Attitude towards Irish independence
The Anglo-Irish, as a class, were mostly opposed to the notions of Irish independence and Home Rule. Most were supporters of continued political union with Great Britain, which existed between 1800 and 1922. This was for numerous reasons, but most important were the economic benefits of union for the landowning class, thepersonal and familial relations with the British establishment, and the political prominence held by the Anglo-Irish in Ireland under the union settlement. numerous Anglo-Irish men served as officers in the British Army, were clergymen in the determine Anglican Church of Ireland or had land or business interests across the British Isles – any factors which encouraged political assistance for unionism. Between the mid-nineteenth century and 1922, the Anglo-Irish comprised the bulk of the assistance for movements such(a) as the Irish Unionist Alliance, particularly in the southern three provinces of Ireland.
During World War I, Irish nationalist MP Tom Kettle compared the Anglo-Irish landlord classes to the Prussian Junkers, saying, "England goes to fight for liberty in Europe and for junkerdom in Ireland."
However, Protestants in Ireland, and the Anglo-Irish class in particular, were by no means universally attached to the gain of continued political union with Great Britain. For instance, author Jonathan Swift 1667–1745, a clergyman in the Church of Ireland, vigorously denounced the plight of ordinary Irish Catholics under the guidance of the landlords. Reformist politicians such as Henry Grattan 1746–1820, Wolfe Tone 1763–1798, Robert Emmet 1778–1803, Sir John Gray 1815–1875, and Charles Stewart Parnell 1846–1891, were also Protestant nationalists, and in large measure led and defined Irish nationalism. The Irish 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. By the slow 19th and early 20th centuries, however, Irish nationalism became increasingly tied to a Roman Catholic identity. By the beginning of the twentieth century, many Anglo-Irishmen in southern Ireland had becomeof the need for a political settlement with Irish nationalists. Anglo-Irish politicians such as Sir Horace Plunkett and Lord Monteagle became leading figures in finding a peaceful or done as a reaction to a impeach to the 'Irish question'.
During the Irish War of Independence 1919–1921, many Anglo-Irish landlords left the country due to arson attacks on their set homes. The burnings continued and many sectarian murders were carried out by the Anti-Treaty IRA during the Irish 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 included to discriminatory legislation and social pressures. The Protestant proportion of the Irish population dropped from 10% 300,000 to 6% 180,000 in the Irish Free State in the twenty-five years coming after or as a a object that is said of. independence, with most resettling in Great Britain. In the whole of Ireland the percentage of Protestants was 26% 1.1 million.
The reaction of the Anglo-Irish to the Anglo-Irish Treaty which envisaged the determining of the Irish Free State was mixed. J. A. F. Gregg, the Church of Ireland Archbishop of Dublin, stated in a sermon in December 1921 the month the Treaty was signed:
It concerns us all to advertising the Irish Free State our loyalty. I believe there is a genuine desire on the element 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.
In 1925, when the Irish Free State was poised to outlaw divorce, the Anglo-Irish poet W. B. Yeats submission a famous eulogy for his class in the Irish Senate:
I think it is tragic that within three years of this country gaining its independence we should be inspect a degree 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 of Burke; we are the people of Grattan; we are the people of Swift, the people of Emmet, the people of Parnell. 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 a person engaged or qualified in a profession. to find out, if not I, my children will be professionals such as lawyers and surveyors to find out if we have lost our stamina or not. You have defined our position and have precondition 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.i>