(A) The Roots of Trouble in History



1. Survey of Anglo-Irish relations from the Middle Ages to 1923

Ireland (all or part of it, at various times) was a colony of the English from the 12th century. From the late Middle Ages it was a kingdom, under the same monarch as England, but a separate country. In law and in practice, the Irish government was usually subordinate to the English government.
Henry the VIII rejected Rome and put the church in England under his personal control. His church was to become more protestant, particularly under Elisabeth I. Ireland’s population remained mainly Roman Catholic.
Following the conflicts in the 17th century, the winners forcibly transferred ownership of large amounts of land to new landlords, and sometimes new tenants: those who had supported the winning side or those who they felt would support them in the future.
English Protestants were not the only ones to settle in Ireland. Presbyterians (historical known as Dissenters) from Scotland colonized north-eastern Ireland in large numbers. Other nonconformist Christians (Quakers) started arriving in the 16th century and their number grew in the 17th.
In 1801, Ireland was technically made on with England, Scotland and Wales by the Act of Union, which created the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.
In 1912, a third Irish Home Rule Bill was introduced to the British House of Commons. The House of Lords till 1911 blocked this. Unionists in Ulster reacted with alarm; in 1913 the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) was formed aimed against the Home rule being imposed.


2. The siege of Londonderry and the battle of the Boyne, 1960

The conflict between Catholicism and Protestantism played a large part in the 17th century’s several wars in England and Ireland: civil wars, colonial wars… . In 1960 William of Orange deposed the Catholic king James II, after the battle of Boyne. After the victory, laws were enacted by the all-Protestant Parliament of Ireland barring Cat