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sentenced to death. Many of these con–
demned Pro.testants fled to the walled
city of Londonderry (Derry) for ref–
uge in 1689. They were besieged
there by Catholic forces under James
for 15 weeks, but were able to hold
out until William of Orange could
send relief.
The Siege of Derry was lifted when
the British ship
Motmtjoy
arrived with
provisions for the city's starving in–
habitants. The Protestants achieved
final victory in 1690 at the
Battle
of
the Boyne,
the most important battle
ever fought in Ireland. Defeated,
James fied to France.
Generations of Protestant Ulster–
Scots have never forgotten the
slaughter which their forefathers re–
ceived at the hands of the Catholic
Irish. What Cromwell was to the
Catholics, James II was to Ulster
Protestants.
The Boyne victory firmly established
Protestant ascendancy in Ireland. But
ruling a largely hostile and subject race
proved much more difficult than gain–
ing a decisive military victory.
Control of the new Irish Parliament
established in Dublin was placed in
Protestant hands, with the ultimate
authority residing with the Crown in
London.
Various penal laws were passed by
the Dublin Parliament to ensure the
continued supremacy of the Protestant
minority. These !aws were very harsh
and greatly restricted Irish freedom.
Catholics were forbidden to purchase
or hold land on long !case. Catholic
landowners were forbidden to hand
their property clown intact to one son,
but instead were forced to divide the
land among their progeny. This broke
clown the Jarger Catholic estates.
A Catholic could not wear a sword
or possess a horse worth more than
!5.
All teachers and schoolmasters
were required to be of the Prot–
estant faith. Catholics could not estab–
lish their own schools or send their
children abroad to be educated. Catho–
lics were not permitted to marry Prot–
estants. Catholic priests were to be
branded on the check with a red-hot
PLAIN TRUTH
June
1972
iron if they failed to register their
names and their parishes. Because the
priests suffered the same deprivations
as their people, the Irish peasantry be–
carne even more attached to the Catho–
lic Church and the parish priest.
Catholics were excluded from political
life, being denied the franchise.
In the economic sphere, the selling
of lrish goods - except for Jinen -
was prohibited in Britain and on the
Continent.
By 1700, the native Irish had been
reduced to serfdom. They owned only
one seventh of their own soil. Much
of the rest was in the hands of ab–
sentee landlords.
Pitt's Plan
At the turn of the 18th century,
William Pitt ( the Younger), the fam–
ous British Prime Minister, wrestled
with the continuing "lrish Problem."
Pitt believed that the only solution
to the Irish problem was política!
union between Great Britain and Ire–
land. This would mean, of course, giv–
ing full polüical rights to the Catho–
lics.
So on January
1,
1801, the
Acl of
Uniou
brought Ireland into union with
the rest of Great Britain.
The Great Famine
No Irish issue has provoked so
much anger or so embittered relations
between English and Irish as the Great
Potato Famine. It is an indisputable
fact that during this period huge quan–
tities of food of all types were ex–
ported from Jreland to Eogland while
the people of Ireland were dying of
starvation due to the failure of what
was almost their sole source of food
- the potato.
The exported food was grown and
shipped to pay rent to the absentee
landlords. To not pay the rent meant
eviction - and eviction was tanta–
mount toa death sentence from starva–
tion.
There were extenuating circum–
stances, however, which tempcr the
tendency to accuse the British of heart–
lessness. Distributing famine relief
food, which eventually carne in great
quanlities, especially from Britain, was
extremely difficult in primitive Ireland.
And cooking any food other than the
potato had become virtually a lost art.
Bread grains were scarcely ever used.
Even ovens
w~re
virtually nonexisteot.
For this the Irish had no one to blame
but themselves.
"Ulster Will Fight"
In 1886, Liberal Prime Mínister
Gladstone became convinced that Irish
home rule was the only solution. Lord
Randolph Churchill, Sir Winston's
father, led the opposition in Ulster to
Gladstone's proposal. He declared in
Belfast: ''Ulster will light! Ulster will
be right !" This became the slogan of
the opposition. Gladstone's bill was
ultimately defeated, and the lrish
c¡uestion remained unsolved.
Anti-British feelings finally boiled
over in 1916 with the "Easter Rebel–
lion" against British rule. The Sino
Fein nationalist movement spearheaded
the uprising which was timed to take
advantage of Britain's deep involve–
ment on the Continent during the
world war. British authoritjes deaJt
swiftly with those who took part in
the rebellion. The uprising was crushed
and its leaders executed. About 3,000
Irish nationalists perished.
The British government, feeling
very much in the middle of a mess,
had nearly as much trouble with the
Ulster Protestants who began to train
a militia to preserve English rule.
Their fears of Irish home rule created
a ncw slogan: "We will fight to re–
main British if we have to fight the
British."
In 1920, war broke out between
Catholic forces - now known as the
Irish Republican Army
(l.
R.
A.) -
and the British. After two years of
úghting, a compromise was reached
that established the Irish Free State
but Ieft Ulster in the United Kingdom.
Even after the treaty, civil war con–
tinued to wrack Ireland until 1923.
The independent southern regime
in Dublin acquired dominion status
with the British Commonwealth. But
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