1. NORTHERN IRELAND 1920 – 1985
Early Years
- Government of Ireland Act Separate state.
- Westminster kept control of trade, foreign affairs, defence.
- For the next fifty years unionists dominated NI.
- Craig PM until 1940

2. Conflict between Protestants and Catholics.
- Catholics seen as a threat to Union.
RUC and B-Specials set up with Special Powers Act
to arrest and imprison anyone.
- 1920s Catholics driven out of homes and jobs. Riots.
Some Catholics killed.
- Discrimination against Catholics in:
Government jobs
Gerrymandering
Education

3. The Economy in 1920s and 1930s
- Shipbuilding and linen in decline.
- Great Depression 40% unemployed.
1932 workers from both sides protested. Police crushed them.
- Sectarian violence returned, encouraged by political leaders
like Basil Brooke.

4. World War 2
- Strategic importance (south neutral, American base)
- Shorts, Harland and Wolff, parachutes, rope etc.
- Churchill offered DeValera the north if we joined the war
- Craig replaced by J.M. Andrews and then Brooke
- Over 1000 killed in bombing of Belfast.
- North and South driven further apart by the war.

5. The Post-War Years.
- Labour and the Welfare state:
Education for Catholics
Housing (discrimination)
Free medical care for women and children
- Ireland Act 1949 guaranteed union with consent.
- IRA bombing campaign in the 1950s
- Shipbuilding and Linen began to fade in the 1960s

6. O Neill, Civil Rights and the Troubles.
- O Neill wanted better relations with the South and Catholics.
- He visited Cardinal Conway, Catholic schools and Lemass.
- Strongly criticised by Paisley, O Neill resigned in 1969.
- NICRA began in It wanted:
An end to gerrymandering
An end to discrimination in government housing and jobs
One man, one vote in local elections

7. - Leaders included Fitt, Currie, Hume and Bernadette Devlin.
- Derry march attacked by police on TV.
- Troops sent in to protect Catholics were welcome.
SDLP founded.
- Provos broke away
- Internment a big mistake
- Jan 1972 Bloody Sunday 13 killed
- William Whitelaw and direct rule 1972

8. Attempts at Peace.
- Heath and Cosgrave signed Sunningdale. Power sharing and
a Council of Ireland for cross-border cooperation.
- New government led by Faulkner and Fitt.
Paisley and the Ulster Worker’s Council general strike.
Direct Rule returned.
Thatcher became PM.
- Sands and the hunger-strikers wanted political prisoner status.
9 died.

9. - 1985 Thatcher and Fitzgerald signed the Anglo-Irish Agreement
at Hillsborough.
- This gave the Republic a say in the running of NI. Thatcher did
not give in to the Unionists.
Major and Reynolds signed the Downing Street Declaration.
- Hume’s secret negotiations with the IRA led to ceasefire and
unionists followed.
with Clinton,s help the Good Friday agreement led to
the power-sharing NI Assembly.
- The PNSI and decommissioning.