The History of Conflict in Ireland

The History of Conflict in Ireland

An American audience may find it difficult to comprehend the sense of

history which is in the Irish conflict. It goes back to the 1920s when

the island was partitioned, and Catholics in Northern Ireland believed

that they were on the wrong side of that border, and believed that

they had been done out of their political heritage.

But Protestants have a sense of history which goes back to at least

the seventeenth century, where from the time of the plantation of

Ulster at the beginning of the 1600s, they have had to look to their

own resources to ensure that they remained in control in the north of

Ireland because they'd lost control in the rest of Ireland.

So what you have are two sides with a very strong sense of history, a

history in which they believed themselves to be victims, Catholics

believed themselves to be victims, Protestants believed themselves to

be victims, so they had two clashing senses of history.

And as long as they had that selective sense of history, then they

could do anything in the present and use history as to justify what

they did in the present. And that is why history is such a potent

force in the Irish conflict.

You must remember that Ireland had been Britain's oldest colonial

problem, oldest unsolved colonial problem. She was dismantling empire

here, there and everywhere; the one question she could never settle

satisfactorily was Ireland. And from the beginning of the 20th

century, Ireland loomed larger in the British political scene, to such

an extent that there was a serious problem, that British politics were

going to be polluted by the Irish question.

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... the medium term.

We could say that, in fact, peace process is the hard bit; killing is

easy. Killing can give certain people in the community their sense of

self esteem. It's the only thing they know.

Knowing that that has to stop, they simply become ordinary members of

their community. And so as part of the peace process, it is essential

that what has built into it is an attempt to civilianize these people.

It has been tried in other peace processes with very limited success,

it should be said. El Salvador is a classic example.

But, I think, it is more likely to be achievable in the Irish conflict

for very simple reasons. And that is the continuing part of the

family, the continuing traditional Catholic beliefs. The fact that it

is the communities which sanctions violence, and the community can

turn it off.