A ceasefire/truce began on 11 July 1921, ending the fighting in most of Ireland. 18 months later, in December 1983, the IRA attacked the famous London department store Harrods using a car bomb, which ended up killing six people. The Troubles, 1963 to 1985 By BBC History Civil rights march, Londonderry, 5 October 1968 How did Northern Ireland descend into the cycle of violence that marked the period known as the. [72] There is evidence the UVF helped organise the burnings. Get the latest news from World101, including teaching resources and special offers. Barton, Brian (1976). But instead of squaring off against rival paramilitaries, they are increasingly turning inward on their own communities, acting like vigilante police[PDF] and carrying out shootings and beatings of those suspected of crimes like selling drugs. [1][2] Most of the victims were Catholics. For a conflict thats relatively recent, you need to go back over 400 years to see how the situation evolved and eventually escalated into what we have today. [22][23], Sectarian strife began in Derry in April 1920 when an hour-long violent confrontation between Protestants and Catholics erupted at the corner of Long Tower Street, as republican prisoners were being transported to Bishop Street gaol. [174], The Troubles in Northern Ireland (19201922), 1920 Belfast Shipyard Worker Clearances & "Pogroms", IRA Northern Offensive & Sectarian Violence. Northern Ireland's attorney general has directed that a new inquest be held into the killing of a nationalist councillor almost 50 years ago. May 10, 2021 Drivers stop at the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland on the road from Belfast to Dublin, c. 1950. In reprisal, the Special Constables went to the nearest Catholic home and fatally shot two civilian men. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/12/world/europe/Northern-Ireland-Brexit-Covid-Troubles.html. The Republic of Ireland would eventually make up much of the island, while six counties in the northeast remained part of the United Kingdom and became known as Northern Ireland. Though violent incidents had taken place throughout the early 1990s on both sides of the conflict, the first ceasefire finally took place in 1994. [128] These were followed by reprisal killings: on 6 May two Catholic men were shot dead at a house near Dungiven,[129] and on 10 May, Specials shot three Catholic brothers in their home in Ballyronan, killing one. Not only did five people die in the incident, the massacre also dealt a huge blow to Northern Irelands live music scene, which was one of the few areas of life that had brought young Catholics and Protestants together. Unionist representation in Belfast fell from 52 to 29 as a result of the good showing of the Belfast Labour Party. In July 1920, they drove 8,000 mostly Catholic workers out of the Belfast shipyards sparking sectarian violence in the city. Bloody Sunday January 30, 1972 Birmingham pub bombing November 21, 1975 Omagh bombing August 15, 1998 Internment, "peace walls," and " Bloody Sunday " [100] Another large scale battle took place on 1 June 1920 when at least 200 IRA volunteers led by Roger McCorley attacked the RIC barracks in Crossgar, County Down. 4. Intimidation and retaliation attacks were carried out by both communities, with about third of those killed and over 20% of refugees being Protestant. Collins agreed to end IRA actions against the police and military in the six counties and to end the boycott. Known as The Troubles, the conflict pitted Nothern Ireland's republican nationalists a largely Catholic faction seeking to break free from British rule and instead unite with the Republic of Ireland against the predominantly Protestant unionists/loyalists who sought to keep Northern Ireland within the United Kingdom. Various protests against this took place, including a blanket protest and a dirty protest, but things escalated when a number of prisoners decided to go on hunger strike during the spring and summer of 1981. Some citizens have advocated for a truth and reconciliation commission, a tool used in postconflict situations like South Africa after apartheid to investigate past abuses and help communities gain closure. [36][37], There would be no major outbreaks of violence until May 1935 when there were arson attacks on Catholic homes in Upper Library Street, Belfast. During the Home Rule Crisis of 191214, Unionists threatened to oppose any Irish government with violence if necessary, forming a paramilitary group: the Ulster Volunteers or Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) and arming themselves (see Larne gun-running). In reprisal, the USC attacked nationalists and burned their houses in Killylea (where the dead Special Constables came from). With Brexit, many people worried that a stricter border could return. The Dil narrowly approved the Treaty on 7 January 1922 (by a vote of 64 to 57), but it caused a serious split in the Irish nationalist movement (eventually leading the Irish Civil War). B Specials were part time and unpaid and the C Specials were unpaid and nonuniform reservists. During this time the west Donegal Flying Column was responsible for numerous successful attacks on RIC barracks and troop train ambushes. [126] The 2nd Northern Division was unable to postpone and was allowed to begin operations on 2 May with attacks on police barracks in Bellaghy, Draperstown and Coalisland. [97] Almost 200 houses were badly damaged or destroyed,[96] most of them being Catholic homes. [20], As the Irish War of Independence spread northwards into Ulster, sectarian clashes took place, which would spark a period of fierce sectarian fighting that overshadowed all the riots and clashes of the preceding century. [126] Collins hoped the offensive would undermine the Northern Ireland government and unite the pro-treaty and anti-treaty IRA in a shared goal. [136] Sectarian attacks were not limited to one side: on 19 May workmen at a cooperage in Little Patrick Street, Belfast were lined up and asked their religion. April 9, 2021 1:32 PM EDT. However, in the north-east of Ireland, Protestants and Unionists were the majority, largely as a result of the 17th-century British colonization of the northern province of Ulster. Northern Ireland is a 5,400-square-mile area of roughly two million people under British sovereignty in the northeast part of the isle of Ireland, bordered on the south and west by the Republic of Ireland and on the east by the Irish Sea, which separates it from the rest of Britain. The IRA declared a cease-fire in 1994, and pro-British paramilitaries followed. Several IRA volunteers were also captured during the raids. The Belfast Telegraph newspaper reported 17 people dead and over 169 seriously wounded.[79]. [146][147] On 27 May, 1922 a USC group was sent into the area by boat and garrisoned Magherameena Castle, near Belleek. The A-Specials opened fire on a crowd of onlookers, killing three Catholic men: James McAllister, John Gore and John Hill. The anti-Treaty side argued that the Treaty copper-fastened partition; the pro-Treaty side argued that the proposed Boundary Commission would transfer large swathes of Northern Ireland to the Free State, leaving the remaining territory too small to be viable. People were divided not just by their faith and culture but also by their desires for Northern Irelands political future. Eunan O'Halpin & Daith Corrin (2020). [3], During the Irish War of Independence the Irish Republican Army (IRA) began attacking British forces and loyalists often attacked the Catholic community in retaliation. At the time of the truce there were about 14 reasonably active IRA companies in Tyrone, each with around 50 men, but only half a dozen in each company were armed. That night one woman was shot and killed in Mountcharles. Taking place during a protest march against internment without trial on the afternoon of January 30th, British soldiers shot 26 unarmed civilians, with 14 eventually succumbing to their wounds. Attacks continued through the summer on Catholic homes in the areas of Lancaster and York Streets. [104] On March 22 1921, in retaliation for the burning of Catholic owned homes in Rosslea, County Fermanagh (21 February 1921) two members of the USC were shot dead. The Northern Ireland Assembly is set to be restored, but what caused power-sharing to collapse in the first place? [138] This security crackdown, underpinned by the new Special Powers Act (7 April 1922), would cripple the IRA in Northern Ireland. The Troubles were a period of conflict in Northern Ireland involving republican and loyalist paramilitaries, the British security forces, and civil rights groups.They are usually dated from the late 1960s through to the Good Friday Agreement of 1998. [61] Calm was restored after the British Army was deployed in the town. [149] Belleek was captured by British troops on 8 June after a brief battle. When the news spread to Belfast 2,400 Catholics and some 600 Protestant trade unionists were driven (often violently) from their places of work. The IRA ambushed them on Raglan Street, killing an officer and wounding others. In Derry, Alderman Hugh O'Doherty became the first Catholic mayor of the city. This sparked a day of violence known as Belfast's Bloody Sunday. [153][154] The numerical superiority of the USC (19,400 members in the A and B Specials) also proved an insurmountable obstacle for the northern IRA. [146][148], James Craig, Prime Minister of Northern Ireland, telegrammed Winston Churchill, Secretary of State for the Colonies, to request that British troops be sent to drive out the IRA. Understanding the Northern Ireland Troubles can be tricky. [96] Twenty people were killed or fatally wounded (including twelve Catholics and six Protestants) before a truce began at noon on 11 July 1921. Best Answer Copy The cause of the Troubles in the North of Ireland leads back to the 1920s. While there were occasional incidents of sectarian conflict over the next 40 years, it wasnt until the 1960s that the situation took a turn for the worse. After Smyth's funeral, about 3,000 Loyalists took to the streets. 1 Origins 2 Sectarian fault lines 3 The push for self-government 4 Divisions over Home Rule 5 The Easter Rising 6 Ireland partitioned 7 Segregation and confrontation 8 The civil rights movement 9 Violence erupts in 1969 10 Direct Rule and paramilitaries 11 The push for peace 12 Northern Ireland today Origins [36][37], At the time, many Irish Catholics in Belfast felt that the Loyalist violence, and the violent expulsion of thousands of Catholics from mixed neighborhoods and workplaces, was akin to a pogrom or ethnic cleansing being waged against them. All rights reserved. In 1925, a boundary commission that had been expected to cede large parts of Northern Ireland to the Irish Free State proposed no major changes. On 14 May more trouble ensued as the RIC and IRA engaged in a four-hour gun battle, which resulted in the shooting dead of the local chief of the RIC Special Branch. Many of the victims were shot while trying to flee from the soldiers, and some were shot while trying to help the wounded. Home rule for all of Ireland was set to take place with the Government of Ireland Act 1914 (Home Rule Act). However, Unionists became dismayed when an electoral pact saw Sinn Fin and the Nationalist Party gaining control of ten urban councils within the area due to become Northern Ireland. [166] In the context of the Belfast shipyard clearances, the use of the word "pogrom" does not strictly conform to dictionary definitions, which typically refers to pogroms against Jews in eastern Europe. The decades-long war caused the deaths of over 3,500 people, most of whom were civilians, and around one thousand others were physically maimed. A further source of tension was a recent police decision not to prosecute crowds of mourners who gathered at a funeral last June for Bobby Storey, an Irish Republican Army commander, despite a ban on mass gatherings because of the pandemic. This northern area remained part of Britain, with a police force and a local government dominated for decades by Protestants. The underlying causes, Mr. Rahman said, were unlikely to be resolved quickly.. [131] Woods was quoted on this attack: "The whole Loyalist population is at a loss to know how such a raid could be attempted during curfew hours on the headquarters in Belfast and the largest barrack in Ireland. [30], The large-scale shipyard clearances of July 1920 were preceded by a similar action in July, 1912. The IRA also ambushed a convoy of USC reinforcements, killing the lead driver and forcing the Specials to retreat. [61][44] Hundreds of Catholic factory workers were also driven from their jobs, and many Catholic families fled Banbridge. Weve had a lot of questions over the years asking about everything from What happened during the Northern Ireland Conflict? to How did The Troubles end?. And more than three thousand murders related to the conflict are still unsolved. [101] In early 1921 western Donegal had seasoned Volunteers under the command of Peadar O'Donnell. His inaugural speech did little to allay the fears of the unionist population of the city: "Ireland's right to determine her own destiny will come about whether the Protestants of Ulster like it or not". Senator George Mitchell played that role. In June 1922 the Belfast IRA conducted an arson campaign, the governments reaction was swift and severe. Please keep in mind that this doesnt tell the story of the Northern Ireland Conflict in-depth. Catholics mainly identified as pro-Irish and nationalist; they wanted Northern Ireland to unite with the Republic of Ireland. More than twenty years after the Good Friday Agreement was signed, the region offers lessons about the challenges that remain after a conflict ends. [61] Smyth was from a wealthy Protestant family in the northern town of Banbridge, County Down and his large funeral was held there on 21 July, the same day as the Belfast shipyard expulsions. (the Act allowed for flogging in some cases). Fast forward to the 20th century, and although Ireland finally achieves independence from Great Britain in 1922, the six counties of Northern Ireland decided to stay within the United Kingdom. @rickgladstone, A version of this article appears in print on. Members of both police forces were involved in carrying out reprisal attacks on Catholics. [133][134] The IRA also attacked Martinstown RIC barracks in County Antrim with gunfire and grenades and ambushed a group of USC reinforcements, killing one. After midnight a mixed force of RIC, Black and Tans, USC and military returned to Mountcharles destroying businesses and setting fire to homes. Some of them were beaten,[41] or thrown into the water and pelted with rivets as they swam for their lives. Here are the biggest risks we face living in Northern California. The historic Good Friday Agreement signed in April 1998 was a pivotal moment in the conflict and, to a great extent, signalled the end of the violence of The Troubles. In 2011, researchers found the region has the worlds highest recorded rate of post-traumatic stress disorder. Northern Ireland's parliament could vote it in or out of the Free State, and a Boundary Commission could then redraw or confirm the provisional border. [25] At least nineteen people were killed or fatally wounded during this time: 14 Catholics and five Protestants. 2. However, nobody knew how long it would take. Then, with the help of the British and Irish governments, peace talks began.