The “Easter Rising“ seemed to have been a failure and one reason for it was that the rebells had only a few of volunteers and some men from the IRB (Irish republican Brotherhood). It was optimistic to start this insurrection against the British Army with this number of fighters. So many people died, they were shut down when they attackted buildings for example and the only question was how long they would stand. They fighted one week, with many fatalities but not only because of the Rising, after this, when Major-General Sir John Maxwell was appointed as Commandor-in-Chief of troops, many things changed. The police or the security forces arrested 3,430 men an 79 women. Maxwelll decided, that some of these defendants had to be executed and they were not the only one. When the Irish citizen heard about the many executions and about that what the British Army and Maxwell have done, they realized that they have never been properly treated and before, they accepted it. Now, they were willinged to start another fight if they do not “come free” with an own politic. They began to do things like setting up aid funds for families who lost a member because of execution or they wrote slogans, songs and ballads, for example. Finally, the UK changed their mind and because of the pressure of the public Ireland “became free” excepted northern Ireland. So at first it seemed to be a failure but in the end it “contributed measurbly to the further alientation of the Irish public opinion”.

Find out why “King William III” has been included in the Protestant anti-Home Rule poster. (When trying to find out, include the word “Boyne”.)

 King William III., defeated the former King Jacob II. in the “Battle of the Boyne”. They called it the “The Battle of Boyne”, because it was near the river Boyne. It was in year 1690 and it was important for the northern an irish history, because William defeated Jacob and at the same time the Catholics were defeated by the Protestants.

In 1795, the Oranier order was founded, it was because of King William III., called the Oranier, because he came out of the house of Oranier. The members of this order were only Protestants. And Isaac Butt, a member of the order, wanted to have an own irisch parliament in the UK with the “Home Rule League”, which was founded in 1873 but O’Conell was against his oppinion and so the island was seperated in two sides, pro and contra. And maybe because William was the name giver of the Oranier order he was included in this conflict and so he was also included in the “Protestant anti-Home Rule”.

Find out why the Irish famine between 1845 and 1849 was and is considered a catastrophe.

The main reason for the Irish famine between 1845 and 1849 was a potato blight. The potato was the cheapest, easiest and most important food they had. But in the late 1840s the potato blight spreated out, so the people in Ireland haven´t had enough to eat. Nevertheless, the large landowners wanted to have their lease. The result was, farmers couldn´t pay and there was no money for living, so many people died because of starvation ( 1 Mio. people at the end ) or emigrated to the USA, for example.
The specificity was, that the famine lasted more than 4 years but normally in the contemporary world a famine lasts just one ore two seasons. Also, in most cases only a part of the population of a country is concerned but the Irish famine included the whole country.