Why were British troops sent to Northern Ireland in 1969.

Why were British troops sent to Northern Ireland in 1969

The essay is about the reasons why the government decided to send in the British troops to Northern Ireland on the 14th August 1969, we look here at the origins and the history of the conflict.

The most obvious reasons we think of are that 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. The Catholics were greatly influenced by Dr Martin Luther King, and the American Civil Rights Movements which were going on at about the same time.

Protestants also had fears, they would have to share there economy with the rest of Ireland and the Roman Catholic Church would interfere in the running of the country. Also they maybe threatened with violence by the IRA to become a part of the republic of Ireland.

If we delve deeper we come to the partition in 1920, Protestants remained part of the UK and the Roman Catholics who wanted independence. In Northern Ireland 66% of the population were Protestant and 34% were Roman Catholics.

This partition had its roots in the 17th-century Ulster Plantation, which introduced Protestant settlers from England and Scotland into an overwhelmingly Roman Catholic country, establishing a Protestant control over the settlers and the native population in politics and society.

The long term causes of the problems between the Catholics and Protestant of Northern Ireland are rooted in the histories of England and Ireland. Since the 12th century and the invasion of Henry II in Ireland. Where English settlers were given land that belonged to the conquered Irish. These settles had more power and privileges then the native Irish. From this time until the act of union in 1800 England and Ireland were frequently at war with one another. Further confiscations of land took place by James 1st in 1601 and then by Oliver Cromwell in 1640's, making the Irish very angry and anti - British.

The religious side to conflict started in 1534 when Henry VIII broke away from the Pope and set up a new church of England, but the Irish wished to remain Roman Catholics and did not want to be forced to swear loyalty to Henry. He also passed laws were by every person should use the English tongue and language. Furthermore houses should be kept "according to English order condition and manner". In 1534 he announced that he was also king of Ireland, undoubtedly causing additional bad feeling towards the English.

Still today people march to celebrate The Orange Order, which came about after James II was thrown out of England in 1690's and fled to Ireland where he rose an army to attack the Protestants in Londonderry, but the new king William of Orange defeated James at the Battle of the Boyne. The Orange Order marches are a constant reminder of the division between the Roman Catholics and the British.

Another reason to cause problems in Northern Ireland was the Act of Union, this meant that Ireland's parliament was closed and England had control over Irelands law, which were passed in Westminster in London. For example there were certain restrictions on the jobs that Roman Catholic could do under English rule.

The great famine of 1846 was to cause even more bitterness, after England failed to organize sufficient help to the starving. The Irish had had enough after this period of time two movements emerged one wanted Ireland to become a republic completely separate from Britain and the other was formed seeking Northern Ireland being a part of Britain. The Irish had independence from the UK, they had there own political party and terrorist group and were willing to take there lives for it. The British government did, after the war give some independence, but not enough and civil war broke out, ending with a partition.

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From my research of the history of Ireland, there seem to be many reasons for the British troops to be sent in to Northern Ireland in 1969, with the immediate causes being riots, where by there was no control over, but as we have found the trouble had started well before this time, with the plantations of Protestants, The Battle of the Boyne and the start of this conflict since 12th century with Henry II invading Ireland. The hatred between the two neighboring countries was built up over the centuries into the conflict of the present day.

Conflict in ...

This is a preview of the whole essay

Conflict in Northern Ireland

For centuries there has been conflict in Northern Ireland. The disagreement
between Irish Catholics and the Irish Protestants still continues to this
day. In this assessment I am going to examine why soldiers were sent into
Ireland in 1969.

Between 1921 and the mid 1960s Catholics in Northern Ireland faced many
problems. After the War Of Independence, in 1919, the country of Ireland was
divided into two parts; The North, here there was a large Protestant
Majority, each of the six Ulster counties had their own parliament and their
own government. The South, largely occupied by Irish Catholics, most opposed
the idea of dividing Ireland. But in 1921 a group of Sinn Fein, and IRA
members signed an treaty with the British, accepting the division of
Ireland. This was when what's known as 'Northern Ireland' was created,
dominated by Protestants. However, Catholics had wanted a united and
Independent Ireland, so resentment grew. "After partition, it was hardline
Unionists who held power in the North, they 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" (1)
In the 1930s there was a worldwide economic depression, due to the 'Wall
Street Crash' in America. Both Irish Catholics and Protestants were affected
very seriously, the economic depression lasted 20 years.
Irish Catholics faced another problem, when it came round to election time,
most Catholics would probably vote a Catholic representative to speak on
behalf of the Catholic people, however, Protestants 'fixed' the elections to
favour the Protestants, it was made sure that no Catholics could be voted
into Parliament to speak up for their fellow people. This was known as
'Gerrymandering', the process by which constituency boundaries were redrawn
to favour the Protestant population. The Unionists controlled the Catholic
areas, this was a huge disadvantage to the Catholic people, they had no
political power. Catholics were not given job opportunities, if a Protestant
and a Catholic applied for the same job, no matter how qualified the
Catholic was, the Protestant would always get the job. This meant that many
Catholics were unemployed and could often not afford to feed their families.
Catholic children were put in the worst schools, whilst the Protestant
children were put in the very best schools. Catholic children were not
taught anything about Catholicism, they were only taught about Protestant
history. Children grew up believing that Catholics were evil and the
Protestant religion was the way forward. "We knew nothing of the Catholic
world. That Catholics were allowed to live in London with our Protestant
king seemed impossible" (2)
Another significant social problem at the time for Catholic people was that
they were placed in the worst housing. If a Catholic family were in need of
a home, they would become second class citizens to a single Protestant girl,
the girl would have a better chance of acquiring the house than the needy
Catholic family.Many children had inadequate diets which resulted in many
children dying of malnutrition. Many of the children's parents could not
afford to pay doctor's bills. There was an outbreak of Tuberculosis (TB),
which killed thousands of men, mainly aged between 15-25.

In 1969 The British Government sent the army into Northern Ireland to
"Prevent a Civil War". Despite all the unfairness the Catholics had to deal
with, this had not been necessary earlier. Many things changed between
1960-1969.
Firstly before 1960 Catholics pursued peaceful methods, inspired by The
American Civil Rights Movement, the Northern Ireland civil rights
association began. From 1920 through to 1960 Catholics had campaigned for
fairer conditions and had expected change to come through the ballot box
(they did not know that their votes had been ignored).
The Police in Northern Ireland were 99.9% Protestant and extremely biased
and violent towards Catholics, they would attack innocent Catholics for no
reason whatsoever. The Police even led the Catholic marchers into a trap,
here they were met by violent Protestant Unionists, the outcome was
inevitable, violence. The 'B-Specials' were created - this was a unit within
the police, that were 99.9% Protestant. They were called in by the
Unionists, to act like a police force/army. These too were violent to the
Catholics, Catholic marches were banned. Student demonstrations ended up in
violence. This angered the Catholics, they felt that if the Protestants
should get to march they why shouldn't they. Housing conditions were
appalling for Catholics, they marched and campaigned about their unfair
housing, yet again nothing was done. As the civil rights movement grew in
the U.S.A., Irish Catholics saw black protests in America erupting into
violence. The violent protest spread to Ireland. Student demonstrations all
over Europe were becoming violent, this too acted as inspiration for the
desperate Catholics. Education was now slightly fairer, Catholics were
allowed to go to university, but were not allowed jobs. As Eamonn McCann, a
leading member of the civil rights movement, remarked, "By the early 1960s
we could we could easily get a place at a university but couldn't get a job
as a lavatory cleaner at Derry guildhall. That made us angry" (3).
This alone proves that the Catholics were becoming increasingly angered by
the lack of equal opportunity in Northern Ireland. The Catholic Irish were
beginning to lose faith and trust in their politicians, they felt that
O'Neill was not keeping his promise of a 'fairer deal for Catholics', they
were beginning to feel they needed to take the law into their own hands. As
tensions grew, segregation became more likely. In cities like Londonderry
and Belfast, "many people who lived in the 'wrong' area - that is Catholics
in Protestant areas and vice versa - were forced to leave their homes." (4)
In these circumstances it was much easier for battle lines to be drawn.
Many people feel that the IRA were the reason for British soldiers being
sent into Northern Ireland. However, from studying the facts I realise that
this cannot be the reason as to why troops were sent to Northern Ireland. In
1962 the IRA abandoned it's campaign of violence because of lack of Catholic
support. In August 1969, there is more fighting between Protestants and
Catholics in Belfast, and the British Army moves in. It is only then that
the IRA splits into two groups: Official and Provisional. The Bombing
campaign by the IRA started in 1970.
A more telling fact as to why British troops were sent in to Northern
Ireland in 1969 may be due to the fact that the Irish Prime Minister, Jack
Lynch was threatening to intervene with the troubles in Northern Ireland,
and went as far as moving Irish army units towards the border. The British
government may have felt that matters were gradually being taken out of
their hands.

A Troubled History

Northern Ireland's relatively distinct history began in the early 17th cent., when, after the suppression of an Irish rebellion, much land was confiscated by the British crown and planted with Scottish and English settlers. Ulster took on a Protestant character as compared with the rest of Ireland; but there was no question of political separation until the late 19th cent. when William presented (1886) his first proposal for for Ireland. The largely Protestant population of the north feared domination under Home Rule by the Catholic majority in the south. In addition, industrial Ulster was bound economically more to England than to the rest of Ireland.

Successive schemes for Home Rule widened the rift, so that by the outbreak of World War I civil war in Ireland was an immediate danger. The Government of Ireland Act of 1920 attempted to solve the problem by enacting Home Rule separately for the two parts of Ireland, thus creating the province of Northern Ireland. However, the Irish Free State, now the Republic of Ireland (see ), which was established in 1922, refused to recognize the finality of the partition; and violence erupted frequently on both sides of the border.

The late 1960s marked a new stage in the region's troubled history. The Catholic minority, which suffered economic and political discrimination, had grown steadily through immigration from the Republic. In 1968 civil-rights protests by Catholics led to widespread violence. Prime Minister Terence O'Neill had sought to end anti-Catholic bias as part of his policy of fostering closer ties between Ulster and the Irish Republic, but opponents within his ruling Unionist party forced his resignation in Apr., 1969. His successor, James Chichester-Clark, was unable to restrain the growing unrest and in August called in British troops to help restore order.

The IRA and Sectarian Struggle

At the end of 1969 a split occurred in the (IRA), which is the illegal military arm of the Sinn Fein party; the new provisional wing of the IRA was made up of radical nationalists. Brian Faulkner became leader of the Unionist party and prime minister of Northern Ireland in Mar., 1971, and began a policy of imprisoning IRA and other militants. However, the IRA and the Ulster Defense Association, a Protestant terrorist group, continued and even intensified their activities.

On Mar. 30, 1972, the British prime minister, Edward Heath, suspended the government and appointed William Whitelaw secretary of state for Northern Ireland. Westminster's direct rule over the province was renewed in Mar., 1973. An assembly was formed in June, 1972, with the Unionist party, a moderate pro-British group, in the majority. In November the Unionist party formed a coalition with the Social Democratic Labour party (SDLP), the major Catholic group, and the nonsectarian Alliance party. A Northern Ireland Executive was formed to exercise day-to-day administration.

In late 1973, the British prime minister, the head of the Executive, and the Irish Republic's prime minister agreed to form a Council of Ireland to promote closer cooperation between Ulster and the Republic. However, both the IRA and Protestant extremists sought to destroy the Executive and the Council, as they found power-sharing between Protestants and Catholics unacceptable. In 1974, hard-line Ulster Protestants won 11 of the province's 12 seats in the British House of Commons and pledged to renegotiate Ulster's constitution in order to end the Protestant-Catholic coalition and progress toward a Council of Ireland.

In May, 1974, militant Protestants sponsored a general strike in the province, and the Northern Ireland Executive collapsed on May 28. The British government then took direct control of the province with the passage of the Northern Ireland Act of 1974. Meanwhile, bombings and other terrorist activities had spread to Dublin and London. In 1979 Lord Mountbatten was assassinated by the IRA, and in 1981 protests broke out in Belfast over the death by hunger strike of Bobby Sands, an IRA member of Parliament.

Throughout most of the 1980s and 1990s terrorist violence by the IRA and other groups remained a problem. An assembly formed in 1982 to propose plans for strengthening legislative and executive autonomy in Northern Ireland was dissolved in 1986 for its lack of progress. In 1985, an Anglo-Irish accord sought to lay the groundwork for talks between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. Dublin agreed not to contest Northern Ireland's allegiance to Great Britain in exchange for British acknowledgment of the Republic's interest in how Northern Ireland is run. A 1993 Anglo-Irish declaration offered to open negotiations to all parties willing to renounce violence, and in 1994 the IRA and, later, Protestant paramilitary groups declared a cease-fire. Formal talks began in 1995. A resumption of violence (1996) by the IRA threatened to derail the peace process, but negotiations to seek a political settlement went ahead.

In July, 1997, the IRA declared a new cease-fire, and talks begun in September of that year included Sinn Fein. The result was an accord reached in 1998 that provided for a new Northern Ireland Assembly as well as a North-South Ministerial Council to deal with issues of joint interest to the province and the Irish Republic. The Republic of Ireland also agreed to give up territorial claims on Northern Ireland. The formation of a new government was slowed, however, by disagreement over the disarmament of paramilitary groups, but in Dec., 1999, a multiparty government was formed after further negotiations, and Britain ended direct rule of the province. Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble became leader of the Northern Irish government.

In Feb., 2000, however, Britain suspended self-government after the IRA refused to agree to disarm, but subsequent concessions by the IRA led to the resumption of self-government in May. Continued resistance by the IRA to disarming has threatened self-government and led Trimble to resign on July 1, 2001. Subsequently, Britain twice suspended the Northern Irish government in an attempt to avoid its complete collapse. Negotiations on disarming the IRA and other paramilitary groups, however, were relatively fruitless until late 2001, when the IRA began disarming; Trimble subsequently returned to office.

The arrests, in Oct., 2002, of Sinn Fein government members for intelligence gathering for the IRA threatened the power-sharing government once again, leading Britain to suspend home rule once more. The May, 2003, elections that would have reestablished the assembly were suspended by the British government. The ostensible reason was the insufficient specificity of the IRA's commitment to the peace process, but Trimble and the moderate Unionists also seem likely to suffer losses if the elections were held.