The+divided+city;+Belfast

=The conflict in Northern Ireland=

The conflict in Northern Ireland has been going on for 30 years. 3000 people have been killed. Even though there was an armistice deal in 1997, the atmosphere in Belfast is still tense. Why is that? Why is the city still divided?

The conflict between Protestants and Catholics started in 1922 when Northern Ireland became a free state and got autonomy. The Protestants and the C atholics couldn’t agree, the Catholics wanted a union with Ireland, but the Protestants didn’t (1). What started as a religious battle was now a political war. Before and during the 2nd World War there were several terrorist attacks from both parts, but in 1950 the attacks stopped, even though there were many conflicts. In 1969 the riots put an end on the silence an IRA was founded. More and more people were killed in the struggle between the British force and IRA. It all reached its summit in 1972 when 14 people were killed on Bloody Sunday. (1)

Since then the city has been divided//,// though there is rarely any big riots. IRA’s grip on the locals is weakened and there are less police in the streets. Despite all this the city is more divided than ever. New numbers (2) shows that areas for Catholics with a lot of industrial workers are more “Catholic” than before, the Protestants more “Protestant”. The great peace walls that were rose in the 70’s haven’t been pulled down; on the contrary they have built new ones. The police have problems with the recruiting, because people are afraid of terror actions. There is no political will to change this. The situation in the city hasn’t changed, and it will not because of the hate.

This is how they build themselves down; by doing nothing. It will not take long before the war starts again and blood will be spilled. The conflict never ended, and it will not before someone take actions.

On the positive side, former rebels want to keep the younger generation from joining IRA or other terrorist groups. They tell that they fought for what they believed in, but the consequences weren’t worth it.

The conclusion is that Northern Ireland still has big differences, and they have to do something about them now.

Sources:

1:[], bbc, bbc history, 01.02.07. [], wikimedia, 18.12.2010 2: Aftenposten Innsikt, Nr 5, mai 2009, side 20- 23, Kjetil Gyberg