Source F: A map showing the gerrymander in 1966. This source shows the adult population of Derry was 30,376 (Catholics 20,102 and protestants 10,274). The city of Derry was split up into 3 wards North ward, South ward and Waterside ward. In the north ward there were 6476 voters 2530 of these were voters were catholic and 3946 were Protestants as a result of this election the north war became a unionist ward. The waterside ward there was 5549 voters, 1852 of these were Catholics and 3697 voters were protestant. The waterside ward also became a unionist ward. The south ward had 11,185 voters, 10,047 were Catholics and 1138 were Protestants. More Protestants than Catholics became boundary commissioners because Catholics refused. Therefore the boundaries of the constituencies favoured Protestants. This source does help a bit about why the troubles broke out in 1969 but this shows that the Catholics are being discriminated against because there are more Catholics than Protestants. This source does not have sufficient evidence.
Source G: Protestant images of catholic attacks on Protestants. This drawing is from a protestant textbook so this could be propaganda to brainwash people in too thinking that the Catholics are evil and bad people. The text says ‘English protestants stripped naked and turned in to the mountains in frost and snow because of this many hundreds are perished to death’ I think this is meant to anger the protestants and make protestants hate the Catholics more than they already do. This image was drawn in 1641. So from that we know that this was a long term cause. This source does not have sufficient evidence about why the troubles broke out in 1969. When combined with source E there is more use as they are both long term causes. This source is biased because this is a drawing from a protestant textbook.
Source H: RUC (Royal Ulster Constabulary) officers strike a civil rights marcher on 5 October 1968. This could have been a reason for why the troubles broke out in 1969, also like source F. this shows the RUC attacking a civil rights marcher. This could be propaganda created by the Catholics to make Catholics hate Protestants more. This is a short term cause because this photograph taken was 1 year before the troubles broke out. This source does help a bit in why the troubles broke out. I don’t think this source has sufficient evidence.
Source I: Crowd violence as loyalists ambush civil rights marchers at burntollet in January 1969. This source could help a little in understanding why the troubles broke out. This source doesn’t tell us why they were marching and it doesn’t tell us how many times they marched and got attacked, these are short term reasons about why troubles broke out in 1969. This source could have been the event that triggered the troubles to start. The two divisions between Catholics and Protestants were getting worse. On its own this source does not have enough evidence to tell us why the troubles broke out in 1969. This source could be biased because the civil rights marchers could have provoked the loyalists.
Source J: Sources D J collectively are not sufficient in my opinion. The sources do help by telling some of the long term causes and a couple of the short term causes. The long term causes are sources D, E, F, G. in source F the Catholics are being discriminated against politically. Young people have been taught separately in source D and they are indoctrinated in sources D, E and G. the sources collectively show that the Catholics and Protestants have hated each other for 300 years maybe even more.
There are a lot of things missing from the sources, there is no mention of the potato famine in which 1 million people died by 1850. The British government did little to help and 2 million people immigrated to England. There is also no mention of the partition and the creation of Northern Ireland (Ulster) and Ireland (Eire). Also there is no mention of the I.R.A 1916 Easter Rising, a small army of republicans seized control of the centre of Dublin, the British send troops to crush the rising. The ringleaders were executed by a firing squad they are seen as martyrs by the Irish. The treatment of the rebels and the shelling of Dublin made many Irish more anti-British and more sympathetic towards the republicans. There is no mention of the plantations of Protestants this is when the Protestants settle in Ireland. In 1609 Ulster nobles defeated and the 6 counties have new landlord’s Protestants Scots mainly the Roman Catholic Irish become the underclass with a new ruling class. There is also no mention the republicanism and discrimination over jobs and council houses all of the good and well paid jobs would go towards the Protestants and the Roman Catholics would get the not so well paid jobs. Council houses were built for people to live in but only the Protestants got to live in the council houses and the Catholics were forced to live in the slums.
2. The events that occurred on 30 January 1972 may have produced such different interpretations because maybe the army didn’t want to get blamed for the killing of 13 people.
Source A – The Daily Mail is traditionally a right wing newspaper. The paper tends to support the army and it does not like the republicans and nationalists in N.I. the daily mail not sympathetic towards the republican’s causes. Most of this article talks about the paratrooper’s anger at the new enquiry which was set up and not saying much about the victims.
One historical interpretation from this article is that people had accused the army of firing indiscriminately in the soldier defence he said that they came under attack and if they were firing indiscriminately how come no women and children were killed when there were thousands of people in the streets that day.
Source B – The Guardian. The guardian is more sympathetic towards the republicans. This article mostly concentrates on the new facts proving that the dead were innocent civilians.
One historical interpretation is a forensic scientist done his own tests and development in his tests shows that it could be explained by contamination. So there is no longer a strong suspicion that any of the victims held or were near weapons.
Source C- ITN news report
An interpretation from this report could be that the army was going to murder people from when they got into the bog side Derry.
Another interpretation from an English civilian saw soldiers firing first randomly and nobody was carrying a weapon or shot at the soldiers.
Another interpretation from Father Daly a Catholic priest says the Roman Catholics were unarmed and saw the British paratrooper’s murder 13 civilians.
A different interpretation from the army. The army saying there were armed men and Catholics saying they were unarmed but a few I.R.A men eye witnesses and photograph and the I.R.A fired but only after shot at. The army may have been telling the truth or maybe they were trying to cover up the fact that they murdered innocent people they may have done this because they would have been sent to prison. The Catholics may be telling the truth and they were not in possession of weapons or they could be looking for sympathy from people.
Another interpretation is the first shots 3 fired by British but warning shots, maybe I.R.A thought they were shot at. 13 people were shot at only 1 person had any connection with the I.R.A.
