![]() ![]() All this is where the conflict now euphemistically known as “the Troubles” has its roots. The discrimination embedded within it gave rise to the Civil Rights movement of the late 1960s. This border, encircling six of the nine counties of Ulster, created the gerrymandered statelet of Northern Ireland (the remaining three counties, Donegal, Cavan and Monaghan, were excluded due to their Catholic majority). ![]() It was the result of the Anglo-Irish treaty of 1921, itself the result of a two year guerilla war of independence against British forces by Irish republicans. ![]() The border, now frequently referred to in news items about Brexit negotiations, trade agreements and the backstop, is nearly one hundred years old. But there remains a striking lack of historical or political context when these matters are discussed, little to no awareness shown of Britain’s colonial history in Ireland, its relationship to the forces of unionism and loyalism, and to which various shades of Irish nationalism and republicanism formed as a response. Brexit has arguably increased awareness of the region somewhat, bringing discussions of the Irish border and the 1998 Good Friday Agreement to the fore, and the 2017 election result introduced the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) to a British public hitherto largely ignorant of their existence. British understanding of Northern Ireland generally comes in the form of a set of isolated tropes, often to do with terrorism and bloody atavistic conflict. ![]()
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