Was the Partition of Ireland the most important cause of The Troubles?

By 1969 Northern Ireland had become a hotbed of violence and hatred. In Belfast and Londonderry the Catholic & Protestant communities were openly fighting in the streets. In this essay I am going to explore the history of Northern Ireland to try and establish if the partition of Ireland in 1922 was the most important cause of the troubles.

I will first start off by looking at the partitioning of Ireland itself, in 1922 Ireland was partitioned into 2 separate countries:- Northern Ireland, and the Irish Free State. This meant that there still were Catholics living in Northern Ireland. Neither side got what they wanted, so the partition of Ireland was really only a compromise that kept violence between the 2 communities at bay for a while, before things started to go badly wrong like the collapse of the economy which came soon after world war 2.

A border was placed during the partitioning of Ireland to give a Protestant majority in Northern Ireland. This meant that Catholics were in a minority and were subject to rule from the Protestant government in Northern Ireland, the Protestant government abused their position of power and discriminated against Catholics, even the RUC(Royal Ulster Constabulary) police were biased against the Catholics.

I will now look at 3 other terms and causes that might of had a major importance or impact on the cause of the troubles. The first cause I will look at is the Civil Rights movement. NICRA(Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association) was the Civil Rights movement in Northern Ireland during the time. In the 1960’s there was a popular movement to improve the rights of all people in Northern Ireland. They demonstrated peacefully to achieve their aims. Although NICRA was campaigning for the rights of all citizens, they were often perceived as pro-Catholic. They were therefore often attacked by Loyalists and members of the largely Protestant RUC.

This might of helped cause the troubles because many Loyalists thought that NICRA was a Catholic organization and they would not like the leaders of it and other Catholics going on marches for Civil Rights, because they thought that going on the marches would give them a chance of getting equal Civil Rights.

The second cause I am going to look at is the collapse of the economy.

During the second world war Ireland allowed the use of it’s airspace to the British and they returned all allied pilots, and in Northern Ireland the war reduced unemployment and brought greater prosperity to Northern Ireland.

There were huge demands from the government that ordered for food supplies, aeroplanes, clothing, weapons and various equipment, and all this created many jobs for the people of Northern Ireland.

At the end of the second world war, many people saw this as a chance to ...

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The second cause I am going to look at is the collapse of the economy.

There were huge demands from the government that ordered for food supplies, aeroplanes, clothing, weapons and various equipment, and all this created many jobs for the people of Northern Ireland.

At the end of the second world war, many people saw this as a chance to make a new start and make the UK a better place to live in, so the Welfare State was introduced in Northern Ireland, this had many good impact on the country:- A special housing trust was built and 100,000 needed homes were built and allocated fairly between the communities, by 1952 over 500,000 workers had insurance against illness or unemployment, family allowance benefited 220,000 children, also the new national health service helped reduce Northern Ireland’s death rate to the lowest in the UK in 1962, and there also was extra funding for industrial development in which over 4700 new jobs were created in 1946 and 111 new factories opened in Northern Ireland in the early 1960s which created even more jobs. All of Northern Ireland’s citizens, Protestants and Catholics shared in this rising prosperity.

But then there were problems in the Republic of Ireland, with the prosperity in Northern Ireland the conditions in the Republic were getting worse, unemployment and poverty rose quickly in the Republic and farmers were struggling against foreign competition and there was very little industry, and the social services in the Republic were no match for those in Northern Ireland, also many people from the Republic were moving to the North to seek jobs and a better quality and standard of life.

But then suddenly Northern Ireland’s economy started to collapse. Northern Ireland’s economy had a major weakness, it’s industries particularly shipbuilding and textiles were old and expensive to run, they could not compete with new industries developing in Scandinavia and the Far East. In the early 1960s, Belfast’s largest employer Harland and Wolff began to close down it’s shipyards and by 1965 only 1 remained. And in 1966 Belfast’s rope works closed, it was the largest in the world. All of these closures meant very many job losses, in Northern Ireland unemployment was between 6 and 7 per cent this was 3 times over the UK national average and in areas like West Belfast saw unemployment in the region of 18 per cent, which affected both Catholics and Protestants.

Northern Ireland also had some of the worst slum housing in Europe, despite of all the achievements of the Welfare State. Protests over housing in the late 1960s focused on conditions for Catholic families, although large numbers of Protestant families were also living in terrible conditions. This could of helped cause the troubles by inflicting more sectarian tension and more hatred between the 2 communities.

And the third and final reason I shall be looking at is what happened when British troops were sent into Northern Ireland to try and stop the violence and what they caused.

After many weeks of violence, the RUC forces finally called upon British Troops for support, and on the afternoon of 15th August 1969 the British army finally came onto the streets of Belfast. The Catholic community felt that the British Troops were their rescuers because they were an un-biased police force, they were welcomed by Catholics and given tea and sandwiches and lots of presents during the Christmas period by Catholic residents. The Protestant community did not mind the British Troops coming in, because they were loyal to the British and they thought the British Troops could finally restore law and order and maybe get rid of most of the Catholic community and let Northern Ireland become fully Protestant and Loyalist, but they did not want the British Troops to try to protect the Catholics. The British Troops kept peace in Northern Ireland for a short period of time, but soon the IRA were not very happy about the British Troops being in Northern Ireland, so The PIRA(Provisional Irish Republican Army) was formed to protect Catholics in Northern Ireland and to fight the British Troops. Soon the British Troops are seen as the enemy in the eyes of the Catholics, as in 1970 UK government had left the British Troops under the political control of the Unionist government in Stormont. Soon after, 3000 British Troops then had been ordered to search Falls Road area in Belfast as there were reports of PIRA members hiding there, the Troops searched all houses in the area and found no-one. After this incident the IRA began a bombing campaign in which they targeted Protestant shops and businesses.

Soon after this followed the introduction of Internment in August 1971, Internment is imprisonment without charge or trial, this meant that any of the security forces/Troops/Police could arrest anyone that they suspected of being involved in any kind or type of terrorist activity and this person could be held in prison without any kind of charge or put on trial. There were many problems with Internment, first The Catholic community were outraged by this because it was only aimed at them as they were suspected of being PIRA or IRA members, second RUC’s intelligence was badly out of date, third this increased support for the IRA in the USA, and it was also linked to violence because those who were interned were interrogated with violence and were treated very badly.

Soon after the introduction of Internment came Bloody Sunday, it was at first only intended to be a peaceful NICRA Civil Rights march, but it turned out to be a lot more than that.

In Londonderry on Sunday 30th January 1972 there was a huge protest march against Internment, and it was organized by NICRA Civil Rights movement, 15,000 people took part and defied a ban on marches and gathered in the city centre. Troops from the Parachute Regiment sealed off the area and were attacked by youths throwing stones at them. After a lot of confusion over the sequence of events that followed, the troops said that they were fired upon and they returned fire, the result was that the Troops killed 13 people, all unarmed.

After Bloody Sunday, Lord Widgery’s inquiry was carried out, and it blamed the Paratroopers for acting soo drastically, and the IRA for apparently shooting at the Troops and also the protesters were to blame has they were defying a ban on marches and they started attacked the Troops.

No action was taken further after the Widgery inquiry, apart from in 1998 Tony Blair announced a new inquiry into the events.

The British Troops coming into Northern Ireland could of helped cause the Troubles as the Troops caused many bad things to the Catholic community like Internment and Bloody Sunday, and all this did was make the Catholic community even more angry at the British and the Protestants, because the Unionist government was in charge of the British Troops and made them target Catholics like what the RUC forces were doing before the British Troops turned up, so Catholics started viewing British Troops as they viewed the RUC forces.

To conclude this essay I think that from all the evidence that I have gathered, I think that the Partition of Ireland was not the most important cause of the troubles because this was only one event, and although neither side got what they wanted during the Partition of Ireland, neither side lost anything to make them angry enough to use violence to achieve their aims. I think the most important cause of The Troubles was the collapse of the economy, because before the collapse of the economy the Republic of Ireland was co-operating with the British which was good as there was no hatred between IRA and British forces at the time or between Catholics and British/Protestants, and Northern Ireland had a booming industry which created lots of jobs so people were employed and working and earning money to keep themselves happy, but then the economy collapsed and people lost their jobs and were in poverty and did not have much money, so people in Northern Ireland were getting depressed and Catholics and Protestants were starting to blame each other for the collapse of the economy so sectarian tension started to rise, so they started to turn to violence to achieve their aims and that marks the beginning of The Troubles in Northern Ireland, where as if the economy did not collapse, I believe that The Troubles would have never of started because people would of been employed and earning money and generally happy, so they would have no need to use violence and start The Troubles.

By Semon Bazalyeyev

10IK