Irish republicanism
Irish republicanism (Irish: poblachtánachas Éireannach) is the political movement for the unity and independence of Ireland under a republic. Irish republicans view British rule in any part of Ireland as inherently illegitimate. An ideology since the 17th century, various methods have been employed to achieve the republic, including rebellions and paramilitary campaigns. Although the makeup of republicanism has been multidenominational, its relation to catholicism increasingly became central.
The development of nationalist and democratic sentiment throughout Europe in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, distilled into the contemporary ideology known as republican radicalism, was reflected in Ireland. Groups across the island emerged in hopes of independence. Uprisings thereafter occurred and were quashed by British forces. Following the Fenian Rising, in 1867, a dynamite campaign in England was pursed. Another rising transpired, amidst World War I, that ended in execution. Support for republicanism surged thereafter, including electorally. An Irish republic was declared in 1919 and officialized following the Irish War of Independence. The Irish Civil War, beginning in 1922 and spurred by the partition of the island, then occurred (see Partition of Ireland).
Republican action, including armed campaigns, continued in the newly-formed state of Northern Ireland, a region of the United Kingdom. Tensions in the territory culminated in widespread conflict by 1969. This prompted paramilitaries: republicans assembled under the Provisional Irish Republican Army, who waged a campaign against the British state for approximately three decades. Represented by Sinn Féin, republicans would gradually invest in political action, including the Northern Ireland peace process and the Good Friday Agreement of 1998. The PIRA have since decommissioned and republicans have been elected to various echelons of government: those within the movement opposed to this outcome are often referred to as dissident republicans.
Republicanism in Northern Ireland[edit]
1921–1966[edit]
The area that was to become Northern Ireland amounted to six of the nine counties of Ulster, in spite of the fact that in the last all Ireland election (1918 Irish general election) counties Fermanagh and Tyrone had Sinn Féin/Nationalist Party (Irish Parliamentary Party) majorities.[53]
In 1921, Ireland was partitioned. Most of the country became part of the independent Irish Free State. However, six out of the nine counties of Ulster remained part of the United Kingdom as Northern Ireland. During this time (1920-1922) the newly formed Northern Ireland saw "savage and unprecedented" communal violence between unionists and nationalists (see The Troubles in Ulster (1920–1922)).
In the 1921 elections in Northern Ireland: