The Making Modern Britian Course entails a Northern Ireland section a lot of people do not know how to answer that well. My response was a level 4 response which is second highest band. A good overall mark on the essay was given.
‘The biggest obstacle to peace in Northern Ireland between 1970-1979 were
government failures’ Assess the validity of this view.
The government faced many challenges in creating peace in Northern Ireland
between 1970-1979 such as government failures, social inequality and
tension between Protestants and Catholics and the increase paramilitary
violence from extremist groups such as the IRA. However, there is no doubt
whilst government failures were a key obstacle to peace in Northern Ireland,
this failure would not have been as extreme of a failure without the increase
in paramilitary violence and the lack of unanimous trust from Protestants and
Catholics to accept peace agreements from Heath or Wilson and Callaghan
from years 1970-1979. Therefore, the biggest obstacle to peace in Northern
Ireland was the combined obstacle of the increase in violence, social
inequality and government failures.
One significant obstacle to peace in Northern Ireland Heath, Wilson and
Callaghan faced was government failures due to the inability to pass
agreement with a unanimous acceptance form Nationalists and Unionists and
increase paramilitary violence. For example, between 1970-1979, The
Sunningdale Agreement under Heaths premiership was proposed as a power
sharing opportunity for Unionists and Nationalists which was backed by both
London and Dublin and eventually had the Council of Ireland MP’s also agree
to this joint control. This shows the first time that Catholics have a share of
power for the first time since 1921 which shows clear expansion to a peace
agreement under Heaths premiership. Whilst this does look like progress on
the surface level, Protestants felt Sunningdale was a sell-out and were fearful
of providing equal power to both Protestants and Catholics. Similarly, this
tension escalated under Wilson and Callaghan’s premiership with public
figures targeted and killed such as Ross McWhirter and Aieret Neave despite
continuing the Sunningdale Agreement and failing to find this a viable peace
negotiation with its good reputation under Heath. This shows a clear attitude
of non-negotiation to peace from extremists groups in Northern Ireland and
an escalation in terrorism across Northern Ireland as a result of government
failures to bring out successful peace negotiations. This therefore shows,
whilst government failures remained an obstacle to gaining successful peace
negotiations in Northern Ireland, this was undeniably further exacerbated as
a failure due to the lack of unanimous agreement from Protestants and
Catholics and the increase in paramilitary violence.
Another significant obstacle to peace in Northern Ireland Heath, Wilson and
Callaghan faced was social inequality and tensions between Protestants and
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