The 'Troubles' in Northern Ireland (AQA A-Level History): Revision Notes
The 'Troubles' in Northern Ireland
The security situation inherited by Heath
When Edward Heath entered 10 Downing Street in June 1970, British troops were already deployed on the streets of Northern Ireland. Home Secretary Reginald Maudling stated in an interview during 1971 that the government aimed to maintain the problems in Northern Ireland at 'an acceptable level of violence'. This phrase revealed the government's recognition that the conflict could not be immediately resolved, only managed.
The deployment of British troops marked a significant shift in how the conflict was being handled. What began as a peacekeeping measure would evolve into a prolonged military presence that shaped the nature of the Troubles for decades to come.
The province contained a substantial minority of Roman Catholics who faced systematic exclusion from political representation. Political institutions had been structured to prevent Catholic participation, leaving this community vulnerable to discrimination in housing and employment.
Internment and its consequences
Internment refers to imprisonment without trial. Although historically used to detain citizens of enemy nations during wartime, the policy was deployed during the Troubles to hold individuals suspected of terrorist activity.
In August 1971, the British government introduced a policy of internment through Operation Demetrius. During this operation, British soldiers arrested 342 individuals suspected of membership or support of the IRA. The arrests were indiscriminate, capturing people who had no involvement in IRA activities.
Crucially, at this stage no corresponding arrests occurred of loyalists (Protestants in Northern Ireland who declared loyalty to the United Kingdom and monarchy, particularly those willing to undertake militant action to advance this position) with histories of violence. This one-sided approach would prove to be a critical strategic error.
Detainees remained in custody without trial for extended periods. Historian Kenneth O. Morgan argues this was an attempt 'to separate the "men of violence" from the peaceful majority of the Catholic population'. Some detainees faced interrogation, and the arrests prompted demonstrations, riots and further violence.
The internment policy increased hostility toward British authorities and radicalised those affected, worsening rather than improving the security situation.
The civil rights movement and Protestant resistance
Civil rights encompass the constitutional rights of citizens by virtue of their full membership of society, including the right to vote, form political parties and peacefully protest.
During the 1960s, groups such as the Northern Irish Civil Rights Association (NICRA), established in 1967, began raising issues of civil rights for Catholics. The local Protestant political establishment opposed any compromise, fearing it would weaken their position and trigger an irreversible movement out of the UK and into Ireland, where they would become a minority rather than a ruling majority.
NICRA drew inspiration from the American civil rights movement and employed similar tactics of peaceful protest and civil disobedience. The organization sought to address systematic discrimination in housing allocation, employment practices, and voting rights.
Demonstrations were organised to protest the effective disenfranchisement and social and economic disadvantages suffered by Roman Catholics in Northern Ireland.
Londonderry and gerrymandering
Gerrymandering means deliberately planning an electoral system to exclude a particular group and maintain a different group in power indefinitely.
The city's name itself was disputed: historically named 'Derry', it had been renamed 'Londonderry' in the 17th century to reflect connections with the City of London. This naming dispute reflected the deeper political and cultural divisions within the city and province.
Londonderry exemplified the problems of gerrymandering. Despite a majority Catholic population, the city corporation remained consistently Protestant and Unionist due to gerrymandering. Citizens demonstrated supporting the civil rights movement and opposing internment. Deaths of civilians led to British troops being perceived not as a protective force but as an army of occupation, increasing support for the IRA.
Demonstrations and escalation (1968-1969)
In 1968, a demonstration in Londonderry was planned. The province's Minister for Home Affairs banned it, but different participating organisations disagreed, and the demonstration proceeded. Police responded violently. Bystanders, not involved in the demonstration, were treated as rioters.
The police violence against demonstrators and bystanders alike was widely televised, shocking viewers in Britain and internationally. This media coverage transformed the perception of the Northern Ireland conflict from a local disturbance into a significant political crisis.
Additional demonstrations followed, and in 1969 the Prime Minister of the province announced reforms to meet some demonstrators' demands. A further demonstration in 1969 was threatened and attacked several times, exposing the Protestant population's hostility and police unwillingness to protect even a legal demonstration by Catholics.
The escalating civil unrest led to the resignation of the Northern Ireland prime minister, whose replacement agreed to more of the demonstrators' demands.
Bloody Sunday (30 January 1972)
In January 1972, Northern Ireland's prime minister Brian Faulkner banned parades and marches for the year. Despite this prohibition, a demonstration was organised. An estimated 10,000-15,000 people participated on 30 January 1972 in the Bogside area of Londonderry. A minority separated from the main body of demonstrators and threw stones at soldiers manning barriers erected to restrict the march route.
Soldiers responded with live ammunition, ultimately causing 14 civilian deaths and numerous injuries. This event would become known as Bloody Sunday and stands as one of the most controversial and tragic incidents of the Troubles.
The British army and government claimed the soldiers had responded to gun and bomb attacks by individuals in the crowd assumed to be IRA members or supporters. When Home Secretary Reginald Maudling announced this version of events in the House of Commons, Bernadette Devlin, a Catholic MP with connections to the civil rights movement, physically confronted him.
Bernadette Devlin's protest
Bernadette Devlin was elected as MP for Mid Ulster in 1969 at age 21 (the youngest MP at that time, indeed one of the youngest ever). She witnessed events in Londonderry, but when she attempted to address the House of Commons, the speaker refused to allow her to speak.
Bernadette Devlin's Parliamentary Statement:
In her subsequent statement, she declared: 'I am the only person in this House who was present yesterday when, whatever the facts of the situation might be said - [Interruption.] Shut up! I have a right, as the only representative in this House who was an eye witness, to ask a question of that murdering hypocrite.'
She later told journalists: 'A British Home Secretary got up and made what he called a statement. It did not have one substantiated fact in it. It lasted three minutes and at no stage did he even say 'I regret the fact that 13 people are dead'... It wasn't an emotional reaction it was quite coldly and calmly done. I was the only member of Parliament who was in the chamber who was in Derry yesterday. I was fired on by the paratroopers and yet Parliamentary democracy was such that I was not allowed to speak... What I achieved was simply delivering to the Home Secretary a simple, proletarian protest at the fact that he was responsible for the murder of 13 people... We had 20,000 people marching in our streets, our streets belong to us, we have a right to be there, we had 3000 soldiers with no right to be there, enforcing by brutality and force of arms a law which a prime minister who has no mandate to govern any longer [Bráin Faulkner]... I'm just sorry I didn't get him [Maudling] by the throat.'
This powerful testimony captured the rage and frustration felt by many in the Catholic community following the killings.
Controversy and subsequent inquiry
A report commissioned by Heath's government supported the army's account of events. However, 37 years later, another inquiry concluded that soldiers had lied and suppressed evidence. The demonstration had been illegal, following Faulkner's ban. Evidence confirmed the IRA had used bombs and guns to attack troops, as well as police and civilians.
Nevertheless, the 'Bloody Sunday' demonstration had not been marked by such attacks, and the troops' use of guns was ruled unjustified. This finding, decades after the event, provided some measure of vindication for the victims and their families, though it could not undo the damage caused.
Attempts to resolve the conflict
Secret negotiations with the IRA
According to historian Graham Spencer, within six months of Bloody Sunday, a secret meeting occurred between the Provisional IRA (PIRA) leadership and Northern Ireland secretary Willie Whitelaw in London, although it failed miserably.
The PIRA delegation included chief of staff Seán Mac Stiofáin and future IRA and Sinn Féin leaders Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness. This meeting represented one of the first direct contacts between the British government and republican leadership, establishing a precedent for future negotiations.
They demanded that the future of Ireland (including Northern Ireland) should be decided by the people of Ireland as a whole. This represented a refusal to recognise Northern Ireland as a political unit in itself or as part of the UK. The British government could not publicly commit to withdrawing from Northern Ireland by the beginning of 1975. All prisoners whom the delegation counted as 'political prisoners' had to be released. Northern Ireland secretary William Whitelaw could not agree to these terms.
Diplock courts (1973)
In 1973, the government suspended the right to trial by jury for crimes related to national security. The new Diplock courts (named after the judge who had written a report on responses to political violence that could serve as alternatives to internment) were designed to make convictions easier.
The government worried about both the intimidation of juries and the covert sympathy of individuals, causing them to refuse to convict. The intention was to prevent these factors from obstructing justice.
However, to Nationalists, the Diplock courts confirmed the IRA's position: Northern Ireland was ruled by an unaccountable foreign government which had deployed an army of occupation. What the government saw as a pragmatic security measure, critics viewed as further erosion of civil liberties and proof of British authoritarianism.
The Sunningdale Agreement (1973)
In 1973, recognising that Northern Ireland presented both a political problem and a policing and security challenge, parliament agreed a devolution plan for Northern Ireland. An assembly would be elected by proportional representation (a voting system where the outcome in allocating seats in a legislature resembles the proportional distribution of votes to political parties across the country, contrasting with 'first past the post' where each voting district chooses a single representative based on local vote totals), replacing the contested Stormont parliament in which Roman Catholics had minimal or no representation.
Key features of the Sunningdale Agreement:
- Law and order would remain with the government in Westminster
- A consultative (not decision-making) Council of Ireland would permit members of the Irish government to meet members of Northern Ireland's devolved government and legislature
- Constitutional parties on both sides of the sectarian divide supported the plan
Negotiations produced an executive bringing together Unionists, the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) and the Alliance party. The Unionists rejected the idea of the Republic of Ireland having any role, but a deal was agreed at a meeting in Sunningdale in Berkshire, between Heath, Taoiseach (Irish word meaning 'prime minister') Liam Cosgrave and representatives of the three main Ulster parties.
The outcome depended on whether party memberships would trust their leaders and what the paramilitaries and terrorists would do next.
Transition: Labour government (1974)
The Labour government that assumed power in February 1974 contained experienced ministers who had held office during Labour's 1964-70 administrations. The election produced a hung parliament (one where no party has a majority of MPs; consequently, there must be negotiations which may lead to a minority government or a coalition government formed by two or more parties), meaning Labour lacked an overall majority.
Wilson could only govern if he maintained his parliamentary party's unity and secured support from members of other parties for Labour's measures. This requirement for compromise and balancing competing views was central to all government activity, restricting opportunities for substantial change.
Remember!
Key Points to Remember:
- When Heath took office in 1970, British troops were already deployed in Northern Ireland, with violence at what Reginald Maudling called 'an acceptable level'
- Operation Demetrius in August 1971 saw 342 arrests under internment policy, but arrests were indiscriminate and excluded loyalists, increasing hostility toward British authorities
- Bloody Sunday on 30 January 1972 resulted in 14 civilian deaths when British soldiers fired on demonstrators in Londonderry; a 2009 inquiry ruled the shootings unjustified
- The 1973 Sunningdale Agreement proposed devolution with proportional representation and a consultative Council of Ireland, but its success depended on party members and paramilitaries accepting the compromise
- Diplock courts (1973) removed jury trials for national security offences to ease convictions, but Nationalists viewed them as evidence of unaccountable foreign rule