Northern Ireland Coursework

Question one

• Read the question carefully!!!

• What is it asking you to do?

Q1. Is the sufficient evidence in sources D to I to explain why the troubles broke out in Northern Ireland in 1969?

Source D• It is an extract from an autobiography• The writer is a Catholic (Therefore the source is bias…is it therefore

unreliable?) Is it also useful? What can we learn from it?• The source is useful as we can see that the attitudes of people in

Northern shaped from an early age and on the opinions of others who are bias

• We can see that Catholic schools shaped it students identities so they seen themselves as Irish they therefore found it harder to mix with Protestants

• Bernadette Devlin went on to become a Leader of the People’s Democracy. Read about this in the handbook!!!

• What is the relationship to what she was taught at school and what she was doing when the troubles broke out?

Source E

• Is a 19th Century Protestant cartoon• It shows Ireland bound by the ropes of the Catholic

priest/church• Many protestants would be of this opinion because in

19th century the Catholic church had a lot of power and influence over politics, law, education, peoples everyday life etc. in Ireland

• Protestants have always feared that if there was to be a United Ireland they would be in the minority and the Catholic Church would have this power over their lives

• Unionist politicians have played on this fear in convincing protestants that this is what a United Ireland would mean for them

Source F• It is a map of Derry in 1966 showing population and which

councillors were elected in each area• You can see that there is a lot more Catholics than protestants living

in Derry (mention the figures)• This map is a solid piece of evidence that there was blatant vote

rigging or Gerrymandering in the City of Derry – It is reliable because it is an official government document produced by the Boundary Commission.

• Voting in Local elections in Northern Ireland was on the basis of property. If you did not own a house you could not vote or if you owned several houses or shops etc you could vote for each on of these. This generally discriminated against the poorer Catholic population

• By the 1960s many young Nationalists were disillusioned with Northern Irish politics. They blamed the Unionist party and some also blamed the Nationalists for not playing a more constructive role politics

Source G

• Is a drawing from a Protestant school textbook showing images of Catholic attacks on Protestants along with text describing it. Look in the handbook what happened on this date?

• It shows the Irish Catholics to be savages• It is a Protestant source so it is bias• Why was the Source included in a protestant

textbook?• Relate this source to what Bernadette Devlin

was taught at school what is the connection?

Source H

• It is a photograph. Is it bias? Is it reliable is it useful? What are its limitations?

• It shows RUC men (police) hitting a Civil Rights marcher on 5th Oct 1968 Look in handbook for information on the police

• What was the situation in NI at this time? Why was NICRA and PD set up anyway?

• Is the photograph evidence as to why the 1969 troubles broke out? (Short term reason)

Source I

• Also a photograph. What does it show? What does it not show? Is it useful is it reliable? What are the limitations?

• It shows crowd violence as Loyalists (extreme Unionists) ambush civil rights marchers at Burntollet in January 1969 Look in the book to find out about what happened at this Civil Rights march

• Who else do we know who was at this march?!?• What were the implications of the violence for Northern

Ireland? And how far did they contribute to the outbreak of the troubles?