1. What were the Penal Laws. Why were they enforced
* What were the Penal Laws? * Why were they enforced? * Why is the Battle of the Boyne significant in Irish history?

2. What was the Act of Union and why did it lead to the Rise of the Fenians?

3. Lesson objectives… To recognise the reasons behind the Act of Union
To determine the aims of the Act of Union
To realise why the group the Fenians (Sinn Fein and the IRA) developed

4. The build up to the Act of Union…
The British remained firmly in control of Ireland for 100 years after the Battle of the Boyne
Then, from the 1790s onwards, groups of Irish people began to struggle to free Ireland from British rule
Because they wanted the Irish to become a separate nation once again, they are called Nationalists
After James II defeat at the Battle of the Boyne, the Penal Laws had been established, as well as an Irish parliament that was set up in Dublin with an exclusively Protestant assembly – the Catholics therefore, did not have a say in the running of the country

5. American War of Independence...
The American war of independence was an important influence on Irish politics
It encouraged the Irish Protestants to seek a measure of colonial self government
In 1782 the Dublin parliament (which was subservient to London) was granted virtual independence – although the King appointed the Irish administration, Ireland was now effectively a separate kingdom that shared a monarch with England
Now many of the penal legislation against Catholics was removed (repealed)

6. Wolfe Tone, The United Irishmen and the 1798 rebellion...
The French Revolution, with its ideas of liberty and equality led to the founding of the United Irishmen in 1791
The guiding spirit of the United Irishmen was Wolfe Tone
The United Irishmen was a secret society committed to breaking the connection with Britain through the use of force and to uniting ‘Protestant, Catholic and Dissenter (from Ulster Plantations) under the common name of Irishman

7. Wolfe Tone, The United Irishmen and the 1798 rebellion...
The United Irishman armed rising in 1798 was a failure, despite the military aid that Wolfe Tone obtained from the French
The rising was put down with much bloodshed. It had been supported by Presbyterians in the north who had also been subjected, on a lesser scale, to penal laws after the Battle of the Boyne

8. Your task…
Read through the A3 sheet about the Penal Laws and the Wolfe Tone rebellion and highlight the key information – especially the information that helps to explain why the British Government moved to pass the Act of Union
Stick the sheet in

9. The Act of Union 1800/
After the 1798 revolt, Westminster (English Parliament) saw the danger that had been avoided and decided that it was time to bring Ireland under direct rule from London once more.
In 1800 the Dublin parliament voted itself out of existence – bribery and other forms of pressure and corruption were used to bring this about – and the Act of Union was passed
The Act of Union was designed to deal with the conflict in Ireland by uniting the country with the rest of Britain under a single parliament and for the Anglican Church to be the official church in Ireland
After Wolfe Tone rebellion in 1798 the British parliament decided to abolish the Irish parliament. From 1800 Irish MPs had to sit in the British Parliament. All decisions about Ireland were now made in Westminster

10. Your task…
Stick in the sheet “The Act of Union” and highlight the key aspects
Consider why this Act of Union would anger Irish Catholics

11. Your task… Copy this chart in your books and make notes on the following…
Potato Famine
The Fenians
Sinn Fein
How did it lead to conflict?

12. The Potato Famine
Devastated the population of Ireland. Reduced population from 8 million to 6.6 million through starvation, disease and emigration to Britain and America
When the potato crop was destroyed by blight the result was devastating: the people’s only source of food was gone
Government in London was aware of the problem, but Ireland was not a major preoccupation and the famine was at crisis point before they started to help/send relief
London was not very interested and very ignorant – didn’t see the urgency
Some Protestants helped out by offering food in return for the Catholics turning to Protestantism
It has often been remembered that England turned her back on Ireland and let her starve in her hour of need
The Times of London wrote the obituary of the Irish nation by declaring that soon an Irishman in his native land would be as rare as an American Indian in his.

13. Rise of the Fenians...
By 1911 the population had fallen to 4.4 million and many Irish now lived in Britain and America, but remained involved in Irish affairs and determined to aid any attempt to overthrow British rule in Ireland (the country they felt they had been forced to leave)
The Irish in America founded the most persistent revolutionary organisation of all in the 1850s – the Fenian Brotherhood, which became the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB), from which grew the Irish Republican Army (IRA)
The Fenian Brotherhood, which was named after a band of mythical heroic warriors, was founded in a Dublin timber-yard on St Patrick’s Day 1858, with $400 to sustain it
Like the United Irishmen, its members were bound by oath to secrecy and loyalty to the Irish Republic

14. The Fenians…
The Catholic Church was not very keen on the Fenians tactics – although many of the younger clergy secretly supported them and their ideals
Most of the Fenians were staunch Catholics who had strong views on the role of the Church in Irish politics
They wanted the British out of Ireland and a republican government established
After 1867, they realised armed uprisings were not favoured and so they began to help poor farmers in their fight against harsh landlords
In the 1880s the IRB organised a ‘Land League’ to stop landlords evicting tenants for not paying their rent
This was successful, forcing the British Government to change the land laws
By the early 1900s support for the IRB was slowly growing

15. The Rise of Sinn Fein
In 1905 the IRB were joined by a new political party called Sinn Fein (meaning ‘Ourselves Alone’) set up by Arthur Griffith
Like the Fenians, Griffith also wanted Ireland to become an independent republic but he did not plan to achieve this by force
Instead he suggested that the Irish MPs should simply ‘opt out’ of the British parliament and set up their own government in Dublin
This would collect its own taxes and make its own laws
It was believed that British rule in Ireland, if ignored by the majority of the people, would eventually wither away
Both Sinn Fein and the IRB were determined to win but in the early 1900s their chances of success looked slim. They still had little support from their people. Without this popular support for the nationalist cause the British would never be forced to hand over control of Ireland

16. Lesson objectives… To recognise the reasons behind the Act of Union
To determine the aims of the Act of Union
To realise why the group the Fenians (Sinn Fein and the IRA) developed

17. Homework… Answer the question:
What was the Act of Union and why did it
lead to the Rise of the Fenians?