the Irish Question

the Irish Question

A brief journey through the tortured history of British-Irish relation

"I want to see a public man come forward and say what the Irish question is. One says it is a physical question, another a spiritual. Now it is the absence of the Aristocracy. Now it is the absence of railways. It is the Pope one day and potatoes the next. A dense population inhabit an island where there is an established church which is not their church, and a territorial aristocracy, the richest of whom live in a distant capital. Thus they have a starving population, an alien church, and in addition the weakest executive in the world. That is the Irish question."

Benjamin Disraeli

Disraeli's speech in the House of Commons on 16 February 1844

T I M E L I N E

1916

1801

late 12th century

1972

1919-21

2016

1973-1993

1968

1998

Act of Union

The Good Friday Agreement

Irish War of Indipendence

Bloody Sunday

England started to colonize Ireland

IRA attacks

The TROUBLES started

The Easter Rising and the Rise of Sinn Fein

The Easter Rising Centenary Commemoration

Anti-war songs played by Irish bands

It's the same old theme Since nineteen-sixteen In your head, in your head, they're still fighting With their tanks and their bombs And their bombs and their guns In your head, in your head, they are dying

Broken bottles under children's feet Bodies strewn across the dead end street But I won't heed the battle call It puts my back up, puts my back up against the wall Sunday, Bloody Sunday Sunday, Bloody Sunday Sunday, Bloody Sunday Sunday, Bloody Sunday

The Good Friday Agreement was signed on 10 April 1998. This remarkable document led Britain and Ireland to break a cycle of violence that had continued for 30 years. The troubles officially ended .

Significant progress on peace and reconciliation has been made in the 25 years since the Good Friday Agreement was signed in Stormont Castle. Today, an entire generation on the island of Ireland has lived out of the shadow of violence as a result of the Agreement.