Explain the development of Catholic grievances and Protestant attitudes in Northern Ireland from partition to the 1960s.

The first 200 words of this essay...

Matthew Arnold

Explain the development of Catholic grievances and Protestant attitudes in Northern Ireland from partition to the 1960s.

Both Britain and Sinn Fein signed the Partition treaty in 1921. However, they only looked upon it as a temporary solution to the problems that Ireland faced. Both leaders assumed that given some time, the problems would be sorted out and that Ireland would become a united country again. Unfortunately this did not happen and the two parts drifted further from each other.

After partition, the Loyalists held the power in the North. They had the desire to keep Ulster both Protestant and British. They regarded the Catholics who lived in the North as traitors. This led to the discrimination of Catholics. In the South of Ireland, Nationalists had the majority of jobs in the newly established government. The Republicans, who wanted to unite Ireland, were in control here. It was inevitable that the two parts of Ireland would not agree to rejoin.

The Partition Treaty caused there to be huge disputes between Nationalists in the South, This was because the Irish Republican Army (IRA) was divided between the people who were in favour of the treaty