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No Peace for Northern Ireland
| Article
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14231 |
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Section : |
CURRENT ISSUES
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| Issue
Date : |
7 / 1988 |
2,240 Words |
| Author
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Paul Badham
Paul Badham is chairman of the Religion and Ethics Department
at St David's University College, Lampeter, at the University
of Wales. He is the editor of Religion, State, and Society in
Modern Britain (in press). |
Ever since the only English pope, Hadrian IV, encouraged King Henry II to conquer Ireland in the twelfth century, there has been a legacy of suffering in Ireland and of political stress in Britain. The "Irish Problem" has taken different forms in different centuries, but has always entailed bitterness and bloodshed. For twenty-six of the thirty-two counties of Ireland, the issue was largely resolved by winning independence in 1921, and this has ushered in fifty years of peace and communal harmony in the South. Only in the North--where the majority rejected the prospect of joining a united Ireland--has a stable peace proved elusive. Since 1968, terrorist activities have been a constant feature of Northern Ireland's life.
To understand the problems of Northern Ireland, it is necessary to go back almost four centuries to the aftermath of the Reformation, when the rest of Britain went Protestant but Ireland did not. The consequence of this was that at a time when religious commitment was central to political loyalty, the British crown settled the north of Ireland with Scottish and English Protestants, who formed a loyal nucleus in a hostile land. For four hundred years, the descendants of these settlers enjoyed a privileged position in Irish life, and staunchly supported the unity of the United Kingdom against the increasing demands for Irish home rule. From the time of Gladstone, the Protestants of Ulster have refused to consider any suggestion that they should become part of a united Ireland, and they have asserted the importance of their Britishness with a zeal unparalleled in any other part of the United Kingdom. Conversely, the Catholic minority has equally strongly identified itself as Irish and has longed to be reunited with the rest of the Irish people in a free and independent Eire.
The stalemate
The problem of Northern Ireland is that no matter how intolerable the present situation, it seems impossible to come up with any alternative. More than two-thirds of the people of Britain would like to see Northern Ireland leave the United Kingdom. But under the constitution, this is not possible unless a majority of the people of Northern Ireland wish it. They do not. And while this remains the case, the ordinary citizen of England, Wales, or Scotland accepts that the present situation has to remain, and no serious politician diverges from this consensus. The Protestant majority is implacably opposed to any proposal that Ireland should be reunited. The only other alternative to the status quo, namely an independent Ulster, is not wanted by the Protestants and is even more firmly opposed by Catholics than
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