Northern Ireland and the troubles Flashcards
How many bombings took place under Thatcher?
5
What was the most important bombing?
The Brighton bombing
What happened in the Brighton bombing?
5 killed and 31 injured at the Conservative Party conference in Brighton.
Most notable person that the IRA killed?
The bombing and killing of Lord Mountbatten, cousin of the queen and a member of the royal family
What was the Warrington bombing?
The IRA bombed the town centre of Warrington, near Manchester.
The IRA in the bombing killed a 3 year old and a 12 year old boy.
What was the affect of the Warrington Bombing?
Public persona changed against the IRA, they had not been targeting any military targets at all but instead a town centre with families and children which had no connection to the IRA.
What did the IRA do in response to the warrington bombing?
Later the IRA came out and apologised for killing children saying that it was a miscommunication that led to the bombs going off in Warrington.
All sides of the fighting came out and condemned the IRA and their attack.
What did Thatcher do about people who supported the IRA
The government banned organisations which were believed to have supported terrorist activities from broadcasting in Britain.
How did British broadcasters bypass the rules put in place by Thatcher?
Broadcasters avoided the rules by employing actors to read the words of those affected by the ban.
Examples of Thatcher being under scrutiny for her Northern Ireland policies?
-Accusations of shoot to kill policy came out after 3 IRA members were killed by the SAS in Gibraltar in 1988.
-High profile miscarriages of justice such as the Birmingham six and the Guildford Four were revealed
-Meanwhile the atrocities continued; both loyalists and republicans engaged in ‘tit for tat’ killings.
What happened under John Major?
Under Major there was a political breakthrough. From 1993 the government received secrete messages hinting that Sinn Fein was ready to discuss a peace agreement.
Why was it good that Sinn Fein wanted to talk to the UK?
The fact that the two sides were talking was a step in the right direction. Major got on well with the Irish PM, Albert Reynolds
What did Bill Clinton do with NI?
The new American President, Bill Clinton, encouraged Sinn Fein away from armed struggles.
Major and Reynolds went public in 1993 with their joint downing street declaration in this:
- The government agreed to ‘uphold the democratic wish of. A greater number of the people of Northern Ireland on the issue of whether they wish to support the union or establish a sovereign united Ireland. E.G. Vote on their own future.
- Dublin accepted that a united Ireland had to have majority consent within Northern Ireland. It also accepted that parts of the 1937 constitution were unacceptable to unionists and agreed – in context of an overall settlement to change that document.
- Britain asserted that they had ‘no selfish interest in Northern Ireland.
What was the reaction to the Downing Street declaration in 1993?
Sinn Fein stated that it was glad to see Britain accepting self-determination, the declaration still allowed unionists a veto over exercise.
The Ulster unionist party was comforted by parts of the declaration – however, it was unhappy with what it thought was its bias towards Irish nationalism or as they termed it, it’s ‘green tinge’.
Similar reaction from the DUP which saw the declaration as yet another step towards a united Ireland.
