"Since 1972 the British Government has tried a number of solutions to the crisis in Northern Ireland." How successful has this process been?

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                 Stephen Hall

Northern Ireland Coursework

Question 1:

        “Since 1972 the British Government has tried a number of solutions to the crisis in Northern Ireland.” How successful has this process been?

The crisis in Northern Ireland is about two sides trying to get their point across in whatever way they can. On one side you have the Catholics (Nationalists or Republicans), one religion that wants a united Ireland free of British rule.  But there are many different categories of this side and they each have different ways of achieving their goal.  Sinn Fein is the political wing of the IRA, a paramilitary organisation that has used violence on many occasions to cease the British rule in Northern Ireland.  Another political party is the SDLP (Social Democratic Labour Party), they too want a united Ireland but are opposed to IRA violence.

On the other side of this argument we have the Protestants (Unionists or Loyalists), who want to continue being ruled by Britain.  Two Protestant political parties are the UUP (Ulster Unionist Party) and the DUP (Democratic Unionist Party).  The UUP are the most powerful Protestant party.  They, like the SDLP are opposed to violence.  The Rev. Ian Paisley founded the DUP in 1971; they are not opposed to violence but will not condemn it.  The Ulster Democratic Army and the Ulster Volunteer Force are the main Protestant paramilitary groups; they were set up in the early 70’s to oppose IRA violence.

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In order to answer the question however, we need to study the background of Northern

Irelands History and the beginning of the troubles.  In 1968 northern Irish Catholics started a

Civil rights march, inspired by Martin Luther King in America and French University students.  

They marched to Derry in order to complain about poor housing, unemployment, voting rights and equality.  This was disapproved by the mainly Protestant government as they regarded Catholics as second-class citizens and were not prepared to share power and equality with them. As a result the marches became more frequent and was met ...

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