Unit 4: Political issues by Dr Claire Annesley The Lecturer in European Politics at the GIPP, School of Social Sciences at the University of Manchester writes for BBC Parliament

The Troubles are part of everyday life in Belfast

The political conflict in Northern Ireland is not an issue of left and right, but rather one of competing ethnic and religious identities.

The division of Ireland in 1920 transformed Northern Ireland into an administrative unit, within which two ethnic and religious groups cohabit.

The Unionists make up the majority of the population - about two-thirds.

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They see themselves as British, are predominantly Protestant and are: "adamant in their desire that that Northern Ireland should remain part of the United Kingdom" (Tonge, 2001, 633).

Politically they are represented by the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP), the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) and also the United Kingdom Unionist Party and the Progressive Unionist Party.

Nationalists regard themselves as Irish and would prefer to see the island of Ireland united under a single Irish authority.

This sizeable minority - about one third of the population - are predominantly Catholic and their interests are represented in the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) and Sinn F�in.

Sinn F�in is an Irish Republican party whose objective is to end British rule in Ireland and to achieve national self-determination and the unity and independence of Ireland as a sovereign state

Unionist Dominance

Political conflict in Northern Ireland arose from the domination of the Unionists in the political world, in the economic sphere and in institutions of law and order.

In response to concerns about discrimination towards the Catholic minority, the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association was set up in 1967.

Sectarian fighting in summer 1969 led British Government to send in troops to restore order.

These were initially welcomed by the Catholic population but then the relationship soured. The Irish Republican Army (IRA) was revived and some nationalists began to use force to remove the British presence from Ireland (Tonge, 2001, 636).

The Unionist dominated rule in Northern Ireland was ended by the imposition of direct rule from Westminster in 1972.

What followed was 25 years of conflict interspersed with a number of unsuccessful attempts at resolution.

Political solutions

Between 1973 and 1985 there were six attempts to secure a political solution to the conflicts in Northern Ireland.

These started with the Sunningdale Agreement in 1973 and went on to the Anglo-Irish Agreement in 1985. According to Tonge (1999, 643) this range of initiatives failed for two main reasons: "Unionists would not countenance any initiative containing a substantial all-Ireland dimension. Nationalists would not support any set of arrangements in which the Irish Government had little say."

A seventh attempt to secure peace was made in the 1990s and a successful agreement was reached in 1998 with the Good Friday Agreement.

This led to the return of a devolved government in 1999, the establishment of a north-south ministerial council, a British-Irish council and a British-Irish Intergovernmental conference.

In addition to these formal institutions, other measures were introduced to address the concerns of each party: Unionists were offered the repeal of the Irish Republic's constitutional claim to Northern Ireland; Nationalists were offered a new commission on policing, which led to the reform of the RUC and its replacement by the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) in November 2001 and a human rights commission.

The consensual and inclusive approach of the Good Friday Agreement was reflected in the results of the 1998 referendums to endorse the agreement.

Most of the political parties in Northern Ireland advocated the agreement and 71 per cent of the population voted in favour of it.

In the Irish Republic 94 per cent of the population endorsed the agreement (Tonge, 2001, 648).

However, devolved government did not prove durable and, on 14th October 2002, the Northern Ireland Assembly was suspended and direct rule by Westminster was reintroduced.

� Dr Claire Annesley 2004
Department of Government
University of Manchester
email: [email protected]