Young Ireland was an Irish political movement with revolutionary and nationalist ideologies that existed in the mid-19th century. His wish was to demand Irish independence and the withdrawal of the British from the island, even if it meant using force.
The Young Ireland Movement was born in the 1850s following the creation of the Irish political newspaper “The Nation”. This newspaper, founded by Charles Gavan Duffy, a young Catholic journalist, and Thomas Davis, a Protestant graduate of Trinity College, protested against anti-Catholic discrimination by English settlers of Protestant stock, and at the same time advocated its commitment to the Irish nationalist struggle, calling for the restoration of an Irish government and the repeal of the Act of Union of 1801.
Many Irish nationalists and revolutionaries gathered around this newspaper, and decided to create the Young Ireland movement, a movement involved in the same struggles as those led by Daniel O’Connell (1775-1847), a fervent defender of Irish Catholics and a convinced nationalist.
Nevertheless, the movement refuses to take a pacifist approach to the fight, and wants to take up arms to achieve their goals. Faced with this radical movement, Daniel O’Connell (1775-1847) was sure to disapprove of it, and reject it from his political Association.
In 1848, the Jeune Irande movement decided to create a banner to reflect their nationalist ideology. Their flag is green, white and orange, symbolizing Peace (White), Gaelic (Green) and Orangemen (Orange). The Irish flag, later to become the official flag of the Republic of Ireland, was born.
That same year, the movement decided to take up arms. William Smith O’Brien, then leader of the movement, fomented an attempted rebellion in July 1848, which ended in abject failure. The fault lies mainly with their small numbers: only 50 people took part in the insurrection, and all were immediately arrested and deported to Australia. The failure was so dismal, in fact, that the uprising was mockingly dubbed“The Battle of widow McCormack’s cabbage patch“.
Although the Young Ireland Movement only lasted a short time, it was at the origin of future republican movements, such as the Fenian movement and the IRB, 2 nationalist movements calling for the creation of a fully-fledged Irish Republic.
Jeune Irlande was therefore a pioneering movement, creating not only a republican ideology, but also its flag, which today officially symbolizes the Republic of Ireland.
