ancient resentment’
He wanted to improve the attitude of both Catholics and Protestants, declared the UVF illegal in 1966 and set up a new non-sectarian university, the University of Ulster, in Coleraine. A significant part of this development was to improve associations with the Republic of Ireland. Because of this, he invited the Irish Republic's Taoiseach, Sean Lemass, to Stormont for talks on trade relations this was in 1965. After this O'Neill visited Dublin, which lead to the two states agreed to co-operate on the issues of tourism and electricity. By 1967 Polls were showing support for O'Neill's leadership from both Catholics and Protestants. O’Neill thought that by treating Catholics fairly and equally, they would feel accepted and that lessen the problems caused by the feelings of discrimination. O’Neill had developed a lot of support, many shared his optimistic view point and intended to improve conditions for Catholics in Northern Ireland.
Not all the people in Northern Ireland agreed with O'Neill’s views. Many Unionists had serious doubts about the Republic of Ireland and the future of Northern Ireland. Above all, many people had issues with certain policies employed by the Republic, including articles 2 and 3 of the Republic of Ireland’s constitution which declared jurisdiction over the whole island, the constitution's declaration of the 'special position' of the Catholic church and the Catholic church's general policies, such as banning members who married Protestants from raising their children as Protestants. Many felt that the Prime Minister of Northern Ireland should not try and consult with the Irish government. They were also worried about lowering levels of Protestants in the Republic.
In 1966, a unionist called Ian Paisley, the founder of the Free Presbyterian Church, also set up the Protestant Unionist Party and which began to oppose O'Neill and his policies. When the 50th anniversary of the Easter Rising passed in 1966, sectarian tensions rose further. When O'Neill met with the Taoiseach in 1967, Paisley's supporters held demonstrations branding O'Neill the 'Ally of Popery' and demanding that he 'keep Ulster Protestant'. Paisley was a hard-line protestant, who was in opposition to Catholics and referred to the Pope the ‘scarlet whore’, he was renowned for his out spoken views about Catholics. ‘The Roman Catholic Church has claimed the exclusive right to train the nation’s children... Herein lies the secret of priestly power in Eire.’
These sorts of remarks demonstrate Paisley’s dislike for Roman Catholics and the fear that the faith was trying to dominate both the Republic and Northern Ireland. Paisley was suspicious of all Catholic, believing them all to be traitors to Ulster and spies.
Paisley’s views, and others like them caused tensions between the Catholics and Protestants to become even more intense. Catholic had begun to criticise O'Neill for placing the new University of Ulster in Coleraine instead of Derry, which was Ulster’s second largest city. The extreme, hard line Protestants wholly agreed with the placing, believing that it was a preposterous idea placing the University where Catholics would easily be able to study. Basil Brooke, a future Prime Minister of Northern Ireland, was quoted to have said the following in an interview which took place in 1968 ‘How can you give somebody who is your enemy a higher position in order to allow him to come out and destroy you?’ This expresses the way that many Protestants felt. They did not want Catholics to increase their social status, but also that they were worried that Catholics would use an improved status to take over the country. In the same interview, Basil Brooke utterly denied that there was any discrimination against Catholics, but did admit to a resentment, and a mistrust, claiming however, that this was not due to religion at all. ‘There is a feeling of resentment.. . that most Roman Catholics are anti-British and anti-Northern Ireland. This is nothing to do with religion at all’
Endeavouring to hide the obvious discrimination in this manor did not really help the Protestants, especially after the creation of NICRA. In 1967, the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association was created with the aims to stage high-profile demonstrations to highlight the discrimination in Northern Ireland, with out using violence, despite the attempts to hide it. Members were from both Protestant and Catholic communities, despite there being a Catholic majority, who were suffering under the Stormont government. NICRAs Goals were to achieve a fair voting system, so it was no longer open only to home owners, end the gerrymandering which was keeping the number of Catholic Mps at a minimum and put an over all end to all discrimination against Catholics as well as disbandment of the B-Specials and an improvement in the equality for all the people of Northern Ireland, both Catholic and Protestant. Stormont began to ban the first Civil Rights marches that took place in August 1968, however, the marchers ignored the bans and, on a range of marches, were attacked by the police with batons. This caused Stormont a lot of embarrassment as the world as a whole disapproved of this type of reaction. O’Neill was under a lot of pressure from his party to refuse the demands, nevertheless he eventually he relented and agreed to some of the demands; NICRA then called off its campaign.
However, another faction of people sill refused to recognize the compromise, claiming that it was not enough. Stormont had still not introduced an fair voting system, which was one of NICRA’s main priorities. Led by Northern Irish students prepared for a march starting from Derry and continuing to Belfast on January 1969. Near Derry, at the crossing over the river Burntollet; the marchers were ambushed, the on-duty police did not make any effort to stop the ensuing violence. O'Neill was horrified by the event and called an inquiry, despite his own party opposing him. O'Neill's Deputy Prime Minister resigned in protest saying the inquiry could only make matters worse.
The Orange Order was a protestant organisation, against Catholics. Although the Order did not claim that there had been no injustices – either to Protestants or Catholics, one of its members (Martin Smith) said:
“The Protestant people have bent over backwards to be fair and have indeed acted more harshly against their co-religionists.”
Denial of this calibre was, as has been mentioned, not uncommon among Protestants. It aimed to alter the opinions of foreign bodies such as the British Parliament to cause them to sympathise with the Protestants.
In February 1969 a general election was called in Northern Ireland. Although O'Neill's party won most votes they no longer had enough to form a strong government. O'Neill then decided to introduce 'one man one vote' for the next election, but this caused so much chaos and anger from his own party that he was forced to resign. The new Prime Minister was James Chichester-Clark. Meanwhile Civil Rights marches began to get violent, fuelled by the anger at the violence that had met their earlier marches. As marchers clashed with police and loyalists, riots sprang up. In the summer of 1969 Clark called in the B-specials to help the police keep order. However, this only increased Catholic resentment and the situation began to get out of control.
Protestants explained the discrimination towards Catholics in many ways and for many reasons. There were liberalists like Terence O’Neill who believed it was unnecessary and that some much simpler, more peaceful means could be used to come to the end of the conflict in Northern Ireland. Hardliners such as Ian Paisley explained the inequality in the country by insisting that Catholics ought to be treated unfairly to repress them and to diminish their power and hold on society. Paisley felt that if Catholics were left to their own devices, they would try to destroy Protestants and gain control throughout the world. Protestants like Basil Brooke attempted to mask the discrimination, passing it off as “resentment” – Brooke was the sort of person content with the system but knew that the reasons behind it would not be acceptable to others outside of Ulster. The Orange Order accepted the prejudice and openly admitted its existence, however it was adamant that the problems were mutual and both side suffered grievances as a result (although it naturally sought to make Protestants seem more victimised). It was in these many ways that Protestant politicians explained the social, economical and political differences, between Catholics and Protestants.
