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Introduction

Causes of conflict in Northern Ireland There are many causes of present conflict in Northern Ireland. In the 13th and 14th centuries England took control of Ireland and more specifically Dublin and the pale, we think that this was the first cause of conflict in Ireland which makes it a very important cause, however probably the main cause of conflict is that the British took full control of Ireland in the 16th century and actually occupying Ireland with British Protestant families, this obviously made the Irish Catholics very irritated, it was Elizabeth 1st and James 1st who sent the British army into Ireland. This is definitely a long term cause because it happened over seven hundred years ago. Because the Irish had British armies occupying Ireland for seven hundred years so of course the Irish Catholics hated the British, this again is also one of the most important causes because if the British had not been in Ireland there would be no conflict today. This is a long term cause. In the 1660's Oliver Cromwell massacred Irish Catholics at Drogheda - Wexford and the Irish would not just hate Oliver Cromwell but they would absolutely despise him, so this was an important cause of conflict because of the amount of Irish murdered and it is definitely a long term cause. The British who invaded Ireland were all Protestant after 1530 where as the Irish people were Catholics and this brings up many conflicts in Northern Ireland and because of the conflicting ...read more.

Middle

Many young Catholic republicans in Northern Ireland now joined the I.R.A. the 13 dead became martyrs. This greatly irritated the Catholics because they feel that 13 innocent people were killed and they wanted to get revenge on the British and so this caused conflict and so this was a very important cause of conflict especially seeing as many young people joined the IRA after Bloody Sunday to seek revenge. This is a short term cause of conflict in Northern Ireland. After the British army had killed the 13 Southern Catholic people the Nationalist Catholics changed their tactics to terrorism and to fight against the British army and security forces as well as protestant U.V.F and U.F.F. the I.R.A also decided to bomb England: e.g. * Birmingham pub bombing 1974 21 people killed * Guildford pub bombing 1975 7 people killed * Aldershot barracks 1972 7 people killed This angered the British greatly, the bombings brought terrorist violence to a high and so it is a very important cause. This is a short term cause of conflict in Northern Ireland. In the 1970's the British army tried to reduce the number of weapons in Ireland, the British army searched homes in Belfast and revealed a high number of explosives, rifles and grenade launchers. This is also a very important cause of conflict because more weapons is more likely to result in more violence, more injuries and more deaths. ...read more.

Conclusion

Catholics and Protestants did not want to mix there schools, shops and pubs for each religion so There was a dividing wall built in Belfast to keep opposing sectarian groups apart (It was a peace line). Since 1968 the wall has got ton bigger because people have been throwing petrol bombs and bricks, etc into enemy housing over the wall. Because of all the hatred in Belfast children have grown up in an atmosphere full of violence. In the 1980's two ladies from Northern Ireland started a Protestant-Catholic movement for peace with some success before it ended in the 1990's this was very unusual for Catholics and Protestants to work together. Peace talks continued and the IRA had another ceasefire. In 1972 the Northern Ireland Government at Stormont was closed and power was transferred to Westminster. In 1999 there was a new Northern Ireland government reinstated at Stormont again. There was also a release of terrorists due to the Good Friday Agreement. Even though there are a lot of things that have changed since 1968 there are still a lot of things which have stayed the same for example the Great British army is still in Northern Ireland, There is still hatred and distrust in Northern Ireland between the people, Great Britain still rules Northern Ireland, Catholics still want to be ruled from Dublin, Protestants still want to be part of the United Kingdom, Protestants are still in the minority, The IRA still have their weapons furthermore Catholics and Protestants still live in separate areas. ...read more.

This student written piece of work is one of many that can be found in our GCSE Northern Ireland 1965-85 section.