- Housing- Protestants were given priority for being housed. For example, one pregnant Protestant woman was given priority over a Catholic woman with three children.
- Employment- Catholics were discriminated against, the RUC (Royal Ulster Constabulary) was formed almost exclusively of Protestants. This also had knock on effects as the police were more likely to side with Protestants.
- Voting- Catholics found it hard to get a vote in than Protestants.
The violence worsened, and British Troops were brought in 1969 and reforms were made to housing, elections, police and unemployment. These reforms failed to stop fighting. In 1971, the Stormont government set up internment camps as a last resort where almost exclusively Catholics were imprisoned without a trial of any kind. According to the Sunday Times in 1972:
‘1,576 had experienced shock arrest during the early hours of the morning without much tenderness.’
This also failed to stop fighting and made the IRA stronger as more Catholic’s joined as they were so distraught with the camps that they joined. The situation escalated and proof that the British had failed to contain the conflict happened 30 January 1972 when Bloody Sunday occurred. Thirteen unarmed men were killed by British Troops during a civil rights march in Derry. It is unknown who fired the first shot and it is still debated today. This caused an escalation in Catholic anger and eventually caused the abolition of the Stormont government on 24 March 1972.
The Battle of Boyne in 1689 happened when the Protestant king of England William of Orange defeated the overthrown Catholic King James II in Ireland. Ireland was invaded because as Britain had been pushed into War with Spain and France because it was the main Protestant country and France and Spain were the main Catholic countries. As Ireland had rejected the Protestant views because they were not happy that they were forced to read prayers in English, which was a foreign language to them as they spoke Gaelic. Britain were worried that the Irish could side with the French and Spanish sides, and as they were such a close neighbor to them they could be a base to stage in invasion. Therefore, Britain decided they needed to gain control of Ireland. The Protestants thought that the best way to contain the Catholic rebellions was to take their land away from them, so they couldn’t group together and so the most fertile land taken by the British was given to Protestant settlers which effectively made them the landlords and the Catholics became the tenants and this is when the first conflicts started. Catholics attacked the Protestants and the Protestants attacked them back in revenge.
The fact that the land used by Catholics was not as fertile as Protestant’s land meant that the Catholics had to rely on Potatoes as their main food source and so when a fungus disease wiped out all the potatoes in Ireland this is how the Potato Famine of 1845. A million Irish people died and many immigrated to the USA to escape starvation.
Many people in America have Irish connections to the famine and they are one of the main sources of funding to IRA and Real IRA activities as many of them still feel bitter towards the Protestants. Some have withdrawn their funding after the terrorist attacks on September 11th 2001 as they realized what sort of damage supporting this type of terrorism can do.
The Protestant victory in the Battle of Boyne is still celebrated today by Orange Men, when they march through Drumcree, and through the Catholic Garvaghy Road. This causes violence and conflict between the two sides and a number of deaths. For example, the website states that:
‘Robert Hamill was murdered by a lynch mob of up to thirty Loyalists while returning from a night out with two female relatives in April 1997. A major controversy still surrounds his brutal death as it was revealed that members of the RUC (police force) were present when the attack took place but refused to intervene to save his life…’
Although the factual entity of this source has to be questioned, as it has come from a Catholic’ run website, this quote still shows that even today, people are still suspicious of the RUC that discrimination is still present and this only adds to the feeling of tension in Ireland.
Orange march down Catholic Garvaghy Road
In 1998, three Nationalist brothers were murdered. This leads to a possible conclusion that the Orange Marches are not in place to celebrate the Victory of William of Orange (Or King Billy, his nickname), but as a symbol of victory against the Catholics, maybe they use it as a tactic to intimidate Catholics? This idea is backed up because William of Orange wasn’t seen as a hero to the Loyalists until 100 years after the battle when the Catholic Irish National Party had won the change in land laws & was likely to succeed in achieving a home rule (An Irish Parliament where Catholics and Protestants have representation). It is likely that the Orange Order was formed in 1795 when the Protestants felt vulnerable, so they grouped together to make them stronger, the events of the Battle of the Boyne have been blown out of proportion and are used today as a symbol of Protestant victory and power. This sort of behaviour is still present, the UVF (Ulster Volunteer Force) was formed in fear if IRA (Irish Republican Army) activity after the 1916 Easter rising speculations. When one side forms a group, the other side forms one to counter the other, and this is one of the reasons why the conflict is so hard to solve, because each side are to scared to de-commission as this will show a weakness.
In the present day, steps are being taken to try and resolve the conflict. For example, the Good Friday agreement stated that:
- A new Northern Ireland Assembly would be set up elected. The assembly would take responsibility for the internal government of Northern Ireland.
- A North-South conference would be set up involving elected members of the two Irish Assemblies.
- Eire would give up its constitutional claim to Northern Ireland.
- Referenda would be held to approve the Framework document.
This agreement meant that the IRA would de-commission its weapons. The Omagh bomb which killed 29 people as bomb had been left in a car in a busy shopping district. It took place just three months after the Good Friday Agreement was signed and was seen as a huge setback to the progression of peace in Northern Ireland. It was caused by a break off group from the IRA called the ‘Real IRA’. They were not happy that the IRA had ‘gone soft’ and stopped using violence. The bomb was designed to restart the conflict but it didn’t succeed, although it was a major hurdle the Good Friday Agreement had to overcome. I believe that the ‘Real IRA’ is just a new form of Terrorism because they are trying to stop an agreement that could help solve the conflict. The majority of people want to solve the violence as over 70% of people voted in favour of the Good Friday Agreement in a referendum.
Nowadays, Ireland has grown to become a more ethnically-diverse community and Ireland has had money pumped into it as part of the EU. Currently, the spotlight has been taken away from the conflict but has been put on the rising numbers of racially related attacks. It is possible that other races are becoming the new target as the people of Ireland have been brought up amongst hatred.
To conclude, I believe that it is not accurate to say that the cause of the Holy-Cross incident just dates back to 1968, although the events of 1968 were the strongest link in a chain of events that led up to the incident. This is because the events of 1968 were caused by events that happened previous to them. The cause of the Holy-Cross incident could be dated back as far as the reformation.
Bibliography
‘Conflict in Ireland’ by Tony McAleavy
