Northern irish History

Essay from the year 2014 in the subject History - Basics, grade: 1,5, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, language: English, abstract: In order to fully understand the Troubles in Northern Ireland, we must go back as far as 1688. When William of Orange arrived in England to claim the crown, the former king, James II, fled to Ireland where Catholicism was still dominant. There he organized an army with which he wanted to regain "e;his"e; throne. However, was defeated by William in the Battle of the Boyne and Protestantism began to gain the mastery. By the beginning of the 18th century the Protestants already owned 90% of the land even though they were a minority in numbers. The Penal Laws, which were introduced between 1695 and 1728 then secured the Protestants even more powers and achieved to suppress the Catholic majority: Catholics now could only receive very limited education and were neither allowed to buy land nor to hold any public position. In the end, they even lost their voting rights.