The Troubles

There is little agreement on the exact date of the start of the Troubles. Different writers have suggested different dates. These include the formation of the modern Ulster Volunteer Force in 1966,^[1] the civil rights march in Derry on 5 October 1968, the beginning of the 'Battle of the Bogside' on 12 August 1969, or the deployment of British troops on 14 August 1969.^[58] The Northern Ireland Troubles (Legacy and Reconciliation) Act 2023, passed by the Parliament of the United Kingdom, defined the start of the Troubles as 1 January 1966 for the purposes of the act.^[71]

In March and April 1966, Irish nationalists/republicans held parades throughout Ireland to mark the 50th anniversary of the Easter Rising. On 8 March, a group of Irish republicans dynamited Nelson's Pillar in Dublin. At the time, the IRA was weak and not engaged in armed action, but some unionists warned it was about to be revived to launch another campaign against Northern Ireland.^[72][73] In April 1966, loyalists led by Ian Paisley, a Protestant fundamentalist preacher, founded the Ulster Constitution Defence Committee (UCDC). It set up a paramilitary-style wing called the Ulster Protestant Volunteers (UPV)^[72] to oust Terence O'Neill, Prime Minister of Northern Ireland. Although O'Neill was a unionist, they viewed him as being too 'soft' on the civil rights movement and opposed his policies.^[74] At the same time, a loyalist group calling itself the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) emerged in the

• an end to job discrimination – it showed evidence that Catholics/nationalists were less likely to be given certain jobs, especially government jobs
• an end to discrimination in housing allocation – it showed evidence that unionist-controlled local councils allocated housing to Protestants ahead of Catholics/nationalists
• one man, one vote – in Northern Ireland, only householders could vote in local elections, while in the rest of the United Kingdom all adults could vote
• an end to gerrymandering of electoral boundaries – this meant that nationalists had less voting power than unionists, even where nationalists were a majority
• reform of the police force (Royal Ulster Constabulary) – it was over 90% Protestant and criticised for sectarianism and police brutality
• repeal of the Special Powers Act – this allowed police to search without a warrant, arrest and imprison people without charge or trial, ban any assemblies or parades, and ban any publications; the Act was used almost exclusively against nationalists^{[72][79][80][81][82]}

Some suspected and accused NICRA of being a republican front-group whose ultimate goal was to unite Ireland. Although republicans and some members of the IRA (then led by Cathal Goulding and pursuing a non-violent agenda) helped to create and drive the movement, they did not control it and were not a dominant faction within it.^{[58][83][84][85][86]}

On 20 June 1968, civil rights activists, including nationalist Member of Parliament (MP) Austin Currie, protested against housing discrimination by squatting in a house in Caledon, County Tyrone. The local council had allocated the house to an unmarried 19-year-old Protestant (Emily Beattie, the secretary of a local UUP politician) instead of either of two large Catholic families with children.^[87] RUC officers – one of whom was Beattie's brother – forcibly removed the activists.^[87] Two days before the protest, the two Catholic families who had been squatting in the house next door were removed by police.^[88] Currie had brought their grievance to the local council and to Stormont, but had been told to leave. The incident invigorated the civil rights movement.^[89]

On 24 August 1968, the civil rights movement held its first civil rights march from Coalisland to Dungannon. Many more marches were held over the following year. Loyalists (especially members of the UPV) attacked some of the marches and held counter-demonstrations in a bid to get the marches banned.^[87] Because of the lack of police reaction to the attacks, nationalists saw the RUC, which was almost wholly Protestant, as backing the loyalists and allowing the attacks to occur.^[90] On 5 October 1968, a civil rights march in Derry was banned by the Northern Ireland government.^[91] When marchers defied the ban, RUC officers surrounded the marchers and beat them indiscriminately and without provocation. More than 100 people were injured, including a number of nationalist politicians.^[91] The incident was filmed by television news crews and shown around the world.^[92] It caused outrage among Catholics and nationalists, sparking two days of rioting in Derry between nationalists and the RUC.^[91]

A few days later, a student civil rights group,

In March and April 1969, loyalists bombed water and electricity installations in Northern Ireland, blaming them on the dormant IRA and elements of the civil rights movement. Some attacks left much of Belfast without power and water. Loyalists hoped the bombings would force O'Neill to resign and bring an end to any concessions to nationalists.^[96][97] There were six bombings between 30 March and 26 April.^[96][98] All were widely blamed on the IRA, and British soldiers were sent to guard installations. Unionist support for O'Neill waned, and on 28 April he resigned as prime minister.^[96]

On 19 April, there were clashes between NICRA marchers, the RUC, and loyalists in the Bogside. RUC officers entered the house of Samuel Devenny (42), an uninvolved Catholic civilian, and beat him along with two of his teenage daughters and a family friend.^[96] One of the daughters was beaten unconscious as she lay recovering from surgery.^[99] Devenny suffered a heart attack and died on 17 July from his injuries. On 13 July, RUC officers beat another Catholic civilian, Francis McCloskey (67), during clashes in Dungiven. He died of his injuries the next day.^[96]

On 12 August, the loyalist Apprentice Boys of Derry were allowed to march along the edge of the Bogside. Taunts and missiles were exchanged between the loyalists and nationalist residents. After being bombarded with stones and petrol bombs from nationalists, the RUC, backed by loyalists, tried to storm the Bogside. The RUC used CS gas, armoured vehicles, and water cannons, but were kept at bay by hundreds of nationalists.^[100] The continuous fighting, which became known as the Battle of the Bogside, lasted for three days.

In response to events in Derry, nationalists held protests at RUC bases in Belfast and elsewhere. Some of these led to clashes with the RUC and attacks on RUC bases. In Belfast, loyalists responded by invading nationalist districts, burning houses and businesses. There were gun battles between nationalists and the RUC and between nationalists and loyalists. A group of about 30 IRA members was involved in the fighting in Belfast. The RUC deployed Shorland armoured cars mounted with heavy Browning machine guns. The Shorlands twice opened fire on a block of flats in a nationalist district, killing a nine-year-old boy named Patrick Rooney. RUC officers opened fire on rioters in Armagh, Dungannon, and Coalisland.^[58]

During the riots, on 13 August,

On 14–15 August, British troops were deployed in Operation Banner in Derry and Belfast to restore order,^[104] but did not try to enter the Bogside, bringing a temporary end to the riots. Ten people had been killed,^[105] among them Rooney (the first child killed by police during the conflict),^[106] and 745 had been injured, including 154 who suffered gunshot wounds.^[107] 154 homes and other buildings were demolished and over 400 needed repairs, of which 83% of the buildings damaged were occupied by Catholics.^[107] Between July and 1 September 505 Catholic and 315 Protestant families were forced to flee their homes.^[108] The Irish Army set up refugee camps in the Republic near the border (see Gormanston Camp). Nationalists initially welcomed the British Army, as they did not trust the RUC.^[109]

On 9 September, the Northern Ireland Joint Security Committee met at Stormont Castle and decided that

A peace line was to be established to separate physically the Falls and the Shankill communities. Initially this would take the form of a temporary barbed wire fence which would be manned by the Army and the Police ... It was agreed that there should be no question of the peace line becoming permanent although it was acknowledged that the barriers might have to be strengthened in some locations.^[110]

On 10 September, the British Army started construction of the first "peace wall".^[111] It was the first of many such walls across Northern Ireland, and still stands today.^[112]

After the riots, the Hunt Committee was set up to examine the RUC. It published its report on 12 October, recommending that the RUC become an unarmed force and the B Specials be disbanded. That night, loyalists took to the streets of Belfast in protest at the report. During violence in the Shankill, UVF members shot dead RUC officer Victor Arbuckle. He was the first RUC officer to be killed during the Troubles.^[113] In October and December 1969, the UVF carried out a number of small bombings in the Republic of Ireland.^[58]

Despite the British government's attempt to do "nothing that would suggest partiality to one section of the community" and the improvement of the relationship between the Army and the local population following the Army assistance with flood relief in August 1970, the Falls Curfew and a situation that was described at the time as "an inflamed sectarian one, which is being deliberately exploited by the IRA and other extremists" meant that relations between the Catholic population and the British Army rapidly deteriorated.^[114]

From 1970 to 1972, an explosion of political violence occurred in Northern Ireland. The deadliest attack in the early 1970s was the McGurk's Bar bombing by the UVF in 1971.^[115] The violence peaked in 1972, when nearly 500 people, just over half of them civilians, were killed, the worst year in the entire conflict.^[116]

By the end of 1971, 29 barricades were in place in

Unionists say the main reason was the formation of the Provisional IRA and Official IRA, particularly the former.^{[citation needed]} These two groups were formed when the IRA split into the 'Provisional' and 'Official' factions. While the older IRA had embraced non-violent civil agitation,^[117] the new Provisional IRA was determined to wage "armed struggle" against British rule in Northern Ireland. The new IRA was willing to take on the role of "defenders of the Catholic community",^[118] rather than seeking working-class ecumenical unity across both communities.

Nationalists point to a number of events in these years to explain the upsurge in violence. One such incident was the Falls Curfew in July 1970, when 3,000 troops imposed a curfew on the nationalist Lower Falls area of Belfast, firing more than 1,500 rounds of ammunition in gun battles with the Official IRA and killing four people. Another was the introduction of internment without trial in 1971 (of 350 initial detainees, none were Protestants).^[119] Moreover, due to poor intelligence,^[120] very few of those interned were actually republican activists at the time, but some internees became increasingly radicalised as a result of their experiences.^[58]

In August 1971, ten civilians were shot dead in the Ballymurphy massacre in Belfast. They were innocent and the killings were unjustified, according to a 2021 coroner's inquest. Nine victims were shot by the British Army.^[121]

Bloody Sunday was the shooting dead of thirteen unarmed men by the British Army at a proscribed anti-internment rally in Derry on 30 January 1972 (a fourteenth man died of his injuries some months later), while fifteen other civilians were wounded.^[122][123] The march had been organised by the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association (NICRA). The soldiers involved were members of the 1st Battalion, Parachute Regiment, also known as "1 Para".^[124]

This was one of the most prominent events that occurred during the Troubles as it was recorded as the largest number of civilians killed in a single shooting incident.^[125] Bloody Sunday greatly increased the hostility of Catholics and Irish nationalists towards the British military and government while significantly elevating tensions. As a result, the Provisional IRA gained more support, especially through rising numbers of recruits in the local areas.^[126]

Following the introduction of internment, there were numerous gun battles between the British Army and both the Provisional and Official IRA. These included the Battle at Springmartin and the Battle of Lenadoon. Between 1971 and 1975, 1,981 people were interned: 1,874 were Catholic/republican, and 107 were Protestant/loyalist.^[127] There were widespread allegations of abuse and even torture of detainees,^[128][129] and in 1972, the "five techniques" used by the police and army for interrogation were ruled to be illegal following a British government inquiry.^[130]

The Provisional IRA, or "Provos", as they became known, sought to establish themselves as the defender of the nationalist community.^[131][132] The Official IRA (OIRA) began its own armed campaign in reaction to the ongoing violence. The Provisional IRA's offensive campaign began in early 1971 when the Army Council sanctioned attacks on the British Army.^[133]

In 1972, the Provisional IRA killed approximately 100 members of the security forces, wounded 500 others, and carried out approximately 1,300 bombings,^[134] mostly against commercial targets which they considered "the artificial economy".^{[further explanation needed][116][133][135]} Their bombing campaign killed many civilians, notably on Bloody Friday on 21 July, when they set off 22 bombs in the centre of Belfast, killing five civilians, two British soldiers, a Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) reservist, and an Ulster Defence Association (UDA) member.^{[136][137][138]} Ten days later, nine civilians were killed in a triple car bombing in Claudy.^[139] The IRA is accused of committing this bombing but no proof for that accusation is yet published.^[140][141]

In 1972, the Official IRA's campaign was largely counter-productive.

British troop concentrations peaked at 1:50 of the civilian population, the highest ratio found in the history of counterinsurgency warfare, higher than that achieved during the "Malayan Emergency"/"Anti-British National Liberation War" to which the conflict is frequently compared.^[145] Operation Motorman, the military operation for the surge, was the biggest military operation in Ireland since the Irish War of Independence.^[146] In total, almost 22,000 British forces were involved.^[146] In the days before 31 July, about 4,000 extra troops were brought into Northern Ireland.^[146]

Despite a temporary ceasefire in 1972 and talks with British officials, the Provisionals were determined to continue their campaign until the achievement of a united Ireland. The UK government in London, believing the Northern Ireland administration incapable of containing the security situation, sought to take over the control of law and order there. As this was unacceptable to the Northern Ireland Government, the British government pushed through emergency legislation (the

Belfast, 1974

British troops and police investigate a couple behind the Europa Hotel. They were taken away.

Loyalist graffiti: "You are now in Protestant teratory [sic]"

In June 1973, following the publication of a British

Unionists were split over Sunningdale, which was also opposed by the IRA, whose goal remained nothing short of an end to the existence of Northern Ireland as part of the UK. Many unionists opposed the concept of power-sharing, arguing that it was not feasible to share power with 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. Remarks by a young Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) councillor Hugh Logue to an audience at Trinity College Dublin that Sunningdale was the tool "by which the Unionists will be trundled off to a united Ireland" also damaged chances of significant unionist support for the agreement. In January 1974, Brian Faulkner was narrowly deposed as UUP leader and replaced by Harry West, although Faulkner retained his position as Chief Executive in the new government. 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 support: they won 11 of the 12 seats, winning 58% of the vote with most of the rest going to nationalists and pro-Sunningdale unionists.^[58][135]

Ultimately, the Sunningdale Agreement was brought down by mass action on the part of loyalist paramilitaries and workers, who formed the

Even as his government deployed troops in August 1969, Wilson ordered a secret study of whether the British military could withdraw from Northern Ireland, including all 45 bases, such as the submarine school in Derry. The study concluded that the military could do so in three months, but if increased violence collapsed civil society, Britain would have to send in troops again. Without bases, to do so would be an invasion of Ireland; Wilson thus decided against a withdrawal.[149]

Wilson's cabinet discussed the more drastic step of complete British withdrawal from an independent Northern Ireland as early as February 1969, as one of various possibilities for the region including direct rule.^[150] He wrote in 1971 that Britain had "responsibility without power" there,^[151] and secretly met with the IRA that year while leader of the opposition; his government in late 1974 and early 1975 again met with the IRA to negotiate a ceasefire. During the meetings, the parties discussed complete British withdrawal.^[152] Although the British government publicly stated that troops would stay as long as necessary, widespread fear from the Birmingham pub bombings and other IRA attacks in Britain itself increased support among MPs and the public for a military withdrawal.^[153]

The failure of Sunningdale and the effectiveness of the UWC strike against British authority were more evidence to Wilson of his 1971 statement. They led to the serious consideration in London of independence until November 1975. Had the withdrawal occurred – which Wilson supported but others, including

The British negotiations with the IRA, an illegal organisation, angered the Republic's government. It did not know what was discussed but feared that the British were considering abandoning Northern Ireland. Irish Foreign Minister Garret FitzGerald discussed in a memorandum of June 1975 the possibilities of orderly withdrawal and independence, repartition of the island, or a collapse of Northern Ireland into civil war and anarchy. The memorandum preferred a negotiated independence as the best of the three "worst case scenarios", but concluded that the Irish government could do little.^[152]

The Irish government had already failed to prevent a crowd from the

In February 1974, an IRA time bomb killed 12 people on a coach on the M62 in the West Riding of Yorkshire.^[155] Merlyn Rees, the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, lifted the proscription against the UVF in April 1974. In December, a month after the Birmingham pub bombings killed 21 people, the IRA declared a ceasefire; this would theoretically last throughout most of the following year. The ceasefire notwithstanding, sectarian killings escalated in 1975, along with internal feuding between rival paramilitary groups. This made 1975 one of the "bloodiest years of the conflict".^[76]

On 7 August 1974 a 24 year old man from Limehill near Pomeroy, County Tyrone was shot in the back and killed by a member of the British Army (First Battalion, Royal Regiment of Wales). At the first inquest the soldier was cleared of all charges but in 2020 another inquest was ordered by the Attorney General. The inquest was the first in a series of coroners' inquiries into deaths associated with the Troubles.^[156] The Coroner ruled that the killing of Paddy McElhone was unjustified with a judge stating "an innocent man shot in cold blood without warning when he was no threat to anyone." The McElhone family issued a statement reading in part: "Our family always knew that Paddy was an innocent young man, taken from his home and shot by a British soldier for no reason". The statement also said that his parents "went to their graves broken-hearted knowing that their innocent son had been killed, without justification, explanation or apology".^[157]

On 5 April 1975, Irish republican paramilitary members killed a UDA

On 31 July 1975 at Buskhill, outside Newry, popular Irish cabaret band the Miami Showband was returning home to Dublin after a gig in Banbridge when it was ambushed by gunmen from the UVF Mid-Ulster Brigade wearing British Army uniforms at a bogus military roadside checkpoint on the main A1 road. Three of the bandmembers, two Catholics and a Protestant, were shot dead, while two of the UVF men were killed when the bomb they had loaded onto the band's minibus detonated prematurely. The following January, eleven Protestant workers were gunned down in Kingsmill, South Armagh after having been ordered off their bus by an armed republican gang, which called itself the South Armagh Republican Action Force. This resulted in 10 fatalities, with one man surviving despite being shot 18 times. These killings were reportedly in retaliation to a loyalist double shooting attack against the Reavey and O'Dowd families the previous night.^{[58][116][135]}

The violence continued through the rest of the 1970s. This included a series of attacks in

In February 1978, the IRA bombed La Mon, a hotel restaurant in Comber, County Down.^[165] The decade ended with a double attack by the IRA against the British. On 27 August 1979, Lord Mountbatten, while on holiday in Mullaghmore, County Sligo, was killed by a bomb planted on board his boat. Three other people were also killed: Lady Brabourne, the elderly mother of Mountbatten's son-in-law; and two teenagers, a grandson of Mountbatten and a local boatman.^[116] That same day, eighteen British soldiers, mostly members of the Parachute Regiment, were killed by two remote-controlled bombs in the Warrenpoint ambush at Narrow Water Castle, near Warrenpoint, County Down.^[76] It was the British Army's largest loss of life in a single incident in Operation Banner.^[166]

Successive British Governments, having failed to achieve a political settlement, tried to "normalise" Northern Ireland. Aspects included the removal of internment without trial and the removal of

In the

In July 1982, the IRA

On 28 February 1985 in Newry, nine RUC officers were killed in

In September 1989, the IRA used a time bomb to attack the Royal Marine Depot, Deal in Kent, killing 11 bandsmen.^[183]

Towards the end of the decade, the British Army tried to soften its public appearance to residents in communities such as Derry in order to improve relations between the local community and the military. Soldiers were told not to use the telescopic sights on their rifles to scan the streets, as civilians believed they were being aimed at. Soldiers were also encouraged to wear berets when manning checkpoints (and later other situations) rather than helmets, which were perceived as militaristic and hostile. The system of complaints was overhauled – if civilians believed they were being harassed or abused by soldiers in the streets or during searches and made a complaint, they would never find out what action (if any) was taken. The new regulations required an officer to visit the complainants house to inform them of the outcome of their complaint.^[184]

In the 1980s, loyalist paramilitary groups—the Ulster Volunteer Force, the Ulster Defence Association, and Ulster Resistance—imported arms and explosives from South Africa.^[76] The weapons obtained were divided between the groups, although some of the weaponry (such as rocket-propelled grenades) were hardly used. In 1987, the Irish People's Liberation Organisation (IPLO), a breakaway faction of the INLA, engaged in a bloody feud against the INLA which weakened the INLA's presence in some areas. By 1992, the IPLO was destroyed by the Provisionals for its involvement in drug dealing, thus ending the feud.^[58]

The IRA's South Armagh Brigade had made the countryside village of Crossmaglen their stronghold since the 1970s. The surrounding villages of

In the 1990s, the IRA came up with a new plan to restrict British Army foot patrols near Crossmaglen. They developed two sniper teams to attack British Army and RUC patrols.^[186] They usually fired from an improvised armoured car using a .50 BMG calibre M82 sniper rifle. Signs were put up around South Armagh reading "Sniper at Work". The snipers killed a total of nine members of the security forces: seven soldiers and two constables. The last to be killed before the Good Friday Agreement was a British soldier, bombardier Steven Restorick.

The IRA had developed the capacity to attack helicopters in South Armagh and elsewhere since the 1980s,^[187] including the 1990 shootdown of a Gazelle flying over the border between counties Tyrone and Monaghan by the East Tyrone Brigade; there were no fatalities in any of those incidents.^[188]

Another incident involving British helicopters in South Armagh was the Battle of Newry Road in September 1993.^[189] Two other helicopters, a British Army Lynx and a Royal Air Force Puma were shot down by improvised mortar fire in 1994. The IRA set up checkpoints in South Armagh during this period, which were unchallenged by the security forces.^[187][190]

On 7 February 1991, the IRA attempted to assassinate prime minister John Major and his war cabinet by launching a mortar at 10 Downing Street while they were gathered there to discuss the Gulf War.^[191] The mortar bombing caused only four injuries, two of which were to police officers, while Major and the entire war cabinet were unharmed.^[191]

After a prolonged period of background political manoeuvring, during which the 1992 Baltic Exchange and 1993 Bishopsgate bombings occurred in London, both loyalist and republican paramilitary groups declared ceasefires in 1994. The year leading up to the ceasefires included a mass shooting in Castlerock, County Londonderry in which four people were killed. The IRA responded with the Shankill Road bombing in October 1993, which aimed to kill the UDA leadership, but instead killed eight Protestant civilian shoppers and a low-ranking UDA member, as well as one of the perpetrators, who was killed when the bomb detonated prematurely. The UDA responded with attacks in nationalist areas including a mass shooting in Greysteel, in which eight civilians were killed – six Catholics and two Protestants.^[58]

On 16 June 1994, just before the ceasefires, the Irish National Liberation Army killed three UVF members in a gun attack on the Shankill Road. In revenge, three days later the UVF killed six civilians in a shooting at a pub in Loughinisland, County Down. The IRA, in the remaining month before its ceasefire, killed four senior loyalist paramilitaries, three from the UDA and one from the UVF. On 31 August 1994, the IRA declared a ceasefire. The loyalist paramilitaries, temporarily united in the "Combined Loyalist Military Command", reciprocated six weeks later. Although these ceasefires failed in the short run, they marked an effective end to large-scale political violence, as they paved the way for the final ceasefires.^[58][135]

In 1995, the United States appointed George J. Mitchell as the United States Special Envoy for Northern Ireland. Mitchell was recognised as being more than a token envoy and as representing a President (Bill Clinton) with a deep interest in events.^[192] The British and Irish governments agreed that Mitchell would chair an international commission on disarmament of paramilitary groups.^[193]

On 9 February 1996, less than two years after the declaration of the ceasefire, the IRA revoked it with the

The attack was followed by several more, most notably the

In August 1998, a Real IRA bomb in Omagh killed 29 civilians, the most by a single bomb during the Troubles.^[125] This bombing discredited "dissident republicans" and their campaigns in the eyes of many who had previously supported the Provisionals' campaign. They became small groups with little influence, but still capable of violence.^[198]

The INLA also declared a ceasefire after the Good Friday Agreement. Since then, most paramilitary violence has been directed at their "own" communities and at other factions within their organisations. The UDA, for example, has feuded with their fellow loyalists the UVF on two occasions since 2000. There have been internal struggles for power between "brigade commanders" and involvement in

The power-sharing Executive and Assembly were suspended in 2002, when unionists withdrew following "Stormontgate", a controversy over allegations of an IRA spy ring operating at Stormont. There were ongoing tensions about the Provisional IRA's failure to disarm fully and sufficiently quickly. IRA decommissioning has since been completed (in September 2005) to the satisfaction of most parties.^[201]

A feature of Northern Ireland politics since the Agreement has been eclipsed in electoral terms of parties such as the

Both Republican and Loyalist paramilitaries sought to obtain weapons outside of Northern Ireland in order to achieve their objectives. Irish Republican paramilitaries received the vast majority of external support. Over the years, the Provisional IRA imported arms from external sources such as sympathisers in the Republic of Ireland, Irish diaspora communities within the Anglosphere, mainland Europe, the Palestine Liberation Organization, and Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi. The Soviet Union and North Korea supplied the Official IRA with 5,000 weapons,^[204] and the INLA received considerable arms from overseas as well.

The IRA's primary external support was from the Republic of Ireland, whose safe haven allowed the group to raise legal and illegal funds, organise and train, and manufacture a large number of firearms and explosives with ease and then smuggled them into Northern Ireland and England.

Loyalist paramilitaries also received support, mainly from Protestant supporters in Canada, England, and Scotland (including members of the Orange Order). From 1979 to 1986, loyalist paramilitaries imported up to 100 machine guns and "as many rifles, grenade launchers, magnum revolvers and hundreds of thousands of rounds of ammunition from Canada."[206] Members of the Grand Orange Lodge of Scotland sent gelignite explosives to UDA and UVF members.^{[207][208][209]} British Army's Force Research Unit (FRU) agent Brian Nelson also secured a large amount of weaponry from the South African government to loyalists.^[210]

Irish Republican and Loyalist militants also received significant funding from groups, individuals, and state actors outside Northern Ireland. From the 1970s to the early 1990s, Libya gave the IRA over $12.5 million in cash (the equivalent of roughly $40 million in 2021).

In the Anglosphere outside Great Britain, Irish Americans, Irish Canadians, Irish Australians, and Irish New Zealanders provided considerable or substantial financial donations to the Republican movement, mostly the Provisionals.^{[216][217][218]} The financial backbone of the Provisional cause in America was the Irish Northern Aid Committee (NORAID), which was estimated to have raised $3.6 million between 1970 and 1991, including for supporting families of dead or imprisoned IRA members, lobbying and propaganda efforts, and sometimes purchasing weapons for the Provisional IRA.^{[219][220][221][222][223][224]} In Australia, officials estimated that by the 1990s, no more than A$20,000 were raised annually for the Provisionals.^[225] Canadian supporters raised money to secretly purchase weapons, notably detonators used for Canadian mining sites and smuggled to the IRA.^{[226][227][228]}

However, nearly all or the vast majority of the funding for both Republican and Loyalist paramilitaries came from criminal and business activities within the island of Ireland and Great Britain.^{[229][230][215][205]} The Northern Ireland Affairs Select Committee report of June 2002 stated that:

Historically, the vast majority of paramilitary funds for both Republican and Loyalist groups have been generated within Northern Ireland. The primary reason for this is the relative ease of raising funds within these communities. Sympathy for the cause is greatest within the originating community. Those concerned also have the local knowledge which facilitates crime or the direct intimidation of individuals from whom money is sought. The fact that Northern Ireland remains predominantly a cash economy also encourages a local focus, as it facilitates money laundering and makes it difficult for the law enforcement agencies to trace transactions.^[215]

There were many incidents of

The British Army's locally recruited Ulster Defence Regiment (UDR) was almost wholly Protestant.^[233][234] Despite recruits being vetted, some loyalist militants managed to enlist, mainly to obtain weapons, training, and information.^[235] A 1973 British Government document (uncovered in 2004), Subversion in the UDR, suggested that 5–15% of UDR soldiers then were members of loyalist paramilitaries.^[235][236] The report said the UDR was the main source of weapons for those groups,^[235] although by 1973, UDR weapons losses had dropped significantly, partly due to stricter controls.^[235] In 1977, the Army investigated a UDR battalion based at Girdwood Barracks, Belfast. The investigation found that 70 soldiers had links to the UVF, that thirty soldiers had fraudulently diverted up to £47,000 to the UVF, and that UVF members socialised with soldiers in their mess. Following this, two UDR members were dismissed.^[237] The investigation was halted after a senior officer claimed it was harming morale.^[237] By 1990, at least 197 UDR soldiers had been convicted of loyalist terrorist offences and other serious crimes, including 19 convicted of murder.^[238] This was only a small fraction of those who served in the UDR, but the proportion was higher than the regular British Army, the RUC, and the civilian population.^[239]

During the 1970s, the Glenanne gang – a secret alliance of loyalist militants, British soldiers, and RUC officers – carried out a string of gun and bomb attacks against nationalists in an area of Northern Ireland known as the "murder triangle".^[240][241] It also carried out some attacks in the Republic, killing about 120 people in total, mostly uninvolved civilians.^[242] The Cassel Report investigated 76 murders attributed to the group and found evidence that soldiers and policemen were involved in 74 of those.^[243] One member, RUC officer John Weir, claimed his superiors knew of the collusion but allowed it to continue.^[244] The Cassel Report also stated some senior officers knew of the crimes but did nothing to prevent, investigate, or punish perpetrators.^[243] Attacks attributed to the group include the Dublin and Monaghan bombings (1974), the Miami Showband killings (1975), and the Reavey and O'Dowd killings (1976).^[245]

The Stevens Inquiries found that elements of the security forces had used loyalists as "proxies"^[246] who, via double-agents and informers, had helped loyalist groups to kill targeted individuals, usually suspected republicans but also civilians both intentionally and otherwise. The inquiries concluded this had intensified and prolonged the conflict.^[247][248] The British Army's Force Research Unit (FRU) was the main agency involved.^[246] Brian Nelson, the UDA's chief 'intelligence officer', was a FRU agent.^[249] Through Nelson, FRU helped loyalists target people for assassination. FRU commanders say they helped loyalists target only suspected or known republican activists and prevented the killing of civilians.^[246] The Inquiries found evidence only two lives were saved and that Nelson/FRU was responsible for at least 30 murders and many other attacks, many on civilians.^[247] One victim was solicitor Pat Finucane. Nelson also supervised the shipping of weapons to loyalists in 1988.^[249] From 1992 to 1994, loyalists were responsible for more deaths than republicans,^[250] partly due to FRU involvement.^[251][252] Members of the security forces tried to obstruct the Stevens investigation.^[248][253]

A

The Smithwick Tribunal concluded that a member of the Garda Síochána (the Republic of Ireland's police force) colluded with the IRA in the killing of two senior RUC officers in 1989.^{[261][262][263][264]} The two officers were ambushed by the IRA near Jonesborough, County Armagh, when returning from a cross-border security conference in Dundalk in the Republic of Ireland.^[262]

During the 1970s and 1980s, republican and loyalist paramilitaries abducted a number of individuals, many alleged to have been informers, who were then secretly killed and buried.^[265] Eighteen people – two women and sixteen men – including one British Army officer, were kidnapped and killed during the Troubles. They are referred to informally as "The Disappeared". All but one, Lisa Dorrian, were abducted and killed by republicans. Dorrian is believed to have been abducted by loyalists. The remains of all but four of "The Disappeared" have been recovered and turned over to their families.^{[266][267][268]}

British government security forces, including the Military Reaction Force (MRF), carried out what have been described as "extrajudicial killings" of unarmed civilians.^{[269][270][271]} Their victims were often Catholic or suspected Catholic civilians unaffiliated with any paramilitaries, such as the Whiterock Road shooting of two unarmed Catholic civilians by British soldiers on 15 April 1972, and the Andersonstown shooting of seven unarmed Catholic civilians on 12 May that same year.^[272] A member of the MRF stated in 1978 that the Army often attempted false flag sectarian attacks, provoking sectarian conflict and "taking the heat off the Army".^[273] A former member stated: "[W]e were not there to act like an army unit, we were there to act like a terror group."^[274]

Republicans allege that the security forces operated a shoot-to-kill policy rather than arresting IRA suspects. The security forces denied this and pointed out that six of the eight IRA men killed in the Loughgall ambush in 1987 were heavily armed. On the other hand, the shooting of three unarmed IRA members in Gibraltar by the Special Air Service ten months later appeared to confirm suspicions among republicans and in the British and Irish media of a tacit British shoot-to-kill policy of suspected IRA members.^[275]

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 the Protestant Ascendancy and British rule in Ireland. One particular flashpoint which has caused continuous annual strife is the Garvaghy Road area in Portadown, where an Orange parade from Drumcree Church passes through a mainly nationalist estate off the Garvaghy Road. This parade has now been banned indefinitely, following nationalist riots against the parade and loyalist counter-riots against its banning.

In 1995, 1996, and 1997, there were several weeks of prolonged rioting throughout Northern Ireland 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 (of four) nominally Catholic brothers (from a mixed-religion family) died when their house in Ballymoney was petrol-bombed.^{[276][277][278]}

The impact of the Troubles on the ordinary people of Northern Ireland has been compared to that of the Blitz on the people of London.^[279] The stress resulting from bomb attacks, street disturbances, security checkpoints, and the constant military presence had the strongest effect on children and young adults.^[280] There was also the fear that local paramilitaries instilled in their respective communities with the punishment beatings, "romperings", and the occasional tarring and feathering meted out to individuals for various purported infractions.^[281]

In addition to the violence and intimidation, there was chronic unemployment and a severe housing shortage. Many people were rendered homeless as a result of intimidation or having their houses burnt, and urban redevelopment played a role in the social upheaval. Belfast families faced being transferred to new, alien estates when older, decrepit districts such as

Peace lines, which were built in Northern Ireland during the early years of the Troubles, remain in place.[289]

According to a 2022 poll, 69% of Irish nationalists polled believe there was no option but "violent resistance to British rule during the Troubles".^[290]

According to the Conflict Archive on the Internet (CAIN), 3,532 people were killed as a result of the conflict between 1969 and 2001.^[291] Of these, 3,489 were killed up to 1998.^[291] According to the book Lost Lives (2006 edition), 3,720 people were killed as a result of the conflict from 1966 to 2006. Of these, 3,635 were killed up to 1998.^[292]

In The Politics of Antagonism: Understanding Northern Ireland,

In 2010, it was estimated that 107,000 people in Northern Ireland suffered some physical injury as a result of the conflict. On the basis of data gathered by the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency, the Victims Commission estimated that the conflict resulted in 500,000 'victims' in Northern Ireland alone. It defines 'victims' are those who are directly affected by 'bereavement', 'physical injury', or 'trauma' as a result of the conflict.^[295]

One statistical breakdown of Troubles deaths put the death toll at 3,466, with 3,218 lives lost in Northern Ireland, 125 in Great Britain, 105 in the Republic of Ireland, and 18 in the rest of Europe.^[296]

Republican paramilitaries were responsible for some 60% of all deaths, loyalists 30% and British security forces 10%.^[39]

Loyalists killed 48% of the civilian casualties, republicans killed 39%, and the British security forces killed 10%.^[297] Most of the Catholic civilians were killed by loyalists, and most of the Protestant civilians were killed by republicans.^[298]

Of those killed by republican paramilitaries:^[299]

• 1,080 (~52.5%) were members/former members of the British security forces
• 722 (~35.1%) were civilians
• 188 (~9.2%) were members of republican paramilitaries
• 57 (~2.8%) were members of loyalist paramilitaries
• 11 (~0.5%) were members of the Irish security forces

Of those killed by loyalist paramilitaries:^[299]

• 878 (~85.5%) were civilians
• 94 (~9.2%) were members of loyalist paramilitaries
• 41 (~4.0%) were members of republican paramilitaries
• 14 (~1.4%) were members of the British security forces

Of those killed by British security forces:^[299]

• 188 (~51.5%) were civilians
• 146 (~40.2%) were members of republican paramilitaries
• 18 (~5.0%) were members of loyalist paramilitaries
• 13 (~3.6%) were fellow members of the British security forces

Approximately 52% of the dead were civilians, 32% were members or former members of the British security forces, 11% were members of republican paramilitaries, and 5% were members of loyalist paramilitaries.^[39] About 60% of the civilian casualties were Catholics, 30% of the civilians were Protestants, and the rest were from outside Northern Ireland.^[300]

About 257 of those killed were children under the age of seventeen, representing 7.2% of the total,^[301] while 274 children under the age of eighteen were killed during the conflict.^[302]

It has been the subject of dispute whether some individuals were members of paramilitary organisations. Several casualties that were listed as civilians were later claimed by the IRA as their members.

Most killings took place within Northern Ireland, especially in Belfast and County Armagh. Most of the killings in Belfast took place in the west and north of the city. Dublin, London and Birmingham were also affected, albeit to a lesser degree than Northern Ireland itself. Occasionally, the IRA attempted or carried out attacks on British targets in Gibraltar, Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands.^[306][307]

On 18 September 2023, the Northern Ireland Troubles (Legacy and Reconciliation) Act 2023, known as the Legacy Act received royal assent.^[309]

The Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission has raised concerns about the legislation's incompatibility with the Human Rights Act 1998.^[310] The legislation exempts conduct related to the Troubles from prosecution and establishes the Independent Commission for Reconciliation and Information Recovery.^[311]

The legislation has been criticised by all

• 2021 Northern Ireland riots
• Irish Children's Fund
• List of bombings during the Troubles
• List of Gardaí killed in the line of duty
• List of Irish uprisings
• Outline of the Troubles
• Segregation in Northern Ireland
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• Category:Works about The Troubles (Northern Ireland)
• List of books about the Troubles
• List of The Troubles films
• Murals in Northern Ireland

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