The Early Ideas of English Writers About Ireland
This document contains the early ideas of English writers about Ireland. The verses describe the deeds of Henry Sidney, who commanded Ireland on behalf of Elizabeth I (Derrick, 1581). This leader brutally treated the local population to suppress the interests of the Irish, as illustrated in the reviewed document. However, it is worth noting that the paper in question presents the actions of the invaders as something positive while distorting the culture and customs of the Irish. The document submitted for analysis depicts the chief of the Mac Sweynes being entertained by a bard and a harpist during lunch.
Contradictions and inconsistencies abound in Derek Walcott’s interpretation of Caribbean History, causing any notions of previous time steps and linearity to be complicated. The past does not always arrive before the future, and the present floats between the two. Moreover, history does not advance steadily. In Walcott’s poem Omeros from 1990, there are numerous flashbacks, historical deceptions, and even instances of time travel, warning that time is a flimsy construct whose unfolding may be stopped at any time. This is in line with the chronology of the “New World,” particularly the Caribbean, in which the arrival of the Europeans sparked a series of catastrophic rifts. (Gi-Heon Kwon, 2018). The Caribbean peoples were all but wiped out during the sixteenth century’s “Renaissance” on the Old Continent, and the imperial powers competing for predominance in the region have mainly shaped the region’s history ever since.
However, Walcott’s unique development of a “nonlinear temporality” relies on archetypes like Rebirth, Reformation, or revivalism are all terms for movements that hold that the past is not wholly out of our reach. Programs for cultural renaissance or revival assume that it is possible to bring back long-forgotten traditions, give outdated ideas new life, and transform the archive of the past into a language appropriate for the present. To this trio of rebirth, renaissance, and revivalism, one would add the vague idea of restoration, with its two meanings of recovering or retrieving something and rebounding from something. The polysemy suggests a trajectory that moves forward and backward simultaneously, especially a traumatic one. (Gi-Heon Kwon, 2018). By doing so, the past and present might become simultaneous; the passage of time might take unforeseen turns, and history’s weight might be creatively reshaped.
The Roots of the 1641 Rebellion
The roots of the 1641 rebellion lie partly in the Elizabethan conquest and colonization of Ireland and partly in the alienation of Anglo-Irish Catholics from the new Protestant English state in the decades following that conquest. The religious factor was only one of the more significant problems posed by the Gaelic Irish, and its importance was quickly glossed over. However, differences on religious grounds played a crucial role in relations between the government and the colonists.
The pre-Elizabethian Irish population is generally divided into Gaelic Irish and Anglo-Irish or Old English descendants of medieval English and Anglo-Norman. These groups were historically antagonistic, with English-settled areas such as Palais, Dublin, south Wexford, and other walled towns being fortified against the established Gaelic clans. By the 17th century, the cultural gap between them, especially at the elite social level, was narrowing (Cunningham, 2021). The English, both in the Settlement and in other parts of the Kingdom, despised the ordinary Irish, regarding them as barbarian people devoid of civility and religion. Many Old English lords spoke not only Irish spoke Irish and patronized Irish poetry and music extensively and were presented as Hiberniores Hibernia ipsis (More Irish than Irish). Mixed marriages were also common. Moreover, after the Elizabethan Conquest, the native population became defined by their common religion, Roman Catholicism, as opposed to the Protestantism of the new settlers.
Most Irish Catholic upper classes were not opposed to Charles I’s sovereignty over Ireland but wanted to be total subjects and retain their superior position in Irish society. This was prevented by their religion and the threat of losing their land on plantations. The unsuccessful Gunpowder Plot of 1605 led to further discrimination against and distrust of Catholics (Dures & Young, 2021). Anglicanism, a branch of Protestantism, was the only approved form of worship. Public confession to Catholicism could lead to arrest, and failure to attend Protestant church services was punishable by a fine for disobedience. Catholics could not hold high government positions or serve in the military above a certain rank. English Protestants dominated the Privy Council of Ireland. The electors of the Irish House of Commons gave the Protestants a majority.
In response, the Irish Catholic upper classes sought to approach the king directly, first James I and then Charles I, asking for full rights for subjects and tolerance for their religion. The kings seemed to agree with them on several occasions, granting their demands in exchange for higher taxes. Irish Catholics were disappointed when, having paid increased taxes after 1630, Charles delayed their last two demands until he and the Privy Council of England instructed the Irish Lord Justices to publish the required bills (McCafferty, 2021). The rebellion was organized by a small group of Catholic landowners and military officers, primarily Gaelic Irish from the populous province of Ulster. Armed men led by Connor Maguire and Rory O’Moore were to seize Dublin Castle and its armory and hold it until rebel help arrived in neighboring County Wicklow.
Meanwhile, Phelim O’Neill and his allies were to occupy several forts in Ulster. They planned to use surprise, not force, to achieve their goals without bloodshed and then advance their demands in anticipation of support from the rest of the country. The English garrison in Ireland numbered only about 2,000 men and was scattered throughout the country (Nee, 2020). The plan to take Dublin Castle was thwarted after one of the conspirators, Hugh Og McMahon, mistakenly revealed details of the plot to his adopted brother, a newly converted Protestant named Owen O’Connolly. He informed one of the Lord Justices, and MacMahon and Maguire were arrested. The remaining rebels slipped out of Dublin.
Within two days, the rebels captured most of the Armagh, Tyrone, Fermanagh, and Monaghan counties. O’Neill and his men took Dungannon and Charlemont, the McCartans and Magennises took Newry, the O’Hanlons took Tandragee, the McCanns took Portadown, the O’Quinns took Mountjoy Castle, the McMahons took Castleblaney and Carrickmacross and the rebels led with Rory Maguire captured most of Fermanagh (Horning, 2022). All the forts that did not surrender were besieged. On 24 October, O’Neill issued the Dungannon Proclamation, stating that they did not oppose the king but only defended their liberties and did not wish to harm the king’s subjects.
The English authorities in Dublin overreacted to the rebellion, calling it the most disloyal and heinous conspiracy perpetrated by some evil touched by the Irish papists, which aimed at the general slaughter of all English and Protestant inhabitants. In December, the British authorities in Dublin sent troops under the command of Charles Coote and William St. Leger to rebel-held areas in Counties Wicklow and Tipperary, respectively. These actions were later characterized as essential brutality against the Catholic population and helped provoke the Catholic population to join the rebellion. The uprising in Münster, the last region to witness such unrest, was prompted by the imposition of harsh martial law by William St. Leger there.
Meanwhile, the collapse of state power caused massive native Irish attacks on English Protestant settlers, primarily in Ulster. Initially, the Scottish settlers were not attacked, but as the rebellion continued, they, too, became targets. O’Neill and other rebel leaders tried to stop the attacks on the settlers but could not control the peasantry. These widespread attacks usually did not end in human casualties, and the insurgents did not intend to kill. However, these were terrible cases because they were face-to-face between people who had known each other for a long time. A typical attack involved a group of Irishmen attacking a Protestant family and demanding, at knifepoint, to hand over their valuables. Murders usually only took place where Protestants resisted.
The motives for the popular uprising were complex. Among them was the desire to change the plantations completely. Another motivating factor was the antagonism towards the English language and culture that was imposed on the country. For example, rebels in County Cavan banned the use of English and decreed that Irish place names should replace English ones. The third factor, as mentioned above, was religious antagonism. The rebels consciously called themselves Catholics and justified the uprising as a defensive measure against the Protestant threat.
The number of Protestant settlers killed in the first months of the rebellion is debated. Early English parliamentary pamphlets claimed that over 200,000 Protestants died. Recent studies suggest that the number is much lower, around 4,000 killed, although thousands more were driven from their homes (Brower, 2019). It is estimated that as many as 12,000 Protestants in total may have perished, most of them dying of cold or disease after being expelled from their homes in the dead of winter. If the upper estimate of 12,000 deaths is correct, this will represent less than 10% of the British settler population in Ireland. However, in Ulster, the ratio of deaths to settler population would be somewhat higher, around 30% (McAreavey, 2021). The general pattern was that the longer the uprising continued, the more the attacks intensified. First, there were beatings and looting of settlers, then burning houses and expulsions, and finally, murders, most of which were concentrated in Ulster.
Attacks on settlers intensified after the unsuccessful assault on Lisnagarve in November 1641, after which the settlers killed several hundred captured rebels. In the same month, the rebels killed about 100 captured settlers at Portadown, driving them off the bridge into the River Bann and shooting those who tried to swim to safety (McAreavey, 2018). Known as the Portadown Massacre, it was one of the deadliest massacres in Ireland during the conflicts. In the neighboring parish of Kilmore, English and Scots men, women, and children were burned in the cottage where they were imprisoned. In County Armagh, a recent study found that about 1,250 Protestants were killed in the first months of the rebellion, or about a quarter of the settlers there (Fennell, 2018). There were also massacres of settlers outside Ulster, such as the Shrule massacre in County Mayo, where dozens of Protestant prisoners were killed by their Catholic escorts.
References
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