The British Government were unable to stop the IRA politically, so they called upon armed units called the ‘Black and Tans’ and the ‘Auxiliaries’ to destroy the IRA by raiding and burning houses, killing and torturing IRA members suspects as well as innocent people. They failed to defeat the IRA even though they heavily outnumbered them. This was because Michael Collins organised his guerrilla unit very well with a series of ‘hit and run attacks’ with the freedom fights being able to blend back in to the community as they did not wear uniform making them very hard to identify and almost impossible to defeat. One of the worst incidents of this was on the 21st November 1920 later to be known as ‘Bloody Sunday’. The IRA killed 12 British agents and 2 Auxiliaries which triggered the ‘Black and Tans’ to retaliate by firing into a Gaelic football match killing 12 people and injuring 60. A week later the IRA attacked a convoy of Auxiliaries killing 18 people and again Auxiliaries and the ‘Black and Tans’ retaliated by attacking the city of Cork which was burnt down.
Long Term Consequences
By early 1921, a truce was called to end the fighting and the realisation that Northern Ireland was now separated from the Republic of Ireland ‘South’ made the idea of partition more acceptable. A conference to decide Ireland’s future was held in London in October of that year which resulted in the signing of the Anglo-Irish treaty to create an Independent Ireland by December. Eamon de Valera stepped down from the position of president to be taken by Griffith with Collins as head of the new government. Eamon de Valera stated that he was unhappy with the treaty as only part of Ireland was free; he felt the treaty surrendered too much to Britain and continued fighting which left an uneasy peace. These actions created a long term effect as Ireland is still split today. The violence continued as the IRA conducted a violent campaign against the new province which has been recurring until 1998. Segregation was still a factor as Nationalist and Unionist went to separate churches, pubs, workplace and schools. In 1926, a senior unionist leader tried to combat this by educating Catholics and Protestants together. This was stopped by protests by the Catholic Church and Presbyterians.
(b) The deployment of British troops in Northern Ireland, 1969.
Event
During the sixties there were many catholic civil rights marches because of the concern of Catholics being treated as second class citizens as they did not get the amount of high class jobs as the Protestants. New houses were being built in the protestant areas twice as frequently as the catholic areas. The law services (RUC) consisted of mainly Protestants and would be biased towards their own. During one of the catholic civil rights marches through a Protestant area they were confronted by violence from the Protestant crowd which was later found to include RUC and B-special off duty officers using excessive violence against the protestors. The RUC officers, who were supposed to protect the protestors, were not inclined to do so and this caused a brake down in Northern Ireland’s law and order. As a result of this the British government drafted in the British army to protect the protestors in an impartial manner. The Catholics welcomed the army with tea and sandwiches as they thought they would protect the Catholic population against the violence.
Short Term Consequences
Because the Catholic population was protected by the British army they did not have to call upon the IRA to protect them. This soon changed as the British government made a huge mistake by handing over the control of the army to the Northern Ireland government who used them in an unfair way and sent the army into Catholic areas such as Falls road. They then used tear gas and applied a thirty six hour curfew against the Catholic population living there. A nine year old boy was also killed in bed when bullets ripped through the wall of the bed room which was a massive mistake. This in turn caused the Catholics to have to call on the IRA once again as no one else would defend them. The IRA were now more aggressive than ever and started to bomb British forces and Protestants
Long Term Consequences
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Long term consequences were that British troops remained in Northern Ireland for Thirty years and the violence used against them became part of every day life in the province. With the IRA and loyalist paramilitaries involved in the conflict as well. This all resulted in thousands of deaths over a thirty year period of fighting.
(c) “Bloody Sunday”, 30 January 1972.
Event
In August 1971, Internment was introduced and meant that anyone suspected of terrorism could be arrested and held in prison without being charged or put on trial the intention was to cripple the IRA. On Sunday 30th January 1972, there was a huge protest against internment. Troops of the Parachute Regiment sealed of the area. The march was peaceful until crowds gathered at the army barriers and started throwing missiles this was combated by the armies’ water cannon. The soldiers state that they were fired upon and returned fire the marchers say that it was the opposite. As a result of this many civilians and soldiers were killed or injured throughout the day.
Short Term Consequences
The main reaction to this effect was that the law and order of Northern Ireland was again braking down. The unionist party split into smaller more extreme groups. Bloody Sunday lead the IRA to pursue the complete withdrawal of a British presence from Ireland. It also lead to the re-introduction of direct rule and the introduction of power sharing which was defeated by the unionist community in 1974.
Long Term Consequences
This in turn led to the Anglo-Irish agreement in 1985 which ultimately led to the Good Friday agreement of 1998 which gave nationalists a fair say in the government of Northern Ireland. It also brought British home rule to an end in Northern Ireland. The paramilitaries also stopped fighting along with the IRA who both believed peace talks to be the way forward.
Conclusion
In conclusion, I believe that The Easter Rising had the biggest impact in terms of people’s ideas and beliefs because it gave Sinn Fein a boost and they gained many members as the people of Ireland believed the British to be murderers and they now had the idea of getting British rule out of Ireland. The deployment of Troops had the biggest impact in terms of people’s lives because it caused constant violence to be a way of life in the province as the IRA were fighting to get the British Army out of Northern Ireland. Bloody Sunday had the biggest impact in terms of politics in Ireland because it showed that violence could not be used to stop the IRA and the government tried to use political methods to resolve the conflict. As direct rule was reintroduced and power sharing was introduced but failed. It also led to the Anglo-Irish agreement in 1985 which in turn led to the Good Friday agreement of 1998. The Easter Rising had the biggest impact on the other effects because it first divided the Irish province and gave the Irish population a belief that they could stop British rule in their country which caused all the rest of the events that occurred thereafter.
I believe that the least most important event that shaped Irish history was the Deployment of troops in Northern Ireland because it only led to more violence rather than to resolve it. Therefore did not play an important role in Irish history.
I believe that the second most important event was the Easter Rising because it did resolve some of the violence as it gave freedom to the Southern Irish people but Northern Ireland was still under British rule and also it did not end the violence.
Therefore I believe that the most important event in Irish history was Bloody Sunday as many political discussions followed because of It., and finally led to the Good Friday agreement which stopped the violence as it proposed that Northern Ireland may become part of the free state of Ireland, with the acceptation of the majority of the population of Northern Ireland.