellion was defeated on October 12 when a French fleet, with Wolfe Tone onboard, was intercepted. Wolfe Tone was taken prisoner and died in prison on November 19, likely of suicide.[1]
The acts of Union were passed in 1800, forming a union between Ireland and Britain and creating the basis for Unionism. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was established in 1801 when the act went into effect.[2]
In July 1803 the remnants of the United Irishmen, led by Robert Emmet, staged an uprising in Dublin. It was unsuccessful and the leaders of the uprising were executed.[2]
In 1823 the Catholic Association was founded with the goal of removing legal repression and restrictions placed on Irish Catholics. In 1824, while under the leadership of Daniel O'Connell, the Catholic Association grew into a mass movement for Catholic Emancipation which would continue for several years, with the Catholic Association endorsing candidates in the 1826 general election. In 1828 O'Connell ran in a by-election in 1828. He won but was unable to take his seat due to his Catholicism. Irish Catholics were finally allowed to take seats in parliament in 1829 and O'Connell took his seat in the House of Commons in 1830. In 1841 he became Lord Mayor of Dublin.[2]
In 1845 the Great Famine began. Early on aid was given to Ireland by the British government, but in July the new Whig government stopped this support. Using the justification of the since debunked philosophy of Thomas Malthus, Charles Trevelyan, then head of the treasury, restricted food imports and continued exporting crops unaffected by the blight. Policies like this continued, and by the end of the famine about a million people died and more than a million more emigrated. The famine is widely recognized as a genocide.[2][3]
In 1848, angered by the famine and inspired by revolutionary movements throughout Europe, the Young Ireland movement attempted an uprising in 1848. It was unsuccessful and those involved were sent to Australia.[2]
The Fenians, IRB and Home Rule Movement: 1848-1913
In 1856 James Stephens, a former Young Irelander, travelled back to Ireland and founded the Phoenix Society with Jeremiah O'Donovan Rossa to promote Irish Republican ideals.[2]
In 1858 the revolutionary organization and secret society the Irish Republican Brotherhood was founded. The organization looked for support from Irish emigrants abroad, the the Fenian Brotherhood being formed as a parallel group in the United States of America.[2]
In 1865, with the IRB planning a rebellion, many Irish Republican leaders were arrested, though IRB leader James Stephens avoided capture.[2]
In 1866 Fenians in the United States attempted to invade Canada, then a British colony in an attempt to force Britain out of Ireland. In 1867 another rebellion was planned, but after an attempt to procure weapons failed, with organizer of the rebellion Thomas Kelly being arrested.[2]
From this point the IRB's strategy changed to one of attacks against specific targets, often by bombings, with most within England itself. This included a bombing at Clerkenwell Prison, which killed 12 in an attempt to free a Republican prisoner.[2]
In the 1870s the Home Rule movement grew in Ireland, with MP Isaac Butt introducing a motion in the House of Commons for Home Rule in 1874 and Charles Stewart Parnell, a staunch supporter of Home rule, being elected in 1874.[2]
In 1879 the Land War began. It was a period of unrest among the Irish peasantry due to economic downturn and poor harvests in combination with rent by absentee landlords. Michael Davitt organized the Irish National League and persuaded Charles Stewart Parnell to become it's president.[2]
In 1880 Parnell became the chairman of the Irish Parliamentary Party, and in the same year the first boycotts, organized by Hugh Cunningham Boycott, began, with Irish farmers refusing to pay rent.[2]
A series of assassinations in Dublin by the Invincibles occurred in 1882, with the Irish Chief Secretary and his deputy being killed.[2]
In the late 1880s and early 1890s a campaign to slander and discredit Parnell began, first with allegations of his support for the assassinations by the Invincibles and later by wide press coverage of his affair with Katharine O'Shea. Home Rule politicians began to lose elections and Parnell died in 1891.[2]
In 1905 Sinn Féin was formed.[4]
Growing Tensions: 1912-1916
A third Home Rule bill was introduced in the House of Commons in 1912, leading Unionist leader Edward Carson mobilize Unionist support in Ulster, founding the militant Ulster Volunteer Force in 1913 and formulating a plan to establish a separate Protestant Unionist government in Ulster in the event of Home Rule for Ireland. The Home Rule bill passed the House of Commons but failed in the House of Lords.
In response to the forming of the UVF, Irish Republicans and supporters of Home Rule founded in Irish Volunteers in November 1913. The UVF began transporting arms to Ireland for their uses in 1914.[2]
Also in 1913, Socialist and Trade Unionist Republicans began organizing during the Dublin Lockout, with James Connolly and others forming the Irish Citizen Army.[5]
Another Home Rule Bill was proposed in parliament, this time being passed in the House of Commons but being delayed in the House of Lords. It eventually passed in September, but at that point Britain had entered into the First World War and delayed the implementation of the act.[2]
The Irish Volunteers split over the issue of support for Britain in the First World War, with the National Volunteers supporting Britain's war effort and the Irish Volunteers continuing to oppose all involvement in the war.[2]
In 1915 the IRB established a military council and began planning an armed uprising to take advantage of Britain's involvement in the war with Germany. The same year IRB figure Patrick Pearse delivered an oration at Jerimiah O'Donovan Rossa's funeral, setting the ideology of abstentionist and militant Republicanism that would be primary to the Republican movement in the years to come.[2]
The Easter Rising and Revolution: 1916-1922
The Easter Rising began on April 24, 1916, with the Irish Volunteers, Irish Citizen Army, IRB, among others taking part. It was defeated on April 29 with most of the leaders being executed shortly after. After the brutal suppression of the uprising the British government offered to introduce home rule in the South of Ireland in an attempt to gain public support. the Irish Parliamentary Party took this deal, but it would prove unpopular.[2]
In 1917 lost still imprisoned for the Easter Rising were released. Sinn Féin had after the rising become an umbrella organization for Irish Republicanism, and in 1917 longtime leader of the organization Arthur Griffith stepped down, with Eamon de Valera, one of the only surviving leaders of the Easter Rising, taking his place.[2]
In 1918 Sinn Féin leaders including Eamon De Valera being arrested. Later that year Sinn Féin won 73 seats in parliament in the general election. These candidates would not take their seats in parliament and instead formed the first Dáil Éireann in January 1919. Cathal Brugha was elected acting president of the Dáil.[2]
The same day 2 policemen were killed by the Irish Volunteers, beginning the Irish War of Independence. Soon the Irish Volunteers and other Irish Republican groups reorganized into the Irish Republican Army, launching a campaign of guerilla warfare across the country.[2]
In 1920 the Black and Tans were sent to Ireland by the British to put down the revolution, attacking civilians and burning cities. On November 21 the Black and Tans murdered 12 people in Croke Park in Dublin.[2]
In a precursor to the troubles, sectarian rioting erupted in Derry and on July 21, 1920 in Belfast a woman was murdered, beginning a period of conflict referred to as the Troubles. By 1922 this conflict resulted in 501 deaths.[2]
James Craig became the foremost figure in Unionism in 1921. In July of that year a truce was agreed to, with Irish Republican leaders Michael Collins and Arthur Griffith traveling to London for negotiations. The Treaty of Peace between Great Britain and Ireland, commonly referred to as the Anglo-Irish Treaty was signed. The treaty was controversial due to it not creating an independent Irish Republic, but instead a free state within the British Empire, as well as the fact that 6 counties in the North remained under the direct control of Britain.[2]
In 1922 the treaty was passed by a narrow vote in the Dáil. This created a split in the Republican movement, with Sinn Féin and the IRA splitting into pro-treaty and anti-treat factions. In June anti-treaty forces took over the Four Courts in Dublin. The pro-treaty forces, then organized under the Irish Free State government, attacked these forces, beginning the Irish Civil War.[2]
Civil War and Underground Movement: 1922-1960s
The Irish Civil War took place over 1922 and 1923, and resulted in almost 2000 deaths. During the war Michael Collins, then Commander in Chief of the Free State Army and Chairman of the Provisional Government of the Irish Free State, was assassinated, though it is possible he was killed by friendly fire by his own guards. After anti-treaty IRA leader Liam Lynch was killed in battle on April 10, 1923, Eamon De Valera, then leader of the anti-treaty movement, called a ceasefire, turning over their weapons and officially ending the war on May 24.[2]
Pro-treaty Sinn Féin reorganized into Cumann na nGaedheal later in 1923.[2]
Growing Tensions and Outbreak of the Troubles: Early 1960s
Groups Involved
History
Effects
Casualties
3,720 people were killed in total during the conflict and approximately 47,541 were injured.[6]
Characterization
References
- ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11 1.12 1.13 1.14 1.15 1.16 "Chronology of Key Events in Irish History, 1169 to 1799". CAIN.
- ↑ 2.00 2.01 2.02 2.03 2.04 2.05 2.06 2.07 2.08 2.09 2.10 2.11 2.12 2.13 2.14 2.15 2.16 2.17 2.18 2.19 2.20 2.21 2.22 2.23 2.24 2.25 2.26 2.27 2.28 "A Chronology of Key Events in Irish History 1800 to 1967". CAIN.
- ↑ Niall O'Dowd (2018-08-20). "https://www.irishcentral.com/news/irish-famine-genocide-british" Irish Central.
- ↑ "History". Sinn Fein.
- ↑ "Strikers urged to join new Citizen Army". RTE.
- ↑ "Fact sheet for the conflict in and around Nothern Ireland". CAIN Archive.