On Sept. 28, 2001, when Irish journalist Martin O’Hagan and his wife walked home from a bar on Lurgan’s Market Street in Dublin, a car pulled over next to them. Suddenly, a gunman opened fire from within the car, shooting O’Hagan to death.
O’Hagan was the first journalist murdered because of his investigative work on the loyalist paramilitaries during Northern Ireland’s “The Troubles.” It was a period of ethno-political tensions and violence between the Protestant unionists and Catholic nationalists. Communities of Protestant unionists in support of the British rule are to this day in conflict with Catholic nationalists seeking a united Ireland. Today, terrorist acts between the two groups still occur, reinforced by the political battle between the Unionists and nationalist.
Starting in the late 1960s, “The Troubles” consisted of numerous violent campaigns and terrorist attacks and took the lives of over 3,000 people. In 1998, a peace agreement was signed between the two groups and a peace wall erected in Belfast, the capital of Northern Ireland, to keep the rival Protestant and Catholic factions apart.
The religious opposition between the Catholics and the Protestants dates back to 400 AD. Over the years, Protestants have constituted a significant percentage of the overall island population, and a majority in what is now Northern Ireland. Sectarian troubles ranged from minor disagreements to appalling acts of violence. Until now, the Catholic extremists have carried out 26 incidences. Protestant extremists, though less publicized, have also fought back fiercely.
In the past few years, the British government has fought successfully against terrorism, leading to an 87 percent decline of terrorist attacks in Northern Ireland. Recently the Irish government arrested Colleen LaRose and Jamie Paulin Ramirez, two American women, on the charges of having ties to the Northern Irish terrorism. Both women were released soon after it was confirmed that they were not a threat to anyone’s safety. Yet their arrest showed that despite the decline in terrorist attacks, the fear of violent acts will be present until conflicts between the Catholic and the Protestant forces are solved. “Real peace will be achieved one day,” as journalist Paul Williams said, “when we do not need a peace wall.”
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