On 12th August 1969 the Apprentice Boys march from Belfast to Londonderry to commemorate the Siege of Derry in 1689 which they had won against the Catholics, this made the Catholics angry.
as the Apprentice Boys got past the perimeter of the Catholic Bogside clashes occurred. Within hours rioting had escalated, police were stoned and petrol bombed as they made their way in riot gear into the Bogside. After two days and nights of continuous rioting the police were exhausted. So, on 14th August 1969 The British Government sent the army into Northern Ireland. The reason why the troops were brought in was to replace the worn out police and try to stop the riot and control the Catholics. Also the British troops were neutral they didn’t have the same ingrained hatreds of the RUC and B Specials, they wouldn’t behave with the same viciousness instead would have treated everyone equally. Despite all the unfairness the Catholics had to deal with, this had not been necessary earlier.
Irish Catholics faced another problem, when it came round to election time, most Catholics would have voted for a Catholic representative to speak on behalf of the Catholic people, however, Protestants 'fixed' the elections to
favour the Protestants, it was made sure that no Catholics could be voted
into Parliament to speak up for their fellow people. This was known as
'Gerrymandering', the process by which constituency boundaries were redrawn to favour the Protestant population. Without power the Catholics had no chance of having their voices heard so they had to resort to Civil Rights marches.
The Unionists controlled the Catholic areas, this was a huge disadvantage to the Catholic people, they had no political power. Catholics were not given job opportunities, if a Protestant and a Catholic applied for the same job, no matter how qualified the Catholic was, the Protestant would always get the job. This meant that many Catholics were unemployed and could often not afford to feed their families. Catholic children were put in the worst schools, whilst the Protestant children were put in the very best schools. Catholic children were not taught anything about Catholicism, they were only taught about Protestant history. Children grew up believing that Catholics were evil and the Protestant religion was the way forward. This made the Catholics become very angry because the Protestants were trying to change them into Protestants and so would make them rebel against the Protestants.
The Police in Northern Ireland were 99.9% Protestant and extremely biased
and violent towards Catholics, they would attack innocent Catholics for no
reason whatsoever. The 'B-Specials' were created - this was a unit within
the police, that were 100% Protestant. They were called in by the Unionists, to act like a police force/army. The crimes which they committed were extremely violent and anti Catholics.
A fact as to why British troops were sent in to Northern Ireland in 1969 may be due to the fact that the Irish Prime Minister, Jack Lynch was threatening to intervene with the troubles in Northern Ireland, and went as far as moving Irish army units towards the border. The British government may have felt that matters were gradually being taken out of their hands, so the way to regain the power was to send in the troops to take control of both the Protestants and Catholics in Northern Ireland so the Irish Prime Minister wouldn’t have to.
The Catholic Irish were beginning to lose faith and trust in their politicians, they felt that O'Neill was not keeping his promise of a 'fairer deal for Catholics’; they were beginning to feel they needed to take the law into their own hands. As tensions grew, segregation became more likely. In cities like Londonderry and Belfast, "many people who lived in the 'wrong' area - that is Catholics in Protestant areas and vice versa - were forced to leave their homes." In these circumstances it was much easier for battle lines to be drawn.
The long term causes of the problems between the Catholics and Protestant of Northern Ireland are rooted in the histories of England and Ireland. Since the 12th century and the invasion of Henry II in Ireland. Where English settlers were given land that belonged to the conquered Irish without permission. These settles had more power and privileges then the native Irish, which angered the Irish as they should have more power because its they home land. This might have been a factor of the 1969 conflicts because Protestant didn’t own Ireland they are not Irish but they have all the power.
The religious side to conflict started in 1534 when Henry VIII broke away from the Pope and set up a new church of England, this was because he wanted to divorces but the Pope wouldn’t allow it so he and his country became Protestant, but the Irish wished to remain Roman Catholics and did not want to be forced to swear loyalty to Henry. So if Henry didn’t change religion none of these conflicts would have never happened.
In 1534 he announced that he was also king of Ireland, undoubtedly causing additional bad feeling towards the English.
Between 1921 and the mid 1960s Catholics in Northern Ireland faced many
problems. In 1919, the country of Ireland was divided into two parts; The North, here there was a large Protestant Majority, each of the six Ulster counties had their own parliament and their own government. The South, largely occupied by Irish Catholics, most opposed the idea of dividing Ireland. But in 1921 a group of Sinn Fein, and IRA members signed and treaty with the British, accepting the division of Ireland. This was when what's known as 'Northern Ireland' was created, dominated by Protestants. However, Catholics had wanted a united and Independent Ireland, so resentment grew. After partition, it was hardline Unionists who held power in the North, they were determined to keep Ulster British and Protestant. They tended to see all Northern Catholics as possible traitors. As a result Catholics were discriminated against. For over 50 years the Catholics had very little power to change the partition and the discrimination against them that something had to be done the Catholics were just waiting for the right moment.
There are many causes and factors which lead to the sending of British troops into Northern Ireland in 1969. The Catholics had been unhappy about they situation for a long time and when they heard about the Civil Rights Marches in America and what Martin Luther King had done for the black people this gave the Catholic Irish ideas and hope that they could successes and the bulling from the Protestant police gave them the drive, and all of this rage and angry scared the Protestants and English that they might loss control of the Catholics and so that’s why the troops were brought in, also the Catholics didn’t dislike the British so the Catholics would have been a lot more cooperative then if it was the Protestant police.
The short-term causes were that the Catholics were treated unfairly and they wanted a change, the bad housing, worse jobs schools and only Protestant education was taught for the Catholics; they had no power because voting was fixed, gerrymandering, and so they felt help less as there couldn’t change anything; also Catholics were losing faith in the government and started to rebel to try and change things.
I think that the long term causes/early history of Northern Ireland and Britain was the most important cause as this is where the hatred first develops for both sides; Henry II taking land off Irish Catholics and giving it to English settlers who later on gain all the power; Henry VIII wanting to change the religion from Catholic to Protestant but the Irish Catholics not allowing it; the partition of Ulster even thought the Irish want to keep Ulster as one.
The hatred between the two neighbouring countries was built up over the centuries into the conflict of the present day.
