3) Relative to other events, how important an obstacle to peace is Bloody Sunday?
After the Battle of the Boyne in 1690, until 1790, the Protestants controlled Ireland - they took all privileges away from the Catholics and gave them to the Protestant settlers from England and Scotland. Between 1719 and 1819 the Irish divided into two groups- the nationalists (Catholics) who wanted to free Ireland from British rule and the unionists (Protestants) who wanted to keep Ireland and Britain united.
Starting with the Easter Rising in 1918, Catholic rebels fought against the Protestants and eventually the British rule collapsed by 1921 in most of Ireland, apart from Ulster, dividing the country into North and South. South became an independent country with a largely Catholic government, and the North stayed part of Great Britain with Protestant unionists controlling their North Ireland government. Catholic nationalists who were still in the North were treated unfairly by the unionists and in 1968 the 'troubles' broke out in the North. In 1969 the British government sent troops in to keep order and in 1972 they took power back from the Protestants and began direct rule from England. Following this, the IRA increased their violent activities.
In the 1970's, the violence between the Catholics and the Protestant communities resulted in the first British soldier (Robert Curtis) being killed (February 1971). As the violence increased, the British government sent in more troops and decided to introduce internment i.e. imprisonment without trial, in August 1971. They thought it would reduce power of terrorists on both sides. They were wrong because most of the arrested were Catholic so the IRA increased their activities which caused the Protestants to form the UDA, to form a defence. The people who were imprisoned or internees were treated very badly.
The Catholics were disgusted by this and decided to have a civil rights march to protest against it and it was organised for the 30th of March, 1972, in Derry. Marches had been banned since the beginning of internment but this one went ahead anyway. It was a peaceful march until they reached the army barriers on Free Derry Corner, where there was some stone throwing and the army responded with water cannons and rubber bullets. They also had live ammunition. Soldiers from the paratroop regiment were moved in and began to shoot - thirteen unarmed men were shot dead.
Some people said they heard shots in the crowd and if the soldiers thought they were being attacked by IRA snipers they would obviously respond. The problem was they were given live ammunition as well as rubber bullets and the paratroop regiment was too aggressive and not the appropriate people to be dealing with crowd control.
Bloody Sunday is an obstacle to peace because just as the Protestants commemorate the Battle Of the Boyne in their marches, the Catholics commemorate Bloody Sunday and use it to justify their continual violence.
Despite repeated attempts at peace initiatives, violence continues and has extended beyond the shores of Ireland. The IRA often bomb strategic sites in Britain to gain publicity. Even today (4th March, 2001) there is news of an IRA bomb outside the BBC News Centre in West London, which has caused much damage and has resulted in the injury of one underground tube worker. This attack couldn't have been better placed in order to gain publicity.
4) Gerry Adams & Ian Paisley
- Who are their heroes from Irish history? Explain why they would have chosen these people.
- What events of the past have influenced their actions today? Explain why you have chosen these things.
Gerry Adams is the leader of Sinn Fein and when he was younger he used to be a member of the IRA. Sinn Fein is a political party who supports the traditional work of the IRA and is supported by Catholics in the working class areas of Belfast, Derry and some rural areas. Gerry Adams was elected MP in the British Parliament in 1997 and tried to achieve a peaceful settlement in Northern Ireland with the British government and some Ulster unionists. He has always said that he can influence but he cannot control the IRA, but some people don't believe him, e.g. Ian Paisley.
His heroes from the past will include important republicans. One important republican was in fact a Protestant, Theobald Wolfe Tone, he was a Protestant lawyer and a leader of the United Irish Men and led a rebellion in 1798. His aim was to win independence from England, forget past differences and replace the words Protestant and Catholic with the word Irishmen. Although rebellion failed, he is considered to be a hero by the modern day republicans. Daniel O'Connell was a parliamentary nationalist who was opposed to violence. Between 1820 and 1847 he gained support from the Catholic bishops, priests and from the congregations, and he also forced the British government to ban the law against Catholic MP's in 1829, allowing his supporters to start the Irish Nationalist Party.
Charles Stewart Parnell led the Nationalist Party by 1885 and he demanded changes in land laws which protected poor Irish farmers from their landlords, and he also brought in a Home rule for Ireland bill, which was defeated twice. After 1900, a new leader, John Redmond, managed to get a third Home rule bill passed in 1912 and by 1914 the Irish people had their own parliament in Dublin. During the Easter Rising, the heroes were Patrick Pearse and James Connelly who made their headquarters in the post office building in Dublin and proclaimed Ireland to be an independent republic. They were quickly defeated by the British, and Connelly and Pearse were later shot by the British. Southern Ireland separated from Northern Ireland after Partition. Southern Ireland had its own parliament and in 1932 the new Prime Minister became Eamon De Valera. He called for a united Ireland and Northern Ireland should not exist. His main aims were for a Catholic, Gaelic and free Ireland.
I've chosen these people because they were all nationalists who influenced the events of history, which in their turn have influenced Gerry Adams.
Ian Paisley is a very forceful personality who is a unionist and opposes the IRA and Irish Nationalism. He formed the Democratic Unionist Party (UDP) in 1971 because he felt that the official unionists were weak, and his main aim is to call for the destruction of the IRA. He has said that '..the ordinary Ulster man is not going to surrender to the IRA…we have not only the right, but the duty to kill them, before they kill me, my family and others..'. His heroes would include, firstly, William of Orange whose victory at the Battle of the Boyne is celebrated by the Orange Order, of which Paisley is a keen member. Another hero would be Edward Carson. He was a lawyer who after the Partition of 1912 led the Ulster Protestants to fight against Home rule. They started a private army called the Ulster Volunteers and got over 400,000 Protestants to sign a solemn covenant to resist Home rule in Ireland.
For Ulster Unionists, Paisley included, the Easter Rising of 1916 was proof that nationalists were traitors. The activities of the IRA, especially the bomb at the remembrance parade at Enniskillen, have supported this view. Also the 1985 Anglo-Irish agreement and the 1993 Downing Street Declaration which allowed discussion on the future of Northern Ireland between the Dublin and London governments have confirmed Unionist fears that the British government is not to be trusted.
