El nacionalismo irlandés: orígenes y desarrollo histórico

Abstract

No puede darse razón válida del nacionalismo irlandés sin atender a las circunstancias adversas en que se desenvolvió la vida de los habitantes de la isla desde que ésta se incorporó a la Monarquía inglesa. De modo particular, la discriminación de los católicos por los gobernantes británicos contribuyó a identificar la causa nacionalista con la defensa de la fidelidad a esas creencias religiosas. No obstante esa identificación, la Iglesia católica siempre ha reprobado los métodos violentos propugnados por los nacionalistas más radicalizados. El problema de Ulster es inseparable del hecho de que los irlandeses del norte comparten la conciencia de constituir una comunidad diferenciada de sus vecinos del sur. Partidarios de una integración en el Reino Unido, no renuncian, sin embargo, aun legado histórico privativo, generador de unos vínculos de dependencia respecto de la Corona inglesa, que podríamos calificar de "lealtad condicionada".

Irish nationalism is a historical process that has evolved from all sort of adverse circumstances that have affected the life of the Irish people since its incorporation to the British Crown. Among these difficulties, the discrimination of Catholics by British rulers had the effect of linking and identifying the Nationalist movement with the defence of their religious beliefs. Despite this "link" the official Catholic Church has always been against the violence exerted by the most radical nationalist groups. On the other hand the Ulster problem cannot be separated from the fact that the Northern Irish population share a common conscience of being a well-differentiated community from their Southern neighbors. Even if in the first place they consider themselves to be part of the U. K. such sentiment does not mean that they have given up their right to keep attached to their historical past to the extent that they have created and justified some sort of dependence links toward the Crown; dependence that could be called "conditioned loyalty".