|
Why is it proving so difficult to make peace in Northern Ireland?
It is proving so difficult to make peace in Northern Ireland because the two (main) communities both want very different thing (the Catholics want a United Ireland whereas the Protestants want Northern Ireland to stay a part of United Kingdom) and neither group is willing to compromise enough to achieve lasting peace.
The ‘Irish Problem’ started in 1000AD when three groups of people went to Ireland- Gaels, Vikings and Norman knights. Although there was some conflict in the beginning it died down and the different groups inter married.
By 1500AD all Irish people followed the Gaelic way of life and the Catholic faith. At this point the English Government had very little control over Ireland.
Life was relatively peaceful in Northern Ireland until 1916 when the Easter Rising occurred. The Easter Rising was centred mainly in Dublin and aimed to overthrow the power of the British government in Ireland. It contributed towards the difficulties in Northern Ireland and made peace even harder to achieve. The Easter Rising gave the Catholics and Protestants more reason to hate each other and it encouraged the groups more to be adamant about what they wanted.
The Partition of Ireland was the step taken in order to attempt making peace in Northern Ireland. The North of Ireland was separated from the rest of Ireland. The Northern area consisted of six counties (it was originally meant to be nine but three counties were taken out as they contained a majority of Catholics). The government separated Ireland up by splitting the Protestants and Catholics up; the majority of Catholics in the South and the majority of Protestants in the North. The Catholics accepted this because they thought that it was the best deal that they would get at the time and hoped that later they would get a completely United Ireland. The Protestants accepted it because they thought that this was the only way for them to remain a part of United Kingdom, and also, they would be in controlling Northern Ireland as the majority of Northern Ireland Protestant.
Bloody Sunday occurred on Sunday January 30th 1972. Fourteen unarmed Catholic civilians were shot dead by British troops, during a march, against internment without trial. The march turned into a violent confrontation between the Nationalists and the British troops. This hindered the peace process in Northern Ireland because it gave the Catholics more reason to hate the British Government as British troops shot fourteen Catholics without a just reason, they thought that the shootings were the a demonstration from the British of their power in Ireland. The Protestants thought that British troops were protecting them from the Catholics.
As a result of Bloody Sunday the Sunningdale Agreement (power sharing) came out. The power sharing agreement basically stated that Northern Ireland would be semi- independent. The Catholics were pleased with this as it gave them more power over the running of Northern Ireland. The Protestants however didn’t like the new arrangement; there was a massive opposition, which led to a strike organized by the Power workers, so the Power Sharing idea was unsuccessful so the government got rid of it.
The hunger strikes were an extreme way for the Catholics (in particular Bobby Sands) to prove how far they were willing to go to secure a United Ireland. In the 1981 Bobby Sands died in prison after refusing to eat for 66 days, he led nine other prisoners in a hunger strike, the hunger strikes contributed to the peaces process in a negative way as the Catholics saw the hunger strikes were another way of the British Government saying that they don’t care about the Catholics in Northern Ireland, so there was increased support for the IRA and terrorism the Protestants got scared when the level of violence increased and responded with more violence. As the two communities had resorting to violence again the peace process was hindered once more.
The Northern Ireland Assembly was suspended in 2000 (it still hasn’t been reinstated) and the British government forced direct rule from Westminster on Northern Ireland once again. The Assembly was suspended when it became obvious that that the power sharing agreement couldn’t be upheld any longer, because the two communities were not co-operating fully, another factor that caused its suspension was the ongoing problem of the decommissioning of arms.
So overall it is proving difficult to achieve lasting peace in Northern Ireland because of the different aims of the communities, if both communities were willing to compromise enough to keep the other group happy then the attempt to make peace in Northern Ireland would be much more successful and life in Northern Ireland would be much more peaceful. Also the problems, which are still ongoing in Northern Ireland, would not be as serious because there would be more possible solutions to the ‘Irish Problem’.
|