Explain why the loyalists have been rioting in Ireland.

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Modern World Study Coursework 2002

  1. Explain why the loyalists have been rioting in Ireland.

Loyalists are rioting in Ireland because of religious and political hatred and to get their voices heard on their opinion of whether or not Ireland should become a united and independent republic.

        In 1641, Catholics in Ireland massacred Protestants because in Ulster, they were losing their land to Protestants. This massacre is still used today as an example to by Protestants to show Catholics as “bloody thirsty rebels” who can not be trusted.

        Later in 1649, Cromwell’s Protestant troops massacred Catholics at Drogheda. Sources show that Cromwell and his soldiers believe that the Catholic religion was wrong and only Protestants were true Christians and some sources also show how they also believed the propaganda of the Protestant massacre. These reasons help to explain why Cromwell massacred the Catholics but the only justifications are that he wanted to teach the Catholics rebels a lesson and that this massacre was just a tit for tat killing which happens a lot in modern Ireland.

        The hatred result from these two massacres is still remembered today which remains as one of the reasons for the rioting Protestant Loyalists.

        The loyalists could be rioting to show their superiority over the Catholic Republicans as they do on the Protestant marches; these marches take place every year on July 12th to remember the Battle of the Boyne (1690) and on August 12th to commemorate the siege of Londonderry (1689). These were both Protestant victories over Catholics. Londonderry is known as this by the Protestants to show their links with the UK but the Catholics know it as Derry to show their independence.

        Loyalists in Ireland fear a United Ireland because they feel that the Republicans have been given all the concessions in the peace process; some hard-line loyalists want to return back to the Sectarian violence to ensure that this does not happen which is why they could be rioting. Some Protestants do not want to return to the violence of the past and when some fellow Protestants attempted to prevent the Catholics of Ballymena attending there church service in 1996 they made them move to allow the Catholics through.

        The loyalist Parties UDA (Ulster Defence Association) and UFF (Ulster Freedom Fighters) were inciting sectarian violence in Northern Ireland and under the Good Friday Agreement some of their worst known terrorists including Johnny ‘Mad Dog’ Adair were released from prison early. I deduce form this that the loyalists may have been rioting because of this terrorist being back on the streets and beginning the violence and the followers carrying it on. Johnny ‘Mad Dog’ Adair is now back in prison. These paramilitary groups have always responded to Republican violence by killing ordinary Catholics. The IRA and the Provisionals are the Republican terrorist groups and they Loyalist often respond to their bombings with rioting.

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        The police responded to the current rioting with violence and this may have angered the loyalists who then would have kept rioting with worse intentions.

        I conclude that the Loyalists have been rioting to get their voices heard on religious and political issues including the Uniting of Ireland and they are rioting in response to many Republican attacks. To me, these riots seem as if they are demonstrations against the way that the Ireland situation is being handled. This is because there are many possible reasons to why the loyalists could be rioting and they all have one aspect ...

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