used by the British and Irish respectively. A conclusion will address how British rule once removed had paved the way for a separated nation that gave rise to modern day terrorist organizations like the Irish Republican Army.
During the late 1600s, events would transpire in England’s effort to rule the Irish that significantly affected Ireland and British-Irish relations for centuries to come. By 1580 resistance forces in Ireland were beginning to solidify. For example Gaelic and Old English traditions were merging in the religious and political arena. Rebellions began to crop up in many Irish lands simultaneously. For example the Desmond Rebellion in Munster coincided with the Old English Catholic rising in the Pale. England did not take likely to the coalescing of the forces of resistance, “The risings were brutally suppressed, with massive military reinforcements from England, and Munster was left a wasteland” (Lewis 2). The Desmond and Munster rebellion gave British authorities the opportunity to seize even more acreage of Irish land.
Hugh O’Neill, earl of Tyrone, led the Ulster confederacy during what was known as the Nine Years War from 1594-1603. Also known as the Tyrone Rebellion, this would be the third major rebellion mounted by Irish opposition since 1580. Tyrone not only resented the spreading influence of royal administration, but he was probably more offended by religious differences. The battle between Elizabeth I and Mary I had torn a nation with respect to religion. As one historian notes, Tyrone was among a certain generation that, as “exiled Roman Catholics has been trained as missionaries in the continental colleges of the Counter-Reformation, and the majority who returned to Ireland concluded that Catholicism could survive there only if Elizabeth were defeated” (Ireland 2).
Tyrone possessed more than education. He also possessed the ability to mount a modern, powerful military t...