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 St Patrick's Cross is often seen as a symbol of the Anglo-Irish. | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
|---|---|
| Northern Ireland | 407,454[1][2] (Northern Irish Anglicans) (Northern Irish Methodists) (Other Northern Irish Protestants) |
| Republic of Ireland | 177,200[3] (Irish Anglicans) (Irish Methodists) (Other Irish Protestants) |
| Languages | |
| English (Hiberno-English,Ulster English) Irish Sign Northern Ireland Sign | |
| Religion | |
| Anglicanism (someMethodist,Catholic or other Protestant) (see alsoReligion in Ireland) | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| English • Scots • Irish • Anglo-Normans • Anglo-Saxons • Ulster Scots • Ulster Protestants • Welsh | |
Anglo-Irish people (Irish:Angla-Éireannach) denotes an ethnic, social and religious grouping consisting mostly of the descendants and successors of the EnglishProtestant Ascendancy in Ireland.[4] Predominantly, the Anglo-Irish belong to the AnglicanChurch of Ireland, which was theestablished Church of Ireland until 1871 or, to a lesser extent, to one of theEnglish Dissenting Churches, such asBaptists,Presbyterians, theMethodist Church. However, some wereRoman Catholics. They often defined themselves simply as "British", or less frequently as "Anglo-Irish", "Irish" or "English".[5] Many became notable as administrators in theBritish Empire or as seniorarmy and naval officers. TheKingdom of England andGreat Britain were in areal union with theKingdom of Ireland for over a century, before politically uniting into theUnited Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland in 1801.
The term is not usually applied toPresbyterians in the province ofUlster, whose ancestry is mostlyLowland Scottish, rather than English or Irish, and who are sometimes identified asUlster Scots. The Anglo-Irish hold a wide range of political views, with some being outspokenIrish nationalists, but most overall beingUnionists. And while most of the Anglo-Irish originated in theEnglish diaspora in Ireland, others were descended from families of the oldGaelic nobility of Ireland.[6]
The term "Anglo-Irish" is often applied to the members of theChurch of Ireland who made up the professional andlanded class in Ireland from the 17th century up to the time of Irish independence in the early 20th century. In thecourse of the 17th century, this Anglo-Irish landed class replaced theGaelic Irish andOld English aristocracies as the ruling class in Ireland. They were also referred to as "New English" to distinguish them from the "Old English", who descended from the medievalHiberno-Norman settlers.[7]
Under thePenal Laws, which were in force between the 17th and 19th centuries (although enforced with varying degrees of severity),Roman Catholicrecusants in Great Britain and Ireland were barred from holding public office, while in Ireland they were also barred from entry toTrinity College Dublin and from professions such as law, medicine, and themilitary. The lands of the recusant Roman Catholiclanded gentry who refused to take the prescribed oaths were largely confiscated during thePlantations of Ireland. The rights of Roman Catholics to inherit landed property were severely restricted. Those who converted to the Church of Ireland were usually able to keep or regain their lost property, as the issue was considered primarily one of allegiance. In the late 18th century, theParliament of Ireland in Dublin won legislative independence, and the movement for the repeal of theTest Acts began.[citation needed]
Not all Anglo-Irish people could trace their origins to the Protestant English settlers of the Cromwellian period; some were of Welsh stock, and others descended from Old English or even native Gaelic converts to Anglicanism.[6] Members of this ruling class commonly identified themselves as Irish,[5] while retaining English habits in politics, commerce, and culture. They participated in the popular English sports of the day, particularlyracing andfox hunting, and intermarried with the ruling classes in Great Britain. Many of the more successful of them spent much of their careers either in Great Britain or in some part of theBritish Empire. Many constructed largecountry houses, which became known in Ireland asBig Houses, and these became symbolic of the class' dominance in Irish society.
The Dublin working class playwrightBrendan Behan, a staunchIrish Republican, saw the Anglo-Irish as Ireland'sleisure class and famously defined an Anglo-Irishman as "a Protestant with a horse".[8]
The Anglo-Irish novelist and short story writerElizabeth Bowen memorably described her experience as feeling "English in Ireland, Irish in England" and not accepted fully as belonging to either.[9]
Due to their prominence in the military and their conservative politics, the Anglo-Irish have been compared to thePrussian Junker class by, among others,Correlli Barnett.[10]
At the beginning of the 20th century, the Anglo-Irish owned many of the major businesses in Ireland, such asJacob's Biscuits,Bewley's,Beamish and Crawford,Jameson's Whiskey,W. P. & R. Odlum,Cleeve's,R&H Hall,Maguire & Patterson,Dockrell's,Arnott's,Goulding Chemicals, theIrish Times, the Irish Railways, and theGuinness brewery, Ireland's largest employer.[citation needed] They also controlled financial companies such as theBank of Ireland andGoodbody Stockbrokers.
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Prominent Anglo-Irish poets, writers, and playwrights includeOscar Wilde,Maria Edgeworth,Jonathan Swift,George Berkeley,Sheridan Le Fanu,Oliver Goldsmith,Laurence Sterne,George Darley,Lucy Knox,Bram Stoker,J. M. Synge,W. B. Yeats,Cecil Day-Lewis,Bernard Shaw,Augusta, Lady Gregory,Samuel Beckett,Giles Cooper,C. S. Lewis,Lord Longford,Elizabeth Bowen,William Trevor andWilliam Allingham. The writerLafcadio Hearn was of Anglo-Irish descent on his father's side but was brought up as a Catholic by his great-aunt.[citation needed]
In the 19th century, some of the most prominent mathematical and physical scientists of the British Isles, includingSir William Rowan Hamilton,Sir George Stokes,John Tyndall,George Johnstone Stoney,Thomas Romney Robinson,Edward Sabine,Thomas Andrews,Lord Rosse,George Salmon, andGeorge FitzGerald, were Anglo-Irish. In the 20th century, scientistsJohn Joly andErnest Walton were also Anglo-Irish, as was the polar explorer SirErnest Shackleton. Medical experts includedSir William Wilde,Robert Graves,Thomas Wrigley Grimshaw,William Stokes,Robert Collis,Sir John Lumsden andWilliam Babington. The geographerWilliam Cooley was one of the first to describe the process ofglobalization.[citation needed]
The Anglo-IrishmenRichard Brinsley Sheridan,Henry Grattan,Lord Castlereagh,George Canning,Lord Macartney,Thomas Spring Rice,Charles Stewart Parnell, andEdward Carson played major roles in British politics. Downing Street itself was named afterSir George Downing. In the Church, BishopRichard Pococke contributed much to C18 travel writing.[citation needed]
The Anglo-Irish were also represented among the senior officers of theBritish Army by men such asField MarshalEarl Roberts, first honorary Colonel of theIrish Guards regiment, who spent most of his career inBritish India; Field MarshalViscount Gough, who served underWellington, himself a Wellesley born in Dublin to theEarl of Mornington, head of a prominent Anglo-Irish family in Dublin; and in the 20th century Field MarshalLord Alanbrooke, Field MarshalLord Alexander of Tunis, GeneralSir John Winthrop Hackett, Field MarshalSir Henry Wilson and Field MarshalSir Garnet Wolseley. (see alsoIrish military diaspora).
Others were prominent officials and administrators in theBritish Empire, such as:Frederick Matthew Darley, the Chief Justice of New South Wales;Henry Arthur Blake,Antony MacDonnell andGavan Duffy. Others were involved in finding better ways of managing it, heading theDonoughmore Commission or theMoyne Commission.
Sir John Winthrop Hackett emigrated to Australia where he became the proprietor and editor of many prominent newspapers. He was also influential in the founding of theUniversity of Western Australia and was its first chancellor.
Prolificart music composers includedMichael William Balfe,John Field,George Alexander Osborne,Thomas Roseingrave,Charles Villiers Stanford,John Andrew Stevenson,Robert Prescott Stewart,William Vincent Wallace, andCharles Wood.
In thevisual arts, sculptorJohn Henry Foley, art dealerHugh Lane, artistsDaniel Maclise,William Orpen andJack Yeats; ballerinaDame Ninette de Valois and designer-architectEileen Gray were famous outside Ireland.
William Desmond Taylor was an early and prolific maker ofsilent films inHollywood. ScriptwriterJohanna Harwood penned several of the earlyJames Bond films, among others.
Philanthropists includedThomas Barnardo andLord Iveagh.
Confederate generalPatrick Cleburne was of Anglo-Irish ancestry.
Discussing what he considered the lack of Irish civic morality in 2011, formerTaoiseachGarret FitzGerald remarked that before 1922: "In Ireland a strong civic sense did exist – but mainly amongst Protestants and especially Anglicans".[11]
Henry Ford, the Americanindustrialist and business magnate, was half Anglo-Irish; his father William Ford was born in Cork to a family originally fromSomerset, England.[12]
The Anglo-Irish, as a class, were mostly opposed to the notions ofIrish independence andHome Rule.[13] Most were supporters of continued politicalunion with Great Britain, which existed between 1800 and 1922. This was for many reasons, but most important were the economic benefits of union for the landowning class, the close personal and familial relations with the British establishment, and the political prominence held by the Anglo-Irish in Ireland under the union settlement.[14] Many Anglo-Irish men served as officers in theBritish Army, were clergymen in the established AnglicanChurch of Ireland or had land (or business interests) across the British Isles – all factors which encouraged political support forunionism. Between the mid-nineteenth century and 1922, the Anglo-Irish comprised the bulk of the support for movements such as theIrish Unionist Alliance, especially in the southern three provinces of Ireland.[15]
DuringWorld War I,Irish nationalistMPTom Kettle compared the Anglo-Irish landlord class to thePrussianJunkers, saying, "England goes to fight for liberty inEurope and for junkerdom inIreland."[16]
However, Protestants in Ireland, and the Anglo-Irish class in particular, were by no means universally attached to the cause of continued political union with Great Britain. For instance, authorJonathan Swift (1667–1745), a clergyman in the Church of Ireland, vigorously denounced the plight of ordinaryIrish Catholics under the rule of the landlords. Reformist politicians such asHenry Grattan (1746–1820),Wolfe Tone (1763–1798),Robert Emmet (1778–1803),Sir John Gray (1815–1875), andCharles Stewart Parnell (1846–1891), were alsoProtestant nationalists, and in large measure led and defined Irish nationalism. TheIrish Rebellion of 1798 was led by members of the Anglo-Irish and Ulster Scots class, some of whom feared the political implications of the impending union with Great Britain.[17] By the late 19th and early 20th centuries, however, Irish nationalism became increasingly tied to aRoman Catholic identity.[17] By the beginning of the twentieth century, many Anglo-Irishmen in southern Ireland had become convinced of the need for a political settlement with Irish nationalists. Anglo-Irish politicians such asSir Horace Plunkett andLord Monteagle became leading figures in finding a peaceful solution to the 'Irish question'.
During theIrish War of Independence (1919–1921), many Anglo-Irish landlords left the country due toarson attacks on their family homes.[18] The burnings continued and many sectarian murders were carried out by theAnti-Treaty IRA during theIrish Civil War. Considering the Irish State unable to protect them, many members of the Anglo-Irish class subsequently left Ireland forever, fearing that they would be subject to discriminatory legislation and social pressures. The Protestant proportion of the Irish population dropped from 10% (300,000) to 6% (180,000) in theIrish Free State in the twenty-five years following independence,[19] with most resettling inGreat Britain. In the whole of Ireland the percentage of Protestants was 26% (1.1 million).
The reaction of the Anglo-Irish to theAnglo-Irish Treaty which envisaged the establishment of theIrish Free State was mixed.J. A. F. Gregg, theChurch of Ireland Archbishop of Dublin, stated in a sermon in December 1921 (the month the Treaty was signed):
It concerns us all to offer the Irish Free State our loyalty. I believe there is a genuine desire on the part of those who have long differed from us politically to welcome our co-operation. We should be wrong politically and religiously to reject such advances.[20]
In 1925, when the Irish Free State was poised to outlawdivorce, the Anglo-Irish poetW. B. Yeats delivered a famous eulogy for his class in theIrish Senate:
I think it is tragic that within three years of this country gaining its independence we should be discussing a measure which a minority of this nation considers to be grossly oppressive. I am proud to consider myself a typical man of that minority. We against whom you have done this thing, are no petty people. We are one of the great stocks of Europe. We are the people ofBurke; we are the people ofGrattan; we are the people ofSwift, the people ofEmmet, the people ofParnell. We have created the most of the modern literature of this country. We have created the best of its political intelligence. Yet I do not altogether regret what has happened. I shall be able to find out, if not I, my children will be able to find out whether we have lost our stamina or not. You have defined our position and have given us a popular following. If we have not lost our stamina then your victory will be brief, and your defeat final, and when it comes this nation may be transformed.[21]
Following the English victory in theNine Years' War (1594–1603), the "Flight of the Earls" in 1607, the traditional GaelicIrish nobility was displaced in Ireland, particularly in the Cromwellian period. By 1707, after further defeat in theWilliamite War and the subsequent Union of England and Scotland, the aristocracy in Ireland was dominated by Anglican families who owed allegiance to the Crown. Some of these were Irish families who had chosen to conform to the establishedChurch of Ireland, keeping their lands and privileges, such as theDukes of Leinster (whose surname isFitzGerald, and who descend from theHiberno-Norman aristocracy), or the GaelicGuinness family. Some were families of British or mixed-British ancestry who owed their status in Ireland to the Crown, such as theEarls of Cork (whose surname is Boyle and whose ancestral roots were inHerefordshire, England).
Among the prominent Anglo-Irish peers are:
Until the year 1800, the peers of Ireland were all entitled to a seat in theIrish House of Lords, theupper house of theParliament of Ireland, inDublin. After 1800, under the provisions of theAct of Union, the Parliament of Ireland was abolished and the Irish peers were entitled to elect twenty-eight of their number to sit in the BritishHouse of Lords, in London, asIrish representative peers. During theGeorgian Era, titles in the peerage of Ireland were often granted by the British monarch to Englishmen with little or no connection to Ireland, as a way of preventing such honours from inflating the membership of the British House of Lords.[22]
A number of Anglo-Irish peers have been appointed byPresidents of Ireland to serve on their advisoryCouncil of State. Some were also considered possible candidates for presidents of Ireland, including:
Pat: He was an Anglo-Irishman.
Meg: In the name of God, what's that?
Pat: A Protestant with a horse.
Ropeen: Leadbetter.
Pat: No, no, an ordinary Protestant like Leadbetter, the plumber in the back parlour next door, won't do, nor aBelfastorangeman, not if he was as black as your boot.
Meg: Why not?Pat: Because they work. An Anglo-Irishman only works at riding horses, drinking whiskey, and reading double-meaning books inIrish atTrinity College.
— From act one ofThe Hostage, 1958
