Why is Ireland Divided? (Short Animated Documentary)

when people win their independence and break away from their colonial overlords they normally take their entire country with them yet when Ireland successfully revolted against its inclusion within the United Kingdom it did not this Chunk in the north remains to this day a part of the United Kingdom despite it previously being administratively a part of Ireland which raises a pretty obvious question why didn't Ireland take the north with it why is Ireland divided well first of all we need to go back to the 17th century this was when the English and Scottish Thrones were held by the same man James the first James was also the king of Ireland at least in name and he wanted much greater control over it his problem was that he was a Protestant King with Catholic subjects whom he thought were much more loyal to Rome than they were to him mostly because they were as such he sees lands in the north and gave them to Protestant settlers a process which over the centuries changed the religious demographics in the north and over those centuries the Protestants held much greater rights within Ireland than the majority Catholic population political office was reserved for Protestants whereas Catholics couldn't own land nor could they practice their people speak their own language without harassment in the early 19th century British leadership feared rebellion and so passed numerous reform acts which gave many of these rights back to Catholics as of the 1860s there were those in Ireland who pushed for what was called home rule which meant that Ireland would remain in the UK but with autonomy over the laws that governed it the British said no and would continue to do so for the next 60 years this position was buoyed by those living in the north who didn't see themselves as Irish but as British and so opposed anything that could potentially separate Ireland from Westminster in 1912 the pro-british population living in the north called unionist signed what was called the Ulster Covenant this was a document signed by half a million people and it essentially threatened Civil War if Ireland was given any autonomy World War one gave both sides something else to think about briefly but during the conflict the Easter Rising broke out this was a semi-spontaneous Uprising which wasn't popular amongst the Irish and was put down quickly and brutally by the British the brutality of the response as well as the quick and not very professional execution of the uprisings leaders further galvanized the Irish people against British rule in 1918 elections were held in Ireland end in which Sinn Fein a pro-independence party won an overwhelming Victory they created an Irish Parliament and promptly declared independence which meant War long story short the Irish won but Britain refused to give up the north due to the wishes of the majority of the people living there and also land as such Britain passed the government a violin act which split Ireland into two new parts of the United Kingdom Northern Ireland and southern Ireland which was by this point independent and so its leaders didn't care what the British Parliament had to say about it Northern Ireland was given these boundaries which the British Parliament chose because they were reasonably the most that they could keep whilst guaranteeing a unionist majority there in mid-1921 both sides agreed to a ceasefire whilst they created a lasting peace and it was decided that Britain would recognize Irish Independence on two conditions the first was the island degree to Britain keeping the North and second was the island would retain the British Monarchy and Irish leadership agreed to these conditions although it splits in feign and pushed Ireland into a Civil War the pro treaty side won and after that point the island of Ireland was divided between the two Nations and barring a drunken offer from Churchill reunion has never come close to being a reality I hope you enjoyed this episode and thank you for watching with a special thanks to my patrons James bisonet Kelly moneymaker cool show wolf Jerry lambden Jordan Longley Adam's daughter why in hockey Captain psydog rod D Martin Marvin Castle Spencer Lightfoot Gustav Swan commune boogly Wiggly Matthew Shipley Marcus arsner the mcwhopper Aaron the white Max and flaudio Maggie paxkowski Corey Turner Alex Schwinn Anthony Beckett spinning three plates Coppertone words about books podcast Winston K with Charles the first Benny Vincent and Scottish Trekkie

Channel: History Matters

Views: 1,433,007

Keywords:

Id: gF8ot5ulkBc

Length: 3min 32sec (212 seconds)

Published: Thu Feb 17 2022

Reddit Comments

[u/The_Little_Bollix]

It's broadly accurate and a good summery for such a short video. Actually, the only part that made me pause was the opening. I mean doesn't Britain have a long history of leaving counties divided? India, Palestine etc.?

[u/NewtonianAssPounder]

I’ve always watched his channel and thought him to be very good and informative, but knowing a decent amount of history around the War of Independence and Partition I can see how much he has to condense for a short easy to understand video.

[u/DvWNVvTE]

For a short 3 minute video it’s good.

I subscribe to this guy and he never disappoints. He’s got a great dry delivery

[u/CDfm]

For what it is , it's OK.

I was taught more biased history in School.

Some items you could get pedantic over . Like the Ulster Covenant being signed by 500,000. There was the Ulster Covenant signed by men only and that was 250,000 signatures. The Declaration signed by women had around the same . The combined total was in the region of 500,000.

There are a few bits that take liberties but it's a youtu.be.

As a tabloid or ladybird edition I'd say it's alright.

[u/MacManus14]

Not bad for a 3 minute video actually. I had to Laugh that he referenced Churchills drunken telegram ha

[u/T_at]

One thing that's worth pointing out - the settlement in Ulster wasn't the only attempt to establish a more loyal Protestant population in Ireland. There had been several previous attempts under Mary 1 and Elizabeth 1. The Plantation of Ulster happens to be the only one that was ultimately successful.

[u/MagicLion]

I can’t recommend this guys channel enough great history videos. Great overview on all sorts of random historical topics (but historia civilis is my favourite history YouTuber)

[u/daddylongshlong123]

Yeah this is fairly well summarised and accurate. Very rare to see such accuracy from a non Irish perspective. (Going by his English accent).

One thing that he should’ve mentioned was how the treaty that ended the Irish War of Independence and thus concluded with the separation of Northern Ireland from the new Irish Free State, was more of an ultimatum. A great terrible war was threatened against Ireland if it refused the treaty and continued the war.

[u/RustyBike39]

If you have no understanding of Irish history and want to learn more, this is a very good starting off point