Why did violence increase between the arrival of the British Troops in August 1969 & the imposition of Direct Rule in March 1972?

British troops were introduced to Northern Ireland due to the increasing violence and unfairness to the minority of Catholics. Protestants were increasing their control over the Catholics, in many ways such as Gerrymandering meaning Catholics had the minority vote in local elections and Protestants came into power. The IRA were rearmed and began collecting support and were getting ready for more terrorist attacks and countering the Protestant parties. Riots started to break out and the Northern Ireland police lost control, this was because from the beginning, Catholics in Northern Ireland were a disadvantaged minority in matters of employment, housing, education, cultural and political participation. In 1968 a civil rights movement emerged to protest against this discrimination, often provoking violent reactions within the Protestant community, known as the NICRA.

When the British Troops arrived they found themselves in the middle of a conflict, the Protestants did not want the troops increasing fairness for the Catholics and the Catholics did not want help from the British. Tension was mounting and the British were the “Piggy in the Middle”.

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The British Troops were at the disposal of Stormont (Northern Ireland government mainly composed of Protestants and Nationalists) and now turned to Catholic areas and raids began in 1970 on their homes to search for arms. This was due to increased violence from the IRA such as rioting. In August 1971 the policy of internment was reintroduced (meaning people could be but in jail without trial) and many innocent Catholics were put in jail. This increased popularity for the IRA, ironically, what they were trying to fight against, and many Protestants believed they were collecting supplies and weapons with which they could attack. Unfortunately, the British troops provided the perfect target.

Stormont had to do something to stop the violent actions of the IRA, so they tried to rectify certain laws and impose new ones to increase fairness for the Catholic population.

*Schooling improvements to integrate Catholic children and Protestant children.

*Housing system changed and Protestant and Catholic families were separated to reduce conflicts

*Power Sharing

*Forbidding of the use of plastic bullets

However these reforms made little impact for the Catholics and the IRA did not stop their violence, if anything, the inadequacy of them worsened the situation.

As many Protestants believed the NICRA was actually a front for the IRA, the UVF (Ulster Volunteer Force, an extremist group much like the IRA except that it backed the Protestants) led a loyalist backlash which resulted in more violence and deaths.

The final straw in this lengthy battle between the religious parties was a day that will be remembered all around the world. Bloody Sunday. It began with a peaceful protest against Internment, which met some young loyalists and a small riot broke out, and some Paramilitaries fired on the rioting and the IRA fired back, then British soldiers attacked and it ended up with 13 dead and 14 badly injured (which later died). The soldiers claimed to have been shot first and nail bombed however no eye witnesses recall a nail bomb going off.

Referring back to the question, violence greatly increased during these times (now known as the ‘Troubles’) due to reasons such as the inadequate reforms made by Stormont, the reintroduction of Internment and of course Bloody Sunday. The imposition of Direct Rule and the fall of Stormont were perhaps expected, due to the failure to cease the rioting and fighting going on in Northern Ireland. However probably the main reason that there was a renewed wave of violence was because of the British troops, sent it to do the exact opposite. Therefore it seems in attempt to solve the situation in Northern Ireland, we made it worse.

By Stephen Daly