Discuss The Pros And Cons To The Partition Of Ireland

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Examining the alternatives to the partition of Ireland suggests that it was the correct course of action, as the alternatives could have had far greater consequences (Kauffman 128). Firstly, Britain could have granted Home Rule to a united Ireland and forced the Ulster Unionists into submission (Kauffman 128). However, this creates several issues, primarily that this would have created more violence. As in Ulster, they had created a Volunteer Fighting Force, which by 1914 had 85,000 to 90,000 members and was constantly improving training and equipment (Kauffman 128). As a result, it was deliberated in London that quashing this uprising would have required a majority of the British Army, and taken anywhere from one to two years (Kauffman 130). …show more content…

Resulting in the ‘Troubles’ which started in the late 1960’s and claimed approximately 3,400 lives (Kauffman 131). Primarily caused by Catholics calling for increased civil rights, which the Protestant parliament took as a zero-sum situation, as any improvement for Catholics means a loss for Protestants (Anderson 91). However, though Catholics in Northern Ireland had no problems participating in national-level (UK) politics they for five decades had no visible impact on the Northern Ireland political and local body scene, due to gerrymandering and certain legislation which disenfranchised many Catholics (Kauffman 154). Thus, instigating a several decade’s long, low-intensity guerilla war, which ended in 1998 with the Good Friday Agreement (GFA) (Anderson 92). Establishing, Consociational power-sharing between Protestants and Catholics, North-South Irish cross-border institutions representing both parliaments, and inter-governmental bodies within Britain, representing Ireland (split between North and South) and an internal Irish issues human rights commission (Anderson