It is concluded that the disadvantages faced by Catholics in mid-60’s Northern Ireland were all too immense. Catholics were forced to live under a Protestant government, which gave them little rights. All elections were done unfairly and resulted in the Protestant parities winning every time. Some Catholics; especially the poor were not allowed to vote at all. They were policed by a vast-majority police force of Protestants of which had secret police force called the B specials, which had great fun in killing Catholics.
Most Catholics had to live in bad accommodation because all the good housing had been taking up by Protestants and finally unemployment was higher among Catholics.
How did protestant politicians explain the social, economic and political differences between catholic and protestant?
There were many social problems between Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland in the 1960s. One of these problems was the way Protestants viewed Catholics. The Protestants viewed Catholics as being lazy because they found it hard to find work. The Protestant work ethic was that they worked harder than Catholics and therefore they achieved more. Some Catholics were seen to be on the dole and working at the same time. This was known as “doing the double”. This cheated the government out of money and was costing the ordinary tax paying people more money. Most employers were biased towards Catholics because they didn’t know them or their background so how could they trust them. They employed people that they knew and trusted from their own community. However, the Catholics also had their own view of Protestants. They viewed them as snobs and foreigners as they were in Ireland, the country were the Irish, who were all Catholics once ran. The Catholics hoped that they would one-day have a ‘United Ireland’ and the Protestants hoped that they didn’t get it because what would happen t them if this was achieved. The IRA (Irish Republican Army) regarded themselves as the ‘protectors’ of the Catholics. The army was originally sent in 1969 to protect the Catholics but when they were taken over by the Stormont government they turned against the Catholics. They beat up and shot many innocent Catholics. This in-turn gained the IRA new recruits and much needed support.
The Catholic Church and the state were always very close together and the Catholic Church influenced many things. One of these things was that they opposed divorce and no-one in the Free State could get a divorce. The Republic confirmed suspicions that they (Roman Catholics) sought after a ‘United Ireland’. Now Protestants distrusted Catholics and weren’t very happy in their present situation. They feared what would happen to them if Ireland were to become ‘United’. The political differences reflected the need for majority rule. The housing trust had allocated new dwellings fairly, but local councils did not. Two thirds of the houses built by local authorities after the war went to Protestants (householders were entitled to vote in the local elections, so the authorities tried to cut down the number of Catholic householders). Nationalist councils were also guilty. In Newry (mainly Nationalist) the local authority built seven hundred and sixty five council houses, of which only twenty-two went to Protestants. The 11+ system divided the bright children from the not as bright. The children who passed had the opportunity to go to a grammar school or a secondary school. There were good quality Roman Catholic grammar schools and this gave Catholics the opportunity to go to University. The media won the Catholics much sympathy from all over the world and this meant that the British government had to act.
Catholics and Protestants were taught separately in different schools. Catholics were learnt to oppose Protestants and Protestants taught to oppose Catholics. Catholic schools were in poor conditions, the buildings were run down and they weren’t very well equipped. This was because Catholic schools only received 80% grants while Protestant schools received 100%. This meant that Protestants were educated in much better conditions, with better equipment and often better teachers. Most Catholics left school at fourteen years of age. This was because Catholics were generally poorer than Protestants and the children had to work to earn money for the family. Housing was also unfair in those days. A single Protestant would be given priority to a house before a Catholic family of thirteen. This can be seen in the example highlighted in the Caledon affair, where the Gildernew family, a family with a large number of children, failed to get a house as preference was given to a single protestant girl who was soon to be married. The law also stated that you had to own a property to vote in an election. The media won the Catholics much sympathy from all over the world. The Civil rights campaigns also gained the Catholics sympathy and support because the people knew that what they were standing up for was right.
There were also many political problems in Northern Ireland. Sinn Fein refused to sit in parliament until 1926. They also walked out of parliament n 1932. This was because of the abolition of proportional representation. Proportional representation allowed every party the right to the same percentage of seats as the same percentage of votes. This angered many parties, one being Sinn Fein. ‘Gerrymandering’ was a large problem in Northern Ireland. The government had it rigged so that Unionists would win the majority of votes and seats in a Nationalist area. This angered Nationalists because if it came to a majority vote, the Unionists would always win.
There were also many economic problems in Northern Ireland. Many of these problems existed since the 1930s. There was a depression and many people found it hard to recover. There was all this competing for jobs between Catholics and Protestants. Much of this competition spilled over into sectarian tension and many people were beat up and some even killed. The giant Harland and Wolff shipyard did not seem to have changed its employment policies since the late nineteenth century. It employed 10,000 workers of whom only 400 were Catholics. Few Catholics were employed in the Civil Service, and promotion for them was rare. In Derry, an area with a Catholic majority, the highest-ranking Catholic in the education department was the official in charge of school meals. All of this unfair treatment was a major disadvantage to the Catholics because low paid jobs meant a low standard of living.
In 1963, the prime minister of Northern Ireland Lord Brookborough resigned and was replaced by Captain Terence O’Neill. Captain O’Neill hoped to win Catholic support and to improve civil rights. He also hoped to achieve a better standard of living for the Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland. He opened new factories but most of the new industries and investment, which O’Neill brought to Northern Ireland, ended up in the unionist strongholds of the North and East of the province. Of the 111 new factories built in Northern Ireland in the post war period to the mid 60s, only 16 were built in counties Londonderry, Tyrone and Fermanagh- counties with nationalist majorities or populations, which were finely balanced between the nationalist and unionist communities. Rev Ian Paisley influenced politics in Northern Ireland a great deal. Nationalists and some Unionists regarded him as a man who wasn’t afraid to speak his mind and were indeed very biased but most Unionists regarded him as a skilled politician.
The UVF (Ulster Volunteer Force) regarded themselves as the ‘protectors’ of Protestants. In 1966 the IRA and indeed many Catholics celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of the ‘Easter Rising’. The IRA made it aware that the men in 1916 were fighting for a ‘United Ireland’ and they were still prepared to fight for the same cause. This worried many Protestants but they felt some comfort knowing that the UVF were on their side and would try to defend them. The voting system was also not very fair. You could only vote if you owned a house. This was alright for Protestants because they all owned houses but was unfair for the average Catholic who was unemployed and couldn’t get a house so therefore no vote. In Northern Ireland Unionists dominated politics.
In conclusion there were many differences between Catholics and Protestants. These differences go back as far as the early 1900s. In the 1920s Nationalists and Unionists couldn’t see eye to eye so Nationalists refused to take their seat until 1926 and they also walked out of government in 1932. They also had many differences in the 1960s. Most of these differences were in opinion and in Politics. Nationalist politicians were always out numbered by Unionist politicians in large Nationalist areas. Therefore, Catholics could not have their views expressed and always lost out if it came to a majority vote. This unfair treatment halted progress to achieve peace in Northern Ireland and they are still trying to achieve peace to this day.
Why were British troops sent to Northern Ireland in 1969?
The Northern Unionists effectively created a single-party state. Proportional representation was eliminated for local council elections in 1922 and for the Northern Ireland Parliament in Stormont in 1929. One vote per person did not hold in the local elections until 1969. Gerrymandering was used to secure Unionist seats in Nationalist areas throughout the thirties. Nationalists and Catholics were viewed as potential traitors and alienated by the government policies, which favored Protestants and Unionists. This was because Protestants feared Catholics turning against them and voting themselves into a United Ireland. The Protestants viewed Catholics as being disloyal to them and to the crown. In turn the Nationalists never fully accepted the constitutional arrangements.
Some Republicans in the North continued a violent campaign against London and Belfast governments.
For centuries there has been conflict in Northern Ireland. The disagreement between Irish Catholics and the Irish Protestants still continues to this day. In this assessment I am going to examine why soldiers were sent into Ireland in 1969. Between 1921 and the mid 1960s Catholics in Northern Ireland faced many problems. After the war of Independence, 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 a 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 hard line Unionists who held power in the North, they were determined to keep Ulster British and Protestant. They tended to see most Northern Catholics as possible traitors. As a result Catholics were discriminated against.” Unionists and Protestants were afraid that the Roman Catholics would all join together with the South and require a United Ireland and that it would be ‘Home Ruled’. The Protestants were afraid what would happen to them if this event occurred.
In the 1930s there was a worldwide economic depression, due to the “Wall Street Crash” in America. Both Irish Catholics and Protestants were affected very seriously, the economic depression lasted 20 years. Irish Catholics faced another problem, when it came around to election time, most Catholics would probably vote a Catholic representative to speak on behalf of Catholic people, however, Protestants “fixed” the elections to favor the Protestants, it was made sure that no Catholics could be voted into parliament to speak for their fellow people. This was known as “Gerrymandering”, the process by which constituency boundaries were redrawn to favor the Protestant population. The Unionists controlled the Catholic areas, this was a huge disadvantage to the Catholic people, and 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 good the Catholic was, the Protestant would always get the job. This meant that many Catholics were unemployed and could not often afford to feed their families. Catholic children were put in the worst schools, whilst the Protestant children were put in the very best schools. This was because Catholic schools only received 80% grants while Protestants received 100% grants. This allowed Protestant schools to have better facilities and equipment. Many Protestant children grew up believing that Catholics were evil and the Protestant religion was the way forward and vice versa.
Another significant social problem at the time for Catholic people was that they were placed in the worst housing. If a Catholic family were in need of home, they would become second-class citizens to a single Protestant girl; a girl would have a better chance of acquiring the house than a needy Catholic family. Many Children had inadequate diets which resulted in many children dying of malnutrition. Many of the children’s parents could not afford to pay doctor’s bills. There was an outbreak of Tuberculosis (TB), which killed thousands of men, mainly aged between 15 and 25.
In 1969 The British Government sent the army into Northern Ireland to “Prevent a Civil War”. Despite all the unfairness the Catholics had to deal with, this had not been necessary earlier. Many things changed between 1960 and 1969. Firstly before 1960 Catholics pursued peaceful methods, inspired by The American Civil Rights Movement, the Northern Ireland civil rights association began. This was due to the World Media. When people saw how the Catholics were being treated they felt sympathy towards them. The people also felt that this treatment was a disgrace so the British government had to be seen to be doing something, just like the American government and civil rights. From 1920 through to 1960 Catholics had campaigned for fairer conditions and had expected change to come through the ballot box (they did not know that their votes had been ignored). The Police in Northern Ireland were 95% Protestant and extremely biased against Catholics 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 95% Protestant. There were one third of the places in the RUC reserved for Roman Catholics but they still failed to join the RUC. The Unionists, to act like a police force/army, called them in. These too were violent to the Catholics, Catholic marches were banned. Student demonstrations ended up in violence. This angered the Catholics; they felt that if the Protestants should get to March then why shouldn’t they.
Housing conditions were appalling for Catholics, they marched and campaigned about their unfair housing, yet again nothing was done. As the civil rights movement grew in the U.S.A., Irish Catholics saw black protests in America erupting into violence. The violent protest spread to Ireland. Student demonstrations all over Europe were becoming violent, this too acted as inspiration for the desperate Catholics. Education was now slightly fairer, Catholics were allowed to go to university, but were not allowed jobs. As Emanon McCann, a leading member of the civil rights movement, remarked, “By the early 1960s we could easily get a place at university but couldn’t get a job as a lavatory cleaner at Derry guildhall. That made us angry.”
This alone proves that the Catholics were becoming increasingly angered by the lack of equal opportunity in Northern Ireland. 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 becomes 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. Many people feel that the IRA was the reason for British soldiers being sent into Northern Ireland. However, from studying the facts I realize that this cannot be the reason as to why the troops were sent to Northern Ireland. In 1962 the IRA abandoned its campaign of violence because the lack of Catholic support. In August 1969, there is more fighting between Protestants and Catholics in Belfast, and the British Army moves in. It is only then that the IRA splits into two groups: Official and Provisional. The bombing campaign by the IRA started in 1970. A more telling 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.
The Battle of the Bogside occurred on the 12th August 1969. The parade itself was relatively peaceful. This was until the end of the parade when Catholics and Protestants began throwing missiles at each other after Loyalists threw pennies at Catholics (a traditional insult). This all lead to a riot. The RUC tried to take down a barrier on Rossville Street and the riot turned in a battle. The Bogside residents pelted the Police with petrol bombs and missiles. The police claim that they were trying to remove the barrier to get into a better position to split up the mobs. The Catholics claim that this was a direct attack by the police, aided by Loyalist thugs, on Catholic homes. “To our amazement, the police were accompanied by a large number of loyalist militants, who started breaking windows in the houses along Rossville Street.”
From: The Road to Bloody Sunday by Raymond MacLean.
The Battle of the Bogside lasted for two days and the police were unable to enter the area. The first of Northern Irelands ‘no-go’ areas had been created. The Republic wanted to intervene. The Irish Taoiseach Jack Lynch sent Irish army ambulances to the border (just a few kilometers away). He also accused the RUC of being biased and not an impartial (unbiased) force. The RUC came across badly in some reports of the events. The RUC no longer had confidence of the Roman Catholic population. The media pressure forced the government to act. Only the army was seen to have the ability to be neutral and to restore law and order, which had deteriorated rapidly. Lynch intended to intervene by calling for a United Nations peacekeeping force to be sent in. This increased Unionist fears of Ireland becoming a ‘United Ireland’ and they thought that Northern Ireland was facing a Republican plot sponsored by the government of the Republic. The British government had no choice but to react so they sent in British troops in 1969. The initial reaction to the troops was a happiness and gladness from the Catholics. They made the troops tea and sandwiches. However, this was all to change. When Britain gave the control of the troops over to the Stormont government they used the troops to help them win power in Northern Ireland. Instead of protecting Catholics, they were ordered to go against them. The Catholics now changed their ways and also went against the troops. The troops invaded Catholic houses and shot many innocent Catholics. All of this lead contributed to the increase of support for the IRA.
