Category
Oral - Textual or Investigative
Description
This paper examines the origins and course of Queen’s University student activism in late-1960s Belfast, on the ‘cusp’ of the Northern Irish Troubles. Many Americans are familiar with the history of student riots in the U.S. in the late 1960s; however, far fewer Americans realize that nearly the entire western world was similarly embroiled in such riots, most of which converged in the year 1968. Northern Ireland, a part of the United Kingdom that seems to defy definition as a political entity (particularly among its own people, who may describe it as a country, region, or province), was not immune to this trend in the late 1960s. Northern Ireland is unique, however, in that its civil rights demonstrations eventually devolved into a violent civil conflict, called the Troubles, which lasted roughly three decades. Shadowed to a certain extent by the proceeding years’ turmoil, the increasing prevalence of paramilitary violence within that time, and even the more widely-studied activities of community-based pressure groups, the role of ‘peaceful-yet-radical’ Queen’s University student activists in the Northern Irish civil rights movement is often overlooked. Thus, through analyses of primary and secondary sources, this research discusses the history of Protestant and Catholic tensions in Northern Ireland, the origins of the wider Northern Irish Catholic civil rights movement in the 1960s, and the development and early evolution of Queen’s University student activists’ aims and leadership. In this way, this research contextualizes and evaluates the student- and youth-led dimension of the civil rights movement that swept through Northern Ireland in the late 1960s and ultimately set the terms for the proceeding sectarian conflict.
“The Most Hopeful Time”: A Contextualization and Evaluation of Northern Irish Student Activism on the Cusp of the Troubles
Oral - Textual or Investigative
This paper examines the origins and course of Queen’s University student activism in late-1960s Belfast, on the ‘cusp’ of the Northern Irish Troubles. Many Americans are familiar with the history of student riots in the U.S. in the late 1960s; however, far fewer Americans realize that nearly the entire western world was similarly embroiled in such riots, most of which converged in the year 1968. Northern Ireland, a part of the United Kingdom that seems to defy definition as a political entity (particularly among its own people, who may describe it as a country, region, or province), was not immune to this trend in the late 1960s. Northern Ireland is unique, however, in that its civil rights demonstrations eventually devolved into a violent civil conflict, called the Troubles, which lasted roughly three decades. Shadowed to a certain extent by the proceeding years’ turmoil, the increasing prevalence of paramilitary violence within that time, and even the more widely-studied activities of community-based pressure groups, the role of ‘peaceful-yet-radical’ Queen’s University student activists in the Northern Irish civil rights movement is often overlooked. Thus, through analyses of primary and secondary sources, this research discusses the history of Protestant and Catholic tensions in Northern Ireland, the origins of the wider Northern Irish Catholic civil rights movement in the 1960s, and the development and early evolution of Queen’s University student activists’ aims and leadership. In this way, this research contextualizes and evaluates the student- and youth-led dimension of the civil rights movement that swept through Northern Ireland in the late 1960s and ultimately set the terms for the proceeding sectarian conflict.
Comments
Undergraduate - 3rd Place Award Winner