During the era of these three powerful figures and the catholic church Ireland was very different from what we know it today. In old Ireland Religion and then Irish language where extremely important to the identity of being Irish. According to Dunn and Hennessey (1996), during the era of Irish independence and the step towards gealicising the Irish identity, alienated many of Irish people from their right of feeling Irish and understanding Irishness. These included the unionists in Ireland who were in favour to remain part of Great Britain. This led to many years of riots between the republicans and unionists, and the majority of Ireland viewing Unionists in the North of Ireland British rather than Irish, even though they were born and raised on the island, they were not associated with being truly