Basil Brooke was the third Prime Minister (PM) of Northern Ireland and before that he was a Cabinet Minister. He is the longest PM to date of Northern Ireland as he lasted twenty years in office. He was a very Catholic hating man, and some people say he was the hardest lined PM against Catholics.
Terence O’Neill was a Protestant Politician but tried to give the Catholics some hope that he would soon put an end to their troubles. He did this by trying to give them better housing and a lot of different concessions, but other politicians believed he was being too soft. The Unionists (Protestants) believed that he threatened their power as he was trying to bring the two different religious groups together, so they forced him out of power, and he resigned.
Catholics and Protestants had different loyalties. Catholics tried to be loyal to the Catholic Church and the Pope and wanted to be separate from Britain, whereas Protestants tried to stay loyal to Britain and its Monarchy, Stormont, and stay separate from the Catholic Church and the Pope. Protestants believed that they were superior in Northern Ireland because they were the majority. They also believed they were superior because they were forward looking which meant they were planning for the future. There was one final reason which they believed was the most important. They believed that they were harder working and did a lot more work to earn all of the privileges that they had been given. There had always been a long history of violence between Catholics and Protestants, as they kept fighting with each other over land, and power. These two different loyalties also resulted in discrimination which caused a new organisation to be formed, the IRB (Irish Republican Brotherhood), which was later renamed the IRA (Irish Republican Army).
The Protestant Politicians in Northern Ireland feared the IRA. This was because they wanted to be separate from Britain so that they could live as a United Ireland. They feared they would take over by using terrorism, and that maybe they would kill the Politicians to make a point. This affected the way Protestants saw Catholics. This then led to the Catholics being stereotyped because the Protestants believed they were all dangerous as the IRA was made up of Catholics. Mistrust also grew between the two religious groups as they couldn’t trust each other to even walk on the opposite side of the street just in case they did something. This caused the Protestant Politicians to bring in Internment which meant that the Police Force could throw anybody in Prison they believed was part of the IRA without an investigation or a court case. This then may have led to the Protestant Politicians being scared of the Roman Catholic Church, as the IRA was an illegal nationalist organisation who supported them, and if they managed to over throw the government then they would then allow their country to once more be run by the Roman Catholic Church, so that they could bring back laws such as no abortion or divorce.
The Politicians also feared the Roman Catholic Church because of many of the things that Ian Paisley had told them. He told them that the Pope was the Anti-Christ and Catholics were a group of satanic people. So he set up the Free Presbyterian Church and preached everything that he believed was right, telling Protestants not to trust the Catholics. They were also scared of being ruled from Rome (Rome Rule). This would mean that everybody would have to live under Catholic laws, for example no Contraception or abortion. They were frightened of this because they believed that they would lose power and wouldn’t be able to do/use certain things i.e. Contraception and Divorce.
In addition to the Protestants fearing the Roman Catholic Church and the Catholics (Nationalists/Republicans), they feared the thought of all the old laws coming back. They also feared that they would be completely separated from Britain and the Monarchy. So they believed that through gerrymandering and discrimination they could stay loyal to Britain, which they believed their country was part of. That was another big thing they desperately wanted, to be part of Britain. They were scared of the Catholics getting back in control as they feared that Britain wouldn’t be able to protect them if they needed it, and they might have to leave their homes.
Because of all of the discrimination that was going on, NICRA (Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association) was set up. Terence O’Neill tried to support the Catholics and NICRA by trying to give them more concessions. For example he tried to give them better job opportunities and better council housing, so that they could improve their lifestyles. But Ian Paisley tried to do the opposite. He preached that NICRA was the front of the IRA, so if you gave up to NICRA then you were giving up to the IRA. So the rest of the Protestant Politicians didn’t want any changes to Catholic’s rights because they believed that if they all get their own right to vote then they would be voted out of power and the Roman Catholic Church would take over.
So if the Roman Catholic Church gained control, then the Protestant Politicians believed that they would refer back to the Old Catholic Laws, which included no contraception or divorce, and that they might be severely punished for what the Pope would call Sins. They might also have feared that they might be exiled and would all have to leave Northern Ireland and start a new life elsewhere, even if they had no money. So the Protestant Politicians believed that they had good reasons for discriminating against them and that the difference in the treatment was unavoidable. So because they saw themselves as superior they believed that it would be too dangerous to allow the Catholics back into power, because to much of the Catholic (Nationalist/Republican) influence would be bad for the country, as they believed it would harm the country in every way, Socially, Economically and Politically.