It was swiftly put down and those involved were executed. All the while, plantations were being established throughout the country. Lands occupied by Irish landowners were confiscated, especially in Munster and Ulster. They were distributed to colonists, commonly known as planters, who came in large numbers from England, Scotland and Wales. The plantations altered the demography of Ireland.
Large Protestant English communities were created, whose identity was at odds with the Roman Catholic Irish inhabitants. The Battle of Drogheda maintains particular resonance. In September , Cromwell laid siege to Drogheda, a town on the East coast of Ireland, which had been garrisoned by a coalition of Roman Catholics, Confederates and Royalists in their quest to expel the English from Ireland.
Read more about: Battles Oliver Cromwell: the most hated man in Irish history? By the late seventeenth century, against a backdrop of battles and disputes, which further mired relations between the two populations, the position for Catholics was incredibly compromised. Even for those seemingly unaffected by the laws, the fact that ultimate control of their land lay in the hands of Westminster was a mockery. The first sounds of Irish nationalism were being made. After all, the mood was ripe for unrest, with both America and France already experiencing revolution in the latter half of the eighteenth century.
As a concession, the penal laws were relaxed. But this did not extinguish opposition; in a rebellion broke out in Ireland, organised by the United Irishmen, a revolutionary republican group, who had been inspired by the revolutions of France and America. The rebellion lasted for several months.
Despite successes in the south-east county of Wexford and the assistance of the French, it ultimately failed. In January the Act of Union was passed, which made Ireland and England one state, as a result of the rebellion convincing William Pitt that this was necessary for national security. Out of this act the United Kingdom was created, the Irish parliament was abolished and the Church of Ireland and England were united.
In his debate, Ulster Northern Ireland was singled out as a special case for the first time. By , the Irish population had dropped by two million as a result of death, disease and emigration. The desire for an autonomous Ireland took on even more intensity and violence. Within this context, British politicians recognized that a resolution to problems in Ireland was paramount. As Northern Ireland marks the centenary of its foundation in May after the partition of Ireland, here is a timeline of how that came to happen.
The second half of the next century was riven by opposing forces of those wishing to maintain the union of Ireland and Great Britain and those who wanted to destroy it. Irish nationalism was Catholic in outlook for historic reasons and two bills proposing self-government in Ireland tabled by the Liberal prime minister William Gladstone in and shook the largely Protestant unionist community north and south of the border who feared home rule would mean Rome rule. Unionists, whose greatest numbers were in Ulster, galvanised and began a campaign to win support in England, finding powerful allies in the Conservative party who vowed to kill home rule.
The Boundary Commission was the product of a peace treaty that ended the Irish War of Independence in Article 12 of the treaty provided for a Boundary Commission to review the existing frontier.
The Irish delegation "naively believed this was going to lead to huge chunks of land coming over to the Free State," says Cormac Moore. The appointment of the Boundary Commission was delayed until , partly due to outbreak of the the Irish Civil War.
That three-year delay had consequences for nationalism - it allowed time for the existing border to bed in and the two economies began to diverge. But the action that "cemented partition" according to Cormac Moore, was the decision by the Free State government to erect customs posts along the border in He argues that this led to "a more tangible partition".
The three-man commission was supposed to have a British chair, Richard Feetham, and one appointee each from Belfast and Dublin's governments. But Belfast refused to nominate its commissioner, so the British government appointed a prominent unionist to represent Northern Ireland's interests. The panel toured border areas and consulted residents, but several historians agree the ambiguous wording of the Anglo-Irish Treaty allowed its British chairman to interpret his task however he saw fit.
Article 12 of the treaty states the commission "shall determine in accordance with the wishes of the inhabitants, so far as may be compatible with economic and geographic conditions, the boundaries between Northern Ireland and the rest of Ireland". Nationalists believed "wishes of the inhabitants" meant at the very least, mainly nationalist areas along the border would transfer to the Free State, according to political geographer Kieran Rankin.
He adds unionists "preferred to concentrate on the qualifying phrase 'in accordance with economic and geographic conditions'" in the belief this would help keep Northern Ireland largely intact. The commission clearly favoured economic factors, especially when considering large towns with nationalist majorities, such as Newry, County Down. Newry was then a significant town for trade and transport, and "approximately three-quarters of its population was reported to be in favour of transfer to the Free State," according to Rankin.
The commission considered Newry's port revenues, coal supply infrastructure, and decided the town was too important to Northern Ireland's linen industry to transfer south. Only a small number of border villages, including Crossmaglen, Forkhill and Jonesborough in County Armagh, were recommended for transfer to the Free State. But none of the larger towns made the transfer list, dashing hopes of Catholic majorities in places like Strabane, County Tyrone.
Under the Boundary Commission's actual recommendations, the Free State would have gained square miles of territory. But it would also surrender 78 square miles to Northern Ireland, mainly around east Donegal. Unionists welcomed the outcome, but the Irish government was horrified. Most of Ireland 26 counties was to become the Irish Free State. This was to be a Dominion like Canada. The rest of Ireland 6 counties was to become Northern Ireland, which was still part of the United Kingdom although it had its own Parliament in Belfast.
As in India, independence meant the partition of the country. Ireland became a republic in and Northern Ireland remains part of the United Kingdom. The end of the British empire in Ireland. By the s Irish resistance to British rule was becoming more effective, mainly because it was using democratic methods. This meant Ireland would still be part of the British empire, but it would have its own Parliament.
A number of wealthy Protestant landlords also supported Home Rule. They thought that they would be running Ireland's new Home Rule Parliament. Both times the measure was rejected for two main reasons: There were a large number of people in Ireland who wanted to keep the Union between Britain and Ireland. Most of these Unionists lived in Ulster. An s advertisement for braces. The ad suggests that these braces were as strong as the Union between Britain and Ireland. The fact that the issue was being used in ads gives a clue as to how important it was at the time.
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