Why was Northern Ireland mostly peaceful from the late 1920s to the mid 1960s?

Upvote:0

I'm gonna guess the Depression of the 1930's, WWII and the aftermath that lasted well into the 1950's. From there, actual growth in Wester Europe and the US probably kept folks decently employed.

The social and economic turmoil of the late 1960's and early 1970's was a common theme across western society.

Upvote:1

It should be mentioned that the IRA did have campaigns in both the 1940's and 1950's but were heavily repressed by the governments in the North and South.

Upvote:4

I think a few issues were important in the timing of the Troubles. Free secondary education came in after World War II and this helped create a vibrant, Catholic middle class. The civil rights movement in America was hugely influential and this came together with a housing crisis which highlighted the discrimination in the allocation of council housing. In 1966 the UVF initiated a bombing campaign which it blamed on the then dormant IRA. Into this heady mix entered the Rev. Ian Paisley and the rest, as they say, is history.

Upvote:20

Revolutions and uprisings tend to occur when youth population booms coincide with political or economic oppression. Ireland had a post-WWII baby boom like many Western countries and the 1970's was when enough of those people were in their twenties and unhappy with the situation they were born into.

There is something unique about being between 15 and 30: the energy of youth, not having the responsibility of children yet, the desire for mobility whether the system you live under allows it or not. You can read a brief summary of the "youth bulge" concept in this article from the Council on Foreign Relations.

You could also read:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Population_pyramid#Youth_bulge

or

http://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=youth+bulge+theory&hl=en&as_sdt=0&as_vis=1&oi=scholart&sa=X&ei=_r08VdWiGsfUggTUwYDABg&ved=0CBsQgQMwAA

There are numerous articles out there that apply this concept to everything from the 2011 Arab Spring, to the uprisings of 1968, to what many expect will be coming up soon in Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, the Pacific Islands, and Africa.

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