The Best of the Bureau/The_Best_of_the_Bureau_Bureau_Development_Inc._1992.iso/dp/0050/00505.txt

Text File | 1992-08-07 | 34KB | 547 lines

$Unique_ID{bob00505}
$Pretitle{}
$Title{United Kingdom
Northern Ireland}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{Embassy of the United Kingdom, Washington DC}
$Affiliation{Embassy of the United Kingdom, Washington DC}
$Subject{ireland
northern
government
irish
united
kingdom
agreement
community
employment
roman}
$Date{1990}
$Log{}
Title:       United Kingdom
Book:        Northern Ireland
Author:      Embassy of the United Kingdom, Washington DC
Affiliation: Embassy of the United Kingdom, Washington DC
Date:        1990

Northern Ireland

Introduction

     Northern Ireland is part of the United Kingdom (the formal name of
which is the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland) and
consists of six of the nine counties of the old Irish Province of Ulster. It
has a population of some 1,567,000, of whom the majority are descendants of
Scots or English settlers who crossed to the north-east of Ireland, mainly in
the seventeenth century. As a result many are Protestants who have
traditionally been committed to the maintenance of the union with Great
Britain. The remainder - a little over a third - are Roman Catholic, many of
whom are nationalist in political aspiration, favouring union with the Irish
Republic.

     From 1921 until 1972 Northern Ireland had its own Parliament in which
the Unionists, primarily representing the Protestant community, held a
permanent majority and in consequence formed the regional Government (see
p 5). Following the outbreak of street violence in 1969 and its subsequent
intensification into a terrorist campaign, the United Kingdom Parliament
assumed direct responsibility for administration and security and since 1972
(apart from a four-month period in 1974) Northern Ireland has been under
'direct rule' from London. Since that time successive governments have sought
not only to restore peace and stability but have made a variety of attempts to
establish an effective and representative form of devolved government that
would have widespread support throughout the community.

     The Government's aim for the future political development of Northern
Ireland continues to be the establishment of a system of devolved government
which commands widespread acceptance. It recognises the need to involve the
minority community in any such arrangements and, at the same time, firmly
upholds the principle that there will be no change in Northern Ireland's
constitutional status as part of the United Kingdom without the consent of a
majority of people in Northern Ireland.

     The principle of consent is also affirmed by the Anglo-Irish Agreement
which was signed between the Governments of the United Kingdom and the Irish
Republic in November 1985 with the purpose of promoting peace and stability,
helping to reconcile the two traditions in Ireland, creating a new climate
of friendship between the two countries and improving co-operation, not least
in combating terrorism.

Origins

     In the twelfth century Henry II invaded Ireland and part of the country
came under the control of Anglo-Norman barons. By the end of the thirteenth
century there was an Irish Parliament but with increasingly scant allegiance
to the King of England. In 1541 Henry VIII took the title `King of Ireland'
and during the reign of Elizabeth I a series of campaigns was undertaken
to subjugate Catholic Ireland in order to safeguard (by now predominantly
Protestant) England's national security interests. Schemes were drawn up to
settle the land and substantial numbers of Scots and English arrived in the
'plantation' of the northern province of Ulster. This was the main area of
resistance and with its collapse early in the seventeenth century an attempt
was made to consolidate control over Ireland.

     During the period of the English civil war and after (1642-52) further
risings in Ireland were crushed by Cromwell who extended the colonisation
by English and Scots settlers. The Catholic James II came to the throne in
1685 but was defeated at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690 by his successor
the Protestant William of Orange. In 1782 the Irish Parliament was given
legislative independence but Ireland continued to be constitutionally linked
with Great Britain (England, Wales and Scotland) under the Crown. The
Parliament represented, however, only the upper classes, mainly of settler
origin, who owned most of the agricultural land, and the native Roman Catholic
majority was excluded from it. Against the background of an abortive United
Irishmen rebellion in 1798 (which was largely under Protestant leadership) and
the prospect of intervention by France, Ireland became part of the United
Kingdom under the Act of Union of 1800. In 1801 the Irish Parliament was
abolished and the whole of Ireland was governed from London with Irish
representation in both Houses of the United Kingdom Parliament.

     The nationalist demand for Irish independence continued during the
nineteenth century, however, and by the end of the century there had emerged
a well-organised movement for Irish Home Rule which sought devolved government
by constitutional means. With Irish nationalists holding the balance of power,
a Home Rule Bill was introduced in 1886 by the Liberal Government under
Gladstone but failed, as did a second Bill introduced in 1893. In 1914 Home
Rule was enacted, but, with the outbreak of the first world war and the threat
of armed resistance by the Ulster Protestants, its implementation was
suspended. A nationalist uprising in Dublin in the Easter of 1916 was
suppressed but the volunteer force known as the Irish Republican Army
continued to wage a guerrilla campaign against British administration to force
its withdrawal from Ireland. Faced with mounting popular support for
independence - in 1919 the Republican Sinn Fein party won 73 of the 105 Irish
seats - the British Government decided to concede the demand for Home Rule
but to a limited extent since it was strongly opposed by the Protestants in
Ulster. The Government of Ireland Act 1920 provided for the establishment
of two subordinate Parliaments in Northern and Southern Ireland with both
parts remaining in the United Kingdom. The proposed arrangements, however,
proved unacceptable to the South and in 1922, following the Anglo-Irish
Treaty, the 26 counties of Southern Ireland became the Irish Free State,
a self-governing state outside the United Kingdom; and subsequently, in 1949,
the Irish Republic, a fully independent republic outside the Commonwealth.

Civil Disturbances

     Although the 1920 Act was intended as a means of reconciling opposing
political aspirations it was unacceptable not just to Southern nationalists
but to a large number of the Roman Catholic minority in Northern Ireland.
For 50 years after 1921 this constitutional question dominated Irish politics.
The political parties of Northern Ireland themselves reflected the divided
community. Protestants largely voting for Unionist parties and Roman Catholics
for parties aspiring to Irish unity. Given the balance of population between
Protestants and Roman Catholics the devolved Parliament of Northern Ireland
was inevitably under the permanent control of the Unionists; and nationalists
resented these arrangements.

     Although successive governments in Northern Ireland achieved substantial
advances for the whole population in the social welfare and economic spheres,
there emerged in 1967 an active and articulate civil rights movement which
sought to bring an end to social injustices. At the beginning its main
supporters were drawn from members of both sections of the community who
supported the organisation's aims of change by non-violent means.
Nevertheless, some Protestants saw the civil rights movement as a Republican
threat and street demonstrations were increasingly marked by sectarian
disturbances. Although there had always been a resident garrison in Northern
Ireland (as there were others throughout the United Kingdom) additional units
of the Army were transferred there at the request of the Northern Ireland