Discuss The Factors That Lead To Irelands Victory Against The British (Essay Sample)

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Irish Republican Army
When Britain decided to split Ireland into two regions in 1920, the Irish people took offense claiming that the act was aggravating an already tense relationship. Britain had ruled Ireland for centuries using brutal methods based upon their religious differences. Britain was predominantly Protestant while most of Ireland had strong Catholic roots. However, the Northern Irish region of Ulster contained more Protestants than Catholics offering the British an excellent point from which to divide the Irish, who has nationalist ambitions. Additionally, the Northern region of Ulster catalyzed the Irish strife for freedom through the actions of the IRA and the PIRA. This paper investigates the activities of the IRA and its various factions in Northern Ireland’s fight to gain freedom from Britain. It also analyzes the effects of violence and other aggressive methods on the British-Irish relationship, legal tools used by Britain, as well as the overall perception of crime in Ireland.
Origins of the IRA and its development towards the emancipation of Northern Ireland
The Irish Republican Army came up from earlier attempts by Irish nationalists to garner enough power to free themselves from the tyranny and oppression of Britain. Since 1167AD, when England laid claim to the Irish lands, the Irish people were subjected to hardships ranging from social exclusion, military attacks, oppressive laws, shortage of food due to exports to England, and a lack of identity(Cairns and Darby 754-760). However, the worst problem at that time was an attempt by the Protestant English leaders to outlaw Catholicism, which was core to Irish culture. Unlike the English, Ireland remained a staunch Roman Catholic adopting most of the Roman Catholic cultural and religious norms.
In 1916, Michael Collins integrated the dispersed rebel units that had fallen off after the Easter Rebellion. Composed of members of the Irish Volunteers who retained militant aspects, the collective group became the military wing of the Sinn Fein Party dedicated to reuniting Ireland and freeing it from Britain. Britain’s’ earlier action of dividing Ireland into Ulster and Northern Ireland caused the formation of Free State in 1922. However, when Eamon De Valera took over the state’s government in 1932, the IRA’s popularity waned forcing it to adopt aggressive methods such as bombings, assassination, smuggling, and extortion (Gillespie 81). These acts signified the IRA’s criminal beginnings.
Britain refused to let the Irish lands disintegrate into chaos and disunity at the hands of the IRA. Concurrently, the IRA targeted establishments in both Irish states, as well as Britain. The IRA had become largely secretive, which led to internal splits forming the ‘officials’ and ‘provisionals.' The later had aggressive methods that involved crimes such as bombings, raids, extortions, and assassinations. Officials used less aggressive methods to campaign for a socialist united Ireland. These two fronts also differed in their cultural aspects with the ‘provisionals’ adopting more confrontational cultural aspects of norm and retribution (O’Kane 185-187). They also advocated for an unwavering Irish dedication even from American immigrants and their descendants. However, the officials, consisting mostly of pacifists and socialists, supported reconciliation and nonviolence.
When the provisional took the violence to Britain with the 1972 bombing of a pub that killed 19 people, the government took up legal measures against the IRA. Britain’s penal laws that applied to the IRA following this attack include the 1974 Prevention of Terror Act, which outlawed the IRA. Additionally, criminal laws attached to the IRA’s criminal activities such as extortions and raids also applied. The Northern Ireland Emergency Provisions Act also came up in 1978 in response to rising violence and crime perpetrated by the IRA. The Act gave the British authorities, legal framework, and military or police personnel authority to act decisively against the IRA. Subsequently, the British armed forces, as well as its police, carried out systematic executions of key IRA figures. Additionally, the British authorities instituted other smaller legal laws that relied on the criminal perspective of the Irish fight for freedom to counter the IRA’s growing impact both in Ireland and Britain. However, the Catholic Church’s role in protecting IRA leadership undermined these efforts to destroy the terrorist side of the IRA (Dingley 17).
How the IRA broke up and became violent
Between the late 1920’s, the Irish political scene was punctuated by violence, and strife as the Northern Irish regions in Ulster came against the Southern forming the Government of Ireland. Britain’s attempt to interrupt the violence and initiate peaceful processes caused her to get dragged into the violence in the late 1960s to 1980s. However, Northern Ireland emerged in 1921 from the collaboration of the IRA with the Ulster-based Ulster Volunteer Force fighting for their liberation.
The following years were relatively peaceful under the leadership of Prime Minister Viscount Brookeborough. His collaborative policy with the Ulster Unionist marginalized Catholics ending two decades of peaceful existence and sparking the violence that the global community blames the IRA for between the mid-1960s and 1990s. Brookeborough’s coalition with the Ulster Unionists introduced prosperity for the region’s Catholics much to the distaste of the Protestants, which brought the plight of Northern Ireland to the surface again when Brookeborough lost power to Terence O’Neil (Roslern.p). The incumbent leader, a former army officer, did not hesitate in reversing the policies for Northern Ireland, culminating in the 1966 violence. In 1969, the Provisional Irish Republican Army broke off the IRA and adopted violence.
However, the mid-1980s introduced a concerted effort by the stakeholders to change the Irish image globally. The bombings and assassinations of the yesteryears had tarnished its image leading to the global society branding it ‘one of the worst terrorist groups.' The years that followed exhibited increasingly successful efforts to disarm the IRA and adopt democratically and pacifist methods of achieving freedom in Northern Ireland.
The arguments for IRA and its input in emancipating North Ireland
Considering these occurrences, one cannot fail to identify the presence of oppression among one group while the other benefits selfishly. The Northern Irish parts were not enjoying the fruits of prosperity that Southern Ireland enjoyed following the end of the World Wars. South Ireland comprised mostly of Protestants with a few Catholic minorities, the region was the venue for a long-lasting struggle by both parties to sustain prosperity (Blackbourn 46). Additionally, external influence from other parties such as Britain, who favored the Protestant groups, while Southern Ireland supported the Catholic minority in Northern Ireland, aggravated the issues prevalent in the region.
The respective churches also played subtle roles in the struggle with Protestant churches showing support for the Protestant majority in Northern Ireland, while the Catholic Church supported the IRA, whose agenda was the Catholic minority under oppression. Therefore, the IRA and Catholic minority had every right to struggle for their independence, but they should have employed peaceful methods such as those the IRA’s ‘officials’ used. The IRA’s ‘provisionals’ might have undermined the IRA’s ability and success in fighting to establish Northern Ireland through the violence and criminal activity.
In analyzing the actions and logic that might justify the IRA’s decisions and course of actions, one must consider that oppression breeds contempt and inspires struggle for emancipation. The British Kingdom has oppressed Ireland for more than eight centuries since the late eleventh century. Part of the abuse was religious in nature since the Irish are primarily Catholic, but Britain was more interested in the wealth of resources that Ireland had especially during the middle ages when drought was typical. However, Ireland tried to emancipate herself severally but was unsuccessful until the IRA came to be.
In the middle ages, the difference between Britain’s and Irish welfare economically, socially, and religiously was enormous. Irish Catholics were barred from assuming any office in the United Kingdom’s affairs as well as denied access to any chances of prosperity through enlightenment or education. Unfortunately, most of the food the productive Irish highlands also cultivated was transferred to Britain leaving the Irish suffering as demonstrated by the confiscation of Irish lands in the 1600s with Cromwell finalizing the process (Gillespie 81). Forfeiture of Irish lands denied the Irish people the source of their livelihood exposing them to significant risks of starvation. Hunger-related deaths decimated the Irish over the course of the following centuries eventually reducing the number of Irishmen to a mere two million people during the 1840 potato drought. Therefore, the British impoverished the Irish by confiscating their lands and redirecting all useful resources to the queen’s coffers. Consequently, the Irishmen suffered over the course of seven centuries until...