Key debate 4: Why was Ireland such a threat to stability?

Question 1

Key points:

Answer 1

• Threat due to situation in Ireland

* Threat due to government policy

Question 2

Situation in Ireland:

Answer 2

• Feuding was an everyday feature of the lives of ordinary Irishmen.
• Country only partly under English rule - mixture of Gaelic and Anglo-Norman cultures.
• Religious divide worsened problems. Roman Catholicism grew in Ireland along with increasing dislike for English Protestantism.
• Papacy and Spain intervened at times on behalf of the Irish - added to danger and threat.
• Government control in Ireland virtually broke down - geographical cultural and social differences.
• Gaelic and Old English families remained loyal to Catholicism - Protestantism was not firmly established.

Question 3

Government policy:

Answer 3

• Growing Irish resentment over English control.
- Worsened by replacing authority of pope with that of the monarch.
• Increasing intervention and attempts at centralisation since reign of HVIII.
• English tried to impose culture and traditions.
• Gov wanted to reduce spending in Ireland but retain control.
• Plantation policy & others not given chance to succeed - not enough money invested.
• Until Elizabeth appointed Mountjoy - failed to support able deputies such as Sidney.
• Appointed unsuitable men to run Ireland.
E.g. Essex, Grey.