The Veteran Issue 7

"Least we Forget"
The Northern Ireland
Conflict
'The Troubles'
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
predominantly Protestant England. Tensions flared into violence in the late 1960s,
leaving some 3,600 people dead and more than 30,000 injured.
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.”
The conflict began during a campaign by the
Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association to
end discrimination against the Catholic/
nationalist minority by the Protestant/unionist
government and local authorities.
The government attempted to suppress the
protests. The police, the Royal Ulster
Constabulary (RUC), were overwhelmingly
Protestant and accused of sectarianism and
police brutality. The campaign was also
violently opposed by loyalists, who said it
was a republican front. Increasing tensions
led to the August 1969 riots and the
deployment of British troops, in what
became the British Army's longest
operation. "Peace walls" were built in some
areas to keep the two communities apart.
Some Catholics initially welcomed the
British Army as a more neutral force than
the RUC, but soon came to see it as hostile
and biased, particularly after Bloody Sunday
in 1972.
British
Soldiers on
patrol 1970
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