What is the Irish - English conflict?

Answer 1

For an indepth answer read Richard English's Irish Freedom. In short it is very complex but the root cause of the British Irish conflict lies in religion, the switch to Protestantism on Great Britain, made Catholic Ireland a threat, because the reformation failed there. Both the Old English and Native Irish resisted the change and outside of places like Cork, Ulster and the Pale. It is then a long history of wrongs on both sides which are always followed by some retribution, this in turn makes both sides feel they are a wronged victim and thus righteous in their retribution. Propaganda combined with a poor knowledge of history have often warped facts to give a more divisive view. The answer below being an excellent example of such poor historical knowledge, as it merges the Strongbow expedition with the centuries later plantation of Ireland and also complete misses out the Scots. It is a very complex and interesting history which has no easy answer, and their are frequent points that radical altered the relationship such as the first world war. Ultimately though it was the division in religion that is the origin of the conflict.

The Irish-English conflict began in approximately 1108 AD, an English army landed on the east coast of the country and invaded the country. At this point in history Ireland was a place of great scholarship, it was the "Island of Saints and Scholars". During the English invasion many of the Irish leaders and cheiftans were killed and the English took control of the country. The English sent over thousand of "planters" to colonise the country. To ensure that the Irish people did not revolt against their new masters, the English banned all learning in Ireland. It became illegal for an Irish people to learn how to read or write. Schools were also banned for Irish people and the penalty was death for anyone who tried to teach the basic learning skills.

"The Irish-English conflict began in approximately 1108 AD, an English army landed on the east coast of the country and invaded the country."

Wrong. This never happened. There was an invasion in the 1100's, but it was led by Norman-Welsh men, who's king was French.

"During the English invasion many of the Irish leaders and cheiftans were killed and the English took control of the country. The English sent over thousand of "planters" to colonise the country. To ensure that the Irish people did not revolt against their new masters, the English banned all learning in Ireland. It became illegal for an Irish people to learn how to read or write. Schools were also banned for Irish people and the penalty was death for anyone who tried to teach the basic learning skills."

I am open to correction on this but as far as I understand the King of Leinster (Diarmuid MacMuraidh?) had promised to make a Norman lord (Strongbow) his heir in exchange for military assistance. He went on to become the next King of Leinster. Fearing that Strongbow would set up a rival kingdom to match his own, the King of England, Henry II travelled to Ireland in 1169 to receive homage from Strongbow and assert his control over Ireland. In reality that control only extended to the Dublin and the surrounding areas

When King Henry VIII was not able to have kids with his wife he asked the church for divorce. When church did not gave him permission, he made his own church which was against the Irish people who was catholic didnt wanted to change their religion, hence there was an English Irish conflict.

Answer 2

It's been going on for centuries. The English made the Irish be Protestants when the Irish wanted to be Catholic. I think they wanted independence for a long time too.

The Irish people for the last two centuries wanted self rule and not to have the British ruling over them. They did not want to be a country that belonged to the United Kingdom. Ireland is now divided as Ireland and Northern Ireland. Northern Ireland is still under British rule. Ireland obtained their freedom back in 1912. The Catholics in Ireland sided with the Brits but the Protestant Irish wanted self rule. So in Northern Ireland a lot of violence broke out for many decades. They still want to be their own country free from British rule. However, Northern Ireland has not been granted their freedom. A basic truce has been called and Northern Ireland has suppressed the violence.

Answer 3

The English colonised Ireland in the 12th century and for almost 800 years oppressed the indigenous people through force, England having a much larger army and greater military resources. They tried to eradicate the religion, language, culture and traditions of the Irish and many historians would say even the Irish people themselves. They dispossessed the Irish from their lands, handing them over to British settlers through a number of "plantations", most successfully the plantation of Ulster, which is why there are many people of British descent and protestant faith (the native Irish being predominantly catholic) in Northern Ireland today. Throughout the 800 years of British rule, native Irish people were beaten, murdered and sold into slavery by the British who considered them a subspecies. As you can imagine this led to a great deal of resentment and hatred on the part of the Irish people.

Between 1171 and 1801 a number of laws were enacted to bind the two countries legally, culminating with the act of union in 1801 which included Ireland as a part of an extended united kingdom. The Irish, both catholic and protestant, rebelled and rose up against their oppressive overlords on many occasions but it was not until the Easter rising of 1916 and the subsequent war of independence that the Irish regain control of most of their homeland. However, the Anglo-Irish treaty that gave Ireland independence did so on the condition that the six counties of what was to become Northern Ireland were to remain under British rule with the remaining 26 counties to become the sovereign independent nation of the Republic of Ireland. This was deemed unacceptable by a great many Irishmen who maintained that Ireland was an island comprised of 32 counties and were unwilling to countenance any suggestions of partition of the island or any further British presence in Ireland. A bitter civil war ensued between pro- and anti-treaty forces. The pro-treaty side had the backing of the new government of the Republic of Ireland and it's army and eventually won the war. However, the strong anti-treaty feelings did not go away and remain to this day.

Because of the plantation of Ulster, the population of Northern Ireland was made up of a majority of protestant people of British descent who were loyal to the British crown and inhabited lands stolen from the native population in the preceding hundreds of years. However a large indigenous Irish population who refused to be driven out of their ancestral home remained in Northern Ireland. Under partition these people were treated as second class citizens by consecutive loyalist governments and subjected to severe abuses of their human and civil rights right up until the 1990s and beyond. For many years Catholics and republicans (those who want Ireland to be totally free of British rule and to once again stand united as an island nation) were openly discriminated against in issues of housing and employment and electoral areas rigged (a process called gerrymandering) by the ruling loyalists in order to keep them from gaining any sort of political foothold. This led the republicans on both sides of the border to again take up arms against their foreign oppressors and a violent and bloody conflict has been ongoing between both sides since the 1950s. This conflict was not confined to Northern Ireland, with both sides carrying out civilian atrocities in both mainland Britain and the Republic of Ireland. A lessening of hostilities had began to be seen in the past 15 - 20 years and a peace process begun. However in the last 2 years dissident republican groups have restarted their campaign of violence against loyalists, thought to be due to the fact that they believe that with peace in Northern Ireland comes the end of any hope of a united Ireland.