The context of the "Troubles" in Northern Ireland, 1968-1998

 

    The Troubles is a series of civil conflicts which took place in Northern Ireland for nearly thirty years, from 1969 to 1998 after the signature of the Belfast Agreement or the Good Friday Agreement, officially named The Northern Ireland Peace Agreement on April 10, 1998. Among the signatories were Tony Blair, Prime Minister of Great Britain, Bertie Ahern, Taoiseach of the Republic of Ireland, nationalist parties composed of the leader of the Social Democratic and Labor Party, John Hume and the leader of Sinn Fein, Gerry Adams. On the Unionists’ side, the signatories were David Trimble, chief of the Ulster Unionist Party, the Ulster Democratic Party and the Progressive Unionist Party. The Troubles is a period of confrontations between nationalists, mainly Catholics and unionists, mainly Protestants. The origin of the conflict is somehow questionable, since the 12th century may be considered the very beginning of the conflict in Northern Ireland. Indeed, during her reign, Anglo-Protestant Queen Elizabeth invaded Ulster, at that time a province in the north of Ireland. Elizabeth I seized the Catholics’ lands and English and Scottish settlers became the new owners. This settlement had huge repercussions on Ireland since it was the beginning of Catholics’ discrimination by the Anglo-Irish Protestants. Only a few decades later, Ulster was completely under the control of Anglo Protestants. The Catholics’ submission was reinforced by the Penal Laws and the creation of the Act of Union in 1801 under the reign of King George III. Ireland then became part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland until the partition of the island in 1921 when the South of Ireland obtained its independence from the British crown in the aftermath of the Declaration of Independence. This resulted in the creation of the Irish Free State in the south and Northern Ireland in the north, previously called Ulster. The island of Ireland has since been divided between the Republic of Ireland and the Province of Northern Ireland, still part of the United Kingdom today. The major issue in Northern Ireland is the relationship between nationalists and unionists. According to figures given in the book Making Sense of the Troubles 1 , written by David McKittrick and David McVea, Catholics and nationalists represent only one third of the population in Northern Ireland, the rest of the state being populated by Protestants and unionists. The Catholic minority feels Irish whereas the Protestant majority feels British. From 1921 to 1998, the Ulster Unionist Party held the power, creating discrimination against Catholics, who saw their job applications rejected, and their social life annihilated. They kept living together without tensions for nearly forty years until some protesters began to ask for more liberties on the Catholic side. Several actions were made, and many groups were created to support the Catholic community. Amongst them we can find the PD, People’s Democracy, a civil rights groups mainly composed of students. In March 1968, under Terence O’Neill’s government, students opened a march from Belfast to Londonderry in order to protest. According to Chris Reynold in his article ‘The Collective European Memory of 1968 2 ’, 1968 was a year of protests in Western Europe, and in Ireland it led to the creation of local civil rights movement that began a series of marches and protests for the purpose of complete equality between Protestants and Catholics. NICRA, Northern Ireland Civil Right Association was the second largest movement which demanded equality in vote. Chris Reynolds even came to the conclusion that the PD drew its inspiration from European models and particularly from the French protest in May 1968, when French students at the Sorbonne held marches in the streets to fight against capitalism and obtained people’s sympathy right after. However, the peaceful march held on March 5th in Belfast and Londonderry ended up in a series of violent riots by Protestants. Even if Irish people considered at first that the students were irresponsible, violence changed people’s mind and the students won public sympathy. To this extent, the Protestants’ violence during the students' march in Northern Ireland can be considered one of the initiating events of the Troubles. The year after, 1969, is the official starting point of this period of conflict. It was animated by a three-days protest in the Bogside led by Catholics/nationalists which asked for the end of discrimination. But Civil Rights marches were contested by The Apprentice Boys of Derry and the RUC, the Royal Ulster Constabulary, unionists and Protestants police force. According to McKittrick David and McVea David in their book, young Catholics used petrol bombs to prevent the RUC from entering the place and they figured out an amount of 43 men out of 59 in the RUC unit treated for injuries 3 . The event is known as The Battle of the Bogside and is officially considered the starting point of the Troubles. This is also the year when the Peace Wall was built so that Catholics and Protestants could live separately. During the thirty years of conflict, the IRA Irish Republican Army, created since 1919, maintained a series of violent attacks which attempted to eliminate unionists and Protestants. The IRA is said to be mainly made up of Catholics and nationalists. One of the most outstanding events of the Troubles is called Bloody Sunday. It happened in 1972 in the streets of Londonderry. The survey led by David McKittrick and David McVea 4 reveals a death toll of fourteen death on 30 January. People in Londonderry witnessed those deaths and the violence inflicted on innocent people. All in all, the amount of deaths over the thirty years of conflict amounted to over 3000 deaths. A peace process finally started in 1994, marked by the IRA cease-fire. The Belfast Agreement marked the end of the conflict in 1998. However, as Northern Ireland is trying to recover from its wounds, by trying to find a perfect agreement between Catholics and Protestants in Stormont, by an attempt at reconstruction, the peace process remains fragile. For example, only 5% of children are going to mixed schools. Traces of the conflict are still visible in Belfast’s suburban area, along with posters and songs. Murals keep existing and the Twelfth of July is still celebrated every year. This is a yearly march created by the Orange Order, a Protestant group, to celebrate the victory of Protestant King William of Orange over Catholic King James II at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690. On that day, Protestants and unionists burn Catholics’ effigies and the Irish flag. When it comes to politics, the many shutdowns of Stormont Parliament show the tensions and the difficulty for Sinn Fein and the DUP (Democratic Unionist Party) to work along. The last issue raised in 2017 was about the Irish language. The law was rejected and led Martin McGuinness to step down as Deputy Prime Minister of Sinn Fein. Since then, there has been no leader of the Sinn Fein party in Stormont, the assembly has been suspended and Arlene Foster, the DUP Deputy Prime Minister has rejected any possibility of giving the Irish language the statute of the official spoken language along with English. Brexit has also become an issue because of the Irish borders, thus opening the possibility of the Northern Irish conflict to start again. 

Auteur : Eva Armand