The short-term causes began in 1921 the Northern Ireland Parliament the unionist MP’s made it clear they would never stop links with Britain and they ruled parliament and would not let the Catholics get involved. The royal Ulster constabulary (the police) were allowed extra forces to keep control they were known as the B specials. They treated catholic civilians harshly and became hated by them. Voting was restricted to householders and property owners, which ruled out Catholics and meant Protestants gained control of local councils even where Catholics were in the majority. Protestant councils favored Protestants in employment and housing and discriminated against Catholics. Then in the 1960’s the Northern Ireland civil rights association was formed and in1968 their first march took place later that year on another march in Derry the Protestants started trouble and the time known as the troubles started.
Many factors lead to the troubles and after the October 1968 civil rights march in Derry two groups emerged they were the Derry citizens’ action committee led by john Hume and the second group was made up of mainly students they organized a march from Belfast to Derry and before the marchers left Belfast the reverend Ian paisley provoked the protestants by stirring up bad feelings against the marchers and to attack them the police did little to protect them and some joined in on the attacks in Derry. Catholics felt they had no protection from the police and the problems in this period of time continued. In the summer of 1969 the reputation of the I.R.A was damaged because it couldn’t protect Catholics, slogans began to appear on walls in Ireland like I ran away. The I.R.A split into a violent and not violent group. The violence continued and the first British soldier was killed the British government sent in more troops and introduced internment which meant you could imprison someone without trial. This was unpopular and the I.R.A stepped up its activities. The Protestants reacted by forming the Ulster defence association. A march was organized to demand an end to internment the date was fixed for the 30th January 1972 the event went off peacefully until crowds gathered at army barriers some stones were thrown and was retaliated with using a water cannon and rubber bullets as the situation worsened a shootout perused and 13 civilians lay dead the army say they were fired on first and the marchers say they were fired on first.
Sources A, B, C, and D are all useful in their own ways for example Source A is a cartoon ninety years before bloody Sunday and it basically says that Frankenstein is Irish and that the Irish are evil. It is a biased piece of English propaganda. The picture puts forward the view that the Irish are all wrong and the English are innocent. The picture is of a little English person cowering in the corner frightened of the big Irish evil person trying to kill them. The Frankenstein is in a shadow and wearing dark clothes, which represents evil and comes back to the point that the Irish are evil.
This picture shows the Irish in a bad light and the Frankenstein part is based on a book about an evil monster by Mary Shelly an American author. The picture is not very useful for short-term causes because it was published ninety years before bloody Sunday, but the source does add to the long-term causes.
Source B is another English cartoon from 1982, which is on the tenth anniversary of bloody Sunday. This is a mock cinema billboard poster saying that the Irish are ‘psychopathic horrors’. The film has a rating of four x’s, which suggests the film is bad to watch, and contains scenes to horrific for even adults to watch. It also suggests that the violence that the Irish are subjecting the English to is contained in the film. One of the people on the poster is holding a knife in the same stance as the Irish Frankenstein which also suggests this person is Irish. The poster also has thirteen crosses on it, which may represent the thirteen lives lost on bloody Sunday. At the bottom of the poster it says many of the names of the Irish militant groups which suggests that the groups are the bad bit about the film and of course they are the Irish, so it makes you think that the Irish are evil and bad. This again tries to make you form a biased opinion towards the English.
This is not useful to help you find out about the situation before bloody Sunday because it is ten years after, but it does tell you what happened on the day of bloody Sunday for example it has got thirteen crosses and this represents the thirteen deaths on bloody Sunday. The saw is symbolic of violence. The poster makes you think about the Irish and makes you think that compared to the Irish the English arte civil. This movie poster is English propaganda. The audience for a and b is mainly English people but also wider people who are willing to form a viewpoint for the English side.
Source C is a picture of an English soldier stringing up an Irish man and in the background there is a house being burned down, it is Irish propaganda from around 1780. It is biased against the English and portrays the English soldiers as evil, it also portrays the Irish as innocent people, and the audience is mainly the Irish people. This is not very useful for short-term causes but is fairly useful for long-term causes because it shows what the Irish people were subjected to by the English.
Source D is a picture of an Irish lady being held up the wall at gunpoint and an English soldier is preparing a noose to hang her with. This shows the English in a bad light and that they are callas. It also shows how the Irish are miss-treated. Again this is Irish propaganda from about 1780, this also shows the Irish are innocent after all what could a poor little maid do against five armed soldiers? Again the audience is mainly the Irish people but also the English Americans who feel sympathetic towards the Irish. And again it is not very good or useful for short term causes of bloody Sunday but it is useful for long term causes because it shows what the Irish people were subjected to by the English.
