Study source J; do you agree with this portrayal of the reasons why troubles continued into 1990s? Explain your answer using the sources and your own knowledge.

Another reason why there was a problem because of the Political factor was that tension from Power sharing initiative and Anglo Irish agreement failure was increased due to the fact the failure sparked the IRA (nationalist) to initiate a campaign of violent paramilitary and terrorist activities. This then angered unionist who subsequently formed their own paramilitary groups such as the UVF and the UFF who counter-attacked this movement. This then resulted in “tit-for-tat” killings between the groups, by the 1990s loyalist had killing an increasing amount of Catholics; one of the ways in which they did this was to call a taxi of a catholic firm and kill the driver. This ongoing fight reached a devastating climax between 1992 – 1993; the IRA killed eight Protestants building workers in January 1992 and by February the Ulster Freedom Fighters retaliated by killing five Catholics in a betting shop. Also in November, the IRA destroyed a shopping centre in a protestant area the consequents was that a further three Catholic were killed in a betting shop by the UFF. This show why trouble continued due to politics; because this sparked a battle between the to sides which couldn’t be one, because in my opinion the side were fueled by revenge or one-upmanship. And this spiraled out of control in the mid 1990s and then stopped thus giving us the picture that the trouble eased in conjunction to the politically fueled battle.        

Elaborating on the issue I have previously stated about the contribution of religion to the prolonged trouble there was more to it than religious figure such as Paisley increasing tension as I’ve before now acknowledged. Another reason why religion was such an issue for so long was that a person’s religion determined beliefs and way of life; the predicament was Catholics in Northern Ireland had to endure large amounts of discrimination by protestant and the British government. Source A show this when it talks about the biggest employer in Belfast employing disproportion amounts of Protestants in comparison to catholics, “10,000 workers in a Belfast shipyard- the biggest single source of employment in the city- just 400 are Catholic.” Source B also corresponds with this because we can infer that catholics weren’t allowed into certain teams we no this because the players are good enough until he says what school he goes to; thus tells them what religion they were, and if they said saint they were catholic and therefore not good enough, “and if it’d saint something, then all of sudden the boy isn’t good enough.” Source E and F also concurs with this because it show the discrimination faced by catholics in government due to a system called gerrymandering. This shows that discrimination continued for nearly twenty five years due to religion from 1961 (source A) to 1984 source (source B) proving that religion caused discrimination which therefore led to continued conflict. This point is also reinforced by the fact that in 1981 catholic men were more likely to be unemployed; the fair employment commission had been destabilized with a rise in unemployment, and still catholic were over represented in unskilled work and under represented in managerial post showing that they were still being discriminated at this time due to there religion. Also in the mid 1990s we see that catholic were still discriminated due their religion in the civil service only 20% were catholic, this was disproportional to the overall population which was about 33%. Therefore this coincides with source J because it show that due to the religious differences the discrimination persistenced and thus the troubles continued.

The two references to the dates 1690 and 1916 are representative of the historical factor. The unionist (protestant) wanted to remain as they were part of Britain and would do anything to sustain this even resort to violence, but the Nationalists (Catholics) wanted to be apart of the republic they wanted a united Ireland they also used violence to achieve this. The date 1690 is when Protestants arrive in Ireland since the 17th century Protestants felt threatened by being the minority. The majority of Protestants still have a defensive and suspicious attitude toward Catholics. This attitude is obvious in the activities of the orange order, 100,000 Protestants are members of this order and most unionist politicians over the last 100 years have been orange men. Their hero was William of Orange; they were of the belief that his victory in the battle of Boyne stopped protestant from destruction at the hands of Catholics. The date 1916 refers to the Easter Rising; this was a rebellion lead by Patrick Pearse who was influenced by the Irish Ireland movement. The rising commenced on Easter Monday 1916, when the rebels seized the centre of Dublin. Pearse declared that the rebels were ‘the provisional government of the Irish Republic’. But in the end British force out numbered the rebels and after six days of fighting Pearse surrendered, fifteen of the rebel’s leaders were executed. This complete abhorrence for each other is conveyed by these traditional songs firstly the nationalist sing ‘Oh St Patrick’s Day will be jolly and gay, and we will kick all the protestants out of the way, if that won’t do, we’ll cut them in two, and send them to hell with their, Red white and blue.’ And the unionist song is , if guns were made for shooting, then skull are made to crack, you’ve never seen a better taig (catholic) than with a bullet in his back…’ Taking this and the two references stated it show the utter hatred shown toward each other for many centuries. Thus showing that trouble had persisted for so long because it was going round in circles; agreeing with source J, and that it had gone on for so long it wasn’t just going to stop immediately this is why there was prolong trouble due to the contribution of history.

This historical loathing of each other and the mistrust and suspicion which accumulated over the centuries was inter related to the social factor since it was due to this ordinary people, particularly working class persons were so unwilling to co-operate with the other side which is portrayed in source J because it show as long as the two side didn’t co-operate there would just be a cycle; they would just go round and round, since nothing would be solved so trouble would continue. Also this unwillingness to co-operate was not help by the fact the two communities were keep divided. Catholics and Protestants lived either somewhere solidly protestant or solidly Catholics. Also school were segregated; either protestant or catholic school, therefore both of these stopped Catholics from mixing, and in the case of school they could have grown up and become friend instead they were separated thus not giving them the chance to co-operate or lessening  the chance.

On reflection I believe that source J does illustrate the reasons why there was continued trouble definitely because it shows the entire factors which played a role; Politics, history, social, and Religion. All of these factor had there importances in contribing to prolong conflicted due to the fact they are all inter related and without one another wouldn’t of happen or would have been not as significant. For example as I’ve just stated that the historical factor led to pure hatred toward each other and thus a social factor. But the single most significant factor in my opinion was religion due to the fact it was the main issue which separated the two groups, and each of the other factor stemmed from this difference.