What was the impact of the British army moving into Northern Ireland?

History question 1b

Max Carter 11EB

In 1969, the protestant unionist government lost control of recent events in Ireland. The Catholics were unable to trust the police or anyone for that matter as everyone around them was Protestant. Civil riots also took place, which caused the already bad situations to get even worse. It became so bad that eventually they barricaded themselves into a small area known as Bogside. After several violent marches which frequently sparked off riots including that of the Orange marches but more importantly the Apprentice Boys Parade, which was held to commemorate the remind the Catholics of the successful protestant siege of Londonderry.

So after the violent riots and the fact that the Catholics were barricaded into Bogside, it was time for the British Army to move in.

In this answer I will look further into the why the British were sent in and a number of other factors as well.

Firstly, NICRA (Northern Ireland Civil Rights Activists) were a group of people who thought that there was too much discrimination between the Protestants and Catholics.

From facts like these you might be able to see why:

The police force was 6/7 protestant.
Hartland and Wolff shipyards (who built the Titanic) employed 10,000 workers, and only 400 of those were Catholic Nationalists.
Finally the Ulster Unionist party who were all Protestants dominated politics.

However NICRA had several main aims:

Defend basic freedom of civilians.
Protect rights of individuals.
Highlight possible abuses of power.
Demand guarantees for freedom of speech, assembly and association.
Inform public of lawful rights

So basically NICRA campaigned for fair treatment for both Catholics and Protestants

Next I am going to look at the main reasons why the British Army was sent into Bogside.

After the Catholics had barricaded themselves in after realising there was nowhere to go, or no one to trust, bombs fell in that area in March and April and this led to the damage of electricity lines and water works. This hooliganism was at first believed to be the work of the IRA but was in fact the UVF (Ulster Volunteer Force) who were strict Protestants. The Protestants living in and around the Bogside area were giving the blocked in Catholics a very hard time and so the British Army were called in.

Another reason for the British to be assigned was that lots of street violence and violent marches were to take place in only a few months to come. These marches included several annual ones and the most important of these was the Apprentice Boys Parade that took place on August 12th. Every year this Parade reminded the Catholics of the Protestant power and so inevitably violence was to follow and not long after this the Northern Irish government lost control of the law and order and so street violence rose more.

Max Carter 11EB

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Max Carter 11EB

However after the British Army responded and moved into Ireland, the reactions of the public towards the Army was not as the British had hoped. At first the Catholics liked their arrival and welcomed them with things like this:

“Immediately after the fighting, relations between the Army and most of the people were very good. At Butcher Gate, William Street and other army positions at the edge of the Bogside, the women squabbled about whose turn it was to take the soldiers their tea.”

This shows me just how happy the women in the area were to be with the British Soldiers and maybe even some of them thought them to be attractive.

However the Protestant reaction was not so good as after all the British had come to help the Catholics. They were met with a cold hostile and unfriendly reaction and it very likely because they knew the British had to come to help out the Catholics who were stuck in the Bogside Area. This quote was published in the Observer newsprint 17th August 1969,

“It (the army) was greeted with profound relief on the Catholic side, where community leaders had been attempting all day to communicate their plight after last nights shooting and widespread house burning by Protestant extremists and police. But the troops were met with a cold and hostile reaction from many on the protestant side.”

This is a good quote because it tells of both the completely different reactions on both communities.

Gradually the Catholic opinions and attitudes towards the British Army started to change. The Catholics were still suspicious of the Unionist’s Government as observed by Eamonn McCann. These attitudes changed mainly because of a report that was set up named the Hunt Report. This was set up to find the causes of the violence and some reforms were brought in at the same time. The government spent £2,000,000 creating new jobs for the public and started to try to find an end to all the discrimination between the two communities. Other reforms which weren’t so successful were also planned but failed and didn’t even take off. The reason for this is that they were two slow and by the time they were getting looked at, the Nationalist Catholics were fed up and frustrated. Following these failed reforms and the Hunt Report, opinions on the British Army by the Catholics had changed and now the good first thoughts had become bad, this led to PIRA becoming popular.

The Hunt Report, which I briefly mentioned above, was a report on the causes of the recent violence. It was a special investigation set up by the ‘Hunt Commission’ who was government owned.

On October 10th the report made already awkward matters a lot worse by recommending that the RUC (Royal Irish Constabulary) should be disbanded and replaced by a new police force with Catholics as well as Protestants as the RUC was predominately Protestants. Also that the B-Specials who were a part timed, armed, volunteer police force should be scrapped and instead have the Ulster Defence Regiment who were a part time army regiment. However the worst part of the ‘Hunt Report’ was not any of the recommended changes but the fact that it was released on a Friday night, which was drinking night in Ireland. All the alcohol helped to fuel the already furious Protestants. This quote tells of the anger.

“The Protestants rose in their anger to demonstrate the vile things Hunt had said about their wonderful police.” This just shows how angry the Protestants became after a few drinks and after Hunt had criticised their police in his report.

However it was not just the Protestants who were annoyed but also the Catholics. The reason for this is that they were frustrated at how slow the British Government reforms took to get off the ground and change. This was primarily because the Protestants were still in charge.

This problem then led to the IRA splitting into two groups: - The official IRA and the Provisional IRA (commonly referred to as the PROVOs).

Max Carter 11EB

The official IRA were based in Southern Ireland and wanted to continue the struggle for peaceful methods of Uniting Ireland as a Nation but the PROVOs were based in Northern Ireland and they believed in using forceful violent methods to re-unite Ireland.

During the first six months of 1970, the PROVOs gained weapons and members and the violence increased. This was because more people started to back the PROVOs and their violent theory of re-uniting Ireland.

A couple of month’s later serious riots broke out on the Ballymurphy Estate in West Belfast. These were between the Orange men and the Catholic rioters who then attacked soldiers when they came.

Six hundred British troops were moved in to keep the peace and were closely followed by five Saracen armoured cars.

As the troops arrived, they were showered with stones from the Catholic mobs and so the order to use CS gas was given.

However the British generals in charge of the campaign didn’t realise that it is CS gas that creates a strong feeling of togetherness, where there wasn’t any before. Consequently a large boost in the number of people joining the PROVOs was produced and so the CS order was not a good idea at all.

Throughout July 1970 frequent shootings between PIRA / PROVOs and the UVF (Ulster Volunteer Force) took place. At this moment the British became fed up and decided to get tougher. They entered the Catholic area of Belfast searching for any weapons or ammunition to confiscate in case they believed in the PROVOs. However it was only Catholic houses searched and so the results were disappointing. Out of 10,000 licensed weapons issued, all that was found was, 30 rifles, 24 shotguns and 52 pistols. Maybe they would have found a lot more if they weren’t biased and Protestant homes had also been searched.

These actions made the Catholics feel like there was no one there for them and some started to think that the army was just another weapon to be used against them.

In 1971, violence got even worse and gunner Curtis who was a British soldier was shot dead by the PIRA / PROVOs. He was the first British soldier to be shot dead whilst in Ireland and I do not think the actions of the PIRA were correct as the British were only in Ireland to try to sort out the violence and find some peace. He was trying to help but just ended up being shot.

A new unionist PM was elected in March 1971, Brian Falkner was his name and he brought about a brand new policy called Internment. This was the arrest and imprisonment of suspected terrorists without any trial.

Following this policy, the army raided homes and 342 suspects ‘listed’ by the RUC special branch were arrested and imprisoned without trial. Only two of these were 342 were Protestant, which further shows the discrimination that was around at the time.

226 of the suspects were imprisoned in long H-Blocks at the Long Kesh Internment Camp and lots of the inmates were regularly physically beaten and the British Government was accused of breaking Article 17 on the Geneva Convention.

There was just 30 deaths before Internment however after there was getting on for 150. This just shows me how violent and not forgiving the Internment Camp workers could be.

However towards the end of the year, violence has started to die down a bit following the discovery of new weapons and ammunitions.

Catholic support for PIRA was still ongoing and soaring. Sinn Fein campaigned for against Internment and warnings were issued to tourists saying: “Stay Out, Internment is now on!”

After too many people failed to like Internment, it all collapsed and the British swiftly left Ireland.

In conclusion I believe that the deployment of British troops into Ireland to sort out problems actually made things a lot worse from the current situation. It added a lot of tension between the sides and at the end of the campaign; the British were hated by both of them – Catholic and Protestant. Another impact of the deployment of the British army was that the PROVOs increased popularity because the CS that was used by the British created a feeling of togetherness between citizens.