Young Ireland

Young Ireland to German Young Ireland, was a revolutionary nationalist movement in Ireland, which in 1848 wanted to fight for Ireland's independence from Britain.

Ireland at that time was for centuries under English domination; with the Act of Union in 1800 it was incorporated into the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. In Ireland, there have been attempts to leave the Union, in particular the part of the run of Daniel O'Connell Repeal Association and the Charles Gavan Duffy in 1842, founded by The Nation newspaper. For these efforts, the Young Ireland emerged.

Daniel O'Connell hesitated here to use force; the Catholic Church rejected the use of force also decreases. The followers of the boy Ireland, led by William Smith O'Brien, on the other hand saw it as their duty to fight increasingly militant way for Irish independence, as they assumed that only the UK could move to relent. The Great Famine in Ireland from 1845 to 1849 also contributed to an increase of Irish nationalism and an increase of hatred for Great Britain, as most Irish traced the famine on the "exploitation" of Ireland by Britain and the British response to the emergency as hard and inhuman thought.

In 1848, it also came in several European countries to revolutions.

The current flag of Ireland ( tricolor ) was first used by the boys of Ireland as such.

The boy's Ireland uprising

Against this background, the Young Irelanders expected a massive inflow of population and tried in 1848 to fight for the independence of Ireland by force. The uprising of the boy Ireland, reached its peak in June in the village of Ballingarry, County Tipperary, ( "The Battle of Widow McCormack 's cabbage patch" ), but was quickly and bloodlessly quelled by the Royal Irish Constabulary.

Reasons for the failure

This was due to a fact that the insurgents were poorly equipped and barely organized. The hoped-for support remained by the population of largely, probably because many people were engaged in the struggle for their survival and were hardly in the Constitution for an armed uprising.

In addition, the Young Ireland was the Irish peasants ( who formed the bulk of the population and the majority of tenants English, some were Irish landlords, of which they felt themselves exploited ) only moderately mobilize for themselves, because it took little to their situation and concerns. William Smith O'Brien was himself a Protestant and landowners, who owned estates both in Ireland and in the UK. This disqualified him from the perspective of many representing the Irish concerns.