How come it was the Irish Protestants who fought for Ireland's independence from the UK?

Question

How come it was the Irish Protestants who fought for Ireland's independence from the UK?

I mean if its true that the leaders were Protestants then why wud they fight for Ireland's independence when Protestants are loyal to the English & have English ancestry, i dont get this.

Answer 1

Both Catholics and protestants faught together against the injustice of the british crown and the crown forces, Theobalde Wolfe Tone is recognised as the father of Irish resistance and he was indeed a protestant.

Religion became an issue as part of the UK strategy of Divide & Conquor.

Answer 2

That's not true it was Catholics.There were a few Protestants but only a few.

Why the thumbs down? It's FACT.....find yourselves a history book.No doubt at least 1 of them is a pc Amercian who doesn't really know what they're talking about.(no offence to normal Amercians but there are those among you......)

I, on the other hand I do know what I'm talking about, I have spoken to people involved (many of them my own family members).They lived it and it's still a part of their, and my life today so you know what I say to you're thumbs down?

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Answer 3

Many of the early leaders of an independence movement were Protestant. This was for a number of reasons - they had the social standing to be able to do anything about it, the education to know how to etc. Those that wish to portray the Irish Independence movement as some sort of Catholic anti-Protestant group need to learn some history.

Religion has nothing to do with whether or not one wants their country to be free.

You have to remember that as a colony, Ireland was fleeced by Britain and Protestant Irish could see this just as clearly as Catholic Irish, though it did not always affect them in as serious a way as it did the Catholics.

Wolfe Tone and Parnell were both Protestants.

Answer 4

I think you may have got wrong end of the stick with this one. The protestants are unionists: i.e. they want Northen Ireland to be part of the U.K. The catholics are republicans who want a united Ireland.

Answer 5

There were a minority of Protestants who fought alongside rather than against the Fenian rebels-you are misinformed my friend and need to study history books more than you have done.

Answer 6

they fought because they were not allowed to practice there religion. they had to be catholic and that was not there religion so they fought for the right to follow there own sect of the religion. the uk leaders had to keep the catholics happy because they were the majority so the protestants fought against them. fight is still going on today because the protestants are treated unfairly

Answer 7

This is a question badly worded. There were Protestant Irish fighting for Independence, but not all the independentist were Protestant and I'm sure than amongst the British forces that fought against them there were many Roman Catholics. The Independence of Ireland was not a matter of religion, even when both countries were Catholic, there was resentment for the English presence. Ireland is a different country with its own characteristics and with every right to be independent as any other country in the world. Remember that the British (Normans before) invaded Eire. I would recommend you to read history books. Comments hardly give you the whole panorama.

Answer 8

My Grandfather fought in the war of independence and his neighbours were prodestant as were alot of his neighbours and they would have had no great affinity for the british either they were originally settlers brought from germany in the 1600s

(they needed good protestant stock).

Also there would have been irish families that had converted to protestantism to keep their land generations before.

also

the british did not treat people very well

the lines seem to very clearly drwan in northern ireland but in the rest of ireland it is alot more blurred

protestant does not = british

also you forget that the protestants were aligned with the catholics politically in northern ireland against the presbyterians early in the 20th century ....

Answer 9

Some of the earlier proponents of Irish Independence were prodestant, Wolfe Tone (born in 1700s), one of the United Irishmen was protestant. (The United Irishmen were both protestant and catholic). Charles Stewart Parnell was also a protestant. But the majority of the people who fought for independence were Catholic.

Answer 10

Religion has nothing to do with a fight for Independence.

Answer 11

there where some (my family included) who where protestants but sympathized with the catholics and saw the injustice being done and used their religious power to help the catholics

Answer 12

It was not a religious conflict.  Most of the people who wanted independence happened to be Catholic.  Most of the people who wanted to stay loyal to the UK were Protestant.

Answer 13

hope this helps..excerpts taken from a page on net...brits there own worst enemy!

Ireland signed a treaty allowing for limited independence, but with some strings attached. One of those strings was that the country would be split in two - the Irish Free State and Northern Ireland. The limitations of the treaty were hugely controversial (the negotiator for the Irish side, Michael Collins, announced after signing the Treaty, that he had signed his death warrant), and in the Free State it lead quickly to a vicious civil war between both sides; those who agreed with the Treaty, and those who disagreed. The Irish Civil war accounted for 3,000 deaths on both sides. Most of today's political parties of the Irish Republic originate from this deeply divisive political split.

Northern Ireland and the Troubles

Things in the sister state, Northern Ireland, did not go so smoothly. After the split, Northern Ireland continued to maintain its position within the United Kingdom. A large Catholic community lived side by side with a larger, dominant, Protestant community. Catholics had little representation and almost no political power in this state. During the 1960s, Catholics began to organise themselves to agitate for civil rights. This lead to rioting and civil violence between Catholics and Protestants, whereby the government of Northern Ireland requested that soldiers be brought in from mainland Britain to keep the peace. However, the British military was drawn quickly into the conflict. To the Catholic population of the time, here was history repeating itself. What ensued was a period of 25 years of vicious low-intensity warfare, between the IRA (a Catholic, armed, separatist movement), and the British security forces, with Protestant paramilitaries adding fuel to the fire each time Protestant police, soldiers or civilians were killed. In total, over 3,000 people died. This cycle of killings, bombings and violence was eventually broken by the signing and ratification of an historic accord (The Good Friday Agreement) in 1998. Since then, normal life in Northern Ireland has improved, if somewhat imperfectly and slowly8. Northern Ireland now has a devolved government where Nationalist and Unionist ministers share power.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A707906

Answer 14

get a brain scan.

Answer 15

was the catholics you nincompoop

Answer 16

How come you write questions you know nothing about

Answer 17

Home rule was an issue prior to irish independance in 1921.

this was supported by irish protestants and catholics.

The penal laws of the 17th and 1800`s forbidded catholics from an education. Naturaly protestants who availed of this, would see a free island of ireland as all encompassing in regards to religion. The rebellion of 1798 had catholics and protestants fighting together for irish independance.

You have to break the link between protestant being loyal and catholic being republican when you look at irish history prior to 1921 and the northen ireland issue. As previously mentioned Wolfe tone was a protestant nationalist, who is held in high regard even by sinn fein. the government has a memorial to him every year. Had he succeded he would be the irish version of george washington.

The reason why your getting thumbs down is because of your neanderthal view of irish history.

Charles stewart parnell, was a protestant politician who nearly succeded in home rule for ireland long before 1921

Answer 18

Just because they may have been Protestant doesn't mean they couldn't see the injustice the English occupation of Ireland was causing.

Answer 19

its probably the 1798 uprising you mean,see below for a bit of info.



The promise of reform inspired a small group of Protestant

liberals in Belfast to found the Society of the United Irishmen in 1791. The organisation crossed the religious divide with a membership comprising Roman Catholics, Presbyterians, Methodists, and other Protestant "dissenter" groups excluded from the Protestant Ascendancy. The Society openly put forward its policies of further democratic reforms and Catholic emancipation, reforms that the Irish Parliament had little intention of granting and the British government were just as unwilling to enforce, until pressured to do so in 1793. The outbreak of war with France earlier in 1793 following the execution of Louis XVI forced the Society underground and toward armed insurrection with French aid. The avowed intent of the United Irishmen was now to "break the connection with England"; the organisation spread throughout Ireland and had at least 100,000 members by 1797. It linked up with Catholic agrarian resistance groups, known as the Defenders, who had started raiding houses for arms in early 1793.

Despite their growing strength, the United Irish leadership decided to seek military help from the French revolutionary government, and to postpone the rising until French troops landed in Ireland. Theobald Wolfe Tone, leader of the United Irishmen, travelled in exile from America to France to press the case for intervention. These plans seemed to come to fruition when he accompanied a force of 15,000 French troops under General Hoche which arrived off the coast of Ireland at Bantry Bay in December 1796 after eluding the Royal Navy. However unremitting storms, indecisiveness and poor seamanship all combined to prevent invasion, prompting the despairing Wolfe Tone to remark, "England has had its luckiest escape since the Armada."

Answer 20

It is a mistake to confuse the Unionism / Nationalism divide of ireland in the past with a sectarion (catholic / protestant) split just as it was a mistake made by many in the media to apply the same reasoning to the Unionist / Republican divide in the Northern Ireland Troubles.

Though both Unionism and Nationalism attracted a number of supporters from outside their main religious faiths, whereas Nationalism did have a number of Protestant leaders (from Henry Grattan to Theobald Wolfe Tone and Charles Stewart Parnell), Unionism was invariably led by Protestant leaders, with few prominent Catholics involved in the Unionist parties.

Answer 21

I answered this question in the history section (Arts and Humanities). Check it out there.

Protestants are Irish too, as are Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, Bahai, Jehovah's Witnesses, and of course, Pagans.

Your religion does not and should not dictate your nationality.

Answer 22

re-check the history books!!