long term tension was The Catholic protest
movements in the 1960s. The Northern Ireland Civil Rights
Association (NICRA) was introduced which created a lot of tension
in Northern Ireland because it wanted to give Catholics equal rights
which would mean that the Protestants would not have the upper-hand
in society. Catholics also had less political power. The police were
mainly Protestants and there was the B-specials who were a reserve
police force that could be called in if needed, they were allowed to keep
their own weapons, as they were usually Protestants, this worried the
Catholics. Elections were fixed so Catholics had little chance of being
Elected 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, even though the
constitution said all elections should be proportionally represented so
minority groups would be fairly represented in Northern Ireland. The
Unionists abolished this for local elections. It was also only possible to
vote if you were a property owner and as Protestant councils made it
increasingly difficult for Catholics to get houses, it was harder than
ever for Catholics to express their views. 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 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. The Police in Northern Ireland were 99.9% Protestant and
extremely unfair and violent towards Catholics, they would even attack
innocent Catholics for no reason .On some occasions the Police even
led the Catholic marchers into traps, 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, they were violent to the Catholics aswell. Another reason
to cause problems in Northern Ireland was the Act of Union, this meant
that Irelands 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 main cause of this whole
all this was the Battle of Bogside. Before this was the annual
Apprentice Boys March in Londonderry. The parade itself, on 12th
August, was relatively peaceful. However, soon after it ended,
Protestants and Catholics began to throw missiles at each other after
Loyalists threw pennies at the Catholics, this was to insinuate that
Catholics were poor. Before long, there was a riot. When the RUC tried
to take down a barricade on Rossville Street, the riot turned into a
battle. The police were assaulted with stones, bricks, bottles and petrol
bombs from the Bogside rioters. There are two different reasons as to
how the battle started, The police say that they attempted to break
through the barricade because they were trying to get into a better
position to separate the mobs. The Catholic perspective of the event is
that this was a direct attack on them by the police. The rioting
continued for two days, in what became known as the Battle of the
Bogside. The police were unable to continue as they were becoming
exhausted and quite a few were getting injured badly. Seven people
were killed and about 100 wounded. 3000 Catholics lost their homes.
The first of Northern Irelands danger areas/battlefields had been
created.
The Republic of Ireland sent ambulances and their own armed forces to
the border between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland at the
height of the violence. The Irish Taoiseach Jack Lynch blamed the
RUC for no longer being a neutral force that protected the whole of the
state. The media also made the RUC look very bad. In a country
surrounded by Protestants where they were discriminated against, the
Catholics felt very isolated. The actions of the police at the Battle of the
Bogside increased the hatred of the Catholics towards the Protestants,
they had no real force to protect them from the police, apart from the
IRA. There was a danger of the violence spreading across the province,
tension started to build in many towns, the most serious fighting was in
Belfast, the Catholics were attacked by the Protestants who were afraid
that the country was being invaded. James Chichester-Clark had little
choice but to call the British Troops into Northern Ireland. The British
army was seen as a neutral force, they would not take sides like the
RUC did. There were many reasons why British Troops were sent to
Northern Ireland. The official reason was to protect the catholic
population against Loyalist attacks however it was soon realised that
this was not in fact their intention and that the conflict that they were
involved in were not always benefiting the Catholics but rather the
Protestants, there increased involvement with the RUC also caused
British to be hated amongst Catholics. The last of the reasons was that
British believed that the IRA was planning to launch an uprising in
Belfast. Such a large force as the IRA could cause havoc throughout
Northern Ireland if it was not stopped in time. But the British were
wrong because the IRA were lacking weapons, manpower and even the
support to plan such an attack
