Preview

"Britain Was Wrong to Send Its Army to Northern Ireland." Do You Agree?

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
540 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
"Britain Was Wrong to Send Its Army to Northern Ireland." Do You Agree?
“Britain was wrong to send its army to Northern Ireland” How far do you agree with this statement? Explain your answer. The British army was sent to Northern Ireland to restore peace in August 1969 when serious rioting broke out. Britain was not wrong to send its army to Northern Ireland because the intention was right. Britain decided to send its army to Northern Ireland to help control the riots to maintain peace and order. British army was also welcomed by the Irish Catholics as their defenders against the Protestant violence. The British army in Northern Ireland was sent to enforce law and maintain order in Northern Ireland thus Britain was not wrong.
Britain was wrong to send its army to Northern Ireland as the Catholics were unfairly treated. The good relation between the Catholics and the British army did not last long. When the “internment laws” was introduced by the Northern Ireland government in August 1971, the British army was given the power to arrest, interrogate and detain without trail anyone suspected of being involved in any acts to weaken the government. Also, British imposed curfews, internment and house-to-house searches in Catholic areas. They could not tell Catholics from Protestants; neither did they know the local situation well. The British army’s actions were unfair to the Catholics and angered them. Therefore, Britain was wrong to send its army to Northern Ireland. Britain was wrong to send its army to Northern Ireland as it worsened the long conflict in the country. On 30 January 1972, the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association (NICRA) organized a protest against the internment and the ban on the right to march. During the march, violence broke out. Civilians used stones and other missiles to bombard soldiers. Soldiers responded with rubber bullets, CS gas and water cannons. In the process, 13 civilians were killed by the British Army. This incident was called the “Bloody Sunday”. The Bloody Sunday incident fanned hatred and

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    ‘Most Tudor governments underestimated the threat presented by rebellions in England and Ireland.’How far do you agree?…

    • 1437 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    America had every right, mind and aspect, to throw off the almost inexorable chains of Great Britain. Not only declaring war against the British was justified, but it was the only choice America had. From the very beginning, (when the colonists first migrated to America) the colonists were displeased with Great Britain's law-makings and government. When diplomatic options and agreements with Great Britain failed, America realized it was time to act and retaliate. The colonists' disagreements with Great Britain's law-makings, the specific unforgettable conflicts/events the colonists had with Great Britain, and the great desire for individuality, and freedom of rights of the colonists ultimately led to the declaration of war, the American Revolution.…

    • 976 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    March fifth, 1770 was a gruesome culmination of high tensions between the British forces and colonists inhabiting Boston. There is no doubt that this was one of the most appalling displays of bloodshed in history; but who is to blame for the instigation of this deplorable event? I believe that it was the British soldiers of the 29th regiment who initiated the Boston Massacre. Although the soldiers were somewhat provoked by the crowd on king street and by the ropewalk workers, the soldiers had a responsibility, and were duty-bound to keep peace, not to kill innocent civilians. The British also had an irresponsible, hot headed motive behind their fighting and firing: revenge. If the British hadn't sought out revenge on the Bostonians for the ropewalk fights, the bloody events that followed may never have happened.…

    • 497 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Colonists were mad at Britain because they had much more acts in place caused taxes to raise, this took place in the colonies with King George III, the colonists got mad and they decided to taunt British soldiers and they also decided to dump tea in a harbor. These two events caused the Revolution to start. What evidence shows why America started the American Revolution? Americans were justified in waging war with Britain because taxes and acts were being put in place one by one rapidly, the colonists were being harmed and being made fun of, and King George III ignored the colonists.…

    • 534 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The colonists were completely justified in waging war against the British. It was their time to break away and to work for their own individual independence. They only really had one choice that would have worked and that choice was to fight a war against the British. Some of the justifications in wanting to fight this war can be found in documents such as Thomas Paine’s Common Sense and The Declaration of Independence and taxes such as the Stamp Act and the Sugar Act.…

    • 347 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Source T immediately gives impression that the executions which took place due to Easter Rising had a big impact on people of Ireland ‘’grisly executions …’ which suggests that not only it provoked greater hostility but also made martyrs. This quote implies that it provoked sympathy towards Martyrs from the public. Source T also states that due to ‘German connections’ the punishment was death which was a trigger to even greater hostility towards British as Irish people believed that the penalty was too harsh and unfair. From my own knowledge I know that British government’s policies such as the Martial Law and Realm act created even greater hate, as due to Martial Law British government imprisoned a lot of innocent people, mostly men who were main providers of food to their families, completely destroyed some families as they could no longer afford to buy required things to live because they couldn’t simply afford it. The…

    • 764 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    DURING the height of ‘the troubles’ in the 1970s, the British government made a desperate choice: to give the public a sense of security regardless of how disillusioned it was, or the magnitude of the collateral damage. The film In the name of the father, directed by Jim Sheridan, documents the tragic consequences of this decision beginning with the false imprisonment of the Gilford four, but more precisely Gerard and Giuseppe Conlon and the damage done to their lives. As in most bloody conflicts, truths quickly became manipulated; relationships damaged and, in especially serious cases such as the Gilford bombings, lives displaced as a result of the Irish Republican Army’s (IRA) attack and the British Government’s failure to correctly administer justice where it was due.…

    • 641 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    The true causes of unrest are sometimes difficult to determine. Frequently, there are a mixture of political alliances, economic differences, ethnic feuds, religious differences and others: This paper looks at the unrest between the Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland.…

    • 1234 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    their war to fight but they must fight because their under British rule. Since they have to work (as in…

    • 1247 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    The British were wrong by taking the option of trading opium because by trading opium, they would be jeopardising the wellbeing of an entire country. But they only did it because the Chinese were refusing to trade, so therefore it is only partially Britains fault.…

    • 799 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Divided loyalties was once cause of conflict in Northern Ireland. Most Catholics in Northern Ireland see themselves as Irish and would like their country to be reunited with Ireland. They resented the past history of English conquest where Catholics were either treated harshly or massacred. However, most Protestants are loyal to Britain and want to continue to be part of the United Kingdom. Many of them do not want a union with the Republic of Ireland, a Catholic country. They fear a Catholic government may not be tolerant of their Protestant beliefs. Surveys in 1991, 1993 and 2004 have shown that majority of the Protestants want to remain part of the United Kingdom while majority of the Catholics want to reunify with the rest of Ireland. The Protestants were insensitive to the Catholics’ feelings in many instances such as the celebration of the Battle of Boyne. Their sense of loyalty to different countries meant that there is no common identity and so they are intolerant of each other. Tension was further compounded when British Army was brutal towards the Catholics and when the IRA resorted to violent means to champion the Catholics cause. So, there was further increased tension which manifests itself into conflict.…

    • 845 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    For well over a century, there has been political turmoil throughout the Irish isle stemming from the British occupation of Northern Ireland. With this occupation goes a tradition of armed resistance to the British military and other political installations. This tradition generally only found effective expression when large sections of the Irish people, faced with the British government's denial of the legitimate demand for Irish independence, exercised the right to use armed struggle (Coogan 10). The Irish Republican Army (IRA) was formed after the Easter Rising of 1916, which was the first major uprising in Irish history. Their goal was to remove the British from the Irish isle and unite Ireland once and for all under home rule. Although many may consider the IRA to be nothing more than a terrorist faction that has had no political strength and puts its own best interests first, it is clear that their actions have influenced Irish and British politics and that, even through violence, they keep the best interests of their people at heart. To this day, however, the British maintain that their influence is needed in the north and have yet to show any signs of…

    • 2516 Words
    • 11 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    President Kennedy was firmly committed to a intervention in Vietnam as he needed to prove himself as president- how far do you agree with this statement? (12 marks)…

    • 504 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Best Essays

    Bibliography: Arnold, Bruce (2009). The Irish Gulag - How the State Betrayed its Innocent Children, Gill & Macmillan Ltd, Hume Avenue, Park West, Dublin 12, Ireland, Gill & Macmillan.…

    • 3604 Words
    • 15 Pages
    Best Essays
  • Good Essays

    1920 Bloody Sunday

    • 751 Words
    • 2 Pages

    “I have proof enough to assure myself of the atrocities which this gang of spies and informers have committed. Perjury and torture are words too easily known to them. If I had a second motive it was more than a feeling such as I would have for a dangerous reptile. By their destruction the very air is made sweeter. That should be the future’s judgement on this particular event. For myself my conscience is clear. There is no crime in detecting in wartime the spy and the informer. They have destroyed without trial. I have paid them back in their own coin.” These were the words Michael Collins wrote on the executions of the Cairo Gang. Bloody Sunday was the end of a long path. It began when Sinn Fein won the 1918 General Election and saw them inaugurate the first ever Dail Eireann in January 1919. On the same day that the Dail met for the first time two Irish volunteers in Soloheadbeg, Co. Tipperary ambushed and murdered two Royal Irish Constabulary men (RIC). This sparked the Irish War of Independence. Throughout the next twelve months both the British and the Irish government battled for control of Ireland. This year we also got to see a slow rise in violence being used witch continued through the early months of 1920.…

    • 751 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays