Partition. The Unionists believed that Partition was better than a united Ireland, as they were still separate from the U.K, and there was the feeling of betrayal from the Catholics
Partition In 1916, a group of nationalists sized and took over a number of buildings in Dublin, mainly the Post Office. This was called the Easter Rising. They then declared a republic. This led to extremely violent behaviour from both sides, but with a minimum of support in Dublin, the nationalists were overruled by the British Army. The British Government then executed 16 leaders and this influenced the views of many to the republicans, which are a group prepared to use means of violence to achieve independence. In 1918, Sinn Fein won a huge amount of seats in the General Election. Being a nationalist party the MP's refused to go to Westminster and so set up a separate Parliament in Dublin. This was this was profusely opposed and was quickly shut down. This led to a guerrilla war between the IRA and Britain. A civil war looked likely, but neither side was well enough equipped to have a huge effect. In 1921 Sinn Fein sent representatives to London to talk with the British Government. They agreed to set up a partition of Ireland, establishing an Irish Free State in the southern 26 counties that became separate from the UK but still within the commonwealth. Some nationalists were still unhappy, and this led to a civil war that lasted two years. The nationalists who accepted the agreement won it and they were in control of the Irish Free State for the following ten years.
Previous attempts to bring peace to Northern Ireland have failed. What problems will need to be overcome if current peace talks are to succeed?
Ireland QUESTION 3 Previous attempts to bring peace to Northern Ireland have failed. What problems will need to be overcome if current peace talks are to succeed? There were many peace efforts in Northern Ireland, which finally lead to the determination of Tony Blair to get the Good Friday Agreement of 1998. The Anglo-Irish Agreement of 1985 helped improve relations with the Irish Republic and the British government by allowing the republic a consultative role in Northern Ireland and the recognition of the state of Northern Ireland for the first time. There were also some improvements in the Civil Rights of Catholics, while both the IRA and the British Army began to recognise that the war could not be won on a military basis. Sinn Fein's popularity grew and enabled them to use politics rather than violence to make its case for a United Ireland. The people of Ireland also helped with the development of peace among members of paramilitaries and supporters of paramilitaries. There was also influence by the USA president Clinton, as a foreign policy would divert eyes from his sex scandal. The secret talks by the British Government and the IRA and also talks between the Republic and Sinn Fein. This lead to the Downing Street Declaration of 1993 stating the two parties of Ireland could bring about a United Ireland if they so wished. There was a ceasefire by the IRA shortly
How Has The I.R.A. Attempted To Re-unite Eire And Northern Ireland Since 1972?
How Has The I.R.A. Attempted To Re-unite Eire And Northern Ireland Since 1972? During 1969 the IRA changed its tactics, from just using violence to a combination of three methods to get total independence from Ireland. These methods were; violence (terrorism), publicity (strikes and protests), and, politics. In this essay I will explain why the IRA changed their methods at this time. In 1969 British troops were sent into Northern Ireland to try and restore peace and order, after the violent events of the same year. The troops failed and withdrew. Although the IRA has tried to re-unite Ireland since 1972, this year contained many high profile violent events. One such instance was on 30 January 1972, in Derry, when British troops shot 13 innocent and unarmed men in the back. This became major news and is still seen as a major event in Irish history. At the time the Catholics were outraged and the IRA increased its bombing. By this year (1972) specialist private armies were fighting against each other to try and get what they wanted. To try and restore peace and order Britain removed control of Northern Ireland from Stormont and placed it under direct rule, this meant that Britain controlled what happened in N. Ireland. The Catholics and the IRA saw this as Britain trying to take control of a country that they did not have any right to, and the IRA again stepped up its violent
Why Are Unionists and Nationalists divided over the events of Bloody Sunday, 1972?
Why Are Unionists and Nationalists divided over the events of Bloody Sunday, 1972? There are some facts about the event called 'Bloody Sunday' that are 'undisputed' facts. The first of these facts is that on the 30th of January 1972 a huge protest (approx. 15000 people) took place against internment in the city of Londonderry. The civil rights movement organized this march. Marches at this time were banned so what was happening was against the law. The protestors gathered near the center of the city and troops from the parachute regiment sealed the area off. While the troops did this youths within the protest threw missiles at the troops. The events that followed are what has cause the confusion but one fact that has come out of it is that the members of the parachute regiment fired bullets into the crowd killing 13 people on the day and 1 person late died from related injuries. The next day after the incident the then prime minister launched an inquiry into the events which was to be headed by the lord chief justice Widgery. The result of this report came out exactly 11 weeks after the event and stated that shots had been fired at the soldiers and they were firing in 'self defense' Bloody Sunday happened as a result of number of reasons. The tension in Northern Ireland had been rising for a long while before Bloody Sunday. In the June of 1968 a nationalist mp called Austin
With What Success has the British Government Attempted to Deal with the 'Irish Troubles' since 1972.
With What Success has the British Government Attempted to Deal with the 'Irish Troubles' since 1972. The first attempt to deal with the 'Irish Troubles' was in 1974, this was Power-Sharing. The aim of power sharing was to share power between Protestants and Catholics. The failure of this attempt was due to a working class Protestant group called the Ulster Working Council, this group called a general strike. This strike quickly grew out of control. Power sharing ended when the strikers threatened to shut down the sewage and electric power stations. It was not entirely the British government's fault, but from 1922 until 1972 Unionists had held all the power in Northern Ireland. This was one party rule. The British government had let one party rule continue for 50 years and the Unionists believed that the Government wanted to give them continued control of the situation. Power sharing failed as it was introduced to soon after one party rule. Strike action was growing increasingly common in the 1970's. This was known as the decade of strike as a lot of groups were taking this action. The second attempt was the Northern Ireland Assembly that was set up in 1982. This was another good idea but again the timing was wrong causing this attempt to fail. In 1982 Catholics refused to attend the assembly as in 1982 members of the IRA were being arrested and imprisoned without trial. They
Why were British troops sent to Northern Irelandin 1969?
Leah Harland Mrs Buttery's Group Modern World Conflict Assignment 1: Why were British troops sent to Northern Ireland in 1969? In August of 1969 British Troops were sent to Northern Ireland under the order of Harold Wilson, the British Prime Minister. This action was due, to growing tensions between the Catholic and Protestant communities all over Ireland since the turn of the 20th Century. There had always been long term problems between the Catholics and Protestants of Northern Ireland which are rooted deep in the histories of England and Ireland. There were also many short-term factors and triggers which caused Prime Minister Wilson to take the action that he did. There are many elements to these factors and they built up over many years. Some of them even stem back to the 12th Century! From the 12th Century up until the 1900's the tensions between the Catholics and Protestants continued to grow. In 1969 the R.U.C (Royal Ulster Constabulary) lost control of the riots, started when peaceful Catholic Civil Rights protests and marches came under attack from the Protestants. On the 13th August 1969 Jack Lynch, the Prime Minister of the Irish Republic, made a speech on National Television criticising the Northern Ireland Government. This Speech caused Harold Wilson to send members of the British Army over to the streets of Ireland to restore order. The long term
Catholic discrimination in Northern Ireland in terms of Housing and Employment
There has been a long history of violence, prejudice, and discrimination between Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland, particularly highlighted throughout the 1960s, when Catholics were discriminated against by the Protestant Stormont Government in both employment and housing. Hence, in order to understand in what ways and how much it occurred, both these areas must be investigated. Firstly, one must look at how the Catholics were discriminated against in terms of employment, and to what extent this occurred. In the public sector, Catholics suffered great difficulties being employed, as there appears to have been some bias towards employing Protestants, especially in senior levels of the civil service. For example, in a report by the Cameron Commission in 1969, it is stated, "[As of October 1968] In County Fermanagh, no senior council posts, (and relatively few others) were held by Catholics" and according to the Sunday Times, in the same county, in 1961 "322 of the [370] posts, including the top ones, were filled with Protestants. This shows how during the 1960s, the Catholics in Fermanagh did not have many jobs at a high level in the public sector. This is particularly interesting because the majority of people in Fermanagh were Catholics, hence highlighting the extent of their discrimination. The Sunday Times also wrote that in Derry "of 177 salaried employees,
The Good Friday Agreement has been a failure and the problems are still Impossible to over come. Do you agree?
Just like previous attempts to bring peace to Northern Ireland The Good Friday Agreement has been a failure and the problems are still Impossible to over come. Do you agree? In this essay I am going to start by looking at two previous attempts at peace. The breakthroughs, which led up to the Good Friday agreement. What the aims of the Good Friday agreement (short term and long term). The developments since the Good Friday Agreement and the problems that still exist. Here I am going to write about two previous attempts at peace the first one I am going to look at is ' The Anglo-Irish Agreement' in 1985 the British singed this with the Republic. This set up a joint committee of two governments to discuss such matters as the security forces, justice and the law in Ulster. They hoped to find ways to persuade Unionists and Nationalists to respect each other's rights and views. This was a failure Unionists resigned seats, strike and has demos and violent clashes with RUC. The Downing Street Declaration was an agreement, which happened in 1993. It was an agreement between John Major (the prime minister at the time) and Albert Reynolds. The talks were to try and set up a new type of government for Northern Ireland. The new government would respect all of Northern Irelands traditions e.g. the march for William of Orange. The people and parties who could be involved were those who
Northen Ireland Coursework
History Coursework Question 2 The events that occurred in Derry on 30th January 1972 known as Bloody Sunday may have produced such different historical interpretations because there were two opposing sides so each side would give a different account bias towards their point of view because they would want people to believe their story. One of these sides was the people who were on the side of the Soldiers that is they believe they were attacked first. These generally, though not always are either the British or the soldiers themselves. Some of these opinions are shown in source A because it has an interview with a Tory MP and one of the soldiers. The soldier discards the new evidence that was discovered as rubbish. This shows how the soldiers believed that it was not their fault and that they were attacked by the Catholics. They may have different views to everyone else for a variety of reasons, firstly they may not want to admit they were not attacked because they could end up in jail for murder, or because of the atmosphere at the time they may not have been completely focused; they were not trained for dealing with civilians, and so where unsure of what to do. This means that they may have panicked and though that they heard something and thus the firing started. So the soldiers' accounts may not be very reliable because they were in an different situation to what they
The main reasons for partition within Ireland
Why was there conflict in Northern Ireland before 1960? Many events happened to lead up to the splitting of Ireland and conflict from the catholic war, with William of orange to the guerrilla war between IRA (Irish republican army) and with English army and Protestants. The more recent events that occurred in Ireland caused the separation of the country. The earliest was the Easter rising, when during the first world war Irish rebels took control off public buildings in Dublin, they were executed without trial, subsequently many Irish people fighting for England felt betrayed, and people living in Britain felt sorry for Ireland, the people killed were seen as martyrs. 2 years after the incident in Dublin the unpopular Sinn Fein (created by Eamon de Valera Sinn Fein Gaelic for "Ourselves alone") became increasingly popular and even more so powerful. Sinn Fein had close links to the infamous IRA and strongly supported the believes of being a fully catholic nation. This in many ways caused the Guerrilla war (hit and run terrorism attacks)and led up to the Anglo Irish War, England did not like the idea of Ireland getting this power and England also needed to keep their control over Ireland. The Anglo Irish war or The Irish war of independence occurred during 919 - 1921. The IRA became a little too powerful and corrupt they did bitter killings in Northern Ireland killing
