Northern Ireland

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NORTHERN IRELAND.

EARLY STATEHOOD
ESCALATING TENSIONS
THE TROUBLES
NEGOTIATING PEACE
BIBLIOGRAPHY

Northern Ireland, consisting of six of the nine counties of Ulster, became a devolved administration within the United Kingdom under the 1920 Government of Ireland Act. Its creation was designed to remove Ulster unionist opposition to Irish home rule. The six-county state was the largest area with an ensured unionist majority. Two-thirds of the population were Protestant, and unionists won forty of the fifty-two seats in the new parliament; but there were significant areas with a nationalist majority along the western and southern fringes and in west Belfast. The establishment of a separate administration for Northern Ireland reflected Britain's wish to disengage from Ireland. The parliament was responsible for agriculture, education, local government, security, health, and welfare, but it had limited taxation powers; 90 percent of tax revenue went to the British exchequer. Northern Ireland continued to send members of Parliament (MPs) to Westminster, but Westminster did not concern itself with programs controlled by the local parliament.

EARLY STATEHOOD

The new state had a violent birth; between June 1920 and June 1922, 428 people were killed and 1,766 injured and many houses and businesses were destroyed. This violence was part of the guerrilla war that the Irish Republican Army (IRA) launched against the Crown forces in Ireland in its efforts to secure an Irish republic. A truce in July 1921 was followed by a treaty in December 1921, giving Ireland Dominion status. Northern Ireland, not a signatory to the treaty, had the right to opt out of the Dominion; if it did so, the boundaries of each state would be determined by a commission. The outbreak of civil war in southern Ireland in the summer of 1922 diverted republicans away from Northern Ireland and made it easier for the new state to survive. However, from the beginning the Northern Ireland government regarded Catholics as a disloyal minority that must be contained; a draconian Special Powers Act providing for internment and flogging was directed exclusively at the Catholic community. Most Catholics believed that the Boundary Commission would so reduce the territory of Northern Ireland as to make its survival impossible and refused to engage with the new state. In 1925, when it became evident that the Commission was proposing only minor boundary changes, the British and Irish governments agreed to suppress the report.

Although nationalist MPs took their seats in parliament in 1926, Northern Ireland continued to be racked by insecurity and defensiveness. The 1920 Act provided for proportional representation in all elections, in order to protect minorities, but legislation passed in 1926 and 1929 removed proportional representation in local and parliamentary elections. Ward boundaries in local authorities with a nationalist majority, such as Londonderry, were carefully manipulated to secure unionist control. The abolition of proportional representation was not directed exclusively against nationalists. The Northern Ireland prime minister James Craig (later Lord Craigavon, 1871–1940) feared that the emergence of a Labour movement or the fragmenting of the unionist vote might enable nationalists to gain control. This was never a realistic possibility. However, during the Depression of the 1930s, Catholics and Protestants protested together at cuts in unemployment relief. Sectarian divisions proved more powerful than class interest, and the alliance was short-lived. Although the Ulster Unionist Party held office continually from 1921 until the parliament was dissolved in 1973, Craig and his successors went to considerable effort to woo the Protestant electorate by a judicious combination of patronage in the form of jobs and public spending and the encouragement of fears that Northern Ireland was under threat from a disloyal nationalist minority or irredentist claims from Dublin. Dublin governments, preoccupied with maximizing independence from Britain, initially showed little interest in Northern Ireland. However Article 2 in the 1937 Constitution claimed jurisdiction over the entire island.

World War II was an important period for Northern Ireland's relationship with Britain. The Depression of the 1930s was more deep-seated in Northern Ireland than it was elsewhere in the United Kingdom, but the economy gradually revived under the stimulus of armament and clothing contracts and the presence of U.S. bases. Conscription was not introduced because of fears of nationalist opposition, and the numbers who enlisted in the forces remained low. In 1941 German bombs claimed 1,100 lives in Belfast, proportionately one of the heaviest casualties in the United Kingdom; the high death toll reflected inadequate air-raid precautions. The war exposed the limitations of the aging and complacent Unionist leadership; in 1940 Craig was succeeded as prime minister by veteran unionist John Andrews (1871–1956). In 1943 Andrews had to give way to a younger and more dynamic Sir Basil Brooke (Viscount Brookeborough, 1888–1973).

Northern Ireland's contribution to the Allied war effort was duly acknowledged by successive British governments. The 1920 Act required Northern Ireland to contribute toward the cost of imperial services. Although these payments were waived when economic conditions deteriorated, public services lagged seriously behind those in the United Kingdom. In 1946 however, Britain conceded parity of social services with the rest of the United Kingdom, and Northern Ireland participated fully in the postwar expansion of health, welfare, and educational services. Many Ulster unionists were uncomfortable with such heavy reliance on the state. Further reward for wartime service came when Westminster responded to the declaration of an Irish Republic by passing the 1949 Ireland Act, which gave the Northern Ireland parliament the right to determine whether it would remain part of the United Kingdom.

ESCALATING TENSIONS

Nationalists saw no hope of securing influence within Northern Ireland. An Anti-Partition League launched in 1945 was designed to unite Sinn Féin and the more moderate, church-controlled Irish nationalist party; in 1947 the campaign secured all-party support in Dublin. But efforts to bring international pressure to bear on Britain to end partition were fruitless. The 1949 Ireland Act strengthened partition by giving ultimate control to the Northern Ireland parliament. A desultory guerrilla warfare campaign began in 1954, and in December 1956 the IRA launched Operation Harvest—an anti-partition offensive consisting of raids on border custom posts, army barracks, and police stations. Northern Ireland Catholics gave the campaign only limited support, and the Dublin and Belfast governments interned suspected IRA members. In 1962 the IRA declared a ceasefire and shifted its attention to the socioeconomic issues in the Republic. With twelve IRA and six police deaths, the casualties were tiny compared to those sustained on both sides in the later "Troubles."

Although Northern Ireland had the lowest standard of living in the United Kingdom it was significantly higher than that of the Irish Republic, and the population was rising. Between 1945 and 1963 investment in new industries created fifty thousand jobs, mainly in U.S. and U.K. firms attracted by generous tax concessions. By the early 1960s, however, a worldwide recession in shipbuilding and the aircraft and textile industries created a major economic crisis. Unemployment had traditionally been much higher among Catholics, who accounted for a disproportionate number of unskilled workers and were more likely to live in the less-developed areas in west Ulster. Catholic emigration counteracted the higher Catholic birth-rate and stabilized the sectarian balance. But the job losses in traditional Ulster industries affected skilled workers, who were the backbone of Ulster unionism, and many reacted by voting for the Northern Ireland Labour Party. The Northern Ireland prime minister Lord Brookeborough was forced to resign. His successor, Terence O'Neill (1914–1990), sought to secure the future of Ulster unionism by instituting a program of economic planning that would bring material benefits to all citizens while anchoring Northern Ireland more firmly in the United Kingdom; he was also keen to promote better relations with the Catholic community and the Dublin government. But public gestures, such as meeting Irish prime minister Seán Lemass (1899–1971)—the first such meeting since 1922—and the first visit to a Catholic school by a prime minister of Northern Ireland prompted fears among unionists without delivering material benefits to the Catholic minority. A planned new town, a new university, and a motorway—key elements in his development program—were all located in predominantly Protestant areas, reinforcing Catholic beliefs that new-style unionism was only a modern version of the old partisan regime.

The 1963 election of a Labour government in Britain eroded the convention that the parliament of the United Kingdom did not discuss matters that were controlled by the Northern Ireland government. The Campaign for Social Justice (1964), a group of middle-class Catholics, linked up with Labour MPs to highlight discrimination in housing and employment. In 1967 these causes were taken up by the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association, a coalition of liberal Protestants and Catholics whose title and modus operandi were modeled on the U.S. civil rights movement. Since the mid-nineteenth century, political marches in Northern Ireland had been used as a means of asserting control over territory, and marches frequently ended in intercommunal violence. When a march in Derry in October 1968 to highlight local housing discrimination was attacked by baton-wielding policemen, the pictures were carried on televisions throughout the world. The British prime minister, Harold Wilson (1916–1995), summoned O'Neill to London and pressed him to announce a series of reforms: an ombudsman, the abolition of Londonderry Corporation and other local authority reforms, needs-based allocation of public housing, and changes to the Special Powers Act. The fact that these concessions were made following mass protest, and under pressure from Britain, further weakened O'Neill's credibility within the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP). In February 1969 he called a general election and appealed for Catholic votes to shore up his mandate for reform. But the out come was growing support for O'Neill's opponents within the UUP, and for Ian Paisley's (b. 1926) uncompromising Protestant Unionists (later the Democratic Unionist Party, DUP), and no evidence of Catholic support for O'Neill. He resigned some weeks later.

THE TROUBLES

August 1969 is generally regarded as the start of the Troubles. A traditional unionist march in Derry ended in riots, which spread to Belfast, resulting in seven deaths and the destruction of 179 properties (83 percent of which had been occupied by Catholics). The Northern premier James Chichester-Clark (1923–2002) called in the British army to restore peace, but overall responsibility for security remained with the Northern Ireland government. Catholics initially welcomed the British army as protection from Protestant attacks, but within months the army was under attack in Catholic areas. Although some members of the IRA had joined the civil rights movement, the IRA only became a significant fighting force after December 1969, when the Provisional IRA split away to launch a campaign against the British army and the Northern Ireland government. Violence increased, particularly after the introduction of internment in August 1971, which was directed solely against nationalists, despite considerable evidence of unionist paramilitary activity. When an illegal anti-internment march in Derry on 30 January 1972 ended with thirteen marchers shot dead by British soldiers, Britain was forced to take control of security, and the Northern Ireland government resigned. The parliament was prorogued and direct rule from Westminster was introduced on 24 March 1972.

Direct rule was regarded as a temporary arrangement, pending the establishment of a government that would have the support of both the nationalist and unionist communities. By 1972 Britain was conscious that any lasting settlement had to secure the support of the Dublin government. The Sunningdale Agreement, signed in December 1973 by the British and Irish governments and leaders of the main constitutional parties in Northern Ireland, opened the way for a return to devolved government, with power shared between the UUP, the nationalist Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) (which had emerged in 1971 as the voice of moderate nationalists), and the cross-denominational Alliance Party. Sunningdale provided for a Council of Ireland (a proposal contained in the 1920 Act) with equal membership from the Belfast and Dublin governments. Initially a consultative forum, the Council could evolve into an all-Ireland executive.

The combination of power-sharing with a Council of Ireland proved too much for Ulster unionists, and IRA and Protestant violence continued. In February 1974 anti-Sunningdale candidates took eleven of the twelve seats in the Westminster general election. A general strike by the Ulster Workers' Council in May 1974 brought Northern Ireland to a halt. The executive collapsed and direct rule was restored.

The years after 1974 were marked by cycles of violence and multiple efforts to achieve a political solution. Although the Troubles were seen as the recurrence of an age-old Irish struggle, they had much more in common with late-twentieth and early-twenty-first century intercommunal violence and terrorism: high-profile bombings and assassinations designed to gain media attention as well as "ethnic cleansing" of mixed communities in Belfast, Protestant families from border areas and Derry City, and Catholic families from Carrickfergus. Catholics who worked for the security services were targeted, as were couples of mixed religion; tit-for-tat atrocities were common. Manufacturing employment fell by 40 percent during the 1980s; the public sector became the dominant employer and fiscal transfers from Britain accounted for up to one-quarter of GNP. The IRA's objective, as in Ireland in 1920, was to put pressure on Britain to withdraw from Northern Ireland; Ulster unionists sought peace and continuing union with Britain.

NEGOTIATING PEACE

In November 1985 the British and Irish governments signed the Anglo-Irish Agreement, which created a mechanism for the Irish government to express its views on Northern Ireland policy. An Irish government secretariat opened in Belfast and provided nationalist input into policy in Northern Ireland. This strengthened the hand of the SDLP and enabled the party to withstand for a time the drift of nationalist voters to Sinn Féin. Unionists protested the agreement to little effect. The emergence of Sinn Féin as a significant electoral force can be dated to 1982, when IRA prisoners went on hunger strike to protest at losing political prisoner status. Bobby Sands (1954–1981), the first hunger striker, won a Westminster by-election for Sinn Féin, and although he died shortly thereafter, his candidacy and election confirmed the merits of combining politics with military action, described by the Sinn Féin leader Danny Morrison (b. 1953), who was also interned, as "the Armalite [rifle] in this hand and the ballot paper in this hand." But the British and Irish governments refused to engage in formal talks with Sinn Féin until the IRA declared a cease-fire.

The Joint Declaration for Peace (1993), also known as the Downing Street Declaration, was designed to reassure Sinn Féin and Ulster unionists. The British prime minister John Major (b. 1943) declared that Britain had no "selfish strategic or economic interest in Northern Ireland" and the Irish prime minister Albert Reynolds (b. 1932) declared that a united Ireland would only come with the consent of the majority in Northern Ireland. This paved the way for an IRA cease-fire in August 1994, and ultimately, with significant involvement by U.S. president Bill Clinton, for the 1998 Belfast Agreement, also known as the Good Friday Agreement. The agreement restored devolved government to Northern Ireland, elected by a complex system of proportional representation, with an executive drawn from all the major parties. A north-south council consisting of ministers from both Irish governments could make decisions by agreement on matters of common interest, and a consultative British-Irish council would bring together ministers from all political assemblies in Britain and Ireland. The Irish government undertook to repeal Articles 2 and 3 of the 1937 Constitution, replacing them with an article affirming the entitlement of every person born on the island of Ireland to be part of the Irish nation.

The Belfast Agreement was endorsed by 71 percent of the Northern Ireland electorate. Catholic support was almost unanimous, whereas unionists were equally divided on the agreement. However the power-sharing executive that took office in December 1999 proved a fragile entity. The IRA's failure to disarm meant that first minister and UUP leader David Trimble (b. 1944) was repeatedly threatened by anti-agreement unionists. In October 2002 the Assembly was suspended and direct rule was restored. Northern Ireland remains a deeply disturbed society: many working-class communities are "policed" by republican and loyalist paramilitaries rather than by the new Police Service of Northern Ireland; paramilitaries are active in drug-running and other lucrative crimes; and although the economy has recovered, it remains dependent on financial transfers from Westminster. The DUP and Sinn Féin have displaced the more moderate UUP and SDLP as leaders of the Protestant and Catholic communities, and there is little evidence of any significant cross-religious vote, although multidenominational schools are flourishing. The political alignment means that it will be extremely difficult to establish a stable, power-sharing government. The DUP is committed to union with Britain and is not prepared to acknowledge any form of all-Ireland institutions, while Sinn Féin's goal remains an all-Ireland republic by 2016, centenary of the 1916 Rising.