Northern Ireland history and political context

British in Northern Ireland

The British Empire had been one of the greatest in the history of humankind but the years following the Second World War saw a period of decolonization and the rise of regional conflicts as a result. In some former colonies, such as Malaya, the British intervened military to maintain the government put in place and successfully defeated the insurgency. Other places, for example Northern Ireland, saw a major British military intervention in the period from 1969 through 1998 without a subsequent victory. An examination of the conflict can conclude that the British entered the conflict in Northern Ireland reluctantly and without a clear goal, seemed to stumble through without a strategy for victory, and flooded the region with troops until a some sort of settlement could be reach.

The British intervention in Northern Ireland came as a result of a series of violent clashes between Catholics and Protestants in the summer of 1969. Northern Ireland was populated with a majority of British Protestants and conflict erupted between them and the native Irish Catholics. Catholics felt they were being treated as second class citizens and protested peacefully in the streets. In response the British Protestants attacked Catholics who were forced to flee "in fear from their Belfast homes as whole streets of houses were burned by frenzied loyalist mobs." (O'Brien 1999, p.20) Catholics retaliated and the conflict quickly escalated. As in other former colonies where outbreaks of violence had occurred, the British intervened militarily and attempted to do the same in Northern Ireland. However, British politicians lacked enthusiasm for the enterprise because, unlike other former colonies, the British Protestants in Northern Ireland seemed to have instigated the violence. On the other hand the native Catholic Irish, represented by the Irish Republican Army (IRA), viewed the conflict as the next stage of a much longer conflict involving the decolonization of the island of Ireland.

The British strategy in Northern Ireland can be divided into three periods with their military response altering in light of changing circumstances. Firstly the escalation period from 1969-1972 when the British government believed that military escalation could maintain the existing political structure. Secondly came the years of containment from 1972 through 1992 when the British attempted to manage the conflict through massive numbers of troops on the streets. British success containing the violence "led the IRA to follow a course of terrorism, rather than waging guerrilla warfare." (Black 2005, p.155) Finally came the settlement phase of the conflict from 1992-1998 where the British "took advantage of the IRA's military weakness in order to construct an inclusive settlement…" (Neumann 2009, p.138)

The British military policy in Northern Ireland seemed to be an attempt to crush the IRA by a massive influx of soldiers on the streets. This policy was unlike their intervention in Malaya, for instance, where the British shifted "from a predominantly 'search and destroy' approach to a new 'hearts and minds' strategy…" (Stubbs 2011, p.114) While the British were successful in defeating the insurgency in Malaya, the British only managed to force the IRA's to turn from confrontational attacks to terrorism; a situation the British found untenable. By flooding Northern Ireland with British troops and suppressing the IRA's guerrilla campaign, the British also created animosity among the native Irish Catholics. And as a result of not winning the hearts and minds of the Irish people, the British were unable to defeat the IRA and were forced to enter into negotiations.