Assess the Significance of Penal Laws in 18th Century Ireland Essay

Assess the Significance of Penal Laws in 18th Century Ireland - Essay Example Groups were formed to fight what was believed to be a greedy and cruel government, one of these such groups was titled, "The White boys" (Garnham 2006, pg. 403). Historical evidence can only lead one who researches the period of the 18th century in Ireland to have been one where there was terrible inequality, violence, incorrigible criminal acts, disparity, and an unrelenting fear among many of the Irish citizens that defined the period as one of "domination of one group over another" (Garnham 2006, pg. 404). "The penal laws in Ireland during the 18th century forced many Irish Catholics to have to renounce their religious faith in order to just survive from one day to the next" (Canny 1982, pg. 95). This defines these laws as having been meant to overturn the Irish Catholic Faith and thus force the Irish people to reform to English religious beliefs and laws or face severe penalties if they rebuked these penal doctrines. Of course, historical accounts point out that the oppression that the English penal laws placed upon the Irish Catholics not only did this but it also forced many to have to live extremely poor lives and abandon their traditional Gaelic language as well. The Irish Catholics had poor dwellings and many times the farm animals were inside the mud huts with these people due to the cruelty that English laws had brought down upon them. Much of the food was only vegetables with their main source being potatoes but when disease struck this crop it resulted in the "deaths of 2.5 million Irish Catholics" (MacManus 1974, pg. 112). In history this marks what is known as, "The Great Famine" (MacKay 1992, pg. 27). The Irish farmers did have other crops and livestock but they were all shipped to England as rent for the landlords. Without the rent money the starving Irish could not even afford to live in a home and would have been homeless on top of this horrible famine. Due to the many atrocities that these various penal codes inflicted upon Irish Catholics there were militia groups that were formed, with one having been mentioned in the introduction of this research. The truth to this matter is that England wanted total domination of Ireland and inflicted very harsh demands onto the people of the country. It is quite natural that there would be rebellion from the citizens of Ireland in order to try and maintain their own religious beliefs and laws in their land, which even today still goes on even though a Republic was formed. Another group that developed due to the escalating violence in the 18th century was the, "IRA-Irish Republican Army" (O'Neill et al 1980, pg. 133). This group and others like it were formed to initially protect the people but in actuality these groups and others were driven by the religious sanctions and political influences that have been central to the conflict in Ireland since as far back as the 16th century (O'Neill et al 1980, pg. 133). The main problem that has existed in Ireland since the 18th century and perhaps even beforehand is due to the division that

War on Terror Bachelor Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

War on Terror Bachelor - Essay Example The war on Iraq is a good example of this. Iraq had long fallen out with the US. Accordingly, the war on terror has been said to be responsible for the influence into the formulation of certain policies. For instance, how suspects are to be treated and even how personal privacy can be breached all in the name of security. As far as foreign policy is concerned, the United States seems to have used the war on terror to pursue some very aggressive policies. For this it has earned open criticism and condemnation from many different quarters. These policies are on the political, economic and military fronts. (2007) The war on Iraq is a true demonstration of this. It is openly clear that the war on terror was used in more ways than one to make sense of the war against Iraq. The people were openly against a war in Iraq but the President Bush and his administration went ahead with it anyway making use of forged documents and giving misleading information to gain the approval and support of t he American people. Careful analysis of the war on terror reveals instances of double speak where language was used to hide the true intentions of the government. The fact is that there were no links to terrorism that were openly visible and real in Iraq. Somehow even President Bush appeared to think so. This is probably why he resorted to using the forged documents. (Braun, 2008) So, there had to be some other reason that the Bush administration was keen on the war in Iraq. Conversely, while Afghanistan was the first to be targeted in the war on terror, being bombed by the United States in the search for Bin Laden and his Al Qaeda terrorist group, after some time the war shifted focus and Iraq became the target. So why the shift Iraq has a long history with the United States. When Iraq had attacked Iran, the US had been openly supportive. In addition to supplying Iraq with over 5 billion dollars worth of finances, it also supplied intelligence information and heavy apparatus in the form of trucks and even other machinery. The reason the US was openly involved and supported was so that it could make sure that Saddam Hussein won the war and Teheran, especially the Islamic radicals therein, was humiliated. It was in the 1980's when President George Bush, the senior, adopted the policy of accommodation as far as Iraq was concerned. In the policy the US would be able to gain access to the oil in the Persian Gulf as well as the security of certain friendly states in the region. However, the rapport was to fall after the invasion of Kuwait by Iraq. (Tirman, 2001) Thus, there are various reasons why the United States focused its attention on Iraq as opposed to Afghanistan as far as the war on terror was concerned. First of all, Iraq was no longer in the good books of the US, not since the time it invaded Kuwait. Before then, the US was able to look the other way even in instances when it was clear that Iraq was committing serious offences and crimes right under its nose. However, the most convincing reason would have to be that Iraq has massive oil reserves which the US wanted to take for itself and exercise control over. In the global arena and especially in politics, countries act by way of leverage and oil is an important tool. Think of all the power and influence that