Groucho Marxism

Ireland was England’s first colony (Wales was the second but took a bit longer to conquer). The colonization began in 1169 when Anglo-Norman mercenaries were invited in by the deposed King of Leinster, the region covering most of eastern Ireland, to help regain his kingship. Dublin was originally a Viking city, having been founded by the Vikings in 841. But the Anglo-Normans claimed Dublin along with the rest of Ireland and were supported by a Papal Bull: a formal, authoritative decree issued by the Pope. The mercenaries swiftly seized control of areas like Dublin and Waterford and eventually gained control of around three-quarters of Ireland over the following decades, marking the beginning of centuries of English dominance.

After the Protestant split away from the Catholic Church in the 16th Century, Ireland, unlike England, remained Catholic. This lead to English fears that Ireland would form an alliance with Catholic Spain and France. In response, Queen Elizabeth of England resorted to a classic divide-and-rule strategy. Protestants were planted in Ireland, mainly in the north east but a also in Dublin. Meanwhile, Catholics were thrown off their land and brutally repressed. Laws were enacted which enforced Protestant conformity with heavy fines imposed for non-compliance, Catholic Masses were banned, and Catholic missionaries were executed as traitors. Around 200 Catholics were executed in Ireland during Elizabeth’s reign.

The Irish Rebellion of 1641 brought much of Ireland under the control of the Irish Catholic Confederation, which engaged in a multi-sided war with Royalists, Parliamentarians, Scots Covenanters, and local Presbyterian militia. In 1649, Oliver Cromwell’s troops landed in Ireland, which by then was under the control of a coalition aligned with the Royalist cause. No quarter was given by Cromwell and his army. Once again there was massive repression of Catholics, including a massacre in Drogheda, and Cromwell’s men were given land at the expense of the native Catholic population. The Act for the Settlement of Ireland 1652 barred Catholics from most public offices and confiscated large amounts of their land. This period effectively saw the re-conquest of Ireland by England.

The Orange Order, an anti-Catholic anti-independence organisation, was founded in 1794. This reactionary organisation drove thousands of Catholics out of the north of Ireland to Connaught in the west. The Order was named after Protestant William of Orange who won the decisive Battle of The Boyne in 1690, which ensured the continued Protestant ascendancy in Ireland. However in 1798 Protestant Wolf Tone, inspired by the American and French Revolutions, led his Society for United Irishmen in a fight for Irish independence. Ultimately though the United Irishmen were defeated and Ireland was forcibly brought into the Act of Union in 1801. Industry was suppressed in all but the north eastern counties, with the rest of Ireland remaining largely agrarian.

The Great Famine took place between 1845 and 1852, during which over a third of the population either starved to death or were forced to emigrate. As a result the population fell from 8.2 million in 1841 to 4.7 million in 1891; the population of Ireland today is 7.2 million, still lower than its pre-famine peak. The famine was primarily caused by a water mold which destroyed potato crops across Europe. The blight caused catastrophic devastation in Ireland due to an extreme over-reliance on a single potato variety, combined with unjust land ownership systems, poverty, and inadequate, slow, or restrictive relief efforts by the British government. The famine was arguably an act of genocide by the British, who deliberately shipped food from Ireland during this period with the help of Anglo-Irish land owners.

In the early 20th century James Connolly and Jim Larkin, Irishmen born in Edinburgh and Liverpool respectively, built a strong Trade Union movement across the whole of Ireland which organised strikes in Dublin, Belfast, and elsewhere. Connolly vociferously opposed the imperialist war of 1914-1918, unlike many other prominent socialist leaders (Lenin, Trotsky, and Rosa Luxembourg being notable exceptions). The Easter Rising, an armed insurrection launched by Irish republicans against British rule in Ireland, took place in 1916. Initially there was little support for Rising in Ireland. But the British murder of the leaders of the Rising, including James Connolly, changed the mood completely, and there were even reported mutinies of Irish soldiers.

Elections in 1918 saw a majority for the pro-independence Sinn Féin party (Irish for ‘We Ourselves’), and over 70% voting for parties standing for independence, after Labour stood aside to back nationalist demands. Sinn Féin then established the Dáil Éireann (Assembly of Ireland) and boycotted Westminster. In response the British Secretary of State for War, one Winston Churchill, sent in the paramilitary Black and Tans to combat Irish revolutionaries. Whilst it is not clear that the Dáil ever intended to gain independence by military means, and war was not explicitly threatened in Sinn Féin’s 1918 manifesto, war broke out between Britain and Ireland the following year. Churchill made clear that Ireland would have to agree to partition or be reduced to rubble.

Partition reinforced the divide and rule strategy that had been going on since the 16th century. Catholics were barred from jobs and gerrymandering ensured that Catholic areas were run by Protestant politicians. Catholic areas faced pogroms organised by the Orange Order and allowed – indeed, in some cases participated in – by the mainly Protestant police. In 1972 British Troops shot 26 and murdered 14 unarmed Catholic demonstrators in Derry in Northern Ireland, an event that became known as Bloody Sunday. This sparked off The Troubles, a 30 year war between the IRA on the one hand, and British forces and Loyalist paramilitaries on the other, which left over 3,000 dead. But the IRA’s individualistic terrorism only further increased division.

The Troubles eventually came to an end with the Good Friday agreement of 1998. More recently, however, Brexit has again highlighted underlying tensions between the Northern Ireland and the Republic. The population of Northern Ireland is now 51% Catholic and 49% and Protestant, whereas it was 66% Protestant at the time of Partition; this has led many to argue for a referendum on whether Northern Ireland should remain in the UK or join a united Ireland. But such a referendum would likely only heighten tensions once more. What is required instead is a class program to unite Catholics and Protestants in a common struggle against the misery of capitalist exploitation. Only then will Ireland finally throw off the shackles of English domination.