Conflict in Ireland - Why is it so difficult to keep a lasting peace in Ireland?

GCSE: History

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Ireland has problems and conflicts between the two Christian factions, the Protestants and the Catholics, for the last four hundred years. The religious conflict was sparked in the Tudor era with King Henry VIII. He wanted divorce from his first wife but Catholicism prohibited this so, instead, Henry converted to Protestantism, dissolving the Catholic church and proclaiming himself the Head of the Church of England, in direct defiance of the Pope in Rome. In the 17th century English rulers planted loyal Protestant colonies in Ireland, giving them land taken from the local Catholic Irish. This sparked off the violence that has lasted to the present day as the Catholics felt angry and cheated at no longer being the owners of their land. In 1641, during the English Civil War, the Catholics rebelled, slaughtering hundreds of Protestants in Portadown. In 1649, after the execution of King Charles, Oliver Cromwell lead English troops to the massacre of Catholics in Drogheda and Wexford, an act of revenge. These battles increased friction between both communities because they saw each other as heartless murderers, with the aid of propaganda.
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