Politics and Sociology of Northern Ireland

Introduction

Peace Process since 1998 Good Friday/Belfast Agreement

Northern Ireland is still a segregated society

Unionist versus Nationalist/Loyalist versus Republican

Catholic Church/Protestant State schools

Integrated education

Music divisions: parades versus sessions

Fraternal divisions: Orange Order/Ancient Order of Hibernians

Introduction

Recent conflict ‘The Troubles’

1960s civil rights movement

1969 conflict starts

RUC, B Specials, British Army & UDR

UVF, UDA, YCV, UFF, LVF

IRA, PIRA, INLA, RIRA

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-14997581

Cultural Goals

Demonstrate deeper literacy about issues in conflict resolution.

Demonstrate multi-cultural leadership skills as a result of taking part in various group projects with British / Irish peers

Discuss and interpret differences between U.S. and British / Irish approaches to inter-community strife.

Analyze and articulate the complexities of contemporary life in Belfast

Express how their own views of a ethno-religious and ethno-political society were tested, expanded, and transformed as a result of both in-and out-of class learning

Academic Goals

To utilize a range of disciplinary approaches (historical, political, sociologicaland anthropological) in helping to understand division and conflict withinNorthern Ireland.

To examine how contemporary political communities use the past to construct traditions, ideologies, and identities.

To explore the role of history in developing understandings of NorthernIreland.

To develop a broad understanding of the history and politics of the state.

To critically analyse contemporary issues in Northern Irish society.

To demonstrate a basic knowledge various research approaches to Northern Ireland, and to explorehow academic work can be applied.

To discuss the historical processes, the ideologies and the political movements that have created the social, economic, and cultural conflicts in Northern Ireland.

Early Irish History

Pre-Norman Ireland

&

Early Norman Ireland

Pre-Norman Ireland

• Mount Sandal settlement• Hunter Gatherers• Stone age Ireland - Mesolithic &

Neolithic sites (Newgrange)• Bronze age Ireland (Celts)• Niall Noigiallach and the Uí Néill

clan, 400s• 700s patrilineal and dynastic

system• Saint Patrick• Land of Saints and Scholars• Vikings and the founding of cities• Battle of Clontarf

Early Norman Ireland

• Arrival of the Normans• Lordship of Ireland

• Gaelic resurgence and Norman decline

• Early modern Ireland (1536–1691)• Conquest and rebellion

London in Ireland

The Black Death arrived in Ireland in 1348

By the end of the 15th century, central English authority in Ireland had all but disappeared.

From 1536, Henry VIII decided to conquer Ireland and bring it under crown control

Fitzgerald, Elizabeth and James I

The Ulster Plantations

Plantation Ireland

&

English Wars in Ireland

Belfast Foundation

1600s

Chichester Family

Second choice to Carrickfergus

Optimum choice due to low tide/convergence of rivers (Lagan & Farset)

17th Century in Ireland (Ulster)

•1601 – English Rule in name only•Flight of the Earls in 1607•plantation of Ulster•King Charles, Oliver Cromwell & the Portadown Massacre•King James, Princess Mary (daughter), Prince William (Of Orange, Son-in-Law)•King James converts to Catholicism•the battle of the Boyne in 1690, 1st July•Twelfth July, 1691, Aughrim

The Road to Revolution

Rebellion, Famine, and Revolution

&

Revolution to Rome Rule?

17th & 18th Century divisions based on religion…

• Penal Laws - 1695 prohibiting Catholics from carrying arms, owning high valued horses, and sending children abroad to Europe for education.

• Through government support of the Protestant faiths, the cultural and social systems linked to the Protestant church took precedence amongst the upper echelons of society.

• Catholic Defenders (known in later times as the Ribbonmen) and the Protestant Peep O’Day Boys.

• Loughall - 21 September 1795 the Peep O’Day Protestant Boys became the first Orangemen (Battle at the Diamond)

19th Century in Ireland

•1798 Rebellion (Theobald Wolftone & the United Irishmen)

•1801 Act of Union

•1829 when Daniel O’Connell emancipated Catholics from the penal laws

•Further campaign to liberate Ireland from England cause disaffection from Protestant supporters

•Further reactions to 1798 led to government support to Protestant traditions

19th Century development of parades

• Napoleonic Wars ended in 1815; the Yeomanry force was susceptible to Orange infiltration

• Orange parades banned in 1832 by the first Party Processions Act

• 1835 Parliament enquiry was critical of the Orange Order

• The Grand Lodge of Ireland voluntarily dissolving in 1836

• 1845 the Party Processions Act lapsed

• 1849 at Dolly’s Brae

• 1850 Party Processions Act/Party Emblems Act in 1860

• 1870s resurgence the Orange Order

An Gorta Mór

• Between 1845 and 1852

• Approx. 1 million dead

• Approx. 1 million emigrated

• Caused widespread anti-British sentiments

• ‘Gods Will’ versus ‘Ireland’s Genocide’

• Gave strength to Davitt & Parnell’s movements (Land War & Home Rule)

20th Century Ireland

• Ancient Order of Hibernians (Joe Devlin)

• Irish Parliamentary Party

• Third Home Rule Bill was passed in 1912 (House of Lords prevention)

• Ulster Volunteers, National Volunteers and the Irish Volunteers engage in gun-running (1914)

• outbreak of war in Europe in 1914

20th Century Ireland (WWI)

• Edward Carson and James Craig

• September 1912 prepared: Ulster Covenant with over 230,000 signatures

• On 4 August 1914 John Redmond, the leader of the Irish Parliamentary Party and the Irish Volunteers, promised the support of the Irish Volunteers

• six thousand of the Irish Volunteers broke rank under Eoin MacNeill for 1916 Easter Rebellion in Dublin alongside James Connolly’s Irish Citizen Army

• Redmond’s Volunteers were amalgamated in the 10th and 16th (Irish) Divisions

• Ulster Volunteer Force was amalgamated with the 36th (Ulster) Division

20th Century Ireland (WWI & Anglo-Irish War/Irish War of Independence)

• Battle of the Somme

• Easter Rising in Dublin

• 1918 release

• 1919 war starts (Soloheadbeg - Tipperary)

• Auxiliaries, often referred to as the Black and Tans

• In 1920 the Government of Ireland Act was partially enacted

• 1922 after negotiations and subsequent ratification of the Anglo-Irish Treaty (1921) between Dáil Éireann and the British Government, the Irish Free State was formed.

• Irish Civil War

• Boundary Commission

• 1950s revived Irish Republican Army

• 1963 a Loyalist organisation formed under Gusty Spence and claimed the Ulster Volunteer Force title as its own

Post WWII, Pre-conflict, Early Conflict

• 1960s the Catholic population in Northern Ireland became increasingly restless in the face of the institutionalised discrimination

• Troubles erupted in August 1969 in Derry city’s Nationalist Bogside area

• East Belfast Saint Matthew’s Catholic Church in the Short Strand area was attacked by a Loyalist mob

• Bombay Street in the largely Catholic western part of the city resulting in loss of civilian life

• British Army were brought into duty under Operation Banner (auxiliary police force, ‘the B Specials’)

• Provisional Irish Republican Army and the Ulster Defence Association