Conflict in Ireland

Conflict in Ireland

Which of these events has had the biggest impact on the history of the

Conflict in Ireland?

(a) The Easter Rising, 1916.

(b) The deployment of British troops in Northern Ireland, 1969.

(c) “Bloody Sunday”, 30th January 1972.

(a) The Easter Rising, 1916.

Event

On Monday April 24th 1916, a force between 1,000 and 1,500 Irishmen

and women consisting of volunteers and the Irish Citizen Army seized

control of the General Post Office in Dublin which became Pearse and

Connolly’s (organisers of the rebellion) command post for the

rebellion along with the Four Courts, Jacob’s Factory, Boland’s

Bakery, the South Dublin Union, St. Stephen’s Green and later the

College of Surgeons with the advantage of surprise over the British

intelligence. British intelligence failed hopelessly and the

properties were taken with virtually no resistance. By Friday April 28th

1916, the authorities drafted 18,000 – 20,000 soldiers to deal with

the rebellion. In total the rising cost the lives of 450 people, 2,614

were injured and 9 missing, almost all in Dublin. Military casualties

were 116 dead, 368 were wounded and 9 missing, and the Irish and

Dublin police forces lost 16 officers with 29 wounded. There were also

254 civilians and 64 rebels killed. Over 3,500 people were arrested

country wide including Eamon de Valera and Michael Collins although

1,500 were freed after questioning, 1,841 people were interned in

England with no trial, 171 were tried in a secret court with 170

imprisoned. 90 were sentenced to death and 75 were convicted of

treason and sentenced to life imprisonment.

Short Term Consequences

As...

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...vent that shaped Irish

history was the Deployment of troops in Northern Ireland because it

only led to more violence rather than to resolve it. Therefore did not

play an important role in Irish history.

I believe that the second most important event was the Easter Rising

because it did resolve some of the violence as it gave freedom to the

Southern Irish people but Northern Ireland was still under British

rule and also it did not end the violence.

Therefore I believe that the most important event in Irish history was

Bloody Sunday as many political discussions followed because of It.,

and finally led to the Good Friday agreement which stopped the

violence as it proposed that Northern Ireland may become part of the

free state of Ireland, with the acceptation of the majority of the

population of Northern Ireland.