The Troubles in Northern Ireland

[Storyteller.]

The Troubles in Northern Ireland
By Gareth (Catharsis.)

Northern Ireland has endured a history of political and social instability. As a disputed constituent country of the United Kingdom, ordinary residents of Ulster have long lived in everyday fear. The worst stretch of violence that ever occurred in Ulster is known as "The Troubles". Two factions decided that enough was enough, and took to violent measures to profess their loyalty to either the Crown, or the Irish freedom fight. Widely considered the bloodiest conflict experienced in western Europe since World War II, The Troubles started in the late 1960's and fighting continued until the end of the twentieth century.

Background and introduction
Tensions had been growing for many years between the two main ethnoracial communities in Northern Ireland. Unionists (also known as loyalists) consisted primarily of wealthy Protestants who wanted Ulster to remain part of the United Kingdom. Their interests clashed regularly with Republicans or nationalists, who were predominantly working-class Catholics, and desired complete separation from the Union to join the Republic of Ireland.

Though Northern Ireland was not officially established until 1920, long-lasting divisions and social differences with the southern part of the island (now forming the Republic of Ireland) had developed over the preceding centuries. In the early twentieth century, when British politicians began to focus on the "Irish Question", a moniker given to the problem concerning how Ireland was to be governed, opposition to reform movements came from Protestant landowners in the north of Ireland. These were predominantly Scottish and English settlers who were given land under the Ulster Plantations. Though a majority of the Northern Irish population were Protestant, or part of the Ulster-Scots ascendancy, they suffered from a lack of unity and organisation in political causes, many not seeing the necessity in standing up for Unionism. This perhaps contributed to the eventual success of the nationalist movement.

After the Republic of Ireland became an independent sovereign state, and Northern Ireland became a more autonomous constituent country of the United Kingdom, a Unionist-controlled police called the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC), as well as the civil service and parliament, subjected Catholic residents of Northern Ireland to discrimination and persecution. Though the country remained stable in the early 1960s, discontent grew amongst the populace.

The beginning of the conflict
In the late 1960s, a peaceful civil rights campaign began in Northern Ireland. Advocating equality, they peacefully demonstrated against the job discrimination, lack of voting power and police brutality experienced by Catholics. This time also saw the formation of the Unionist paramilitary group, the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF), and the separation from the Irish Republican Army (IRA) of the Provisional IRA, a notable splinter group.

In January 1969, a civil rights march was attacked by a large group of Unionists in Derry, also known as Londonderry. In March and April of the same year, this city's nationalist community were subjected to a number of raids by the RUC and UVF, leading to residents in the Bogside, an area notable for a staunch Irish republican ethos, barricading housing estates to keep the Unionists away, marked with a mural stating "You are now entering Free Derry". The British government deployed troops in the city to keep law and order, as RUC and UVF violence against Catholics continued.

1970-72: The peak of the violence
At the start of the 1970s, both Unionists and Republicans began to upscale their campaigns, particularly in working-class districts of Belfast, Northern Ireland's largest city. In the northern and western portions of the metropolitan area, strongly-nationalist districts often bordered strongly-loyalist districts, frequently leading to violence and rioting.

On the 30th January 1972, the British Army shot fourteen unarmed nationalist civil rights campaigners in Derry. Known as "Bloody Sunday" and cited by many as a horrendous example of military brutality against civilians, it is one of the most notable incidents of violence in Northern Ireland.

Following Bloody Sunday, pressure mounted on the British government in Westminster. The Sunningdale Agreement, promoting a power-sharing system between the Unionist Party and the nationalist parties Sinn Féin and the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP), was largely rejected by both sides of the divide in 1973, and fighting continued for the remainder of the decade, resulting in a growing number of casualties.

The 1980s and 1990s: Hunger strikes, peace movements and ceasefire
Violence soon started to spread outside of Northern Ireland. In the Republic of Ireland, Dublin particularly suffered from UVF attacks. Though the Irish government neither condoned nor criticised the IRA, support for Republicans was widespread amongst ordinary people. This was particularly true in south-west Ireland, where citizens in and around the industrial cities of Cork and Limerick constituted the bulk of IRA support in the Republic of Ireland, and continued to do so after The Troubles.

In 1981, ten republican prisoners, including Bobby Sands, died in a hunger strike. This led to widespread anger across Ireland at both the Unionists and the Conservative government in Britain, led by Margaret Thatcher. For funding, the IRA looked to the Libyan leader, Muammar Gaddafi, an enemy of the Thatcher government. On 12th October 1984, the Provisional IRA bombed a hotel in Brighton, England, where the Conservative Party's conference was taking place at the time, and five people were killed.

During the 1990s, Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams and SDLP leader John Hume sought an end to the conflict. Two ceasefires were declared by the paramilitary organisations in the following years. Following these, a political process began to reach a mutual agreement, culminating in the Belfast Agreement in 1998. Largely similar to the proposed Sunningdale Agreement, it succeeded simply due to the progressive attitudes of Hume and the Ulster Unionist leader, David Trimble, both of whom later received Nobel Peace prizes.

Conclusion and aftermath
By the time the Belfast Agreement was signed, considered by most the end of The Troubles, a total of 3530 people, mostly civilians, had died, while close to 50,000 people were injured. Fighting has continued to a lesser extent after the agreement, as dissident Republicans, organised through the Real IRA and the Continuity IRA (who remain active both north and south of the border), wage violence against Unionists and organise demonstrations at commemorations of the deaths of notable IRA members.

Recently, controversy has been fueled in certain communities of Belfast by the organisation of parades by both loyalist and nationalist groups that have been designated to pass through areas considered enemy territory. This has led to instances of rioting in the past year.

The brutal years of The Troubles may be a decade behind, but the divided streets of inner-city Belfast spell out the opposite. Murals declaring a certain area "Free Belfast" or "UVF Territory" and the so-called 'peace walls' separating housing estates act as a reminder of the bloody, hostile decades that will never be forgotten.