3. Use sources D, E, and F, and your own knowledge, to explain why this city became a centre of the civil rights movement in Northern Ireland?
Londonderry was the city where all the civil rights marches and riots took place. There were many reasons for these which included sectarian division, anti-Catholic discrimination in housing, employment and gerrymandering ward boundaries. Source D is a photograph of the house of a catholic family in Londonderry taken in the 1960’s. The photo shows a man and a child in what seems to be a garden of a small stone house. There is a bath tub full of washing. This could mean that there was no running water coming to the house. The building behind him looks very old and worn down, it is built of stone and cement and has a corrugated most probably tin roof. This source is not very reliable as photos can be easily doctored and also this may only be one small section of this man’s house or even his shed. We have no actual proof that this is even his house. But we do know that many Catholics lived in poverty and this is why we believe that this is this mans house.
Source E is more reliable as it is the results of the local elections in Londonderry in 1966. It shows how, although there are 14,429 Nationalist votes and only 8,781 unionist votes, 12 Unionist councillors were elected compared to only 8 Nationalist ones. Now, the voting system in Northern Ireland was already corrupt and unfair: the number of votes you got was based on the number of properties you owned e.g. if you owned 8 properties you could vote 8 times; This was already unfair as most Catholics in Londonderry rented and many of the new homes given out by the council went to protestants as this would get them even more votes in the next election. This said 62% of the population of Londonderry was Catholic which means 62% of the votes were Nationalist. Yet somehow more Unionist councillors were elected. So how did 48% of the vote win the election, gerrymandering: the changing of ward boundaries to receive a distorted outcome to an election.
Londonderry had 3 wards: South Ward, North Ward and Waterside. By looking at the number of voters and the size of each ward we see that most of the nationalist voting population of Londonderry lived in Southward, but this would be impossible if not for the changing of the ward boundaries prior to the election. Because the boundaries were changed only the nationalist votes in Southward would count. Therefore the unionists would have won the election as they had secured the election as they had 2 wards.
Once Catholics and Unionists realised what was going on there were a series of civil rights marches. This angered a lot of Protestants who were going through the same problems and yet not getting anything done. They were also angry how the media made it look as if only the Catholics were affected by discrimination.
The Apprentice Boys take their name from a group of Protestants that shut the gates of Derry against the Catholic army of James II in 1689. During a march they were stopped from entering a traditionally Catholic neighbourhood was the reason the other marches and riots started. Some of the many other “triggers” which started the riots and acts of terrorism that ran on well into the 90’s were the Burntollet Bridge incident in which The People's Democracy March left Belfast on 1 January and arrived in Londonderry on 4 January 1969. The march had been organised by a group called People's Democracy which had been formed on 9 October 1968 and mainly consisted of students from the Queen's University of Belfast. The march was intended to increase the pressure for social justice and to draw attention to events in Northern Ireland since the Londonderry March on 5 October 1968. On each day of the march groups of Loyalists confronted, jostled, and physically attacked those taking part in the march. At no time did the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC), who were accompanying the march, make any effort to prevent these attacks. The most serious incidents occurred on the last day between Claudy and Londonderry. The march was ambushed at Burntollet Bridge by approximately 200 Loyalists, including off-duty members of the 'B-Specials', and 13 marchers required hospital treatment. The march was again attacked as it passed through the Waterside area of Derry. Later in the evening members of the RUC attacked people and property in the Bogside area of Londonderry sparking several days of serious rioting. And Bloody Sunday in which Members of the British army killed 13 supposedly innocent people and seriously injured another who later died in hospital during an illegal civil rights protest. It was a combination of these long term factors and these “trigger” factors that made Londonderry the centre of all the civil rights movements.
4. Do sources H and I support Ian Paisley’s view of the civil rights movement given in source G? Explain your answer by references to all three Sources.
It is not completely clear who was involved with whom during the civil rights marches. Although it is definite the IRA was involved with certain political groups there were also so many other groups involved with the same groups it is not possible to pinpoint the blame to one group. Michael Farrell, a member of NICRA, says that “there was a number of Republicans and the proportion of them varied from time to time, but they never dominated it.” When he refers to Republicans he is referring to supporters of a political party rather than the IRA. Source I is from a report about NICRA produced for the British Government in the 1970’s. This makes it reliable and it too states that “The membership was politically varied and undoubtedly included persons of extreme Republican views and activities as well as members of the Northern Ireland and Liberal Parties.” This shows that even the British government didn’t know the members of NICRA. They knew that it included members from extremist Republican parties e.g. The IRA, and other Northern Irish Parties. In answer to the question there is no one to actually blame for the troubles as it is still unclear who the members were of the people who started it off, NICRA. Therefore sources H and I neither support nor denounce Ian Paisley’s views given in source G.
5. Do you agree with this portrayal of the reasons why the Troubles continued into the 1990’s? Explain your answer using the sources and your own knowledge.
Source J is a cartoon drawn in 1991 by a Northern Irish political cartoonist. It was used to illustrate the front cover of a book called ‘Troubled Times,’ about the Troubles in Northern Ireland from 1970 to 1991. The cartoon is based on one of Escher’s famous never ending staircase illusions. On this never ending staircase are 5 people each representing one of the 5 inter-relating factors on why the Troubles lasted well into the 1990’s.
Firstly, the person closest to the viewer is a man with a revolver and some dynamite. I presume he is meant to represent the Paramilitaries. This man is going in a different direction to everyone else. He is looking angry and also straight at the viewer. This is most probably to represent that the methods used by the paramilitaries was against everything religion, politics, working men and women and children. However it could also represent the order of their loyalties: first to religion then to politicians/politics and then the working man. This would make sense as the IRA consisted of all Catholics and was closely related to Sinn Fein.
The second closest person is a woman holding back a child. She is going in a different direction to the paramilitary man but her child is trying to follow him. This is probably to represent how children wanted to join paramilitary organisations as they probably thought they could achieve what others couldn’t through violence. The reason why many of these young people wanted to join these paramilitary organisations is because they didn’t agree with the politicians of the time and also because of religion. Some felt it was their duty as a devout Catholic or Protestant to join these groups and help out in the fighting; to be on the metaphorical front line. However the mother looks worried and is not allowing her child to go after the paramilitary man.
The next character is a working man. He is one step behind the politician. This could symbolise how the working class had to do more or less whatever the government told them. Under the man’s arm there is a newspaper. This most probably symbolises the media’s extensive coverage of the Troubles and how everyone got to hear about it. This man is again going in the opposite direction to the paramilitary. The man has his hands in his pockets and the expression on his face is neither happy nor sad. He is just following the politician wherever he may lead him. This is because he has no other options.
Next up the politician, we can tell he is a politician because he is wearing a rosette and holding a ballot paper. He is one step ahead of the working man but 3 steps behind the priest. The politician is looking unhappy with something but is holding a hand out and pointing as if to stop the priest a question. This is probably to represent how different political parties were very closely linked to different religions e.g. Sinn Fein is a Catholic party.
Then there is the priest he is 3 steps in front of the politician. He is looking worried by the politician following him but hasn’t noticed the paramilitary yet. We can tell he is a priest as he is wearing a dog collar and holding a book which is a bible in all likelihood. This is probably to represent how religion influenced politics and everyone else but tried to stay out of the rest of their daily affairs. Unfortunately they didn’t quite manage it and it was because of religious segregation and inequality based on religion that the Troubles came about in the first place.
Finally there are 2 dates graffitied on the walls of the never ending staircase. These dates represent significant events in both Catholic and Protestant history. In 1690 the Battle of Boyne took place in which William the 3rd beat James the 2nd it was a great time in protestant history and in many protestant neighbourhoods you are bound to find a mural of it painted on a wall. 1916 was the year in which the Easter Rising took place. The Easter Rising is when a group of about 1000 to 1500 Irish men and women attempted to seize Dublin. Many of them died but it is still a great day in Catholic history because they also got their point out to a greater audience because many people found about what happened through the media. Again you will be able to find murals of this in many Catholic neighbourhoods.
Overall I feel that this is an excellent portrayal of the Troubles because it shows how: political, social, religious, extremist, and historical factors all played a part in making the Troubles last well in to the 90’s.