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The
conflicts in Northern Ireland ("troubles") |
The work of Mairead
Corrigan and Betty Williams is set against the conflicts in Northern Ireland -
"The Troubles". The roots of these troubles stretch well back into history.
This section attempts to chronicle the history and the present situation in Northern
Ireland. The following extract has been taken form an encyclopedia
under the heading of "Northern Ireland":
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Encyclopedia:
"Northern Ireland" |
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Northern
Ireland,
province, part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern
Ireland, situated in the north-eastern portion of the island of Ireland.
Northern Ireland is bounded on the north and north-east by the North
Channel, on the south-east by the Irish Sea; on the south and west it
has a 488 km (303 mi) border with the Republic of Ireland. It includes
Rathlin Island in the North Channel and several smaller offshore islands.
Northern Ireland is also known as Ulster, because it comprises six of
the nine counties that constituted the former Irish province of Ulster.
The total land area of Northern Ireland is 14,160 sq km (5,467 sq mi).
Belfast is the capital of Northern Ireland.
History: In 1920, when Ireland was
granted home rule, six of the nine counties of the province of Ulster,
northernmost of the four Irish provinces, were given the opportunity to
separate politically from the rest of Ireland and remain part of the
United Kingdom. Under the Government of Ireland Act of 1920, which
effected the partition of Ireland, the six counties became a separate
political division of the United Kingdom, known as the province of
Northern Ireland, with its own constitution, parliament, and
administration for local affairs. The Irish Free State (later Éire, and
now the Republic of Ireland) did not accept the separation as permanent,
and the reunification of the island remained an element of the
constitution until the referendum of May 1998 (see below). The
Protestant majority in Northern Ireland has consistently refused to
consider a reunion. The boundary between the Republic of Ireland and
Northern Ireland was fixed in 1925. Most people in Northern Ireland saw
partition from the Roman Catholic south and union with the United
Kingdom as the safeguard of their Protestant religion and dominant
political, economic, and social position. For many Irish Catholics, the
creation of Northern Ireland was simply the latest of a very long line
of British injustices inflicted upon the people of Ireland.
[Taken from: Microsoft Encarta 2001] |
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The fundamentals of the
conflict in Northern Ireland
To understand the conflict in Northern Ireland,
one has to go a long way back into history. It is there, in history, that one
finds an explanation for the troubles that have made the current situation in
Northern Ireland one of the most difficult to resolve. This historically
founded, conflict-bound situation forms a real dilemma and could be described as
being a double minority problem:
 | The Catholics in Ireland make up the
majority and the Protestants the minority. |
| In Northern Ireland, however, it is the
Protestants that make up the majority and the Catholics the minority. The
Catholics continue to be at a disadvantage. |
| Were Ireland to be united, the Protestants
would form a minority in a "united Ireland". And their greatest
fear is that it would be they that would be at a disadvantage. |
| For Ireland to be united, Northern Ireland's
Protestant population would have to agree to becoming a minority group in a
united Ireland. |
| The Protestants in Northern Ireland,
therefore, are very keen to maintain the status quo, that is, their
ties to the United Kingdom - the Union. And it for this reason that they are
called unionists. |
| Northern Ireland's Catholics, on the other hand, want a united Ireland and an end to
the disadvantages that they suffer. They are keen to promote the idea of a
national Irish state. And it is for this reason that they are referred to as
nationalists. |
| There are also groups that want Northern
Ireland to become independent of London, but who don't want Northern Ireland
to be united with the Republic of Ireland. These groups include the three
founders of the Peace People: Mairead Corrigan, Betty Williams and Ciaran McKeown. |
If we add to this the historically difficult
and extraordinarily tainted role of Great Britain - whose actual intentions for
deploying troops in the province was not to become a target and a player in the
troubles, but rather to calm tensions - it is easy to understand why many Irish
people say with a resignation and humor:
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"We
have a problem for every solution." |
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Further information on the
conflict in Northern Ireland:
Chronology |
Our
chronology is a collection of the most important dates in the Northern
Ireland conflict [to
the chronology] |
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The
text entitled "history" addresses the historical roots of the
current conflict, that is, the 750-year-long Irish struggle for freedom,
which ended in 1922 with the independence of a section of Ireland [to
the "history" text"] |
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A
further text outlines the development of Northern Ireland during the
20th century [to
the "troubles" text"] |
 |
Drawing
on the city of Derry, or rather Londonderry, the nature of the conflict
is made clearer. This city has always been one of those at the centre of
the "troubles" [to
the press article on Derry] |
 |
CAIN
provides some excellent online content and information on the
troubles in Northern Ireland and encompasses a great number of
chronologies, essays and background texts: http://cain.ulst.ac.uk |
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