Decommissioning has still not been achieved, despite the Good Friday Agreement of 1998. Loyalist and Nationalist communities still show open hostility towards each other. With reference to the following events can you explain why
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Introduction
Decommissioning has still not been achieved, despite the Good Friday Agreement of 1998. Loyalist and Nationalist communities still show open hostility towards each other. With reference to the following events can you explain why? * The Easter Rising of 1916 and its aftermath to 1922 + partition * The civil rights Marches and Bloody Sunday 1968 - 1972 * The Enniskillen bomb 1987 * The Omagh bomb 1998 The reasons for the hostilities between the Catholics and Protestants are deep rooted back as far as the 18th century, however the more recent problems have been created from instances in this century. For instance, the Easter Rising, Bloody Sunday, and later the Omagh and Ennis Killen bomb. This, with the lack of a satisfactory resolve, has led to a serious lack of trust between the communities. When you look at the reasons for hostilities, it is hardly surprising, that neither group will decommission. The IRA refuse to decommission until the British army has been removed from Ireland, whereas the British army is unable to leave until all fear of terrorist action has been eliminated, and this can only be achieved by the IRA decommissioning, and the DUP refuse to decommission until the IRA have. ...read more.
Middle
The British also, under the command of General Sir John Maxwell, made many political errors, as his orders were to "put down the rebellion with all possible speed". As the rebels had no uniform, the British, who were mainly untrained soldiers, shot at Irish males almost on sight. They also destroyed a rebel stronghold, which happened to be the General Post Office, in all it is estimated they caused 2,500,000 pounds of damages. Then punishment was swift and brutal, with the leaders being court-marshaled and shot, before their punishment was announced to the public. Connolly, an Irish leader who was executed, was so ill at the time he had to sit in a chair to be shot, as he could not stand. Eventually Britain realized their mistake and fired Maxwell, but the damage had been done and was not forgotten. After the rebellion, over 3,000 Irish prisoners were released and set up a new stronger IRA, now with the backing of the people. Lloyd George then tried a gesture of appeasement that was completely boycotted by Sinn Fein. In 1918 all but one of the leaders of the new independence, Michael Collins then led a series of guerrilla wars and in 1919 the first shots of a new rebellion were fired. ...read more.
Conclusion
Enniskillen was seen as an insult to the people that gave up their lives to fight against Germany, while Omagh was just three weeks after the Good Friday agreement. This showed Protestants that Gerry Adams had little or no control over the many splinter groups of the IRA, and so they had no reason to trust them. It also showed that they had learned nothing from the Civil Rights Marches and hunger strikes, which showed them that the peaceful protests gained much more support than the violent bombing campaigns. The Good Friday agreement itself brought a lack of trust towards the British from the Protestants, as they were holding talks with Sinn Fein about the future of N. Ireland without including them. They also felt it was an agreement that would benefit the Catholics, more than it would benefit themselves. All these events force a lack of trust toward the different communities, and stop them from decommissioning. If it wasn't for Bloody Sunday and The Easter Rising, there may not have been a bombing campaign, yet it is the bombing campaign that keeps the British in Ireland, which in turn stop the IRA and DUP from decommissioning. It is this fact that halts the peace talks from going forward. ...read more.
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