The purpose of Source C, as UPA propaganda, was to influence Protestant employers, and shows that anti-catholic feelings were present at the time. The ‘UPA’ was founded by radical Unionists so the views expressed in Source C are very extreme and do not necessarily represent the opinion of employers.
Sources B and C show different examples of prejudice against Catholics, and therefore that it may have affected many aspects of life. However, from the sources it is difficult to assess the full extent to which this discrimination affected Catholics. Although Source B is very reliable, it only describes the treatment of Catholics in ‘Linfield football club.’ Billy Sinclair is a ‘former player-manager’, therefore we cannot know if prejudice towards Catholics was still present in football in 1984. Similarly, we cannot tell from Source B if prejudice towards Catholics was present before 1959 or even whether employers chose to listen to the UPA and discriminate against Catholics.
4. In Source G, Reverend Ian Paisley suggests that ‘civil rights’ was an IRA movement focused around Nationalism rather than trying to achieve equality for Catholics.
Source H shows that ‘Republicans’ were involved in civil rights as they were members of NICRA, partially supporting Paisley. However, Source H suggests that Nationalists never held a majority in NICRA, contesting that all ‘those’ connected to civil rights were IRA followers. Source H also disagrees with Source G as it suggests that ‘Republicans’ themselves were trying to ‘prevent’ rather than instigate violence, going against its traditional ‘views and objectives.’
Source I states that there were ‘undoubtedly’ members of NICRA who held ‘extreme republican views,’ agreeing to some extent with Source G, as it shows that the IRA took part in ‘civil rights.’ Source I specifically notes that the IRA took a ‘close interest’ in NICRA and ‘civil rights’ from the ‘beginning.’ This suggests that the IRA may have partly been ‘behind civil rights,’ not wholly agreeing with Paisley. However, Source I observes that NICRA was ‘politically varied’, and that ‘most’ and not all its members were Catholic, thus implying that some members may have even been Protestant. This disproves that the Catholic IRA was in total control of ‘civil rights’. NICRA also particularly banned the ‘Republican Tricolour,’ which suggests that NICRA disassociated itself from the IRA and that it did not have the same ‘views and objectives.’
Both sources make it clear that not all those associated with NICRA had the same ‘views and objectives,’ and thereby disagree with Paisley’s rather extreme view that the IRA, or Nationalists, were solely ‘behind civil rights.’ However, they do note that the IRA played a key a role in civil rights, as they show that ‘Republicans’ were involved in civil rights organisations. Source H even suggests that they may have taken over the ‘civil rights’ campaign ‘later on,’ although not at the beginning, as Paisley suggests.
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3. Londonderry has been an area of conflict between Protestants and Catholics since 1689. At that time it was a Protestant stronghold, however by 1966 it was over 60% Catholic. Source E shows that Nationalist votes greatly outnumbered Unionist votes in Londonderry and Source F illustrates how most of Derry was ‘over 70 % Roman Catholic,’ indicating a Catholic majority. Therefore, sectarian discrimination disadvantaging Catholics would have had a great impact on the city.
Sources E and F show that the local government boundaries of Londonderry were ‘gerrymandered’ so that even with a Catholic majority, a unionist councillor majority was produced, Protestants thereby retaining control of a Catholic city. County councils advocated sectarian discrimination against Catholics, and gerrymandering meant that Protestants could keep control, which greatly discriminated against Catholics.
Catholics disproportionately experienced social deprivation, due to sectarian discrimination. The outside bath depicted in Source D also indicates that the house did not have running water, even though it was the 1960’s, showing the poor living conditions experienced by Catholics.
Housing was a particular grievance of Derry Catholics; this resulted in a banned civil rights march through Londonderry in October 1968, protesting against the unfair allocation of council housing. This was a major turning point in the civil rights campaign, as the televised images of the RUC’s police brutality towards the unarmed protestors, provoked an outraged reaction within the Catholic community. In the ‘fifty day revolution’ that followed civil rights branched all over Northern Ireland.
From this point onwards, Londonderry became a focus of civil rights confrontations as the violence escalated. Further incidents in Derry, such as The ‘Battle of Bogside’ in August 1969, caused riots in Catholic districts throughout Northern Ireland. ‘Bloody Sunday’ occurred in Londonderry in January 1972, this infamous day where the British Army killed 13 peaceful Catholic demonstrators , instigated the total collapse of civil rights into radical Nationalist violence led by the IRA.
Londonderry the second largest city in Northern Ireland had a significant Catholic population. The flagrant discrimination illustrated in Sources E and F and the poverty shown in Source D provoked the large Catholic community in Derry to take the first direct action in civil rights, also inspired by the movement in America. Further major demonstrations in the city established Derry as the centre of civil rights in Northern Ireland.
5. The ‘Troubles’ is the name given to the paramilitary killings that started in Northern Ireland in the early 1970’s, however the nature of the ‘troubles’ began to change into the 1990’s. Source J does illustrate some of the major reasons behind the continuing ‘Troubles. The steps, on which the characters in Source J are treading, have no end, suggesting that the crisis is almost a vicious circle of political disagreement and violence, with no solution to the crisis. However, it does not really illustrate the long-term causes of these problems that were still prominent concerns in Northern Ireland. Source J is the front cover of a book which only deals with the ‘Troubles’ till 1991, and therefore it does not illustrate why violence continued later on in the 1990s. However, Source J’s portrayal of the causes of the ‘Troubles’ does encompass the essential issues behind why they continued in the 1990s.
The paramilitary figure in Source J holds explosives and moves in the opposite direction of all the other characters, thus suggesting that they were impeding any solution to the crisis using violent means. This ceaseless violence did hinder the peace process, as no solution could be found in such an unsettled climate. The ceasefire in 1994 allowed the IRA’s political wing Sinn Fein to enter negotiations towards a peace settlement, many developments in the peace process took place whilst it lasted. This shows that the political ‘troubles’ could only really be resolved once the violence ended. The IRA’s unwillingness to fully decommission and end its aggressive policing of Catholic communities significantly delayed the peace process in the 1990s, as decommissioning ensured an end to the ‘Troubles.’
Source J also portrays the politician continuing on the endless cycle, suggesting that politicians were unable to find a political solution. Although partly due to escalating violence, the politicians themselves were too entrenched in their own positions to come to a permanent settlement. Any agreement that accepted sharing power with the Republic outraged Unionists, whereas any agreement that accepted the partition of Ireland angered Nationalists, in this way the ‘Troubles’ remained unresolved.
Source J does not show the reasons behind these militant Unionist and Nationalist views. This was partly due to parties, like Sinn Fein, who acted as political faces for paramilitary organisations and became influential political powers. However, this also reflects how the ‘Troubles’ in Northern Ireland became far more political than violent in the 1990s. Politics also reflect the sectarianism and polarisation of Northern Ireland, as Catholics voted for Nationalists and Protestants voted for Unionists. Although parties like the SDLP highlighted economic and social issues, attracting votes, there was still a large sectarian divide in politics. Source J shows how the politician is following behind the priest, perhaps suggesting this sectarianism.
Sectarian discrimination is perhaps a primary long term cause behind the ‘Troubles,’ and is not shown in Source J. Catholics disproportionately affected by poverty, as the house in Source D suggests, because of the ‘anti-catholic prejudice’ shown in Sources A, B and C. This combined with the discriminatory procedures like gerrymandering, shown in sources E and F led to the ‘civil rights’ movement. This movement led to a growth in paramilitary activities.
Sources G, H and I show that the IRA became actively involved in ‘civil rights’ and eventually took ‘control’ of the movement. Source G suggests that militant Unionists saw ‘civil rights’ as an IRA campaign, so in response they began to organise violent counter action themselves. The loyalist paramilitaries were acting in retaliation to ‘civil rights’ when they began the ‘Troubles,’ and this in turn provoked retribution from the IRA. This ‘tit for tat’ retaliation created a never-ending cycle of violence, which caused the ‘Troubles’ to continue into the 1990s,.
British involvement, not shown in Source J, had a major affect on the crisis. Although Britain played a major role in the political peace process, it only caused IRA violence and the ‘Troubles’ to increase. At first, the British army was welcomed as a neutral force, and as a replacement to the Protestant RUC. However, after it advocated internment, which clearly discriminated against Catholics and incidents like Bloody Sunday, support for IRA attacks on British forces grew. After Direct Rule was imposed in 1972, the ‘Troubles’ spread across to Britain well into the 1990s. This is because the IRA believed that this would force Britain to leave and end its unification with Ireland.
Although Source J illustrates the main reasons for the ‘Troubled Times’ in Northern Ireland it does not show the lasting causes of this violence and how they still affected the ‘Troubles’ in the 1990s. The ‘civil rights movement’ in the 1970’s, caused by sectarian discrimination led to the outbreak of paramilitary violence, whilst outside influences like the British army escalated this violence. Without a solution to economic and social instability, which primarily caused the ‘Troubles,’ no permanent political solution to the crisis could be found, and so it continued well into the 1990s.
