As a person who's born and raised in the UK the sentiment of Bonfire Night being a "celebration of his failure to otherthrow the country" is accurate. The occasion is in no way about celebrating either Guy Fawkes or his allies as they are essentially portrayed as terrorists. This is the interpretation I and those that I know have been taught.
What I do not think we were taught, however, is much about their motives - and if we were it certainly wasn't lingered on because that part of the article is new news to me. I had no idea that the Gunpowder Plot was a response to outright discriminatory laws, and this knowledge adds a lot of nuance to the situation as opposed to the very binary "good guy bad guy" narrative I've up until now been exposed to. I do not condone violence, but violent (especially if defensive) protests have had an impact on the future for marginalised groups, such as the Stonewall Riots. Makes me think about how different things would've be if the plan had succeeded and how the whole event would probably have been hidden away from the history books by the lawmakers in such case.
That's a very interesting perspective on this and i was thinking that when i was researching this topic as well.
It's funny to me that the Catholics were so upset about the religious persecution they suddenly found themselves at the behest of, after a very long period of doing precisely that to all other religions.
I'm with you about the hating violence thing and you are certainly right that if the plan had been successful it wouldn't even be recognized by the history books in all likelihood. For decades following the event it would likely have been illegal to even talk about it.
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