Northern Ireland Riots in September 2005
The riots in Northern Ireland came to me as no surprise. The area has always been extremely unrest and will continue to be unrest until the people are represented. There are no unions and no human rights.
The “Socialist Party” a magazine published in the United Kingdom. It is a very anarchist based magazine and bases all of its articles on how the government is destroying the country. It covered the Northern Ireland Riots quite differently than BBC news did, which is also based in the United Kingdom. BBC News covered it as a horrible attack by people that do not understand the government. The Socialist Party covered it as a right of the people to express what they want.
“The Scenes in Belfast and other Northern Ireland towns last weekend give a stark warning that the ‘peace process’ could at some point unravel and be quickly replaced by widespread sectarian conflict” (Party, S.) The Socialist Party expresses that the people are beginning to become unrest and that soon there will be conflict throughout the entire country. In BBC News, “Community leaders in Northern Ireland must back the forces of law, Secretary of State Peter Hain has said,” (News, 2005) they are saying that the people are completely wrong and that this needs to be put to rest.
The biggest difference in the articles is the first paragraph of both of them. The Socialist party states that the riots “were sparked when the Parades Commission (a government body appointed to decide on the routes of contentious parades) refused to let an Orange Order parade pass through part of the mainly Catholic Springfield Road area of Belfast” (Party, S.). BBC news states that the riots erupted “after a Protestant Orange Order parade was re-routed away from a nationalist area of west Belfast on Saturday” (News, 2005). Even though it is just a small change in wording, both articles begin with a completely different attitude. The Socialist Party is describing the people that wanted to parade as hopeless people that are at the mercy of the government, while BBC News is showing the people as stubborn people who have to have everything their way.
The Socialist Party states that “500 plastic bullets were fired by soldiers and police” (Party, S.). BBC News states that “Up to 500 plastic bullets fired” (News, 2005). BBC News statement that 500 plastic bullets were fired was put into a box with all of the other things that the rioters did, making it look like the rioters fired 500 plastic bullets. This is a major difference in the articles because it does not give exact facts, instead it lets the reader make their own assumption as to who fired the plastic bullets.
The other large difference between the two articles is that the Socialist Party does not go into detail as to what the rioters did to civilians. It simply goes back into the history of why the rioting would have begun in the first place. BBC News goes into personal stories about fathers and children being injured, making the public feel hate towards the rioters.
Here are two sections of the article that have two completely different sides of the story on the riots.
The Socialist Party in Northern Ireland is building support within the trade unions and in Catholic and Protestant working class communities for working-class unity and socialist ideas. By building campaigns such as the We Won’t Pay Campaign against the introduction of water charges, working-class communities can be united across the sectarian divide. Part of this process will be to expose the sectarian political parties and paramilitaries who are opposed to unity of the working class. On a capitalist basis there can be no solution. Only on the basis of a struggle for socialism can sectarian division be broken. A new party of the working class based on the trade unions and genuine community groups and with a socialist program must be built now. (Party, S.)
A statement from the Parades Commission rejected suggestions it was to blame for the disorder which followed Saturday’s Whiterock parade. “This is entirely wrong and is a transparent attempt to shift blame from those who refused to accept the rule of law and encouraged violent protests,” it said. “Those who call people on to the streets must accept their role in the violence which follows such calls.” Mr. Hain said the violence was tearing communities apart and had to stop. “I think if leaders of the Orange Order actually saw the video I saw this morning of Orangemen taking off their collarettes and throwing rocks at the police, I think the leaders of the Orange Order would be as horrified as I was,” he said. Mr. Hain also confirmed that he will be making an announcement in the coming days regarding the status of the Ulster Volunteer Force ceasefire. (News, B)
Both of the passages show different outcomes to the resolution. The socialist party wants to create a new organization and new foundation for the country, while the reporter from BBC News states that there should be a ceasefire, and the parties responsible should take all blame and move on. Neither of these outcomes will obviously occur, so more rioting and war will continue in the area.
The reason that I was not surprised at the riots in Northern Ireland is mainly due to the fact that I stereotyped the culture. I grouped the culture of Northern Ireland into one stereotype and assumed that they always have wars and riots. Since stereotype is “a belief that people who belong to the same category share common characteristics” (Brinkerhoff, 2005 p. 212), I know that I stereotyped the Northern Ireland culture.
The BBC News article definitely uses a prejudice view in their article. They make the rioters look horrible and depict them in a very negative image. Since “prejudice moves beyond stereotyping in that it is always a negative image” (Brinkerhoff, 2005 p. 213), it is obvious that BBC News is very prejudice of the rioters. They do this so that the people reading the article become prejudice of the rioters as well.
The Socialist Party, however, uses the same technique. They are extremely prejudiced towards the government. Everything that the government does is portrayed as extremely negative. They portray the government like this for the same reasons that BBC News portrays the rioters negatively. They want the reader to hate the government as well.
Both of the news sources also use selective exposure. They only want the reader to read what is good for their point to the story. The point of the story for BBC News is to make the rioters look bad, so they only publish the parts that make the rioters look bad. They do not publish anything about how they want their own rights, because some people may agree with that. The Socialist Party does the same thing as they do not publish anything positive about the government.
The two news sources do not agree on very much information except for the hardcore facts. Both news sources agree that 1,000 police and 1,000 soldiers were deployed. They also both agree that hijacking was prevalent in all cities of rioting. Other than that, the two articles do not agree on very much at all.
The title “Riots show failure of peace process” by the Socialist Party and “Leaders must ‘back forces of law” by BBC News shows that the articles are completely different to begin with. The Socialist Party is going after the peace process that the country was trying to continue and directly attacks the government. BBC News goes after the rioters and expresses its concern for law. Both articles are extremely negative, but the negativity is aimed at each other.
Such widespread rioting has not been seen in Northern Ireland since the Orange Order were refused leave to march through Garvaghy Rd in Drumcree in the late 1990s. Since then, demographic changes have created new flashpoints of sectarian conflict across the North. As Catholic communities continue to expand and enter mixed or Protestant areas, new fronts are created. The ‘Troubles’ have not disappeared but changed from one form into another. A mixture of military stalemate, war-weariness and opposition from workers, led to the calling of the ceasefires in 1994. Since then, the so-called ‘peace process’ has led to an unprecedented level of sectarian polarisation. The Troubles have developed into a drawn-out war of attrition over territory and control over areas. It also led to violent confrontation over the routes of parades. (Party, S.)
This passage from the Socialist Party Article show that they are completely against the government. They want nothing more than to slander the government in any possible way. They make them look like inconsiderate human beings that have no emotion for the working class of Northern Ireland.
At the weekend, Sir Hugh said the Order bore substantial responsibility for the rioting and attacks on his officers. The Orange Order described his remarks as “inflammatory”, but Sir Hugh rejected this. Belfast’s most senior Orangeman, County Grand Master Dawson Bailie, told the BBC on Monday that the Orange Order was not responsible for the weekend disorder. When asked if the Order condemned the violence, he said: “As far as I’m concerned the people to blame for that are the secretary of state, the chief constable and the Parades Commission, fairly and squarely.” He added: “I’m not condemning anything at this moment in time.” (News, B)
The same thing can be seen in this article as BBC News makes the Order look like they do not care if they burn down the entire city. While none of this information is noted in the Socialist Party coverage, it is on here because BBC News wants everyone to believe that the Order is nothing but animals.
“While most research on prejudice has focused on how a person’s negative stereotypes contribute to intolerance, new research by Princeton University’s Susan Fiske, PhD, indicates that emotions such as pity, envy, disgust and pride may play a bigger role. In fact, according to Fiske’s research – conducted with Princeton doctoral student Amy Cuddy and Lawrence University psychologist Peter Glick, PhD – these emotions appear tied not only to people’s prejudicial ideas about social, cultural and religious “outgroups” they don’t belong to but also to discriminatory behavior – an important, but often overlooked aspect of prejudice, said Fiske during an APA Board of Scientific Affairs Master Lecture at APA’s Annual Convention in Honolulu” (Chamberlin, 2004).
This passage directly describes why I thought about the riots the way I did. I pitied them more than anything for going through years upon years of wars and riots, and now it is happening again. I was not surprised, but I still pitied the people. Another reason that I felt the way that I did is because I have never experienced a riot. I have never been through what the people in Northern Ireland have been through. As in this statement, “In order to come to reconciliation, to mutual enrichment, you have to experience people up close. And in order to do that, you have to lose your safety zone” (DeAngelis, 2001). I could never bring myself to go to Northern Ireland and experience the riots that they go through.
We learn to hate and fear in the same way we learn to love and admire. Prejudice is a shared meaning that we develop through our interactions with others. Most prejudiced people learn prejudice when they are very young, along with other social norms. This prejudice may then grow or diminish, depending on whether groups and institutions encountered during adulthood reinforce these early learning’s. (Brinkerhoff, D.)
This statement is saying that even though prejudice is trying to be fought worldwide, it is brought into the life at a very early stage. No matter what is told to the person after they become an adult, if prejudice was stressed to them their entire life, than they will have the prejudice within them. These rioters were probably told that the government was not good from the time they could understand how to talk and communicate.
The reason that the two articles go after each other the way they do is expressed by “Psychologists and other social scientists have established that racism, racial discrimination and ethnic conflict and violence are pervasive and persisting challenges for the United States of America and the international community” (Paige, R.). There is still so much prejudice in the world today and it is prevalent in these news articles.
The two articles have a lot in common in psychology terms. They are both very prejudice and very selective in what they publish. They only have one common goal and that is to have the reader hate whoever they are against. Though the information in both articles is almost exactly opposite, they are very similar articles.
Despite remarkable strides in the reduction of overt discrimination and negative attitudes, such behavior toward minorities remains a significant problem in American society. Discrimination in housing, health care and hiring still exist, and negative stereotypes of minorities continue to show up on national surveys. But some of the most striking findings come from social psychological studies of people who maintain outward attitudes of equality – that is, who do not consider themselves prejudiced. For example, when white research participants are asked to evaluate candidates for a job, they rank highly qualified and poorly qualified blacks and whites similarly (i.e., they recommend that they be hired or not hired). Yet, when the candidates’ qualifications are ambiguous, they recommend hiring the white candidates significantly more often than the African Americans, and feel more strongly about their recommendations for the former. (Anderson, 2003)
I understand why I reacted as I did because of my prejudice. As the article states above, I am not prejudice of the people in the sense that I will never talk to them, deal with them, work with them, or hate them forever. I am prejudice of the people through pity. I feel bad for the Northern Ireland culture and I expected more riots to happen there. That is why I was not surprised when riots broke out in the area.
The two subcultures covered the story the way they did because they are also extremely prejudice of one another. If the story had been covered by a person that did not live in the community, have goals in the community, and had nothing to do with Northern Ireland, the coverage would have been completely different. But, because both of the sources covering the news have goals and statuses in the community, they must do their best to make themselves look as good as they can, and their opponent to look as bad as they can.
We’ll have to see just how effectively peace and politics replace war and terror. For if a widely satisfactory political solution doesn’t emerge in the near future – and there simply may not be one that appeals to the extremists and reins them in – violence could return with a vengeance, sinking Northern Ireland back into bloodshed and hatred. The will may be there to end the violence, at least for now, but it’s not at all clear that this new effort will solve the problem of Northern Ireland. (Stickings, 2005)
When Northern Ireland agreed to put its arms down and try for peace, everyone was extremely skeptic. If one party agrees to lay down its weapons, the other has to agree as well. While both of the news articles focus on their negative points, what both of the articles should have done was expressed the need for peace from both parties.
The violence must be halted and democratically elected unionist politicians given the space to directly confront the Government over real Protestant/ unionist grievances which have become all too palpable in recent months. These grievances are seen by even the most moderate observer as a significant underlying reason for the general unrest, and social breakdown in some areas. The Parades Commission, the unelected quango, which, for reasons of its own bias, is in the eye of the storm and it has got to be stood down to be replaced by a fairer, more accountable system of administering contentious parades. Secretary of State Peter Hain, while deliberately playing the blame game for his own political ends, did acknowledge that a deep frustration within unionist communities was partly the catalyst for the latest street disturbances. However, when Mr. Hain moved on to call on unionist politicians to demonstrate leadership, he did leave himself open to the charge about his own absenteeism role as Secretary of State, for during the past week he spent only one day in the Province at a time when firm Government direction was needed. (Riots)
An article about the riots from a Northern Ireland newspaper a few days after the riots erupted states that same thing that most of the people in Ireland are saying. There needs to be a meeting of the two parties, they need to sit down and discuss the problems that are going on. Though the rioters should not have started the things that they did in the previous weekend, it got the attention of almost the entire globe. The government must act fast to correct the problem or there will be continued trouble in the area.
Though I never believe that Northern Ireland will finally come to a resolution, the main thing that would help them is to be accepting of each other. The government needs to know what the people want, and the people need to understand that government needs a little regulation so that there is not complete chaos. This can never occur if the prejudices that exist today in Northern Ireland continue. If the two parties put their prejudices aside, they would be able to think critically and help each other instead of fight each other. They would be able to sit down and have conversations about their problems instead of riots and wars. They would also be able to communicate more effectively and hopefully engage in a lifelong learning while serving a global community. The two parties could eventually become one of the strongest in the world if they would help each other instead of destroy each other. It will take years of discussion and understanding for the two parties to overcome the prejudices they have. Every time something happens, it will just be pushing the knife deeper into the prejudice feeling. The riots were just the latest event that pushed the two parties away.
Works Cited
Anderson, N. (2003, Apr 4). Psychological science for the supreme court. American Psychological Association, 34. Retrieved Nov 16, 2005, from http://www.apa.org/monitor/apr03/rc.html.
Brinkerhoff, D. (2005). Essentials of sociology. 6 ed. Belmont, CA: Thomson Wadsworth.
Chamberlin, J. (2004, Oct 9). What’s behind prejudice?. American Psychological Association, 35. Retrieved Nov 16, 2005, from http://www.apa.org/monitor/oct04/prejudice.html.
DeAngelis, T. (2001, Apr 4). Thwarting modern prejudice. Monitor on Psychology, 32. Retrieved Nov 16, 2005, from http://www.apa.org/monitor/apr01/prejudice.html.
News, B. (2005). Leaders must ‘back foreces of law’. BBC News, . Retrieved Nov 16, 2005, from http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/4236208.stm.
Paige, R. U. (2005). Proceedings of the American Psychological Association, Incorporated, for the legislative year 2004. Minutes of the meeting of the Council of Representatives July 28 & 30, 2004, Honolulu, HI. Retrieved November 18, 2004, from the World Wide Web http://www.apa.org/pi/lgbc/policy/hate.html.
Party, S. (2005). Riots show failure of peace process. Socialist Party, (15-21).
Riots hitting working class protestans the hardest. (2005). News Letter, . Retrieved Nov 16, 2005, from http://www.newsletter.co.uk/story/22624.
Stickings, M. (2005, Sept 11). More trouble in belfast. The Reaction, Retrieved Nov 16, 2005, from http://the-reaction.blogspot.com/2005/09/more-trouble-in-belfast.html.
