England and Ireland
To understand this current situation, we will have to go back in history. There are three critical dates which lead to the situation today. Those dates are: 1170, 1609, and 1969. In the next paragraphs I will briefly explain what was going on in each of these years.To begin with, in 1170, Henry II ruled England. He attempted to attach Ireland to his kingdom. However, he only established control in a small area near Dublin known as the Pale. In that particular area, English citizens started moving in and adapting the English language, religion, practices, beliefs, and etc. Attempts were made to conquer the rest of Ireland, but major English expansion did not take place until the seventeenth century.In 1609, Queen Elizabeth's army had established the English rule over most of the island of Ireland, with the exception of the Northern Province: Ulster. The Ulster clans (Lead by Hugh O'Neil) had a very affective alliance against the English army. Unfortunately, after a long and damaging campaign, it was eventually brought under English control in 1703. By then, all the Irish leaders had left Ireland for Europe, and less than 5% of Ulster was controlled by Catholics Irish.
How to Solve This Problem:In the 1970's there were a couple of steps taken to try to resolve this conflict. The current problem stems from these last two points: The Unionists will not share power with the Republicans in a regional government until the IRA has started to decommission its weapons. The IRA so far has refused to decommission its weapons but it has promised not to use them. To be specific, no matter how qualified a Catholic was, the Protestant would always get the job, and so many Catholics were unemployed. The Protestant kids were put into the best schools and were taught that all Catholics were bad. Finally, the Unionists were happy because Northern Ireland would remain part of the UK. The Catholics almost had no control of Ireland. The Irish will have to give up their weapons, the weapons that the IRA uses. The problem is, whenever the Protestants live together with the Catholics everything starts to change and the Protestants start to have control over anything. In reaction to that, in the 1970's, the IRA (Irish Republic Army) began their terrorist reactions. The English will have to give up Northern Ireland completely, and let them establish their own government, religions, school systems, and etc. estlessness in Northern Ireland really started. So, that led as an inspiration, and the Irish started using violence as a form of defense. Unfortunately, both of these solutions were opposed for various reasons.
Common topics in this essay:
Northern Ireland,
Catholic Protestant,
Dublin Pale,
Ireland History,
Hugh O'Neil,
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Ireland Whenever,
Southern Ireland,
Henry II,
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Catholics Irish,
southern ireland,
british government,
using violence,
loyal english queen,
remain uk,
ireland officially,
loyal english,
republicans unionists,
regional government,
ireland divided,
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