E X T E N S I O N THE IRISH QUESTION The violent conflict between the Protestants and Catholics of Northern Ireland has dominated the news for several decades. The causes of the controversy actually date back hundreds of years. The original inhabitants of Ireland were the Celts, who settled on the island in the Iron Age. By the beginning of the 7th century they were organized into kingdoms, with their own culture and traditions. The religion of the country was the Catholic one. The introduction of Christianity to Ireland is traditionally credited to St. Patrick, who is the patron saint of the nation. The English first invaded Ireland in the 12th century, but the real conquest of Ireland began under the Tudors in the 16th century, and in 1541 Henry VIII was proclaimed King of Ireland. When Henry VIII broke with Rome, England was transformed into a Protestant country and so the relationship between the Irish and the English also took on a religious aspect. The Catholics were restricted as regards owning land, the type of schools they went to, and how they worshipped1. In 1801 Ireland went under the direct British rule and the Irish Parliament was eliminated. The economic conditions became worse than before. The potato famine in the 1840s further embittered2 the Irish against English rule, and a million and a half Catholics left their homeland for America. Then an association of Irishmen (the Fenians) was founded; in 1905 they became a political party, the Sinn Fein, and formed the rebel military group called Irish Republican Army (IRA). On Easter 1916 a rebellion against the British broke out but it was crushed3 by the British troops.The episode embittered Anglo-Irish relations even further. In December 1921 a compromise was reached: the 26 Catholic southern counties of Ireland became the Irish Free State while the six northern counties, mainly Protestant, became an integral part of the United Kingdom. In 1937 the Irish Free State rejected its allegiance4 to the British 1. worshipped: took part to religious rituals. 2. embittered: exasperated, aggravated. 3. crushed: completely defeated. 4. allegiance: loyalty. 34