i christopher columbus christopher columbus was a famous explorer for spain but he was born in italy in the port city of genoa. As a young man he dreamed of being a sailor and he was very influenced by a book on the travels of marco polo to china in which he described all the wonderful things he saw there. Columbus was convinced the world was round and he decided that he would travel west to reach china and the indies. First he had to look for sponsorship and he eventually got the support of queen isabella of spain.

She helped to fund three ships and columbus set sail from the port of palos in spain in august 1492. The first stop made on the voyage was the canary islands in order to make repairs and bring on fresh food supplies. After a few weeks of sailing some of the sailors grew nervous and columbus promised to turn back if they did not reach land within a couple of days. Then in october 1492, the ships reached an island, which columbus called san salvador. The flagship sank and the timber was used to build a fort on the island that columbus called hispaniola. In march 1492, columbus returned to spain to a hero’s welcome and brought with him some native people as well as products from his travels.

Columbus made three more voyages but ended his career in shame as he was arrested for treating the native people with cruelty. Ii life for an irish landowner during the ulster plantation my name is shane maguire and my life has been completely changed since the arrival in my area of all the new settlers from scotland and england. All the changes began after the two most important chiefs in ulster, o’neill and o’donnell, left the country from lough swilly because they could not accept english rule. The new king james then decided that they were traitors and that their land should be given to new settlers who would be more loyal and trustworthy. Three groups of people were given land in ulster and they were called undertakers, servitors and loyal irish. I was allowed to rent some land from a man from scotland who was given 10 acres of land in my area. Many other irish people were driven off their land and they spent years carrying out attacks on the new settlers.

The man who owns the land came from scotland and he is a member of the presbyterian religion. Many more new settlers arrived and they began to build new towns all over ulster. These new towns, such as enniskillen, all had a market square, protestant churches and a court house.

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The new settlers also brought new ways of farming to the area and began to grow quite a lot of crops such as wheat and oats. Ulster has completely changed for us now because english is the most spoken language and the law is that of the king of england. I michael collins michael collins is a good example of an irish leader in the struggle for irish independence. He was born in cork and he emigrated to london where he worked in a post office and in a bank. He also secretly joined the irish volunteers and returned to ireland in 1916 to take part in the rising where he fought in the gpo. After the defeat, he was arrested and sent to a prison camp in england where he became a leader.

When he returned to ireland, he began to reorganise the irish volunteers and he became a member of the sinn fйin party, which was led by eamon de valera. In 1919, collins was elected to the first dбil but it was declared illegal by the british government. The members of the cabinet were forced to meet in secret locations all around dublin. Michael collins and cathal brugha also set up the ira and they began to attack ric barracks all over the country.

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Michael collins came up with a new way of fighting the british forces, which was the use of guerrilla warfare. A group of ira men, who were called a flying column, carried out attacks on the new army recruits sent over from england, called the black and tans. Very often they retaliated by burning down whole towns and by arresting large numbers of people. The whole city centre of cork was burnt down after an ambush carried out by the ira at kilmichael, co. Michael collins spent most of his time in dublin and he organised a special squad of twelve ira hit men who carried out attacks on detectives based in dublin castle. He also set up a network of spies who passed on information to him about what the british planned to do in ireland. One of the worst days of the whole war of independence was known as bloody sunday in november 1920.

Fourteen british agents were shot dead in dublin and in the afternoon, twelve innocent irish spectators at a football match in croke park were shot dead by the black and tans. In early 1921, both the leaders of the ira and the british government decided to try to put an end to the war and a truce was called. Michael collins and arthur griffith spent a few weeks in london and a treaty was signed. When they returned to ireland, a huge split occurred in the country as many people supported the treaty but a large number, led by de valera, were against it. spih: the life of a monk in early christian ireland christian missionaries began to arrive in ireland to convert pagan celts to christianity between 400 and 500 ad. Soon, some devout christians decided to live away from the other people and they built monasteries where they could pray. Monasteries resembled forts in many ways and they had a sacred and a non sacred section.