Post-colonial Literature for ChildrenEDU32PLC

Week 9 - Lecture 18

Conflict in the Post-colonial

world

© La Trobe University, David Beagley 2006

References

Wars and Conflicts – The Troubles http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/war/troubles/index.shtml

http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/index.html

Anderson, CC. (1997) Born to the “Troubles”: the Northern Ireland conflict in the books of Joan Lingard and Catherine Sefton. The Lion and the Unicorn. [online] 21(3): 387-401. Available: Project Muse

The Troubles

The Troubles refers to the period of violent conflict in Northern Ireland beginning with the Civil Rights marches in the late 1960s to the political resolution enshrined in the 1998 Good Friday Agreement. During that time more than 3,000 people were killed, most of them civilians.

Centred in the northern counties of Ireland - Ulster

Ostensibly between those who want political union with Great Britain (mainly Protestants) and those who want union with the Republic of Ireland (mainly Catholics)

In practice, a deep, deep tribal division

Where it all began

The Troubles have their roots in over a millennium of history and culture between Ireland and Britain

• c.400 St Patrick, a Romanised Briton, captured by Irish slavers

• 1167 – Anglo-Norman invasion of Ireland• 1520s – Henry VIII breaks with Rome and seeks to impose

Protestantism in Ireland by force• 1610 – settlement of Scottish Presbyterians in Ulster• 1649 – Irish rebellion crushed by Oliver Cromwell• 1690 – William of Orange defeats James II at the Battle

of the Boyne• 1790s-1912 – political agitation and occasional

rebellions• 1916 – Easter Rebellion in Dublin repressed• 1921 – Partition establishes Republic of Ireland in

South, and Northern Ireland as province of Great Britain

Ireland

Britain is roughly the size of Victoria, Ireland the size of Tasmania

Belfast

Belfast is the capital of Northern Ireland Population 275,000. City unofficially divided into Protestant and Catholic areas along the Shankhill and Falls Roads

Who is involved?

Republicans:• IRA – Sinn Fein, Real IRA, Provisionals, INLA

Loyalists/Unionists:• UDA - UFF, UVF, LVF

Is the conflict religious?• Long history of discrimination between Catholic and Protestant over centuries

• Badge of identity and identifier of “The Other”

The Beat of the Drum

Issues

• Social Morality – how far do I take loyalty to my “family” ?

• Individuality – being used by others for their own purposes

• Fighters and Victims – what makes each?• Violence – when is it justified?• The tide of history – what can one person do in the face of centuries of history?

The Beat of the Drum

Post-colonial Issues

• Responsibility - who takes the blame for history? Who is prepared to say “Sorry”?

• What should a colonial power do to redress the wrongs it created?

• Do colonial settlers eventually become native?

• Multiculturalism is desirable, but how does it overcome generations of repression?

The Beat of the Drum

What is appropriate in Children’s Literature?

Is children’s literature the place for warts’n’all reality?

• Protection (shield them from the nasties, they will get enough later)

vs • Vaccination (finding out from the safety of a book prepares them to face reality)

• How should controversial issues be presented?• What are the limits?