ROLE OF THE IRA IN NORTHERN IRELAND

This research paper discusses the factors which led to the re-emergence of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) as a significant force in the late 1960s and early 1970s in connection with the disturbances and movements (the Troubles) which arose in Northern Ireland. The Catholic minority in Northern Ireland took to the streets in the late 1960s to protest its political and economic grievances against the established Ulster authorities and the dominant Protestant majority. That protest failed to accomplish its objectives in 1968-1969 because of Protestant intransigence and paramilitary violence. The British intervened militarily to restore order but only hesitantly pushed Ulster to initiate reforms.

Although the IRA was only marginally involved in this predominantly middle-class and student civil rights movement, the Provisional Irish Republican Army (Provos), a spinoff of the original IRA (which thereafter became known as the Officials), took advantage of the turmoil to re-emerge in the early 1970s as a significant political and terrorist force. The Provos represented a new development--a cadre with its political base in the Catholic urban working class and rural poor, with radical goals and revolutionary methods. The Provos and, less effectively, the Officials exploited the existing civil unrest and, together with Protestant ultras, incited an escalating cycle of violence which by 1972 threatened to destroy civil o

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ng and/or poor Catholics and as an result of what Irish historians Bew et al. called governmental policies of "political exclusion toward the Catholic political parties which . . . effectively deprived Catholics of effective political representation" (157). 4. Relative indifference of the Irish and British governments. The Irish government and politicians routinely paid lip service to the goal of eventually unifying Northern and Southern Ireland. However, Ireland in the 1960s was preoccupied with its own problems and plans for modernizing its economy through exports to the European Economic Community, which it ultimately joined in 1972. The Fianna Fail Party which dominated Irish politics in the 1960s had less interest in affairs in Northern Ireland than their predecessors in Sinn Fein. Bell says that "most in the Republic had given little thought to the direction of development of Northern Ireland, assuming that in the fullness of time the island would be united" (137). Ever since 1921, the British government pursued a hands-off policy toward its Protestant wards in Northern Ireland. Partition had taken the Irish question off the British agenda. Under a 1922 Speaker's Ruling, matters concerning Northern Ireland could not be
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Some common words found in the essay are:
Northern Ireland, Army Provos, British Army, Party Protestant, Brian Faulkner, Northern Island, Coogan Provos, Traditionally Catholics, northern ireland, Lord Brookeboroughhad, IRA Coogan, civil rights, civil rights movement, rights movement, prime minister, catholic minority, northern ireland government, british army, according bell, irish republican, ireland government, sinn fein, irish republican army, catholic political parties, catholics northern ireland,
Approximate Word count = 4180
Approximate Pages = 17 (250 words per page)

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