Up to 1921 England, Scotland, Wales and the whole of Ireland were part of one country… the United Kingdom. Because they needed a centralised power base it was ruled from Westminster in London In 1921 the Republic of Ireland broke away became its own country. Therefore getting Home Rule. Still to this day Scotland, Wales, England and Northern Ireland are technically not countries. At the same time Northern Ireland was granted devolved powers.

Home rule = Complete independence from the United Kingdom. Devolved Power = Still part of the United Kingdom but with their own parliamentary rights. This allows them to make decisions on the United Kingdom

If a country is devolved at what stage should we get involved? Should a country that governs itself have a say in a English laws? Should England ask for devolution from the United Kingdom?

Want Northern Ireland to be part of Republic of Ireland Want Northern Ireland to continue to be ruled by the British Known as: Republicans or Nationalists Known as: Unionists or Loyalists NICRA (Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association) OUP (Official Unionist Party) SDLP (Socialist Democratic Labour Party) DUP (Democratic Unionist Party Ian Paisley) IRA (Irish Republic Army) UDF (Ulster defence force) Becoming more violent Becoming more violent

Northern Ireland for dummies Northern Ireland have their own parliament since 1921. Here they make their own decisions on how to run their own “country”. This Parliament is called Stormont Northern Ireland is made up of One million Protestants and five hundred thousdand Catholics. Therefore the Catholics are a minority and underrepresented in anything that is decided democratically as they always lose the elections. Therefore they wanted to be part of Rep. of Ireland (Nationalists) The Protestants were happy to continue with being controlled by Britain (Unionists) Catholics were neglected and overlooked in most areas. (make sure you know specific examples) However there was one area where the unionists could not control the and prosecute the Catholics…. entry into Queen’s university in Belfast. That was because admissions were controlled through London. As a result 1/3 of all educated students were Catholic. Here they formed the NICRA where they started planning protests and demonstrations to improve their Civil Rights, this caused tensions to run high and violence to increase. Catholics came under attack. The British sent in troops to protect Catholic areas (Bogside 1969) through barbed wire and troops. However this was a further sign of them being singled out and isolated. The IRA resented this, and thought it was like “old, controling colonial Britain”. They started promoting terrorist activity. Not all Catholics supported the IRA, many were moderate and followed SDLP. Just as there was a small violent section of Catholics there was violent, there were more aggressive Unionists (DUP and Paisley) as opposed to the peaceful OUP Britain felt the only way to keep Northern Ireland safe was through a policy called internment (1971). This led to IRA activists being arrested and held without trial. Bloody Sunday 1972 saw a potentially peacful march for Catholic Civil Rights end in bloodshed. 14 demonstrators were shot dead by British troops. A report commissioned from Westminster the Widgery report stated British troops were responding to initial attacks from the protestors

Heath took the decision to suspend parliamentary powers in Stormont Northern Ireland until they could resolve the situation. Heath then came up with the The Sunnigdale Agreement agreed. This handed power back to the Northern Irish and insisted on a power share between the moderate Catholics and protestants (OUP and the SDLP). First time since 1921 Catholics had a say. Britain once again devolved their. Nationalist Catholics were still unhappy over Diplock Courts, this was where someone on trail would not face a jury, in an attempt to avoid political/religious bias or intimidation; the continued presence of British army further aggravated them Unionist Protestants were also unhappy as they felt Heath had sold them out over Sunnigdale and it was the first step towards “washing their hands” of control over Northern Ireland. This led to the expansion of the UDF, an extreme Unionist fraction, which became a mirror image of the IRA Under Wilson the unionists went on strike for 15 days over their dislike of Sunnigdale. Wilson called them spongers. Moderate Unionists resigned. Power sharing died Wilson tried to restore power sharing through the Northern Ireland Act 1974 that set up a democracy. Rather unsurprisingly after the election 66% were Unionists. Their first act? Ban Republicans from taking part in any future cabinet. Discrimination against Catholics still evident The Northern Irish parliament was heavily Unionists and they continued to push pro unionist policies. Political prisoners were previously given “Special Status” and treated better, however this was taken away from them and they were classified as common criminals. IRA attacks increased including on Mainland Britain. (make sure you know them) Wilson did not want to give into terrorism or upset MPs from Northern Ireland due to small minority, so vastly ignored them and allowed the Unionists to dominate Northern Irish Parliament.