Works Cited

Yeats, W. B. The Celtic Twilight. Macmillan and Co., 1893. Print.

Yeats, W.B. “The Song of Wandering Aengus.” The Collected Poems of W.B. Yeats, edited by Richard J. Finneran. Springer, 1991. Pp. 59 – 60

Holdeman and Levitas. W.B. Yeats in Context. Cambridge University Press. 2010. Print.

Flannery, Mary Catherine. Yeats and Magic: The Earlier Works. Harper & Row. 1978. Print.

Foster, R.F. The Irish Story: Telling Tales and Making it up in Ireland. Penguin Books, 2002.

Synge, J.M. The Aran Islands. Penguin Books, 1992.

Yeats, W.B. The Stolen Child. 1889.

De Valera, Eamon. The Ireland That We Dreamed Of. Radio Broadcast, 1943.

O’grady, Standish. History of Ireland: The Heroic Period. Porteous and Gibbs, 1878.

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Remembrance Day Bombing

The Remembrance Day Bombing, also known as the Poppy Day Massacre, occurred in late 1987 in the town of Enniskillen. The bombing resulted in the death of ten people, nine civilians and one police officer, and the injuring of over sixty people.  The PIRA, who were responsible for the attack, claimed that the intended target was a group of British officers, however this did not assuage the anger of the public.

This was a turning point for the IRA and its factions; most people at this point in the Troubles were looking for a political or diplomatic way of solving issues with the British. With a large number of casualties to innocent civilians, the support for the IRA began to evaporate, and the militant control by the British only increased. It is for these reasons that this event is seen as the beginning of the end of the military force force that was the IRA.

About the Authors

ABOUT US

  1. Jade Chang: Hi! I’m second year Social Studies Adolescent Education Major at SUNY Geneseo. I’ve been interested in Irish history since I took an Immigration history class with Professor Mapes. While I originally came for the historical aspect of INTD 245, I found myself enjoying the literature, particularly the Yeats poems and his unrequited love for Maud Gonne. My paper focuses on how the Troubles are still occurring through problematic outlets such as the Orange Parades and murals.
  2. Carina Chanthabandith: I am a Psychology major and this is my second year here at Geneseo. I transferred in the fall of 2017 from Monroe Community College. I took this class because I was interested in learning something new and wanted to try something outside my comfort zone. Learning about the Belfast Agreement was interesting and I enjoyed the readings we did in class.  
  3. Eamon Danieu: I’m a senior history major.  I’ve had a strong interest in Irish history ever since my early childhood. While here I’ve tried to focus as many research papers as I could on some aspect of Irish history, and despite the morbid nature of the topic was glad to finally be able to delve further into the events of Bloody Sunday.  As an individual aspiring to make a career through law, it was particularly interesting to look at such a gross miscarriage of justice in the context of such a divisive historical background.
  4. Natalie Orman:Hey there! I am a first year History major at SUNY Geneseo. I took this class on Irish landscape and memory because I have always been intrigued by Ireland and its history. This interest rose when my sister went to Dublin and told me stories about the scenery, the people, and the food there. I had been eager to take a class on its rich history and culture, so I enrolled in this one and have been thoroughly enjoying it throughout the semester.

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Works Cited and About Us

Bloom-Cooper, Louis. “Bloody Sunday: Was the NICRA March Illegal or the Ban
    on Marches Unlawful?” Political Quarterly, vol. 77, no. 2, Apr. 2006, pp. 227–
    237. EBSCOhost, 10 Nov. 2018.

Broderick, Colin. That’s That: A Memoir. Broadway Paperbacks, 2013.
“CIVIL RIGHTS MARCH ATTACKED : DAY 4.” RTE Archives , 1 Apr. 1969,
    www.rte.ie/archives/exhibitions/1031-civil-rights-movement-1968-9/1039-peoples-    democracy-march-belfast-to-derr/319668-civil-rights-march-attacked-day-4/.
Deutsch, Richard and Gogarty, Frank. “The Founding of the Northern Ireland Civil
    Rights Association and Its Early Action.” Études irlandaises, vol. 12 no. 1, 1987. pp. 143-
    156. 5 Nov. 2018.
Devlin, Bernadette. The Price of My Soul. Pan Books, 1973.

Dorney, John. “Democracy in Ireland – A Short History.” The Irish Story, 3 Dec. 2018, www.theirishstory.com/2013/04/08/democracy-in-ireland-a-short-history/#.XAFm5hNKjOQ.
Hennessey, Thomas. A History of Northern Ireland:. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1999.

Hennessey, Thomas. Northern Ireland: the Origins of the Troubles. Gill & Macmillan, 2005.
Hennessey, Thomas. The Northern Ireland Peace Process: Ending the Troubles? New York:       Palgrave, 2001.
Maney, Gregory M. “Transnational Mobilization and Civil Rights in Northern
    Ireland.” Social Problems, vol. 47, no. 2, 2000, pp. 153–179. JSTOR, 5 Nov. 2018.
McCaffrey, Lawrence J. “Irish Nationalism and Irish Catholicism: A Study in Cultural Identity.”
    Church  History, vol. 42, no. 4, 1973, pp. 524–534. JSTOR, JSTOR,
    www.jstor.org/stable/3164971.
McKittrick, David, and David McVea. Making Sense of the Troubles. Viking, 2012.
MacKittrick, David, and David MacVea. Making Sense of the Troubles the Story of the Conflict in Northern Ireland. Chicago, IL: New Amsterdam Books, 2002.

Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency, www.nisra.gov.uk/.
R. Poole and J. Llewellyn, “The Northern Ireland civil rights movement”, Alpha History,
    accessed [10 November 2018], https://alphahistory.com/northernireland/northern-ireland-
    civil-rights-movement/.

Melaugh, Martin. “How Much Discrimination Was There Under the Unionist Regime, 1921-1968?” CAIN: Northern Ireland Conflict, Politics, and Society. Information on ‘the Troubles’., CAIN (Conflict Archive on the INternet) Project, cain.ulst.ac.uk/issues/discrimination/whyte.htm.
Salem, Rob. “The Troubles: Northern Ireland in the 1960s and 1970s.” Hindsight, Apr.
    2011, p. 18+. Glocat. 5 Nov. 2018.
The Irish Times. “Ian Paisley: ‘Never! Never! Never!’ and Other Notable Quotes.” The Irish
Times, The Irish Times, 12 Sept. 2014, www.irishtimes.com/news/politics/ian-paisley-never-never-never-and-other-notable-quotes-1.1 26880.
White, Timothy Jerome. Lessons from the Northern Ireland Peace Process. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press, 2013.

About Us

Natalie Amidon is a freshman International Relations major, whose individual project was on why most attempts during the Irish peace process failed.

Ciara Farrington is a senior Mathematics major. She individually researched the social and governmental policies that led to the Incident at Burntollet Bridge.

Emilio Garcia is a junior, majoring in English and focused his individual project on the IRA.

Hailey Merry is a junior Childhood Education with a concentration in History who researched the formation of the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association.

Olivia Schmidt is a freshman Biology and English major, who studied the religious divides in Northern Ireland as they affected political differences.

 

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Bloody Sunday 1972

Memorial dedicated to Bloody Sunday in Derry, Northern Ireland.
Bloody Sunday Centre located in Derry, Northern Ireland

On January 30, 1972 a shooting in the Bogside are of Derry in Northern Ireland occurred. In January of 1972, a ban on marches was put into place, and was extended into early February. The Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association, also known as NICRA, organized a peaceful protest against internment to occur on January 30, 1972. Even though marches were deemed illegal at this time, NICRA decided to continue with their protest. As the protest moved through the city of Derry, British soldiers shot twenty-eight unarmed civilians, and a total of fourteen people dies. Many protesters were injured due to the violence unleashed by the British. The Royal Ulster Constabulary used water cannons to attack the unarmed marchers.This was the highest number of people killed in a single shooting incident during the Troubles. Afterwards, the violence was blamed on the nationalists, not the British. This event increased Irish nationalist hostility towards the British army. It also increased support and recruitment for the Irish Republican Army. This event also created fear and anxiety within nationalists and Catholics because they feared that they would be blamed for actions that they did not commit.

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Glenfada Park

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“Jim Wray fell close to the alleyway, immobilized by a gunshot wound in the back…To the horror of eyewitness, Wray was approached by a Para who shot him again in the back, at very close range.  It was an execution of an already wounded man…” (1)

As the march turned to chaos with the sound of gunfire and the advancing Paras, a number of demonstrators found themselves trapped in the Glenfada Park  apartment blocks.  The South Glenfada Park was a square, 3 long apartment blocks and an equal length garage separated by alleyways and a large open space.  As the group of about 20 found themselves ensnared, a small contingent of Paras began moving in from the north.  One of them began indiscriminately firing into the forum.  It was during this opening salvo that Jim Wray was shot. (2)

Image of Rossville Street, showing numerous points of action from Bloody Sunday. Glenfada Park South is seen at the lower right.

As the four Paras moved in, a small group of young males tried to dash for the alleyway leading to Abbey Park.  The soldiers saw them escaping and opened fire hitting Joseph Mahon and William McKinney. (3)  As these two lay on the pavement, both seriously injured, Mahon watched in horror as a Para walked up to the still wounded and immobilized Jim Wray and executed the wounded man with another shot to the back. (4)  Before leaving, the British fatally shot two more individuals.  Gerard Donaghy and Gerard McKinney were in an alleyway leading to Abbey Park and safety.  However, seeing Wray on the ground both felt a compulsion to aid the dying man.  (5) As Donaghy moved into view he was shot in the abdomen.  McKinney following on his heels had time to see the Paratrooper taking aim at him.  He raised his arms above his head, pleading “Don’t shoot! Don’t shoot!”. Autopsy reports validated the eyewitness testimonials that his arms were over his head when he was fatally shot. (6)

The scene above is from the film Sunday.  Running from about 4:30-7:00 is the shooting in Glenfada.  The entire episode highlights both the indiscriminate violence of the Paras and the willingness to so callously murder civilians indicates that these attacks were part of a broader move to forcefully reassert dominance over the Bogside.

 


  1. Don Mullan, Eyewitness Bloody Sunday , edited by Don Mullan, Dublin: Wolfhound Press, 1997, pp. 126.
  2. Peter Pringle, and Philip Jacobson, Those Are Real Bullets: Bloody Sunday, Derry 1972, New York: Grove Press, 2001, pps. 191-192
  3. Ibid. pps. 192-193
  4. Mullan, Eyewitness, pp. 126
  5. Pringle and Jacobson, Those Are Real Bullets pp. 198
  6. Mullan, Eyewitness, pp. 126

Shooting of Jack Duddy

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In previous centuries, walls were breached with battering rams and siege towers. In Derry, in 1972 the Paras Support Company used armored personnel carriers, four ton trucks, and a Ferret Scout car to invade through Barrier 12, while C Company charged through Barrier 14 on foot. (1) Crashing through Barrier 12, four of the Pigs (the British armored personnel carriers) stopped at the Rossville car park.  In the next 10 minutes they would fire 108 rounds of live ammunition as well 64 rounds of rubber bullets.  In response, eyewitnesses describe a lone Catholic gunman fire off two or three shots from a revolver before retreating. (2)

This mural commemorates perhaps the most iconic moment of the entire day. Father Edward Daly waving a white handkerchief as a group of men carry a dying John Duddy.

17 year old Jackie Duddy was beside Father Edward Daly amid a crowd running across the Rossville car park, retreating from the foot charge of Company C.  As Daly ran beside Duddy he heard a single a shot from behind them and saw Duddy fall.  Willie Barber, another youth, and an unknown compatriot tried to lift the fallen teen and found him bleeding profusely. (3) Daly had taken cover behind a low wall at the end of the park and looked back to see Duddy laying motionless.  Grabbing his white handkerchief and waving it in the air, he began to slowly move towards the dying boy.  Three more joined him beside Duddy despite a few more gunshots seemingly aimed in their direction.  Together they were able to carry Duddy’s body out of the maelstrom, the first to die that fateful day. (4)

Duddy on the ground, to the left is Father Daly and to the right is Knights of Malta medic Charles Glenn.

Duddy being the first to die seems almost a fitting microcosm to the whole experience of the British experience in Ireland.  Dáibhí Ó Cróinín has argued that when the Anglo-Normans first arrived in 1167, Ireland had been on the cusp of coalescing into a unified nation.  That progress was violently arrested by the arrival of the English invaders however.  (5)  Similarly Duddy at 17 was full of promise, an aspiring and talented young boxer, some thought he even had Olympic potential.  He neither drank nor smoke, he was only at the parade at the behest of his friends.  Yet so too was all of this promise of a bright future cut short by a British incursion.


  1. Peter Pringle, and Philip Jacobson, Those Are Real Bullets: Bloody Sunday, Derry 1972, New York: Grove Press, 2001, pp. 139.
  2. Ibid. pps. 143-144.
  3. Ibid. pp. 147.
  4. Ibid. pps. 153-155
  5. Ó Cróinín, Dáibhí. Early Medieval Ireland 400-1200. New York: Longman, 1995. 

 

Borders, Boundaries, and their Function in Northern Irish History

Timeline of the Protestant and Catholic tension in Northern Ireland 

First, there is the cultural boundary created by English colonists within Ireland. On one side is the Catholic Irish who resented the English for taking their land from them and their ancestors and forcing a fundamentally and categorically different legal system upon them with a clear intent of perpetual repression. The other side is the Protestant Northern Irish who had strong cultural and historical connections and felt superior to the Catholic minority in Northern Ireland. This was a boundary that characterized Northern Ireland’s dynamic for a long time and presented itself through skirmishes like Bloody Sunday in Derry all while creating physical borders such as the Derry Walls and Peace Lines in Belfast.

Second, these borders perpetuated boundaries by physically showing the Catholic inferiority and the Protestant superiority. These borders then construct more boundaries in the form of aggressive murals and violent Orange Parades that cemented and exemplified cultural rifts throughout cities like Belfast. Beyond reasserting the boundaries within the society they further engender the same resentments within the younger generation influencing them to participate in these struggles.

Peace Wall in Belfast

Thirdly, the decision to work together on the Belfast Agreement which addressed the issues of borders by lessening the overpowering presence of the military enforcement in Northern Ireland. Deciding that violence was not good for those on both side of the walls, it was decided that a compromise would be struck between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland where Northern Ireland could stay under Britain’s rule, if all the citizens agreed to it, and the Republic of Ireland could convince them to join the Republic through peaceful means. It also encouraged cross-border relations by highlighting common ground where the two countries could work together to build a better sense of community.

The border crossing between Counties Down and County Louth. This international boundary between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland was once controlled by guard posts, yet the hard border no longer exists.

Finally, after the agreement the general physical borders were not taken down out of fear of tampering with history and also that subtle awareness that the boundaries still exist in many Irish hearts. This helps create historical memory, almost always tinged with bias, and that memory gets perpetuated by the preservation of physical representations of boundaries like murals. The amount of sheer ignorance of each other’s side is astounding. Even to this day, some people have no idea what is on the other side of the peace line barrier in their community. As recently as 2013 these barriers reinforced in social and physical form, it is common to hear taxi drivers whose route goes right next to peace lines have no clue what’s on the other side. (If you want to read a separate article of a man’s experience with modern Belfast and its divisions click here)

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Evolution of Irish Stereotypes

Negative stereotypes in Ireland trace back to their Celtic ancestors who were once openly criticized by outsiders as barbaric heathens with crude traditions and little understanding of the world. Druid traditions were labeled as “pagan” and were often exaggerated by conquerors and explorers such as the Romans as justification for their destruction. Julius Caesar once depicted a druid ritual as including the grisly sacrifice of numerous people within a giant wicker man as an offering to the gods. The truth of this is questionable, and is likely an early attempt to codify the Celts as barbaric. While it is likely that ancient forms of human sacrifice existed, connections to the druids seem especially biased and circumstantial. The Druids and Celts were also portrayed as a warmongering people; seekers of battle and destruction.

Druids inciting war.

This stereotype lived on with the English and their conquest of the Irish. It is a common trend among conquerors to justify themselves and establish their superiority over those they have conquered by labeling them as barbaric, uncivilized savages. Englishman, Edmund Spenser, provides a perfect example of this outlook through his essay: A View of the State of Ireland (1596), in which he describes the Irish people as  “barbaric”, “heathenish”, “brutish and filthy”, and “superstitious”. His specific emphasis on their laziness, criminal nature, and love of war as indications of their evil nature is telling of his bias towards the Irish people and his goals of persuading the English public against towards them. Spenser’s use of these negative stereotypes illustrates their harmful potential; a sort of weaponized opinion against the Irish people. To label the entirety of the Irish people in such a negative light is unrealistic and can only have been done with the intent to influence public opinion against the Irish.

Even as opinion of the Irish people evolved to encompass more positive characteristics, the lingering notion of Irish nature being rooted in a barbaric and uncivilized history prevailed. English overseers (Big House Ascendancy) of the Irish remained suspicious of their Irish subjects, always afraid of their true motivations. There would always be something just below the surface that those of English descent couldn’t quite trust, a result of lingering stereotypes towards the Irish as murdering criminals and liars, no doubt. The Famine would further accentuate the dangerous nature of these lingering stereotypes as the English refused to provide the Irish with aid in their time of need, in part due to the idea that the Irish simply weren’t working hard enough to fix the problem themselves.

“Barbaric heathens” evolved into “promiscuous, lazy drunkards with a penchant for violence”, and while the second would prove less dangerous to the Irish people, it was no less derogatory and continued to reinforce English superiority over the Irish. With revolution came nationalism, and the attempt to dismantle negative stereotypes and replace them with new Irish ideals.

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Terence O’Neill Becomes Prime Minister

Terence O’Neill was a member of the Ulster Unionist Party, however, he was constantly involving himself in Catholic affairs–meeting with them, attending events, and actively trying to reverse statutes excluding and downgrading them. This didn’t sit well with other Unionist members, or men like Ian Paisley, who saw O’Neill as a traitor to Protestant beliefs. O’Neill wanted to integrate Catholics and improve relations, but Protestant fears were too strong. Despite his efforts to heal strained tensions between the two groups, O’Neill likely pressed too hard, especially on the Protestants, and they withdrew further into prejudice. O’Neill was very heavy-handed with his Catholic collaboration, and although there are times that can work, the Protestant population was very stubborn, and more likely to recoil at the efforts than follow in his example.

      Terence O’Neill, Prime Minister 1963-69.