The UK and Irish governments have been scrambling to deal with the fallout from the previous Tory government’s legislation, the Northern Ireland Troubles (Legacy and Reconciliation) Act. This Act tried to draw a line under a number of ongoing investigations related to the Troubles. But the roots of the issues run much deeper.
By Kevin Corran
The legacy of the Troubles runs deep in Ireland and is a result of the actions of British imperialism. Britain used the imperialist tactic of “divide and rule” in Ireland to split the working class and shore up its declining power and prestige at the beginning of the 20th century, as a revived working class challenged oppression and fought for national self-determination.
The Troubles grew from the sectarian divisions in Irish society, promoted by British imperialism and sustained by Irish governments in the 20th century – a division that James Connolly predicted would be a “carnival of reaction”. It left a Southern state dominated by the Catholic Church and a Northern state dominated by the Protestant Unionist hierarchy.
The upsurge in national and sectarian conflict from 1968 to 1998 left over 3,500 dead and over 47,500 injured, from a population of less than 1.5 million. This was a very heavy price for working-class communities to pay, the effects of which are still felt today.
The Good Friday Agreement in 1998 brought a significant reduction in the open armed conflict, but did not deal with the underlying sectarian tensions. Indeed, the Agreement institutionalised the sectarian division in society with the power-sharing arrangement. Elections in Northern Ireland for the Assembly are now little more than a sectarian head count for sectarian parties, leading to an ever more polarised society.
In September 2025, the UK and Irish governments announced they have instructed a conflict resolution expert to explore the merits of talks with paramilitary groups about disbandment. Fleur Ravensbergen, based at the University of Amsterdam, hopes to report back by August 2026.
The governments have also announced a new Legacy Commission, as part of a new cross-border deal, which seeks to “heal the rift” between London and Dublin created by the previous Tory government’s Northern Ireland Troubles (Legacy and Reconciliation) Act.
Deputy PM Simon Harris, Tánaiste, said regarding this flurry of diplomatic activity: “I believe, in my heart of hearts, that this is the best and last opportunity.” This simply reflects the out-of-touch, ignorant and detached perspectives of the ruling elites in the UK and Ireland.
Workers’ unity
The sectarian divisions in Irish society can only be challenged by cross-community working-class action. The Irish trade union movement, both north and south of the border, could act as a framework for action against the pressing problems and struggles of working-class communities.
The north of Ireland has historically been treated as an economic backwater by British governments, with low levels of investment and funding. This has left a legacy of poverty and despair where paramilitary groups can flourish. These groups offer easy “solutions” to the complex problems facing working-class communities, while offering an identity for some who are brought up in sectarian communities.
However, there is also a proud and powerful tradition of the trade unions leading working-class communities during the darkest days of the Troubles – challenging the dead-end politics of the sectarian death squads and leading these communities away from an intensification of the sectarian bloodbath.
The two governments laid the foundations for the sectarian divide, but the UK government has also been implicated in involvement in loyalist death squads, with numerous incidents of state forces operating outside of their own laws under the “shoot to kill” policy.
As Marxists, we understand that the state is not some impartial organ of society which imposes rules and regulations for the betterment of all. The state operates to protect the interests of the wealthy ruling elite, using all its components – including the army, police, judiciary, prisons and civil service – to these ends.
This helps to explain why working-class communities across the sectarian divide have no faith in these new political initiatives to deal with the decades of misrule, underinvestment, poverty, conflict and corruption.
There is a way out of this sectarian cul-de-sac, and it lies in the cross-community action we find in NHS protests, the anti-fracking protests, the strikes for better pay for teachers and civil servants, and the protests for better affordable housing.
The disillusionment and anger in Northern Irish society has also been channelled into ugly directions, with racist rioting that saw migrant families being terrorised in their homes. The far right have always sought to scapegoat minorities – including Muslims, the LGBTQ+ community and migrants – for the housing crisis, NHS crisis and the endless austerity we live under.
Socialist struggle
A mass struggle for investment in public services, housing and jobs, rooted in working-class and trade union organising, can cut across the far right’s attempts to blame immigrants for the poverty faced across communities. With over 90,000 on the Northern Ireland Housing Executive waiting list and NHS waiting times some of the worst in the UK, it is a testament to the inability of the sectarian political parties to represent and meet the needs of ordinary people.
It is building a political alternative to the sectarian parties that can offer working-class communities the hope that we need. There are no short cuts to dealing with the legacy of the Troubles and the institutionalisation of sectarianism at Stormont, but it is also crucial to recognise that diplomatic initiatives by these governments offer no solutions.
We need a trade union movement that can build strong roots in the communities that their members come from and play a leading role in developing a political alternative to the failed sectarian parties.
Building a political movement through community groups dedicated to defending hospitals and public services, fighting cuts to benefits, defending minority rights at Pride events, supporting the Palestinian people and opposing the racism of the far right are the building blocks of a force that can cut across sectarian politics.
Such a struggle can put the best class fighters from both communities in touch with each other, fighting the same battles on the same side.
There can be no solution to sectarianism on the basis of capitalism – which enforces poverty and stokes division to maintain its rule. Only through a united struggle for socialist change can the basis be laid for the defence of the rights of all groups, based on solidarity and democratic discussion.
International Socialist Alternative stands for a socialist Ireland where the rights of all communities are guaranteed, free from coercion, as part of a democratic, voluntary and socialist federation with Scotland, England and Wales.
