committed by the IRA.

While understanding the methods used does not equal complete support (Lynch and Joyce 2018, 188), the obdurate IRA operated with relative ease, as few nationalists dared to oppose it. The increased violence by some militant nationalists led to, in turn, increased violence by some militant unionists, creating an unbreakable cycle that bounced back and forth between sides. While historically, the Catholics have been continually discriminated against (making them the victims in many stories), unionists had their fair share of troubles as well. It is untruthful to say that no harm befell the unionists during this conflict (as many of them were injured/killed by IRA attacks), but the narrative established by the nationalists during this time had longer roots, dating back to the struggles they had been faced when the English came into the country and colonized it.

During the 1960s, disadvantaging practices regarding housing, employment opportunities, the right to vote, and education were commonplace for Catholics across Northern Ireland (Beggan 2006, 63). With the IRA in “retirement,” nationalists took to the streets to protest and demonstrate. The state had two options: to repress the movement or politically open up to their demands (Beggan 2006, 63). Instead of using peaceful methods, the state pushed back violently, with actions such as republican-only internment without trial and opening fire on marches, leading to events like Bloody Sunday. These became the “consequences” for the civil rights movement, leading to this idea that fighting for equality could possibly get oneself killed. These circumstances were similar to many other movements across the globe, such as the black civil rights movement in America and the casualties that it wrought. The public, international view of the republican plight during this time was sympathetic, with many siding with the Catholics. There were comparisons of Bloody Sunday to the Sharpeville Massacre, and the prime minister of Ireland called it “an unwarranted attack on unarmed civilians” (Beggan 2006, 72; Fackles 1980, 28). There were photographs and televised accounts of the bloodshed, media with pictures of injured children and corpses being broadcasted around the globe. For a little while, the international support (in countries such as the United States with large Irish populations) of the insurgency was high, Many felt empathy for the nationalist marchers who were gunned down when protesting for their rights, and the injuries on the unionist side, while not as significant, were diminished in the face of the collective victimhood of the Catholics.