The Ulster Plantation

1603-1660 The Ulster Plantation The Plantation: 1609 onwards Old Irish Old English Viscount Wentworth: 1633-1639 Ulster Rebellion: 1641 Confederation of Kilkenny: 1642 Oliver Cromwell in Ireland Conquered Ireland in the 1650s

At the end of the Nine Years' War, Irish land was mainly held by Catholics. The English were glad to bring the war to an end with the Treaty of Mellifont in 1603. Although defeated, the Earls of Tyrone and Tyrconnell - Hugh O'Neill and Ruairí O'Donnell - were still powerful men and were allowed to return to their own lands. Ulster was no longer inaccessible to English armies or laws, as a network of forts and garrisons had been built throughout the province during the war. O'Neill and his men found it difficult to adjust to a changed order where they were no longer independent kings, just landowners and landlords.

In 1607, O'Neill, O'Donnell and about ninety of their followers went into voluntary exile. This 'Flight of the Earls' to the continent meant that the people had been abandoned by their leaders. Ulster was weak, defenceless and, as a result of the nine years war, there was already an army presence there. The English took the opportunity to get control of the province through plantation.

Conquered Ireland in the 1650s

By the summer of 1652 Ireland had been reduced to the position of conquered colony and the government of England made preparations for the settlement of the countryside. Parliament decreed that the landowners who were guilty of involvement in the rebellion would lose all their land. Those who were innocent of any involvement in the rebellion would be allowed to retain a proportion of the land that they owned. Ireland was divided into two - one part consisted of Connacht and Clare where all those who were innocent would be transplanted. The remaining land was to be confiscated and granted to the government's creditors - the soldiers who were owed pay and those who had loaned the government money or supplies.

Although the Cromwellian settlement was not as thorough as the Ulster Plantation, it completely changed the make-up of the Irish land-owning aristocracy. The ownership of land, the main source of wealth and power in Ireland, was transferred from Catholic to Protestant although the ordinary people who lived on, and worked, the land were not disturbed.

The 1798 Rebellion

General Lake's mission to subdue Ulster in 1797 was so successful that it decimated the revolutionaries and few were left to revolt the following year. The government also had an extensive intelligence system which managed to infiltrate and capture the Leinster military committee of United Irishmen. Their leader, Lord Edward Fitzgerald, avoided arrest for a few weeks but was captured and mortally wounded on 19 May 1798. A few days later the United Irishmen rebelled but their efforts were disorganised and uncoordinated. In Ulster only Antrim and Down rebelled but, weakened by General Lake's attacks, they were quickly defeated, as were those involved in skirmishes around Dublin. In the counties of Wexford and Waterford there was a more widespread rising and the rebels attempted to push north and west. They were stopped and defeated at Vinegar Hill, near Enniscorthy on 21 June 1798.

By the time a small band of French troops reached Killala Bay, County Mayo, in August the rebellion was almost over. Commanded by Joseph Humbert, they were joined by many Irishmen but Humbert was forced to surrender on 8 September 1798. A second French expedition was captured off Lough Swilly in October and Wolfe Tone was found on board. He was court martialed in Dublin and sentenced to be hung, drawn and quartered despite his request for a soldier's death by firing squad. On the morning that the sentence was due to be carried out, he committed suicide by cutting an artery in his neck; he died on 19 November 1978.

Although the 1798 rebellion was a failure, Tone's blood sacrifice set a precedent for violent Irish republicanism. It also made it clear to William Pitt, the British Prime Minister, that the political problems in Ireland needed to be dealt with urgently.

Long Term Effects of the Great Hunger

The potato blight destroyed an economy that had developed as a result of England's wars with France, sharply halting the population increase. Consolidation replaced subdivision as the system of land inheritance and this brought about social changes such as late marriage and emigration. Only one child could inherit the family farm and other siblings had the option of remaining unmarried at home or leaving the country. The animosity that had already been present between tenants and landlords was exacerbated by the callous behaviour of many landlords during the famine. Furthermore, the parsimony of the British Government was not forgiven or forgotten by Irish nationalists.