Figure 1.--. |
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A little history is necessary to understand clothing and fashion trends. The influence of England on Ireland is especially important. Thevrole of the church is another important factor. England ruled Ireland for about seven centuries. It had been Irish raiders that had terrorized Roman Britain. St Patrick in fact had been a Britain captured by Irish raiders and brought back to Ireland as a slave. This changed after the Norman conquest of England. For the first time a strong centralized Englisg state was able to projects its power on a Ireland that had not yet coalesed into a nation. After the Reformation the power calculations changed. A still Catholic Ireland was used as tool by a succession of Catholic monarchs (Philip II, Louis XIV, and Napoleon) to threaten England. Catholic power in Ireland was finally broken by William III at the Battle of the Boyne and the last challenge of James II to regain the throne. The Catholic Irish were disenfranchised and lost tutle to their land, become a landless peasantry. While the World War ended in 1918, the IRA led by Michael Collins led a violent struggle for Independence and the English responded in kibnd with the Black and Tans. Britain finally granted indeoendence to the Irish Free State.
Huuman habitation of Ireland began some time after 8000 BC. By this time the climate had become more moderate following the retreat of glaciers and the polar icecaps as the lase Ice Age wained. Archeologists note agriculture (about 4000 BC), probably introduced from the Continent. Agriculture and the higher production involved brought a new level of culture to neolithic (stone-age) Ireland. It is at this time that huge stone monuments begin to appear, commonly with astronomical alignments. Agriculture also resulted in an expanding population. Ireland entered the Bronze Age (about 2500 BC). Archeologists have found beautifully wrought gold and bronze ornaments and weapons.
Ancient Irish history is dominated by the Celts, the dominant culture in northern Europe for centuries. Celtic civilization dominated much of Europe (about 500 BC). After this time the Celts were increasingly presured by the Romans from the south and the Germanic tribes from the east. The Celts spread to Ireland and the British Isles. The Celts brought Ireland into the Iron Age. Like other largely decentralized ancient people, the Celts came to Ireland and the Britain in a series of uncoordinated waves over several centuries (8th to the 1st centuries BC). The last Celtic invaders were the Gael. There was no strong centralized state formed by the Celts. Gaelic Ireland was dividided into abot five kingdoms. The precise number varied over time and the lask of written records make these kingdoms difficult to assess in any real detail. The lack of a centralized Celtic state in Ireland meant that the various kingdoms were intermittently at war with each other and eventually left them vulnerable to foreign invasion. Despite the fighting, a rich culture emerged in Celtic Ireland.
Celtic society throughout Ireland was dominated by druids or priests. The Drids played many roles in Celrtic society, far beyond religion. The druids were teachers, doctors, poets, fortune tellers, and living repositories of the laws and histories in a still pre-literate society. One unsolvavle problem for historians is to what extent the ancient legends were based on real history. Gradually the Germanic tribes pushed the Celts West of the Rhine. The Celts had no written language and thus very little is known about them beyond oral legends and myth and work of archeologists. The arrival of the Romans in Britain resulted in the first scattered written accounts, although hardly disinterested accounts.
Ceasar conquered the Celts (commonly cauled the Gauls) in what is now modern France and the Low Countries bringing them within the Roman Empire (58-47 BC) and overtime largely Romanizing them. The Celts were the people that dominated both Ireland Britain south of Scotland when the Romans arrived. Ceasar's attempt to invade Britain failed (55-54 BC). The Romans during the reign of Claudius began the conquest of Britain (43 AD). The Romans over three decades conquered what is now England. The most difficult was the conquest of Wales, but was finally accomplished (75-77 AD). The wild tribes to the noth proved a more difficult undertaking. The Emperor Hadrian ordered the construction of a wall to protect Roman Britain from the Pictts and other northern tribes (122 AD). Over time the Romans conquered and subsequently Romanized the British Celts, but never coquered the Irish. Archeologists confirm that there were contacts between the Irish celts and Romans in Britain. There surely was trade between Ireland and Roman Britain. There may even have been a Roman presence of some kind in Ireland. Roman Britain was terrorized by Irish raiders. St. Patrick, the patron saintb of Ireland, was actually a Romanized Briton captured by an Irish raiding party and brought back to Ireland as a slave.
Although Ireland was to become a European backwater, in the early Medieval era, Ireland was a center of learning and Christianity in a Europe dominated by
Barbarians.The Roman as the Germanic Tribes began to threaten the eastern borders began with drawing the legions from Britain. The last legions left Britain (410 AD). This opened Britain to Germanic (Anglo-Saxon) invaders. The young St Patrick lived in troubled times. Romanized Britain without the Legions was assaulted by the Anglo-Saxon invaders from the east and there were also wild Irish raders from the east who terrorized the Romanized Celts much as the Vikings wouth later terrorize Anglo-Saxon Britons. Patrick was enslaved by the Irish raiders, but escaped and later returned on a mission to Christianize the Irish (432 AD). Patrick worked not only to Chritianize Ireland, but introduced the Roman alphabet and helped codify Irish law. The era following the fall of Rome in Europe is commonly referred to as the Dark Ages in which the civilization and learming of Rome was destroyed by Germanic invaders. In sharp contrast, Ireland largely because of its isolaion was spared the Germanic onslaught. The era is often known in Irish history as the Golden Age in which learning and cultured flourished. Monnasticism became an important force in early Christian Ireland. These monks not only preserved some of the ancient oral Celtic legends, but classical Greek and Roman works that might have otherwise been lost. The ancient Celtic religion druid tradition was unable to compete with the force of the new Christian faith. Monastic scholars became an important part of Christianity in Europe after the collapse of Rome. Political power throughout Europe was seized by barbarians as the Germanic tribes spread over the Continent. Ireland was one of the few outposts of Chritian rule. Irish monks became famed for their mastery of Latin and Latin and Christian theology. Soon the Irish were sending missionaries to help christianize the Anglo-Saxon invaders in Britain. The fame of the Irish monestaries attracted scholars from the Continent. Here in isolation scholars helped preserve Latin learning as the still pagan Germanic tribes swept through the Western Romasn Empire. A historian writes, "Ireland, a little island at the edge of Europe that has known neither Renaissance nor Enlightenment--in some ways, a Third World country with, as John Betjeman claomed, a Stone Age culture--had one momement of unblemished gloy. For, as the Roman Empire fell, as all through Europe matted, unwashed barbarians descended on the Roman cities, looting artifacts and burning books, the Irish, who were jut learning to read and write, took up the great labor of copying all of Western literature--everything they could lay thir hands on. These scribes then served as conduits through which the Greco-Roman and Judeo Christian cultures were transmitted to the tribes of Europe, newly settled amid the ruble and ruined vineyards of the civilization that they had over-whelmed. Without this Service of the Scribes, everyrhing that happened subsequently would have been unthinkable. Without the Mission of the Irish Monks, who single-handedly refounded European civilizationthroughout the continent in the bays and valley of their exile, the world that came after them would have been an entirely different one--a world without books. Adn our own world would never have come to be." [Cahill, pp. 1-2.]
The Irish monks excelled in the arts of manuscript illumination. They persued the Celtic traditions in metalworking and stone sculpture flourished. Perhaps the greatest tresure of this era is the the Book of Kells. There is also beautifly wrought jewelry sculptured stone crosses that have become a symbol of Celtic Christianity. Archeologists have found and escavated clochans, ringforts, and promontory forts.
The Vikings first struck Christian Europe at Lindifarne off eastern coast of Northumbria (England) (793 AD). After finding the riches to be easily gained in largely undefended monestaries, the Vikings began raiding all over the the coast of Britain and Ireland, despoiling coatal monestaries and communities. This continued for two centuries. As in Britain, the Vikings began founding coastal communities. It was the Vikings who founded Dublin (�n Dubh Linn meant the 'black pool' in Gaelic. The Vikings founded other coastal towns, but unlike Britain were never able to establish a firm foohold. The Irish king Brian Boru defeated and drove out the Vikings. Altough this ended the Viking threat, the lack of unity and internecine warfare weaked the Irish and left then vulnerable to another foreign invader.
Ireland through the early medieval era, ecept for the Vikings, lived largely in isolation. There was no threat from what was to become England, because England did not yet exist as a centralized state. After the departure of the Roman Legions (410 AD), Britain was invaded by the Anglo-Saxon tribes which gradually pushed the Celtic Britons west and north. This is the era from which the Arthurian lengends emerged. Apparently for a time a Celtic warlord stopped the Anglo-Saxon onslaught. Historians debate whether Arthur was an actual person. Gradually important states emerged in increasingly Anglo-Saxon Britain. The Viking raids turned into Viking invasions. The Vikings for a time threatened to overwealm all of Briton untell stopped by Alfred the Great. For a time Briton was separated by the Dane Law and the Anglo-Saxons. The internal feuds and foreign invasions that marked early medieval England meant that the country was absorbed with domestic matters. There was not the interest or capability to threaten Ireland. Finally under Harold a united English state emerged which almost certainly would have eventually threatened still divided Ireland. History changed at Hastings (1066) when King Harold was defeated and killed by Duke William of Normandy. William the Conqueror rapidly overan Anglo-Saxon Enhland and it would be Norman England that would launch the first English invasion of Ireland.
Early medieval Ireland was divided politically into a poorly understood number of small kingdoms and overkingdoms. Gradually power began to coalease into three regional kingdomsdynasties. Each fought for control of Ireland. In this struggle, one of the contending kings, Muirchertach MacLochlainn, was killed (1166). Threatened by the loss of his dynastic protector a Leinster lord, Diarmuid MacMorrough. asked a Norman knight, Richard de Clare, to assist him. This did not occur in a vacuume. English king Henry II was concerned that Richard with Irish territory added to his English estates could threaten the power of the crown. Henry as a result, invaded Ireland. He granted the Irish territory he conquerred to his younger son John who received the title Lord of Ireland. When John's older brother Richard the Lion Heart died, John became king and Ireland fell under the rule of the English crown. Henry and John had conquered much of Ireland, but gradually Irish lords took back much of the island piece by piece. English authority shrank to the area of Ireland around Dublin which became known as The Pale. (This has become ensrined in the English language by the term "outside the Pale".) The Irish resurgence was aided by the fact that the Norman lords outside the Pale gradually became Irish. They began speaking Irish and in virtually all maters became "more Irish than the Irish." They sided with the Irish militaryily and after Henry VIII launched the Reformation, the old Norman nobels in Ireland refused to convert.
Almost independent of the German Refomation was the Reformation in England, but this proved to be crucial because of the future imperial role of England.
Political rather than relogious issues were to drive the Renaissance in England. It was a Defender of the Faith, Henry VIII that set the Reformation in motion in
England. Henry VIII decided to divorce his wide, the Spanish princess Catherine. He was furious when Pope Clement VII refused to approve the divorce. In
response he rejected papal authority over the Church in England. He founded the Anglican Church and set himself up as head of the new church (1534). While
sparked by his personal life, the break with Rome had many advantages for Henry. One of the most important was the wealth of the Church was now at his
disposal. Much of this he seized by closing the monestarires. Huge quantities of land were in 6the hands of the monestaries. The first tentative steps toward actual
reformation was a liturgy in English and The Book of Common Prayer. Henry's lesser known and very devout Protestant son Edward VI played a major role in
the success of the Reformation in England.
The English Reformation had profound consequences on Ireland. The break with Catholic Church left the two countries divided as never before at a time when religion was a poweful force throughout society, in many cases outweuging nationality. The rest of the British Isles, including the Welsh and Scotts also turned to protestantism, although the Scotts rejected the Church of England.
The Irish remained for the most part, steadfastly Catholic, despite 400 years of Englisg rule and a range of policies to force the Irish to become Protestant and to undermine the Catholic Church in Ireland. Most Irish Protestants are not the descendents of native born Irish, but rather the descendents of Scottish Protestant colonists. Irish Catholcism was not only a domestic matter, but also an issue in international relations. Irish Catholcism contituted a threat to the English crown, first from Catholic monarchs (Philip II and Louis XIV) and then bu the more nationalistic Napoleon Bonaparte. This threat was a factor in the English suppression of Irish Catholics.
The English Crown in the early 17th century sent Scottish and English Protestants as colonists to northern Ireland and the counties of Laois and Offaly. Most Irish Protestants today can trace their ancestry to these colonists rather to the indigenous Irish. This was known as the Protestant Plantations. The Crown also promoted a series of Penal Laws designed to supress the Irish people who refused to adhere to the established Anglican Church of Ireland. The measure was aimed orimarily at Irish Catholics. but other Protestan sects were also affected, such as Presbyterians of the Church of Scotland. The conflict between the Stuart monarchy and Parliament culminated in the English Civil War. When the Irish attempted to use the Civil War to achieve independence, Oliver Cromwell peronally commanded the army and brutally quellied revolts in Ireland. Ireland was involved in the Glorious Revolution (1689). Parliament and William III of Orange deposed Stuart king James II who supported by French King Louis XIV threatened to reinstiture Roman Catholcism and devine right monarchy in England. James attempted to regain his throne by invading Ireland where he anticipated receiving support from Irish Catholics. A series of battles were culminated at the Battle of the Boyne (1690) which ended the Catholic threat to the English throne and ended serious Catholic resistance to English rule. The English throughtout thec17th century through descrimnatory laws and the wars with Irish revels transferred land ownership from Catholic nobels and peasantry to a new class of Protestant nobels estraunged from the Irish people anf loyal to the English crown.
The constitutional status of Ireland changed in the 18th century. After the Norman invasion, Ireland had been made a lorship with Prince John the first Lord of Ireland. King Henry VIII had made Ireland a kingdom. Ireland beginning with Norman rule had its own bicameral Parliament of a House of Commons and House of Lords, reflecting the Norman system in England. The ooeration of the Irish Parliament was, however, restricted for much of its history. Poyning's Law established that no Bill could be considered by the Irish Parliament without the approval of
the English Privy Council (1494). Then after the Reformation, Catholics were excluded. Slowly many of the restrictions on the Irish Parliament were ended.
Henry Grattan (1746-1820) played a major role in removing restrictions during the 18th century. Grattan succeeded in remolving Poyning's Law (1782). Catholics were emancipated (1793) and outlawed to sit in Parliament. King George III refused to consent to Catholic in Parliament. This was a major factor in the Rising of '98 and the eventual arrest of Wolf Tone. The last act of the Irish Parliament was the Act of Union (1800).
The wars of the French Revolution and the encsuing Napoleonic Wars envolved Europe in over 20 years of warfare. It began in the 1790s. The result was on-again, off-again war with France which did not end until Waterloo (1815). Ireland experienced an economic boom. Many Irish served with the British military. The Irish Parliament passed the Act of Union (1800) As a result, the Kingdom of Ireland and the Kingdom of Great Britain (England had merged with Scotland in
1707) to create the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland (1801). Union led to important reforms in Ireland: electoral reform, land reform, and the disestablishment of the Church of Ireland. The Irish Parliament in agreeing to the Act of Union obtained a commitment that Parliament would repeal the Penal Laws and Catholics emancipated. King George III was opposed to emancipation and blocked its approval. Irish patriot Daniel O'Connell (1775-1847) led the campaign for Catholic Emancipation. O'Connel founded the Catholic Association (1823). The campaign finally succeeded (1829). Catholics were finally allowed to serve in Parliament. O'Connel was deeply committed to solving Land Question at the hear of the Agrarian Problem. The Irish economy was based primarily on agriculture. The Irish economy did not participate in the Industrial Revolution like England. There were major problems with Irish agrculture. Irish agriculture was very inefficent. Many land holdings were too small for profitable farming. The Irish Potato Famine began with a blight of the potato crop. The Irish had come to depend on the potato as a mainstay of their diet. No other crop produced so much food per acre of land. The blight was devestating and spread with amazing speed. Within a year a bountiful crop was reduced to rotting fields. Potato crops accross Europe failed, but nowhere in Europe was the population so dependant on the potato. The Famnine abd the British Government failure to fund an adequale relief effort resulted in an Irish Holocaust. The famine resulting from the potato blight and British policies caused the Irish to emmigrate in massive numbers, primarily to the United States. The result was a very sunstantial Irish diaspora which pasionately supported Irish independence. In Ireland the political debate which consumed Irish politics was Home Rule.
Ireland until 1918 was dominated by Parnell's Irish Parliamentary Party. The Party had been divided by O'Shea Divorce Case in which Parnell had been named a co-resondant. The British Parliament after rejecting two Irish Home Rule bills finally passed Home Rule (1912). Unfortunately the passage of the Home Rule bill did not resolve the Irish question. It may well have done so earlier and had Parnell not been ruined. Passage in 1912, however, proved ineffectual. Implementation of Home Rule was delayed by World War I. The outbreak of the War world war I moved the political spotlight away from Home Rule. Britain had recruited substantial numbers of soldu=iers from Ireland. Public opinion was, however, incensed when British officials began drafting men. The Irish public turned sharply against Britain resulting in the Conscription Crisis. The Irish Parliamentary Party withdrew its MPs from the British Parliament in protest. Fighting to the suprise of the British did not begin in Ulster, but in Dublin. A small band of Irish Republicans led by Padraig Pearse and James Connolly staged an armed rebellion on Easter Day (1916). Sinn F�in and the Irish Parliamentary Party contested several by-elections (1917-18), but Sinn F�in won the general election held after the World War I Armistace (1918). The Sinn F�in MPs met TDs in the Mansion House in Dublin and referred to the new body as the D�il �ireannor Assembly of Ireland. They proceeded to declare an Irish Republic with a parliamentary system. While the World War ended in 1918, the Irish Republican Army (IRA), the paramilitary army of the new Irish Republic, led by Michael Collins launched a guerrilla campaign against the British and their Irish supporters. Ireland became a battlefield. The war became variously known as the Irish War of Independence or Anglo-Irish War. The British Army and a pro-British paramilitary unit called the Black and Tans because of their uniforms attempted to maintain British rule. The war was fought with great brutality. The British Parliament tried to resolve the empasse in Ireland with the fourth Home Rule Act which was the Government of Ireland Act, 1920. The Act provided for the partition of Ireland into two separate states, Northern and Southern Ireland. The Republic D�il narrowly voted to accept the Anglo-Irish Treaty brining the Irish Free State in existence. The supporters argued it was the best that could be achieved at the time and while not a republic, the Irish Free State was an Irish state. The Republicans rejected continuing ties with the British and the partition of the northern counties. Substantial elements in the Rerpublican movement continued to reject the Treaty. The major issue at the time was the continuing relationship with Britain an an oath of allegience to the monarchy. The opposition launched a civil war. Important figures were killed, including Michael Collins who had played such an important role in the War for Independence. Eamon de Valera who was the president of the Irish Republic emerged as a principal spokesman for the anti-Treaty forces. As a result, he lost influence in the Irish Free State. He left Sinn F�in and formed a new political party--Fianna F??? (1926). De Valera became became prime minister of the Irish Free State. Under his leadership the Irish Free State rewrote the constitution (1937). This severed most of the remaining links with the United Kingdom. The new state then declared itself a Republic in 1948/49 ending all links.
Cahill, Thomas. How the Irish Saved Civilization: The Untold Story of Ireland's Heroic Role from the Fall of Rome to the Rise of Medieval Europe (Doubleday: New York, 1995), 246p.
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