Northern Ireland

Well, I'm a little late for St. Patrick's day, but you really have to hand it to the Irish -- just 60 miles from the greatest colonial power the world has ever seen and yet they have managed to keep their independence, although not without some bitter struggles.

St. Patrick arrived in 423 AD and started converting the locals to Catholicism. (There never were any snakes in Ireland; the myth refers to St. Patrick driving out the pagan religions, represented by a serpent.) By 600 AD, Catholicism was the primary religion, and remains so 1,500 years later.

Although the Normans (under William the Conqueror) invaded England in 1066, it was a hundred years before they took any interest in Ireland. In 1171, the Irish Kings swore fealty to King Henry II, with the Pope legitimizing this by declaring Ireland a "feudal possession of the Papacy under the overlordship of the Lord of Ireland." England then proceeded to ignore Ireland for the next 400 years.

When Henry VIII declared himself head of the Church of England, his claim on Ireland--as a "possession of the Papacy"--was in doubt. He set out to re-conquer Ireland, and have himself declared head of the Irish church as well. However, subduing Ireland took nearly a century (and two more monarchs), and the country remained predominantly Catholic. To counter this, the English encouraged Protestants to emigrate to Ireland, and established Penal laws to disenfranchise the Catholics and keep the Protestants in power.

This, naturally, led to a series of civil wars.

In 1800, the Protestants in Ireland voted to become part of the United Kingdom, and remained so until 1921. When Ireland finally won its independence back, the county of Ulster (which was primarily Protestant) elected to stay with the UK, becoming Northern Ireland. The ruling Protestants continued to suppress the Catholics, leading to an apartheid-like situation which brewed for the next 60 years.

This came to a head in the late 60s, as paramilitary groups like the Ulster Volunteers and the Irish Republican Army (IRA) waged guerilla warfare. As the violence increasingly spread to English soil, the UK introduced internment without trial, banned all marches, suspended and then disbanded the Northern Ireland government, and finally instituted martial law, all of which only served to escalate the violence further. It would be 27 years before a cease-fire could be brokered (the "Good Friday Accord" in 1998) and home rule restored to Northern Ireland. In that time, over 3,000 people were killed in what was sardonically known as "The Troubles."

Since 1999, the unionists and nationalists have shared power in a very fragile relationship. However, the violence isn't over: Just a year ago two British soldiers and a policeman were killed by Republican dissidents. Further, the residents are still divided over whether to belong to Ireland or the UK, so this issue is far from resolved.

Interesting side note: Ireland declared itself neutral in World War II (although many Irish volunteered for British forces, and the Irish government assisted the British in planning D-day). Churchill secretly offered to return Northern Ireland in exchange for Ireland's open support, but the Irish government did not trust Churchill and rejected the offer.