September 19, 2006. The Context of U2: Growing Up in Ireland.
In session four we spent most of our class session discussing a brief history of the Protestant/Catholic conflict in Ireland. A few summary points:
Henry VIII defied the Pope and established the Protestant "Church of Ireland" in 1537.
Soon after, Britain began a process of colonization in Ireland called Plantations.
Irish Catholics were denied rights, land ownership and government offices for centuries.
The mid-20th century saw the partitioning of Ireland into Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.
The IRA formed as a paramilitary organization focused on the reunification of Ireland.
In the late 60s through the late 90s, a period known as the Troubles, the Nationalists (Provisional IRA, Catholic), the Unionists (Loyalists in Northern Ireland, Protestants), and the British government were in violent conflict with each other.
U2 spent their adolescence in turbulent years of violence and religious sectarianism. The band quickly became a voice against the violence and still can be heard proclaiming "religion as the enemy of God."
We spent another large chunk of time examining the song, "Sunday, Bloody Sunday." This song highlights the violence of three bloody Sundays. The first two are sad and painful days in 20th century Ireland. The third, in stark contrast, is Easter Sunday, a day in which the violence done to Christ was to usher in an era of love, the answer to earthly violence. We also spent time processing the concert footage of this song from Rattle & Hum (the now famous "f--- the revolution" clip).
For more detail, class notes are here; the PowerPoint presentation is here.
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