Source F shows a Gerrymander in Londonderry or ‘Derry’ in 1966. The voting system used was proportional representation. The basic principles underlying proportional representation elections are that all voters deserve representation and that all political groups in society deserve to be represented in our legislatures in proportion to their strength in the electorate. In other words, everyone should have the right to fair representation.
In order to achieve this fair representation, all PR systems have certain basic characteristics -- characteristics that set them apart from our current British election system. First, they all use multi-member districts. Instead of electing one person in each district, as we do here in the U.K., several people are elected. These multi-member districts may be relatively small, with only three or four members, or they may be larger, with ten or more members. The source is a diagram of ‘Derry’ which straight away shows you the bias. The use of the word ‘Derry’ shows that this source is a Catholic source and could well be biased. From the diagram you can clearly see that gerrymandering did take place and that the election was not fair. Just from this one source you can see why the troubles started because if you are not happy with your leader, you are most likely not happy with the way that things are run.
Source D- A Roman Catholic describes her school days
Source D shows just how much the children were brought up with strong views being planted in their minds. The source basically states how a girl was taught at her school and how the vice principal disliked the English. Surely if the Catholic children were brought up with these views, the protestant children were brought up with opposing views. This source shows me a lot of the reason why the troubles broke out with the sheer reason that there would have been a growing hatred between the future generations. The source is a caption from a book by Bernadette Devlin, ‘The price of my soul’ written in 1969. Bernadette Devlin was a devoted Catholic and the source came from a book. The source may be bias because she may have made it sound more interesting so the book sold.
Source J- Mr. White
Source J is my own added source from when Mr. White came to my GCSE history class and gave a talk on when he was serving in the British army in Northern Ireland. Mr. White explained the fact of how he was blown up from a car bomb but survived. He worked in bomb disposal and had a bounty on his head for 100,000 pounds. From this you can see the lengths the IRA were violence is involved. Furthermore, you can see how much money was at stake in the troubles and how much the IRA were willing to pay for someone’s death. From my source I can see how violent and bloody the war was between the Catholics and Protestants. Mr. White’s talk may be bias because he is in the British army and many of his fellow friends were killed during his time in Ireland. Mr. White may have bias and hatred towards the Catholics.
Source I- Crowd violence as loyalists ambush civil rights marchers at Burntollet in January 1969
Source I is a black and white photograph of a civil rights march in 1969 and shows a huge mob fight between lots of people. I do not believe this source is entirely reliable because it is black and white and low quality. Nothing clear can be made out from the picture and there is no clear ways to tell who Catholics are and who the Protestants are. What can be made from this picture is that there is a lot of violence. Another reason this photo is unreliable is the fact that when a photo is taken, it only captures a moment in time and doesn’t show the entire story.
Source H- RUC officers strike a civil rights marcher on 5th October 1968
Source H is also a photo and it shows a civil rights marcher being beaten by the Royal Ulster Constabulary officers. During the civil rights march the marcher may have done something bad enough to receive being beaten. This is a reason why this source is generally unreliable because a photo only captures a moment in time and doesn’t tell the whole story. He might have even had a fire arm. The purpose of this source is to bring sympathy and emotion into the troubles. It makes people think that the RUC go around beating random people just as Hitler’s SS did in Germany. Overall I believe this source is not particularly reliable because photos ‘in motion’ are generally not.
Source E- A Protestant cartoon
The cartoon shows Irish women (Erin) bound in ropes by a Catholic priest. Straight away, you can see the bias by what the cartoon I named…’A Protestant cartoon’. This cartoon is a protestant cartoon and there is no date given. Because there is no date given it could have been created at any time and is therefore extremely un-reliable. Furthermore, a cartoon is a ‘play’ on real life and does not reflect real life happenings. Although the source is unreliable, you can still see the fact that how Protestants felt against Catholic people.
Source G- Protestant images of Catholic attacks on Protestants in 1641
This last source is in my opinion the least important but has an important message also. The source is a very old drawing (1641) of Protestants running naked with Catholics following them with swords. The text reads- “English Protestants stripped naked and turned into the mountains in the frost and snow, whereof (because of this) many hundreds are perished to death and many lying dead in ditches and savages unbraided (scolded) them saying, now are ye wild Irish as well as we.” This source is an early cartoon and plays on real life but it gives a valuable message. It gives the message of how long there have been ‘troubles’ between the Catholics and Protestants. These troubles have been going on since 1641! Furthermore, they most likely have been going on longer than that.
Conclusion
Overall, I believe that there is enough evidence here to explain how the troubles broke out. I believe this is the case because there is a source for nearly every aspect of how and why the troubles in fact were caused. The following bullet points show these aspects.
- Education (source D)
- Propaganda against opposing religion (Source E and G)
- Map/diagram (Source F)
- Photo (Source H and I)
- Talk by British army soldier ( Source J)
All of these factors add up to the big picture of ‘The Troubles’ and how they were created. There is no real reason that anybody knows of why the troubles were created and furthermore nobody knows when they were created exactly. I believe this question is important because one day this may be used for an important reason and may teach someone about the troubles. Although the reasons I gave were in random places and in a random order, they all fit together and show this conclusion that I believe there is sufficient evidence to show how the troubles were started. Maybe one day there will be new evidence and technology to find out exactly why the troubles were created and the even more important question…Who shot that first bullet on bloody Sunday?