T3 Northern Ireland

Question 1

Internment (1971)

Answer 1

• Heath backed Brian Faulkner, the leader of the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP), in introducing nighttime curfews and internment [locking up suspects without trial].
• The internment policy was ineffective as a security measure and alienated the Catholic community of Northern Ireland whom were the usual targets of internment without trial.
• Between 1971 and 1975, Catholics made up 95% of those interned without trial in prison.
• Jim McVeigh, an IRA commander, was quoted as saying that Heath’s internment policy was, ‘among the best recruiting tools the IRA ever had’.

Question 2

Bloody Sunday (January 1972)

Answer 2

• The use British troops, night-time curfews and internment in Northern Ireland meant that Britain was now viewed as a foreign military occupation by the Catholic community.
• This situation was made worse on 30th January 1972 with Bloody Sunday.
• The Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association had organised a march to protest internment.
• Attempts to control the civil rights marchers resulted in British soldiers of the parachute regiment firing live ammunition.
• In total, 26 unarmed Catholic civilians, were shot with 13 being killed on the day. This day became known as Bloody Sunday.

Question 3

Return to British Direct Rule of Northern Ireland (March 1972)

Answer 3

• Following Bloody Sunday, the British embassy in Dublin was burned down.
• Support for the IRA grew, and they were able to raise a lot of funds in the United States.
• The year 1972 turned into the bloodiest year of ‘the troubles’.
• There were 1382 explosions, 10,628 shootings and 480 people were killed.
• Heath responded by suspending Northern Ireland’s Stormont Parliament in March 1972 and brought in Direct Rule from Westminster [the London government], appointing the Conservative MP, Willie Whitelaw, as Secretary of State for Northern Ireland.
• Direct Rule meant that Northern Ireland would now be ruled directly from London rather than Northern Ireland having its own government and parliament.

Question 4

The Sunningdale Agreement (1973 - 1974)

Answer 4

• Heath’s policy was not only to try and to defeat the IRA, as the Protestant Unionists and Loyalists wanted, but to find a permanent political solution to ‘the troubles’ that would ensure peace was
  restored to Northern Ireland.
• In 1973, Heath and Whitelaw, negotiate the Sunningdale Agreement, a complex plan for a powersharing government in Northern Ireland with the support of the Ulster Unionist Party (UPP), the Alliance Party and the leadership of Social Democratic Labour Party (SDLP).
• The Sunningdale Agreement was named after the hotel in Berkshire where the negotiations took place. It proposed:
• (1) A power-sharing Executive [government] of both Nationalists and Unionists whereby both sides would be guaranteed an equal share of power.
• (2) A new Northern Ireland Assembly [parliament] elected by proportional representation.
• (3) A Council of Ireland that would have some input from the Republic of Ireland.
• Extremists, both Catholic Republicans/Nationalists and Protestant Unionists/Loyalists, rejected the Sunningdale Agreement as a sell-out to their rival sides.

Question 5

The Failure of the Sunningdale Agreement (1974)

Answer 5

• Although the Heath government (1970 - 1974) had negotiated the Sunningdale Agreement with the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP), the Social Democratic Labour Party (SDLP) and the Alliance Party,
  both hard-line nationalists/republicans like Sinn Fein and hard-line unionist/loyalist like the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) were opposed. Moreover, the Ulster Unionists Party (UUP) was beginning to turn against it.

Question 6

The Ulster Workers’ Council Strike (1974)

Answer 6

• The Ulster Worker’s Council (UWC) was set up by a Protestant shipyard worker, Harry Murray, and it was determined to bring down the Northern Ireland Executive [government] introduced by Heath’s Sunningdale Agreement. It announced a general strike on 15th May 1974.
• The Ulster Workers’ Council strike was supported by hard-line unionist politicians like Ian Paisley’s Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) and by Protestant loyalist paramilitary organisations like the Ulster Defence Association (UDA) and the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF).
• These paramilitary organisations ensured that the strike was enforced and at the same time set off bombs in the Republic of Ireland and attacked Catholic civilians in Northern Ireland.
• The strike effectively limited power and communication, forcing the British government to declare a state of emergency, within Northern Ireland.
• Within a fortnight, Brian Faulkner of the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) resigned as the Chief Executive [First Minister] and the power-sharing Executive [assembly] of Northern Ireland.
• Wilson was forced to reimpose direct rule over Northern Ireland from Westminster [the London government].
• The Sunningdale Agreement had collapsed.

Question 7

Wilson’s Northern Ireland Policy (1974 - 1976)

Answer 7

• Harold Wilson announced the establishment of a Northern Ireland Constitution Convention, an elected body that would meet to determine the future of government in Northern Ireland.
• The Northern Ireland elections in July 1975 resulted in a majority for Protestant unionist/loyalists who were opposed to any form of power-sharing.
• Thus, an agreement with Catholic nationalist/republicans would not be possible. The Northern Ireland Convention was dissolved [closed-down] in 1976.

Question 8

Callaghan’s Northern Ireland Policy (1976 - 1979)

Answer 8

• From 1976 Special Category Status was removed from terrorist prisoners in Northern Ireland.
• This meant that they were no longer considered political prisoners but would instead be treated as ordinary criminals.
• This was disliked by the paramilitaries who believed their members were soldiers engaged in a war.
• They therefore felt that their prisoners deserved to be recognised as political prisoners and given the same rights of prisoners of war (POWs).
• The Maze Prison was a prison in Northern Ireland that was used to house alleged paramilitary prisoners during ‘the troubles’ from August 1971 to September 2000.
• Now that terrorist prisoners were categorised as ordinary criminals, they were now expected to wear prison issued uniforms for clothing, like any other ordinary prisoner.
• The paramilitary prisoners refused and led to what became known as the ‘Blanket Protests’ by IRA and INLA prisoners whereby prisoners refusing to wear prison uniforms, went around naked, and wore only blankets over their bodies.
• By 1978, the ‘Blanket Protests’ escalated to become the ‘Dirty Protests’.
• Republican prisoners, alleging ill-treatment by prison guards, refused to leave their prison cells.
• This meant that they were unable to ‘slop out’ and instead they smeared their excrement on their prison cell walls.
• By 1979 over 250 prisoners were taking part in the protest and demands were growing for them to regain their status as political prisoners rather than ordinary criminals.