History of Ireland (Part 2) Documentary

hello and welcome to fire of learning in the last video we covered the history of ireland from its early beginnings and left off with the rule of henry viii which was a crucial time period for ireland as the war of the roses had ended with henry's father protestantism started being introduced to ireland and henry made himself king of ireland rather than just lord of ireland and then died in 1547. henry was succeeded by his son who became edward vi edward was the son for whom henry had wished throughout his reign and the protestant heir that the english were glad to see he lived to succeed his father but unfortunately he was sickly throughout his life edward died in 1553 from an unknown cause likely tuberculosis or another disease affecting the lungs though as with most deaths of historical figures some people speculate he was poisoned this created an interesting turn of events for not only england but ireland as well during edward's reign he and his administration had begun to feel as though bringing ireland to english rule-acquired brute force the surrender and re-grant policy of henry failed almost immediately as the gaelic lords had agreed to it to get the king off their backs but then went back to ruling their own lands in their own way and found the government in dublin too weak to do anything about it though attempts were made to prevent her ascension following the death of edward his older sister mary became queen of england mary unlike her father and younger brother was firmly catholic and would try to drag england from protestantism back to catholicism in england her methods of doing this would earn her the name bloody mary but in ireland the irish were fairly content with this catholicism was not disappearing in ireland and the english had often lacked the power to change that the irish were glad to see mary on the throne but nevertheless they weren't sure about the future and still felt a stronger loyalty to their own people and to the pope and the church which in their eyes at this time kind of came before the english monarch perhaps they were justified in doing so mary though a catholic was still an english woman and made efforts to control ireland largely to the use of plantations a tactic which would change the face of ireland forever plantations were essentially forms of colonizing ireland with loyal englishmen queen mary's main efforts were in the modern day offlane leash called the plantation of the king's county and queens county these areas were specifically chosen to displace rebellious irishmen the o'connors and o'morris in 1566 the local irish weren't exactly content with this and pursued warfare against the english naturally the english had a hard time attracting settlers to such an area i'm sure you can imagine that if you were a well-off englishman or english woman you wouldn't want to uproot in an already unstable time to go live in a war zone and for all intents and purposes these plantations essentially became military fortifications in november of 1558 mary died despite attempts to prevent it her sister elizabeth would succeed her once again england was to change religions as her sister was a protestant and wished to continue the work of her father securing ireland was now once more in modern terms a matter of national security for the protestant english hoping to prevent the island from allying with the spanish or french and being used as a base from which a catholic invasion could come justifying further the very costly efforts to subdue the island this fear was not quite so unrealistic and in fact in elizabeth's first years as ruler she was faced with this issue in ulster the earl of tyrone shane o'neill acted increasingly troublesome he had taken the rule of tyrone illegally in the eyes of the english as his father had declared his first born son his successor but in accordance with gaelic breton law shane took a position for himself and defeated english attempts to stop him though an enemy of england and an ally of the scottish mcdonnell clan which was settling in antrim at the time who were foes of the english elizabeth was forced to negotiate she offered to allow shane to keep his rule so long as he accepted english law and submitted to the lord deputy of ireland the earl of sussex but he refused and in 1561 shane defeated the english again at the battle of red sagans within his reign he would become the enemy of other irish lords the mcdonald's of scotland and the english surrounded by enemies he went so far as to invite the french into the fight and even offered to become a subject of the french king consequently he was heavily pursued by the english under sir henry sydney but he was beheaded by the antrim scots before they could reach him in 1567. shane's head was taken to dublin where it rested on a pike on the castle walls elizabeth continued to pursue a military campaign against ireland and though shane o'neil was defeated the o'neills and ulster in general were and would continue to be a problem for the english elizabeth's forces swept through ireland subduing much of the island removing catholicism wherever they saw it often violently and reforming the island to be truly english not anglo-irish or worse gaelic irish yet ulster remained the most defiant shane's successor turla lanak gathered together an irish and scottish force to stand against the english invaders at the same time rebellions in conflict and monster were sprouting up in response to elizabeth's attempts at plantation there these plantation attempts would also be disastrous as the rebellions continued for decades with the slaughtering of the innocent scourged earth tactics guerrilla warfare mercilessness against foes and foreign intervention from spain and the pope by the 1590s one third of monstrous population had died from the conflict starvation and sickness in ulster conflict came again under a ruler whom the english had thought to be loyal to the crown hugh o'neal hugh o'neal had formed an alliance of ulster chieftains and asked for assistance from spain and then moved against england sparking an event in april of 1593 which would come to be known as the nine years war the english brought together an army of 27 000 men to deal with this threat the largest force to invade ireland up to that point ever despite this intimidating force the irish were seeing victory and by 1596 were receiving supplies and later soldiers from the spanish the spanish armada had been defeated by the english a decade earlier and they were eager to get back at them and deal a blow to them and the two countries continue his struggle essentially all of ireland outside the pale was an open rebellion and in league with the catholic spanish the nine years war was more than just a thorn in the side of england winning it was now a matter of securing england itself at the siege of kinsale from 1601 to 1602 the tides turned on the irish their defeat at the hands of charles blount the earl of mount joy would cause the spanish to pull out from their intervention and the rebellion in ireland to fade on march 30th 1603 hugh o'neal surrendered conflict would then slowly start to come to a close in april though elizabeth had died a week prior on march 24th she had finally achieved what no other english ruler had rule of the entire island of ireland it came at great cost however england was in debt by around four hundred thousand pounds at least a hundred thousand people died in this conflict including thirty thousand english soldiers largely from famine and disease many of the earls left ireland not long after in an event known as the flight of the earls to stay in catholic europe and look for military backing to return to ireland and reclaim it fun side fact provided my family tree is accurate one of my great grandfathers richard boyle was actually involved in these events eventually becoming the earl of cork and the father of robert boyle making him my great uncle after having worked with queen elizabeth and all that he comes into the la violet line my last name through my paternal grandfather's great grandmother not that i take england's side in this i really take sides on this channel just thought i'd you know throw that in there anyway now we can go around the class and you all can tell me a fun fact about yourself elizabeth was succeeded by her cousin james who was james the first of england and ireland and james vi of scotland scotland was held in a personal union with england and ireland but existed as its own country with its own laws nevertheless the three countries along with of course whales which was at this time under england but not to be forgotten were all united under one monarch for the first time in history james would continue much of the work of his tudor predecessors namely plantations and spreading protestantism in ireland throughout his kingdom catholic priests were banished and attendants at protestant religious services were compulsory though as usual these laws had much less effect in ireland which still remained catholic admittedly however james lightened up on irish catholics more than his predecessors avoiding potential conflict james's lasting legacy in ireland would be continuing the plantations most significantly in ulster as we've discussed attempts at plantation in ireland prior to this were significant failures this time james focused on ulster the land which was historically difficult for the english to control and an area where the government had an opportunity to seize land with less commotion as much of the land was owned by the rebellious earls who had left in the flight of the earls by 1610 after land and population surveys were undertaken and maps were created the process of plantation had begun many who were given land were the servitors soldiers who had served the queen loyally during the nine years war and men who could furthermore defend the territory if need be many others came from england and especially scotland where presbyterian scots became the ulster scots there was naturally great emphasis on these settlers being protestant if they were catholics it would defeat the purpose after all however many native irish were granted lands as well in exchange for loyalty to the crown though their taxes were higher the process of plantation and ulster continued with jon's successor charles the first and by 1641 the population of planters in ireland reached about a hundred thousand which was one tenth of ireland's population at the time a huge wave of people in a short time but regardless in the rest of ireland catholic irish still controlled three-fourths of the country families such as the johnstons grahams armstrongs montgomery's hamiltons gibbons etc were active in this plantation naturally the english replacing emphasis on their loyal and protestant planters over the anglo-irish now referred to as the old english the descendants of the normans if you recall and of course the gaelic irish james had held things together fairly well but charles the first was a lot less successful of a monarch in many ways as we will see and upset the irish the old english and even the planters furthermore he was not alone in this his lord deputy of ireland thomas wentworth the earl of stratford played a big role too charles had major enemies in england and scotland as well early on in his reign he became involved in the 30 years war a conflict in europe defined by religious differences but also political struggles throughout his reign charles would lose the support of parliament and be in constant conflict with him never truly seeing eye to eye when charles had attempted to force anglican religious practices on the presbyterian scottish it led to the bishops war when the covenanters of scotland rebelled parliament refused to give charles the funds to fight his fellow protestants and things began to truly start heating up in britain the bishops war would be the prelude to the english civil war which was a conflict belonging to a much larger series of conflicts known as the wars of the three kingdoms england was about to spend the rest of the century with the power in england being bounced around to various factions and as with other incidents in english history like the war of the roses this was going to affect ireland significantly as well in ireland the government in dublin felt much the same way as the parliament of england and when the lord deputy of ireland was raising an army to assist charles they executed him people in england began to choose sides in a civil war which was now inevitable those loyal to the king english catholics the nobility and the welsh and cornish came together as the royalists under charles the protestants scottish and common folk tended to support the parliamentarians under the rebellious parliament in ireland a similar divide was taking shape the ulster planters and the government in the pale lean towards supporting the parliamentarians whereas the irish catholics who saw charles as a more lenient king especially compared to the more devoutly protestant parliamentarians and hostile protestant scottish who threaten them saw charles as the better option both sides were ultimately motivated by fear the irish feared a starkly protestant government who would wage war on their beliefs and their country the english and scottish feared a king who ruled without parliament and could even restore catholicism to the nation with the help of an irish army this fear would become brutal anger rebellion in ireland erupted in october of 1641 catholic irish gentry such as philip o'neill rory o'moore donna mccarthy and conor mcguire plan to surprise the english and take dublin castle and parts of ulster and then issue demands for the rights of catholics to be recognized they intended to do this with little bloodshed and figured that when they controlled these areas the irish catholic majority would support them unfortunately for them a protestant spy owen o'connelly discovered the plot and the element of surprise was gone dublin castle was not taken but areas of ulster were captured they claimed to be acting in the name of the king but this was almost certainly not the case and his supposed instructions were forgeries but it helped give the parliamentarians the incentive to move against the king anyway the english reacted by sending an army into ireland fearing the worst the brutality of these soldiers only exacerbated things and caused more of the irish to rise up in rebellion as the country's situation inflamed things became bloodier and ulster amid a poor harvest and economic decline the local peasants rose up in anger and fear against the ulster settlers killing many innocent families the leaders of the rebellion tried to stop them but they were unable to prevent the swarm of peasants that they had inadvertently unleashed estimates put the total number of ulster planters at 4 000 killed with around 10 to 12 000 more killed by related famine and disease the english for propaganda reasons slightly exaggerated this number to two hundred thousand imagine taking something like the 9 11 attacks and reporting instead that the entire state of new york was vaporized by nuclear weapons based on a real incident but exaggerated to an extreme degree it's uncertain whether or not there were even 200 000 ulster planters in total but this goes to show a how crucial the english felt getting the population on their side was and b how little people really knew because of how poorly information traveled in the 17th century makes her really appreciate this whole internet thing charles sent forces to ireland who were purportedly there to put down the rebellion but in truth ended up working with the irish rebels in 1642 the english civil war had truly begun as the parliamentarians declared their intention to punish all catholics for the rebellion of the prior year nearly all ireland rose up in revolt later that year in may the irish gentry met at kilkenny and established central leadership under the confederation of ireland this was not really an independence movement but it was absolutely a movement against the english to force them to recognize the rights of catholics the pope sent an envoy partially in support of the rebellion but also to ensure a focus on catholicism not merely land or political rights by 1649 the english and scottish had captured king charles and beheaded him the english civil war had for now been won with a parliamentarian victory and england came under the rule of their new government with a man named oliver cromwell in control of the new model army one of the most powerful armed forces in the world at a time with england secure cromwell thus planned to move into ireland where he would become one of the most hated figures in irish history he arrived in ireland in august of that year focusing on taking and securing ulster and the major cities by winter much of the island was under his rule by 1652 ireland had been subdued cromwell sought not only to subjugate the irish but eradicate catholicism during the period of 1641-1652 ireland's population was cut almost in half by disease famine and brutal unrestrained killing and the majority of the dead were catholics soldiers and civilians alike were killed and enslaved and shipped off to work in the caribbean including catholic priests who were a specific target as there were often bounties placed on them many were clubbed to death to save bullets some were lucky and fled to spain of france cromwell began confiscating land from the irish banning many of the former rebellious catholic owners to as i said the caribbean as slaves or to desolate regions and cannot the land was then returned to protestant lords and soldiers who were owed wages thus the land was ruled in the majority by protestants about ten thousand protestants settled throughout ireland and lands given to them as payment for their services soldiers were required to keep their weapons and serve as a militia in england cromwell was essentially acting as a king and all but name but he did not live to rule for long dying in 1658 england would return to the rule of a monarchy as charles ii charles's first son claimed the throne charles ii would make the wise move of pardoning many of those who had acted against his father including in ireland but he would not allow all the changes to remain he moved to return land to a small percentage of the catholic population in ireland who could prove that they were not a part of the rebellion it was not a huge increase going from only about 10 to now 20 percent of the land being owned by catholics but it slightly eased the still very strong tensions and the grave times ireland was facing the tables flipped yet again in england as charles ii named a catholic heir to the throne who would become james ii in 1685. this as you might expect caused a great deal of commotion in england having a catholic monarch threatened protestants in england and their hold on ireland especially as james had named a catholic lord deputy of ireland the commotion settled down when he named his daughter mary who was married to william of orange stockholder of the netherlands his heir both of whom were protestant the english breathed a sigh of relief and then he changed his mind he named his catholic son to be his heir and parliament rose up against him to challenge the monarchy once again in an event known as the glorious revolution william was made king along with his co-monarch wife mary james fled to ireland where he knew the catholic population would support him in ireland this led to the williamite wars which was both a war for the throne of england but also an irish attempt at rebellion and revenge against the protestant elite with a catholic english king making a grab for the throne this was their chance james with backing from king louis xiv of france attempted to secure control of ireland but by 1691 limerick had been taken and he recognized his defeat was inevitable he abandoned his forces fleeing france earning him the name sheamus on haka sheamus being the irish equivalent word for james seamus james sean john etc and anahaka being a title that you don't really want as a ruler the pre-war order returned the protestant elite resumed command of ireland catholics were barred from a number of positions observance of catholicism was banned and a large number of rebels were deported to france in an event known as the flight of the wild geese it is from this time that the protestant irish associate themselves with the color orange an association which lasts to this day and the victory of this war is still celebrated by the protestant irish as well the protestants crack down on irish catholics again who had been troublesome throughout the 17th century the distinction between the gaelic irish and the norman irish disappeared old penal laws were reintroduced alongside new ones catholic land ownership fell significantly catholics could not vote or hold public office they could not run schools they could not enter legal professions and they could not bear arms or hold high ranks in the army however it was not illegal per se to be a catholic the english at this point were more concerned with controlling the catholics rather than converting drugs of them and thus catholicism was heavily regulated and looked down upon but not exactly illegal nevertheless catholicism held on strongly in ireland at the start of the 18th century 75 of the country was still catholic being ruled by less than the top 25 percent as now presbyterian officer scots weren't on the same level as anglican irish either the english still however made conversion an enticing and easy option publicly denounced catholicism convert to the protestant faith and your rights were returned some went along with this many did not in 1707 under queen anne the successor of the joint monarchs king william iii and mary the second the acts of union merged the kingdoms of england and scotland into the united kingdom of great britain ireland was no longer just a possession of england it was now a part of the british empire which would spend the next two centuries becoming the largest empire in world history compared to the 17th century when blood was spilled across the whole island of ireland and rebellions religious conflicts and civil wars the early half of the 18th century was a less violent time for ireland sometimes referred to as the long piece though of course that is not to say that the irish namely the catholic majority were content with things or that it was a prosperous age for the country there was considerable economic technological social and architectural development in this time period famous figures like jonathan swift of dublin known for his works such as gulliver's travels and edmund burke also of dublin a statesman and philosopher were born in this time though as you might expect from what we've covered so far much of this progress and enlightenment was unique to the cities and the plantations ireland outside of this land was a rural place dependent on subsistence farming many of the landowners were englishmen who weren't frequent residents of their own land in ireland though firmly under english protestant rule ireland was very much also a place where two distinct cultures existed parallel to each other in 1740 a devastating famine hit ireland caused by extreme unusual cold around 400 000 people would die that winter and another 150 000 would emigrate to bryn's colonies the situation was exacerbated by a serious drought the following spring many of those afflicted were the impoverished city dwellers the four hundred thousand dead and the one hundred fifty thousand who would leave equaled about thirty percent of ireland's population at the time ireland had retained its religion but it was now in the 1750s beginning to lose another feature of its identity its language it was in the 18th century that bilingualism became more and more important to the irish people as knowing english allowed them to interact with the more prosperous english society the decline of the irish language truly took off in the 19th century as many irish would leave for other parts of the british empire or its successor states like the us and canada who spoke english english would become so common that today many outside ireland and the united kingdom are often not aware that a separate language apart from english exists in ireland i can personally say that this is the case in the united states where many people are surprised to learn that the irish have their own language but indeed until the 19th century irish was the majority language of the country irish is a celtic language distinct from germanic languages like english and german and the romance languages like french spanish and italian it has not left many marks on english despite its proximity though many names like sean sheamus colleen which comes from colleen the word for girl brian popular from of course brian beru and brendan meaning prince are popular these days the spelling and pronunciation are very foreign to english speakers as well as the structure of the language itself the phrase on will galaga agat meaning do you speak irish is technically literally translated is there irish at you there is also no exact word for yes or no a feature shared with other languages like latin finnish and other closely related languages like scottish gaelic and minx people respond with the affirmative or negative of the verb the political atmosphere of ireland began the change in the 60s and 70s a major cause of such change was the american war of independence the british desperate for troops lifted many bans on irish catholics serving in the military and shipped many irishmen to fight on the site of britain in the war many irish protestants however actually favored the american side of the war as they felt as well that they should be governing ireland on their own with less interference from london on the colonial side many ulster scots irish had immigrated to america and played an important role in the war of independence during this time to secure catholic loyalties to the crown the english granted land-owning catholics the right to vote by 1783 many irishmen took part in a successful rebellion against england though on another continent during the american war of independence the irish parliament in a period of its history known as gratton's parliament after the very vocal henry gratton began making similar requests from the british government the irish were less revolutionary and didn't seek to cut ties with britain as america eventually decided to do but the british weren't prepared to handle yet another conflict say what you will about how the american revolution was handled when it came to ireland the british showed the world that they had learned their lesson in 1782 the british allowed the irish parliament more self-rule over the country this was hardly a real concession though the control of ireland still remained in london these concessions would not halt feelings of nationalism and new political thinking which had been spreading across the western world in 1789 the french people revolted against their monarchy overthrowing it and declaring their nation to be a republic this movement would greatly inspire the irish especially as they had seen that decade that their parliament was almost as ineffective as ever in 1791 in belfast northern ireland a group of protestants formed the society of the united irishmen led by a 28 year old man named theobald wolftone the united irishmen took a unique perspective to the concept of irish independence largely inspired by the french one of the main new ideas was an alliance between protestant and catholic a union of mutual irishness and disdain for the crown in which irish catholic and protestant work together in one nation to achieve independence wolfton began seeking allies at home and abroad he would form an alliance with a group of catholic middle class irishmen known as the defenders more threateningly the irish sought the aid of the french wolftone traveled to france to meet with the revolutionary government when wolfton met with this government he painted a slightly inaccurate picture of his nation he told them that all of ireland favored france and was ready to rise up in unified revolution the reality was that ireland was heavily divided religiously and politically and a supposed unified revolution was not guaranteed it would have to overcome this obstacle even if the society of united irishmen wanted it the french agreed to support him and in 1796 a force of 15 000 soldiers was sent to ireland under general lazar hosh this force alone outnumbered the british presence on ireland and combined with the irish forces had an alarming potential to drive britain out of ireland it could have even set the stage for a french invasion of britain and from there no one knows what could have happened and we never will as the expedition failed bad december weather had prevented the frontrun landing and wolftone devastated said that the british had had their greatest luck since the spanish armada when the british responded to the incident they cracked down on the irish hard houses were burned people were captured killed and tortured and tension began to build further rebellion began in may of 1798. in june much of northern ireland rose up and took control of much of the area but the forces there were overwhelmed by british and loyalist forces atrocities were committed on both sides rape and murder of civilians was common among the british and loyalist army but the rebels committed their fair share of murder too in one incident locking a number of protestant civilians in a barn and lighting it on fire on august 22nd french troops finally arrived but it was a much smaller force of around a thousand men this would not be enough to break the british offensive and by october the rebellion was defeated and wolftone was captured while aboard a friendship rather than face public hanging he cut his own throat these incidents beginning with calls for form to outright bloody rebellion would lead the irish in the opposite direction of what they were trying to attain the british having struggled with ireland for over 500 years up to this point now tried to bring about a final solution to ireland the irish would lose much of their voice altogether in a forced adjoining with britain in the acts of union in 1801 ireland's parliament was dissolved and it came under the direct rule of the parliament in westminster with the nations of britain and ireland effectively legally joined the catholic majority of ireland was no longer as much of an issue as the country now including britain was a majority protestant nation on the whole with napoleon beginning to set his sights on the whole of europe britain furthermore could not risk another irish incident and had to subjugate the island further ireland now a full-fledged member of the united kingdom would experience a number of political and economic benefits though as usual mostly favoring the protestant elite the political perspective of much of the catholic populace remained mostly unchanged especially when once more the government had promised to deliver certain rights to the catholics but then with great influence from king george iii went back on it much of ireland remained impoverished and underdeveloped and there was still talk of resistance and rebellion another rebellion was attempted under an irishman exiled in france however named robert emmett emmett designed new weapons trained a group of soldiers and made detailed plans regarding his rebellion which would begin by taking dublin castle unfortunately for him when his rebellion took place in 1803 it amounted to less than a city riot less than 100 people were killed on both sides and emmett was later captured and executed though his rebellion is a footnote among the many rebellions in ireland he is remembered more so for his words prior to his execution let no man write my epitaph for is no man who knows my motives dare now vindicate them let not prejudice or ignorance disperse them let them and me rest in obscurity and peace and my tomb remain uninscribed and my memory in oblivion until other times and other men can do justice to my character when my country takes her place among the nations of the earth then and not till then let my epitaph be written i have done ireland continued in a similar state as it had for the past century protestants held the power of the country and the catholics remained a subjugated people protestant land ownership especially from absentee landlords and a lack of agricultural development meant that farming was a mess for the lower orders in ireland and poor yields resulting in famine and deaths were common between 1816 and 1842 there were 16 incidents of minor to major famines in ireland including one in 1816 often regarded as the year of no summer a volcanic eruption in indonesia caused dust and debris to block out the sun snow fell in june and july and crop yields reduced sharply ireland relying on subsistence farming suffered considerably as you've seen these were not the first famines in ireland nor would they be the last these issues were exacerbated by taxation the most angering of all taxes were those placed on catholics to support the protestant church the amount of poverty and unrest led to an increase in violence and crime rural ireland was a dangerous and tumultuous place not only were the irish suffering but they were angered by what they felt was a lack of means to do much about their situation in 1823 a wealthy catholic named daniel o'connell began to make efforts to try to change the situation in ireland he believed that much of ireland's difficulties were rooted in the fact that catholics remained second-class citizens and he felt that rallying their voice would have a positive impact on the country he founded the catholic association a group of catholics dedicated toward his ideas which for the cost of only one penny a month attracted the peasantry who were hit hardest by the situation within five years o'connell would make the bold move to run for parliament the first catholic to do so since the 1600s he won the election and the british had to decide what to do prime minister arthur wellesley hero of the napoleonic wars and born in dublin himself agreed to accept this allowing irish catholics to vote and enter parliament though of course under the conditions that this would be a very small portion of the catholic population reserved for the wealthy minority once in parliament o'connell would spend his career trying to reverse the acts of union he was not a complete rebel and did not seek independence for ireland but he did want to see ireland have more self-rule and work to bring back its parliament for ireland to truly prosper he believes it couldn't be entirely ruled by london he wouldn't succeed in his efforts towards home rule but through his rallies and protests which he strongly believed should be carried out peacefully he would be a powerful force in rallying the irish voice once more his peaceful nature would be instrumental in reversing the protestant perspective that the irish catholics were a wild rebel and ease the fears of the ulster protestants that this would lead to trouble and insurrection though as these movements went on as they had throughout much of irish history ireland was beginning to face a new threat from a new invader across europe a potato blight was moving westward affecting millions in belgium denmark france germany and the uk but when it came to ireland in 1845 it would hit hardest of all ireland was experiencing a population boom it was now home to about 8 million people and it had achieved these numbers without all the agricultural advancements of the industrial revolution to be found in the rest of britain and furthermore with a great reliance on a single crop the potato and only a single kind of potato which was now under threat when the great portion of this crop throughout the country became slowly inedible this famine among all the others in irish history earned the name on gortamor the great death known more commonly in english as the irish potato famine the potato blight caused by fear of torah and feystons would cause up to 2 million people to either die or leave ireland the british government had a limited response at first grain and corn shipments were sent to ireland and the government employed the impoverished and harsh labor to be able to afford food but in 1846 when the famine truly started taking a toll john russell became prime minister he enacted a laissez-faire economic policy and stopped the shipments believing that it wasn't an issue for which the government should be responsible there was a mix of response among the british landlords some would go bankrupt in efforts to try to help the irish poor but many absentee landlords would simply evict the impoverished workers and continue to ship other sources of food out of ireland in the face of people starving and dying in the streets one of the main government officials involved in colonial efforts charles trevillian openly claimed that the famine was a lesson from god it was a punishment on catholics and it was necessary to teach them to be less reliant on the government this event remains one of the most controversial in the history of british and irish relations to this day as some continue to argue that the irish were primarily responsible for their own famine others argue that the english were guilty of genocide or something close to it and others argue that no one side was to blame and that both sides made mistakes in an almost unstoppable event 1847 is remembered as the black year of the famine four hundred thousand people died in black 47 alone many died from diseases caused by weakness before starvation could kill them a year later the drastic effects of this would encourage the failed 1848 rebellion many of those who could left ireland emigration from ireland had been common in the 19th century but the famine would greatly intensify these numbers as irish crowded on boats in unsanitary and dangerous ships to brave the voyage to places of opportunity such as nearby britain canada australia and the united states some would later return to ireland but the great majority would go on living in these new countries and before long the descendants of irish immigrants would greatly outnumber the population of ireland itself in america they would form large communities in cities like boston and new york but would also move westward in the country's great expansion with the conditions from which the irish came and the ones in which they found themselves in their new homelands they faced heavy discrimination within a generation of assimilation however much of this discrimination and stigma largely disappeared and the irish became an integral part of the societies to which they immigrated at the end of the famine in 1850 a quarter of the irish population had died or emigrated equalling about a million dead and a million who left many would continue to emigrate even after the famine many who left outside of ulster were among irelands more skilled and educated which would damage irish society further those who stayed bitterly resented the british and the more peaceful movements under men like daniel o'connell slowly faded to more violent ones this rebellious sentiment however would coalesce into a greater movement among the immigrants abroad and many irish separatist groups were rooted in the united states such as the clonagal and the irish republican brotherhood known also as athenians in 1858 the decades after the famine among the irish would be mostly focused on reform resistance and revenge at home and abroad in 1867 the fenians attempted a rebellion in ireland in the late 60s and early 70s the fenians in america many of whom were civil war veterans staged raids on the canadian border which came to skirmishes intended to cause many irish canadians to rise up and put pressure on the british government to lessen their grip on ireland but such raids failed the american government condemned the raids but interestingly may have turned a blind eye to them because of canadian and british uncertainty on a side in the american civil war the irish republican brotherhood would nevertheless continue in its resistance to british domination of the island oftentimes resorting to the first acts of irish terrorism in 1878 the potato blight returned to ireland sparking what is remembered as the land war crops failed and impoverished laborers were once more evicted from their homes the economy suffered and the threat of a return of the great famine concerned the irish greatly unrest brewed and in response to this the irish national land league arose under michael david a former fenian demanding rights for the tenant farmers the league's primary goals are summarized as the three f's fair rent fixity of tenure and freedom of sale they wanted to avoid outrageously high rent from absentee english landlords who wanted to avoid eviction by agreeing to a length of time in which they stayed under land and the right to be involved in the sale of the land essentially they wanted to bring more power to the tenant farmers from the absentee landlords and to reverse the most negative effects of english rule over lands which they felt were unjustly stolen from their ancestors one of the most effective means of resistance was to avoid business and socialization with landlords and those who did business with them who were corrupt or unfair to the irish people one of the first to suffer from this practice in ireland was captain charles cunningham boycott after whom the act was named and spread across the english language british prime minister william gladstone continued his work to try to return the land to the irish failing to have done so at this point could have resulted in major insurrection yet again such movements in ireland would not end here however in 1875 charles stuart parnell was elected into parliament he would work with gladstone on an even bigger change the move toward irish home rule not independence but in irish parliament and greater autonomy later in his career he would make alliances with athenians and the irish land league which was obviously concerning to the english in 1886 a home rule bill was introduced to parliament but it was turned down fearing it would cause a breakup of the entire empire if ireland britain's neighbor could resist then what of more troublesome places like south africa or india following this gladstone's party lost power and parnell was greatly embarrassed in the discovery of an ongoing sex scandal with a married woman he died in 1891 at the age of 45 from pneumonia this movement itself had largely fallen apart but the spirit of it had not and it coincided with a returned interest in irish nationalism and irish identity the irish people challenged the culture which they felt was becoming worryingly foreign in an effort to save their own from extinction old customs culture history and the revival of the language returned in this age with the question of home rule on the table organizations like conrad nagalaga dedicated to preserving the irish language were founded many great figures like oscar wilde and william butler yates lived in this time home rule was enticing to ireland except of course in ulster where the inhabitants namely the protestant church and the orange order were quite openly against it much of their position rested in union with the british they weren't interested in separatism with a nation which might not benefit them as much many unionists met in belfast to work against irish home rule the government made attempts to push the question to decide by appeasing the rebel with the land purchase act of 1903 but it did not work to that end by 1912 the question of irish home rule was back on the table in parliament it was approved and was set to take effect in september of 1914. britain had to take a measure to secure rule over ireland and granted the country its own parliament again but still not everyone was satisfied nearly 500 000 unionists signed the ulster covenant on september 28th of that year swearing to use any means necessary to prevent home rule the first man to sign was sir edward henry carson the following year a militia known as the ulster volunteer force was organized with 100 000 men prepared to go to war to defend their place in the british empire even if it were london who delivered home rule to the irish irish nationalists formed the irish volunteers and the irish citizen army as a response the island seemed on the brink of civil war this civil war may very well have come if not for external problems in 1914 world war one broke out dragging the british empire along with ireland into war with germany austria and the ottoman empire the british needing to focus all of their attention on germany suspended the home rule bill until the end of the conflict while they would have liked to have frozen ireland for the duration of the conflict it didn't quite work out that way the irish had mixed views on their participation in the war ulster loyal to the british empire fully participated many irish nationalists agreed that germany was as much of a threat to them as it was to britain though a minority of nationalists firmly disagreed and would have rather just formed a defensive force left out of the war until absolutely necessary two hundred thousand irishmen would fight in the first world war and thirty thousand would die serving in the british army while another 20 000 fighting in other armies such as the american one would perish as well in the first day of the battle of the psalm over 5 000 men from the 36th ulster division were killed one tenth or 1 6 depending on how you look at it of all irishmen killed in the war in a single day with many irish fighting abroad however the ones back home would take advantage of the opportunity that came with britain being distracted a revolution would begin in ireland not the bloodiest in irish history but perhaps the most important important with britain distracted by the war radical irish nationalists felt it was their time to move they began plotting rebellion even attempting to gain help from the germans though a shipment of german rifles was prevented by the british navy on april 24th 1916 easter monday a group of irish radicals took control of key public buildings in dublin and declared the formation of the independent irish republic they flew the irish tri-color created in 1848 and modeled off the flag of the french republic the white in the middle of the green and orange symbolized the hopes of a unification between catholics and protestants the british were caught off guard but when they responded they did so brutally 485 were killed on both sides thousands were wounded and much of central dublin was destroyed in the fighting the leaders of the rebellion were caught and executed not many irishmen had immediately risen enough to take part in the revolution but when britain in their eyes excessively punished ireland for the uprising by putting the country under martial law and imprisoning many innocent people it sparked a greater revolutionary sentiment the leading irish political party sinn fein which was incorrectly blamed for the uprising took advantage of the situation and created its own parliament called dalaran rejecting british rule it created the irish republican army to defend its cause when the british began conscription in ireland matters became worse and when world war 1 ended things began to pick up a few months later on the 21st of january 1919 the irish war of independence had begun leading the movement was eamon de valera arthur griffiths and the military commander michael collins the british would later reinforce the royal irish constabulary with a force known as the black intense after the color of their uniforms they were largely veterans of the first world war and they would ruthlessly pursue the irish republican army now fighting a guerrilla war against the british including targeting civilians but the black and tans earned a special reputation for it rape murder torture and the burning of entire villages were common they killed priests and politicians one famous incident was the killing of thomas mccurtain the lord mayor of cork and the long time rebel who was killed in his home in front of his wife one of the most famous incidents of the overall war however was bloody sunday on november 21st michael collins ordered the killing of a number of top british army officers and intelligence network officials eleven were killed three were wounded the black and tans responded by killing three irish soldiers they were holding prisoner and opening fire on a crowd of civilians at a football match that year the british government gave northern ireland and belfast home rule though the divides between the north and south were rooted in history hundreds of years old this was the beginning of the divide between the modern nation of ireland and northern ireland which to this day remains in the united kingdom southern ireland continued its fighting but many on both sides would be eager to end the conflict by the following year peace talks began in october of 1921 with michael collins and arthur griffith attending but not eamon de valera to the disappointment of the irish the situation of northern ireland was not up for debate six of the 32 irish counties would remain in the uk however the two sides agreed to the formation of the irish free state this was not a 100 percent independent nation but it did function fairly independently in a similar way as canada at the same time in 1921 the british had ruled ireland for 754 years collins believed that this agreement was the first step to creating a truly free irish nation that its people had sought all that time but others back home like the valera disagreed he believed in nothing less than total independence in january of 1922 the doll put the treaty with britain to a vote 64 members were in favor 57 were against the losing half did not accept its situation peacefully and by june a civil war broke out with collins on one end and devalera on the other in august of that year griffith died of a heart attack and michael collins was killed in an ambush nevertheless in 1923 due to british help the civil war was over with a free state victory and the valera surrendered in all 3 000 people had died in the fighting of both wars to the irish the men and women who had died had made the ultimate sacrifice for a nation which now had a new future both the irish and northern irish resented each other for the positions they had taken but many were glad to be separated from each other and on their way toward a new future which they hoped would be free from the fear that the other would take over ireland and northern ireland began to adapt to new ways of doing things politically economically socially culturally legally militarily etc in a rather complicated time fascism and communism were on the rise and it looked as though war was brewing in europe yet again it did and when britain became involved in what would become the second world war against germany though churchill and roosevelt encouraged irish involvement the irish remained neutral the leader of the government at the time was the valera who clearly was pardoned for that whole rebellion thing a decade earlier and felt that the nation was not in the right situation to be involved in such a major war nor was it exactly in his eyes a war in which the irish had to be involved naturally though the irish government favored the british they were affected by british losses and thousands of volunteers joined the british fight while hundreds of thousands of others worked in british jobs northern ireland however as a part of the united kingdom joined the fight fully and was even bombed by the german air force multiple times for its strategic naval importance during such bombings firefighters from the south often helped the northerners recover and they would even detain german pilots when the war was over the allies still somewhat frowned on the irish neutrality churchill even referred to de valera as useless and the soviet union argued against their admission to the united nations claiming that the irish were fascist sympathizers i encourage you to decide for yourself whether you think ireland should have done more or whether they were justified in sitting one out in 1949 the irish free state became a fully independent republic though finally independent the desire for unification between ireland and northern ireland never truly disappeared even as the two countries set off further in their separate ways and began to modernize unfortunately for the island it would not be so simple as going separate ways as a significant catholic minority remained in northern ireland protestants and catholics remained segregated catholics often felt that they were still second-class citizens in regard to employment education and living economic difficulties in northern ireland worried the protestant community of foreign threats namely of an irish nationalist takeover in 1968 nikra the northern ireland civil rights association was founded with the interest of guaranteeing catholics the same rights and opportunities as protestants though things would not go down so well that decade these differences would lead to a conflict in northern ireland known as the troubles between irish paramilitary organizations ulster loyalist paramilitaries and the british army it would quickly evolve into a political and ethnic conflict rather than an actual debate of catholicism and protestantism with the ulster loyalists defending what they saw as their union with britain and the irish attacking what they saw as an age-old incursion on their island protesters clashed on the streets when the situation became out of control the british military was sent into the area in 1969 civilians police and soldiers were killed in outbreaks of violence the irish republican army arose again pledging to fight for the rights of catholics in the area many men and women fearing that the british government had taken the side of the northern irish or at least failed to protect them began to support them the ira began a campaign of terrorism and guerrilla warfare in the region bombing specific targets of national and economic importance to the northern irish in 1972 northern ireland was once again put on a direct rule from london as the situation failed to resolve the provisional ira continued the war now aiming indeed to unite ireland and expel the british the unionist paramilitaries acted in what they saw as self-defense and the british government acted mainly to secure the area and end the violence in 1974 the ira bombed a number of soldiers in scotland in 1976 the british ambassador to ireland was killed in 1979 the queen's cousin the earl of mount baton of burma was killed in 1984 margaret thatcher was targeted but survived throughout the 90s many areas of london were attacked by 1989 almost 3 000 people of all walks of life had been killed in the fighting and as the conflict extended into the 90s many were hoping desperately for a resolution by 1994 the british government announced that it had no personal pursuits in ireland and sought only to objectively defend the will of the majority many irish nationalists laid down their arms peace talks were beginning they were even visited by american president bill clinton who is one of many american presidents to have irish heritage peace talks in the ira's eyes were taking too long and violence temporarily resumed in london but by 1997 the ceasefire was back on again under prime minister tony blair on good friday april 10 1998 the belfast agreement was signed though the ira would not truly announce the end of their armed campaign until 2005. in total 3532 people had died and over 47 000 people were injured what i do want to be clear about with this is that as i have discussed in many of my other videos this history is alive and well we or at least the irish in this case are not separate from it it's not something they just read about in history books or listen to an incredible fire of learning documentaries it's something that they live and this issue dating back to the 16th century or maybe the 12th century depending on how you see it is still an issue of a lot of tension anger and dispute in the two countries today most of us i'm sure lived or were born during this dispute going back to king james the first and henry viii though these conflicts have not disappeared compared to much of its history the past decade or two has been a golden age for the republic of ireland in the 2000s its economy was so strong that it was referred to as the celtic tiger and its standards of living became some of the best in europe culture exploded in ireland and a number of writers musicians politicians sportsmen and artists around today are irish ireland entered a recession in 2008 causing unemployment to reach almost 15 percent emigration common in the past returned temporarily but they have since turned much around and economically ireland is since 2014 called the celtic phoenix the irish language is still struggling but it is making a bit of a rebound and in a world where many languages will unfortunately go extinct in our lifetimes irish may be among the endangered languages to survive it is a language which i have already planned to learn myself today ireland struggles with many social issues which are common across the world but as always ireland is making up its own mind on these issues and doing things their way i hope you've enjoyed this documentary my hope is that someone who is unfamiliar with irish history can just kind of sit back and spend an hour and a half or so listening to this video and come out with a general understanding of irish history in full and to look at the map differently from now on and of course that is my intention with all my videos especially my documentaries i know that this is the case for many viewers because i know here in the united states they don't teach irish history apart from the potato famine and immigration which is unfortunate given how much of our population has irish heritage today about 33 million people or 10 percent of the american population which is interesting compared to modern ireland's population of just 6.5 million people my intention as always here at fire of learning is not to tell you how to think but rather to give you things to think about i encourage all of you to decide for yourselves what to think of irish history northern ireland britain and all the issues involved here i do think it is worth pointing out however that in ireland's long history whatever's been thrown at them famines plague war with vikings and centuries-long english and british rule they have always stood back up and fought to do things for themselves and to remain who they are as a people if you're interested i have done documentaries on the history of other countries as well as other subjects like dreams coffee aliens terraforming and shorter videos on all kinds of subjects i'd invite you to come check those out and to subscribe to keep up with all the videos i have coming in the future griff mahagat for watching

Channel: Fire of Learning

Views: 154,167

Keywords: History, of, Ireland, Irish, Eire, Documentary, History of documentary, Cool, Fire of Learning, Oro se do bheatha bhaile

Id: vFoxstHK-Kg

Length: 63min 30sec (3810 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 14 2018