The voting system in Northern Ireland was corrupt. The voting system worked as every house that a man owns counted as 1 vote. This was unfair in the fact that Catholics were so poor, because of the unfair employment of Unionists rather than Catholics, that they owned hardly any houses as a group compared to the Unionists, so the Unionists had an advantage in the votes. Gerry Mandering also took place, the borders of the counties were being moved so there was always a Unionist majority in each area – which again meant the Catholics would lose the vote every time.
The RUC were a corrupt police force consisting of mainly Unionists. They were in support of the Unionists and added to the discrimination to Catholics. The B-specials were an even more hard-line part-time police force whose members were hard-line Unionists roaming the streets looking for Catholics to attack. All of the above reasons were why liberals, trade unionists etc joined the civil rights movement. They felt that the movement would help to ending the discrimination in a political and peaceful way.
The aims of the civil rights movement were that its supporters wanted equal civil rights for the citizens of Northern Ireland. They wanted to end sectarian discrimination in the above factors. Those factors were the main reasons why the Civil rights marches began. The NICRA were a wide range of people, both catholic and protestant, who felt that the discrimination against the Catholics were wrong and were not in support of Ian Paisleys hard-line views.
In Derry a Civil Rights rally was held on 5 October 1968 but it was banned to enter the city by William Craig. At that time the Home Affairs Minister had the power to ban any march without reason. This is not a fair rule and added to the discrimination. The march was stopped at the Craig Avon Bridge and TV cameras recorded the outbreak of violence between the RUC and the protestors. The news in Northern Ireland that night showed pictures of the RUC using water cannons to disperse the crowd, but RTE showed the viewer scenes of brutal violence as RUC members battered retreating civilians. It is clear that the BBC wanted to hide the facts of what went on that night, so they decided to show how the RUC dealt with the riot in a professional way, when in actual fact the bias RUC used force when maybe it was not needed. This meant that most viewers in the UK were unaware of the actual problems occurring in Northern Ireland at the time.
The people’s democracy march was a 3 day long march from Belfast to Londonderry which took place from New years day 1969. During the first 2 days the march was re-routed by the RUC many times to avoid Unionist counter-marchers. The Unionist demonstrators formed human walls across the civil right marcher’s routes. Some of the Counter Marchers were led by Ian Paisley. On the 3rd day the marchers were ambushed by a loyalist mob. The TV cameras were there to record protestors being pulverized by bottles, bricks and stones, then the mob beat the protestors. The RUC did little to protect the marchers, in-fact some of the loyalist mob were off duty RUC members. That night the RUC and B-specials entered the Catholic Bogside area, rioting, vandalizing and ripping apart the area.
The Unionist reaction to the Civil rights movement was violent. The working class Protestants was angry at the demands of the Civil Right marchers. They resented the impression given out by the media, which was that only Catholics suffered discrimination and hardships. Ian Paisley believed and voiced the opinion that the campaigners was just a branch of the IRA, his views were published in his newspaper – the Protestant Telegraph. His hard-line views also meant that some well educated Protestants were against him, and joined the Civil Rights marchers. The Media and constant Marching into sensitive areas aggravated the Unionists even more.
The democracy march and the civil rights movement all helped to build up the tensions before the Battle of the Bogside. Both sides anger rose after these events, and the next marches were bound to be the time when they let there anger out on each other. The tensions between the sides exploded, resulting in what is known as the Battle of the Bogside.
Although many events contributed to the occupation of Northern Ireland by British troops, the Battle of the Bogside became so violent that the army had to be called in. It could be said that it was the spark for occupation. The RUC lost control of the situation and both Unionists and Nationalists sought the Armies support. The initial reaction to the army arriving was that the Unionists felt that they would stop the rioting from spreading. On the Other hand, the Nationalists felt that the army was brought in to be a fair police force and they felt they could trust them.
The opinion of the army changed from the Nationalists point of view, as the army searched the Catholics Falls Rd and support for the IRA increased. Internment and bloody Sunday caused resentment and even more support for the IRA. The provisional IRA declared them selves to be the defenders of the Nationalists as they gained support. As support for the IRA gained, the dislike for the army increased and they became known as the “bad guys”. The IRA reaction to the army occupying Nationalist areas was to start a bombing campaign. It was a bitter no holds barred war, where women, men and children were all sacrificed to remove British occupation. The more bombs that went off, 136 went off by May 1971, the more searches were conducted in Catholic areas. A vicious circle, which made the situation in Northern Ireland even worse.
To conclude, the violence erupted in the 1960’s because agreements were not met in time on Northern Ireland. The conflict had been going on for hundreds of years and politically, little was being done to compromise on a agreement from both sides. The occupation by British troops did not help as it caused even more resentment and hate from the Catholic community. Discrimination throughout the Nationalists history caused them to fight back with violence.
