The Troubles

• The Unionist NI government saw the minority-nationalist population as a threat and was determined to keep them from gaining political or economic power
• Gerrymandering was the drawing of electoral constituencies in a way that would ensure the Unionists always won the elections
• Owners of property and business recieved additional votes and most business and property was owned by Protestants
• Protestant schools received more funding than Catholic ones
• Catholic unemployment was double that of Protestants. high-paying civil service jobs did not go to Catholics
• The RUC was almost exclusively Protestant. Units such as the B-Specials became notorious for their violence against Catholics
• Catholics were passed over in favour of Protestants when public housing was being allocated
• The welfare state was a new programme of social spending by the government that made education and health care free for everyone, built more public housing and increased social welfare payments
• The welfare state greatly expanded the funding available to Catholic schools. This led to the first well-educated generation of Northern Irish Catholics emerging in the 1960s to challenge the discrimination
• In 1963 Terence O' Neill became NI PM. He aimed to 'build bridges between our two communites'
• O'Neill used tax breaks and grants to attract new industries and foreign businesses. However most of the new jobs came to the Protestant east while the Catholic west remained poor and underdeveloped
• O'Neill was the first NI PM to visit Catholic schools and hospitals. When the pope died he ordered flags to be flown at half mast and in 1965 he met with Taoiseach Seán Lemass. It was the first time the heads of governement on the island had met since 1920
• Unionist opposition to O'Neill was growing even though no real change to Northern Irish society had been attempted
• Reverend Ian Paisley launched an "O'Neill must go" campaign. This opposition made it difficult for O'Neill to respond positively to growing pressure from Catholics for change.
• IN 1967, the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association (NICRA) was set up. Its demands were to disband the B-Specials, end discrimination in housing and employment, have one vote per person in local elections and an end to gerrymandering.
• NICRA was not concerned with the question of partition or a united Ireland. They wanted "British rights for British citizens". They were commited to peaceful means of achieving this. The government and RUC banned marchs, claiming a risk of violence.
• A banned march went ahead in October 1968. It was attacked by the RUC and the images were captured by television cameras
• Unionists in Stormont were forced by the British government to announce some changes to housing and voting. O'Neill was forced to resign by his party in April 1969 and was replaced by James Chichester-Clark
• In August 1969, a march by the Unionist Apprentice Boys through the Catholic Bogside caused riots. The rioters drove the RUC out of the Bogside, throwing stones and home-bade firebombs.
• The IRA was a nationalist terrorists organsiation that attacked the RUC and army , planted bombs and killed innocent civilians.
• The UVF and UDA were loyalist terrorist organisation that attacked Catholic civilians as reprisals for IRA attacks