Northern Ireland

Summary

"The Troubles", as they are called in Northern Ireland, have a long history of causes, dating back at least to William of Orange, whose "glorious revolution" which ended the absolute monarchy in England, was not so glorious in Ireland, where it established (in a far-from-bloodless manner) rule by a protestant minority over the Irish Catholic population. After a successful War of Independence by the original IRA (Irish Republican Army) in 1920, most of Ireland is given autonomy from Britain, but the northern provinces are partitioned into a separate state with a Protestant majority which continues in repressively ruling over the Catholics there.

The Troubles really begin in 1969 when a new radical branch of the IRA is formed to continue armed struggles to free Northern Ireland from British rule, and reunite all of Ireland into a single country. For the next 30 years, there are periodic bombing and armed conflicts in the streets of Northern Ireland as the IRA and armed goverment factions fight each other.

Interestly, the conflict has often been portrayed as a fight between Catholics and Protestants, and used to illustrate how un-Christ-like Christians can be. In reading the actual history, we learn that the conflict was actually between "nationalists" who want a free and united Ireland, and "unionists" who want to be part of the British Empire. The nationalists are predominantly Irish Catholic, and the unionists are primarily Protestants of British descent. Nevertheless the two sides help the stereotype by referring to each other as Protestants and Catholics, even when one's actual religion is neither.

Although the history of the troubles is interesting, the real story of Northern Ireland is the peace process. After many failed attempts, the two sides finally agreed to form a joint government in 1998, and following the IRA's complete disarmament in 2005, the leaders of some of the most radical on each side are sharing power in a coalition goverment. This successful resolution to a very long conflict was brought about by the tireless efforts of John Hume, and serves as a model which is followed in other modern peace efforts, such as the Israel/Palestine conflict.

Essay Assignment

It is difficult to analyze the Northern Ireland peace process authoritatively, because the the authorities are still debating the results. Here are some of the major factors which have been identified as leading to a peace agreement.

• Britain disavowed all interest in Northern Ireland and agreed to abide by Irish voters' majority decision for the fate of Northern Ireland. (Principle: the people got control and responsibility for their own destiny.)
  
• Influence and leadership of John Hume. (Principle: a great and determined statesman.)
  
• Continuing overt and covert operations made it difficult for the IRA to continue effective bombing campaigns. (Principle: powerful military action can force an opponent to the bargaining table.)
  
• IRA/Sinn Fein decided to concentrate on reform through political processes. (Principle: political gains are more productive than continuing an armed struggle.)
  
• President Clinton urged both sides to accept the Belfast agreement. (Principle: pressure from a major world power.)
  
• Establishment of the Police Service of Northern Ireland, with oversight to prevent one side from controlling the police forces. (Principle: both sides were given equal respect under the law and by law-enforcement.)
  
• Opening of a new inquiry on Bloody Sunday incident of 1972. IRA offers to shoot its own members who are involved in a murder during a ceasefire. (Principle: recognition and apologizing for past grievances.)

Which principle do you think was the most important factor leading to peace? You may choose one of the above principles, or any other principle you can think of.

Document

Sunningdate Agreement

John Hume Nobel Lecture (I didn't actually use this, but it could be a good document to study.)

Links

There are many books on the conflict in Northern Ireland. I found Northern Ireland: Troubled Land (World in Conflict) by Eric Black in my library, which was fairly good and covered the history up until the Belfast Agreement.

But for the recent developments in the peace process you may need to go to Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_Ireland_peace_process