Question 1: Is there sufficient evidence in sources D to J to explain why the troubles broke out in Northern Ireland in 1969? Explain your answer using the sources and knowledge from your own sources"
Source D is an extract from the book 'The Price of My Soul'. It is about a Roman Catholic woman Bernadette Devlin who was born and brought up in the Catholic area of Dungannon. She attended a Catholic grammar school where Nuns educated her. She describes her school days talking about what she learnt and how she was taught. The source is very useful for showing us how this woman was taught about Irish history. It also tells us how the head teacher, who was catholic, felt about Protestants and the British forces. It says she didn't hate the Protestants but didn't see them as true Irish people. Also she says she disliked the English because her family had suffered at the hands of the British forces. This source is definitely in a Catholic point of view. What the source does not tell you is how the Protestants were taught at school about Irish History. The source does not say Bernadette became a leading member of the civil rights movement during the troubles of 1969 and at the age of 21 became the youngest woman to enter the House of Commons when she won the mid-Ulster by election. And it doesn't tell you exactly what happened in Irish history to make her family dislike the English for example in the 17th century when Oliver Cromwell sent troops to Ireland to massacre Catholics rebels in the towns of Drogheda and Wexford. Thousands of Catholics were killed and about eleven million acres of land were confiscated from Catholic landowners who had supported the rebels. Cromwell continued this policy of giving land to protestant supporters and by the time of his death in 1658, only a small part of all Irish land remained in the hands of the Catholics. I feel both sets of religious groups would be taught completely different things and their own group would be made out to be the best. This source was also printed in the year 1969, which was the year the troubles broke out. The limitation of this source is mainly that it is only in one opinion, which is Catholic. Also it doesn't precisely tell you what is going on. I feel this source has some sufficient evidence as it shows how a catholic person felt about the Protestants and the British forces. If a Protestant person heard a Catholic person saying Protestants were not true Irish people that would very much wind them up which could cause violence. So overall I feel this source contains some sufficient evidence for why the troubles broke out.
Source E is a protestant cartoon, which shows the Catholic Church controlling or taking away freedom from the people. This source is useful for showing us how the Protestants felt the about how the Catholic Church pressurised their people too much.
It is definitely from the point of view of the Protestants as it is a Protestant cartoon. This source doesn't tell you how the catholic people felt about their own church and it doesn't tell you who produced the cartoon so you could question the provenance of it. The limitation of this source is that it is too long ago as it was made in the nineteenth century. I would say this source does not contain sufficient evidence as it is too one sided, it is a cartoon so it will be exaggerated. Also you need more detail about how the Catholic Church controlled their people. Overall this source doesn't tell you much but does show long-term hostility between Catholics and Protestants, which eventually led to the troubles in 1969.
Source F is a map showing the Gerrymandering in three specific areas in Derry during 1966. This source is extremely useful as it is just three years before the troubles broke out so it is a direct short-term cause. This source basically shows that that the Boundary commissioner drew up the boundaries to maximise the Protestant vote. It says roughly 15,000 Catholics voted and 9000 Protestants voted. As 12 unionist councillors were elected and only 8 nationalists were elected that meant that the Catholic vote in Northern Ireland was just not worth the same as a protestant vote because the Boundary commissioner cheated by Gerrymandering. This angered Catholics and they felt 2nd best to the Protestants. This was one of the reasons why they demanded better civil rights by going on marches. What this source doesn't show is the areas where Catholics were being unfairly treated as in jobs and housing. Also it doesn't show other areas of Ireland because it only shows three areas. The limitations of this source are that it is quite complicated to look at and read and I have mentioned it only shows certain areas. I would say overall this is a very useful source as it showed why trouble broke out in the short term.
Source G is a Protestant image of catholic attacks on Protestants in 1641. It is a long-term cause of the troubles and it just shows English Protestants being marched up mountains by Catholics and many of them dying or being murdered on the way. It
Is in a Protestant perspective. There are many limitations with this source. Firstly it is very biased and one sided, it is very over exaggerated and it is just anti-catholic propaganda. What this source doesn't show you is how the attacks actually took place. Also it does not tell you that this was protestant propaganda produced at the time of the English civil war to give Cromwell an excuse to go over to Ireland and massacre Irish Catholics. This source is not sufficient evidence as to why the troubles broke out but does give long-term reasons.
Source H is a photograph of RUC (Royal Ulster Constabulary) officers striking a civil rights marcher on the 5 of October 1968. This source is useful for showing how the catholic civil rights marchers were mistreated and abused by the Protestant and Royal RUC officers. Also this happened only months before the troubles started. This photograph doesn't show whether the marcher was causing trouble or using a weapon towards the RUC. Also this source doesn't show why the civil rights marchers where marching. They were marching for better civil rights, which included better housing, more job opportunities and fairer voting. This source is very sufficient evidence as to why the troubles broke out only a few months later from when this happened.
Source I is similar to source H as it is a picture of crowd violence as Loyalists ambush Catholic civil rights marchers at Burntollet in January 1969 in the same year as the troubles. This source is very useful for showing Catholics once again being unfairly attacked and mistreated by the Protestants. This is also very sufficient evidence because this attack on the Catholics could lead to just more violence erupting elsewhere for example in August 1969 when the event The Battle of the Bogside occurred. It was a march from the apprentice boys, which brought wholesale violence on to the streets. The march passed by the Catholic Bogside area and the police became involved in the riots. The rioting and violence escalated and after two days the prime minister of Northern Ireland asked the government in Westminster to send In British troops to restore order. Nearly 60,000 had to leave their homes.
For Source J I have chosen a video, which is the Channel4 documentary 'The Troubles'. This is a very helpful or useful source as a lot of it is primary footage/film; there is always very helpful commentary to explain what is happening. Also it has interviews with eyewitnesses who were involved or were at the scene of the Battle of the Bogside and it always tries to cover both points of view which makes it balanced. It makes it very easy to follow as well because it has step-by-step explanations of the key events like the Battle of the Bogside and it explains very clearly why the troubles broke out. This source is sufficient evidence for explaining why the troubles broke out.
Sources E and G are very similar as they are both Protestant images/cartoons and they both have the same limitations which are that they both are from too long ago and they both are exaggerated although they get their point across. Sources H and I are also very similar as I earlier mentioned. They are both photographs taken very near to when the troubles broke out and they both show Catholic civil rights marchers getting assaulted. Also from these sources you feel that the Catholics must have got fed up with the same treatment and some of them were known to join the I.R.A to try and do something about it or change the situation.
From reading and analysing all the sources I would say that they all have some sufficient evidence in them but the main sources that I have found are Source J, which was my own source 'The Troubles Video' as it explained everything in simple terms. From the sources I was given, Source I the picture of the Loyalists ambushing the Civil Rights Marchers is the one that I feel has the most sufficient evidence. The main reasons for choosing this source is the fact that it is only months before the troubles broke out and it is just the fact that a whole group of civil rights marchers, who march in peace are getting attacked just makes me think they would not take it for much longer and they obviously didn't as the Troubles started the same year. Although there are some very good sources there weren't any sources on two key events that led to the troubles in 1969. They are the Partition of Ireland and the Easter rising.
During WWI Protestants fought for Britain and Catholics tied to take advantage of this weakness of the government during the time of the war and they carried out the Easter Rising in 1916. Nationalists tried to take power in Dublin but it failed and all the leaders except one De Valera were executed. This also led to the partition of Ireland, which later happened in 1921.
In 1921 to prevent civil war Ireland was partitioned into North and South. Many nationalists campaigned for Ireland to reunite over the next 40 years. The republic or Ireland was ruled from Taiseoch and Northern Ireland was ruled from Stormont.
I feel these two events are very significant to the troubles breaking out in 1969 and would have contained evidence if there were any sources on them.
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