Ireland and Britain: From the Act of Union to the Irish Free State (1801-1922)

The aim of this class will be to question Ireland’s status vis-à-vis Britain in the nineteenth and early twentieth century: was it an integral part of the United Kingdom or a colony of the Empire? With the 1800 Act of Union and the arrival of many Irish immigrants in the great industrial towns of the North of England and the South of Scotland, Ireland was partly integrated into the metropole. Moreover, in the nineteenth century, the Irish took an active part in shaping the Empire as migrants, soldiers or members of the colonial civil service. However, the Crown’s Irish policy greatly differed from the one enforced in Scotland or Wales and many historians have contended that Ireland was used as a laboratory which allowed the British to test colonial policies before duplicating them elsewhere in the Empire. On the other hand, Irish history in the nineteenth century is characterized by the growth of various nationalist movements who, notwithstanding their diverging aims and methods, sought to emancipate Ireland from British domination. How did Irish nationalists justify their fight? How did they define the Irish nation? How were their demands perceived by the British? Here are a few examples of the questions that will be addressed throughout the semester to gain a better understanding of Ireland’s struggle to become a nation of its own.