WAR AND PEACE IN NORTHERN IRELAND

Abstract

For three decades, Northern Ireland was the scene of a war without parallel in the history of contemporary Europe. A war without siege, without battle, without aerial bombardment. Faced with the English army, an enemy lurking in the shadows swapped fatigues for jeans, wielded small arms, planted homemade bombs. The Irish Republican Army (IRA) is said to have had at least ten thousand members at its peak; a large part of the Northern Irish working class is said to have passed into its ranks. During the period when the political wing of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) Sinn Féin turned to an armed strategy, its popularity soared especially among Irish nationalists.A degree of support – or tolerance – that allowed it to hold its own against one of the most powerful European states. Senior British officers have acknowledged that they deployed, during the recent wars in the Middle East, “the specific techniques and expertise acquired through hard struggle against both urban and rural guerrilla warfare in Northern Ireland.” The number of victims—just under 3,500 dead and 48,000 wounded—might seem negligible compared to the bloodbaths experienced in countries such as Bosnia or Lebanon. But, compared to the population of Northern Ireland—over 1,500,000 at the beginning of the Troubles, almost 1,700,000 at their end—such a toll would have corresponded to 2 million wounded and 125,000 dead in Great Britain, or half of the British losses during the Second World War. Of the dead, 70% were civilians. Yet it was in Western Europe, in a highly developed country renowned for its political stability, that this devastating conflict took place. From Harold Wilson and Edward Heath to Margaret Thatcher and Mr. Antony Blair, a whole generation of Prime Ministers, Conservative and Labour alike, had to face an unprecedented threat on their territory. Finally in the 1990s the peace process began to develop. Definitely the beginning of the 21st century was marked by peace and Ireland's entry into the EU. How did this war begin? What were the key dates of the war? How did the peace process begin? What was the importance of peace politicians?