Ireland, divided into the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, and being part of the United Kingdom, presents a history made up of difficult paths, fights, agreements an outcries.
After WWI, in 1920, the Government of Ireland Act enshrined the first division. The free State of Ireland was announced, separated from the 6 protestant counties in the North-East of Ireland, in the Ulster area, being part of UK. The main purpose was to split the catholic group, independent for its majority, from the protestant one, bound to UK. From that moment onwards, Ireland nationalists, mainly catholics, stressed their willingness to reunify both Countries and to create an independent State, an aim clearly opposed to the unionists’ one, mainly protestants.
As concerns WWII, Northern Ireland took part as a UK’s region, while the Irish Free State (it changed its name in 1937, due to the entry into force of the New Constitution) was neutral. In 1949, the Republic of Ireland Act entered into force, by setting forth the status of Republic of Ireland and by leading to its withdrawal from Commonwealth.
The Troubles
The main causes of the outbreak of civil strife in Northern Ireland, the so-called troubles, were the discrimination suffered by the Catholic minorities in Ulster. The wave of European protest in Northern Ireland in 1968 resulted in a movement of civil strife, demanding fairer and more respectful rules for Catholics from the United Kingdom. The Northern Ireland police, the Protestant Royal Ulster Constambulary, violently repressed the demonstrations, triggering an escalation of strife and unrest. Thus began the Troubles, which characterised Northern Irish history until the end of the 20th century. The Provisional Irish Republican Army - often simplistically called the IRA - was the military arm of Sinn Féin during the decades of the troubles. Armed struggles, prisoner strikes and bombings in the 1980s were out of control. It was not until April 1998 that the Good Friday Peace Agreement was signed by the British government, chaired by Tony Blair, the Irish government and eight Northern Irish political parties. The understanding recognised that Northern Ireland, through the will of the majority of its citizens, was part of the United Kingdom. It was stated that citizens would be free to choose reunification with Ireland at any time: in the event of conflict, the British government would be obliged to hold a referendum and respect the result.
Sinn Féin, past and present
It is precisely from the Provisional IRA, dissolved in 1998 with the Good Friday Agreement, that present-day Sinn Féin is trying to distance itself. The aim of the Sinn Féin party, which means 'ourselves' in Gaelic, has - since its foundation in 1905 - been to achieve full Irish national sovereignty. The beginning of the 20th century also saw the birth of the two parties that are still protagonists in Irish politics today: Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil, both conservative. Since 1998, the year of the end of the conflict, Sinn Féin has been trying to make its way into both Irish and Northern Irish politics. It was only in 2018, with the election of new leader Mary Lou McDonald, that the party really began to move away from the more controversial aspects of its history. Mary Lou McDonald, unlike the previous leader, has never had ties to the Provisional IRA and, on several occasions, has condemned the military organisation's past violence.
In recent years, Sinn Féin's election results have been unexpected. In the February 2020 elections in the Republic of Ireland, it was the party with the highest number of first preferences (single transferable vote system). In spite of this, Sinn Féin could not govern, as there were insufficient numbers and the two conservative parties that had bipolarised the country for the last century were able to ally and form a government. In May 2022, elections were held for the Northern Ireland Assembly: on this occasion, the left-wing nationalist party won a relative majority of seats in parliament and appointed one of the two prime ministers. Northern Ireland is currently still in a political stalemate and an executive has not yet been formed.
Post-Brexit relations
Political alliances within Northern Ireland are also so fraught for reasons related to Brexit: the DUP (Democratic Unionist Party), Sinn Féin's historic rival, is strongly opposed to the Northern Ireland Protocol, a treaty within the broader UK-EU agreement that introduces the backstop mechanism, seen by some as the first step towards the unification of the two Irelands. It is an instrument that would allow Northern Ireland to remain in the European single market and customs union, effectively thickening the border with the rest of the UK. The solution is designed not to tighten the border with the Republic of Ireland again, with controls on people and goods, and not to risk slipping back into pre-1998 tensions.
Before leaving the European Union, the United Kingdom was the Republic of Ireland's main trading partner. Today, costs and customs controls have been introduced and flows have changed: Ireland increasingly trades directly with mainland Europe and the UK no longer acts as a bridge.
A 2021 census, published last week, shows that for the first time in Northern Ireland's history the number of Catholic people has exceeded the number of Protestant people. The higher birth rate of Catholics suggested the result years ago, but it is nonetheless a symbolically important figure.
The Sinn Féin leader believes that the border poll, the referendum on reunification, could take place as early as in the next few years, but it is not up to the Northern Irish authorities to call it, but rather, as stipulated in the Good Friday Agreement, up to the British authorities, who will only proclaim it if and when the strong popular support for unification becomes impossible to ignore.
Sources:
“Elezioni in Irlanda: riunificazione dopo la Brexit?”, 2021, affarinternazionali
“Un voto cruciale per il futuro dell’Irlanda del Nord”, 2022, affarinternazionali
“Irish general election: Sinn Féin tops first preference poll”, 2020, BBC
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-51432660
“La vittoria di Sinn Fein in Irlanda del Nord: cosa significa per il Regno Unito?”, 2022, ISPI
Libro “I cristiani d’Irlanda e la guerra civile (1968-1998), 2006, Paolo Gheda
“Irlanda del Nord: Sinn Féin primo partito nel parlamento locale”, 2022, euronews
https://it.euronews.com/2022/05/07/irlanda-del-nord-vittoria-elettorale-storica-per-il-sinn-fein
“Brexit impacts on Dublin port…”, 2021, Dublin Port Company
“2021 Census”, Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency
https://www.nisra.gov.uk/statistics/census/2021-census
“Nell’Irlanda del Nord i cattolici sono diventati più dei protestanti”, 2022, il Post
https://pixabay.com/it/photos/dublino-casa-irlanda-europa-4955328/?download
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L'Autore
Melissa Cortese
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Ireland Brexit Europa Religione