After Easter Rising, support for Sinn Fein increased drastically, and therefore support for the IRA also increased. Due to the fact that there was an eventual divide, Catholics living in Northern Ireland and Protestants in the Republic would be another cause of violence. This would be due to the biased views of both communities and therefore the mistreatment of the other one. For instance, in 1922 when the B-specials were given extra powers. This led to the biased views from Protestants and therefore violence towards innocent Catholics. This again led to anger on both sides, which again led to more violence in the present day.
Due to the partition of Ireland in 1921, the Unionists in the north became very biased and therefore the Catholic minority felt very discriminated. The present crisis in Ireland really began due to the civil rights marches, starting in August 1968, where Catholics protested on their mistreatment and discrimination by Protestants. These marches were demonstrations in the hope of reforms, and from this there was the first brake out of violence between Catholics and Protestants. This lead to the beginning of the provisional IRA and the UDA, who were the extreme Protestant and Catholic groups, needing violence to sort out their religious and economical problems. Protestants feared that because of these marches, the government would turn to aid the Catholics, and Catholics were angered that the government was not doing anything to aid them. It also led to the forming of the SDLP and the DUP who were the non-violent movements for both sides. These groups differed from the IRA and UDA and were heavily supported in comparison to the extremist groups due to their non-violent ways. Unlike the other groups these wanted a peaceful solution to the problems facing them then and today.
The big problem however that the marches lead to was the introduction of the British Army into Northern Ireland during 1969. Obviously the problem of the British army was proven in the march of Bloody Sunday, in which innocent Catholic victims were shot and ‘murdered’ by the army. From this outbreak of violence there became a surge of revenge from Catholic communities, and therefore support for the IRA grew, and the violence started and has continued to the present day not only due to the IRA but also to the increasing support for ‘splinter groups’ such as the Real IRA.
Bloody Sunday also lead to more problems. The Unionists felt betrayed by the British as the British Government felt that direct rule was still needed, which is remembered today, and has upset relations between the two countries. The Power sharing agreement failed in the year of 1974, as Unionists were scared of a Nationalist takeover, and therefore did not want an equal Ireland. In 1981, there was a hunger strike, in which Nationalists demanded specialist treatment once in prison. Once these special categories came to an end, the hunger strikes began and therefore there was huge support from Catholics for this.
Both sides now as well as before feel the need for weapons to protect themselves against their opposition. The problem with this therefore is the fact that the IRA has always felt itself to be at war with the British Army and therefore to decommission their arms would mean admitting defeat. Due to this, there has been continuing violence and terrorism from both sides of the boarder, including the Omagh and Enniskillen bomb attacks. Sinn Fein are also now recognised as a political party, due to their increased support from Catholics during 1968-1972.
The Enniskillen bomb happened in 1987, planted by the IRA killing 11 people. Not only was this a tragedy in itself, but also the bomb went off on Remembrance Day, at a war memorial in Enniskillen. This was seen as an absolute disgrace in the eyes of Unionists who fought side by side with the British in the World War, and Loyalist groups immediately wanted retribution. The provisional IRA had seriously weakened their credibility, and thoughts to unite Ireland. Not only were Protestant communities horrified, but Catholic as well, showing the increase in distrust from Unionists. This bombing caused Sinn Fein to become isolated and therefore have decrease in support from their remaining followers. There became an increased support for the SDLP to stop the violence, and this helped to improve community relations. Not only did Enniskillen show the disapproval of violence from the public, but it also lead to weaker support now for the IRA and Sinn Fein.
This bombing led to Sinn Fein thinking of using different tactics, and therefore they would try to make a peaceful solution. After many problems, the Good Friday Agreement finally happened on the 10th April 1998, in which the majority of Nationalists and Unionists approved of.
However, after the decommissioning of the provisional IRA, the Real IRA exploded a bomb in Omagh, killing 29 people, both Catholics and Protestants. The plan was to cause more anger from both sides and proof that there could never be peace between them. Ironically however, this lead to more anger and hatred towards the IRA, and it also made the agreement even stronger.
The involvement of the real IRA is similar to that from the Easter Rising, as the Loyalists felt that they immediately needed to blame the IRA and Sinn Fein and that there could not be a peace process. Decommissioning has been very hard to happen, as the real IRA still want and need weapons to fight for their cause. This also shows the fact that Gerry Adams and Sinn Fein have incomplete control over parliamentary groups, and therefore cannot be fully blamed and accused for the attacks.
The bombing has lead to further Unionist distrust towards Nationalists, and of course demilitarisation cannot occur as the real IRA are still active from the proof of these bombings.
To conclude therefore, in my opinion, there are many reasons why there is still violence in Ireland and why decommissioning has still not come to pass. As well as recent events, there have been long-term problems as well.
Both Catholic and Protestants lead very different lives. They go to separate schools, and therefore get a completely different education and upbringing. They also live in different areas, and therefore if the communities are mixed, then they will have problems with bias behaviour, leading to jealousy and violence (the gerrymandering being a good example, as well as the violence shown to the Holy Cross School).
Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland have different economic issues as well. The north is more prosperous then the republic, and again there is a lot of bias problems in the sense that good jobs are given to Protestants in the North, leading to problems like civil rights marches, for instance, Bloody Sunday.
Decommissioning cannot come to pass because as I have explained there is still active violence from both extreme groups towards each other, and therefore the need for armour grows with the increase in popularity of the parties.
Finally I feel that there are still so many problems in Ireland because of the different parties involved governmentally. In my opinion, if extremists Sinn Fein and the DUP had not become recognised governmental parties, but the UUP and SDLP had, there would not have been so much promoted violence in Ireland, and the peace process would have been an easier option.
Bibliography:
Conflicts in Ireland by Tony McAleavy
The Irish Question by Homes McDougall
The Irish Question by Hamish McDonald
