History of Ireland

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Question 1

The Nationalist marching season, sometimes known as ‘the twelfth’, ‘Orangemen’s Day’ and ‘Boyne celebrations’, takes place on the 12th July throughout Northern Ireland, but why does it take place?

The first reason I will be investigating is the Battle of the Boyne. This event took place in July 1690 when William of Orange claimed victory over the catholic King James II after James’ attempt to reclaim his English thrown by invading Ireland in an effort to build support for his cause. Despite William of Orange’s apparently perfect ‘Protestant hero qualities’, their reasons for the march may not be entirely accurate. For example, William did not defeat James in the aid of the struggling Protestants but to eliminate James’ threat on his path to defeating Louis XIV. The fact that Protestants choose to ignore this is called selective history because they are choosing bits of history that suit their cause. Having said this, the event inspired Protestants and Unionists and made William of Orange, or King Billy, their hero because he rescued them from being driven out by the Catholics, it also has a direct impact on the formation of groups such as the Orange Order who are the organizers of the marches during the marching season and the main body of the Unionist and Protestant faith. As you can see in source ‘A’, the Orangemen wear orange neck-pieces to celebrate William of Orange’s and Protestants as a whole’s success. The battle of the Boyne is celebrated because of its victory over Catholics. It therefore represents Protestant ascendancy and supremacy over the Catholics and the march takes place to demonstrate this power as a way of saying ‘we have the power to do this, so we will’. This also explains why the march still continues year after year and follows the same route through Catholic territory because if it did stop or redirect for whatever reason it would undermine their authority, making them appear weak and the Catholics look as if their power is increasing. To help maintain their dominance they also intimidate the Catholics by marching through predominantly Catholic areas and chanting anti-Catholic songs, such as, ‘slaughter the Papists one by one’. From this lyric it is clear that the march does not attempt to unite the communities but instead is rubbing the power of the Protestants in the Catholic’s faces and in doing this, they are celebrating their identity. Having said this, the march is more celebrating the power they once had, since after the Good Friday Agreement their superiority has slipped away. Therefore the march is a symbol of the Protestant’s nostalgic memories of the supremacy over the Catholics. Occasionally, tension between the marchers and Catholics results in violence. This risk creates a lot of pressure on the authorities to deal with the march and a lot of public attention is turned towards the march in newspapers and television. This publicity and fuss over the marches has resulted in spurring the Protestants on, because without it the Protestants would not be proving their supremacy to anyone and therefore its significance would be eradicated and they may not feel the need to march through Catholic areas or even at all.

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Question 2

Bloody Sunday took place on Sunday 30th January 1972, when a civil rights march of over 15,000 people gathered in Londonderry city centre. The area was sealed off by the British Parachute regiment, 1 Para. This action was met with stones being thrown at them from some of the marchers, soon after this 1 Para opened fire on the marchers, killing 14 of them all of whom were unarmed and many of whom were shot in the back. The soldiers claimed that they were shot at first by paramilitaries, ...

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