A) Practically ALL Palestinians want to be free of Isreal's occumpation.
This is not the case in N. Ireland
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That's because many residents in N. Ireland are ancestors of the Protestants, who were transplanted in Ireland to achieve a pro-Britain populace.
N. Ireland Index
Overview
Ireland's Troubled History
Updated: April 1999
The first British involvement in Ireland began in 1169, when Anglo-Norman troops arrived at Bannow Bay in County Wexford. During the next half millenium, successive English rulers attempted to colonize the island, pitching battles to increase their holdings - moves that sparked periodic rebellions by the Irish.
As the English gradually expanded their reach over the island by the 16th century, religious persecution of Catholic Irish grew - in particular after the accession of Elizabeth I, a Protestant, to the throne in 1558. Oliver Cromwell's subsequent
siege of Ireland in 1649 ended with massacres of Catholics at Drogheda and Wexford and forced the resettlement of thousands, many of whom lost their homes in the struggle. By 1691, with the victory of Protestant English King William III over the Catholic forces of James II,
Protestant supremacy in Ireland had become complete.
Catholics in Ireland suffered greatly in the subsequent period of British occupation, enduring laws that prevented them from bearing arms, holding public office and restricting their rights to an education. While many of those rights were eventually restored, the animosity between Catholics and Protestants remained. With the passing of the Act of Union in 1800, a law that joined England and Ireland as one, the island became officially governed by London.
Home Rule
During the next century, several movements sprang up to push for a more independent Ireland. One of them, the so-called "Home Rule" movement founded in the 1870s, pushed for the establishment of a separate Irish parliament to govern domestic affairs. Through the early 20th century, Home Rule became the focus of political debate, drawing bitter opposition from the island's Protestants, who vowed to resist the movement with violence.
The intervention of World War I prevented the enactment of Home Rule, which was passed by the House of Commons for the second time in 1914. Still, the movement for Irish self-rule continued.
Easter Rising and the Partitioning of Ireland
In 1916, Irish nationalists stormed the General Post Office and other key buildings in Dublin during Easter week, proclaiming the formation of an Irish republic. The uprising failed and most of the leaders were eventually executed. However, the action would create a wave of sympathy for the recently formed Sinn Fein (which advocated Irish independence) and its leader Eamon de Valera, who had barely escaped execution for his role in the uprising. The popular support ran over into the 1918 general election: Sinn Fein won 73 seats to 31 for the Unionists and Independent Unionists, who supported governance from London.
The election mandate encouraged further separatist leanings as Sinn Fein boycotted Westminster the next year, declaring the formation of its own "Dail Eireann" or Irish Parliament in Dublin with de Valera as its President. Violence escalated as the Irish Repubican Army, led by Michael Collins, fought Britain in a bloody war for independence - one that ended with the partitioning of the northern and southern parts of the island by the Government of Ireland Act in 1920.
The partitioning would have a lasting impact on the island as the act provided for separate parliaments: one in Belfast serving six counties in the north and the other in Dublin for the remaining 26 counties. Created as a kind of demographic compromise, Northern Ireland proved to be an area that could comfortably hold a majority in favor of union with Britain. In December 1921, Sinn Fein and British officials signed the Anglo-Irish treaty, which created an Irish Free State over the 26 southern counties, and a northern state of six counties allied with Britain.
The partitioning, however, remained anathema to Irish Republicans, who were bent on the objective of securing a united, independent Ireland by force, if necessary. The IRA waged a violent campaign against the treaty in the 1920s, even killing former comrade Michael Collins, a treaty signatory. The IRA, which was declared illegal in the Irish Free State by 1936, continued its underground campaigns into the 1940s and 1950s.
Beginning of 'The Troubles'
Relative calm followed the Ireland Act of 1949, which created the Republic of Ireland in the south. By the 1950s, even Catholics in the North, still securely tethered to Britain, seemed ready to accept equality rather than pushing for securing a more united Ireland, scholars note.
But that changed after Northern Ireland's Catholics organized a large demonstration protesting discrimination in voting rights, housing and unemployment in 1968. A police crackdown followed, sparking months of violence and a reemergence of the Republican movement. The subsequent bloody riots between Protestants and Catholics marked the beginning of "The Troubles," the euphemism for the period of violence that would continue for years in Northern Ireland.
One of the most infamous acts came in 1972, when British paratroopers opened fire on a group of Catholic demonstrators and killed 14 people. Soon after "Bloody Sunday," Britain disbanded the parliament and would impose direct rule on Northern Ireland for the next 26 years.
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The Palestinians had a bunch of people with different a religion smacked down in the middle of them- so did the Irish.
The Palestinians were there first- so were the Irish.
The Palestinians are outgunned- so are the Irish.
The Palestinians have fought with rocks and sticks, and some bombs, since their oppression began- so have the Irish.
The Palestinians' leaders are considered terrorists- so are the Irish's.
The Palestinians have no real representative political voice in their lives- neither do the Irish.
Or at least, that's the way I see it.
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