Insight on Conflict » Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland was the location for an extended armed conflict, known locally as ‘the Troubles’, which lasted from 1969 until the main paramilitary organisations declared ceasefires in 1994. This led to a protracted multi-party ‘peace process’, which resulted in a peace agreement, signed on Good Friday 1998, the creation of a range of new political and human rights institutions and eventually in 2007 the formation of a devolved government that included the four main political parties. The transition from a society enmeshed in a long-running violent conflict to a largely peaceful society has ensured that the Northern Ireland peace process is widely regarded as one of the major successes of recent peacebuilding activity and a model for other conflict transformation work.

Context

Northern Ireland is a small area of 13,500 square kilometres with a population of just over 1.7 million people; this includes a majority Protestant community of 895,000 (53 per cent of the population) and a minority Catholic community of 737,000 (43 per cent of the population).

There is also a diverse mixture of minority ethnic, faith and national communities, which has been growing rapidly since the end of the conflict and now accounts for some 5 per cent of the population.

Along with England, Scotland and Wales, Northern Ireland is part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, but it is also geographically a part of the island of Ireland, and has a land border with the larger Republic of Ireland.

The conflict in Northern Ireland has essentially been over the political status of the region and the competing claims and aspirations of the two main communities:

The Protestant community generally favour the political union with Great Britain. They regard themselves as British citizens and define themselves politically as Unionists. Hardline unionists are known as Loyalists since they proclaim loyalty to the British monarchy.
The Catholic community generally favours the creation of a single united Irish state. They regard themselves as Irish people and define themselves politically as Nationalists. Hardline Nationalists are known as Republicans since they strive for a United Irish Republic.

These competing political identities derive from the close geographical proximity of Britain and Ireland, their entwined histories and the political influence and dominance that Britain has exercised over Ireland for much of the last millennium.

Background

The population of Ireland was predominately Roman Catholic and Gaelic speaking until the seventeenth century, when England extended its domination and rule over the island. In order to exercise their authority over Ulster, the particularly troublesome northern region of Ireland, the English encouraged Protestants from both England and Scotland to settle in Ireland from 1609 onwards. This colonisation led to the displacement of many Irish from their land.

The Protestant succession in England and Protestant domination in Ireland were consolidated when King William III defeated his predecessor King James II at the battle of the Boyne in 1690. Under the Protestant Ascendancy, Catholics were excluded from positions of authority, discriminated against, and socially, economically, politically and geographically marginalised. These processes were sustained both by law and through the use of force.

There were numerous attempts to limit British rule in Ireland and end discrimination against Catholics and they included unsuccessful armed rebellions in 1798, 1803, 1848 and 1870. The population and economy of Ireland was also decimated between 1845-1849 as the potato crop (the stable diet of the rural population) failed, millions of Irish people died in the famines that followed or fled to start a new life in America.

This was followed by a sustained and peaceful campaign for Home Rule from the 1870s onwards, which was largely supported by Catholics and opposed by Protestants. This campaign culminated in another armed uprising against British rule in 1916. The Easter Rising was unsuccessful in its immediate aim but provided the impetus for political developments that led to the division of Ireland into two political entities, the Irish Free State and Northern Ireland in 1921.

Partition

The new Northern Ireland state had a majority of Protestants but with a Catholic population of around one third of the total of 1.5 million people. (In contrast the Irish Free State was overwhelmingly Catholic, but with a Protestant minority of some ten percent of the population.) Partition led to a Protestant and Unionist government being established in Northern Ireland, in which the Ulster Unionist Party was to rule without interruption from 1921 to 1972. Catholics remained politically marginalised and discriminated against under the new regime, while the overwhelmingly Protestant Royal Ulster Constabulary were able to draw upon extensive emergency powers to maintain law and order.

There had been a long history of sectarian violence and inter-communal rioting in the north of Ireland dating from industrialisation and the expansion of urban centres from the early nineteenth century. This was, at least in part, linked to competition for economic resources and access to political power. But tensions and rivalries were also sustained and perpetuated by symbolic displays and cultural activities. The numerous annual parades, used by both communities to recall their history, demonstrate their strength and assert claims to territory, regularly triggered outbursts of rioting and disorder. This violence helped to sustain and emphasise the sense of difference between Catholics and Protestants, it also served to encourage and reinforce patterns of residential segregation and helped to sectarianise public space as controlled by one community to the exclusion of the other. Power and discrimination have always had geographical and territorial dimension in the north of Ireland, to complement the use of force and intimidation.

Tensions over the discrimination of Catholics reached a peak in the 1960s when the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Movement, which drew heavily on the American model, began to challenge the Unionist government and demand equality for Catholics. The focus of the civil rights campaign was particularly on issues of housing, employment and voting equality, while their public protests challenged the Protestant domination of public space. The civil rights protests led to increasingly violent reactions from sections of the Unionist community, were often constrained by the police, and were a factor in the emergence of the first loyalist paramilitary group, the Ulster Volunteer Force in 1966.

The Troubles

In 1969 increasing tensions and conflict between supporters of the civil rights campaign and sections of the Unionist establishment led to widespread rioting and disorder. One result was that the British Labour government decided to send troops to Northern Ireland to restore order. However, within a few months the violence had escalated further and was transformed into an armed conflict, while the focus shifted from the aims of the civil rights movement to a resurgence of republican demands for a united Ireland.

The main combatants were initially the Irish Republican Army (IRA) and the British Army, but the conflict soon involved a variety of armed groups, including the Republican Irish National Liberation Army and the Loyalist Ulster Volunteer Force and Ulster Defence Association. In 1972 the local devolved administration was suspended by the British government, and for the rest of the conflict Northern Ireland was subjected to direct rule from Westminster.

During the Troubles, the British government introduced several key pieces of legislation and made extensive reforms of local government, which were designed to reduce the scope for institutional discrimination of Catholics and to promote greater equality between the two main communities. However, the political polarisation between Catholic Nationalists and Protestant Unionists ensured that enmity and violence were not limited to those involved in armed organisations.

The Troubles lasted for some twenty-five years, until the IRA declared a ceasefire in August 1994 and the Combined Loyalist Military Command followed suit six weeks later. The conflict resulted in the deaths of over 3,600 people, while many thousands of people were injured. Over the course of the conflict thousands of people were subjected to imprisonment. There was also widespread damage to property and the infrastructure of the region, and the local economy was seriously disrupted for a generation. The conflict also occasionally spread beyond Northern Ireland with attacks occurring in Great Britain, the Republic of Ireland and parts of Europe.

The Peace Process

By the 1990s the security situation had reached stalemate. The British security forces had been unable to defeat the IRA, while the IRA’s military campaign showed no sign of achieving their political objective of a united Ireland. Loyalist paramilitaries also continued to attack republicans and often Catholics at large as a way of, as they saw it, ‘terrorising the terrorist’.

Sinn Féin, the political wing of the Republican movement, had entered Northern Irish politics in the wake of the 1981 Hunger Strike campaign by Republican prisoners and throughout the 1990s political activity increasingly took precedence over paramilitary activity. This eventually led to the declaration of an IRA ceasefire in August 1994. Before this position was reached, however, there was a long ‘feeling out’ period between the British government and Sinn Féin and the IRA from the early 1990s. Contacts between Loyalist paramilitary groups and the British and Irish governments also began to grow at this time.

The ceasefires paved the way for discussions involving the main local political parties: Ulster Unionist Party, Democratic Unionist Party, Alliance Party, Social Democratic and Unionist Party and Sinn Féin, with both the British and Irish governments, as well as regular participation of the American government. Northern Ireland also benefited enormously from the extra financial contributions of the European Union to the process of consolidating the peace.

The transition to democratic politics was not easy or straightforward for Republicans and the IRA broke its ceasefire in February 1996 before resuming it in July 1997. But the transition was aided by the growing electoral success of Sinn Féin, which was in part a result of the party’s role in the developing peace process. By mid 2005 Sinn Féin had become the second largest party in the North and was also a growing political force in the Republic.

An extended period of negotiations led to the signing of the Agreement on Good Friday 1998. The Belfast, or Good Friday Agreement, was a wide-ranging document (see below) but it included vaguely worded section (or ‘constructive ambiguity’) to ensure that all parties would agree to the text. But this also served to displace some problems to a later date.

The Agreement was overwhelmingly endorsed in referendums in both Northern Ireland and the Republic, but it was clear that Protestants were more tentative in their support than Catholics - approximately 55 per cent of Protestants voted for the Agreement compared to 95 per cent of Catholics. This division within the Protestant community was made evident in the first elections to the new Northern Ireland Assembly when almost half of the unionists returned were opponents of the Agreement.

In the implementation of the Agreement it became increasingly apparent that there was a distinct difference in how Protestants and Catholics viewed this process. For most Catholics, Nationalists and Unionists had benefited equally from the Agreement but for most Protestants it was Nationalists who had gained most. Security related issues were a significant factor in the decline of Unionist support for the Agreement: the paramilitary organisations retained their weapons and structures and continued to be involved in a range of activities, but at the same time there was an extensive reform of the police and a decline in the military presence.

The issue of the decommissioning of paramilitary weapons, and in particular IRA weapons since Sinn Féin was entitled to two seats in the Northern Ireland Executive (Loyalist paramilitary-related parties won only two Assembly seats and were not entitled to any Executive representation), became the key issue during the Assembly’s first term. The failure to resolve this issue led to the suspension of the Assembly in October 2002. Fresh Assembly elections in November 2003 saw the Democratic Unionist Party and Sinn Féin returned as the two largest parties.

The issue of decommissioning of paramilitary weapons and organisations was eventually resolved when the IRA declared in July 2005 that it was ending its ‘armed campaign’ and in September it was announced that almost all of its weapons had been put beyond use. These actions ultimately paved the way for fresh discussions involving the main local parties and the two governments, which led to Sinn Féin finally endorsing the police reform process in January 2007, the final significant hurdle to restoring the local government.

New elections to the Assembly took place in March 2007. The results further consolidated the dominant position of the Democratic Unionist Party and Sinn Féin as the largest Unionist and Nationalist parties. In May 2007 the Assembly was reconvened with Ian Paisley, leader of the Democratic Unionist Party as First Minister and Martin McGuinness, deputy leader of Sinn Féin as Deputy First Minister. For many people this marked the end of the period of political transition and the beginning of a period of political consolidation for the new institutions.

The Agreement

The Belfast Agreement included provision for a 108 member Northern Ireland Assembly, with six members from each of the 18 Westminster seats elected by Proportional Representation. The Assembly was to be headed by an Executive Committee with legislative powers. It would also have responsibility for a North-South Ministerial Council to direct co-operation on a number of issues. Assembly members were required to designate themselves as ‘Unionist’, ‘Nationalist’ or ‘other’.

The Irish government agreed to recommend changes to Articles 2 and 3 of the Irish constitution, which had asserted claims to the whole territory of the island of Ireland. The revised Articles would emphasise an aspiration towards unity Article 2 stating, ‘It is the entitlement of every person born in the island of Ireland … to be part of the Irish nation.’ Article 3 would state, ‘It is the firm will of the Irish nation, in harmony and friendship, to unite all the people who share the territory of the island of Ireland, in all the diversity of their identities and traditions, recognising that a united Ireland shall be brought about only by peaceful means with the consent of a majority of the people, democratically expressed, in both jurisdictions of the island.’ The British Government also agreed to replace the Government of Ireland Act claiming sovereignty to Northern Ireland.

Looking to a broader political framework the Agreement also looked for the establishment of a British-Irish Council which would include NI Assembly Members and Members from the Dail, the Scottish Parliament and the Welsh Assembly.

As well as creating a range of new political structures the Agreement also contained areas, which might be seen as a broader ‘peace’ settlement. The British and Irish Governments agreed to the early release of paramilitary prisoners with the last prisoners to be released after a maximum of two years. The participating parties were also expected to use their influence to achieve the decommissioning of all paramilitary weapons within a period of two years if referendums on the Agreement were passed successfully in Northern Ireland and the Republic. The British government also agreed to reduce the numbers and role of the armed forces in Northern Ireland and remove emergency powers.

Policing had long been a contentious issue in the north, as over 90 per cent of officers in the Royal Ulster Constabulary were from the Protestant community and the current policing arrangements were unacceptable to Nationalists. The Agreement thus provided for the creation of an independent Commission to make recommendations for future policing arrangements. Their report (the Patten Report) led to radical reforms to policing and the establishment a new Police Service of Northern Ireland, which was based on the principles of human rights, transparency and accountability.

The Agreement also provided for the creation of a complete review of the wider criminal justice system, the appointment of a commissioner with responsibility for dealing with issues affecting victims of the conflict, the creation of a Human Rights Commission and an Equality Commission with responsibility for issues related to employment, gender, disability and race issues. These elements provided for the creation of a range of institutions with responsibility to further facilitate the transition from conflict and also have a role in scrutinising government and holding it publicly to account.

Embedding the Peace

There was widespread support for the ending of the conflict and the creation of institutions and structures that would provide a framework for future peacebuilding and reconciliation, but there were also residual fears, suspicions and mistrust between the two main communities. In part these were due to a lack of any common agreement over the causes and the outcomes of a generation of conflict. For Protestants the Troubles were primarily about attempting to force them into a United Ireland, while for Catholics the struggle was for human rights and equality.

Similarly there was no agreement about the outcome of the conflict, which ended in a political and security stalemate, in which the main issue of the constitutional status of Northern Ireland remains on the long finger. In theory, if or when a majority of the Northern Irish electorate decides it wants to unite with the Republic of Ireland, this will happen. This means that there remains a fundamental insecurity at the heart of Northern Ireland, and equally no agreement about building for a shared future or uniting around shared symbols.

After 25 years of violent conflict and more than a decade of transition Northern Ireland remains a deeply divided society. There is widespread segregation of residential areas, education, social and political life. But there is also a growing economy, low unemployment, an ever more diverse population and a strong and vibrant civil society. There are still problems of criminal and inter-communal violence but the paramilitary organisations are becoming less important and there is no possibility of a return to the armed conflict of the 1970s and 1980s.