What are the chances of peace in Northern Ireland?

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History Coursework - What are the chances of peace in Northern Ireland?

The Unionists and Nationalists believe in two different things when it comes to whether Northern Ireland should belong to the UK or not.

The Unionists are the people who live in Northern Ireland. They are protestant and want to remain part of the UK. The Unionists are a peaceful democratic party who discus their views in parliament. The main party is the Ulster Unionists party, which is led by David Trimble. The Loyalists are the extreme party who believe the same things as the Unionists. These groups use violence to get their point across. The UVF, UFF and DUP are just a few of the parties.

The main loyalist party is the democratic unionist party, which is led by Ian Paisley. They don't want any sort of agreement with Sinn Fein or SDLP.

The Nationalists are the people who live in the Republic of Ireland and want Northern Ireland to become part of the republic. The nationalists are catholic and also another peaceful party. The main group is the SDLP, which is led by David Hume. They support all peaceful talks between the UK, Northern Ireland and themselves. Like the Unionists they also have an extreme party, the Republicans.

The main Republican Party is Sinn Fein, which is led by Gerry Adams and Martin McGuiness. Sinn Fein has close links to the IRA who are responsible for most of the bombings and killings. Unlike the Loyalists some groups who belong to the Republicans are willing to attend some peace talks but they wont speak for the IRA.

William of Orange

In 1688 England was ruled by James II who was a catholic but the problem was England was mainly protestant. This of course caused a lot of friction and dis-trust. The noble people of England decided that England would be better run under James's daughter and her husband William of Orange who were protestant.
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James fled to France when he heard of the news and went to James XVI who gave him some of his troops to fight William. He then went to Ireland to gain support from the Catholics there. He did this but the Protestants, mainly in Londonderry, resisted him.

James tried to attack Londonderry but they shut the gate. The people inside of the gates suffered for 3 months and some of them died heroes due to it. William heard of this news and went over to Londonderry to fight for the Protestants. This happened on the ...

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