This is the Falls Road in Belfast. And this is the Shankhill Road. These two areas are
just a few streets away from each other, and yet there is a border running between them.
This vast wall stands on the line of the first peace wall in Northern Ireland. First Built
nearly 50 years ago as a temporary barrier to divide two communities, there is a still a
wall standing here today - a physical symbol of the deep divisions within the Northern Ireland.
Northern Ireland was formed in 1921. When Ireland seceded from the UK, six of Ireland’s 32 counties
remained as part of the United Kingdom. The governance of these counties has been
contested ever since, sparking the bloody 30-year conflict known as the Troubles.
In this four-part series, we’ll be taking a look at the history of the Troubles,
and why the scars of this conflict remain. But first of all, let’s take a look back
to see what marked out the six counties of Northern Ireland in the first place.
Religious tension in the north of Ireland dates back hundreds of years, and some of this
can be traced back to the plantation of Ulster. At the end of the 16th century, an Irish alliance
rose up to fight against English rule – and a lot of the unrest took place in the province of
Ulster. At the end of the war in 1603, James VI & I, King of Scotland & England, set out
to colonise and subdue the north of Ireland. He sought to undertake an official plantation of
Ulster to ensure its loyalty and to stop uprisings happening ever again. In this, he planted
mainly lowland Scots and some from the north of England into six of the nine counties of Ulster.
Earlier in 1603 that had been private plantation by Presbyterians Scots in the counties of Down
and then Antrim. But the actual official policy starts in 1609 and it's really there to secure
this part of the country in a way that will make it not be able to rise in rebellion again.
Over the next century, Europe was engulfed in religious wars. James II – the Catholic
King of England, Scotland and Ireland - was overthrown by protestant William of
Orange in 1688. A few years later, James’s supporters – the Jacobites – attempted to
restore James to the throne. Supported by French forces, the Irish Jacobites fought
the Williamites in Ireland, backed by the Grand Alliance. The fighting culminated
in two major battles, at the Boyne and Aughrim. The Battle of the Boyne, although not a decisive
battle, was very significant. A year later, in 1691, at the Battle of Aughrim, the Jacobite
forces of James are actually destroyed and he is defeated. Aughrim itself, although the less
well known, is by far the most strategically important of the two battles, but the Boyne has
a much larger geopolitical effect. And even today still William of Orange is a figure that we see,
particularly during the loyalist marching season, which culminates on the 12th of July.
Religious conflict, as with much of Europe, was causing great divisions with Northern Ireland. But
another struggle was also continuing to grow: the fight for independence from British rule.
In 1845, a potato famine broke out across Ireland. The famine reinforced to a lot of Irish people
that although they were now part of the UK, they were not considered equal. As Irish people
starved, the British continued to export food for profit. Over a million people died. The famine
sparked rebellion and new calls for independence. Over the 19th century, there were multiple bills
proposed for Home Rule. The first was proposed and failed in 1886. The third attempt passed in 1914,
but was put on hold due to the First World War. Irish republicans decided to take action. They
staged a rebellion over Easter week in 1916. The Easter Rising is planned as far back as
1914 by Patrick Pierce of the Irish Republican Brotherhood. There are
a number of other groups involved, one of which will go on to become the IRA in 1919.
For a week there is a great deal of violence and there are a high level of casualties.
This is eventually put down by the British Army. Now, whether or not this would have
gone away afterwards changed dramatically in the way that the British sought to deal with
the leaders of the uprising. Many of them were actually executed by firing squad. And
this this hardened attitudes towards Britain. However, this and things such as the
conscription policy that the British tried to introduce in Ireland, again,
hardened Republicanism and eventually Sinn Féin, a party that was formed back in 1905, which had
been a nationalist party not linked with armed or violent Republicanism becomes a Republican
Party. It wins the 1918 general election and instantly declares an independent Ireland.
But support for the union remained strong in the North, leading to the Irish War for
Independence, largely fought between the IRA and the British government.
In 1920, Home Rule was finally granted and Ireland was partitioned. It was meant to be a temporary
solution to end the war, but the government in the south never formed, and the war continued until a
ceasefire in 1921 and the Anglo-Irish Treaty, which granted Ireland a limited independence.
The south became a Free State, but still had to take an oath to the King. This agreement was
not entirely popular, leading to a bloody civil war between those who were pro-Treaty and those
against. In 1923, the pro-Treaty Free State forces prevailed, cementing the Anglo-Irish
Treaty and the two-state solution, with a region in the North remaining part of Britain.
The border had been drawn around six counties in Ulster. In some places the
border was drawn directly through the middle of towns and villages.
Ulster contained nine counties; the three that were excluded were Donegal, Monaghan
and Cavan. This was devised by Unionists, so as to ensure a protestant majority in the new state.
But, although the six counties had a protestant majority politically,
there was a substantial Catholic population across the region.
Voting was manipulated to advantage the unionists. In many senses, the only people you could vote for
sometimes were unionists; Catholics wouldn't vote for them, or the often be no point in actually
putting up a candidate from a nationalist party because it wouldn't be enough of a vote for them
to actually carry any win through. There were actually other things,
such as gerrymandering was used as well, most starkly in the city of Derry/Londonderry,
which was an overwhelmingly nationalist community, but it continued to retain unionist populations
where the boundaries were drawn up. Not only was gerrymandering an issue,
also if you were not the rate payer or the rent payer on a house, even if you were of voting age,
you can vote in local elections which further discriminated against working people.
Access to jobs was another area where the nationalist community often seemed to be
prejudiced against such as the big shipbuilding works in Belfast would have an overwhelmingly
Protestant workforce. But this is actually a hotly contested issue in the sense that if you
didn't have relatives working in one of these factories, no matter if you were Protestant,
you would often be prejudiced against as well. And then on top of that, women found it very hard
to get roles in some of these jobs as well. It was in this environment, with Catholic
residents consistently seen to be disadvantaged, that the civil rights
movement grew among nationalist communities. There was no promotion,
if you're a Catholic, you didn't get it, you just didn't get promotion. The Imperial Civil
Service - if you worked in England, then you would get a promotion. But if you were in the Northern
Ireland Civil Service, there were people who weren't as experienced as you were promoted over
you. Housing was another thing. That was the start of the civil rights movement. A young single girl
got a house where a Catholic family didn't get it. You know, I never met many and never mixed, never
had any protestants and friends until I started nursing really. But it's still there. The hatred.
Deep hatred in those communities. Communities and attitudes became deeply
polarized through near 30 years of conflict in Northern Ireland. Many of the events that took
place during this time are hotly contested. Moreover, they are highly disputed as well.
Often starkly and highly diverse versions of events exist on both sides, and many people will
never come to a point of agreement on what happened on certain days at certain times.
Throughout the late sixties, tension was rising. In 1969, at the annual Apprentice Boys of Derry
march, violence erupted. The route of the march passed through the predominantly Catholic
Bogside area of Derry/Londonderry, resulting in violent clashes between marchers and residents.
Several days of rioting ensued and the police became involved. Weapons were fired, batton-round
guns were used. Stones were thrown and bits of the Bogside were shut off to the police. When
the police moved into the Bogside, loyalist groups moved in behind them. This was probably not the
police's intention, but it galvanized opinion within the nationalist Republican community.
At the same time, violence broke out in other parts of Northern Ireland as well. And people
were burned out of homes in both loyalist and republican communities. And the Troubles at
this point really begins in Northern Ireland. In 1969, the IRA split and a break-away group
who called themselves the Provisional IRA formed. Divisions in the IRA
had been growing through the 1960s. In 1962, the new IRA chief of staff,
Cathal Goulding, sought to move the IRA in a different direction, keen that the movement
becomes political in its outlook rather than one that relies on armed struggle,
which to traditional Republicans is seen as a betrayal of their cause, who see their task
as the defence of the nationalist community, and the expulsion of the British from Ireland.
Loyalist paramilitaries such as the Red Hand Commando, the
Ulster Defence Association (UDA), and the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF), also grew in numbers.
Ian Paisley was a Presbyterian minister who established himself as an outspoken leader
within Unionism, leading marches throughout the 1960s and 70s.
As the rival groups grew, tensions rose. Over these decades, violent attacks and bombings
increased in frequency, and barricades went up to separate the two communities.
The Provisional IRA escalated their armed campaign against the British and Northern
Irish security forces. Many nationalists saw the PIRA as defenders of their community,
and loyalists saw them as dangerous insurgents. In reaction to this violence, the British
Army were deployed on the streets in Operation Banner. They were called in to support the RUC,
and protect infrastructure and civilians. But ultimately,
their presence served to escalate the situation. We’ve come up to IWM’s conservation studio to
have a look at this weapon here which is a baton round gun which was used by the British army and
the Royal Ulster Constantly in riot control situations. This type of weapon could fire a
variety of ammunition from these guns, such as CS gas canisters, but more usually rubber
bullets and more latterly plastic bullets. The British Army was deployed in Northern
Ireland in 1969 at the behest of the then prime minister, and it changed the relationship with
Northern Ireland and the rest of United Kingdom, where now the British government
itself took a more active role because the army were very much within their control.
Initially, in some areas they were seen as being protective and helpful of the
nationalist Catholic community. But as the situation developed in Northern Ireland and
the army's role became more intense, they were no longer seen as a neutral actor.
Although seen as an effective form of crowd control if used incorrectly, the bullets could
in themselves be fatal. There were a number of fatalities caused by rubber and more latterly
the replacement for the use of plastic bullets, which were at the time thought to be less lethal,
but turned out to be no less so. This was often seen as a fairly
heavy-handed approach, and nationalist communities often saw that they were the ones more targeted
by British soldiers with these particular weapons than those in loyalist communities.
In 1970, the Ulster Defence Regiment was formed – the largest regiment in the British Army.
They consisted of people, men and women, who came from Northern Ireland. They didn't go
home. They didn't have tours of duty. They came from the community from which they defended.
Although there was a drive to include Catholics in the recruitment and some did join, it largely was
unsuccessful because of pressure in nationalist and Republican communities to join them, and
also because the force was seen, as with the Royal Constabulary, the police force,
to be overwhelming Protestant and was viewed from a nationalist Republican standpoint as
being a tool of the oppressor, if you will. The UDR did draw controversy. There were
accusations from Republicans of collusion with loyalist paramilitaries, some of which may have
been true, others may have been overstated. Even within the loyalist community,
many of them didn't see them as friends either. For others, others saw them as neutral. So the
position was difficult and it was dangerous and it certainly was controversial at times.
I think that was the hardest thing any of us had to
deal with - the fact this was a United Kingdom city. And yet you were there, as though you were
in the middle of a war zone. It was a war zone. It was a war zone. There was a lot of violence and
a lot of anger. You had all that debris from the first riots, all the burnt-out streets and things.
And what were the people like? The ones that were friendly were very friendly.
But the ones that weren’t were the exact opposite. You got stoned, and bottled,
and petrol bombed and all the rest of it in a Protestant area just as much as you did in the
Catholic one. You really were piggy in the middle. The British Army arriving in NI faced a difficult
challenge. In their efforts to supress the IRA, hostility from the Catholic community grew towards
the British Army. This was severely aggravated by the introduction of the Falls Curfew in July 1970.
What started off as a search for weapons in a Catholic, nationalist area, resulted
in clashes between local residents throwing petrol bombs, and British soldiers firing CS
gas. In response to this clash, the entire area was sealed off and a curfew was imposed. Large
amounts of weapons were seized by the British troops, but in the process of the operation,
four civilians were killed and dozens others injured.
The same month, in the House of
Commons, UK Home Secretary Reginald Maudling declared, "We are now at war with the IRA."
The following year, the policy of internment
sparked further anger. Operation Demetrius involved the imprisonment
without trial of suspected IRA members. The British Army conducted sweeps and arrested more
than 340 people from Catholic and nationalist backgrounds – due to faulty intelligence,
many of these people in fact had no connection to armed Republicanism. The treatment of some of
those arrested was later categorised as torture. We're standing in front of a cabinet here in the
galleries, and then here we have a poster which is a protest against the Northern
Irish government's policy of internment in 1971. These initial sweeps caused four days
of rioting in which over 20 people died.
Posters like these would have
appeared on walls, on lampposts, etc. in Northern Ireland at the time as a protest against what
was felt to be an unjust policy targeted against the nationalist community. Indeed,
loyalists would not be subject to the same internment without trial until 1973.
The backlash to internment was strong. It sparked a lot of violence, a recruitment boost
for the IRA, and a deepening of divisions between the loyalists and nationalists.
1972 was the worst year of violence in Northern Ireland. But from the couple of years before that,
the violence had been escalating. Northern Ireland was starting to appear on the news
regular at night and civilians bore the brunt of it as far as casualties were concerned.
There seemed to be at this point no resolution in sight, but the worst was still to come.
The presence of the British Army and the growth of the paramilitaries all ramped up the violence
of the Troubles. The IRA had already split but their strategy was about to entirely change.
As the violence increased and spread beyond NI borders, the road to peace would not be easy.