A background to the violence in Northern Ireland

Tom Grigg 11PT

Tom

This is the restructured version for you to think about. If you decide to structure it this way, you may find that you need to re-jig some sections a little – I’m not sure without re-reading it and I don’t have time now

A background to the violence in Northern Ireland

In 1796 and 1798 Wolf Tone tried to free Ireland from Britain’s control but this ended in defeat. The British government responded to Wolf Tones movement by the Act Of Union in 1801. The act officially joined Great Britain and Ireland together. The term Unionist, which describes those who wanted the Act to happen, began after the Act Of Union.

In the 19th century the main aim of the Protestant community was to remain united with Great Britain. The main aim of the Catholics was full Catholic emancipation. They want Ireland to become united with Northern Ireland and completely independent from Britain. Daniel O’Connell, a Catholic Lawyer, became the leader of the people fighting for this. In 1829 the British government feared a new Irish rebellion and they pushed through the Catholic Emancipation Act that granted full legal equality to Catholics. Although this gave Catholics full political rights in the Protestant dominated British parliament, Catholics were in the minority.

The Orange Order was a semi-secret society set up in the 1790s. It celebrated William of Orange’s victory at the battle of the Boyne, which they still hold marches to celebrate and they also aim to keep power in Protestant hands, by swearing to defend the religion. It is the largest Protestant organisation in Northern Ireland and they support the Official Unionist Party (OUP), however they are not a political party.

The IRB was set up in the 1850s in America. Its members were Irish people who had been forced to emigrate during the great famine of 1845-1849. After 1867 they realised that there was little support for armed uprisings and began helping the poor farmers against harsh landlords. In the 1880s the IRB organised a ‘Land League’ to stop landlords from evicting tenants for not paying their rent. This was successful, forcing the British government to change the land laws. By the early 1900s support for the IRB was slowly growing.

Because most of the population were poor, they had to survive mainly on potatoes. However, when disease wiped out most of the crop, many were left with nothing to eat. At this time the Industrial Revolution was taking place and Britain was acquiring new machinery. Much of it was brought to Ulster where both Catholic and Protestant went to get jobs. But as Protestant landlords were able to afford imports of grain, the Catholics, stricken with poverty, were left to die. Do you know how many died? If so, tell us here. The Prime Minister, Sir Robert Peel, introduced relief schemes in the poorest communities to enable people to earn enough money to buy maize that the government imported from the United States. But these measures were totally inadequate. The Catholics blame Britain for not providing enough food for them and causing them to starve. The British have always claimed that this failure was due to a genuine inability to grasp the size of the problem; the Nationalists claim it was a deliberate policy of genocide.

This is a preview of the whole essay

When the Partition Treaty was signed in 1921, both British and Sinn Fein leaders saw it as a temporary solution to Ireland’s problems. Both hoped that, in time, these problems could be sorted out so that Ireland could become a united country again. This has not happened. Instead the two parts of Ireland have drifted further apart. Also, since 1968-1969 there has been conflict in the North between Unionists who want to keep Ireland divided and Nationalists who want all of Ireland to be reunited. In the late 19th century and early 20th century the violence between Protestants and Catholics continued on and off. Another of the main reasons for this was the issue over Home Rule. This meant that Ireland would remain under British control in matters such as foreign and defence policy but that an independent Irish parliament would deal with domestic policies. Between 1893 and 1913 the Home Rule bill was passed through the House of Commons three times but was prevented from becoming law because of the House of Lords. Ulster loyalists threatened to rise up if Britain abandoned them to the Catholic majority. Protestants were scared of losing dominance. Due to Home Rule attempts, Loyalists set up the UVF.

The IRB weren’t prepared to settle for home rule. They wanted complete independence. They rebelled on Easter Monday in 1916. Tell us here what they did and what happened.

This history is not a good foundation for peace in Northern Ireland, and it is not just between the Protestants and Catholics that there is fighting: there is also fighting within each sector of the population, as explained below.

Why is there violence within both Unionist and Nationalist groups in Northern Ireland?

There is violence within both Unionist and Nationalist groups in Northern Ireland because of disagreements over the Good Friday agreement. This is the national focus of their violence. Explain a bit more about the history here – the GF agreement is only a recent attempt to bring peace after hundreds of years of fighting over whether Ireland is unified into one separate country (the IRA and other Catholic terrorist groups want this), or kept as two countries with Northern Ireland belonging to the United Kingdom, as it is at present. The unionists, who are Protestant, want this.

Here, you need to explain what the Good Friday agreement will actually do if is all works out ok – maybe move the entire paragraph I have marked to here from page 2??

The Catholic terrorist groups do not like the idea of the Good Friday agreement because it is bringing peace instead of a United Ireland. [Why don’t they want peace? If there is peace at present, it will keep Ireland as two countries, with the Northern part belonging to the UK, which the Catholic groups don’t want] The Real Irish Republic Army (RIRA) broke off from the Provisional IRA (PIRA) because of the Good Friday agreement bringing peace instead of a united Ireland. The RIRA and the Continuity IRA have broken off from the PIRA, which is on a ceasefire at the moment. It is also the biggest splinter group. The PIRA have no control over the splinter groups. The RIRA do not want power shared in an assembly in Northern Ireland because it used to be completely protestant so why don’t they want power shared? I don’t understand the reasoning here. Because of the splinter groups not being on a ceasefire, there is fighting amongst themselves and deaths have occurred because of it. The RIRA is believed to have been stepping up efforts to destabilise the peace process and stop the decommissioning of weapons happening. It is believed that up to a dozen PIRA bomb makers are now with the RIRA, which is not a good sign.

There is a lot of violence in Northern Ireland but what is more worrying is that there is violence in amongst the IRA and its splinter groups. This is because the groups on the ceasefire are annoyed that the groups that aren’t, but are still killing. This means that members of different IRA groups are killing each other which increases the anger all round.

The Protestant terrorist groups are fighting to keep Northern Ireland part of the United Kingdom. The main terrorist groups are the Ulster Freedom Fighters (UFF), the Loyalist Volunteer Force (LVF), the Ulster Defence Association (UDA) and the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF). The LVF are a splinter group off the UVF. All of these parties are against the Good Friday agreement because they want Northern Ireland united with Britain, and the Good Friday agreement might change that. This is because….. (I’m not sure myself so I can’t help you here, but you need to explain)

There is violence among the groups mainly due to ‘turf wars’. Turf wars are …. (explain them here) John ‘Mad Dog’ Adair runs major illegal drug trafficking and lots of protection rackets. Mad Dog is in the LVF. The UVF are trying to get more territory by joining with the LVF but the LVF realised this and the LVF started to kill the members of the UVF who in turn retaliated.

Unionists have to focus their violence locally because if they set off bombs in England, then they are blowing up the country that they are fighting to stay part of.

I would move the whole of the paragraph below to the point I mentioned near the start, to explain the agreement there instead of here

The main points of the Good Friday agreement are an assembly in Northern Ireland with power sharing. In the assembly there will be North-South bodies and East-West bodies to give a fair and un-biased view on the troubles in Northern Ireland. All of the parties agree to the Mitchell principles. The Mitchell principles are mainly to do with decommissioning. Mitchell, an ex-US senator reported that decommissioning could not start until talks had begun. He recommended that all parties used democratic and non-violent methods.

Unionists are split over this because they do not want to be ruled by a Catholic government.

The reasons for violence amongst Protestants have been going on for so long that few people can remember the origins of the violence. The UDA have called the UVF the “Peace People” for looking for a peaceful and democratic way out of the violence. Some of the rivalry is to do with turf wars. You have already said this, above – you need to make one paragraph out of the two paragraphs that mention turf wars The UDA is thought to be controlling much of the illegal drugs trade and have a very big protection racket in Northern Ireland. The UVF want in on the drugs and protection rackets but the UDA has said that they will kill members of the UVF if it tries to get power on their turf.

The Omagh bomb happened because [say what the Omagh bomb was – start the paragraph: In 199? The UVF/IRA etc – who was it??? – set off a bomb in Omagh which killed x people. This happened because…]

Other incidents linked to the RIRA include a fertilizer explosive in London on the 9th February 1996. By the 28th February, London had agreed to all-party talks. Sinn Fein (the political, and therefore the acceptable, voice of the IRA) would be included only if the ceasefire was restored. Another explosion occurred in Manchester on the 15th June 1996?. Also, September 17th 1997 a bomb exploded in the protestant town of Millfield in Northern Ireland? outside an RUC station just before the Unionists were preparing to join the negotiations leading to the Good Friday agreement. The Continuity IRA admitted to triggering the bomb. This was another attempt to disrupt the peace process.

An example of fighting between Catholics is the RIRA blaming the PIRA for the murder of the Belfast leader, Joseph O’Connor. They also planned to avenge him but the political wing of the IRA said that they did not speak for him.

The current state of play in Northern Ireland has changed dramatically over the last week. (If you say this you have to make sure that you date this piece of work) A while ago there seemed to be no peaceful conclusion to this dreadful area of violence. Two weeks ago catholic children and parents had to be protected when they walked to school because Protestants would not let them through a Protestant road, which leads onto the main entrance to a Catholic school. Verbal abuse and missiles were hurled at the Catholics; some of the children are only six or seven. The Protestants want them to walk a different way to school but the Catholics say that it is their right to walk to school that way.

Recently though the IRA has started to decommission its weapons. This is a very important step in the peace process and I think that it is the beginning of end of all the fighting at last. You need to say why you think it has suddenly all changed – was it because of the external threat of another religious war, but one that will affect all of those in the West – that if Islam terrorists fighting the West? If so, mention the World Trade Centre terrorist attacks and that this has changed everyone’s perceptions of the war in Ireland.

Why has there been so much violence between the Catholic and Protestant communities in Ireland in the last 200 years?

There has been friction and sometimes violence between Catholics and Protestants in Ireland for many centuries, as explained in the ‘background’ section at the start of this project. The present crisis in Northern Ireland began in 1968, when British troops were sent to Northern Ireland to protect the Catholics from Protestant discrimination and violence. Unionist politicians had begun to take a more sympathetic attitude to Nationalists in the North and South. Ordinary Protestants began to fear the idea of a united Ireland. They began to attack Catholic civil rights marches and the troubles began. It was during these marches that the fighting first broke out between Catholics, Protestants and the Police. Since then thousands have been killed or injured. This conflict has been going on ever since.

Religion is one of the main causes of the violence because all of the people in Ireland used to be Catholic. Then Britain came and planted Protestants in to Ireland during 1155-1533 and they got all of the best jobs leaving the Catholics with not much. This forced the Catholics to become socially lower than the Protestants and the Catholics resented England and the Protestants for that.

Irish land history is another major factor contributing to the violence. The English took land from Catholics and gave it to Protestants. This provoked the Catholics and they began to attack Protestants. The Protestants retaliated and this went on for a while. King James II came to the English? throne in 1685. He was a Catholic King and the Protestant Irish were scared that the Catholics who were helped by James II would overthrow them. Luckily for the Irish Protestants the English did not like James II and they overthrew him. William of Orange then became king. James went to France to gather an army and then went to Ireland to get support of the Catholic Irish. William of Orange and James II met at the Battle of the Boyne. William beat James and the Irish Protestants knew that they were going to be the top dogs of Ireland for quite a while.

I have moved this from above because it makes a good conclusion:

The true source of violence between the Catholic and Protestant communities is not simple. There are many factors: religion, politics, nationality, culture and history which all mix in together. To say that any of one them is the main cause would be too simple because all of the key factors have a part to play. Before there can be peace politicians need to look at all the factors and make everyone aware how important peace is. In the last week it looks as though this might be happening and that there is some new hope for the stability of Northern Ireland.