Here, author Karen Millie-James considers her Irish roots and Ireland’s history. She looks at the background to the Irish Troubles and what happened during the Troubles.
The eviction of Irish tenants during the Famine era. Source: Public domain, Crawford Gallery, available here.
Background
What has always impressed me about Irish people is their strength of character to survive unbearable hardship, without losing their identity. For centuries, Ireland has experienced conquest, religious discrimination, famine, emigration, and political violence. Yet, their culture has endured plus a profound sense of remaining Irish which has been passed down each generation to this day.
When I started writing about the Troubles in my third novel of the Cydney Granger Series, A Thousand Silent Cries, I was unaware of where my research would lead. My grandmother was born in Dublin in 1897, the daughter of Russian immigrants who fled the pogroms in Russia, and then left for England in 1912 or thereabouts, and I wanted to do justice to her story. This added another depth to my story. Her family understood oppression and being forced to leave their country. There was certainly an identity similar to the history of the Irish people, and also the stories and culture within the two communities which were so vital to retain. It was a dream subject for any author.
However, first it was important to me to explore the history of Ireland. I needed to understand the present by understanding the past. I am not an historian but after my extensive research, it became clear to me why there has been so much conflict in such a small country.
The theme running through is the involvement of the British from as far back as 1169 during the Anglo-Norman invasion, and the time of Henry VIII and Elizabeth I. The English Crown have always attempted to control the whole island by confiscating land from Irish families and granting them to settlers loyal to the monarchy. Religion always paid a huge part in this especially as there were so many changes from Catholic to Protestant rule.
In 1609, James I, under the Plantation of Ulster, organised the settlement of English and Scottish Protestants in Ulster in return for their building towns and defences to support English rule. Many Catholics lost land or were pushed out into poorer areas. This enabled the Protestants to expand further into the north of Ireland which divided the country by religion, caused political conflict and questioned the identity of the British and Irish; the root of the Troubles centuries later. These settlers wanted Ulster governed by the English king under English law, whereas the Catholics wanted to preserve their land, and their faith.
Between 1649 and 1653, Oliver Cromwell set a campaign for further land confiscations and atrocities in the name of the Crown with the aim of crushing the alliance between the Irish Catholic confederates and the English Royalist. He wanted to secure Ireland for Parliament and prevent it being used as a base for the Royalists to return to power in England. The two sieges of Drogheda and Wexford in 1649 are still remembered as traumatic events in history denoting the extent of the massacre of large numbers in the towns by Cromwell’s army, in the most brutal manner.
As a result, the Catholics landowners lost most of their land to Protestant settlers and backers of Parliament and faced severe restrictions. Even though the monarchy was restored in 1660 and Charles II became King, Protestant power remained firmly in place and only some Catholics were able to recover their property. Twenty-five years later, King James II became king and as a Catholic, many Irish supported him in the hope he would restore their rights. However, the Protestant political elite in England replaced him with the Dutch Protestant ruler, William of Orange – the Glorious Revolution.
At this point, any political power held by the Catholics was eliminated and the Penal Laws restricted Catholics from owning or inheriting land, holding public office, voting, bearing arms, practicing law, and generally having any voice in politics.
Under the influence of the French Revolution, many groups sought Irish independence and unity between the Catholics and Protestants with a view to making Ireland easier to govern and defend. Ireland had its own parliament in Dublin but it was dominated by Protestant landowners and controlled by Britain. The Act of Union effective 1801 abolished the separate Irish Parliament and Ireland was incorporated into one new state as the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Still Catholics were not permitted to sit in Parliament.
This is central to why Irish nationalists sought Home Rule or independence, whilst unionists wanted to maintain the Union.
I began to understand why the Irish held such anger towards the British and this became worse during the Great Famine of 1845 to 1852 when the potato blight destroyed crops and over a million people died with a similar number emigrating, primarily to America. Much of the Irish population were poor and relied heavily on potatoes for their survival. They could not afford grain, meat or dairy, relief was non-existent, and landlords evicted tenants who could not pay rent and sent them to the harsh and inhumane conditions of the workhouses.
Blame was firmly placed on the British for their failures to help the lives of their people causing the immense suffering they were forced to endure. The belief was it could all have been prevented with different polices in place. Most of these people were Catholic living in rural towns and villages.
Those who emigrated to the United States of America must have felt relieved to escape. However, many died on the ships crossing the Atlantic due to the unsafe conditions, poor food and disease. On arrival, normally New York or Boston, they were settled in crowded neighbourhoods and faced difficult and labour-intensive work which were low paid. Many were responsible for building canals and railways, working in mining and construction.
Ireland changed. It’s population fell dramatically and many families relied on monies sent from their families in America. As time passed, the Irish emigrants in the US, integrated more into society and built strong networks within the Catholic church, and in political groups, which resulted in their becoming more accepted and influential as their families spread throughout the country.
The Irish people have long memories. The stories of the past, the influence of the British, the losses during the potato famine of generations of families, have been passed down, and not just as myths to be told at Christmas time but in literature, music, the arts. These are real-life stories of resilience which have bearings on the lives of those today. It has created for them a strong sense of Irish identity which will continue for centuries to come.
Background to the Troubles
Ireland is full of rich culture, humour, the arts. I love being there and I have been many times both in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. However, there is a backdrop of loss, suffering, persecution, and huge emotion. The idea that nothing is forgotten.
The fight for Ireland to have its own independence from the British Crown is centuries old. At the turn of the twentieth century, Ireland was governed by the British Crown since the Act of Union but there were two opposing sides; Home Rule by the Catholics and nationalists predominantly, and the Protestants and unionists in the north, particularly around Belfast, who considered themselves to be British from not only a political view, but in terms of religion and economy. Belfast was the centre of shipbuilding and engineering which were closely tied to Britain and its Empire and they had no desire to separate from Great Britain which would seriously affect their economy.
1n 1912 a third Home Rule Bill was introduced and the resistance by the Unionists became more organized with nearly half a million signing the Ulster Covenant and Declaration to oppose Home Rule. In 1913, the Unionists formed the Ulster Volunteer Group. In retaliation, the Nationalists established the Irish Volunteers. This was truly frightening time with Ireland being on the brink of civil war and both sides now having paramilitary organisations.
With the advent of the First World War, the Home Rule Act 1914 became law but was suspended. Both Catholics and Protestants served in the British Army but for different reasons, the Catholics believing they would be rewarded with Home Rule, although some factions wanted to strike out against British rule, whereas the Protestants gave their support to Britain.
The Easter Rising of 1916 was an important date in Ireland’s history when 1200 rebels seized various buildings in Dublin and declared an Irish Republic. Much of Dublin was damaged and although the Rising was defeated within a week, there was a turning point when public opinion changed due to the response by the British of having fifteen leaders executed by firing squad with thousands arrested.
Support for Sinn Fein, which was established in 1905 to support the desire for Ireland to have its own government, increased after the Rising and they won an overwhelming majority of Irish seats in the general election of December 1918 and the elected members assembled in Dublin to form an independent Irish parliament, declaring Ireland a republic. The Unionists rejected the Dublin government and maintained their stance to remain in the United Kingdom.
In 1919 the Irish War of Independence began with the IRA, the Irish Republican Army, with its roots in the Irish Volunteers supporting the new republic. During this time, the IRA fought British forces, the Royal Irish Constabulary and the government in any way they could. They had a massive intelligence network and waged constant attacks on police barracks, destroyed homes, businesses and public buildings, and generally evoked fear amongst civilians, murdering many they deemed as informers. In the north, people were killed and driven from their home due to the violence between the Catholics and Protestants. They also regarded themselves as a legitimate army whereas Britain viewed them as insurgents and murderers.
The Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921 ended that war but divided the IRA into those who accepted the Irish Free State, pro-treaty, and those who rejected it and wanted a united republic, anti-treaty. Former comrades were now fighting against each other. The Irish Civil War of 1922 – 1923 was ultimately won by the pro-treaty faction and they continued to use the name, IRA. This was later changed to the Provisional IRA in 1969 who fought the British security forces and loyalist paramilitaries during the Troubles.
The Government of Ireland Act 1920, whilst the war continued, created two territories, one in Northern Ireland consisting of six counties, and the other in Southern Ireland consisting of the remaining twenty-six counties, each with their own governments. However, this was not accepted by Sinn Fein who refused to recognize the separation. Thus the populations were still not cleanly divided. Members of the southern parliament had to swear an oath connected to the Crown, but Northern Ireland opted out of this and remained within Great Britain. As the Civil War raged, former comrades continued fighting each other and families were divided.
The Troubles and the IRA – Why do I Write About this?
The partition of Ireland did not solve the political problem but made it worse. There were a large number of Catholics remaining in the North who would not accept British rule, and the Protestants would not accept the stance of the Catholics. There was no solution.
The remaining IRA was weaker than it had been and between 1956 and 1962 they conducted an unsuccessful Border Campaign. The Irish Government treated the IRA as terrorists and stopped it from using the Republic as a base for their activities.
During the late 1960’s, the IRA divided again between the Official IRA and the Provisional IRA, the role of which was to defend Catholic communities and put an end to British rule and force them to withdraw from Northern Ireland and establish a united Irish republic. There were bombings, assassinations, attacks in England , kidnappings, and executions of suspected informers including some Catholic civilians. The Republican communities held mixed views with some helping the IRA, and others rejecting the violence but staying silent as they feared repercussions. For some Catholics, they wanted the IRA to protect them against the Protestants who were carrying out campaigns of violence by burning their homes and attacking them. Not all of them wanted a war or felt the IRA spoke for them.
Sinn Fein was politically on the side on the Republicans and tried to negotiate for peace. It wasn’t until 1994 that the Provisional IRA declared the first ceasefire which broke down, and then a second in 1997. The Good Friday Agreement was signed in 1998, but the IRA did not end its campaign until 2005.
What a troubled history, but fascinating, and a perfect background which I could use to my advantage when writing as an ideal story of revenge. Rufus Tomlinson aka William Latimer grew up in a poor Catholic family in Belfast. Joining the IRA gave him a sense of purpose and he was responsible for a multitude of bombings and murders in Northern Ireland and mainland England and for this he was revered and treated like a celebrity, or maybe more so because he instilled fear wherever he went.
However, Rufus made one mistake which he lived to regret. On the orders of the IRA, he set up a bomb in the house of a banker in London and killed him and his wife but failed to kill the son. His mistake was to stay and watch the house explode and he was seen by the son, James Carrington, now a prominent barrister, who had been placed into a child witness protection program after losing his parents. Later, Rufus was arrested in 1972 following Bloody Sunday. He then escaped from jail and was helped by sympathisers to the Cause in the Republic of Ireland and on to Boston.
I interviewed an officer from the British army who was stationed in Belfast during this period. He advised that the IRA had many sympathisers, and one means of escape that was discovered was via Forkhill in the south of County Armagh and then through underground tunnels built on loyal farmers’ land to the Republic of Ireland and then into Dundalk just over the border. They were then taken to Dublin and were able to board a ship to Boston or New York. Everything was tightly planned, even though the British were closely monitoring activity from Slieve Gullion, the highest point in the county.
You have to remember that millions of Americans were descended from Irish immigrants particularly those who left during the Great Famine, and there were many stories of British rule. The memories compounded over the years, and many supported the Republicans by raising funds to help the IRA in its pursuit for freedom from Britain and supplying weapons which were bought both legally and illegally and shipped over. Many of the Irish in the States had become wealthy through businesses and politically, but were they aware they were not only helping Catholic families, but also funding terrorists and murderers? They did not see the daily problems.
On his return to the UK decades later under a new name, Rufus discovered James by chance and set in motion a psychological game of cat and mouse with the intent on silencing James before he could identify his IRA background. Due to the Troubles being fairly recent in our history and my memories of the conflict, it gave me a perfect opportunity to really delve into the psyche of Rufus and imagine his family life and his senior role within the IRA. I wanted to really comprehend why he, like many other young men, joined this terrorist organisation and what it took for anyone to kill many of their countrymen, albeit another religion. Was it really just a means to escape poverty and not work like many others, for example, in the shipyards or in other low-paid jobs? Or were there some who were simply angry individuals wanting to commit violence no matter the consequences as a means of gratification or compulsion to kill?
The fact is that Rufus was boastful of his actions, incapable of living a normal life after his murderous activities He was ‘somebody’ and because people acknowledged him, he could live a life of fantasy where he was both revered and feared, possibly hated. When he was arrested, this caused him to lose face, and he had to escape to maintain his failure of succumbing to his enemy. By striving to kill James and anyone that got in the way, he was back in his previous life where the war was not finished. He was still a soldier.
My question, which I cannot answer, is whether this was the same for all operatives in the IRA? Was Rufus a narcissist, or just an idealist, an angry young man brought up in an environment where tales were handed down over the generations within his family of the awful treatment of the Catholics by the Protestants and, more importantly, of the belief that Great Britain was occupying his beloved country? Was he a product of his own making, or was it peer pressure, excitement even, a sense of belonging and status? I chose to describe Rufus as having all these traits, but also as a narcissist because it made him more interesting. He had a complete belief in his own importance, someone who craved admiration, who couldn’t admit his errors, and hated his authority being challenged. Now he had a task, annihilating James, and that blinkered every one of his thoughts and actions. He was never wrong. He was back in the IRA. His self-righteousness made him powerful.
Writing about the Troubles brings together the subjects that are close to my heart, that draw me as a writer. My grandmother and her story, and my dad who fled from Nazi Germany on the Kindertransport in 1939 to escape persecution. He later served in military intelligence for Great Britain. My family history is shaped by people forced to leave their country of birth, to leave their lives behind, and adopt a new existence but retaining the memories that pass down the generations.
We don’t choose our history, but we can choose what we do with it, whether that be seeking justice and revenge and dwelling on the past, or taking all the advantages of what we have inherited which is resilience and the belief in our ability to continue our lives despite everything that went before, and the secrets that remain buried.
A Thousand Silent Cries by Karen Millie-James is out now.
The third novel in Karen Millie James' Cydney Granger crime thriller series, A Thousand Silent Cries sees corporate forensics investigator and spiritual medium Cydney Granger drawn into her most personal and dangerous case yet.
Known for uncovering truths others cannot see, Cydney has built her career investigating secrets, deception and hidden motives. But this time, the mystery centres on someone close to her.
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