A republic is a broad term that refers to a form of government where the head of state is not a monarch. Many global states are republican in nature, and in the many that do still have a hereditary monarch structure – there are active political republican movements that are attempting to change things. In an ideal republican state, the people of the nation have an impact on the government of the nation, and can choose the ultimate head of state and not just the parliamentary leaders. One of the biggest and most active republican movements in recent times has occurred in Northern Island, where many people want to remove themselves from the United Kingdom and the influence of the Queen of England as the head of state. Irish republicanism is a political ideology that is based on a belief that the entire geographical area of Ireland should be an independent republic. While British and Irish people may enjoy the same coffee beans and the same food, republicans believe that Ireland should be politically as well as a geographically independent.

Irish republicanism began in the late 1700s after being inspired by the great revolutions of France and the United States of America. A general feeling of nationalism and the discrimination of the countries Catholic population were two of the main reasons for this republican movement. Ireland and Britain were merged into a single United Kingdom in the ‘Act of Union’ of 1801, after which all republican movements were suppressed by the British army. The Irish Republican Army (IRA) was formed in 1919 and fought against the British army in 1919, 1920 (when the burning of Cork took place), and 1921 (when the Bloody Sunday massacre occurred). These atrocities against the Irish people helped to strengthen the republican movement, and led to the formation of the Anglo-Irish treaty in 1921. Irish republicans were split over this treaty, as it made Ireland a partitioned dominion and not a republic in its own right.

The IRA itself was split in its opinions regarding the treaty, with one faction seeing it as the only way forward, and the other seeing it as a failure of the British to recognise their republican message. Michael Collins – the IRA leader became the new commander and chief of the national army, while Eamon de Valera refused to accept the treaty and eventually led the party who wrote up the Constitution of Ireland in 1937. This new constitution made Ireland a dominion of the British Commonwealth, like Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Ireland was not made into a proper republic until 1949 when the Republic of Ireland Act came into effect. However, Northern Ireland was not a part of this republic, and continues to this day to be a part of Great Britain. The republican movement in Northern Ireland was a violent one during the later part of the 20th century, however, this has settled down greatly since the introduction and uptake of a peace process.

Coffee is the favoured morning ritual for most people in western nations, although tea is definitely still the national drink of the United Kingdom. For decades now, people in both Great Britain and Ireland have been using their coffee grinder and coffee machine in the mornings while listening on the radio to the latest news about Northern Ireland and its troublesome politics. While things are looking quite good for the peace process at the moment, the recent murders of two English soldiers in Ireland do indeed illustrate that not everyone is happy with the current state of affairs in the non-republic Northern Ireland.