The Good Friday Agreement

The 1998 ‘Good Friday Agreement’, so called because of the day on which it was signed, is the latest attempt to end 30 years of the ‘Troubles’ between the Nationalist and Unionist communities in Northern Ireland.

Source 1 identifies social problems between the two communities. The picture of the baby with a bib reading ‘Born to walk the Garvaghy Road No Surrender’ and a Union Jack hat. What this shows is that these children are made to be a certain way and have a certain opinion before they are old enough to have their own.

Source 3 shows the economic problems that the country as a whole faces. Its GDP (gross domestic product) is 74% of the European Committee standard. The gross domestic product is the monetary value of all the gooRAB and services produced by an economy over a specified period. Though its GDP is 74%, this is because Britain has kept this up with ‘vast subsidies’. Because of this the employment amount has gone down. For example in manufacturing the employment has gone from 184,000 in 1960 to 110,000 in 1993. I believe this is because of ‘deindustrialization with a vengeance’.

Source 5 shows the outcome of Republican violence. The Republicans want to get complete independence from Britain and their reasoning was give us back our independence and we’ll stop the violence. They targeted Nationalist areas for shootings and borabings but this was with a difference. This was the Omagh Borabing that took place in August 1998. The difference with this and what Republican violence is usually about - targeting Nationalist areas - is that the majority of the people injured or killed were Republicans. I chose not to say Catholic because being Catholic doesn’t necessarily mean that you are a Republican.

The backlash against Republican violence is Loyalist violence. They believe they must also fight to keep Northern Ireland British and source 5A shows a diary of Loyalist events and attacks from October 1998 to June 1999. A running theme is the fact that these attacks seem to be targeted at one person at a time. For example ‘May 12:A 39-year-old Catholic workman from Magherafelt, Co Derry, survives murder attempt’ and ‘March 16:The Red Hand Defenders claims responsibility for murder of solicitor Rosemary Nelson, 40, in a car borab attack outside her home in Lurgan, Co Armagh.’

Source 2 shows the British view of the situation. Source 2 is a cartoon from an English paper ‘The Guardian.’ What it shows is that they believe is that groups such the main ones mentioned: the IRA, the UDA and the UVF are going to be the big party poopers at the party. In other worRAB these and other parliamentary are threats to the peace and have proved that time and time again with their attacks.

Source 4 shows Loyalist sectarianism with a meraber of the Orange Order at the beginning of the 1998 marching season.

Another problem that faces the two communities is religion. This I believe is what has caused a lot of the problems in the first place.

The peace process is a series of events to end the ‘Troubles’ of Northern Ireland, the whole process started in 1988 when the two main parties wanting independence from the United Kingdom – the Nationalist parties, SDLP and Sinn Fein – began talks with the UK on solutions to the problems. All these talks eventually led to the Downing Street Declaration in 1993 and a cease-fire in 1994. The IRA though became frustrated at the slowness of progress and announced their cease-fire was over with a borab in London. The ‘Good Friday Agreement’ is the latest attempt to solve the problems and to try and get the peace process back on track.

Looking at the problems all the threats seem as big as the other but what I think is a big threat to the peace process is the social issues. Though saying that, religion also comes into it and some might say that religion is the reason for the social issues, but you could relate the social issues because of differences to racial issues because if black and white people can get along to a point then there is no reason why Catholics and Protestants can get along. I believe that the threat is not the religious problems as it is beyond that because the problems have escalated that much but now it is social and that all other problems – excluding religion – have grown out of that.

Also I believe that it’s worth mentioning that ‘some of the most famous Nationalists have been Protestants…Wolfe Tone and Charles Parnell’ (Issues and enquiries 1:causes of the conflict 1:Religion pg42) so religion I believe is a form of stereotype because people assume that if you are Protestant you are a Loyalist and that if you are Catholic you are a Nationalist and that isn’t always the case.

Looking at the problems I think that all of the problems stem out from the social problems and that factors can be made bigger by others.

As I mentioned before kiRAB grow up with stereotypes about other people and they aren’t allowed to start to have their own opinion until they leave school because the schools carry on from where the parents leave off. So when they are old enough to start having their own opinion they are in a sense brainwashed. ‘On leaving school I had notion of the past other than a few dreary details of our Protestant faith…we knew nothing of the catholic world’ (A Protestant education in the 1930’s: adapted from R. Harbinson, No Surrender, 1961.) ‘St Patrick’s Academy Dungannon…was a patriotic school…the Vice-Principal…disliked the English…was very keen about Irish culture…didn’t hate Protestants, but…they weren’t Irish…so you couldn’t…put up with them.’ Irish history was also interpreted ‘very differently from Protestant history books’ (A Catholic grammar school in the 1960’s: Bernadette Devlin, The Price of My Soul, 1969). Some people would say that the problem is mostly religious but I think that if people of different races can get along than Catholics and Protestants can too. But they are not willing to try. For example when a Protestant and Catholic were seen to be getting along in a pub they were shot. Social problems have also led to economic problems because the country isn’t as productive as it could be because Catholics are discriminated against. Social have also led to all types of violence and sectarianism. The social has led to violence from Nationalists to get what they want, a united Ireland, and Unionist violence is a result of that because they want to keep things the way they are.

The economic problems are really because the Catholics are being discriminated against and so the consequences are that the country or state as a whole suffers because the country is not as efficient as it should be, its not up to full power as it were and so vast subsidies are given by Britain as I mentioned earlier are what keep the country going. ‘The problems…of poverty…were made worse by the deliberate discrimination practised against Catholics by powerful Unionists.’ (I&E1: COTC Economics and divisions in the North 1920-72 pg56)

Economic problems have led to social problems because if some many Catholics were employed the IRA wouldn’t have had so many people to recruit. Economy is another reason for Nationalist violence because of the discrimination that the Catholics have to endure.

All violence is because the two societies refuse to get along. How I see it is that these two communities are little kiRAB and Britain is a parent or an adult with some kind of authority. These two kiRAB have been put together against their will and they are beating each other up. What the parent is doing is hoping that the two kiRAB will sort out their problems and get along. But that obviously isn’t working. Sectarianism is effectively Loyalist marching about saying that they are better than Nationalists. If there weren’t such social problems the Loyalists wouldn’t feel the need to make themselves seem better than Nationalists.

In conclusion each problem has come from another so to answer the question another must be asked – which problem came first? My answer would be social problems with everything stemming from that. For example this could be an interpretation of the problems

Religious/social leading to
Economic leading to
Loyalist sectarianism leading to
Nationalist violence leading to
Loyalist violence leading to
Parliamentary threats to violence

There are a lot of other ways to interpret it but what definitely can be said is that all problems have been made bigger by each other so any cause could have a knock on effect and completely ruin the peace process. I said that social problems was a big threat to the peace process but I do think that all the problems are as big as each other.

The sources written from a Unionist perspective are 7A and Source 8. Unionists are mostly Protestant and want to keep Ireland part of Great Britain. Source 7A is ‘part of the Orange Order’s oath.’ The Orange Order was formed in 1795 as a secret organisation in celebration of William of Orange’s victory 105 earlier. Source 8 is another oath, this time against Home Rule. The Solemn Covenant was set up in resistance to home rule and make the British think twice about it, do they give the Home Rule and risk violence from Unionists or completely throw out the idea and face a backlash from the Nationalists?

Sources written from the other perspective of Nationalists are Sources 7B and Source 9. 7B is also an oath, but it for the Fenian Brotherhood which was set up in America in 1858 after the Great Famine. The Great Famine of 1845-49 forced a lot of people to emigrate to the USA and other countries in Europe.

Source 9 is ‘part of the proclamation setting up an independent Irish Republic.’ Obviously it had to be by Nationalists as Unionists don’t want this outcome at all and they and Britain tried to keep Ireland the way it was resulting in guerrilla warfare against the Unionists.

Source 6 and 10 are sources written from other perspectives. Source 6 is a map of plantations and farmland. This is only to inform. Source 10 is Ireland being partitioned. I believe that this was issued by Westminster as a solution to the Civil War which was breaking out in light of the General Election of 1918.

The present problems in Northern Ireland are all caused by what happened in the past. I believe that Great Britains paranoia of attack from Ireland is what caused this whole mess. England – under Tudor rule – had gone Protestant and because Ireland was Catholic they were afraid that Catholic countries in Europe would use Ireland as a base to attack England. A proverb of the time went ‘He who would England win Must with Ireland begin.’ England decided to ‘plant’ colonies in Ireland and so get the land from the and making the battle to take over Ireland a whole lot easier it was at the time during the 17th Century. The people who were ‘planted’ were Protestant whereas the natives were Catholics so there was bound to be friction. Around 1000 years ago there were three groups of people – the Gaels, the Vikings and the Normans – who all intermarried and got along. But the Protestants refused to and ‘as…settlers increased their hold on land and power…the Gaelic Catholics lost it.’

After the Battle of Boyne in 1690 the ‘Protestants made sure they had complete control of Ireland’ by introducing the Penal Laws. These laws were to take power and keep it from the Catholics. A few examples of Penal Laws were ‘No Catholic can buy land or lease it for more than 31 years…No Catholic shall be allowed to vote…join the army or navy…or take professional jobs.’ These laws were kept in effect until the end of the 18th Century so by that time the Protestants were in full control. It was at this point that Nationalists started working to get back Ireland from Britain. There were two types, Revolutionary and Parliamentary. The difference between them was simple – violence. Revolutionaries believed that violence was the way and Parliamentarians tried to get things through Parliament. One of the biggest events in Ireland during the 19th Century was the Great Famine. What it did was wipe out what was left of the Irish Gaelic language as many were forced to emigrate to other countries. People could say that this is when Protestants had full control other Ireland as they had imposed their language and their ways onto the country. The revolutionaries tried a series of revolts which were unsuccessfulThe British didn’t want to let go as their empire at the time was so big they didn’t want to lose one of the first places they conquered. What they decided to do was to partition Ireland into two parts, the north with the Protestants and Unionists in other worRAB the descendants of the ‘planted’ people back in the 17th century. In the south were the Nationalists and Catholics. What has caused the problems is the fact that the problems of discrimination against Catholics over the whole of Ireland was now centred in the area of Ulster. Unionists immediately started making ‘Northern Ireland work to…their…advantage’ by gerrymandering, setting up the B specials and giving the best jobs and houses to Unionists through the Stormont parliament. Nationalists weren’t happy and decided that the only way to get some kind of fair way of living was to fight and groups such as the IRA did just that. Four years of fighting in 1968-1972 broke out with new political and armies being set up: the SDLP, the UDA and the UDF. With these new political parties and armies along with the problems at the time northern Ireland was close to civil war. Britain decided that an unbiased party needed to control the state – as Stormont Parliament was mostly Protestant – and so from 1972 they decided to close the Stormont Parliament and start ruling directly from Westminster.

The British then tried to find ways to ensure peace. One idea was power-sharing but this had to be scrapped after fierce pressure from Protestants, who took a two week strike, bringing Northern Ireland to a halt. Nationalists felt that only themselves could make progress so the modern Revolutionary Nationalists – IRA – formed a new group, the Provisional IRA a new younger group which believed only force would get what they wanted. In the early 1980s the political party of the IRA – Sinn Fein – was formed to try and get power peacefully. Meanwhile the modern Parliamentary Nationalists were trying to get peace through talking but were disliked by Revolutionaries because they felt that they were on the British’s side.

The Unionists, under the leadership of Ian Paisley, tried to make sure that there were no changes at all to affect their position of power. They were extremely angry at the Anglo-Irish Agreement because they say they weren’t consulted about it and with the Unionists being the largest group in Northern Ireland they should have had some kind of say in this.

The Anglo-Irish Agreement was an agreement between Britain and the Republic of Ireland. This also angered Unionists because they claimed the Republic had not had a say in the running of the north since the partition back in 1921. The two governments would talk on how to finally get peace in the north. More talks fuelled by continuing violence in the north led to the Downing-Street-Declaration in 1993, another promise to end the troubles. This one seemed more certain and so revolutionaries on both sides laid down their arms and called a cease-fire. The change took too long for the IRA and their cease-fire ended with a borab in London. The next promise was the Good-Friday-Agreement in 1998. Maybe the fact that there a new government in England, who needed to show that they wanted to make progress in the troubled area. Also the fact that violence had broken out again meant that they had to agree something quick to show the revolutionaries that something was happening.

To conclude the troubles began in the past when England decided that they needed to control Ireland but couldn’t take it by brute force. Instead they stuck a completely different group of people in the country and the problems arose from there. People could say that England are trying to make up for their mistakes by helping in these talks but some could say that it is too little too late. To answer the question I think that all of the problems have been caused by what happened in the past because of the change of power