Liam's Irish Traditional Music - Irelands culture and tradition

Some Irish nationalists saw a need to unite with others within the British Empire, so that the fight for political freedom would have more strength. The links between Ireland and India were clear to Irish nationalists, both countries were ruled by the British Parliament, and had a standing army to maintain law and order. Many soldiers of the British army in India were Irish the army in which they served kept order in India and in Ireland. Amongst Irish soldiers in the Indian army, and Irish nationalists in Ireland, there was sympathy for the Indians who were ruled by Britain.

An Irish nationalist speaks out against the British Empire: If the people of Ireland have a right to their own country, the people of India have as just a claim to theirs; if it is wrong to plunder the Irish, it is' also wrong to plunder the Hindu's; but if, on the other hand, it is justifiable in Irishmen to go forth to rob and enslave the Hindu's, and Ashanti's, and other peoples, then we say, it is justifiable in Danes and Normans and Saxons to rob and enslave the Irish.

(Source. written by, Patrick Ford, a Fenian, in an American newspaper, the New York Irish world 12 August 1876. The paper was smuggled into Ireland each week.)

There were some Indian nationalists who expressed similar feeling, of sympathy for Irish people, and could see that there were wider implications than just fighting for freedom in India or Ireland. However, such Attitudes were rare. The Indian and Irish nationalist movements were to develop separately. Irish politics were to be dominated by the constitutional attitudes of two important Irish politicians who focused attention solely on the Anglo-Irish connection.