NORTHERN IRELANDNORTHERN IRELAND

THE TROUBLES

The Troubles:

• 30 years of repeated acts of intense violence between :

Northern Ireland's Nationalist community (principally Roman Catholic)

Unionist community (principally Protestant)

• 1968-1998

Unionists• The Unionist vision is for Northern

Ireland to continue with England, Scotland and Wales as part of the

United Kingdom • Ideology that favours

the maintenance• of the political and

cultural ties between the island and Great Britain

Nationalists

• political and social movements inspired by a love for Irish culture, language and history

• Today: United Ireland

• “Green Flag”main symbol of Irish Nationalist on the 19th and early 20th century

ConflictConflict

• Status of Northern Ireland within the United Kingdom

• Domination and discrimination of Nationalist by Unionist

Political map of Ireland.

• Republic of Ireland gained sovereignty in 1922, relations between North and South improved.

• Irish Republican Army (IRA) continued the struggle to end partition of Ireland.

• 1966-1969 rioting and street fighting Protestants and Catholics occurred in Londonderry.

• Religious communities became hostile armed camps.

• British troops were brought in to separate them.

• They became target to the Catholics and IRA.

• IRA´s goal: to eject the British and unify Northern Ireland with the Irish Republic to the South.

• Protestants remained loyal to the UK.

• Direct rule from London and the presence of British troops failed to stop the violence.

1968, 5 October

• A civil rights march in Derry was banned by the Northern Ireland government, who let an Apprentice Boys* march take place instead. When civil rights activists defied the ban, they were attacked by the RUC (Royal Ulster Constabulary -was the name of the police force in Northern Ireland from 1922 to 2001) , leading to three days of rioting.

*Protestant fraternal society with a worldwide membership, founded in 1814. They are based in the city of Derry, Northern Ireland

The "Civil Rights mural" in Derry

1970–1979

• Following an Orange Order *parade, intense riots erupted on the Springfield Road in Belfast. Violence lasted for three days, and the British Army used CS gas for the first time in large quantities.

* Protestant fraternal organisation based mainly in

Northern Ireland and Scotland

• A mural in Derry, Northern Ireland of a young boy in a gas mask holding a petrol bomb during the Battle of the Bogside, August 1969

1970

• the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) was formed.

1971

• Gunner Robert Curtis became the first British Soldier to die in the Troubles when he was shot by the IRA

• During street disturbances, British soldiers shot dead two Catholic civilians in Free Derry. As a result, riots erupted in the city

• 1972• Bloody Sunday - 27 civilians were shot, of

whom 14 were killed by the British Army during a civil rights march in Derry.

• "Give Ireland Back to the Irish" is a Paul and Linda McCartney song written in response to the events of Bloody Sunday in Northern Ireland on 30 January 1972. The song was released on 25 February 1972

• banned by the BBC, Radio Luxembourg and the Independent Television Authority

• A bomb explodes without warning in the Abercorn Restaurant on Castle Lane in Belfast. Two are killed and 130 injured.

• The IRA explode twenty-four bombs in towns and cities across Northern Ireland. There was also fourteen shootouts between the IRA and security forces

• Bloody Friday - within the space of seventy-five minutes, the PIRA exploded twenty-two bombs in Belfast. Six civilians, two British Army soldiers and one UDA member were killed, while 130 were injured.

1973• 28 june-Northern Ireland Assembly elections

took place.

1974• 4 February M62 coach bombing - twelve people

were killed when a PIRA bomb exploded on a bus as it was travelling along the M62 motorway in West Yorkshire, England. It was carrying British Army soldiers and some of their family members. Nine soldiers and three civilians were killed.

• The Troubles claimed its 1000th victim

1975• The PIRA agreed on a ceasefire with the British

government and the Northern Ireland Office.

1976• Christopher Ewart Biggs, the British

Ambassador to Ireland, and his secretary Judith Cook, were assassinated by a bomb planted in Mr. Biggs’ car in Dublin.

• 1977

11 December Mairead Corrigan and Betty Williams received the Nobel Peace Prize.

• Mairead Corrigan

• Betty Williams

1978• La Mon restaurant bombing - eleven civilians

and an RUC officer were killed and thirty wounded by a PIRA (Provisional Irish Republican Army ) incendiary bomb at the La Mon Restaurant near Belfast

1979• The PIRA assassinated Richard Sykes, the

British ambassador to the Netherlands, in Den Haag. The group also exploded twenty-four bombs in various locations across Northern Ireland

• During a visit, Pope John Paul II appealed for an end to the violence in Northern Ireland

1980-1989• 1980: Dunmurry train explosion

1981: Norman and his son's assassination1982: The PIRA  explodes bombs in Belfast1983: New Ireland Forum1984: Brighton Hotel bombing1985: Anglo- Irish Agreement1986: Northern Ireland Assembly dissolved.1987: Remembrance Day bombing.1988: SLDP John Hume and Gery Adams' meeting: beginning of Peace Process.1989: Republican solicitor Pat Tinucane's assassination

1990-1999

• Irish National Liberation Army declare a ceasefire. End of trouble.2000 Present: The Bloody Sunday Inquiry.2001: BBC bombing2007: Northern Ireland Assembly elections2008: IRA continues bombing2009: INLA formally adopts peaceful political means to its aims.2010: UDA and INLA announced dicommisation of weapons.