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The Irish Question: Difference between revisions
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Many modern countries were once British protectorates, or administered by Britain as part of her Empire proper. The Republic of Ireland is unique in actually having been an integrated ''part'' of the United Kingdom, in the same way Poland was once divided up between and integrated into Prussia, Austria and Russia. Like in Poland, proto-nationalism in Ireland never quite died in spite of this, mostly due to the sentiments of the literate elite who composed the vanguard of nationalism as we know it today in the 18th and 19th centuries.
Depending on how you consider it '''The Irish Question''' might cover the whole of Irish-British relations from [[The Middle Ages]] to now. Usually, however, it refers to the period between 1801 and 1922 when Ireland was formally a part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland (England and Scotland had previously being united into the new Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707, while Wales and its ruling elites having been formally integrated into England and English society from the 16th century). Irish members of parliament sat at Westminster.
Given the nature of the 'United Kingdom,' it's natural to ask why there was not a Cornish Question, or a Welsh Question, or a Scottish Question. The answer is simple, really; these peoples had very little sense of nationalism as we know it today and shared a broad non-Catholic allegiance with each other by the time of the Union of England and Scotland in 1707. Scotland was strongly Calvinist, and England (inc. Wales and Cornwall) was broadly Anglican. Most people in Ireland were, on the other hand, Catholic. [[For Want of a Nail|This does make one wonder how British and Irish history would have been different had a certain King of England not been so eager for a divorce]]. As senses of national identity developed many Catholics in Ireland became Irish Nationalists—wanting independence or at least autonomy in running their own local government rather than sitting at Westminster. Scottish Protestant settlers in Ireland formed the core of those people in Ireland who came to identify more with 'Britain' and British nationalism, most of these living in the areas around Ulster. This was deliberate, as they had been sent to settle for this very purpose. Dublin had a long history of English settlement by this time, and was a broadly Anglican area. Over time, the Protestant community in and around Dublin came to integrate more with Irish culture than their Ulster counterparts, whose more stand-offish faith led them along much more firmer religious and eventually nationalist lines.
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