With What Success Has The British Government Tried To Deal With The Irish Troubles In The Years Since 1972?

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With What Success Has The British Government Tried To Deal With The Irish “Troubles” In The Years Since 1972?

       There have been many ways in which The British Government has tried to deal with the troubles in Northern Ireland there was Direct Rule in 1972, Power Sharing and the Sunning Dale Agreement in 1973, the events following Bobby Sands’ death in 1981, the Anglo Irish Agreement in 1985, The Downing Street Declaration in 1993, and finally the Good Friday Agreement 1998. Each one helped in its own way but to achieve true success it could be said that the action would have to both eliminate terrorism and bring peace to Northern Ireland even if it’s short lived. The “troubles” in Northern Ireland is a term used to describe the latest periods of violence involving Republican and Loyalist paramilitary organizations, the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC), the British Army and others in Northern Ireland from the late 1960s until the Belfast Agreement (or Good Friday Agreement) of 10th April 1998. The Troubles have been variously described as terrorism, ethnic conflict, a many-sided conflict, a guerrilla war, a low intensity conflict, and even a civil war.

       Direct rule in 1972 was the first of the events to take place, it was needed to restore order after Bloody Sunday, and it meant that Northern Ireland was controlled directly from Westminster. This meant that although day-to-day items were handled by the parliament within Northern Ireland, any major policies were taken care of by Westminster. Direct Rule helped by creating the UDR (Ulster Defence Regiment) which was an organisation designed to protect Northern Ireland from terrorists, the members were from both religious back grounds and it succeeded in restoring minimal amounts of peace and lasted for 25 years. However near the end the violence started again, even though throughout this action violence had accrued on both sides, this time there was a definite increase. The unionist set up yet another paramilitary the UDA (Ulster Defence Association), this meant other paramilitaries and even members of the general public felt the need to defend its self and fight back. The IRA bombings in England increased meaning that the links between the two countries were once again weak, which didn’t bode well as the parliament of Britain was still controlling law and order in Northern Ireland. People felt that direct rule had come too late to make a real difference as the violence and retaliations had became so frequent and out of control that by the time the British government tried to stop it, it was too late to make a real lasting difference. This can be linked to most of the other actions or events talked about it links to both Bobby Sands’ death and the Anglo-Irish Agreement as they are all mainly focused on terrorism; it also links to the Downing Street Declaration as England tried to take control in both these situations. Direct rule would be one of the more important actions not because it made a drastic difference but because of all the violence it caused. One could say if the actions were listed in terms of effectiveness (with the most effective at the top) Direct Rule would be third, coming under the Good Friday Agreement and the Anglo-Irish Agreement.  Overall it was quite effective because it minimally stop violence and brought some piece to Ireland for 25 years, however it didn’t truly rid the country of terrorism so it cannot be truly successful.

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       Power Sharing and the Sunning Dale Agreement in 1973 was the nicest of the actions as it didn’t involve violence or favouring one side in particular. Power Sharing and the Sunning Dale Agreement was established by a man called Willie Whitelaw who had the idea that he could get everyone to talk about their problems and everything would be peacefully resolved. The agreement had three parts an elected Northern Ireland Assembly, a power-sharing cross-community Northern Ireland Executive and a cross-border Council of Ireland. The elected Assembly and the Council of Ireland would have made the residence of both ...

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