Ireland Today

Ireland Today

Ireland has had a lot of trouble over the years for many reasons

causing major publicity internationally. The problems have led to the

current situation in Northern Ireland. In this coursework I will be

examining what has led to these troubles and what is going on in the

present day.

Today Ireland is split in half; the South, Eire, is an independent

country with its own government, the North, Ulster, is part of the

United Kingdom and is ruled by the British government in London.

Northern Ireland has suffered much political violence since 1968. The

problems are between the Protestants or Unionists who want N.Ireland

to remain part of the UK, and the Catholics or Nationalists who want

an independent united Ireland. The Catholics are outnumbered in

N.Ireland so were discriminated against and so had a general dislike

for protestants, to get their views heard they set up the IRA. This is

a terrorist organisation that uses violence to protest for what they

want; they have killed hundreds of soldiers, police and civilians.

Protestants have also set up terror gangs and carried out many

killings. In 1994 a ceasefire was agreed on both sides but in 1996

there were IRA bombings in London and Manchester. Despite this in 1998

more talks were held and agreements were made to stop using terrorism

to express their views and start using politics by setting up a

devolved government to do so.

The first article I am looking at was printed around the time of the

2005 election. It is about a speech Gerry Adams, the leader of Sinn

Fein a nationalist political group, made. He was urging the IRA, a

nationalist terrorist group said ...

... middle of paper ...

...because neither Unionists nor Nationalists are sticking to it. There

is still an awful lot of anger which has built up and is still doing

so. Only when this stops can things start to really change. The lack

of trust that has built up is also a problem because it is still

growing. Neither side is sticking to what they say and Sinn Fein is

being especially untrustworthy. The troubles in Ireland go so far back

that trust may never be rebuilt and anger may never be forgotten.

There are so many problems that perhaps there is just to much anger

there to heal, if it is going to work it will take a lot of work and

time. Both sides will have to try and forgive and forget but both are

far too angry. There is still a lot of conflict going on and a lot of

anger and distrust in N. Ireland making the prospect of peace very far

away.