Northern Ireland - History of the Troubles

The Northern Ireland Troubles, sometimes referred to as the Northern Ireland conflict, will be remembered by many, from the images shown by the news rooms throughout the world. Anyone who had a visit to Northern Ireland during these times will most certainly remember the army presence on the streets and the remnants of burned out lorries, buses and cars.

I grew up in Northern Ireland through these so-called "troubles" and thought I would like to put my own impressions down in this article. The use of the word troubles has always confused many in the outside world, and in truth it is a ridiculous use of the word. A more appropriate way of describing what happened would be a conflict and many often refer to it as a war. For me, I believe it to be somewhere in between. Many questions have been asked about this period in history, and it is often hard to explain this to people from outside our small country.

To begin with I will set a little history as this helps give the context into which you can then better understand the setting and politics that existed in Northern Ireland. I will however only go back as far as 1688.

In 1688, James II was the ruling catholic King in England. The British, invited William of Orange, a Protestant prince from the Netherlands, to come and rule England and Scotland. On his arrival James fled to Ireland and at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690 in Ireland, William defeated James II. This became viewed as a great battle for protestantism over catholicism that was won through the death of many.

You will hear me speak of Orangemen in this article and subsequent articles, and this is where the name derives from, Prince William of Orange. That battle is commemorated on July 12th every year as hundreds of thousands of Orange men take to the streets of Northern Ireland in various marches.

From 1690 onwards until 1916 there were many political debates as to whether Northern Ireland should remain part of the UK, or indeed be returned as a part of Ireland. These disputes and political wrangles finally culminated on April 24th 1916, in what was known as the Easter Rising.

Irish rebels seized various strategic buildings in Dublin, the main one being the General Post Office (GPO) in O'Connell Street. The battle continued for 5 days as around 20,000 British soldiers entered the city and finally overcame the rebels, who were forced to surrender. The British then sentenced 70 people to death and of these some 15 were executed. Maxwell the British commander, shot fourteen rebels in Dublin's Kilmainham Gaol. The strange thing was, many Irishmen at that time viewed these rebels as little more than troublemakers yet, the sixteen were instantly raised to national martyrs thanks to Maxwell's rash and heavy-handed approach.

There then followed a war of independence and this is when partition was introduced and two countries formed on the island of Ireland, something that remains in place to this day. From 1919-1922, Michael Collins and the IRA used violence to force Britain to negotiate. The Government of Ireland Act was introduced, and two parliaments formed, one in Dublin and one in Belfast. One became the Irish Free State, often called Eire or the Republic of Ireland and ruled by a Dublin parliament, and the other formed what is now known as Northern Ireland and is under law, part of the UK.

Once again violence escalated as Catholics opposed the partition of Ireland. It was followed by yet another civil war and Sinn Fein started to split. The newly formed Free State Army, took up arms against former IRA comrades and in these violent exchanges Michael Collins was killed. Over 1,000 rebels were imprisoned without trial. Eamon de Valera became the leader of the Free State Army, and split away from his republican colleagues to form the Fianna Fail party, which has to this day dominates Irish politics. After a brief bombing campaign in England by the IRA, the Irish Free State, fearing for its independence, executed five IRA leaders and introduced internment.

This did stem the violence for some time and things remained quiet until the year of 1969, the start of thirty years of murder, bombings and bloodshed. In 1969 and mainly on the back of a civil right's campaign that had its synergy and roots with Martin Luther King, catholics held a civil protest with the slogan being, "One man, One Vote." The state of Northern Ireland at that time was claimed to be a state, run by protestants for protestants, and catholics were demanding to be treated as equal citizens. The police force of the day, the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) under the instruction of the Unionist Government at Stormont Belfast, attacked the Catholic civil rights protests.

Protestant loyalists, their name coming from their "loyalty" to British rule, set up counter protests and this eventually led to escalating violence. The older IRA leadership was viewed as passive while catholics were being burned out of their homes and a splinter group appeared from more younger aggressive catholics and became known as the Provisional IRA.

In quite an ironic move the British Army was brought in to protect catholics and were given a warm welcome. However as the violence continued the British Government working with the Unionist Northern Ireland government introduced internment in 1971. Nearly 2,000 people were arrested and held without trial. In a bid to prevent further attacks on British troops. That move increased support for the IRA and their numbers grew quickly.

On January 30 1972, British soldiers shot dead 13 men and injured 14 others, one of them fatally, during a civil rights march in Derry. This became known as one of the darkest days in Irish history and is still known as Bloody Sunday. After that, thousands of people joined the IRA. The violence poured out on to the streets.

I remember being 12 years of age and going to school in Belfast. The army seemed to be everywhere, armed with guns and driving lorries and armoured vehicles around the city streets. I remember watching the petrol bombs being thrown at them. Strange as this may seem to people reading this, it soon became a normality for us. We were given stick on badges for our school uniforms which could be quickly removed so as fighting gangs did not know your religion. I remember watching one day as a soldier fired a rubber bullet into a crowd who were throwing stones, and then he ran back to his jeep. He fell on his way back and a huge cheer went up, followed by a hail of stones and broken bricks and bottles. Sadly, this was a daily occurrence as the violence continued to escalate.

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