The origins and development of ‘the troubles’ John Barry [email protected] @ProfJohnBarry The history of the troubles according to Wikipedia…or my da… Alternative titles for my talk…. ‘From Civil Rights to Armalites’ or ‘Troubling the Troubles’…according to a ‘mouth from the south’ Setting out… My stall – I’m not a historian I’m not from Northern Ireland/ the North/ (occupied) six counties/Ulster/’Norn Iron’/’this place’/’the province’ I’m neither a nationalist nor a unionist ….except trade unionist and an internationalist…. And I’m a republican….but not in the Irish republican sense…. And recovering (Green Party) politician And I was born in 1966…. So, what my presentation is about is my take – as a citizen not an expert - on the origins of the troubles in the late 1960s /early 1970s My overview and consideration of the main events, reasons for them etc. as an invitation for discussion and debate So…less an academic lecture based on expert knowledge …and more a personal (but still political) set of reflections And also about being honest about my own ignorance of this period A stranger in time and space….. Some detail and nuance will be missing - hence importance of discussion and debate in response to what I have to say I was too young to remember and too far away to have seen But importance of going beyond ‘telling a story’ – facts, chronology Offering interested (and hopefully interesting!), not disinterested knowledge (or interested knowledge pretending its objective) Why & how should we reflect on this period? What is at stake in looking at the origins and development of the troubles? Some suggestions 1. To have an ‘accurate’ historical record of events ? 2. To have accurate and agreed reasons for why & the way events unfolded? 3. To have a comprehensive record/account – that is, to consider marginal, overlooked events, issues, organisations and people? 4. To learn the lessons of history so we don’t repeat the mistakes of the past? 5. To (re)interpret the past to justify some actors, actions, justifications or particular historical narratives? 6. Or reading the past for current political motives or purposes? Some personal reflections I was 2 years old in 1968 My mother was born in Belfast and parts of the family were strongly republican Most of the songs I know are Irish republican ones… My dad was in the Irish Army and served in the Congo, had military training that almost meant him being recruited into the IRA in 1965 Like most people on this island, my entire childhood and adult life has been in the shadow to varying degrees of the conflict in Northern Ireland Some (dis)orientating questions… How did a (relatively) modern European society end up in a bloody civil war? Why is this period called ‘the troubles’? Was it a ‘sectarian war/conflict’? A civil war? A just/justified war? Criminality and illegality on a large scale? Civil disorder and ‘hooliganism’? What is (politely?) hidden and obscured in the common term used to describe this period? We disagree about what we call this place, but (more or less?) agree on ‘the troubles’? “Whatever you say, say the troubles” Could they have been avoided? Or why did it take so long? That is, why didn’t it erupt earlier? Personal reflections I joined Sinn Fein the Workers’ Party in the mid 1980s in Dublin as a student (was on the Peace Train in 1989) before joining the Greens in the late 1980s And until I lived in England and Scotland in the 1990s I was (moderately) anti-British And until I moved to NI in 1990 I was a progressive, left-wing bigot in relation to my views of loyalism and the loyalist working class So I’m a recovering politician and recovering bigot… and an Irish citizen happy to acknowledge British aspects of my identity and politics… My perspective There may not be or cannot be ‘one truth’ about the past, the cause/s of the troubles, conflict etc. And we do have a tendency in Ireland and NI (though not unique to us) to ‘march confidently into the future looking backwards’ And this is the lens though which I look at the events of the start of the troubles Are you sitting comfortably?.... Then I’ll begin A potted run through some of the main events at the start of the troubles Terence O’Neill’s liberal /reformist unionism – 1963-9… the road less travelled? Economic reform Modernisation Win back loyalist working classes from the Northern Ireland Labour Party Pragmatic cooperation with Republic of Ireland and Sean Lemass However, constant undermining/scepticism of reform from within the UUP (James Kilfedder/William Craig prominent) and from the Orange Order Timeline of outbreak & development of the troubles Civil Rights Campaign (1964-1972) 1964: Campaign for Social Justice (CSJ) formed - forerunner of civil rights movement A canary in the mine against the ‘benign neglect’ by London? 1965…meetings… public …and secret Seán Lemass, Irish Taoiseach visits Belfast to talk with new UUP Leader Terence O’Neill in January 1965, designed to improve relations as both parts of the island undertook modernisation plans Opposed by Paisley and elements within the UUP Suggestions that these elements meet with Gusty Spence and reactive the UVF (allegedly including James Kilfedder, UUP MP for West Belfast) “I can’t possibly say that I knew the ins and outs of the political machinations in the background because I didn’t. I was approached to join the UVF. The way the story was put to me was that there was incipient rebellion and I had taken an oath to Her Majesty to defend her - it seems grandiose - against her enemies foreign and domestic. I saw my service in the UVF as a continuation of my British Army service.” Gutsy Spence, writing in 1981 Reactivation of the UVF in 1965/66 due to “two interlocking purposes: as a clandestine praetorian guard reconstituted to meet the perceived threat of IRA violence over the Easter Rising commemorations”, and “as a tool”, used by elements within the UUP, “to bring down O’Neill” (Edwards, 2009: 132) History is not over March and April 1966, Irish “In 1966 the Fianna Fáil government under Sean Lemass nationalists/republicans held parades confidently assumed that they could control the narration throughout Ireland to mark the 50th of the Rising in the south and its meaning for the future, anniversary of the Easter Rising. and appeared to succeed in so doing. But for Terence O’ Neill in the north, commemoration in conjunction with the tensions of the time proved a tipping point as it provided Ian Paisley with the platform he had long sought.” Margaret O’Callaghan, Irish News, 2016 Unionist dissatisfaction at the decision by the unionist government not to enforce a blanket ban on the celebrations and instead to allow commemorative events What was an official state commemoration to proceed in nationalist areas. in the Republic was unofficial in Northern Ireland Ian Paisley organised a ‘thanksgiving’ service for the defeat of the 1916 rebels. 8th March 1966, Irish republicans blow up Nelson’s pillar on O’Connell street in Dublin Irish ‘half Nelson’… “Fifty years ago this week an Irish republican blew up a statue of Nelson on top of a 41m-high pillar - not the one in London's Trafalgar Square but another in the very centre of Dublin. Now 83, the bomber, Liam Sutcliffe, says he has no regrets - but hates the spire that has replaced the admiral even more. "He was the wrong man, in the wrong place at the wrong time," says Liam Sutcliffe, the man who made perhaps the most radical alteration ever to Dublin's skyline”., BBC, 12th March 2016 Look west to ….Derry Londonderry Corporation under UUP control yet Derry a February 1967 majority Catholic/Nationalist city Catholic vote worth less than half a Protestant one The Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association (NICRA) was formed In 1967 Catholic voters numbered 14,429 and others 8,781. The Cameron Commission noted the "extraordinary situation" whereby unionists returned 12 members of the November 1967 corporation, but nationalists only 8. The Derry Housing Action Some of worst housing and unemployment in Europe Committee (DHAC) was formed. Anger at location of new university at Coleraine not Derry (1965) Adding insult to injury the Lockwood Report recommended the closure of Derry’s existing third-level institution, Magee College Monday 25 March 1968 Derry Housing Action Committee (DHAC) 24 August 1968 disrupted a meeting of Londonderry First Civil Rights March from Coalisland to Corporation to protest at the lack of Dungannon. housing provision in the city. Saturday 27 April 1968 (NICRA) holds rally to protest at the banning of a Republican Easter parade. Saturday 25 May 1968 The Derry Housing Action Committee (DHAC) held another protest at the Guildhall in Derry. Saturday 5 October 1968 Civil Rights March in Derry Wednesday 9 October 1968 People's Democracy Formed Derry Citizen's Action Committee (DCAC) was formed from 5 protest organisations which had been active in the city. Ivan Cooper was the first chairman & John Hume the first vice- chairman. NICRA demands ‘One man, one vote‘ End to gerrymandering of electoral boundaries. End to discrimination in the allocation of public sector housing And public sector employment; Repeal of the Special Powers Act; Disbanding of the 'B-Specials' (Ulster Special Constabulary) Friday 22 November 1968 Reform Package Announced Monday 9 December 1968 Terence O'Neill, then Northern Ireland Prime Minister, announced a package of reform Terence O'Neill, makes measures television appeal -the 'Ulster stands at the Crossroads' 1.