Question 2
Choose two events that in the last 100 years which are particularly important in shaping the views of today’s:
Loyalists/Unionists/Protestants
Republicans/Nationalists/Catholics
In the last 100 years there have been several events which have shaped the views of the protestant and Catholics to the way it is today. The two I believe are the most important are Bloody Sunday and The Easter rising. Both of these events radically changed the views of both the Catholics and Protestants.
On the 30th January there was a civil rights march through Derry, it was meant to be a peaceful march by the Catholics but turned out quite nasty. Before the march the Catholics were treated as second class citizens with derelict housing and poorer earning jobs, this angered then this is why they wished to do the march. The Protestants on the other hand had much better living conditions and because they were the majority they got treated with more respect. Although they were concerned with the IRA they did have the British troops on their side. Bloody Sunday saw the death of 13 innocent civilian Catholics; they were shot by the British troops, who said they were shot upon by the Catholics. No soldiers were killed during Bloody Sunday. After the incident the Protestants took a more hard line stance to the Catholics and the number of troops on the streets increased. On the other hand the Catholics became more violent towards the Protestants and more people joined paramilitary groups.
The other event I shall be looking at is The Easter Rising, this happened in April 1916. Before The Easter Rising there was a home rule bill passed in the British government but the discussions were still going on when World War one broke out, this angered the Catholics even more because they were so close to getting the bill passed. They were told that WW1 would only last 4 months or there about, when it was clear that the war was going to last longer the English began recruiting troops from Northern Ireland but only the Protestants, this angered the Catholics even more. On April 24th The Easter Rising began, Organized by the Military Council of the , the Rising lasted from Easter Monday 24 April to 30 April 1916. Members of the , led by and , joined by the smaller of , along with 200 members of , seized key locations in and proclaimed an independent of Britain. The Rising was suppressed after seven days of fighting, and its leaders were court-martialled and executed. This lead to support of breaking links with Brittan growing dramatically. This meant that in the forth coming elections that Sinn Fein won, they got 73 seats out of 103 in Ireland. Sinn Fein refused to go to London at set up its own government, this lead to the partition of Ireland into “Ulster” and “The Irish Free State”. Sinn Fein didn’t like the idea of the country been split into two parts.
These are both important events which have shaped the views of the Catholics and the Protestants to today. Both events made the Catholics dislike the Protestant even more meaning that peace talks are harder to negotiate and any chance of peace between the two religions is getting less and less likely.
Question 3
Previous attempts to bring Northern Ireland have failed. What problems will need to be overcome if the current peace talks are to succeed?
During all the fighting and dispute in Ireland, many onlookers in Britain saw Ireland as a violent place. They saw it as a country with no politics or organisation, however they were wrong. Many parties in Ireland focused on healthcare, housing, and education, but they didn’t have any ideas of how to overcome the dispute in Northern Ireland. In 1972 the British government introduced direct rule, which meant they had members of their government running the Northern Ireland secretary. This lasted for over 25 years, and during this time, there were many attempts at bringing peace back to Ireland. I will look at 2 previous attempts at peace, The Sunningdale Agreement and The Downing Street Declaration.
The first solution tried was the Sunningdale agreement, from 1973 to 1974, and suggested by William Whitelaw, who was the Northern Ireland secretary; he discussed it with other Northern Ireland parties. The plan was to incorporate Protestant and Catholic politicians in one big assembly, which would have bonds with London, Belfast, and Dublin, so everyone could have equal powers. The general idea was to get all the Catholics on their side, so they could just have a say in what happened, so that would weaken support with violent groups, like the IRA, to lessen violence. The Catholics loved this idea, they were happy that they could have a say. On the other hand, the Protestants didn’t really like this, because they were suspicious and worried that the Catholics could have too much power. They got so suspicious, that in 1974, a group called the Ulster Workers Council started a strike against the Sunningdale agreement. They pressurised lots of people into striking. On the 27th of May, the Executive and others resigned, and Northern Ireland was once again under Direct Rule.
Even though this idea didn’t work, one breakthrough was made, and that was sitting all the parties down and attempting to make them talk, even though there was tension between them. Because they did this, it influenced later ideas, and kept pushing them so eventually they could have a discussion about the future of Ireland, Which, they hoped would get the parties trusting each other and have a lost in all the violence. However the main problems with this idea are that they made a particular group of people nervous, by giving another group this sudden amount of power. Unionists are already wary of Catholics, because of the experiences they had during events like The Easter Rising, where some were killed innocently, by the paramilitaries. This lack of trust between governments hinders the communication between them, so they find it hard to discuss with each other.
Another attempt at peace, which came around in 1993, was The Downing Street Declaration. The gist of this was that a new government would be made for Northern Ireland, containing only parties that rejected violence and respected everyone’s views. The Prime minister, John Major and the tioisarch, Albert Reynolds, shook on this. Ordinary civilians in Northern Ireland were glad of this idea, because during the later 1980s and early 1990s, there had been an increase in violence again, from Protestants and Catholics. They just wanted peace in Ireland. Sinn Fein, and other violence-orientated groups lost support, and political groups like SDLP who were in on the agreement started getting more popular and more votes, from both Catholics and Protestants.
This idea was a success in Ireland, even though it failed to reduce violence, they were working on it. Breakthroughs which this agreement made are getting united support for a government, from both Catholics, Protestants. Mary Robinson, who sympathised with the Catholics, and who was elected in 1990, contributed to the success of the agreement. She stated that peace and justice in Northern Ireland took priority over removing partition. Protestants, because of this, accepted the agreement, hoping for peace and no more onslaught from paramilitary groups, as they were getting stamped out if they continued to use such methods. As a result of the 'no violence no say' rule, many paramilitaries were now considering accepting the agreement, although many didn’t, but it was still a step in the right direction. Problems that still need to be tackled are definitely violence and destruction in Ireland from the paramilitaries, and the trust that they have in the new government, because if they (paramilitaries) can trust the new reformed peaceful government to make the right decisions for everyone, then they won’t need their firearms and hostile approaches to get attention and get their own way.
In conclusion, the two peace attempts that I have looked at have made a significant difference to Ireland, in terms of communicating with other political groups and making decisions based on everyone’s opinion, even the opinions of the British and Irish. Breakthroughs that have been made are gaining trust from Irish civilians and unionists, through the no-more-violence rules, and managing to incorporate all the groups into one united government for Ireland. Problems that still need to be tackled are the trust between Catholics, especially paramilitary groups, and the governments, and the violence that is still breaking out.
