The British Government

The British Government

This essay is going to be about whether or not the British government

succeeded when dealing with the trouble since 1972.

On Sunday 30th January 1972, Bloody Sunday took place. The events of

this day provoked more violence and social unrest. This is because

Bloody Sunday provided a recruitment boost for the IRA who stepped up

their bombing campaign. All of this forced Britain to take

responsibility of the trouble which soon followed.

Direct rule meant that the province (Northern Ireland) was run by a

British government minister, the Northern Ireland secretary. The

British government brought in direct rule because it was a temporary

measure to decrease violence in Northern Ireland, however, it actually

lasted for 25 years. Sinn Fein was a hard-line nationalist party. They

felt that the only way to solve the problems that were going on was to

cut out all connections with Britain. Another nationalist group, the

SDLP party, also wanted reform in Ireland. They believed that the

republic of Ireland should have some influence on how Northern Ireland

was run. The Minority of the SDLP party also felt the need of the

republics protection. The UUP, a unionist party, also agreed that some

political reform was needed in Northern Ireland. However, they felt

that the Irish Republic shouldn’t be involved in this process. A hard

line unionist group, DUP, simply wanted to defeat the IRA. They wanted

to decrease the amount of violence and thought that by defeating the

IRA, then that would be accomplished. However, to do this they needed

a huge security effort.

The aim behind power sharing was to weaken support for IRA by giving

the Nationalist community a say in how Northern Ireland was run. Power

sharing only lasted a mere 5 months in Northern Ireland. The key ideas

behind power sharing were that a new assembly and council would be set

up in Northern Ireland. This was a positive consequence as it meant

that the assembly and council gave the chance for Belfast, Dublin and

London to sit down and discuss issues of concern that each of them