Successive Tudor and Stuart Monarchs continued to extend English authority by ‘Planting’ Protestant English Settlers, mainly in the Province of Ulster. The Catholic Irish objected but were unable to prevent increasing Protestant domination of ‘their’ island. This created justified anger and resentment towards the settlers. When, in 1688, Catholic James II was deposed by Protestant William of Orange, the Irish Catholics sided with him; the Protestants of Ulster sided with William. After overcoming Irish resistance to his rule by 1691, William tried to grant favourable terms to Catholics, but the Irish Parliament, dominated by Protestants, introduced a series of harsh Penal Laws that made the Catholic majority second-class citizens, thereby creating the discrimination and resentment which fuelled the divisions to grow. There was further bitterness, bad blood, ill-feeling and indignation.
In the late 1840’s, on the doorstep of the world's richest nation, Britain, a million people died as a result of a famine in Ireland. The Irish Potato Famine began as a natural catastrophe caused by a blight of the potato crop: Its effects were severely worsened by the mismanagement and inactions of the British government. Altogether, about a million people in Ireland are estimated to have died as a result of the famine, and some one million were forced into emigration. The Irish literally starved, as their staple diet was potatoes and they were deprived of it; they blamed the British for this as they felt they were mistreated and they felt that they weren’t valued. The Irish people believed the British government should have been willing to treat the crisis in Ireland as an imperial responsibility and to bear the costs of relief. Ireland was left on its own with woefully inadequate resources. The Irish Potato Famine created inveterate bitterness from the Catholic Irish towards the English Protestants as a result of their feeling of being maltreated by the British. It reaffirmed their feelings of resentment, anger and indignation towards the British. The Potato Famine split the country into the poor who were starving, generally Catholics, and the wealthier landowners, generally Protestant; and further added to the ill-feeling. The Potato Famine proved to be a profound and long term divider which became a long term influence towards ‘The Troubles’.
Throughout the nineteenth century the English rulers of Ireland imposed strict penal laws on the Irish Catholics, intended to prevent rebellion against the authorities. This had the opposite effect and a number of rebellions against British rule ensured. It was the intention of nationalist parties, such as Sinn Fein, to create a single-Irish republic. In the Easter Rising of 1916 the Irish Republicans (extreme Nationalists) seized a number of buildings in Dublin, including the General Post Office, and declared an Irish Republic. Irishmen were astonished, and very few supported the Rising. It was crushed by the British Army and rebel leaders were ignominiously executed. This barbarity shocked the Irish people and led to a sway in support of the republicans. There was a stronger support for Nationalism. The Easter Rising was a major turning point in Irish history and inspired many Nationalists and the heavy handed British response enraged and infuriated the population of Ireland; things would never be the same again. Most importantly it led to an increase in violence between unionists and nationalists. The Rising was a medium-term cause in the violence of 1969 which inspired political debate across the country for an independent Ireland. Spitefulness and enmity was encountered by the British and rooted anti-British feeling that emerged later in 1969.
In the General Election of 1918, following this sway of support, the republican parties won a majority of Irish seats. MP’s refused to go to Westminster and they set up an underground Irish Parliament; and a guerrilla war developed. Civil War seemed likely. Eventually, a compromise was reached with the Partition of Ireland and Home Rule for the Free State. Partition split Ireland into two; the Irish Free State and Northern Ireland. The Free State had its own system of Home Rule which meant they were governed in Dublin rather than Westminster; it operated outside the UK but remained in the Commonwealth. Northern Ireland was given its own parliament and government at Stormont but they were subordinates to the government at Westminster: It remained part of the UK, which was supported by the people of Ulster who were majority Protestant. Many republicans did not believe this went far enough. They wanted a Republic totally free from Britain and for Northern Ireland to be included in this. It was though, not until 1949 that the Free State declared itself independent and finally became the Republic of Ireland. Many though, still wanted a totally independent Ireland covering the whole island.
Meanwhile, Northern Ireland stayed part of Britain because the Unionists controlled the parliament there. It was these hardline Unionists who held power and who were determined to keep Ulster British and Protestant. They tended to see all Northern Catholics as possible traitors. As a result Catholics were discriminated against. The Northern Irish Government was hailed at the time as ‘a Protestant Government for a Protestant people’. The numerous Catholics in Northern Ireland felt that they were ill-represented, through systems such as gerrymandering, the process by which constituency boundaries were redrawn to favour the Protestant population. Protestants had the best jobs and best homes. Catholics were often unemployed because of discrimination and their families therefore were poor: Catholic children often went to the worse schools. They felt badly treated and opposition to British rule continued. This showed itself by the growing unrest in Catholic communities where marches were being held. There was still much ill-feeling and resentment towards the Protestants from the minority Catholics. This discrimination encouraged Catholics to support the nationalist parties and Protestants, who then felt vulnerable, retaliated by supporting more extreme parties and groups. This created a divided nation with strong conflicting opinions on both sides. These sides felt strongly enough to fight over there opposing views and the spitefulness created the friction which eventually had to be controlled by the deploying of British troops to Northern Ireland.
During the 1960’s Catholics pursued peaceful methods, inspired by the Civil Right Movement in America, to campaign for equal opportunities and an end to unfair discrimination: They campaigned for fairer conditions through the ballot box despite the ‘Gerrymandering’ system in place. The RUC in Northern Ireland was predominately Protestant and extremely biased, and often violent, towards Catholics. This alarming injustice prevented the Catholics ending discrimination peacefully. The Northern Ireland Government, also dominated by Protestants, tried to ban marches and when they went ahead violence erupted. As the civil rights movement grew in America, the Irish Catholics saw black protests turn to violence. In the latter part of the decade this violence spread to Northern Ireland. Catholics were becoming increasingly angered by the lack of equal opportunity. The Catholic Irish were beginning to lose faith in their politicians and they felt the need to take law into their own hands. Anarchy erupted on the street; and massive civil unrest. As these tensions grew segregations became more likely: Catholics were forced out of Protestant areas and vica-versa; battle lines had been drawn up. Suspicion and hostility was aimed by both communities at the opposing community.
Terence O'Neill, the Prime Minister of Northern Ireland at the time, made attempts to improve the affairs between the two communities, but this angered the hardline Unionists who thought this questioned their superiority. In retaliation Protestant groups such as the UVF attacked Catholics and several were murdered. The bias police force, RUC, took little action and instead of protecting the Civil Right marchers, some joined in attacking them. Riots and violence escalated. Eventually in August 1969 O’Neill resigned after declaring that his government could no longer deal with the violence. As an immediate result of this, British troops were sent in to restore order; this was the beginning of ‘The Troubles’. It was meant to be a temporary measure but British troops remain there nearly 40 years later.
The reasons for the sending in of British troops into Northern Ireland in 1969, was a culmination of many long and short term causes. The people of Ireland were split at the time of the Reformation and they never got over there differences. Throughout the history of Ireland there has been two distinct separate communities; those pro-Britain and Nationalists; caused by the initial separation that was the Reformation. Events such as the Easter Rising continued to split public opinion along these lines of religion. These events caused animosity and ill-feeling between the communities and this all inevitable led to the violence and deployment seen in the 60’s.Over time; mistrust and resentment was common towards the opposing community and these wounds opened in 1969 when the Catholics had had enough of Protestant domination over them. With a two-tier system of right and opportunity violence was bound to erupt. The large civil right marches triggered the violence and O’Neill’s subsequent inability to handle the crisis led to the British troops being deployed into the Province.
