The Troubles
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- "The Troubles" is a term used to describe two periods of violence in Ireland during the twentieth century. This article describes the latter; for the earlier Troubles, see Anglo-Irish War and Irish Civil War.
The Troubles is a generic 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. It could also be described as a many-sided conflict, a guerrilla war or even a civil war. Paramilitary groups in Northern Ireland are widely described in the Northern Ireland media and society as terrorist organisations.
Casualties : Brief Summary
Responsibility
Between 1969 and 2001, 3523 died 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 Britain
- 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 were also affected. Sutton gives a geographic breakdown of deaths as follows (in alphabetical order):
- 207 in County Antrim
- 476 in County Armagh
- 128 in East Belfast
- 576 in North Belfast
- 213 in South Belfast
- 623 in West Belfast
- 227 in Derry
- 125 in Britain
- 123 in County Derry
- 243 in County Down
- 18 in continental Europe
- 112 in County Fermanagh
- 339 in County Tyrone
- 113 in the Republic of Ireland
Further information is available on: Conflict Archive on the Internet: Sutton database
See timeline below for chronological listing.
Injuries
Missing Persons
Background
The Troubles were another chapter in the long-running series of disputes between Ulster's Protestant and Roman Catholic communities. They were brought to an uneasy end by a peace process which included the declaration of ceasefires by most paramilitary organisations, the withdrawal of most troops from the streets and the creation of a new police force in a series of reforms, as agreed by the signatories to the Belfast Agreement (commonly known as the Good Friday Agreement).
Though the number of active participants in the Troubles was relatively small, and the paramilitary organisations that claimed to represent the communities were sometimes unrepresentative of the general population, the Troubles touched the lives of most people in Northern Ireland on a daily basis, while occasionally spreading to Britain and the Republic of Ireland. Many people today have had their political, social and communal attitudes and perspectives shaped by the Troubles.
Though not itself part of the Troubles, the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association civil rights campaign in the mid to late 1960s in Northern Ireland, which was largely modelled on the American Civil Rights Movement of Martin Luther King and others in the United States, was seen by some in the unionist community as the starting point for the Troubles. They argue that it, and the violent opposition to it led by Ian Paisley and other loyalist leaders, led to a destabilisation of government and created a void filled later by paramilitary groups. Others, mainly though not exclusively nationalist, disagree, arguing that the Civil Rights campaign was a reaction to a corrupt system of government, the failure to reform the system causing the collapse in law and order that led to the Troubles. All are agreed that the Troubles were well underway by Bloody Sunday, Bloody Friday, internment, the suspension of the unionist-controlled Stormont Home Rule government, the campaigns of violence by the various paramilitary organisations, including the Dublin and Monaghan Bombings, the La Mon bombing, the killing of Lord Mountbatten and members of his family, the assassination of Sir Christopher Ewart-Biggs, the then British Ambassador to the Republic of Ireland, the attempted assassination of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and her cabinet in the Brighton hotel bombing, the assassination of Airey Neave and the attempted assassination of John David Taylor, the Enniskillen and Omagh bombings, the hunger strikers in the Long Kesh prison, the creation of the Peace People organisation (which won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1976), and the splits in the IRA and ultimately the Belfast Agreement.
Overview
The origins of the Troubles are complex. What is clear is that its origins lie in the centuries-long debate over whether Ireland, or part of Ireland, should be part of the United Kingdom, and the anger felt by some Irish at their treatment by the British. In 1922, after widespread political violence, the Government of Ireland Act partitioned the island of Ireland into two separate regions, one of which became "Northern Ireland". According to the majority of unionists, Northern Ireland, which became a self-governing region of the United Kingdom, was 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 immoral division of the island of Ireland against the will of its people, and argued that the Northern Ireland statelet was neither legitimate nor democratic, but created with a deliberately engineered unionist majority. Each side had their own soundbites to describe their perspective. Ulster Unionist Party Prime Minister of Northern Ireland Lord Brookborough talked of a "Protestant state for a Protestant people", while a later Republic of Ireland Taoiseach (prime minister) Charles Haughey described Northern Ireland as "a failed political entity".
Religion and class
For the most part a clear divide exists in terms of religion and some times a left-right divide between the various communities. Most though not all Protestants are unionists, while most though not all Catholics are nationalists. While the mainstream organisations representing nationalists and unionists tended to be quite conservative, more politically and religious radical groups emerged associated with republicans and loyalists, with Sinn Féin adopting a Marxist perspective of the political situation, defining it in terms of "class struggle". Loyalists in the 1970s even advocated forms of an "independent Ulster" which they compared to the then apartheid-style regimes of Rhodesia and South Africa, in which one community's dominance could be ensured. There is little support for this idea today.
Except for hard-line unionists, most of the political spectrum argued that the Northern Ireland of the 1960s needed change. Moderate nationalists in the Civil Rights movement, under figures like John Hume, Gerry Fitt and Austin Currie advocated an end to the gerrymandering of local government and the end to discrimination over access to council housing. They pressed for wide reforms, whereas some unionists saw these concessions as part of a process whereby nationalists would bring down Northern Ireland and force Irish unity. Republicans adopted a more violent approach to force more radical change, which resulted in a violent reaction from loyalists, the British army and the Royal Ulster Constabulary.
Policing
The Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC), the police force in Northern Ireland, was largely, though not totally, Protestant for a number of reasons. Catholics did not join in the numbers expected by the British when the force was first created. Because of the influence of the Orange Order, those that did reported a strongly "hostile to Catholics" and unionist working environment. Those Catholics who did join were often targeted as traitors by the various republican groups, yet some Catholic police officers did play a part in the constabulary. One served as Chief Constable, while the current leader of the Social Democratic and Labour Party, Mark Durkan is the son of a Catholic RUC officer.
The result was that critics of the unionist and loyalist communities saw the police force as the "Unionist police force for a Unionist state." Unlike the unarmed police force in the South, An Garda Síochána, the RUC was never a normal police force.
A policing review, part of the Good Friday Agreement, has led to some reforms of policing, including more rigorous accountability, measures to increase the number of Catholic officers, and the renaming of the RUC to the Police Service of Northern Ireland to avoid using the word "Royal". While most of the reforms have been introduced, Sinn Féin continues to withhold its support from the new Police Service of Northern Ireland until they are "implemented in full".
Timeline
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Deaths related to conflict (1969-2004) Number of deaths listed as related to the Troubles or (bracketed) uncertain if related. ( [1]).
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