The Story of Ireland

by Neil Hegarty

  The response of the Irish government was unprecedented: the actions of the Holy See were condemned repeatedly by senior ministers and by the taoiseach himself, who referred in the Dáil to the ‘disconnected, dysfunctional, elitist and narcissistic’ nature of Vatican culture. In response, the Vatican publicly recalled its representative in Ireland: ostensibly for ‘consultations’, but also to signal its displeasure at an ‘excessive’ response by the Irish state. Viewed in an historical context – the records, after all, are thronged with images of Irish government ministers kneeling before bishops and cardinals and declaring that their nationality at all times came second to their Catholicism – this very public divergence of opinion was truly startling.

  There were other indicators too of a changing culture and society. In particular, the four-day state visit of Queen Elizabeth II in May 2011 was charged with significance. The event had been envisaged for years: with the signing of the Belfast (or Good Friday) Agreement in 1997, it had entered the realm of the possible; and with the conclusions of the Saville Report into the events of Bloody Sunday accepted in full by the British government, it became inevitable. Nor was anything left to chance, least of all the monarch’s security: from the moment she landed in Ireland and stepped, emerald-clad, from the plane, Dublin was in virtual lockdown, with the capital’s roads and bridges closed, its skies patrolled by plane and helicopter; television viewers looked upon a capital city that seemed to have been deserted by its inhabitants.

  The royal visit – it was generally agreed – passed flawlessly. In its after-math, commentators and political leaders suggested that a line had been drawn under the past: that the disharmony that had characterized the Anglo–Irish relationship over the course of centuries was now ended, once and for all; and that a new partnership of equal sovereign nations had been forged. These are understandable wishes and sentiments, particularly given both the historic nature of the connection between Ireland and the neighbouring island, and the inevitable wish to focus attention on the country’s own present economic and social difficulties. Yet history can never be wished to a conclusion: rather, its legacies must be acknowledged before they can be set aside. Queen Elizabeth’s visit, indeed, demonstrated this simple lesson in actions, symbols and a handful of words: the mere action of squaring up to a troubled past brought with it a sense of release.

  Such acknowledgements, however, are not always to be had. Days after the state visit ended, the British foreign secretary, William Hague, announced that government files relating to the Dublin and Monaghan bombings of 1974 could not for legal reasons be opened for inspection. The full story of these atrocities – in which thirty-three people were killed – remains to be told, and without the co-operation of the British government it is highly unlikely that it ever will.

  In Northern Ireland too, the consequences of history continue to unfold – most brutally, perhaps, in the murder in April 2011 of a police constable in County Tyrone. Ronan Kerr died at Omagh when a bomb, planted by dissident republicans, exploded under his car: the impact of his death was felt more keenly, maybe, because Kerr was young, a Catholic and a member of the Gaelic Athletic Association – a powerful emblem, in other words, of the new order evolving in Northern Ireland. His death was an indication of the limits of the success of this new order – and conversely, his funeral was accompanied by a proliferation of symbols which highlighted the changes that had already taken root. Members both of the GAA and of the police service flanked Kerr’s funeral cortege; prominent Unionist politicians and members of the Orange Order participated in the funeral Mass – in some cases, for the first time in their lives. In the still abnormal society of Northern Ireland these were remarkable sights, and indicators of progress towards the creation of a new society.

  There have also been warnings, however, of a developing disillusionment with politics as it exists in the province. In the local elections and election to the Northern Ireland Assembly held on 5 May 2011, turnout fell to a historically low level – this in a society which had traditionally boasted extremely high levels of voter participation. It could be argued that this was a good thing: that normal politics were bedding down; that voters were accordingly switching off; that the Northern Ireland public, in failing to vote, was simply following habits established across the mature democracies of the Western world. Yet there is a rather more disturbing lesson to be taken from such trends.

  The systems of government and administration established by the Belfast Agreement do not allow for the concept of parliamentary opposition as it exists in other democracies: instead, the governance of Northern Ireland is by enforced consensus, embodied in the province’s five-party Executive or cabinet. While such structures were certainly necessary to break the political freeze that had existed during the Troubles, they have by no means led to nimble or responsive government in the longer term: indeed, the Executive has been not so much sure-footed as lumbering, discordant and procrastinating in the matter of everyday politics. It cannot be positive or healthy if voters are turning their backs on politics, preferring to linger (as local wits put it) in the garden centre rather than the polling booth; and it is an indication that the structures of government established by the Belfast Agreement will in the longer term require adjustment.

  Set against this are signs of a wider vision of cultural and political plurality. The splendidly rebuilt Lyric Theatre – the province’s de facto national theatre – was inaugurated at Belfast in 2011, its twin stages and modern facilities providing the shared spaces that such a divided society urgently requires. Similarly, the sinuous new footbridge across the river Foyle in Derry has provided both a striking symbolic connection between the two halves of an often fractured city; and an excellent backdrop to Derry’s year as inaugural UK City of Culture in 2013. In fact, it is evident that the city’s bid was successful in part because it undertook to confront and explore the fraught issues of identity that pass like geological fault lines across the terrain of Northern Ireland society.

  The identity of Ireland as a whole, indeed, appears malleable as never before. This island’s exposure to the influence and currents of the wider world has in recent decades been emphasized consistently, and in a variety of (not always straightforward) ways: from the stake taken by the White House in the Northern Ireland peace negotiations of the 1990s to the enthusiastic openness of the Republic to the European single currency at the turn of the millennium – and now, to the country’s problematic bail-out by European and international institutions. This internationalism is not likely to diminish in the foreseeable future, particularly while Ireland as a whole grows increasingly dependent on foreign investment and the export trade.

  Yet the local texture and rhythms of Irish life have by no means disappeared. Former Irish President Mary Robinson has spoken in moving terms of the Irish tradition of meitheal: the acknowledgement of the essential interdependence of Irish communities, and of a willingness to work together in order to achieve common goals; a value system that has proved its worth in times of economic and social difficulty. It is to be hoped that balance and harmony can be found between Ireland’s necessary internationalism and these potent local ties that bind its people together. And one must also hope – perhaps with an even greater sense of urgency – that the political institutions and the leaders that serve this island will not, in the future, be found wanting.

  Timeline

  BC

  c.10,000

  Ice sheets retreat from Ireland

  c.8000

  First human presence in Ireland

  c.5500

  Neolithic farmers work the Céide Fields

  c.3000

  Construction of Newgrange

  AD

  43

  Roman legions occupy southern Britain

  c.77

  Agricola studies a possible Roman invasion of Ireland

  c.370

  Irish settlement of western Britain begins

  c.400

  First Christian
communities in southeastern Ireland

  c.430

  Palladius sent from Rome to minister to the Christian Irish; Patrick begins his ministry

  563

  Foundation of Iona by Colum Cille

  575

  Kingdom of Dál Ríata reaches its height

  590

  Columbanus departs for France

  612

  Foundation of Bobbio by Columbanus

  615

  Death of Columbanus at Bobbio

  635

  Foundation of Lindisfarne by Irish monks

  c.650

  Compilation of Antiphonary of Bangor

  c.700

  Completion of Lindisfarne Gospels; Tírechán and Muirchú produce hagiographical works on Patrick

  c.750

  Compilation of the Book of Kells, probably on Iona

  793

  Beginning of the Viking age: Lindisfarne raided

  795

  First Viking raids on Ireland: monastery on Rathlin Island destroyed

  802

  Iona burned by the Vikings

  837

  Vikings settle at Dublin

  c.840

  Iona is abandoned

  902

  Viking leaders expelled from Dublin

  917

  Vikings return to Dublin

  976

  Dalcassians under Brian Boru capture Limerick

  1002

  Brian Boru rules as high king

  1014

  Battle of Clontarf; death of Brian Boru

  1035

  Foundation of Christ Church Cathedral in Dublin

  1066

  Battle of Hastings – Norman conquest of England

  1132

  Malachy appointed Archbishop of Armagh; papacy asserts its control over Irish Church

  1152

  Henry Plantagenet marries Eleanor of Aquitaine

  1154

  Henry II crowned at Westminster Abbey

  1155

  Laudabiliter

  1166

  Rory O’Connor appointed high king in Dublin. Dermot MacMurrough flees overseas

  1169

  Anglo–Norman capture of Wexford

  1170

  Anglo–Norman capture of Waterford and Dublin; Thomas Becket assassinated in Canterbury Cathedral

  1171

  Death of MacMurrough; Henry II comes to Ireland

  1176

  Death of Strongbow

  1177

  Anglo–Norman conquest of eastern Ulster begins

  1185

  King John in Ireland

  1189

  Giraldus Cambrensis’s Expugnatio Hibernica

  1204

  Foundation of Dublin Castle; French conquest of Normandy

  1210

  King John campaigns in Ireland and subdues Anglo–Norman rebels

  1215

  Magna Carta

  1216

  Death of King John

  1284

  Formal English subjugation of Wales

  1314

  Battle of Bannockburn

  1315

  Edward Bruce lands in Ireland with a Scottish army

  1316

  Robert Bruce in Ireland

  1317

  Dublin repels a Scottish army; much of the city burned

  1318

  Edward Bruce killed at Dundalk; Scots leave Ireland; Remonstrance of the Princes

  1337–1453

  Hundred Years War

  1348

  Black Death

  1351

  Statute of Labourers in England

  1367

  Statutes of Kilkenny

  1399

  Richard II visits Ireland; in his absence, his throne is usurped by Henry Bolingbroke (Henry IV)

  1455–85

  Wars of the Roses

  1485

  Henry VII becomes first Tudor monarch

  1487

  Lambert Simnel claims Irish throne; battle of Stoke Field

  1494

  Poynings’ Laws

  1509

  Accession of Henry VIII

  1517

  Martin Luther’s Ninety-Five Theses; beginning of the Reformation

  1533

  Marriage of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn

  1534

  Rebellion of ‘Silken Thomas’ is defeated

  1537

  ‘Silken’ Thomas Fitzgerald executed

  1539

  Dissolution of the Irish monasteries

  1541

  Henry VIII proclaimed King of Ireland; ‘Surrender and Regrant’ policy begins

  1547

  Accession of Edward VI

  1553

  Accession of Mary I

  1557

  Plantation of King’s and Queen’s Counties

  1558

  Accession of Elizabeth I

  1569–73

  First Munster Rebellion; Catholic uprising in England defeated

  1570

  Elizabeth I excommunicated

  1572

  St Bartholomew’s Day Massacre

  1575

  English massacre of Scots settlers on Rathlin Island

  1578

  Irish collegiate mission – forerunner of the Irish College – established in Paris

  1579–83

  Second Munster Rebellion; unrest spreads across Ireland

  1585

  Plantation of Munster

  1587

  Execution of Mary Stuart

  1588

  Defeat of Spanish Armada; many ships run aground off the Irish coast

  1592

  Foundation of Trinity College Dublin

  1595

  Hugh O’Neill rebels against the Crown

  1596

  Edmund Spenser’s A View of the Present State of Ireland

  1598

  Battle of the Yellow Ford; rebellion extends to Munster

  1600

  An English garrison lands at Derry

  1601

  Battle of Kinsale

  1603

  Surrender of O’Neill; death of Elizabeth and accession of James I

  1606

  Private plantation of Antrim and Down begins; foundation of Irish College at Louvain

  1607

  Flight of the Earls; foundation of Jamestown colony in Virginia

  1608

  Plantation of Ulster begins

  1613

  Foundation of Londonderry

  1620

  Mayflower anchors off Cape Cod

  1625

  Accession of Charles I

  1628

  ‘Graces’ agreed between Charles and the Old English in Ireland

  1641

  Outbreak of rebellion in Ulster; English government begins assembling ‘depositions’

  1642

  English Civil War begins; Charles signs Adventurers’ Act

  1649

  Execution of Charles; Oliver Cromwell lands in Ireland; sack of Drogheda and Wexford

  1650

  Cromwell leaves Ireland

  1652

  Cromwellian Settlement

  1658

  Death of Cromwell

  1660

  Restoration of monarchy; accession of Charles II

  1685

  Accession of James II; revocation of Edict of Nantes

  1688

  Birth of a son to James II and Mary of Modena; William of Orange lands in England and James flees to France; Londonderry closes its gates to James’s supporters

  1689

  James lands at Kinsale and travels north; siege of Derry ends

  1690

  Battle of the Boyne; James returns to France

  1691

  Battle of Aughrim; Treaty of Limerick

  1697

  First penal legislation enacted

  1699

  Woollen Act

  1707

  Union of Scotland and England


  1713

  Jonathan Swift settles in Dublin

  1724

  Swift’s Drapier Letters

  1729

  Foundation of Parliament House in Dublin

  1740–1

  Severe famine in Ireland

  1742

  First performance of Handel’s Messiah in Dublin

  1745

  The ‘Forty-Five’: Jacobite uprising in Scotland

  1746

  Battle of Culloden

  1756–63

  Seven Years War

  1776

  American Declaration of Independence

  1781