Review Quiz

13:10-13:15
 1
After Bloody Sunday, the number
joining the IRA grew rapidly as young
people sought revenge for the killings.

TRUE
 2
The Widgery Report, issued on the 15th
June 2010, stated that people shot
dead on Bloody Sunday in
Derry/Londonderry were innocent.

→Saville Report
Widgery Report was issued in 1972.
 3
Prior to 1976 the IRA prisoners were
granted special category (political)
status, which privileged such as being
allowed to wear their own clothes.

TRUE
 Special category (political) status
• 1971: British Cabinet Ministers in reference to
the NI present position:

The situation is – we are at war with the IRA.

→ Prisoners of War = Political status

 4
When Bobby Sands died, he was
a Member of Parliament.

True
Sands won the by-election to the House of
Commons on the 9th April during his
hunger strike.
 5
After the death of Bobby Sands,
the IRA stopped using violence.

FALSE
‘Ballot or Armalite’
 “Why H-Block hunger strikers
were not force-fed?”
The Irish Times, 5 Jul. 2016

Margaret Thatcher’s government: political

hunger strikers should not be force-fed.
Peace Process in Northern Ireland

Session 11
2024/12/18
 Two turning points

• Bloody Sunday (1972) →Bloody Sunday (2002)

→The rise of the IRA

• Hunger Strike (1981) →Hunger (2008)

→The rise of Sinn Fein (political wing of the IRA)
 Seamus Heaney’s Nobel Lecture
• ‘Crediting Poetry’ (7 Dec. 1995)

• https://www.nobelprize.org/mediaplayer/?id=1506
(Audio recording: 51 minutes)

• https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/literature/1995/heaney/lecture/
(Text)
 Seamus Heaney (1939-2013)
• Poet, born in Co. Derry
• The oldest of nine children in a Catholic family
• Queens University, Belfast: Latin, Irish, English

• Awarded Nobel prize for literature in 1995 ‘for

works of lyrical beauty and ethical depth, which
exalt everyday miracles and the living past.’
Four Irish Nobel Laureates in Literature
W. B. Yeats (1923) G. B. Shaw (1925)

Samuel Beckett (1969) Seamus Heaney (1995)

 Seamus Heaney’s Nobel Lecture (1995)
• 1968-1974
• The IRA’s campaign of bombings and killings
• Bloody Sunday in Derry (1972)
• Ulster Workers Council strike (15-28 May, 1974)

• After 1974 … for the twenty long years …

 Killings of 10 Protestant workers
• Jan. 1976
• One Catholic and 10 Protestants in a minibus
• Caught by masked men
• ‘Any Catholics, step out.’
• ‘He felt the hand of the Protestant worker next
to him take his hand and squeeze it in a signal
that said no, don’t move, we’ll not betray you.’
→’the birth of the future we desire’
The external reality and inner dynamic of
happenings in Northern Ireland between 1968
and 1974 were symptomatic of change, violent
change admittedly, but change nevertheless,
and for the minority living there, change had
been long overdue. It should have come early,
as the result of the ferment of protest on the
streets in the late sixties, but that was not to be
and the eggs of danger which were always
incubating got hatched out very quickly. While
the Christian moralist in oneself (Heaney) was
impelled to deplore the atrocious nature of the
IRA's campaign of bombings and killings,
and the "mere Irish" in oneself was appalled by
the ruthlessness of the British Army on
occasions like Bloody Sunday in Derry in 1972,
the minority citizen in oneself, the one who
had grown up conscious that his group was
distrusted and discriminated against in all kinds
of official and unofficial ways, this citizen's
perception was at one with the poetic truth of
the situation in recognizing that if life in
Northern Ireland were ever really to flourish,
change had to take place.
But that citizen's perception was also at one with
the truth in recognizing that the very brutality of
the means by which the IRA were pursuing
change was destructive of the trust upon which
new possibilities would have to be based.
Nevertheless, until the British government caved
in to the strong-arm tactics of the Ulster loyalist
workers after the Sunningdale Conference in
1974, a well-disposed mind could still hope to
make sense of the circumstances. […] After 1974,
however, for the twenty long years between then
and the ceasefires of August 1994, such a hope
proved impossible.
The violence from below was then productive of
nothing but a retaliatory violence from above,
the dream of justice became subsumed into the
callousness of reality, and people settled into a
quarter century of life-waste and spirit-waste, of
hardening attitudes and narrowing possibilities
that were the natural result of political solidarity,
traumatic suffering and sheer emotional self-
protectiveness.
One of the most harrowing moments in the whole
history of the harrowing of the heart in Northern Ireland
came when a minibus full of workers being driven home
one January evening in 1976 was held up by armed and
masked men and the occupants of the van ordered at
gunpoint to line up at the side of the road. Then one of
the masked executioners said to them, "Any Catholics
among you, step out here". As it happened, this
particular group, with one exception, were all
Protestants, so the presumption must have been that
the masked men were Protestant paramilitaries about to
carry out a tit-for-tat sectarian killing of the Catholic as
the odd man out, the one who would have been
presumed to be in sympathy with the IRA and all its
actions.
It was a terrible moment for him, caught between dread
and witness, but he did make a motion to step forward.
Then, the story goes, in that split second of decision, and
in the relative cover of the winter evening darkness, he
felt the hand of the Protestant worker next to him take
his hand and squeeze it in a signal that said no, don't
move, we'll not betray you, nobody need know what
faith or party you belong to. All in vain, however, for the
man stepped out of the line; but instead of finding a gun
at his temple, he was thrown backward and away as the
gunmen opened fire on those remaining in the line, for
these were not Protestant terrorists, but members,
presumably, of the Provisional IRA.
 Government of Northern Ireland

• Majority rule (1921~1972)

• Direct rule (1972~73, 74~99)

• Devolved/Power-Sharing（1974, 1999~)
 Majority rule (1921~1972)

The Unionist Party had a majority

in the Stormont parliament and
ruled alone.
 Direct rule from London
A Secretary of State (Minister) for NI was
appointed by the British government to
rule NI directly from London.
NI politicians had little influence on his
policies.

(9 Feb.1972~31.Dec.73, 28 May 74~ 2 Dec. 99)

 Devolved /Power-sharing
→ a political arrangement in which
nationalists and unionists work in
government together.

The Sunningdale Agreement (1973)

→ a power-sharing government (1.Jan.〜28 May 1974)
The Good Friday Agreement (1998)
→ a power-sharing government (2 Dec. 99~)
 Power-sharing
To provide a political settlement:
→ first minister + deputy first minister
they basically have equal authority and
cannot work in isolation from each other
→ They lead an Executive Committee of Ministers

1999~
The Scottish Parliament
The National Assembly for Wales
The Northern Ireland Assembly
 Background to devolution in the UK
Following referendums in both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland
in 1998 and in Scotland and Wales in 1997, the UK Parliament transferred a
range of powers to national parliaments or assemblies.

• The Scottish Parliament, the National Assembly for Wales and the
Northern Ireland Assembly were established, and affirmed responsibility
for devolved matters in 1999. The arrangements are different for each,
reflecting their history and administrative structures.
• The UK government remains responsible for national policy on all
matters that have not been devolved, including foreign affairs, defence,
social security, macro-economic management and trade.
• It is also responsible for government policy in England on all the matters
that have been devolved to Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland.
• Within the UK government, the Secretaries of State for Scotland, Wales
and Northern Ireland are responsible for the Scotland Office, the Wales
Office and the Northern Ireland Office.

https://www.nidirect.gov.uk/articles/overview-government-northern-ireland
Peace Process
 Back-Channel Negotiations: 1970s~
‘secret communication between the leadership of
opposing groups’ sometimes conducted by a third
party.’

→ mutual trust and solidarity between parties

→ personal relationships, information sharing

Ex: Jonathan Powell (British diplomat) and Martin

McGuinness (Sinn Fein politician)
 White Paper: Northern Ireland
Constitutional Proposals (1973)
• NI →part of UK as long as the majority wanted
that
• Assembly (≠ Parliament) is proposed.
• Northern Ireland Executive (≠ Government)
set up by Assembly

Parliament → Assembly
Government → Executive
 Sunningdale Agreement
• Conference: 6-9 December 1973
• First attempt for a political settlement after 72
• British & Irish governments
• NI parties (UUP, Alliance, SDLP)
 Power-Sharing Executive
• A new system of government for NI
• A government in which both Catholics and
Protestants shared power
→Offer the Catholic minority a permanent
role in the government of NI

• A Council of Ireland: cooperation between

Northern Ireland and the Republic
 Power-Sharing Executive
[1 Jan – 28 May]
• Brian Faulkner (First Minister: Unionist)
• Gerry Fitt (Deputy First Minister: Nationalist)

• Unionists distrust of (even moderate) Nationalists

↓
• General strike: 14 -28 May 1974
The Ulster Workers’ Council
To bring the whole of NI to a standstill and ‘break’
the Power-Sharing Executive
→Heaney: ‘the strong-arm tactics of the Ulster
loyalist workers’
 Heaney
After 1974 … for the twenty long years:
… people settled in to a quarter century of life-
waste and spirit-waste, of hardening attitudes
and narrowing possibilities that were the natural
result of political solidarity, traumatic suffering
and sheer emotional self-protectiveness.
 British Government
• treat the Troubles as primarily a security
problem with the IRA

• Patrol the streets

• Throw thousands in jail

• Angry young Catholics with a gun or a bomb

→ the violence would continue
 Anglo-Irish Agreement (1985)

Margaret Thatcher
PM

Garret FitzGerald
Taoiseach （PM)
 Anglo-Irish Agreement (1985)
(1) The status of Northern Ireland would only
change with the consent of the majority of its
people (the principle of consent)
(2) NI would remain part of the UK, but
An Inter-Governmental Conference (chaired
by the Northern Ireland Secretary and the
Irish Foreign Minister) would meet regularly
(3) Civil servants from London and Dublin in
Maryfield (near Belfast) to support the Inter-
Governmental Conference
 Anglo-Irish Agreement (1985)
• Historic statement:
• NI’s future would be determined by
democratic processes within NI
• Established an intergovernmental conference
→ the Republic an official consultative role

• Laid the ground for peace

• But… the Protestant/Unionist community in NI
felt as if they were being left out.
 Reactions in NI
• SDLP: warmly welcomed the Agreement.
• Sinn Fein: completely rejected the Agreement.
• IRA: ignored the Agreement & continued its
bombing campaign.

• Unionists: shocked & frightened.

→felt alone and betrayed.
→called for a province-wide strike
 Reactions in the Republic
• Supporters of the government parties: well
received
• Fianna Fail (opposition party): opposed the
Agreement.
1. the principle of consent gives Unionists the power to veto a
united Ireland.
2. Unionist majority: artificially created in 1920: a decision based
on a majority: undemocratic.
3. The Agreement ignored the wishes of the Irish people as a
whole when deciding the future of NI.
 In the early 1990s
• Gerry Adams (leader of Sinn Fein)
• John Hume (leader of the SDLP)
Hume-Adams talk

• Adams’s visit to the US

His visa was granted (Clinton)
Downing Street Declaration (1993)
• Albert Reynolds (Irish Taioseach)
• John Major (British Prime Minister)

• Britain would protect the will of the majority in

NI
• Irish Republic’s role in the peace process
Downing Street Declaration (1993)
That it is for the people of the island of Ireland
alone, between the two parts respectively, to
exercise their right of self-determination on the
basis of consent, freely given, North and South,
to bring about a united Ireland, if that is their
wish.
Downing Street Declaration (1993)
• For Nationalists:
There was the guarantee that it was up to
‘the people of the island of Ireland alone’ to
decide their future.
• For Unionists
There was the guarantee that unity could
only come ‘on the basis of consent, freely
given, North and South’.
 American Politicians
• Edward Kennedy [US Senator 1962-2009]
‘Ulster is becoming Britain’s Vietnam.’ (1971)
• Bill Clinton [US President 1993 -2001]
• George Mitchell [former US Senator]
→ Chairman of the peace talks (1995- 98)
 Ceasefires (1994)
• IRA ceasefire: 31 August 1994 (~ 9 Feb. 1996)
• Loyalist paramilitaries’ ceasefire: 13 October

→ opens the way for peace

→ beginning of the end for the Troubles
 ‘paramilitary’
An unofficial organization, or member of an
organization that is prepared to use illegal means,
including the use of violence, to achieve political
objectives.

Republican paramilitary organization → IRA

Loyalist paramilitary organizations
→ Ulster Defence Association (UDA)
→ Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF)
→ Ulster Freedom Fighters (UFF)
 Clinton’s visit to NI (1995)
• Senator George Mitchell’s involvement
→decommissioning of paramilitary weapons

• The Independent International Commission on

Decommissioning (IICD) established on 26
August 1997.
 decommissioning
• hand-over of weapons by paramilitary groups

• Unionists: IRA should decommission illegally

held weapons
• IRA: No decommissioning before a political
settlement to the conflict
 1997
In the general election:
• Sinn Fein’s victory
• Tony Blair (Labour Party) →PM
 IRA’s second ceasefire (1997)
• 9 February 1996: bomb attack at Canary
Wharf (London)= end of the ceasefire (1994)

• 19 July 1997
• All party talks on the future of NI
 Mo Mowlam (1949-2005)
• Tony Blair’s Labour Government
• Secretary of State for NI [1994~](1997〜1999)
• Talked to Gerry Adams

‘Honest Mo’
 Secretary of State for NI
(1972~81)

William Whitelaw (72-72) Merlyn Rees (74-76) (L) Humphery Atkins (79-81)

Francis Pym (73-74)

Roy Mason (76-79) (L)

L = Labour party
 Secretary of State for NI
(1981~97)

Tom King (85-89) Patrick Mayhew (92-97)

Jim Prior (81-84)

Douglas Hurd (84-85) Peter Brooke (89-92)

 Upon her death in 2005
‘Mo Mowlam was the catalyst that allowed
politics to move forward which led to the signing
of the Good Friday Agreement in April 1998. She
cut through conventions and made difficult
decisions that gave momentum to political
progress.’

Peter Hain, Secretary for NI

BBC News, 19 August 2005
 IRA’s second ceasefire (1997)
• 19 July
• All party talks on the future of NI
 U2: “PLEASE” (1997)
Gerry David
Adams Trimble
(Sinn Fein) (UUP)

John Ian
Hume Paisley
(SDLP) (DUP)
So you never knew love
Until you crossed the line of grace
And you never felt wanted
Till you'd someone slap your face
So you never felt alive
Until you'd almost wasted away

You had to win, you couldn't just pass

The smartest ass at the top of the class
Your flying colours, your family tree
And all your lessons in history

Please, please, please

Get up off your knees
Please, please, please, please, oh yeah
 Good Friday Agreement (1998)
• Deadline set by George Mitchell: Good Friday

• Unionists & Republicans agreed on a

programme for running NI
 Good Friday Agreement (1998)
• = Belfast Agreement
• Deadline set by George Mitchell: Good Friday

• Unionists & Republicans agreed on a

programme for running NI
 Good Friday Agreement (1998)
• Power-sharing executive [1999~]
• RUC (Royal Ulster Constabulary)
→ Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI)
• IRA and Loyalist paramilitaries: cease-fire &
decomissioning
• Political prisoners: released
• The Republic: amended its constitution to
remove its territorial claim to NI (until the
people of NI agreed to join)
 Power-sharing
To provide a political settlement:
→ first minister + deputy first minister
they basically have equal authority and
cannot work in isolation from each other
→ They lead an Executive Committee of Ministers

1999~
The Scottish Parliament
The National Assembly for Wales
The Northern Ireland Assembly →1-(3)
 Referendum
• Northern Ireland
Yes: 71.1%
No: 28.9%

• Republic of Ireland
Yes: 94.39%
No: 5.61%
 1999: Power-sharing

Nobel Prize for Peace

Hume (SDLP) Trimble (UUP)

Clinton
 Power-sharing Executives 1999
• David Trimble (first minister)
• John Hume (deputy first minister)
• Ministers
UUP: 3, DUP: 2, SDLP: 3, Sinn Fein: 2
 Omagh Bombing (15 Aug 1999)
• Real IRA (splinter group of the IRA)
• 29 killed

• IRA and Loyalist paramilitaries:

→kept the ceasefire
• Gerry Adams:
violence must be a thing of the past.’
 9.11 and the IRA
• Significant changes in global politics
• Label of ‘terrorists’: fatal to anybody

• IRA → political arena

 9.11 and the IRA
• Significant changes in global politics
• Label of ‘terrorists’: fatal to anybody

• IRA → political arena

2007: Power-sharing
“Chuckle Brothers”
Ian Paisley
(1926-2014)
Martin McGuinness
(1950-2017)
 Power-sharing Executives 2007
• Ian Paisley (first minister)
• Martin McGuinness (deputy first minister)
• Ministers
DUP: 4, UUP: 2, Sinn Fein: 3, SDLP: 1
 2017 ~
• Election in 2017: Sinn Féin & the Democratic
Unionist Party (DUP)→ Assembly suspended
• 2020-2021: Power-sharing agreement
Brexit & the Irish Sea border
• 2022~
Civilian
British Security Forces
Republican Paramilitaries
Loyalist Paramilitaries
 Audra Mitchell
Peace-building can be an act of violence. Conflict,
on the other hand, may not be a cause of violence,
but rather a crucial means for resisting,
constraining and preventing it. … an inability to
conflict is most likely to foster violence, rather than
conflict itself.

Lost in Transformation: Violent Peace and Peaceful Conflict in

Northern Ireland. Palgrave Macmillan, 2011, p.1.
 “our trials of the troubles”
3 days during Easter 1996, Belfast

Hilary Gilligan, art student

Names of 3,300 individual victims Apprentice Boys of Derry