THIS CLASS DISCUSSION WILL BE GRADED. Some key terms, people and places to get your head round

Transcription

1 YOUR HOLIDAY WORK IS TO READ THE FOLLOWING DOCUMENT AND BE READY FOR A HARKNESS DISCUSSION ON WHY IRELAND WAS SO UNSTABLE BY THIS IS ESSENTIAL BACKGROUND READING FOR YOUR A LEVEL COURSEWORK. THIS CLASS DISCUSSION WILL BE GRADED. Some key terms, people and places to get your head round Gaels/Celts: ethnic group indigenous to north Western Europe who settled in Ireland in 600BC. They had their own Gaelic culture and language. Initially their tribal religion continued, but soon most of this group became Catholic and were loyal to the Pope in Rome Old English: Catholic Anglo Normans derived from Strongbow s men who settled in England after 1170, in the aftermath of the Norman takeover of England in 1066 New English: Protestant (Anglican or Presbyterian dissenter) who settled in England from about the time of the first plantation in 1549, and increased in number as a result of plantations set up by Elizabeth I and James I Protestant Ascendancy: Protestants who were given land as a result of Cromwell s confiscations in The power of this group was enhanced with the Penal laws of the 1690s. This group had political, economic, social and religious dominance over Catholics by 1800 Presbyterian Dissenter: Protestants who were not Anglican Christians. Most settled in the North of Ireland from Scotland as a result of the plantations set up by James I. An estimated 100,000 Scottish Presbyterians moved to the northern counties of Ireland between 1607 and Many became known as the New English. As they did not conform to the Anglican Church, they suffered discrimination under the penal laws of the 1690s. Their services were simpler than those of the Anglican Church. Anglican: Protestants under the established church of England and Ireland from 1536 as a result of Henry VIII s Act of Supremacy. Their services were high church and similar to those of the Catholic Church Roman Catholic: This was the word describing all Christians in Ireland from the Norman Invasion of 1169 to the Reformation of the 1530s. Ireland was opened up to Christianity early in the 5th century by missionaries such as Saint Patrick, and practiced Celtic Christianity until around 1170 when the Normans invaded Loyalist: refers to Protestant people who live in Ireland but remain loyal to Britain. Those who remained loyal to the crown at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690 were called loyalist The pale: The small area surrounding Dublin in the South East of Ireland. It was traditionally called this because it was the area that England had most control over in the 14 th C. Beyond the pale was an area that was considered savage and dangerous Plantation: In Ireland plantations were set up from the time of Henry VIII and the system was extended by Elizabeth I and James I pacifying the island by taking land from rebels and granting it to loyal English families. The creation of plantations helped to transfer land from Catholic to Protestant hands after the Reformation. The most famous ones were in Munster and Ulster

2 Undertakers: name given to protestant men awarded land by Elizabeth I on her plantations. Many of these landowners became absentee landlords and left the running of their estates to middle men. Until the mid-17 th C it was English monarchs who were in charge of British policy towards Ireland. Key monarchs in this time period th C th C Henry II Catholic loyal to the Pope th C Henry VII Catholic loyal to the Pope th C Henry VIII led the break with Rome and set up the Anglican Church which was Protestant. Set up the established Anglican Church in Ireland th C Elizabeth I Protestant but tolerant of Catholicism th C James I Protestant th C Cromwell (Not a king but leader of England after Charles I and before Charles II) Puritan (strict Protestant) th C James II Catholic British political parties at Westminster started to make policy decisions in Ireland from the mid- 17 th C Until the mid17 th C parliament just comprised of a small group of rich men. There were no official political parties. It was as a result of the English Civil war that the two major political parties emerged. Even when the parties did emerge, parliamentary elections were infrequent and not fairly represented. England was not really a democracy until 1918, and even then some women could not vote. Whigs: The name came initially from an insult 'whiggamore,' a cattle driver, when parliamentarians disputed an exclusion bill that this group had proposed in After the Glorious revolution, The Whigs effectively ruled England and established a Protestant king and constitution to preside over Ireland and England. (After the Battle of Boyne William III of England wanted to treat Catholics the same way that they were treated in sister kingdoms). The Whigs were In favour of constitutional monarchy not absolute rule, supported ideas of free trade, the supremacy of Parliament over the monarchy and the abolition of the slave trade. The Whigs supported the great aristocratic families and non-anglicans (Presbyterians). The Whigs would become known as the Liberal party from Tories: The name also derived from an insult, from the Irish word for robber, and first emerged in England in 1678 in opposition to a Whig bill on exclusion. The Tories objected to the bill because they did not think that Parliament had the right to elect a monarch of its own choosing. They represented the more conservative royalist supporters of Charles II, who endorsed a strong monarchy as a counterbalance to the power of Parliament. They supported the Anglican Church and the gentry. Until 1715 they were the more powerful party until George I brought in a government with a Whig majority. They became more powerful again under Pitt from 1783 who passed the act of Union in 1801 with Ireland. The Tories later renamed themselves the Conservatives from 1841.

3 Ireland up to the early 18 th Century In the beginning Ireland was an island in the north-west Atlantic. At the nearest point, it is only a 12-mile sea crossing from our island. There is evidence of stone-age huntergatherers inhabiting Ireland from around 7,000-6,500 BC. Around 600BC, tribes of Celts settled on the island from Western Europe. They spoke Gaelic. These tribes were not bothered by the Romans and did a good job holding off the Vikings.

4 By the 1000 s Ireland was a Gaelic island, with its own language and culture, governed by local tribal lords. While some tribal religion persisted, the island was overwhelmingly Catholic Christian and loyal to the Pope. The Norman invasion of England did not initially reach Ireland. Then the Gaelic lords of Ireland made a fateful mistake The King of Leinster (one of the counties in Ireland) wanted military support against his rivals and invited a collection of Norman and Welsh knights and lords known as the March Earls (under a noble known as Strongbow s leadership) to help him squash them. This was also a convenient way for Henry to get rid of rebellious Earls in Wales. The first thing Strongbow did upon arriving at Waterford was to break the legs of 70 men and thrown them into the sea as a display of his power. Unfortunately for Henry the Earls were too powerful for the local leadership and settled there, soon governing great areas of the Ireland. Strongbow became king of Leinster (South East Ireland including Dublin and Wexford). King Henry II of England brought an army to Ireland (the first proper English King to set foot there) and made the March Earls swear allegiance to England, as he now saw them as a possible threat to his throne. Within two generations, (by around 1250) three-quarters of Ireland was under Anglo- Norman (Old English) control, governed by men loyal to the English crown. Norman Style feudalism was introduced with castles, towns, judiciary, and parliament representing the ruling classes

5 in The Irish were reduced to serfdom on land that had been seized. The main independent area was the province of Ulster where powerful Gaelic lords, the O Neills and O Donnells were in charge the Statutes of Kilkenny were introduced to keep the English and Irish separate but most people only paid lip service to this legislation. Over time, these Norman lords became more loyal to their adopted land than their English King, intermarrying with the Gaelic nobility. So English King Richard 1 took 10,000 troops to Ireland to reinforce English crown control over the potentially rebellious island. He succeeded, but for the next few generations, Ireland was neglected by the English monarchy, and the Anglo-Norman (old English) nobles grew steadily more Gaelic and independent. This was because of the English monarch s involvement in wars abroad and dynastic struggles at home. Richard I was the last monarch to come to Ireland for 300 years. Direct English control of Ireland was reduced to an area called The Pale in and around Dublin. Three powerful Norman families dominated the area outside of the Pale, Notably the Fitzgeralds of Kildare who practically became kings in their own right. By the late 15 th C this family were the most powerful rulers in the country England was divided by the War of the Roses York versus Lancaster. The Irish nobility saw a chance to gain full independence from England, backing the Yorks in return for a pledge of independence (1460). But they backed the losing side Henry VII defeated Richard of York at Bosworth in 1485 and established the House of Tudor Tudor Henry VII, concerned about Ireland as a potential centre of rebellion, decided to take political control of the island, and curb the power of the Anglo-Norman aristocracy (old English) in Ireland. He passed Poynings Law a decree that the Irish parliament couldn t meet without English royal consent, or pass laws without the approval of the English King and Council. This law would be in place for nearly 300 years. Under Henry VIII the Reformation caused long lasting religious conflict in Ireland 1533 The Reformation and the English break with Rome began, as Protestantism swept across much of Northern Europe. It had very little effect on Ireland, where the populace remained staunchly Catholic. This was a decisive moment in the relationship between Ireland and England with two different dominant religions; the two countries were now in

6 fundamental conflict. Catholic Ireland was a threat to the security of Protestant England unless it was firmly controlled The English and Irish Parliaments passed the Act of Supremacy declaring (as well as all the stuff you know about already) that Henry VIII was the supreme head of the Church of Ireland. The Anglican Church of Ireland was declared the sole, established church on the island a Protestant church. The Irish, though still overwhelmingly Catholic, had to pay tithes (like a tax) to support the new official church Henry VIII declared himself King of Ireland, and persuaded much of the Irish nobility to declare their loyalty to their new king. Henry imposed a new system of land ownership on the English model. Land was given to nobles by the king and could be disposed if disloyal. In return for submission, Irish lords were awarded English titles, like O Neill of Ulster who became the Earl of Tyrone. By Irish Chieftains had submitted, including Connor O Neill (Ulster s most powerful Chieftain). From this point Ireland was governed by English officials and controlled by an English garrison. Irish Catholics resented Henry VIII s anti papal (anti Catholic) policies. English government of Ireland, for so long practically restricted to The Pale (around Dublin) started to spread across the whole island Henry VIII experimented with a new tactic, plantation pacifying the island by taking land from rebels and granting it to loyal English families. He set up the first Irish Plantation of Laois and Offaly and it was settled by a new administration that became known as the New English. These were primarily Protestant (Anglican or Presbyterian dissenter) from England. Elizabeth I was the first monarch to conquer Ireland effectively Ireland was the focus for a series of Catholic rebellions, plots to overthrow the Tudor monarchy, and invasion plans by both Spain and France. Elizabeth made herself Supreme Governor of the Church of Ireland. Elizabeth I dedicated great attention and manpower to pacifying the island, sending over an army of 17,000 men and spending a massive (for the time) nearly 2m controlling the country. She could not risk an alliance between a rebellious Ireland and an unfriendly Spain. Elizabeth continued with the system of plantations introduced by Henry VIII. In Munster, 202,000 hectares of land were divided after the Desmond rebellion, and given to prominent Protestant Englishmen (New English) chosen by the crown that became known as the Undertakers (E.G Sir Walter Raleigh). The idea behind this system was that native Irish would be removed from these plantations, but the land was so

7 poor in many areas, that Irish workers remained on the land. Many Undertakers became absentee landlords, leaving the management of their estates to middle men who subdivided the land to make more profit from rents. The majority of the population rejected the Protestant church and Elizabeth made no attempt to impose Protestantism on the Catholic population. New English Protestant settlers were resented by Old English (Anglo Norman Catholic) Under James I the most independent part of Ireland, Ulster, finally fell under English control after the 1607 Flight of the Earls when many of Ireland s old Gaelic nobility and Anglo-Norman families fled the island. James initiated the great Plantation of Ulster: old landlords were evicted and replaced with loyal, Protestant, settlers mostly tough Scottish Presbyterian sheep farmers. About half a million acres of Ireland was confiscated from Irish chieftains and lords and handed to these loyal Protestants and around 80,000 people from Scotland and England started new lives in Ireland. The wholesale redistribution of Ireland s land has begun. Cromwell Punished Catholics and continued the pattern of wholesale land redistribution to create the Protestant Ascendency 1641 Dispossessed Ulster Old English landlords and Catholic rebels joined forces in the Ulster Rebellion to protest against increased power of Anglican Church, and increase in taxes. Thousands of those New English Protestant settlers were massacred. The English government was driven back to the Pale around Dublin before the leader of England, Oliver Cromwell ferociously put the rebellion down in Drogheda and Wexford, using brutal violence, starvation and crop burning to reclaim control of Ireland. Historical estimates vary, but he may have been responsible for over 600,000 deaths 40% of the islands population! (We know for sure that 50,000 Irishmen were sold into slavery by the Cromwell regime, and their descendants were known as Redlegs, because their pale Celtic skin sunburnt so badly working in the Caribbean sugar-cane plantations). Cromwell, most importantly, confiscated 11 million acres of land from Catholic nobles and lords, who were forced to the less fertile land of the south west, and handed it to loyal, Protestant, soldiers and noble supporters by By the end of his time in power (1660), only 1/5 of Ireland was in Catholic hands. A new landed elite, which was Protestant and fiercely loyal to Britain, now dominated Ireland it became known as the Ascendancy. 1 Cromwell abolished the separate Irish parliament and Ireland was ruled directly from Westminster Under Charles II, Catholics were given religious toleration, but attempts to restore the land taken from the Catholic gentry were obstructed by the Protestant ruling elite in England. A separate Irish parliament was restored to Ireland but Catholics were excluded. The Glorious revolution confirmed the power of the Protestant Ascendency in Ireland 1 Oliver Cromwell remains loathed in Ireland to this day. As late as the 1990 s, Irish President Bertie Ahearn refused to meet with British politicians in Downing Street in the same room as a portrait of Cromwell, declaring that their discussion would only commence only after someone had taken that murdering bastard down off the wall.

8 James II, a staunch Catholic, came to the throne of England. He tried to restore Catholic freedoms in Britain but was overthrown by a Protestant revolt, called The Glorious Revolution. James fled to Ireland, and raised an army with the promise of restoring Catholic religious freedom and landholding there. This threatened to wipe out the Protestant settlers, who surely would face a Cromwell-revenging massacre if James and his Catholic army took control of Ireland. The Protestant city of Derry was besieged by this army the citizens of Derry expected to be slaughtered if the siege succeeded. But William of Orange, the new Protestant king of England, rode to the rescue and crushed James and the Catholics at the Battle of the Boyne on July 1 st That is by far the most celebrated date for Protestant Irish communities today and the colour Orange remains a symbol for all Irish loyalists (Protestant people who live in Ireland but remain loyal to Britain.) From 1690s Ireland was placed under the control of the Protestant Ascendancy the loyal minority put in place by Cromwell, who dominated land, politics and religion, suppressing the Irish Catholics as second class citizens. Anglican landlords were at the top of the social and political pyramid: numbering 5,000, they had almost complete monopoly of landed property, their church was the state church and they were established in this position by law. The political and administrative institutions were in their hands. A series of anti-catholic laws known as The Penal Laws established basically an apartheid nation in Ireland: Catholics (around 75% of the population of the island) could not sit in the Irish Parliament (or even vote) for the next 100 years; they were unable to inherit land; bear arms; they had no access to education; they were restricted from the professions and civil service; their faith was forced underground, and still had to pay tithes to the Protestant Church of Ireland. They could not even own horses above a certain value. Catholic Bishops and regular clergy were banned. And then in 1704 the Registration Act was passed which demanded that all Catholic priests be registered so that there was not more than one per parish. But the Catholic gentry still did exist which would provide an important source of leadership in future nationalist movements. By the middle of the 18 th C there was an emerging Catholic landowning middle class who established the Catholic Committee as a lobby group to relax some of the penal laws. In 1793 some propertied Catholics did get the vote The Declaratory Act stated that the British parliament in Westminster was able to pass laws that applied to Ireland, without the approval of the Irish Parliament. (Poynings Law from 1494, declaring that the Irish Parliament couldn t even meet without Westminster s approval, is still in place). In practical terms, the British government s political representatives in Ireland, the Chief Secretary and the Viceroy, governed the island through their civil servants based in Dublin Castle, a network of power called The Castle.

9 Ireland in the 18 th Century The Economy Ireland had an overwhelmingly rural economy, with trade and industry only really developing in the major towns of Belfast, Dublin and Derry, but still some way behind industrialising Britain. Without enough good roads, harbours, canals or banks (for investment) Ireland just couldn t compete with its neighbour plus Britain used high import taxes to ensure Ireland couldn t compete. In numerical terms, most Irish people were tenant farmers or cottiers (landless labourers), living subsistence lifestyles. Mud huts were a very common form of housing throughout the countryside in clear contrast to the rapid development of Britain. There were two minor famines in 1728 and 1740, a sign of the economic weakness of the country. There was a very small but growing Catholic middle class in trade and the professions, and the industrial working and middle class, which is what many Presbyterians in Ulster belonged to. But the only real wealth lay with the Protestant landlord class, the Ascendancy. There was no encouragement of Irish industry particularly if it competed with an English industry. Trade was subject to the Navigation acts. Pitt (GB PM) had made a trade treaty with France in 1786 but Ireland was not allowed one. Land In such a rural economy the key wealth was land. Around 5,000 Protestant families owned 95% of the land. They were the Ascendancy. Many were land-rich but cash poor, but they dominated local society and government and the political representation of Ireland. Quite a few of these families were actually based in England they were known as absentee landlords and just allowed agents to manage their huge estates, while they lived in English high society off the profits. Catholics, forming at least 75-80% of the population, held 5% of the land. The Penal Laws made it almost impossible for Catholics to buy land. Most, then, rented their land and had terrible rights as tenants, facing evection and rent rises at their landlords whim. The Irish population doubled between 1767 and 1800, to 5 million. This was crucial because the growing population was being reduced to surviving off smaller and smaller farms. Only one

10 thing kept mass starvation at bay the fact that Irish soil was ideal for growing one particularly energy-rich crop, even on small areas of land. The potato Religion Ireland was a profoundly divided and unjust country, in religious terms. There were three distinct groups. Catholics From the seventeenth century onwards Catholics had been treated as untrustworthy secondclass citizens in Ireland, under the Penal Laws. All Catholics lost the vote in 1728, they were frustrated from buying or inheriting land in 1704, they were barred from carrying weapons, their access to higher education was severely limited And perhaps most maddening of all they were restricted in the practice of their religion, and had to pay tithes to the official established church of Ireland, the Anglican Church of Ireland. (Representing 10-15% of all Irish people). Priests found guilty of saying mass would be fined and imprisoned Presbyterians These people were Protestants but not Anglicans! 5-9% of all Ireland, but 99% concentrated in Ulster, these were the first Scottish settlers of the 17 th century a few generations on. They were developing economically as farmers and urban workers/middle classes, but frustrated by being excluded from influence by the Anglican Ascendancy, they also resented tithes. Some of the Penal Laws affected their rights, too. Quite a few of this group emigrated to America in the early 18 th Century and their revolutionary activities over there would greatly influence their cousins back in Ireland. Anglican Protestants The Anglican Ascendancy were the social, political and religious elite of the country. They were Ireland s bishops, the lords, the judges, the Irish MPs, the heads of local government. They had strong social and familial links to the English aristocracy meaning they had plenty of friends in high places in Westminster, protecting their privileged status. But there were other, less wealthy, Anglicans, too working class families in Dublin, Derry and Belfast. These people had long memories their fear was that if the Ascendancy ever fell, and

11 Catholics took over Ireland, it would be them, not the wealthy nobles, who d be burnt in their beds, in a final vengeance for Cromwell. Politics Ireland was, basically, a British imperial colony for most of the 18 th century. It wasn t part of Great Britain, but it was dominated by her. 1. Ireland had its own Parliament (since the 13 th century) but it was very weak: it couldn t meet or pass laws without British approval (1494 Poyning s Law) and Westminster could pass laws regarding Ireland without the Irish Parliament s consent (1720 Declaratory Act). 2. Catholics couldn t vote or be MPs. The Irish Parliament was packed with Ascendancy landlords. 3. The closest thing to a Prime Minister of Ireland was the Chief Secretary, who was always an Englishman. He ensured the Irish Parliament passed whatever law the British government wanted passed, using bribery and corruption, handing out generous pensions and well-paid jobs to obedient Irish MP s. 4. The day to day running of Ireland was dominated by an organisation known as The Castle (because it was based in Dublin Castle) which was the British colonial civil service headquarters in Dublin, led by an imperial Lord Lieutenant. As the 18 th Century progressed, Irish leaders from all the different groups became more and more dissatisfied with this level of political control. New European philosophical ideas, known as The Enlightenment suggested that ordinary people should have control over their own countries, and it became increasingly clear that Britain was acting unfairly, damaging Ireland economically through unfair trading laws and taxes. From the 1750s a group of Irish MPs known as The Patriots started demanding more independence for the Irish Parliament. But Britain largely ignored them, until, on April 19th 1775, another group of Patriots, in the American Colonies, fired the shot heard around the world and the American Revolution is the starting gun for your study of Anglo-Irish relations..

12 a) Text book extract for period see next page

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15 b) Condensed notes from a proper historian called Thomas Bartlett 1)1685 James II came to the Throne in England and provided the Protestants with a reason to protest. Protestants in Ireland objected to the measures brought in by Catholic English King James II from He appointed some Catholics to senior judicial posts and county sheriffs. More disturbing still was in 1686 with the appointment of Richard 'fighting Dick' Talbot, a champion of land claims as head of the entire Irish army. He quickly began to catholicise the army, by dismissing protestant officers and only commissioning Catholics. In 1687 he was made Lord Deputy of Ireland, and announced his determination to reopen the land question (reverse some of the land confiscations from Catholics). When James had a son in 1688 there was the protestant fear that a Catholic dynasty reign over England and Ireland. When James fled after the English parliament called on William of Orange to invade England the Irish Protestants were delighted. In May 1689 James II summoned an Irish parliament and declared that 2,400 landowners (mostly protestant) should have their estates confiscated. 2)1690 battle of the Boyne and the penal laws provided a long term reason for Catholics and Presbyterians to protest. James II lost that battle, but Jacobites continued to fight for a year (English and Irish who wished to restore James to the English throne). The penal laws reduced Catholics to the status of second class citizens. But the penal laws of the 1690s were not generally enforced. (you have more detailed notes on the Penal laws in your independent essay packs given out earlier in the term) The parts directed at the practice of the catholic religion and priests were ineffectual. It was still dangerous to practice your religion in public, and priests could be imprisoned and deported but the number of priests, churches and organisation grew. There was even a rise of a catholic Middle class in the 18th C suggesting that not all Catholics were reduced to a position of poverty. The penal laws did not affect trade and so they often entered into mutual trade. There was a rise in catholic interest in the land although not in the form of land ownership. Personal restrictions on catholic were irksome but those with power and money could circumnavigate the more petty laws. The inability of Catholics to buy or inherit land was enforced and hated by Catholics. This led to a number of conversions and less land in catholic hands. By the 1740s this system was seen as an intolerable system of petty oppression. As a direct result of the penal laws, a Catholic committee was set up in the 1750s and began to meet regularly to discuss how they could draw attention to catholic grievances. This was set up by O Conor and Curry, both of whose families had lost much of their estates as a result of the wars in the 1690s. This organisation was the first organised catholic challenge to the penal laws. Alongside the development of a catholic middle class the committee pressed for progress on the catholic question. The single most overarching reason for the emergence of catholic demands for equal rights was the expansion of the British Empire and the scale and extent of warfare from the 1860s. It gave Catholics an opportunity to call for concessions in return for provided much needed recruits for the British. This became necessary with the outbreak of the 7 years war between England and France in The Catholic relief acts of 1779 and 1782 removed aspects of the penal laws in order to try to secure their loyalty to the English crown and gain future catholic recruits to their army. Removal of most of the penal laws gave some Catholics the confidence to demand back the land that had been confiscated from them by Cromwell in the 1650s. In 1786 this happened in county Roscommon. This led to protestant concern in a number of areas. 3) English unwillingness to treat Irish Protestants as equals led to deep resentments and the emergence of a separate patriotic protestant identity. Protestant patriotism was the product of protestant self-confidence and resentment. After 1692 more lucrative crown appointments in the church of Ireland, the army and administration were given to William of Orange's Dutch friends. During the 18th C Irish protestant representation in these areas diminished. There were frequent protests in Ireland at the foreign born beneficiaries of the Irish pension list, and the large number of absentee landlords. Up until 1765 The Lord lieutenant did not have to reside in Ireland, and even after they did not. It was only in 1772 that the Lord Lieutenant became the lead undertaker in Ireland and created a castle party of English advisers who would remain until All this led to resentment among Protestants in Ireland who

16 resented being dictated to by absent foreigners. English king George I clearly regarded the lowest English rank of knighthood as being worthier than any Irish title. By /4 of Irish titles were held by those with no connection with Ireland. There was also resentment about English restriction of Irish commerce and intervention into their affairs. Protestant Ireland was angry about being treated as a colony and a conquered province. They wanted to be treated as equals. Also from 1690s-1750 they had developed a local patriotism. They believed their survival after 1641, 1685 and deliverance in 1688 was providential. They resented England's condescending treatment of them, and believed that they knew how to best run Ireland. With this confidence also came anxiety about their minority status amongst a majority of Catholics, and the perceived expansion of Presbyterians in the north and the threat they posed to the established church. English rejection of protestant claims to be given the rights of Englishman, and to be treated as Englishman, as well as the English refusal to recognise their achievements or value led them to protest against the English. Because they were refused an English identity Protestants in Ireland began to foster their own Irish identity. Protestants protested over the money bill and the right of the Irish parliament to have control over their finances. There was a surplus in the Irish treasury in the early 1750 and a debate as to whether the Irish parliament needed the English king's permission to use the money as they wished. Henry Boyle who was the Irish speaker for the commons argued that they did not. Boyle won the debate and the money bill was rejected. Boyle agreed to resign for a generous pension. Boyle's initial decision to take stand on national grounds and appeal to the whole country was significant. It inspired the creation of countless protestant patriot clubs across the country who produced resolutions, debates and pamphlets. The dispute produced serious riots in Dublin in 1759 after a rumour spread that the British and Irish parliaments were to be united. 4) Ireland's Protestants were inspired to protest as a result of the American patriots who rebelled against the British in the American war of independence from 'England's difficulty was Ireland's opportunity'. Through the 17th and 18th C the majority of the 100,000 emigrants to America were Ulster Presbyterians, who maintained links between their old and new homes. There was therefore a natural linkage between the patriots in America and those in Ireland. Presbyterians resented the penal laws as they could not vote or stand for MP in the Irish parliament. They wanted an end to the 1704 sacramental test The American war of independence harmed Ireland's export industry as they could no longer ship their linen directly to the colonies after the English passed the Coercive Acts in This deepened a recession that had begun in the 1760s in Ireland and led to many Presbyterian weavers emigrating to the colonies. English restrictions on Irish trade had already provoked protest in Ireland. In 1699 the English woollen act designed to shut down the export of Irish cloth was opposed in Ireland. Irish anger was directed against the English for damaging their trade. In 1776 a total embargo on export of Irish goods to the colonies was introduced by the British. These restrictions were seen as a product of Ireland's constitutional subordination to England. Many pamphlets were produced in Ireland by Protestants claiming that if the Americas could be taxed by England then Ireland would be next. Many were inspired by the colonists struggle to legislate for themselves. As the American war of independence progressed, more and more catholic Irish catholic recruits were taken on by the British army which worried Irish Protestants. Protestant sympathy with the colonists was enhanced by the fear that the British were intent on arming the Irish Catholics. The catholic relief act also publicly established the British as the protectors of the Irish catholic, which angered the Protestants. The protestant volunteer group that arose in 1778 built on existing foundations and was set up to protect protestant interests from catholic threats. From 1779 this group set out to redress Irish protestant grievances. This national group gave the patriot opinion in Ireland a forum. The volunteers initially focused on the British restrictions on Irish trade. In 1778 the English extended their trade embargo on the Irish to include the French. The Irish blamed the lack of trade on these restrictions. The volunteers put pressure on the IRISH parliament to grant Ireland to grant free trade, threatening violence. On the birthday of William III in 1779 they paraded at the king's statue in College green and draped their cannons with 'a free trade or -'. Ten days after a great crowd came together in the same place and manhandled members of parliament.

17 5) The inadequacies of 1782 Grattan's constitutional reforms led to further protest from Protestant patriots. Representatives of Volunteers from 136 corps met in Tyrone in 1782 and called for legislative independence. They

18 also relaxed their anti-catholic views and welcoming further abolition of the penal laws against 'roman catholic fellow subjects. This was a new development as Protestants were calling for rights for Catholics. The Irish protestant patriot Henry Grattan called three times in the Irish parliament for legislative independence - the third time he was met with no resistance. Grattan believed that the key lesson to be drawn from 1782 was that the adoption of a catholic policy would create a national movement and remove English domination over Ireland launched a paramilitary tradition concessions were only passed by the British due to the threat of violence posed by the volunteers. After 1782 the informal subordination of the Irish government to the British government remained. The Irish executive was still a branch of the British government, and its leading members were appointed and answerable to London. Patriot Henry Flood pronounced that the repeal of the declaratory act in 1782 was inadequate, and demanded that the British renounce its declared right to legislate for Ireland. His appeal attracted much volunteer support. As a result of the volunteer's creation of addresses and resolutions, the demand for the renunciation of the English right to legislate in Ireland was accepted by the English government in This fuelled patriot hopes that further concessions could be gained from the English. Patriots then turned to the matter of parliamentary reform, criticising the presence of pocket and rotten boroughs in Ireland. The volunteers called for more equal representation. With the American war over, the volunteers were redundant and sought to maintain their importance by being involved in political campaigns. The English were fundamentally against any kind of reform of this in either England or Ireland. England' attempt to affirm the precise nature of an Anglo- Irish union in 1785 led to Irish Protestant patriot opposition. The 20 English resolutions were attacked by Protestant patriots for being destructive of the 1782 constitution and trade in Ireland. They were particularly worried about the implications for Ireland's legislative independence. Grattan criticised the bill as a creeping union. For example the fourth proposition demanded that the Irish parliament should enact any trade laws that were passed in Westminster. This English proposal was defeated and withdrawn in the Irish parliament. The dangerously vague relationship between the two countries remained unreformed. 6) Evidence for much of the 18th C suggests that Catholic protest on the land was directed less at landlords and the British, and more at tithe farmers and their agents. In the long term this would provide nationalists with grass roots grievances to connect with their political campaigns. In this time period economic grievances remained unexploited by Catholic and Protestant protesters. In the 1780s serious agrarian disturbances of Catholics demanding tithe reform broke out in province of Munster and proved difficult to suppress. These were not unprecedented. From the 1690s there had been unrest especially in Connacht From the outbreak of White boy disturbances in 1761, agrarian unrest had become endemic in Ireland. The White boys first arose in county Tipperary at the end of 1761 and their protests were directed primarily against the enclosure of common land (for grazing which prevented common tillage by poor catholic peasant cottiers), and payment of tithes by all farmers to the Anglican Church. As the Irish population had risen, and as more and more land was cultivated, so more people found themselves having to pay the tithe. Actually there was little resentment that the tithe was paid mainly by Catholics to Protestants. Anger was instead directed at the amount of the tithe and anomalies in its application. Hostility was directed against tithe farmers (who bought the right to collect the tax for a fixed sum) who were often catholic, and agents of tithe farmers. This unrest spread to Kilkenny. There were attacks on tithe Farmers and their agents. Ditches were levelled, walls knocked down and some cattle were killed. But relatively few were killed. It had no ostensibly political content. There was no attack on landlord ism or the principle of tithe itself. What it did reveal was that there was plentiful combustible material in the Irish countryside to be exploited. 1780s the Right boys appeared. At first they seemed very similar to the White boys. They protested at high fees charged by Catholic priests for sick visits, baptisms, funerals and marriages, as well as complaints about tithes, rents, wages and prices. Like the White boys there was a low level of violence but limited take up. But they were more successful. The Catholic Church actually responded to their pleas. Social divisions were bridged to greater extent. Some protestant gentry even took part.

19 7) The French Revolution of 1789 stimulated Irish republicanism and separatism and led directly to the creation of the Society of the United Irishmen in They called for united protest from Protestants and Catholics against English control over Ireland. Those who had previously been in favour of political reform for

20 Ireland drew inspiration from France. In July 1790 the volunteer movement marched to celebrate not the battle of the Boyne but the fall of the Bastille. In Oct 1790 The Lord Lieutenant of Ireland came into possession of a document consisting of a series of resolutions calling for Presbyterian and Catholics to make common cause against tithe mongers and ecclesiastical plunderers in Belfast. The Society of the united Irishmen (SUI) was set up in 1871 by Drennan who had written this document. He argued that parliamentary reform in Ireland would only happen if Catholics and Protestants worked together. A Dublin barrister and member of the church of Ireland called Wolfe Tone wrote a remarkable pamphlet in which he said that there would be no liberty for anyone in Ireland until all denominations banded together 'against the boobies and the blockheads' that governed them. He demanded parliamentary reform. His argument had a wide impact. He was invited to speak at the inaugural meeting of the SUI. Tone took charge of the new society in Belfast and composed its key resolutions - to destroy English influence in the Irish government by uniting Protestants and Catholics, and to effect parliamentary reform. He was inspired by the French Revolution of 1789 and ideas of the enlightenment about the freedom of the individual. The SUI created their own newspaper 'the Northern star' 1792 with a circulation of 4000 twice a week. They wanted to organise the volunteer movement for their purposes. After the outbreak of war between England and France in 1793 the volunteers attempted to reconstitute themselves as a national guard on the French model. After it's suppression by the English in 1794 the SUI became a secret oath bound organisation dedicated to gaining military support from revolutionary France to achieve an Irish Republic. The SUI even made a loose alliance with a rabidly sectarian and violent group of Catholics drawn from the ranks of poor labourers in the North. They also targeted the catholic dominated militia set up to defend Ireland by the English in The stage was set for the 1798 SUI rebellion that would fail and usher in over 100 years of Irish union with England