Keeping Control in IrelandThere are two communities in Northern Ireland, Catholic and Protestant. In the 1500s, all Irish people were Catholic, but in the late 1500s, English Protestant leaders decided to take control of Ireland. In order to maintain control, they sent people to Ireland. These are called plantations. The people who were “planted” were Protestants. This caused problems because the majority of Ireland was Catholic. The Catholics began to rebel against the English Protestants, they were called nationalists. These were people who wanted Ireland to be one country. The UK responded by “planting” more Protestants in Northern Ireland. Most Protestants wanted to stay away from the UK, they were called Unionists. There were also loyalists who wanted to stay away from the UK but resorted to violence to achieve this. Republicans resorted to violence to stay out of the Republic of Ireland. The potato famine increased hatred between Catholics and Protestants. Protestants demanded rent from Catholics; the peasants used corn to pay and ate potatoes. When the potatoes went hungry, they had a choice: they could starve and pay their rent or get thrown out and lose everything! Home Rule is when a country wants to govern itself; Ireland did not have one because it was ruled by the English. They had had enough because they wanted their own government and when William Gladstone became Prime Minister of England he made sure of that. Gladstone wanted to give all of Ireland a government and parliament based in Dublin; this meant that they would control all Irish MPs at Westminster. This had a huge impact on Northern Ireland, as most of the population was Protestant, which meant that much of the government would be Catholic. Protestants felt like they were being ruled by Catholics and didn't like it. However, the first autonomy bill was rejected in 1886