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| ADMINISTRATION |
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Update..
28 July 2005
Northern Ireland has been a part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain & Ireland since the bloody Civil war in 1920 when the north and south of
Ireland were partitioned under the `Government of Ireland Act' in the same year.
King George V opened the first Northern Ireland Parliament
in Belfast on June 7th, 1921, and in December 1921 Sinn Fein (who advocated Irish Independence) and the British signed the Anglo-Irish treaty,
creating an Irish Free State over the 26 southern counties and a northern state of 6 counties (the only northern regions to accept the offer)
who allied with Great Britain.
The Irish republicans hated this however, with their objective a united independent Ireland and the IRA (
formed after the 1916 Easter Rising) fought a bloody and bitter campaign against the treaty from the 1920's up until the 1950's and 60s.
This new Irish Free State (Southern Ireland) was accorded dominion status within the British Empire. In 1937 the Irish Free State changed its name
to `Eire' when it adopted a written constitution. In 1949 it left the British Commonwealth, after remaining neutral in the Second World War which
angered the British immensely.
However, within Northern Ireland sectarian violence continued and escalated, with the minority Roman Catholics very much opposed to the new
state. In 1956 the IRA re-emerged with a renewed bloody campaign of violence along the border, but this petered out by 1962. Outbreaks of
violence however continued throughout the 1960's and this culminated in 1972 with `Bloody Sunday' in Derry when 13 Catholic civilians were
shot dead by British paratroopers during a protest march. Soon after this Britain disbanded the Northern Ireland Parliament and imposed
direct rule on Northern Ireland for the next 26 years.
Throughout the 1980's the sectarian violence continued unabated with England also the target of many IRA bombings. The death of Bobby Sands
(an IRA member) whilst on a hunger strike in 1981 and the death of 9 other IRA inmates sparked even more outrage and major riots, bringing
increased support for the IRA's dream of a united Ireland.
In 1985 the UK and the Republic of Ireland signed the Anglo-Irish Agreement, giving the Irish Republic a limited consultative role in representing
the Catholic group in Northern Ireland. Whilst very wobbly, it lasted, and was the start of building the bridge of reconciliation between the
warring factions. The 1980s ended with the release of the `Guilford Four' (who had been charged with the Guilford Pub bombings of 1974) after
it was revealed the police had lied and fabricated evidence for their conviction. The 1990's marked a renewed outburst of terror attacks,
however Britain started talks aimed at establishing better relations between the groups, but this broke down in 1992.
One of the most significant and important events of this decade was in 1994 with the United States government granting a visa to Gerry Adams,
the outlawed Sinn Fein leader to visit the United States. This had a galvanising effect on the British position with Northern Ireland, as
America was then, and still remains today Britain's closest ally. In August of 1994 the IRA announced a complete cessation of military
operations, opening the way for the first time in 22 years for negotiation between the British and the Sinn Fein.
The next two years saw intense manoeuvring on both sides with repeated bombings and outrages by the hard core IRA and political brinkmanship by
the British. It is a tribute to the men and women involved that despite nearly impossible to reconcile differences the negotiations were still
alive in 1996, when US Senator George Mitchell formed and chaired an independent committee aimed at a compromise to end the deadlock. In July
1997 the IRA renewed its cease-fire.
In May of 1997 the British Conservative Government under John
Major was swept aside to be replaced by a new look Labour Government
led by a young, intelligent and exuberant Prime Minister called
Tony Blair, who arrived in power with a staggering mandate though
his party's complete domination of British Parliament.
Sinn
Fein's Gerry Adams also created history by being voted into
British Parliament at the same time, although he did not take
up his seat. By September of 1997, both Sinn Fein and the Ulster
Unionists agreed to the Mitchell plan and started all party
discussions. Twenty months later, on Friday 10th April 1998,
the historic Good Friday Agreement was signed, laying out radical
new arrangements for self rule for the troubled province. The
agreement was majority `green lighted' by the voters in the
north and also in the Republic of Ireland in May 1998.
Progress however on the political front did not stop the horrific violence, with a new IRA splinter group emerging calling itself the `New IRA',
who detonated a car bomb in a busy pedestrian area of the town of Omagh, county Tyrone, in August 1998, killing 28 innocent people and horribly
wounding hundreds of others. Although a dreadful tragedy, the bombing did not derail the peace process as it was intended to, and aroused intense
horror world wide as well as amongst the hard core IRA.
The Good Friday accord continues to inspire an upbeat mood of optimism throughout Ireland, and at the time of the peace agreement, Northern
Ireland's Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble, said the deal would "change the culture in terms of how politics in Northern Ireland is
conducted - and not before time". Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern also said on 2nd December 1999: "I know that our joy today is shared
by Irish people everywhere, by those of Irish ancestry living abroad and by the many friends of Ireland throughout the world."
A younger,
more educated and worldly Irish population in both Northern and Southern Ireland has emerged that is ready to grasp the enormous economic
benefits of a permanent long term peace and discard the old ways of sectarian violence. Northern Ireland continues to enjoy and build upon
its powerful platform of economic benefits as an integral part of the United Kingdom, and the Republic of Ireland continues to expand its new
'Celtic Tiger' economic powerhouse status as a leading European Union (EU) member.
Update 28th July Agreement.
On the 28th July 2005 the complete disbanding of the IRA paramilitary operation was announced, with a great mood of optimism and hope prevailing all round. Although it is not the end of the IRA and the "Troubles"
hopefully, a bright and peaceful future now awaits Northern Ireland as the violence of the past now continues to fade - month by month - and year by year.
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