After the Treaty was signed many Nationalists were furious and the president of the Dail, Eamon de Valera, pleaded with his people to reject the Treaty. He felt that it gave away the Irish independence and would bring Ireland into the British Empire and acknowledge the head of the British Empire as the direct Monarch of Ireland.
However, despite his efforts the Dail still voted to accept the Treaty by 64 votes to 57. The Anti-Treaty republicans were determined to ruin it and Eamon de Valera supported them. Nationalists soon began to fight one another in a civil war.
On the 22nd of August Anti-Treaty Republicans ambushed Michael Collins as his armoured car stopped because of obstacles that had been placed across the road. As he stepped out of his car he was shot dead by an unknown person. The civil war ended and those who had opposed the Treaty and the Partition of Ireland had been defeated. Despite this in 1932 Eamon de Valera’s Anti-Treaty party, Fianna Fail, still won the General Election in the Irish Free State and changed its name to Eire.
Eamon de Valera’s plans were for a republic of Ireland but it was not until 1948 that Eire became a republic. The British government still supported partition but accepted that Erie was now a Republic.
I think that without the Easter Rising, Partition still would have happened. Nationalists and Unionists would still have made other rebellions that would have eventually led to the partition of Ireland; this is because I feel that the violence would have reached the point where the only option left to deal with the situation would have been Partition. It may have happened at a later date but I still think that even without the Easter Rising, which did provoke further rebellions, there would have been other events occurring which would bring the British government to the decision that partition was the best way to attempt to bring peace to Ireland.
The Easter Rising could have been the reason that the decision of partition was made but I would still think that there would have been other past events that would have influenced the decision.
I wouldn’t say the Easter Rising was much of a turning point as nothing came of it with the exception of partition. However I do realise that to a certain extent the Easter Rising could be seen as a turning point as it is the reasons for the disagreements today. The Nationalists were unsuccessful and so the Easter Rising was a wasted attempt; by causing so much bloodshed and destruction they only angered the British more and so as a result the British got tougher and more rebellions occurred.
On the other hand the Easter Rising did show just how serious and how far the Nationalists were willing to go. It made people realize and importantly it made the British government realize just how strongly they felt about having a united and independently governed Ireland.
The deployment of British Troops in Northern Ireland, 1969
The deployment of Troops in Northern Ireland, 1969 was due to the tension in Northern Ireland caused by discrimination against the Catholics.
Catholics living in Northern Ireland knew that there was discrimination against them over things such as employment.
In 1959 at a time of rising unemployment the reverend Ian Paisley and his followers formed the Ulster Protestant Action. They formed ‘To keep Protestants and loyal workers in employment in times of depression in preference to their fellow Catholic workers’.
In the county of Fermanagh over half of the population is Catholic. In 1961 the Sunday Times carried out an investigation and found that the county council employed 370 people and that Protestants filled 332 of the posts including all of the top ones. On the county education authority the most wanted jobs were the ones for school bus drivers, this was because of the long rests and long holidays. All but seven of the 75 bus drivers in Fermanagh were Protestant.
Local elections in Northern Ireland were also biased, businessmen (mainly Protestants) were given extra votes and many of the poor Catholics had none, about 25,000 adults did not have the vote for the local government elections, most of these 25,000 were Catholics. A law also stated that lodgers and children over 21 living at home did not have the vote.
Housing also discriminated against Catholics. Protestant councils would give Protestants better housing than the Catholics but would still charge the same rents. Protestants were also given more houses, in 1589 houses were built by Fermanagh council between the end of the Second World War and 1969; 1021 of these houses went to Protestant families. That left 568 for the Catholics, almost half of what the Protestants were given.
The Protestants fears also brought about tension in Northern Ireland. Paisley feared that in a united Ireland Catholics would outvote Protestants; many shared His fears. Protestants were worried about losing control over the education of their children and some kinds of censorship and freedom to make personal decisions such as moral questions like contraception and abortion.
Paisley decided that Protestants had to be warned and so in February 1966 he started a newspaper called the Protestant Telegraph and warned Protestants of the dangers of getting too friendly with the Republicans. The paper also attacked the liberal ideas of Terence O’Neill. Paisley also formed an Ulster Constitution Defence Committee (UCDC) in 1966 to resist the reforms that had been promised to the Catholics by Terence O’Neill.
On June 12th 1966 Orange marches again reminded the Catholics that Protestants ruled Northern Ireland. The Catholics had begun to lose patience with Terence O’Neill and his promises, they wanted action. As the impatience of the Catholics increased the Protestants grew more alarmed.
Civil rights are the freedoms and rights which citizens in a democratic society are entitled to; the Catholics felt that they were being denied of their civil rights. Their rights to vote were limited and unfairly imbalanced with Protestant votes they were severely discriminated against in social life, work and housing.
More and more people began to become aware of their civil rights or rather their lack of civil rights after the Second World War.
The success of the American Civil Rights Movement showed people in Northern Ireland that protest marches were an effective way of gaining publicity and putting pressure on authorities. In 1967 the Republican clubs and the Campaign for Social Justice joined forces to form a Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association (NICRA) their aims were:
- To get equal voting rights
- To end the gerrymandered voting districts
- To get laws against discrimination by local governments
- To be given fair location of council houses
- To scrap the Special Powers Act
- To disband the B Specials
The NICRA began to organise peaceful protests like those held in the United States. One of the protests they held was in August 1968, at this particular march 2,400 people attended and marched to Dungannon to protest against the housing policy done by the Dungannon council. They sang ‘We shall overcome’ and their protest got wide press and television coverage.
The government knew that such marches could lead to fighting and so they did whatever they could to avoid violence. This included banning some marches if it seemed inevitable that’s violence would occur.
On the 5th October 1968, civil rights supporters arranged a march through a Protestant area of Londonderry. The government banned this march, however, the civil rights supporters ignored the ban and started marching. 77 of the supporters were injured when police attacked them with batons and water cannons.
Events like these angered some civil rights supporters and made them think that more direct actions had to be taken. Students in Belfast took the lead and former ‘Peoples Democracy’, a left-wing civil rights group. Their inspiration was not only the Unites States Civil Rights Movement, but also the student protest movement that had swept across Europe in 1968.
In 1969, People’s Democracy staged a march from Belfast to Londonderry but when they reached a place called Burntollet a Protestant mob ambushed them and the marchers were stoned and beaten. When they arrived at Londonderry they were welcomed by cheering Catholics the police however went into the Bogside and smashed up houses and abused the residents. Riots followed when the residents built barricades to defend themselves from the police.
O’Neill’s government was being destroyed by the growing violence. Elections held in early 1969 showed that support for Liberals was declining whilst support for extremists grew.
Following further police riots and bomb attacks by Protestant groups, O’Neill resigned as Prime Minister in April 1969. His successor was equally unsuccessful in restoring order.
The police and the Catholics fought a battle for control over the Bogside, this became known as the ‘Battle of the Bogside’. During the’ Battle of the Bogside’, Bogsiders set up barricades and defended themselves with petrol bombs and declared to be ‘Free Derry’ using a republican flag. Shortly after seven people were killed in Belfast and Catholic areas were devastated after riots broke out.
As Northern Ireland came closer and closer to sliding into civil war the British decided that the RUC could no longer be trusted to deal with the situation. On the 14th 1969 British Army troops were sent onto the streets of Belfast and Derry to attempts to end the growing troubles there and restore order.
At first the introduction of troops appeared to have worked as peace in Northern Ireland had been restored. But within a matter of months the newly formed provisional IRA were armed and ready for action. Within a short time it became a war between the British Troops and the IRA and all attempts to crush the IRA seemed to have the opposite effect.
***** Add in bit (points 1&2) Need to ask teacher*****
Internment is the imprisonment of someone without trial and without a right to a lawyer/solicitor. On August 7th 1971 the British Troops entered the Catholic districts and raided the houses in search of suspected IRA members.
342 men who had been named as suspects were taken away. 226 of them were interned; most of them were sent to Long Kesh internment camp and shut up in special ‘High Security’ prison cells, known as ‘H-Blocks’.
Unionist Prime Minister, Brian Faulkner believed that things were getting better and that internment had been a success.
Although when internment was introduced it provoked a wave of shootings and explosions killing 143 people the violence began to die down by the end of the year. Meanwhile the government had created 7000 new jobs and built 14662 new houses. All in all internment appeared to have been successful.
However, internment had increased the bitterness between the Catholics and Protestant communities. The Catholics now hated the British government and the army more than before internment had been introduced. Internment had caused Catholic and Protestant communities to move further apart thus adding to the troubles and had put Britain into an even worse position as Catholics hatred increased.
With the above in mind I would say that the deployment of troops was far from a turning point; although at first it appeared that they were succeeding in restoring some sort of peace this soon changed. The army only provoked the IRA and so the violence worsened. The troops then made a bad attempt at trying to unarm the IRA when they entered the catholic lower falls area of Belfast on July 3rd 1970.
The troops took over the whole area and began searching for weapons and ammunition belonging to the IRA. During their search troops left a trail of destruction, smashing in doors and breaking furniture.
Although they had found 106 weapons compared to the 100,00 licensed guns in Northern Ireland this wasn’t very much at all. The efforts seemed to have been wasted and as a consequence the British Troops had upset and alienated the people of the Lower Falls area. Instead of being seen as an unbiased force there to protect both the Catholics and the Protestants, the British Army was seen as another weapon that the unionist government could use against the Catholics.
The violence soon got worse, and then in February 1971 the first British Soldier to be killed since the Troops were sent in on August 1969 was shot by the IRA.
So far the Troops had lost any trust that the Catholics may have had for them and had sparked an increase in violence destroying any peace that had came about when they first entered Northern Ireland, August 1969.
As a further failure to aid Northern Ireland’s situation internment was introduced and as I have previously explained it would appear that in my opinion it caused more disruption rather than helping to stop or at least hinder the IRA and bring peace to Northern Ireland.
Therefore in my opinion the deployment of Troops was not a turning point as it did little to restore peace and caused more disruption and damage, leaving the Catholics and Protestant further apart than before.
Bloody Sunday, 30 January 1972
The Civil Rights March held in the city of Derry on Sunday 30th January 1972 was as a consequence of internment. The marchers were there to protest against internment. This march was however illegal as the unionist government had banned all marching.
There had been an increase of violence towards the Catholics from brutal attacks made by British Troops, this all added to the anger felt by many Catholics and the reasons behind the march.
In order to deal with the crowd incase of violence from either side paratroopers were sent out onto the streets. However, Paratroopers are selected and trained to deal with difficult situations and specialist operations, not for crowd control.
The events of Bloody Sunday are still to this day undecided. The British Army have always said that they were fired upon first and say “When we’re fired at, we must protect ourselves”. This opposes the Marchers opinions that claimed that they were shot at first and only returned fire in response.
Either way 13 unarmed civilians were shot and we can only speculate on what really happened.
As a result of Bloody Sunday Sympathy grew for the Catholics in Northern Ireland from around the world. The world thought Britain was brutal and support grew for Sinn Fein in the USA, France and Italy. Sympathy from southern Ireland for the Catholics in the North also grew and as a sign of protest the British Embassy in Dublin was burned down.
The Catholic population of Northern Ireland became more violently opposed to the presence of the British Army; as a consequence the Protestant community formed new groups for retaliation. In Northern Ireland the unionist Party split into smaller, more extreme groups leaving the Prime Minister Faulkner, without the support of his MP’s.
The British government reacted by suspending Stormont (The Northern Ireland Parliament) fearing that a civil war and a total breakdown was nearing. The situation had become out of hand and so Mr Heath, the conservative Prime Minister decided to re-introduce direct rule on the 24th March 1972 Northern Ireland became under the direct control of the British Government.
I think that Bloody Sunday was a turning point. The March itself showed the world just how much they had been affected by internment, the amount of marchers also showed the amount of people who opposed internment.
The behaviour of the British army was an eye opener to the world. Not just because it showed Britain being brutal towards the Marchers but because it also helped to show the situation Ireland was really in and how the Protestants and the British were treating the Catholics.
Bloody Sunday also helped to gain sympathy for the Catholics and support for Sinn Fein grew. This would ultimately help the Catholics in their fight for a united, independent country.
However, the Protestants and mostly the British were put to shame by their actions. The British were seen as brutal for many reasons, Bloody Sunday being one. The Protestants also lost support as the violence they had be inflicting on the Catholics became known. Of course the Catholics had been violent too but because of Bloody Sunday support for them grew.
As a result of Bloody Sunday the British government stopped Stormont and imposed Direct Rule. For Catholics this would have been satisfactory as although they were under British Rule it would mean that they were not under Unionist Rule. As the government before had been Unionist this would have made the Catholics vulnerable as their own government was ultimately against them. This can be seen by the discrimination against the Catholics where Protestants would get better houses, jobs etc.
The introduction of Direct Rule for the Protestants would have been bad news. They had lost their power and it may not have been good for the Protestants but it would mean a chance of a fair government for both Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland.
Conclusion
The Easter Rising; 1916, Deployment of Troops in Northern Ireland; 1969 and Bloody Sunday; 30th January 1972 all made an impact on Ireland and the world.
The events of the Easter Rising, 1916, affected Ireland as a whole, sympathy grew for those who carried out the Easter Rising (the Nationalists) and support for Sinn Fein grew. It left the Protestants even more agitated and caused yet more fighting between the Protestants and the Catholics.
In 1916 after the formation or the I.R.A by Michael Collins, attacks on the police and soldiers marked the start of the War of Independence. As a result of the of the Violence and bloodshed from the War of Independence the British decided that something had to be done and so they sent in the ‘Black and tans’ and the Auxiliaries, ex-soldiers and ex-army officers.
However, despite the attempts to control the situation the Catholics and Protestants continued to fight and cause destruction.
This left the British government in a state of hopelessness. The British Prime Minister decided there was only one way to deal with Ireland. Partition, Ireland would be split into two, each country given Home Rule.
By 1921 the Partition Treaty had been signed despite the attempts of the Anti-Treaty Nationalists. All of the above events were repercussions of the Easter Rising, each lead onto the other as a consequence. The final result being Partition.
However, the effects were still being felt years later where tension still remained between the Catholics and the Protestants.
After many acts of violence and destruction it was decided that RUC could no longer deal with situation and so British Troops were sent out onto the streets of Northern Ireland.
At first it seemed to have worked but it soon appeared that the I.R.A had become armed. Soon the I.R.A were making violent attacks on the British Troops and Protestants despite the attempts made by the British they could not stop the I.R.A.
Due to a rise in violence from the I.R.A the British forces carried out internment, raiding Catholic houses for suspected I.R.A members and weapons. The suspects were then interned and were sent to High security prison cells.
The behaviour of the British Troops angered the Catholics who felt that this was really an attack aimed at all Catholics. Internment had provoked a wave of violence including shootings and explosions between the Catholics, the Protestants and the British Troops. It had also increased the bitterness felt between the Catholics and the Protestants thus hindering the situation.
Support for the IRA rocketed and the Catholics now hated the British Government more than before internment. Catholic and Protestant communities had fallen even further apart, loosing any trust and civility that had existed before.
Britain had been placed in a worse position then before, although the Protestants may have become more in favour of the British this was never a problem anyway. The problem was getting the Catholics trust and to be on good terms with them. This would not only have helped come to an agreement with the Catholics, it would have also meant that perhaps the Catholics and the Protestants could have got along. However they had pushed the Catholics further now and their hatred towards the British and the Protestants had increased.
As a reaction to the introduction of Internment a Civil Rights march was held on Sunday the 30th of January 1972, know now as ‘Bloody Sunday’. This march was illegal however the marchers chose to ignore the ban and so the government sent out paratroopers to deal with the crowd in case any violence broke out. The events of Bloody Sunday are still unclear as each side points the finger at each other however; the horror is still with us today.
The immediate reaction to Bloody Sunday was complete disbelief; it was Worldwide by many. Sympathy for the Catholics in the North grew from those in the South and as a mark of respect and protest the British Embassy in Dublin was burnt down.
The Catholics in the North became more violent towards the Protestants; they were filled with anger and hatred from the events of Bloody Sunday, which resulted in 13 dead.
Prime Minister Faulkner’s unionist party split up into smaller more extreme groups leaving him without the support of his party. And so the violence began to increase again.
The British Governments reaction to all of this was to suspend Stormont and re-introduce Direct Rule in March 1972. They had feared that a Civil war and even that a total breakdown was nearing as the situation got out of hand.
With all of the previously mentioned effects and impacts of the events of the Easter Rising; 1916, Deployment of Troops in Northern Ireland; 1969 and Bloody Sunday; Sunday 30th January 1972. I think that the Easter Rising; 1916 had the biggest impact on the history of the conflict in Ireland.
The repercussions were numerous and many carried on to influence decisions such as Partition, which still remains today.
As well as the repercussions themselves I think that the Rising had the most impact because it was the effects provoked by the Rising which lead onto be some of the factors, which caused the Deployment of Troops in Northern Ireland and Bloody Sunday.
Question 2
Ireland has been in constant conflict for over a century and during the conflict known as the ‘Irish Troubles’ the British Government has made numerous attempts to put an end to the violence and disagreements; for example, the Partition of Ireland in 1921.
The present crisis in Northern Ireland began in 1968 and since the introduction of Direct Rule, 1972, which was introduced as a result of the events and consequences of Bloody Sunday, the British Government has made attempts to end the troubles in Ireland.
The first attempt was in 1973-74, the Power Sharing Executive. This would be a new system of government where the Protestant unionists and the Catholic Nationalists would share the power. The Power Sharing Executive took over on January 1st 1974; the Government was to be directed by unionist leader Brian Faulkner (Protestant) and SDLP leader Gerry Fitt (Catholic). However, It seemed that even before the introduction of Power Sharing it had already been censured by some of the Protestant community who did not want the Catholic minority to have a say in the running of Northern Ireland. There were also some extreme Nationalists who did not want to share power either; they wanted Northern Ireland to be destroyed thus creating a united Ireland. However this was not everyone’s opinion and some Catholics were prepared to give Power Sharing a chance, as at least it was a step forward.
Only a few months after the introduction of Power Sharing failure stuck and on the 28th May 1974 Power sharing came to an end. The cause was a general strike held by a group of working class Protestants called the Ulster Working Class Council.
The aim of the strike, to bring the whole of Northern Ireland to a halt and ultimately break the Power Sharing Executive. They wanted to show who had the real power in Northern Ireland.
The strike began on the 14th May 1974 and because Protestants held the key jobs in Northern Ireland it meant that vital supplies such as petrol and electricity were severely limited and roadblocks left Belfast paralysed. In order to convince more people to strike many were intimidated by Protestant Private armies. The British Government decided that they had no choice but to withdraw Power Sharing, Faulkner was forced to resign and so on the 28th May, Power Sharing ended. For the first time in Irish and British history, a Government had been brought down by a general strike.
Then in 1982 the British Government set up a new Northern Ireland Assembly that was to be elected by fair voting. To start with its purpose was to give the Protestants and Catholics the powers of discussion, but if they were to agree to work together they would be given more power. This was known as the ‘Rolling Devolution’. The Protestants turned up but said they did not want any part in a new Power Sharing deal, the Catholics however refused to take any part at all and many turned to Sinn Fein; and so the second attempt at Power Sharing also failed. Although this times it was the Catholics who caused the plan to fail.
The next attempt made by the British Government was the Anglo-Irish Agreement, 1985. This was agreed between the British Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher and the Irish Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Garret Fitzgerald on 15th November 1985. A joint committee of North and South was set up to discuss matters such as security, legal and political issues.
It was hoped that it would help the Unionists and Nationalists to respect each other’s rights and views and work together in what is know as ‘cross-border co-operation’. However, the Protestant Unionists felt that it gave the Irish Republic too much of a say on Northern Ireland and were angered by the Anglo-Irish Agreement. The unionists felt betrayed, as they were not consulted first about the agreement.
Sinn Fein also opposed the agreement as it did not get rid of Partition and so Ireland was still divided.
The USA however were impressed by the progress being made and offered $250 million over 5 years to help make it work but the Unionists continued to condemn the agreement. Unionist leaders called for strikes in order to protest against the agreement and 15 Ulster MP’s resigned. Support increased for the UVF (a violent Unionist paramilitary group). The British Government was forced to send 500 extra troops to keep order as a result of Loyalist (extreme Unionist) demonstrations.
The only people who felt that the Anglo-Irish Agreement had possibilities were the Alliance (a moderate Unionist group containing Protestants and Catholics) and the SDLP (a moderate Nationalist Party).
It would appear that again the British Governments attempts had failed. Most Unionists and Nationalists opposed the Anglo-Irish Agreement and used resignation, strikes and violence to show this resulting in continuing misery for the UK and Ireland. By 1990 the violence had reached an appalling level and in that year alone 11 civilians, 11 policeman, 18 soldiers and 2 tourists were killed.
Peace talks had been made during the late 1980s and early 1990s but unfortunately these didn’t seem to be successful and the violence continued.
Then in 1993 John Major came to be the new British Prime Minister and with his arrival came some optimism. It seemed that some people in Northern Ireland had become tired of the conflict and longed for peace more than ever. There was also some worry, for the Protestants as new statistics showed that within a generation there would be a Catholic majority in Northern Ireland. The only reason that Britain remained in Northern Ireland was because the majority of its population wanted it that way. The Protestants feared that when the Catholics became the majority they would want to leave Britain and reunite with Southern Ireland and as they were the majority they would have the power to do so.
Then in December 1993, the Downing Street Declaration was issued. This had been agreed by the British Prime Minister and the Taoiseach and so talks were set up to decide on a new government for Northern Ireland. It was decided that only people who had rejected the violent ways of some would be allowed to participate in the talks.
The Unionists seemed to accept the Declaration although they were cautious about it. The Nationalists however, did not accept the Declaration, in particularly Sinn Fein. The anticipated cease-fire didn’t happen and the death toll continued to rise.
It was not until 1994 that a cease-fire came into action but as usual not everyone was completely happy and in a statement made by the IRA the word ‘permanent’ was not included and this was a worry for the Unionists. Decommissioning was also proving to be a problem as the IRA were not willing to give up their weapons as it looked as if they have surrendered. As an agreement could not be reached the cease-fire ended.
In February 1996 Canary Wharf in London was bombed by the IRA, killing two people, injuring 100 and causing an estimated £85 million pounds worth of damage. Another bomb was also detonated later that year in Manchester. This marked the failure of the Downing Street Declaration, it have failed to deliver its purpose successfully and could have been an adding factor to the reasons of the bombing of Canary Wharf and in Manchester.
There was another IRA cease-fire in July 1997 however again it was not to last. Except this time the political situation had changed as there was a new Labour Government in power, Tony Blair. Peace talks were soon restarted in January 1998.
The Good Friday Agreement involved setting up a North-South council; its members would to be from the south and North of Ireland and its aim was to make an attempt in aiding the restoration of peace between the people of Ireland.
Talks were held and President Clinton of the USA, Mo Mowlam the Northern Ireland Secretary, David Trimble the unionist leader and Taoiseach Bertie Aherne all contributed.
History was made when the Good Friday Agreement was accepted by the people of the North and South. It had been put to a referendum and the results were overwhelmingly in favour of the agreement 71.2% of people in north and 94.39% in the south voted yes to accepting the Agreement. However, the violence returned shortly after and with it came the Omagh bomb in august 1998. It was carried out by an extreme republican group known as The Real IRA; they set off a car bomb right in the centre of Omagh killing 29 people.
As time went on it became apparent that the Good Friday agreement was failing. It was a cruel deception which promised peace to the communities of the Catholic and Protestants, but was unable to deliver. There had been some peace and for a brief moment it seemed the impossible had been done but that was not to last.
The sectarian beatings and killings continued and communities’ became increasingly divided. On Monday 14th October the Secretary of state for Northern Ireland announced that London would be once again imposing direct rule.
At present peace has still not been restored in Ireland and violent attacks still happen although they are not as frequent as in the past and are on a smaller scale. The people of Ireland may never reach an agreement that suits everyone but for now, the key issue is decommissioning the IRA of weapons. It may only be after that step forward is taken that peace in Northern Ireland can become a more realistic and obtainable prospect.
