Northern Ireland

Abstract

Out of all our case studies Northern Ireland is the only country located geographically on the western edge of Europe. Until 1921 all of Ireland was ruled by Britain as a constituent part of the British Empire. Following a guerrilla war across the country between 1919–21 — the Irish War of Independence — the country was divided into two parts. The largest part (what is now the Republic of Ireland) with a Catholic majority declared independence from Britain, but six of the north-easterly counties with a large Protestant majority and a Catholic minority continued under British rule, and formed the new state of Northern Ireland. Between 1921 and 1973 Northern Ireland had its own devolved Parliament at Stormont, just outside Belfast with one political party, the predominantly Protestant, Ulster Unionist Party, governing for 50 consecutive years. Northern Ireland had one-party government for longer than the Soviet Union, in fact. In the late 1960s allegations of discrimination (political, economic, cultural) against the Catholic minority led to a sustained period of unrest and a campaign for civil rights and equal citizenship. The inability of the Unionist government to implement reforms, and the harsh and repressive policing tactics adopted by the then Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) and its auxiliary, the Ulster Special Constabulary (USC), inflamed an already volatile situation and led to widespread civil disorder. In 1969 the British government put the army on the streets of Northern Ireland in an effort to contain a worsening situation and in 1972, suspended the Northern Ireland parliament indefinitely and established Direct Rule from Westminster.