Contradictions and Struggles in Northern Ireland

Abstract

The essay which follows was written in August 1971, shortly before internment and the escalation in violence which came with it. Overnight everything seemed to have changed : the scale of events, the lines of battle and the political issues and priorities. Until then it had been possible (by stretching things a little) to interpret the conflict as a confrontation between Catholics and Protestants, with the British Army in an essentially mediating role. Now, it seemed, the mask had finally been dropped : the British Army was engaged in a one-sided combat against Republicans and left-wing radicals. So completely had it adopted the provocatory function and the repressive zeal of the Protestant extremists that the latter were no longer needed in the streets. Their weight now only made itself felt on the political stage in the form of a threat of impending backlash.