The IRA’s reputation was severely damaged in the summer of 1969, because it had not been able to protect the Catholics. Slogans appeared on the walls in Belfast:
‘IRA – I Ran Away.’
There were some members of the IRA who felt that the policy of uniting Ireland had to be followed and that if violence had to be used to achieve that aim, then violence would be used. Some IRA members wished to re-unite Ireland by peaceful means. A split occurred in the IRA, and those who embarked on a policy of violence called themselves the ‘Provisional IRA’. When first established there were 30 provisionals in Belfast, but they soon expanded and became the main force behind Irish Nationalism.
In August 1971 Internment was introduced. Internment was the imprisonment of suspected terrorists with no trial, and was regarded by many as a serious infringement of Civil Rights.
The internees were ill-treated and there was an official commission (the Compton Commission) which looked into conditions. There was widespread anger about Internment and a march was organised to demand the end of this policy. Marches occurred on the 30th January 1972, marches were banned after the introducing of Internment, but this one still went ahead. The march went peacefully until crowds gathered at the army barriers, at one point there was stone throwing and the army responded with water cannons and large, rubber bullets, the situation got worse and firing began and soon thirteen civilians lay dead.
This was the beginning of Bloody Sunday.
The British Army has always said that it was fired on first, and the marchers have always said that the army fired the first shots. Young soldiers believed that the ‘Big Guns’ should have been there instead of them, meaning that they didn’t want to fight or be in Ireland, similar to the soldiers of the world wars ‘Lions Lead By Donkeys’. The British Army fired shots at people who were injured and not dead yet, for no reason, they were not prosecuted for their actions either.
Catholics were extremely unhappy about these events. Catholic people who’s family members had been killed or critically injured joined the IRA in revenge. These events made them even more bitter and resentful to the British and the Irish Protestants.
To be perfectly honest, I don’t believe that neither religion was pleased or happy about the deaths of innocent people (maybe the IRA was), the general result was that mainly Catholics were badly done to, they got the brunt of the blame and Protestants not far behind. Sinn Fein, the political wing of the IRA said that it would
‘Campaign with a ballot paper in one hand and an Armalite in
the other’
Sinn Fein MP’s Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness were both involved in the events of Bloody Sunday. Martin McGuinness was a commander at Bloody Sunday and said in a National Paper 3 weeks ago that he is not ashamed of what happened, proving that the neither the IRA or Sinn Fein did not care. For this event it is exceptionally hard to come up with a point of view for both religion, the concept is overwhelming, but I think that neither was happy with the deaths bombs etc. but what could a simple march do to provoke such attacks?
Again the Catholics got most of the blame, the British Army had more power and people supported them and were mainly Protestant, so the Catholics were blamed including the IRA. Catholic in Northern Ireland are the underdogs and have been for over 300 years.
Protestants also got some of the blame but not as much as the Catholics, again both were not happy, so it is hard to come up with what people exactly thought unless you were there.
The Potato Famine
In 1800, families in the Irish Countryside rarely owned the land that they farmed. Much of the land was owned by large landlords who rented the land out to tenants. Tenants had no rights and the landlord could do what they pleased i.e. evict tenants or increase rents when they felt like it. Many families in the countryside lived in terrible conditions in damp and overcrowded cottages.
The Irish population had decreased in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Farms became smaller (Irish law said that the land was divided among all the sons in a family, unless the oldest became Protestant then he gets it all) there was an increase in landless labourers. One reason for this, is that they could live off a small piece of land if they grew potatoes. People were marrying young and having more children.
Early in the 19th century most Irish families depended entirely on the potato for food all other crops and livestock were sold to pay rent to the landlord. In 1845, about a third of population ate little except potatoes.
In 1845, the potato crop was attacked by a mysterious fungus. The wind and rain spread the fungus from place to place, it reduced potatoes to a foul-smelling, pulpy mess. This was called Potato Blight. When the crop wad harvested in October, some places in Ireland had no crop at all. The potato crop in Ireland had been destroyed.
Almost a million people died in the potato famine of either starvation or hunger related diseases. The British Government refused to give food to the poor, they would only sell it, very few Irish tenants had enough money. As people were dying in Ireland, Beef and Grain were being exported to Britain.
As many tenants were unable to pay their rent to their landlords – who often lived far away in England. A lot of them were evicted from their homes as a result. Many were forced to leave Ireland and went to America or England. 4 million people left Ireland between 1845 and 1900.
Many Irish felt that the British had deliberately allowed the famine and emigration to continue, in order to reduce the Catholic Irish and make Ireland easier to govern. As a result a Republican called Michael Davitt formed the land league in 1879. The league used violence to force landlords to set fair rents and stop evictions. It won support of Charles Stewart Parnell, a leading politician in Ireland. This league hoped to solve the problem. There were rent strikes, boycotts, and attacks on landlords, these all forced the British Government to act and in 1881 a commission was set up to fix fair rents and give loans to tenants to buy the land. In 1916 almost 64% of this population in Ireland owned land, the land problems had been solved but this was no longer enough and the troubles continued.
Catholics in Ireland were treated awfully during this period of time, many died starvation or hunger related diseases. They had to pay the rent or starve but they couldn’t pay the rent and starved to death anyway. Landlords were Protestant and instead of helping the Catholic buy giving them food or letting them pay the rent later, they wanted the money then and there. Catholic believed that because British crops did not suffer from the Blight, they thought that the British had put something in their crops to make this happen. Not only is this stupid, but unbelievable, because Beef and Onion were being exported, they could have eaten that if they’d had enough money to buy it that is. The British Government would not give the Irish Catholics food only sell it, this fuelled hatred towards English and Protestants as well.
Catholics in the eyes of Protestants and English were viewed as scum, and didn’t want them there so they’d make them pay rents, only sell them food. As well as a dislike for each other this was part of the feudal system.
Not only did this affect the Catholic farmers but it also affected Protestant farmers, although most Protestants owned the land and got money from their Catholic tenants. The Protestants may have been viewed as greedy and pitiless because they did not care about the Catholic farmers problems and just wanted their rent and land. Protestants had more rights than Catholics by law, Catholics were not allowed to join the army, or have a profession, basically anything that gave them a position in society. These laws were set by William III, whereas Protestants had the freedom to do all these things without worrying.
The unfair treatment of Catholics during this period may have had a wore effect than events before it, mainly because of the cruelty and selfish displays of greediness by the British. Catholics hate Protestants because they had more rights, example, Catholics were not allowed to vote, whatever they felt on matters had no effect or meaning to Protestants. They felt inferior and at the chance to rebel and fight back they would not and did not turn it down.
