The History of Northern Ireland and the partition

The Anglo-Norman invasion of Ireland at the invitation of disaffected chief
Diarmait MacMurchada in 1167 was facilitated by the existence of competing Irish
dynasties with no established system of succession. The invasion occurred in 1169
and established an English colony around Dublin, known as the Pale, and over time
these early colonists were assimilated into the native Irish culture.

The Reformation and Henry VIII's break with Rome radically altered England's role
in Ireland. As England's relationship with Spain and France deteriorated, Henry
became concerned about the threat of an invasion. Ireland had now taken on
strategic importance and was raised to the constitutional status of a Kingdom to
assert royal power. Religion became a cause of division when Henry imposed
Protestantism by force. Although Catholic Queen Mary I initiated the first
plantations in the midlands it was under the reign of Elizabeth I, that significant
numbers of English settlers began to colonise the country and Gaelic culture was
seriously challenged for the first time.

Hugh O'Neill, the last of the great Irish chieftains, was forced to surrender at
Mellifont in 1603. The defeat of Ulster's Irish Kings after the Nine Years War
led to the Flight of the Earls in 1607. Their departure left the Irish leaderless
and opened the way for the Plantation of Ulster which began in 1610. The best
land was confiscated from the native Irish and given to the settlers, most of whom
were Scottish Presbyterians. Dispossessed Catholics rose in rebellion in 1641 but
were defeated when Cromwell's avenging army arrived in 1649.

When King James II came to the throne in 1685 the Protestant political elite
became fearful of a Catholic ascendancy.In 1688 they asked William of Orange to
overthrow the King. James and William met at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690 and
William was victorious. Political authority was restored to the Anglican ascendancy
who then implemented the Penal Laws. These were a series of punitive measures
against Catholics, to secure the political, economic and social ascendancy of the new
Protestant settlers.


Cromwell attacks Drogheda on 11 September 1649
There was no serious conflict between the 1690s and the 1790s. But following the
1790s there were numerous rebellions and political movements which aimed to
liberate Ireland from England. All the rebellions failed. However, there were
political gains. Daniel O'Connell's astute political leadership succeeded in gaining
Catholic emancipation and Charles Stewart Parnell put Home Rule on the
parliamentary agenda.

The Protestants in the north-east of Ireland had benefited greatly from the
industrial revolution and associated their economic success with their Protestant
faith and culture. They supported union with Britain and opposed the demand for an
Irish parliament, fearing it would discriminate against Protestants. When the Third
Home Rule Bill in 1912 seemed likely to succeed Protestants, under the leadership
of Sir Edward Carson, signed the Ulster Solemn League and Covenant. The following
year the UVF, a Protestant militia, was set up to resist Home Rule by force.


In the seventy years leading up to partition in May 1921 industrialisation had taken
root in the predominantly Protestant north-eastern counties of Ulster. Southern
Ireland which was overwhelmingly Catholic remained an agrarian economy. Towards
the end of the 19th century Gladstone's Liberal government responded to demands
from nationalists throughout Ireland for Home Rule.

Unionists believed Catholicism was an oppressive, backward religion and feared that
Home Rule would result in Rome Rule. Moreover, they believed a parliament in Dublin
run by what they regarded as 'primitive' Catholic farmers would be bad for
Protestant business. By 1886 they began to lobby for the preservation of the
union which they felt was in danger; it was not until 1912-14 that they pressed
for partition accepting that Home Rule was inevitable.

Gladstone had little luck with his Home Rule Bills. His 1886 Bill was lost in the
Commons because of a Liberal Party revolt and the 1893 Bill was defeated in the
Lords.

Asquith's Liberal government introduced the third Home Rule Bill in 1912. Dublin
Unionist MP Edward Carson threatened armed resistance if Ulster was governed
from Dublin. Between 1912 and 1914 Unionists signed the Solemn League and
Covenant and formed the UVF, an armed Protestant militia to fight against Home
Rule. The spectre of civil war hung over Ireland over the Ulster issue. The Bill was
passed in parliament but suspended for the duration of the Great War.


Sir Edward Carson's signature on Ulster's Solemn League and Covenant
28 September 1912

The possibility of Home Rule stemmed the campaign for an independent Ireland but
the 1916 Easter Rising changed this. The execution of its leaders inflamed
nationalist opinion and by 1918 Home Rule was no longer acceptable to most
nationalist opinion. In the General Elections of that year the pro-independence Sinn
Féin won virtually every seat outside of Ulster. The following year the Irish
Republican Army began a guerrilla war against Britain. In 1920 the British
parliament passed the Government of Ireland Act which attempted to set up a
home rule parliament/government in both north and south. The aim was to keep
both jurisdictions under Westminster control and hopefully satisfy and reconcile
legitimate unionist and nationalist aspirations; honour promises made to both by
British ministers and to get rid of the Irish question from Westminster politics.
Ulster unionists accepted the deal while Irish nationalists rejected it and continued
their war of independence until a treaty in 1921 created a 26-county Irish Free
State which gave it dominion status like Canada.

The new state of Northern Ireland contained a built-in Protestant majority.
Premier Craig chose to consolidate unionist power rather than attempt to broaden
the appeal of his government and party. His government was arguably under siege
but he adopted policies which entrenched this position by changing the electoral
system from PR to First Past the Post. He also altered local government boundaries
to the advantage of unionism enabling his party to control the nationalist city of
Londonderry. Unionist discrimination against Catholics in housing and employment help
explain why Northern Ireland's one party state collapsed in violence 50 years later.

Eddie McAteer, leader of the Nationalist Party and Gerry Fitt, MP lead the civil
rights march, Londonderry, 5 October 1968
The Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association was formed in January 1967 as a
response to four decades of Unionist discrimination against Catholics. It had five
demands: one man, one vote in council elections; ending of gerrymandering of
electoral boundaries; machinery to prevent discrimination by public authorities and
to deal with complaints; fair allocation of public housing; repeal of Special Powers
Act and disbanding of B Specials, a predominantly Protestant auxiliary police force.

The civil rights movement was born in the O'Neill era, the period from 1963-69
when Captain Terence O'Neill was Prime Minister of Northern Ireland. Only the
fourth Prime Minister in more than 40 years of Unionist rule, his rhetoric of
reconciliation between Catholics and Protestants was a departure from his
predecessors Craig and Brooke who had long promoted the concept of Stormont as a
Protestant government for a Protestant people.

O'Neill made history when he invited the Irish Taoiseach Sean Lemass to Stormont
in 1965. He angered fundamentalist Protestants when he became the first Prime
Minister to visit a Catholic convent school and shake hands with a nun. These public
demonstrations of reconciliation did not deliver what Catholics wanted which was civil
rights and equal participation in Northern Ireland. A new generation of Catholics
who had benefited from the 1949 Education Act had greater expectations. They
watched how the civil rights movement in America and the student movement in
France had mobilised to achieve change and concluded that direct action in Northern
Ireland was their only alternative.


Civil rights march, Londonderry, 5 October 1968
The civil rights campaign politically mobilised Catholics for the first time since the
formation of the Northern Ireland state in 1921. Unionists had gerrymandered the
electoral boundaries in Londonderry to safeguard power for unionists. This power
was confronted for the first time on 5 October 1968 when NICRA staged its
second civil rights march there. The march had been banned by the Minister for
Home Affairs William Craig who accused the civil rights movement of being a
political front for the IRA.

The presence of a single camera crew from RTE, the Irish national television
station, caught graphic pictures of police brutality as the RUC beat the marchers,
including a number of prominent politicians, off the street.
The pictures broadcast around the world reminded people of the tactics used by
police against the black civil rights movement in America's southern states. The
Catholic community's confidence in the RUC was further eroded and this seriously
undermined the Unionist state.

More civil rights marches were organised. Protestants viewed these events with
concern and feared Catholics were engaged in a conspiracy to undermine their
political hegemony. Paisley exploited these fears and mounted
counter-demonstrations which provoked riots between civil rights marchers and
Protestants.


The Battle of the Bogside, Londonderry, 13 August 1969
By the summer of 1969 the crisis in Northern Ireland had deepened considerably.
Terence O'Neill who had sought to open dialogue with Catholics had resigned and
been replaced by Major James Chichester-Clark. Unionists, who had ruled Northern
Ireland as a one party state since 1921, had no experience of negotiating with the
minority Catholic community. Catholic demands for civil rights had not been satisfied
and as the loyalist marching season approached sectarian passions were inflamed.

The Orange marching calendar has two big annual events. On 12 July Orangemen
commemorate the Battle of the Boyne in 1690 when the Protestant King William
defeated the Catholic King James. The other big event is 12 August when
Apprentice Boys march in Londonderry to commemorate the Siege of Derry in 1689
when local apprentice boys closed the city's gates against King James' army.


The warm welcome only lasted a few weeks
Tensions between Derry Catholics and the RUC were high in the summer of 1969.
The previous month Sammy Devenney had died from injuries he received when RUC
officers battered him in his own home. As the 12 August approached there was an
expectation that the march would trigger unprecedented violence.

Sectarian clashes occurred as the Apprentice Boys marched past the perimeter of
the Catholic Bogside. The RUC intervened and, assisted by a Protestant mob,
charged at the nationalists forcing them into William Street. Within hours rioting
had escalated into what local priest Fr Mulvey described as a "community in revolt".
The police were stoned and petrol bombed as they made their way in riot gear into
the Bogside. After two days and nights of continuous rioting the police were
exhausted.

On the afternoon of Thursday 14 August the new Prime Minister of Northern
Ireland, James Chichester-Clarke, called the British Prime Minister Harold Wilson
and asked for troops to be sent to Derry. Unknown to Chichester-Clark troops
were already on standby. Just after 4.00pm a company of soldiers from the Prince
of Wales Own Regiment relieved the police of their duty. What came to be known
as the Battle of the Bogside had ended with direct intervention from Britain in the
affairs of Northern Ireland.

Riots erupted in Belfast after the Civil Rights Association called on Catholics to
take pressure off the Bogside by stretching police resources. Five Catholics and
one Protestant were killed on 14 August. The following day troops were deployed in
Belfast to contain the violence but too few in number to have any effect. That
night a Protestant mob burnt almost every Catholic house in Bombay Street.

Lieutenant-General Sir Ian Freeland told the press at the time that the honeymoon
period between troops and local people was likely to be short-lived. Within months
that welcome had turned to violence.

Whilst in Johore Bahru, Malaysia, we saw on the TV News the was the RUC were
beating the Civil Rights Marchers, we had NO Idea that on return to the UK, we
would be despatched to Belfast ---

This being 1969,
On this first tour everything was great, we patrolled Belfast and other companies
were in Derry, in Belfast we were quartered wherever we could find someplace to
sleep --- there was no accommodation for us on the streets, so after the RUC had
been disbanded, we took over the police stations, every three or four days, we
would pack our camp bed for somewhere else, I have slept in billiard rooms, police
stations, schools, backyards, also a mammoth Factory that housed over 500 men,
they went there for a rest -- and good grub. Its strange us blokes in D Company
just wanted to get back out on streets -- great Fun --- No time to get bored.

The first tour our of our regiment, the first of many, we thought it would be over
in Days --- But thirty years later our regiment still went there.


Séan MacStiofáin walking out of the Sinn Féin Árd-Fheis (annual conference) after
historic split, Dublin 11 January 1970
Between 1956 and 1962 the IRA mounted an unsuccessful border campaign.
Internment without trial, introduced first in the north and then in the south,
curtailed military operations and ultimately broke morale. On 26 February 1962,
the IRA announced that Operation Harvest, its border campaign, was over.

Under new leadership, the IRA became influenced by the optimism of the 1960s.
The cold war between the Unionist parliament at Stormont and the Fianna Fáil
government in the Republic began to thaw. Taoiseach Sean Lemass, a former IRA
man who had fought in the 1916 Easter Rising and opposed partition, accepted an
invitation from the Prime Minister of Northern Ireland, Terence O'Neill, to visit
Stormont. O'Neill reciprocated with a visit to Dublin.

Influenced by the mood of the times, the IRA embraced a Marxist agenda and
gave up violence as a means of achieving a united Ireland. Its new policy was a
32-county socialist republic. Influenced by the writings of Wolfe Tone, its strategy
was to unite Catholic, Protestant and Dissenter in Northern Ireland so that they
would eventually join workers in the south to overthrow capitalism.

Their idealistic theory left two important factors out of the equation: Rev Ian
Paisley and other diehard unionists opposed to O'Neill's liberal policies had begun to
plot his downfall; and working class Catholics whose lives had been blighted by
discrimination were fervently anti-communist.

While the IRA chose politics, militant loyalists revamped the Ulster Volunteer Force
in 1966 and embarked on a sectarian campaign against Catholics.


A Provisional IRA member demonstrates how a Thompson submachine-gun works
In 1967 the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association (NICRA) was set up and
organised street demonstrations to lobby for civil rights. The Stormont government
branded the movement a front for the IRA and banned its marches. In October
1968 the RUC used heavy-handed tactics to disperse a Civil Rights Association
march in Londonderry and in January 1969 a People's Democracy march was
attacked. Tensions between Catholics and Protestants deepened and by August
1969 Catholics were being burned out of their homes and shot on the streets of
Belfast.

At an IRA convention in December 1969 the Belfast Brigade argued that the IRA
had lost credibility because it failed to protect Catholics from sectarian attacks.
They favoured a return to an armed strategy. But the convention voted in favour
of politics and the Northern Brigade walked out and set up the Provisional Army
Council.

The formal split came at the Sinn Féin Árd-Fheis in January 1970 when those
opposed to recognising the parliaments in Dublin, London and Belfast walked out and
set up Provisional Sinn Féin. The Provisional IRA established in December now had a
political wing. In 1994 they were to call a cease-fire to allow politics to work.

Army raids Catholic homes in search of republicans, Belfast August 1971
At dawn on Monday 9 August 1971, 3,000 soldiers backed up by RUC Special
Branch officers using out-of-date intelligence swooped on houses throughout
Northern Ireland and arrested over 300 men. By the time the operation was
complete three hours later the army had arrested many who belonged to neither
the Provisional nor Official IRA. Within 48 hours 104 were released. The remainder
were imprisoned at Crumlin Road Jail or on the Maidstone, a prison ship moored at
Belfast docks. As the arrests continued the army had to open a disused RAF base
called Long Kesh to accommodate the prisoners.

I was stationed in Armagh --- Gough Barracks, with B Coy when we were awoke in
the early hours and were briefed that we were all going out later and at 4 am we
would be knocking on selected doors in our area and arresting Catholics who were
suspected as IRA members. This was happening throughout Northern Ireland, we
had no prior knowledge.
Looking back it was quite an occasion, I was given an address with a persons name
and photo and about 3.30am I set off with my platoon to collect this person, on
arrival at this address, I saw ladders against the wall near to the bedroom, I
made no move to enter until the Word came over the Radio, " Go Go", I knocked on
the door and a young woman stood there in her night clothes, she was frightened, I
asked if this male person lived there ? she replied "No", due to the situation I said
we would have to look for ourselves and showed her the warrant of arrest -- this
had been given me by the Special Branch --- we went upstairs, and this Young man
aged 30 + was laid out on the bed, completely out to the world, drunk I don't know,
but he certainly did NOT look like our suspected IRA man ?? apart from my men
guarding the outside there were four of us looking at this gent and passing around
the photo-- "What do you say lads, is it him ?" We all agreed it was NOT our
man, I contacted gough Barracks and a few moments later we were told to return,
a mistake had been made. I apologised to the young woman for the distress and
left ---- we heard the Bin Lids being banged outside on the road by the women.

On arrival back at Gough Barracks after a slow journey back through hundreds of
shouting screaming women, I was given a second address, due to the crowds on the
street and the Council estate where I was going, it was known as a flash area, I
was given another Armoured car a "Pig" and off we went again ------- this time
the Sun was up and the streets were full of angry crowds ---- Bricks came our
way plus the F------ ing Brits. On arrival at this second address I saw they had a
lovely garden with outside statuettes in the garden, I knocked on the door as is my
custom, I don't think kicking peoples doors in is the way when you can be kind in
your duties, but as the door opened, a man of indeterminate age asked "What the
F.... are you wanting?" I asked if a Mr ---- ---- lived there ?? He replied that
the name was His, but I asked if he a son with the same name ??, he said he was
in bed, he tried to shut the door, I explained the Police Act 1922, and we pushed
past him and upstairs --- the suspect was in bed, he was jostled out quickly after
the caution was given, and a blockade of women stood their ground on the road,
banging the Pig with the Bin Lids, screaming obscenities ---- never heard a woman
swear until I got to Northern Ireland.
Managed to get back to Gough barracks took our gent into the NAAFI and we
filled out a form that he had to supply information --- gave him a cuppa and then
a Wessex helicopter arrived on the square outside, my man and 14 others were
handcuffed and despatched to a weird sounding camp called the LONG KESH.

By this time all of the provinces were really up in arms, about the action of the
troops, my platoon and were despatched in two Pigs to the border areas to stop
arms coming into the area, a tiresome task seeing that were hundreds of roads and
lanes from the South to the North.
It was after at least 6-8 hrs that we were called back to Armagh, I was given
map references of where the roads had been blocked by the Catholics, the City
was more or less sealed off on the radio I was told that gunmen were on the
streets, and waiting for Army patrols trying to re enter the City. I was told to
try the Eastern side in getting back but to be aware of road side bombs, and NOT
to use any road we had used before as there could be ambushes ?? I explained all
this to my men, there was a hushed silence, then ------- "Lets get back and see
whets happening" came an excited voice, could have been "Tel" -- a great soldier.

When you patrol the border you call in at all the village police stations and show
the police that we are about, these police stations are nothing like the ones in
Britain where you walk directly into the waiting area, the Northern Ireland police
stations were Mini Forts, with Armoured Windows and the proverbial Rifle slit, that
is after you get through the Barbed wire entrance after giving them a call.
I always wondered how an old lady could report her purse missing ???

It 99% aware all the time of intended danger to ourselves that really tires the
senses, so returning to Gough Barracks through these gun laden streets was going
to be quite thrilling --------- listening to the radio was like listen to a battle in a
film, "Gunmen on --- shooting out street lights" "Army patrol being attacked in
sector ----"

On the fringes of the city which I could see quite well from an hill I was proceeding
down I reported in after seeing all the street lights were out, a cover for
ambushes ? May be? "You will have to get back the best way you can, all the roads
are blocked, don't STOP whatever you do"

So in for a penny in for a pound, close the side slats, pull down the wire screen on
the windscreen (Stops window screen being smashed) "Well lads we are going in, if
we have to stop open the rear door, any male with a gun, shoot him, don't waste
time ------- so the adrenalin flowing away we went, in front was the largest
crowd I had ever seen except after a football match -- and they were NOT going
to cheer our side ---" Here we go lads, remember we are the "Cede Nullis lads"
no stopping --------- Lets go driver and the speed rose, there was bonfire on
the road, there was shouts and jeers, the petrol bombs came our way, we carried
on, then I saw something that I had never seen out side a persons home, a great
big massive toilet bowl being held aloft by this Goliath of a man, he threw it and in
slow motion it sailed to its target, our windscreen, we of course were safe, but the
man was not --- he thought we would stop, but our present day, David (driver) put
down Goliath and away through the crowd as they saw we had no intention of
stopping for anyone.

We got back safely the Commanding officer came out and said "Well done lads your
return was very sticky, you did well, go and get a cup of tea and an egg sandwich"

The few days following were hectic, but that night was very exciting a day in
History, never to be forgotten by the word.

Brian Faulkner, Northern Ireland's third Prime Minister in little over a year,
introduced internment without trial to counteract IRA violence but his strategy
backfired. The security measure was used almost exclusively against the Catholic
community and within hours rioting and shooting had broken out in Belfast and
spread to Derry, Strabane, Armagh and Newry. At 11.15am that morning Faulkner
announced that his government was at war with the terrorists.

The Unionist government had previously used internment successfully against the
IRA during its 1950s border campaign but in 1971 it proved a serious security and
political blunder. Up until 9 August 34 people had died in the violence that year but
just three days later 22 more people had been killed. Thousands of people had been
forced to leave their homes in Belfast because of sectarian attacks and many left
for refugee camps across the border.

Writing years later, the Home Secretary Reginald Maudling who sanctioned the
action said the experience from 1971 to 1975 "was by almost universal consent an
unmitigated disaster which has left an indelible mark on the history of Northern
Ireland".


Many internees were severely beaten, deprived of food and sleep and subjected to
white noise
Internment flouted international human rights standards. Many of those arrested
were subjected to inhuman and degrading treatment. The army, determined to get
up-to-date intelligence, resorted to interrogation methods previously used in the
former British colonies. Detainees thought likely to have important information were
physically weakened through sleep deprivation and a bread and water diet. They
were then spread-eagled for hours against a wall with hoods over their heads and
subjected to disorientating electronic white noise.

Civil rights lawyers accused the government of torture. The Irish government made
a formal complaint to the European Commission for Human Rights and later the
European Court of Human Rights. The Commission found Britain guilty of torture but
the European Court ruled that the treatment was inhuman and degrading but did not
constitute torture.

Internment not only provoked more violence but it galvanised support for the IRA
and enabled republicans to raise money in the United States. It led to hundreds of
street demonstrations one of which culminated in Bloody Sunday.


Civil rights march halted at army barricade
Bloody Sunday is named after the events that occurred on Sunday 30 January 1972
when British soldiers shot dead 13 men and injured 14 others. A further victim died
later. The killings took place in the predominantly nationalist city of Londonderry.

The victims had been taking part in an illegal march against internment without
trial. It had been organised by the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association
(NICRA) and was both a protest against internment and a protest against the ban
on the right to march.

Anxious that the 30 January march should pass off peacefully, the organisers had
sought and received assurances from the IRA that it would withdraw from the area
during the march.

On the day of the march some 10,000 people had gathered in Creggan Estate and
proceeded towards Guildhall Square in the centre of the city. Paratroopers had
sealed off the approaches to the square and the march organisers, in order to
avoid trouble, led most of the demonstrators towards Free Derry Corner in the
Bogside.


Fr Edward Daly precedes a group carrying the body of 17-year-old Jack Duddy
Groups of local youths stayed behind at the army barricades to confront the
soldiers. Their orders were to move in and arrest as many of the rioters as
possible. At 4.07pm 1 Para requested permission to arrest rioters. At 4.10pm
soldiers opened fire on the crowd. Less than 30 minutes later 13 civilians were
dead.

The soldiers claimed that they had been fired on as they moved in to make arrests.
The people of the Bogside believed the army had summarily executed 13 unarmed
civilians. The killings provoked outrage and were denounced as "another Sharpeville".
The British Embassy in Dublin was burned down and Bernadette Devlin MP physically
attacked the Home Secretary Reginald Maudling in the House of Commons.

The Prime Minister Edward Heath appointed the Lord Chief Justice of England,
Lord Widgery, to conduct an inquiry. Widgery's verdict was controversial when it
appeared in April 1972. He concluded that the soldiers had been fired on first yet
there was no evidence that the dead or wounded had been shot while handling
weapons. The Londonderry Coroner, Major Hubert O'Neill, did not share his
conclusions. He said what had occurred was "sheer unadulterated murder".

On the twentieth anniversary of the killings there were calls for an independent
inquiry. The Prime Minister John Major's response that those killed could be
regarded as innocent did not satisfy the relatives of the dead and injured. On 30
January 1998 Prime Minister Tony Blair announced that there would be a new
inquiry on the grounds of "compelling new evidence". Lord Saville of Newdigate was
appointed to chair the inquiry and its findings are not expected to be published for
some time yet.




Parliament buildings, Stormont
The Unionist parliament at Stormont, which had governed Northern Ireland since
the foundation of the State in 1921, sat for the last time on Tuesday 28 March
1972. Conservative Prime Minster Edward Heath had decided to strip the
parliament of its power and introduce direct rule from Westminster. He was
responding to the worsening security situation that was aggravated when
paratroopers, deployed by the Stormont government, shot dead 13 unarmed civilians
during a civil rights march in Derry. Two days later an angry crowd burned down
the British Embassy in Dublin and in February an Official IRA bomb at the
Aldershot HQ of the Parachute Regiment killed three civilians. This was followed by
an assassination attempt on a Northern Ireland government minister.

Bloody Sunday provided a recruitment boost for the IRA who stepped up their
bombing campaign. By March the newly formed Ulster Vanguard Movement
assembled 60,000 supporters at a rally in Belfast and heard their leader, William
Craig, state that if the politicians failed to deal with the IRA "it may be our job
to liquidate the enemy".

With the situation worsening by the day Edward Heath called Brian Faulkner, the
Northern Ireland Prime Minster, to Downing Street and insisted that control of law
and order be transferred to the Westminster government. Neither Faulkner nor his
cabinet were prepared to do this so he and his ministers resigned.


Former Northern Ireland premier Brian Faulkner MP speaking against the
introduction of direct rule, Stormont buildings, 29 March 1972
On the day the parliament met for the last time, 100,000 unionists converged on
the drive before Stormont. This was the second day of a protest strike called by
the Vanguard leader William Craig against British government policy. The strike
affected power supplies, forced businesses to close and stopped public transport.
When Faulkner and Craig joined other leading unionists on the balcony at Parliament
Buildings they were greeted with cheers. Many were expecting Craig to announce a
Vanguard coup but this did not materialise. Faulkner called for restrained and
dignified protest and then asked the crowd to disperse. The two-day strike was at
an end.

All political power in Northern Ireland now rested with William Whitelaw the newly
appointed Secretary of State and a new government department, the Northern
Ireland Office, was set up to manage day-to-day affairs. Catholics welcomed the
fall of Stormont but the IRA saw direct rule as further evidence of British intent
to remain in Northern Ireland and they stepped up their bombing campaign.

Apart from the five months of the power-sharing Executive in 1974, Northern
Ireland was governed from Westminster until 2 December 1999 when the Northern
Ireland Executive set up under the Belfast Agreement took over responsibility of
government. Difficulties over decommissioning forced the government to impose
direct rule again between February and May 2000.

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