Northern Ireland in the 1980s: A Decade of Failed Attempts and Hardened Fronts

Seminar paper from the year 2008 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Culture and Applied Geography, grade: 2,0, University of Leipzig, course: Hauptseminar Northern Irish Women’s Writing , language: English, abstract: This essay analyzes the situation in Northern Ireland during the 1980s, focusing especially on the historical and political dimensions of the Northern Irish conflict. It sets out to show the 1980s in Northern Ireland as a decade of failed attempts to bring peace to the region, analyzing the reasons for the failures and sketching out the reactions of the political parties towards these attempts. Furthermore it represents an attempt to show the historical, social and political background of the Northern Ireland conflict, which arose out of the conflict between the two communities living in the region, a conflict which is not only a religious one, but rather the result of differences in social situation, ethnical and cultural identity and political expectations and wishes of the people of Ireland, all of which is the result of the Irish history which began many centuries ago. With the analysis of the political situation during the 1980s, this essay also attempts to show the antagonism in Northern Ireland, which is not genuinely motivated by religion but rather results out of different political ambitions than out of different beliefs.