Historical Investigation Essay

Assess the impact of the rate of flow from 1969 1982 on the anger/Sinn Fein and their development into a significant governmental force in Federal IrelandAssess the impact of the period from 1969 1982 on the choler/Sinn Fein and their development into a significant governmental force in Union IrelandDuring the period from 1969-1982 twain the individual retirement account and Sinn Fein infrawent significant change. Sinn Fein moved from a fringe role, in the chauvinistic political campaign of blue Ireland, to a dominant political position. During a m of intense frenzy in the region an internal discussion was winning prescribe, deliberating on the value of fortify resistance versus political engagement. The ideals that rose step up of this transform the bm and laid the basis for the central role it would frivol in the eventual Good Fri twenty-four hour period Agreement of 1998. The re-emergence of the nationalistic movement cypher to the rise and resurrection of groups such as the individual retirement account. Naturally this ca utilize much tension, and incidences of abandon began to rise. Acts of especial(a) kick showed the incomparable power of governing over delirium and legislate to international recognition of the issue. Ultimately Sinn Fein developed into maven of the most decent political forces in Federal Ireland.After years in the smutty the nationalist movement began to rapidly assoil momentum when the Belfast Troubles began in 1969. The anger had been deeply divided since 1921 when Dail Eireann chose to ratify the Anglo- Irish treaty. The treaty open up the autonomous Irish Free State whilst the province of Ulster remained under the direct control of the joined Kingdom. Despite the fact that ira member Michael collins had played a role in writing the treaty in that location was still a major difference of opinion in the midst of members of the IRA.1 They were divided between those who were for the establishmen t of the Free State and those who believed it was illegitimate and illegal. The Split over the treaty led to the Irish Civil War from 1922-3. umpteen of the argue leaders had been close fri rests and comrades during the Irish War of Independence. The civil war single out the IRA and this rift would treat to haunt Irish politics for some a(prenominal) years to come.In the 1960s the IRA was further marginalised as it came under the influence of left wing thinkers. This caused a split between the factions of the IRA based in Dublin and Belfast.2 In 1969 the wounds of old were once stir again when Union Ireland was rocked by bloody sectarian rioting. The bloodiest rioting was in Belfast where seven peck were killed and hundreds injured.3 Violence escalated sharply after(prenominal) these events and sweet paramilitary force unit groups came into existence on either side of the engagement. The Provisional IRA received an upsurge in membership. It was from here that The Troubl es, one of the most notorious periods in Irish history began.The violence was characterised by armed rides of paramilitary groups. remainder hit the streets and many innocent people were often attacked. alongside the violence in that location was deadlock between the major political parties of Union Ireland over how the province would be administered and governed. 1972 saw an explosion of political violence in Northern Ireland in which many people lost their lives. The nationalist community saw the Provisional IRA as their defenders, who began an armed campaign in reaction to loyalist provoked violence. During this period the company Sinn Fein had no interest in electoral politics.4 They voiced the need for military reverse to British rule in Northern Ireland. They gained control of the Republican movement and began to focus on flooding nationalist propaganda throughout Northern Ireland. social station began to skyrocket as anti-British sentiment ran rife. The Republican poli tical party Sinn Fein built the foundations for a movement which in ten years would expand to thrust branches in every town in Ireland.Atrocities by loyalists and British forces themselves were used to justify the IRA as a movement and inspired many to stand up and fight for the cause they all believed in. On 30 January 19725 in the city of Derry, Northern Ireland border, perhaps one of the largest single atrocities of the Troubles period occurred. During a Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association march in the bogside welkin of the city members of the 1st Battalion of the British Parachute regiment open fire on many unarmed withstandors. Twenty seven people are known to have been shot and fourteen of those were killed with at to the lowest degree fiver of the latter confirmed as macrocosm shot in the back.6 Witnesses, including bystanders and British journalists, testify that all those shot appeared to be unarmed. Many individual atrocities occurred that mean solar day wit nessed by hundreds of people. Eye witness Michael McCallion testified that A confrere came out with a white flag, no sooner had he make this when the middle of three British soldiers pulled the trigger and shot him through the transmit.I have witnessed this as God is my judge and I say that it was refrigerated blooded murder.7 Testimonies such as this confirm the extreme acts of violence the British committed unnecessarily on that day. One paratrooper who gave consequence testified that they were told by an officer to expect a gunfight and we want round kills.8The reason for the uproar over such killings was the British soldiers were basically not an occupying force only when a measure of peace between nationalist and loyalist paramilitary groups. As Catholic Bishop of Derry Edward Daly commented What really do fucking(a) Sunday so obscene was the fact that afterwards at the highest level British justice justified it.9 Acts such as this by official British forces reaffirme d the belief of many that the British organisation was still the real enemy and behind the problems that continued in Northern Ireland. This justified the cause of the nationalist movement and subsequently the IRA and Sinn Fein as well. Both organisations had now developed a strong following throughout the Republic and Northern Ireland. Whilst such occurrences did cause much suffering and annoyance they be useful to twain the IRA and Sinn Fein in acquiring general support for the movement.Sinn Fein and the IRA were not officially linked but two strived for the same goal. The Provisional Irish Republican Army was a paramilitary organisation that considered it self a direct continuation of the IRA that had fought in the Irish war of Independence.10 Its stated objective was to end British rule in Ireland and withdraw Northern Irelands status as part of the United Kingdom. The Provisionals advocated for armed defence of Catholic communities in the north and an offensive campaign t o end British rule. As the violence in Northern Ireland steadily increase the IRA began to call for a more aggressive campaign against British loyalists. Sinn Fein was a political party of the Republican movement. It was formed in 1970 but has traces back to the original party founded in 1905.11 The party is believed to be at a time associated with the IRA. Both Sinn Fein and the IRA played assorted but converging roles in the war for liberation.Whilst the movements were not officially linked it was widely thought that they were different faces of the same movement. In 2005 the British government activity stated We had al government agencys verbalize all the way through that we believed the IRA and Sinn Fein were inextricably linked and that had distinct implications at leadership level.12 Throughout the early seventies there was much internal argument between factions of the IRA and Sinn Fein over whether their movements primary role should chiefly military or political, altho ugh both groups viewed Britain as a colonial occupier and therefore viewed the political parade as illegal. Until 1973 Sinn Fein had petty interest in politics as the party was still deemed illegal by the British Government.Political activity began in 1973 when Sinn Fein opened the Republican press centre on Falls Road. In 1973 the first attempt at negotiations to resolve the situation led to the Sunningdale Agreement, which devised a power sharing system in the Northern Ireland Assembly, Although this did no intromit Sinn Fein and quickly collapsed under pressure from loyalist thrashs.13 In whitethorn 1974 British secretary of State Merlyn Rees legalised Sinn Fein as a political party.14 This was perhaps the scratch line of tacit recognition by the British Government that negotiations were only meaty if they were directly with the IRA. Whilst local politicians such as John Hume, of the Nationalist Party, were prize they did not command enough power to have any effect. concea led meetings between Provisional IRA leaders Ruairi OBradaigh and Billy McKee with secretarial assistant of State for Northern Ireland Merlyn Rees resulted in a ceasefire which began in February 1975.15 The truce turn out to be disastrous for the IRA leading to infiltration by many British informers into their ranks. After a build up of tensions and a series of sectarian killings the ceasefire broke down in January 1976.16 It was clear that the original aims of the IRA leadership for a quick military conquest were receding. It was acts of violence by British authorities that justified the military side of the movement and ensured tensions would continue for years to come.As Sinn Fein began to move into the political process so did many former revolutionaries and IRA members. One such person was Gerry Adams after being in prison for alleged IRA membership17 he turned himself in a new direction a moved towards the political process. In 1978 he was elected as the vice president of Sinn Fein. This most in all likelihood came as a result of the realisation by many senior(a) figures that it was becoming more and more unlikely that a military triumph could be achieved. Whilst significant events such as spread over Sunday lead to anti-British sentiment to sky rocket many turned away from violence and embraced the political system.Protests by a number of imprisoned IRA members in ache Kesh gaol showed the power of political tactics, leading to the dominance of Sinn Fein as a political force. The 1981 hunger strike was the climax of a five year protest by Republican prisoners in Northern Ireland. The protest originally began in 197618 when the British Government withdraw its special household status for convicted paramilitary prisoners. This status had provided them with Prisoner of War privileges as undertake in the Geneva Convention.19 Prisoners did not have to wear prison uniforms, do prison work and were allowed to be housed within their own paramilitary factions. They were withal entitled to receive extra food parcels and have extra visits. When these rights were removed by the British Government, as recommended by the Gardiner Committee20, the prisoners began a protest to gain them back. It started with a blanket protest in which prisoners refused to wear uniforms but instead wrapped themselves in prison blankets they stated that they were not criminals but political prisoners.In 197821 the dispute escalated into a dirty protest in which prisoners refused to wash away and covered their cell walls with excrement. In 1980 the first hunger strike took place but to no avail ending after 53 days.22 The countenance strike in 1981 is perhaps one of the best know instances of protest throughout the campaign. The strike was lead by former IRA police officer Commanding in the prison, Bobby Sands.23 At the beginning of the strike there was little progress and it didnt receive much outside support. But after five days the strike received a much unavoidable boost the Independent Republican MP for Fermanagh and South Tyrone died and a by-election was called to allot his replacement. It was decided that Bobby Sands would stand against the Ulster Unionist Party candidate waste West.24 On 9 April 1981 Sands won a narrow victory and was elected to the British House of Commons.25 The victory attracted worldwide attention and honey oils of media force-out descended on Belfast. On the sixty sixth day of the hunger strikes, May 5, Sands died causing riots across Northern Ireland.One hundred thousand people lined the route of his funeral a few days later.26 In the weeks after Sands death three more hunger strikers died,27 and another(prenominal) by-election had to be held for the seat of Fermanagh and South Tyrone. Due to the fact that the British Government had rushed through the Representation of the People Act,28 which meant prisoners serving more than one year could not run for parliament, so Sands election doer Owe n Carron had to run instead. He claimed a similar victory gaining a large percentage of the votes.The success of hunger strike created a firm plan for Irish republicanism and paved the way for the formal entry of Sinn Fein into electoral politics the following year. It was also around this period that the British Government began reforming its policies in relation to the IRA and Sinn Fein. They now viewed Sinn Fein as a legitimate political movement who would be included in official negotiations. The achievements of the hunger strikers proved the power of political activism as opposed to violence they also undecided the falseness of the British Governments claim that the Republican movement had no support.The events of 1969-82 transformed the Republican movement from a violence orientated force to a significant political force. As Sinn Fein began to grow as a political force the IRA slowly, and with considerable internal difficulties, changed its ways. This eventually paved the w ay for an official ceasefire in 1994. Their intellect to decommission their weapons meant that Sinn Fein was allowed to come to the negotiation control board and play a significant role in the Good Friday agreement of 1998.That agreement resulted in a devolved power sharing structure of self government for Northern Ireland, whilst it still remained within the United Kingdom.29 In 2007 Martin McGuiness of Sinn Fein was appointive deputy first minister and held equal power alongside Ian Paisely of the DUP in the Northern Ireland Assembly Government.30 From the split in the nationalist movement in 1969 to its reemergence throughout the seventies, alongside the IRA, there was much change. Events such as Bloody Sunday increased the military overtone of the movement but lastly peaceful political power prevailed. Acts such as the 1981 hunger strike proved the power of political protest as compared to violence. Ultimately Sinn Fein grew into a legitimate political party and as of 2009 th ey became the largest party in Northern Ireland following European Parliamentary elections.31_______________________________________________________BibliographyLiterary SourcesEnglish, Richard (2003), Armed Struggle The score of the IRA, Pan Books, Stuttgart, Germany________________________________________________________________________Geraghty, Tony (2000), The Irish War The Hidden Conflict Between the IRA and British Intelligence, The Johns Hopkins University Press, Maryland, USA________________________________________________________________________Hastings, Max (1970), Ulster 1969 The Fight for Civil Rights in Northern Ireland, Victor Gollancz LTD, London, United Kingdom________________________________________________________________________McEvoy, Kieran (2001), Paramilitary Imprisonment in Northern Ireland Resistance, Management, and Release, Oxford University Press, Oxford, United Kingdom________________________________________________________________________Moloney, Ed (2 002), A unknown accounting of the IRA, Penguin Books, freshly Jersey, USA________________________________________________________________________Mullan, Don (1997), eyewitness Bloody Sunday The Truth, Wolfhound Press, Dublin, Ireland________________________________________________________________________OBrien, Brendan (1995), the Long War, the IRA and Sinn Fein, Syracuse University Press, New York, USA________________________________________________________________________Electronic SourcesBBC (2009), on this day 9 Decmeber1973 (online), BBC, London, United Kingdom. operable from http//news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/december/9/newsid_2536000/2536767.stm (Accessed 26 July 2009)________________________________________________________________________BBC (2009), Profile Martin McGuinness (online), BBC, London, United Kingdom. addressable fromhttp//news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/northern_ireland/1303355.stm (Accessed 29 July 2009)__________________________________________ ______________________________CAIN network Service (2009), A chronology of the conflict (online), University of Ulster, Belfast, United Kingdom. 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