The Conflict of Northern Ireland and Factors that Contributed to It All three of these events, Internment, Bloody Sunday and The Hunger Strikes, have contributed in a large way to the conflict in Northern Ireland between Catholics and Protestants since 1968. All three of the events are linked in some way to each other. In the summer of 1969 there was a huge march that was called 'The Londonderry Apprentice Boys' march' this was followed by large-scale riots between police and residents of the Catholic Bogside district, in what became the Battle of the Bogside. In August the British government agreed to send in troops to keep the people that were fighting apart. When the troops first entered Northern Ireland they were in the 'Honeymoon period' because they were neutral. The Nationalists welcomed them because they thought that would defend Catholic areas. But they soon clashed with both Protestant and Catholic crowds and were accused of using excessive violence towards citizens. While all of this was happening the IRA was re-forming. The new Provisional IRA and the old Official IRA were both recruiting new activists and gathering weapons. The Prime Minister ordered the army to search the Falls road for weapons and IRA suspects, this turned many Nationalists away from the army and increased support for the IRA in Ireland and also aboard, such as the USA. In August 1971 the Northern Ireland Prime Minister, Brian Faulkner introduced internment. Internment meant that anyone the security forces suspected of terrorism could be arrested and held in prison without being charged or put on trial. Internment was Faulkner's attempt at destroying the IRA. Internment was a tactic that had used successfully during the 1950s, largely because it had been brought into force on both sides of the border at the same time. But to Catholics Internment was very biased, every suspect that Internment was used against was either a Nationalist or a Republican, there was no attempt to arrest loyalist paramilitaries. The RUC's intelligence was very badly out of date, this meant that most people targeted were
The causes in why British troops were sent in can be put into an order
The Success of the British Government in Trying to Deal with the Irish Troubles in the Years Since 1972
Frank McCourt was born in New York, during the Great Depression of the 1930’s. Malachy McCourt, his father, was from Northern Ireland while his mother, Angela Sheehan, was from Southern Ireland known as the Republic of Ireland. The conflict between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland dates all the way back to the 17th century when Ireland wasn’t divided. English Protestants colonized primarily in the north after England took control of the country. A majority of Ireland were devout Catholics and did not want to be ruled by Protestant Englishmen. In southern Ireland the Catholics fought for their freedom for eight hundred years while the Irish Protestants in the north feared a country ruled by Catholics. After many years of warfare between the Catholics and the Protestants, the southern counties of Ireland became an independent republic while the north remained under British control (Imbornoni).
“We all fight on two fronts, the one facing the enemy, the other facing what we do to the enemy” (Boyden 199).
In the early 1900s, Irish nationalists were fed up with the British rule that had dominated Ireland since its existence. The Irish in this situation closely resemble the American Colonists prior to the American Revolution. The Irish felt as if the British did not represent them well and they wanted to run their own country and govern themselves. There were many small rebellions and confrontations between some Irish citizens and the British army all throughout Ireland’s history with the purpose of lowering the morale of British troops that occupied Ireland, or in rebellion to specific actions by the British. However, there never was any organized uprising with a goal of completely eliminating the British like the Easter Uprising in 1916.
The Good Friday Agreement and Its Help of Progression in Northern Ireland On 10th April 1998 the Good Friday agreement was signed. It was only
The Divided People of Ireland Ireland is a country with two very different peoples living there,
The true causes of unrest are sometimes difficult to determine. Frequently, there are a mixture of political alliances, economic differences, ethnic feuds, religious differences and others: This paper looks at the unrest between the Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland.
The British occupation of Ireland began in the 1640’s and lasted until 1922. No other occurrence throughout Irish history has had a greater impact on the lives of the citizens of the country. Along with the act of occupation came the emergence of Protestantism, which conflicted with the traditional religion of Ireland, Catholicism. The English occupation of Ireland affected many aspects of Irish history from the potato famine to the War for Independence. However, Irish nationalism came to a boiling point April of 1916, in what is now known as the Easter Uprising. The uprising lasted 6 days and resulted in massive casualties, but furthered the liberation cause for the Irish.
Patricia Nelson Limerick describes the frontier as being a place of where racial tension predominately exists. In her essay, “The Frontier as a Place of Ethnic and Religion Conflict,” Limerick says that the frontier wasn’t the place where everyone got to escape from their problems from previous locations before; instead she suggested that it was the place in which we all met. The frontier gave many the opportunities to find a better life from all over the world. But because this chance for a new life attracted millions of people from different countries across the seas, the United States experienced an influx of immigrants. Since the east was already preoccupied by settlers, the west was available to new settlement and that was where many people went. Once in the western frontier, it was no longer just about blacks and whites. Racial tension rose and many different races and ethnic groups soon experienced discrimination and violence based on their race, and beliefs instead of a since of freedom at the western frontier.
Life was very difficult and hopeless in Northern Ireland during the ”Troubles”. People, mainly the Catholics, had to learn to live among riots, murders, bomb raid, discrimination and political violence. Many people did things which they did not want to do but they did because they would be punished if they resisted. They did not know when their families were attacked by hostile groups.
The Differences Between Treatment of Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland There was a drastic difference in the way Protestants and Catholics were treated by the government of Northern Ireland. The parliament was Protestant and local governments often favoured Protestants over catholic, even when it was just an individual against a family, regarding the allocation of housing. As well as this, Catholic who applied to university or colleges stood a much chance of being rejected than Protestants because of this, Catholics found it much harder to get high paid jobs and were much less likely to be promoted to higher positions. Catholics found it difficult to change their status socially and often, whole generations families would be forced to live in one, small, house being forced with people not being able to afford to move out.
British- Irish relations over the past three hundred years have been troubled. There have been many tensions caused by religion in Northern Ireland and Britain's unfair rule of Northern Ireland. The British are guilty of many of the indignities suffered by the Irish people. They are also guilty of causing all of the religious and territorial conflicts between Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland.
In the past ten years the Afghan Government has been dealing with a number of issues that have caused problems for the country, problems such as illegal drug trade, terrorism and violence. But nowadays they are fighting a problem that has long existed between people, and quite recently has taken a whole new aspect to it. Ethnic conflict is the destructive factor that has caused problems between people for generations, often leading to fights, outbreak of violence and grudge between different ethnicities.
The causes of ethnic conflict cannot be generalised to fit all incidents, as the conflicts in Sri