Introduction
National consciousness refers to the degree to which a country’s citizens are attuned to their surroundings and share a common sense of identity, solidarity, and belonging. One definition of “national consciousness” is the sense of belonging shared by members of a nation. Economic and political transformations have significantly been influenced, to a significant degree, by a robust sense of national pride in many different countries. A sense of national pride tends to support a range of desirable social and political consequences, such as cohesion, long-term growth, harmony, tolerance, respect for diversity, and patriotism. Various factors played a role in developing national consciousness, such as the Plantation of Ulster, religious independence, colonization, cultural identity, and forming the Confederate Catholics of Ireland.
The establishment of the plantation of Ulster resulted in mixed reactions from the people of Ireland, which played a significant role in developing national consciousness. Many local Irish aristocracies also lost their land as a result, and the resulting centuries-long ethnic and sectarian resentment occasionally erupted into Conflict, most notably during the Irish Rebellion of 1641 (Bradshaw et al., 7). Agriculture, particularly cattle raising, was a significant input to the economy of Gaelic Ulster at the time. Some Gaelic Irish people participated in a type of transhumance called “creating” or “booleying,” in which they moved their cattle to higher land for the summer and put-up temporary houses there. This practice was known as transhumance.
Consequently, those who did not speak Gaelic frequently believed that Gaelic Irish people were nomads. By far, the largest of Ireland’s plantations was Ulster. Many towns in Ulster were established as a result, and the province’s Protestant population developed strong ties to Britain. Many local Irish aristocracies also lost their land as a result, and the resulting centuries-long ethnic and sectarian resentment occasionally erupted into Conflict, most notably during the Irish Rebellion of 1641 and again during the Troubles (Bradshaw et al., 21).
During the 16th century, Catholicism and Irish civic identity were instrumental in developing Irish national consciousness. The union between the Native Gaelic Irish and the Old English people formed a coalition intending to defend their property and land from New English protestant forces supported financially by England. In Ireland, racial wounds had been festering since the 12th century when Norman invaders first came to settle there. The purpose of this union was to heal those wounds and bring reconciliation (Slaon 25).
The colonization of the Irish by Great Britain promoted a sense of self-determination and national consciousness, ultimately leading to resistance from the British powers. During this historical period, imperial authorities frequently exerted influence over the practices and beliefs of the colonized people. Several texts have referenced a cultural prejudice or explanation for the colonial subjugation that served as the foundation for this domination. Imperialism may have been the driving force behind the formation of colonies, but it was also responsible for planting the seeds of resistance to British control. The Irish people were against the practice of colonialism and sought to overthrow what they considered to be a tyrannical government. Many people tried to conform to the new culture introduced by the imperialists, but despite their efforts, they were not welcomed because of who they were. The idea of imperial dominance was the root cause of the drive for independence and the abolishment of colonial rule (Slaon 38).
Beliefs in racial superiority also significantly impacted how people thought about the best way to “civilize” Ireland. This included reforming Ireland’s unruly subjects, taming their all-powerful lords, replacing thuggery and feud with law and order, and putting people’s labor toward making things instead of destroying them. During the early modern period, the central government of Ireland tried to achieve political hegemony in Ireland in several ways, including military conquest, the establishment of common law, English economic practices, interference with land titles, expropriation, and plantation. Therefore, Ireland became a place to try out building an empire. People of the time were very aware of both this and that they were colonists until the very end. The historian of Old English, John Lynch, said that the earl of Thomond said that Ireland was another India for the English and that this India was more profitable for the English than the Indies were for the Spaniards at any time in history (Ohlmeyer 460).
The colonial relationship between England and Ireland affected how Irish imperialists thought about the West Indies and how the English felt about the American colonies. Both countries were once colonized by the other. Ireland was the first colony that the United Kingdom set up. As Jack Greene pointed out, it was on the “near fringe” of the transatlantic British Empire, just as the United States of America was on the “outer periphery” of the empire. Historians Howard Mumford Jones, D. B. Quinn, and Nicholas Canny showed that English colonists whose adventures crossed the Atlantic, like Sir Walter Raleigh, Humphrey Gilbert, and William Penn, used what they saw in Ireland to back up what they already thought about savagery, pagan religion, and barbarism (Ohlmeyer 459).
These notions were based on their observations of the Irish people, the first people to settle in what is now the Americas; the use of terms such as “barbarous” and “civilized” to describe the Irish can be traced back to the writings of Giraldus Cambrensis in the 12th century. In these writings, he called the Irish “barbarous people” who lived in a “rude” and “primitive” way, “just like animals.” Even though Lord Mountjoy’s secretary, Fynes Moryson, traveled extensively in Europe, North Africa, the Middle East, and Turkey, he thought the ordinary Irish were the worst. Fynes Moryson thought that most Irish people were dirty, rude, and wild animals whose women were drunk sluts. Despite his extensive travels, Fynes Moryson reserved his greatest contempt for the “common Irish.” During the seventeenth century, it became abundantly evident that many people, beginning with the King and proceeding below, plainly established their mental and cultural superiority over the Gaelic Irish. Later, the same ethnocentric sentiments toward “natives” served as a defining characteristic of imperial authority in regions such as North America, Africa, and the Indian subcontinent (Ohlmeyer 459).
The establishment of the imperial economic order, the primary objective of which was to subvert the culture of warfare and feasting in Gaelic society, was the motivation for developing a feeling of national consciousness. The economic infrastructure of native society was thrown into disarray as a direct result of the actions of the colonial forces, which were also responsible for the rapid initiation of significant and systemic changes in the communities of indigenous Irish people. Since the arrival of these material goods caused a lot of competition among different parts of the local community to control or dominate them, they may be bad for the interests of the local people who used to make and trade things that served the same purpose. Irish chieftains quickly realized that if they wanted to do well in the increasingly civilized English world and be seen as good subjects, they had to take advantage of the financial opportunities that the English system of landlord-tenant relationships and a commercial economy offered. This was the only way to ensure they would still be around.
As a consequence of this, many people changed the organization of their estates. However, as a direct consequence, many people found themselves in deep debt. As a result, a sizeable number of them mortgaged their estates, most commonly to Protestant businesspeople. In the long run, Ireland’s financial, economic, and cultural difficulties prove to be more potent in pushing both the growth of a sense of national identity and colonialism (Ohlmeyer 452).
The emergence of political movements in Ireland, such as the Irish Rebellion of 1641and Confederate Catholics of Ireland, campaigned for the ideology of Ireland’s independence from England. Conspiracy triggered the formation of these campaign movements. The Bishops’ Wars took place in Scotland from 1638 to 1640 and were an uprising to counter the attempt of Charles I to enforce Church of England customs in Ireland. The Scots believed these traditions were too similar to Catholicism and rebelled against the endeavor. The attempt of the King to put down the uprising was unsuccessful because the Parliament, which shared the same religious issues as the Scots, declined to vote for increased taxes to fund the recruitment of an army. This prevented the King from being able to raise an army to put down the uprising. Charles negotiated with Irish Catholic nobles to assemble an Irish troop to put down the Scottish uprising. He wanted the Irish troops to help crush the Scottish insurrection. Charles agreed to employ the Irish army to abolish the Scottish revolt in exchange for religious toleration and land security. In exchange, Charles recruited the Irish to put down the Scottish insurrection. Irish Catholics from Ulster slowly built an army in Carrickfergus, Scotland.
On the other hand, by the middle of 1641, they had already begun to disperse. The notion, already prevalent in the Scottish and English parliaments, that Charles was a tyrant who attempted to force his religious principles on his countries became much more entrenched as a direct result of this event. Between 1628 and 1640, Charles did not have elections for the parliamentary body (Darcy 44).
At the beginning of the year 1641, some Scots and English Parliamentarians entertained the idea of invading Ireland and repressing the Catholic population there to ensure that no Irish royalist force would land in either England or Scotland. These individuals believed this would be the most effective way to achieve this goal. Fearing this and wanting to take advantage of the opportunity, a small number of Irish Catholic landed gentry prepared a swift revolution in the name of the King to seize control of Dublin Castle and other key cities and forts throughout the country. Their primary objectives were to stop an invasion and convince the King to give in to the demands of the Catholics. They carried out these actions in the name of the King. There were also at least three Irish colonels involved, and the intention was to use soldiers from the Irish army, which was disbanding at the time.
Finally, unfavorable economic conditions led to the emergence of national consciousness in Ireland, which encouraged the outbreak of rebellions. The beginning of the Ice Age in the middle of the 17th century is generally credited with being the cause of this decrease. Ireland had a poor harvest that year (1641) because the economy was in a downward spiral. The average annual interest rate hit 30% during the 1630s. Because of the significant amounts of money they owed, insurgent leaders like Phelim O’Neill and Rory O’Moore ran the risk of having their homes and businesses taken away by creditors. The Irish peasantry had it even worse because they had to deal with skyrocketing rents and a poor harvest. This fueled their hate for the settlers, which led to attacks being carried out on a mass scale against them after the rebellion began (Ohlmeyer 453).
Conclusion
Various factors played a role in developing national consciousness, such as the Plantation of Ulster, religious independence, colonization, cultural identity, and forming the Confederate Catholics of Ireland. Ulster’s plantation’s ambivalent reception among Irish citizens influenced the growth of Irish nationalism. Additionally, the colonization of the Irish by Great Britain promoted a sense of self-determination and national consciousness, ultimately leading to resistance from the British powers. The rise of a sense of national pride was spurred by the formation of an imperial economic order, the primary goal of which was to undermine the Gaelic tradition of battle and feasting. Irish political groups such as the Irish Rebellion of 1641 and the Confederate Catholics of Ireland pushed for independence from England philosophy. Therefore, these factors led to the rise of national consciousness and nationalism in Ireland.
Works Cited
Bradshaw, Brendan, Andrew Hadfield, and Willy Maley, eds. Representing Ireland: Literature and the origins of Conflict, 1534-1660. Cambridge University Press, 1993.
Sloan, Barry. Writers and Protestantism in the North of Ireland: heirs to damnation? Irish Academic Press, 2000.
Ohlmeyer, Jane. “The American Historical Review, Vol. 104, No. 2 (Apr. 1999), Pp. 446-462.” Seventeenth-Century Ireland and the New British and Atlantic Histories. Accessed 28 Sept. 2022.
Darcy, Eamon. The Irish Rebellion of 1641 and the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. Vol. 86. Royal Historical Society, 2013.
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