The beginning describes the separation of the residents and their politics on the isle that took place only a short time after the end of the Second World War, with the Ireland Act of 1949, when unionists wanted to stay as an included part of the United Kingdom in order to control this area while nationalists refused this precaution. Consequently a sectarian rule was to be anticipated and the unionists felt certain to their standpoint at that time. In due course Northern Ireland stayed being a legitimate part of Great Britain, so that the nationalists could not give their complete commitment to the country. Therefore the ambition of both societies lingered incompatible. Apart from that their objectives were emphasized by religious and political differences. Generally, economical and cultural problems of that region remained and in contrast to other European countries. Northern Ireland was still in its infancy. Merely the catholic middle classes were affected by modernisation on Western Europe.
The need for modernisation made it unproblematic to encourage political nationalism. The efforts of the British government to renew politics in the 1970s purely aggravated the conflict. Therefore it seemed to be impossible to revitalize economics, which kept the high rate of unemployment and the working class peoples’ beliefs in their insights.
During her studies on the country, Wichert also realized that the books written by Northern Irish citizens and their interpretations are exclusive identified with the side from where they are from. To a certain extent lots of essays on Northern Irelands’ history have been analysed from a subjective perspective, some of them are considerate and understanding to one of both sides and try to identify with the existing point of view of the particular region. All in all there has been more understanding to the catholic people, while the unionists did not find much support for their opinions. With reference to the first part of the book, Wichert attempts to demonstrate how Northern Irelands’ population divided politically and what kind of cultural and economic penalties there have been.
The second part of the book argues about the time span between the start of World War Two and the beginning of new troubles at the end of the 1960s. Northern Ireland was supported by Westminster in combination with the British welfare legislation in order to raise the economy and to help to create a North which was very different from the South whose economy and social legislation fell behind. Catholics began to take advantage of the new educational reforms and of the more and more improving economy as well. The catholic middle classes grew larger and they also spoke in their demands for equivalent civil rights. It actually inferred their approval of the Union with the United Kingdom and proposed their eagerness to collaborate with this state. Nevertheless the process of modernisation did not reach the lower classes at this time. Working class people were still faced with early sectarian power as well as terror and violence. Only the interference of London could stop the progress of a possible civil war.
In the last part of the book, which is the biggest part at the same time, the author refers to the years between 1969 and 1972. In those years a new political position appeared which was significant for the following twenty years. There was an enlarging space between politicians in Belfast and London. They attempted to create reforms which met the politics of the street, which became firm and caused anxiety everywhere, and the civil rights demands.
The consequence was that the British government ruled Northern Ireland directly on its own in order to effort a compromise between both societies. Those groups of people who continued to maintain these goals violently were rather small but in case of a greater tension they would have engendered fears as much as necessary to avoid cooperation. For that reason Wichert concludes that it could not be possible to invent a solution to help the working class people to eliminate their fundamentalist point of view or rather their violent values.
With regard to the topic the author chose a subject which is never out of headlines. Northern Ireland since 1945 in that case is the first edition and was published in 1991 by Longman Group UK. Meanwhile there is a second edition, published in 1999, including a new paragraph on the Northern Ireland Assembly.
Sabine Wichert’s writings are chiefly based on different announcements of journalists, historians and on her own experience. She mentioned that she used to live and teach in Northern Ireland for almost twenty years and that her knowledge for being a historian increased because of this. The fact of being a foreign person gave her the chance to plunge into what she was currently studying.
Wichert herself mentions that her scripts are not particularly structured. They also differ in length according to dates and topics. Generally she is going to explain the problematic nature of this country from an objective point of view. Complicated history is described in a formal but comprehensible way also with regard to tables and maps and a huge range of bibliographical references at the end of the book. She uses quotations of other historians to underpin her statements, or as in the beginning for instance, one quote from Winston Churchill in order to introduce the book.
All in all she does not intend to give a solution for the problems Northern Ireland has; she rather demonstrates weaknesses and drawbacks of the state and its population.
Her intended audience is both students and every other reader who is interested in this subject. Apart from this, these texts ought to support debates in class and they are supposed to hearten historians to come up with more extensive discussions. To my mind Northern Ireland since 1945 represents a logical constructed reference book for an advanced level in university. The accuracy within each chapter and the detailed table of contents makes the book especially useful for looking up specific themes.
