The Northern Ireland Troubles: Background, Development and Peace Process

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The United Kingdom of today, as know, encompasses the main and biggest British isle located in the Atlantic Ocean, comprised by the countries of Wales, England and Scotland. However, there is one more country that’s currently being counted as being a part of the United Kingdom as a whole – Northern Ireland, occupying a part of the north on the island Ireland.

When an invasion from the United Kingdom resulted in the latter seizing control of the then united and independent state of Ireland in the 17th century, subsequent colonizations by Scottish and English Protestants took place chiefly in the Northern Part of the country, whilst the rest of Ireland remained predominantly Catholic and was mostly left in peace. However, despite of the Catholic majority, the protestant minority in the south was allegedly time and time again given privileges and were deemed as superior by the British government, who made sure they were favoured above the discriminated Catholic population, for example in circumstances such as distribution of land and resources. This led to the latter’s standard of living diminishing greatly.

The unfair treatment eventually worked as an indirect cause of the development of the Irish Independence war at the start of the 1920’s, the direct result of which was the partition of Ireland into two separate political entities with self-government. Whilst Ireland gained full independence from Britain around twenty years later, Northern Ireland remained and continues to this day to be a part of the United Kingdom.

Whilst the Protestant population whole-heartedly accepted dividing Ireland, the Catholic population would not give up the chance of reuniting Ireland without a fight. The former were afraid of becoming a minori...

... middle of paper ...

...or Peace People”, receive the Novel Peace Prize in 1976 for their non-violent efforts to seek a resolution to the Troubles.

The Troubles ended with the Good Friday Agreement in 1998. Sporadic violence related to the problems that set off the Troubles have been recurring, however not as strongly, and it does indeed seem like the two countries have managed to resolve their issues – for now, at least.

Works Cited

1. http://www.worldsocialism.org/spgb/archive/irish%281916%29.pdf

2. http://www.enotes.com/history-fact-finder/war-conflict-twentieth-century/what-irish-question

3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_question

4. http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/33327/john-hume/the-irish-question-a-british-problem

5. http://www.infoplease.com/spot/northireland1.html

6. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Troubles

7. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mairead_Maguire

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