Why do the Irish do not like the British? Those who know at least a little the history of these two countries understand that there are plenty of reasons to hate their neighbors among the inhabitants of the Emerald Isle. It is believed that the conquest of Ireland by England served as mutual intolerance. The whole history of mankind consists of the conquest of some countries by others, but such a hostility towards its neighbors does not exist in any nation.
A bit of history
It is believed that the island is inhabited by people for more than 7 thousand years. This was facilitated by a mild climate. The modern population of Ireland is the descendants of ancient immigrants from the Black Sea and the Mediterranean, which crowded out the ancient inhabitants of the island.
In VI BC e. they were invaded by the Celts, who conquered the territories of Ireland and Britain, and assimilated the local population. They own the foundation education on which the language and culture of the Irish are based.
The British are the descendants of the ancient Germans, Saxons, Jutes and Frisians, who supplanted the Celtic population of Britain. Already in this one can see a distant contradiction between the two peoples, but this is not the true reason why the Irish do not like the British.
Eight hundred years of resistance
In the 12th century, the conquest of Ireland began, at which time part of the island was annexed to the English crown. Among the Irish, tribal (clan) relations remained. England was already a feudal state. All fertile lands belonging to the clans became the property of the English barons. Free islanders fell into vassal dependence on them. The level of development of the conquered areas was very different from the free territory.
The main problem was clan fragmentation. What united the Irish was a single religion. The Reformation spared this country. Locals remained Catholics. This caused religious hatred between representatives of different faiths.
The British did not abandon attempts to conquer all of Ireland, but the local population fiercely resisted. The worst thing was Cromwell's invasion in 1649. Commanding an experienced army, he practically conquered all of Ireland. Having seized the cities of Droeda and Wexford, he ordered in the first to kill all those who resisted, and the Catholic priests, in the second they massacred without his order.
Thousands of people fled to unoccupied territories, fleeing death. He handed over the rule of the island to General Ayrton, who continued the policy of extermination of the local population. From this time on, the Irish hate the British.
The extermination of the inhabitants of the Emerald Isle
For hundreds of years, Britain has pursued a policy of genocide against the indigenous population. By the beginning of the XVII century, 1.5 million people lived on the island. By the end of the same century, there were just over 800 thousand, of which 150 thousand were British and Scots. Many Irish, even those who did not pick up weapons, were sent to Connaught, a barren desert.
The “Settlement Act” was signed, according to which the death penalty awaited deportees caught in another territory of the island. These are the first reservations. The practice of segregation was subsequently applied by the British in all colonies. In North America, it led to the extermination of the indigenous people - the Indians.
Why do the Irish hate the British? The colonization of Ireland took monstrous forms of genocide on ethnic and religious grounds. In 1691, he adopted the form of laws, according to which Catholics and Protestants who are not members of the Church of England were deprived of their civil rights - they could not vote, freely practice their religion, study, hold office in the public service, speak their native language. This led to the fact that the formed management elite consisted entirely of the British and Scots. Irish people until the twentieth century were illiterate people.
British nazism
From the beginning of the 15th century there was an advanced version of the racial superiority of the Anglo-Saxons over the Irish, which was strongly promoted. The latter were compared with blacks and were considered subhuman. Therefore, the British do not like the Irish. According to the Kilkenny Statute of 1367, marriages between the British and the Irish were strictly prohibited.
King James II sent to the colony of the New World 30 thousand prisoners of the Emerald Isle, who were sold as slaves on the plantation. In addition, he issued an appeal in 1625, in which he demanded to continue this practice.
White slaves
Why do the Irish do not like the British? Many do not know that, along with the Africans, they were turned into slaves and taken to the British colonies of the American continent. The cost of a white slave was 5 pounds. At that time, it was not the Negroes who were the sources of slaves in Antigua and Montserrat, but the Irish, and they were cheaper than the Africans. After the Black Continent became the main source of supply of slaves, the number of whites began to decline due to the fact that some of them died out due to hard work and illnesses, some mixed with the Africans.
The branding of white slaves was adopted in the form of applying the initials of the owner to the body with a red-hot iron, women on the shoulder, men on the buttock area. White slaves were sold in brothels. Now is it not clear why the Irish do not like the British, who destroyed them for hundreds of years in order to free the island from the indigenous people, leaving the necessary part to work on hard and dirty work? Does this remind you of anything? They did not reach only the gas chambers.
Migration
The unbearable living conditions created by the British in Ireland forced many to seek a better life in other countries, in particular America, believing that there would be no worse anywhere. Due to terrible poverty, they left one at a time, having received the first money in America, and sent them to their homeland so that the next family member could leave.
Two factors accelerated this process: the entry of Ireland into the United Kingdom in 1801 and the Great Famine that took place in the country in 1845-1849 and was nicknamed Potato by the people. It was artificially created by the English government. During the four terrible years, about a million people died, another million emigrated to America.
The attitude of the British government towards the Irish, and this is discrimination and segregation, is evidenced by the fact that until the 1970s, emigration to America continued and the process of reducing the Irish population steadily increased. How do the Irish relate to the British? They hate the British. They absorb this feeling with mother’s milk.
Independence
If you think the Irish have silently submitted, then you are mistaken. The Irish fought with their enslavers. Constantly flared uprisings, the most significant of them in 1798 and 1919, when the Irish Republican army went on the offensive against the British.
In December 1919, a peace treaty was signed, according to which Ireland became a dominion, in fact a free state (the exception was 6 counties of Northern Ireland). Conflicts of the Irish and the British lasted until the end of the 20th century.
In 1949, the country declared independence and withdrawal from the Commonwealth, which, along with England, included all the British colonies. Skirmishes caused by Irish and English extremists stopped only at the end of the 20th century.
Ireland nowadays
The situation in Ireland changed dramatically in 1973 when it joined the European Economic Society. It remains neutral by refusing to join NATO. The country has intensified the movement for joining Northern Ireland. The economic development of the country has received significant acceleration since 1990. In the present tense, these differences are not so noticeable.
Beginning with D. Kennedy, all US presidents, including even Obama, openly declared their Irish roots, as if refuting the British claims that their neighbors were cattle. This disproves the Irishman by birth Henry Ford. As a member of the EU, Britain cannot actively oppose its neighbor, and Ireland today is an economically developed country with a combat-ready army.
Since the end of the last century, population growth has begun, although it is associated with migration, but already in Ireland. The number of entrants is a little less than 500 thousand people. To a greater extent, these are residents of European countries of the former socialist camp and countries of the former Union.