In 2009, I wrote about how the United States can look around the world for inspiration that all Americans should WANT a Separation of Church and State, including those who believe in their higher power.

That example examined the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and how religion played its part interfering with politics which exacerbated an already explosive situation. In 2010, I will carry on that same argument with a look into another such example a little closer to home between the Irish and the English.

Source: goeurope.about.com

This conflict is in many ways very similar to the situation between Israel and Palestine and proves these sort of conflicts are not isolated to the Middle East, Jews or Muslims.

It’s a fight over land and of faith. It all came about 1169 when the English invaded and obtained control over most of the Irish homeland. Thus the political (land) portion of the conflict began. The catalyst of the conflict occurred when, in 1536, King Henry the VIII, a former Catholic turned Protestant, made an unsuccessful attempt to reform the Irish Catholics. This was the catalyst of the religious conflict between the Irish and the English that exists to this very day.

It wasn’t until 1921 until Irish (Catholics) gained their independence for “Home Rule” from the English along with a large majority of the Irish homeland. Irish Protestants, not wanting to be any part of a Irish Catholic rule, put up a fight and remained under English rule in the newly formed country of Northern Ireland.

The pattern of violence that has erupted out of this conflict is practically as alive today as it was then.

The Civil War alone resulted in the deaths of 2100 civilians, policemen and soldiers in 1881. 22,000 more were injured. It is reported that 7,610 people were brought before a court of law for murder, bombing and terrorism. By 1993, approximately 3,000 more lives were taken over this conflict.

“Bloody Sunday” (January 30, 1972) is the notorious event where 14 civilians which were gunned down by the British Army during a Civil Rights March in Derry, Northern Ireland. That was followed by “Bloody Friday” where the IRA set off 22 bombs within 75 minutes killing 9 and injuring approximately 130 others.

In 1996, the Irish Republican Army (IRA), formed in 1919 as a revolutionary military organization who opposed British (and Protestant) rule, exploded a bomb injuring 200 after ending a cease fire instituted in 1994. In 1998, 28 more are killed by IRA bombings.

In 2000, Sinn Fein, Ireland’s oldest political movement, promises that the IRA will put down their weapons, yet the rioting and violence continued as displayed on this event which occurred on July, 13, 2009:

This is why our Founding Fathers were brilliant and implied a Separation of Church and State. This is what happens when politics and religion attempt to mingle. While so far the United States has not had such rioting or violence, its precisely what our brilliant Founders wanted to prevent. That is why it should be supported by US citizens, the government and the church.