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, form the United Kingdom.
But why exactly is the island 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 authorisation of Pope Adrian IV, to strengthen the Papacy’s control over
the Irish Church, landed in Ireland in 1171, and took control of large parts of Ireland.
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 the over 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 Native Irish were both Catholic nations, as this was a time before the emergence of Protestantism.
So many of the Normans 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 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 allow him 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 established the Church of England, with
himself as the leader.
With this, the 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 recognised by the Catholic powers throughout Europe.
After Henry VIII’s death in 1547, his Protestant-raised 9-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 I, Henry VIII’s daughter, was next in line 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 I was recognised 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 I, the last of the Tudor Dynasty, James VI
of Scotland also became King of England, because of his somewhat unique family ancestry in
which he was son of Mary I Queen of Scots and also the great-great-grandson of Henry
VII. He was therefore known as James I King of England, and also King of Ireland as well
This was known as the Union of Crowns in which Scotland, England and Ireland all shared a common monarch
In 1609, under James I’s 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
colonist population was thriving, and even made-up a majority in some areas in the north.
In 1641, Irish Catholics in Ulster staged a rebellion against the settlers, which led
to the Irish Confederate Wars - between the Irish Catholic Confederation and the Scottish
and English settlers. Most of the island of Ireland was under de facto Irish Catholic rule for a several years.
This was until 1649, when Oliver Cromwell and his New Model Army conquered Ireland,
after overthrowing the English Monarchy, executing King Charles I, 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 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 I.
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, England, Scotland and Ireland once
again had a Catholic monarch.
At this point, the majority of people in England and Scotland were Protestant and many were
uneasy with James II as their monarch. However, next in line to the throne was
his daughter Mary, who was Protestant.
This all changed in 1688 with the birth of his son - the 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 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 II
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 well received. This started a war in Ireland between the native Irish
led by James II, who were mainly Catholic against the Kingdoms and Scotland and England.
The Williamite 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 caused a lot of uncertainty on the political situation of Ireland
There were concerns that Ireland could 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 was proposed.
In response to this, the Liberal Unionist Party was created, in support of the Union,
and opposed to Irish Home Rule.
The Bill failed, as did the second Bill proposed in 1892, but in 1914, the 3rd Home Rule bill was passed.
But 1914 was also the year in which World War 1 started, and therefore the Bill was put on hold.
With the British army were 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 Sinn Féin, who supported
Irish independence, and many of their members had participated in the Easter Rising, won
73 of 105 Irish seats at 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 4 of 9 counties won a Unionist majority.
This led to the Irish War for Independence. Primarily between the IRA and British Army.
In 1920, with the war still ongoing, a fourth Home Rule was passed, superseding the 3rd
Home Rule Bill that was passed but never implemented. This partitioned Ireland into Northern Ireland
and Southern Ireland. Northern Ireland consisted of 6 of the 9 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 the 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 2 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 this 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-treaty Nationalists and the anti-treaty
Nationalists. The political party Sinn Féin split into two separate parties. Pro-treaty
Sinn Fein that was happy with the status quo, and the anti-treaty Sinn Féin that sought
full independence.
In the 1922 Irish General Election, the two poltical parties that won the most seats were…
Sinn Féin… and Sinn Féin. With the pro-treaty party winning more seats.
This 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, a British Dominion
After the war, the anti-treaty Sinn Féin refused to take their seats at the Irish parliament
in protest of the treaty. Because of this, their leader, Éamon de Valera, resigned from
the party and founded a new political party - Fianna Fáil, and they became the dominant
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% of people voted in favour, and Ireland adopted a 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 it from the island of Ireland,
but its official name is 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 this claim though,
Northern Ireland continued as normal, as part of the United Kingdom.
Ireland exercised their independence by choosing to remain neutral in World War 2, which started
just 2 years later.
And while that should be the end of the story, there were three decades of ongoing violence
from the late 1960s to the '90s, in a period known as The Troubles. The violence
was mostly 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 also a substantial minority that were Catholic and Nationalist, and wanted
Northern Ireland to join the Republic.
After three decades of conflict between various organisations, 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 their
territorial claim over Northern Ireland, and the British and Irish governments agreed that
if the 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 separating 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 of these so-called “Peace Walls” by the year 2023.