Migratory flows (16th–19th century)

Catholic Irish memory preserves an image in sharp contrast with what precedes. Ireland showed filial fidelity to the papacy in order to defend her faith to be sure, but also to resist the Anglicans and their commitment to a sovereign who is also head of their church (overlooking in the process their debt to Swift, Tone, Emmett, Parnell et al.). In the 19^th century, O'Connell^[1] came up with a brand of Catholic patriotic activism that was not to the taste of Pope Gregory XVI^[2] : he would offer no support to the Tithe war. After independence, De Valera would cite slums, lunatic asylums and Europe's ruinous wars as an indictment of major industrialised countries. Eire, poor but at peace, united in its fervent Catholicism became in its elites' representations the Isle of the Saints whence the re-evangelisation of Great Britain had reputedly started. This religious steadfastness was an integral part of a search for Irish authenticity, along with the revival of Gaelic language, literature and music. A rural economy relying on smallholders faithful to moral virtues made for the self-sufficiency that ensured the country's neutrality. And there was no want for Irish people expressing their contentment with a life ordered around the family, the neighbourhood, the religious community.

Independent at long last, the Irish identified with their irredentist coreligionists in the six counties : the separate treatment they were subjected to could bring to mind the treatment of African Americans or black South-Africans. In 1966, inspired by the Civic Rights movement in the United States, the NICRA (Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association), started campaigning for an end to discriminatory practices ; it came face to face with a police force whose brutality was warranted by the Special Powers Act which, voted in 1922 to deal with the potential spreading of the Civil War from South to North, allowed the Province's Home Secretary a free rein to repress the Catholics. The British troops, sent over to calm the situation, would, by 1970, turn out to side with the R.U.C. (Royal Ulster Constabulary), a force whose personnel was 90% Protestant. In January 1972 soldiers from the parachute regiment opened fire on a Catholic pacific march in (London)Derry on Bloody Sunday.

The Protestants were stigmatised for their violence and their intransigence. The Catholics pointed the finger at 19^th century British Governments who systematically denied Ireland the Home Rule when, until the turn of the 20^thcentury, Irish nationalism aspired to no more than equality of rights within a British framework. They denounced a segregationist regime propped up by a number of instruments, not least the fine art of gerrymandering^[3]. This situation stirred up memories of the special acts passed at the beginning of the 18^th century in Great Britain, which had deprived the Catholics of the essential rights that made the ‘English' model the envy of Europe. The British army and Protestant paramilitary forces such as the Ulster Volunteer Force's thuggery resurrected an ancient martyrology : cruel memories of the massacres ordered by Cromwell^[4] with the injunction to choose between « hell or Connaught » ; summary executions of the Dublin General Post Office rebels in 1916 in Kilmainham Gaol, turned since 1986 into a memorial museum ; Margaret Thatcher refusing political status to IRA prisoners, leading to the death of 10 hunger strikers, Bobby Sand first among them in 1981. For its part, the Catholic Church beatified in 1992 seventeen faithful dead for their faith between 1642 and 1655.

The active support of many Southern Irish for the IRA can be explained by a mix of pride and exasperation. They had stood for the Pope in the face of Protestant onslaught on the extreme North-Western fringe of Europe. They had fought for the Stuart Pretender after the Catholic sovereign lost his throne. They had wrought their pride in defeat and they felt time had come to be on the winning side. One of the rare countries never to have sought to conquer another – if not the only one, according to some Catholic apologists, – its combatants could fight off the weight of past discrimination with a clear conscience. Their zeal was reinforced by the moral support of international public opinion, the backing of a nation whose self-image embraces Northern Irish Catholic communities, and of a Diaspora attached to a traditionalist vision of its homeland in direct proportion to the distance that separates them. Nevertheless, since the end of the 20^th century, the picture of a colonial set up at the heart of Europe has been fading away.

The new deal arises from a novel cooperation between Irish, British and American political leaders, the general improvement of living standards and the exhaustion of some of the warring parties. To Northern Irish Protestants, Eire has ceased to exhibit the lifestyle and faith of a ‘reactionary stronghold'. Indeed, Ireland has become secularised, urbanized. The influence of the Catholic Church is shrinking as spectacularly as it did in Quebec in the sixties or in Spain after Franco's death in 1975. Faced with sex scandals ranging from paedophilia to the fathering of children by Catholic bishops via the ill-treatments inflicted on the Magdalens^[5] and the drop in vocations, the church is no longer in a position to impose its intransigent diktats on social behaviour, or to keep up its stranglehold on education or health administrations. After the abrogation in 1972 of Article 44 of the Constitution of the Republic that granted it special status, it had to concede victory to the partisans of divorce and contraception in the nineties. The secularisation of hospitals, health centres and charities passed seamlessly and the education system, once upon a time essentially catholic and private, has opened free secondary schools and universities since 1996. The opening to European markets and globalisation sees off De Valera's treasured peasant farmers and craftsmen. The English speaking culture disseminated via written and spoken media, satellite technology then the internet sets new points of reference for society. Artists – from North and South – play a major role in the promotion of another, more sophisticated vision of their island's history, leading to a climate of trust and the desire for togetherness in a place welcoming each and everyone.