How successful were the British Government in brining peace to Ireland?

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Bethany Wadlow

With what success has the British Government tried to deal with the Irish ‘troubles’ in the years since 1972?

In this essay I will examine the policies of which the British Government have introduced since 1972 in attempt to bring peace to Northern Ireland, I will then decide how successful these policies have been in doing so.

The first policy the British government tried was direct rule. This was introduced in 1972 after the events of Bloody Sunday had taken place to try to put a stop to the worsening violence in Ireland. The enforcement of direct rule was when the British Government suspended the Northern Ireland parliament and ruled directly from West Minster. It was by a British government minister, the Northern Ireland secretary. This was necessary because the schemes which had been put in place in the late 1960’s in attempt to bring peace had all failed and Catholics were still angry. In 1960 the social democratic labour party was formed, this was the largest nationalist social party. They campaigned using peaceful methods for changed but had no success and so many Catholics turned to violence after bloody Sunday so that they would finally be paid attention to. When the internment policy was introduced in 1971 the provisional IRA began to use methods which were much more violent in attempt to reunite Ireland. IN response to this, protestant parliamentary groups set up and the British Government was expecting a civil war at any time soon. Direct rule failed as it was clearly never going to bring peace because both Catholics and Protestants hated being run by the British and wanted rid of the policy. It was only meant to be a short term solution to give everyone chance to find a reasonable solution that t both religions and the British would be happy with. Direct rule was not a success for the British government as it was not a suitable solution for the two religions as neither wanted to be run by the British and was it destined to cause problems from the beginning.

In 1973 after direct rule had failed the British Government Proposed another policy called power sharing and this then began to take action in 1974. Power sharing meant that both Catholics and Protestants were to equally share power and to do so by forming a new government of which was run by both religions. Catholics, Protestants and all main parties were represented on a power-sharing executive with six unionist ministers, four SDLP and one from the alliance party who represented both Catholics and Protestants. This government was known as the Northern Ireland new assembly and was set up in attempt to find a peaceful solution to the arguments, hatred and violence between Catholics and Protestants. A council of Ireland was also set up to link Belfast, London and Dublin to discuss issues that concerned them all by the British government. Of course Power sharing was hoped to be a long term solution to the troubles in Ireland caused by the battling religions as it seemed the ideal policy all round. Catholics would feel independent yet Protestants would still feel a part of Britain. But everyone knew from the beginning that it couldn’t be that simple. Protestants opposed to power sharing probably as because they did not want to give the Catholics more power. Power Sharing failed in May 1974 when a group of loyalists calling themselves the Ulster workers council declared a general strike to protest about the council of Ireland. T first the strike had little interest but then the protestants homes were power bombed and over the following 2 weeks support for the strike increased bringing Northern Ireland to a halt. The executive resigned on 27 May. Power sharing had been defeated after only 5 months after being introduced and Northern Ireland was back under Direct Rule. Power sharing had not been a success for the British government however it was not their fault as it was stopped by the Protestants before it had even started to undergo changes. The policy could have worked very well.

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When power sharing had failed the British Government then began the abolition of special category for political prisoners. This all began in 1972 when IRA prisoners were given special rights not to wear uniforms or do prison work, this angered the Protestants and when Margaret Thatcher became president in 1975 her opinion was that terrorists deserved no special privileges. These rights were taken away in 1976, the IRA prisoners were angry that there rights and therefore power was being taken away. The IRA was closely linked with the Sinn Fein party so in 1980 the IRA prisoners began a rebellion ...

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