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The Ulster Question 1920-1970 - From the Government of Ireland Act of 1920 to the mid 1960's an inbuilt protestant ascendancy existed in the province of Ulster; whereby protestants were favoured in housing, education and employment. Control over local government and the civil service was guaranteed by the process of fixing the elections or gerrymandering. In the mid 1960's the Catholic middle classes inspired by the example of southern blacks in the USA demanded civil rights, the border was no longer the main issue but rights within the northern Irish state.

The first signs of trouble came in 1966/67 when Protestants led by Ian Paisley rejected the liberal reforms of the Stormont government under Captain Terence O'Neil. Civil rights marches were attacked by protestants and the role of the Ulster constabulary was criticised as was the violence of the much bated b specials. One of the most famous incidents was the attack at Burntollet bridge of a civil rights march from Derry to Belfast. Polarisation began to take place within both communities and culminated in the violence that met the annual marching season in the summer and the 'Battle of the Bogside' in August 1969. This directly resulted in the sending in of the British army to prevent a potential civil war.

Home Secretary James Callaghan responded to the crisis by extending housing and employment opportunities to Catholics and importantly taking the symbolic stance of banning the B specials. Despite the foundation of the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) religious rivalries began to take a more extra-parliamentary form, and this soon resulted in the return of the Irish Republican Army (Catholic) and the Ulster Volunteer Force (Protestant). The initial goodwill of the Catholic population towards the army was soon turned into animosity and was not helped by the tough law and order approach of the new Conservative government and the Home Secretary Reginald Maudling who introduced internment and house searches. After 50 years the Northern Ireland crisis had returned to the political agenda and so had the IRA.

Northern Ireland 1970-96 - The year 1970 was significant in the province with increasing violence and the formation of two new political parties the SDLP and the Alliance both attempting to work in the centre ground of Ulster politics. As violent extra-parliamentary politics increased internment was introduced it only served to increase violence and polarisation and culminated in the events of Bloody Sunday on 30 January 1972. Edward Heath, disillusioned with the path of violence announced direct rule from April 1st with Willie Whitelaw becoming Secretary of State for Northern Ireland with responsibility for law and order.

By 1972 the civil rights movement had itself divided and many had joined the extremes of nationalism or Marxism. In the late 1960's the IRA had split between the Officials and Provisionals who argued for more direct action. The 'provos' became more important, and violent, as catholic alienation continued. at the same time protestant politics was also polarising between the Official Unionists and Democratic Unionists with the rise of paramilitaries such as the Ulster Defence Association and the Ulster Volunteer Force.

In October 1972 the British government published a paper 'the future of northern Ireland' which outlined proposals for a settlement in the north. The problems for Britain was that it had to convince extremists on both sides of the sectarian divide of any proposals. Whitelaw's white paper put forward the idea of an elected assembly by proportional representation envisaging a legislative body with large powers over domestic policy and the eventual emergence of a council of Ireland with the executive drawn from representatives of both communities. The resultant elections saw a division of votes between several parties and by November a power sharing executive had been agreed between the Official Unionists, SDLP and the Alliance.

In the Sunningdale Agreement a Council of Ireland was agreed upon to establish a framework for future discussions and a Council of Ministers would be set up to facilitate further co-operation between north and south. The power sharing executive took office in January 1974 but underneath the surface politics had not been calmed and in may 1974 a general strike called by the Ulster workers council brought down the power sharing executive and Sunningdale was rejected. After these failures Westminster re-established direct rule under the northern Ireland act of 1974.Throughout the late 1970's paramilitary activity was curtailed but not controlled and no British solution was suggested which did not to alienate one extreme or or the other and cause increased violence.

The most notable event was the short lived peace movement which failed to break the polarisation of Ulster politics. Unionism continued to be fragmented between the Official Unionist Party and the Democratic Unionist Party by the end of the 1970's it was clear that only a political solution could solve the deadlock but it would need the co-operation of a majority of the population and the paramilitaries.

Throughout the 1980's Northern Ireland remained the most economically disadvantaged area in the UK with average unemployment of over 20%.

The early eighties saw the attempt by the provisional IRA to win back support through the maze hunger strike which began with the dirty protest. At the same time Sinn Fein developed as an important party with its policy of the 'armalite and the ballot box'. In march 1980 a hunger strike began which saw the deaths of ten participants including Bobby Sands the new MP for Fermanagh and South Tyrone. In the general election of 1983 Sinn Fein gained 13.8% of the vote, the IRA campaign switched to the mainland with the bombing of the Grand Hotel in Brighton 1984.

In May 1980 the British and Irish PM's met and decided they would hold inter-governmental meetings twice every four years. In 1982 the Northern Ireland act envisaged the election of an assembly with initially only consultative functions but eventually developing a number of government departments under its control. The inter-governmental meetings between London and Dublin continued and culminated in the Anglo-Irish Agreement of November 1985. Dublin agreed that the unionist could maintain their veto as long as they remained in the majority. the council would consider security (article 7), legal matters (article 8) and cross border co-operation in security.

The new agreement proposed to continue direct rule until power sharing was forthcoming. The result was that Eire was now tied to London and Washington was appeased. The agreement met strong opposition from the protestant community with the 'Ulster says No' campaign. The Downing Street Declaration preceded by the Hume/Adams talks was to that date the most successful attempt to solve the problem and led to a cease-fire which was, to date, the most successful since 'the Troubles' began in 1969.

On the 15th December 1993 at 10 Downing Street John Major and the Irish Prime Minister Albert Reynolds issued the text of a common document, the Framework Document, which they hoped might establish the framework for a political settlement in northern Ireland. (See framework document Summary)

Initially the outcome of these developments seemed very successful as on the 3 1st august 1994 the IRA announced a cease-fire and the response of the protestant paramilitaries was also a cease-fire on October 13th 1994. The incorporation of the paramilitaries seemed to offer great hope especially as British troops were then taken off patrons on the streets of Ulster. On the 28th November 1995 the British and Irish governments issued a communiqué which announced the launching of a twin track process in parallel on the decommissioning issue and on all party negotiations.

1. One track was "to invite the parties to intensive preparatory talks with a remit to reach widespread agreement on the basis, participation, structure, format and agenda to bring all parties together for substantive negotiations aimed at political settlement based upon consent."

2. The other track concerned the decommissioning of arms and the Mitchell report was subsequently published on the 24th January 1996.

Click on the picture for a Powerpoint prexentation on the Good Friday Agreement