The Irish Question: Difference between revisions

On the Irish side, hostility was worsened by a truly horrific [[Irish Potato Famine|famine in Ireland]] in the late 1840s, in which over a million people died and many more were forced to emigrate. Many Irish people believed and still do that it was caused by at best stupidity and at worst deliberate malice on the part of the British government, who preferred starvation in Ireland to the chaos in Britain that would result if Ireland stopped exporting food to industrial towns.<ref>It should be noted that the worst of the famine could have been avoided altogether if there had been even a basic system of crop rotation in Ireland, or the Irish themselves grew more than one variety of potato. Not a case of [[Science Marches On]] as both the importance of crop rotation and crop variety had been a staple of sound agricultural practice for centuries already. This point gets glossed over a lot but is important to know. The reason for this is because at the time of the great Potato famine most were tenant farmers who could not afford to feed their families any other way.</ref> A policy often pointed to is the Corn Law forbidding Irish farmers from growing this crop and competing with English ones. They then turned to potatoes, which failed, and the famine struck.

 

 

There were many political attempts to reconcile Ireland into a Home Rule arrangement that would (like the current devolution of Scotland and Wales) keep Ireland in the UK. The first attempt was shot down. The second attempt passed through the House of Commons but did not make it through the House of Lords. Finally, the third attempt passed through both Houses and even received Royal Assent, but its implementation was delayed by the onset of [[World War I]]. In 1916, during the war, there was a minor Irish uprising on Easter Monday in Dublin which was crushed by the British. Initially this received a negative response from the Irish populace, ranging from bewilderment to outright contempt, especially as it was viewed as a betrayal of Irish soldiers fighting in the war. However, horror at the brutal treatment of captured rebels and a Draconian policy of repression by the British, the revival of Gaelic culture, and general war-wariness increased the feeling of revolutionary nationalism and support for independence. This was dramatically exacerbated in 1918 when the possibility of extending the 1916 Conscription Act to Ireland was considered by the British government, resulting in national uproar and staunch opposition from [[Enemy Mine|both Unionists and Nationalists]]. After this the Irish Parliamentary Party (moderate nationalists who supported Home Rule) fell and was replaced by Sinn Fein as the main political force in Ireland. Bitterness increased on both sides, leading to the Anglo-Irish War and finally the Irish Free State leaving the UK under the terms of the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921, while the (mostly Protestant) Northern Ireland remained. (Some republican nationalists disagreed with the terms of the Treaty, and there was a brief and bitter civil war which still informs Irish politics to this day. The Civil War is the [[Elephant in the Living Room]] in Irish culture, and doesn't get mentioned much for fear of causing offence; notable exceptions are Sean O'Casey's play ''Juno and the Paycock'' and the recent Ken Loach Film ''[[The Wind That Shakes the Barley]]''.) The Irish Free State eventually went on to become the Republic of Ireland by unilateral declaration in 1949 (but they didn't change the license plates until 1987). For Northern Ireland see [[The Troubles]].