Irish Nationalist Party example essay topic

1.1. 0 Revolutionary Nationalists (period of time: 1790-1919) The Revolutionary Nationalists were the first people to begin the fight for independence. They were influenced by the revolutions in America and France at the end of the 18th century. There ordinary people had overthrown their kings and set up governments which gave equal rights to everyone. Revolutionary Nationalists thought that Ireland also needed a new system. This new system the revolutionary nationalists demanded was supposed to be: Independent (free from the British Empire) Democratic (a Government elected by the people) Republican (without a king) They tried to reach this sytem by applying violence.

Between 1798 and 1867 the Revolutionary Nationalists tried three times to overthrow the British rule. They tried to become independent from Great Britain. Actually none of these tries succeed. In the cause of the first rebellion, in 1798, the British decided to abolish the Irish Parliament.

From that point on, the Irish MPs (Members of Parliament) had to sit in Westminster. This meant a loss of control for the Irish people because all decisions concerning Ireland were now made in England. IRB (Irish Republican Brotherhood) Despite these defeats the hopes of the Revolutionary Nationalists did not die. In the year 1850 a group was set up in America called IRB meaning Irish Republican Brotherhood.

Its members were people who emigrated during the Great Famine. From the year 1790 on, the Revolutionary Nationlists applied a different tactic because in 1867 they realised there was a little support for violent uprisings within society and therefore they began to support poor farmers in their fight against harsh landlords. Thus, by the early 1900's support for the IRB slowly increased. United Irishmen The United Irishmen were another revolutionary group demanding an independent democratic Republic with full equality for the Catholic majority of the population. The important point one has to know about the United Irishmen is, that both Catholics and Protestants were members of the association. 1.1.

1 The rise of Sinn Fein 1905 the IRB were joined by a new group called Sinn F'ein (meaning: "we, ourselves alone") founded by Arthur Griffith. He wanted Ireland to become independent just like the IRB but unlike the IRB he wanted to achieve this without violence. Sinn Fein tried to set up an Parliament in Ireland. Both Sinn Fein and the IRB wanted to win but in the early 1900's their chances of success looked slim. Just like the early Revolutionary Nationalists because they had only a little support from the majority of the Irish people and so the British government was not forced to handover the control of Ireland. 1.2. 0 Parliamentary Nationalists (1820-1914) The Parliamentary Nationalists began their fight for free Ireland from the British rule in 1800 right after the abolition of the Irish Parliament.

The most important difference between the Parliamentary Nationalists and the Revolionary Nationalists. is the fact that the Parliamentary Nationalists did not demand complete independence from Britain. They demanded an own Parliament and yet accepted to stay within the British Union. While the Revolionary Nationalist had to face defeat after defeat, the Parliamentary Nationalist made steady progress during the 19th century. 1.2. 1 'Home Rule' It took a long time to build up an Irish Nationalist Party. And yet in 1885 there were 85 Nationalist MPs in Westminster led by a man called Charles Parnell. From this point on, they were big enough to be recognized by the two other parties in Westminster, the Liberals and the Conservatives.

Parnell made full use of the new found power of the Irish Nationalist Party. In 1886 the leaders of the Liberal Party agreed to help Parnell and the Nationalists in their attempt to set up an Irish Parliament They brought a so-called 'Home Rule for Ireland' bill before the house of Commons. Although this was defeated twice, because too many British MPs distrusted the Revolutionary Nationalist Party, a new leader of the Nationalist succeeded with the Home Rule bill before the house of Commons in 1912. Therefore the Irish were allowed to build up an own Parliament in Dublin, Ireland. 1.3. 0 The rise of Unionist opposition (1790-1914) After the first rebellion in the 1790's protestant people in Ireland felt threaten t by the idea that they might lose power if the Nationalists got their way.

The Protestant people began to regard every Nationalist - no matter whether Revolionary or Parliamentary - as their enemies. There were only the English who shared the same interests and supported the Protestants. Some Protestants joined a semi-secret organisation called: Orange Order (alluding to the 'Battle of Boyne' when William of Orange defeated the Catholics). Most Protestant realized that the Nationalists are a danger to them at first after the British Parliament had passed the 'Home Rule for Ireland' bill. Therefore they decided to build up an own poltical party called 'The Ulster Unionist Party' in order to destroy all ideas of an independent Ireland. Later on, in the year 1912 the Ulster Protestants organized themselves to fight.

Within a year they had 100,000 men and 1 million which they used to buy weapons from Germany. So the Ulster Unionist Party was well prepared for a civil war. In 1914 there were series problems in Ireland: The Parliamentary Nationalists had been promised Home Rule but the Unionist were determined to stop Ulster being ruled by an Irish parliament. Both sides (Catholics and Protestants) had their support in society Both sides had their armed private armies.

Protestant: Ulster Volunteers; Catholics: Irish Volunteers WW I. prevented a civil war in Ireland. Most of the people accepted the delay and 200,000 Irish men joined the British army in order to fight in WWI under the British Crown. 2.0. 1 The Easter rising (1916) The Revolutionary Nationalists still rejected the parliamentary policy of peaceful persuasion. Finally in 1916 when the war was going badly for Britain a small group of armed Revolutionary Nationalist managed to take over the General Post Office and proclaimed Ireland an independent Republic.

Within a few days the British army put the rebellions into prison and some of them were executed. It seemed like the violent way had been wrong and the peaceful way right. 2.1. 0 The triumph of Sinn F'ein (1918) In the 1918 General Election the Irish people had to decide about the future of Ireland. They had three possibilities: Own parliament ('Home rule') but remaining a part of the British Empire - Nationalist Party British rule for Ireland - Ulster Unionists Complete independence from the Empire - Sinn Fein & Revolutionary Nationalists Suprisingly the majority of the Irish people voted for Sinn F'ein and the Revolutionary Nationlists. Afterwards they lost no time in putting their campaign promises into action. The new Sinn Fein MPs refused to go to London, instead they declared Ireland an independent republic and build up their own parliament in Dublin.

This Parliament is called 'The Dail' (still today). Shortly after that the Irish volunteers were reorganised and renamed into 'The Irish Republican Army' (IRA). 2.2. 0 The War of Irish Independence (1919-1921) The British had a part of its army in Ireland and soon sent in more to put down this, according to the British perspective, self-proclaimed government. The Protestants in Ulster did not support the idea of an independent Ireland and so they supported the British. For the next two years there was a bitter guerilla war between the British army and the IRA. Both sides tried to gain control of a united Ireland. 3.0.

0 Ireland decided (1921) In the end the British government decided together with some leading representatives of Sinn F'ein and the IRA that the only solution was to divide Ireland into two parts. The North in 1920 Ulster was given their own government known as Stormont. The South Most Irish Nationalists were against the idea of a divided Ireland. In 1921 leading figures of the IRA and Sinn F'ein signed together with the British government a treaty which said that the south becomes independent and known as the Irish Free State but remains part if the British Empire. Both British and Sinn F'ein leaders saw the partition as a temporary solution, but North- and South Ireland drifted further apart and so both parts are divided until today. 3.1.

0 The South - building a's perate state Due to the partition of Ireland the IRA split up into two parts: The one group accepted the partition. The other group recejted it. These two parts fought a brutal civil war from 1922-1923. The group who accepted the partition as a part-time solu tino won, and so this part of the IRA ruled the south for 10 years.

In the 1932 Irish Election the supporters were defeated by Fianna Fail and their leader Eamon de Valera. De Valea's Free State A united Ireland He made a new constitution which demanded a united Ireland. A catholic Ireland The Catholic Church was allowed to take influence on certain social structures (education, divorcement policy and so on... ) A Gaelic Ireland He wanted persuade people to speak Gaelic.

He did not succeed and so large parts of the population did not switch over from English to Gaelic. A free Ireland De Valera tried to cut all economic and poltical ties with Britain. A peaceful Ireland De Valera fought against the IRA even some members of his party were former members of it. 3.2. 0 Orangemen rule the North The partition of Ireland brought quiet a few problems to the north. Even if the majority of the North were Protestant Unionists a small minority consisted out of Catholic Nationalists. The parliament for the north of Ireland, Stormont, was supposed look after both sides interests, but due to the majority of the Protestants they controlled Stormont.

Before 1969 every member of Stormont was Protestant and a member of the Orange Order. This led to several problems for the Catholic people, like the housing policy or the manipulating of electoral districts (gerrymandering). Therefore many Catholic people moved from the North of Ireland to the Irish Free State (the south).