A lot of Catholics were impatient and they thought that the needed reform was taking too long so they founded Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association (Nicra) in 1967. O’Neill encouraged the Civil Rights Movements in Northern Ireland because O’Neill had seen the blacks in America take on the mighty nation, so he didn’t see why the Catholics couldn’t take on the Protestants and Unionists. Nicra were not violent and O’Neill was happy for them to campaign if they were not violent. He thought that the campaigns and marches would be ok because if they were non violent there would be no reason for the Protestants to attack them. You could argue that it was a risk for O’Neill to back them because there would be Protestants who would not like this. Overall I think that O’Neill was very fair at explaining the social, economic and political differences between Catholics and Protestants. He did not lie and he did he could see all the problems in Northern Ireland and he did no deny that there were no problems. An example of O’Neill’s fairness was when he introduced the “one man vote” but this was opposed by the Unionists as it would be. Just because this rule would have been fair the Unionists did not like this because this meant that it would probably be closer votes and the Nationalists might actually win the elections. This was one of the reasons which helped towards his down fall because the Unionists just wanted to make it as hard as it could be for the Catholics and the Nationalists.
Terence O’Neill as I have said was a moderate unionist and looked at how Catholics were treated in a fair way and he did not agree with what had gone on to the Catholics before him. Terence O’Neill when he came to power aimed to end the discrimination of Catholics and he hoped to achieve a bringing together of Catholics and Protestants. Terence O’Neill came to power with a list of objectives he would like to achieve and a lot of these reduce high unemployment, mainly for Catholics and improve relations with Catholics and because of these objectives he wanted to achieve the Nationalists and the Catholics took this very well and most of them liked Terence O’Neill. Because O’Neill was well educated he knew what was going on in Northern Ireland and he knew that it had to be sorted out. From inside Northern Ireland the problems might not look that good but from outside Ireland the problems looked terrible. Terence O’Neill understood that and when he came to power he knew that reform was needed.
On the 22nd of November 1968 O’Neill announced a list of reforms which he wished to be achieved. The reforms were,
1. Local Councils would allocate housing on a needs related points system, so that those most in need were given houses.
2. Some of the powers of the Northern Ireland government’s Special Powers Act were to be removed.
3. An independent OMBUDSMAN would investigate complaints against local authorities.
4. The principle of universal suffrage (one person one vote, regardless of whether or not they owned property) in local elections would be considered.
5. The Londonderry Corporation was suspended and replaced by an appointed commission which took over all of its functions. The appointed commission consisted of people who were effectively civil servants who would run services and facilities until democratic reforms took place and a new Corporation could be elected.
These are the list of reforms that O’Neill brought into place. I myself agree with them all and I especially agree with the one man vote and the houses problem. These two are both rules which were made just for middle class Protestants and both of these rules made it so hard for the Catholics to live a life which they wanted to.
In my point of view Terence O’Neill was a good and fair Prime Minister because he knew that Northern Ireland was in a mess and he knew that the Catholics were obviously being discriminated. He had an open mind which was completely different to the mind of Ian Paisley. Ian Paisley thought that the Catholics were the cause of all trouble which happened in Northern Ireland and that they deserved to be treated the way they were. He did not deny at all that there was discrimination of Catholics because it was very obvious that there was. For the reason that Terence O’Neill was very kind to the Catholics earned him many supporters which he would not have got if he was like Ian Paisley. As Ben Walsh’s textbook says “O’Neill soon found himself in a very difficult position, trying to be a moderate in a country which was becoming increasingly extremist.” O’Neill was finding it harder as time went on to lead a country on the terms which he wanted as he had fierce opponents such as Ian Paisley. This brings me on to Ian Paisley who I shall talk about now. Ian Paisley helped fund the
Ian Paisley and he was an extremist Unionist. Paisley thought that the Catholics should be blamed for all the problems that happened in Northern Ireland. Paisley thought that the Catholic Church was a threat to Ulster’s Protestant heritage and he thought that anyone who was linked to the Catholic Church was also a threat. For the reasons that he thought this meant that when O’Neill was in power he would say to the public that O’Neill was a threat to the Unionist’s. Paisley caused a lot of trouble in Northern Ireland as this states “On 6 June Paisley led a protest march which ended in fights with Catholics and a riot.” Paisley was a very violent and bullish man as a lot of his public speeches would end up in a fight or a riot.
Paisley kept the Protestants fearing Catholics and that is exactly what he wanted because if he got enough people to be afraid of the Catholics he knew that Terence O’Neill’s time at P.M would come to an end. His public speeches and his beliefs worked as “Many Protestants shared Paisley’s fear that in a United Ireland, Catholics would outvote Protestants.” This quote is from an article on Protestant fears and I believe this source. The Protestants were scared because if the Catholics came to power it would mean that they might loose control over the education of their children, freedom to make personal decisions and there were more that they feared would happen to them. This was not good for the peace which was much needed in Northern Ireland and if all the Protestants hated and didn’t want the Catholics to get in power this would mean fights and riots on the streets.
Ian Paisleys views on Catholics were very extreme and here is an example of what his views were on Catholics “Catholic homes caught fire because they were loaded with petrol bombs; Catholic churches were attacked and burned because they were arsenals and priests handed out sub-machine guns to parishioners"; he also said the massive discrimination in employment and allocation of public housing for Catholics existed because "they breed like rabbits and multiply like vermin". He said this after a Loyalist rally in 1968 and he justified the burning of Catholic homes by saying what that quote. Ian Paisley thought that the Catholics in Northern Ireland were like the niggers in America, this is a very radical point of view and nowadays you could not say these things in public. In Northern Ireland at that time Ian Paisley basically said what he wanted and he didn’t hesitate in saying these things. Another example of when Ian Paisley would stir up trouble is when he ordered the removal of an Irish Flag from a window in the Catholic Divis Street area of Belfast. This was obviously going end up in violence as it did because the Catholics despised Ian Paisley as he did to the Catholics. Ian Paisley had a lot of very loyal supporters and if you were a supporter of him you would have to be loyal because of the ideas he had were very radical. I think that Ian Paisley in a way hypnotized the people of Northern Ireland to think that the Catholics were the devil of Rome.
To conclude the moderates explained the disadvantages in a fair way and they knew that it was results of events which had happened hundreds of years before. The moderates were open minded and they knew that things had to be changed as it would result in Northern Ireland being seen as a very discriminative place and one which needed a better leader. On the other hand the extremists explained the disadvantages as it should happen and that Catholics are a threat. The extremists basically thought that nothing should be done with disadvantages facing Catholics since they were a threat to them.
