Troubles

Categories: Cleanup from July 2005 | NPOV disputes | History of Northern Ireland | Irish wars

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The "Troubles" is a term used to describe two periods of violence in Ireland during the twentieth century. This article describes the latter; for the earlier Troubles, see Anglo-Irish War and Irish Civil War.
Image:Deaths in The Troubles by area.PNG
Deaths in Northern Ireland's Troubles by area

The Troubles is a generic term used to describe a period of sporadic communal violence involving paramilitary organisations, the Royal Ulster Constabulary, the British Army and others in Northern Ireland from the late 1960s until the mid-1990s. It could also be described as a many-sided conflict, a guerrilla war or even a civil war. The Provisional IRA maintained their violent campaign was armed resistance to British occupation. They are described by many governments (including the Irish and British) as a terrorist organisation.

Contents

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Background

The Troubles were another chapter in the long-running hatred between Ulster's Protestant and Roman Catholic communities. They were brought to an uneasy end by a peace process which included the declaration of ceasefires by some paramilitary organisations, the withdrawal of some troops from the streets and the creation of a new police force in a series of reforms, as agreed by the signatories to the Belfast Agreement (commonly known as the Good Friday Agreement).

Though the number of active participants in the Troubles was small, and the paramilitary organisations that claimed to represent the communities were usually unrepresentative of the general population, the Troubles touched the lives of most people within Northern Ireland on a daily basis, while occasionally spreading to Great Britain and the Republic of Ireland. Almost four thousand people (most of them civilians) died as a result of the violence. Many people today have had their political, social and communal attitudes and perspectives shaped by the Troubles.

Though not itself part of the Troubles, the Civil Rights campaign in the mid to late 1960s in Northern Ireland, which was largely modelled on the American Civil Rights Movement of Martin Luther King and others in the United States, was seen by some in the unionist community as the starting point for the Troubles. They argue that it led to a destabilisation of government and created a void filled later by paramilitary groups. Others, mainly though not exclusively nationalist, disagree, arguing that the Civil Rights campaign was a reaction to a corrupt system of government, the failure to reform the system causing the collapse in law and order that led to the Troubles. All are agreed that the Troubles include Bloody Sunday, Bloody Friday, internment, the suspension of the unionist-controlled Stormont Home Rule government, the campaigns of violence by the various paramilitary organisations, including the Dublin and Monaghan Bombings, the La Mon bombing, the killing of Lord Mountbatten and members of his family, the assassination of Sir Christopher Ewart-Biggs, the then British Ambassador to the Republic of Ireland, the attempted assassination of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and her cabinet in the Brighton hotel bombing, the assassination of Airey Neave and the attempted assassination of John David Taylor, the Enniskillen and Omagh bombings, the hunger strikers in the Long Kesh prison, the creation of the Peace People organisation (which won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1976), the splits in the IRA and ultimately the Belfast Agreement.

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Overview

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The partition of Ireland

The origins of the Troubles are complex. What is clear is that its origins lie in the centuries-long debate over whether Ireland, or part of Ireland, should be part of the United Kingdom, and the anger felt by some Irish at their treatment by the British. In 1922, during widespread political violence, the Government of Ireland Act partitioned the island of Ireland into two separate regions, one of which became "Northern Ireland". According to the majority of unionists, Northern Ireland, which became a self-governing region of the United Kingdom, was governed in accordance with "democratic" principles, the rule of law and in accordance with the will of a majority within its borders to remain part of the United Kingdom. Nationalists however saw the partition of Ireland as an illegal and immoral division of the island of Ireland against the will of its people, and argued that the Northern Ireland statelet was neither legitimate nor democratic, but created with a deliberately engineered unionist majority. Each side had their own soundbites to describe their perspective. Ulster Unionist Party Prime Minister of Northern Ireland Lord Brookborough talked of a "Protestant state for a Protestant people", while a later Republic of Ireland taoiseach (prime minister) Charles Haughey described Northern Ireland as "a failed political entity".

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Religion and class

For the most part a clear divide exists in terms of religion and some times a left-right divide between the various communities. Most though not all Protestants are unionists, while most though not all Catholics are nationalists. While the mainstream organisations representing nationalists and unionists tended to be quite conservative, more politically and religious radical groups emerged associated with republicans and loyalists, with Sinn Féin adopting a Marxist perspective of the political situation, defining it in terms of "class struggle". Loyalists in the 1970s even advocated forms of an "independent Ulster" which they compared to the then apartheid-style regimes of Rhodesia and South Africa, in which one community's dominance could be ensured. There is little support for this idea today.

Except for unionists, all other segments of the political spectrum argued that the Northern Ireland of the 1960s needed change. Moderate nationalists in the Civil Rights movement, under figures like John Hume, Gerry Fitt and Austin Currie advocated an end to the gerrymandering of local government wards to ensure Protestant majorities, and the end to discrimination over access to council housing. They pressed for wide reforms, whereas unionists saw "concessions" as part of a process whereby nationalists would bring down Northern Ireland and force Irish unity. Republicans adopted a more violent approach to force more radical change, while the Royal Ulster Constabulary, the British army and loyalists stepped up their violence to oppose it.

The Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC), the police force in Northern Ireland, was largely, though not totally, Protestant for a number of reasons. Catholics did not join in the numbers expected by the British when the force was first created. Those that did report a "hostile to Catholics", strongly unionist working environment, in which unionist and Protestant organisations like the Orange Order and the Ulster Unionist Party had great power. Those Catholics who did join were often targeted as traitors by the various IRAs. Yet some Catholic police officers did play a part in the constabulary. One served as Chief Constable, while the current leader of the Social Democratic and Labour Party, Mark Durkan is the son of a Catholic RUC man.

The lack of Catholic officers was augmented by the maintenance of the political status quo. The result was that critics of the unionist and loyalist communities saw the police force as the "Unionist police force for a Unionist state". Unlike the unarmed police force in the South, An Garda Síochána, the RUC failed to establish cross community trust, with each community blaming the other or the RUC for failings in policing.

A policing review, part of the Good Friday Agreement, has led to some reforms of policing, including more rigorous accountability, measures to increase the number of Catholic officers, and the renaming of the RUC to the Police Service of Northern Ireland to avoid using the word "Royal". While most of the reforms have already been introduced, the slowness of others has led to Sinn Féin withholding its support fom the Police Service of Northern Ireland for the time being.

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Timeline

Deaths related to conflict (1990-2004) Number of deaths listed as "conflict-related (uncertain if conflict-related)" ( [1]).

Year Deaths
2004 2 (2)
2003 10 (2)
2002 11 (4)
2001 15
2000 19
1999 8
1998 53
1997 21
1996 17
1995 9
1994 60
1993 84
1992 85
1991 94
1990 76


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Bloody Sunday

Main article: Bloody Sunday (1972)

Bloody Sunday in January 1972 was one of the key events during the Troubles. From 1971 until 1975, under the Special Powers Act, hundreds of men were interned without trial (see Long Kesh).

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Situation in 2004

The governments of Ireland and the United Kingdom continued work to seek a solution. It was widely held in Britain and Northern Ireland that the Troubles came to an end in the mid-nineties with the various paramilitary cease-fires that were established. The period that came after the Troubles was the Northern Ireland peace process, the Good Friday Agreement.

Image:Www.wesleyjohnston.com-users-ireland-maps-drumcree parade.gif

Inter-communal tensions rise in particular during the "Marching Season" when the anti-Catholic Orange Order parade through Catholic neighbourhoods. The parades are held to commemorate William of Orange's victory in the Battle of the Boyne and the start of the Protestant Ascendancy. One particular flashpoint that has caused repeated strife is the Garvaghy Road area in Portadown, although that parade has now been banned indefinitely. Recently it is in Belfast that the disputes have occurred.

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Significant groups

Some significant groups are:

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Nationalist or Republican political parties

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Unionist or loyalist political parties

The Conservative Party also organises and contests elections in Northern Ireland.

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Other parties

The Labour Party does not organise in Northern Ireland. The Liberal Democrats are associated with the Alliance Party.

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Republican paramilitary groups

See Irish Republican Army for a discussion of how some of these are related.

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Loyalist paramilitary groups

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Further reading

  • Greg Harkin and Martin Ingram (2004), Stakeknife: Britain's secret agents in Ireland, O'Brien Press
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External links

fr:Conflit nord-irlandais he:הצרות no:Konflikten i Nord-Irland 1968-1997