The disadvantages faced by Northern Ireland’s Catholics in the 1960s were rooted in the nature of the 1921 partition which was drawn carefully to cut out those parts of Ulster which had large numbers of Catholics. This meant that Catholics were a minority in a majority Protestant state. This was done to maintain Protestant power and control.
How did the protestant politicians explain the social, economic, and political differences between Catholics and Protestants?
Captain Terence O’Neill was Northern Ireland’s prime minister from 1963 to 1969. He believed that Catholics should be equal partners in Northern Ireland. O’Neill believed that religious and cultural differences between Protestants and Catholics shouldn’t result in economic or political disadvantages for Northern Ireland’s Catholics. He also believed in some areas Catholics had an advantage over Protestants, an example of this is Catholic children went to better schools. He also wanted to remove discrimination in areas such as housing and employment.
Lord Brookeborough was prime minister of Northern Ireland from the 1940s to the early 1960s. In a speech to fellow Unionist party members he said, ‘many in the audience employ Catholics but I do not have one about my house....’
He thought of the Catholics as being his enemy and Northern Ireland’s enemy. He didn’t employ Catholics and her told fellow Protestants not to employ them as well. When he was asked why Catholics were not often given jobs he said, ‘How can you give somebody who is your enemy a higher position in order to allow them to come and destroy you?’
Ian Paisley saw Northern Ireland’s Catholics as being a threat to Northern Ireland’s Protestants and the Protestant way of life. Paisley was one of the most vicious anti-Catholic hate mongers; he conspired to deprive Catholics of their lives, rights and property in the British occupied countries of Ireland. He saw Catholics as being ‘Romanists’ meaning they were loyal to the Pope in Rome rather than to Northern Ireland or Britain. He also saw Catholics as being opposed to the very existence of Northern Ireland. He believed that the Catholics wanted to destroy the border and take Ulster into the Irish Republic; he believed that all Catholics were Republicans and therefore supporters of IRA terrorism. Paisley saw nothing unfair about Unionist Protestants controlling the majority Catholic city of Londonderry through gerrymandering. This was natural to him because Northern Ireland was a state set up in 1921 to defend the ‘Protestant Ascendancy’. This was the belief of Protestants having a historic destiny to rule over Catholics in Northern Ireland. Paisley had a reputation for making passionate speeches at demonstrations which ended in violence. In 1964 he organised a protest against a Catholic house in Belfast because it had an Irish flag in the window; this ended in violence.
O’Neill, Brookeborough and Paisley all had differing views. O’Neill believed that Catholics and Protestants could live peacefully with each other and this would benefit Northern Ireland both economically and politically. As they were socially divided by their religion and culture Northern Ireland suffered economically and politically.
Brookeborough wanted Northern Ireland to stay socially divided; he wanted Protestants and Catholics to stay apart. He felt strongly that Catholics should not be employed for work by Protestants.
Paisley was one of the vicious anti-catholic prime ministers. He believed that all Catholics were a threat to Northern Ireland. He incited Loyalists to burn down Catholic houses and churches. He discriminated massively against Catholics in areas such as, employment and housing. He said there was a shortage of housing for Catholics because they breed like "rabbits" and multiply like "vermin".
Why were British troops sent to Northern Ireland in August 1969?
Troops were sent in to Northern Ireland because law and order was breaking down in Northern Ireland under the pressure of protests by the civil rights movement. In early 1968 protests were peaceful but by October 1968 protests held by NICRA led to violence mainly sparked off by the police, who used violent tactics to keep NICRA from entering Londonderry town centre. The Unionist government had banned NICRA from protesting in Londonderry town centre, so the police used violence to try and stop the protestors. NICRA was the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association, who wanted everyone to be equal in Northern Ireland. They compared themselves to the successful black civil rights movement in the southern states of the USA.
By August of 1969 the Protestant Apprentice Boys march around Londonderry was set to take place as it did every year. Catholics feared this would lead to trouble but the Unionist government insisted it go ahead. The Protestant marchers passed by the Catholic Bogside area and threw pennies (a traditional Protestant insult against Catholics). As rioting began Catholics set up street barricades to block Loyalist gangs and the RUC (police) from getting into their area. Fighting lasted for two days and was known as the Battle of the Bogside. Violence spread to Belfast where Loyalist gangs attacked Catholics living in the Falls Road.
Serious rioting led to 6 deaths, 12 factories and 100 houses burnt down in just one night. 1,500 Catholic families were ‘burnt out’ of their homes. The RUC reported to the British Government that it had received intelligence that the IRA armed uprising was about to take place (these reports were later found to be false). On the 15th August 196 9the British Prime Minister, Harold Wilson, sent in British troops onto the streets of Londonderry and Belfast.
An important reason for the troops being sent in is that Catholics had no trust in the police. They had no trust in the RUC (Royal Ulster Constabulary) and the B-Specials. The B-Specials were reserve/part-time police officers. They were armed and almost all Protestant with a very bad reputation for harassing Catholics and using violence whenever they wanted to. Catholics felt that police officers, as public servants, should not be part of the Orange Order (a Loyalist organisation fundamentally opposed to Catholicism). At the Burntollet Bridge hundreds of Loyalists threw rocks and bottles, many of the RUC joined them and after the attack none of the RUC attempted to arrest anyone, some of the ambushers turned out to be off-duty B-Specials. The British government were aware that that there would be no end to the troubles as long as policing was not seen as fair by the Catholics, the British troops were therefore sent in to replace the RUC and to be an equally fair police force for both the Protestants and Catholics.
Both the Catholics and Protestants wanted the British troops to come in but both sides wanted them for different reasons.
The Catholics wanted the British troops in because they wanted them as a protection against the Loyalist mobs and RUC attacks. An account by Eamonn McCann (lived in the Catholic Bogside area of Londonderry) in 1969 at the Battle of the Bogside shows how the battle lasted for 48 hours during which petrol bombs were thrown along with other missiles such as stones. Some of the phrases used by the Catholics were, “keep the murderers out. Don’t weaken now. Make every stone and petrol bomb count.” On the last day of the battle the Catholics saw the B-Specials moving into Waterloo Place, there was going to be a big battle. As the Catholics were approaching the B-Specials word came in that the British troops were marching across the bridge. The police and the B-Specials pulled out and the British troops came in. It was an indication that the RUC had been beaten. However the Catholics weren’t show about how to treat the British troops.
The Protestants wanted the British troops to come in because they were afraid that the civil rights movement was a plot to destabilise Northern Ireland (a front for an IRA attack). This was likely to be untrue as the IRA was virtually non-existent. However what people thought was true was more important than what actually was true. Many Protestants did not question if this threat was realistic. Some politicians exacerbated the situation; Charles Haughey was suspended from the government as he was thought to be helping the IRA. In March 1969 several bombs went off across Ulster and were blamed upon the IRA (this was later revealed to be untrue and the bombs were in fact planned by Loyalists who wanted to blame the IRA to increase tension between themselves and the Catholics). In August the RUC reported to the British government the IRA were planning an uprising, this was later proven to be totally false. General Anthony Peacocke, of the RUC, sent a message to the British government stating that a “reliable source” had stated that the IRA was about to commence from Eire to Northern Ireland. This was another reason for the Protestants to be suspicious of the Catholics even though the event was orchestrated by their fellow Protestants. So therefore the Protestants were afraid of an IRA uprising and afraid of the Northern Ireland state being destroyed; therefore they would be forced into the Republic of Ireland.
The ever growing number of violence, the failure of the Northern Ireland government and the intervention of the Irish Republic’s leader Jack Lynch, made it urgent for the British government to be seen to be doing something. The growing number of violent incidents, like the Battle of the Bogside, lead to pressure upon the British Government as it showed them as being incompetent and not dealing with issues which involved Catholics. O’Neill, who was a moderate politician, couldn’t deal with extremists. His reforms were too radical for his fellow protestants but not radical enough for his republican critics. This showed his reforms as being too rushed and him not being able to please everyone. The Irish Republic leader Jack Lynch moved ambulances and troops up to the Northern Ireland border; he accused the RUC of being a police force the Catholics could not trust and he asked the UN to send in a peace keeping force. This mounted more pressure upon the British government to address the issue of the RUC favouring Protestants. The British government sent in troops for the short-term to replace the RUC and maintain a fair policing system. This short-term solution was provided so in the long-term a political solution could be found. Without the British troops being sent there was a significant risk of civil war which had previously taken place in the 1920s partition.