Seventeenth century seems to be a time of difficulties for the people of Ireland, as that is the period when invasion, plundering and insulting events that are way beyond explanation has occurred. People, whose forefathers have passed down the details of the events of their own lives, are still able to give written proof of the nightmarish incidents and the effect they had on the lives of their ancestors. After crushing a large number of small rebels in the regions of Ireland, the English had been able to subdue the island and they were able to convert most of the Irish lands into following Catholic ideals.
After the clouds of the seventeenth century had passed away, the birth of the Act of Union between the people of Ireland and England enabled a slight improvement in the relationship. However, there were many internal differences between the northern and southern regions of Ireland. They were mainly due to conflicts in the principles of the Protestants and Catholics in Ireland which proved even more aggressive in the future days.
Prosperity kissed the northern part of Ireland and kicked at the southern part of it, which made the difference in opinion amongst them more opposing than before. The prosperity of the northern parts was due to the tremendous improvement in industries and manufacturing units, with the help of the Britain. The southern regions were suffering due to uneven distribution of lands and due to steady flow of problems from the British and the Northern Irish settlers. The riots which followed this event was so intense that the help of British government was sought; this resulted in the permanent division of Ireland into northern and southern regions.
The Catholics were all for getting their complete freedom from the British and their counterparts, creating a new problem in a more diverse subject, Politics. The aftermath of these events was the birth of the Government of Ireland act in the year 1920; however, this did not solve problems and Guerrilla warfare methods were used by the Irish Republican Army to attack the British soldiers, claiming more lives brutally.
Then came the era of the legendary treaty of peace in the 1921; the treaty was signed with the agreement of combining six counties under the region of the Northern Ireland and the remaining twenty three counties in the south along with the three counties from Ulster were brought under the region of southern Ireland. The independent republic of Ireland was formed and things seemed to have come under peaceful times from then onwards.
However, fate played its turn a little later, from 1960 to 1990, which brought the old ways of violence back into play. Fueled by the Catholics and the Protestants in the land, armed attacks by the Independent Republican Army and the Protestant paramilitary forces were raging on, forcing the British to intervene. Only after the signing of the Anglo-Irish Agreement between the Irish Prime ministers and the British and the cease fire from the IRA, peace started to reign on the lands of Ireland. The most recent turn of events is the handing over of all powers by the British back to Ireland, in 2010, which has left only the echoes of the past to resound once in a while.
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