History of Ireland

The Gaels arrived in 100 BC and set the Irish Identity. Everyone shared the common language, a common code of law (the Brehon Law), a common code of tradition of oral poetry and music, and a common history adapted from ancient legend. Then a Romano-British missionary, St. Patrick introduced Christianity, canceling out pagan. Irish monasteries provided the setting for a Gaelic golden age. Here, the details of an already ancient Irish society were first written down making: The Book of Durrow (7th Century transcription of the gospel), the Ardagh Chalice (8th century Gospel), Book of Kells, another gospel. Irishmen set out to strengthen European monasteries. Then in 795, the Noresmen's invaded Ireland. They ransacked the island a century later more and more. Dane's and pirates invaded the land also.

In 1014, a king from County Clare named Brian Bory brought his army to fight the Irishmen, but he lost at Clontarf. With these brutal invaders the Irish decided to make watch towers, round tall ones. In time, the Norsemen (or Vikings) built cities on the coast, in places such as Arklow and Wexford. They began inter-marrying with the Irish and ending up becoming Irish themselves. But the Normans sailed across form Wales and landed in Wexford in 1170. Pembroke, a friend of the king of Leinster sent them, to fight his own high king. These advanced soldiers wanted a reward for helping the king of Leinster. Strongbow arrived in Ireland with more soldiers and they captured Dublin and killed Brian Boru for Macmurrough. Then Strongbow married the king 's daughter and became king of Leinster after Macmurrough's death.

Normans upset their king of England in 1366; they were becoming "more Irish than the Irish." A self-isolating defensive frontier of a few hundred square miles around Dublin was known as ''The Pale." England's writ did not apply to the West of "The Pale." The people shunned King Henry VIII. So he reclaimed every man's land and showed Ireland he was the High power. Elizabeth I came into power in 1558. Officials of Elizabeth state, "A barbarous country must first be broken by a war before it were capable of good government." Ireland was under English rule. Queen Elizabeth made Hugh O' Neil the Earl of Tyrone and in 1598 he and Ally O' Donell fought and beat the English army for theGailec in him. This was a mahor disaster for the new English government in Ireland. In 1601, the final battle for Gaelic Ireland occurred. Spaniards helped Tyrone and Ally O' Donnell in defeating British Protestant Montjoy. They brilliantly invaded English forces and in 1603, James I came to rule.

In 1608, the Plantation of Ulster was created. It was the idea of planting colonies of settlers (mainly from England and Scotland) in Ireland with the specific aim of stabilizing English government rule. In 1641, there was a Great Catholic-Gaelic rebellion. They wanted their land back from the Protestants. At Portadown, 100 men, women, and children were striped and drowned or brutally stabbed and beaten. Many doubt that such things happened. The most atrocities occurred in Ulster. Later the old English Catholics joined the great Catholic-Gailics. Fifty-nine percent of land in Ireland was held by Catholics.

In 1641, Cromwell attacked Drogheda (inside the English Pale); he terrorized the place- burning towers, bombing the city with artillery superior to anything in Ireland. He also attacked Wexford, killing 2,000 people. Catholic land east of Shannon were distributed among Cromwell's soldiers and the Catholics were moved to a barren province of Connaught. Charles II replaced the Cromwellian regime in 1660.

By 1685, Charles' Catholic brother, James II, succeeded to the throne. He appointed Catholics to high offices of State in Ireland and a Catholic dominated Irish parliament passed an act revoking the Cromwellian land settlement. But before it could come into implemented, the kingdom's England and Ireland were split temporarily. There was another massacre between Catholic and Protestants in Londonderry. Catholic King James II sent troops to siege Londonderry. Citizens starved behind their gate unwilling to surrender to the troops. The troops stopped goods from coming into the town and even held other Protestants captive so the town would surrender. With the help of the British the siege of Londonderry was over. This lead to the final defeat of JamesII in Ireland,at the Battle of Boyne against William of Orangein 1690. And in 1691 Catholic armies surrenderd to the protestants at Limerick.

The percent of land of Ireland was decreasing 22%- 14%. After the Triumph of William III, a series of laws had penalized the majority of the Irish population just because they were Roman- Catholics. These 'penal laws' that a Catholic could not hold any office of state, nor syand for parliament, vote, join the army or navy,or buy land. Barely 10% of the land of Ireland remained in Catholics hands. Some of the 'penal laws' were made so that the Catholic Religion would die out. They tried to ban any kind of Catholic practice, but the religion was kept alive by secret friars. The Irish people were being deprived by the 'penal laws'of political and social rights and living in extreme povery. They reserved their loyalties for organization outside politics, for their church and the secret societies. By 1714 7% of the land of Ireland was held by Catholics.

In 1720, Jonathan Swift, Dean of Saint Patrick's Cathedral wrote a pamphlet rejecting everything wearable that came from England. The english parliament had no right to legislate for ireland. And in 1782, the Irish Parliament won Legislative independence from Britain.

In 1796, a secret society was formed by a Protestant, Wolfe Tone, because his United Irishmen idea failed in government. This secret society joined with a fleet of French solders to create a republican revolution, to unite Catholics and Protestants as one Irish Nation. This failed and from 1796-98 this secret society with French help was plotting a rebellion. The Leinstor Directory of United Irishmen was arrested. Almost the entire National Directory was arrested in one swoop in March 1798; Lord Edward Fitzgerald was arrested and later died.

A rebelion occurred in theleast expected place, Wexford, violence spread through the country like a sort of disease. Protestants were being sloughtered and burned. Why was this happening? The point of this rebellion was to unite Catholics and Protestants together. 50,000 men and woman died during these rebellions. Wolfe Tone was dead by the end of these rebellions (he was captured by the French).

In 1800, the Act of the Union united the two kingdons of England and Ireland, abolishing the Irish Parliament. In 1823, Daniel O' Connell's Catholic Association was founded. This man inaugurated two freat political campaigns. The first was for Catholic Emancipation, or the removal of the remnants of legal discrimination against Catholics surviving from the penal laws. Basically, Catholics wouldn't get off easily anymore. With the strength of this organization behind him, O' Connell was elected for Clare. The Catholic Emancipation passed the next year in 1829. He had made Irish popular opinion a force in British politics for the first time.

Queen Victoria came to power and O' Connell's Repeal Association was founded. For a partnership between kingdoms, each with independent legislatures, united by historyical blood ties and common intrests. O' Connell hosted Monster Meetings for repeal of the Union, byt the fovernment called the bluff of these meetings and banned one planned for Clontarf; this is when O' Connell step down. In 1845, the potato famine began and funnelled much intrest to the destruction of Ireland's people.

Pictures:
"Stone Carving of St Patrick" from A History of Ireland by Robert Kee
"Battle" from A History of Ireland by Robert Kee