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Located in the northeast of the island of Ireland, Northern Ireland shares a border to the south and west with the Republic of Ireland

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the Troubles, also called Northern Ireland conflict, violent sectarian conflict from about 1968 to 1998 in Northern Ireland between the overwhelmingly Protestant unionists (loyalists), who desired the province to remain part of the United Kingdom, and the overwhelmingly Roman Catholic nationalists (republicans), who wanted Northern Ireland to become part of the republic of Ireland. The other major players in the conflict were the British army, Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC), and Ulster Defence Regiment (UDR; from 1992 called the Royal Irish Regiment), and their avowed purpose was to play a peacekeeping role, most prominently between the nationalist Irish Republican Army (IRA), which viewed the conflict as a guerrilla war for national independence, and the unionist paramilitary forces, which characterized the IRA's aggression as terrorism. Marked by street fighting, sensational bombings, sniper attacks, roadblocks, and internment without trial, the confrontation had the characteristics of a civil war, notwithstanding its textbook categorization as a " low-intensity conflict." Some 3,600 people were killed and more than 30,000 more were wounded before a peaceful solution, which involved the governments of both the United Kingdom and Ireland, was effectively reached in 1998, leading to a power-sharing arrangement in the Northern Ireland Assembly at Stormont.

Deep origins

The story of the Troubles is inextricably entwined with the history of Ireland as whole and, as such, can be seen as stemming from the first British incursion on the island, the Anglo-Norman invasion of the late 12th century, which left a wave of settlers whose descendants became known as the "Old English." Thereafter, for nearly eight centuries, England and then Great Britain as a whole would dominate affairs in Ireland. Colonizing British landlords widely displaced Irish landholders. The most successful of these "plantations" began taking hold in the early 17th century in Ulster, the northernmost of Ireland's four traditional provinces, previously a centre of rebellion, where the planters included English and Scottish tenants as well as British landlords. Because of the plantation of Ulster, as Irish history unfolded-with the struggle for the emancipation of the island's Catholic majority under the supremacy of the Protestant ascendancy, along with the Irish nationalist pursuit of Home Rule and then independence after the island's formal union with Great Britain in 1801-Ulster developed as a region where the Protestant settlers outnumbered the indigenous Irish. Unlike earlier English settlers, most of the 17th-century English and Scottish settlers and their descendants did not assimilate with the Irish. Instead, they held on tightly to British identity and remained steadfastly loyal to the British crown.

The formation of Northern Ireland, Catholic grievances, and the leadership of Terence O'Neill

Of the nine modern counties that constituted Ulster in the early 20th century, four- Antrim, Down, Armagh, and Londonderry (Derry)-had significant Protestant loyalist majorities; two- Fermanagh and Tyrone-had small Catholic nationalist majorities; and three- Donegal, Cavan, and Monaghan-had significant Catholic nationalist majorities. In 1920, during the Irish War of Independence (1919-21), the British Parliament, responding largely to the wishes of Ulster loyalists, enacted the Government of Ireland Act , which divided the island into two self-governing areas with devolved Home Rule-like powers. What would come to be known as Northern Ireland was formed by Ulster's four majority loyalist counties along with Fermanagh and Tyrone. Donegal, Cavan, and Monaghan were combined with the island's remaining 23 counties to form southern Ireland. The Anglo-Irish Treaty that ended the War of Independence then created the Irish Free State in the south, giving it dominion status within the British Empire. It also allowed Northern Ireland the option of remaining outside of the Free State, which it unsurprisingly chose to do.

Thus, in 1922 Northern Ireland began functioning as a self-governing region of the United Kingdom. Two-thirds of its population (about one million people) was Protestant and about one-third (roughly 500,000 people) was Catholic. Well before partition, Northern Ireland, particularly Belfast, had attracted economic migrants from elsewhere in Ireland seeking employment in its flourishing linen-making and shipbuilding industries. The best jobs had gone to Protestants, but the humming local economy still provided work for Catholics. Over and above the long-standing dominance of Northern Ireland politics that resulted for the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) by virtue of the Protestants' sheer numerical advantage, loyalist control of local politics was ensured by the gerrymandering of electoral districts that concentrated and minimized Catholic representation. Moreover, by restricting the franchise to ratepayers (the taxpaying heads of households) and their spouses, representation was further limited for Catholic households, which tended to be larger (and more likely to include unemployed adult children) than their Protestant counterparts. Those who paid rates for more than one residence (more likely to be Protestants) were granted an additional vote for each ward in which they held property (up to six votes). Catholics argued that they were discriminated against when it came to the allocation of public housing, appointments to public service jobs, and government investment in neighbourhoods. They were also more likely to be the subjects of police harassment by the almost exclusively Protestant RUC and Ulster Special Constabulary (B Specials).

The divide between Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland had little to do with theological differences but instead was grounded in culture and politics. Neither Irish history nor the Irish language was taught in schools in Northern Ireland, it was illegal to fly the flag of the Irish republic, and from 1956 to 1974 Sinn Féin, the party of Irish republicanism, also was banned in Northern Ireland. Catholics by and large identified as Irish and sought the incorporation of Northern Ireland into the Irish state. The great bulk of Protestants saw themselves as British and feared that they would lose their culture and privilege if Northern Ireland were subsumed by the republic. They expressed their partisan solidarity through involvement with Protestant unionist fraternal organizations such as the Orange Order, which found its inspiration in the victory of King William III (William of Orange) at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690 over his deposed Catholic predecessor, James II, whose siege of the Protestant community of Londonderry had earlier been broken by William. Despite these tensions, for 40 or so years after partition the status of unionist-dominated Northern Ireland was relatively stable.

Recognizing that any attempt to reinvigorate Northern Ireland's declining industrial economy in the early 1960s would also need to address the province's percolating political and social tensions, the newly elected prime minister of Northern Ireland, Terence O'Neill, not only reached out to the nationalist community but also, in early 1965, exchanged visits with Irish Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Seán Lemass-a radical step, given that the republic's constitution included an assertion of sovereignty over the whole island. Nevertheless, O'Neill's efforts were seen as inadequate by nationalists and as too conciliatory by loyalists, including the Rev. Ian Paisley, who became one of the most vehement and influential representatives of unionist reaction.

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The Troubles, violent conflict from about 1968 to 1998 in Northern Ireland between the overwhelmingly Protestant unionists (loyalists), who desired the province to remain part of the U.K., and the overwhelmingly Roman Catholic nationalists (republicans), who wanted Northern Ireland to become part of Ireland.

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Northern Ireland violence: What's happening and why? - BBC Newsnight

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The conflict was between 1968 and 1998

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The problem is that Britain’s violent Protestant Unionists (loyalists) want Northern Ireland to remain part of the United Kingdom, while Ireland’s Catholic nationalists (republicans) want Northern Ireland to become part of the Republic of Ireland.

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The Northern Ireland conflict started when Ireland attempted to break free of British rule. In 1921, when the Irish successfully fought for independence, they were partitioned into two countries: the Irish Free State (almost entirely Catholic)and the smaller Northern Ireland (mostly Protestant with a Catholic minority).

Northern Ireland remained under British rule and the Catholic communities in cities complained of discrimination and unfair treatment by the Protestant-controlled government and police forces. And this was the point were two opposing forces coalesced in Northern Ireland: the Catholic “nationalists” versus the Protestant “loyalists.”

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What methods did Ireland use to achieve this?

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What methods did Ireland use to achieve this?

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Street fights, sensational bombings, sniper attacks and roadblocks are some of the ways the Irish are implementing in order to achieve what they want.

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Explained: What is the Northern Ireland Protocol?

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For 30 years, Northern Ireland was scarred by a period of deadly sectarian violence known as "the Troubles." This explosive era was fraught with car bombings, riots and revenge killings that ran from the late 1960s through the late 1990s. The Troubles were seeded by centuries of conflict between predominantly Catholic Ireland and mainly Protestant England. Tensions flared into violence in the late 1960s, leaving some 3,600 people dead and more than 30,000 injured.

Tensions Leading to the Troubles

The origins of the Troubles date back to centuries of warfare in which the predominantly Catholic people of Ireland attempted to break free of British (overwhelmingly Protestant) rule. In 1921, the Irish successfully fought for independence and Ireland was partitioned into two countries: the Irish Free State, which was almost entirely Catholic, and the smaller Northern Ireland, which was mostly Protestant with a Catholic minority.

While Ireland was fully independent, Northern Ireland remained under British rule, and the Catholic communities in cities like Belfast and Derry ( legally called Londonderry) complained of discrimination and unfair treatment by the Protestant-controlled government and police forces. In time, two opposing forces coalesced in Northern Ireland largely along sectarian lines: the Catholic "nationalists" versus the Protestant "loyalists."

A 1960s Civil Rights Movement Modeled on the US

In the 1960s, a new generation of politically and socially conscious young Catholic nationalists in Northern Ireland started looking to the civil rights movement in America as a model for ending what they saw as brazen anti-Catholic discrimination in their home country.

"There was systematic discrimination in housing and jobs," says James Smyth, an emeritus history professor at the University of Notre Dame who grew up in Belfast. "The biggest employer in Belfast was the shipyard, but it had a 95 percent Protestant workforce. In the city of Derry, which had a two-thirds Catholic majority, the voting districts had been gerrymandered so badly that it was controlled politically by [Protestant] loyalists for 50 years."

Young nationalist leaders like John Hume, Austin Currie and Bernadette Devlin refused to accept the status quo. They saw what was happening in the United States and how peaceful mass protests had drawn attention to the plight of Black Americans living under segregation and Jim Crow.

"They modeled themselves on the American civil rights movement to the extent that one of the songs sung in Northern Ireland was 'We Shall Overcome,'" says Smyth, who edited a 2017 book titled Remembering the Troubles: Contesting the Recent Past in Northern Ireland.

1968: Police Charge Protestors in Derry

On October 5, 1968, a protest march was planned along Duke Street in Derry. The nationalist activists wanted to draw attention to discriminatory housing policies that resulted in de facto segregation along sectarian and religious lines.

The march was banned by the Northern Ireland government, but protestors defied the order and gathered on October 5 with signs reading "One man, one vote!" and "Smash sectarianism!"

The crowd started to move but was barricaded by a line of police from the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) brandishing batons. The police charged the protestors and simultaneously cut off their retreat. TV cameras captured disturbing footage of RUC officers beating marchers with batons and chaos in the streets.

"October 5, 1968, was when the Troubles began," argues Smyth, "and those TV images are etched in the people's memory."

1969: Violence at Burntollet Bridge

The police crackdown on October 5, 1968, ratcheted up tensions between Catholic nationalists and Protestant loyalists and set the stage for more violent clashes.

On New Year's Day, 1969, nationalist activists took a page from Martin Luther King Jr.'s historic March on Selma and organized a march from Belfast, the capital of Northern Ireland, to Derry, "the capital of injustice," as Bernadette Devlin called it. The route took them through known loyalist strongholds, where the threat of violence was palpable.

The RUC provided a police escort for the nationalist protestors throughout the multi-day march until they reached Burntollet Bridge outside of Derry. At that point, protestors recall, the police put on their helmets and shields as if expecting trouble. That's when a loyalist mob started raining rocks down on the protestors.

The attackers, estimated at 300 loyalists, swarmed the bridge wielding clubs and iron bars. Some of them wore the white armbands of the B-Specials, an auxiliary police unit of the RUC. While bloodied protestors fled into the freezing river for protection, the RUC officers stood aside and did nothing to protect them, says Smyth.

The ambush at Burntollet Bridge was eerily similar to the events of March 7, 1965, when peaceful Selma marchers crossed the Edmund Pettus Bridge and were violently beaten back by a line of white-helmeted Alabama state troopers armed with tear gas, nightsticks and whips.

1969: Battle of the Bogside

Some historians peg the real beginning of the Troubles to the events of August 1969, when a loyalist parade in Derry sparked three days of rioting and violent reprisals.

Across Northern Ireland, says Smyth, loyalist groups regularly organized parades to commemorate Protestant military victories dating back to the 17th century. In Derry, the local chapter was known as the Apprentice Boys and they planned a patriotic loyalist parade on August 12 that ran directly past a predominantly Catholic part of town called the Bogside.

The Bogsiders saw the Apprentice Boys parade as a direct provocation and prepared for a violent confrontation, barricading streets and readying Molotov cocktails. As expected, nationalist Bogsiders clashed with the parading Apprentice Boys and RUC officers rushed in to quell the rioting. They were met with violent resistance by the Bogsiders, who hurled rocks and Molotov cocktails.

The "Battle of the Bogside," as it's known, raged for three days, but some of the worst damage was inflicted in Belfast, where loyalist mobs aided by the B-Specials swarmed Catholic neighborhoods and burned 1,500 homes to the ground.

On August 14, the overwhelmed prime minister of Northern Ireland called on the British government to send in troops to restore order. It was the beginning of a decades-long deployment in Northern Ireland by the British military.

"Basically the entire Northern Ireland state collapsed over a period of three or four days," says Smyth. "They couldn't maintain order, so the British had to come in."

'Bloody Sunday' and 30 Years of Sectarian Violence

The British troops were initially welcomed by the Catholic nationalists as potential protectors, but the military soon instituted a controversial policy of " internment without trial," after which hundreds of suspected IRA members were rounded up and imprisoned without due process.

On January 30, 1972, Catholic nationalists in Derry organized a march to protest the British internment policy, but the military was called in to shut it down. When protestors didn't disperse, the troops opened fire with rubber bullets and then live rounds. Thirteen protestors were killed and 17 wounded in a tragedy known as " Bloody Sunday."

"It's amazing that more people weren't killed," says Smyth, who was among the protestors that day in Derry.

During the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, Northern Ireland suffered dozens of car bombings and sectarian attacks perpetrated by paramilitary groups on both sides like the Provisional IRA and the Ulster Volunteer Force. Hundreds of civilians were among the dead.

The Troubles came to an end, at least officially, with the signing of the Good Friday Agreement in 1998, which created a framework for political power-sharing and an end to decades of violence.

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How the Troubles Began in Northern Ireland | HISTORY

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After mounting tensions between Catholic nationalists and Protestant loyalists, particularly in Belfast and Derry, violence broke out in the late 1960s.