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This is the Falls Road in Belfast. And this
is the Shankhill Road. These two areas are
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just a few streets away from each other, and
yet there is a border running between them.
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This vast wall stands on the line of the first
peace wall in Northern Ireland. First Built
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nearly 50 years ago as a temporary barrier
to divide two communities, there is a still a
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wall standing here today - a physical symbol of
the deep divisions within the Northern Ireland.
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Northern Ireland was formed in 1921. When Ireland
seceded from the UK, six of Ireland’s 32 counties
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remained as part of the United Kingdom.
The governance of these counties has been
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contested ever since, sparking the bloody
30-year conflict known as the Troubles.
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In this four-part series, we’ll be taking
a look at the history of the Troubles,
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and why the scars of this conflict remain.
But first of all, let’s take a look back
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to see what marked out the six counties
of Northern Ireland in the first place.
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Religious tension in the north of Ireland
dates back hundreds of years, and some of this
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can be traced back to the plantation of Ulster.
At the end of the 16th century, an Irish alliance
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rose up to fight against English rule – and a
lot of the unrest took place in the province of
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Ulster. At the end of the war in 1603, James
VI & I, King of Scotland & England, set out
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to colonise and subdue the north of Ireland.
He sought to undertake an official plantation of
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Ulster to ensure its loyalty and to stop uprisings
happening ever again. In this, he planted
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mainly lowland Scots and some from the north of
England into six of the nine counties of Ulster.
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Earlier in 1603 that had been private plantation
by Presbyterians Scots in the counties of Down
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and then Antrim. But the actual official policy
starts in 1609 and it's really there to secure
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this part of the country in a way that will
make it not be able to rise in rebellion again.
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Over the next century, Europe was engulfed
in religious wars. James II – the Catholic
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King of England, Scotland and Ireland -
was overthrown by protestant William of
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Orange in 1688. A few years later, James’s
supporters – the Jacobites – attempted to
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restore James to the throne. Supported by
French forces, the Irish Jacobites fought
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the Williamites in Ireland, backed by the
Grand Alliance. The fighting culminated
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in two major battles, at the Boyne and Aughrim.
The Battle of the Boyne, although not a decisive
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battle, was very significant. A year later, in
1691, at the Battle of Aughrim, the Jacobite
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forces of James are actually destroyed and he
is defeated. Aughrim itself, although the less
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well known, is by far the most strategically
important of the two battles, but the Boyne has
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a much larger geopolitical effect. And even today
still William of Orange is a figure that we see,
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particularly during the loyalist marching
season, which culminates on the 12th of July.
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Religious conflict, as with much of Europe,
was causing great divisions with Northern Ireland. But
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another struggle was also continuing to grow:
the fight for independence from British rule.
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In 1845, a potato famine broke out across Ireland.
The famine reinforced to a lot of Irish people
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that although they were now part of the UK,
they were not considered equal. As Irish people
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starved, the British continued to export food for
profit. Over a million people died. The famine
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sparked rebellion and new calls for independence.
Over the 19th century, there were multiple bills
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proposed for Home Rule. The first was proposed and
failed in 1886. The third attempt passed in 1914,
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but was put on hold due to the First World War.
Irish republicans decided to take action. They
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staged a rebellion over Easter week in 1916.
The Easter Rising is planned as far back as
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1914 by Patrick Pierce of the Irish
Republican Brotherhood. There are
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a number of other groups involved, one of
which will go on to become the IRA in 1919.
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For a week there is a great deal of violence
and there are a high level of casualties.
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This is eventually put down by the British
Army. Now, whether or not this would have
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gone away afterwards changed dramatically in
the way that the British sought to deal with
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the leaders of the uprising. Many of them
were actually executed by firing squad. And
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this this hardened attitudes towards Britain.
However, this and things such as the
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conscription policy that the British
tried to introduce in Ireland, again,
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hardened Republicanism and eventually Sinn Féin,
a party that was formed back in 1905, which had
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been a nationalist party not linked with armed
or violent Republicanism becomes a Republican
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Party. It wins the 1918 general election and
instantly declares an independent Ireland.
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But support for the union remained strong
in the North, leading to the Irish War for
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Independence, largely fought between
the IRA and the British government.
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In 1920, Home Rule was finally granted and Ireland
was partitioned. It was meant to be a temporary
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solution to end the war, but the government in the
south never formed, and the war continued until a
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ceasefire in 1921 and the Anglo-Irish Treaty,
which granted Ireland a limited independence.
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The south became a Free State, but still had
to take an oath to the King. This agreement was
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not entirely popular, leading to a bloody civil
war between those who were pro-Treaty and those
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against. In 1923, the pro-Treaty Free State
forces prevailed, cementing the Anglo-Irish
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Treaty and the two-state solution, with a
region in the North remaining part of Britain.
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The border had been drawn around six
counties in Ulster. In some places the
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border was drawn directly through
the middle of towns and villages.
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Ulster contained nine counties; the three
that were excluded were Donegal, Monaghan
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and Cavan. This was devised by Unionists, so as
to ensure a protestant majority in the new state.
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But, although the six counties had
a protestant majority politically,
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there was a substantial Catholic
population across the region.
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Voting was manipulated to advantage the unionists.
In many senses, the only people you could vote for
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sometimes were unionists; Catholics wouldn't vote
for them, or the often be no point in actually
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putting up a candidate from a nationalist party
because it wouldn't be enough of a vote for them
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to actually carry any win through.
There were actually other things,
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such as gerrymandering was used as well, most
starkly in the city of Derry/Londonderry,
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which was an overwhelmingly nationalist community,
but it continued to retain unionist populations
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where the boundaries were drawn up.
Not only was gerrymandering an issue,
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also if you were not the rate payer or the rent
payer on a house, even if you were of voting age,
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you can vote in local elections which
further discriminated against working people.
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Access to jobs was another area where the
nationalist community often seemed to be
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prejudiced against such as the big shipbuilding
works in Belfast would have an overwhelmingly
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Protestant workforce. But this is actually a
hotly contested issue in the sense that if you
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didn't have relatives working in one of these
factories, no matter if you were Protestant,
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you would often be prejudiced against as well.
And then on top of that, women found it very hard
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to get roles in some of these jobs as well.
It was in this environment, with Catholic
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residents consistently seen to be disadvantaged, that the civil rights
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movement grew among nationalist communities.
There was no promotion,
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if you're a Catholic, you didn't get it, you
just didn't get promotion. The Imperial Civil
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Service - if you worked in England, then you would
get a promotion. But if you were in the Northern
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Ireland Civil Service, there were people who
weren't as experienced as you were promoted over
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you. Housing was another thing. That was the start
of the civil rights movement. A young single girl
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got a house where a Catholic family didn't get it.
You know, I never met many and never mixed, never
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had any protestants and friends until I started
nursing really. But it's still there. The hatred.
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Deep hatred in those communities.
Communities and attitudes became deeply
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polarized through near 30 years of conflict in
Northern Ireland. Many of the events that took
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place during this time are hotly contested.
Moreover, they are highly disputed as well.
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Often starkly and highly diverse versions of
events exist on both sides, and many people will
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never come to a point of agreement on what
happened on certain days at certain times.
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Throughout the late sixties, tension was rising.
In 1969, at the annual Apprentice Boys of Derry
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march, violence erupted. The route of the
march passed through the predominantly Catholic
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Bogside area of Derry/Londonderry, resulting in
violent clashes between marchers and residents.
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Several days of rioting ensued and the police
became involved. Weapons were fired, batton-round
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guns were used. Stones were thrown and bits of
the Bogside were shut off to the police. When
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the police moved into the Bogside, loyalist groups
moved in behind them. This was probably not the
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police's intention, but it galvanized opinion
within the nationalist Republican community.
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At the same time, violence broke out in other
parts of Northern Ireland as well. And people
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were burned out of homes in both loyalist and
republican communities. And the Troubles at
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this point really begins in Northern Ireland.
In 1969, the IRA split and a break-away group
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who called themselves the Provisional
IRA formed. Divisions in the IRA
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had been growing through the 1960s.
In 1962, the new IRA chief of staff,
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Cathal Goulding, sought to move the IRA in a
different direction, keen that the movement
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becomes political in its outlook rather
than one that relies on armed struggle,
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which to traditional Republicans is seen as
a betrayal of their cause, who see their task
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as the defence of the nationalist community,
and the expulsion of the British from Ireland.
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Loyalist paramilitaries such
as the Red Hand Commando, the
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Ulster Defence Association (UDA), and the Ulster
Volunteer Force (UVF), also grew in numbers.
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Ian Paisley was a Presbyterian minister who
established himself as an outspoken leader
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within Unionism, leading marches
throughout the 1960s and 70s.
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As the rival groups grew, tensions rose. Over
these decades, violent attacks and bombings
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increased in frequency, and barricades
went up to separate the two communities.
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The Provisional IRA escalated their armed
campaign against the British and Northern
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Irish security forces. Many nationalists saw
the PIRA as defenders of their community,
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and loyalists saw them as dangerous insurgents.
In reaction to this violence, the British
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Army were deployed on the streets in Operation
Banner. They were called in to support the RUC,
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and protect infrastructure
and civilians. But ultimately,
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their presence served to escalate the situation.
We’ve come up to IWM’s conservation studio to
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have a look at this weapon here which is a baton
round gun which was used by the British army and
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the Royal Ulster Constantly in riot control
situations. This type of weapon could fire a
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variety of ammunition from these guns, such
as CS gas canisters, but more usually rubber
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bullets and more latterly plastic bullets.
The British Army was deployed in Northern
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Ireland in 1969 at the behest of the then prime
minister, and it changed the relationship with
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Northern Ireland and the rest of United
Kingdom, where now the British government
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itself took a more active role because the
army were very much within their control.
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Initially, in some areas they were seen
as being protective and helpful of the
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nationalist Catholic community. But as the
situation developed in Northern Ireland and
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the army's role became more intense, they
were no longer seen as a neutral actor.
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Although seen as an effective form of crowd
control if used incorrectly, the bullets could
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in themselves be fatal. There were a number of
fatalities caused by rubber and more latterly
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the replacement for the use of plastic bullets,
which were at the time thought to be less lethal,
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but turned out to be no less so.
This was often seen as a fairly
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heavy-handed approach, and nationalist communities
often saw that they were the ones more targeted
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by British soldiers with these particular
weapons than those in loyalist communities.
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In 1970, the Ulster Defence Regiment was formed
– the largest regiment in the British Army.
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They consisted of people, men and women, who
came from Northern Ireland. They didn't go
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home. They didn't have tours of duty. They came
from the community from which they defended.
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Although there was a drive to include Catholics in
the recruitment and some did join, it largely was
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unsuccessful because of pressure in nationalist
and Republican communities to join them, and
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also because the force was seen, as with
the Royal Constabulary, the police force,
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to be overwhelming Protestant and was viewed
from a nationalist Republican standpoint as
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being a tool of the oppressor, if you will.
The UDR did draw controversy. There were
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accusations from Republicans of collusion with
loyalist paramilitaries, some of which may have
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been true, others may have been overstated.
Even within the loyalist community,
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many of them didn't see them as friends either.
For others, others saw them as neutral. So the
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position was difficult and it was dangerous
and it certainly was controversial at times.
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I think that was the hardest
thing any of us had to
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deal with - the fact this was a United Kingdom
city. And yet you were there, as though you were
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in the middle of a war zone. It was a war zone.
It was a war zone. There was a lot of violence and
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a lot of anger. You had all that debris from the
first riots, all the burnt-out streets and things.
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And what were the people like? The ones
that were friendly were very friendly.
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But the ones that weren’t were the exact
opposite. You got stoned, and bottled,
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and petrol bombed and all the rest of it in a
Protestant area just as much as you did in the
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Catholic one. You really were piggy in the middle.
The British Army arriving in NI faced a difficult
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challenge. In their efforts to supress the IRA,
hostility from the Catholic community grew towards
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the British Army. This was severely aggravated by
the introduction of the Falls Curfew in July 1970.
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What started off as a search for weapons
in a Catholic, nationalist area, resulted
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in clashes between local residents throwing
petrol bombs, and British soldiers firing CS
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gas. In response to this clash, the entire area
was sealed off and a curfew was imposed. Large
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amounts of weapons were seized by the British
troops, but in the process of the operation,
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four civilians were killed and dozens others
injured.
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The same month, in the House of
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Commons, UK Home Secretary Reginald Maudling
declared, "We are now at war with the IRA."
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The following year, the policy of
internment
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sparked further anger.
Operation Demetrius involved the imprisonment
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without trial of suspected IRA members. The
British Army conducted sweeps and arrested more
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than 340 people from Catholic and nationalist
backgrounds – due to faulty intelligence,
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many of these people in fact had no connection
to armed Republicanism. The treatment of some of
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those arrested was later categorised as torture.
We're standing in front of a cabinet here in the
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galleries, and then here we have a poster
which is a protest against the Northern
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Irish government's policy of internment in
1971. These initial sweeps caused four days
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of rioting in which over 20 people died.
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Posters like these would have
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appeared on walls, on lampposts, etc. in Northern
Ireland at the time as a protest against what
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was felt to be an unjust policy targeted
against the nationalist community. Indeed,
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loyalists would not be subject to the
same internment without trial until 1973.
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The backlash to internment was strong. It
sparked a lot of violence, a recruitment boost
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for the IRA, and a deepening of divisions
between the loyalists and nationalists.
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1972 was the worst year of violence in Northern
Ireland. But from the couple of years before that,
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the violence had been escalating. Northern
Ireland was starting to appear on the news
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regular at night and civilians bore the brunt
of it as far as casualties were concerned.
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There seemed to be at this point no resolution
in sight, but the worst was still to come.
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The presence of the British Army and the growth
of the paramilitaries all ramped up the violence
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of the Troubles. The IRA had already split but
their strategy was about to entirely change.
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As the violence increased and spread beyond NI
borders, the road to peace would not be easy.
