Northern Ireland

Home is where the family gathers for a good time. Home is where students return from school for a good cooked meal. “Home is where my heart lies and where I want to be”, my mother would often say to me when she thinks about Jamaica. How she longs to return home. Home is defined as a place where someone permanently lives. So where is your home? Is home where you currently live or is it the place where your memories always bring you back to and where your heart yearns to return? Even though a…

‘He fought his first battle on the Scottish Highlands in 1536. He will fight his greatest battle on the streets of New York City in 1986. His name is Connor Macleod. He is immortal.’ Despite tanking at the majority of global box offices and bringing in only approximately $13 million, Russell Mulcahy’s Sci-Fi/Fantasy film Highlander (1986) soon developed a cult following. This lead to the production of five reboots, two TV series, an animated series, movie and flash movie series, along with ten…

The Legacy of Owain Glyndŵr: Redeemer of the Welsh English conquest of foreign territory began long before the age of colonization within the British Isles themselves. History focuses primarily on the English point of view towards their acquisitions because little text survives to this day from the subjected lands. Due to its colonization, the ancient country of Wales witnessed the rise of abuses, taxes, and occupation in the late fourteenth century. Consequently, opposition developed towards…

against Britain from 1919 to 1921 and the creation of the Irish Free State” (Reynolds 37). The British reaction to the uprising gave the people of Ireland a renewed desire for independence from England’s rule. Another determining factor in the success of the small uprising was the sense of loss of sovereignty which was leading to…

In each area I worked in, I found prominent differences in culture, social welfare, and the issues each was faced with. In Northern Ireland, I participated in an outreach program that allowed volunteers to work alongside civilians. The purpose of the organization was to reunite Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland after decades of civil and religious strife. Before working with citizens, we were required to spend one week of our trip assimilating to our new environment…

“Brexit” and the European Union On June 24th, 2016, The United Kingdom voted in a historic referendum which caused the countries of England, Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland to leave the European Union. “Brexit”, as the referendum was nicknamed, was strongly supported by England and Wales, while Scotland and Northern Ireland voted to stay within the European Union. Even in countries where the overall result was to support Brexit, the margins were small, with an overall split of only 51.9%…

his essay is shocking and grotesque at first, but it is also important to the direct critique of those who are in power. When Swift wrote this essay, the population of Ireland was suffering from the effects of British Colonization. Those who were in power neglected to help the disempowered, which included the vast majority of Ireland population (Professor Makdisi). Throughout his essay, Swift represents the negativity that is associated with the imposition of England men in power. Swift’s use…

Crèveloeur’s character, James, “beholds fair cities, substantial villages, extensive fields, an immense country filled with decent houses, good roads, orchards, meadows, and bridges, where an hundreds years ago all was wild, woody and uncultivated!” (Horwitz 25). America’s identity is formed by how its citizens and visitors view the country. Crèveloeur described America as being a beautiful frontier. John Quinney’s speech was the complete opposite from Crèveloeur’s story. It focused on the…

The great famine or the great hunger was a period of mass starvation, disease, and emigration in Ireland between 1845 and 1852. [1] Mainly the Irish were farmers and their major dependent was on farming but what changed the situation is the number of historical reasons. During the famine, approximately 1 million people died and a lot of them emigrated from Ireland, causing the island's population to fall by between 20% and 25%. [2] The famine was caused by a potato disease commonly known as…

Meet Mickey Sullivan, a thirteen year-old Irish immigrant. His parents are Ava and Sean Sullivan. They arrived to the U.S. in 1847. They have considered changing their names to blend in with their surroundings, but decided against it. Their life in Ireland during the 1840s was very difficult. A blight, a disease that destroyed the leaves and the potatoes of the plant, wiped out almost all of their potato crop. The Irish relied heavily on one or two varieties of potato, and because of this it…