Spring Break
Monday, peaceful Monday
John Jose, Columnist, jjose@smu.edu
Issue date: 3/27/07 Section: Opinion
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After decades of mutual suspicion, hostility and violent retribution, Northern Ireland's longtime rival groups have reached a historic power-sharing agreement. Sinn Fein's Gerry Adams and Protestant leader the Rev. Ian Paisley met Monday to discuss a united Northern Ireland administration.
The two parties agreed to form a government for the region on May 8. It is not clear why there is a delay, but the occasion is one to be celebrated regardless.
Brian Feeny, a historian at St. Mary's University College in Belfast, said, "The word 'historic' has to be used. It was the only way it was ever going to work. The two leaders of the two traditions had to do the deal."
This was the first time the two leaders have met. Traditionally, the two groups have viewed any contact with one another as anathema. Paisley, known as "Doctor No" for his utter refusal to conciliate, once condemned the Roman Catholic Church as "the mother of harlots and the abomination of the earth."
The history of the conflict is complex and multi-faceted, but several key issues can be delineated. Historians trace the roots of the conflict back to the beginning of the 17th century, when in 1609 the British government established the Plantation of Ulster in what is now Northern Ireland, confiscating native Catholic land and settling Ulster with mainly Protestant English and Scottish settlers. Tensions between the Protestant English community and the Irish Catholics erupted into two conflicts later that century.
Because of British backing, the Protestants won these conflicts and several more that would follow, ensuring Protestant dominance in Northern Ireland for centuries to come. From the 17th century until the start of the 19th, the idea of Northern Ireland self-government, known as "Home Rule," fell in and out of favor, mostly due to the Protestants' reluctance to be a minority in a Catholic-dominated Ireland (Ireland was about 75 percent Catholic at the time). Starting around this time, continuous low-intensity violence between the two groups became a constant facet of the conflict.
The two parties agreed to form a government for the region on May 8. It is not clear why there is a delay, but the occasion is one to be celebrated regardless.
Brian Feeny, a historian at St. Mary's University College in Belfast, said, "The word 'historic' has to be used. It was the only way it was ever going to work. The two leaders of the two traditions had to do the deal."
This was the first time the two leaders have met. Traditionally, the two groups have viewed any contact with one another as anathema. Paisley, known as "Doctor No" for his utter refusal to conciliate, once condemned the Roman Catholic Church as "the mother of harlots and the abomination of the earth."
The history of the conflict is complex and multi-faceted, but several key issues can be delineated. Historians trace the roots of the conflict back to the beginning of the 17th century, when in 1609 the British government established the Plantation of Ulster in what is now Northern Ireland, confiscating native Catholic land and settling Ulster with mainly Protestant English and Scottish settlers. Tensions between the Protestant English community and the Irish Catholics erupted into two conflicts later that century.
Because of British backing, the Protestants won these conflicts and several more that would follow, ensuring Protestant dominance in Northern Ireland for centuries to come. From the 17th century until the start of the 19th, the idea of Northern Ireland self-government, known as "Home Rule," fell in and out of favor, mostly due to the Protestants' reluctance to be a minority in a Catholic-dominated Ireland (Ireland was about 75 percent Catholic at the time). Starting around this time, continuous low-intensity violence between the two groups became a constant facet of the conflict.
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