There was a lot of injustice towards the Catholics in N Ireland because they were working class people and shipyards and factories were being closed down so they became unemployed. The Protestants fixed the elections so they would remain in power. They made it obligatory to own a house to have the right to vote, making it hard for the unemployed Catholics to vote. After the war 95,000 homes where declared to be unfit to live in. New homes were built but were given mainly to the Protestants. There was a lot of unfairness towards the Catholics about who would get the new houses. In 1956 the IRA began what was after all 3 months of guerrilla warfare but did not achieve anything so decided to declare truce. The N Ireland police was made up of Protestants and they could not attract Catholics to join the police because of the large number of Protestants within the police force.
In 1963 the Protestant prime minister, Basil Brooke was replaced by Captain Terence O’Neill. Captain O’Neill tried to make a united Ireland and started to make things fairer for the Catholics. In 1965 Captain O’Neill had a meeting with the prime minister of Ireland for the first time in 40 years. He started a reform with the Catholics and visited catholic schools. While O’Neill was trying to improve the situation the Catholics were becoming impatient and decided to start protesting for Civil Rights. Young Catholics were getting a better education and attended universities and started to become interested in politics and their right to be heard. Because of their higher education they were able to get better jobs and started to have their ‘chance to be heard’. In 1966 a Civil Rights Movement was being prepared, like by Martin Luther King and the black citizens of the United States and Ghandi in India had done before them. There were two main Civil Rights groups; they were the People’s Democracy and The Derry Citizens’ Action Committee. They prepared marches and protests for Civil rights because they were fed up with unemployment, not having the right to vote, poor housing and Civil Rights in general. They started their marches and protests peacefully and intended for no violence but this provoked Protestants because of people like the Protestant religious leader Reverent Ian Paisley who enjoyed Provoking violence and chaos between the two groups.
In 1969 the Civil Rights group the Peoples Democracy planned a long march from Belfast to Londonderry, the marchers where attacked at Burntollet bridge which lead to violence by the police. When the marchers arrived at Derry a riot starts and there is conflict between the protestors and the R.U.C (Royal Ulster Constabulary). After this incident there were other protests that turned in to violence that lead to a lot of Civil Rights marchers being injured. The introduction of the B-Specials did not help with the police’s bad reputation. The B-Specials were police group that were built up of Protestant volunteers that were called up when there was any need for them. The violence started getting worse and Captain O’Neill was under a lot of pressure because the Catholics where protesting for civil rights and the Protestants did not agree what he was doing and were demanding his resignation. Law and order rapidly Breakdown and there is no one in control. Bernadette Devlin was a leading member of the People’s Democracy and was also the youngest woman to enter the House of Commons. She played a very important political figure and spoke for her Catholic people. Bernadette Devlin did not think that it would be a good idea for British troops to be sent into Ireland. “I should not like to be either the mother or sister of an unfortunate soldier stationed there”. This means that she believes that any British soldier that is stationed in N Ireland will most likely be murdered. This hints that there is a very deep, subconscious hatred towards the British within the Catholics because of their upbringing and perception of Irish history etc. The situation got so bad that the Catholics built barricades to protect themselves from the police who they felt they could not trust anymore. Soon after this there were terrorist bombings, which damaged electricity and water supplies to Belfast. The IRA was immediately blamed for the explosions but it was the B-Specials who caused the trouble. The situation was getting extremely bad for Captain O’Neill and he could tell that there was a large amount of people opposing his attempts to unite Ireland. He resigned in April 1969 after the general election. The annual Protestant march celebrating their victory in the battle of the Boyne sparked off further trouble in July 1969. The march of the Apprentice Boys in Derry was the beginning of the biggest riot in Irish history where the police became involved and there was further violence. Bernadette Devlin was arrested and put in prison for 6 moths for taking part in these riots and breaking up stones for the stone throwers. These riots were known as the ‘Battle of the Bogside’, which happened in August 1969. After 2 days of riots Chichester-Clark, the new prime minister of N Ireland asked the British Government to send in troops to restore order. A request had already been sent but the British government did not want to rush into it and believed that the situation would get better. Bernadette Devlin got hold of the Ministry of Defence who were looking after the matter and said, “Unless troops were out of their barracks and into Derry city by mid-afternoon, Catholics would be slaughtered”. With Bernadette Devlin’s agreement they thought it was time to send in troops so they did.
The Catholics welcomed the British Troops because they saw that there was no link between the Protestants and the British army like there was with the B-Specials.
The main reason why the British troops where sent in is because of the breakdown of law and order. Captain O’Neill expected the situation to resolve itself that’s why he did not request the British troops but Chichester-Clark and Bernadette Devlin were the people in charge of getting the troops sent into Ireland. There was a lot of hatred towards the British because of home rule and that might be one of the main reasons that they did not ask for the British troops earlier.
