Bloody Sunday resulted in the views of Nationalists and the Republicans becoming much more extreme. This meant that a lot more of the Republicans resulted in fighting back with fire and getting violent against their enemies just as the British did. Because of this, many Splinter Groups formed such as the Provisional IRA, the Real IRA and the Continuity IRA to take revenge into their own hands. This led to various IRA attacks from splinter groups such as the Real IRA and the Continuity IRA. Now, the views of the Catholics have calmed down in most cases and have forgiven the British nation. There are very few who still hold real grudges but there are some, for example; on 7th March 2009 the Continuity IRA killed two British soldiers to remind the British that they are not over with the situation
Eleven weeks after Bloody Sunday, the Widgery Report was publicised. This stated that it was just for the British army to open fire, and that the Catholics had nothing to complain or rebel about, when to the Catholics it was quite obviously the opposite. This angered the Catholics even more as the enquiry was completed in such a short time it was quite obvious that it was done half-heartedly and not thought through thoroughly enough. This made the Catholics furious and more and more Nationalists and Republicans resulted in violence but when Tony Blair was elected as prime minister, he decided that a new report was to be made, the Saville report. This gave many Catholics hope and quietened the Nationalists and Republicans down a little bit as there was a possibility that the truth would now be exposed. On March 21st 2010 the Saville report is expected to come out. The report is of the same nature as the Widgery report but just done under more care and more present day views. This enquiry could either anger the Catholics even though most have them have forgiven the British or finally put the Republicans at ease, but by doing so anger the Loyalists. So technically, for the British it is an all lose situation.
To conclude, I believe that the general effect of Bloody Sunday on the Catholics at the time of the event was that it polarised the majority of their views. A definition of the word polarised is ‘to divide or cause to divide into two sharply contrasting groups or beliefs’. This means that many people who were Nationalist or Catholic ended up turning into Republicans who were furious at the British Government and the British Army.
Question 1B
‘How has Partition shaped the views of the Loyalists/Unionists’?
On 6th December 1922 Ireland was divided into two sections. The main reason for this was to attempt to keep peace between the ongoing conflict and dispute between the Catholics and the Protestants. Originally, the Protestants wanted for the whole of Ireland to be part of Great Britain, disaster for them would be for the whole of Ireland to be independent. It is difficult to answer this question with an exact analysis as there was an enormous variation in the thoughts of the Protestants and the Loyalists.
One of the most prominent shaping factors of the Protestant views was their fear of the Catholics. Partition divided the country into two, giving around a fifth of the land to the Catholics. After this, the Protestants began to feel threatened and besieged by the Catholics as their country, Northern Ireland was now surrounded by the land of the Catholics, now called the Republic of Ireland. Besides, the Protestants were greatly outnumbered by the Catholics. Furthermore, they knew they had treated the Catholics terribly, for example the Penal laws between 1697 and 1727 were enforced. Knowing that the majority of the police were on their side, in 1971 Internment was passed. This gave many Catholics a sense of security saw it as a way of terminating some of the Nationalist rebellions. Another thing that gave the Protestants security was the creation of the B-Specials. These were very brutal Protestant citizens who took the law into their own hands to protect the Unionists. One of the few things that kept the Protestant minds at ease was knowing that they had the British power to support them, until in 1985 the Anglo-Irish agreement when M.Thatcher negotiates with the Republic of Ireland. Even though it was trying to result in ending The Troubles in the north, the Protestants began to feel betrayed and deceived by the British and questioned their alliance. Also, in 1971 the Protestants created the UDA, the fact that they needed this showed that they didn’t bank on the British alliance. There was an enormous amount of differing opinions of the fear of the Republic of Ireland. In the past, almost all of the Catholics were fearful of how the Republic of Ireland were going to take their revenge but now, their fear has eased down.
The IRA and many other splinter groups caused much damage to the Irish Protestants and they were another shaping factor of their views. In October 1920 the Unionists formed the B-specials who were a reserve police force called out in times of special need. They were almost all Unionists and Protestants so they were biased against the Catholics. The B-specials gave the Protestants a little bit of hope against the very threatening IRA but they were not enough. Again, in 1971 the UDA were formed to protect them from the IRA. This shows that there has always been a certain element of fear of the IRA, as the Protestants knew that their defences were no matches. To this present day there are still many Protestants that are scared of the IRA, as there are still IRA attacks. The Majority of the Protestants thought the partition would separate the two sides and the IRA tension would ease down.
As the Catholics greatly outnumbered the Protestants the Protestants feared power sharing, as they knew that their voices would no longer be heard. One of the original policies of the Constitution of the Republic of Ireland created in 1922 was to Unite Ireland but the Protestants dropped it. Whenever there was an election in Londonderry the Protestants would use Gerrymandering to reassure that they would win. Another example of the Protestant fear of power sharing was when Terence O’Neil was voted out as there were suspicions that he would share some of the power. The Unionists even made a strike in 1973-1974 against the power sharing agreement
In conclusion I believe that over all, I think that the Unionists saw partition as an easy escape as many of them thought that the punishment would have been worse. They also saw partition as an easy escape from the Republican revenge. Besides, they only signed the agreement thinking that it was only temporary and was a small step in the right direction in the sense that not all of Ireland was independent and they remained under British rule. Now, there is a social divide between the Catholics and the Protestants but there isn’t much anger between the two.