Schulklausuren - Arbeiten, Referate, Hausaufgaben und Facharbeiten für die Schule

von Dennis Theurer

• Englisch-Referat (12. Klasse)
• 10-15 Minuten
• 13 Punkte

Hinweis: das Referat ist nicht als Text ausformuliert, sondern in Form von Stichpunktsätzen gefasst, die in der Reihenfolge zu einem kompletten Referat verwendet werden können.

Situation

• In 1921 Ireland was split up into the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland
• The Republic of Ireland is catholic and an independent state
• Northern Ireland is mostly protestant but also catholic and politically belongs to the United Kingdom
• In Northern Ireland you can find two controversial groups:
• Nationalists (mostly catholic) who want the reunion
• Unionists (mostly protestant) who are against it
• Protestant majority kept Catholics away from political power
• In 1968 the Catholics fought back and the civil war called the troubles started
• In 1972 the independence of Northern Ireland was revoked by England due to the incompetence of the Irish government and the increasing violence
• The IRA (Irish Republican Army) started its "Mainland Campaign", in other words attacked London
• In 1998 Northern Ireland became independent again but still belongs to the UK
• There is still much violence going on but it is not shown on TV here
• Great Britain says that they will only allow a reunion if the majority of Northern Ireland wants it
• The demographic development shows that the Catholics (Nationalists) will soon become the majority and that would lead to the reunion
• Protestants are afraid of this
• But why was Ireland split up in the first place?
• → History until 1921

History

• 12^th century England tries to establish its power in Ireland for defensive reasons
• They were only able to conquer a small area around Dublin called the Pale
• 16^th century the Pale is threatened by an Irish clan
• Henry 8^th entitled himself as king of Ireland
• Revolts against the Pale and the crown in whole Ireland leading to a war that ended in 1603 after 9 years in favour of the crown
• England started the colonisation of Ulster by settlers from England and Scotland called the Ulster Plantation
• In 1653 Ireland is deserted after many revolts, 12 years of war, famines and diseases
• 600.000 people died; only 15-20% of them were Protestants
• England dispossessed the Irish Catholics of land and even horses
• Irishmen who still possessed land were punished with death penalty and slavery
• A Catholic, James 2^nd, became king of England but had to escape to France due to his catholic-friendly politics
• The Catholics in Ireland who had got more power as a consequence of this politics set up an army supported by France and lead by James 2^nd
• Meanwhile in England the Glorious Revolution took place and William of Orange became king
• His troops defeated the catholic army of king James 2^nd in the legendary Battle of the Boyne
• England took action against the Catholics and Presbyterians (Scottish religion) with the penal laws which took away most of their rights
• In 1845 1 million people especially Catholics died from the Great Famine and 1 million people emigrated
• There was much anger against England because of lack of support
• In the late 19^th century the question of home rule came up which would mean more power to the Irish government
• After the Irish War of Independence the fourth home rule bill was accepted and Ireland was split up into Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland

The Troubles

• Many public - and underground organisations were found by the Nationalists and Unionists; one of the most public organisation is the IRA
• The IRA is the organisation of the Nationalists and want to reunite Ireland and used to reach this in a violent way
• The IRA was founded and forbidden in 1922 in both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland but kept on working underground up till now
• It is closely connected to the political and peaceful party called Sinn Fein which means "we ourselves"
• The IRA is responsible for many murders and bomb attacks which also killed innocent people
• The Unionists on the other hand had beside their military organisations also the Royal Ulster Constabulary on their side which was the British police in Northern Ireland
• The police for example was used to stop peaceful demonstrations of the Nationalists
• In the time from 1971 till 1975, hundreds of men were interned without trial
• (To intern means to imprison people without trial because they might be dangerous)
• A demonstration against this internment politic lead to one of the key events of the troubles:
• At the demonstration in 1972 on the Bloody Sunday 14 unarmed catholic men and boys were shot dead by British paratroopers
• In 1998 the Good Friday Agreement was signed by England, Northern Ireland and its parties and the Republic of Ireland
• Important points of the agreement:
• More power to the Northern Irish government
• All parties had to stop violence
• The future of Northern Ireland should be determined by the majority vote of its citizens
• The police was reformed and had to have more catholic members
• This year the IRA asked all its members to stop the violence.
  

My opinion

• I think both the Unionists and the Nationalists have their reasons for their controversial opinions about the future of Northern Ireland as the roots of this conflict are very deep
• But still I can sympathise more with the Catholics and agree that the partition of Ireland was never really justified
• In a short summery England settled their own people in Ireland, suppressed the Irishmen and then claims the partition is justified because the majority of Ulster - their own people - agreed with it