1687 - 1691: James 2nd and William of Orange

In 1688 a Europe-wide war broke out after simmering international relations boiled over. On one side was France, and on the other was the Grand Alliance. The Grand Alliance consisted of Spain, Holland, Germany, Hungary, Naples, Prussia and Sweden. The Grand Alliance's commander was William of Orange, a Protestant from an estate in the "Orange" region of Holland.

At the same time as this war was breaking out, the English King, Charles 2nd, was succeeded by King James 2nd. James was a Catholic and introduced laws for religious toleration of non-Anglicans (i.e. Catholics and Presbyterians). However, when James began promoting Catholics up to the higher ranks of the army, Parliament became suspicious that he was trying to make England an officially Catholic country again. To complicate matters, James' daughter, Mary, married William of Orange and thus William became heir to the throne.

In 1687, James made his brother-in-law his viceroy in Ireland. The viceroy strengthened the Irish army in case James needed it. Because James was a Catholic, it was easy to find recruits in Ireland. However, when the viceroy tried to garrison some of the Catholic troops in Derry in 1688, the Protestant citizens did not want them to enter. Nobody was brave enough to go and tell the troops they were not welcome, however, and eventually it was the young apprentice boys of Derry who shut the city gates as the troops tried to enter. This was repeated in Enniskillen, in Co Fermanagh. It is these events that today's Apprentice Boys commemorate.

Things changed for the worse in 1688 when James had another son. However, while James regarded this Catholic boy as his heir, Parliament regarded Protestant William as heir. Scared that James would take action to prevent William becoming King, Parliament invited William over to take over the monarchy there and then, and William duly arrived in November 1688 with his troops and marched to London. James fled to France and William and Mary were made King and Queen in 1689. This coronation is called the 'Glorious Revolution'. The Protestants in Ireland joined the revolution and declared their support for William.

In March 1689, James landed in Ireland at Dublin to start his fight-back, because he knew he would get strong Catholic support there. Many Protestants, in support of William, took up arms and attacked James' new army. However James was stronger than the natives and drove them back and sieged them in the cities of Derry and Enniskillen, with the aim of crushing all Williamite support in Ireland. James placed a boom across the Foyle River so Derry was without food supplies for 105 days. The situation got so desperate that astronomical prices were being paid in the city for things like a single rat. The siege of Derry is another of the famous events of Irish history. The siege was finally lifted when a Williamite ship, the Mountjoy, arrived and smashed through the boom on 28 July 1689 and James fled. James’ soldiers who had been sieging Enniskillen were intercepted and defeated at Newtownbutler, Co Fermanagh. In August 1689, William’s armies landed at, and took, the town of Carrickfergus in Co Antrim.

In March 1690, 4000 Grand Alliance troops (Danes, in fact) arrived at Belfast to aid William, because they wanted William to get back to leading the war in Europe. At the same time, Louis 16th of France sent troops to aid James. He wanted to prolong the war in Ireland, so that William's attention would be diverted away from France for longer. In June 1690, William himself arrived at Carrickfergus and marched south. James marched north from Dublin and the two armies met at the River Boyne, in Co Meath on 1 July, 1690. The ensuing battle, known as the Battle of the Boyne, is arguably the most famous event in Irish history, due to its symbolic Catholic/Protestant confrontation.

In the event, William won the battle losing 400 men to James' 1,300. James immediately left for Dublin and subsequently fled to France. William's victory was celebrated right across Europe as it represented a defeat by the Grand Alliance over France. James' viceroy remained and led the remains of James' army to Limerick and Athlone. He managed to inflict several defeats on William's army, and William failed to take Limerick despite sieging it. William returned to England leaving his general Ginkel in charge. Ginkel offered the Jacobites (supporters of James) a peace settlement, but they refused and decided to fight on under the leadership of the Marquis St Ruth. On 12 July, 1691 the two armies met at Aughrim, near Athlone. Ginkel decided to attack despite being in an inferior strategic position. However, he won and St Ruth was killed and the Jacobites retreated in disarray to Limerick. On 26 September 1691, the Jacobites finally surrendered and a peace treaty was signed in October 1691. This was the Treaty of Limerick which permitted Catholics to retain the right to practice their religion, but forfeit their land. Most of the Jacobite soldiers were allowed free passage to go to France to fight for Louis, and were known as the 'Wild Geese'.

1691 - 1789: Segregation and the Industrial Revolution

After the Treaty of Limerick, a series of Penal Laws were passed by the Irish Parliament whose expressed purpose was to try to rid Ireland of Catholicism, by forcing Catholics to become Protestant. These laws banned Catholics from a) having a gun b) being professionals (except medical) c) being involved in politics d) owning land e) receiving education (except for that in the Protestant faith) f) owning a horse over ?5 value.

These laws were so harsh that many Irish converted to Anglicanism, if only to escape the penalties that were incurred by those who broke the Penal Laws. In 1728 another law was passed which banned Catholics from voting. Another law introduced was that if a man converted to Protestantism then he would be given his Catholic father's estate, even if the father was still alive. As you can imagine, this produced a lot of ill feeling within families.

Catholics were not the only group to be discriminated against. In 1704 a law was passed which banned Presbterians from town councils and other official positions. Presbyterian ministers were also banned from conducting wedding ceremonies.

In 1713, France made peace with England by the Treaty of Utrecht, thus ending the war in Europe, finally ending a war that had dragged on for a quarter of a century. Being an island nation, England had had to develop a huge navy in order to defend its shores. This navy was put to use during the years of Colonisation, when all the European powers joined in the mad scramble for territory abroad, especially Asia, Africa, the Americas and Australasia. having already amassed a large navy, England was at an advantage from the start.

Throughout the 18th century, England made spectacular conquests around the world, namely in India, southern Africa, Australia and North America. This was the dawn of the golden era of the British empire. In 1776, however, England went to war when the residents of their colonies in New England, (on the east coast of North America) declared themselves independent. Despite fighting a war, England lost control of its New England colonies in 1777. And 12 years later, in 1789, the French monarchy was overthrown in the French Revolution. The King of France was beheaded in a spectacular finale of the rise of the Republic over the Monarchy.

Towards the end of the century, which was relatively peaceful in Ireland despite the discrimination, England became the first country in the world to hit the Industrial Revolution. Soon factories were springing up in Dublin, Cork and Belfast and the cities were soon swelling with new residents. The population rose and many large buildings were constructed including magnificent churches.

1789 - 1800: The United Irishmen and the 1798 Rebellion

In 1789 the French Revolution occurred during which French peasants overthrew the monarchy. Out of the bloodshed emerged a new democratic French republic. For many peasant people across Europe, this new democracy concept was very appealing, since it gave the power to them and not to the aristocracy. In 1791, the newly installed French government offered military assistance to any group who wanted to overthrow their own King. This was very worrying for the surrounding monarchies of England, Spain, Germany and Austria and war soon broke out between them and France.

At the same time, a new organisation was formed in Ireland. Under Wolfe Tone, the United Irishmen (who consisted of Protestants and Catholics alike) declared their belief in a peaceful future for Ireland in which Protestants and Catholics could live together in peace and with equality. They wanted to set up a French-styled democratic republic in Ireland, which was independent of Britain. They quickly gained support, although some, most notably the newly-formed Orange Order which was set up to preserve loyalty to the monarchy, were against them.

Supporting French Republicanism was seen as treasonous by the British considering they were at war with France. Also, Britain was a constitutional monarchy, which meant that the King did not have absolute power. Therefore the British regarded themselves as already democratic. Because of these facts, the British saw the United Irishmen as a national threat to be disposed of.

In 1798, the British began attacking known United Irishmen, and murdering large numbers of Protestant and Catholic members. Tone realised that if they were going to have their rebellion, it would have to be now or never, before the British destroyed them. So a large rebellion began in the spring concentrated in counties Down, Antrim and Wexford. Several bloody battles took place at Antrim, Ballynahinch and Saintfield. The United Irishmen were finally defeated at the Battle of Vinegar Hill in County Wexford. Almost all the several hundred United Irishmen were slaughtered.

However, it was not over. In late 1798, the French sent reinforcements to Ireland and they landed at Mayo, in western Ireland. They invaded and took over the area and gained popular support among the local Irish who saw it as an opportunity to get a better government. The French and their Irish allies got as far as county Sligo before being defeated by the British. While the French were taken prisoner, the local Irish were massacred as a punishment for treason. Wolfe Tone committed suicide in prison whilst awaiting execution. Note that this was the last time a hostile army ever invaded Ireland.

Although the rebellion had been put down, it was clear that Republicanism in Ireland could not be ignored and serious changes were needed in the way Ireland was governed to ensure that such violence did not occur again.

1800 - 1877: The Act of Union, Emancipation and the Great Famine

The drastic action that was taken was the Act of Union, passed in 1800. It formed a new country ("The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland") by uniting England, Wales, Ireland and Scotland. A new flag - the Union Jack - was created for it which had components from the flags of each member state. All regional parliaments were abolished, and instead the entire UK was to be ruled from a centralised London parliament. For most Irish, there wasn't a noticeable difference, but it meant the Irish government representatives could not pass laws on their own.

In 1813, a man named Sir Robert Peel set up a law-enforcing force in Ireland. Its job was to arrest those who broke the law and generally manage crime prevention. This force was known as the 'Peelers' or the 'Bobbies', and later became known as the Police. It was the world's first Police force and, by 1822, most countries has followed suit and set up their own.

The hated penal laws were still in force in Ireland in the early 1800s. These discriminated against non-Anglicans, principally Catholics and Presbyterians. It had been promised that they would be abolished with the Act of Union. However, this did not happen and it took the actions of Daniel O'Connell to lead a campaign for emancipation that captured the English public's imagination and led to the necessary legislation being passed in 1829. The importance of emancipation to the Irish people was recognised when the main street in Dublin was re-named after O'Connell after independence in 1921.

In 1800 the population of Ireland was between 4 and 5 million, with 200,000 in Dublin. However the Industrial revolution and especially the Irish Linen industry expanded explosively in the first half of the century, and this allowed the population to increase dramatically. By 1841, there were 8,175,000 people in Ireland. (This compares to the 1996 figure of 5,162,535.) Most Irish landlords were Protestants, simply because the law forbade Catholics from owning land. The Irish peasants themselves, who were both Protestant and Catholic, ate potatoes almost exclusively, since land was scarce and potatoes were an intensive crop. However, in 1845 a fungal disease called 'phytophthora infestans', or 'potato blight' struck and wiped out a third of the potato crop in Ireland. This was a disaster to the peasants who relied upon it. Those who lived near towns were better off, since towns had other sources of food, but things got very bad for those living in rural areas.

By 1846, potato supplies had sold out and many people began to slowly starve. The British government stepped in and imported ?100,000 worth of maize from America to feed the starving, and this helped prevent mass death for the first year of the Famine. However, the crop of 1846 also failed and this time wiped out almost all the potatoes in Ireland. Thousands of people simply starved, particularly in rural areas. Many also died from typhus, scurvy and dysentery. The British set up soup-kitchens and workhouses for the poor but they drastically underestimated the scale of the disaster, and many people did not receive any aid at all. The problem was compounded by landlords who evicted Peasants who could not pay the rent because they had no potatoes to sell. Fortunately the crop of 1847 was good, and, although the 1848 crop failed, the starvation was never so bad as in 1846. 

Many thousands of Irish decided to cut their losses and set sail on emigration boats to America. This is the origin of about half of what is now referred to as 'Irish America'. Hundreds of Irish died on the ships which were so overcrowded that they became known as 'coffin ships'. By 1851, the population had fallen 25% to 6,000,000 and the emigration continued until around 1900, by which time only 4,500,000 Irish remained in Ireland. This left huge chunks of abandoned farmland and even today, large areas of derelict farmland can be seen in Mayo and Galway. Many Irish felt that the British could have done more and this caused a lot of anti-British sentiment to arise, particularly in Ireland and among the Irish who had gone to America.

While there is little doubt that the British could have done more to prevent the mass deaths in Ireland, some blame must also be attributed to the over-reliance of the rural Irish on a single food crop and on the lack of communication routes with England, meaning that many in Britain were genuinely unaware of what was happening in rural Ireland. Most visitors to Ireland stayed in the cities, which were largely unaffected by the famine.

In 1858 a new group calling themselves the Irish Republican Brotherhood or the 'Fenians' was formed with the aim of creating an independent Irish republic by force. Unlike previous groups, the IRB had a large support base, particularly from the Irish who had gone to America. In 1867 they staged an uprising but it was easily defeated by the British. The Fenians went into the background for the next 30 years, but it still existed. The IRB was the first group to add a religious (pro-Catholic/anti-Protestant) slant to Republicanism, and this widened the gap between the 2 religious groups who shared Ireland.