Making Sense of the Troubles: A History of the Northern Ireland Conflict

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On the nationalist side the SDLP dominated, having taken 22 per cent of the overall vote and representing in one party virtually all of constitutional nationalism. Nationalism had by this stage regrouped into two very distinct and opposing positions, most Catholics voting for the SDLP. Republicans were not, however, represented, having boycotted the elections: in the 1980s they would build a significant vote but during the 1970s they did not contest elections. Most of those who opted for a violent path came together in the IRA, known in those days as the Provisional IRA, which believed in an eventual republican victory achieved through force. Only a few individuals and organisations, such as Bernadette Devlin, the rump of the Civil Rights Association, and the Official IRA, did not align themselves with either of the two large nationalist groupings. The gruesome story of the Troubles never became boring because each side had a flair for original or striking twists. The hunger strikes were really something. For politicians, it was like being trapped in a horror film, only it was real. Here’s how it got to be that way. Imagine this.

Really, as civil wars go, it was not much to write home about. The United Nations estimated casualties of the Sri Lankan civil war as somewhere between 80 and 100,000 killed between 1982 and 2009. Now that’s what you call a civil war.There are some amazing quotes in this book. Here are two about the IRA. The first is from the Rev Dr Ian Paisley, who recently died. A very remarkable man. He was always good for a soundbite. This is him in 1994 : Are we going to agree to a partnership with the IRA men of blood who have slain our loved ones, destroyed our country, burned our churches, tortured our people, and now demand that we should become slaves in a country fit only for nuns’ men and monks’ women to live in? We cannot bow the knee to these traitors in Whitehall, nor to those offspring of the Vatican who walk the corrupted corridors of power. In 1972 a total of 498 people were killed in Northern Ireland, which had a small population of around 1.5 million. It was a very violent place. The total body count of The Troubles is 3,739 between 1966 and 2012 (but the murders have not been in double figures since 2004.) Now – can anyone tell me how many people have died in Iraq’s complex internal wars since 2003? Is anyone counting? And that’s just one example. How long have you got? The names of Ian Paisley and Gerry Adams were mere boogymen. To be conjured as insult on the teenage playground. “You fancy Gerry Adams!” “Would you rather kiss Gerry Adams or marry Ian Paisley?” He sounded out loyalist paramilitaries too, on one occasion meeting loyalists wearing masks and sunglasses in his Stormont Castle office. But a few days after his encounter with republicans a brief IRA ceasefire broke down. The IRA and the British government had met face to face, each concluding that the other was unreasonable and in effect beyond political reach. The IRA stepped up its violence with a vengeance, while loyalist groups also began killing on a large scale.

Although the rejectionist Unionists were against Faulkner and against Whitelaw, personality and political differences meant they were clearly not united in leadership, aims, methods or alternatives. Political groupings, and sometimes loyalist paramilitary groups, from time to time formed umbrella groups but these tended to be shifting, unstable and suspicious coalitions which knew what they stood against but disagreed on what they stood for. Five journalists spent seven years writing “Lost Lives”, a chronicle of the deaths of some 3,500 people killed in the Northern Ireland conflict. Entries include interviews with witnesses to their deaths and with the victims’ families, some conducted decades later. The book is out of print. But a film released in 2020 includes extracts, read aloud and set to music. (It is available via the BBC in some countries.) The film’s depiction of shootings, abductions and bombings, accompanied by photographs and archive footage of families and funerals, many of them for children, is a harrowing and heartbreaking reminder of the trauma experienced by two communities. ■ The factual reportage in Making Sense is flawless, but the story told is not neutral. Of course, no account of the Troubles can be. Yet after reading Making Sense, one leaves with a sense that: a) Northern Protestants really don’t like Catholics; b) republican violence stems from a ideological struggle while loyalist violence is just sectarian hatred; c) the British government could have done more from 1921 forward, but were frustrated by intransigent unionists. All entirely acceptable to believe if one wishes, but by no means a neutral or fair position. The other hungerstrikers weren’t far behind. Seven days after Bobby Sands, Francis Hughes died, 9 days after him came Raymond McCreesh and Patsy O’Hara on the same day, 18 days later, Joe McDonnell, and so on…. Ten men, all in their mid-20s, dying of starvation one after another, between May and August. It was so gruesome. Whether the new government system succeeds or fails, however, there is a widespread sense that a corner has been turned. It is too much to expect a future of friendship and harmony, for all those involved inflicted much damage on each other. Yet it is not too much to hope that the major campaigns of organised violence are in their last days, and that the death toll will continue to decline."Within the Unionist community, however, many did not believe that Stormont was secure or that the IRA was on the road to defeat. This was put most forcibly by William Craig, who had been roundly beaten by Faulkner for leadership of the Unionist party. He formed an organisation called the Ulster Vanguard movement, and, while remaining a member of the Unionist party, used Vanguard as his own power base, designing it as an umbrella group to enlist as many supporters as possible from the various loyalist groupings which were springing up in response to the mounting tension. It offers hope. Do you think Palestine and Israel can ever get along? Do you think there will ever be an end to tribal warfare in Africa? The history of northern Ireland says yes. Even though Catholics and Protestants still regard each other with suspicion, and even though there is still a fierce climate of mistrust and fear, at least they have stopped shooting each other. The chronology can be summed up like this: sectarian violence, despair, hope for peace, distrust of the peace process, sectarian violence... cycle repeats ad nauseum with a rotating cast of characters through the decades. How did it end? The families of the 13 other hungerstrikers, the ones who hadn’t yet died, insisted they stop – they were terrified, they were out of their minds, they knew the British government didn’t care a hoot, and the prisoners eventually listened to their families and stopped. I felt the book would have been much improved had it opened with a scene far in the future, describing the carnage of a roadside bomb, leading up to the question: "So how did we get here?" That would be a dramatic way of setting up the book and making the reader more interested in how the ancient conflict began.