The Northern Ireland Marching Season

The Northern Ireland Marching Season

The marching season is where the Protestants of Ireland celebrate

William of Orange's victory in the Battle of the Boyne by marching

through Northern Ireland via some Catholic areas. These marches take

place in July of every year and are usually peaceful. But sometimes

they are violent. There are a number of possible reasons why there is

a tension between the two communities over the marches, for example

land, religion, politics, history and social division.

During the 16th century, James 1st and England started to take a

closer interest in Ireland. They feared Ireland because they thought

that they could become a threat to their own power. This was mainly

because of the difference in religion. England was mainly Protestant

whereas Ireland was mainly Catholic. This was worrying to the English

rulers. So instead of sending in soldiers to defeat the Irish before a

war had even started and destroying Ireland, he decided to send

English Protestants over to Ireland. Land was still the main source of

power, so by sending people over who were loyal to the English crown,

he was gaining more power. The lands in which he sent his people over

to were owned by Catholics. This process was called the 'Ulster

plantations'.

This was fine until 1640. But in 1641 there was a big rebellion by

Catholics against English rule. It originally broke out in Ulster but

quickly spread to other parts of Ireland. During this year many

English Protestants were killed by Catholics and from 1641 -1649, the

Irish Catholics controlled Ireland. These massacres helped to create a

siege mentality for Protestants. During this ...

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...t trust Sinn Fein. They have accused them

of allowing IRA members into Stormont to spy on proceedings. Sinn Fein

categorically denies this, but the British Government acted quickly by

dissolving the power sharing Northern Ireland Assembly. The Protestant

parties say that they cannot trust Sinn Fein and they won't work with

them until their weapons have been decommissioned. Direct rule from

Westminster has been re-instated and power now lies again with the

British Northern Ireland Secretary. The path to peace is still nowhere

near completed. The reason I think for this are the above reasons but

I think most importantly is trust, or the lack of it. None of the

groups appear to be able to trust each other and unless something

drastic happens, they are not going to be able to trust each other in

the near future each other.