Religion was the cudgel used by the British to justify conquering the Irish Clans and subjugating the Irish population. The Protestant religion in England resulted from King Henry VIII in the 16th century who broke Britain away from the Catholic faith to avoid excommunication due to divorcing and beheading his wives in search of a son.

The Irish Clans were Catholic resulting from conversion by Irish Saints Patrick, Columba, Adamnan, Brigid, etc. starting in the 5th century. Also the Norman knights who occupied parts of Ireland in the 13th century and who assimilated to become ‘more Irish than the great Clans’, were Catholic. Further, the Catholic Irish in the 16th century allied with Catholic Spanish who were attempting to defeat the British.

After their crushing victory at the Battle of Kinsale in 1602, the British restricted the Catholic Irish population from owning land, voting in elections, holding public office and so forth. After Cromwell’s barbaric squashing of the religiously fueled Confederate Wars uprising in the 1640s, Catholic clergy were expelled from Ireland and liable for instant execution if found. Many of the Irish Catholic churches were demolished.

Although the religious oppression was relaxed in the 17th and 18th centuries, the damage had been done. As a result, after centuries of this brutal religious strife in Ireland, deep-seated animosities between Protestant Britain and the Catholic Irish continue to fester as one major factor in the Irish Revolution in the early 20th century.

The religious strife in Northern Ireland and primarily in Belfast, resulted in the Troubles that were prevalent in the late 20th century between the Catholics and Protestants.