Bloody Sunday is an event that has been important in shaping the views of the Republicans/Nationalists/Catholics.
Internment was a problem in Ireland. A lot of disagreements were caused by internment. Internment meant that Northern Ireland had special powers that if anyone was suspected of terrorism, they would be put in jail on suspicion of terrorism. This was an attempt to cripple the IRA but it actually boosted their support. Only the nationalists/republicans were put in jail and they were very unhappy about it.
On Sunday 30th January 1972 there was a huge protest march against internment in Londonderry. It was organised by the Civil Rights Movement.
15 thousand people ignored the ban on marching as they gathered in the middle of the city. Soldiers from the parachute regiment sealed of the area because they thought there was going to be some trouble. A group of youths from the march hurled some stones at them. There is a lot of confusion over the events that followed. The soldiers from the parachute regiment said that they were shot at by IRA gunmen and said that they just returned fire. In the end 13 marchers were killed. A few of them were shot in the back.
Lord Widgery did the report that followed. No action was taken against the soldiers. The report accepted the soldier’s side of story.
The nationalists use the events of bloody Sunday to show that the British were not fit to rule Ireland. They are still unhappy today that the British haven’t accepted the responsibility for what happened on bloody Sunday.
25 years later some relatives of those who died and the people of Londonderry were still very angry that the British government hadn’t accepted the responsibility for bloody Sunday. To these people it is an open wound which won’t heal until Britain accepts the fact that its soldiers were in the wrong the Catholics of Ireland are still unhappy today and want Britain to accept the responsibility for what happened more then 25 years ago on bloody Sunday. Edward Daly, a Catholic, said ‘I would like to leave it to rest but the events of that day still haunt me…..until their innocence is accepted by those who murdered them, I still feel responsible for proclaiming their innocence’. This shows that even now men like Daly were unhappy that the British government could get away with something like this.
One event that has been important in shaping the views of Protestants/Loyalists/Unionists is William of Oranges story. He defeated James ll at the Battle of Boyne. The whole story began in 1688. Most of the people in England were protestant but the king of England, James ll, was a Catholic and so the people hated him for this. He was removed from his throne by protestant nobles. The nobles approached Mary, James’ daughter and her husband William of Orange who was from the Netherlands, and asked them to rule England instead of James ll.
While this was all happening James ran away to his close friend Louis XlV who was the king of France and also William of Oranges enemy. James asked Louis to supply him with ships and troops so he could invade England and get his throne back. He was supposed to invade England but instead he landed in Ireland on March 1689 hoping to get the support of Catholics to increase his support. The city of Londonderry was the key. It almost fell without a fight as James and his forces approached the city. He faced resistance in Londonderry. The protestants were able to hold James off for long enough for William’s army to come and help. William of Orange finally defeated James at the Battle of Boyne in 1690. The war was over and the treaty of limerick was signed in October 1961 which made the Protestants power stronger and the Catholics weaker.
William of Orange has been a hero to the Protestants at different points in history. For example, in the early 1700’s, William was remembered with a lot of respect. In the late 18th century the tension between Ireland and Ulster was rising. There were violent fights between Protestants and Catholics in Armagh quite often and they weren’t unusual.
The story of William of Orange was revived by the Orange order. They made him look as a protestant hero but they ignored the facts that most of Williams’s army were Catholic and the pope (head of Catholic Church) gave William his full support. Protestants in Ireland celebrate William of Orange’s victory over James. He is a hero to the Protestants in Ireland. In the past Protestants have celebrated this victory in Downpatrick and Dorugh in 1790, however it was celebrated as a triumph of freedom over British government. Not Protestants over Catholics. The victory has only been remembered when there is conflict between them. Today William of Orange is remembered by Protestants as a hero. They go on marches to celebrate his victory over the Catholic king. Also to show that they are better then the Catholics now and they were better then them then and deserve to be treated better.
There have been many attempts to bring peace in Northern Ireland in the past however they haven’t worked.
One attempt to bring peace in Northern Ireland by the government was the Power sharing Executive, and the Sunningdale agreement of 1973-1974. This was trying to achieve a few things. A new assembly was elected to govern Northern Ireland a new council was se up for Ireland which linked Belfast, Dublin and London and there was power sharing between nationalists and unionists. This attempt to achieve peace in Northern Ireland failed.
Another attempt by the government to achieve peace was the Anglo-Irish agreement of 1985. It was trying to achieve some crucial points. Civil service with staff from both sides of the border was set up by this agreement. Despite this agreement the loyalists and IRA continued their violent attacks. In 1987 a bomb which was set up by the IRA killed 11 innocent people and injured a further 60 at a Remembrance Day service. A few years later the UFF attacked a betting shop killing 5 Catholics civilians.
The paramilitary attacks and violence need to stop. The IRA and UFF need to stop the violence.
The Downing Street Declaration of 1993 was another attempt to achieve peace in Northern Ireland. It was agreed by John Major and Albert Reynolds. It included that the British government accepted that unity was an issue for Irish people, but it will only happen with the consent of the people in Northern Ireland. A new form of government Northern Ireland was going to be discussed. Another point the Downing Street Declaration included was the fact that only groups that didn’t use violence were allowed to join. Downing Street Declaration hasn’t bough peace to Northern Ireland.
The Good Friday agreement was another attempt to bring peace. This hasn’t failed yet, however the Authorities are still trying to get it to succeed.
There have been many things which have stopped the peace process moving forward in Northern Ireland. One thing that has stopped the peace process moving forward is the continued disagreements between Protestants and Catholics. One example of this is the death threats that Nail Lennon received. Nail Lennon plays for Celtic and was due to captain his team against Cyprus. He withdrew from the game after he received death threats from a protestant paramilitary group. The source which came from a BBC website on Wednesday 21st August 2002 quotes that ‘the threat is believed to have come because Lennon is a Catholic and plays for Celtic. Also Northern Ireland is dominated by Protestants and Lennon is a Catholic.
If peace is to be achieved in the future between Catholics and Protestants then they need to put aside their differences. They live in the same communities and need to stop hating each other and using violence towards each other if peace is to be achieved in the future.
Another thing which has stopped the peace process moving forward is the attack on Stormont because of disagreements between loyalists and republicans. Michael Stone, a loyalist, stormed into Stormont during a debate. He was carrying about 6 devices in a bag which police have now defused. These devices could have caused a lot of damage. He was also carrying a gun and a knife in the bag. This attack was motivated by the fact that loyalists and republicans still don’t get along.
If peace is to be achieved in the future then the extreme nationalists and unionists need to learn to live together in peace and get along with each other.
The fact that a 15 year old boy was attacked by a gang in county Atrim and died later on in hospital is another reason why the peace process is struggling to move forward in Northern Ireland. The 15 year old boy, Michael, and a friend were confronted by a gang of boys. A relative said that one of the boys hit Michael with a baseball bat on his head. The report on Ceefax says that they jumped on his head. The boy struggled to get home where the extent of his injuries were realised. This shows that there is a lot of hatred between Nationalists/Catholics and Unionists/Protestants. If peace is to be achieved in the future then the Nationalists and Unionists need to learn to get on with each other and live together peacefully.