Word: irelands
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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This accounts for a singular state of affairs in Northern Ireland. The responsible editorials, the government, the political parties have all gradually lost control over the course of political events. In the tough, sectarian enclaves of Belfast or Londonderry, sensitive registers of the political situation, these voices have an air of irrelevance. After years of constitutional paralysis, the working class has little faith left in its civic institutions. In the vacuum, paramilitary power has gained...
...also benefits from the romantic aura which surrounds the early days of Irish rebellion. Every Catholic child knows the old IRA songs and, for many, the South's war of independence is within memory, or one generation removed. The IRA's promise of a united Ireland strikes a deep emotional chord in Catholics, whether they believe it is advisable or not. The sacrifice of Irishmen in a Catholic cause has a tremendous symbolic appeal. The Catholics have always revered their dead martyrs; the Irish constitution itself begins: "In the name of God and the dead generations...
...Catholic clergy, particularly the hierarchy, has in general maintained that the final resolution to the "troubles" lies in the "peaceful" reunification of Ireland. Given each side's distrust of the other, this is not a serious approach to peace. It is not reasonable to call for peace one moment and in the next propose a solution that is unacceptable to Protestants. Thus the clergy tends to suggest to the Catholics that the only final solution can be unification and, in doing so, unfortunately echoes...
...result, the Protestants suffer a basic insecurity, which creates a "siege mentality." They see themselves as a the potential victims in a political vice, caught between a Catholic majority they fear and a British government whose committment to Northern Ireland they mistrust...
...conversations I had with people throughout Northern Ireland, I asked repeatedly whether they desired peace, and the answer was inevitable "yes." But what they said they would sacrifice for that peace, how much of their own political philosophy they would passively set aside to end the violence--that was an entirely different question...