** This article was forever on LiveJournal broke, I wrote to him on the 12th October ...**
Here is now the second part of the history of Northern Ireland, a company in Europe, in which two populations with two conflicting identities, trying to live together - with extremists on both sides to think today that represent confrontation, assassinations and pipe bombs, a solution. It is perhaps to throw again a quick look at Excursus II below, which explains how the British ever arrived on the island, as the construct of "Northern Ireland" was and how the Unionists have emerged.
first: I wanted to write this book already quite long - in the wake of the importance of the history of the Troubles and the moving film "Bloody Sunday". Just yesterday I did it ** At the last second before I come back to Germany for the time being **, Derry me to take a look - especially the Catholic Bogside, where the "Free Derry Museum", which the workers' struggle for equality of Derry and documented the massacre of the British Army of unarmed civilians. Since I had a guide who is from the Bogside, witnessed the Bloody Sunday was, has been sitting for activities (for which I have not questioned further) three years in prison and now of course ** ** Sinn Féin politician, and defended the republican cause by democratic means, was I know my books with his (as he himself admitted, and made clear from the start) accumulate subjective and anti-British view of things. It was very interesting and I this valuable guide for myself ** had only £ 5 for museum and tour - welcome to Northern Ireland !!!**, I was even able to freely discuss with him. For this I will write its own little "Free Derry" blog, I think.
** The "Free Derry Monument", the hallmarks of Catholic working-class district Bogside in Londonderry, scene of street battles in the 1960s and '70s and the Bloody Sunday .**
Back to history lesson, dear children, without which many of the comments of my guides are impossible to understand ** Such as: "I wish Maggie Thatcher a slow and painful death !"**:
As Northern Ireland as a compromise after the War of Independence ("Free State" in the South vs. Great Britain) 1921, and the Irish civil war in 1923 with the victory of the Free- State government against the opponents of the division ceased to split the IRA. The part of the IRA, who compared the fate of Northern Ireland UK resisted, has now been outlawed by the British as well as the Irish side. While the majority of the Irish Republican Army in the Free State / south course formed the basis of the regular army of the new state, was the split-off part of the IRA, the compromise (ie the provisional waiver the Free State on the Protestant-dominated north) did not accept the view of both governments terrorists.
The Protestant loyalist 2/3-majority Northern Ireland was after the convening of the Northern Ireland Parliament 1921 is ready, even a concession in the security policy or the economy and society in the Catholic to make minority represented in their perception, a danger to the existence of the Union of GB. In fact, the new state in the south has tried a Gälisierungs (all road signs in the Republic of Ireland are today bilingual Englisch-Gälisch/Irisch) and Katholisierungspolitik own identities t win in deposition to the north and to keep the question of the unity of the island open - so the fear of some unionists seemed right, even if the discrimination against the Catholic 1/3-Minderheit within its borders in any way be justified by can.
The turmoil of the Anglo-Irish War (1919-21) had inflicted deep wounds in the small and neighborly Northern Irish society: For example, Catholics in Belfast thousands displaced from their jobs or been forced from their homes ("ethnic cleansing"!) - in Northern Ireland was similar. Even in (London) Derry, there was deadly confrontations between the army, paramilitary unionists, IRA and civilians thanks ** 1 WK there were trained soldiers of both denominations **.
Because of this civil war like that in 1920 was that of Protestant hardcore-Unionisten/Loyalisten ruled newly established Northern Irish community in the United Kingdom a mini-state within a state of emergency, in which the voting rights and the Wahbezirke were manipulated so that the dominance of unionism has also been cemented as the political exclusion of the Catholic republicans / nationalists. Contrary to the intentions of Westminster, the security forces of "Ulster" (London's perspective!) Equal to occupy from Catholics and Protestants, was the Royal Ulster Constably (RUC) to over 90% Protestant, civil rights saw the light of the permanent state of emergency is a joke and economic and political dominance of the Protestants make work and home ownership for decades privileges were not allowed to enjoy all the Catholics in equal parts as the Protestants.
You can imagine: dissatisfaction, resignation and frustration did spreads on the Republican side, which like a vicious circle reinforced the perception of the Unionists, on the island under siege, surrounded by enemies, are located. Since Catholics were powerless in politics, the primacy of security policy on the solution of social problems dominated (and thereby the unionist camp on traditional socio-political boundary markers such as' work vs. Capital welded together ') and the prospects for young Catholic men in Derry ** ** especially not good, were won by the extremists of the IRA feed. Terrorist violence replaced political communication.
The time of the founding of the state until the 60's F. Otto describes as "bleiernde time" in which entrenched the Unionists as a "corral" in politics and society and the Catholic nationalist minority Ulster's best, the status of tolerated foreigners "occupied.
Already in the 30 years there has been political and sectarian violence, by the members of the Orange Order (see Excursus II below) and the IRA. The latter went with bombings and attacks against police officers.
was the way, Northern Ireland, with its shipyards and aircraft factories in Belfast and as a way station for U.S. troops on their way to Normandy for the UK is of great importance, which is why the German Air Force in 1941 destroyed half Belfast. For political reasons I will not run here due to space limitations, deepened the divide between Republicans and Unionists (Protestants vs.. Catholics, something grossly simplified!).
formed in the 60s in Ulster in the wake of the civil rights movement, several organizations who have called for an open society, equal opportunities for all and true democracy in Ulster. In 1967 they gathered under the umbrella of NICRA: Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association, which had the undemocratic misfeatures and the omnipotence of the security forces (RUC, auxiliary police and British army) to take any action with the de facto price to pay if They killed civilians wanted to do away (!!!),.
Some fell into the 60s on the move in Ulster: The new government O'Neill wanted the massive unemployment of Ulster (the was largest in the UK) resolve by creating growth momentum for infrastructure and education. But here again the unionist dominance caused a bitterness in the Republican camp: He founded the second university, the government of Northern Ireland (University of Ulster ") not dominated by Catholics (London) Derry - the largest city Belfast - but in Protestant Coleraine. Even in the growth process, the Catholics are at a disadvantage ** In modern times both in Coleraine in Derry and parts of the University of Ulster **.
O'Neill was unable to close the trenches of Northern Ireland. 1966 - mark the 50th anniversary of the Battle of the Somme - was founded, the UVF (Ulster Volunteer Forces, "the name of the Protestant voluntary organizations in WW1), the IRA even the public War declared! The
NICRA however, chose exactly the other way, dared the murderers of the IRA and UVF not: She followed the examples of Gandhi and Martin Luther King organized a peaceful protest marches and ensured public, political exert pressure. A center of the civil rights movement was Derry, in which the by the U2 song so infamous "Bloody Sunday" occurred, which I will come later.
starting point of the so-called "Troubles", ie the permanent civil war-like conditions in Ulster is, according to F. Otto of 05/10/1968 in which the RUC and other security forces in brutal repression of peaceful and unarmed protesters Derry take precedence among which were even Westminster MPs. As demonstrators took refuge in the Catholic Bogside district, the residents began to defend themselves against the 'invading' police with petrol bombs, stones and barricades. This gave the NICRA more feed and united the activists as "one man, one vote" and calling for the withdrawal of the emergency legislation.
The scandal is now that the civil rights activists were seen in the eyes of the hard-line unionists not only as provocateurs, but even as a terrorist organization. It was now not even get into the minds of hardliners that Republicans claim the same rights as unionists, because the only political program of the unionists was to the Union with the UK - and that was in danger if the electoral law be amended wü rde, and the majorities because of demographic changes for ** Catholics should somehow move probably makes the stork ** overtime in favor of the Catholic-Republican side ...
The spiral of violence turned on early in 1969: Through the Looking away the RUC against fierce attacks by the auxiliary police (the so-called B-Specials, which no longer exist today) and violent loyalists got a protest march by students in Derry Ext his control. The excessive force of the B Specials and the partiality of the RUC in the Catholic Bogside district had the confidence of this part of the population in the state's monopoly ** the Protestant was in hand! ** Disappear for good. To first appeared on signs at the barricaded entrance to the Bogside, a "Free Derry" and proclaimed the state power to N was o-go area . Nowhere was the fragmentation of society into two camp as manifest as in Derry, where the old city walls since the 17th Century century the privileged Protestant city surrounded the city and the river Foyle in two shares. O'Neill resigned in late April1969, after his own political camp (the Unionists) was always less willing to follow his moderate course. Perverse: Loyalist fanatics had been a series of bomb attacks perpetrated on the the work of the IRA were held, forcing O'Neill to a mobilization and upgrading of the security forces, which torpedoed his reform policies to overcome the conflicts in Northern Ireland. As always, the extremists get the escalation in motion, the moderates will be swept away. The split of the society in the school system (still visible today, but no longer 100%!), In the unfair electoral system and the inequitable distribution of opportunities in the economy remained thus. Frustration, anger and hatred accumulated to more and more and more violence erupted.
The next big act in the drama of the Troubles, the multi-day, so-called "Battle of the Bogside" in 1969. The traditional summer parade of the Orangemen led Derry's (too) close to the Bogside along and has no prospects of young people throwing stones ** recalls in approaches to the Middle East, I think **. Local Verteidigungskomittees of citizens of the Bogside feared an "invasion" of RUC and B Specials in their "territory" - in memory of the recent attacks by the security forces - why barricades were erected. From the rooftops rained petrol bombs on the RUC, which extends from 12.8. to 14.8. Street battles supplied with the civilian population. Am 14.8. Westminster sent the British army in Derry because the RUC was completely overwhelmed and London could not sit idly by as the monopoly is being undermined in his province of Ulster.
** view from the historic and perfectly preserved city walls of Derry in the Bogside. Look at the white house wall in the middle of the road: The Free Derry Monument and along the road, the wall paintings that tell the bloody story of the Troubles. Click several times on the pictures to enlarge them then .**
The Battle of the Bogside had the peaceful civil rights movement weakened and strengthened the radicals on both sides. But the worst trauma was to come: On 1/30/1972, a peaceful protest march of several thousand citizens in Derry, including Westminster politicians shot down by an elite British Parachute Regiment. Thirteen people were shot without need (another citizen died later of his injuries), some in the back. Weapons were found on the side of the demonstrators before. The soldiers and their superiors were never brought to justice - on the contrary, they made career. A neutral, the victims and justice to the citizens of the Bogside investigation report is still coming! This as "Bloody Sunday" in the history of received and interpreted very controversial "incident" resulted in the deaths of innocent NICRA and marked for many people who had previously had nothing to do with the IRA, the turning point in her biography: she turned to the radicals because they have watched with my own eyes that the state (in the form of the British military, which previously in the flare-up of its neutrality and Troube the ability to contain the violence of both camps in Belfast and Derry, had shone!) kills his own citizens. This fall should forget the citizens of the Bogside and the British never all Irishmen. Yesterday I ** currently writing this part of the blog on Mon, 02/01/2010 ** was the key event from 42 years ago in a peace march in the Bogside thought - at the spot where the shots were fired and where today Murals remember the history of this once conflict-ridden district.
** image 1 below: Mural in memory of the Bloody Sunday 1972nd Figure 2 shows such the original banner of civil rights, now an exhibit in the "Free Derry" Museum. Who has the very authentic and startling film "Bloody Sunday" saw (Paul Greengrass), knows that this banner was used to cover corpses. It was all the more creepy for me when I read in the museum that really happened and that the bloodstains are still visible.
Figure 3 documents the failure of the British government and the public to exercise justice and an official, objective inquiry into the events of Bloody Sunday to bring about - but where historians have already evaluated all sources and are already on their books come to judgments! **
So, this post is really too long, too many details. I'll probably still a third, to write of the Troubles to the peace process, to explain why Northern Ireland is peaceful 2010 and Féin has a government of unionists and senses!
A few things already in the overview:
03/28/1972. last parliamentary session in Stormont (Belfast), then London takes direct control of the "province". This plays to the radical Republicans, of course, in his hands: "Look," say they were then! "The British are still the old colonial power"
The '70s were probably the gewalttä most important years of the Troubles. The IRA was Bloody Sunday and the supply from the excesses of the RUC and army, not least because of the obvious failure of all political solutions to what both governments in London, Belfast, Dublin and the radicals of both communities in Ulster debt.
the late 70s and early 80s is marked by continuing violence of the paramilitaries. Particularly noteworthy is the hunger strike of IRA prisoners who demanded to be recognized as political prisoners. The guards and the Thatcher government were ten prisoners starve to death - Bobby Sands is as strong-willed strategist and leader of the hunger strikes and first death as a martyr of the IRA and Sinn Fein, which is why his face today on many wall paintings (murals), provides in Northern Ireland and nationalist memorial plaques. Margaret Thatcher, who had been adamant on this issue became a hate figure of the republican nationalists. Please take a look the film "Hunger" (2008) to: Impressive, disgusting, realistic!
comes in the 90's, including the peace process going - despite or perhaps because of continuing violence in the form of bombs in the City of London ** an idea to which the IRA came very late. The damage caused in the financial capital has actually a greater media coverage in England cause than any other stop, even if more in other attacks People died! Oh, how wonderful is man ...!**.
is interesting that there was movement in the peace process, as both the Dublin government and Westminster compromise on the desired status of Northern Ireland's power and the radicals in Ulster by their ruthless violence itself slowly delegitimierten.1998 then came the breakthrough, the Good Friday Agreement, and shortly thereafter left-hards of the "Real IRA" bomb go off in my beloved Omagh that killed 29 people and injured hundreds! The peace was thus not be stopped.
share the moment the political camps, the government: shared power. That is, the First Minister ('Prime Minister' in Stormont) always has a Deputy First Minister from the other side. As the Protestants in Ulster still provide the majority of the population and almost every religious denomination in accordance with the limits selected (Protestants have a choice between moderate and radical unionists, Catholics can choose Sinn Féin and the more moderate SDLP , both of them could theoretically choose a non-denominational party, but that's not been very strong!), is the current First Minister of the unionist camp his deputy is from the opposite side, Sinn Féin. Sounds kinda crazy for German, this division of the government, although it has won a party. But that is the only way to ensure peace. The plan to share power, there is a long time, but still the opposition of the Unionist bloc failed.
The once partisan RUC is now called the PSNI (Police Service Northern Ireland) and has a high proportion of Catholics, it is no longer British army in Northern Ireland, no roadblocks in Belfast and Derry and the discrimination of Catholics is history. Three cheers! HIGH! HIGH! in this peaceful Times and up to the next historical digression, the peace process where I try to explain more detail ** after I first understood it himself. The excellent book "Making Sense of the Troubles" still awaits thorough reading **.
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