QUESTION 6 – SHORT ANSWERS AND ESSAYS

In this question there are four parts –A, B, C and D – and you have to do two from these four. Part A comes from Sections 1 and 2 of the course; this is the material that you would have studied during First and Second Year. Parts B, C and D will be based on material that you have studied in Third Year. This question is worth 60 marks (33% of the total). You should allow yourself 40 minutes to complete both parts of this question. Once you have chosen which part to do, you must answer all the questions within that part. You may be required to write either one or two essays within each part. Each of these essays should be roughly three quarters of a page long.

Example: 2008 Question 6

(C) POLITICAL DEVELOPMENTS IN TWENTIETH CENTURY

IRELAND (ii) Write an account of two of the following: (a) The First Dáil, 1919. (b) The Civil War, 1922-1923. (c) Life in Ireland during the Emergency, 1939-1945. (d) The Civil Rights Movement in Northern Ireland.

(12x2)

Answer (ii) (b) The Civil War, 1922-1923

The Anglo-Irish Treaty which was signed on 6 December, 1921 caused a major split in the ranks of the IRA and the Sinn Féin party. As the British army withdrew from their barracks in the new Free State, pro and anti-treaty factions of the IRA jockeyed for control of these barracks. SRS Anti-treaty IRA forces led by Rory O’Connor occupied the Four Courts and defied the authority of the Provisional Government led by

Arthur Griffith. In June 1922 Sir Henry Wilson was assassinated in London. The British blamed O’Connor’s IRA faction for this and Winston Churchill insisted that the Provisional Government bring to an end O’Connor’s occupation of the Four Courts.

SRS On 28 June, 1922 Michael Collins led the attack by the Free State army on the Four Courts. Artillery which had been borrowed from the British was used in the attack. SRS Fighting in Dublin lasted for a week and Cathal Brugha was killed in fighting near O’Connell Street. By the end of August all large towns were held by the Free State army and the anti-treaty IRA then fell back on the hit and run guerrilla tactics that had served them well during the War of Independence.

SRS Collins was killed in an ambush at Beal na Bláth near Clonakilty, Co Cork on 22 August, 1922. SRS In April 1923 the IRA’s chief of staff, Liam Lynch, was killed in Co Tipperary. On

24 May, 1923, his successor, Frank Aiken declared a ceasefire which brought the Civil War to an end. [SRS]

5 x SRS’s @ 2m = 10 + Overall mark 2 = 12/12

Answer (ii) (d) The Civil Rights Movement in Northern Ireland

In the 1960s Derry City had a 2:1 Nationalist majority, yet the city’s corporation was controlled by the Unionist Party. Gerrymandering was used to draw Derry’s electoral ward boundaries so as to ensure that Unionists retained control of the local government. SRS Discrimination was practised against Derry’s nationalists. Public housing within the nationalist

Bogside was of a poor standard and there were long waiting lists. The property-based franchise meant that those who did not own their own house could not vote in local elections.

SRS In 1967 the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association (NICRA) was founded in Belfast. NICRA issued six demands, including ‘one man, one vote’. SRS NICRA took inspiration from Martin Luther King’s non-violent campaign for civil rights in the US. The first NICRA march began in Coalisland and ended in Dungannon, Co Tyrone in August 1968. SRS On 5 October 1968 a NICRA march in Derry was banned by Northern Ireland’s Home Affairs Minister Bill Craig. The RUC used their batons to disperse the marchers. The Nationalist MP, Gerry Fitt, was wounded. The events were filmed by an RTE news crew. Harold Wilson, the British Prime Minister, put pressure on Terence O’Neill, Northern Ireland’s Prime Minister, to introduce a range of reforms to address the grievances of the Civil Rights movement. SRS On 30 January

1972 (Bloody Sunday) NICRA organised a march in Derry to protest against the policy of internment. The march was banned. The Paratroop regiment opened fire on the marchers, killing 14 civilians. [SRS]

5 x SRS’s @ 2m = 10 + Overall mark 2 = 12/12

Example: 2006 Question 6

(D) INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY (i) Write an account of one of the following: (a) Italy under Mussolini up to 1939. (b) Britain between the wars. (c) The Soviet Union under Stalin up to 1939. (12)

(ii) Write an account of one of the following: (a) The invasion of Poland 1939. (b) The Battle of Stalingrad, 1942-43. (c) The Fall of Berlin, 1945. (12) (iii) Give three reasons why there was division in Europe at the end of WWII. (6)

Answer (i) (a) Italy under Mussolini up to 1939.

In October 1922 Mussolini’s blackshirted supporters in the National Fascist Party marched on Rome. King Victor Emmanuel III agreed to their demands to appoint Mussolini as Prime Minister. SRS In 1923 parliament passed the Acerbo

Laws. This law meant that whichever party won the most votes in an election would get two thirds of the seats in parliament. In the election of 1924 Mussolini’s blackshirts used violence and intimidation to ensure that the Fascist party won the most votes. SRS A secret police service called the OVRA was established and in 1926 all non-fascist political parties were banned as Mussolini established a totalitarian dictatorship.

SRS The Balilla was established as a fascist youth organisation to instil the doctrine of fascism into Italy’s boys. A personality cult was developed around ‘Il Duce’. Slogans such as ‘Mussolini is always right’ were used in posters and painted onto walls.SRS In 1929 Mussolini negotiated a treaty with Pope Pius XI. The Lateran Treaty and Concordat recognised the independence of the Vatican and Catholicism was recognised as the official religion of Italy. SRS When the

Spanish Civil War began in 1936, Mussolini sent ‘volunteers’, weapons and money to General Franco. Franco’s nationalists won the Spanish Civil War in 1939. [SRS] In 1935 Italy invaded Abyssinia, in East Africa. In response, The League of Nations imposed ineffective economic sanctions against Italy. Hitler was able to use this crisis to establish closer links with Italy, which would eventually lead to Italy joining the Axis side in WWII in 1940. [SRS]

5 x SRS’s @ 2m each = 10 Overall mark 2/2 10+2 = 12/12

(ii) (b) The Battle of Stalingrad 1942-43

By September 1942 the German 6th Army led by General von Paulus had reached Stalingrad, on the river Volga. Stalingrad was a strategic city that, if taken, could open up German access to the Soviet oilfields further to the South. SRS Hitler was determined to capture the city that bore Stalin’s name and Stalin ordered that the city was to be defended at all costs. The Soviets deployed blocking units to arrest and shoot soldiers deserting from the Red Army. 13,000 soldiers were executed by the Soviets for desertion and cowardice durign the Battle of Stalingrad.

SRS The city was bombed heavily by the Luftwaffe. The Red Army defenders were able to use the rubble to set up defensive positions in the bitter close quarters fighting that drew in more and more German soldiers. The Germans called this form of fighting ‘rattenkrieg’; the war of rats. SRS General

Zhukov identified Romanian Armies in the German flanks behind Stalingrad as being weak. In November 1942 Operation Uranus was launched by the Red Army against the Romanian sectors in the Axis line. Operation Uranus succeeded in encircling 290,000 Axis troops in Stalingrad. SRS Hitler forbade von Paulus from making a fighting retreat from Stalingrad. Temperatures fell as low as -300C and the Luftwaffe was only able to deliver one tenth of the supplies that the Sixth Army needed. SRS Operation Ring completed the defeat of the 6th Army in February 1943. 91,000 soldiers were taken prisoner. In all the Axis lost 500,000 men at Stalingrad. Stalingrad is widely seen as the major turning point in the war on the Eastern Front. [SRS]

5 x SRS’s @ 2m each = 10 Overall mark 2/2 10+2 = 12/12

(iii) Give three reasons why there was division in Europe at the end of

World War II? 1. Stalin imposed a Communist-led government on Poland. 2. Britain and the US feared that the Soviet Union would exploit economic hardship after the war to install Communist governments in countries with strong communist parties, such as France and Italy. 3. Stalin and Truman disagreed over how Germany should be

reconstructed after the war.