Conflict in Ireland

MODERN WORLD STUDY: Conflict in Ireland

INTRODUCTION:

Throughout this piece of coursework, I will be investigating the history of conflict in Ireland, and which events helped shape the course of it in the 20th century.

Question one will see me analysing and writing about the impact of three major events on the history of conflict in Ireland. These are…

The Easter Rising in 1916.
The deployment of British troops in Northern Ireland, 1969.
Burntollet Bridge, 1969.

Question 2 will see me analysing the events that occurred on the 30th January 1972 in Derry, which became known as ‘Bloody Sunday’. I will be answering the question ‘Why have these events produced such different historical interpretations?’ and I will be using to various sources and any other interpretations of the events from my studies.

Question 1

The Easter Rising, 1916

The Easter Rising of 1916 had profound and far-reaching effects on Ireland's history. It has been referred to as 'The Irish War for Independence' and was the turning point in ultimately securing independence for the Republic of Ireland.

It began on an Easter Monday, April 24th 1916 when a force estimated between 1,000 and 1500 Irishmen and women with the intention of abolishing British rule in Ireland to create independence tried to seize Dublin. The two main leaders, Patrick Pearse and James Connolly knew that their chances were incredibly slim as to be almost non-existent. However they still fought, and they still died. The Easter Rising was a complete failure and left large parts of Dublin in ruins but without it Ireland might never have been free of English rule, and the three leaders remain, to this day, the country’s greatest heroes.

No one could have predicted the repercussions and the aftermath of the Easter Rising. On the fateful day when Connolly and Pearse surrendered unconditionally and it was finally over, the majority of people in Dublin were horrified and very angry towards the rebels. As the rebels were led away to prison, they were spat at and threatened by the hostile crowds who were, of course, expressing their anger at the number of fatalities it had caused, and the scale of destruction and distress. Also it’s timing enraged relatives of those fighting with the British Army.

It was the response of the British Government to the Rising, which strongly contributed to the further alienation of the Irish public opinion. Martial law was introduced on 26th April 1916 and the next day appointed Major-General Sir John Maxwell as Commander-in-Chief of troops, Ireland. He was given the authority to restore order, put down the rebellion, and punish its participants. He had never doubted that the leaders should stand trial and those most prominent, executed. 191 people, including 1 woman were tried and in 90 cases were sentenced to execution by being shot. Maxwell confirmed this judgement on 15 cases and those 15 were executed between 3rd and 12th May, 1916. The Home Rule MP, John Dillon had warned the British government:

“You are letting loose a river of blood between two races who, after 300 years of hatred and strife we had nearly succeeded in bringing together”

And he couldn’t have been more right.

This is a preview of the whole essay

“You are letting loose a river of blood between two races who, after 300 years of hatred and strife we had nearly succeeded in bringing together”

And he couldn’t have been more right.

Predictably, the effect of these executions raised immense sympathy from the Irish public and their attitudes completely changed. They started to recognize that the rebels had fought a clean fight in Ireland’s cause and shown courage and conviction. Disgust washed over Ireland as they heard how James Connolly had been executed. Since being too badly injured to stand, he was strapped to a chair to be executed. From days before when a growing wave of resentment was directed at the rebels from the public who felt that ‘unnecessary severity had been deployed’, their attitudes soon changed and examples of this are as follows; The setting up of aid funds for the families, the increasing frequency of memorial masses for the executed rebels and the appearance of songs and ballads celebrating their actions amongst other things. The government also observed how the recruitment levels to the British army had diminished dramatically.

The Sinn Fein party benefited immensely from the Easter Rising, even though it was not directly involved with it, however the Irish public had associated Sinn Fein with it. This was because the role the IRBMC (Irish Republican Brotherhood Military Council) had in planning the Rising was not widely known, whereas Sinn Fein was the best known, openly anti-English, nationalist propaganda body in Dublin. However, as sympathy and admiration for the rebels grew, so did the popularity of the Sinn Fein party. It gained many new recruits and a survivor of the rebellion, Eamon de Valera, added new strength to the party.

It was the December of 1918, which was Sinn Fein’s real test. They promised that the party would make use of ‘every means available to render impotent the power of England to hold Ireland in subjection’ and appeal to appeal to a post-war peace conference ‘for the establishment of Ireland as an independent nation’. It won on a landslide with 73 seats, having only previously held 6. The IPP (Irish Parliamentary Party) fell from 68 seats to just 7. Sinn Fein had won because Irish voters now wanted a greater measure of independence than the limited self-government on offer from the IPP. Not forgetting the increased support and recruits due to what the rebels fought for in the Easter Rising.

The deployment of British troops in Northern Ireland, 1969

The deployment of British Troops in Northern Ireland sparked a flurry of repercussions, one of the main and most serious consequences being the newly re-emerged IRA.

Summer marching season was approaching and tension was rising. It was the Londonderry Apprentice Boys’ march that the people of the Catholic Bogside area were fearing the most because of the long track record of violence, usually between rival loyalist and republican gangs after the march had passed the controversial area, which was along the walls of the city where marchers could look down on the Catholic Bogside and Creggan.

Although the battle, which became known as the Battle of Bogside, started being relatively peaceful, it soon broke into a riot. The violence soon spread to other towns and was the most serious in Belfast. When the Nationalists created disturbances elsewhere in the Province, it was the Catholics of Belfast who faced the reprisals. In that year alone, the total number of deaths was ten, with a further 154 gunshot wounds and 745 other injuries. Sixteen factories were burned and 170 homes wrecked, with 1800 families being forced out of their homes.

At this point, the RUC called for support from British troops, believing there to be a massacre if they were not brought into Belfast.

The Catholic welcomed the troops and saw them as peacemakers and rescuers at first. However, the Protestants were not so friendly. A report entitled ‘The Cameron Report’ was published in the September of 1969 and it criticized the attitudes and policies of the Unionist Government. It also blamed the troubles on discrimination and police bias against Catholics, which upset the Protestants. The following month another report was published entitled ‘The Hunt’, which criticized the RUC for bias and recommended changes, which resulted in the Protestants rioting. The Army got involved and two Protestants were killed.

Within months of the British Army arriving a newly formed IRA was ready for war with the British army, as it had now established a strong, secure and powerful base. It had also split into two groups; the ‘Official’ IRA who were based in Southern Ireland wanted to unite Ireland by peaceful methods, whereas the ‘Provisional’ IRA, based in Northern Ireland believed that violence was the only answer.

It was from the 1970’s that Catholic attitudes began to change, as they were still suspicious of the Unionist Government, and the good relations the Catholics had had with the British Army collapsed. It seemed to them that the army who had saved them from a potential massacre in 1969 had now turned against them. It was the ‘Falls Curfew’, which secured the fact that the relationship was doomed. They had been ordered by the Unionist Government ton put a curfew on Lower Falls while they searched for weapons and IRA suspects, by using tear gas and wrecking homes. This 35-hour curfew left many people stranded without food. Now it was the British army who were seen as the enemy.

Burntollet Bridge, 1969

Five weeks of peace abruptly ended when, on New Year’s Day 1969, around 40 young people who were mainly supporters of People’s Democracy, set out to walk across Northern Ireland from Belfast to Londonderry.

The People’s Democracy wanted to show O’Neill was offering them nothing and break the truce between him and the Civil Rights movement.

The march was supposedly meant to be protected by the RUC, but on the third day, when the marchers were at Burtollet, a loyalist group suddenly ambushed them. Bricks, stones and bottles were thrown, but the RUC escort appeared to do very little to protect the marchers as a riot broke out. A later investigation showed that the loyalist mob were in fact a group of off-duty policemen or special constables.

Burntollet Bridge created a flurry of violent backlash. Serious rioting followed in Londonderry and in April of 1969, more civil rights marches and more violence, particularly in Belfast, occurred. This violence in Belfast, a consequence of the events at Burntollet Bridge, is what prompted the British Government to send in British troops, which had a huge effect on the history of conflict in Northern Ireland.

The way in which the police had mishandled the situation at Burntollet Bridge, confirmed the opinion of many Catholics that the RUC could no be trusted to provide impartial policing in Northern Ireland. It also further alienated many in the Catholic population from the Northern Ireland state, and the march pinpointed the concerns that were arising about how civil rights were beginning to give away to questions related to national identity, and the constitutional position of Northern Ireland.

Also, the events of Burntollet led to the downfall of O’Neill. Soon after the events, he called an election to gather what supports he did have from the Catholic and Protestant middle classes. He did win, but not convincingly. It was the hardliners who were dictating the pace in Northern Ireland now. After the frequent civil rights marches and violence in April, O ‘Neill resigned and was replaced by James Chichester-Clark.

CONCLUSION:

After looking at three major events, which changed the course of Irish history, I have come to the conclusion that all three had big impacts on the history of conflict in Ireland.

The Easter Rising of 1916 had profound and far-reaching effects on Ireland's history. It has been referred to as 'The Irish War for Independence' and although they failed to win, it was the turning point in ultimately securing independence for the Republic of Ireland.

Burntollet Bridge also had a big impact on Irish history, as it was the events at Burntollet, which sparked off intense violence and riots, especially in Belfast, which led to the deployment of British troops. The British army, at first considered heroes, soon became seen as the ‘bad guys’ and a newly reformed Provisonal IRA wanted war with them. This sparked conflict between the two groups of the IRA; Provisional and Official IRA, as the Official IRA wanted to unite Ireland through peaceful methods, whereas the Provisional IRA believed violence to be the only way. The British army became public enemy number 1 and huge conflict became prominent between them and the Provisional IRA as the IRA wanted to rid Northern Ireland of the British impostors to gain independence.

Overall, all three events did not unite Ireland but they did gain Ireland some independence from Britain.