Can you tell me how the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, separated?

Question

I am embarrassed, as I feel that I had a reasonable education, but I had no idea that all of Ireland wasn't part of the U.K.. I am an American with ancestry in Wales, Scotland and in Ireland, but I had no idea. I did look it up, but Wikipedia won't give me the short version. How about a quick explanation from the folks who live the story?

Answer 1

The island of Ireland was part of Great Britain, but a growing sense of nationality began to grow, due to the land laws enforced on the people. Basically the Irish could not own property, esp the Catholics.

1916 rising wasn't well supported by the majority of Irish, but the following executions rallied support for a Free Ireland. Which was finally negotiated in 1922. The 6 counties of Ulster had a majority Protestant population and they bargained with the British to remain British, afraid they would loose their Protestant privileges.

To end a bitter war, Michael Collins agreed to this, but De Valera was opposed , so there was a civil war.

As a further note, the catholics in the 6 counties still had no land ,votes or civil rights, up to 1969. Their protests led to what is known as "the troubles", which 2007 in NEARLY resolved..

Hope that was short & brief enough

Answer 2

ulster was the stronghold of the orange protestants and it remained with the UK while the remainder (catholic majority) of ireland achieved full independence from britain.  as religion has become less of an issue in modern society, the animosity has diminished a bit, but it still remains a powderkeg region.  

in the U.S., the term scots-irish typically refers to those of ulster descent -- there were many ulster immigrants to the U.S. in the 18th and early 19th century.  many of them had scots/anglo surnames (e.g., taylor, harrison, shaw, etc.).  the catholic irish immigrants on the other hand typically had celtic surnames (e.g., rourke, finnegan, o'malley, etc)

Answer 3

Basically, so that the Brits would pi** off, we signed over the 6 counties of the North to the Queen . With that, the Brits took the 6 conuties and left...kinda.

Answer 4

Read my answer to this question:

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?...

Answer 5

in the early 20th century the republic of ireland gained independance from england but the north was still held by englandas part of the u.k. im not totally up on the history of it myself and im british so im not gunna say too much more else i'll put my foot in it but im pretty sure it was the early 20th century when the republic split form the u.k.

Answer 6

well when Oliver Cromwell was around he attack Ireland but had no way of paying his soldiers so he sent then to the north and the solders nick all the land in the north.  therefor to this day its divides

Answer 7

Ahem , Ireland was never part of the UK, we were occupied by an enemy we didnt want in our country. In same way Iraq invaded Kuwait, US invaded Iraq etc etc...

But I digress, the partition of Ireland was agreed in 1921 by the Anglo Irish Agreement - which ended the War of independance (1919-1921), bascially it was negotiated that 6 counties in the north of the Island would remain under british rule in exchange for the setting up of the Republic.

Wikipedia answer...

n January 1919, after the December 1918 general elections, 73 of Ireland's 106 MPs elected were Sinn Féin members who refused to take their seats in the British House of Commons. Instead, they set up an extra-legal Irish parliament called Dáil Éireann. This Dáil in January 1919 issued a Unilateral Declaration of Independence and proclaimed an Irish Republic. The Declaration was mainly a restatement of the 1916 Proclamation with the additional provision that Ireland was no longer a part of the United Kingdom. Despite this, the new Irish Republic remained unrecognised internationally except by Lenin's Russian Republic. Nevertheless the Republic's Aireacht (ministry) sent a delegation under Ceann Comhairle Sean T. O'Kelly to the Paris Peace Conference, 1919, but it was not admitted. After the bitterly fought War of Independence, representatives of the British government and the Irish rebels negotiated the Anglo-Irish Treaty in 1921 under which the British agreed to the establishment of an independent Irish State whereby the Irish Free State (in the Irish language Saorstát Éireann) with dominion status was created. The Dáil narrowly ratified the treaty.

Answer 8

this was only asked the other day! and no you were not educated well if you thought ireland was apart of england you probably think america is still under english rule!!!

Answer 9

Basically, back in the late 19-teens to early twenties there was a war in which the bulk of Ireland - the Catholic South, basically - won independence from Britain. However, in the North the Protestants were in the majority, and in the end the new Irish government did a deal with the British which the left 6 counties of Ulster as part of the United Kingdom.

Sadly, the division didn't please anybody very much, and in particular those Catholics left in the North resented it. Fuelled also by appalling treatment at the hands of the Protestants (who owned most of the land and businesses), it flared up again in the late 1960s. "Bloody Sunday", where British troops (who had originally gone there to protect Catholics from Protestant harrassment ) ended up shooting Catholics instead, marked a point of no return and the "provisional" IRA - either a Catholic army or a group of terrorists, depending on your point of view - found new strength and began a series of attacks which spread to the UK mainland and only died down in the mid-late 90s.

In 1998 the British and Irish governments, along with representatives of the Northern irish parties and paramilitaries, signed the Good Friday Agreement which was supposed to bring peace to the province with a mix of a democratic assembly which would see all groups represented, and a measure of "power sharing" in which the Irish government would have a say in the affairs of the North. Things haven't exactly been smooth since then - increasing radicalism on both sides has seen the assembly closed as unworkable for a couple of years now - but at least the killings have (virtually) stopped.

Answer 10

I think you'll find it was to the King.