The Troubles

2.3. The Troubles

After the constitution of the Republic of Ireland was accepted by the people in the year 1937, Ireland became an independent, democratic nation with the name Eire. The new republic left the Commonwealth and cancelled therefore every contact with Great Britain but also with Northern Ireland (Brockhaus, 2008).

In Northern Ireland, the repression and disrespecting of the Catholics was present everywhere. Catholics had problems to find jobs or apartments because Protestants were the more preferred people. Furthermore, it was not allowed for Catholics to attend higher schools, like universities (Otto, 2005).

After the separation of the Republic of Ireland from Northern Ireland, the Stormont election system was introduced in Northern Ireland. It contained the majority vote system (Murphy, 1982). But due to the fact, that the separation of the counties preferred the Protestants, the gerrymandering-process, there was no chance for the Catholics to change the current situation through the democratic way (Otto, 2005).

After the proclamation of an independent Ireland 1949, Great Britain declared Northern Ireland as part of the United Kingdom. During this “Ireland Act” the I.R.A. was not active at all (Witz, 1993).

In the year 1967 the “Northern Ireland Civil Rights Organisation” was founded, that the election system should be changed and the discrimination of the Catholics should be stopped. There was heavy resistance against these claims. Based on this heavy resistance, the Catholics felt threatened not just mentally but also physically.

As a reason of these disagreements many quarters developed, where only Protestants or Catholics lived (Breuer, 1994).

Thus, the Catholics began peaceful protest marches. But many of theses marches were stopped by the local police RUC (Royal Ulster Constabulary).

The official outbreak of was on October 5, 1968, when the television broadcasted a brutal cancellation of a demonstration of Catholics. On the 4th of...