{"id":45903,"date":"2020-05-17T04:12:50","date_gmt":"2020-05-17T04:12:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/essays.homeworkacetutors.com\/2020\/05\/the-northern-ireland-crisis-and-sunningdale-agreement\/"},"modified":"2020-05-17T04:12:50","modified_gmt":"2020-05-17T04:12:50","slug":"the-northern-ireland-crisis-and-sunningdale-agreement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colapapers.com\/us\/the-northern-ireland-crisis-and-sunningdale-agreement\/","title":{"rendered":"The Northern Ireland Crisis and Sunningdale Agreement"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Agreement on a council of Ireland on the 9th<\/sup> of December 1973. <\/p>\n

Introduction<\/h2>\n

More than nineteen years since the Good Friday Agreement<\/a>, the Unionists and Protestants remain divided and uncertainty still on the horizon for the future of Ireland (Byrne, M. 2016)<\/p>\n

The
\nSunningdale Agreement was signed on December 9th<\/sup> 1973, the
\npolitical, socio-economical were terrible, it was a ticking-bomb times, the
\nagreement were urgently needed due the dire situation in Northern Ireland
\n(McGrattan, 2006)<\/p>\n

This agreement was seen as result intensification of violence between the Unionists or The Protestant, they were about sixty percent of NI population and the Nationalist who are majority Catholics who are about forty percent of NI population.\u00a0 These times also are referred to as \u201cTroubles\u201d in NI history. The sectarian division and its violent nature in Western Europe was concern in continent in which more than three thousand people lost their lives and many more injured in \u201cTroubles\u201d. (Kennedy-Pipe 1997, pp50-56). Despite the collapse of this agreement, in many ways this agreement is seen as important step toward Northern Ireland peace process, moreover, this agreement become foundation for the Good Friday agreement or sometime is referred to as Belfast Agreement this agreement was reached on April 10th<\/sup> 1998(Tonge, J. 2000) Between, British, Irish and most of the political parties in Northern Ireland, on how should the Northern Ireland be governed such as power-sharing. The concept of power sharing in Northern Ireland was opposed by many Unionists Hardliners<\/a> such as Ian Paisley, in which the saw the deal as unfair and undemocratic. However, the British government did not shared same views because they saw the situation in NI were terrible. This essay will attempt to illustrate reasons for the failures of The Sunningdale Agreement, will look at comparison between the Northern Ireland to other Britain\u2019s foreign policies\u2019 complication for the last century, such as Israeli-Palestine conflicts. Both these conflicts been ongoing for nearly a century, and there are no concrete sign that in any time soon these conflicts would come to End.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

The Northern Ireland Crisis and brief history<\/h2>\n

In
\nthe 1500th<\/sup> century Ireland remained a Catholic country while England
\nturn into a Protestant, in the late 1602 England started to invade Ireland by
\n1608 the invasion was accomplished and the plantation process had begun, at the
\nsame time the opposition to this cause have continued to this day. <\/p>\n

Ever
\nsince the emergence of NI in 1920, the Conflicts and violence have only\u00a0 \u00a0accelerated
\nall way through end of twenty century, particularly since 1968 all the way to
\nthe Good Friday Agreement in 1998, The \u201cTroubles\u201d Was the worst violence in
\nWestern Europe sine WW2. \u00a0The history of
\nConflict of NI is not only a Century old but can be traced back to the Sixteenth
\n\u00a0century the period of \u201cPlantation\u201d by
\nthe protestant from Scotland and England to the Ulster area or the nine county
\nin NR, the native Irish Catholic saw them as coloniser, from England and
\nScotland therefore the opposed them ever since. The conflict of NI is simply is
\nperceived as the conflict between the two key group, the Nationalist\u00a0 and \u00a0The
\nUnionist, majority vote for DUP \u00a0and \u00a0perceive themselves religiously protestant, British,
\nand want the NI to continue as part of Great Britain. In contrary to that, the
\nNationalist, who are mainly Irish-catholic, they mainly support Sinn Fein, the
\nPolitical version of IRA and\u00a0\u00a0 the labour
\nParty, moreover, they want whole of Ireland to be reunited as United Ireland
\nwithout any influence from Britain. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Sunningdale Agreement<\/h2>\n

On
\nthe December 9th<\/sup> 1973 Edward Heath British Prime Minister, the Irish
\nLiam Cosgrave and most of the Political representatives of NI signed an
\nagreement at Sunningdale, Berkshire. (BBC 1973). The core purpose of this
\nagreement was to bring the volatile and violence situation of NI under control
\nby bringing all the different faction of NI together and to sign the agreement
\nfor power sharing. <\/p>\n

Under
\nthe treaty there would be a council called \u201cCouncil of Ireland\u201d will
\nbe combined of Consultative Assembly and board of ministers, these ministers
\nwould executive, consultative and harmonising powers, there were fourteen
\nmembers equal numbers of them would come from Northern Ireland Executive,
\nanother half from Irish government. \u00a0William Whitelaw, Britain Secretary of State
\nat the time, first wanted to end violence carried out by IRA, Elections were
\nheld soon after as a Result Executive board were established and power-sharing
\nbegun. <\/p>\n

Reasons for the failure of Sunningdale Agreement<\/h2>\n

At
\nthe very beginning of this agreement there were many opposition to this
\nagreement mostly from Unionist side (Kennedy-Pipe 1997, pp56-62), in addition
\nto that, the British and Irish government badly thought out toward the deal,
\nall these factors contributed to the failure of this agreement before it started.
\nIt\u2019s thought the timing for this agreement was right due to the high level of
\nviolence from both side the Catholic and Protestant, NI in those days were
\nexceptionally dangerous and frightening place to be. During the \u201cTroubles\u201d the
\nProvisional IRA\u2019s were blamed for the death of more than 450 peoples. This
\nforced the British Government to deploy the Army in NI to restore the state
\nque, however only made the situation worse. The soldiers
\nwere accused by taking their frustrations on civilians such as Bogside Massacre more notably, the Bloody Sunday incident
\non 30th<\/sup> January 1972, in Derry, Northern Ireland, were British
\nsoldiers \u00a0shot and killed \u00a028 unarmed civilians during a peaceful protest
\nagainst Internment ( Dawson, G. 2005) This
\nwas an operation by the British Army one of their main task was to arrest IRA
\nand to hold them without trial, the main target of this operation was to arrest
\nthe leaders of Provisional IRA, and instead they arrested mostly official IRA. More than 180 people died due to
\nthe conflicts between provisional IRA, IRA and British soldier in 1971. It\u2019s
\nwell been documented that one of the core reason for the failure of Sunningdale
\nAgreement was the Council of Ireland, because the Council was created with
\nBritain, South and north of Ireland, what that meant that it was, the role
\nCouncil was difficult one because all the participant wanted their more powers
\nsuch local housing and Policing, to some extent Whitelaw\u00a0 agree to the demand John Hume for more Powers
\n\u00a0in returned he thought that would
\ndiminish the influence and support for the IRA in NI.\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n

Another
\nblow to the agreement came on December 5th<\/sup> when Whitelaw called back
\nto Westminster to negotiate with the Trade Union. This was huge blow to this
\nagreement, because soon after Francis Pym succeeded him, \u00a0Pym, did not contributed a lot the agreement
\nbecause he had very limited background knowledge in Northern Ireland, despite
\nthis the Edward Heath, British prime minister supported Pym policies in NI,
\nthis created huge disagreement and opposition in Unionist Community to this
\nagreement because of\u00a0 the participation
\nof southern Ireland government in Council, they thought that this would give
\nthe southern government some sort of legitimacy over the NI, in contrary to
\nthat the Unionist had no say over the South\u2019s affairs, which they thought is
\nunjust. For instance, one of the request of this agreement is that the Article
\ntwo and three to be withdrawn from Northern Ireland\u2019s constitution, this would
\nin some way interpreted to that the Southern Government have some kind of
\nconstitutional right over Northern Ireland, although the Southern Government
\nargued that these changes were only illustrative, however the Unionist and
\nothers were not convinced\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n

As
\npart of this agreement, one of the demand from British government to Irish
\nGovernment, the requested that the Irish government to hand over IRA affiliate
\nto Northern Ireland\u2018s government. However this was problematic for the Southern
\ngovernment because of widespread torture and violence against IRA member in NI.
\nThe in many ways this concept of torture could not be strongly argued by the
\nBritish government at the time because huge level of violence between the Catholic
\nand the police forces, consequently, this was another reason for the failure of
\nthe agreement. In many ways, the
\nwrong policies of British government were seen as reasons for failure
\nSunningdale Agreement, regardless if they were made intentionally or not for
\nthis deal to succeed, in particular, The Unionist were very angry that the British
\nGovernment gave an excessive Powers to Northern Ireland Council, and in some
\nway the blamed Heath for being insensitive to the situation of the Ni. <\/p>\n

Moreover, another blow to this
\nagreement by the British government came when the Prime minister, Heath called
\nfor snap election over miner strike (BBC, 1974). This election was problematic
\nfor the agreement, because this election add only more uncertainty to NI
\nsituation and more gravely, the anti-treaty candidate won more ten seat of twelve
\nin Westminster. Overall, the Unionist thought by increasing power to the
\nCouncil that would eventually\u00a0 \u00a0led to end of Partition of Northern Ireland,
\nUnionist thought that they have been pushed into corner by Un experienced Pym,
\nwhich in the end led to the collapse of this agreement.\u00a0\u00a0 <\/p>\n

The final nail in the coffin for the agreement
\ncame when some sections of the loyalist\u2019s workers which stretched throughout
\nindustries in NI, called a strike on 15th<\/sup> may 1974, for anti-power
\nsharing. This strike was in many crucial for loyalist\u2019s, they started by closing roads and power
\nstations, within a week of these strike, they cut the electricity power by more
\nthan 50 percent, consequently\u00a0 this led
\nto huge power cut in hospitals, factories, and other governmental institutions
\neventually brought Northern Ireland to halt, while all these dire situation
\ncontinuing\u00a0 Merlyn Rees, the\u00a0 Secretary of State for Northern Ireland was reluctance
\nto the army and police to intervene and stop the strike, but instead just
\nobserved the situation. The British
\ngovernment attempted to pursue the striker to stop, and asked the Southern
\nIreland Government to cut down the NI Council\u2019s power, however these request
\nwere UN fruitful, as result of all these factors the Executive council resigned
\nand this came as the End of this Agreement.<\/p>\n

Northern Ireland and Israeli-Palestine conflict<\/h2>\n

In
\nboth of these conflicts, the Northern Ireland and Israeli-Palestine conflict.
\nThe core principles of these conflicts are intertwined such religious, identity
\nand Political. While it\u2019s more accurate to assume that Israeli-Palestine is
\nmore about their identity and fight for their survival. While in Northern Ireland
\nboth groups are Christine, regardless of their geographical, religious
\ndifferences their objective remain the same as Israeli-Palestine that is the
\nfight for survival for Catholic and the Protestant in Northern Ireland. Many
\nIrish in NI feels they can relate themselves to Palestine because of a direct
\nresult of British foreign policy decision making and their continuation of
\nsupport to the both, the Protestant in Northern Ireland and to the Israel. Many
\nscholars have illustrated that the reason for the stared of \u201cTroubles\u201d in
\nNorthern Ireland was a direct reaction to modification in Political system in
\nNI. In other word,\u00a0 the political changes
\nthat brought about by the DUP and more importantly by the British Government
\npolicies, only intensify\u00a0 the violence \u00a0between the Catholic and Protestant, many
\nCatholic felt they were been treated unfairly by the socioeconomic and \u00a0Political system as whole. It thought by many
\nthat the NI issue is religious conflicts, because the two groups have used the
\nterm Catholic and protestant, because of this, either intentionally or
\ninnocently \u00a0have made it easier for some
\npeople to labile it as religious conflict rather than identity conflicts in
\nwhich clearly most of the catholic wish to have a united Ireland. This conflict
\nto large extent is not about the religion but identity, in this case both side
\nin this conflicts are not fighting to convert other side to their version of
\nreligion, but they are fighting for geographical place to have control over, in
\nother word to have for their own, in this case happen to be different version
\nof Christianity. In comparison to the Israeli-Palestine which happen to be two
\ndifferent religion, Jaws and Muslims. The connection between these four group
\npeople, are all fighting to secure the place for their homeland.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Conclusion:<\/h2>\n

It would be very unwise to
\nthink that there was only few reasons for the failure to the Sunningdale
\nAgreement, but instead there were many and complicated one too, as its been
\nillustrated above, Northern Ireland\u2019s issue is one of most complicated conflicts
\nin modern time similar to the Israel- Palestine conflict\u2019s to large extent in
\nwhich both of these conflict\u2019s is fight for its homeland. \u00a0It would be very simplistic to suggest a
\nsimple answer to these two conflicts. It\u2019s believed that one of the core reason
\nfor failure of Sunningdale Agreement was it did not had strong foundation form
\nthe start, Some high level Protestant \u00a0dissent \u00a0\u00a0were against
\nthe ideal before it was began. The history teach as that some conflicts are
\neasier to sort than others, for instance, conflicts between two state is much
\neasier to come to some compromise rather than between two groups within a state.
\nRegardless of the Globalisation, we witnessing a new phenonama , nowadays, more
\nnation wanted be independence, in particular the Scottish\u00a0 vote on independence, Catalonian\u2019s referendum,
\nKurdish Referendum \u00a0and Brexit , all
\nthese cases shows that people are determined more than\u00a0 ever to pursue and be in charge of their own destination,
\nin this concept\u00a0\u00a0 the case of NI and
\nIsraeli-Palestine is no different in other word \u00a0as much as this I \u00a0pessimist about the world these two conflicts
\nhave mainly two scenario either both side make some compromise or this conflict
\nwould continue long into the future, the future to these two conflicts would
\nremain to be unknown. Unless both participant of these conflicts have serious
\ndesire and commitment to bring these terrible conflict\u2019s to end.\u00a0\u00a0 <\/p>\n

References:<\/h2>\n