Source C is from a document published by Ulster protestant action (organisation formed in 1959 by unionists, including Ian Paisley). This source tells us, that employers were being told to keep Protestants as workers in times of depression, and to sack Catholics. It says “In preference to their fellow catholic workers” This is sort of saying in a nicer way, to pick protestants above Catholics.
Both these sources show us, that Protestants were kept as the main cause of concern, and whether they were talented or not, Catholics were overcastted.
3. Londonderry became the centre of the civil rights movement in Northern Ireland, because many Catholics lived there and so there were lots of Civil Rights marches there, one in particular known as bloody Sunday.
Source D shows a catholic household in a terrible condition, in Derry. This would be one reason for a catholic to join in the civil rights movement, to fight for better conditions.
Source E shows the results of an election from 1966 in Londonderry. Catholics were unhappy with the results as it was a system of Gerrymandering. The results don’t add up to be fair
Source F, a map of Derry showing the local electoral districts, also shows how unfairly treated Catholics were. In the North ward, out of 6476 voters, 2530 were Catholic. This means only 1426 more were protestant, yet 8 unionist councillors were elected. Overall 12 unionist councillors were elected and 8 nationalists were elected in a town of 14429 Catholics and 1950 Protestants.
A lot of Civil Rights marches were in Derry, protesting against internment. Lots of people were killed and injured at these marches and I think it just made matters worse. In Derry, on Sunday 30th January 1972, the marches were looking for trouble and intended to go to the guildhall, through the Catholic Bog side area. The sources carry on describing what the eyewitness’s interpretation of the incident was. One reporter quoted “I do not think, from what I saw, that the IRA opened up first, even if they did, I do not think, it would have justified the return of fire into crowds of people into that packed square” So the reporter is saying whether nor not the IRA fired, he doesn’t think this would have made any impact on the protestants…they still would have fired. Taking into account that this was only his opinion, I cannot make a good judgement about who instigated ‘Bloody Sunday’
4. Source H, Michael Farrell, a member of the Northern Ireland Civil Rights association. He was speaking on the same television programme as the reverend Ian Paisley. Michael Farrell is saying that the IRA never dominated the scene. This is a contradiction of source G as the reverend Ian Paisley, after being asked who was behind civil rights in his view, replied that the IRA were behind it, or the people that supported the IRA. Source H is saying that the IRA were actually used as peacemakers on civil rights marches, and this is defiantly contradicting source G. Source H is really saying that the republicans were very co operative and were co-operating too much with the police. Source I is taken from a report on the Northern Ireland civil rights association which was produced for the British government in the 1970s, it says that there is no doubt that the IRA has taken a close interest in the civil rights association from its beginning. Source I disagrees with source G, in putting the blame on the republicans. Source I talks about how the policy of the civil rights association, is to refuse to permit the display of provocative symbols and banners “in particular the Republican tricolour So source I is accusing the Republicans of causing trouble even by just showing their colours – making out whenever someone sees their flag, they would automatically think “violence”
Source H disagrees with G and I agree with source G.
5. Source J is a cartoon drawn in 1991 by a northern Irish political cartoonist. It was the illustration for the front cover of a book called troubled time. The book was all about the troubles in Northern Ireland from 1970-1991.
I agree with this portrayal of the problems in Northern Ireland because it shows an ordinary man, a Unionist politician, Republican politician, paramilitary and a mother and child. It shows them walking around on a staircase, going round and round and never getting anywhere. I would say that this is referring to the problems in Northern Ireland, saying that they are always fighting but never reaching any type of resolution. In source J if you look at the markings on the all, you can see the date 1916 – This is referring to the Easter Rising. Nationalists rejected Redmond’s policy of peaceful persuasion and in 1916 a small group of fenians organised an armed rising in Dublin on Easter Monday, hence Easter Rising. They took over the general post office and proclaimed Ireland an independent Republic. From my research, it looks like the Easter rising, was one of the earliest examples of Nationalists.
Another year marked on the wall was 1960. This was referring to the battle of the Boyne. In 1690, the new king, William of Orange, followed James to Ireland with his own army and defeated him, on July 1st – Battle of the Boyne. This victory marked a turning point along the road to Northern Ireland’s conflicts. After this incident, it seemed, Protestants made sure they had complete control of Ireland, and prevented any further attempts by Catholics to regain power.
So the wall is basically, highlighting the major events in Irish History
Another one of the many reasons that the problems in Northern Ireland never seized, is sectarian discrimination. Catholics were given the worst jobs and worst housing environments and so obviously the Protestants were gaining most out of the conflict and were not looking for a resolution.
Even peaceful marches by the Catholics caused violence because of all the media attention, sectarian prejudice and fear of the IRA. Many working class loyalists were angry at the demands of civil righters, because they resented the impression given in the Media – that only Catholics suffered hardships, while a privileged protestant community looked down on them.
In conclusion I agree with source J, that the conflict between many, for example catholics and Protestants, and paramilitary’s and unionists, is not achieving any resolution because people keep looking back to the past.
