For centuries, the
English maintained rule in Ireland. The two had been joined
politically after the Norman invasion of Ireland in 1169 and 1171
under Henry II with permission of Pope Adrian IV (the only English
Pope in Catholic history) to aid Dermot MacMurrough in retaking his
lost throne in Leinster. Henry made further conquests in Dublin and
created the Lordship of Ireland, making much of the island vassal
states with relative independence. Henry VIII, as part of his
Protestantizing of England, was named King of Ireland to assure his
political dominance over the vast Catholic majority. When Ireland
supported the Catholic James II against the incoming Protestant Mary
and her husband, William of Orange, and lost the Williamite War in
1691, rule became systematized through the Ascendancy, the Protestant
minority who controlled the Church of Ireland.
In 1791, the
Society of United Irishmen was founded in Belfast by liberal-minded
Protestants who sought togetherness through Irish nationalism and an
end to religious divisiveness. The success of the revolution in
France excited the Irish in Ulster to find unity, which was a stark
difference to the typical thinking that inspired sectarian warfare
such as that between the Protestant Peep o' Day Boys and the Catholic
Defenders. Loyalists fanned the flames of violence between them and
contributed to founding the Orange Order as another society to
counterbalance the efforts of the United Irishmen. When it became
obvious that the goal of universal suffrage was not to be found
politically, the United Irishmen looked for help in 1794 from
revolutionary France, who dispatched an army of 14,000 soldiers in
1796 that never landed due to inclement weather and poor leadership.
Uprising continued in Ireland without them, and the British reacted
with violent measures such as execution, arson, torture, and
pitchcapping. Martial law spread over much of the island, and
loyalist spies among the rebels led to the capture of much of the
Irish leadership.
On the
night of May 23, the British military received late notice of an
Irish march on Dublin. Samuel Neilson and Lord Edward
FitzGerald, two of the remaining Irish leadership, decided to
capitalize on the unrest born from martial law. British soldiers
marched en masse to capture rebel meeting places, but they found them
already held by the Irish. In furious firefights throughout the
city's alleys and squares, the cunning and local knowledge of the
rebels won out over superior British firepower. The city fell along
with hundreds of British dead and thousands captured. Rebels
intercepted mail-carriages, which was the secret signal to alert
their allies in the surrounding counties.
While the British stopped a similar
uprising at Carlow, the rebellion won out at Tara Hill and spread to
the north, where it turned into guerrilla warfare among those seeking
independence and those loyalists and Catholics who had come to
distrust revolution after the French's capture of Rome three months
before. Wexford (where the Normans had come into Ireland some 600
years before) became the center of Irish success, and the rest of the
island became embroiled in war. In September, France finally made
good on its promise of support, sending thousands of troops by sea
into County Mayo on the northwest, giving all but Ulster to the
revolution. The British, now wary of French intervention, began a
blockade of the island, and a second expedition in October was
intercepted. While the French were scattered, a few made it to
shore, including Theobald Wolfe Tone, one of the original leaders of
the United Irishmen who had been in exile since 1793 after the first
discovery of communications with the French.
Wolfe soared
through the ranks of the Irish with great promises, using to his
advantage his theatrical leanings and firsthand knowledge of the
French Revolution as well as interviews with General Napoleon (who
himself did not much believe in the success of an Irish movement).
Among some of his first actions were to remove the strength the
Anglican Church, and then to weaken the Catholic church, placing as
much property and money into government hands loyal to him. Wolfe
dispatched Robert Emmet to the newly crowned Emperor Napoleon for
additional aid, which was supplied, though the British redoubled
their efforts to find a foothold among loyalists frustrated with
Wolfe's rule. Napoleon was dubbed the greater enemy, however, and
the fighting in Ireland grew into a stalemate until 1812 with Allied
success in the Peninsular War and Napoleon's disastrous invasion of
Russia.
After forced
abdication in France, the British turned on Ireland, where Wolfe was
hastily overthrown. The chaos continued until the newly made Duke
of Wellington, Arthur Wellesley, an Irishman, was made military
governor. While he was very popular in London because of his war
service, he became immensely popular in Ireland after championing
reforms, particularly Catholic Emancipation. With a better balance
of political rule, reinforced by groundbreaking social services
instituted during the Great Famine of the 1840s. Wellington's
liberal nature, applauded by the Tories, would prove too much for
British sensibilities, hamstringing his chances of a prime
ministership.
Since its
turbulent, short-lived republic, Ireland has been a key member of the
British Commonwealth. It aided greatly in many of the Empire's
international concerns including both world wars, although a renewed
independence movement out of the Lost Generation in the 1920s that
came mainly as social reforms and literary marvels.
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In reality, the capture of Dublin was
foiled. While gains were made in Wexford over the summer of 1798,
Britain put down the rebellion, albeit with substantial violence.
Ireland would go through further rebellions in 1803, 1848, 1867, and
1913 until finally winning its independence in 1921. Ulster remained
with the United Kingdom and would be the site of additional violence
through the 1990s.
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