The I.R.A. does not trust the other involved parties to keep their side of the deal or to decommission. It is suspicious of the British Government, since, the last time the I.R.A. were close to decommissioning, the Government of Great Britain decided that it was taking too long and halted proceedings, provoking the I.R.A. into a mad bombing spree. Although the GB Government has already fulfilled their side of the Good Friday Agreement, the I.R.A. won’t trust the Protestant Loyalists to decommission, because it would leave them vulnerable to attack.
Splinter groups are another big threat to the I.R.A. and the whole peace process. They are not a part of the Good Friday Agreement and refuse to decommission their firearms.
Another reason the I.R.A. may not want to decommission is the issue of surrender. Many members of the I.R.A. see decommissioning as surrender and an insult to the memory of those who fought and died for the cause. Such as those brutally murdered on Bloody Sunday, or those who sacrificed themselves in the hunger strikes of 1981.
On 30th January 1972, British Paratroopers at a civil rights march in Derry killed 13 unarmed people. The Catholics had been marching in a civil rights protest for equal treatment for Catholics in Northern Ireland when riots broke out on the streets and the Parachute Regiment shot 13 men dead, and injured many others. On the 24th February that year, the British Prime Minister announced direct rule over Northern Ireland.
Two years prior to the Bloody Sunday shootings, 3rd July 1970, a comprehensive search for arms was carried out in the Falls Road area of Northern Ireland. A 36-hour curfew on all residents was ordered while searches of the homes were conducted, the searches lead to allegations of damage to property by the soldiers. Over 200 people were arrested and two rioters were killed, as homeowners were held at gunpoint whilst their houses were raided. This caused uproar amongst the Catholics, and lead to resentment of the British army, which they had previously regarded the I.R.A. favourably, members were then given orders to ‘kill every British Soldier they could.’ This included the bombing on the M62 of a convoy carrying British Soldiers.
Internment was introduced in 1971, individuals who, in the words of the Northern Ireland Prime Minister, Brian Faulkner were ‘a serious and continuing threat to public order and safely’ were imprisoned without trial for up to two weeks.
These occurrences drew attention to the situation in Northern Ireland from all over the world. It was to be the beginning of the ‘Troubles’.
The I.R.A. stepped up its bombing campaigns after the Bloody Sunday Shooting. On June 17th 1974 forty-eight people were injured and 1 person was killed following the explosion of two bombs in Central London. The first exploded at the Houses of Parliament causing serious damage to the building and the second, a much larger device, at the Tower of London, later that day.
In 1979, a bomb planted by the I.R.A. on his boat at Mullaghmore in Ireland killed Lord Mountbatten of Burma. As the bombing campaign intensified towards the end of the year, a further twenty-eight people died and many more were injured. The bombs were dotted up and down the country, from Birmingham to London.
Hunger strikes followed a dirty protest organised by the inmates of the Maze prison in Northern Ireland. Bobby Sands planned the strikes and was the first to die. He and his fellow hunger strikers were campaigning for Prisoner of War status within the Maze prison. In total ten people gave their lives for the cause by starving themselves, bringing yet more publicity to the situation, and Northern Ireland to the front pages of newspapers and onto television screens all over the world.
These frequent publicity blasts of the conflicts muster support for the I.R.A., ensuing money and interest from rich Irish Americans, who supply the army with weapons and funds. The I.R.A. may not want to insult these generous supporters by surrendering, and therefore carryon fighting.
Since the mainland bombing campaigns, further deaths of innocent people have come about from ‘tit for tat’ killings. When a Protestant is killed, the loyalists go and kill and innocent Catholic to ‘get even’. These petty fights can carry on and on, resulting in many unnecessary deaths.
The failure of the peace process and the continuing conflict suits certain members of the Northern Ireland community. They are able to profit from the present situation, through the ever-growing drugs market in the province, spurred on by the conflict, or others, who make money supplying firearms and bomb making devices to the different paramilitary groups.
The I.R.A. does want peace in Northern Ireland, but not at any cost. Despite its mainland bombing campaigns, the I.R.A. does not really want to cause such destruction, pain and death. It feels however that it is the only was to get across its views, and that it is forced to continue to do so. If the I.R.A. does decommission, it will loose all of the bargaining power it currently possesses, which would make its opinions ignored. So until other paramilitary groups decommission, it looks like the peace process will be in gridlock, as the I.R.A. appear unlikely to be the party to make the first gesture towards peace.
