Irish republicanism (Irish: Poblachtánachas Éireannach) is an ideology based on the belief that all of Ireland should be an independent republic. The development of nationalist and democratic sentiment throughout Europe in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries was reflected in Ireland in the emergence of republicanism, in opposition to British rule. This followed hundreds of years of British conquest and Irish resistance through rebellion,[1][2] and union of the crowns of both countries since 1542. Discrimination against Catholics, attempts by a subjugating power to create an impression of inferiority and subdue or eliminate cultural identity, and a feeling that Ireland was economically disadvantaged and subservient within the United Kingdom were among the specific factors leading to such opposition.
The Society of United Irishmen, formed in the 1780s and led primarily by liberal Protestants, evolved into a revolutionary republican organisation, inspired by the American Revolution and allied with Revolutionary France. It launched the 1798 Rebellion with the help of French troops. The rebellion had some success, especially in County Wexford, before it was suppressed. A second rising in 1803, led by Robert Emmet, was quickly put down, and Emmet was hanged. The Young Ireland movement, formed in the 1830s, was initially a part of the Repeal Association of Daniel O'Connell, but broke with O'Connell on the issue of the legitimacy of the use of violence. Primarily a political and cultural organisation, some members of Young Ireland staged an abortive rising, the Young Irelander Rebellion of 1848. Its leaders were transported to Van Diemen's Land. Some of these escaped to the United States, where they linked up with other Irish exiles to form the Fenian Brotherhood. Together with the Irish Republican Brotherhood, founded in Ireland by James Stephens and others in 1858, they made up a movement commonly known as "fenians" which was dedicated to the overthrow of British imperial rule in Ireland. They staged another rising, the Fenian Rising, in 1867, and a dynamite campaign in Great Britain in the 1880s.
In the early 20th century IRB members, in particular Tom Clarke and Seán MacDermott, began planning another rising. The Easter Rising took place from 24 to 30 April 1916, when members of the Irish Volunteers and Irish Citizen Army seized the centre of Dublin, proclaimed a republic and held off British forces for almost a week. The execution of the Rising's leaders, including Clarke, MacDermott, Patrick Pearse and James Connolly, led to a surge of support for republicanism in Ireland. In 1917 the Sinn Féin party stated as its aim the "securing the international recognition of Ireland as an independent Irish Republic", and in the general election of 1918 Sinn Féin took 73 of the 105 Irish seats in the British House of Commons. The elected members did not take their seats but instead set up the First Dáil. Between 1919 and 1921 the Irish Republican Army (IRA), who were loyal to the Dáil, fought the British Army and Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) in the Irish War of Independence. Talks between the British and Irish in late 1921 led to a treaty by which the British conceded, not a 32-county Irish Republic, but a 26-county Irish Free State within the empire.
Following the Norman invasion of Ireland in the 12th century, Ireland, or parts of it, had experienced alternating degrees of rule from England. While some of the native Gaelic population attempted to resist this occupation,[3] a single, unified political goal did not exist amongst the independent lordships that existed throughout the island. The Tudor conquest of Ireland took place in the 16th century. This included the Plantations of Ireland, in which the lands held by Gaelic Irish clans and Hiberno-Norman dynasties were confiscated and given to Protestant settlers ("Planters") from England and Scotland. The Plantation of Ulster began in 1609, and the province was heavily colonised with English and Scottish settlers.[4]
Campaigns against English presence on the island had occurred prior to the emergence of the Irish republican ideology. In the 1590s, resistance was led by Hugh O'Neill (see the Nine Years' War). The Irish chieftains were ultimately defeated, leading to their exile (the 'Flight of the Earls') and the aforementioned Plantation of Ulster in 1609.[4]
Three decades later, the Irish Rebellion of 1641 began. This consisted of a coalition between the Irish and the Old English (descendents of the English/Norman settlers who settled during the Norman Invasion) rebelling against the English rulers. Beginning as a coup d'état with the aim restoring lost lands in the north of Ireland and defending Catholic religious and property rights,[5] (which had been suppressed by the Puritan Parliament of England) it evolved into the Irish Confederate Wars. In the summer of 1642, the Catholic upper classes formed the Catholic Confederation, which essentially became the de facto government of Ireland for a brief period until 1649, when the forces of the English Parliament carried out the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland and the old Catholic landowners were permanently dispossessed of their lands.
Wolfe Tone circa 1794. Tone is considered by many as the father of Irish Republicanism
Irish republicanism has its origins in Irish political movements founded in the 18th century. The movement is often seen as beginning with the Society of United Irishmen. In 18th century Ireland, Dissenters and Catholics experienced discrimination as a result of the Penal Laws, a series of laws imposed by the British ruling class that removed power from those outside of the established Church of Ireland.[6] In 1791, a group which became known as the United Irishmen was formed with the intention of bringing about Parliamentary reform. The group evolved into a revolutionary republican organisation, influenced by the revolutions in America and France that had taken place earlier.
The United Irishmen opposed British rule in Ireland, and believed that Ireland ought to govern itself, free from external control.[7] The group also sought to remove the religious discrimination that existed in government and law at the time. At the group's first meeting, the following three resolutions were passed:[8]
- That the weight of English influence on the Government of this country is so great as to require a cordial union among all the people of Ireland to maintain that balance which is essential to the preservation of our liberties and the extension of our commerce.
- That the sole constitutional mode by which this influence can be opposed is by a complete and radical reform of the representation of the people in Parliament.
- That no reform is practicable, efficacious, or just, which shall not include Irishmen of every religious persuasion.
The issue of national freedom was an important part of the ideology of the United Irishmen. The Declaration of the United Irishmen, written by
Theobald Wolfe Tone, contained the following statements regarding the government of Ireland:
"We have no national Government – we are ruled by Englishmen, and the servants of Englishmen whose object is the interest of another country, whose instrument is corruption, and whose strength is the weakness of Ireland … Such an extreme power, acting with uniform force, in a direction too frequently opposite to the true line of our obvious interests, can be resisted with effect solely by unanimity, decision and spirit in the people."
[8]—Theobald Wolfe Tone, Declaration of the United Irishmen
At this stage, the movement was led primarily by liberal Protestants,[9] particularly Presbyterians from the province of Ulster. Founding members of the United Irishmen, along with Tone, included Thomas Russell, Henry Joy McCracken, James Napper Tandy, and Samuel Neilson. By 1797, the Society of United Irishmen had around 100,000 members. Crossing the religious divide in Ireland, it had a mixed membership of Catholics, Presbyterians, and even Anglicans from the Protestant Ascendancy. It also attracted support and membership from Catholic agrarian resistance groups, such as the Defenders, who were eventually incorporated into the Society.[10]
The Irish Rebellion of 1798 began on 23 May, with the first clashes taking place in County Kildare on 24 May, before spreading throughout Leinster and other areas of the country thereafter. French soldiers landed in Ireland and participated in the rebellion also, landing in Killala on 22 August.[11] General Napper Tandy, a leader of the uprising, authored a proclamation entitled 'Liberty or Death':
"Can you think of entering into a treaty with a British Minister? A Minister too, who has left you at the mercy of an English soldiery, who has laid your cities waste, and massacred inhumanely your best Citizens ... Horrid crimes have been perpetrated in your country, your friends have fallen a sacrifice to their devotion to your cause, and their shadows are around you and call for vengeance ... wage a war of extermination against your oppressors, the war of Liberty against tyranny, and Liberty shall Triumph."
[12]—James Napper Tandy, Liberty or Death
Despite having considerable success against British forces in the County of Wexford,[13] rebel forces were eventually defeated, and many key figures in the organisation were arrested and executed.
Although the Rebellion of 1798 was unsuccessful in that it failed to bring about independence from Great Britain and establish a republic in Ireland, it is significant in that the conflict and its leaders impacted Irish history to an enormous extent. The Society of United Irishmen was the first republican organisation in Ireland, and thus essentially founded Irish republicanism as a political ideology, setting the course for later independence movements in the country. Likewise, Wolfe Tone is regarded as the “father of Irish republicanism”,[14][15] and the principles of the United Irishmen have greatly influenced Irish nationalist and republican philosophies.[16]
Though the Rebellion of 1798 was eventually crushed, small republican guerrilla campaigns against the British Army in the Wicklow Mountains under the leadership of Michael Dwyer and Joseph Holt continued for a short time after, conducting attacks on small parties of yeomen. These activities were perceived by some to be merely “the dying echoes of an old convulsion”,[17] but others feared further large-scale uprisings, due to the United Irishmen continuing to attract large numbers of Catholics in rural areas of the country and arms raids being carried out on a nightly basis.[17] It was also feared that rebels would again seek military aid from French troops, and another rising was expected take place by 10 April.[18]
This perceived threat of further rebellion resulted in the Parliamentary Union between the Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. After some uncertainty, the Irish Parliament voted to abolish itself in the Acts of Union 1800, forming the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, by a vote of 158 to 115.[19] A number of tactics were used to achieve this end. Lord Castlereagh and Charles Cornwallis were known to use bribery extensively. In all, a total of sixteen Irish borough-owners were granted British peerages. A further twenty-eight new Irish peerages were created, while twenty existing Irish peerages increased in rank.[20]
Furthermore, the government of Great Britain sought to replace Irish politicians in the Irish parliament with pro-Union politicians, and rewards were granted to those that vacated their seats, with the result being that in the eighteen months prior to the decision in 1800, one-fifth of the Irish House of Commons changed its representation due to these activities and other factors such as death.[20] It was also promised by Prime Minister William Pitt the Younger that he would bring about Catholic Emancipation, though after the Acts of Union were successfully voted through, King George III saw that this pledge was never realised,[19] and as such Catholics were not granted the rights that had been promised prior to the Acts.
A second attempt at forming an independent Irish republic occurred under Robert Emmet in 1803. Emmet had previously been expelled from Trinity College, Dublin for his political views.[21] Like those who had led the 1798 rebellion, Emmet was a member of the United Irishmen, as was his brother Thomas Addis Emmet, who had been imprisoned for membership in the organisation.
Emmet and his followers had planned to seize Dublin Castle by force, manufacturing weaponry and explosives at a number of locations in Dublin.[22] Unlike those of 1798, preparations for the uprising were successfully concealed from the government and law enforcement, and though a premature explosion at an arms depot attracted the attention of police, they were unaware of the United Irishmen activities at the time and did not have any information regarding the planned rebellion. Emmet had hoped to avoid the complications of the previous rebellion and chose not to organise the county outside of Dublin to a large extent. It was expected that the areas surrounding Dublin were sufficiently prepared for an uprising should one be announced, and Thomas Russell had been sent to northern areas of the country to prepare republicans there.[23]
A proclamation of independence, addressed from 'The Provisional Government' to 'The People of Ireland' was produced by Emmet, echoing the republican sentiments expressed during the previous rebellion:
“You are now called on to show to the world that you are competent to take your place among nations, that you have a right to claim their recognisance of you, as an independent country ... We therefore solemnly declare, that our object is to establish a free and independent republic in Ireland: that the pursuit of this object we will relinquish only with our lives ... We war against no religious sect ... We war against English dominion.”
[24]—Robert Emmet, Proclamation of the Provisional Government
However, failed communications and arrangements produced a considerably smaller force than had been anticipated. Nonetheless, the rebellion began in Dublin on the evening of 23 July. Emmet's forces were unable to take Dublin Castle, and the rising broke down into rioting, which ensued sporadically throughout the night. Emmet escaped and hid for some time in the Wicklow Mountains and Harold's Cross, but was captured on 25 August and hanged on 20 September 1803, at which point the Society of United Irishmen was effectively finished.
The Young Ireland movement began in the late 1830s. The term 'Young Ireland' was originally a derogatory one, coined by the press in Britain to describe members of the Repeal Association (a group campaigning for the repeal of the Acts of Union 1800 which joined the Kingdom of Ireland and the Kingdom of Great Britain) who were involved with the Irish nationalist newspaper The Nation.[25] Encouraging the repeal of the Acts of Union, members of the Young Ireland movement advocated the removal of British authority from Ireland and the re-establishment of the Irish Parliament in Dublin.[26] The group had cultural aims also, and encouraged the study of Irish history and the revival of the Irish language.[27] Influential Young Irelanders included Charles Gavan Duffy, Thomas Davis and John Blake Dillon, the three founders of The Nation.[25]
The Young Irelanders eventually seceded from the Repeal Association. The leader of the Repeal Association, Daniel O'Connell, opposed the use of physical force to enact repeal, and passed 'peace resolutions' declaring that violence and force were not to be employed.[28] Though the Young Irelanders did not support the use of violence, the writers of The Nation maintained that the introduction of these peace resolutions was poorly timed, and that to declare outright that physical force would never be used was 'to deliver themselves bound hand and foot to the Whigs.'[29] William Smith O'Brien, who had previously worked to achieve compromise between O'Connell and The Nation group, was also concerned, and claimed that he feared these resolutions were an attempt to exclude the Young Irelanders from the Association altogether.[29] At an Association meeting held in July 1846 at Conciliation Hall, the meeting place of the Association, Thomas Francis Meagher, a Young Irelander, addressing the peace resolutions, delivered his 'Sword Speech', in which he stated, "I do not abhor the use of arms in the vindication of national rights ... Be it for the defence, or be it for the assertion of a nation's liberty, I look upon the sword as a sacred weapon."[30] John O'Connell, Daniel O'Connell's son, was present at the proceedings and interrupted Meagher's speech, claiming that Meagher could no longer be part of the same association as O'Connell and his supporters. After some protest, the Young Irelanders left Conciliation Hall and the Repeal Association forever, founding the Irish Confederation 13 January 1847 after negotiations for a reunion had failed.
The Young Ireland movement culminated in a failed uprising (see Young Irelander Rebellion of 1848), which, influenced by the French Revolution of 1848 and further provoked by government inaction during the Great Famine and the suspension of habeas corpus,[31] which allowed the government to imprison Young Irelanders and other political opponents without trial, was hastily planned and quickly suppressed. Following the abortive uprising, several rebel leaders were arrested and convicted of sedition. Originally sentenced to death, Smith O'Brien and other members of the Irish Confederation were transported to Van Diemen's Land.[32]
The Fenian movement consisted of the Fenian Brotherhood and the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB), fraternal organisations founded in the United States and Ireland respectively with the aim of establishing an independent republic in Ireland.[33]
The IRB was founded on Saint Patrick's Day 1858 in Dublin.[34] Members present at the first meeting were James Stephens, Thomas Clarke Luby, Peter Langan, Joseph Denieffe, Garrett O'Shaughnessy, and Charles Kickham.[35] Stephens had previously spent time exiled in Paris, along with John O'Mahony, having taken part in the uprising of 1848 and fleeing to avoid capture. O'Mahony left France for America in the mid-1850s and founded the Emmet Monument Association with Michael Doheny. Stephens returned to Ireland in 1856.
The original oath of the society, drawn up by Luby under Stephens' direction, read:
I, AB., do solemnly swear, in the presence of Almighty God, that I will do my utmost, at every risk, while life lasts, to make [other versions, according to Luby, establish in'] Ireland an independent Democratic Republic; that I will yield implicit obedience, in all things not contrary to the law of God [ 'laws of morality'] to the commands of my superior officers; and that I shall preserve inviolable secrecy regarding all the transactions [ 'affairs'] of this secret society that may be confided in me. So help me God! Amen.[36]
The Fenian Brotherhood was the IRB's counterpart organisation, formed in the same year in the United States by O'Mahony and Doheny.[37] The Fenian Brotherhood's main purpose was to supply weapons and funds for its Irish counterpart and raise support for the Irish republican movement in the United States.[38] The term "Fenian" was coined by O'Mahony, who named the American wing of the movement after the Fianna[39] — a class of warriors that existed in Gaelic Ireland. The term became popular and is still in use today, especially in Northern Ireland and Scotland, where it has expanded to refer to all Irish nationalists and republicans, as well as being a pejorative term for Irish Catholics.
Public support for the Fenian movement in Ireland grew in November 1861 with the funeral of Terence MacManus, a member of the Irish Confederation, which Stephens and the Fenians had organised and which was attended by between twenty thousand and thirty thousand people.[40] Following this, Stephens (accompanied by Luby) undertook a series of organisational tours throughout the island.
In 1865 the Fenian Brotherhood in America had split into two factions. One was led by O'Mahony with Stephens' support. The other, which was more powerful, was led by William R. Roberts. The Fenians had always planned an armed rebellion, but there was now disagreement as to how and where this rebellion might be carried out. Roberts' faction preferred focusing all military efforts on British Canada (Roberts and his supporters theorised that victory for the American Fenians in nearby Canada would propel the Irish republican movement as a whole to success).[41] The other, headed by O'Mahony, proposed that a rising in Ireland be planned for 1866.[42] In spite of this, the O'Mahony wing of the movement itself tried and failed to capture New Brunswick's Campobello Island in April 1866.[42] Following this failure, the Roberts faction of the Fenian Brotherhood carried out its own, occupying the village of Fort Erie on 31 May 1866 and engaging Canadian troops at the battles of Ridgeway and Fort Erie on 2 June.[42] It was in reference to Fenians fighting in this battle that the name "Irish Republican Army" was first used.[43] These attacks (and those that followed) in Canada are collectively known as the "Fenian raids".
After the Act of Union in 1801 merging Ireland with Britain into the United Kingdom, Irish independence movements were suppressed by the British. Nationalist rebellions against British rule in 1803, by Robert Emmet, 1848 (by the Young Irelanders) and 1865 and 1867 (by the Fenians) were followed by harsh reprisals by British forces.
In 1916 the Easter Rising organised by the Irish Republican Brotherhood was launched in Dublin and the Irish Republic was proclaimed. The Rising was suppressed after six days, and most of its leaders were executed by the British. This was a turning point in Irish history, leading to the end of British rule in most of Ireland.
From 1919–1921 the Irish Republican Army (IRA) was organised as a guerilla army, led by Michael Collins and fought against British forces. During the Anglo-Irish War (or Irish War of Independence) the British sent paramilitary police, the "Black and Tans" and the Auxiliary Division, to help the British Army and Royal Irish Constabulary. These groups committed atrocities which included killing captured POWs and Irish civilians viewed as being sympathetic to the IRA. The most infamous of all their actions was the burning of half the city of Cork in 1920 and the Bloody Sunday massacre of 1920. These atrocities, together with the popularity of the republican ideal, and British repression of republican political expression, led to widespread support across Ireland for the Irish rebels.
In 1921 the British government led by David Lloyd George negotiated the Anglo-Irish Treaty with Arthur Griffith, Michael Collins, and the other republican leaders all of whom acted as plenipotentiaries on behalf of the provisional Irish government, thus ending the conflict.
Though many across the country were unhappy with the Anglo-Irish Treaty (since, during the war, the IRA had fought for independence for all Ireland and for a republic, not a partitioned dominion under the British crown), some republicans were satisfied that the Treaty was the best that could be achieved at the time. However, a substantial number opposed it. Dáil Éireann, the Irish parliament, voted by 64 votes to 57 to ratify it,[44] the majority believing that the treaty created a new base from which to move forward. Éamon de Valera, who had served as President of the Irish Republic during the war, refused to accept the decision of the Dáil and led the opponents of the treaty out of the House. The pro-Treaty republicans organised themselves into the Cumann na nGaedheal party, while the anti-Treaty republicans retained the Sinn Féin name. the The IRA itself split between pro-Treaty and anti-Treaty elements, with the former forming the nucleus of the new Irish National Army.
Michael Collins became Commander-in-Chief of the National Army. Shortly afterwards, some dissidents, apparently without the authorisation of the anti-Treaty IRA Army Executive, occupied the Four Courts in Dublin, and kidnapped a pro-Treaty general. The government, responding to this provocation and to intensified British pressure following the assassination by an IRA unit in London of Sir Henry Wilson, ordered the regular army to take the Four Courts, thereby beginning the Irish Civil War.
It is believed that Collins continued to fund and supply the IRA in Northern Ireland throughout the civil war but, after his death, W. T. Cosgrave (the new President of the Executive Council, or prime minister) discontinued this support.
By May 1923, the war (which had claimed more lives than the War of Independence) had ended in the call by the IRA to dump arms. However, the harsh measures adopted by both sides, including assassinations of politicians by the Republicans and executions and atrocities by the Free State side, left a bitter legacy in Irish politics for decades to come.
De Valera, who had strongly supported the Republican side in the Civil War, reconsidered his views while in jail, and came to accept the ideas of political activity under the terms of the Free State constitution. Rather than abstaining from Free State politics entirely, he now sought to republicanise it from within. However, he and his supporters—which included most Sinn Féin TDs—failed to convince a majority of the anti-treaty Sinn Féin of these views and the movement split again. In 1926, he formed a new party called Fianna Fáil (Soldiers of Destiny), taking most of Sinn Féin's TDs with him. In 1932 he was elected President of the Executive Council of the Free State and began a slow process of turning the country from a constitutional monarchy to a constitutional republic, thus fulfilling Collins's prediction of "the freedom to achieve freedom".[45]
By then, the IRA was engaged in confrontations with the Blueshirts, a quasi-fascist group led by a former War of Independence and pro-Treaty leader, Eoin O'Duffy. O'Duffy looked to Fascist Italy as an example for Ireland to follow. Several hundred supporters of O'Duffy briefly went to Spain to volunteer on the Nationalist side in the Spanish Civil War, and a smaller number of IRA members, communists and others participated on the Republican side.
In 1937 the Constitution of Ireland was written by the de Valera government and approved by the people of the southern 26 counties voting in a referendum. The Constitution changed the name of the state to Éire[46] in the Irish language (Ireland in English) and claimed jurisdiction over the whole of Ireland. The new state was headed by a President of Ireland elected by universal manhood suffrage. The role of the King of Ireland diminished to ceremonial functions in relation to diplomatic affairs. He is believed to have been left with those residual functions as a concession to Unionist opinion. The new state had the objective characteristics of a republic, and was referred to as such by de Valera himself, but it remained within the British Commonwealth and was regarded by the British as a "dominion" like Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. Furthermore, the claim to the whole of the island did not reflect practical reality and inflamed anti-Dublin sentiment among northern Protestants.
Despite the successive splits of 1922 and 1926, the remainder of the IRA rejected compromise with the de facto political situation and continued to consider themselves to be original and sole Republican Movement.
Ireland declared itself a republic in 1949 when the Republic of Ireland Act 1948 came into effect. This finally severed the State's remaining constitutional connection with the United Kingdom and terminated its membership of the Commonwealth. Today, the two neighbouring states enjoy a cordial relationship, expressed formally most recently in the 1998 Belfast Agreement.
The following are active republican parties in Ireland.
- Sinn Féin is the largest republican party in Ireland. Throughout the Northern Ireland troubles it was closely allied with the Provisional Irish Republican Army, publicly arguing for the validity of its armed campaign. Its policy platform combines civic nationalism with socialist views on economic and social issues. It is led by Gerry Adams, and organises in both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. The Party was also known as "Provisional" Sinn Féin by the media and commentators, having split from what later became known as the "Official" Sinn Féin (later the Workers' Party) in 1970, because the latter had voted to enter a 'partitionist parliament'.[47] In 1986 it reversed its original policy of not taking seats in Dáil Éireann, prompting another split, when Republican Sinn Féin was formed. By the early 21st century it had replaced the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) as Northern Ireland's largest nationalist party. As of 2012, it holds five seats in the British parliament, fourteen seats in the Dáil, three in the Seanad and 28 in the Northern Ireland Assembly. Sinn Féin members contest elections to the British parliament on an abstentionist basis, that is, they refuse to take their seats in that parliament as they refuse to accept the right of that body to rule in any part of Ireland.
- Republican Sinn Féin was formed in 1986 by former Sinn Féin leader Ruairí Ó Brádaigh who led traditional republicans in a break with Sinn Féin over the ending of the policy of abstention in relation to elections to Dáil Éireann. The party continues to operate on an abstentionist basis: it would not take seats in the assemblies of either the Republic of Ireland or Northern Ireland because it views neither as legitimate. It is linked to the Continuity IRA, whose goals are the overthrow of British rule in Northern Ireland and the unification of the island to form an independent country. In November 2009, Des Dalton replaced Ó Brádaigh as leader of Republican Sinn Féin.
- Éirígí was formed by a small group of former Sinn Féin activists in Dublin in April 2006 as a political campaigns group, and became a full-fledged political party at the party's first Ardfheis (conference) in May 2007.[48] An Independent Monitoring Commission report said the group was "a small political grouping based on revolutionary socialist principles". While it continues to be a political association, albeit with aggressive protest activities, it was not seen as paramilitary in nature.[49]
- ^ Curtis, Liz, The Cause of Ireland, Beyond the Pale, ISBN 0-9514229-6-0, p. 1-3
- ^ Ó Ceallaigh, Daltún, New Perspectives on Ireland:Colonialism & Identity, Léirmheas, Dublin, 1998, ISBN 0-9518777-6-3 p. 9-13
- ^ Kee Robert, The Green Flag: A History of Irish Nationalism, (1972) ISBN 0-297-17987-X p. 11
- ^ a b Kee Robert, The Green Flag: A History of Irish Nationalism, (1972) ISBN 0-297-17987-X p. 12
- ^ Kee Robert, The Green Flag: A History of Irish Nationalism, (1972) ISBN 0-297-17987-X p. 15
- ^ T. A. Jackson, Ireland Her Own, Lawerence & Wishart, London, ISBN 0-85315-735-9
- ^ Declaration of the United Irishmen, by Theobold Wolfe Tone, 1791
- ^ a b Declaration of the United Irishmen, by Theobald Wolfe Tone, 1791
- ^ Kee Robert, The Green Flag: A History of Irish Nationalism, (1972) ISBN 0-297-17987-X p. 51
- ^ Kee Robert, The Green Flag: A History of Irish Nationalism, (1972) ISBN 0-297-17987-X p. 74
- ^ Kee Robert, The Green Flag: A History of Irish Nationalism, (1972) ISBN 0-297-17987-X p. 134
- ^ Liberty or Death, by James Napper Tandy, 1798
- ^ Kee Robert, The Green Flag: A History of Irish Nationalism, (1972) ISBN 0-297-17987-X p. 92
- ^ Cronin, Sean, Irish nationalism: A History of Its Roots and Ideology. Continuum (1981). ISBN 978-0-8264-0062-8 p.62
- ^ Hickey, Doherty, J.E., Hickey, D.J., A dictionary of Irish history since 1800. Barnes & Noble (1980). ISBN 978-0-389-20160-1 p. 38
- ^ Barberis, Peter et al. Encyclopedia of British and Irish Political Organizations: Parties, Groups, and Movements of the Twentieth Century. Pinter (2000). ISBN 978-1-85567-264-2 p. 197
- ^ a b Kee Robert, The Green Flag: A History of Irish Nationalism, (1972) ISBN 0-297-17987-X p. 149
- ^ Kee Robert, The Green Flag: A History of Irish Nationalism, (1972) ISBN 0-297-17987-X p. 150
- ^ a b Webster, Hollis, The History of Ireland, (Greenwood, 2001) ISBN 0-313-31281-8 p. 83
- ^ a b Kee Robert, The Green Flag: A History of Irish Nationalism, (1972) ISBN 0-297-17987-X p. 158
- ^ Greoghan, Patrick M., Robert Emmet: A Life. Gill & MacMillan , 2004. ISBN 978-0-7171-3675-9
- ^ Robert Emmet Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 2009. Retrieved 9 June 2009.
- ^ Kee, Robert, The Green Flag: A History of Irish Nationalism, (1972) ISBN 0-297-17987-X p. 165
- ^ Proclamation of the Provisional Government, Robert Emmet, 1803
- ^ a b Duffy, Charles Gavan, Young Ireland, Cassell, Petter, Galpin & Co. (1880). p. 291
- ^ Bartoletti, Susan Campbell, Black Potatoes: The Story of the Great Irish Famine, 1845–1850(2001) ISBN 0-618-00271-5
- ^ Young Ireland Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 2009. Retrieved 2009-23-12.
- ^ Michael Doheny, The Felon's Track, M.H. Gill &Sons, LTD 1951, p. 105
- ^ a b Kee, Robert, The Green Flag: A History of Irish Nationalism, (1972) ISBN 0-297-17987-X p. 253
- ^ The Sword Speech, Thomas Francies Meagher (1846)
- ^ Kee, Robert, The Green Flag: A History of Irish Nationalism, (1972) ISBN 0-297-17987-X p. 276
- ^ Kee, Robert, The Green Flag: A History of Irish Nationalism, (1972) ISBN 0-297-17987-X p. 287
- ^ McGee, Owen, The IRB: The Irish Republican Brotherhood from The Land League to Sinn Féin, Four Courts Press Ltd (2005) ISBN 1-84682-064-2
- ^ Ryan, Desmond, The Fenian Chief. A Biography of James Stephens, Gill & Son (1967)
- ^ An Phoblacht – The Founding of the Fenians 13 March 2008. Retrieved 9 June 2009.
- ^ O'Leary, John, Recollections of Fenians and Fenianism, Downey & Co., Ltd, London, (1896) (Vol. I & II) p. 82
- ^ Ryan, Desmond, The Fenian Chief. A Biography of James Stephens, Gill & Son (1967) p. 92
- ^ Kee, Robert, The Green Flag: A History of Irish Nationalism, (1972) ISBN 0-297-17987-X p. 312
- ^ O Broin, Leon Fenian Fever: An Anglo-American Dilemma, Chatto & Windus (1971) ISBN ISBN 0-7011-1749-4 p. 1
- ^ Kee, Robert, The Green Flag: A History of Irish Nationalism, (1972) ISBN 0-297-17987-X p. 314
- ^ Kee, Robert, The Green Flag: A History of Irish Nationalism, (1972) ISBN 0-297-17987-X p. 323
- ^ a b c Kee Robert, The Green Flag: A History of Irish Nationalism, (1972) ISBN 0-297-17987-X p. 325
- ^ Kee, p. 326
- ^ Alvin Jackson, Ireland, 1798–1998: Politics and War, 1999, Wiley-Blackwell, p. 262. ISBN 978-0-631-19542-9
- ^ R. F. Foster, The Oxford History of Ireland, 2001, Oxford University Press, p. 217. ISBN 978-0-19-280202-6
- ^ Nicholas and Diana Mansergh, 1997, Nationalism and Independence: Selected Irish Papers, Cork University Press, p. 170. ISBN 978-1-85918-106-5
- ^ Jonathan Tonge (2006), Northern Ireland, Polity, pp.132–133
- ^ "éirígí Becomes a Political Party – Indymedia Ireland". Indymedia.ie. 13 May 2007. http://www.indymedia.ie/article/82533. Retrieved 17 June 2010.
- ^ "Twentieth Report of the Independent Monitoring Commission" (PDF). October 2008. http://www.inis.gov.ie/en/JELR/20th%20IMC%20Rpt.pdf/Files/20th%20IMC%20Rpt.pdf. Retrieved 17 April 2012.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Political Parties
|
|
| Unionist parties |
|
|
| Nationalist parties |
|
|
| Cross-community parties |
|
|
| Historically important parties |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Articles |
|
|
|
| Political parties |
|
|
|
|
|
| Regional |
|
|
| Pan-Celtic |
|
|
| Pan-Celtic organisations |
|
|
![Provos IRA : Born Again - [Episode 1 720p Full Version]](http://web.archive.org./web/20130827225532im_/http://i.ytimg.com/vi/zqmbWuaTJvE/default.jpg "Provos IRA : Born Again - [Episode 1 720p Full Version]")
![[icon]](http://web.archive.org./web/20130827225532/http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Wiki_letter_w_cropped.svg){kind=small}
.jpg)
