United Kingdom Yearbook - 2000

BRITAIN AND ITS PEOPLE
Northern Ireland Districts
Moyle
Derry
Limavady
Coleraine
Ballymoney
Fermanagh
Strabane
Omagh
Magherafelt
Cookstown
Dungannon
Craigavon
Ballymena
Antrim
Larne
Cf
Nta
ND
Belfast
Cr
Lisburn
Ards
Armagh
Banbridge
Down
Newry
and Mourne
Cf
Cr
ND
Nta
Carrickfergus
Castlereagh
North Down
Newtownabbey
The English civil wars (1642–51) led to
further uprisings in Ireland, which were
crushed by Oliver Cromwell. More fighting
took place after the overthrow of the Roman
Catholic James II in 1688. During the Battle
of the Boyne in 1690 the forces of James II,
who was trying to regain the throne, starting
in Ireland, were defeated by those of the
Protestant William of Orange (William III).
Throughout most of the 18th century there
was uneasy peace. In 1782 the Irish Parliament
(dating from medieval times) was given
legislative independence; the only
constitutional tie with Great Britain was the
Crown. The Parliament, however, represented
only the privileged Anglo-Irish minority, and
the Roman Catholic majority was excluded
from it. Following the abortive rebellion led
by Wolfe Tone’s United Irishmen movement
in 1798, Ireland was unified with Great
Britain under the 1800 Act of Union. The
Irish Parliament was abolished in 1801 and
Irish members sat in both Houses of the
Westminster Parliament.
The Irish question was one of the major
issues of British politics during the 19th
century. In 1886 the Liberal Government
introduced a Home Rule Bill designed to give
a new Irish Parliament devolved authority
over most internal matters while Britain
maintained control over foreign and defence
policy. This failed as did a second Bill
introduced in 1893.
The issue returned to the political agenda
in 1910 because the Liberal Government was
dependent for its political survival on support
from the pro-Home Rule Irish Parliamentary
Party. The controversy intensified as unionists
and nationalists in Ireland formed private
armies. In 1914 Home Rule was approved in
the Government of Ireland Act.
Implementation, however, was suspended by
the outbreak of the First World War.
A nationalist rising in Dublin in 1916 was
suppressed and its leaders executed. Two
years later the nationalist Sinn Féin party won
a large majority of the Irish seats in the general
election to the Westminster Parliament. Its
members refused to attend the House of
Commons and, instead, formed the Dáil
Éireann in Dublin. A nationalist guerrilla
force called the Irish Republican Army began
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