Word: irishness
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1960-1969
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...final chance for the Ulster Irish to rule their own land came in 1689 with the arrival in Ireland of James II, the Pretender to the English throne, which was then occupied by the Dutchman, William of Orange. Irish Catholics supplied Catholic James with fighting men, but their hopes were crushed in two battles. Spurred by antipopery, the Ulster Protestants rallied to William and successfully withstood a 3½-month Catholic siege of Londonderry. Later, at the famous Battle of the Boyne River, the Irish Catholics were on the brink of winning-until James II panicked and fled...
Even so, the real religious bitterness in Ulster dates only from the early years of this century. As the Irish got closer to Home Rule, the Protestants of Ulster feared for their future in a largely Catholic Ireland. The outbreak of World War I put a temporary halt to the divisions in Ireland. Thousands of Irishmen, Protestant and Catholic, enlisted in the British army, illustrating the traditional lament that "more Irishmen have died fighting for England than ever died fighting against...
...struggle began again with the long years of the "Troubles." The Irish Republican Army, brilliantly led by Michael Collins, fought one of the first of this century's many guerrilla wars. The bloodletting continued until 1921, and was ended when Britain's Prime Minister David Lloyd George offered peace on the basis of a partition of Ireland into 26 independent counties, called the Irish Free State, and six of the original nine counties of Ulster, which would remain united with Great Britain. Michael Collins accepted the offer, but diehard I.R.A. men, who wanted a united Ireland or none...
...than that of its Protestants. Through voting restrictions and gerrymandering, the Protestants have attempted to ensure that these gains in population will not lead to increased Catholic power at the polls. The result has been the growing bitterness and clashes of recent years, exacerbated on both sides by long Irish memories...
Stuff and nonsense, or sheer blarney. For Moynahan, though he is currently disguised as an English professor at Rutgers, is really one of those nonstop Irish-American storytellers, the kind that hold Boston barrooms at bay with: "Wait! Wait, boys! And then there's the one about...