Troubles

''The Troubles'' is a generic and euphemistic term used to describe a period of sporadic communal violence involving Paramilitary organisations, the Royal Ulster Constabulary , the British Army and others in Northern Ireland from the late 1960s until the mid-1990s with the Good Friday Agreement on April 10 , 1998 . It could also be described as a many-sided Conflict , a Guerrilla War or even a Civil War , although the conflict does not qualify as a war in any legal sense. Paramilitary groups in Northern Ireland are widely described in the British, Irish and international media and society as Terrorist organisations.

OVERVIEW

The Troubles were 30 years of sporadic violence between elements of Northern Ireland 's Unionist community, which is primarily Protestant , and Nationalist community, which is chiefly Roman Catholic . The conflict was caused by the disputed status of Northern Ireland within the United Kingdom and the alleged domination of the nationalist community by the unionist majority. The violence was characterised by the armed campaigns of paramilitary groups. Most notable of these was the Provisional IRA Campaign 1969–1997 which was aimed at the end of British rule in Northern Ireland and the creation of a new all-Ireland Irish Republic . In response to this campaign and the perceived erosion of the British character and unionist domination of Northern Ireland, Loyalist Paramilitaries such as the UVF and UDA launched their own campaigns against the nationalist population. The state security forces - the British Army and the police Royal Ulster Constabulary - were also inevitably involved in the violence. The British government point of view is that its forces were neutral in the conflict and trying to uphold law and order in the Province. Irish Republicans , however, regarded the state forces as " Combatants " in the conflict and point to evidence of Collusion between the state forces and the loyalists as proof of this.

Alongside the violence, there was a political deadlock between the major political parties in Northern Ireland, including those who condemned violence, over the future status of Northern Ireland and the form of government there should be within the province.

The Troubles were brought to an uneasy end by a Peace Process which included the declaration of ceasefires by most paramilitary organisations, the corresponding withdrawal of most troops from the streets and the reform of the police, as agreed by the signatories to the Belfast Agreement (commonly known as the ''Good Friday Agreement''). This reiterated the long-held position that Northern Ireland will remain within the United Kingdom until a majority votes otherwise. It also established a devolved power-sharing government within Northern Ireland (currently suspended), where the government must consist of both unionist and nationalist parties.

Though the number of active participants in the Troubles was relatively small, and the paramilitary organisations that claimed to represent the communities were unrepresentative of the general population, the Troubles touched the lives of most people in Northern Ireland on a daily basis, while occasionally spreading to Great Britain and the Republic Of Ireland . Many people today have had their political, social and communal attitudes and perspectives shaped by the Troubles.

BACKGROUND

The partition of Ireland

The origins of the Troubles are complex. Historical conflict over the incorportation of Ireland into the United Kingdom goes back to 1801 and the Act Of Union at least and Sectarian conflict over land power can be traced back to the 17th century Plantations Of Ireland . However the immediate roots of the present conflict are to be found in the early 20th century disputes over Home Rule and independence for Ireland. Unionists, mostly Protestant and concentrated in Ulster , resisted both self-government and independence for Ireland, fearing for their future in a Catholic dominated country. In 1920, during a Guerrilla War In Ireland , the Government Of Ireland Act partitioned the island of Ireland into two separate jurisdictions, one of which was " Northern Ireland ". This was confirmed in the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921, which ended the guerrilla war in the south and created the Irish Free State . This settlement was in acknowledgement that the Irish people were deeply divided between those predominantly in the north who wished to remain part of the United Kingdom ( Unionists ), and those predominant in the rest of the island (and an overall majority in the whole island), who preferred independence ( Irish Nationalists ).

As per the wishes of the majority of Unionists , Northern Ireland remained in the United Kingdom, albeit under a separate system of government whereby it was given its own parliament and devolved government. (Ironically, this system was not requested by unionists, but was included in the settlement by a government keen to rid the Westminster parliament of "the Irish question" that had dominated it for so many years.) Nonetheless, unionists immediately embraced the new regime and saw Northern Ireland as a state governed in accordance with " Democratic " principles, the rule of law and in accordance with the will of a majority within its borders to remain part of the United Kingdom. Nationalists , however, saw the Partition Of Ireland as an illegal and arbitrary division of the island of Ireland against the will of its people, and argued that the Northern Ireland state was neither legitimate nor democratic, but created with a deliberately-engineered unionist majority. Nationalists within Northern Ireland (initially about 35% of its population) did not accept the legitimacy of the new state. Northern Ireland was born in an extremely violent manner - over 600 people being killed in political or sectarian violence from 1920-1922. Nationalists characterise this violence -especially that in Belfast as a " Pogrom " against their community. Although the majority of victims were Catholics (58% of victims from a community around 30% of the population in Belfast), both sides were clearly guilty of atrocities, with almost half the victims being Protestants. While some in the new Irish Free State had plans for a military assault on Northern Ireland, this was interupted by the Irish Civil War (1922-23) between Irish nationalist factions and the Northern state instead managed to consolidate its existence.

Many nationalists expected partition to be abolished, or least to have large parts of Northern Ireland ceded to the Free State, by a Boundary Commission in 1925. The Commission, however, instead recommended no major changes in the border - effectively making partition of Ireland permanent. At this point, the Irish Free State formally recognised and accepted the border.

Each side established its own Narrative s to describe its perspective. Ulster Unionist Party Prime Minister Of Northern Ireland Lord Brookborough talked of a "Protestant state for a Protestant people" in response to his Southern counterpart Éamon De Valera 's assertion that Ireland was a "Catholic nation", while a later Republic Of Ireland Taoiseach (prime minister) Charles Haughey described Northern Ireland as "a failed political entity".

After the initial Troubles of the early 1920s, there were occasional incidents of sectarian unrest in Northern Ireland, a brief and ineffective IRA campaign in the 1940s, and another Abortive IRA Campaign in the 1950s, but by the early 1960s Northern Ireland was fairly stable. An indication, perhaps, of an underlying instability, however, was the establishment by some extreme loyalists of an illegal paramilitary group, the Ulster Volunteer Force (named after the anti-Home Rule militia) in 1966, in response to a perceived revival of the IRA at the time of the 50th anniversary of the Easter Rebellion . This group carried out three sectarian murders before the perpetrators were apprehended by the police and sentenced in the courts. The group remained in existence and would emerge again during the Troubles.

BEGINNING OF THE TROUBLES

The Troubles are often acknowledged to have begun in 1968, when widespread rioting and public disorder broke out at the marches of the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association . This group launched a peaceful '' Civil Rights '' campaign in 1967, which was largely modelled on the American Civil Rights Movement of Martin Luther King and others in the United States . The NICRA was seeking a redress of Catholic and nationalist grievances with the Northern state. Specifically, they wanted an end to the Gerrymandering of electoral constituencies that produced unrepresentative local councils; the abolition of the rate-payer franchise in local government elections ("one man one vote"); an end to perceived unfair allocation of jobs and housing; and an end to the Special Powers Act (which allowed for Internment and other repressive measures) that was seen as being aimed at the nationalist community.

Initially, Terence O'Neill , the Prime Minister of Northern Ireland, reacted favourably to this agitation. However, he was opposed by many hardline unionists, including William Craig and Ian Paisley who accused him of being a "sell out". Violence broke at several Civil Rights marches, involving loyalists, civil rights demonstrators and the Royal Ulster Constabulary , which was widely accused of supporting the loyalists. This disorder culminated in the Battle Of The Bogside - a huge communal riot in Derry between police and nationalists and vicious sectarian rioting in Belfast in August 1969, that left many people dead and many homes burned out. The government of Northern Ireland appealed to the British government that the British Army should be deployed in Northern Ireland to restore order. Nationalists initially welcomed the Army as they did not trust the police to act in an unbiased manner.

The civil rights movement, and the opposition to it by Ian Paisley and other loyalists, is seen by many as the cause of the Troubles. They argue that it led to a destabilisation of Government and created a void filled later by paramilitary groups. Others, mainly though not exclusively nationalist, argue that the civil rights campaign, and the reaction to it, was merely a symptom of a sectarian system of government that was itself inherently the cause.

THE PEAK OF VIOLENCE AND THE COLLAPSE OF STORMONT

The years 1970-72 saw an explosion of political violence in Northern Ireland, peaking in the year 1972, when nearly 500 people lost their lives. There are several reasons why violence escalated in these years. One was the formation of the Provisional IRA - a break-away from the IRA (the remnants of the older organisation became known as the Official IRA ) determined to wage "armed struggle" against British rule in Northern Ireland, and not afraid to take on a sectarian character as "defenders of the Catholic community", rather than seeking working-class unity across both communities which had become the aim of the "Officials". The "Provos", as they became known, formed in late 1969, soon established themselves as more aggressive and militant in their response to attacks on the nationalist community by loyalists and the police, aining much support in the nationalist "ghettos" in the early 1970s as "dfenders" of those communities. Despite the increasingly Marxist politics of the Officials IRA, they nonetheless began their own armed campaign in reaction to the ongoing violence. From 1970 onwards, both the PIRA and OIRA engaged in armed confrontations with the Army . By 1972, the Provisionals' campaign was of such intensity that they killed over 100 soldiers, wounded 500 more and carried out 1,300 explosions - mostly on commercial targets. The bombing campaign killed many civilians, notably on Bloody Friday in 1972, when 22 bombs were set off in the centre of Belfast. Unionists saw this ongoing campaign as the main cause and sustainer of the Troubles. The Official IRA called off its campaign in June 1972.

Nationalists argued that the upsurge in violence was caused by the disappointment of the hopes engendered by the civil rights movement and the repression subsquently directed at their community. They point to a number of events in these years to support this opinion. One such incidents was the Falls Road curfew in 1970, when 3000 troops imposed a curfew on the nationalist Lower Falls area of Belfast , firing over 1500 rounds of ammunition in gun battles with the IRA and killing four people. Another was the introduction of Internment without trial in 1971 - where out of over 350 initial detainees, only 2 were Protestants and only 1 was a loyalist. Moreover, very few were actually republican activists. Most emotively of all, nationalists point to the shooting dead of 13 unarmed nationalist demonstators by the British Army in Derry in 1972 on what became known as Bloody Sunday .

The loyalist paramilitaries, including the Ulster Volunteer Force and the newly-founded Ulster Defence Association responded to the mushroming violence with a campaign of sectarian assassination of nationalists, whom they identified simply as Catholics. The Provisional IRA responded by sectarian killings of Protestants. Another feature of the political violence was the forced displacement of both Catholics and Protestants from rival residential areas.

The UK government in London, seeing that the Northern Ireland administration was incapable of containing the security situation, suspended the unionist-controlled Stormont Home Rule government in 1972 and introduced Direct Rule, from London. Their government addressed many of the concerns of the civil rights movement, for example re-drawing electoral boundaries to make them more representative, giving all citizens the vote in local election and transferring the power to allocate public housing to an independent Northern Ireland Housing Executive . Direct Rule was initially intended as a short-term measure, the medium-term strategy being to restore self-government to Northern Ireland on a basis that was acceptable to both unionists and nationalists. Agreement proved elusive, however, and the Troubles continued throughout the 1970s and 1980s within a context of political deadlock.

THE SUNNINGDALE AGREEMENT

In 1973, mainstream nationalist and unionist parties, along with the British and (Southern) Irish governments, negotiated the Sunningdale Agreement , which was intended to produce a political settlement within Northern Ireland, but with a so-called "Irish dimension" involving Southern Ireland. The agreement provided for power-sharing between nationalists and unionists and a '''Council of Ireland''' designed to encourage cross-border co-operation. Seamus Mallon , the SDLP politician, has pointed to the marked similarities between the Sunningdale Agreement and the Good Friday Agreement of 1998. Famously, he characterised the latter as "Sunningdale for slow learners".

Unionism, however, was split over Sunningdale, which was also opposed by the IRA, whose goal remained nothing short of an end to Northern Ireland's existence as part of the United Kingdom. Many unionists opposed the concept of power-sharing, arguing that it was not feasible to share power with those (nationalists) who sought the destruction of the state. Perhaps more significant, however, was the unionist opposition to the "Irish dimension" and the Council of Ireland, which was perceived as being an all-Ireland parliament-in-waiting. In January 1974, Brian Faulkner was narrowly deposed as Unionist Party leader by his own party and replaced by Harry West . A UK general election in February 1974 gave the anti-Sunningdale unionists the opportunity to test unionist opinion with the slogan "Dublin is only a Sunningdale away", and the result galvanised their opposition: they won 11 of the 12 seats, winning 58% of the vote with most of the rest going to nationalists and pro-Sunningdale unionists.

Ultimately, however, the Sunningdale Agreement was brought down by mass action on the part of loyalists, who organised a General Strike - the Ulster Workers' Council strike. This stopped all business in the province and cut off essential services such as water and electricity. Nationalists argue that the UK government did not do enough to break this strike and uphold the Suningdale initiative. In the event, however, faced with such determined opposition, the pro-Sunningdale unionists resigned from the power-sharing government and the new regime collapsed.

The rest of the 1970s saw the violence continue. The Provisional IRA declared a ceasefire in 1975 but returned to violence in 1976. By this time they had lost the hope that they had had in the early 1970s that they could force a rapid British withdrawal from Northern Ireland and instead developed a strategy known as the Long War, which involved a less intense but more sustained campaign of violence that could continue indefinitely. An Official IRA ceasefire, however, became permanent, and the "Official" movement eventually evolved into the Workers Party , which rejected violence completely. A splinter from the "Officials" - the Irish National Liberation Army , however, continued with a brutal campaign of violence.

By the late 1970s, war weariness was visible in both communities. One manifestation of this was the formation of group known as ''Peace People'', which won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1976. The Peace People organised large demonstrations calling for an end to paramilitary violence. However, their campaign lost momentum after they appealed to the nationalist community to provide information on the IRA to security forces. The Army and police were so unpopular in many nationalist areas that this was not seen as an objective stance.

THE HUNGER STRIKES AND THE EMERGENCE OF SINN FéIN

Successive British governments, having failed to achieve a political settlement, tried to "normalise" Northern Ireland. One Secretary of State for Northern Ireland described the policy as trying to contain the conflict to an "acceptable level of violence". Controversial aspects of this policy included the removal of Internment without trial and the removal of political status for paramilitary prisoners. From 1976 onwards, paramilitaries were tried in juryless Diplock courts to avoid intimidation of jurors. On conviction, they were to be treated as ordinary criminals. Resistance to this policy among republican prisoners led to over 500 of them in the Maze Prison going on the Blanket Protest and the Dirty Protest . Their defiance culminated in Hunger Strikes in 1980 and 1981 aimed at the restoration of political status.

In the 1981 Irish Hunger Strike , 10 republican prisoners (7 from the PIRA and 3 from the INLA ) starved themselves to death. The first hunger striker to die, Bobby Sands was elected to Parliament on an Anti-H-Block ticket, as was his election agent Owen Carron, following Sands' death. The hunger strikes proved hugely emotive events for the nationalist community - over 100,000 people attended Sands' funeral and big crowds also attended the subsequent funerals. From an Irish Republican perspective, the significance of these events was twofold. Firstly, they demonstrated a high level of support among nationalists for the legitimacy of republican paramilitary actions. Secondly, they showed the potential for a political and electoral strategy. In the wake of the hunger strikes, Sinn Féin , the Provisional IRA's political wing, began to contest elections for the first time.

From a unionist perspective, the hunger strikes appeared to show that the nationalist community supported terrorism and this perception deepened sectarian antagonism.

THE "LONG WAR"

Paramilitary violence continued on both sides until 1994. Fewer people were killed in the 1980s and '90s than in the 1970s, but the seemingly interminable nature of the political violence had a very negative psychological effect on Northern Irish society.

The PIRA's "Long War" was boosted by large donations of arms to them from Libya in 1986 (see Provisional IRA Arms Importation ). Although they were now killing fewer soldiers, their capacity for assassinations and bombings appeared to be almost indefinite. Many of their operations were directed at local unionist targets such as off-duty policemen or part-time soldiers and at Protestant civilians such as the Remembrance Day Massacre of 1987. The PIRA also targeted construction workers, cleaners, and other workers who were employed on jobs at police stations and Army bases.

The loyalist paramilitaries imported arms in the late 1980s from South Africa and stepped up their killings of Catholics in response to the Anglo-Irish Agreement which gave the Irish Government a "consultative role" in the internal government of Northern Ireland. Elements within the Army and police have been shown to have leaked intelligence to loyalists from the late 1980s to target republican activists. In 1992, a British agent within the UDA, Brian Nelson, revealed Army complicity in his activities which included murder and importing arms. Since the late 1990s, loyalists have confimed to journalists such as Peter Taylor that they received files and intelligence from security sources on republican targets.

In addition, republicans allege that the security forces operated a policy of "shoot-to-kill" - killing rather than arresting IRA suspects. The security forces denied this and point out that in incidents such as killing of 8 IRA men at Loughgall in 1987, the paramilitaries who were killed were heavily armed.

THE PARAMILITARY CEASFIRES AND PEACE PROCESS

Since the late 1980s, Sinn Féin , led since 1983 by Gerry Adams , sought a negotiated end to the conflict. This was manifested in open talks with John Hume - the SDLP leader and secret talks with Government officials. Eventually, in August 1994, the Provisional IRA declared a Ceasefire . The loyalist paramilitaries, temporarily united in the '''Combined Loyalist Military Command'' reciprocated six weeks later. Although these ceasefires have often not been fully observed, they mark an effective end to large-scale political violence in the Troubles.

After the ceasefires, talks began between the main political parties in Northern Ireland with the aim of establishing political agreement. These talks eventually produced the Belfast Agreement of 1998. This Agreement restored self-government to Northern Ireland on the basis of "power-sharing", and an executive was formed in 1999 consisting of the four main parties, including Provisional Sinn Féin. Other reforms included reform of the police (which was renamed as the Police Service Of Northern Ireland and required to recruit a minimum quota of Catholics.

However, the power-sharing Executive and Assembly have been suspended since 2002, when unionists withdrew following the exposure of a Provisional IRA spy ring within the Provisional Sinn Féin office. This was on top ongoing tensions between unionists and Sinn Féin about Provisional IRA failure to disarm fully and sufficiently quickly. PIRA decomissioning has since been completed (in September 2005) to the satisfaction of most, but the Democratic Unionist Party still refused to accept republican claims that the "war was over".

A feature of Northern Irish politics since the Agreement has been the eclipse in electoral terms of the relatively moderate parties such as the Social Democratic And Labour Party and Ulster Unionist Party by more extreme parties - Sinn Féin and the Democratic Unionist Party . Similarly, although political violence is greatly reduced, sectarian animosity has not disappeared and residential areas are still largely segregated between Catholic nationalists and Protestant unionists. Because of this, progress towards restoring the power-sharing institutions looks likely to be slow and tortuous. Though the "peace process" is slow-going, movements are forming to assist in this process and give those affected by The Troubles a voice in their communities. In particular, the Corrymeela Community in Ballycastle teaches the Prejudice-reduction Model that has been adopted by the Ulster Project International to improve relations between Protestant and Catholic families across the country.

THE PARADES ISSUE

Inter-communal tensions rise and violence often breaks out during the "marching season" when the Protestant Orange Order parades take place across Northern Ireland. The parades are held to commemorate William Of Orange 's victory in the Battle Of The Boyne in 1690, which secured Protestantism in Britain and Ireland. One particular flashpoint that has caused repeated strife is the Garvaghy Road area in Portadown , where an Orange parade from Drumcree Church passes by a predmoninantly nationalist estate off the Garvaghy Road. This parade has now been banned indefinitely, following nationalist riots against the parade, and also loyalist riots against its banning. In 1995, 1996 and 1997, there were several weeks of prolonged rioting throughout the province over the impasse at Drumcree. A number of people died in this violence, including a Catholic taxi driver, killed by the Loyalist Volunteer Force , and three Catholic children who died when their house was petrol-bombed.

Disputes have also occurred in Belfast over parade routes along the Ormeau Road and the Crumlin Road . Orangemen hold that to march their "traditional route" is their civil right. Nationalists argue that by parading through hostile areas, the Orange Order is being unnecessarily provocative. Symbolically, the ability to either parade or to block a parade is viewed as expressing ownership of "territory" and influence over the government of Northern Ireland.

Many commentators have expressed the view that the violence over the parades issue has provided an outlet for the violence of paramilitary groups who are otherwise on ceasefire.

CASUALTIES : BRIEF SUMMARY

Responsibility

Between 1969 and 2001, 3,523 were killed as a result of the Troubles:

2055 by Republican groups

1020 by Loyalist groups

368 by British and Irish security forces

80 by groups or persons unknown.

Status

Most of those killed were civilians or members of the security forces, with smaller groups of victims identified with republican and loyalist paramilitary groups. It is often disputed whether some civilians were members of paramilitary organisations due to their secretive nature. An analysis of those killed by status gives:

1857 civilians

1121 members of security forces

394 identified as members of republican groups

151 identified as members of loyalist groups

The security force members include:

498 British Army personnel

301 Royal Ulster Constabulary officers

197 Ulster Defence Regiment personnel

24 Northern Ireland Prison Service officers

7 Royal Irish Regiment personnel

9 Gardaí (police officers in the Republic Of Ireland )

6 Territorial Army personnel

6 police officers in England

4 Royal Air Force personnel

3 Royal Navy personnel

1 Irish Army soldier

Location

Most killings took place within Northern Ireland, especially Belfast , although surrounding counties and the rest of the British Isles were also affected.
Sutton gives a geographic breakdown of deaths as follows (in alphabetical order):