Irish Independence - Paper 2

Irish Independence: Origins

Timeline

1798 - Wolfe Tone’s United Irishmen Rebellion (defeated by G.B.)

1800 - Act of Union (united G.B. and Ireland)

1823 - Daniel O'Connell forms the Catholic Association (campaigned for Catholic emancipation)

1829 - Catholic Emancipation Act (allowed Catholics to hold office, vote, & sit as M.P.s, reduced amount of Irish Catholic peasants able to vote)

1838 - Tithe Commutation Act for Ireland (allowed tithes to be paid monetarily, tithe=tenth, used to be livestock)

1840 - Daniel O’Connell forms Repeal Association (campaign for repeal of Acts of Union)

1845 - Start of “Great Famine”

1846 - Repeal of Corn Laws (removed import tariffs, made corn cheap but hurt domestic producers)

1848 - Young Ireland Rebellion begins (campaign for study of Irish history, culture, & language for independence)

Nationalism and Political Ideology

• No single, original Gaelic or Irish Race

• Catholicism was seen as native/Indigenous

  • Christianity arrived in 431 CE from England

  • Irish Catholicism was seen as a symbol of resistance to English power

• Irish Sovereignty

  • Struggle against the “oppressive embrace” of England

• English = Protestant, Irish = Catholic

English Colonialism

• Ireland was colonized in 1171-1250

  • King Henry VIII declared King of Ireland

• “Plantation of Ireland”

  • English and Scottish settlers confiscated 11 million acres in North and Central Ireland.

  • Early resistance created a proto-nation (quasi-state = not fully autonomous)

• The Protestant Ascendency

  • 1649 - Oliver Cromwell abolished the Irish Parliament

  • Land ownership linked to Protestantism

  • Solidified Irish ideas of English cruelty

• Martin Luther begins the Protestant Reformation with 95 Theses

• Henry VII created the Church of England (Monarch is head of State & Church) mainly to divorce Catherine of Aragorn and marry Anne Boleyn.

Theobald Wolfe Tone 1763-98

• “Declaration and Resolutions of the Society of United Irishmen of Belfast” (1791)

  • Called for Irish Home Rule (not independence, only domestic control), influenced by the French Revolution of 1798 and Thomas Paine’s Rights of Man

• Failed violent rising in 1798 transitioned nationalism from accommodation to autonomy via revolution.

• Act of Union 1800 - reaction to failed rebellion, abolish Irish Parliament and united Great Britain and Ireland as the U.K.

Daniel O’Connell 1775-1847

• Maybe the most important politician in the history of Irish Nationalism

  • “The Liberator”

• Founded the Catholic Association in 1823 - “Catholic Rent” (cheap monthly membership) and support from the Catholic Church

• Franchise limited to Protestants and Catholics who were large landowners since 1793

  • Tenants pressured to vote with landowners - Catholics couldn’t hold office yet

• The Irish had to tithe (through taxes) to the Church of England and the Catholic Church

• O’Connell charged 25 cents for Catholic Rent to help poor people join and create a mass organization.

• He challenged the parliamentary seat in 1828, resulting in growing sectarian violence.

• Catholic Emancipation passed the House of Commons in 1829

  • This allowed Catholics in parliament, high military ranks, and government posts

  • Raised property requirement for voting, however, and ended up disenfranchising a majority of Catholics.

• *England’s Government comprised the House of Lords (who had veto power 3x) and the House of Commons.

• He became a member of Parliament (MP) in 1830

  • Successful Tithe Commutation Act in 1838

  • Church of Ireland was disestablished with the 1869 Irish Church Act

• Repeal Association Founded in 1840

  • pushed for repeal of the Act of Union

  • mainly supported by Catholic clergy but not Ulster (protestant majority)

  • *Ulster’s population was mainly Protestant and the religious minority in Ireland, but they maintained power through Britain’s control; they wanted to remain a part of Great Britain.

• Organized “monster meetings” (massive rallies) at historic site

  • banned by the British in 1843

  • O’Connell was jailed briefly in 1844 after his rallies were banned

• O'Connell demonstrated success for large scale popular non-violent mobilization

• *Sets the stage for linking Irish national identity to Catholicism, makes movement massive and non-violent, not successful with Repeal Association.

The Great Potato Famine

• Ireland is more rural than the rest of Europe - its role as a colony was exporting and producing raw goods, which limited industrial development - 60% agricultural drop after the war with France in 1815 (Napoleon)

• Massive population growth - 5 mil (1800) to 8.5 mil (1845)

• Textile industry recession and movement of manufacturing to Ulster

• High land rent with absent English landowners

  • 3 mil relied on potato crop by 1845, potatoes reliable and cheap

• 1845 - 1/3 crop killed by blight

  • Tenants were evicted for not paying rent to landlords

• PM Robert Peel bought £100,000 worth of corn from the US to stabilize prices

  • enacted some public laws, but generally, libertarian response

  • repealed Corn Law in 1846

  • Corn became cheaper, but GB did not ban food exports from Ireland, and the famine continued.

  • Riots resulted

• PM Lord Russell removed food distribution and public works later in 1846

• 1846 - ¾ crops failed

  • industrial workers couldn’t afford food

  • 46-47 very harsh winter

• Black 47 - massive starvation and spread of typhus

  • available grain too expensive to afford

  • 3 mil relied on soup kitchens before they shut don

• 1848 was the worst year of blight, with no government help

  • improvement only after 1852

Results of the Famine

• Population - 8.3 mil (1845) to 6.5 mil (1851)

  • 1846-1851 - 1 mil dead (1/8 population)

  • 1.5 mil emigrated to the US, Australia, and New Zealand

  • by 1900, the population was half that of 1845 (4.35 mil)

• It came to symbolize the evils of the Union with Britain

• Karl Marx believed failures of landlordism would break English capitalism

  • revolutionary republicanism in Ireland would create national resistance

  • Proletarian revolution would follow - national identity lost - social status united

• Marxist: economic, belief in economic determinism, structuralist - individuals don’t matter politically and economically

  • Capitalism (politics, equality), federalism (born into), mercantilism (monopolistic), socialism ( equal economic opportunity), communism (empire building)

  • Bourgeois (french), Proletarian (social class)

Young Irelanders est. 1847

• est. 1847

• led by Charles Gavan Duffy, Thomas Davis (protestant), and John Blake Dillion

  • resigned from the Repeal Association after O’Connell pushed for “peaceful resolutions.”

• “Romantic, cultural nationalists” intent on creating shared Catholic and Protestant Irish identity

  • centered Irish history on the idea of the Celt - “authentic, distinctive, and inspiring.”

  • highlighted Irish language and music

• The Nation and John Mitchel’s The United Irishmen helped form a shared national identity

• Called for civil disobedience and, eventually, an uprising

  • argued for violence influenced by revolutions in France, Hungary, Poland, and Italy in 1848

• 1848 rebellion

  • failed due to famine conditions and poor organization

  • Catholic Church did not support

Irish Independence: Methods of Success

Timeline 1

1859: Irish Republican Brotherhood

1867: Fenian uprisings

1870: First Irish Land Act

1879: start of Land War and est. of National Land League by Parnell and Davitt

1881: Second Irish Land Act

1882: Parnell forms the Irish National League

1886: First Home Rule Bill

1893: Second Home Rule Bill

1905: Sinn Fein formed

1912: Third Home Rule Bill; Ulster Volunteer Force formed

1913: Irish volunteers formed - WWI begins in 1914; Germany tries to destroy U.K from the inside with arms deals

1916: Easter Rising

1918: Sinn Fein’s general election victory (British brutality in 1916 executions)

1919: Declaration of Irish Independence, star of “War of Independence”

1921: Start of London Conference

1922: Anglo-Irish Treaty ratified

Fenians

• Founded 1858 by John O’Mahoney - not interested in Catholicism - Gaelic past and unity

  • 1848 Young Irelanders Rebellion veteran

  • Fianna - legendary Irish warriors

  • created/funded by Irish support in the US - bonds issued by “Irish Republic” to purchase weapons

• British weaknesses in the Crimean (Ukraine) War (1853-56) and the Indian (Sepoy) Mutiny (1857) grew support for Ireland

• Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB) founded in 1859

  • democratic wing of Fenians

• Irish People Newspaper

  • “Militant Irish Republicanism”

  • demanded what was “rightfully theirs” from England

• Gov. crackdown

  • newspapers closed, funds taken, and leadership arrested in 1865

• 1867 Fenian uprising failed

  • attempted rescue of leaders in Manchester and Birmingham

  • Manchester Martyrs - Michael Larkin, William Philip Allen, and Michael O’Brien

  • Birmingham explosion killed 12 working-class people

• Fenian attacks also failed in Canada, 1866-71 - Irish population in Newfoundland

• Violence not supported by the Catholic Church

Fenian Contributions

• writings and martyrdom increased nationalism (Young Irelanders)

• failed uprisings and executions pushed movements to peaceful solutions

• Wanted Gaelic National identity - not religious identity

Land Question

• Small landholdings disappeared

  • larger estates raised rent

  • 1847-50 had 50,000 evictions

• Irish Tenant League emerged in 1850

  • Demanded 3 Fs via Protestant John Gray’s The Freeman’s Journal

  • Free Soil - compensation for improving land

  • Fair Rent - fixed by tribunal, rather than landlords

  • Fixity of tenure - guaranteed tenants could remain on land

• 1870: 34% of the land was owned by 302 landowners

  • ¼ lived outside Ireland

Land War 1879-82

• Renewed call for 3 Fs via Protestant John Gray’s The Freeman’s Journal

• the first Irish Land Act (1870) allowed the free sale

  • no rent control tribunals or protections from eviction

  • Peace Preservation Act to quell violence - arrest of IRB and Fenian leaders

• Irish National Land League created by Charles Parnell and Michael Davitt

  • Parnell entered the House of Commons in 1875 - the secret Ballot Act of 1872 ended landlord pressure on tenants

• Social Pressure via public meetings, rallies, posters, rent strikes, and boycotts

• Ladies Land League was crucial to success - Anna and Fanny Parnell

• Land War (1879-82)

• the second Irish Land Act (1881) allowed fixity of tenure but not fair rent

  • Land League pushed for a rent strike

  • Parnell and Davitt were arrested via the Irish Coercion Act of 1881

  • Newspapers and League banned

• Parnell and Davitt issued a “ No Rent Manifesto” from the prison

  • violence - 2,500 skirmishes (“outrages”) in 1880

  • 4,00 in 1881 and more in 1882

• 1882 Kilmainham Treat allowed some relief

Land Reform 1885-92

• £5 mil for long-term, low-interest loans for renters

• Irish Land Purchase Acts of 1888 and 1891

  • results of Plan of Campaign organization of tenants to force fair rent by landlords

  • Passage allowed more focus on home rue and/or independence calls

National independence or Home Rule?

• New nationalist organizations combined economic, religious, political, and cultural aspirations.

  • Gaelic Athletic Association est. 1884

  • Unites Irish League est. 1898

  • Catholicism a central language for cultural meaning

    • true for Home Rule Protestants as well

• “Anglicized present” condemned against imagined idealistic Gaelic past

Division - Home Rule or Independence?

• Irish National League formed by Charles Parnell in 1882

  • Home Rule will support of the Catholic Chur h

  • Irish Parliamentary Party (IPP) formed in House of Commons

  • 1885 election - IPP won 86/103 Irish seats in Parliament

• Sinn Feín (we ourselves) founded 1905 by Arthur Griffin

  • Called for independence, not Home Rule

  • Parliamentary group from Gaelic organizations and former IRB and Fenians

  • “The invincibles” - assassins - murdered important political figures

Parliament and Home Rule

• Parliament Act of 1911

  • Hoc could override House of Commons vetoes if law passed 3x

  • third Home Rule Bill passed HOC May, 1914

  • Suspensory Act postponed implementation w WW1 outbreak in August

• SInn Feín members like Padraig Pearse, James Connolly, Michael Collins and Eamon de Valera emerged as revolutionary leaders

Unionist Resistance and WW1

• Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) established 1913 by Sir Edward Carson

  • Paramilitary force of Unionist against Home Rule

• Curragj Mutiny March, 1914

  • Protestant officers resigned commissions in Dublin

  • Protesting Home Rule

• Irish volunteers and Irish Citizens Army formed to oppose the UVF

• Home Rulers - support British in WW1 or not?

• The Easter Rising April 24, 1916

• IRB moved to rebellion

  • argued they were for democracy but…

  • - excluded ideas of Ulster and Protestants

  • -Highlighted deep Catholic identity

• Padraig Pearse and James Connolly led 2,000 to take Dublin gov. buildings

  • Response to Roger Casement’s arrest

  • suspected of guns smuggling from Germany

• Declared independence and raised Irish tricolor flag over General Post Office building.

The Easter Rising (April 24th, 1916)

IRB moved to rebellion

• Argued they were for democracy, but…

  • Excluded ideas of Ulster and Protestants

  • Highlighted deep Catholic identity

Padraig Pearse and James Connolly led 2,000 to take Dublin gov. buildings

• Response to Roger Casement’s arrest

  • suspected of gun smuggling from Germany

Declared independence and raised Irish tricolor flag over General Post Office building.

The Easter Rising - Results

Surrender in 6 days

• British leadership shelling and troops

• 450 dead, 250 of whom were civilians

• 2,600 wounded

Sinn Fein blamed for Rising

• 3,500 arrested, 2,500 deported

• oddly led to post-rising dominance

16 leader figures executed

• James Connolly, Roger Casement, and Padraig Pearse

• overreaction of greater WW1 fears

• Eamon de Valera escaped execution than prison, thanks to COllins

• Publiner sympathy for those originally opposed to Rising

Sinn Fein began to win elections in 1917 over IPP

• de Valera won East Clare seat March 1917

• membership grew to 250,000 by 1918

• partial cause the extension of Irish conscription

Sinn Féin’s Rise & Independence Declaration

December 1918 UK General Election - BIG ELECTION

• Sinn Fein won 73; IPP 6;Unionist 26 of 105 total

• Included Countess Markieviez

  • E.R Commander and first woman ever elected to HOC

Sinn Fein members refuse Westminster Seats

• created the Dail Eireann (Parliament of Ireland)

• Irish Declaration of independence passed at 1st meeting in January 1919

• de Valer elected President in February of 1919, Griffith VP, anf Collins Minister of Finance

Anglo Irish War

Irish Republican Army

• officially separate from Sinn Fein and Dail

• funded by de Valera’s campaign work in the US

• Guerilla tactics and specialized assassination units - The Squad

  • 1919/20 - killed 196 police and 54 soldiers; damaged/destroyed 45 barracks

Propaganda via Irish Bulletin - detailed British atrocities

• emphatically Cahtolic

• Young “literary rebels”

• adventure seekers

• socially/economically disaffected

Zealous minority, violence to promote nationalism

• violence against British and non-British citizens

• not supported by all Irish

British Special Forces deployed “Black and Tans”

• harsh tactics and violence pushed many towards Sinn Fein

Bloody Sunday - November 28th, 1920

• IRA killed 18 Black and Tans in Kilmichael, County Cork

• Response to killing of 13 spectators and a footballer at Croke Park

Gov. of Ireland Act passed on December 23rd 1920

• proposed 2 separate Home Rule Gov.

• rejected by Sinn Fein

• Unionists won general elections

• Northern Ireland created May, 1921

Truce in June due to stalemate and London Conference in October

• Lloyd George offered Dominion Status

• temporary North Ireland inclusion in the UK

• de Valera wouldn’t compromise on HR offer

• Collins led negotiation

Irish Independence: Challenges faced in the first 10 years

Independence gained on December 6th, 1921

Anglo-Irish Treaty (Dec. 1921)

Created the Irish free state with 26 countries

• Dominion statuses - Canada, Australia, and New Zealand

• Northern Ireland - 6 Northeastern countries

• Swore oath of loyalty to British Crown

Collins argued as the best option

• Boundary Commission and Council of Ireland included to work for reunification

Narrowly accepted by Dáil and confirmed by June 1922 Free State General election

(Autarky - resources and manufacturers Russia, India, China)

English on post- Independence

Irish nationalism had a '“British Blind Spot”

Timeline

Jan 1922 - de Valera resigns as provisional president

June 1922 - pro-treaty Sinn Fein wins general election; start of Irish Civil War

Aug 1922 - Collins assassinated

Sep 1922 - An Garda Siochainal (Guardian of the peace) formed

Dec 1922 - Cosgrave becomes PM of Irish Free State

Apr 1923 - End of Civil War; Cumann na nGaedheal formed, Land Purchase Act

Mar 1924 - attempted Army mutiny

1925 - Divorce mad eillegal

May 1926 - de Valera forms Fianna Fail

Sep 1927 de Valera to take oath to British Crown; Fianna Fail contests election

1927 - Agricultural Credit Corporation set up

Dec 1931 - Statute of Westminster

Feb 1932 - Fianna Fail wins general election; de Valera becomes PM

1932 - Oath of loyalty abolished

1936 - External Relations Act allowed control of foreign policy

1937 - New Constitution and name change to Ireland

April 18th 1939 - Republic of Ireland formed as fully independent.