With the killing of two British soldiers and a police officer in Northern Ireland beginning March 8th, there is fear the province may return to the sectarian violence that absorbed world attention during the 1960s and 70s.   Until Saturday, the neighborhoods of Belfast had been peaceful since a landmark peace treaty eleven years ago.   Here is a list of facts and terms to help you understand the conflict.

Ireland is an island with the Atlantic Ocean to the west and the Irish Sea to the east.

The Governments:
Northern Ireland is not the same as Ireland.  It is part of the United Kingdom, along with England, Scotland and Wales and it is ruled by the Queen of England.  Northern Ireland encompasses the six northeastern counties of the Island.  Like the rest of the United Kingdom, Northern Ireland is predominantly Protestant. The Capitol of Northern Ireland is Belfast.
Ireland is the Republic of Ireland and it covers five-sixths of the land mass of the island.  The Republic includes the 26 counties in the south and west.  Its inhabitants are mostly Catholic.  The Capitol is Dublin.
Synonyms:
Ulster –  Though one-third of Ulster lies outside of Northern Ireland, Ulster is commonly used as a synonym for Northern Ireland .
The Republic – a synonym for Ireland.
History:
Battle of the Boyne, July 12, 1690 -   William, the Protestant King, also known as William of Orange defeats the Catholic King James in Ireland.   The Catholic majority of Ireland succumbs to the laws of England.
Easter Uprising, 1916 – A rebellion by Irish Catholics in Dublin who wished to take political control back from Great Britain.  The effort failed to achieve “Home Rule”, but energized the Catholic majority.
Partition, also known as The Government of Ireland Act, 1921 – Under international pressure, Britain divides the Island in two:  Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.
The Troubles – Period between 1963 to 1985 when the conflict between Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland turned violent.   The “trouble” was sparked by the election of a new Prime Minister for Northern Ireland, Terrence O’Neil, who sympathized with the political and social problems of Catholics, which in turn, prompted fear among Protestants who thought their power would be diminished.
Paramilitary Groups:
Definition:  organizations of armed protestors whose mission was change through violence.  In Northern Ireland, the paramilitary groups were divided along religious lines.
Catholic:
IRA – Irish Republican Army.  Paramilitary group founded in 1922 to reunite the partitioned Island into a full independent Ireland.
Provisional IRA – 1969. A splinter group more violent than the IRA, determined to force the British off the Island.  Claimed 1,800 killings of Protestants during the Troubles.
Continuity IRA -1986.  Created during a split with the Provisional IRA.  Suspected of a series of bombings in the late 1990s.
Protestant:
UVF -Ulster Volunteer Force,  1912.  Protestant. Created to oppose Home Rule which was favored by Catholics.  Revived in 1966 to avenge IRA attacks on Protestants.  The UVF’s tactics involved bombing Pubs frequented by Catholics.
UDA – Ulster Defense Association, 1971. Protestant.  Formed to protect Protestants from attacks by Catholics.  Banned in 1996 for suspicion of violent acts.

Political Parties:
Protestant:
Ulster Unionist Party, 1921- the dominant political party until the Troubles.
Alliance Party, 1970.  It’s central position left it vulnerable to criticism for the Hunger Strikes .
DUP- Democratic Unionist Party, formed in 1971 by Protestants dissatisfied with reform policies of Prime Minister O’Neil. The largest political party in Northern Ireland.

Catholic:
Sinn Fein, 1905, modernized in 1970.  Pronounced SHIN-FANE.   Long associated with the IRA, now the largest political party among Rebublicans or the independent Irish.
SDLP, Social Democratic and Labour Party, early 1970s -the largest among Republicans during the Troubles.
Law Enforcement:

RUC – Royal Ulster Constabulary, Police force of Northern Ireland.

British Army- summoned during the troubles to assist the RUC.

Miscellaneous:
Gerry Adams-leader of Sinn Fein as it rose to political prominence.
Marching Season-  April till October when many civic parades take place; the most controversial occur in the three days leading up to the July 12th Observance of The Battle of the Boyne, a victory for the Protestants.  During the Troubles, these parades by Protestants would come close to the Catholic neighborhoods to provoke tension and violence.
Hunger Strikes- 1980,81. A series of hunger strikes by paramilitary prisoners to protest a change in status from Prisoner of War, to that of ordinary criminal.  The hunger strikers galvanized popular support for the Catholic prisoners.
Bobby Sands- The most famous of the hunger strikers who died from refusal of food and water in 1981.
Shankhill Road-  The Protestant “Main Street” in Belfast.  The location of attacks and bombings by the IRA during the Troubles.  Colored with Unionist murals.
Falls Road – The Catholic “Main Street” in Belfast, scene of protests, riots and bombings in the 1960s and 70s.  Home to a mural of Bobby Sands.

Peace:
Good Friday Agreement:  1998, endorsed by the majority of people, both north and south, amending inequities in human rights, policing and justice, and stipulating an end to sectarian violence.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton might make a trip to Northern Ireland sooner than planned.  Three murders in the last five days don’t seem cause for international alarm, but for those who remember The Troubles, the killings are foreboding.

It’s hard to believe, but decades before the world focused on the struggle between Islamic Fundamentalists and the West,  the war between Protestants and Catholics in Northern Ireland was the most serious conflict on the globe.

On assignment; Belfast, Northern Ireland, 1988

“The Troubles”, as they’re called over there, are not a battle about religion; the Pope hasn’t been involved in 500 years.  It’s really about political dominance and economic opportunity.

For centuries, control of Ireland fell increasingly to the British, until a partition agreement in 1921 divided the island in two; the primarily Catholic Republic of Ireland in the south, and the Protestant Northern Ireland in the northeast corner,  governed as part of the United Kingdom.

While most of the population in each country accepted the split, political and economic advantage in Northern Ireland favored Protestants because theirs was the government in power.  Catholic rebels vowed to unite an independent Ireland; the loyalists or British were determined to keep their presence on the province.   It was a conflict that stewed as mostly a national story until the turbulent 1960s saw an outbreak of violence and hunger strikes and then it was on every TV in the world.

Central New York has close connections to Northern Ireland.  Like much of the Northeastern U.S., many of our ancestors emigrated from Ireland before the partition.  Our former Congressman James Walsh (R-NY) sponsored the Irish Peace Process Cultural and Training Program in 1998 and was an agent of the breakthrough Peace Accord that same year that removed the country from the headlines.

And an Irish woman named Kathleen Kelly settled in Syracuse and since 1980 has brought 6,500 pre-teens from Northern Ireland to central New York with the Project Children organization.  Kathleen hopes the children will return home after a summer with American host families to reverse decades of intolerance.  There is no purer form of detente than what a child sees.

Photojournalist Dan Roach tapes street scenes.

In 1988 I went to Northern Ireland with a producer and a photojournalist from WTVH-TV to research a report on Project Children.  We identified two children from Belfast who would come to Syracuse that summer, a Protestant boy and a Catholic girl to see what their life was like before their stay in the U.S..  Never did I fear for my safety as I did that one week.

The claims that Protestants had better housing, better education, and better jobs due to their majority rule in British Parliament was confirmed, and resentment among Catholics was complete.  Both sides had been killing each other since the 1960s so no one trusted anyone, including us.

When Dan Roach and Paul Burke and I stopped in a pub for a beer one night, the subtle questioning about our politics felt so much like surgery we got out of there sooner than you can say Londonderry.

Maureen with Sinead, a Project Children girl bound for Syracuse

We learned while taping our interviews, you’d better not stand too close to the tall concrete walls that divide Catholic and Protestant neighborhoods, or the sound of your presence will prompt a rock or molotov cocktail thrown blindly from the other side.  We backed away many times.

Trouble at a wall which divides neighborhoods by religion.

If America is challenged by race, at least the combatants can  identify the enemy.  With much less to go on than the color of one’s skin, the information needed to practice your prejudice in Northern Ireland comes from where the other person lives and conducts his business, and because the interest in such things is so obvious, it’s considered as rude to bluntly ask for a person’s address as it is for us to ask “how much money do you make?”  So strangers go through a complex conversational dance to determine if the new acquaintance is a loyalist (Protestant) or a Republican (Catholic).  Sometimes mistakes are made and if the examiner is part of a paramilitary group he might order the wrong person be shot in the knee cap, a common form of intimidation and punishment in Northern Ireland.  In that case, sorry.

Paul and Dan, off the clock in Belfast

The landscape of a Belfast neighborhood, 1988

Not since 1999 has there been a political killing reported in Northern Ireland, but that changed Saturday with the fatal shooting of two British soldiers.  Monday a police officer was shot and killed.   An Irish paramilitary group claimed responsibility for all three.

Protestant and Catholic political leaders rushed to condemn the acts this week,  a rare unified statement observers hope will be enough to prevent more violence, but there’s a tense undercurrent.  In Northern Ireland,  an eye for an eye mentality usually answers three killings with three more. No one wants to return to the bloodshed that crippled this picturesque and culturally rich corner of the globe.

Keep an eye out for the news coming out of Northern Ireland.   In the meantime, I’ll submit a primer on The Troubles tomorrow.