Many Protestants felt that this would have led to a union with the Catholics and opposed the idea (UUP, 2002).
1921 brought the next level of conflict to Ireland. At this time a partition was formed between the southern part of Ireland, which became known as the Irish Free State, and Northern Ireland. This only increased the already huge conflict between the two main religions, Catholicism and Protestantism. Since Catholics made up a very small minority, representing only about one-third of the population in Northern Ireland, they were strongly discriminated against and felt severely suppressed (Darby, 1995).
The dispute was intensified even further in the late 1960s. In 1969 a provisional Irish Republican Army was formed, "initially to defend Catholic areas, but soon to go on the offensive against Protestant police and soldiers," (Associated Press, 1998). After the introduction of violence throughout Ireland the opposition only grew. "In 1972, the United Kingdom suspended Northern Ireland's local government and began to rule directly from London," (Gallis, 2002). At this time violence reached its peak "when 468 people died. Since then it has gradually declined to an annual average of below 100," (Darby, 1995).
From that time until the early 1990s, the level of conflict fluctuated between suggested power-sharing compromises and varied amounts of violence (Associated Press, 1998). From 1993 into 1994, negotiations seemed to be taking place and many people thought that a compromise or some form of agreement was in sight. "When the IRA announced an open-ended cease-fire at the end of August 1994 (followed by a loyalist cease-fire six weeks later), Northern Ireland seemed at least on the brink of a durable peace," (The Economist, 1996). However, in 1995, the parties were again becoming suspicious of each other and the IRA's political party, Sinn Fein, was becoming frustrated at the lack of acknowledgment they were receiving and the violence began again.