Okay, here's my problem.

The Failure to produce a lasting settlement to British-Irish relations since 1914 was the creation and maintenance of Northern Ireland within the United Kingdom.

Assess the validity of the above statement.


I can't think of any reasons it could possibly be wrong, but I doubt the answer is "It's completely valid".

I love History.

Okay.

First, you say why it's valid. Just list everything about it that you find valid, this bit's not hard.

The real marks come when you add in what could be disputed within the statement. Basically, you've got to write how it wasn't the "creation and maintenance of Northern Ireland within the UK". Although you may completely agree with this statement this bit isn't about your views yet. If it's too hard then nitpick - go all literal on them. Even if there are other minute factors then add these in and expand if necessary. It doesn't matter if the good points completely outweigh the bad, this is what the question is trying to get you to do.

Now compare both - Still not about your opinion yet. Just talk about how the positive and negative factors effected eachother and how they compare.

Now talk about your view on the matter - how you think that it is almost completely valid.

Now a conclusion to sum up everything.


Sorry that I don't know much about Northern Ireland, but there's how I would answer the question if I knew all the info'.

Haha, I know how to write a response, it's just there is no other cause for tension between Ireland and Britain except Northern Ireland.

Is this 1914 to present?

That's the question, but my topic is 1964-1999, so my teacher doesn't expect me to use knowledge from before 1964.

Oh, because I would have mentioned Anglo-Irish trading but that was just before World War II.

Was this the one about cromwell? Because I did an essay on that...I think.

Cromwell was 300 years before this.

But don't worry.

I could try and work a religious angle in, Catholicism/Protestantism, but it would be very weak.

Or I could decidedly interpret the ending of the question "within the United Kingdom" to collectively group the actions stemming from the UK ONLY, leaving me free to blame the IRA and Sinn Fein for the turmoil.

I think I'll try that.

Isn't religion an extremely prominent part of it all? That's what we were taught in history last year. The way I like to phrase my introductions to questions like these is something along the lines of:

The Failure to produce a lasting settlement to British-Irish relations since 1914 was mainly the creation and maintenance of Northern Ireland within the United Kingdom. However, other factors, such as the dispute between Catholicism and protestantism, also contributed to the problem/outcome/whatever.