heath and northern ireland

irish republican army (IRA)

split between the official IRA and provisional IRA in 1970 (republican)

irish national liberation army

formed out of the official IRA in 1974 (republican)

ulster defence assosiation

formed in 1971 (loyalist)

ulster volunteer force

formed in 1966, leader was a former british soldier (loyalist)

initial involvement

• ulster unionists had always been part of conservative and unionist party

• heath supported brian faulkner, UUP leader

• supported night time curfew and introduction of internment (1971)

• measures meant that british army came to be regarded as enemy in power by catholics and army

number of people interned

august 1971: 300 people were interned

1971-75: 95% of those interned were catholics and mostly innocent

bloody sunday (jan 1972)

• northern ireland civil rights association organised march to protest internment in derry

• resulted in british army firing live amunition

• british embassy in Dublin burned down

• april 1972: tribunal held and ruled that british army had acted in self defence- angered nationalist communist party

bloody sunday violence

• 26 unarmed civilians shot

• 14 killed

• 2 rundown by army vehicles

incidents in 1972

• 1382 explosions

• 109,628 shooting incidents

• 480 people killed

heaths response

• march 1972: heath suspended the starmant parliament and brought in direct rule from westminister, appointing willie whitelaw as secretary of state

ulster unionist party

ruled NI between 1921-72

democratic unionist party

formed in 1971

alliance

formed in 1970 and aimed to gain support from both catholics and protestants