Terrorism Today

Question:   Discuss the reasons why the "Troubles" in Ireland lasted so long and were so bloody.
      The "Troubles" was a violent thirty year conflict that began with a civil rights march in
Londonderry on October 5, 1968 and ended with the Good Friday Agreement on April 10, 1998.  
At the heart of the conflict was the constitutional status of Northern Ireland.
      The goal of the unionist and Protestants were to remain part of the United Kingdom.   The
goal of the nationalist and republican, mostly Catholics, was to be part of the Republican of
Ireland.   This was a terrorist conflict.   It lay two visions of national identity and national
belongings.   The principal difference between 1968 and 1998 is that the people and organizations
pursuing these rivals, eventually resolved to do so through peaceful and democratic means.   This
ascendancy of politics over violence was not easily achieved.
      In the thirty plus years of "Troubles" more than 3,000 people on both sides of the religion
divide had been killed.   As many as 50,000 people were physically maimed or injured with
countless other psychologically damaged by the conflict.
      The Provisional Irish Republican Army (PIRA), the main paramilitary organization in
Northern Ireland was not interested in any solution.   For them the war was the only option.   This
strategy had continued to gain momentum since the introduction of internment in 1971 and the
killing of 13 people by the parachute regiment on "Bloody Sunday" in 1972.   When secret talks
with the UK in 1972 collapsed, the PIRA, now (IRA) (Provisional had split from the IRA)
leadership tried to derail the British presence in Northern Ireland through war.   It was extreme
violence and increasingly entrenched positions that moved to find a lasting solution.

Omar Rodriguez- SID 64622 March 27, 2014
BCJ- 303 Terrorism Today
Exam #2  

  In 1973, the Sunninggdale Agreement, between British ministers and Northern...