The Harp and Crown: An Irish AAR

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Will you still get the Potato Blight? Because that might ruin some of your plans pretty hard =P.

If you play as Ireland you still get it as an event but if your willing to pay a vast amount of money you dont get it as bad as you would playing as Britain (I suppose to Represent Dublin was probably more concerned than London about the whole affair)

Excellent stuff so far, it'll be interesting to see how a free Ireland interacts with the rest of a Victorian world...

 

[KanaX]

Ireland has potential and Lucien is surely the man to use that potential. If it's for the good of Ireland or to furthen his own aims, remains to be seen.

 

[Nikolai]

Another RossN aar! Yay!

 

[robou]

Ireland has potential and Louis is surely the man to use that potential. If it's for the good of Ireland or to furthen his own aims, remains to be seen.

lucien you mean

 

[KanaX]

lucien you mean

What, I see no mistake

 

[Patrick Harte]

I simply love it. Waiting for the next update!

 

[RossN]

New Men
(1836 - 1841)

Daniel O'Connell​

The man who found himself summoned to an audience with the King on 1st November 1836 could be called 'new blood' only in the loosest sense: he was sixty-one years old and was what the more tactful observers might term 'stout'. Yet this unlikely figure with his broad Kerry accent and his ostentatious pacifism, both more the stuff of a humble village priest than a great national leader had won a crushing victory over the old war heroes of the United Irishmen.

The new composition of the Commons revealed the scale of the decimation:

November 1836 Election
Moderate Party (O'Connell) 142 seats
United Irishmen (Teeling) 46 seats
Independents (N/A) 12 seats

O'Connell's Moderates were a hodgepodge of liberal landholders and professionals tired of the stranglehold of the old United Irishmen and united under the mercurial O'Connell, a dramatic populist who promised to bring the vote to every (male) citizen in Ireland, to make Ireland a player on the world stage and to secure lasting political and economic stability. The first would prove a great success, the second would see valuable groundwork established and the last would be a disastrous failure.

Even before the election the King had been playing a diminishing role in public life. Admittedly he was aging (in fact he was the same age as O'Connell), but he had always been active previously. Scurrilous gossip had it that he had turned to debauchery in his grey hairs but this was inaccurate and unfair; in truth he was merely dying. Though he would linger on until June 1840 the stomach cancer left Lucien a virtual invalid and forced O'Connell to face an unexpected crisis: the succession.

Charles Lucien Bonaparte, the Crown Prince was a fairly young man and if he was not a natural royalist was prepared to accede to his duty. What was not certain was that the country would accept him. Lucien had been personally popular because he was widely hailed as the man who had kept Ireland free during the War of Independence but it was uncertain if this transferred to the public at large. The House of Bonaparte was opposed (privately) on the one hand by those still loyal to the old British connection and on the other hand by diehard Irish republicans. The Defenders, a ferociously nationalist and Catholic secret society despised the Bonapartes as foreigners and, ironically, crypto-revolutionaries in the mode of Robespierre.

O'Connell, a naturally moderate and pious man had no desire to see the fall of the kingdom. In 1837 Dublin played host to an international conference on the tension between the Ottoman Empire and Egypt (Ireland would ultimately side with the Sultan). At the urging of O'Connell the Crown Prince took an active part in the negotiations, creating favourable impressions at home and abroad. With his father's infirmity he also aided O'Connell with the creation of the Army Reserve (February 1839) and the Electoral Reform Act (January 1840).

That year Lucien finally passed on. He was sixty five years old, and had spent over half his life in Ireland. On July 12 1840 he was laid to rest in Christ Church Cathedral. According to the Freeman's Journal over a million Irishmen and women crowded the streets of Dublin to watch the carriage passing, flanked by veterans of the old campaigns. The Army Band was playing 'The Minstrel Boy' - the unofficial national anthem. Later, with the rain falling on the roof tiles overhead they would play 'La Marseillaise'. Lucien had requested both, and none disagreed with his choice. Whether one was a royalist or a republican, or even a unionist all were united in grief for that one day.

Patrick I, King of Ireland​

History has not recorded the individual who suggested the new king take the name of Ireland's patron saint. Some claim it was O'Donnell; others that it was Daniel Murray, Archbishop of Dublin. Whatever the truth the new king was not crowned 'Charles' or 'Charles Lucien', or even 'Lucien II' but instead 'Patrick'. A simple move, but a successful one. The crowds cheered their new monarch. Later they might turn, but for now the cheers were loud and universal.

Unfortunately for Daniel O'Connell the celebration did nothing for his political fortunes. An attempt to found a navy had led to extensive loans, but poor planning and inability to either buy artillery or raise the volunteers to join the fleet resulted in an increase to Ireland's already extensive debts (£4 million by mid-1841) and no warships - a political embarrassment. Unluckily a con artists bubble involving the Atlantic trade burst at the same time, furthering ruining the Government’s reputation for economic ability.

The election of August 1841 would see one of O'Connell's greatest achievements backfire. The various independents of 1836 had by 1841 merged to create the Irish Conservative Party - in favour, as one wag put it of the three 'F's': flag, faith and fiscal responsibility. The Conservatives leader was the dynamic William Smith O'Brien - technically a Protestant but of such august descent his largely Catholic voters could afford to overlook it. Especially when he promised to rebuild Irish prosperity through tariffs.

The promise worked. The Conservatives won in a landslide and O'Connell was swept from power.

November 1836 Election
Conservative Party (Smith O'Brien) 143 seats (-)
Moderate Party (O'Connell) 54 seats (- 88)
United Irishmen (Teeling) 3 seats (- 43)

Daniel O'Connell had achieved much for Ireland, but as the nation moved into the 1840's it was clear that Ireland's future would belong to other hands.

 

[RossN]

robou: Possibly. Ireland will be looking to Europe for allies in future at least.

DerKaiser: Well that is certainly a possibility I am investigating.

coz1: Thank you. Currently the major things to note are that I am allied with the Ottomans (invalid against Russia) and I've been improving relations with Spain.

Paxdax & Maximilliano: The Potato Blight is certainly coming. I have a couple of ideas to run with there, but I guess we will see.

Dr. Gonzo: Thank you.

KanaX: Well, he was a good monarch while he lasted.

Nikolai & Patrick O'Harte: Thanks.

 

[Eams]

I smiled quite vividly at the initial description of O'Connell. The entire update was a demonstration of just how good you are at this kind of concise, factual AARs.

 

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Interesting turn of events- so the monarchy has been made to pander to nationalist sentiment... Well, Wilhelm II tried it in Germany and that didn't end entirely as planned, but then again he was playing for slightly higher stakes than Patrick/Charles Lucien!

As for the Conservatives taking power: well it's probably for the best just now, those tariffs are looking very friendly! Hopefully a Protestant who suits Catholic tastes will provide some unity as Prime Minister as well...

And superb quality, by the way! I heard about your other stuff but never got a chance to read it, but it's obvious from this it wasn't over-hyped! The style reminds me of Dr. Gonzo with the occasional twist, and more work of his calibre is very good news!

Keep it up!

 

[Maximilliano]

...and the last would be a disastrous failure.

hmmm revolution? I hope not! It'll be quite advantageous to have Bonapartes on the throne when Louis Napoleon comes to power in France. If so, family honor demands that the Irish fight for the French in the Franco-Prussian War... Will Ireland be seeing a Bonapartist party any time soon?

-Maximilliano

 

[KanaX]

Oh, poor Lucien But his son seems promising, and with a ruling name like "Patrick ", he's bound to succeed!

 

[robou]

interesting. I see the United Irishmen hav e basiclly be pushed out of power now. It looks like Charles Lucien is going to be a quite competent monarch, though perhaps without O'Connel's guidence he might falter?

 

[Cinéad IV]

How are you planning to align yourself? I would recommend comparatively good relations with Britain myself.

That said, an Irish expeditionary force in a war between the US and UK would make for a fantastic story

 

[coz1]

Well, I must admit when I am wrong and Lucien Bonaparte seemed nothing but good for young Ireland. He seemed universally loved when he died. And his son was wise to begin making himself "Irish" with the use of the name Patrick.

As for the election, it seems now the new will truly take power from the old hands.

 

[unmerged(75640)]

This is turning out to be great. I can't wait till the next update.

 

[ComradeOm]

Tories in Ireland? Grrrr

 

[unmerged(83622)]

Just started reading this, have to say you've done a very good job with it this far. Nice to see an independent Ireland, definitely following.

 

[RossN]

Crisis
(1841 -1849)

William Smith O'Brien​

Ireland had never been a wealthy country, not even during the heady days of Grattan. She might have recovered from the nadir of her fortunes, those terrible years of the 17th century that had seen king and church and aristocracy swept away in a tide of war and oppression. Yet a measure of prosperity had not so much brightened the room as exposed the darkness of the shadows. Seven million Irishmen and women lived off the land; most in conditions as poor as any Russian serf or Anatolian peasant. The great absentee landlords of the British days had mostly gone, but little on the ground had changed. Vast estates remained in the hands of vanishingly few men. Similar scenes might be seen in Britain, but in the neighbouring kingdom there was at least the choice of work in the great industrial cities. Ireland had no equivalent to the factory towns; in the year William Smith O'Brien came to power the largest industry on the island was the brewery.

What made life possible, even stable was a single crop: the potato. It could grow anywhere in Ireland, could survive almost any weather. A tiny sliver of mud that could not support a pig could support a whole family on the humble tuber. It was the daily food of millions, for many the only food. Without it Ireland as it was could not go on. Certain wiser heads had realized the dangers of such dependence, and fears had been expressed that this life could not go on indefinitely. To the poor farmer in his field such concerns of academics in Dublin seemed very distant.

By 1845 the situation in Ireland had improved. Railways covered much of the country and the construction of new factories had brought fresh life to towns in Leinster, Munster and Connaught.

A despairing farmer, September 1845​

The earliest rumours that the potato blight that had so recently ravaged Scotland had reached Ireland began appearing in September 1845. The Government was not unduly alarmed; there had been shortages before, even partial failures. It was not until the following month that the scale of the disaster became apparent to Dublin. In all 32 counties there had been at least partial failures, and across the whole island roughly half the potato crop had been rendered inedible. Millions of people stood at the very edge of starvation.

William Smith O'Brien, after a series of urgent meetings with the King forced emergency legislation through the house. All exportation of food to Great Britain (fully two-thirds of total Irish exports) was to be stopped. It was, Smith O'Brien admitted later, the hardest decision of his life - throwing three decades of rapprochement with the British into disarray, plunging the Irish economy into recession and placing a tremendous strain on the conservative landholders that made up much of his support. The measures helped stave off starvation over the winter of 1845-46, but would they prove enough?

Though the worst of the disaster was prevented the remained of the 1840's would prove a time of intense hardship. Crowds of hungry ragged peasants flooded into the towns looking for food or work. Clashes between the peasants and the townsmen became a daily occurrence - a particularly bad riot in Mullingar, Co. Westmeath on 17 February 1846, saw over thirty people killed and scores more injured. The summer brought further riots - and the threat of something more.

Clashes between Government and rebel forces, Tipperary July 1847​

The urban lower middle class - the craftsmen, who though still numerically small compared with the farmers, had more than doubled over the past decade. Unfortunately, though this had created increased wealth it had also created a freshly literate pool for the spread of radical ideas. Republicanism had never entirely gone away, and in early 1846 with the desperate rural poor thronging the streets, the economy in free fall and the first stirrings of liberal rebellion across Europe, it became a sudden flash point. Patrick I was hardly in the same league as Nicholas I of Russia or Ferdinand II of the Two Sicilies but the unique and terrible circumstances of 1840's Ireland served to cast him in a lurid light. To men half crazed with wild patriotism and the froth of dangerous new thoughts he might as well have been old King George.

The first major revolt began in Youghal, Co. Cork on the night of 30 September 1846 when John Kelliher, the editor of an inflammatory local newspaper led a group of workmen from the local cement factory on an assault on the local police barracks. The revolutionaries (and they could hardly be called anything else) soon controlled Cork itself and having burned portraits of the king began a march on Dublin, singing:

A bhuíon nách fann d'fhuil Ghaeil is Gall,
Sin breacadh lae na saoirse,
Ta scéimhle 's scanradh i gcroíthe namhad,
Roimh ranna laochra ár dtire.
Ár dtinte is tréith gan spréach anois,
Sin luisne ghlé san spéir anoir,
'S an bíobha i raon na bpiléar agaibh:
Seo libh, canaídh Amhrán na bhFiann

The King was no Sassenach, but it suited the rebels to portray him as the puppet to corrupt English masters. In Ireland memories ran deep and tying a man to the British flag could draw blood. As republican revolts broke out in Derry and Waterford it looked almost as if the days of the Bonapartes had run their course.

Yet even at the peak of rebel fortunes their cause was not a popular one: between 1846 and 1848 perhaps less than 30,000 rebels took up arms against the Government. Their support in the country was nonexistent: a peasantry numbed into deep despair was incapable of aid, even had they wished so: and the great majority stood with the King. The Church, the Army and Parliament too and in a series of bitter engagements the rebels were crushed. There had been no appetite for revolt, so revolt had failed.

At the beginning of 1849 William Smith O'Brien, who had had the misfortune to win another election, could only look back on a ruinous decade of Irish history. That it might have been far worse was scant comfort: a man who has seen his house burn to the ground does not rejoice that he had saved his own life. He mourns the ruin of his dreams, the downfall of his hopes.

At the beginning of the New Year Smith O'Brien spoke in the House of Commons that:

"We have come through the inferno stronger and wiser than ever before."

Yet as he confessed to King Patrick in private audience:

"The country is too poor and too crowded... either we find an outlet for the hopelessly poor, the malcontents, the anarchists or they will bring the whole edifice on top of us. Twenty years... in twenty years we must either have an empire or a revolution: Ireland can not endure as we have been going."

 

[RossN]

Eams: Thank you.

DerKaiser: Welcome, I'm glad you've enjoyed the AAR so far and hope it continues.

Maximilliano: Could be. The Liberal Revolution made things dicey for a while there, but now that it is over I think things will improve a little!

KanaX: Well... quite.

robou: Mostly it is simply due to old age. Politics have been normalised to a degree so there isn't so much place for them anyway.

Cinéad IV: Well I am hoping to enter the colonial race, so I guess we'll see how that turns out. I'm sure I'll find a war to stick my nose into.

coz1: True.

Sematary: Thank you.

ComradeOm: Heh, isn't the term 'Tory' Irish to begin with?

Snugglie: Welcome aboard.