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Lecture 6

WHO ARE THE BRITISH? (III) THE IRISH

The province of Northern Ireland (sometimes called “Ulster”) consists of six

counties and is a part of the United Kingdom. It is surrounded by the sea to the
north and east, and it borders on the Irish Republic (Eire) in the west and south.
The capital of the province is Belfast.

Ireland was England’s first colony. Ever since the first English appeared on
Irish land 8 centuries ago, there has been much unhappiness and blood.

The problem of Northern Ireland is closely connected with religion, because

the Irish people can be divided into two religious groups: Catholics and
Protestants. At the same time it is quite clear that the fighting between these two
groups is connected with the colonial past.

In 1169 Henry II of England started an invasion of Ireland. Although a large

part of Ireland came under the control of the invaders, there was not much direct
control from England during the Middle Ages. However, in the 16 th century Henry
VIII of England quarreled with Rome and declared himself head of the Anglican
Church, which was a Protestant Church. Ireland remained Catholic, and did not
accept the change. So Henry VIII tried to force Irish Catholics to become
Anglican. This policy was continued by his daughter Elizabeth I. The northern
province of Ulster became the center of resistance, which was crushed by the
English in 1607. After those events Ulster became an area of settlement by
Protestant immigrants from Scotland and England. The “Plantation of Ulster”
began. “Plantation” meant that 23 new towns were built in Ulster to protect the
Protestant settlers known as “planters”. The Irish Catholics were driven from their
lands. As a result, the population in Ulster became Protestant in majority. The Irish
Catholics never gave up their struggle for independence and rights. At the end of
18th century there was a mass rising against the English colonizers which was
crushed by the English army, and in 1801 a forced union was established with
Britain.

One of the greatest tragedies of the 19 th century was the Great Hunger of
1845-1849 when because of the bad potato harvest one million people died and
more than one million emigrated to the USA. The Irish people have never
forgotten that the British government had not done enough to help the poor people
during the hunger.
 After a long and bitter struggle the southern part of Ireland became a Free
State in 1921. Ulster where the Protestants were in majority remained part of the
UK. The Irish Free State declared itself a republic in 1949, and is known as the
Irish Republic of Eire (an old Irish word for Ireland). Its capital is Dublin.

Northern Ireland had its own Parliament at Stormont in Belfast. But the
parliament was in the hands of Protestants, while the Catholics did not have the
equal rights with the Protestants. In 1969 conflict started between these groups,
and so the British government closed the local parliament and sent the British army
to keep peace. There was no peace, and there have been many deaths since 1969.

After the years of confrontation the people of Northern Ireland understood

that only through talks and respect for the rights of all the people, peace could be
achieved in the province.

Many years ago all Irish people spoke Gaelic (a Celtic language) and today
this language is still spoken in some parts of Ireland, especially in the west,
although English is spoken by all Irish people with an accent and dialect quite
different from the English in Britain. Gaelic place-names have also survived, for
example “lough” – lake, “inis” – island, “drum” – the top of mountain, “glen” –
valley, “bally” – town. The names of people are also Gaelic. For example: Liam,
the same as the English William, Sean [ʃɔ:n], same as John, Brid, same as Bridget,
Micky, same as Michael.

An Irishman is often called Paddy (short for Patrick). Patrick is so often

used, because St. Patrick is the patron saint of Ireland. Irish culture has had a great
influence on the development of British culture. Many famous Irishmen
contributed to the development of British culture, for example, Jonathan Swift,
Bernard Shaw, James Joyce and many others.