Aren't we more free today because the Stuarts and their "divine right of kings" was stopped by William and Mary?
Nobody can excuse the oppression of Protestant Irish against the Catholic Irish, but in the larger context, Ireland as well as Britain and America are all more free societies today because of the defeat of the Stuarts - so shouldn't we ALL celebrate the Orange triumph?
Would anybody - whether in Ireland or anywhere else - prefer to go back to the kind of society in which priestly power controls the way you think and speak and write?
Irish people can take pride in a culture that produced Samuel Beckett, W. B. Yeats, Oscar Wilde, Jonathan Swift and George Bernard Shaw - and isn't it only within a free society that such genius can arise and flourish?
If it had not been for the victory of King William at the Battle of the Boyne, wouldn't Ireland today be just another pathetic sinkhole of Roman Catholic-ruled misery and squalor like some Latin American banana republic?
2007-07-07 06:25:35 · 6 answers · asked by fra59e 4 in Arts & Humanities ➔ History
it was a step forward from bedroom
2007-07-13 10:39:54 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
William's victory had nothing to do with freedom and everything to do with religion.
It started centuries of religious oppression in Ireland which led to millions dying in the Great Famine because the English government would not help starving irish catholics.
Ireland is a prosperous nation today because it joined the EU and not because of William.
2007-07-08 00:43:14 · answer #2 · answered by brainstorm 7 · 1⤊ 2⤋
You take the typically blinkered view of history that bigots usually take.
The outcome of the Battle of the Boyne was perhaps useful in its time, but ultimately irrelevant. Parliament had deposed James, and no amount of military victories at the Boyne or anywhere else would have enabled him to resume the throne. We owe our freedom to Parliament, not to King William.
2007-07-07 16:12:55 · answer #3 · answered by bh8153 7 · 0⤊ 2⤋
Hello,
Freedom would depend which side of the coin you are on in this case.
Speaking of misery and squalor, what about predominatly Catholic countries like Italy, France Belgium, Spain, Portugal, Austria etc. They did ok and have the arts and great writers.
What if protestant fundies get their way in the states or the world teaching that man walked with dinosaurs and earth is 6000 years old? Ah won't that be progressive in our knowledge and free society.
Michael
2007-07-07 14:31:02 · answer #4 · answered by Michael Kelly 5 · 0⤊ 3⤋
Why don't you ask this question of the, Provisional Irish Republican Army ?
The battle of the Orange (protestant) and the Green (Catholic)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Provisional_Irish_Republican_Army
to them the Protestant rule is misery.
It is human nature to dislike being ruled by anything, anybody or any GOD. That is why there are so many wars!
2007-07-07 13:51:45 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 3⤋
I am used to hearing red necked American bigots with their trashy language. The only difference I see in you is no trashy language. Oppression even spoken with a cultured English accent is still oppression. And bigotry spoken with good manners is still bigotry.
I totally disagree with you.
2007-07-13 16:46:59 · answer #6 · answered by bsharpbflatbnatural 5 · 0⤊ 2⤋