It’s much more complicated than that. We tend to forget that the British Empire was not a benign affair committed to the spread of human rights and democracy (sure it was better than the French).
The Irish have a long and bloody history under British rule. There was the Potato famine and the Irish War of Independence (1919 - 1921).
Let us not forget that it was the Americans that forced the British and French to promote human rights and democracy outside their home countries (they didn’t do it willingly).
You'll have to show some evidence for that statement. I think the real reason was the British knew that what they were doing was wrong and changed due to internal pressures. I believe in general the British public favored giving their colonies their independence. There was certainly no way Ireland could stand up to the British army over time.
But many Brits knew that colonization would eventually lead to demands for independence. Prime Minister William Gladstone was a proponent of Irish independence back in the late nineteeth century. Like a lot of ideas the idea that Britain should not forcibly rule certain foreign populations is one that eventually became the prevailing idea among most Brits. I doubt we had much, or anything, to do with them changing.
“It’s much more complicated than that.”
Yes it is. But the Irish simplify it down to “Britain = always bad”, so I see no reason why they cant get the same treatment themselves.
“We tend to forget that the British Empire was not a benign affair committed to the spread of human rights and democracy (sure it was better than the French).”
I dont forget it. The Empire was simply a very large, very successful trading cartel. Individual Britons were very interested in the spread of democracy and human rights, but the Empire was smart enough to realise that you can take the donkey to water, but its a bad idea to force it to drink. That’s what American foreign policy (espec under FDR) gets wrong time and time again. If people want to live in a particular way...thats their prerogative. You may think they are wrong, and stupid, and even self-destructive...but its their choice. You are promoting individual freedom, after all?
“The Irish have a long and bloody history under British rule. There was the Potato famine and the Irish War of Independence (1919 - 1921).”
That is not the point I am making. Oppression, slavery, blood and injustice are a fact of Human history. Tragic, and stupid, but a fact. Over the years the Irish have had their fair share of it. Let me be generous...more than their fair share. The problem is that while other peoples have a vague folk memory of past wrongs, the Irish drill stories into their children from knee-high. Whereas other peoples put a dignified little monument at an old battlefield, the Irish raise a massive museum on it. Whereas other peoples have a commemorative plaque on the site of a massacre, the Irish make a shrine on it. They never forget the past, consequently they never forgive the past, and therefore they are forever shackled by the past. I’ve been to Ireland. I’ve seen all this. It’s a disgusting sight - an entire nation with a martyr complex. Well, I am NOT buying into it. I am not, I WILL not feel guilty for the alleged misdeeds (and these stories lose nothing in the telling) of folk who might have been my ancestors.
“Let us not forget that it was the Americans that forced the British and French to promote human rights and democracy outside their home countries (they didn’t do it willingly).”
What do you mean? Like slavery for example? Americans would have been happily shipping slaves in the early nineteenth century if the Royal Navy hadnt stopped the practice. Or are you referring to the dismantling of the empire after WW2? Yeah that worked well...many of the new countries are real standard bearers for human rights and democracy right up to this day.