Explain the development of Catholic grievances and Protestant attitudes in Northern Ireland from partition to the 1960s.

Matthew Arnold

Explain the development of Catholic grievances and Protestant attitudes in Northern Ireland from partition to the 1960s.

Both Britain and Sinn Fein signed the Partition treaty in 1921. However, they only looked upon it as a temporary solution to the problems that Ireland faced. Both leaders assumed that given some time, the problems would be sorted out and that Ireland would become a united country again. Unfortunately this did not happen and the two parts drifted further from each other.

After partition, the Loyalists held the power in the North. They had the desire to keep Ulster both Protestant and British. They regarded the Catholics who lived in the North as traitors. This led to the discrimination of Catholics. In the South of Ireland, Nationalists had the majority of jobs in the newly established government. The Republicans, who wanted to unite Ireland, were in control here. It was inevitable that the two parts of Ireland would not agree to rejoin.

The Partition Treaty caused there to be huge disputes between Nationalists in the South, This was because the Irish Republican Army (IRA) was divided between the people who were in favour of the treaty and those who were against it. The two sides battled it out and a vicious civil war in 1922. The people who supported the Partition Treaty won it. Since then, there have always been two political parties in the South: Fianna Fail and Fine Gael. Fianna Fail members were those who rejected the treaty, whilst Fine Gael consisted of the people who accepted the treaty. For the first ten years, Fine Gael were in control both in 1932 they were defeated and Fianna Fail came to power, who were lead by Eamon de Valera.

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De Valera became the new Prime Minister and stayed in power until 1959. He was very strongly against British control in Ireland as he has fought in the Easter Rising and was nearly executed by the British. He was determined to build a strong independent state in the South and was a very dedicated Catholics. Whilst he was in power he introduced a new statute, calling for a united Ireland. He also gave a special position to the Catholic Church and made great efforts to persuade people to speak Gaelic as their main language. Finally he began cutting all economic and political ties with Britain. This was highlighted when, during the Second World War, Ireland remained neutral. To add to this, in 1937, the British King was replaced by and Irish president as head of state. Eventually in 1949, the Irish Republic was proclaimed and the country left the British Commonwealth.

The people in the South were not the only people who suffered from problems. Partition also brought problems for those who lived in the North. Even though Protestant Unionists were in the majority, there were still thousands of Catholics who were living there. Many of these people refused to accept the division. Between July 1920 and July 1922, there was brutal street fighting in Belfast and over 450 people were killed. This increased Protestant fears about Catholic Nationalists and their association with the South.

In Northern Ireland there was a separate parliament. It was intended to support both the Catholics and the Protestants. However, as the Protestants were in the majority, they had control over Stormont Parliament. Before 1969 every member of the Northern Ireland cabinet was a Protestant and the majority of these people were members of the Orange Order. The Unionists also decided to alter local governments election boundaries so that they could win control of local councils as well. This is known as gerrymandering.

The Unionists were able to use their power to help their own community. Catholics had major trouble trying to get good jobs and decent council houses. The police also treated them unfairly. The Northern Ireland government established new laws and a new part time police force known as the ‘B’ Specials, who were to defend against the IRA. They were armed and entirely Protestant and soon gained a reputation for being hostile to Catholics. On the other hand, the Nationalists thought that Partition was wrong and they did not want to have anything to do with Ireland or the new government. They did not have the desire to join the new civil service or police force and they reckoned that the gerrymandered elections were a farce. The Unionists did not want democracy. The Nationalists were convince that the Protestant police force was always picking on innocent Catholics and that they were being unfairly discriminated against. There was nothing for them in a divided Ireland.

After Partition, Northern Catholics were pushed away by the Unionist prejudice. They felt that there was no place for them in the North and there was no reason in joining the governments of the province. The unemployment rate was high and Catholics were much more likely to be unemployed than Protestants.

However, by the 1950s, the attitude of many Catholics began to change. AS an alternative to waiting for a united Ireland, many accepted that they were part of a separate Northern state for the immediate future. They were encouraged to hope that their lives could be improved by peaceful, social and economic changes.

The new attitude became prominent between 1956 and 1962 when the IRA started a new campaign of violence in the north. It failed because the Catholics were not willing to back up the IRA and violence. Many of the IRA leaders were put in prison, resulting in the IRA temporarily abandoning the idea of force to unite Ireland. It tried to make the gap smaller between the Nationalists and the Unionists by campaigning for improvements in the wages and living conditions for all working people.

By the early 1960s, there was also a change of mood of political leaders in the North and South. This was triggered off when De Valera retired as the Prime Minister of the Iris Republic. The new leader, Sean Lemass, was less hostile towards the Unionists. The changes in attitude were similar in the North. By 1963, the hardline Unionist Prime Minister, Lord Brookeborough was replaced by Terence O’Neill, who wanted to end unfair treatment of the Catholics in the Northern Ireland. The new mood became clear in 1965 when Lemass visited O’Neill at Stormont. It seemed that there was a possibility now that Catholics and Protestants could work together and make a new and fairer way of life in the North of Ireland. Unfortunately, although great efforts had been made for the Catholics and Unionists to settle their differences, it was not long before violence again broke out in Northern Ireland.