a new Irish Constitution that declared Ireland to be a republic, totally independant of Britain’s parliment.
The constitution also gave more freedom to the people who wanted to embrace Gaelic culture by making
Gaelic the first official language of the Free State(Dana, 1997).
With the beginning of the second World War, there was much disagreement as to the stance that
Ireland should take. Most still felt deep hatred for England, and thought that they should side with the
Germans simply because they were opposing the British. This did not turn out to be what happened. Most
Irish figured the Nazi regime to be the much bigger of the two evils, and decided to remain neutral
(Dana, 1997).
In the time following the war, Ireland fell onto hard economic times. It was seeing rapid inflation
and, indirectly, in the defeat of Fianna Fail in the elections of February, 1948. Eamon de Valera was
replaced by John Aloysius Costello. On Easter of 1949, the terms of the Republic of Ireland bill were
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approved by the Irish Parliment. It got the Republic completely out of the commonwealth for good, but re-
inforced the continuence of Northern Ireland as a part of Britain. The Republic was also admitted into the
United Nations on December 14, 1955(Liberation of Ireland, 1997).
There was plenty of public support for the union of Ireland as one country still, but the IRA was
not what it used to be. They began to raid and stockpile whatever arms they could in anticipation of their
border campaigns. In 1956, the IRA began their ferocious campaigns along the border of Northern
Ireland. Their aim was to push the border back, as to claim more of the island simply to deny the British.
The campaign was largely a failure. They had gained nothing and just ended up damaging their own
reputation(Somemothersson, 1997).
In 1963, Terence O’Neill became Prime Minister of Northern Ireland. He began the campaign for
social justice and the civil rights movement began. The IRA was at a low point after their border
campaigns, and most of the citizens were focusing on Civil Rights. The Northern Ireland Civil Rights
Association was formed in the mid-60’s, with hopes to attain some pretty simple goals. They wanted to
end discrimination against Catholics for voting rights, the creation of grievance procedures against
government officials, and the elimination of a government group called the B-specials, who were given
virtually complete freedom when trying to find members of terrorist groups(Liberation of Ireland, 1997).
A set of protest marches happened in 1968 and 1969 and both ended in bloodshed. In the first,
the RUC (Roytal Ulster Constabulary) broke up the protest with batons and water cannons. This helped to
recruit more people to protest, and cause more people to start their own groups and their own protests.
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The second protest march was a 70 mile walk from Belfast to Londonderry. It had been successful until
just a short distance from the end of the march when extremeist Protestants attacked the marchers with
cobblestone and bricks. The RUC stood by and watched while the Catholic protesters were beaten until the
melee began to subside. They then moved in and arrested 80 people, and injured more protestors in the
process. The terror had just begun as Londonderry went into complete anarchy and chaos. There were
riots, and violence to no ends. The violence left 6 people dead, and 300 houses burnt to the ground.
Catholics defended themselves anyway that they could, but all kept wondering where the IRA, who is
supposed to be the protector of Catholics in times like these, was(Somemothersson, 1997).
The need for the protection of Catholics was the driving force that brought on a major IRA
resurgence. The leaders of the new IRA were split as to the strategy that they should take. Some wanted to
use violence to defend themselves and their fellow Catholics, and the other half wanted nothing to do with
the use of armed force. This split lead to the violent “Provisionals” and the political
“Officials”(Somemothersson, 1997).
The British Government took many counter-measures against the re-surging IRA. They inforced
early curfews and often forced their way into Catholic homes they suspected of containing arms. The
Provisionals then began their first ever offensive campaign by shooting a British soldier. They had a plan
to bomb and shoot the British out of Ireland. The British reaction to this was to institute internment. This
meant that the government could detain anyone they suspected of being a member of the IRA, and the
people of Ireland had virtually no rights against it(Somemothersson, 1997).
Internment was a major ally for the IRA’s public support. Internment was intended to stop IRA
violence by making it harder, but again the British shot themselves in the foot. This idea only caused more
people to volunteer for the IRA and public support to swing their way(Somemothersson, 1997).
The violence finally came to a head on January 30, 1972. A protest march by Catholics ended in
a bloodbath when British troops were called in at the first sign of rioting. They claim to have been shot at,
and then opened fire. Less than half an hour later, 13 people were dead. It was released later that none of
the 13 were found to have weapons. This day is remembered as Bloody Sunday, and will live forever in
infamy and Republic propoganda(Somemothersson, 1997). It achomplished nothing but to enrage
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Catholics further, and to cause the IRA to step up operations. The IRA’s plan at this time (and to this day)
is to cause so much economic damage to Northern Ireland that Britain would no longer want it. The sad
part of this plan was that it often resulted in more civilian deaths than military deaths (Sylvester, 1979).
Fig. 5 Casualities during the 1970’s violence-(Sylvester, 1979)
1st Quarter 2nd Quarter 3rd Quarter 4th Quarter
——————————————————————————————————————————–
1972
Military 13 31 45 14
UDR 7 4 7 8
RUC 8 1 2 6
Civilian 57 70 140 66
1973
Military 21 22 7 8
UDR 4 1 3 —
RUC 6 1 1 5 Civilian 41 52 38 28
1974
Military 8 4 6 10
UDR 3 2 1 1
RUC 5 5 2 3
Civilian 44 41 29 51
1975
Military 2 — 4 8
UDR — 1 2 3
RUC 2 2 2 5
Civilian 38 64 60 54
1976
Military 5 1 4 4
UDR 3 4 1 7 RUC 6 9 3 5
Civilian 78 68 52 46
Peace talks were conducted by the leader of the opposition in Britain, and the leader of the IRA.
The talks went nowhere, and some felt as though the British never had any real intention of coming to an
agreement, and just wanted the bombings to stop. After the first set of talks broke down, Britain decided
on a bold move, and seized complete and direct rule of Northern Ireland by dissolving it’s
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parliment(Somemothersson, 1997). They again wanted to talk peace. The IRA said it would talk, but first
wanted a guarantee that any IRA members who were captured would be treated as prisoners of war. This
condition was met, and the talks began again. This time, the IRA had demanded the complete
surrendering of Northern Ireland to the Republic, a completely unrealistic demand. The British never had
any intentions of giving in, and the talks lasted only two weeks(Frontline, 1997). Afterwards, the IRA
doubled their efforts, the first day of which saw 28 people die in what is called Bloody Friday. The IRA
then decided to move their bombing operations East to London(Somemothersson, 1997).
A short while after, the legal system of Britain was changed when dealing with terrorist trials so
that the burden of proof would be on the defence, and that the trial would be heard by a judge alone, with
no jury. Prisoners would no longer be considered prisoners of war, and would be simply treated as
common prisoners(Somemothersson, 1997). This went against a promise the British had given them, and
the prisoners were outraged. Upon hearing about the changes to the legal and judicial system, the
prisoners refused to deal with the guards. When told to wear the clothes of a regular prisoner instead of
the street clothes of a POW, they refused, and clothed themslves only in the blanket that belonged on their
bed. They soon refused to leave their cells to use the bathrooms (cells that had no toilets in them) and
eventually began to starve themselves(Frontline, 1997). The Hunger Strike is a long held Irish tradition,
and many men have been known to have died trying to prove a point. The hunger strikes began in October
of 1980(Somemothersson, 1997).
Just before the hunger strikes started, on August 27, 1979, members of the IRA assassinated the
Queen’s uncle, and completely destroyed a British Army convoy. This was the biggest single attack on
British soldiers, and the worst casualties since the war in 1921. The irony was that the regiment that was
attacked was the same one responsible for the deaths of Bloody Sunday(Frontline, 1997).
The hunger strike was the first thing that had finally gotten a small amount of attention from the
public and the British Government as a whole. The men in the prison still felt very strongly about their
status as regular prisoners. There was now six men on the hunger strike including a young man named
Bobby Sands. In November, after roughly a month of fasting, the leaders of the strike, Sands and Brendan
Hughes, called it off after being told that their demands woul