An example of their violence is the car bombing, by the IRA, in Birmingham last year.
2. An event, which has happened in the last 100 years, is The Troubles, 1668-1972.
The troubles is when the tension began to rise in Northern Ireland. It was when people started to demand changes in how Northern Ireland was run. It was due to poor housing, and high unemployment. Institutionalised discrimination (discrimination inside the organisation) led to protests. These protests were inspired by the civil rights campaigns in America. These protest were in the form of marches, the marches were originally peaceful protests, which suddenly triggered a series of violent events, which brought about a rapid rise in the number of sectarian attacks within Northern Ireland. At the start the Catholic and Protestant communities both supported the civil rights movement. But then some Protestants saw the civil rights movement as a Catholic protest, who had aims other that the ones, which had been publicly stated. The Protestant leader, Ian Paisley was quick to express his concern. This led to elements of the Protestants becoming extreme in their response to marches. The distrust led to violence and increased hatreds. The Protestant violence and the fact that the police were ineffective led to the IRA claming that they were the only force able to protect the Catholic population. The government misinterpretations of the events further complicated the matters. They sent the army to Northern Ireland, which resulted in further catholic hatred and hostility, there was a curfew in the Falls road and confinement was used this confirmed to people that the army was a unionist force (protestants). The Protestants wanted them there, as they thought they were there to protect them against the Catholics, and the Catholics didn’t want them there. The IRA saw this as a ‘problem’ and used force to evict the British from Northern Ireland. This led to more Protestants taking part in terrorist activities. By now both sides felt the needed to protect themselves.
3. Two attempts of peace in my lifetime are The framework Documents and The Good Friday Agreement.
The Framework Documents was in 1995. It was when our prime minister, John Major and the Irish prime minister, John Bruton tried to make the joint authority proposal work. This was a follow on to the 1993 Downing Street Declaration, which was when the Irish Prime minister was Albert. The Framework Documents proposed an elected Northern Ireland assembly with the involvement of the British and the Irish. Which would begin once the paramilitary groups had called a ceasefire.
The Good Friday Agreement was in 1998. It was when the government of the British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, devolved power to welsh and Scottish assemblies. The power was also devolved back to the Stormont Parliament in December 1999, after a referendum in Northern Ireland showed support for the plan. The largest party who were elected to the parliament was the Ulster Unionist Party, which was led by David Trimble, who became the first Minister. The second largest was the Social Democratic and Labour Party) SDLP, which was led by Seamus Mallon, who became the Deputy First Minister. The parliament had far more power than previous Northern Ireland assemblies and could legislate (make laws) for the province on the economy, agriculture, education, and the environment. At the moment the assembly is currently suspended, as the different parties couldn’t agree on the issue of decommissioning weapons.
Some of the breakthroughs, which have been made, are;
In the last five years violence has virtually stopped, the real IRA and the continuity IRA, have decided on a ceasefire, most terrorists are handing in their weapons, de-commissioning. They have recreated Irelands own parliament called Stormont, at the moment Stormont is suspended, as they cannot agree within the parliament.
The problems, which still exist, is in the schools and homes. The problems include, religion, politics, the fact that there’s a lot of history behind everything. Such as the orange marches. The orange marches are a remembrance of the 1690 defeat of Catholic King James by Protestant Prince William of Orange at the Battle of the Boyne. The members of the Protestant Orange order parade to province-wide rallies. Below is a picture of one of these marches.
A solution for the school problems is to have mixed schools, no segregated schools.
