PO377 Ethnic Conflict and Political Violence

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PO377 Ethnic Conflict and Political Violence

• Week 3 Northern Ireland

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Pop Quiz

• Is the conflict in Northern Ireland fundamentally
  about religious divisions between Protestants and
  Roman Catholics?
• Yes
• No

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(No Transcript)
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Lecture Outline

• Overview
• Whos to Blame?
• Ireland Before Partition
• Colonisation of Ireland
• After 1801 Act of Union
• Partitioning the island
• Northern Ireland After Partition
• Consolidation of unionist control
• Catholic mobilisation and the civil rights
  movement
• Civil War
• Direct Rule
• The long war
• Good Friday Agreement On
• Good Friday Agreement
• Post-GFA
• Conclusion

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Overview

• Population about 1.8 million (2011 census).
• 53.13 Protestant/descended from, 43.76
  Catholic/descended from. Tiny non-Christian
  communities. (2001 census.)
• Religious categories today largely signify ethnic
  descent groups (religious background, not
  belief).
• Around 3,400 people dead and over 20,000 injured
  as a result of the war 1969-1994 (the
  Troubles), over the constitutional status of
  Northern Ireland.
• Ceasefires since 1994 (on and off) Good
  Friday/Belfast Agreement 1998.

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Whos to Blame?

• The conflict is variously held to be
  fundamentally theological, cultural, economic, or
  ethnic. Some declare it is caused by the Irish
  Republic, others by the Roman Catholic Church,
  and yet others by the political culture of Irish
  nationalism and various permutations hold all
  three to be causal agents. Then there are those
  who blame the British state, or British
  imperialism in Ireland, or British colonial
  settlement in Ireland, or the Protestant
  religion(s), or some permutation of these causal
  agents. Finally, some argue for a plague on all
  the houses of Britain, Ireland, and Northern
  Ireland, holding all the peoples of these islands
  (or their religions, or economies, or
  institutions) culpable for failing to manage
  their differences (McGarry and OLeary, 1995,
  pp. 1-2).

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Whos to Blame? (2)

• External (exogenous) explanations
• The British state colonialism and partition
• The British state neglect of Northern Ireland
• The Irish state irredentist nationalism
• Internal (endogenous) explanations
• Religion
• Cultural differences
• Socio-economic inequalities

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Ireland before Partition

• Colonisation of Ireland
• Colonised from 12th-13th centuries then
  intermittent plantation and conquest. James Is
  plantation of Ulster in early 1600s.
• Parts of Ireland reconquered in 17th century
  Oliver Cromwell (1649-52) and William of Orange
  (Siege of Derry 1689 Battle of the Boyne 12 July
  1690.)
• 1690s more settlers to Ulster and more land
  confiscation.
• 1690s-1829, penal laws in Ireland.

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Ireland before Partition (2)

• Colonisation of Ireland
• 1690s-1800 English then British (from 1707) Crown
  ruled Ireland indirectly through Anglo-Irish
  Protestant élite in Dublin parliament.
• 1790s Britain at war with revolutionary France
  Catholic Relief Act 1793.
• 1798 failed uprising of United Irishmen led to
  1801 Act of Union.

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Ireland before Partition (3)

• After 1801 Act of Union
• From 1801 Britain controlled Ireland directly
  through the Union yet Ireland was still governed
  differently from the rest of the kingdom, and
  marked off as a semi-colonial dependency
  (OLeary and McGarry, 1996).
• Irish nationalism and unionism as 19th century
  products earlier religious and ethnic picture
  much more complicated (see Ruane and Todd, 1996).
• Repeal of the Union movement 1830s-1840s and
  Home Rule movement after 1870s.
• Violent challenges to the Union small-scale
  nationalist/republican insurrections.

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Ireland before Partition (4)

• After 1801 Act of Union
• 1886 and 1893 failed attempts to pass Home Rule
  bills. 3rd bill due to become law in 1914
  unionists threatened civil war and formed Ulster
  Volunteer Force.
• Interruption of World War delayed implementation
  of Home Rule. WWI increased Irish nationalist
  bargaining power and decreased unionist
  bargaining power.

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Ireland before Partition (5)

• Partitioning the island
• 1916 Easter Rising rise of Sinn Féin and its
  1918 Westminster electoral victory in Irish
  constituencies Irish War of Independence all
  changed pre-WWI political settlement.
• Post-WWI settlement 26-county Irish Free State
  with dominion status and 6-county Northern
  Ireland province of UK with devolved Belfast
  parliament (Government of Ireland Act 1920
  partitions the island).
• Aftermath Irish Civil War communal violence in
  Northern Ireland IRA activism Ulster Special
  Constabulary established.

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Northern Ireland after Partition

• Consolidation of unionist control
• Large minorities on each side of new border.
• Sectarian speeches by unionist leadership.
• Northern Ireland sovereignty contested by
  British and Irish states political institutions
  lacked cross-community support disgruntled
  Catholic-nationalists.
• Irish Free State state- and nation-building
  project its Gaelicisation began a process of
  alienation by Ulster Unionists from their sense
  of Irishness and a greater reliance on their
  sense of Britishness. Ulster Unionists saw
  Pro-Gaelic as Anti-British (Hennessey,
  1997).
• 1948 Irish Government severed ties with British
  Commonwealth completely independent Republic of
  Ireland.

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Northern Ireland after Partition (2)

• Catholic mobilisation and the civil rights
  movement
• 1960s NI Prime Minister ONeill attempted
  economic and political reforms.
• Changes in Catholic community working-class
  Catholic relative position worsened 1920s to
  1960s. Expanding middle-class.
• Continued exclusion and discrimination against
  Catholics politically, economically and socially.
• Organised civil rights movement from around 1964,
  stemming from nationalist movement.

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Northern Ireland after Partition (3)

• Catholic mobilisation and the civil rights
  movement
• From mid-1968 civil rights movement
  demonstrations and loyalist counter-demonstrations
  . Violent clashes incl. assault and battery by
  police.
• 1969 political crisis, dissolution of
  parliament, resignation of ONeill. Violent
  communal riots in summer. 1969-1972 est. 30,000
  to 60,000 people displaced from homes.
• All this led to community vigilantes forming
  ultimately led to resurgence of paramilitarism.

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Civil War

• Direct Rule
• Sectarian violence summer 1969 led to arrival of
  the British army.
• New waves of Provisional IRA recruits due to
  internment introduced 1971 Bloody Sunday Jan.
  1972 ceasefire of Official IRA May 1972.
• Major political realignments of unionist and
  nationalist politics and political parties at
  start of 1970s concurrent violent republican and
  loyalist paramilitary activity.
• Situation worsening British PM Heath imposed
  Direct Rule from London March 1972.
• Brief attempt at power-sharing Assembly 1974
  (Sunningdale talks) then back to Direct Rule.

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Civil War (2)

• The long war
• Collapse of power-sharing Assembly led to long
  political stalemate and long-term armed conflict.
• From 1975 British policy of criminalisation and
  counter-insurgency non-jury Diplock courts
  RUC interrogations undercover operations and use
  of informers 1974 Prevention of Terrorism Act
  1981/82 supergrass trials.
• 1976 withdrawal of special category status from
  paramilitary prisoners republican blanket
  protest, then no-wash protest, then hunger
  strikes 1980/81.
• From 1981 new Sinn Féin ballot box and Armalite
  strategy.

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Good Friday Agreement On

• Good Friday Agreement
• Principle of consent.
• Consociational model cross-community executive
  power-sharing proportionality rules in
  governmental and public sectors community
  autonomy and cultural equality veto rights for
  minorities. (See OLeary, 2001 and Bew, 2005,
  both on the week 13 reading list.)
• Double protection model to withstand
  demographic and electoral change.
• Strand 1 internal arrangements. Strand 2
  north-south. Strand 3 east-west (British-Irish).

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Good Friday Agreement On (2)

• Post-GFA
• Symbolic emotional issues decommissioning,
  prisoners, policing.
• Changing patterns of violence.
• Political/electoral changes in both unionism and
  nationalism (towards the margins).
• Deadlock Oct. 2002 suspension of Assembly.
• Sep. 2005 IRA final act of decommissioning.
• St Andrews meeting Oct. 2006 betw. parties
  British and Irish govts.
• 2007 Sinn Fein accepts policing and NI Assembly
  is restored (policing and justice powers finally
  devolved to NI Assembly in 2010).
• Ongoing problem of dissident republican
  paramilitaries.

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Conclusion

• The two overarching contemporary polarised
  identities at the heart of the conflict,
  Catholic-Irish-Nationalist and Protestant-British-
  Unionist, are fairly recent historical formations
  (19th/20th century).
• The violent conflict in Northern Ireland in part
  stems from a long history of English/British
  colonialism in the island of Ireland and an
  incomplete decolonisation process (with
  partition), as well as irredentism of the Irish
  state.

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Conclusion (2)

• The conflict also stems from 20th century
  experiences of discrimination and repression
  within Northern Ireland, communal resistance to
  this, and violent state response.
• Like Sri Lanka, Northern Ireland can be viewed as
  a double minority model of ethno-national
  conflict (or double majority). Accordingly the
  double protection model of the Good Friday
  Agreement would arguably be necessary in any such
  agreement in Northern Ireland if it is believed
  that consent of a majority of both communities
  is required.

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Pop Quiz

• Has Northern Ireland achieved peace?
• Yes
• No
• Its complicated