Sunningdale Flashcards
(34 cards)
1
Q
When was Direct Rule introduced?
A
23 March 1972
2
Q
How did Whitelaw plan to win the trust of the Catholic community?
A
- Restrain the British army
- Phase out internment
- See if he could persuade the IRA to end its violence
3
Q
How did he plan against alienating Protestants?
A
- Restore order
2. Get police back into no-go areas IRA used to launch campaigns.
4
Q
How did the IRA respond to the end of direct rule?
A
Stepped up violence:
- -14 April 1972: Provos set off 30 bombs across the North
- -Loyalist responded with bombs and torturing and killing Catholics
- -Riots continued, car bombs etc
- -May: 40 deaths, highest total per month to date
- -29 May 1972: Official IRA called a ceasefire, but the Provos refused
5
Q
How did Whitelaw try to foster peace?
A
- -Released hundreds of internees, gave special category status to those who remained
- -Diplock enquiry: replaced Special Powers Act with Northern Ireland (Emergency Provisions) Act in AUgust 1973
- -Gave the RUC and the army extensive powers to question, search, arrest and detain people they suspected of violence
- -Diplock courts: one judge, without a jury, to avoid intimidation of jury members
6
Q
Talks with the Provisionals?
A
- -John Hume and Provisionals
- -Led to ceasefire on 26th June
- -7 July: six Provos including McGuinness, Adams and MacStiofáin flown into London
- -Demanded all remaining detainees be freed and Britain promise to leave NI within three years
- -‘Impossible demands’
- -Violence resumed
7
Q
What was Bloody Friday?
A
- -21 July 1972
- -Belfast, 2:00 pm: bomb warnings began
- -2:10 pm: bomb destroys a bus station
- -3 more bombs in 30 minutes: hotel, railway station, tax offices
- -2:48 pm: bomb destroys bus depot, killing 6
- -Next 30 minutes: 12 more explosions, three dead, 130 injured
- -Hoax warnings
- -3 bombs in Derry, 16 elsewhere
- -Gun battle between Provos and British army
8
Q
What was Operation Motorman?
A
- -Whitelaw used Bloody Friday outrage to launch Motorman
- -Ended no’go areas in Derry and Belfast
- -Extra troops used to dismantle the barricades on 30 July
- -Parachute Regiment dealt with barriers in loyalist areas
- -Little direct resistance
9
Q
How did the Provisionals retaliate to Motorman?
A
- -31 July
- -3 car bombs in mixed, peaceful village of Claudy, Derry
- -9 dead (5 Protestant, 4 Catholic), 30 injure
- -July 1972: 92 dead, worst month of the troubles
10
Q
How did the conflict affect the Republic?
A
People before:
- -Believed in a United Ireland
- -Saw partition as a British plot and the IRA as continuing the War of Independence
- -Ignore the existence of the unionists, didn’t understand them
- -Wanted to help northern Catholics fight discrimination
People after:
- -Regular reporting made them better informed
- -Began to understand that unionists could never be bombed into a United Ireland
- -Realised that the British would love to leave
- -United Ireland became less appealing as violence continued
11
Q
How did Southern governments take a tougher line against the IRA?
A
- -1972: closed down the Sinn Féin offices in Dublin
- -1972: forbade RTÉ to broadcast interviews with IRA leaders
- -Irish army and GardaÍ patrols stepped up along the border
- -Strengthened the Offences against the State Act
- –Special Criminal Court: three judges, no jury, for those accused of ‘subversive activity’
12
Q
Why was 1972 a better year for Whitelaw to try and reach a settlement?
A
- -Level of violence made moderates on both sides more eager for peace
- -Irish government was more willing to discuss a new constitutional arrangement within NI than demand reunification
- -Official IRA was on ceasefire, Motorman had reduced danger of Provos
13
Q
What was the Border Poll?
A
- -March 1973
- -Referendum on the border
- -Nationalists: engaged in a strike over internment boycotted it
- -99% in favour of staying part of the UK
14
Q
What was Whitelaw’s White Paper?
A
- -Northern Ireland Constitutional Proposals:
- -Guaranteed that NI would remain part of the UK as long as the majority wanted that
- -Proposed as Assembly elected by PR
- -Assembly would set up a NI Executive (government), which couldn’t be ‘solely based on a single party’ if the part was supported ‘virtually entirely from only one section of a divided community;
- -London govt would transfer control over health, education local govt etc.
- -London would keep control over police, legal system and other difficult matters, perhaps to be transferred if the Executive was successful
- -Council of Ireland
15
Q
What were the responses to the White Paper?
A
- -SDLP welcomed power-sharing and Council of Ireland
- -Republicans rejected it as reinforcing partition
- -Faulkner and the moderates were cautiously welcoming
- -27 March, Ulster Unionist Council accepted it
- -Paisley, Craig and the Orange Order condemned it completely for power-sharing and links to the republic
- -Craig left UUP to set up Vanguard party
16
Q
How did elections to the Assembly progress?
A
- -28 June
- -Republicans told nationalists not to vote
- -SDLP, NILP, Alliance went into the campaign
- -DUP and Vanguard campaigned against
- -Faulkner urged UUP politicians to pledge in support of campaign, not all did (led by Harry West)
17
Q
What were the results of the election? (Sunningdale)
A
- -Assembly voted in
- -Faulkner only got 24 seats
- -Showed deep visions in NI politics
18
Q
What did preliminary discussions achieve? (Sunningdale)
A
- -DUP and Vanguard members: obstructive tactics, sit-ins, physical attacks, name-calling
- -Clear majority in Assembly in favour of negotiated settlement
- -Two key stages to negotiations established:
- -Getting parties from both side to agree to set up the power-sharing Executive
- -Getting agreement between the Executive, Irish and British govts on the role of the Council of Ireland
19
Q
How did talks on the Executive progress?
A
- -Stormont, 5 October
- -6 Unionist reps led by Faulkner
- -6 SDLP reps led by Fitt
- -3 from Alliance
- -Chaired by Whitelaw
20
Q
What was agreed on the Executive?
A
- -Easy to agree in principle on the Executive
- -Harder to divide up ministerial positions
- -Faulkner: Unionists must have a majority for Protestants to trust the Executive
- -11 ministers: 6 Unionists, 4 SDLP, 1 Alliance
21
Q
What did the Executive agree about the Council of Ireland?
A
- -Idea of Council of Ireland accepted
- -Faulkner wanted a Council with reps of the North and South govts to deal with issues like tourism
- -Hume wanted reps from the Dáil and the Assembly, wider powers like control of policing
- -Whitelaw backed SDLP, hoping this would enable them to outmanoeuvre the IRA
- -Faulkner accepted this reluctantly
- -SDLP agreed to end rents and rate strike against internment
22
Q
Why was Whitelaw replaced?
A
- -To deal with trade unions in London
- -Francis Pym had no experience of the intricacies of NI
23
Q
What was the Irish delegation at Sunningdale like?
A
- -Taoiseach Liam Cosgrave
- -Garret FitzGerald of Fine Gel and Conor Cruise O’Brien of Labour
- -Saw CoI as a token body dealing with uncontroversial cross-border isues
- -Hume persuaded them it should have real powers, said the Unionists were too weak and divided to argue
24
Q
How did Sunningdale negotiations progress?
A
- -Held at Sunningdale, Berkshire
- -Heath chaired: impatient with unionists, admired Hume, supported idea of expanding CoI powers
- -SDLP’s Paddy Devlin, Cruise O’Brien: unwise to squeeze unionists too much
- -Faulkner and the British hoped the Irish would agree to several things in exchange for CoI:
- -Guarantee to extradite IRA members: impossible because judges had the power to extradite and no democracy could command judges
- -Remove Articles 2 and 3 saying the South more could rule all of Ireland: impossible because a referendum was required to change a Constitution, Fianna Fáil would oppose it and the referendum would fail. Anyway the articles were symbolic
- -Irish govt gave Faulkner a verbal commitment to more co-operation on policing and a statement that they recognised NI’s right to remain in the UK if the majority wanted it
- -Conference ended on 9 December
25
When did the Executive take over?
- -1 Jan 1974
- -Brian Faulkner as Chief Minister
- -Gerry Fitt as Deput
26
How did unionists oppose the Executive taking power?
- -6 December 1973: Orange Order, Vanguard, DUP, dissident unionists formed the United Ulster Unionist Council to resist power-sharing and CoI
- -UUC called a meeting for 4 Jan: motion opposing the CoI passed, Faulkner resigned as leader of UUP
- -Faulkner set up Unionist Part of NI: still had supporters, could have gained more if he could show some results
- -Agreement did not bring peace: IRA and Loyalist paramilitaries continued killing
27
What problems arose in the Republic?
- -Kevin Boland, former FF minister, took case to the Supreme Court claiming that Sunningdale was unconstitutional because it recognised NI
- -Damaged Faulkner:
- -To win, Irish govt had to make a strong case for articles 2 and 3, undermining the claim that they were symbolic
- -During the case Cosgrave couldn't issue statement he promise Faulkner until March 13th which was too late
28
How did the British General Election damage Sunningdale?
- -Industrial unrest in Britain, Heath called sudden election for 28th Feb:
- -Ignored please from Pym, Fitt and Faulkner that it would be disastrous for Executive
- -UUUC treated election as a referendum on Sunningdale
- -Dublin is only a Sunningdale away
- -UUUC won 11/12 Westminster seats: Faulkner couldn't claim to govern NI
- -Labour returned to power, Harold Wilson as PM
- -Merlyn Rees as Northern Secretary: indecisive
- -Labour not as committed to Sunningdale as Tories
29
What as the UWC?
- -Ulster Workers' Council
- -NI workforce almost entirely Protestant
- -UWC: loyalist workers in shipbuilding, engineering and electricity generation
- -15 May: Assembly passed a vote of confidence in the Executive, UWC called a strike
30
How did the UWC Strike progress?
- -Loyalist paramilitaries became involved: 'tartan gangs' intimidated people into striking, sent men into factories to make them close
- -Blocked roads with barricades of burnt-out cars and buses: youths armed with clubs turned back lorries with milk, groceries and petrol
- -So many buses were hijacked the service was cancelled
- -Strikers cut electricity output by 60%: more factories closed, people had no lights or cookers, endangered people in hospitals and sewage plants
31
What were the reactions to the UWC Strike?
- -British army and RUC stood by: some chatted with strikers
- -Many Protestants supported the strike
- -UWC arranged some supplies to get through, grocers, bakers and chemists opened for a few hours/day, social welfare payments reached pensioners: did not alienate their own people
- -17 May: 2 car bombs in Dublin and Monaghan, killed 32
- -Highest casualty total for any one day, suspected to be loyalists
32
What was the govt response to the UWC Strike?
- -Executive didn't control army or RUC
- -Rees failed to use them to stop the strike: attempt to occupy power stations might lead to sabotage, army couldn't take on a large section of the Protestant population
- -Harold Wilson, 25 May: strikers 'sponging' off Britain
- -Offended everyone, even nationalists
- -Faulkner tried to get the SDLP and Irish govt to reduce CoI powers: agreed to postpone it by a year but it was too late
- -Executive resigned
33
Why did Sunningdale fail?
- -Nationalists blamed Rees unwillingness to use police and army to stop the strike (quick response might have stopped it)
- -Nationalists suspected the British army was opposed to power-sharing and wanted to see it fail (senior officers didn't want to take on loyalists and IRA at the same time)
- -Labour govt in London was unenthusiastic, because only a majority of Protestants supported it
- -UWC
- -Boland
34
Why did unionists back the UWC strike?
- -They feared the CoI was intended to lead them into a united Ireland. Fears reinforced by Boland, speeches about Irish unity from SDLP and southern politicians.
- -17th Jan: Logue, SDLP @Trinity: "trundling unionists to a United Ireland"
- -Some deeply disliked power-sharing; blamed Fitt and Currie for fall of Stormont, wouldn't accept them in govt
