Why Ireland split into the Republic of Ireland & Northern Ireland

this is the island of ireland the island is politically split between the republic of ireland an independent country and northern ireland which together with scotland england and wales foreign the united kingdom but why exactly is england split and when did it happen to fully understand the situation we need to go all the way back to the 12th century after the normans had successfully invaded england and taken the throne they decided to invade ireland henry ii with the authorization of pope adrian iv to strengthen the papua's control over the irish church landed in ireland in 1171 and took control of large parts of the island and in the following year the lordship of ireland was created in which the lord of ireland was also the king of england the lordship of ireland was a papal possession held by the king of england this was the beginning of what would become centuries of english and later british rule over the island of ireland officially the lordship of ireland ruled over the entire island but in reality control was much less than this and over the years english control of ireland receded over time this was a time before there was a religious difference between ireland and england the english and the native irish were both catholic nations as this was a time before the emergence of protestantism so many of the norms in ireland assimilated into irish culture and some were said to have become more irish than the irish themselves laws were introduced which banned intermarriage between english settlers and the gaelic irish as well as a ban on the use of the irish language but these laws were largely ineffective by the late 15th century english rule was limited to an area known as the pale the early 16th century and what became known as the protestant reformation in which many european powers turned their back on the roman catholic church forming a new branch of the christian faith although the reformation was about religion it also had a lot to do with politics as well with henry viii as the king of england the pope refused to annul his marriage to catherine of aragon this as well as other contributing factors caused henry viii to break away from the roman catholic church and establish the church of england with himself as the leader with this the political situation in ireland became uncertain as ireland was a papal possession with the king of england as lord of ireland in 1542 after an act of irish parliament henry viii was proclaimed king of ireland as the lordship of ireland became the kingdom of ireland however henry viii was not recognized by the catholic powers throughout europe after henry viii's death in 1547 his protestant raised nine-year-old son edward vi ascended to the throne but he died of illness just a few years later at the age of 15. mary the first henry viii's daughter was next tonight to the throne and since mary was nearly 20 years older than her half-brother edward she was raised before the protestant reformation and was therefore catholic because of this mary the first was recognized as the queen of ireland ireland had remained loyal to the pope and the island was almost entirely catholic in 1603 after the death of queen elizabeth the first and last of the churro dynasty james vi of scotland also became king of england because of his somewhat unique family ancestry in which he was the son of mary the first queen of scots and also the great great grandson of henry vii he was therefore known as james the first king of england and also king of ireland as well this was known as the union of the crowns in which scotland england and ireland all shared a common monarch in 1609 under james the first reign the plantation of ulster was a process by which scottish and english settlers confiscated land from the gaelic irish this was seen as a way to stop rebellion in the north as ulster had been a region of ireland most resistant to english rule although there had been plenty of plantations in ireland throughout the years the plantation of ulster was by far the most successful and within just a few decades the protestant colonies population was thriving and even made up a majority in some areas in the north in 1641 irish catholics and alster staged a rebellion against the settlers or slightly irish confederate wars between the irish catholic and federation and the scottish and english settlers most of the island of ireland was under de facto irish catholic rule for several years this was until 1649 when oliver cromwell and his new model army conquered ireland after overthrowing the english monarchy executing charleston first and declaring himself lord protector of scotland england and ireland cromwell ruled over the three kingdoms until his death in 1658 during this time there was more confiscation of land from the native catholics and anyone even suspected of being involved in the 1641 rebellion was executed his son richard very briefly ruled afterwards but the monarchy was restored in 1660 when charles ii became king son of the executed charles the first charles ii was protestant but his brother james ii had converted to catholicism during his time in france so when charles ii died in 1685 scotland england and ireland once again had a catholic monarch at this point the majority of people in scotland and england were protestant and many were uneasy with james ii as their monarch however next in line to the thrones his daughter mary who was protestant this all changed in 1688 with the birth of his son though would be james iii who would undoubtedly be raised catholic the only reason his daughter mary was protestant was because his late brother and former king demanded she be raised as such so with this change it looked like scotland and england would have a catholic monarchy for the foreseeable future the birth of the king's son sparked what became known as the glorious revolution in which the two major political parties invited william of orange to invade england and take the throne william of orange successfully defeated his father-in-law who also happened to be his uncle since william and mary were first cousins and they took the throne together as william iii and mary the second king and queen of england of course this also made them king and queen of ireland and with a catholic majority this was obviously not received well this started a war in ireland between the native irish led by james ii who were mainly catholic against the kingdoms of scotland and england the william it war in ireland resulted in victory for king william for the next century catholic majority ireland was ruled by a protestant minority known as the protestant ascendancy in 1707 the kingdom of scotland and the kingdom of england joined to create the kingdom of great britain and then in 1798 there was an uprising against british rule in ireland in the irish rebellion of 1798 inspired by the french revolution a decade earlier the rebellion failed but it caused a lot of uncertainty on the political situation of ireland there were concerns that ireland might ally themselves with france and break away from british rule so in 1801 ireland joined the union and became the united kingdom of great britain and ireland opposition to the union was strong and occasionally escalated into violence the late 1800s saw a rise in demand for self-government and in 1886 the first home rule bill was proposed in response to this the liberal unionist party was created in support of the union and opposed irish home rule the bill failed as did the second bill proposed in 1892 but in 1914 the third home rule bill was passed but 1914 was also the year in which world war 1 started and therefore the bill had to be put on hold with the british army still occupied with the war in europe irish republicans staged a rebellion in dublin called the easter rising with a goal of putting an end to british rule in ireland and establish an irish republic the rising took place over the course of just a few days but nearly 500 people died most of whom were civilians but with far superior numbers the british army managed to suppress the rebellion the result was an unconditional surrender by the rebel forces and most of the rebel leaders were executed in the 1918 uk general election an irish political party called shin fein who supported irish independence and many of their members had participated in the easter rising when 73 of the 105 irish states had the british parliament but they chose to not take their seats at the british parliament and instead decided to form their own irish parliament and proclaim an irish republic as a newly independent country the irish republic claimed the whole island of ireland but there was a lot of support for the union in the north especially in ulster in which four of the nine counties won a unionist majority this led to the irish war for independence primarily between the ira and the british army in 1920 with the warsaw ongoing a fourth home rule bell was passed superseding the third home rule bill that was passed but never implemented this partitioned ireland into northern ireland and southern ireland northern ireland consisted of six of the nine counties of ulster this was despite two of them having a catholic majority the rest of the island became southern ireland the split was intended to be a temporary solution to the war so ireland would remain part of the united kingdom with home rule but instead of having one irish parliament in dublin there would be two one in dublin for southern ireland and one in belfast for northern ireland this was an attempt to meet demands of both irish nationalists and irish unionists and while the northern irish government was successfully established the southern irish government was not the war continued and the southern irish government never functioned the irish war for independence lasted for two and a half years resulting in a ceasefire and the anglo-irish treaty the treaty established the irish free state which would become a dominion of the british commonwealth along with the likes of canada australia and south africa among others at the time the treaty included the whole island of ireland but had an opt-out clause for northern ireland which they immediately exercised so the short-lived southern ireland became the irish free state some were happy with the situation but others were not many were unhappy that ireland was still part of the british empire and wanted total independence so the irish nationalists were split between the pro-treaking nationalists and the anti-treaty nationalists the political party's shin fame split into two separate parties pro-treated shin fein that was happy with the status quo and the anti-treaty shin fein that sought full independence in the 1922 irish general election the two political parties that won the most seats were sinn fein and shin fein with the pro-treaty party winning more seats the disagreement escalated into civil war just one year after the end of the war for independence many men who had fought together in ireland's war for independence were now on opposing sides of a civil war the pro-treaty forces emerged victorious affirming the status of the irish free state of british dominion after the war the anti-treaty shin fame refused to take their seats to the irish parliament and protested the treaty because of this their leader eamon de valera resigned from the party and founded a new political party fina fall and they became the dominant political party in ireland from 1932 onwards he strongly opposed the treaty as well but thought his former party's tactics were not helpful in 1937 a referendum was held for a new constitution to remove all british ties from ireland 56 percent of people voted in favor and ireland's dotted new constitution becoming a fully independent country the country changed its name to ireland just ireland the country is often referred to as the republic of ireland to differentiate itself from the island of ireland but its official name as simply ireland this was to reflect the fact that ireland's claimed territory was the entire island believing the partition of ireland to be illegitimate despite is claimed though northern ireland continued as normal as part of the united kingdom ireland exercised their independence by choosing to remain neutral in world war ii which started just two years later and while that should be the end of the story there were three decades of ongoing violence from the late 1960s to 1990s in a period known as the troubles the violence was mainly concentrated in northern ireland but occasionally spilled over into ireland england and even mainland europe although the majority of northern ireland's population was protestant and unionist there was a substantial minority or catholic and nationalists and wanted northern ireland to join the republic after three decades of conflict between various organizations and thousands of casualties a ceasefire was called to put a stop to the violence in 1998 with the good friday agreement the agreement caused the republic of ireland to amend their constitution removing the territorial claim over northern ireland and the british and irish governments agreed that if a majority of people in northern ireland wish to leave the united kingdom and join the republic the governments will make it happen the lasting impact of the troubles can still be seen today especially in belfast in which there are walls that separate protestant and catholic communities and there is still occasional violence however the situation is improving and the government has made a goal to remove all these so-called peace walls by the year 2023

Channel: WonderWhy

Views: 5,141,820

Rating: 4.7798467 out of 5

Keywords: Ireland (Geographical Feature), Republic Of Ireland (Country), Northern Ireland (Country), United Kingdom (Country), split, division, independent, Dublin, Belfast, WonderWhy, The Troubles (Military Conflict), Irish War Of Independence (Military Conflict), Irish Civil War, Sinn Féin (Political Party), Fianna Fáil (Political Party), Éamon de Valera, Oliver Cromwell (Military Commander), Henry VIII Of England (Monarch), Anglo-Irish Treaty, Irish Free State (Country), Southern Ireland

Id: dCJMQgfHXNI

Length: 11min 48sec (708 seconds)

Published: Sun Jun 21 2015

Reddit Comments

[u/nikomo]

Waaait a second, that's not CGP Grey.

[u/johnturkey]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Ejga4kJUts

[u/Honey-Badger]

For those wondering if the troubles still affect us in the UK today, there was an attempted car bomb on a police car in Belfast last week.

[u/Leadtorrent]

I enjoyed learning about the ayland of Ayrland

[u/armyrope115]

I would recommend anyone who liked this video to do more research into the civil war in Ireland. Its such an incredibly interesting subject with lots of history and very cool stories surrounding it

[u/ClandestineMovah]

I'm English and to honest I've never fully understood this, not even now. There's a lot of time to cover and a lot of information to include.

That's a well made video though. I know more than I did.

[u/Teract]

Umm... so what about the Irish Famine? Ya know, the one that was exacerbated by England's greedy lords?

Also, did they leave out that the Irish were heavily discriminated against because they were Catholic? No voting rights, no land ownership, no education?

The video completely skips over many of the VERY legitimate reasons for the Irish's desire to split from England.

[u/djferris123]

If you enjoyed this video I'd recommend reading up on the politics of Northern Ireland. We have our own Legislative Assembly (which is our devolved legislature) which is a mandatory coalition and most of the political parties only stand in Northern Ireland. Sinn Fein are in the Republic, and I think Fianna Fail have a presence but haven't contested any elections and NI and at the last election only the Conservatives and UKIP were the only UK wide parties to have candidates so it's in its own little political bubble almost.

[u/Margamel]

This just made a whole load of things click from the TV show Peaky Blinders. I never really understood the references or the weight behind them, but now I have some appreciation for them.