Why Do the British Know So Little About Irish History?
British and Irish history have been entwined for centuries, often fatally so. Why then are so many Brits ignorant of their neighbour to the west?
‘It was not always the case’
John Bew is Professor in History at King’s College London, and Paul Bew, Professor of Irish Politics at Queen’s University, Belfast.
It was not always thus. For as long as Ireland was part of the Union of 1801, Britain paid close attention to Ireland, particularly its elites. That is not to say that it always got it right. Catholic emancipation, promised at the time of the Union by William Pitt and Lord Castlereagh, was delayed until 1829, teaching Ireland the lesson that it was no use appealing to the British sense of historical justice without threatening mass agitation.
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