We need to recognise Irish participation in the British colonial story
Emigration is elephant in the room when thinking about Irish people and the Empire
Tue, Mar 2, 2021, 00:42
Niamh Gallagher
Between 1855 and 1863, some 24 per cent of Indian Civil Service recruits came from Irish universities, including Trinity College. Photograph: iStock
The violence and coercion exercised within the British Empire to acquire land, resources, and trading routes casts a long shadow on peoples and communities. The Ashanti Wars (1870s-1900s), Second Anglo-Afghan War (1878-80), Anglo-Zulu War (1879), Anglo-Boer Wars (1880-1; 1899-1902), Occupation of Egypt (1882), Matabele Wars (1893-7), Amritsar massacre (1919), Mao Mao Uprising (1952-60) and Cypriot War of Independence (1955-9) are just some of the modern conflicts where the worst excesses of imperialism were employed.