History of Ireland: from union with Great Britain to the Good Friday Peace

At the end of 1400, after decades of English conquests, Ireland was now completely at the mercy of the crown of England. Suffice it to say that it had its own Parliament, which however was not allowed to legislate unless with the approval of the English sovereigns. Ireland was then officially united with Great Britain in 1800 with the Act of Union and its Parliament was suppressed: an act which added to the terrible living conditions of the Irish, oppressed by the large English landowners who settled mainly in the North of the country.

Read also: Trump in Dublin: "united" Ireland would be "fantastic". Burnham: "There is a lack of public support"

Something began to change between the end of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth century. In 1886, British Prime Minister William E. Gladstone introduced the first Irish Home Rule Bill - a scenario in which Ireland would gain self-government while remaining part of the United Kingdom - and a few years later, in 1905, Irish nationalists founded the Sinn Féin ("Ourselves") party, demonstrating growing activism. The provision on self-government, however, did not have an easy life: several bills were presented until 1914, when the "Home Rule crisis" was interrupted by the outbreak of the First World War and British Prime Minister HH Asquith approved the Suspension Act, guaranteeing that the issue of self-government would be postponed for the entire duration of the conflict.

The 1918 election marked a turning point, with Sinn Féin winning the vast majority of Irish seats, establishing a Parliament in Dublin, Dáil Éireann, boycotting the British one, and declaring an independent Irish Republic on the entire island. At the same time, however, the unionists won the majority of seats in north-east Ulster and reaffirmed their loyalty to the United Kingdom. In January 1919 the so-called Anglo-Irish War began, an extremely violent conflict during which the IRA (Irish Republican Army), a revolutionary republican paramilitary organization that conducted a guerrilla campaign against the British occupation, played a crucial role. Especially in the northern counties, particularly in Belfast and Londonderry, violent conflicts broke out. At that point Westminster also began to look for a political solution.

This led to the Government of Ireland Act, which sanctioned the partition of Ireland. The provision established that Ireland continued to be part of Great Britain but was divided into Northern Ireland and Southern Ireland (which would later take the name of the Irish Free State). Northern Ireland would have comprised the counties of Antrim, Armagh, Down, Fermanagh, Londonderry and Tyrone, while Southern Ireland would have consisted of the remaining 26 counties. Each region would have a parliament with local autonomy to manage internal matters, such as education and healthcare. However, Great Britain would continue to deal with the most important issues, such as foreign policy and defence. Furthermore, a Council of Ireland would be established, made up of representatives from the North and the South, to discuss matters of common interest and work towards the creation of a single Parliament for the whole of Ireland.

Then in 1921 there was the Anglo-Irish Treaty, which ended the War of Independence and established the Irish Free State, a dominion within the British Commonwealth with its own parliament in Dublin. The text provided for Northern Ireland - created by the Government of Ireland Act of 1920 - the possibility of leaving the Irish Free State, which in fact happened and led to the establishment of a Border Delimitation Commission, which had the task of establishing the exact position of the border between Northern Ireland and the Irish Free State.

The Commission did not begin to operate until 1924. The provisional border was that established by the Government of Ireland Act 1920 between Northern Ireland and Southern Ireland, and most Irish nationalists hoped for a considerable transfer of territory to the Free State. However, the commission recommended relatively modest transfers in both directions. Information leaked out and was published by The Morning Post newspaper in 1925, provoking protests from both unionists and nationalists. At that point, the British, Free State and Northern Irish governments agreed and, on 3 December 1925, rather than making any changes, the existing border was confirmed as part of a wider understanding which included the resolution of outstanding financial disagreements.

See also: 11 films set in Ireland, from Bloody Sunday to Belfast. PHOTO

The birth of the Irish Free State also caused another civil war between the forces in favor of compromise and those who wanted the unification of the entire island. Subsequently, the Irish Free State broke away completely from the Commonwealth: in 1937 the Republic of Ireland was proclaimed, which in 1949 obtained complete independence from Great Britain. Then, in the sixties, the IRA and Protestant groups struck again with violence in the six counties of Ulster, in the conflict known as the "Troubles". The situation partially eased in 1998 thanks to the Good Friday Agreement, with which Northern Ireland obtained broad autonomy and a Parliament with effective powers, and in 2005 the IRA definitively renounced the armed struggle.

For further information on Insider: Stakeknife: the IRA executioner who worked for London

Returning to Trump's words, the British government responded to these by reiterating its full support for the Good Friday Agreement. This is the agreement that put an end to the "Troubles" in 1998 and which, as British Prime Minister Andy Burnham recalled, allows the Minister for Northern Ireland to evaluate the possible calling of a referendum on the border "when there is a clear consensus in the country and public opinion has changed to the point of making it necessary to take it into consideration". Any reunification would go through a referendum, in which the citizens of Northern Ireland would be asked to choose whether to remain in the United Kingdom or join the Republic of Ireland.

Read also: Former IRA leader Gerry Adams accused by three victims of attacks