Commentary on the question of Northern Ireland, speech by James Callaghan

Commentary - James Callaghan on the Question of Northern Ireland

On April 22nd, 1969, Mr. Paul Bernard Rose, MP for Manchester Blackley, declared about the Northern Ireland issue: “An almost uncontrollable situation has developed because too little has been done too late”. ^[1] This quotation and the speech studied today are taken from the same session in the House of Commons on a quite controversial topic: the question of Northern Ireland. It follows another one that preceded, the day before. Several MPs expressed their point of view, as did Mr. Paul. B Rose (Manchester, Blackley), Mr. R. Chichester-Clark for Londonderry, Bernadette Devlin for Mid-Ulster, and other MPs from Northern Ireland. James Callaghan, MP for the Labour Party, takes part in the debate as British Home Secretary.^[2] 

Just a bit of context in order to understand the issue, the relations between Ireland and England have always been ambiguous; after further fallen attempts to impose the protestant reform over Ireland, the island became the laboratory of English colonisation, settling English colonists in parts of the north of Ireland, creating a multicultural and multireligious society.^[3] This is important to understand the root of the conflict. After several Irish rebellions, Westminster and the Dublin Parliament passed Acts which created the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland in 1801.  But English control over Ireland was constantly questioned, and Irish Nationalists power was growing by the end of the 19th century. Violent rebellions started in 1916; and in 1918, the Irish Republican party of Sinn Féin won the General elections in Ireland, and proclaimed, a year later, the independence of Ireland. However, the north of Ireland remained hostile to Nationalist rebellions; in 1920 the Government of Ireland Act created the parliament of Northern Ireland and Southern Ireland, establishing a partition. A year later, the Unionist party won the elections in Northern Ireland, while in the south of Ireland most of the seats were won by the independentist party. In 1921, the Anglo-Irish Treaty officially recognised the establishment of the Irish Free State. However, the treaty gave the right to Northern Irish States to opt out of the Free States, and they did so in 1922 despite the growing violence between Protestants unionists and Catholics nationalist.^[4] Northern Ireland became the first region of the UK to experience devolution, having its own government. To this date, the Unionist party remained undefeated. But, by the end of the 1960s, violence and tensions between the two communities in Northern Ireland increased, threatening the stability of its government.

In his speech, James Callaghan addresses the growing tensions in Northern Ireland. In order to treat this controversial and current topic, he tackles several aspect of the issue: first, he focuses on the question of political representation in the Northern Irish government, addressing the systemic issues of this society; it leads him to point out the political growing divide and growing social tensions, calling for the British government to react.  This allows him to remind the MPs  he is facing by giving this speech the role of the Westminster Parliament in foreign affairs and especially regarding Northern Irish issues, which he describes as particularly alarming. There is a double challenge for the British Parliament in the Northern Irish issue : avoiding the collapse of a nation; and having a stranglehold over Northern Irish territory but securing the autonomy of the Northern Irish government at the same time. By linking sectarian conflicts and political representation, he points out both the role of the Westminster Parliament and the Northern Irish Parliament in the rise of tensions and in the implementation of urgent actions.

We may wonder then; how does this speech given in the House of Commons underline the necessity of a British political answer to the regional conflict in Northern Ireland by addressing the importance of representation at a time of rising tensions? In the first part we will study in which ways Callaghan mentions the dichotomy of ideologies that are confronted with the hegemonic power of the Unionists, in a second part we will demonstrate how his speech serves in raising the voice of the forgotten ones, and in a final part we will analyse how Callaghan does so by giving a warning on the emergency of the Northern Irish problem.

        To begin with, let’s focus on how Callaghan’s speech underlines the opposed ideologies present in Northern Ireland and how it allows to explain the political monopoly of the Unionist Party. As a matter of fact, the divide within Northern Irish people is rooted in the country’s history. If Northern Ireland is “part of the United Kingdom, and proud to be so” as said by Callaghan on line 9, it is because of the colonisation of the Irish territories from the end of 13th century by the Poyning Law, which established the submission of the Irish Parliament under the British Crown. British planters were sent from 1610 to colonise the land and submit the native Gaelic people to the Protestant reform. Having troubles to impose their religious reform throughout the whole island and facing violent disputes, Protestant reformers ended up settling on the North of the country. This choice was strategic as it allowed a better control of the area thanks to its proximity with the British coast. Whereas the rest of the country grew into Catholic beliefs, the Northern part of Ireland became characterised by its protestantism and its British values. In the following centuries, the national and religious differences between Protestants and Catholics remained prominent and gave way to new political philosophies^[5]. On one side, a nationalist movement emerged in Ireland and wished for a self-government. On the other side, the protestant population of Northern Ireland wanted to remain part of the United Kingdom and became known as “unionists”. This divide led to the partition of Ireland in 1920, but it did not resolve the religious issue. Indeed, as Callaghan points out on line 39: “[...] for all the people, not just the Protestants.”, it must be understood that a number of Catholics still remained in Northern Ireland, and were being strongly discriminated against by the protestant sectarianism. The Catholic minority felt like outsiders as they lacked a cultural identity and had no secure national identity compared to Protestants. Because there were approximately 890, 000 Protestants out of a population of more than 1,5 million in Northern Ireland^[6], Catholics became second-class citizens and were not represented by the Unionist Government which imposed their supremacy over Northern Ireland.

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