1 gen 1155 anni - Of England and Ireland

Descrizione:

While England was a province of the Roman Empire, Ireland never would be however both would convert to Christianity through Roman influence. Ultimately the "Anglo-Saxon" arrival in England and subsequent political, social and linguistic domination would be influenced by Irish missionaries and literature.

After the Norman conquest of 1066, Norman adventurers would launch military expeditions to Ireland many times, attempting to carve out a realm of their own to control. John de Courcy would be one such figure, who dominated much of Ulster until his expulsion in 1204.

The Pope in 1155 allegedly gave permission for the King of England to invade and govern Ireland. While its existence is debated, it was widely believed at the time and for centuries after.

The Anglo-Normans who settled in the area at this time and came to rule over much of Ireland would become known to locals as "Old English", in contrast to the later arrivals. Many of these Anglo-Normans would come to integrate into local Irish culture becoming "More Irish than the Irish" and common Irish surnames such as Fitzgerald and Burke originate with this group.

After the War of the Roses, the Kingdom of England sought to increase its tenuous control over Ireland and bring it under more direct control of England. This was the pet project of the Tudor monarchs, and was complicated by the Protestant Reformation, as most Irish remained Catholic while most English and Scottish left the Catholic Church, along with their Kings. The English who established themselves in Ireland at this time would be known as "New English".

In time a government of minority rule would be established, as Scottish and English Protestants ruled over the Catholic Irish majority. Protestants would control most of the land and wealth in Ireland from this point and Catholics would become unable to hold office or vote.

Eventually rights for the Catholic Irish would slowly increase, but they still lived very much as second class citizens. The Irish famine of 1842-1852 would devastate the country, and the memory of this would lead to a renaissance in Irish Nationalist politics. Various attempts would be made at giving Ireland "Home Rule" status, making them in control of their domestic affairs, with the last being paused by the outbreak of the First World War.

In 1916, at the height of the First World War, an uprising in Ireland was staged which would become known as the "Easter Rising". While it did not achieve the broad support it hoped for, the brutal treatment of those involved with the rising, including the thousands of arrests of innocents and the hangings of 15 men including Roger Casement, who had previously exposed the Belgian Congo's human rights atrocities in his report.

More violence erupted in an independence war, which included atrocities being conducted regularly by the British army, most notoriously the Auxiliaries and "Black and Tans". This ended with a deeply controversial peace treaty which divided Ireland, leaving 2/3 of Ulster in British hands with a majority Protestant population.

This in turn would lead to an Irish civil war between pro and anti-treaty elements.

A civil rights movement in Northern Ireland, seeking greater representation for Irish Catholics in the North as well as protections of their rights would escalate as the Protestant authorities continued to discriminate against the Catholic population.

The British Army would be sent into Northern Ireland to mediate the conflict, initially being welcomed by many Catholics, but it quickly lost this trust. The Army proved incapable and/or unwilling to effectively operate as an independent policing body and became quickly reliant on the RUC (Royal Ulster Constabulary), in many Irish eyes effectively continuing the discrimination of the Protestant leadership.

Atrocities such as Bloody Sunday in 1972 in which British paratroopers murdered 15 unarmed Irish civilians would haunt the army's reputation and lead to a breakdown in all trust. A branch of the IRA would split from its parent organisation, known as the Provisional IRA. They would provide the main opposition to the RUC, Loyalist Paramilitaries and the British Army. The ensuing "Troubles" would last until the Good Friday Agreement of 1998 which altered the Irish constitution, and ended the troubles, granting amnesty to paramilitary members of both sides provided they never reoffend.

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