Welcome, today we are travelling to Northern Ireland.

As we drive through County Meath I want to mention the farmland we're passing by. This is mostly grassland for the dairy and beef sector. We pride ourselves on the fact that our beef cattle are grass fed from once they leave the farmyards after the winter. The dairy cows go to grass towards the end of March, earlier for the south of the country. Of all the beef that we produce almost 90% is exported. Over 80% of dairy products are exported, butter, cheese, yogurt, powder milk etc.  As we drive through County Louth we see fields after fields of barley and wheat, gently blowing in the wind as if to say welcome. 

We cross the River Boyne using the Mary McAleese Bridge. Named after our 2nd Lady President (from Belfast). We hear the River Boyne mentioned a few times today. As we leave County Louth we cross into County Down and Northern Ireland. Border crossing is easy, as there are no checkpoints.

Before we arrive in Belfast we have to talk about the division of this island. To deal with this issue we have to go back in history. King Henry VIII of England was declared King of Ireland in the 1541 by the Irish parliament; prior to this Kings of England were Lord of Ireland. Having severed his connections with the Catholic Church he needed to rule supreme. To do this he introduced a surrender and regrant rule, in which landowners would surrender the lands to the monarchy and then have it regranted back to them with a title such as Earl or Duke and they also had the protection of the English army from anyone that had a notion of attacking them. Now should these landowners rebel against the monarch their lands would be confiscated. This law was continued for King Edward and Queen Mary reigns. Now comes Queen Elizabeth 1st. Her entitlement was questionable. When Henry VIII declared his marriage to Anne Boleyn invalid, it rendered her illegitimate. The rightful successor was Mary Queen of Scots. Her grandmother Margaret was Henry VIII's sister. The fact that Mary was Catholic, ruling a Protestant parliament gave Elizabeth the throne. Mary's father was James V of Scotland, he died when she was six days old and she was appointed Queen Mary I of Scotland. Her son James VI was to become James I of England. 

The landowners in Northern Ireland (Ulster) had not agreed to hand over their lands and so Elizabeth was threatening to bring in an army. The O'Neill's and the O'Donnell's raised an army to begin what was known as the "Nine Years War" having had many successes. The Spanish King Philip II had promised help in these wars and sent a sizable army. The only problem was they landed in Kinsale 300 miles from where the battles were being fought. The armies from the north march down to Kinsale and in 1601 they suffered a defeat that was to change Irish history.

The wars ended in 1603 the same year as Elizabeth died. Now the Stuarts of Scotland take the throne of England. The lands in Northern Ireland were confiscated. The O'Neills, the O'Donnell's and the other landowners were to leave Ireland forever in what is known as "The Flight of the Earls". Our culture changed at this point. Our laws, which at that time were "The Penal Laws", were gone as was many of our customs. Settlers from Scotland and Northern England were granted lands. The Irish people that owned the land were now employed to work these lands. A Rebellion in 1641 was to cause another visitor to come and take reprisals for same, one Oliver Cromwell. This man had raised an army in England, was a general on the parliamentary side in the English Civil War and brought about the execution of King Charles I. The monarchy was ended, Charles's family fled to France until the restoration in 1660 of Charles II. One of the first things he did was to exhume the body of Oliver Cromwell and charge him with the murder of his father, Charles I. After Cromwell was found guilty, his head was placed on the spikes outside of the Tower of London. Now that is what I call, holding a grudge!

His son James II was to become King in 1685. A Catholic King, unacceptable to parliament. In 1688 James II son-in-law William of Orange (Netherlands) is invited to take the throne. The "glorious revolution" it is called. James fled to France to seek help, which he got, and them to Ireland. He raised an army of about 25, mostly Irish and French. William's numbers were 32,000. 
"The War of the Two Kings goes down in history as "The Battle of the Boyne" fought in 1690 and is still remembered to this day on the 12th of July with marching bands, flags and the Lambeg drums. These marchers are from the Protestant side of the population. 

Belfast has a population of about 320,000 and is a modern city with universities, colleges and a thriving technology centre. Once home to the largest ship building yards in the world, White Star Line and the Titanic, one of the greatest tourist attractions in Europe. Belfast is home to Van Morrison, Snow Patrol, James Galway, George Best, C.S. Lewis, Jamie Dorian, Mary McAleese and many more. Northern Ireland proudly boasts of people like Harry Ferguson (tractor) Lord Kelvin (temperature) Joe Dunlop (vulcanized rubber) present day James Hewitt, Liam Neeson.

Driving through the city, we go up the Falls Road, a Catholic area on one side of the Peace Wall and going through the gates we come down the Shankill Road, the Protestant residential area. Why did Catholics settle in one area and the Protestants in the other? Belfast is a relatively new established city. During the mid 1800's, at the time of the potato famine, which had a devastating affect on the entire country of Ireland, people drifted into Belfast from the outlaying farming areas, because of poverty, to start a new life and survival. They established their own communities with schools and churches, living in separation of each other with enormous emphasis on the religious divide. Religious rivalry existed between the two communities. The wall that divides the two areas was built in the early 1970's to separate the two sections and prevent the nightly incursions from either side with murder in their minds. This wall still remains today. 

Farming in Ireland was run on a landlord and tenant basis for generations. The landlords owned 90% of the land with the farmers renting and working this land as tenant farmers with little or no rights. To rectify this, a home rule bill was brought up in parliament in London and due to be passed into law in 1912. The Protestants in Northern Ireland did not want anything to do with this bill, as the majority of the farming community on the whole of Ireland were mainly Catholics. Their slogan was, "Home Rule, was Roman Rule". An army was raised in Northern Ireland, called the Ulster Defence Association (UDA). A threat of civil war was now imminent in Ireland. Home Rule was to give the self-government for Ireland within the United Kingdom the three F's; Fixity of Tenure, Fair Rent, Free Sale of the tenants interests in the farm. The Home Rule Bill was shelved. 

On the continent of Europe, war was also imminent and broke out in 1914. This was World War One. After the First World War, we had a War of Independence, which lead to the partition of Ireland, meaning the 6 counties of Northern Ireland, which had a Protestant majority under the jurisdiction of Great Britain. The remaining 26 counties of Ireland were given "free state status" to become a Republic in 1948. The 'troubles' as we know them today, started in 1968 with the aim of getting the British to relinquish the jurisdiction of Northern Ireland and continued until 1998.

The Good Friday agreement was signed in 1998 to draw somewhat of a closure to the troubles in Northern Ireland. The troubles lasted for over 30 years and cost 3,700 lives not to mention those injured. It is my hope that this agreement will remain.