At first, Terence O 'Neill, the Prime Minister of Northern Ireland, praised this seemingly moderate movement and promised to reform Northern Ireland. But he was strongly opposed by many United Party hardliners, including william craig and ian Paisley, who accused him of being a "traitor". Some union members immediately suspected that the civil rights association was the "Trojan horse" of the Irish Peace Army. Violence broke out in several civil rights demonstrations, and royalists attacked civil rights demonstrators with sticks. The Royal Ulster Police Force was widely condemned for supporting royalists and was held responsible for allowing violence.
Most royalists' hatred of the civil rights movement is related to the fear of leaders inciting the unity of the masses and publicizing that the Peace Army not only supports the civil rights association behind the scenes, but also plans new offensives. In fact, the Peace Corps has reached the end of its tether, with few weapons and increasing emphasis on non-violent politics. The first explosion in Northern Ireland (mainly aimed at power plants and other infrastructure) was carried out by the royalist UVF of 1969, aiming at training and planting the Peace Corps.
1969 ethnic conflicts have intensified. 1 month, a people's democracy organization marched from Belfast to Delhi and was attacked by royalists in Bourne Tollett, Delhi, London. The Northern Ireland Security Guard was accused of failing to protect the demonstrators. In the next few months, roadblocks were set up in ethnic minority areas in Delhi and Belfast. The riot reached its climax in Qu Ze (1August 96912-1August 96914)-a large-scale racial riot broke out between the police and nationalists in Delhi. Riots broke out between Catholic residents, police and young apprentices in Delhi, because the latter passed through Qu Ze while marching along the city wall.
The riots between the police and royalists and Qu Ze residents lasted for two days before the British army was sent to restore order. This "battle" started from1August 196914th, which triggered sectarian riots in Belfast, Niu Li, labaner and other places, causing many deaths and burning down many houses. The riots were caused by demonstrations by ethnic minorities in support of soldiers and civilians in Qu Ze. The riot escalated after someone threw a Grenade at the police station. The Northern Ireland Security Guard responded by deploying armored vehicles with Browning machine guns and killing a 9-year-old boy in the Falls Road area of Belfast Kuomintang. Royalists responded to the violence by attacking Catholic areas, and most of Mumbai Street, Madrid Street and other Catholic parish streets were set on fire (see Northern Ireland riots 1969). The first murdered policeman, Mumbai Arbuckle, was shot by royalists rather than factions.
Nationalists claim that the Royal Ulster police assisted or at least did not actively oppose the royalists in these riots. * * * The Peace Corps was also widely criticized by its supporters for failing to defend the Catholic community in the riots in Belfast in August. 1969, resulting in 7 deaths, 750 injuries and 1505 Catholics being homeless-almost five times as many houses as Protestants. A Catholic priest reported that his parishioners contemptuously called the Peace Corps "I escaped".
The Northern Ireland government asked the British government to deploy British troops in Northern Ireland to restore order. At first, ethnic minorities welcomed the army and often sent water and meals to soldiers because they didn't trust the police to handle affairs impartially. However, this relationship deteriorated rapidly because the army was considered to be biased towards unification because of its heavy hand.
Many unionists believe that the civil rights movement is the cause of the Northern Ireland problem. Their persistence in the movement shook the government and created a power vacuum, which made paramilitary groups agree. Others, mainly but not all ethnic groups, insist that the civil rights movement and the opposition of ian Paisley and other royalists are only the harbingers of the sectarian government system, which has already fallen and is bound to collapse. From 1970 to 1972, Northern Ireland experienced a great outbreak of political violence, which reached its peak in 1972 and nearly 500 people were killed. There are many reasons for the escalation of violence in these years.
Unionists believe that the main reason is the establishment of Ireland * * * and the military temporary faction (temporary faction * * * and army) separated from the old Ireland. When the old Peace Corps (known as the remnants of the Orthodox Peace Corps) embraced the non-violent mass movement, the new temporary Peace Corps was determined to launch an "armed struggle" against British rule in Northern Ireland. Xinhe Pingjun hopes to show the sectarian characteristics of "defenders of Catholic associations", rather than seeking the unity of the working class of the two associations like "orthodoxy". Unionists believe that this persistent struggle is the main cause and persistent factor of the Northern Ireland problem.
Nationalists insist that violence broke out because the hopes of the civil rights movement turned to disappointment, and the subsequent repression was directed at their communities. They pointed out many events in recent years to support this view. An example is the autumn curfew in July 1970. An army of 3,000 people imposed a curfew in the Lower Falls area of Belfast Nationalist Party, and fired ammunition more than 1500 times in the gun battle with the Peace Army, killing four people. Another thing is that 197 1 introduced the detention system without trial. At the beginning, more than 350 people were arrested, of whom only two were Protestants and only one was a royalist. In addition, due to the unsatisfactory information, a small number of detainees are indeed * * * activists, but some people have become * * * activists because of their own unfortunate experiences. 197 1 to 1975, 198 1 detained, 1874 Catholic/* *107 Protestant/royalist. The statement that detainees are ill-treated or even tortured is widely circulated in ethnic minority communities. The most touching thing is that nationalists pointed out that 1972 65438+ 10/4 unarmed nationalists were shot dead by British troops in Delhi, which was called bloody Sunday.
The Temporary Peace Corps (or "Provos") was established in the second half of 1969. Because it was more aggressive and combative in the counterattack against royalists and police after attacking Catholic societies, it immediately gained a firm foothold and gained support as a "defender" in the Catholic slums of 1970, despite the growing power of reformists and Marxists in the Orthodox Church and the army. Since 1970, both the orthodox and the pro-faction have carried out armed confrontation with the British army.
By 1972, the fighting density of the temporary faction was extremely high, killing 100 soldiers, injuring 500, and carrying out 1300 explosions, most of which were aimed at commercial targets that they thought were "pseudo-economy". Many civilians were killed in the explosion, especially on the bloody Friday of July 1972, when 22 bombs were planted in the center of Belfast. The orthodox * * * Peace Corps never fully admitted that it had carried out armed operations, and cancelled their combat activities in June 1972. However, apart from negotiating with British officials at 1972, the temporary faction is determined to continue fighting until the goal of Irish reunification is achieved.
Royalist paramilitary organizations, including Ulster volunteers and the newly established Ulster Defense Association, responded to the surge of violence with sectarian assassinations targeting ethnic groups and simply equated Catholics with ethnic groups. Some of these murders are particularly appalling, for example, the Shankiir butcher case, in which the criminals beat and tortured the victims and killed them. The Interim Peace Corps also committed sectarian murder. For example, in June 65438 +654381October +69761October, they carried out the 1976 Kingsmore Massacre in retaliation for the royalists' killing of six Catholic civilians, and 10 Protestant civilians were killed by machine guns. Another feature of political violence is that Catholics and Protestants are unwilling or forced to leave the former mixed areas. For example, in Belfast, Protestants were forced to move out of Lenadoon, while Catholics moved out of Lascours and Westvale. In Delhi, almost all Protestants fled to the Fountain Manor and the water's edge, which is the absolute majority of royalists.
Seeing that the Northern Ireland government was unable to cope with the security situation, the British government in London suspended the operation of the decentralized government in Domonte controlled by the 1972 coalition and conducted "direct rule" from London. The government has solved many concerns of the civil rights movement, such as redrawing the boundaries of constituencies to make them more representative, giving all citizens the right to vote in local elections, and transferring the right to allocate public housing to the independent Northern Ireland Housing Commission. At first, it was considered that direct rule was a short-term plan, and the medium-term plan was to restore northern Ireland's autonomy on the basis acceptable to both unionists and nationalists. However, it turned out that it was difficult to reach an agreement, and the Northern Ireland issue lasted until11970s and11980s in the case of political deadlock. During the period of 1973, the mainstream Nationalist and Unionist Party negotiated with the British and Irish governments on the Sanningdale Agreement, which aimed to produce a political solution within Northern China, but the Irish and governments were involved under the so-called "Irish factor". The agreement provides a "power sharing" plan between nationalists and unionists, and an "Irish Council" to promote bilateral cooperation between Northern Ireland and Northern Ireland. Shomos Malone of the Social Democratic Labor Party in Northern Ireland pointed out the obvious similarities between the Sanningdale Agreement and the 1998 Belfast Agreement. He is famous for describing the latter as "Sunningdale for stupid students".
However, the United faction split on the issue of Sunningdale, and the Peace Corps also opposed this plan. Their goal is to end Northern Ireland as part of the United Kingdom. Many Unionists oppose the power-sharing plan and insist that it is unrealistic to share power with those who seek to destroy the province (ethnic group). Perhaps more important, however, is the alliance's opposition to the "Irish factor" and the Irish Council, which is regarded as a preview of the Irish parliament. Hugh Rogge, a local councillor of the Socialist Labour Party, commented in front of an audience at Trinity College in Dublin that Sanningdale was a tool to push "a unified church to a unified Ireland" and was doomed to failure.
1974 65438+ 10, Brian Faulkner lost his leading position in the United Party with a slight advantage and was replaced by Harry West. 1974, the British general election, gave the United factions opposed to the Sanningdale Agreement an opportunity to test their attitude towards the slogan "Dublin is the future of Sanningdale". As a result, their opponents were stunned: they won 1 1 out of 12 seats and won 58% of the votes. Most of the other votes went to nationalists and people who supported the Sunningdale Agreement.
But in the end, the Sanningdale Agreement was overthrown by the royalists (mainly the Ulster Defence Association with more than 20,000 people at that time) and the mass activities of Protestant workers, who established the Ulster Workers' Committee. They organized a general strike-the strike of the Ulster Workers' Committee. The strike stopped all commercial activities in Northern Ireland and cut off basic public services such as water and electricity supply. Nationalists insist that the British government did not do its best to stop the strike, which raised the threshold for implementing the Sanningdale Agreement. However, as far as the matter is concerned, in the face of such resolute opposition, the unification faction in favor of the Sanningdale Agreement had to resign from the government in power, which led to the collapse of the new government.
Violence continued in the years after1970s. The Interim Peace Corps declared a ceasefire in 1975, but returned to violence in 1976. So far, they have lost the hope of1in the early 1970s, that is, they can quickly force Britain to retreat from Northern Ireland and replace it with a brand-new strategy called "protracted war", which includes less intense but more lasting violence and can last indefinitely. However, in 1972, the ceasefire of the Orthodox Peace Army became permanent, and the activities of the "Orthodox Church" gradually evolved into the Irish Workers' Party, which completely rejected violence. However, the Irish National Liberation Army (NLA), a branch that split from the "orthodoxy" in 1974, continued its violent activities.
By the late 1970s, people on both sides were tired of the war. One of the manifestations is the establishment of an organization called "People of Peace", which won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1976. People for Peace organized a large-scale demonstration calling on paramilitary groups to stop violence. However, after calling on ethnic groups to provide information about the peace forces to the security forces, their activities lost momentum. The army and the police are very unpopular in many Catholic areas and are regarded as lacking in objective rationality.
Hunger strike and the reappearance of Sinn Fein Party
A mural in Belfast depicts the Irish hunger strike in 198 1 year. Successive British governments have tried to solve the problem of "normalization" in Northern Ireland through political means, but they have failed. Issues include the abolition of detention without trial and the abolition of the political prisoner status of paramilitary prisoners. Since 1976, paramilitary organizations have been tried by Diplock courts without juries to prevent jurors from being intimidated. If guilty, the defendant will be regarded as an ordinary criminal. * * * The prisoners' resistance to this policy led to blanket demonstrations and filthy demonstrations by more than 500 people in Metz prison. Their demonstrations culminated in 1980 and 198 1, with the goal of restoring the status of political prisoners.
198 1 during the Irish hunger strike, ten prisoners of the * * * peace faction (seven were temporary peace factions and three were Irish National Liberation Army) starved to death. Bobby Sands, the first protester who starved to death, was elected to the National Assembly through an anti-detention vote. After Sands died, his agent Owen Cullen took his place. The hunger strike proved to be an event that touched the feelings of ethnic communities-more than 65,438+10,000 people attended the funeral held at St. Luke's Church in Shuangxi. The crowd also attended other funerals that followed.
From the perspective of Irish pacifists, the importance of these events lies in showing the potential of political and electoral strategies. After the hunger strike, Sinn Fein, the political organization of the Provisional Peace Corps, began to carry out activities in Northern Ireland and Ireland for the first time. 1986, Sinn Fein recognized the legitimacy of the Irish police and split a few hardliners into Sinn Fein and Sinn Fein.
From the unionist point of view, the hunger strike shows that ethnic communities support terrorism, and this feeling deepens sectarian opposition. The paramilitary actions of the two sides continued until the cease-fire of the * * * faction and the royalist faction in 1994 respectively ("unauthorized" murders, such as vendetta and murders related to drug trafficking, continue to occur today). The death toll in the 1960s and 1960s was less than that in the 1970s, but it seems that endless political violence continues, leaving society devastated.
* * * and the army's "protracted war" is supported by a large number of weapons donated by Libya (see temporary dispatch and military weapons import), because Gaddafi was angry with Thatcher's government for helping Reagan's government bomb Tripoli, and one of Gaddafi's children was killed. Although fewer and fewer soldiers died in the hands of the * * * and the army, their ability to assassinate and bomb seems endless. * * * Many actions of the Peace Corps point to local allied targets, such as off-duty police, part-time officers and soldiers, and Protestant civilians, such as 1987 victims of the Memorial Day massacre. * * * The Peace Corps also attacked construction workers, cleaners and other workers employed by police stations and military bases, including Catholics and Protestants.
/kloc-in the mid-1980s, royalist paramilitary organizations including Ulster Defence Association (UDA), Ulster Volunteers (UVF) and Ulster Resistance Movement imported weapons and ammunition from South Africa. The weapons obtained were divided equally between UDA, UDF and the resistance movement, which led to the escalation of the assassination of Catholics, although some weapons (such as rockets) were hardly used because royalists could not use them.
These murders were in response to the "consultative status" given to the Irish government in the internal affairs of Northern Ireland by the Anglo-Irish Agreement 1985.
Collusion-security forces and royalist paramilitary organizations
An unpleasant and controversial aspect of the conflict is the proven collusion between government security forces and royalist paramilitary organizations.