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Guys I'm thinking of posting this article in Irish Abroad, but thought I'd run it past you lot first, for sensible criticism, before the loopers in IA had a look at it! As the subject suggests, I've been writing a compilation of the events at the very start of the recent Troubles... from about 1966 onward. I don't think anyone has yet successfully collated all the event and analysed them.. and this is by no means a collection of all the events... just some of the key events that I have remembered from the sources I have read, and looked up recently. The article itself starts with my next post. |
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From a background of peace in Northern Ireland that had lasted for years, suddenly sprang hatred and polarisation not seen in Ireland since the turn of the century. The IRA, as it was then, had lost much support and two campaigns of violence had petered out through lack of support in the 1950s. The Northern Irish government had been bending over backwards to ease the problems that, through the fault of no one, Roman Catholics had in comparison to much of the rest of the population. In one of the least affluent areas, Londonderry, the government had set up a string of manufacturing companies, creating the largest collective of linen manufacturers in Europe. While things were not perfect, and discrimination from and against all religious denominations did exist, Northern Ireland had been reasonably well off. Output and Gross National Product for the six counties were consistantly twice that of its neighbour, the Republic of Ireland which had more than twice the population and land area. Availability of Public Housing was more generous to Roman Catholics than to other denominations in the Province, and new houses were being built at a rate twice that in the Republic, and higher even than the rest of the UK. In 1963, pro-Union parties recieved nearly 80% of the total votes. In 1967 there was founded the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association, which was modelled on the National Council for Civil Liberties on the mainland. Although its stated objectives seemed fair, there was a shadow on the organisation from the outset. This didn't deter many people from joining, including many socially conscious Protestants. Indeed, one of the leaders of NICRA was a Protestant woman. The Cameron Commission, set up to investigate the upsurge in street violence at the end of the decade, had this to say about NICRA: "... certain at least of those who were prominent in the Association had objects far beyond the 'reformist' character of the majority of the Civil Rights Associaion demands, and undoubtedly regarded the Association as a stalking-horse for achievement of other and more radical and in some cases revolutionary objects, in particular abolition of the border, unification of Ireland outside the United Kingdom and the setting up of an all-Ireland Workers' Socialist Republic." When the organisation started, much of its time was concerned with the affairs of the gypsy population (now known in Politically Correct terminology as "Travellers"). On the 24th of August 1968, NICRA held a march and demonstration in Dungannon. The police re-routed part of the march in order to avoid trouble from people who considered the march to be politically subversive. NICRA accepted this. Many of the demonstrators were known IRA actives and Republicans. Nevertheless, the demonstration passed off peacefully, marred only by Gerry Fit's verbal attack on the police who were present to protect the demonstrators. Increasingly the IRA had started moving towards a more political policy - leaving terrorist tactics behind. There were however, a substantial number within the organisation that were hardliners and wished to continue with the violent protests. They had been plotting, along with the government of the Republic (albeit reluctantly), to seize control of Northern Ireland. Brian Lenihan, former Minister for Justice of the Dail, had revealed some of the plans from a document recovered from the IRA in May 1966. Parts of the document revealed the plan to infiltrate various cultural organisations, including the student population. From thence the Peoples' Democracy was formed. But by December of 1969, the IRA Army Council voted in favour of recognising the Dublin, Westminster and Belfast authorities, by a majority of three to one. This caused a split in the Republican movement, and the more militant Provisional IRA was formed. The following month, a split mirroring that of the IRA, took place with Sinn Féin. Two new organisations were born: the Provisional IRA, as already mentioned, and Provisional Sinn Féin. The original of both groups were to become known as the Official IRA and, eventually, the Workers' Party. In January 1993, Neil Blaney revealed that the Dublin government had indeed been involved in actively helping the IRA. This help included the setting up and transferring of money to four secret bank accounts, and the training of IRA members by the Army of the Irish Republic. Publically however, the Irish Republic took a step back from the IRA. |
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Although relations between Nationalists and Unionists were never totaly hormonous, the Northern Ireland government had made countless gestures towards and on behalf of Nationalist and Roman Catholic sentiment. The first Roman Catholic church in Belfast was built by Protestant builders and by money donated by Protestant businessmen. William Philbin, the Catholic Bishop of Down and Connor, had accepted an invitation to a reception in Belfast City Hall. In 1963, Young Unionists travelled to Dublin for talks with a branch of Fine Gael. On the 3rd of June 1963, when Pope John XXIII died, Northern Ireland Governor, Lord Wakehurst, sent the condolences of the people of Northern Ireland to Rome. Terrence O'Neill said that, "[the Pope..] had won widespread acclaim throughout the world because of his qualities of kindness and humanity." The next day the Union Jack was flown at half-mast over Belfast City Hall. However, O'Neill's attempts at building bridges during his appointment as Northern Ireland's Prime Minister, was constantly thwarted by a certain religious zealot - Ian Paisley. The Republic, under the direction of Taoiseach Sean Lemass, had grown in economic stature - to the tune of 4% economically per year between the years of 1959 to 1972. The economic gap between the north and the south had begun to narow. Contrary, while Northern Ireland's living standards continued to increase - mostly because of the advantages of it remaining in the UK - the traditional industries had begun to suffer. The largest Ropeworks company in the world - Belfast Ropeworks - collapsed. Short Brothers - Northern Ireland's aircraft factory, was enjoying mixed fortunes. The Shipyard Harland & Wolff was suffering due to not having expanded and modernised until 1970. The huge linen industry was suffering - probably due to the increase in success of popular man-made synthetics. The government had managed to almost reach its target of 30,000 new jobs in 1969 but, because of the decline of the various big industries in Northern Ireland, the net gain of the number of jobs was only around 5,000. In 1965, O'Neill sent Lemass an invitation to Belfast. The meeting was amicable, and measured by both in terms of success. Paisley however, had taken the stance that O'Neill was a traitor and an encourager of popery. He had previously said of the Queen Mother and Princess Anne that they were "committing spiritual fornication and adultery with the Anti-Christ" regarding their visit to Pope John in 1958. Further, he had told a gathering at Belfast City Hall that "This Romanish man of sin is now in Hell," after the pope had died some five years later. Nevertheless, Captain O'Neill pressed on with the issue of bridge-building, damage control and repairations between the two communities. On Good Friday 1966, he expressed his hope that Catholics and Protestants could be educated together some day. On the 6th of June, 1966 Ian Paisley led several hundred supporters from his church on the Ravenhill Road through the city. They were apparently protesting at the Presbyterian Church's "Romanising ways." Paisley's demonstrators had been attacked with bricks as they passed through Catholic areas of the city. The police fought to restrain people in the Markets area until midnight, and Paisley was arrested and sent to Crumlin Road jail. The next weekend rioting broke out on the Shankill Road, and the police had to deploy water canon to contain them. 1966 was the fiftieth anniversary of the Battle of the Somme. Militant loyalists met in a bar on the Shankill called the Standard Bar. There they formed a new terrorist group named after the old Ulster Volunteer Force, with an aim to oust O'Neill and fight against the IRA. On the 7th of May, one UVF member tried to petrol bomb a Catholic-owned pub on the Shankill. He missed, which might be funny but for the fact that he set fire instead to Martha Gould's house - a neighbouring elderly Protestant - who was burned to death. Various attacks against what the UVF claimed were known IRA men were carried out. One man who was involved in murdering Catholics, after having been arrested, told the RUC, "I am terribly sorry I ever heard of that man Paisley or decided to follow him." |
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Ironically, O'Neill had been in France, commemorating those who had died at the Somme (the dead at that battle included both the old UVF members and Irish Volunteers) while this had been going on. He returned to Belfast and immediately made the UVF illegal. This is how O'Neill described his position at that time:
"From one side came the extreme Repubicans, who sought to flaunt before our people the emblems of a cause which a majority of us abhor, and who once again refused to renounce violence as a political weapon. From the other side came those self-appointed and self-styled 'loyalists' who see modernisation as treason and decency as weakness." In 1967 the RUC uncovered a plot by the UVF to assassinate O'Neill. During these years it was made apparent that discrimination existed in the job market. Though mostly this was non-malicious in nature. The fact was that many businesses were family-run. Discrimination was thus not confined only to Roman Catholics. The attitude of larger 'Protestant firms' managers was that "I have no objections to employing a Catholic, but the workers would not stand for it." The way in which Roman Catholics lived had a lot to do with lack of opportunity too. This, and the fact that they were indeed a minority. For example, because of larger family size, Catholic kids would often go immmediately into unskilled jobs, instead of into higher education. Many of these socio-economic factors were not taken into account at the time of the Cameron Commission. On Saturday the 5th of October 1968, NICRA had organised a demonstration in Derry. Unlike the previous demonstration in Dungannon on the 24th of August, NICRA for some reason ignored police advice on re-routing parts of the march to avoid friction. The demonstrators pushed through the police, who were taken unawares, and the whole thing resulted in rioting and looting of shops. Violence continued the following day. The Cameron Commission claimed that there was a deliberate policy by the organisers of the demonstration, to bring about street violence. NICRA held another march at the end of November in Armagh, to which Ian Paisley organised a counter-demonstration - many of his followers armed with cudgels. Again Paisley spent a period in prison for unlawful assembly. The NICRA demonstrators had begun displaying Republican tricolours and attacking the police who were there for their safety. Thus NICRA started showing its true colours and agenda. Most Protestants had at this stage left the organisation. The police were becoming increasingly less able and equipped to deal with the rioting and the job of protecting the demonstrators. It was pointed out that a demonstration in Northern Ireland of some 15,000 people was expected to be handled by about 180 policemen. This was compared to a similar demonstration in London of some 30,000 people, which had been controlled by 10,000 policemen. And yet, from other quarters, people were labelling Northern Ireland as a 'police state.' For some unknown reason, the police forces of the mainland did not become involved. It is usually the case that, if extra manpower is needed in times of violence, other police forces are called upon to offer their assistance. This was never done in the case of street riots or violent demonstrations in Northern Ireland. During the years of 1968 and 1969, a relatively small police force in Northern Ireland had to deal with wide-scale public disorder... the likes of which they had not had to deal with before. The Special Reserves were the only thing the police had to rely upon - but they were untrained in matters of crowd control, and a lot less disciplined than the full-time RUC. Indeed, it seemed that the demonstrators were only too aware of the stretching of facilities that the RUC had undergone to try to contain rioting. The Scarman Tribunal, which specifically investigated the rioting and violent clashes at demonstrations, were quite happy with the restraint shown by the RUC. "We are satisfied that the spread of the disturbances owed much to a deliberate decision of some minority groups to relieve police pressure on the rioters in Londonderry. Amongst these groups must be included NICRA, whose executive decided to organise demonstrators in the Province so as to prevent reinforcement of the police in Londonderry." In August of 1969, the annual celebrations of the Relief of Derry was attacked at the end of the day. Republican militants had stockpiled large amounts of petrol bombs and missiles. The police were resisted when they tried to enter, and flags of the Republic of Ireland were flown. The police continued to be attacked with viscious propaganda, as well as the petrol bombs. The Scarman report had this to say about the propaganda: "The general case of a partisan force co-operating with Protestant mobs to attack Catholic people is devoid of substance, and we reject it utterly. We are satisfied that the great majority of the members of the RUC was concerned to do its duty, which, so far as concerned the disturbances, was to maintain order on the streets, using no more force than was reasonably necessary to suppress rioting and protect life and limb. Inevitably, however, this meant that confrontations and on occasions conflict with disorderly mobs. Moreover, since most of the rioting developed from action on the streets started by Catholic crowds, the RUC were more often than not facing Catholics who, as a result, came to feel that the police were always going for them, baton-charging them - never the 'others.' In fact the RUC faced and, if necessary, charged those who appeared to them to be challenging, defying or attacking them. We are satisfied that though they did not expect to be attacked by Protestants, they were ready to deal with them in the same way, if it became necessary. The Shankill riots of 2-4 August established beyond doubt the readiness of the police to do their duty against Protestant mobs when they were the disturbers of the public peace." Simultaneously, rioting started in Dungannon, Coalisland, Dungiven, Newry, Armagh and Belfast. The violence in Belfast spread outward from the Falls area. Due to its close proximity, and the fear in the hearts of people on the Shankill, a counter-attack was made by loyalists which left whole streets in the Falls in flames. Many unionists were becoming increasingly impatient at the seeming kid-gloves approach to the violence that the Orange Walks attracted. The injury caused to a young boy attending an Orange parade as it passed Unity Flats on the 12th of July 1969, later created a violent backlash. Because of the threat of rioting spilling into adjacent areas, and the fact that people were totally lacking in confidence in the RUC's ability to contain the rioting, many people joined up with one or other of the paramilitary organisations in order to defend themselves. But so vigorous was the counter-attack on the Falls, that Army reinforcements were finally called in - to protect the smaller-sized Roman Catholic enclaves from the larger non-Catholic surrounding areas. The date was the 16th of August, 1969. [...] In the mid-1970s, thousands of milk bottles began to disappear, having been stolen for use as petrol bombs. Old style parking meters were withdrawn because of the ease of use of the timing mechanisms. Restrictions were imposed on availibility of fertilizer and other chemicals which could be used easily to make bombs. |
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Set, Its brilliantly written and not one sided which I like. If someone were to post in IA that they donated bone marrow on IA some idiot would criticsie it. Feck the wankers and post it. Erin |
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I admire your attempt at trying to tell the story of Irish Politics in Northern Ireland from 1969 etc. It is a very difficult job; and for making this attempt, you should be congratulated. I do not agree with all your conclusions in your report. I am looking at it from an Irish Catholic from County Mayo. I feel that it is very difficult to discuss the above period of Irish Politics, in isolation. My references for my arguments are taken from the following books. 1) Interview from "Survivors" - The story of Ireland's struggle as told through some of her outstanding living people recalling events from days of Davitt, through James Connelly , Brugha, Collins, Liam Mellows, and Rory O'Connor to the present time, related to Vinseann Mac Eoin. The main character I am refering to is Tom Maguire Commandant General I.R.A (Second Division). 2) "Star of the Sea" by Joseph O' Connor, which tells the story of the famine period in Galway and Connemara, and a boat trip from Liverpool /Cork to New York in 1847. I take the liberty to quote from this book, a statement made by Charles Trevelyan, Assistant Sectetary to Her Majesty's Trasury, 1847 (Knighted, 1848 for overseeing famine relief. Quote (The Famine) is a punishment from God for an idle, ungrateful and rebellious country, and indolent and nu-self-reliant people. The Irish are suffering fron an affliction of God's providence. Unquote. Quote Providence sent the potato blight but England made the Famine... We are sick of the canting talk of those who tell us that we must not blame the British people for the crimes of their rulers against Ireland. We do blame them. James Connolly, co-leader of the Easter Rising against British Rule 1916. Unquote. My argument against your proposal is that you cannot speak of the Northern Ireland in isolation from 1969, without first understanding the complete history of Ireland; and making some reference to your statement, in the background notes leading up to your statement. If your background notes were acceptable to both the Catholic and Prodentant points of view (Impossible task), then I could read your post; and accept what you are trying to do. Off course I would then be looking at your post from the Nationalist point of view, and I am afraid I could not accept your discription of this view. I am also guilty of been over accommodating to the UK point of view on Irish Politics. It is only when I keep reminding myself of the actual situation as seen throught the eyes of Tom Maguire and Joseph O' Connor; that I realize that it is very important to back the IRA stance on the Good Friday Agreement. To me there is no other way except for the Good Friday Agreement. |
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Thanks for all your comments.
Thanks for the constructive criticism too Duthy. You say that it is impossible to tell the story of the (recent) Troubles in Northern Ireland without also examining the history of Ireland prior to that period. But I propose that it is, given that a basic understanding of history is already established in the reader's mind. Otherwise where in history should I have started? The Mesolithic period? The Celtic settlements? The Gaelic invasions? The Norman invasions? The article isn't finished - I just posted what I have written so far. And by no means is it a complete history even of that period - many events have and will be left out. But it is simply beyond the scope to produce a history of the periods that you mention, such as the Potato Famine. The history of the British Isles, especially Irish history is, as I'm sure you're aware, very complex and not entirely black and white. You say, "If your background notes were acceptable to both the Catholic and Prodentant points of view (Impossible task), then I could read your post; and accept what you are trying to do." But I have had no responces from anyone who is not from a Roman Catholic background as yet. Another point is that I myself am not a Protestant nor a Roman Catholic. As for what I'm trying to do - I am writing a description of the events and feelings of people at the time. You say that you do not agree with my conclusions.. and yet I don't feel I have made any. I'd certainly be interested in any points you have to make on any specific part of my commentary though :)
"It is only when I keep reminding myself of the actual situation as seen throught the eyes of Tom Maguire and Joseph O' Connor;" My personal opinion is that the politics of yesteryear are not really as applicable to current events as they were at that time. "that I realize that it is very important to back the IRA stance on the Good Friday Agreement. To me there is no other way except for the Good Friday Agreement." I prefer to think of it as backing the people of Ireland - and specifically those of Northern Ireland. I do not back terrorists or terrorism of any kind.
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You raise an interesting point Duthy, regarding the GFA as being the only way. I'd like to say that I am pro-Agreement, but I have an interesting argument to make, which I will post now on a new thread. |
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Setanta,<o:p></o:p>
I accept your criticisms. I hate having to bring religion into the
argument. As far as I am concerned religion is a private matter to the
individual. I respect everyone’s religious beliefs, even if the differ
from what I believe. Unfortunately this was not the situation, looking back
through Irish history.<o:p></o:p>
<o:p> </o:p>
As you have stated, your
final post on IA maybe different; once you hear other people’s points of
view. <o:p></o:p>
<o:p> </o:p>
You are fully correct with
your last statement. <o:p></o:p>
<o:p> </o:p>
I prefer to
think of it as backing the people of <st1:country-region><st1:place>Ireland</st1:place></st1:country-region> - and specifically those of <st1:country-region><st1:place>Northern Ireland</st1:place></st1:country-region>. I do not back terrorists or
terrorism of any kind<o:p></o:p>
<o:p> </o:p>
I wish you all the best with your post;
even though I do not agree with all you have said. I am also sure that most of
the dis-agreements that you and I might have over the post; could be sorted out
with different emphasis on words and statements<o:p></o:p>
<o:p> </o:p>
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Set, go ahead and post it on IA. If they don't like it (Which some won't!) Feck em! |
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Ultima; very well laid out - although I can't condemn it nor condone it. My Knowledge of Irish History is not what it should be sad to say. I have copied and pasted it and made a word document I'm holding it in my PC if you don't mind. I want to take it apart and dissect every bit of it. It will definitely raise eyebrows in IA- for that reason alone and if you are confident in your research I would say YES!!!!! post it in IA. |
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Hey Rad - go ahead mate!  Its public property ... all I ask is that I'm credited with anything from it if anyone is to use it anywhere else. |
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