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 by going on a hunger strike to try to gain more support from ordinary Catholics. They also soiled their cells with their own excrement. Many people died of starvation during the strike but Margaret Thatcher refused to give in. During May 1981 Bobby Sands died and the strike ended. The strike was successful because the Sinn Fein political party went from having almost no support to getting 13% of the vote in the election in June 1983. This shows that the strike had helped to gain support from ordinary Catholics as it had set out to do.
After the abolition of special category political prisoners had failed the next thing the British Government introduced was the Anglo-Irish Agreement. This was signed on November 15th 1985, and was an agreement made between Britain and Ireland stating that a joint committee was to be set up in which both the Protestants from southern Ireland and the Catholics from the North would join to discuss things. It was hoped that this may learn the nationalists and unionists to respect one another and stop the hatred. It also aimed to decrease the amount of Catholics voting for Sinn Fein who was closely linked with the IRA violence and therefore bring the violence to a halt and bring peace to Ireland because Margaret Thatcher was afraid that the increase in violence was due to an increase in ordinary Catholics voting for Sinn Fein and his violent methods. However Unionists felt betrayed and angered by the agreement as they felt that the republic would have a say in how Northern Ireland was being run and some loyalists even turned to violence, therefore the Anglo-Irish Agreement failed. Yet the Anglo-Irish agreement was a success overall for the British Government as many Catholics did begin to support the SDLP instead of Sinn Fein, the reason for this was probably that they saw less need for violence although some minds were not changed and remained supporting Sinn Fein and the IRA violence. Although it caused no lasting effect as violence continued and lead to the Downing Street declaration.
After the failure of the Anglo-Irish Agreement the British Government tried the Downing Street Declaration. This was introduced in 1993 and signed on December 15th of the same year. It was a joint statement between the British and Irish Governments about the future of Northern Ireland planning to encourage talks between the people of Ireland from both north and south and discuss Ireland’s future. The British threatened that they would withdraw their troops if the Irish people didn’t begin to appreciate them and the Irish republic agreed to see Northern Ireland as part of Britain. The talks began by the declaration were the first step towards deciding who should govern Northern Ireland although this was not a solid plan. An increase in violence between 1990 and 1993 between the loyalists and the IRA showed great need for the Downing Street declaration yet Sinn Fein detested it as his views were that it prevented a united Ireland. Politicians had mixed opinions about the declaration but the SDLP and the Ulster Unionist party welcomed it with open arms. The Downing Street declaration was only ever meant to set a basic plan between the British and Irish governments but the simple policy was a failure as it was not seen as a long term lasting solution although it was a step in the right direction. The policy also failed as it did not do as it aimed to by immediately stopping the violence, as there were many more killings in summer 1994. Yet it could be argued that the Downing Street declaration was mildly successful and did make an impact because on the 31st of August the IRA called a cease-fire and on the 13th of October so did the loyalists. However as the declaration was not a permanent fixture this peace was likely to be rare and short-lived and so the declaration was not much of a success. Though the Downing Street declaration did lead to a chain of positive events beginning with Senator George Mitchell setting up Principles for decommissioning weapons in 1996. Then following this in 1997 Tony Blair became the new Prime Minister of Britain and appointed Mo Mowlam as secretary of state for Northern Ireland. She did many things that had never been tried before such as visiting IRA terrorists inside jail and talking with them, Margaret Thatcher had refused to ever communicate with terrorists and therefore this big step helped gain support of the peace process from both religions. This was shown evidently when a referendum was carried out asking people if they wanted peace in Ireland and 71% said yes.
After the Downing Street Declaration had failed the final agreement the British government tried was The Good Friday agreement. Before this could be introduced and the political parties could talk about the future of Northern Ireland Sinn Fein was banned from taking part until the IRA gave in their weapons to the British government. The IRA refused to cooperate and ended their cease-fire in 1996. When tony Blair was elected Prime Minister in 1997 he attempted to bring back peace by having secret talks with the IRA with took place from 1997 through until 1998. Mo Mowlam the Northern Ireland secretary insisted that Sinn Fein should have permission to join the talks if the IRA would resume their cease-fire in an attempt to make the agreement work and bring peace as it aimed to. And so on 19th July 1997 the IRA ceased-fire and on 29th August as planned joined the peace talks. However some members of the IRA were unhappy with these arrangements as it meant that Sinn Fein was working with Britain instead as its enemy and this resulted in splinter groups like the continuity IRA and the real IRA breaking away. Although Ian Paisley’s DUP refused to join the talks as they were unconvinced. By the 9th April the SDLP and Sinn Fein were set to support a new power sharing assembly in Northern Ireland and the Irish government agreed to drop its claim to NI. However the Ulster unionists had to make the decision whether to release IRA prisoners and risk being hated or refuse and prevent peace. On the 10th April 1998 they agreed and the Good Friday agreement was signed. The agreement set up a new Northern Ireland assembly with 108 members. Any important decisions now had to be agreed by both the Catholics and the Protestants and therefore both sides had a fair say in the running of Northern Ireland. A North-South council of ministers from the new assembly and the republic of Ireland was also formed. Policing in NI was reviewed and the release of parliamentarians was promised. Sinn Fein, the republic of Ireland, the SDLP and the Ulster Unionists welcomed the agreement but Ian paisley hated it and called the leader of the Ulster unionists a ‘traitor’. The agreement was an achievement and pleased most people but the real IRA planted a bomb in Omagh which killed 29 people including a pregnant women. But although this was a great disaster it turned many Catholics away from violence and the IRA which was a good thing and it also increased support of the agreement. Mo Mowlam the Northern Ireland secretary suspended the agreement despite all of its success on the 11th February 2000 because the IRA was failing to decommission weapons. But all was soon put right as the IRA allowed independent international observers to see the weapons they had decommissioned due to secret talks and so Sinn Fein rejoined the peace talks. On the 8th May the RUC reform bill was introduced and it became the law on 22nd of November however Sinn Fein thought that the bill didn’t go far in confliction with the Ulster Unionists who thought it went too far. There are still debates of the bill to this day. Many more steps were taken as on 12th December 2000 the U.S president visited and hoped to get all sides talking again and on 24th January the new Northern Ireland secretary john Reid also tried to get the politicians to talk. However when a bomb from the real IRA found itself in Britain it seemed the nationalists wanted the peace talks to take a step in the wrong direction. In the 2001 election the DUP and Sinn Fein took away sets from the moderate SDLP, this situation meant that the two main extreme political groups were probably not going to put the agreement into practice. After 3 years of the agreement being signed no real progress had been made as well as there being no real Northern Ireland assembly. However the huge terrorist attack which took place in America on September the 11th 2001 of the twin towers condemned terrorism world-wide and America stopped providing any funding for the IRA. However the IRA didn’t decommission weapons until l the Northern Ireland secretary suspended the assembly and they then finally did on 22nd October. The agreement is party a success as the Northern Ireland assembly is still in place today however the two main parties refuse to cooperate with one another and therefore it is suspended suggesting that it is not a success. However the British government cannot be blamed for this, also the agreement has pleased many people and lead to a decrease in violence which is a success.
Following this in 2006 the British Government began talks with the Irish Government and the main political parties or Northern Ireland. The St Andrews agreement was published. This was a statement that said power sharing should be reinforced in Northern Ireland. To encourage all the political parties to get involved and agree the British government promised to provide NI with money. The political parties were also under pressure from the people of NI to agree.
After looking at all the policies in which the British government has introduced since 1972 I feel that the British Government has managed to give the Catholics much more of a say in how their country is run. This is likely to be because when direct rule was introduced the Catholics despised being in Britain’s control and so rebelled with violence. It seems clear to me that the Catholics and Protestants willingness to work alongside each other influences all of the policies introduced, this is shown in the case of power sharing as the Protestants refused to allow the Catholics equal power to them. Also the Good Friday agreement was suspended whenever the two sides would not speak. The IRA also played a huge part in acting as a barrier to bringing peace to Northern Ireland, they brought violence, decommissioning problems and also affected Sinn Feins place in peace talks. The British government tried many things to solve the problems of conflict in Ireland, but were always met with little success. However each new policy did bring a small amount of change before the problems started again. I feel that the British government has given NI and particularly the catholic more say in how their country is run, so after the Good Friday agreement was introduced the two sides would not talk and so the agreement was abandoned. The British government has tried many different things to bring peace to NI. Some have been more successful than others and there is certainly less violence of the streets of Northern Ireland today. There have been many years when peace seemed like it was never going to happen. Today the idea set up by the good Friday agreement is finally working and both Catholics and protestants are prepared to work together to make northern Ireland a success. The IRA still exists today but it is no longer so violent and is not seen as a threat. Although after examining all the policies the British government have introduced I believe that the one which helped most to deal with Northern Irelands ‘troubles’ was the Good Friday agreement as it is still in place today and involves the contribution of both Catholics and protestants. However the British Government themselves have not been entirely successful as they have had to continuously introduce new policies and nothing has stayed consistent.