Margaret Skinnider

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Margaret Skinnider traversed Dublin with despatches for the Republic of Ireland during the Easter Rising.  She was an intelligent teacher who had an infinity for mathematics and calculus.  She rode her bike fast and hard to put distance between her and the British with their machine guns.  She could shoot and be extremely capable of using a rifle with accuracy.  After the Easter Rising, Skinnider wrote down her memoirs so others could hear her story.  She also made appearances in memoirs of fellow rebel fighters and she was one of many women who fought in the Easter Rising.  Margaret Skinnider was a brave woman who fought for the Republic in the Easter Rising, she crossed gender boundaries, and did her part to help her comrades and her country.

Margaret Skinnider

Margaret Skinnider was born in Ireland.  She rode her bike to help where she could with the Easter Uprising.  She worked as a scout, a dispatch-rider, a raider, and a sniper.  She had an exciting role and was able to participate in the rebellion.  Margaret Skinnider has not been covered enough in historical writings.  Even though she is an intriguing and bold suffragette character, her role in the uprising was not examined as it deserved.  She wrote a memoir which describes her early life as well as her participation as a rebel, and her injury in combat.

In Skinnider’s memoirs, she stated, “Scotland is my home, but Ireland my country.”  Both of her parents were Irish, but they lived their whole lives in Scotland.  She resented the English because it was usually the rich English planter people versus the poor Irish people.  She was appalled at how Irish History was rewritten by the English and Anglicized.[1]  Skinnider became part of a few organizations; the Irish Volunteers, the Cumman-na-nBan, and the British Rifle Practice Club.  The rifle club is where Skinnider learned to shoot.  This was ironic because the club was first started by the British for British home protection, teaching the women to shoot so they could defend the Empire.[2]

Photograph of Margaret Skinnider wearing boy’s clothes.

The Countess Markievicz heard of Skinnider and wanted to meet her.  Skinnider’s work in the Cumman-na-nBan preceded her. [3]  The Countess was the first to put Skinnider into boy’s clothes.  After, Skinnider went walking with the Fianna Boys while they asserted their authority and discovered she fit right into the Glasgow Fianna.[4]  Eventually, the Countess inquired if Skinnider could make a dynamite plan to bomb Beggar’s Bush barracks.  She already knew that Skinnider knew how to figure out distances and how to map.  Skinnider loved her calculus and mathematics.[5]  She studied the map of Dublin so she could navigate the city.  She visited the barracks and tracked data regarding its placement and construction.[6]  Skinnider started scouting the city for troops on her bike.[7]  She was the despatch rider for St. Stephen’s Green Command.  She was also a scout for Commandant Michael Mallin. [8]

During the Uprising, Skinnider is shot three times.[9]  Soon a general surrender came. Within an hour of the surrender, Skinnider was sent to the hospital by ambulance.  Most Irish fighters surrendered in St. Patricks Square and turned in their weapons.[10]  Skinnider was extremely ill in the hospital trying to recover from her wounds.  She kept hearing the news of executions and prison sentences.[11]  Skinnider was left untouched by the British because she was so sick.  A detective came some weeks later and took Skinnider to prison.  She was only there for a short period before her doctor raged that she was not well enough to go to jail and needs more time to recover.  She was free to go.[12]

 

 

[1] Skinnider, 2016. 9.
[2] Skinnider, 2016. 9.
[3] Skinnider, 2016. 10.
[4] Skinnider, 2016. 13.
[5] Skinnider, 2016. 18.
[6] Skinnider, 2016. 18.
[7] Skinnider, 2016. 34.
[8] Skinnider, 2016. 35.
[9] Skinnider, 2016. 52.
[10] Skinnider, 2016. 56.
[11] Skinnider, 2016. 57.
[12] Skinnider, 2016. 65.

 

 

 

Bibliography

Primary Sources

Skinnider, Margaret. 2016. Doing My Bit For Ireland (Illustrated Edition). S.l.: Echo Library.

 

Secondary Sources

McGarry, Fearghal. 2017. The Rising: Ireland: Easter 1916. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Wills, Clair. Dublin 1916 – the Siege of the Gpo. London: Profile Books, 2010.

Bowens Court

 

Elizabeth Bowen, the author of The Last September, spent her summers in her family’s country home, Bowens Court. It was built in the 1770s by Henry Cole Bowen and is located in Cork, Ireland. Bowen describes the life in this home (and other big houses) to be “independent” and “secretive” (Bowen 20). Families would be caught up in their own affairs and sometimes would be pent up in the house for days. This physical separateness wasn’t the only isolation though, something internal divided the Anglo-Irish from the rest of Ireland: “an affair of origin” (Bowen 20). Bowens Court had large, lofty rooms, and didn’t belong to any neighborhood, giving Bowen an immense sense of loneliness.

Elizabeth was born in Ireland but moved in with her Anglo-Irish relatives after the passing of her mother. For this very reason, Elizabeth felt torn between the two countries. The main character Lois, in her novel The Last September shares this liminality.

To combat this sense of loneliness and compensate for the feeling of liminality, the Anglo-Irish would build extravagant houses and throw frivolous parties. Around the district where Bowens Court lay, there were three towns: Mallow, Fermoy, and Mitchelstown. The Bowen’s would attend parties at Mitchelstown Castle often. On August 5th, 1914, the family was getting ready to go to a garden party at the castle when Elizabeth’s father had told them England had declared war on Germany. The family went to the castle where the words of the war were unspoken on everyone’s lips. The Anglo-Irish were inadvertently rallying together and renewing the Ascendency. This party would serve as a historic memory and final scene for the castle (in Elizabeth’s eyes) as it would be demolished a short time later. 

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Political Environment- Leaders of The Easter Rising

James Connolly, Easter Rising Leader

James Connelly was born in June 1868 in Edinburgh Scotland where he came from a very poor upbringing. This is lead him to develop a hatred for poverty, one that he would carry with him for the rest of his life (Foy and Barton, 2011). Connelly was largely self taught in his early life where he found himself immersed in the writings of Karl Marx which caused him to develop socialist values. In 1896, Connelly received an offer to work  as a paid organizer for the Dublin Socialist Society where he would spend his time living in the slums of Dublin among the poverty ridden people. He spent seven years working as an activist and a journalist further honing his socialist and nationalist ideals, but in this time his efforts to improve Dublin’s tenement conditions had made little to no impact. In a speech about tenement life Connelly says “The trenches healthier than the slums of Dublin. Ay, my masters, but death in a slum may be the noblest of all deaths if it is the death of a man who preferred to die rather than dirty his soul by accepting the gold of England” (Connolly, 1916). He would rather the poor of Dublin die in their terrible conditions than give into imperialist Britain. Connelly then moved to America briefly but returned to Dublin in 1910 assuming the role as a union organizer and one of the founders of the Irish Labor party. He was devoted to helping the working class by striving for them to receive better pays and fewer hours in a work week. He felt that the only way that  the working class could achieve this was to rise up and loosen the grip of oppression held on them by capitalism he also believed in workers uniting under socialism (Treacy, 2013).  The only way to overthrow the capitalist class was to arm workers to fight and overthrow it “destroy forces that produce poverty”. Connelly was also the leader of the Irish Citizen Army and was beginning to become increasingly impatient with the lack of progress in Dublin and was already planning his own insurrection with the citizen army with the goal of overthrowing British rule in Ireland even if it meant dying. In order to prevent a premature rebellion, Patrick Pearse talked to James Connolly and explained the Irish Republican Brother Hood’s plans for a rebellion and offered an alliance between the IRB and Connelly and the Citizen Army, Connolly accepted.

Patrick Pearse was born in Dublin in 1879 to an  English father who migrated to Ireland. Unlike Connolly, Pearse had a very romanticized view of Ireland in which he wanted to preserve the Irish language and loved Irish history. In college Pearse had studied law but soon after he gave up on it to focus on the Gaelic League and was an editor for their journal.  The decline in the Irish language was something that worried Pearse, he believed that the English education system was taking over and was destroying the Irish identity and way of life. Pearse set up his own school called St. Edna’s where he taught the Irish language and aspired to educated children in farming and business, he did not see urban life as an ideal Ireland he wanted the country to return to its previous roots.  Due to the frustration of financial struggles faced at his school, Pearse began to dive deeper into Irish revolutionary writings particularly Wolf Tone whom he felt he could relate to. Around this time Pearse would go on to join the IRB where his speaking skills and passion for Ireland made him well respected. His speeches like the Graveside Oration for O’Donovan Rossa helped fuel the need for revolution within the IRB. In his

Patrick Pearse, Easter Rising leader

speech Pearse said ”  They think that they have purchased half of us and intimidated the other half. They think that they have foreseen everything, think that they have provided against everything; but the fools, the fools, the fools! — they have left us our Fenian dead, and while Ireland holds these graves, Ireland unfree shall never be at peace”(Pearse, 1915). Not long after planning for the Rising occurred and lead to the teaming up  of the IRB and James Connolly and the citizens army. Pearse and Connolly would go on to be leading forces in the rebellion where Pearse would read out their proclamation on the steps of the GPO after they seized it. In an excerpt from the Proclamation, Pearse goes on to say ” In every generation the Irish people have asserted their right to national freedom and sovereignty; six times during the past three hundred years they have asserted it in arms. Standing on that fundamental right and again asserting it in arms in the face of the world, we hereby proclaim the Irish Republic as a Sovereign Independent State. And we pledge our lives and the lives of our comrades-in-arms to the cause of its freedom, of its welfare, and of its exaltation among the nations” (Pearse, 1916). This statement talks about the long history of violence and martyrdom over Irish freedom and how it will continue, Ireland is also declared Independent of Britain in the document but this is something that will not occur for a few more years.  Although the rebellion was deemed unsuccessful it memory and those who sacrificed themselves for it served as a cry of freedom for Ireland that would be vital in the country achieving independence in 1922.

 

 

Women of the Uprising

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Cathleen ni Houlihan

Poster for Kathleen ni Houlihan

In Cathleen ni Houlihan by William Butler Yeats and Lady Gregory, the play was used metaphorically to encourage young men to resist English ways and fight for their country. Yates writes a play where the old woman, which represents Ireland, pays a visit to an Irish family in order to recruit young fighters for her. The old woman wants action, she has a different set of values. The old woman states to the family upon leaving,

 

“Do not make a great keening,
When the graves have been dug to-morrow,
Do not call the white-scarfed riders,
To the burying that shall be to-morrow.”

Scene from Cathleen ni Houlihan

Here the old women asked the people to not mourn for men tomorrow, which is a reflection of Robert Emmet. She asserted those who fight for Ireland will automatically be saved, there was no need for extra prayer for the fighting men, nor a wake or feast. The old woman needs young men to help her and give her their whole life. She states it is worth dying for Ireland to become a saint and fathers need not worry about their abandoned children, the nation will take care of the orphan. The new generation does not see an old woman, the old woman is transformed into a young girl once the land is restored. Many Irish did resist the English, not only men but women and children too.

Easter Rising

Monday, April 24, 1916, was the first day of the Easter Rising.  Irish Volunteers along with 200 socialists from the Irish Citizen Army met at Liberty Hall in Dublin.  They seized key locations in the city. Clair Wills described, “the 1916 Rising is seen as the most significant event in modern Ireland.”  The Rising was the founding act of the Democratic Irish State.  A new type of politics was demanded by the leaders of the Rising.  Some of their concerns were socialism, Irish language, women’s suffrage, and progressive education.  The Rising was the first anti-colonist revolt. Guerilla warfare was used and replicated in later conflicts.  

Cumann na mBan

Two hundred women participated in the Rising.  Many times, male comrades were also obstacles.  Roles were gendered and women found themselves washing, cooking, handing out food, and giving first aid.  Men were in charge.  Women were in combat on “the green” but they were mostly unarmed.  Common jobs for women were dispatch, sniper, food worker, transporting ammunition and weapons, and scouting.  Women were less likely to be shot, and they were more likely to be able to talk their way out of a sticky situation.  There were even accounts of women wearing mourning blacks with British emblems in order to bypass the British soldiers.

Women’s uniforms were male like.  A more acceptable gender norm for women would be working in the kitchen or nursing.  Women were expected to hold dying men’s hands and deal with “emotionally demanding tasks.”  Women delivered messages to the wives of British soldiers who were being held captive.  Crossing gender boundaries were made possible by the shared views of their time. The “egalitarian nature of the Proclamation and the active role which women actually played—advanced the status of women within the revolutionary movement and the Irish State that it created.”  Many women experienced Easter week from the back of a kitchen.

Nurses on Lower Sackville Street (1916)

In rural Dublin, women were not allowed in the field to battle.  Those that were there were volunteers. They had feminine duties like cooking and sewing, messengers on bikes.  At the Volunteers’ headquarters, the women’s roles were also gendered.  Women would not always be in the loop. Many messages that they carried, they knew nothing of what it meant strategically.  In jails, women received an indifferent, “benign” treatment.  Many women felt they could leave after being searched.  The British had little desire to arrest women and many were given fares to go home.  Irish women both resented and exploited their being considered inferior. Women could be defiant without being beaten, but the incarcerations were harsh.

In Kilmainham jail, women were held in minimal conditions without even blankets at first.  Women sat in the dirt with nothing else to sit on, there was no furniture. There was no privacy.  Women were forced to use the bathroom while soldiers watched on. Mountjoy jail was better than Kilmainham where many women were sent.   Only five women went on to Britain and the rest were released saying they were misled and that it was just a passing phase.  Women had a hard time being taken seriously that they have political connections, could be intellectuals and control their emotions.  Teenagers were also given leniency.  Prison welfare associations ran by women.

 

The Daughters of Erin or the Inghinidne na hÉireann

The Daughters of Erin or the Inghinidne na hÉireann as known as “the ninnies” emerged in protest to “the orgy of flunkeyism.” The Warriors of Erin or Na Fianna Éireann was the male counterpart.  The Countess Markievicz worked with the Fianna Boys.  The Daughters wanted to radicalize anyone who was not previously allowed in radical politics.  This meant women, children, and the working class. They wanted to revive the “language, literature, music, dancing, history, customs, games, and industries.”  Furthermore, they wanted to politicize poor Dublin children. At school, classes had field trips to see Republican martyrs. Materials were distributed in the shape of literature and attack symbols of British imperialism.

Inghinidhe na hÉireann (Daughters of Ireland) in 1900

 

Cumann Na mBan

Cumann na mBan Women

Women wanted to do work with the Volunteers.  In the Volunteer’s manifesto, it was stated that there would be work for women.  MacNeill suggested that women could form auxiliaries.  The auxiliary could then help the volunteers.  The result was Cumann Na mBan. Cumann Na mBan was founded in Wynn’s Hotel on April 4, 1914.  They declared themselves an independent organization. They made their own decisions, they did service for the Volunteers, but they were not the Volunteers.  The Cumann Na mBan was established in communities throughout Ireland. They were an armed and equipped body of Irishmen ready to defend Ireland. This caused questions about the role of women.  Margaret Skinnider was a member of Cumann Na mBan.

 

 

Bibliography

McGarry, Fearghal. 2017. The Rising: Ireland: Easter 1916. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Wills, Clair. Dublin 1916 – the Siege of the Gpo. London: Profile Books, 2010.

Yeats, William Butler. “Cathleen ni Houlihan.” Plays in Prose and Verse, Macmillan Publishers, 1922, pp. 3-18.

Peace Talks

In order to resolve the conflict, there were many different ideas and approaches made in an attempt to find peace, with the ones with the largest impact outlined below.  Each had its own flaw that led to increase violence, but set down framework for future peace agreement. The Belfast Agreement, or Good Friday Agreement, is largely considered the most successful, because it involved the most decrease in violence

Sunningdale Agreement (1972-1975)

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Unionist Poster

The Sunningdale Conference was the first official attempt at peace during the time of The Troubles. This involved a meeting between the current Prime Minister of Britain, Edward Heath, the premier of Ireland, Liam Cosgrove and representatives from three parties: the UUP, the SDLP and the Alliance Party. The agreement involved and established an assembly of Ireland that included a power-sharing Executive and a legislative cross-border Council of Ireland. The Council would consist of a unicameral legislature with members from both the north and south. This agreement was more an agreement to establish a groundwork for a further agreement, and there was not complete agreement between Ireland and London. Largely supported by the SDLP because it set the platform for a future united Ireland, unionists viewed it as the end of the Union between Ireland and Britain. The UUC party called for a two week strike in May 1974 in opposition to the agreement and before long it was set to be prorogued and officially dissolved in 1975.

Anglo-Irish Agreement (1985)

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Thatcher and Fitzgerald sign the Anglo-Irish Agreement into law

The next attempt at peace involved an agreement between Taoiseach Garret Fitzgerald and British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. This agreement was decided without large influence from outside political parties, causing much upheaval after it was signed into law. The agreement, signed on November 15, 1985 establish an Intergovernmental council that would deal with political and security matters. The agreement allowed for later change, but stated that the status of Northern Ireland would not change as a result of the agreement, angering Unionists. They declared that it did nothing to address and change the current problems and was the weakest statement by the British Government. They also were not involved in the process, so as a result the UUP and DUP parties organized mass strikes and rallies against the agreement. The IRA did not officially recognize it as law, so although it was never officially dissolved, it did nothing to solve the issues at hand. It did create increased cooperation between the British and Irish governments

Brooke/Mayhew Inter-Party Talks (1991-1992)

 ‘Contrary to the insinuations of unionists and some academics that John Hume pursued an IRA ceasefire at the deliberate expense of any possible outcome from Brooke-Mayhew, the reality was that he was trying to get to a convergence of both processes.’ Above, taoiseach Albert Reynolds shakes hands with Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams and SDLP leader John Hume outside Government Buildings on September 6th 1994 after a discussion of ways to advance the peace process following the IRA’s ceasefire announcement of August 31st. Photograph: Matt Kavanagh

Taosieach Reynolds shakes hands with Adams and Hume

One of the first examples of inter-party talks, and when what would later become known as the “Irish Peace Process” began, was the Brooke-Mayhew talks of 1991-1992. These were meetings between the four parties: the UUP, DUP, SDLP and the Alliance party as well Secretary of State Tom King and his successor Peter Brooke. This first set of talks involved the idea of three strands, or three sets of relationships. These would be first, relations within Northern Ireland, second relations between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland and third, the relation between the United Kingdom and the Republic. All three of these relationships must be established before anything is set into law. When Mayhew became the next Secretary of State in 1992 and Strand 1 negotiations began, there was large consent that the it should be run by people within Northern Ireland only. Negotiations involving strand 2 and 3 proved difficult and nothing was officially achieved. However, The three stand approach would later be used when crafting the Belfast Agreement of 1998.

Downing Street Declaration (1993)

‘The Downing Street declaration was the foundation stone on which the peace process was built.’ Above, British prime minister, John Major, with taoiseach Albert Reynolds, following the agreement of the Downing Street Declaration in December 1993. Photograph: Peter Thursfield / THE IRISH TIMES

John Major and Albert Reynolds

The meetings between SDLP leader John Hume and Sinn Fein leader, Gerry Adams resulted in a joint declaration after a joint meeting on April 23, 1993. They largely claimed that Irish people had a right to self determination and that an internal settlement is not a solution, the agreement must satisfy all people. These talks angered Unionists, declaring that the talks were extremely nationalist. After these talks, a PIRA bomb exploded on Shankill Road, killing ten people and injuring fifty-seven. This violence shifted the attention from these talks to the issue with British and Irish relations, which resulted in the release of the Downing Street Declaration, which declared that the Britain had no selfish or political interest in Ireland, but instead was committed to finding a peaceful solution. This eventually led to cease-fires declared by both the IRA and the CLMC.

Belfast Agreement (1998)

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Tony Blair and Ahern sign the Belfast Agreement into law

The Good Friday Agreement, or Belfast Agreement was the historic agreement that has been contributed to ending the historic period known as The Troubles, decided on April 10, 1998. The Agreement was largely able to reached when Tony Blair’s Labor party gained momentum. The agreement followed the three strand system that was introduced by Mayhew and drew heavily on the Sunningdale Agreement, the difference being the recognition of different identities and self determination, as well as power-sharing. The Agreement recognized that the majority desired to stay unified with Ireland, although there were people who wished to not stay. It then set up Legislative and Executive bodies that dealt with the strands. The Agreement was passed by Irish voters after two referendums on May 22, 1998 and was put into effect December 10, 1999. This agreement outlines the devolved model that rings true today. 

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Unionist Politics

Ireland officially split in 1920, forming Northern Ireland. The Government of Ireland Act was created amidst the violent War of Independence in an attempt to quell the IRA and Nationalist anger and satisfy the small Protestant population while still maintaining control of the entire isle. The twenty-six southern counties would have a Home Rule parliament (self-governance), and the six north-eastern counties would have a devolved parliament and send MPs to Westminster. Ulster Unionists accepted the separation and Northern Ireland was created; however, the Irish nationalists spurned the continued British presence and kept fighting for independence until the Anglo-Irish Treaty in 1921.

The remains of British bombing in Cork during the Irish War of Independence.

In Northern Ireland, the Unionist party leaders were convinced that unless the government was firmly and irrevocably in the hands of the Protestants, Northern Ireland would not last. Following the initial council elections after the split, the Unionist party controlled ⅔, while the Nationalists held the other third, proving a problem for the Unionist majority. Immediately, James Craig as the first prime minister made motions towards changing the voting system and voting boundaries. In 1922, proportional representation (PR) was terminated, replaced by first-past-the-post, along with the redrawing of the local government boundaries, followed later by the same change in Belfast’s parliament. The gerrymandering lumped large Nationalist-Catholic majorities together so they had the same representation as the smaller Unionist majorities. A good example is the Omagh Rural District Council. For the next election, it was claimed that the 5,381 unionist voters would have 21 seats, but 8,459 nationalists would only have 18. The effect of the gerrymandering in Derry was the most severe. Derry was divided into five wards, three having Unionists majorities, two having Nationalists majorities. The Nationalists wards had larger populations, and yet were counted equally with the three Unionist wards. 9,961 electors secured eight Nationalist councillors, while 7,444 voters secured 12 Unionists councillors.

Election poster of James Craig, Northern Ireland’s first Prime Minister, c. 1940.

In addition, the criteria for voters (standing since before 1921) was more likely to apply to Protestants Unionists and exclude Catholic Nationalists. Voting was restricted to owners of a house or tenants and the owner/tenant’s spouse. Grown children still at home were disenfranchised, as were lodgers or older family members. And for the Catholics, it was more likely that there would be multiple adults living in one home unable to vote. Voting rights, or lack thereof, boiled down to one thing: jobs. Most of the better paying jobs went to Protestants instead of Catholics, therefore, fewer Catholics were able to afford homes and were more likely to live with other family members, and thus fewer could vote. It was encouraged by members of government, especially James Craig, PM himself, that the “public [should] employ loyalists–only loyalists”. Sir Basil Brooke would later say of Craig, “He appreciated the great difficulty experienced by some of them in procuring suitable Protestant labour but he would point out that Roman Catholics were endeavouring to get in everywhere. He would appeal to Loyalists therefore, wherever possible, to employ good Protestants lads and lassies”. A 1943 survey would go on to prove just how inequitable the public sector was. In the 55 most senior positions, none were Catholic, and only 37 of 600 middle-ranking posts were held by Catholics. In private companies, it was common that more than 90% of the workforce was Protestant. Unemployment among Catholics was more than double Protestants, only adding to a lack of suffrage for nationalists. And if Catholics and nationalists couldn’t vote, they couldn’t elect others to change policies–it was all too brilliantly done.

Ironically and yet fittingly, the Protestants were fearful of their Catholics counterparts. There was no peace of mind for the Protestants at the beginning of Northern Ireland, no matter how large their majority. They understood that London could never be as staunch in the continuation of the Union as they were, so support was not reliable. It didn’t help that the Catholics were incredibly suspicious in the eyes of the Protestants, especially considering how hard the Catholics had fought the creation of Northern Ireland in the first place. Protestant attitudes were very similar to their predecessors, the English and Scottish settlers from centuries before: they had a bitter wariness, cautious of retaining their hold over Northern Ireland, and unwilling to back down. This went hand in hand with the restraining statues put in place at the very start of Northern Ireland.

 

Stormont Castle, the seat of the Northern Ireland Assembly. 

Only 2% of Unionists supported Ireland as a united, independent state, but 38% supported a united Ireland tied to Britain. The general political wheelhouse of the Unionists involved connection to Britain and continued control over Northern Ireland. Those in government passed policies to ensure that Nationalists were shut out of politics, and this pervaded elections for decades. However, some Unionists believed that nationalists could be persuaded to support union with Britain, and 60% thought that the border could disappear as well. Later, Unionists would be devoted to subduing the Catholic rage and promoting peace, but that wouldn’t come until later.

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Nationalist Politics

Statue of Daniel O’Connell, an Irish nationalist, outside of St. Patrick’s Cathedral.

The goal of the Irish nationalist in Northern Ireland was to split from Great Britain; contrary to the Irish protestants who wanted to remain loyal to the British. Nationalists advocated for self-government. They wanted to express freely the culture of the land, including language and literature. In order to publicly express their concerns, many of them joined the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association. This association was a platform for nationalists to be able to advocate for equality between Catholics and Protestants. For nationalists, it was difficult for them to act on their goals because of the oppression that they faced from the Irish protestants, and Great Britain.

Video: How a community is affected during the protests. 

A common misconception of the troubles was that it originally began as a religious war. Although there certainly were many conflicts of Catholics versus Protestants, it was less about the religion and more about the growing anxieties between the two groups that led to the sometimes brutal outcomes. It was especially difficult for the Irish people because they were generally split among two groups: the Catholic Irish and the nationalist Irish. Both groups are for having Northern Ireland split from British control and joined into the rest of Ireland, however their methods for going about it are what set them apart. The Irish nationalists were those who associated with, or were directly a part of, the Irish Republican Army took influence from people such as Wolfe Tone, and were of the mindset that Ireland needed to be taken back by force and that because Britain used force against them, they would only understand the use of force as a way of negotiation. The Catholic Irish were a group who, although not necessarily opposed to forceful actions, were completely appalled at the results of actions taken by the IRA, namely the unintentional slaughter of hundreds of innocents over the course of a single year. Because of this, Irish Catholics tended to stay away from violence. They instead focused on a non-sectarian message in the hopes of uniting the whole of Northern Ireland against the British occupation in a peaceful, civil manner.

It would not be unusual for one to look back at the Troubles and wonder why a country is so divided despite most of the province having the same goal: unification. There are many reasons explaining this difference, such as the deep rooted anxieties between Catholics and Protestants. This relationship became increasingly more agitated with each bloody conflict and the once unified IRA became split as more unnecessary violence occurred, including the deaths of uninvolved civilians. Much of this inclination towards violence can be attributed to the nationalist speeches and writings of Wolfe Tone and Daniel O’Connell who advocate heavily for a separation of Ireland from Britain using any means necessary.

This is a poster advertising a benefit for the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association. The benefit was located in New York City.

Video: A Protestant describing how she lived her life in a majority Catholic town.

Protestants discrimination against the Catholics created many fears, and anxiety within the Catholic community. In part, these anxieties led to the formation of The Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association, commonly known as NICRA, which was founded in early 1967. One of NICRA’s goals was to increase equality between the Catholics and Protestants. Leaders, of this association, would travel and speak to different groups in order to publicize how Catholics were being oppressed by the Protestants. One historian argued that the origin of the Troubles started with the struggle for civil rights in Northern Ireland. This association was Influenced by the civil rights movements that were occurring globally during this time. For example, the civil rights movement that was occuring during the same time period in the United States.  NICRA organized marches and protests to advocate for the rights and issues of nationalists during this time. Some of the issues that NICRA advocated for are equal schooling, housing, and employment opportunities. One well-known march that took place during the troubles is Bloody Sunday is a march that was led by NICRA which was protesting against internment. This march is well-known because it ended in an eruption of violence by British soldiers who shot 28 unarmed civilians. After the march ended, nationalists and NICRA was blamed for the violence that occurred during the march.

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Catholic and Protestant Relations

After the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1922, there were many fears and anxieties for both Catholics and Protestants over what the state of Northern Ireland would be. They both felt that they were living in a country with their enemies. Protestants abolished any sort of power Catholics had in the government through gerrymandering and abolishing Proportional Representation when they gained control of the government. They wanted to take their power away because they felt that the Catholics wanted a United Ireland and would work towards that goal, which they did not want. They wanted to stay as a part of the United Kingdom because they saw themselves as British not Irish. Ian Paisley, leader of extremists Protestants that were against the Catholics, gave many speeches to his people instilling their fear of the other religion. He said  “Protect us from the shackles of priestcraft.” This quote shows the type of fear he was making the people feel. He stopped Protestants from seeing Catholics as just people but made them see the Catholics as always out to get them and against their country.

Graffiti in Belfast that shows the separation of territory between the two groups.

Meanwhile the Catholics where the minority in a country of people who looked down on them. The Catholics knew they were being barred from  the government but there was nothing they could do. Being barred from jobs, new houses, as well as having the government and police against them made them unsure of their own and their families futures. In the book That’s That, the main character Colin and his friends are caught smoking weed by the cops and because of how they were raised they all instantly started giving the English cops wrong names, addresses, etc. This shows that they had no trust for the cops, they were not lying because they were caught doing something illegal; they were doing “just as they had been taught to do.” Before the Troubles started an economic downturn took place  because the industries in Northern Ireland were beginning to become outdated. This recession caused mass unemployment and led to tensions between the two groups because they were fighting for jobs and Protestants thought the Catholics were trying to steal their jobs. This tension eventually boiled over and started the Troubles.

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Suggested next page: Nationalists Politics

Irish Famine Immigrants

Black and white photograph of immigrants on a dock. There is a woman in the foreground of the photo holding several bags. There are four other people behind her, and a boat in the background.
A photograph of Irish immigrants

The Great Famine in Ireland caused death and suffering for people throughout the country. Many people died, and many others emigrated from Ireland in order to escape the famine. When most people in the modern world think about Irish immigration during the Great Famine, they think of a very typical, simplistic narrative that focuses on a sense of exile from one’s home country, the hardships that immigrants faced on their journey, and their eventual success upon reaching the Americas. Aspects of this typical narrative of Irish immigration are often memorialized; for example, the National Famine memorial in Ireland invokes Irish experiences on coffin ships.

However, this typical narrative of Irish immigration to the Americas ignores some important aspects of Irish immigration, such as the fact that Irish immigrants were major participants in the draft riots. Even aspects of the Irish famine experience that are commemorated by memorials, such as the Kindred Spirits memorial commemorating Choctaw efforts to aid famine victims, are left out of the typical narrative of Irish immigration. The reality of the Irish immigrant experience was much more complicated that the typical narrative of Irish immigration lets on.

Links:

CLICK HERE to learn about the Great Famine.
CLICK HERE to learn about potato blight.
CLICK HERE to learn about immigration on coffin ships.
CLICK HERE to learn about the immigrants’ arrival in North America.
CLICK HERE to learn about living conditions of Irish immigrants.
CLICK HERE to learn about the draft riots.
CLICK HERE to learn about memorials to famine victims.

Bibliography

About Us

A Troubling Time: A Cycle of Prejudice and Anxiety in 20th Century Ireland

 

Inequalities between the Catholic and Protestant populations strained relations, leading to peaceful demonstrations which often deteriorated into violent rioting. But as issues like the housing crisis reveal, the roots of the problems were not in the violence, but in the political and social structures in place, and the anxieties they caused. Such structures include culturally and politically enforced segregation, physical barriers, and unequal opportunities. The cycle of prejudice increased fear and anxiety on both sides.

National Identity All Catholic Protestant and Other Christian Other religions No religion
British 48.4% 12.9% 81.6% 50.1% 55.9%
Irish 28.4% 57.2% 3.9% 12.4% 14.0%
Northern Irish 29.4% 30.7% 26.9% 18.0% 35.2%
English, Scottish, or Welsh 1.6% 0.8% 1.5% 2.9% 5.2%
All other 3.4% 4.4% 0.1% 29.1% 7.1%

There are a number of different terms for the two sides of the Northern Ireland conflict. This project will be grouping Unionist, Loyalist, and Protestant together as those wanting to keep ties with Britain, and Nationalist, Republican, and Catholics as those wanting to separate from Britain become independent. Although it is a generalization to affiliate Catholics with Nationalists and Protestants with Unionists, the majority of Catholics voted Nationalist and most Protestants voted Unionist.

We suggest you begin with the brief history, followed by the timeline. However, we will provide all of links to our other pages so you can access them in whatever order you choose. At the bottom of our main pages, we will give the link for our next suggested page, as well as the link to the timeline and back to this page, labeled as introduction. Our timeline will include links to brief analyses or more information on some of the dates described.

Brief History

Timeline

Unionist Politics

Political Structures to Social Anxieties

Catholic and Protestant Relations 

Nationalist Politics 

Peace Talks

Northern Ireland Today

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