Post on 13-Jan-2016
Politics and Religion in Ireland
Cauldron of ConflictsRev Peter O’Reilly
Irish Icebergs
The Papal Bull Laudabiliter
Legitimizing the Norman Invasion
• 1155 Pope Adrian IV issues Laudabiliter
• Henry II given Lordship over Ireland
• Mandate to bring in the Gregorian Reforms
• Norman barons begin a process of conquest
Growing Influence
Reformation Rupture
• Influence of the Catholic Church grew until 1535 when Henry VIII declared himself head of the Church of Ireland breaking with Rome
• From now on the Crown sought to control or suppress the Catholic Church
• Colonial Process begins in earnest
The Plantations
The Colonial Project
• From the sixteenth century onwards the plan was to replace native Catholic landowners with loyal English and Scottish settlers
• The Tudor state set course on a policy to reinforce political power with religious and ethic loyalties – Penal Laws
• Not unlike what happened in the Ukraine with the import of Russian settlers
The Rise of Parliamentary Democracy
An Gorta Mor – The Famine
• 1845 – 1850 Potato Crop Fails. 1 Million People Die
• Population falls from 8 Million to 3.5m due to Starvation and subsequent Emigration
• Huge resentment over continued food exports to England during the period
Changing Fortunes
• Catholic Emancipation 1829
• Disestablishment of the Church of Ireland 1871
• 19th Century Catholic and Protestant Revivalism. Gaelic Revivalism
1921 The Irish Free State and Northern Ireland
Political and Religious Asymmetry
• By 1921 when the 28 counties making up the Free State gained a measure of Independence and the 6 Northern counties stayed within the UK, religious divides mirrored political ones
• Eire was over 80% Catholic in Population• Some parts of Northern Ireland had a
population ranging from 90% to 50% Protestant with the remainder Catholic
Trouble Ahead Craig and De Valera
Confessional States?
• James Craig Prime Minister of Northern Ireland from 1922 – 1940 declared ‘ All I boast is that we are a Protestant Parliament and a Protestant State’(Speech at Stormont 1935)
• Eamon De Valera shadowed Craig as Taoiseach in the South and in 1937 launched a new Constitution for the Irish Republic which declared the ‘special position of the Catholic Church”
Religion and Identity
• Both states utilized religion to shore up their shaky existence, the Republic reeling from a vicious civil war, Northern Ireland struggling for viability
• The Republic’s Protestant population was small and declining, NI’s Catholic Population was sizable and growing and suffered serious discrimination
The Civil Rights Movement
The times are a changing
• The 1960’s in Northern Ireland saw the growth of a civil rights movement based on that in the United States
• Its aim was an end to all forms of discrimination in areas such as housing, employment and voting rights.
• Mass protest ended in violence with events such as ‘the battle of the Bogside’
The British/Irish Agreement
• The British/Irish agreement popularly known as the Good Friday Agreement came into effect on 2nd December 1999
• Dealt with a wide range of cross community and Intergovernmental issues recognizing the broad basis of conflict
• Set NI on the road to Peace and Reconciliation
Politics, Social Deprivation and Religious Difference
• Religion, Cultural and Political differences boiled over into violence with the emergence of paramilitaries on both sides
• Religion here was only part of a much more complex picture which saw the breakdown of the civil order in Northern Ireland
• Religion’s greatest significance was as a bearer of social identity
The breakdown of Civil Society
Pope John Paul II Drogheda 1979
Words of Passionate Pleading
• ‘On my knees I beg you to turn aside from the paths of violence and return to the ways of peace’
• ‘May no Protestant think that the Pope is an enemy’
Drogheda 29th September 1979