Irish nationalism

Irish nationalism refers to political movements that desire greater autonomy or the independence of Ireland from Great Britain. The nationalist position is often contrasted with that of Unionists. Irish nationalism is particularly associated with the Roman Catholic community, especially in Northern Ireland, where the terms "Catholic" and "Nationalist" are used interchangeably. Catholics largely perceive themselves as descendants of the native inhabitants of Ireland, while Protestant Unionists often highlight their British ancestry.

Irish nationalism has, since the Partition of Ireland 1920, also included the goal of a United Ireland.

History

Roots

Ireland has been subject to varying degrees of rule from England since the late 12th century. (See Norman Ireland). The Gaelic Irish resisted this conquest through military and other means, but were organised in small independent lordships and did not have a common political goal such as an independent Irish state. Conflict over the English presence was exacerbated by the Protestant Reformation in England, which introduced a religious element to the Tudor re-conquest of Ireland. Another central feature of future Anglo-Irish conflict was the continuing dispossession of Irish Catholic landowners in the Plantations of Ireland.

The closest Gaelic lords came to waging an identifiably nationalist campaign against the English presence was the rebellion of Hugh O'Neill in the 1590s (known as the Nine Years War), which aimed to expel the English and make Ireland a Spanish protectorate. However, despite claiming to represent a movement of Irish Catholics against English Protestants, many historians see O'Neill as being primarily motivated by personal ambition.

A more significant movement came in the 1640s, after the Irish Rebellion of 1641, when a coalition of Gaelic Irish and Old English (Ireland) Catholics set up a de facto independent Irish state to fight the Wars of the Three Kingdoms (see Confederate Ireland). The Confederate Catholics of Ireland, also known as the Confederation of Kilkenny, emphasised that Ireland was a Kingdom independent from England, though under the same monarch. They demanded autonomy for the Irish Parliament, full rights for Catholics and an end to the confiscation of Catholic owned land. However, the Confederates cannot accurately be called nationalists, because they did not demand separation from the English monarchy (as opposed to its Parliament) and because they proclaimed their loyalty to Charles I. Also, they based their identity primarily on religion rather than ethnicity. In any case, the Confederate cause was destroyed in the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland 1649-53.

A similar Irish Catholic monarchist movement emerged in the 1680s and '90s, when Irish Catholic Jacobites supported James II after his deposition in the Glorious Revolution. The Jacobites demanded that Irish Catholics would be a majority in an autonomous Irish Parliament, that confiscated Catholic land would be restored and that the Lord Deputy of Ireland would in future be an Irishman. Similarly to the Confederates of the 1640s, the Jacobites were conscious of representing the "Irish nation", but were not separatists and largely represented the interests of the landed class as opposed to all the Irish people. Like the Confederates, they were also defeated in the Williamite war in Ireland 1689-91. Thereafter, Irish government and landholding were dominated by the largely English Protestant Ascendancy. Catholics were discriminated against under the Penal Laws (See also Early Modern Ireland 1536-1691)

This coupling of religious and ethnic identity (Roman Catholic and Gaelic), as well as a consciousness of dispossession and defeat at the hands of British an Protestant forces came to be enduring features of Irish nationalism.

Early Nationalism - Grattan to O'Connell

The Protestant dominated Irish Parliament of the eighteenth century repeatedly called for more autonomy from the British Parliament — particularly the repeal of Poynings Law, which allowed the latter to legislate for Ireland. Parliamentarians who wanted more self government were known as "patriots", for example Henry Grattan, but it would be a mistake to see them as nationalists because they were essentially a colonial minority in Ireland. (See Ireland 1691-1801).

The explicit origins of Irish Nationalism began in the 1790s when Theobald Wolfe Tone founded the Society of the United Irishmen, first to end discrimination against Catholics and then to found an independent Irish Republic. Tone and most of the United Irish leaders were Protestants and inspired by the French Revolution, wanted a society without sectarian divisions, the continuation of which they attributed to the British domination over the country. The United Irishmen led an armed uprising in 1798 (See Irish Rebellion of 1798), which was repressed with great bloodshed. In the aftermath, the Irish Parliament was abolished altogether in the Act of Union of 1801 and Ireland was ruled directly from London. (See History of Ireland (1801-1922))

Two dominant forms of Irish nationalism arose from these events. One was a radical movement, known as Irish Republicanism, which advocated use of force to found a secular, egalitarian Irish Republic. This remained a minority opinion in the early 19th century, advocated by groups such as the Young Irelanders who launched a rebellion in 1848.

The other nationalist tradition was more moderate, urging non-violent means to seek concessions from the British government. While both nationalist traditions were predominantly Catholic in their support base, the hierarchy of the Catholic Church were opposed to republican separatism on the grounds of its violent methods and secular ideology, while they usually supported non-violent reformist nationalism.

Daniel O'Connell was the leader of the moderate tendency, who were initially more effective in achieving reform, since the British government was less inclined to use force against a non-violent movement. O'Connell, head of the Catholic Association and Repeal Association in the 1820s, '30s and '40s, campaigned for Catholic Emancipation - that is full rights for Catholics and "Repeal of the Union", or Irish self-government. Catholic Emancipation was achieved, but self-government was not. O'Connell's movement was more explicitly Catholic than its eighteenth century predecessors. It enjoyed the support of the Catholic clergy, who had denounced the United Irishmen and reinforced the association between Irish identity and Catholicism. O'Connell used traditional Irish imagery such as the Harp and located his mass meetings in sites such as Tara and Clontarf which had a special resonance in Irish history — similar to the Field of Blackbirds in Serb nationalism.

Home Rule and Catholic Nationalism

In the late 19th century, Irish Nationalism became the dominant ideology in Ireland, having a major Parliamentary party in the British Parliament at Westminster that launched a concerted campaign for Home Rule or self-government. This period also saw the emergence of militant republican movement called the Irish Republican Brotherhood or Fenians, with an off-shoot named Clan na Gael in the United States.

The Great Famine of 1845-49 caused great bitterness among Irish people against the British government, which was perceived as having failed to avert the deaths of up to a million people. However the political effects of this were not seen in Ireland for another generation. In America however, Irish immigrants, many of whom had fled the famine, set up Clan na Gael - a radical republican organisation in 1858. Clan na Gael, led by John Devoy organised Irish veterans of the American Civil War to attack Canada, with the intention of demanding a British withdrawal from Ireland. The Irish Republican Brotherhood was set up in Ireland at the same time.

In Ireland itself, the IRB tried an armed revolt in 1867 but, as it was heavily infiltrated by police informers, the rising was a fiasco.

Land League

Mass nationalist mobilisation began when Isaac Butt’s Home Rule League (which had been founded in 1873 but had little following) adopted social issues in the late 1870s – especially the question of land redistribution. Michael Davitt (an I.R.B. member) founded the Irish Land League in 1879 to agitate for tenant's rights. Some would argue the land question had a nationalist resonance in Ireland as many Irish Catholics believed that land had been unjustly taken from their ancestors by Protestant English colonists in the 17th century Plantations of Ireland. Indeed, the Irish landed class was still largely an Anglo-Irish Protestant group in the 19th century. Such perceptions were underlined in the Land league’s language and literature. However, others would argue that the Land League had its direct roots in tenant associations formed in the period of agricultural prosperity during the government of Lord Palmerston in the 1850s and 1860s, who were seeking to strengthen the economic gains they had already made. Following the depression of 1879 and the subsequent fall in prices (and hence profits), these farmers were threatened with rising rents and eviction for failure to pay rents. In addition, small farmers, expecially in the west faced the prospect of another famine in the harsh winter of 1879. At first, the Land League campaigned for the "Three Fs" -fair rent, free sale and fixity of tenure. Later, they campaigned for the re-distribution of land from Landlord to tenants.

Militant nationalists such as the Fenians saw that they could use the groundswell of support for land reform to recruit nationalist support, this is the reason why the New Departure -a decision by the IRB to adopt social issues - occurred in 1879. Republicans from Clan na Gael (who were loath to recognise the British parliament) saw this an opportunity to recruit the masses to agitate for Irish self government. This agitation, which became known as the "Land War", became very violent when Land Leaguers resisted evictions of tenant farmers by force and the British Army and Royal Irish Constabulary was used against them. This upheaval eventually resulted in the British government subsidising the sale of Landlords estates to their tenants in the Irish Land Acts. It also provided a mass base for constitutional Irish nationalists who had founded the Home Rule League in 1873. Charles Stuart Parnell (somewhat paradoxically, a Protestant landowner) took over the Land League and used its popularity to launch the Irish National League in 1882 to campaign for Home Rule.

Home Rule

Although Parnell and some other Home Rulers, such as Isaac Butt, were Protestants, Parnell's party was overwhelmingly Catholic. At local branch level, Catholic priests were an important part of it organisation. Home Rule was opposed by Unionists (Ireland) (those who supported the Union with Britain), mostly Protestant and from Ulster under the slogan, "Home Rule is Rome Rule".

At the time, some politicans and members of the British public would have seen this movement as radical and militant. Detractors quoted Parnell's Cincinnati speech in which he claimed to be collecting money for "bread and lead". However, the fact that he chose to stay in Westminster following the expulsion of 29 Irish MPs (when those in the Clan expected an exodus of nationalist MPs from Westminster to set up a provisional government in Dublin) and his failure to support the 1887 plan of campaign (a militant agrarian programme launched by Davitt), mark him off as an essentially constitutional politician, though not averse to using violent movements as a means of putting pressure on parliament.

Coinciding as it did with the extension of the franchise in British politics — and with it the opportunity for most Irish Catholics to vote — Parnell's party quickly became an important player in British politics. Home Rule was favoured by William Gladstone, but opposed by many in the British Liberal and Conservative parties.

Home Rule would have meant a devolved Irish parliament within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Three Irish Home Rule Bills were put before the British House of Commons, but they were bitterly resisted by an alliance of Unionists and British Conservatives. Following the fall of Charles Stewart Parnell in a divorce scandal, Home Rule was eventually won by John Redmond and the Irish Parliamentary Party and granted under the Third Home Rule Act 1914. However, Irish self-government was limited by the prospect of partition of Ireland between north and south after the British government bowed to the threat of the Ulster Volunteer Force, at that time the armed wing of Ulster Unionism. In response, Nationalists formed their own paramilitary group, the Irish Volunteers, to ensure the passing of Home Rule. It looked for several months in 1914 as if civil war was imminent between the two armed factions. However, the Home Rule plan was suspended on the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, until the end of the war. This led radical republican groups to argue that Irish independence could never be won peacefully.

Cultural Nationalism

An important feature of Irish nationalism from the late 19th century onwards has been a commitment to Gaelic Irish culture. A broad intellectual movement, calling itself the Gaelic Revival grew up in the late 19th century. This movement was concerned that Ireland was becoming too Anglicised and was losing its native identity and culture. Organisations for promotion of the Irish language included the Gaelic League and later Conradh na Gaeilge. The Gaelic Athletic Association was also formed in this era to promote Gaelic football, hurling and Gaelic handball at the expense of "English" sports such as association football, rugby and cricket.

Curiously, most of the Cultural nationalists were actually English speakers and their organisations had little impact in the Irish speaking areas or Gaeltachtaí, where the language continued to decline. (A similar contemporary phenomenon can be seen in the Basque Country, where the early Basque nationalists such as Sabino Arana were not native Basque speakers.) However, these organisations attracted large memberships and were the starting point for many radical Irish nationalists of the early twentieth century.

Militant Separatism and Irish Independence

In April 1916, just over a thousand dissident Volunteers launched the Easter Rising in Dublin and, in the Easter Proclamation, declared unilaterally the independence of the Irish Republic. Although the rising failed, Britain's execution of sixteen of the Rising's leaders led to widespread public sympathy for militant republicanism. Following this example, physical force republicanism became increasingly powerful and, for the following seven years or so, became the dominant force in Ireland.

Moderate nationalism as represented by the Irish Parliamentary Party was eclipsed by Sinn Féin — a small party which the British had (mistakenly) blamed for the Rising and subsequently had been taken over as a vehicle for Irish Republicanism. The Parliamentary Party was discredited not only by its lack of support for the Easter Rising, but also by its continued support for Irish involvement in the First World War. This was extremely unpopular, especially after the British attempted to extend conscription to Ireland in 1917-18. In the General election of 1918, Sinn Féin won 73 seats, or nearly 70% of Irish representation.

The Sinn Féin MPs refused to take their seats in Westminster, set up their own Parliament called Dail Éireann and proclaimed the Irish Republic to be in existence. In 1919, a guerilla war broke out between the Irish Republican Army (as the Volunteers were now calling themselves) and the British security forces (See Anglo-Irish War). The British attempted to solve the conflict through the belated introduction of Home Rule for 26 of Ireland's 32 counties under the Government of Ireland Act, 1920, but this settlement was no longer acceptable to Irish nationalists, who believed themselves to be the legitimately elected government of an independent Irish Republic.

The fighting was ended in 1921 with a truce and the subsequent Anglo-Irish Treaty. The Treaty offered "Southern Ireland" more independence than was on offer in Home Rule (though still within the British Commonwealth), but abolished the Irish Republic declared in 1919 and confirmed the partition of the island into the Irish Free State and Northern Ireland. Although the Second Dáil ratified the treaty (and a subsequent general election consolidated their majority), this was not acceptable to many republicans. Consequently, the Irish Civil War broke out between the newly recruited National Army of the Free State (composed of pro-treaty Irish Republican Army members and other recruits, including many Irish veterans of the First World War) and those IRA members who did not accept the Treaty. The Free State government put down anti-treaty republican resistance by 1923.

The Free State

The Civil War caused a permanent split in Irish nationalism. In many ways, this represented the continuation of the division that had always existed between conservative Catholic nationalists and radical Republicans. The Free State position was represented by Cumann na nGaedheal (later re-named Fine Gael). The Free State, in its early years was intensely conservative in social and economic spheres and fearful of republican subversion. Government deicsions were heavily influenced by the Catholic clergy. Up until very recent times, the Roman Catholic Church was very influential in government circles and in Irish society at large. (See Also History of the Republic of Ireland)

In 1927, Eamon de Valera formed Fianna Fáil out of the defeated anti-Treaty IRA and entered parliamentary politics. Up until the late 1930s, street violence between pro and anti treaty groups was still common, especially between the pro Free State Blueshirts and the IRA. The remnants of the IRA considered themselves to be the only rightful inheritors of the Irish Republic of 1919 - still in their eyes existing in opposition to the British imposed Free State. After the creation of a mainstream republican party in Fianna Fáil, they had little support. They launched a bombing campaign in England in the 1940s and a guerrilla campaign against Northern Ireland in the 1950s. Both were failures.

The Free State was, on all sides, intensely nationalistic. One manifestation of this was the introduction of compulsory Irish language in education and for all civil and public servants. It was the goal of all nationalists to re-introduce Irish as the spoken language of the country. However, this never achieved great success and many Irish language activists argue that the language has become merely a token of Irish identity for Irish governments. In theory, after De Valera passed a new constitution in 1937, the Irish state was also committed to a United Ireland - i.e. the annexation of Northern Ireland. Articles 2 and 3 of the Constitution of Ireland stated that the territory of the Irish state included the entire island of Ireland. However, like the restoration of the Irish language, commitment to a United Ireland remained largely confined to rhetoric. Indeed, de Valera's government interned and executed IRA members for armed attacks on the Northern state.

The Irish Free State left the British Commonwealth in 1949 and declared itself to be the Republic of Ireland.

Northern Ireland

In Northern Ireland itself, the Catholic or nationalist community was a minority in Protestant and Unionist state. However, most northern nationalists did not support militant republicanism before the Troubles of the 1970s. In 1918, they had largely voted for the moderate Nationalist Party rather than Sinn Féin and continued to vote for moderate or constitutional nationalist party (which was, however, very different from the "Home Rule" Nationalist Party that existed until 1918) until the political turmoil of the late 1960s. The Nationalist Party began to be seen as an irrelevance after the launching of a Civil Rights campaign to end discrimination against Catholics in the late 1960s (see Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association). However, the Civil Rights agitation ran into Unionist resistance as some Unionists claimed NICRA was merely another face of the IRA and violence broke out, leading to a thirty year conflict known as the Troubles.

The IRA, which had become increasingly reformist and Marxist oriented in the late 1960s, split into the Official IRA and Provisional IRA. The "Officials" ceased armed activity in 1972. The Provisionals or "Provos" launched a guerrilla or terrorist campaign against the state of Northern Ireland, with the aim of creating a new Irish Republic that would include all 32 counties of Ireland. Their armed campaign lasted into the late 1990s. (see History of Northern Ireland).

Thereafter, northern nationalists voted mainly for the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP)-a moderate nationalist and social democratic party. The SDLP, led by John Hume advocated power-sharing with Unionists within Northern Ireland. While many northern nationalists came to support the Provisional Irish Republican Army, whom they perceived as their defenders, especially in the early years of the Troubles, Sinn Féin, their political wing, did not do well in election until the 1980s. In fact, many Provisionals despised "politics" and saw their "armed struggle" as being above electoral politics.

Sinn Féin candidates began to displace the SDLP from some nationalist constituencies after the 1981 Irish Hunger Strike. During the Hunger Strikes, several imprisoned IRA men were elected to the British Parliament, notably Bobby Sands on an "Anti H-Block" platform. This awakened the Sinn Féin leadership under Gerry Adams to the possible gains they could make in future elections and by an unarmed political strategy. However, it was not until 1994 that the Provisionals called off their campaign. Since the IRA ceasefire of 1994, Sinn Féin have become the largest nationalist party in the Northern Ireland. They have also won an improved share of votes in the Republic of Ireland.

In 1998, both Sinn Féin and the SDLP signed the Belfast Agreement, which instituted power sharing within a devolved government in Northern Ireland. Sinn Féin says that its long term goal is still a United Ireland. The Belfast Agreement has yet to be fully implemented.

Present

In Northern Ireland today, nationalist is used to refer either to the Catholic population in general or the supporters of the moderate Social Democratic and Labour Party led by Mark Durkan, to distinguish them from Sinn Féin voters, known as Irish republicans. Often the term republican is applied to those who advocate the complete independence of Ireland from Great Britain and are prepared to use force to achieve it. The term nationalist is often used to refer to a more moderate political tradition, which favours an independent, united Ireland but which uses parliamentary methods and is prepared to see Northern Ireland remain part of the United Kingdom. However, from a broad point of view, these are all elements of Irish nationalism.

The parties widely recognized as representing the moderate nationalist tradition include Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the SDLP. The main party currently representing Irish republicanism is Sinn Féin.

Ideology of Irish Nationalism

Irish Nationalism has historically been pre-occupied with Ireland's relationship with Britain. It has also been concerned with the historical oppression of Catholics, who are identified as the native Irish people, by Protestants, who are identified with the British presence in Ireland. However, the ideology of Irish nationalism and particularly Irish republicanism has always expressed the view that it is not hostile to Protestantism or Protestants in Ireland as such and that it recognises them as fellow Irishmen.

Today, the relevance of traditional Irish nationalist ideology mainly concerns the status of Northern Ireland, which is still part of the United Kingdom, but which has a substantial nationalist minority who would prefer to be part of united Ireland. For historical reasons outlined above, almost all nationalists in Northern Ireland are Catholics. The traditional nationalist view of Northern Ireland was that it was created artificially out of the only part of Ireland that had a Protestant and Unionist majority. According to this view, the last time that an all Ireland election happened was in 1918, when a majority of votes in Ireland went to Sinn Féin and for Irish independence. This view has been outmoded somewhat by the Good Friday Agreement of 1998, which was supported by the Irish government and both Sinn Féin and the SDLP. Moreover, it was passed by popular votes in referenda North and South. This agreement stipulates that the status of Northern Ireland cannot be changed without the expressed consent of a majority within Northern Ireland. In theory, northern nationalists are now committed to "power sharing" in Northern Ireland with unionists, with a long term goal of a united Ireland achieved with unionist consent. Some nationalists have voiced the hope that Catholics will outnumber Protestants in the coming decades, with the result that a majority inside Northern Ireland will favour a United Ireland.

In the Republic of Ireland, the idea of Irish nationalism has changed dramatically since the Free State era, particularly since the 1960s with growing prosperity signalling new economic and social priorities, as well as a changing relationship with the North. Up to 1985, extreme republicans did not recognise the legitimacy of the Irish state (an attitude that dates from the Irish Civil War) and refused to take their seats in the Dail (Irish Parliament). However, Sinn Féin has now rejected this attitude and it is held only by the small Republican Sinn Féin party. Irish Governments have stated since the Anglo-Irish Agreement of 1985 that they will respect the will of the people of Northern Ireland to decide its future. However, this agreement also stated that the Irish government had a legitimate role in Northern Irish poitics as "advisor". In 1998, as part of the Good Friday Agreement, articles 2 and 3 of the Irish Constitution, which laid a territorial claim to Northern Ireland, were removed after a referendum.

Some of the divisions of the Irish Civil War are still apparent in southern Irish nationalist politics. Fine Gael, whose predecessors founded the Free State, largely view Irish independence as having been achieved, whereas Fianna Fáil the descendants of the Anti-Treaty Republicans of the Civil War, interpret the state's history somewhat differently. However, both parties aspire towards a United Ireland

Irish nationalists, on the whole, have not viewed integration into the European Union as a threat to Irish sovereignty. Several reasons can be advanced to explain this. Firstly, Ireland has been a net beneficiary of EU funds. Secondly integration into the European project has meant that Ireland is less dependent on Britain, economically and politically. A feature of nationalism in many modern European countries is a hostility to foreign immigration - for example Front National of Jean Marie Le Pen in France. At present, this is not true of Irish nationalism, despite large and rapid immigration into Ireland in recent years. Currently, no major Irish nationalist party campaigns explicitly against immigration.

This does not however mean that there is no anti-immigrant sentiment in Ireland -though it presently finds public expression only in tiny fringe groups such as Justin Barrett. In 2004, Ireland revoked, in a referendum, a clause in the constitution added in 1998 that said that anyone born in Ireland was automatically an Irish citizen. The concern of the Irish government was that this subverting the control of immigration by entitling any couple who had a child to stay in the country, regardless of their legal status. This referendum has drawn criticism from some human rights bodies, including Amnesty International as it has led to a situation where Irish citizens are being deported, with their parents, to countries where they may have no right of citizenship.

Irish nationalist organisations (1791-Present)

19th Century

20th century

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