A History Lesson, As Promised

Today during work, I got to spend a lot of time reading online news articles and posting them to our website. Later on in the day, after I had spent most of the day raving about the recent goings on in Belfast, one of my fellow interns asked me how Martin McGuinness shaking hands with the Queen was related to youths rioting in Belfast and Belfast police men getting hit by petrol bombs. Well, I am so excited about going to Belfast this weekend that I am going to tell you all about why that is. 


So, in 1169, the Normans first invaded Ireland to help King Dermot get his kingdom back when he lost favour with the King of Leinster. But the Normans didn't leave. Fast forward roughly 500 years, and the English established Ireland as a total colony. In 1652, the entire Irish population was dubbed guilty of a rebellion and kicked off their land. So yeah, they were pissed. In addition, Catholics were discriminated against. (Couldn't teach their children, couldn't hold a government position, couldn't own land, etc.) There were a series of unsuccessful rebellions, where their leaders were convicted of treason, among them Robert Emmet, the Sheares brothers, Wolfe Tone, etc. 


The Republic of Ireland finally gained independence in 1921. However, six of the counties of Ulster were still under English rule. Things were tense, but shit didn't hit the fan until 1969. On January 1st, university students in Belfast started marching, demanding civil rights for the Catholic minority in Northern Ireland. These students were attacked on the last leg of their four day march by Protestant militants. 110 marchers and 30 policemen were hospitalised with injuries. The Irish Republican Army emerged in shambles in August 1969. The main goal of the IRA was to get the British the hell out of Northern Ireland, and the only way they thought this would happen was through violence.


The IRA didn't start actively assassinating people until August of 1971, when the British government starting interning people indefinitely without knowledge of what they were being charged for. This imprisoned a ton of IRA members, but really it just helped encourage more IRA enlistment. 


Then in January 1972, the British military opened fired on peaceful protesters in Derry, after they violated the Stormont government's ban on parades. This event became known as Bloody Sunday (yup, the U2 song). This added even more fuel to the fire.


Things continued in their current state. Bombings and killings way too frequently for it to be OK from both sides. Then Maggie Thatcher decided that IRA men in prison were simply common criminals and not political prisoners. This led a handful of IRA men to hunger strike in 1981. The most famous of these was Bobby Sands, a 27 year old IRA man, convicted of possession of firearms, who had recently been elected to the Stormont government. After 66 days, he was the first to die in the hunger strike. That was the last event that really caused the Irish nationalist community to unite against the British. Eventually, many tired of all the violence and just wanted to see peace in Northern Ireland. 


In 1998, they signed the Good Friday Agreement. However, the conflict has not ended. The IRA is still around, and as evidenced by the happenings yesterday, the hatred of the British by the Republicans has not faded. 


And I am going up there this weekend. I am actually really excited. (Mom, Nana: don't worry, things will calm down after the queen leaves.) It'll be interesting to see the place that I have done so much research on and get to learn about it first hand.