ACROSS THE BARRICADES
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by Joan
Lingard
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(Puffin Books 1973)
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START
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Summary
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Extract
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My Opinion
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The Northern Ireland
Conflict
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(This is the second book of the
trilogy “Across the barricades”)
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Summary
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This story is about two young people
living in Belfast. The girl, Sadie, is a Protestant and the boy, Kevin, is a
Catholic. They
have been friends for years.
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At the beginning of the story they
have just met again. Even through they know that their relationship is
dangerous, because
there are a lot of conflicts between Catholics and Protestants, they decide to stay
together. Their parents don’t support the relationship, so
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Kevin and Sadie tell lies to their
families and meet secretly. The situation is becoming more
dangerous than even; the fights between Catholics and Protestants are more and more
violent: Pubs are in flames, insults are written on the walls and the Two Sides fight each other to death.
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Mr Blake is an old Protestant
widower, who lives outside the city in a big house, alone with his dog. He is a friend of Sadie’s.
Sadie trusts him and tells him about all her problems with Kevin. Even though Mr Blake is a Protestant
and knows Sadie’s family very well, he’s for
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peace. And so he agrees to help
them. He gives them the opportunity to see each other in his house. Sadie decides to leave
her job, because many people criticize her for going out with a Catholic boy. Sadie and
Kevin often meet at Mr Blake’s house. One day Mr Blake
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invites them to a trip to the
country in his car. Suddenly the wheels of Mr Blake’s car come loose and they have an
accident. Mr
Blake is injured and has to be taken to hospital.
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Sadie and Kevin want to know who is
the responsible. They have many suspicions but no proof. Kevin realizes that it may
be him who is the cause of their problems. Before the accident he fell out with his old
Catholic friend, because he didn’t want to fight against
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Protestants. The troubles are going
on; more and more people are victims of this religions conflict.
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At the end of this tragic <war
and love> story Mr Blake dies. A killer throws a bomb into his house. Kevin feels depressed and
guilty, so he decides to leave the city for another place to live. Sadie follows him
secretly… On the ferry to England they find each other again.
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TOP
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EXTRACT
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“I wouldn’t want it back now
anyway,” said Kevin.
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“Not after what’s happened.”
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“And what are you going to do?”
asked his father.
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“We‘ve another mouth to feed in
this family now.”
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“I’ll go down to the Labour
Exchange in the morning and see what they’ve got.”
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It did not take long to find out.
They were sorry but they had nothing at all that they could offer him. He was not
apprenticed, he had no trade,
three years in the scrap business was not much of a help for anything else, there were
not many scrap yards in the city and no one was asking for labour, and unemployment in the province
was high, as he must know. Kevin nodded at each piece of information. Before he had gone
he had had no hope. He would have to draw the dole and from time to time he might get some
casual labouring to do.
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He was out of work. The full
realization of it dawned upon him as he walked around the City Hall. Days to
fill. He was too
restless to lean on street corners with the others. He would walk for miles and end up wearing out shoe
leather and that would cost money. Money… There was seldom enough to go around
anyway.
And he would have little to spend on himself.
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He thought of Sadie and Mr Blake
and wished that he could go out and see them. For a moment he was tempted, but then his
resolve hardened and he thought, no, he must not go, he
must leave them alone. That way they, at least, might get peace.<<
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TOP
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My
opinion
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I have found this book very
interesting because I like eventful topical subjects.
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The writer uses a good
language for a love story: She uses few and simple words to express deep
feelings. With the example of the two families she shows very well the
different mentalities of the two religions. She deals with the problem of
Northern Ireland very seriously and gives the reader an idea of its hard
reality.
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When I read this story and tragic things happened I felt involved and
cried with the characters. Fortunately after all these sad
events there is a happy ending, and this gives hope.
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TOP
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CAIN Web
Service
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Some Frequently
Asked Questions
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The Northern
Ireland Conflict
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Why is the conflict
referred to as ‘the Troubles’?
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‘The
Troubles’ is a euphemism that is commonly used in Northern Ireland, and the
Republic of Ireland,
to refer to the most recent of civil and political unrest, and violent
political conflict (from 1968
to the present). The term has been used in the past to refer to other periods
of conflict particularly
the Anglo-Irish War (or the War of Independence, 1919-1921). The term
‘Troubles’ was frequently
used in a social context at ‘wakes’ or funerals where people who wanted to
express condolence
would often say “sorry for your troubles” to the relatives and friends of the
deceased. It
may be that the use of the term was extended from this context to cover wider
social and political
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conflicts.
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When did the conflict begin?
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Even
with over 30 years of hindsight there is no absolute agreement on the date of
the start of the recent
violent conflict in Northern Ireland. A number of dates have been used by
different writers: the Civil Rights March in Derry – 5 October 1968; the beginning of the ‘Battle
of the Bogside’ – 12 August
1969; the deployment
of British Troops – 14 August 1969; or the re-emergence of the UVF in
1966. (Non-violent conflict – political conflicts, economic conflict, etc., -
have been a feature of society
in the region since the early part of the 17th century. On numerous
occasions this conflict has
resulted in periods of serious and sustained violence.)
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What is the main reason of
all the trouble in Northern Ireland? Is religion a big part of it?
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The
conflict in Northern Ireland is usually explained in terms of the different
constitutional aspirations
of the two main sections of the community in the region. Many Catholics
consider themselves
to be Irish and are Nationalist in political outlook, that is, they would
like to see the whole
island of Ireland reunited (and independent of Britain). Most Protestants
consider themselves
to be British and are Unionist in political outlook, that is, they want
Northern Ireland to remain
part of the (union of the) United Kingdom (UK) of Britain (England, Scotland,
and Wales) and
Northern Ireland.
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The
correspondence between religion, culture, and political outlook is the result
of a historical accident.
During the ‘Plantation of Ulster’ in the early 17th century the
Scottish and English settlers, who moved
to the north-east of Ireland to take ownership of confiscated lands, were
Protestants and
had strong cultural ties with England and Scotland. The native Irish who were
forced from their land
were Catholic and culturally Irish. Although religion was not the determining
factor in the conflict
between the people living in the region, it has a special significance as it
was used as a marker
to distinguish and discriminate between sections of the community. As a
consequence of
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the
plantation Protestants acquired land and wealth. Various pieces of
legislation were introduced to
reduce the status of Catholics. The inequalities between the two sections of
the population persisted
to the late 1960s and were the main cause of the Civil Rights Movement that
eventually led to
the re-emergence of violent conflict.
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Is the conflict
over?
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Many
people believe that the current period of violent conflict, ‘the Troubles’,
in Northern Ireland is (almost)
at an end. However, Northern Ireland in recent years has experienced
continuing violence not
only from those paramilitary organisations which are ‘active’ (that is, did
not declare a ceasefire -
IRA; CIRA; RHD; OV), but also from some organisations which are supposed to
be on ceasefire (UDA, UFF, LVF, IRA). So the period of ‚peace’ since the
first ceasefires (which were broken and renewed by some organisations has been an
imperfect one.
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However,
conflict (in the form of political conflict, economic conflict, etc. )
between the two main communities
has a long history, almost 400 years. There have been many bouts of violent
conflict in
the past and there is no guarantee that
people will not resort to violence in the future. Simply on the
basis of previous experience one would have to say that another period of
violence is a possibility.
In the meantime Northern Ireland is likely to continue to experience an
imperfect peace. It will require a fundamental shift in
the nature of the relationship between unionists and nationalists
in the region for violence to be avoided in the future.
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When did the current violent conflict end?
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It
may prove as difficult to agree on a date for the end of ‘the Troubles’ as
it is to agree on the date of beginning of the violent conflict.
There have been a number of significant events and development:
the second IRA ceasefire - 20 July 1997; the Good
Friday Agreement -10 April 1998;
Referendum on the Agreement - Friday 22 May
1998; the first meeting of the Northern Ireland
Assembly – Wednesday 1 July 1998; the Armagh
Bomb – Saturday 15 August 1998; the beginning
of the new Devolved Government –
Thursday 2 December 1999.
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In the future to be based on
equality?
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Protestants
are still the majority of the Northern Ireland population; at the 1991
Census the estimate
was 58 per cent with 42 per cent Catholic (based on revised figures). The
Catholic population is continuing to grow although there is uncertainty
about when Catholics
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will
form a majority of the population. There is speculation that the Religion
Report of the 2001 Census
will show the Catholic population at 45 or 46 per cent of the population.
There is evidence that
among the current (2002) under-16 school population 50.66 per cent of
children are Catholic (Department
of Education Northern Ireland).
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While
‘majority rule’ appeals to some in the Protestant community it has certain
drawbacks as the size
of the two communities draw closer to 50 per cent. The most important
disadvantage is that a community
that holds all the power on one day could find itself with none following a
small change in
voting patterns. For this and other reasons many people argue for the
sharing of power. In the case
of Northern Ireland there is a strong case for that sharing to be done on
an equal basis regardless
of the size of the respective communities. Just recently there have been
some interesting
examples of equality of treatment. More as a result of voting patterns then
by design
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the
new Executive has six Unionists and six Nationalists members (First
Minister, Deputy First Minister,
and ten Department Ministers). The Patten Commission
on the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC)
recommended that recruitment in the
future should be on a 50 per cent Catholic and 50 per cent
Protestants basis.
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TOP
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START
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