the troubles in N. ireland
...nto parliament to speak for their fellow people. This was known as “Gerrymandering”, the process by which constituency boundaries were redrawn to favour the Protestant population. The Unionists controlled the Catholic areas, and this was a huge disadvantage to the Catholic people in essence they had no political power. Catholics were not given job opportunities, if a Protestant and a Catholic applied for the same job, no matter how good the Catholic was, the Protestant would always get the job. This meant that many Catholics were unemployed and could not often afford to feed their families. Catholic children were put in the worst schools, whilst the Protestant children were put in the very best schools. This was because Catholic schools only received 80% grants while Protestants received 100% grants. This allowed Protestant schools to have better facilities and equipment. Many Protestant children grew up believing that Catholics were evil and the Protestant religion was the way forward and vice versa. Another significant social problem at the time for Catholic people was that they were placed in the worst housing. If a Catholic family were in need of home, they would become second-class citizens to a single Protestant girl, a girl would have a better chance of acquiring the house than a needy Catholic family. Many Children had inadequate diets which resulted in many children dying of malnutrition. Many of the children’s parents could not afford to pay doctor’s bills. There was an outbreak of Tuberculosis (TB), which killed thousands of men, mainly aged between 15-25. Due to the corrupt political social system Catholics became extremely annoyed and the civil marches grew in popularity and violence increased. In 1969 The British Government sent the army into Northern Ireland to “Prevent a Civil War”. Despite all the unfairness the Catholics had to deal with, this had not been necessary earlier. Many things changed between 1960-1969. Firstly before 1960 Catholics pursued peaceful methods, inspired by The American Civil Rights Movement, the Northern Ireland civil rights association began. This was due to the World Media. When people saw how the Catholics were being treated they felt sympathy towards them. The people also felt that this treatment was a disgrace so the British government had to be seen to be doing something, just like the American government and civil rights. From 1920 through to 1960 Catholics had campaigned for fairer conditions and had expected change to come through the ballot box (they did not know that their votes had been ignored). The Police in Northern Ireland were 95% Protestant and extremely biased against Catholics and Violent towards Catholics, they would attack innocent Catholics for no reason whatsoever. The “B-Specials” were created – this was a unit within the Police, that were 95% Protestant. There were one third of the places in the RUC reserved for Roman Catholics but they still failed to join the RUC. The RUC were very violent towards Catholics, Catholic marches were banned, as they were basically unionist government. Student demonstrations ended up in violence. This angered the Catholics; they felt that if the Protestants should get to march then why shouldn’t they. Housing conditions were appalling for Catholics, they marched and campaigned about their unfair housing, yet again nothing was done. As the civil rights movement grew in the U.S.A., Irish Catholics saw black protests in America erupting into violence. The violent protest spread to Ireland. Student demonstrations all over Europe were becoming violent, this too acted as inspiration for the desperate Catholics. Education was now slightly fairer, Catholics were allowed to go to university, but were not allowed jobs. As Emanon McCann, a leading member of the civil rights movement, remarked, “By the early 1960s we could easily get a place at university but couldn’t get a job as a lavatory cleaner at Derry guildhall. That made us angry.” This alone proves that the Catholics were becoming increasingly angered by the lack of equal opportunity in Northern Ireland. The Catholic Irish were beginning to lose faith and trust in their politicians, they felt that O’Neill was not keeping his promise of a “fairer deal for Catholics”; they were beginning to feel they needed to take the law into their own hands. As tensions grew, segregation becomes more likely. In cities like Londonderry and Belfast, “many people who lived in the “wrong” area- that is Catholics in Protestant areas and vice versa- were forced to leave their homes”. In these circumstances it was much easier for battle lines to be drawn. Many people feel that the IRA was the reason for British soldiers being sent into Northern Ireland. However, from studying the facts I realise that this cannot be the reason as to why the troops were sent to Northern Ireland. In 1962 the IRA abandoned its campaign of violence because the lack of Catholic support. In August 1969, there is more fighting between Protestants and Catholics in Belfast, and the British Army moves in. It is only then that the IRA splits into two groups: Official and Provisional. The bombing campaign by the IRA started in 1970. A more telling fact as to why British troops were sent in to Northern Ireland in 1969 may be due to the fact that the Irish Prime Minister, Jack Lynch was threatening to intervene with the troubles in Northern Ireland, and went as far as moving Irish army units towards the border. The British government may have felt that matters were gradually being taken out of their hands. The Battle of the...