A Short History of Northern Ireland

7/30/2019 A Short History of Northern Ireland

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Area: 14,120 sq km

Population

Population (1993): 1,631,800.

Northern Ireland is the second most sparsely populated part of the UK after Scotland, with 317 peopleper square mile (122 per square kilometre).

Conflict's core

The conflict in Northern Ireland, which has killedthousands, has political and religious roots that arecenturies old.

In modern times the conflict is centred on opposing viewsof the area's status.

Some people in Northern Ireland, especially the mainly Protestant Unionist community,believe it should remain part of the United Kingdom.

Others, particularly the mainly Catholic Nationalistcommunity, believe it should leave the UK and becomepart of the Republic of Ireland.

Origins

Since the 12th Century constant revolts challenged theoften brutal British rule of Ireland, climaxing in the 1916Easter Uprising in Dublin.

It sparked a chain of events leading to civil war andpartition of the island.

In the south 26 counties formed a separate state, while six counties in the north stayedwithin the UK.

Over successive decades the Catholic minority theresuffered discrimination over housing and jobs, which

fuelled bitter resentment.

Origins

Since the 12th Century constant revolts challenged theoften brutal British rule of Ireland, climaxing in the 1916Easter Uprising in Dublin.

It sparked a chain of events leading to civil war andpartition of the island.

In the south 26 counties formed a separate state, while six counties in the north stayed

within the UK.

The 1916 rebellion lacked popularsupport, but public sympathy grewafter its leaders were executed

The 1916 rebellion lacked popularsupport, but public sympathy grewafter its leaders were executed


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Over successive decades the Catholic minority theresuffered discrimination over housing and jobs, whichfuelled bitter resentment.

Violence on all sides

Throughout the 1970s, 1980s and early 1990s paramilitarygroups waged violent campaigns to pursue their goals.

The IRA carried out deadly bomb and gun attacks inBritain and Northern Ireland that targeted police, soldiers,politicians and civilians.

Loyalist paramilitaries targeted Catholics in "tit-for-tat" killings.

Police and British forces tried to keep order, sometimesamid controversy, such as the alleged co-operation of

some undercover units with loyalist groups.

Peace in sight

In the early 1990s negotiations took place betweenpolitical parties and the British and Irish governments.

After several years of talks IRA and loyalist ceasefires held

and in 1998 the "Good Friday" agreement was signed.

It set up a power-sharing executive, with ministerial posts distributed by party strength,

and elected assembly.

The deal was backed by voters in referendums in NorthernIreland and the Republic, which scrapped its constitutionalclaim to the north.

Fragile future?

Problems remain as devolution has been suspendedseveral times since it began.

Unionists want the IRA to verifiably scrap its weapons andend activity such as so-called punishment beatings.

With the IRA claiming it will do both, Republicans say Unionist demands for pictures ofweapons decommissioning are an excuse to avoid power-sharing.

Northern Ireland society has hurdles to overcome too, with views still divided over issueslike policing, and a sharply rising crime rate.

12th century First involvement by England in Irish affairs when the Earl of Pembroke, known asStrongbow, intervenes in a local dispute in Leinster in 1170 . King Henry II lands the following year.

Troops were soon a permanent fixtureon Northern Ireland's streets

Copies of the peace deal were sent toevery household

The issue of paramilitary weapons hasdogged the peace process


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English expansion continues and in 1177, Ulster is conquered by soldiers led by John de Courcy.

14th/15th centuries English expansion halted and then reversed. By the end of the period, Englishpossessions are limited to a small area around Dublin. the 'Pale'. Everything outside is regarded assavage, giving rise to the expression 'beyond the pale'.

16th century First Henry VIII and then Elizabeth I take an increasing interest in Ireland. Colonisationincreases again, sparking off several rebellions late in the century.

The greatest of the revolts, led by Ulsterman Hugh O'Neill, the Earl of Tyrone, reaches its high pointwith victory over the English at the Yellow Ford in 1598, but he is defeated three years later at Kinsaleand surrenders.

17th century Start of the 'Plantation of Ulster' - the systematic colonisation of Donegal, Tyrone, Derry,Armagh, Cavan and Fermanagh by settlers from England and Scotland.

After Parliament's victory in the English civil war, Oliver Cromwell conquered the whole of Ireland andset about opening the island up to colonisation.

1690 Protestant King William of Orange's troops defeated the Catholic army of King James at theBattle of the Boyne to confirm his claim to the English throne and with it Ireland.

By the end of the 17th century, Ulster in particular was heavily settled, mainly by ScottishPresbyterians.

1912 Amid a growing home rule campaign, the Ulster Unionist leader, Sir Edward Carson, sets up theoriginal Ulster Volunteer Force as a bulwark against Dublin's domination of the Protestant-majority 'sixcounties' in the north of Ireland. Carson is still regarded by many as the founder of the state ofNorthern Ireland.

1916 The Easter Rising. Pro-home rule Irish rebels seize the Post Office building in the centre ofDublin but are eventually ousted by British soldiers. Fifteen of the rebellion's leaders are executed.Carson's UVF, which had become a division of the British Army, fights in France and a thousand die atthe Somme.

1921-22 The first Northern Ireland Parliament opens

After a long and bitter guerrilla campaign against the British Army, Ireland is granted partial home rule.

The Irish Free State is set up in the southern 26 counties of Ireland. Itsarchitect, Michael Collins, is assassinated during the ensuing civil warbetween his Free State forces and the IRA, which refuses to accept thepartition.

The war ends after the new Irish Government executes IRA leaders.

1939-45 Irish Republic remains neutral in World War II while NorthernIreland becomes an important Allied sea and air base.

1949 Ireland becomes a full republic and the British government gives newconstitutional guarantees to the Northern Ireland Parliament at Stormont.

1952 The Official IRA calls off a series of attacks on Royal UlsterConstabulary police stations near the Irish border which cause few casualties and generated littlepublicity.

Michael Collins, founder of the

Irish Free State


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1956 The IRA launches a border campaign which leads to the introduction of internment of suspectswithout trial both in the Republic and in Northern Ireland.

1968 The civil rights movement begins the campain for equal rights in housing and voting for poorerCatholics. Protestants counter-demonstrate.

1969

March:The RUC is armed in border areas for the first time since 1965.

August: The province's Catholic minority welcomes British troops, sent to Northern Ireland inresponse to an upsurge in sectarian violence. The Provisional IRA (the 'Provos') breaks away from theOfficial IRA, which is criticised for failing to protect Catholic enclaves.

1970

August: The Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) is formed to press for Catholic civil rights.By now the British Army is being seen as an army of occupation by many Catholics and several

soldiers are shot dead by the IRA.

October: The former Irish Finance Minister, Charles Haughey, is found not guilty of illegally importingarms. It was alleged he planned to send the weapons across the border to arm nationalists. MrHaughey, later to become Prime Minister of the Republic, becomes a hate figure for Unionists inNorthern Ireland.

1971

February: First soldier shot dead in Northern Ireland since troops arrived in August 1969.

August: Internment without trial is introduced. Hundreds of suspected extremists, including the

present Sinn Fein President, Gerry Adams, are rounded up and detained over the next four years.

December: 15 people are killed in an attack on a Belfast pub. The Ulster Volunteer Force claimsresponsibility.

1972

January: 'Bloody Sunday': Thirteen Catholic protesters die after being shotby troops from the 1st Battalion the Parachute Regiment following

disturbances during a banned civil rights march in Londonderry.

March: Edward Heath's Conservative government imposes direct rule onthe province, creating the post of Northern Ireland Secretary, and closes theUnionist-dominated Stormont Parliament in a concession to republicans.The Ulster Unionist Party breaks off formal links with the Conservative Partyin protest.

The IRA declares a temporary ceasefire and several republican leaders,including Gerry Adams, are flown to London for secret talks with theGovernment, which come to nothing.

July: Nine people are killed when 22 bombs explode in Belfast. Thisbecame known as 'Bloody Friday'. The IRA was held responsible.

1974

Thirteen catholics were shot deadby British troop on 'BloodySunday'


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January: The Government sets up a power-sharing executive, in which posts are handed out on aquota basis, in a bid to include Catholics in the decision-making process and end the much-resentedUnionist domination.

May: In Dublin, 22 people are killed by car bombs which explode without warning. Five people arekilled by a car bomb in Monaghan Town. Three more people die later from their injuries. Loyalist

paramilitaries are thought to have carried out the attacks, although the UDA and the UVF deny theywere involved.

Protestant workers all over Northern Ireland go on strike in protest at the power-sharing executive plusa proposed council of all Ireland. It promptly resigns and direct rule is reimposed.

October: Five people killed as IRA bomb wrecks a pub in Guildford, Surrey, frequented by soldiers.IRA attacks another pub also used by soldiers in Woolwich, south east London.

November: Twenty-one people killed by two IRA bombs planted in two pubs in Birmingham.

1975

October: In a series of UVF attacks, 12 people are killed and 46 people injured. The UVF is declaredan illegal organisation.

November: A gang of loyalists, known as the Shankill Butchers, abduct and murder a Catholic revelleras he walks home through west Belfast.

December: Internment is lifted by the new Northern Ireland Secretary, Labour's Merlyn Rees.

1977

May: The Second Ulster (Protestant) Workers' Strike peters out.

1978

February: 12 people are killed and 23 injured in an IRA bomb attack on a hotel in County Down.

1979

Charles Haughey is elected Taoiseach of the Republic (Prime Minister).

Eleven members of the so-called 'Shankill Butchers', are given life sentences by a Belfast court for aseries of sectarian murders.

March: Airey Neave, Conservative MP and shadow Northern Ireland Secretary, is killed by a bombattached to his car in the House of Commons car park by the Irish National Liberation Army (INLA),the military wing of the Irish Republican Socialist Party, an IRA splinter group.

August: Lord Mountbatten, last Viceroy of India and uncle of the Prince ofWales, is killed by an IRA bomb on his boat off the coast of County Donegalin the Irish Republic.

On the same day an IRA bomb explodes under an Army bus at

Warrenpoint, County Down. A second bomb goes off as the survivorsclamber out of the bus and onto an Army helicopter.

Lord Mountbatten, killed by theIRA


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Eighteen soldiers and one civilian die. It is the Army's biggest single setback since the IRA campaignbegan.

1981

May: Bobby Sands dies in the Maze Prison after a prolonged hunger strike.He is the first of 10 IRA and INLA prisoners to starve to death. They wereprotesting, in vain, for the right to be considered prisoners of war ratherthan criminals.

1984

October: Five people are killed and 30 injured when an IRA bomb explodesat the Grand Hotel in Brighton during the Conservative Party conference.The Conservative Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, narrowly escapes

death and the party Chairman, Norman Tebbit, is seriously injured.

1985

November: The Anglo-Irish Agreement is signed by Mrs Thatcher and the Irish Taoiseach, GarretFitzGerald, setting up a number of cross-border initiatives. It is opposed by many Ulster unionists.Thousands turn out in Belfast to cheer Reverend Ian Paisley's famous 'No Surrender' speech againstthe agreement.

1987

November: Eleven killed by an IRA bomb which explodes during a Remembrance Service in

Enniskillen, County Fermanagh.

1988

March: Three IRA members are shot dead by British special forces in Gibraltar, where they areallegedly planning an attack on the British garrison.

Nine days later, during their funeral, a lone loyalist gunman, Michael Stone, kills three mourners in agun and grenade attack on the Milltown cemetery in west Belfast.

Four days later two soldiers in civilian clothes drive into the funeral cortege of one of the IRA menkilled by Stone and are abducted, beaten, stripped and shot dead.

1989

September: Eleven army bandsmen are killed when a bomb explodes at the Royal Marines School ofMusic in Deal, Kent.

1990

July: Conservative MP Ian Gow, a strong supporter of the unionist cause, is murdered by an IRAbomb at his Sussex home.

1992

April: An IRA bomb outside the Baltic Exchange building in the City of London kills three.

Bobby Sands became arepublican martyr in 1981


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1993

March: Two children, aged three and 12, are killed by an IRA bomb planted in a rubbish bin in thecentre of Warrington, Cheshire.

October: Loyalist gunmen storm into the Rising Sun bar in Greysteel, County Londonderry shouting

"trick or treat" and open fire on drinkers, killing six men and two women.

1994

July: Several people, including a man in his 80s are shot by loyalist gunmen as they watch the Irelandv Italy World Cup match on television in a pub in the predominantly Catholic village of Loughinisland,County Down.

August: IRA announces a complete cessation of violence.

October: cessation of loyalist hostilities announced by the Combined Loyalist Military Command.

1995

December: President Clinton visits Northern Ireland and shakes handswith Gerry Adams.

1996

February: The IRA calls off its ceasefire and one hour later sets off abomb at South Quay near Canary Wharf in London's Docklands which killstwo, injures 100 and causes millions of pounds' worth of damage.

A few days later another bomb explodesprematurely on a bus in Aldwych, centralLondon, killing eight people including thebomber.

June: A huge IRA bomb destroys Manchester'sArndale Centre but no-one is killed.

July: A march by Orangemen is blocked by the

RUC at Drumcree, near Portadown, as itapproaches the Catholic Garvaghy Road area.After a stand-off, the RUC then makes a U-turnand permits the march, sparking violent clashesbetween Catholics and the police in Portadown,

Belfast and Londonderry.

A few days later 40 people are injured by a bomb at the Killyhevlin Hotel in Enniskillen. Responsibilityis claimed by the extremist republican Continuity Army Council.

August: Northern Ireland Secretary Sir Patrick Mayhew bans loyalist Apprentice Boys from marchingalong contentious sections of Londonderry's city walls for the traditional Siege of Derry celebration.

Loyalist leaders pull back from a confrontation with security forces.

October: An IRA bomb explodes at the Thiepval Barracks in Lisburn, killing a British soldier.

US President Bill Clinton shakeshands with Gerry Adams

The Docklands bomb brought toan end the first IRA ceasefire


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1997

February: Corporal Stephen Restorick is shot dead by an IRA sniper at a checkpoint in south Armagh.

April: IRA bomb hoaxers cause havoc on Britain's motorways, especially the M6 in Birmingham andthe M1 in Northamptonshire.

July: IRA declares another ceasefire. UUP leader David Trimble meets Tony Blair in Downing Street.At a news conference afterwards, Mr Trimble announces that the Unionists are unhappy with the talksproposals and will not support the Government on the decommissioning vote. Ian Paisley meets TonyBlair and claims the talks process was 'dead in the water'. First Sinn Fein-Government meeting sincethe restoration of the IRA ceasefire.

August: Gerry Adams and Mo Mowlam (Northern Ireland Secretary) meet at Stormont for the first timesince the ceasefire. Mo Mowlam announces that Sinn Fein will be admitted to the peace talks.

September: Sinn Fein affirms its commitment to the Mitchell principles of democracy and non violencebut the Unionists remain unconvinced. These guidelines are named after the former American senator

George Mitchell who chairs the political talks process. The six principles include the total disarmamentof all paramilitary organisations and the end of the so-called punishment killings and beatings.

The deadlock is broken as the parties concerned strike a deal opening the way to peace talks.

October: For the first time in 25 years unionists, loyalists, nationalists and republicans sit together toseek a solution to Ulster's problems. Tony Blair shakes hands with Sinn Fein's Martin McGuinness andGerry Adams. He becomes the first British Prime Minister for 70 years to meet a Sinn Fein delegation.Unionists react angrily.

The Ulster Freedom Fighters (UFF) withdraw from the Combined Loyalist Military Command, theumbrella group for loyalist paramilitary groups.

The Northern Ireland Secretery Mo Mowlam gives wider powers to the Northen Ireland ParadesCommission. The intention is to halt or re-route flashpoint marches. Nationalist residents groups calledfor the disbandment of the commission.

December: Gerry Adams and Sinn Fein delegation meet Prime Minister Tony Blair at Number 10Downing Street, he is the first Irish Republican leader to visit Downing Street since Michael Collinsvisited Lloyd George in 1921.

Londonderry experiences its worst violence since the restoration of the IRA ceasefire in July, whenriots break out as nationalists protest at a Protestant Apprentice Boys parade through the city centre.

The Northern Ireland Secretary orders a full inquiry into how a republican prisoner managed to escapefrom the high-security Maze prison despite the recent tightening of security.

Billy Wright, one of Ulster's most feared loyalist paramilitaries, is shot dead at the top security Mazeprison in Northern Ireland. His Loyalist Volunteer Force carry out a series of revenge shootings - onewithin 24 hours and another on New Year's Eve.

1998

January: The peace process is in danger of collapsing as loyalist prisoners in the Maze withdraw theirsupport for the talks.

Mo Mowlam gambles on a historic face-to-face meeting with the prisoners inside the Maze. It worksand the loyalist inmates announce renewed support for the peace process. Two days later anotherCatholic is murdered by LVF gunmen. The victim, Terry Enwright, is married to a niece of GerryAdams.


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After a period of violence in which a total of seven Catholics and two Protestants die, the loyalist UlsterDemocratic Party leaves the peace talks when one of the groups to which it is linked, the UlsterFreedom Fighters, admits some of the killings.

February: Two men are killed and the IRA is blamed by RUC chief constable Ronnie Flanagan. As aresult, Sinn Fein is suspended from the peace talks until March 9 despite arguing that it does not

represent the IRA. Sinn Fein says it might not return to the table and insists on a meeting with TonyBlair.

The UDP is readmitted to the talks after its suspension is lifted.

Documents

A Short History of Northern Ireland