Jonathan Bardon Quotes
We Irish have been more concerned with what divides us than what we have in common
Jonathan Bardon, Irish Historian, A History of Ireland
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
He lost be 2 votes.
A force of 4,000 Spaniards, aided by Irish Catholics attempted to thwart the English Protestant Reformation forces in Ireland. They were defeated in their war by Lord Mountjoy. This is one of the many wars in history that was described as “holy” by one or both of its participants.
Many Protestant Englishmen were shocked to hear this, having little familiarity with the details of the functioning of the Church of England—the Established Church of Great Britain—in Ireland and the contribution of the Church to the discrimination against Irish Catholics and the poverty of Ireland.
New Ross was under siege by Cromwell and his English Parliamentarian troops. After two days, the town tried to negotiate terms of surrender and one of the main things they asked for was freedom of religion to practice Roman Catholicism. This famous response set the stage for religious bigotry over the next years. Cromwell’s reasons for not allowing Catholicism to be practiced was not only one of religious zeal. At the time, the Roman Catholic Church was a major geopolitical power under a Pope who commonly supported or even dispatched troops for geopolitical and religious ends. The Vatican was particularly resentful of England for separating from the Church and asserting that the King of England was the head of the Church and not the Pope. Therefore Cromwell and many Englishmen had to deal with the reality that every practicing Catholic in the realm was a potential spy, traitor, and/or rebel. This fear of control of countries by the Pope strongly affected America, and was responsible for the defeat of the first Catholic Presidential Candidate, Al Smith. It was also a major factor in the election of John F. Kennedy so he dealt with it head on.
Not all the relations between Irish Catholic and Protestants were hostile. There was a commonality in their Irish nationality and many protestants—especially the educated and more sophisticated—were opposed to the restrictions imposed by England on the rights of the Roman Catholic to practice their religion. See {639274} for another example.
Protestant ascendancy was the policy of keeping Protestants dominant while allowing Catholics to worship but to be politically, socially, and economically subservient to the Protestants.
He was addressing the Conservatives of Ulster, the Northern Ireland province that was the center of the Orangemen movement of Irish Protestants who were fighting to retain 'Protestant Ascendency' -- which was the social, political and cultural domination of the Protestants (the minority) over the Catholics (the majority). This was best achieved by keeping Ireland a part of Great Britain as opposed to having Ireland as a separate, independent country.
This is a great example of the hubris that affects many very successful politicians and erodes there effectiveness and makes them more dictatorial. They delude themselves into believeing that they are an accurte reflection of the people. In this case he absurdly argued that since he was brought up in a working class family and did not spend all his time with intllectuals, he therefore knew the Irish people’s preferences. If such an upbringing qualified a person to know the Irish wants, then there were millions of such in Ireland who grew up that way. And if they all reflected the Irish will, why was there so much disagreement amongst the Irish as with most other people?
Orangemen were the ulta Protestant Nationalists of Northern Ireland. Both Protetants and Catholics had their extremists who publicly spewed their hate, desire for exclusivity, and insults with little moderation from moderates who always risked retaliation from the extremists even of their own religion, not unlike the situation of the beginning of the 21st century, where Muslim moderates were cowed and intimidated by the religious Islamic extremists.
