Summary of a Review E. Moxon-Browne’s review of John Whyte’s Interpreting Northern Ireland was quite favorable. Moxon-Browne discusses first Whyte’s unbiased approach and dedication to the North Ireland Conflicts. He emphasizes that Whyte had spent his entire life dedicated to researching and summarizing the problems and solutions in the North Ireland conflict. Moxon-Browne goes on to cover Whyte’s interpretations and understanding of the topic. Whyte states that the viewpoints of Nationalist, Unionist, Marxist, and Internal Conflict are the main ways to interpret the North Ireland conflict. Moxon-Browne agrees that these four are the predominant ways to view the conflict, however, he accentuates Whyte’s belief of many, varied solutions …show more content…
The two editors offer different views, as compared to Whyte, and cover the few topics that Whyte missed in his writing.
My Review John Whyte’s Interpreting Northern Ireland is a detailed work, focusing mainly on the Troubles. Whyte divides his book into logical sections which I benefitted from immensely. First the various facets of the conflict, the ways of interpreting the conflict, and finally possible solutions to the conflict. Overall, Whyte takes a neutral stance and presents a quite reportorial book on the topic. Whyte’s coverage of the various factors of the North Ireland conflict is near total. His target audience ranges from third party observers to budding historians. He cites the historians that surveyed and researched the topic, along with the actual data. He then goes on to analyzing and interpreting the data. This brings into focus the intertwining religious, economic, political, and psychological factors of the North Ireland conflict. Whyte strives to be unbiased, bringing to the table both the extreme and centrist
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Controversy swarms this topic because many believe partition to be an inherently evil British concept, along with it being one of the main causes for an escalated North Ireland conflict. John Whyte covered this topic using the Organizational Process method. When Britain decided to return Ireland to a state of Home Rule, the Ulster unionist backlash was huge. Faced with a crisis, Ireland’s officials were slow to act. Britain stepped in to try to hastily resolve the conflict. British parliament proceeded to view the conflict along pre-established nationality lines of Catholic nationalists and Protestant unionists. Parliament ignored the fact that many Protestant unionists were not organized or firm on their position against Home Rule. Britain did not understand that Protestant unionists were able to be coerced or appeased without partition. Britain also chose to partition because it was one of the first solutions presented, one that they were quick to use in foreign affairs. They failed to realize that countries like India and Palestine were thrown into decades of turmoil because Britain or Britain’s allies chose to partition the countries. Partition was also one of the resource efficient ways of calming down the Irish. After entering WWI, British attention was not fully focused on the North Ireland conflict. After hastily pushing Home Rule through, the final rejection
The British have reigned over the Irish so long and so cruelly that they have left Ireland in “state of dependence” psychologically, politically, and economically. In other words, the “ideology of Protestant consumption” has “actually eroded” the self-confidence and sense of worth of the Irish so badly that it has left Ireland a nation unable to sustain itself (Mahoney). England is eating up Ireland. But this tribulation cannot be blamed solely on the British. Swift cleverly condemns the British aristocracy for their mistreatment of the Irish people while also criticizing the Irish people for allowing this exploitation.
Loyalist fears: The Catholics in Northern Ireland had a lot of reasons to make them feel displeased. The Protestants made their lives very miserable, mainly I think because they felt very apprehensive of them. They were afraid that in a United Ireland Catholics would outvote them and they would lose control over the education of their
The true statement, although Dr. Dodds, and Conroy’s “...‘outsider’ status makes possible a useful degree of critical distance, ultimately Conroy and Dodds are ill equipped to explain communal passions that shaped political life in the North during the 1980’s”, is misleading. The statement suggest that Dr. Dodds and Conroy’s outsider status automatically gives them the ability to use critical distance, however both John Conroy, in his book Belfast Diary, and Dr Dodds, in Brian Friel’s The Freedom of the City, fail to use critical distance in their analysis of what is happening in Northern Ireland. Critical distance is defined as the introduction of a stranger into a society that is able to be detached from the society, and has the ability to recognize and empathize with all points of view within that society. In addition to that, the statement also seems suggest that Dr. Dodds and Conroy are the ill equipped to explain the communal passions in Northern Ireland simply because they are outsiders. However, even the locals seem to lack the ability to understand their own communal passions in the political conflict of the North during the eighties.
England was in favor of landlords in Ireland due to a good majority of the landlords to be English and that their taxes were benefiting England. This causes bias in newspapers and articles about the landlord’s behaviors which is clearly seen in this article. Historians can read the article and decipher what it was like for these landlords and how much of the article is trying to persuade their readers one way or another especially since it was written by an Englishmen. It is important in understanding the New Departure’s goals and motivations for the Irishmen and the move towards freedom for Ireland. It shows how tenants are willing to fight back against the government which in turn fuels the fire for rebellions and ultimately moves the Home Rule party deeper into existence even with landlords doing everything they can to stay in
The start of the Irish’ peoples struggles began when the British came and destroyed their way of life. The Penal laws of 1691 stripped Irish Catholics of their freedoms by taking away their rights to become officers
Violence, terror, suffering and death. The conflict that has been burning in Northern Ireland seems to be an unstoppable battle and it has flooded over the land of Northern Ireland. The struggle for power and the persistence of greed have fueled the raging fires of the opposing groups. The conflict in Northern Ireland has been discussed continually over the past few decades. Ever since the beginning of the “Troubles,” organizations have been scavenging to find a plan that will cease the violence. Throughout my research for this project, the questions of what are the main sources of conflict in Northern Ireland and why have they continued today guided me to many fascinating pieces of evidence that
Clearly, a large portion of the turmoil experienced during this type could be put down to the changing government of the period. Though democratically elected and in more direct control of the Irish nation, the Home Rule government what the Irish called the Free State in its first years was not as responsive to the people as some desired (Ferriter, n.d.). An effective civil service providing for many needs was set up, but the ruling party and government experienced internal strife over significant differences of opinion throughout this decade (Ferriter, n.d.). The government was a democracy, but a very young democracy, and with all of the problems that this youth entails in a newly freed and democratically empowered nation and population.
Identity is pivotal to the story and holds its own innate power, but what is even more pivotal is that the Irish do not necessarily all share the same views. The Irish find their history very important because it is the foundation of the language. Hugh says, “It is not the literal past, the ‘facts’ of history, that shape us, but images of the past embodied in language” (88). It is evident then that Hugh finds the historical meanings of
Irish independence has been fought for a long time ever since the British occupied Ireland in 1172. The King of England invaded and controlled Ireland. The invasion led to religious and territorial conflicts. There was an effort to create a church comparable to the Church of England in the 1500s. Catholics who live in Ireland were against the idea and a conflict for independence has emerged (Arena & Arrigo, 2004). The suppression of Irish nationalism by the British in the 20th century led to the creation of martyrs for the cause led by the Irish Republican Army (Combs, 2011).
The history of Ireland is one of early scholasticism and rich culture in times when the rest of Europe had less of a literary and artistic tradition. By the time of Hyde’s speech, the nation had become “one of the least studious and most un-literary”3 countries of the area, and he claims that the fault lies in a divergence from “the right path.”4 Progressive Anglicization has led the Irish to forget their own culture and its traditions. The British claim that because the Irish have forgotten much of their language and customs, they should be content as an integral part of the United Kingdom, and
The Irish had suffered long before in the hands of the English when Cromwell had been in control and had taken away land held by the catholic majority of the country to members of the protestant minority. This created a large tension among the population with the oppressed majority and the rather entitled minority who by Trevelyan’s snooty tone did indeed see themselves as the superior people in the country. (Trevelyan’s tone is probably the most dismissive when in discussion of the Irish, mayhaps showing his own true dislike.) (Trevelyan, p. 116-
In response to the Irish republican Army, what is now Northern Ireland established the Ulster Special Constabulary or “B Specials”. Starting in 1920, the Ulster Special Constabulary (USC) played a significant role in the unification and eventual founding of Northern Ireland. With a combination of various groups ranging from illegal to legal actions, the formation of Northern Ireland was shaped to have a unique and violent history until 21st century. Constantly looked at as the “Ulster problem” by all those around, policies and actions made by the North and the USC were greatly influenced by the attitudes surrounding this new nation.
Out of all the conflicts that have occurred in Western Europe since the Second World War, Northern Ireland has been one of the most bitter, long lasting and intractable. This conflict is based in the struggle of one side of the community for a unified independent Ireland and the opposition of the other part of the community to this aim and their desire for Northern Ireland to remain a part of the United Kingdom. Due to the hostility between these two sides issues of discrimination in areas such as housing, employment, electoral manipulations and religious histories have been rife. Northern Ireland is torn over the balance of power relations between communities and questions of governance.
The main objective of this research article is to explore the effect of long term violence and trauma in Northern Ireland’s on group of individuals using two sets of data. The first data was collected between 1985/86, at the peak of the violence and the other set was collected after the ceasefire period between 2005/06. (Dillenburger, Fargas & Akhonzada, 2008:1312). To achieve this objective, the researchers used an assortment of research techniques and methods of data collections. These includes, but not limited to, qualitative research method, narrative inquiry methodology, case study strategy, longitudinal method, in-depth semi structured interview, contextual analysis framework, participant observation, narrative data analysis, gate keeper approach and snowballing to mention a few. (Dillenburger, et al 2008:1312-1320).
Whereas others criticised Heaney for having an unbalanced view of the troubles. Readership was not affected as we know by Heaney’s sales and rewards but reviewers who might represent these readerships have differed widely in their responses to what the Swedish Academy praised as Heaney’s ‘analysis of the violence in Northern Ireland’.’