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The Troubles Thomas Newman, AP Euro 3 rd Period

The Troubles, 1969-1998

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In-Depth Powerpoint on the Northern Irish Troubles

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Page 1: The Troubles, 1969-1998

The Troubles

Thomas Newman AP Euro 3rd Period

Brief Overview

>

30 Years of Conflictbull lsquoThe Troublesrsquo is the collective name for the ethno-political and religious conflict that

plagued Northern Ireland from 1969 to 1998 although sporadic violence continues to this day

bull The conflict was primarily political but had sectarian dimensions as well Key issues include the constitutional status of Northern Ireland and the relationship between its two communities

bull Unionists are primarily protestant and descend from Scottish immigrants that were planted in Northern Ireland during King I of Englandrsquos reign in the late 16th century They want Northern Ireland to remain part of the United Kingdom They tend to be more right-wing They are the slight majority with Northern Ireland being 48 Protestant as of the 2001 Census

bull Republicans (more specifically Irish Republicans) are primarily Catholic and have deeper ancestral ties on the island of Ireland They want Northern Ireland to declare independence from the United Kingdom and unite with the southern Republic of Ireland They tend to be more left-leaning some with socialist inclinations They are the slight minority with Northern Ireland being 45 Catholic as of the 2001 Census

bull The Troubles would lead approxiately 3600 people dead and 50000 injured over the 30 year period in a population of less than 2 million people

Background

bull Irish Republicanism has existed in Ireland in some way shape or form since the early 1600s

bull In Easter Week of 1916 the armed Irish Republican Brotherhood seized key locations in Dublin and proclaimed the island of Ireland independent of the United Kingdom

bull The Rebellion was put down almost immediately by the British but it would go on to inspire a century of political turbulence in modern Ireland

The Irish War of Independence

bull The Irish War of Independence was fought from 1919 to 1921 and led to the Anglo-Irish Treaty

bull In December of 1918 Irish Republican political party Sinn Fein (lsquowe ourselvesrsquo in gaelic) won a landslide victory in Ireland and in January of 1919 they formed a breakaway government and declared the entire island of Ireland once again independent from Britain

bull The British government was not as successful putting down the rebellions this time as the military wing of Sinn Fein the IRA (Irish Republican Army) waged a bloody guerrilla war of attrition against the British Army until the UK was forced to give in by 1921 and led to the Anglo-Irish Treaty

Anglo-Irish Treaty (signed 6 December 1921)

Provided for establishment of Irish Free State completely independent from the United Kingdom politically It also provided the six counties of Northern Ireland the option to opt out of the treaty which at the time was a massive 23 majority Protestant and Unionist and did so choosing to remain a part of the United Kingdom This has proved to be a very controversial treaty in Northern Ireland up until this very day

Irish Civil WarThe Anglo-Irish Treaty was so controversial that it led to a 10-month civil war in Ireland immediately following itrsquos signing The newly established Irish National Army consisting of many former IRA guerrillas fought the more hardline anti-treaty IRA who felt the Anglo-Irish Treaty betrayed the ideals of the Easter Rising The Irish National Army who was supported by the British easily crushed the anti-treaty IRA

1922-1966 Irelandbull A legacy of the Irish Civil War was the

survival of a marginalized remnant of the IRA Illegal in both Northern Ireland and the Irish Free State and ideologically committed to overthrowing them both the IRA from 1922 to 1966 existed primarily as a secret society with the exception of the failed Northern Campaign of 1942 and the failed Border Campaign between 1956 and 1962 during both of which the IRA assassinated several police officers around the Northern Irish border before declaring each respective campaign a failure

The Civil Rights Movement

bull The NICRA (Northern Irish Civil Rights Association) was formed in 1966 to protest discrimination against Irish Catholics in Northern Ireland Drew significant parallels with the African-American Civil Rights movement in the United States during that time

bull The Civil Rights Movement was peaceful and sought to end discrimination against Irish Catholics and Irish nationalists by the Protestant and Unionist local self-government of Northern Ireland

Objectives of the Civil Rights Movementbull End job discrimination (Catholicsnationalists unlikely to be given certain jobs

especially government jobs)bull Public housing to be allocated based on need rather than religiouspolitical views

(unionist-controlled local councils allocated housing to Protestant unionists ahead of Catholic nationalists)

bull ldquoOne Man One Voterdquo Policy ndash in Northern Ireland only householders could vote in local elections whereas in the rest of the UK all adults could vote

bull An end to gerrymandering of electoral boundaries giving nationalists less electoral power than unionists even in areas where nationalists were the majority

bull Reform of the RUC or Royal Ulster Constabulary the Northern Irish police force which was almost 100 Protestant and disbandment of the B-Specials special police force also exclusively protestant Both of which were heavily accused of police brutality and sectarianism

bull Repeal of the Special Powers Actndash which allowed police to search without a warrant arrest and imprison people without chargetrial ban any assemblies or parades and ban any publications The Act was used almost exclusively against Catholics

bull The Civil Rights movement was violently repressed by police and met with fierce political resistance from the unionist government

The 1969 Northern Ireland Riots ndashThe Troubles Begin

Culmination of Tensionbull The Tensions between Catholics and Protestants culminated in August of

1969 bull ldquoThe Battle of The Bogsiderdquo ndash Loyalists were allowed to march through the

Catholic neighborhood of Derry in a provocative parade This led to Catholic resistance who began throwing stones and bricks at the parade The RUC was then deployed to put down Catholic rioters and laid siege to the Catholic community of Bogside releasing over 1100 canisters of tear gas in the Bogside from August 12 to 14 Catholics in turn set up barricades and were ultimately successful in repelling the police from their communities The Bogside region of Derry would go on to exist as a lsquono go arearsquo for both Northern Irish and British security forces and existed as an autonomous independent nationalist district from 1969 to 1972

bull The Battle of the Bogside and the ensuing violence that raged from August 12-17 across Northern Ireland caused the displacement of approximately 1820 families and the destruction of 150+ Catholic homes

bull It also led to the deployment of the British military to Ulster in what was intended to be a short several weeklong peacekeeping engagement It would turn out to be a 30 year deployment

No-Go Areas

No-Go Areasbull No-Go Areas existed from 1969 to 1972 in Belfast and Derry in

Catholic nationalist neighborhoods in which barricades and militant residents prevented the police forces or British Army from entering

bull The Barricades were demolished and control ldquoofficiallyrdquo restored in the British Operation Motorman in 1972 in which the British Army used tanks to destroy the barricades and reestablish control However the no-go status was generally maintained and police and security forces still rarely entered certain Irish Catholic neighborhoods throughout the duration of the Troubles except in very hostile circumstances such as in the case of an arrest or military engagement

bull Day-to-day policing of these areas was generally controlled by terrorist groups

Early 1970sndash The Rise of the Provisional IRA

The IRA Splitbull The IRA that had existed largely in silence for the past 50 years began to rearm

and militarize itself once again by 1969 in order to protect Catholic nationalist communities in Northern Ireland in wake of the police brutality and sectarian violence that they had began to increasingly experience

bull In the 1960s the IRA had come under the significant influence of Marxist and Socialist thinkers This led the IRA to split in 1969 into the Official IRA and the Provisional IRA ndash the provisionals named for their ldquoProvisional Army Councilrdquo

bull The Official IRA was highly socialistMarxist and prescribed to the idea that class differences were causing the strife in Northern Ireland whilst the Provisional IRA was less interested in socialism and more concerned simply with British presence in Northern Ireland considering it to be the root of all the problems

bull The Official IRA would eventually fade out by 1972 while the Provisional IRA would go on to become the most feared terrorist organization in 20th Century Europe and launch a 30-year campaign against the British presence in Northern Ireland

Rise of the UVF and Loyalist Terror Groups

Beginningsbull The UVF (Ulster Volunteer Force) was formed in 1964 as a continuation

of the Ulster Volunteers that existed from 1912-1914 in Northern Ireland who intended to violently resist any attempts by the British government to release Ulster from the Union

bull It was reformed in rsquo64 by former British soldier Gusty Spence after he and his men burned to the ground a Catholic-owned pub on the loyalist Shankhill Road

bull The Ulster unionists feared that with the ongoing civil rights movement a potential return of the IRA in Northern Ireland could be possible The UVF and other loyalist paramilitary groups such as the UDA and UFF were thus created and seen as vigilantes and defenders of Protestant communities However most of their targets throughout the 30-year Troubles were simply innocent Catholic civilians

UVF Statement 21 May 1964

bull ldquoFrom this day we declare war against the Irish Republican Army and its splinter groups Known IRA men will be executed mercilessly and without hesitation Less extreme measures will be taken against anyone sheltering or helping them but if they persist in giving them aid then more extreme methods will be adopted we solemnly warn the authorities to make no more speeches of appeasement We are heavily armed Protestants dedicated to this causerdquo

The Paramilitaries

Irish RepublicansCatholics

The Provisional IRA

IRA Statement Late 80s

>

Statistics

bull Suffered 293 Casualtiesbull Over 10000 members imprisoned on various charges

throughout the conflictbull Killed 656 members of the British Armed Forcesbull Killed 272 Members of the Royal Ulster Constabulary

(RUC) Police Forcebull Killed 44 members of loyalistprotestant terror groupsbull Killed between 620-650 civiliansbull Killed over 1500 people

RecruitmentFundingbull IRA recruitment in Catholic neighborhoods was similar to the phenomenon

of gang membership in the inner-city United States Young Catholics typically joined to create a sense of belonging to seem ldquohardrdquo or look ldquocoolrdquo to feel protected from the brutality of the RUC during the Troubles or to help defend their communities IRA members were not asked to join but volunteered

bull IRA lsquofunds-raisingrsquo activities included collecting protection money from Catholic businesses (a ldquorevolutionary taxrdquo) robbing banks kidnapping citizens for ransom and cigarette and gasoline smuggling across the Irish border (manipulating the differing tax prices on both sides of the border and selling fuel and cigarettes illicitly) Although the Provisional IRA has officially disbanded and no longer engages in terrorism there is substantial evidence that extortion rackets in poor Catholic neighborhoods and contraband smuggling operations along the border still exist in Northern Ireland and are run by former IRA men solely for profiteering purposes

Weaponry

bull The Provisional IRA obtained a significant amount of arms from both Irish-American supporters in the northeastern United States (including members of notorious gangster Whitey Bulgerrsquos Irish Mob in 1970s-80s Boston) and from the Libyan government under Muammar Gadaffi

bull Gadaffi took over in Libya in 1969 and initially armed the IRA seeing them as comrades-in-arms fighting British imperialism Connections re-emerged in 1986 after the Thatcher Administrationrsquos support of the US bombings of Libya that killed Gadaffirsquos adopted daughter

Weaponrybull When the IRA disarmed as part of the Good Friday Agreement in

1998 (more on that later) they released the following to the British Armed Forces

bull 1000 Rifles (AK-47s AR-15s etc)bull 3 Tons of Semtex (a general-purpose plastic explosive)bull 20-30 Heavy Machine Gunsbull 7 Surface-to-Air Missilesbull 7 Flamethrowersbull 1200 Detonatorsbull 20 RPGrsquosbull 100 Handgunsbull 100+ Hand Grenades

Mortars and IEDsbull The PIRA was incredibly proficient at bomb-making and made

extensive use of Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) during their 30 year campaign

bull IEDs were typically constructed with chemical mixes of fertilizer gasoline and other home-made components Libyan Semtex was also used in several heavy-duty bombs Nails and gunpowder were typically implemented in pipe bombs made out of metal pipes Most IEDs had built in countermeasures such as the mercury tilt switch which would cause the bomb to explode if moved at all should a British EOD officer attempt to dismantle it

bull The PIRA developed the ldquoBarrack Busterrdquo mortar in the late lsquo70s or a homemade mortar made up of common household materials that was used to attack several Army bases from afar and even Prime Minister Margaret Thatcherrsquos househellip 10 Downing Street in a 1991 attack that destroyed the Prime Ministerrsquos rear garden (the mortar was fired out the back of a nearby van)

EOD Officer Approaches PIRA Car Bomb

The Barrack Buster

>

Vigilantismbull The RUC was not trusted in Catholic neighborhoods throughout the

Troubles and did not regularly patrol or even enter them in urban areas of Northern Ireland Thus when there was a community drug dealer car thief burglar rapist or pedophile the IRA took it upon themselves to issue brutal street justice to those involved

bull Occasionally offering warnings for lesser offences such as petty thievery or drug dealing if the IRA had enough of a certain member of the community they perceived as anti-social he or she was usually jumped brutally beaten andor lsquokneecappedrsquo ndash one of the IRArsquos most notorious methods ndash in which the victim was pinned down and shot through the kneecaps with a firearm or occasionally had their kneecaps drilled through with power-drills Other methods included releasing starving Rottweilerrsquos on the offender dropping cinderblocks on the offenderrsquos hands or even tarring and feathering the offender The IRArsquos process in determining an individualrsquos guilt was never open to scrutiny

bull If the offender persisted after an IRA punishment he was then given a notice by the IRA to leave the country as soon as possiblehellip referred to as being ldquoput outrdquo of the community If the offender still did not leave he was murdered

Policy on Informantsbull In an effort to stamp out collusion with the British forces and informants on the

IRA the IRA was responsible for torturing and killing several accused Catholic civilians throughout the conflict

bull Investigations into collusion infiltration and informants were carried out by the Internal Security Unit of the IRA colloquially known as the ldquoNutting Squadrdquo

bull The ISU would carry out debriefings of IRA prisoners upon their release from British detention so as to discover whether or not they had lsquocrackedrsquo and released information to British interrogators

bull Typical ISU torture techniques on those accused of informing included drowning genitalnipple mutilation electrocution with livewires pouring kerosene on the accusedrsquos legs before setting fire to them and branding with hot irons Informants were always killed afterwards with a bullet through the back of the head

bull Of the 18 ldquoDisappearedrdquo accused informants that were abducted and executed by the IRA during the Troubles only 10 bodies have been found

bull Martin McGartland was an IRA informant who was estimated to have saved 50 lives in the conflict before he was discovered and abducted by the ISU He escaped and lives today in seclusion The film ldquo50 Dead Men Walkingrdquo is based on his exploits and is an excellent realistic non-romanticized take on the Troubles in Northern Ireland

Terrorist Activitiesbull Common tactics included breaking into the homes of off-duty RUC police

officers and murdering them in their beds or setting booby-trap bombs underneath RUC police officersrsquo cars and unionist politiciansrsquo cars so that they would blow up as the engine was started RUC men were typically targeted when they were off-duty and many were shot dead in front of their families The PIRA would also impersonate innocent Catholic civilians call the police to report an emergency and ambush the police from hidden positions when they arrived at the stated address (another reason the RUC was hesitant to go into Catholic neighborhoods during this period)

bull Most notorious for their bombings they would typically park car bombs in predominately Protestant communities call in the bomb threat so that the area would be evacuated and an EOD squad would arrive to dismantle it the bomb would then be detonated with hopes of killing an EOD officer and destroying Protestant housing tenements

bull The PIRA rarely intentionally targeted civilians especially in the 80srsquo and 90srsquo but were involved in the bombings of several Protestant-owned pubs during the 1970s in response to loyalist terrorist groups bombing Catholic-owned pubs They also carried out the Kingsmill massacre in 1976 in which eleven Protestant workmen that were traveling on a minibus were held up by the IRA and all individually executed in response to the execution of six Catholic civilians by the UVF the night before

Terrorist Activities (continued)bull Other activities included engaging in firefights with British squadrons as

they patrolled the countrysidestreets of urban areas sniper attacks on RUC or British Army patrolscheckpoints planting landmines along British foot patrol routes in rural areas planting roadside IEDs along British convoy routes and bombing ferries and buses containing on-or-off duty British soldiers

bull The notorious ldquohuman bombrdquo technique in which civilians or off-duty members of the British security forces were kidnapped and then forced to drive car bombs into British military targets ndash such as checkpoints and Army bases ndash after the PIRA had placed their familiesrsquo lives under threat

bull Inciting riots and providing Catholic youths with molotov cocktails (gasoline bombs) during such riots so as to maximize public disorder and destruction was also an almost daily IRA activity in Catholic communities in urban Northern Ireland

The INLA

Statistics

bull Suffered 33 casualtiesbull Killed 46 members of the British Security Forcesbull Killed 2 members of the Irish Security Forcesbull Killed 39 civiliansbull Killed 3 civilian political activistsbull Killed 16 members of rival Republican terror

groupsbull Killed 7 members of Loyalist terror groups

Ideology

bull Founded by Seamus Costello in 1974 as the military wing of the Irish Republican Socialist Party

bull Shared similar goals to the Provisional IRA but far more socialist in ideology INLA wanted a socialist united Irish republic and blamed class struggles for many of the problems in Northern Ireland whereas the PIRA simply wanted a united Irish republic and had little interest in class struggle or economics

bull Whereas the PIRA was almost exclusively Catholic the INLA had some Protestant members most of whom were involved for purely socialist reasons

Terrorist Activitiesbull Although far less powerful and bold than the PIRA the INLA

nevertheless presented a potent terrorist threat to the United Kingdom during the Troubles

bull Similar tactics to the IRA car bombings shooting off-duty police and soldiers dead and high-profile assassinations

bull Their most high-profile attacks included the car bomb assassination of Airey Neave one of Margaret Thatcherrsquos closest political supporters in 1979 the murder of infamous Loyalist terror leader Billy Wright (who was murdered by INLA inmates in a British political prison in 1997) and the Ballykelley Disco Bombing in 1982 in which the INLA bombed a disco-club frequented by off-duty British soldiers managing to kill 11 of them as well as 6 civilians as well as destroying the disco

Internal Feuds

bull A split in 1986 led the INLA to split into the INLA and the IPLO or Irish Peoplersquos Liberation Organization based on IPLO membersrsquo perceived lack of political motivation and heavy involvement in drug dealing and criminality

bull There were several retaliatory killings between the two groups that persisted until 1992 when the PIRA had enough of the IPLOrsquos involvement in drug dealing in Catholic areas of Belfast and on 31 October 1992 virtually destroyed the entire organization in one night with a series of raids killings and kneecappings that killed or crippled the majority of the grouprsquos members

British LoyalistsProtestants

The UDAUFF

Former UFF Member

>

Statistics

bull Suffered 89 casualtiesbull Killed 197 civiliansbull Killed 12 civilian political activistsbull Killed 37 members of rival loyalist terror

groupsbull Killed 11 members of republican terror groupsbull Killed 3 members of the British Security Forces

Ideology

bull The UDA or Ulster Defense Association and its military wing the Ulster Freedom Fighters (UFF) was a loyalist protestant terror squad that targeted PIRA and INLA members as well as general Catholic civilians in bombings and shootings throughout Northern Ireland

bull It pledged to end its campaign of violence whenever the IRA set down its arms yet should the UK government appease the IRA and grant a 32-county Irish Republic the UDA pledged to act as ldquothe IRA in reverserdquo

Terrorist Activitiesbull The UDA saw itself as a militia defending upstanding protestant loyalist

communities from dangerous and lower-class Catholics that were disrupting the status quo in Northern Ireland They pledged primarily to target IRA men but ended up killing a majority of Catholic civilians during the Troubles They were also known to intimidate and exile known Catholic families from predominately-Protestant communities in Belfast and other urban areas

bull Drive-by shootings shooting up or planting bombs in predominately-Catholic pubs and bars and jumping brutally beating andor kneecapping Catholic civilians were all frequent tactics

bull The UDA discreetly worked in collusion with the RUC and other British security agencies so as to track down and assassinate known IRA members They would also patrol Protestant neighborhoods alongside British soldiers at the height of the Troubles Many RUC police officers and prison guards were also UDA members

bull The UDA alongside many other loyalist paramilitaries benefitted from the import of several arms shipments from Lebanese arms dealers in the early 1970s including rocket launchers 200+ AK-47 Rifles 90+ handguns and over 400 grenades They also received various weapons such as the uzi submachine gun and explosive devices from arms dealers in the Soviet bloc in the 1980s

Organized Crime

bull The UDA and its members were also heavily involved in drug dealing from the street level to wholesale purchase primarily in MDMA and cannabis throughout the Troubles

bull Protection racketeering and money laundering were also common amongst the UDA in protestant communities

bull However should a member of a UDA-ran community begin stealing or dealing drugs without UDA consent he was abruptly branded as ldquoanti-socialrdquo and either killed or kneecapped

The UVF

Statistics

bull Suffered unknown number of casualtiesbull Killed 412 civiliansbull Killed 11 civilian political activistsbull Killed 21 members of republican terror groupsbull Killed 42 members of rival loyalist terror

groupsbull Killed 6 members of the Security Forces

Ideology

bull Similar to the UDAUFF the Ulster Volunteer Forcersquos primary aim was to combat Irish republicanism in Northern Ireland primarily the PIRA They wanted Northern Ireland to remain in the UK

Terrorist Activitiesbull The majority of UVF victims were Catholic civilians

many of whom were killed at random These attacks were intended to demoralize the IRA as the IRA drew most of its support from the Catholic community

bull Planting bombs in predominately-Catholic pubs or simply residential areas was a very frequent UVF tactic and in 1973 they detonated more bombs in Northern Ireland than the UDA and the PIRA combined Assassinations mass shootings booby-trap car bombs and kidnappings were also frequent UVF activities

The Shankhill Butchers

bull The ldquoShankhill Butchersrdquo were a notorious offshoot UVF group known for abducting and literally slitting the throats of Catholic civilians and rival loyalist terror groups in the late 1970s They were led by Lenny Murphy (who was eventually imprisoned and upon his release of a 4-year stint murdered by the PIRA) and killed 23 people most of whom were Catholic civilians Many experts liken the Shankhill Butchers more to a group of serial killers than to politically or even ethnically-motivated murderers

bull The Butchers were all eventually all either imprisoned killed by the PIRA or both

Weaponrybull The UVF received the majority of its weaponry in the late 1970s

from Armscor an apartheid-South Africa state-owned arms company which in defiance of various UN sanctions and embargoes sold them to the UVF

bull Weapons were thought to consist ofbull 200 Czech SA vz 58 Assault Riflesbull 90 Browning Pistolsbull 500 RGD-5 Frag Grenadesbull 30000 rounds of ammunitionbull 12 RPG-7 Rocket Launchers and 150+ Rocketsbull The UVF also began using the illegally-obtained mining explosive

Powergel in the early 1990s

Organized Crime

bull The UVF was also heavily involved in organized crime including protection racketeering and drug smugglingdealing including cannabis MDMA cocaine and amphetamines Bank robberies were also very frequent in the 1970s

Major Incidents 1969-1998

Bloody Sunday 30 January 1972

Massacre on the Bogsidebull In 1972 during a large scale but peaceful civil-rights march in the

troubled predominately Catholic neighborhood of Bogside in Derry 26 unarmed civil rights marchers were shot by members of the British Army 14 of whom were killed Five of those shot were shot in the back

bull After several inquiries into the incident there was found to have been no justifiable provocation from the protestors and no shots fired from the protestors during the march The massacre was conducted in full view of the public and the press

bull The PM David Cameron eventually issued a formal apology to the victims and victimsrsquo families of the massacre after several investigations failed to reveal any justifiable provocation for the massacre

bull The massacre sky-rocketed PIRA membership and recruitment as public perception of the British Army in Catholic communities in Northern Ireland reached an all-time low

Bloody Friday 21 July 1972

A City Under Siege

bull On 21 July 1972 the PIRA detonated 26 bombs in the space of 80 minutes in Belfast destroying banks bridges electrical substations Protestant housing tenements gasoline stations and private garages

bull Although warnings were called in at least 30 minutes prior to each bomb the amount of bombs exploding and the addition of multiple hoax warnings at the same time led to the Security Forces being unable to evacuate all the areas in time 11 people were killed and 130 were injured many of them horrifically mutilated Of those injured 77 were women or children

Dublin and Monaghan Bombings 17 May 1974

Deadliest Attack of the Troubles

bull Perpetrated by the UVF in the southern Republic of Ireland three car bombs exploded in Dublin during rush hour and another exploded in Monaghan around 90 minutes later

bull 33 civilians and a full-term unborn child were killed in the bombing while nearly 300 were injured The UVF did not claim responsibility for the bombings until 1993

bull The majority of those killed were young women although the age range of those killed ranged from 5 months old to 80 years old

Warrenpoint Ambush 27 August 1979

Roadside IEDsbull In the southern part of County Armagh Northern Ireland a predominately-

Catholic rural region and former PIRA stronghold right on the border with the southern Republic of Ireland a British troop convoy was hit with a remote-control detonated roadside 500lb truck-bomb and destroyed instantly killing 6 troops The surviving soldiers then wrongly believed they were under sniper fire from the other side of the Irish border and began firing at civilians immediately after the bombing killing 1 and injuring another

bull 32 minutes after the first bombing the IRA used its knowledge of how the British reacted to bombings to correctly predict that they would set up an incident-command point in a nearby gatehouse Unfortunately for the British there was a second 800lb fertilizer bomb planted near the gatehouse that when detonated killed 12 other soldiers who were responding to the initial bomb

bull It was the deadliest single attack on the British Army during the Troubles and a highly successful attack for the PIRA

Summer of 1981 Irish Hunger Strikes

A Defining Moment for the Republican Cause

bull Beginning on 1 March 1981 led by Bobby Sands 7 PIRA and 3 INLA inmates at the notorious ldquoMazerdquo prison began to refuse food until Margaret Thatcher PM of Great Britain at that time began to recognize terrorist prisoners as political prisoners and allowed them their ldquoFive Demandsrdquo

The Five Demands

bull The right to not wear a prison uniformbull The right to not do prison workbull The right of free association with other

prisoners and to organize in educational and recreational pursuits

bull Full restoration of remission lost through any protests towards these demands

Previous Protestsbull The Maze prison was a very high-security and low-quality prison that

housed almost all PIRA prisoners during the Troubles It was run in a very ethically questionable fashion with frequent beatings and borderline-torture techniques used on Republican prisoners and extremely poor living conditions for prisoners Many Maze prison guards were members of the UDAUVF or had strong connections with one of the two groups as well

bull Massive peaceful protests and marches by Irish republicans outside of the Maze Prison proved unsuccessful in attaining political status for republican prisoners as well as previous inmate protests in 1980 including non-fatal hunger strikes inmates refusing to wear prison uniforms and thus living in their cells naked and prisoners refusing to leave their cells to go to the bathroom until their requests had been granted (they therefore urinated and defecated in their cells and spread their excrement across their cell walls in what was known as the ldquoDirty Protestrdquo)

Dirty Protesters

Thatcherrsquos Response

bull ldquoThose terrorists will carry their determination to disrupt society to any lengths Once again we have a hunger strike in the Maze Prison in the quest for what they call lsquopolitical statusrsquo There is no such thing as political murder political bombing or political violence There is only criminal murder criminal bombing and criminal violence We will not compromise on this There will be no political statusrdquo

Ten Strikers Diebull Bobby Sands the leader of the strike was imprisoned as a PIRA member

on charges of firearm possession and in connection with the bombing of a furniture store He was the first to die after 66 days of not eating Sands was elected to a seat in Parliament whilst on Hunger Strike

bull Following Sandsrsquo death there were riots bus-burnings and attacks on the British embassy in the southern Republic of Ireland there were massive demonstrations in France and Italy a tomato was thrown as Queen Elizabeth II by demonstrators in Oslo and there were massive riots and civil disorder all over the streets of Belfast The South African ANC and (at the time) terrorist Nelson Mandela expressed their support for the PIRA and the hunger strikers (Mandela himself claimed he was directly inspired by Sands to undertake hunger strikes against the Apartheid government in South Africa) as well as the Palestine Liberation Organization a middle-eastern terror group

bull Over 100000 attended Sandsrsquo funeral

Bobby Sands

ldquoOur revenge will be the laughter of our childrenrdquo

Reaction to Sandsrsquo Death

>

Conclusion

bull The Hunger Strike was eventually called off after 10 strikers including Sands had died

bull James Prior newly installed secretary of state of Northern Ireland granted the prisoners partial concessions all of the Five Demands except for the right to not do prison work Margaret Thatcher refused to budge on political status

bull The Hunger Strikes opened a new way for the PIRA to pursue its objectives politically whereas previously it had seen violence as the only solution to the plight of Irish nationalists in Northern Ireland

1983 The Maze Prison Escape

The ldquoGreat Escaperdquo

bull Using smuggled-in guns and knives 38 PIRA prisoners who had been convicted of offenses ranging from murder to causing explosions escaped from one of the most high-security prisons in Europe They completely took over the H7 prison block and took their prison guards hostage before escaping in a food supply truck Several prison guards were shot and stabbed but only one died of a heart attack during the escape

bull Fifteen escapees were recaptured the first day with four more captured over the next two days following the breakout The remaining 19 were transported to PIRA strongholds and given the option to either rejoin the IRArsquos cause or be transported to the United States to live under a new identity

12 October 1984 Brighton Hotel Bombing

The PIRA Nearly Gets Thatcherbull Margaret Thatcher the highly controversial far-right British PM from

1979-1990 had become a tremendously hated figure amongst the Irish nationalist community in Northern Ireland following the 1981 Hunger Strikes and for her general uncompromising stand on Irish republicanism

bull PIRA man Patrick Magee stayed at the Brighton Hotel from the 14-17 September 1984 planting a 20-lb bomb under his bath

bull Thatcher was staying at the Brighton Hotel for a political conference and was still up at 254AM on 12 October when the bomb was detonated The bomb decimated her bathroom but left the bedroom and sitting room of her suite largely unscathed

bull The PIRA statement to Thatcher afterwards was ldquoToday we were unlucky But remember we only have to be lucky once You will have to be lucky alwaysrdquo

Loughgall Ambush 8 May 1987

The SAS Strikes

bull A botched attack on Loughgall Villagersquos RUC Police Base in which the PIRA drove a backhoe into the fortified base and ran away to detonate the bomb that was inside of the backhoe went wrong as the SAS the British Special Forces had prior knowledge of the attack and quickly dispatched the 8 PIRA members involved

bull Although the RUC base was wrecked and bombed there were no RUC or SAS casualties and it was the PIRArsquos greatest loss of life in a single incident during the Troubles

British Army Lynx Shootdown 20 March 1994

The PIRA Shoots Down a Helicopter

bull Using the previously mentioned Barrack-Buster homemade mortar PIRA insurgents were able to fire on a British helicopter that was in the process of landing whilst hiding behind a hay bail from around 150 yards out

bull The helicopter was hit with the mortar shell around 100 feet above the ground but the pilot was able to successfully crash-land the helicopter and escape before its propane tanks exploded There were no casualties but the attack was a major propaganda coup for the PIRA

1996 Manchester Bombing

The PIRA Destroys Manchester

bull On Saturday 15 June 1996 the PIRA sent in telephoned warnings and 90 minutes later detonated a 3300lb fertilizer-based truck bomb in the heart of Manchester City Centre the biggest bomb detonated in Great Britain during peacetime The bomb killed nobody due to previous warnings but led to 212 non-fatal injuries and essentially destroyed Manchester City Centre leaving approximately 700 million pounds ($12bn) worth of damage in its wake

Omagh Bombing 1998

Last Great Deadly Attack of the Troubles

bull Perpetrated by a Provisional IRA splinter group that was rejecting the peace process calling themselves the ldquoReal IRArdquo the 510lb fertilizer-based bomb was placed on main street in the town of Omagh Northern Ireland Warnings were called in approximately 30 minutes before the bombing but they were inaccurate and police ended up moving more civilians towards the bomb which ended up killing 29 people and causing over 300 non-fatal injuries This was the highest death toll from a single incident during the Troubles

bull It received universal outrage and was condemned even by the PIRA and its political wing Sinn Fein It spurred on the Northern Ireland peace process and the RIRA apologized and called a ceasefire several days after

The Good Friday Agreement and Northern Ireland Peace Process

Beginningsbull Following the 1981 Hunger Strikes Irish republicans began to

increasingly look towards politics rather than violence as a means of achieving their aims Sinn Fein gaelic for ldquoWe Ourselvesrdquo was a fiercely Irish Republican political party which led by the Machiavellian former PIRA leader and Maze inmate Gerry Adams began to push for a more peaceful solution to the Troubles in Northern Ireland

bull It became apparent by the late 1990s that although the PIRA was not losing a war against the British establishment it would be impossible to truly lsquowin the fightrsquo through violence and that any further terrorism would serve not to achieve any real political aim but only to prolong and continue suffering and violence in Northern Ireland and that politics was a much better way of achieving Republican aims

Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein former PIRA Belfast Brigade OC

Good Friday Agreement 1998

bull The Peace Process began in 1994 and included intermittent terrorist ceasefires and political negotiations between the major Irish republican and British unionist parties and culminated on April 10 1998 when the Good Friday Agreement was signed

PM Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern Sign the GFA

GFA Mandatesbull That Northern Ireland was to remain British until a majority of people in Northern

Ireland and the southern Republic of Ireland wanted otherwise bull The creation of an entirely new far less sectarian and religiously diverse Northern

Irish local governmentbull The decommissioning of arms from terrorist groups on both the unionist and

nationalist side of the political divide (ultimately successful all arms decommissioned by 2005)

bull Mutual respect and civil rights between Catholics and Protestants bull The reduction and eventual elimination of British troops in Northern Ireland

(ultimately successful all troops withdrawn by 2005)bull Eventual early prison release for all individuals imprisoned for terrorist offenses as

long as they were apart of a terrorist group that was decommissioning in accordance with the GFA

bull Disbandment of the RUC police service and the installation of the new Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) which was required to be at least 50 Catholic

Northern Ireland Today

Still Conflict But No Warbull Since the complete decommissioning of the arms and

disbandment of the PIRA INLA UDAUFF and UVF due to the Good Friday Agreement there is nowhere near the amount of violence in Northern Ireland or Belfast as there was 20 years ago There are no more weekly bombings and riots and no more British troops patrolling Catholic areas in armored vehicles

bull Despite this there are still occasional riots and clashes with the PSNI several times a year specifically on dates of great historical significance to the Catholic or Protestant communities and there is still a deep distrust and even hatred between many Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland although that continues to change with time

Catholic Slum of Ardoyne Belfast July 2011

Splinter Groups

bull Many former PIRA or UDA terrorists have now taken to organized crime for purely profiteering purposes but are no longer involved in substantial violence or any political-based terrorism

bull Splinter groups such as the Real IRA and Continuity IRA in Catholic communities and the Orange Volunteers and Red Hand Commandos in Protestant communities still conduct occasional violence towards Police and civilians in Northern Ireland but are all rather small poorly armed and poorly funded groups that pose nowhere near the threat that terrorist groups in the 80s and 90s did in Northern Ireland

Herersquos To A Brighter Future in Northern Ireland

Works Citedbull httpwwwbbccoukhistorytroublesbull httpcainulstacukbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiProvisional_Irish_Republican_Armybull httpenwikipediaorgwikiThe_Troublesbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiUlster_Defence_Associationbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiUlster_Volunteer_Forcebull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_National_Liberation_Armybull ldquoA Secret History of the IRArdquo by Ed Moloney ndashWW Norton amp Company Reprint 2003bull ldquoVoices From The Grave Two Menrsquos War in Irelandrdquo by Ed Moloney ndash Public Affairs 2010bull ldquoFifty Dead Men Walkingrdquo by Martin McGartland ndash John Blake 2009bull httpwwwinfopleasecomspotnorthireland1htmlbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_Civil_Warbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_War_of_Independencebull httpenwikipediaorgwiki1981_Irish_hunger_strikebull httpenwikipediaorgwikiDirectory_of_the_Northern_Ireland_Troublesbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiGood_Friday_Agreementbull httpswwwmi5govukhomethe-threatsterrorismnorthern-irelandrepublican-terrorist-groupshtmlbull httpswwwmi5govukhomethe-threatsterrorismnorthern-irelandprovisional-irish-republican-army-

pirahtmlbull httpnewsbbccoukhienglishstaticnorthern_irelandunderstandingeventshunger_strikestm

  • The Troubles
  • Brief Overview
  • 30 Years of Conflict
  • Slide 4
  • Background
  • The Irish War of Independence
  • Slide 7
  • Anglo-Irish Treaty (signed 6 December 1921)
  • Irish Civil War
  • 1922-1966 Ireland
  • The Civil Rights Movement
  • Slide 12
  • Slide 13
  • Objectives of the Civil Rights Movement
  • The 1969 Northern Ireland Riots ndashThe Troubles Begin
  • Culmination of Tension
  • No-Go Areas
  • No-Go Areas (2)
  • Early 1970sndash The Rise of the Provisional IRA
  • The IRA Split
  • Rise of the UVF and Loyalist Terror Groups
  • Beginnings
  • UVF Statement 21 May 1964
  • The Paramilitaries
  • Irish RepublicansCatholics
  • The Provisional IRA
  • IRA Statement Late 80s
  • Statistics
  • RecruitmentFunding
  • Weaponry
  • Weaponry (2)
  • Slide 32
  • Mortars and IEDs
  • EOD Officer Approaches PIRA Car Bomb
  • The Barrack Buster
  • Vigilantism
  • Slide 37
  • Slide 38
  • Policy on Informants
  • Terrorist Activities
  • Terrorist Activities (continued)
  • The INLA
  • Statistics (2)
  • Ideology
  • Terrorist Activities (2)
  • Internal Feuds
  • Slide 47
  • British LoyalistsProtestants
  • The UDAUFF
  • Former UFF Member
  • Statistics (3)
  • Ideology (2)
  • Terrorist Activities (3)
  • Slide 54
  • Organized Crime
  • The UVF
  • Statistics (4)
  • Ideology (3)
  • Terrorist Activities (4)
  • The Shankhill Butchers
  • Weaponry (3)
  • Slide 62
  • Organized Crime (2)
  • Major Incidents 1969-1998
  • Bloody Sunday 30 January 1972
  • Massacre on the Bogside
  • Bloody Friday 21 July 1972
  • A City Under Siege
  • Dublin and Monaghan Bombings 17 May 1974
  • Deadliest Attack of the Troubles
  • Warrenpoint Ambush 27 August 1979
  • Roadside IEDs
  • Summer of 1981 Irish Hunger Strikes
  • A Defining Moment for the Republican Cause
  • The Five Demands
  • Previous Protests
  • Dirty Protesters
  • Thatcherrsquos Response
  • Ten Strikers Die
  • Bobby Sands
  • Reaction to Sandsrsquo Death
  • Conclusion
  • 1983 The Maze Prison Escape
  • The ldquoGreat Escaperdquo
  • 12 October 1984 Brighton Hotel Bombing
  • The PIRA Nearly Gets Thatcher
  • Loughgall Ambush 8 May 1987
  • The SAS Strikes
  • British Army Lynx Shootdown 20 March 1994
  • The PIRA Shoots Down a Helicopter
  • 1996 Manchester Bombing
  • The PIRA Destroys Manchester
  • Omagh Bombing 1998
  • Last Great Deadly Attack of the Troubles
  • The Good Friday Agreement and Northern Ireland Peace Process
  • Beginnings (2)
  • Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein former PIRA Belfast Brigade OC
  • Good Friday Agreement 1998
  • PM Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern Sign the GFA
  • GFA Mandates
  • Northern Ireland Today
  • Still Conflict But No War
  • Catholic Slum of Ardoyne Belfast July 2011
  • Splinter Groups
  • Herersquos To A Brighter Future in Northern Ireland
  • Works Cited
Page 2: The Troubles, 1969-1998

Brief Overview

>

30 Years of Conflictbull lsquoThe Troublesrsquo is the collective name for the ethno-political and religious conflict that

plagued Northern Ireland from 1969 to 1998 although sporadic violence continues to this day

bull The conflict was primarily political but had sectarian dimensions as well Key issues include the constitutional status of Northern Ireland and the relationship between its two communities

bull Unionists are primarily protestant and descend from Scottish immigrants that were planted in Northern Ireland during King I of Englandrsquos reign in the late 16th century They want Northern Ireland to remain part of the United Kingdom They tend to be more right-wing They are the slight majority with Northern Ireland being 48 Protestant as of the 2001 Census

bull Republicans (more specifically Irish Republicans) are primarily Catholic and have deeper ancestral ties on the island of Ireland They want Northern Ireland to declare independence from the United Kingdom and unite with the southern Republic of Ireland They tend to be more left-leaning some with socialist inclinations They are the slight minority with Northern Ireland being 45 Catholic as of the 2001 Census

bull The Troubles would lead approxiately 3600 people dead and 50000 injured over the 30 year period in a population of less than 2 million people

Background

bull Irish Republicanism has existed in Ireland in some way shape or form since the early 1600s

bull In Easter Week of 1916 the armed Irish Republican Brotherhood seized key locations in Dublin and proclaimed the island of Ireland independent of the United Kingdom

bull The Rebellion was put down almost immediately by the British but it would go on to inspire a century of political turbulence in modern Ireland

The Irish War of Independence

bull The Irish War of Independence was fought from 1919 to 1921 and led to the Anglo-Irish Treaty

bull In December of 1918 Irish Republican political party Sinn Fein (lsquowe ourselvesrsquo in gaelic) won a landslide victory in Ireland and in January of 1919 they formed a breakaway government and declared the entire island of Ireland once again independent from Britain

bull The British government was not as successful putting down the rebellions this time as the military wing of Sinn Fein the IRA (Irish Republican Army) waged a bloody guerrilla war of attrition against the British Army until the UK was forced to give in by 1921 and led to the Anglo-Irish Treaty

Anglo-Irish Treaty (signed 6 December 1921)

Provided for establishment of Irish Free State completely independent from the United Kingdom politically It also provided the six counties of Northern Ireland the option to opt out of the treaty which at the time was a massive 23 majority Protestant and Unionist and did so choosing to remain a part of the United Kingdom This has proved to be a very controversial treaty in Northern Ireland up until this very day

Irish Civil WarThe Anglo-Irish Treaty was so controversial that it led to a 10-month civil war in Ireland immediately following itrsquos signing The newly established Irish National Army consisting of many former IRA guerrillas fought the more hardline anti-treaty IRA who felt the Anglo-Irish Treaty betrayed the ideals of the Easter Rising The Irish National Army who was supported by the British easily crushed the anti-treaty IRA

1922-1966 Irelandbull A legacy of the Irish Civil War was the

survival of a marginalized remnant of the IRA Illegal in both Northern Ireland and the Irish Free State and ideologically committed to overthrowing them both the IRA from 1922 to 1966 existed primarily as a secret society with the exception of the failed Northern Campaign of 1942 and the failed Border Campaign between 1956 and 1962 during both of which the IRA assassinated several police officers around the Northern Irish border before declaring each respective campaign a failure

The Civil Rights Movement

bull The NICRA (Northern Irish Civil Rights Association) was formed in 1966 to protest discrimination against Irish Catholics in Northern Ireland Drew significant parallels with the African-American Civil Rights movement in the United States during that time

bull The Civil Rights Movement was peaceful and sought to end discrimination against Irish Catholics and Irish nationalists by the Protestant and Unionist local self-government of Northern Ireland

Objectives of the Civil Rights Movementbull End job discrimination (Catholicsnationalists unlikely to be given certain jobs

especially government jobs)bull Public housing to be allocated based on need rather than religiouspolitical views

(unionist-controlled local councils allocated housing to Protestant unionists ahead of Catholic nationalists)

bull ldquoOne Man One Voterdquo Policy ndash in Northern Ireland only householders could vote in local elections whereas in the rest of the UK all adults could vote

bull An end to gerrymandering of electoral boundaries giving nationalists less electoral power than unionists even in areas where nationalists were the majority

bull Reform of the RUC or Royal Ulster Constabulary the Northern Irish police force which was almost 100 Protestant and disbandment of the B-Specials special police force also exclusively protestant Both of which were heavily accused of police brutality and sectarianism

bull Repeal of the Special Powers Actndash which allowed police to search without a warrant arrest and imprison people without chargetrial ban any assemblies or parades and ban any publications The Act was used almost exclusively against Catholics

bull The Civil Rights movement was violently repressed by police and met with fierce political resistance from the unionist government

The 1969 Northern Ireland Riots ndashThe Troubles Begin

Culmination of Tensionbull The Tensions between Catholics and Protestants culminated in August of

1969 bull ldquoThe Battle of The Bogsiderdquo ndash Loyalists were allowed to march through the

Catholic neighborhood of Derry in a provocative parade This led to Catholic resistance who began throwing stones and bricks at the parade The RUC was then deployed to put down Catholic rioters and laid siege to the Catholic community of Bogside releasing over 1100 canisters of tear gas in the Bogside from August 12 to 14 Catholics in turn set up barricades and were ultimately successful in repelling the police from their communities The Bogside region of Derry would go on to exist as a lsquono go arearsquo for both Northern Irish and British security forces and existed as an autonomous independent nationalist district from 1969 to 1972

bull The Battle of the Bogside and the ensuing violence that raged from August 12-17 across Northern Ireland caused the displacement of approximately 1820 families and the destruction of 150+ Catholic homes

bull It also led to the deployment of the British military to Ulster in what was intended to be a short several weeklong peacekeeping engagement It would turn out to be a 30 year deployment

No-Go Areas

No-Go Areasbull No-Go Areas existed from 1969 to 1972 in Belfast and Derry in

Catholic nationalist neighborhoods in which barricades and militant residents prevented the police forces or British Army from entering

bull The Barricades were demolished and control ldquoofficiallyrdquo restored in the British Operation Motorman in 1972 in which the British Army used tanks to destroy the barricades and reestablish control However the no-go status was generally maintained and police and security forces still rarely entered certain Irish Catholic neighborhoods throughout the duration of the Troubles except in very hostile circumstances such as in the case of an arrest or military engagement

bull Day-to-day policing of these areas was generally controlled by terrorist groups

Early 1970sndash The Rise of the Provisional IRA

The IRA Splitbull The IRA that had existed largely in silence for the past 50 years began to rearm

and militarize itself once again by 1969 in order to protect Catholic nationalist communities in Northern Ireland in wake of the police brutality and sectarian violence that they had began to increasingly experience

bull In the 1960s the IRA had come under the significant influence of Marxist and Socialist thinkers This led the IRA to split in 1969 into the Official IRA and the Provisional IRA ndash the provisionals named for their ldquoProvisional Army Councilrdquo

bull The Official IRA was highly socialistMarxist and prescribed to the idea that class differences were causing the strife in Northern Ireland whilst the Provisional IRA was less interested in socialism and more concerned simply with British presence in Northern Ireland considering it to be the root of all the problems

bull The Official IRA would eventually fade out by 1972 while the Provisional IRA would go on to become the most feared terrorist organization in 20th Century Europe and launch a 30-year campaign against the British presence in Northern Ireland

Rise of the UVF and Loyalist Terror Groups

Beginningsbull The UVF (Ulster Volunteer Force) was formed in 1964 as a continuation

of the Ulster Volunteers that existed from 1912-1914 in Northern Ireland who intended to violently resist any attempts by the British government to release Ulster from the Union

bull It was reformed in rsquo64 by former British soldier Gusty Spence after he and his men burned to the ground a Catholic-owned pub on the loyalist Shankhill Road

bull The Ulster unionists feared that with the ongoing civil rights movement a potential return of the IRA in Northern Ireland could be possible The UVF and other loyalist paramilitary groups such as the UDA and UFF were thus created and seen as vigilantes and defenders of Protestant communities However most of their targets throughout the 30-year Troubles were simply innocent Catholic civilians

UVF Statement 21 May 1964

bull ldquoFrom this day we declare war against the Irish Republican Army and its splinter groups Known IRA men will be executed mercilessly and without hesitation Less extreme measures will be taken against anyone sheltering or helping them but if they persist in giving them aid then more extreme methods will be adopted we solemnly warn the authorities to make no more speeches of appeasement We are heavily armed Protestants dedicated to this causerdquo

The Paramilitaries

Irish RepublicansCatholics

The Provisional IRA

IRA Statement Late 80s

>

Statistics

bull Suffered 293 Casualtiesbull Over 10000 members imprisoned on various charges

throughout the conflictbull Killed 656 members of the British Armed Forcesbull Killed 272 Members of the Royal Ulster Constabulary

(RUC) Police Forcebull Killed 44 members of loyalistprotestant terror groupsbull Killed between 620-650 civiliansbull Killed over 1500 people

RecruitmentFundingbull IRA recruitment in Catholic neighborhoods was similar to the phenomenon

of gang membership in the inner-city United States Young Catholics typically joined to create a sense of belonging to seem ldquohardrdquo or look ldquocoolrdquo to feel protected from the brutality of the RUC during the Troubles or to help defend their communities IRA members were not asked to join but volunteered

bull IRA lsquofunds-raisingrsquo activities included collecting protection money from Catholic businesses (a ldquorevolutionary taxrdquo) robbing banks kidnapping citizens for ransom and cigarette and gasoline smuggling across the Irish border (manipulating the differing tax prices on both sides of the border and selling fuel and cigarettes illicitly) Although the Provisional IRA has officially disbanded and no longer engages in terrorism there is substantial evidence that extortion rackets in poor Catholic neighborhoods and contraband smuggling operations along the border still exist in Northern Ireland and are run by former IRA men solely for profiteering purposes

Weaponry

bull The Provisional IRA obtained a significant amount of arms from both Irish-American supporters in the northeastern United States (including members of notorious gangster Whitey Bulgerrsquos Irish Mob in 1970s-80s Boston) and from the Libyan government under Muammar Gadaffi

bull Gadaffi took over in Libya in 1969 and initially armed the IRA seeing them as comrades-in-arms fighting British imperialism Connections re-emerged in 1986 after the Thatcher Administrationrsquos support of the US bombings of Libya that killed Gadaffirsquos adopted daughter

Weaponrybull When the IRA disarmed as part of the Good Friday Agreement in

1998 (more on that later) they released the following to the British Armed Forces

bull 1000 Rifles (AK-47s AR-15s etc)bull 3 Tons of Semtex (a general-purpose plastic explosive)bull 20-30 Heavy Machine Gunsbull 7 Surface-to-Air Missilesbull 7 Flamethrowersbull 1200 Detonatorsbull 20 RPGrsquosbull 100 Handgunsbull 100+ Hand Grenades

Mortars and IEDsbull The PIRA was incredibly proficient at bomb-making and made

extensive use of Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) during their 30 year campaign

bull IEDs were typically constructed with chemical mixes of fertilizer gasoline and other home-made components Libyan Semtex was also used in several heavy-duty bombs Nails and gunpowder were typically implemented in pipe bombs made out of metal pipes Most IEDs had built in countermeasures such as the mercury tilt switch which would cause the bomb to explode if moved at all should a British EOD officer attempt to dismantle it

bull The PIRA developed the ldquoBarrack Busterrdquo mortar in the late lsquo70s or a homemade mortar made up of common household materials that was used to attack several Army bases from afar and even Prime Minister Margaret Thatcherrsquos househellip 10 Downing Street in a 1991 attack that destroyed the Prime Ministerrsquos rear garden (the mortar was fired out the back of a nearby van)

EOD Officer Approaches PIRA Car Bomb

The Barrack Buster

>

Vigilantismbull The RUC was not trusted in Catholic neighborhoods throughout the

Troubles and did not regularly patrol or even enter them in urban areas of Northern Ireland Thus when there was a community drug dealer car thief burglar rapist or pedophile the IRA took it upon themselves to issue brutal street justice to those involved

bull Occasionally offering warnings for lesser offences such as petty thievery or drug dealing if the IRA had enough of a certain member of the community they perceived as anti-social he or she was usually jumped brutally beaten andor lsquokneecappedrsquo ndash one of the IRArsquos most notorious methods ndash in which the victim was pinned down and shot through the kneecaps with a firearm or occasionally had their kneecaps drilled through with power-drills Other methods included releasing starving Rottweilerrsquos on the offender dropping cinderblocks on the offenderrsquos hands or even tarring and feathering the offender The IRArsquos process in determining an individualrsquos guilt was never open to scrutiny

bull If the offender persisted after an IRA punishment he was then given a notice by the IRA to leave the country as soon as possiblehellip referred to as being ldquoput outrdquo of the community If the offender still did not leave he was murdered

Policy on Informantsbull In an effort to stamp out collusion with the British forces and informants on the

IRA the IRA was responsible for torturing and killing several accused Catholic civilians throughout the conflict

bull Investigations into collusion infiltration and informants were carried out by the Internal Security Unit of the IRA colloquially known as the ldquoNutting Squadrdquo

bull The ISU would carry out debriefings of IRA prisoners upon their release from British detention so as to discover whether or not they had lsquocrackedrsquo and released information to British interrogators

bull Typical ISU torture techniques on those accused of informing included drowning genitalnipple mutilation electrocution with livewires pouring kerosene on the accusedrsquos legs before setting fire to them and branding with hot irons Informants were always killed afterwards with a bullet through the back of the head

bull Of the 18 ldquoDisappearedrdquo accused informants that were abducted and executed by the IRA during the Troubles only 10 bodies have been found

bull Martin McGartland was an IRA informant who was estimated to have saved 50 lives in the conflict before he was discovered and abducted by the ISU He escaped and lives today in seclusion The film ldquo50 Dead Men Walkingrdquo is based on his exploits and is an excellent realistic non-romanticized take on the Troubles in Northern Ireland

Terrorist Activitiesbull Common tactics included breaking into the homes of off-duty RUC police

officers and murdering them in their beds or setting booby-trap bombs underneath RUC police officersrsquo cars and unionist politiciansrsquo cars so that they would blow up as the engine was started RUC men were typically targeted when they were off-duty and many were shot dead in front of their families The PIRA would also impersonate innocent Catholic civilians call the police to report an emergency and ambush the police from hidden positions when they arrived at the stated address (another reason the RUC was hesitant to go into Catholic neighborhoods during this period)

bull Most notorious for their bombings they would typically park car bombs in predominately Protestant communities call in the bomb threat so that the area would be evacuated and an EOD squad would arrive to dismantle it the bomb would then be detonated with hopes of killing an EOD officer and destroying Protestant housing tenements

bull The PIRA rarely intentionally targeted civilians especially in the 80srsquo and 90srsquo but were involved in the bombings of several Protestant-owned pubs during the 1970s in response to loyalist terrorist groups bombing Catholic-owned pubs They also carried out the Kingsmill massacre in 1976 in which eleven Protestant workmen that were traveling on a minibus were held up by the IRA and all individually executed in response to the execution of six Catholic civilians by the UVF the night before

Terrorist Activities (continued)bull Other activities included engaging in firefights with British squadrons as

they patrolled the countrysidestreets of urban areas sniper attacks on RUC or British Army patrolscheckpoints planting landmines along British foot patrol routes in rural areas planting roadside IEDs along British convoy routes and bombing ferries and buses containing on-or-off duty British soldiers

bull The notorious ldquohuman bombrdquo technique in which civilians or off-duty members of the British security forces were kidnapped and then forced to drive car bombs into British military targets ndash such as checkpoints and Army bases ndash after the PIRA had placed their familiesrsquo lives under threat

bull Inciting riots and providing Catholic youths with molotov cocktails (gasoline bombs) during such riots so as to maximize public disorder and destruction was also an almost daily IRA activity in Catholic communities in urban Northern Ireland

The INLA

Statistics

bull Suffered 33 casualtiesbull Killed 46 members of the British Security Forcesbull Killed 2 members of the Irish Security Forcesbull Killed 39 civiliansbull Killed 3 civilian political activistsbull Killed 16 members of rival Republican terror

groupsbull Killed 7 members of Loyalist terror groups

Ideology

bull Founded by Seamus Costello in 1974 as the military wing of the Irish Republican Socialist Party

bull Shared similar goals to the Provisional IRA but far more socialist in ideology INLA wanted a socialist united Irish republic and blamed class struggles for many of the problems in Northern Ireland whereas the PIRA simply wanted a united Irish republic and had little interest in class struggle or economics

bull Whereas the PIRA was almost exclusively Catholic the INLA had some Protestant members most of whom were involved for purely socialist reasons

Terrorist Activitiesbull Although far less powerful and bold than the PIRA the INLA

nevertheless presented a potent terrorist threat to the United Kingdom during the Troubles

bull Similar tactics to the IRA car bombings shooting off-duty police and soldiers dead and high-profile assassinations

bull Their most high-profile attacks included the car bomb assassination of Airey Neave one of Margaret Thatcherrsquos closest political supporters in 1979 the murder of infamous Loyalist terror leader Billy Wright (who was murdered by INLA inmates in a British political prison in 1997) and the Ballykelley Disco Bombing in 1982 in which the INLA bombed a disco-club frequented by off-duty British soldiers managing to kill 11 of them as well as 6 civilians as well as destroying the disco

Internal Feuds

bull A split in 1986 led the INLA to split into the INLA and the IPLO or Irish Peoplersquos Liberation Organization based on IPLO membersrsquo perceived lack of political motivation and heavy involvement in drug dealing and criminality

bull There were several retaliatory killings between the two groups that persisted until 1992 when the PIRA had enough of the IPLOrsquos involvement in drug dealing in Catholic areas of Belfast and on 31 October 1992 virtually destroyed the entire organization in one night with a series of raids killings and kneecappings that killed or crippled the majority of the grouprsquos members

British LoyalistsProtestants

The UDAUFF

Former UFF Member

>

Statistics

bull Suffered 89 casualtiesbull Killed 197 civiliansbull Killed 12 civilian political activistsbull Killed 37 members of rival loyalist terror

groupsbull Killed 11 members of republican terror groupsbull Killed 3 members of the British Security Forces

Ideology

bull The UDA or Ulster Defense Association and its military wing the Ulster Freedom Fighters (UFF) was a loyalist protestant terror squad that targeted PIRA and INLA members as well as general Catholic civilians in bombings and shootings throughout Northern Ireland

bull It pledged to end its campaign of violence whenever the IRA set down its arms yet should the UK government appease the IRA and grant a 32-county Irish Republic the UDA pledged to act as ldquothe IRA in reverserdquo

Terrorist Activitiesbull The UDA saw itself as a militia defending upstanding protestant loyalist

communities from dangerous and lower-class Catholics that were disrupting the status quo in Northern Ireland They pledged primarily to target IRA men but ended up killing a majority of Catholic civilians during the Troubles They were also known to intimidate and exile known Catholic families from predominately-Protestant communities in Belfast and other urban areas

bull Drive-by shootings shooting up or planting bombs in predominately-Catholic pubs and bars and jumping brutally beating andor kneecapping Catholic civilians were all frequent tactics

bull The UDA discreetly worked in collusion with the RUC and other British security agencies so as to track down and assassinate known IRA members They would also patrol Protestant neighborhoods alongside British soldiers at the height of the Troubles Many RUC police officers and prison guards were also UDA members

bull The UDA alongside many other loyalist paramilitaries benefitted from the import of several arms shipments from Lebanese arms dealers in the early 1970s including rocket launchers 200+ AK-47 Rifles 90+ handguns and over 400 grenades They also received various weapons such as the uzi submachine gun and explosive devices from arms dealers in the Soviet bloc in the 1980s

Organized Crime

bull The UDA and its members were also heavily involved in drug dealing from the street level to wholesale purchase primarily in MDMA and cannabis throughout the Troubles

bull Protection racketeering and money laundering were also common amongst the UDA in protestant communities

bull However should a member of a UDA-ran community begin stealing or dealing drugs without UDA consent he was abruptly branded as ldquoanti-socialrdquo and either killed or kneecapped

The UVF

Statistics

bull Suffered unknown number of casualtiesbull Killed 412 civiliansbull Killed 11 civilian political activistsbull Killed 21 members of republican terror groupsbull Killed 42 members of rival loyalist terror

groupsbull Killed 6 members of the Security Forces

Ideology

bull Similar to the UDAUFF the Ulster Volunteer Forcersquos primary aim was to combat Irish republicanism in Northern Ireland primarily the PIRA They wanted Northern Ireland to remain in the UK

Terrorist Activitiesbull The majority of UVF victims were Catholic civilians

many of whom were killed at random These attacks were intended to demoralize the IRA as the IRA drew most of its support from the Catholic community

bull Planting bombs in predominately-Catholic pubs or simply residential areas was a very frequent UVF tactic and in 1973 they detonated more bombs in Northern Ireland than the UDA and the PIRA combined Assassinations mass shootings booby-trap car bombs and kidnappings were also frequent UVF activities

The Shankhill Butchers

bull The ldquoShankhill Butchersrdquo were a notorious offshoot UVF group known for abducting and literally slitting the throats of Catholic civilians and rival loyalist terror groups in the late 1970s They were led by Lenny Murphy (who was eventually imprisoned and upon his release of a 4-year stint murdered by the PIRA) and killed 23 people most of whom were Catholic civilians Many experts liken the Shankhill Butchers more to a group of serial killers than to politically or even ethnically-motivated murderers

bull The Butchers were all eventually all either imprisoned killed by the PIRA or both

Weaponrybull The UVF received the majority of its weaponry in the late 1970s

from Armscor an apartheid-South Africa state-owned arms company which in defiance of various UN sanctions and embargoes sold them to the UVF

bull Weapons were thought to consist ofbull 200 Czech SA vz 58 Assault Riflesbull 90 Browning Pistolsbull 500 RGD-5 Frag Grenadesbull 30000 rounds of ammunitionbull 12 RPG-7 Rocket Launchers and 150+ Rocketsbull The UVF also began using the illegally-obtained mining explosive

Powergel in the early 1990s

Organized Crime

bull The UVF was also heavily involved in organized crime including protection racketeering and drug smugglingdealing including cannabis MDMA cocaine and amphetamines Bank robberies were also very frequent in the 1970s

Major Incidents 1969-1998

Bloody Sunday 30 January 1972

Massacre on the Bogsidebull In 1972 during a large scale but peaceful civil-rights march in the

troubled predominately Catholic neighborhood of Bogside in Derry 26 unarmed civil rights marchers were shot by members of the British Army 14 of whom were killed Five of those shot were shot in the back

bull After several inquiries into the incident there was found to have been no justifiable provocation from the protestors and no shots fired from the protestors during the march The massacre was conducted in full view of the public and the press

bull The PM David Cameron eventually issued a formal apology to the victims and victimsrsquo families of the massacre after several investigations failed to reveal any justifiable provocation for the massacre

bull The massacre sky-rocketed PIRA membership and recruitment as public perception of the British Army in Catholic communities in Northern Ireland reached an all-time low

Bloody Friday 21 July 1972

A City Under Siege

bull On 21 July 1972 the PIRA detonated 26 bombs in the space of 80 minutes in Belfast destroying banks bridges electrical substations Protestant housing tenements gasoline stations and private garages

bull Although warnings were called in at least 30 minutes prior to each bomb the amount of bombs exploding and the addition of multiple hoax warnings at the same time led to the Security Forces being unable to evacuate all the areas in time 11 people were killed and 130 were injured many of them horrifically mutilated Of those injured 77 were women or children

Dublin and Monaghan Bombings 17 May 1974

Deadliest Attack of the Troubles

bull Perpetrated by the UVF in the southern Republic of Ireland three car bombs exploded in Dublin during rush hour and another exploded in Monaghan around 90 minutes later

bull 33 civilians and a full-term unborn child were killed in the bombing while nearly 300 were injured The UVF did not claim responsibility for the bombings until 1993

bull The majority of those killed were young women although the age range of those killed ranged from 5 months old to 80 years old

Warrenpoint Ambush 27 August 1979

Roadside IEDsbull In the southern part of County Armagh Northern Ireland a predominately-

Catholic rural region and former PIRA stronghold right on the border with the southern Republic of Ireland a British troop convoy was hit with a remote-control detonated roadside 500lb truck-bomb and destroyed instantly killing 6 troops The surviving soldiers then wrongly believed they were under sniper fire from the other side of the Irish border and began firing at civilians immediately after the bombing killing 1 and injuring another

bull 32 minutes after the first bombing the IRA used its knowledge of how the British reacted to bombings to correctly predict that they would set up an incident-command point in a nearby gatehouse Unfortunately for the British there was a second 800lb fertilizer bomb planted near the gatehouse that when detonated killed 12 other soldiers who were responding to the initial bomb

bull It was the deadliest single attack on the British Army during the Troubles and a highly successful attack for the PIRA

Summer of 1981 Irish Hunger Strikes

A Defining Moment for the Republican Cause

bull Beginning on 1 March 1981 led by Bobby Sands 7 PIRA and 3 INLA inmates at the notorious ldquoMazerdquo prison began to refuse food until Margaret Thatcher PM of Great Britain at that time began to recognize terrorist prisoners as political prisoners and allowed them their ldquoFive Demandsrdquo

The Five Demands

bull The right to not wear a prison uniformbull The right to not do prison workbull The right of free association with other

prisoners and to organize in educational and recreational pursuits

bull Full restoration of remission lost through any protests towards these demands

Previous Protestsbull The Maze prison was a very high-security and low-quality prison that

housed almost all PIRA prisoners during the Troubles It was run in a very ethically questionable fashion with frequent beatings and borderline-torture techniques used on Republican prisoners and extremely poor living conditions for prisoners Many Maze prison guards were members of the UDAUVF or had strong connections with one of the two groups as well

bull Massive peaceful protests and marches by Irish republicans outside of the Maze Prison proved unsuccessful in attaining political status for republican prisoners as well as previous inmate protests in 1980 including non-fatal hunger strikes inmates refusing to wear prison uniforms and thus living in their cells naked and prisoners refusing to leave their cells to go to the bathroom until their requests had been granted (they therefore urinated and defecated in their cells and spread their excrement across their cell walls in what was known as the ldquoDirty Protestrdquo)

Dirty Protesters

Thatcherrsquos Response

bull ldquoThose terrorists will carry their determination to disrupt society to any lengths Once again we have a hunger strike in the Maze Prison in the quest for what they call lsquopolitical statusrsquo There is no such thing as political murder political bombing or political violence There is only criminal murder criminal bombing and criminal violence We will not compromise on this There will be no political statusrdquo

Ten Strikers Diebull Bobby Sands the leader of the strike was imprisoned as a PIRA member

on charges of firearm possession and in connection with the bombing of a furniture store He was the first to die after 66 days of not eating Sands was elected to a seat in Parliament whilst on Hunger Strike

bull Following Sandsrsquo death there were riots bus-burnings and attacks on the British embassy in the southern Republic of Ireland there were massive demonstrations in France and Italy a tomato was thrown as Queen Elizabeth II by demonstrators in Oslo and there were massive riots and civil disorder all over the streets of Belfast The South African ANC and (at the time) terrorist Nelson Mandela expressed their support for the PIRA and the hunger strikers (Mandela himself claimed he was directly inspired by Sands to undertake hunger strikes against the Apartheid government in South Africa) as well as the Palestine Liberation Organization a middle-eastern terror group

bull Over 100000 attended Sandsrsquo funeral

Bobby Sands

ldquoOur revenge will be the laughter of our childrenrdquo

Reaction to Sandsrsquo Death

>

Conclusion

bull The Hunger Strike was eventually called off after 10 strikers including Sands had died

bull James Prior newly installed secretary of state of Northern Ireland granted the prisoners partial concessions all of the Five Demands except for the right to not do prison work Margaret Thatcher refused to budge on political status

bull The Hunger Strikes opened a new way for the PIRA to pursue its objectives politically whereas previously it had seen violence as the only solution to the plight of Irish nationalists in Northern Ireland

1983 The Maze Prison Escape

The ldquoGreat Escaperdquo

bull Using smuggled-in guns and knives 38 PIRA prisoners who had been convicted of offenses ranging from murder to causing explosions escaped from one of the most high-security prisons in Europe They completely took over the H7 prison block and took their prison guards hostage before escaping in a food supply truck Several prison guards were shot and stabbed but only one died of a heart attack during the escape

bull Fifteen escapees were recaptured the first day with four more captured over the next two days following the breakout The remaining 19 were transported to PIRA strongholds and given the option to either rejoin the IRArsquos cause or be transported to the United States to live under a new identity

12 October 1984 Brighton Hotel Bombing

The PIRA Nearly Gets Thatcherbull Margaret Thatcher the highly controversial far-right British PM from

1979-1990 had become a tremendously hated figure amongst the Irish nationalist community in Northern Ireland following the 1981 Hunger Strikes and for her general uncompromising stand on Irish republicanism

bull PIRA man Patrick Magee stayed at the Brighton Hotel from the 14-17 September 1984 planting a 20-lb bomb under his bath

bull Thatcher was staying at the Brighton Hotel for a political conference and was still up at 254AM on 12 October when the bomb was detonated The bomb decimated her bathroom but left the bedroom and sitting room of her suite largely unscathed

bull The PIRA statement to Thatcher afterwards was ldquoToday we were unlucky But remember we only have to be lucky once You will have to be lucky alwaysrdquo

Loughgall Ambush 8 May 1987

The SAS Strikes

bull A botched attack on Loughgall Villagersquos RUC Police Base in which the PIRA drove a backhoe into the fortified base and ran away to detonate the bomb that was inside of the backhoe went wrong as the SAS the British Special Forces had prior knowledge of the attack and quickly dispatched the 8 PIRA members involved

bull Although the RUC base was wrecked and bombed there were no RUC or SAS casualties and it was the PIRArsquos greatest loss of life in a single incident during the Troubles

British Army Lynx Shootdown 20 March 1994

The PIRA Shoots Down a Helicopter

bull Using the previously mentioned Barrack-Buster homemade mortar PIRA insurgents were able to fire on a British helicopter that was in the process of landing whilst hiding behind a hay bail from around 150 yards out

bull The helicopter was hit with the mortar shell around 100 feet above the ground but the pilot was able to successfully crash-land the helicopter and escape before its propane tanks exploded There were no casualties but the attack was a major propaganda coup for the PIRA

1996 Manchester Bombing

The PIRA Destroys Manchester

bull On Saturday 15 June 1996 the PIRA sent in telephoned warnings and 90 minutes later detonated a 3300lb fertilizer-based truck bomb in the heart of Manchester City Centre the biggest bomb detonated in Great Britain during peacetime The bomb killed nobody due to previous warnings but led to 212 non-fatal injuries and essentially destroyed Manchester City Centre leaving approximately 700 million pounds ($12bn) worth of damage in its wake

Omagh Bombing 1998

Last Great Deadly Attack of the Troubles

bull Perpetrated by a Provisional IRA splinter group that was rejecting the peace process calling themselves the ldquoReal IRArdquo the 510lb fertilizer-based bomb was placed on main street in the town of Omagh Northern Ireland Warnings were called in approximately 30 minutes before the bombing but they were inaccurate and police ended up moving more civilians towards the bomb which ended up killing 29 people and causing over 300 non-fatal injuries This was the highest death toll from a single incident during the Troubles

bull It received universal outrage and was condemned even by the PIRA and its political wing Sinn Fein It spurred on the Northern Ireland peace process and the RIRA apologized and called a ceasefire several days after

The Good Friday Agreement and Northern Ireland Peace Process

Beginningsbull Following the 1981 Hunger Strikes Irish republicans began to

increasingly look towards politics rather than violence as a means of achieving their aims Sinn Fein gaelic for ldquoWe Ourselvesrdquo was a fiercely Irish Republican political party which led by the Machiavellian former PIRA leader and Maze inmate Gerry Adams began to push for a more peaceful solution to the Troubles in Northern Ireland

bull It became apparent by the late 1990s that although the PIRA was not losing a war against the British establishment it would be impossible to truly lsquowin the fightrsquo through violence and that any further terrorism would serve not to achieve any real political aim but only to prolong and continue suffering and violence in Northern Ireland and that politics was a much better way of achieving Republican aims

Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein former PIRA Belfast Brigade OC

Good Friday Agreement 1998

bull The Peace Process began in 1994 and included intermittent terrorist ceasefires and political negotiations between the major Irish republican and British unionist parties and culminated on April 10 1998 when the Good Friday Agreement was signed

PM Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern Sign the GFA

GFA Mandatesbull That Northern Ireland was to remain British until a majority of people in Northern

Ireland and the southern Republic of Ireland wanted otherwise bull The creation of an entirely new far less sectarian and religiously diverse Northern

Irish local governmentbull The decommissioning of arms from terrorist groups on both the unionist and

nationalist side of the political divide (ultimately successful all arms decommissioned by 2005)

bull Mutual respect and civil rights between Catholics and Protestants bull The reduction and eventual elimination of British troops in Northern Ireland

(ultimately successful all troops withdrawn by 2005)bull Eventual early prison release for all individuals imprisoned for terrorist offenses as

long as they were apart of a terrorist group that was decommissioning in accordance with the GFA

bull Disbandment of the RUC police service and the installation of the new Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) which was required to be at least 50 Catholic

Northern Ireland Today

Still Conflict But No Warbull Since the complete decommissioning of the arms and

disbandment of the PIRA INLA UDAUFF and UVF due to the Good Friday Agreement there is nowhere near the amount of violence in Northern Ireland or Belfast as there was 20 years ago There are no more weekly bombings and riots and no more British troops patrolling Catholic areas in armored vehicles

bull Despite this there are still occasional riots and clashes with the PSNI several times a year specifically on dates of great historical significance to the Catholic or Protestant communities and there is still a deep distrust and even hatred between many Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland although that continues to change with time

Catholic Slum of Ardoyne Belfast July 2011

Splinter Groups

bull Many former PIRA or UDA terrorists have now taken to organized crime for purely profiteering purposes but are no longer involved in substantial violence or any political-based terrorism

bull Splinter groups such as the Real IRA and Continuity IRA in Catholic communities and the Orange Volunteers and Red Hand Commandos in Protestant communities still conduct occasional violence towards Police and civilians in Northern Ireland but are all rather small poorly armed and poorly funded groups that pose nowhere near the threat that terrorist groups in the 80s and 90s did in Northern Ireland

Herersquos To A Brighter Future in Northern Ireland

Works Citedbull httpwwwbbccoukhistorytroublesbull httpcainulstacukbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiProvisional_Irish_Republican_Armybull httpenwikipediaorgwikiThe_Troublesbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiUlster_Defence_Associationbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiUlster_Volunteer_Forcebull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_National_Liberation_Armybull ldquoA Secret History of the IRArdquo by Ed Moloney ndashWW Norton amp Company Reprint 2003bull ldquoVoices From The Grave Two Menrsquos War in Irelandrdquo by Ed Moloney ndash Public Affairs 2010bull ldquoFifty Dead Men Walkingrdquo by Martin McGartland ndash John Blake 2009bull httpwwwinfopleasecomspotnorthireland1htmlbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_Civil_Warbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_War_of_Independencebull httpenwikipediaorgwiki1981_Irish_hunger_strikebull httpenwikipediaorgwikiDirectory_of_the_Northern_Ireland_Troublesbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiGood_Friday_Agreementbull httpswwwmi5govukhomethe-threatsterrorismnorthern-irelandrepublican-terrorist-groupshtmlbull httpswwwmi5govukhomethe-threatsterrorismnorthern-irelandprovisional-irish-republican-army-

pirahtmlbull httpnewsbbccoukhienglishstaticnorthern_irelandunderstandingeventshunger_strikestm

  • The Troubles
  • Brief Overview
  • 30 Years of Conflict
  • Slide 4
  • Background
  • The Irish War of Independence
  • Slide 7
  • Anglo-Irish Treaty (signed 6 December 1921)
  • Irish Civil War
  • 1922-1966 Ireland
  • The Civil Rights Movement
  • Slide 12
  • Slide 13
  • Objectives of the Civil Rights Movement
  • The 1969 Northern Ireland Riots ndashThe Troubles Begin
  • Culmination of Tension
  • No-Go Areas
  • No-Go Areas (2)
  • Early 1970sndash The Rise of the Provisional IRA
  • The IRA Split
  • Rise of the UVF and Loyalist Terror Groups
  • Beginnings
  • UVF Statement 21 May 1964
  • The Paramilitaries
  • Irish RepublicansCatholics
  • The Provisional IRA
  • IRA Statement Late 80s
  • Statistics
  • RecruitmentFunding
  • Weaponry
  • Weaponry (2)
  • Slide 32
  • Mortars and IEDs
  • EOD Officer Approaches PIRA Car Bomb
  • The Barrack Buster
  • Vigilantism
  • Slide 37
  • Slide 38
  • Policy on Informants
  • Terrorist Activities
  • Terrorist Activities (continued)
  • The INLA
  • Statistics (2)
  • Ideology
  • Terrorist Activities (2)
  • Internal Feuds
  • Slide 47
  • British LoyalistsProtestants
  • The UDAUFF
  • Former UFF Member
  • Statistics (3)
  • Ideology (2)
  • Terrorist Activities (3)
  • Slide 54
  • Organized Crime
  • The UVF
  • Statistics (4)
  • Ideology (3)
  • Terrorist Activities (4)
  • The Shankhill Butchers
  • Weaponry (3)
  • Slide 62
  • Organized Crime (2)
  • Major Incidents 1969-1998
  • Bloody Sunday 30 January 1972
  • Massacre on the Bogside
  • Bloody Friday 21 July 1972
  • A City Under Siege
  • Dublin and Monaghan Bombings 17 May 1974
  • Deadliest Attack of the Troubles
  • Warrenpoint Ambush 27 August 1979
  • Roadside IEDs
  • Summer of 1981 Irish Hunger Strikes
  • A Defining Moment for the Republican Cause
  • The Five Demands
  • Previous Protests
  • Dirty Protesters
  • Thatcherrsquos Response
  • Ten Strikers Die
  • Bobby Sands
  • Reaction to Sandsrsquo Death
  • Conclusion
  • 1983 The Maze Prison Escape
  • The ldquoGreat Escaperdquo
  • 12 October 1984 Brighton Hotel Bombing
  • The PIRA Nearly Gets Thatcher
  • Loughgall Ambush 8 May 1987
  • The SAS Strikes
  • British Army Lynx Shootdown 20 March 1994
  • The PIRA Shoots Down a Helicopter
  • 1996 Manchester Bombing
  • The PIRA Destroys Manchester
  • Omagh Bombing 1998
  • Last Great Deadly Attack of the Troubles
  • The Good Friday Agreement and Northern Ireland Peace Process
  • Beginnings (2)
  • Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein former PIRA Belfast Brigade OC
  • Good Friday Agreement 1998
  • PM Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern Sign the GFA
  • GFA Mandates
  • Northern Ireland Today
  • Still Conflict But No War
  • Catholic Slum of Ardoyne Belfast July 2011
  • Splinter Groups
  • Herersquos To A Brighter Future in Northern Ireland
  • Works Cited
Page 3: The Troubles, 1969-1998

30 Years of Conflictbull lsquoThe Troublesrsquo is the collective name for the ethno-political and religious conflict that

plagued Northern Ireland from 1969 to 1998 although sporadic violence continues to this day

bull The conflict was primarily political but had sectarian dimensions as well Key issues include the constitutional status of Northern Ireland and the relationship between its two communities

bull Unionists are primarily protestant and descend from Scottish immigrants that were planted in Northern Ireland during King I of Englandrsquos reign in the late 16th century They want Northern Ireland to remain part of the United Kingdom They tend to be more right-wing They are the slight majority with Northern Ireland being 48 Protestant as of the 2001 Census

bull Republicans (more specifically Irish Republicans) are primarily Catholic and have deeper ancestral ties on the island of Ireland They want Northern Ireland to declare independence from the United Kingdom and unite with the southern Republic of Ireland They tend to be more left-leaning some with socialist inclinations They are the slight minority with Northern Ireland being 45 Catholic as of the 2001 Census

bull The Troubles would lead approxiately 3600 people dead and 50000 injured over the 30 year period in a population of less than 2 million people

Background

bull Irish Republicanism has existed in Ireland in some way shape or form since the early 1600s

bull In Easter Week of 1916 the armed Irish Republican Brotherhood seized key locations in Dublin and proclaimed the island of Ireland independent of the United Kingdom

bull The Rebellion was put down almost immediately by the British but it would go on to inspire a century of political turbulence in modern Ireland

The Irish War of Independence

bull The Irish War of Independence was fought from 1919 to 1921 and led to the Anglo-Irish Treaty

bull In December of 1918 Irish Republican political party Sinn Fein (lsquowe ourselvesrsquo in gaelic) won a landslide victory in Ireland and in January of 1919 they formed a breakaway government and declared the entire island of Ireland once again independent from Britain

bull The British government was not as successful putting down the rebellions this time as the military wing of Sinn Fein the IRA (Irish Republican Army) waged a bloody guerrilla war of attrition against the British Army until the UK was forced to give in by 1921 and led to the Anglo-Irish Treaty

Anglo-Irish Treaty (signed 6 December 1921)

Provided for establishment of Irish Free State completely independent from the United Kingdom politically It also provided the six counties of Northern Ireland the option to opt out of the treaty which at the time was a massive 23 majority Protestant and Unionist and did so choosing to remain a part of the United Kingdom This has proved to be a very controversial treaty in Northern Ireland up until this very day

Irish Civil WarThe Anglo-Irish Treaty was so controversial that it led to a 10-month civil war in Ireland immediately following itrsquos signing The newly established Irish National Army consisting of many former IRA guerrillas fought the more hardline anti-treaty IRA who felt the Anglo-Irish Treaty betrayed the ideals of the Easter Rising The Irish National Army who was supported by the British easily crushed the anti-treaty IRA

1922-1966 Irelandbull A legacy of the Irish Civil War was the

survival of a marginalized remnant of the IRA Illegal in both Northern Ireland and the Irish Free State and ideologically committed to overthrowing them both the IRA from 1922 to 1966 existed primarily as a secret society with the exception of the failed Northern Campaign of 1942 and the failed Border Campaign between 1956 and 1962 during both of which the IRA assassinated several police officers around the Northern Irish border before declaring each respective campaign a failure

The Civil Rights Movement

bull The NICRA (Northern Irish Civil Rights Association) was formed in 1966 to protest discrimination against Irish Catholics in Northern Ireland Drew significant parallels with the African-American Civil Rights movement in the United States during that time

bull The Civil Rights Movement was peaceful and sought to end discrimination against Irish Catholics and Irish nationalists by the Protestant and Unionist local self-government of Northern Ireland

Objectives of the Civil Rights Movementbull End job discrimination (Catholicsnationalists unlikely to be given certain jobs

especially government jobs)bull Public housing to be allocated based on need rather than religiouspolitical views

(unionist-controlled local councils allocated housing to Protestant unionists ahead of Catholic nationalists)

bull ldquoOne Man One Voterdquo Policy ndash in Northern Ireland only householders could vote in local elections whereas in the rest of the UK all adults could vote

bull An end to gerrymandering of electoral boundaries giving nationalists less electoral power than unionists even in areas where nationalists were the majority

bull Reform of the RUC or Royal Ulster Constabulary the Northern Irish police force which was almost 100 Protestant and disbandment of the B-Specials special police force also exclusively protestant Both of which were heavily accused of police brutality and sectarianism

bull Repeal of the Special Powers Actndash which allowed police to search without a warrant arrest and imprison people without chargetrial ban any assemblies or parades and ban any publications The Act was used almost exclusively against Catholics

bull The Civil Rights movement was violently repressed by police and met with fierce political resistance from the unionist government

The 1969 Northern Ireland Riots ndashThe Troubles Begin

Culmination of Tensionbull The Tensions between Catholics and Protestants culminated in August of

1969 bull ldquoThe Battle of The Bogsiderdquo ndash Loyalists were allowed to march through the

Catholic neighborhood of Derry in a provocative parade This led to Catholic resistance who began throwing stones and bricks at the parade The RUC was then deployed to put down Catholic rioters and laid siege to the Catholic community of Bogside releasing over 1100 canisters of tear gas in the Bogside from August 12 to 14 Catholics in turn set up barricades and were ultimately successful in repelling the police from their communities The Bogside region of Derry would go on to exist as a lsquono go arearsquo for both Northern Irish and British security forces and existed as an autonomous independent nationalist district from 1969 to 1972

bull The Battle of the Bogside and the ensuing violence that raged from August 12-17 across Northern Ireland caused the displacement of approximately 1820 families and the destruction of 150+ Catholic homes

bull It also led to the deployment of the British military to Ulster in what was intended to be a short several weeklong peacekeeping engagement It would turn out to be a 30 year deployment

No-Go Areas

No-Go Areasbull No-Go Areas existed from 1969 to 1972 in Belfast and Derry in

Catholic nationalist neighborhoods in which barricades and militant residents prevented the police forces or British Army from entering

bull The Barricades were demolished and control ldquoofficiallyrdquo restored in the British Operation Motorman in 1972 in which the British Army used tanks to destroy the barricades and reestablish control However the no-go status was generally maintained and police and security forces still rarely entered certain Irish Catholic neighborhoods throughout the duration of the Troubles except in very hostile circumstances such as in the case of an arrest or military engagement

bull Day-to-day policing of these areas was generally controlled by terrorist groups

Early 1970sndash The Rise of the Provisional IRA

The IRA Splitbull The IRA that had existed largely in silence for the past 50 years began to rearm

and militarize itself once again by 1969 in order to protect Catholic nationalist communities in Northern Ireland in wake of the police brutality and sectarian violence that they had began to increasingly experience

bull In the 1960s the IRA had come under the significant influence of Marxist and Socialist thinkers This led the IRA to split in 1969 into the Official IRA and the Provisional IRA ndash the provisionals named for their ldquoProvisional Army Councilrdquo

bull The Official IRA was highly socialistMarxist and prescribed to the idea that class differences were causing the strife in Northern Ireland whilst the Provisional IRA was less interested in socialism and more concerned simply with British presence in Northern Ireland considering it to be the root of all the problems

bull The Official IRA would eventually fade out by 1972 while the Provisional IRA would go on to become the most feared terrorist organization in 20th Century Europe and launch a 30-year campaign against the British presence in Northern Ireland

Rise of the UVF and Loyalist Terror Groups

Beginningsbull The UVF (Ulster Volunteer Force) was formed in 1964 as a continuation

of the Ulster Volunteers that existed from 1912-1914 in Northern Ireland who intended to violently resist any attempts by the British government to release Ulster from the Union

bull It was reformed in rsquo64 by former British soldier Gusty Spence after he and his men burned to the ground a Catholic-owned pub on the loyalist Shankhill Road

bull The Ulster unionists feared that with the ongoing civil rights movement a potential return of the IRA in Northern Ireland could be possible The UVF and other loyalist paramilitary groups such as the UDA and UFF were thus created and seen as vigilantes and defenders of Protestant communities However most of their targets throughout the 30-year Troubles were simply innocent Catholic civilians

UVF Statement 21 May 1964

bull ldquoFrom this day we declare war against the Irish Republican Army and its splinter groups Known IRA men will be executed mercilessly and without hesitation Less extreme measures will be taken against anyone sheltering or helping them but if they persist in giving them aid then more extreme methods will be adopted we solemnly warn the authorities to make no more speeches of appeasement We are heavily armed Protestants dedicated to this causerdquo

The Paramilitaries

Irish RepublicansCatholics

The Provisional IRA

IRA Statement Late 80s

>

Statistics

bull Suffered 293 Casualtiesbull Over 10000 members imprisoned on various charges

throughout the conflictbull Killed 656 members of the British Armed Forcesbull Killed 272 Members of the Royal Ulster Constabulary

(RUC) Police Forcebull Killed 44 members of loyalistprotestant terror groupsbull Killed between 620-650 civiliansbull Killed over 1500 people

RecruitmentFundingbull IRA recruitment in Catholic neighborhoods was similar to the phenomenon

of gang membership in the inner-city United States Young Catholics typically joined to create a sense of belonging to seem ldquohardrdquo or look ldquocoolrdquo to feel protected from the brutality of the RUC during the Troubles or to help defend their communities IRA members were not asked to join but volunteered

bull IRA lsquofunds-raisingrsquo activities included collecting protection money from Catholic businesses (a ldquorevolutionary taxrdquo) robbing banks kidnapping citizens for ransom and cigarette and gasoline smuggling across the Irish border (manipulating the differing tax prices on both sides of the border and selling fuel and cigarettes illicitly) Although the Provisional IRA has officially disbanded and no longer engages in terrorism there is substantial evidence that extortion rackets in poor Catholic neighborhoods and contraband smuggling operations along the border still exist in Northern Ireland and are run by former IRA men solely for profiteering purposes

Weaponry

bull The Provisional IRA obtained a significant amount of arms from both Irish-American supporters in the northeastern United States (including members of notorious gangster Whitey Bulgerrsquos Irish Mob in 1970s-80s Boston) and from the Libyan government under Muammar Gadaffi

bull Gadaffi took over in Libya in 1969 and initially armed the IRA seeing them as comrades-in-arms fighting British imperialism Connections re-emerged in 1986 after the Thatcher Administrationrsquos support of the US bombings of Libya that killed Gadaffirsquos adopted daughter

Weaponrybull When the IRA disarmed as part of the Good Friday Agreement in

1998 (more on that later) they released the following to the British Armed Forces

bull 1000 Rifles (AK-47s AR-15s etc)bull 3 Tons of Semtex (a general-purpose plastic explosive)bull 20-30 Heavy Machine Gunsbull 7 Surface-to-Air Missilesbull 7 Flamethrowersbull 1200 Detonatorsbull 20 RPGrsquosbull 100 Handgunsbull 100+ Hand Grenades

Mortars and IEDsbull The PIRA was incredibly proficient at bomb-making and made

extensive use of Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) during their 30 year campaign

bull IEDs were typically constructed with chemical mixes of fertilizer gasoline and other home-made components Libyan Semtex was also used in several heavy-duty bombs Nails and gunpowder were typically implemented in pipe bombs made out of metal pipes Most IEDs had built in countermeasures such as the mercury tilt switch which would cause the bomb to explode if moved at all should a British EOD officer attempt to dismantle it

bull The PIRA developed the ldquoBarrack Busterrdquo mortar in the late lsquo70s or a homemade mortar made up of common household materials that was used to attack several Army bases from afar and even Prime Minister Margaret Thatcherrsquos househellip 10 Downing Street in a 1991 attack that destroyed the Prime Ministerrsquos rear garden (the mortar was fired out the back of a nearby van)

EOD Officer Approaches PIRA Car Bomb

The Barrack Buster

>

Vigilantismbull The RUC was not trusted in Catholic neighborhoods throughout the

Troubles and did not regularly patrol or even enter them in urban areas of Northern Ireland Thus when there was a community drug dealer car thief burglar rapist or pedophile the IRA took it upon themselves to issue brutal street justice to those involved

bull Occasionally offering warnings for lesser offences such as petty thievery or drug dealing if the IRA had enough of a certain member of the community they perceived as anti-social he or she was usually jumped brutally beaten andor lsquokneecappedrsquo ndash one of the IRArsquos most notorious methods ndash in which the victim was pinned down and shot through the kneecaps with a firearm or occasionally had their kneecaps drilled through with power-drills Other methods included releasing starving Rottweilerrsquos on the offender dropping cinderblocks on the offenderrsquos hands or even tarring and feathering the offender The IRArsquos process in determining an individualrsquos guilt was never open to scrutiny

bull If the offender persisted after an IRA punishment he was then given a notice by the IRA to leave the country as soon as possiblehellip referred to as being ldquoput outrdquo of the community If the offender still did not leave he was murdered

Policy on Informantsbull In an effort to stamp out collusion with the British forces and informants on the

IRA the IRA was responsible for torturing and killing several accused Catholic civilians throughout the conflict

bull Investigations into collusion infiltration and informants were carried out by the Internal Security Unit of the IRA colloquially known as the ldquoNutting Squadrdquo

bull The ISU would carry out debriefings of IRA prisoners upon their release from British detention so as to discover whether or not they had lsquocrackedrsquo and released information to British interrogators

bull Typical ISU torture techniques on those accused of informing included drowning genitalnipple mutilation electrocution with livewires pouring kerosene on the accusedrsquos legs before setting fire to them and branding with hot irons Informants were always killed afterwards with a bullet through the back of the head

bull Of the 18 ldquoDisappearedrdquo accused informants that were abducted and executed by the IRA during the Troubles only 10 bodies have been found

bull Martin McGartland was an IRA informant who was estimated to have saved 50 lives in the conflict before he was discovered and abducted by the ISU He escaped and lives today in seclusion The film ldquo50 Dead Men Walkingrdquo is based on his exploits and is an excellent realistic non-romanticized take on the Troubles in Northern Ireland

Terrorist Activitiesbull Common tactics included breaking into the homes of off-duty RUC police

officers and murdering them in their beds or setting booby-trap bombs underneath RUC police officersrsquo cars and unionist politiciansrsquo cars so that they would blow up as the engine was started RUC men were typically targeted when they were off-duty and many were shot dead in front of their families The PIRA would also impersonate innocent Catholic civilians call the police to report an emergency and ambush the police from hidden positions when they arrived at the stated address (another reason the RUC was hesitant to go into Catholic neighborhoods during this period)

bull Most notorious for their bombings they would typically park car bombs in predominately Protestant communities call in the bomb threat so that the area would be evacuated and an EOD squad would arrive to dismantle it the bomb would then be detonated with hopes of killing an EOD officer and destroying Protestant housing tenements

bull The PIRA rarely intentionally targeted civilians especially in the 80srsquo and 90srsquo but were involved in the bombings of several Protestant-owned pubs during the 1970s in response to loyalist terrorist groups bombing Catholic-owned pubs They also carried out the Kingsmill massacre in 1976 in which eleven Protestant workmen that were traveling on a minibus were held up by the IRA and all individually executed in response to the execution of six Catholic civilians by the UVF the night before

Terrorist Activities (continued)bull Other activities included engaging in firefights with British squadrons as

they patrolled the countrysidestreets of urban areas sniper attacks on RUC or British Army patrolscheckpoints planting landmines along British foot patrol routes in rural areas planting roadside IEDs along British convoy routes and bombing ferries and buses containing on-or-off duty British soldiers

bull The notorious ldquohuman bombrdquo technique in which civilians or off-duty members of the British security forces were kidnapped and then forced to drive car bombs into British military targets ndash such as checkpoints and Army bases ndash after the PIRA had placed their familiesrsquo lives under threat

bull Inciting riots and providing Catholic youths with molotov cocktails (gasoline bombs) during such riots so as to maximize public disorder and destruction was also an almost daily IRA activity in Catholic communities in urban Northern Ireland

The INLA

Statistics

bull Suffered 33 casualtiesbull Killed 46 members of the British Security Forcesbull Killed 2 members of the Irish Security Forcesbull Killed 39 civiliansbull Killed 3 civilian political activistsbull Killed 16 members of rival Republican terror

groupsbull Killed 7 members of Loyalist terror groups

Ideology

bull Founded by Seamus Costello in 1974 as the military wing of the Irish Republican Socialist Party

bull Shared similar goals to the Provisional IRA but far more socialist in ideology INLA wanted a socialist united Irish republic and blamed class struggles for many of the problems in Northern Ireland whereas the PIRA simply wanted a united Irish republic and had little interest in class struggle or economics

bull Whereas the PIRA was almost exclusively Catholic the INLA had some Protestant members most of whom were involved for purely socialist reasons

Terrorist Activitiesbull Although far less powerful and bold than the PIRA the INLA

nevertheless presented a potent terrorist threat to the United Kingdom during the Troubles

bull Similar tactics to the IRA car bombings shooting off-duty police and soldiers dead and high-profile assassinations

bull Their most high-profile attacks included the car bomb assassination of Airey Neave one of Margaret Thatcherrsquos closest political supporters in 1979 the murder of infamous Loyalist terror leader Billy Wright (who was murdered by INLA inmates in a British political prison in 1997) and the Ballykelley Disco Bombing in 1982 in which the INLA bombed a disco-club frequented by off-duty British soldiers managing to kill 11 of them as well as 6 civilians as well as destroying the disco

Internal Feuds

bull A split in 1986 led the INLA to split into the INLA and the IPLO or Irish Peoplersquos Liberation Organization based on IPLO membersrsquo perceived lack of political motivation and heavy involvement in drug dealing and criminality

bull There were several retaliatory killings between the two groups that persisted until 1992 when the PIRA had enough of the IPLOrsquos involvement in drug dealing in Catholic areas of Belfast and on 31 October 1992 virtually destroyed the entire organization in one night with a series of raids killings and kneecappings that killed or crippled the majority of the grouprsquos members

British LoyalistsProtestants

The UDAUFF

Former UFF Member

>

Statistics

bull Suffered 89 casualtiesbull Killed 197 civiliansbull Killed 12 civilian political activistsbull Killed 37 members of rival loyalist terror

groupsbull Killed 11 members of republican terror groupsbull Killed 3 members of the British Security Forces

Ideology

bull The UDA or Ulster Defense Association and its military wing the Ulster Freedom Fighters (UFF) was a loyalist protestant terror squad that targeted PIRA and INLA members as well as general Catholic civilians in bombings and shootings throughout Northern Ireland

bull It pledged to end its campaign of violence whenever the IRA set down its arms yet should the UK government appease the IRA and grant a 32-county Irish Republic the UDA pledged to act as ldquothe IRA in reverserdquo

Terrorist Activitiesbull The UDA saw itself as a militia defending upstanding protestant loyalist

communities from dangerous and lower-class Catholics that were disrupting the status quo in Northern Ireland They pledged primarily to target IRA men but ended up killing a majority of Catholic civilians during the Troubles They were also known to intimidate and exile known Catholic families from predominately-Protestant communities in Belfast and other urban areas

bull Drive-by shootings shooting up or planting bombs in predominately-Catholic pubs and bars and jumping brutally beating andor kneecapping Catholic civilians were all frequent tactics

bull The UDA discreetly worked in collusion with the RUC and other British security agencies so as to track down and assassinate known IRA members They would also patrol Protestant neighborhoods alongside British soldiers at the height of the Troubles Many RUC police officers and prison guards were also UDA members

bull The UDA alongside many other loyalist paramilitaries benefitted from the import of several arms shipments from Lebanese arms dealers in the early 1970s including rocket launchers 200+ AK-47 Rifles 90+ handguns and over 400 grenades They also received various weapons such as the uzi submachine gun and explosive devices from arms dealers in the Soviet bloc in the 1980s

Organized Crime

bull The UDA and its members were also heavily involved in drug dealing from the street level to wholesale purchase primarily in MDMA and cannabis throughout the Troubles

bull Protection racketeering and money laundering were also common amongst the UDA in protestant communities

bull However should a member of a UDA-ran community begin stealing or dealing drugs without UDA consent he was abruptly branded as ldquoanti-socialrdquo and either killed or kneecapped

The UVF

Statistics

bull Suffered unknown number of casualtiesbull Killed 412 civiliansbull Killed 11 civilian political activistsbull Killed 21 members of republican terror groupsbull Killed 42 members of rival loyalist terror

groupsbull Killed 6 members of the Security Forces

Ideology

bull Similar to the UDAUFF the Ulster Volunteer Forcersquos primary aim was to combat Irish republicanism in Northern Ireland primarily the PIRA They wanted Northern Ireland to remain in the UK

Terrorist Activitiesbull The majority of UVF victims were Catholic civilians

many of whom were killed at random These attacks were intended to demoralize the IRA as the IRA drew most of its support from the Catholic community

bull Planting bombs in predominately-Catholic pubs or simply residential areas was a very frequent UVF tactic and in 1973 they detonated more bombs in Northern Ireland than the UDA and the PIRA combined Assassinations mass shootings booby-trap car bombs and kidnappings were also frequent UVF activities

The Shankhill Butchers

bull The ldquoShankhill Butchersrdquo were a notorious offshoot UVF group known for abducting and literally slitting the throats of Catholic civilians and rival loyalist terror groups in the late 1970s They were led by Lenny Murphy (who was eventually imprisoned and upon his release of a 4-year stint murdered by the PIRA) and killed 23 people most of whom were Catholic civilians Many experts liken the Shankhill Butchers more to a group of serial killers than to politically or even ethnically-motivated murderers

bull The Butchers were all eventually all either imprisoned killed by the PIRA or both

Weaponrybull The UVF received the majority of its weaponry in the late 1970s

from Armscor an apartheid-South Africa state-owned arms company which in defiance of various UN sanctions and embargoes sold them to the UVF

bull Weapons were thought to consist ofbull 200 Czech SA vz 58 Assault Riflesbull 90 Browning Pistolsbull 500 RGD-5 Frag Grenadesbull 30000 rounds of ammunitionbull 12 RPG-7 Rocket Launchers and 150+ Rocketsbull The UVF also began using the illegally-obtained mining explosive

Powergel in the early 1990s

Organized Crime

bull The UVF was also heavily involved in organized crime including protection racketeering and drug smugglingdealing including cannabis MDMA cocaine and amphetamines Bank robberies were also very frequent in the 1970s

Major Incidents 1969-1998

Bloody Sunday 30 January 1972

Massacre on the Bogsidebull In 1972 during a large scale but peaceful civil-rights march in the

troubled predominately Catholic neighborhood of Bogside in Derry 26 unarmed civil rights marchers were shot by members of the British Army 14 of whom were killed Five of those shot were shot in the back

bull After several inquiries into the incident there was found to have been no justifiable provocation from the protestors and no shots fired from the protestors during the march The massacre was conducted in full view of the public and the press

bull The PM David Cameron eventually issued a formal apology to the victims and victimsrsquo families of the massacre after several investigations failed to reveal any justifiable provocation for the massacre

bull The massacre sky-rocketed PIRA membership and recruitment as public perception of the British Army in Catholic communities in Northern Ireland reached an all-time low

Bloody Friday 21 July 1972

A City Under Siege

bull On 21 July 1972 the PIRA detonated 26 bombs in the space of 80 minutes in Belfast destroying banks bridges electrical substations Protestant housing tenements gasoline stations and private garages

bull Although warnings were called in at least 30 minutes prior to each bomb the amount of bombs exploding and the addition of multiple hoax warnings at the same time led to the Security Forces being unable to evacuate all the areas in time 11 people were killed and 130 were injured many of them horrifically mutilated Of those injured 77 were women or children

Dublin and Monaghan Bombings 17 May 1974

Deadliest Attack of the Troubles

bull Perpetrated by the UVF in the southern Republic of Ireland three car bombs exploded in Dublin during rush hour and another exploded in Monaghan around 90 minutes later

bull 33 civilians and a full-term unborn child were killed in the bombing while nearly 300 were injured The UVF did not claim responsibility for the bombings until 1993

bull The majority of those killed were young women although the age range of those killed ranged from 5 months old to 80 years old

Warrenpoint Ambush 27 August 1979

Roadside IEDsbull In the southern part of County Armagh Northern Ireland a predominately-

Catholic rural region and former PIRA stronghold right on the border with the southern Republic of Ireland a British troop convoy was hit with a remote-control detonated roadside 500lb truck-bomb and destroyed instantly killing 6 troops The surviving soldiers then wrongly believed they were under sniper fire from the other side of the Irish border and began firing at civilians immediately after the bombing killing 1 and injuring another

bull 32 minutes after the first bombing the IRA used its knowledge of how the British reacted to bombings to correctly predict that they would set up an incident-command point in a nearby gatehouse Unfortunately for the British there was a second 800lb fertilizer bomb planted near the gatehouse that when detonated killed 12 other soldiers who were responding to the initial bomb

bull It was the deadliest single attack on the British Army during the Troubles and a highly successful attack for the PIRA

Summer of 1981 Irish Hunger Strikes

A Defining Moment for the Republican Cause

bull Beginning on 1 March 1981 led by Bobby Sands 7 PIRA and 3 INLA inmates at the notorious ldquoMazerdquo prison began to refuse food until Margaret Thatcher PM of Great Britain at that time began to recognize terrorist prisoners as political prisoners and allowed them their ldquoFive Demandsrdquo

The Five Demands

bull The right to not wear a prison uniformbull The right to not do prison workbull The right of free association with other

prisoners and to organize in educational and recreational pursuits

bull Full restoration of remission lost through any protests towards these demands

Previous Protestsbull The Maze prison was a very high-security and low-quality prison that

housed almost all PIRA prisoners during the Troubles It was run in a very ethically questionable fashion with frequent beatings and borderline-torture techniques used on Republican prisoners and extremely poor living conditions for prisoners Many Maze prison guards were members of the UDAUVF or had strong connections with one of the two groups as well

bull Massive peaceful protests and marches by Irish republicans outside of the Maze Prison proved unsuccessful in attaining political status for republican prisoners as well as previous inmate protests in 1980 including non-fatal hunger strikes inmates refusing to wear prison uniforms and thus living in their cells naked and prisoners refusing to leave their cells to go to the bathroom until their requests had been granted (they therefore urinated and defecated in their cells and spread their excrement across their cell walls in what was known as the ldquoDirty Protestrdquo)

Dirty Protesters

Thatcherrsquos Response

bull ldquoThose terrorists will carry their determination to disrupt society to any lengths Once again we have a hunger strike in the Maze Prison in the quest for what they call lsquopolitical statusrsquo There is no such thing as political murder political bombing or political violence There is only criminal murder criminal bombing and criminal violence We will not compromise on this There will be no political statusrdquo

Ten Strikers Diebull Bobby Sands the leader of the strike was imprisoned as a PIRA member

on charges of firearm possession and in connection with the bombing of a furniture store He was the first to die after 66 days of not eating Sands was elected to a seat in Parliament whilst on Hunger Strike

bull Following Sandsrsquo death there were riots bus-burnings and attacks on the British embassy in the southern Republic of Ireland there were massive demonstrations in France and Italy a tomato was thrown as Queen Elizabeth II by demonstrators in Oslo and there were massive riots and civil disorder all over the streets of Belfast The South African ANC and (at the time) terrorist Nelson Mandela expressed their support for the PIRA and the hunger strikers (Mandela himself claimed he was directly inspired by Sands to undertake hunger strikes against the Apartheid government in South Africa) as well as the Palestine Liberation Organization a middle-eastern terror group

bull Over 100000 attended Sandsrsquo funeral

Bobby Sands

ldquoOur revenge will be the laughter of our childrenrdquo

Reaction to Sandsrsquo Death

>

Conclusion

bull The Hunger Strike was eventually called off after 10 strikers including Sands had died

bull James Prior newly installed secretary of state of Northern Ireland granted the prisoners partial concessions all of the Five Demands except for the right to not do prison work Margaret Thatcher refused to budge on political status

bull The Hunger Strikes opened a new way for the PIRA to pursue its objectives politically whereas previously it had seen violence as the only solution to the plight of Irish nationalists in Northern Ireland

1983 The Maze Prison Escape

The ldquoGreat Escaperdquo

bull Using smuggled-in guns and knives 38 PIRA prisoners who had been convicted of offenses ranging from murder to causing explosions escaped from one of the most high-security prisons in Europe They completely took over the H7 prison block and took their prison guards hostage before escaping in a food supply truck Several prison guards were shot and stabbed but only one died of a heart attack during the escape

bull Fifteen escapees were recaptured the first day with four more captured over the next two days following the breakout The remaining 19 were transported to PIRA strongholds and given the option to either rejoin the IRArsquos cause or be transported to the United States to live under a new identity

12 October 1984 Brighton Hotel Bombing

The PIRA Nearly Gets Thatcherbull Margaret Thatcher the highly controversial far-right British PM from

1979-1990 had become a tremendously hated figure amongst the Irish nationalist community in Northern Ireland following the 1981 Hunger Strikes and for her general uncompromising stand on Irish republicanism

bull PIRA man Patrick Magee stayed at the Brighton Hotel from the 14-17 September 1984 planting a 20-lb bomb under his bath

bull Thatcher was staying at the Brighton Hotel for a political conference and was still up at 254AM on 12 October when the bomb was detonated The bomb decimated her bathroom but left the bedroom and sitting room of her suite largely unscathed

bull The PIRA statement to Thatcher afterwards was ldquoToday we were unlucky But remember we only have to be lucky once You will have to be lucky alwaysrdquo

Loughgall Ambush 8 May 1987

The SAS Strikes

bull A botched attack on Loughgall Villagersquos RUC Police Base in which the PIRA drove a backhoe into the fortified base and ran away to detonate the bomb that was inside of the backhoe went wrong as the SAS the British Special Forces had prior knowledge of the attack and quickly dispatched the 8 PIRA members involved

bull Although the RUC base was wrecked and bombed there were no RUC or SAS casualties and it was the PIRArsquos greatest loss of life in a single incident during the Troubles

British Army Lynx Shootdown 20 March 1994

The PIRA Shoots Down a Helicopter

bull Using the previously mentioned Barrack-Buster homemade mortar PIRA insurgents were able to fire on a British helicopter that was in the process of landing whilst hiding behind a hay bail from around 150 yards out

bull The helicopter was hit with the mortar shell around 100 feet above the ground but the pilot was able to successfully crash-land the helicopter and escape before its propane tanks exploded There were no casualties but the attack was a major propaganda coup for the PIRA

1996 Manchester Bombing

The PIRA Destroys Manchester

bull On Saturday 15 June 1996 the PIRA sent in telephoned warnings and 90 minutes later detonated a 3300lb fertilizer-based truck bomb in the heart of Manchester City Centre the biggest bomb detonated in Great Britain during peacetime The bomb killed nobody due to previous warnings but led to 212 non-fatal injuries and essentially destroyed Manchester City Centre leaving approximately 700 million pounds ($12bn) worth of damage in its wake

Omagh Bombing 1998

Last Great Deadly Attack of the Troubles

bull Perpetrated by a Provisional IRA splinter group that was rejecting the peace process calling themselves the ldquoReal IRArdquo the 510lb fertilizer-based bomb was placed on main street in the town of Omagh Northern Ireland Warnings were called in approximately 30 minutes before the bombing but they were inaccurate and police ended up moving more civilians towards the bomb which ended up killing 29 people and causing over 300 non-fatal injuries This was the highest death toll from a single incident during the Troubles

bull It received universal outrage and was condemned even by the PIRA and its political wing Sinn Fein It spurred on the Northern Ireland peace process and the RIRA apologized and called a ceasefire several days after

The Good Friday Agreement and Northern Ireland Peace Process

Beginningsbull Following the 1981 Hunger Strikes Irish republicans began to

increasingly look towards politics rather than violence as a means of achieving their aims Sinn Fein gaelic for ldquoWe Ourselvesrdquo was a fiercely Irish Republican political party which led by the Machiavellian former PIRA leader and Maze inmate Gerry Adams began to push for a more peaceful solution to the Troubles in Northern Ireland

bull It became apparent by the late 1990s that although the PIRA was not losing a war against the British establishment it would be impossible to truly lsquowin the fightrsquo through violence and that any further terrorism would serve not to achieve any real political aim but only to prolong and continue suffering and violence in Northern Ireland and that politics was a much better way of achieving Republican aims

Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein former PIRA Belfast Brigade OC

Good Friday Agreement 1998

bull The Peace Process began in 1994 and included intermittent terrorist ceasefires and political negotiations between the major Irish republican and British unionist parties and culminated on April 10 1998 when the Good Friday Agreement was signed

PM Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern Sign the GFA

GFA Mandatesbull That Northern Ireland was to remain British until a majority of people in Northern

Ireland and the southern Republic of Ireland wanted otherwise bull The creation of an entirely new far less sectarian and religiously diverse Northern

Irish local governmentbull The decommissioning of arms from terrorist groups on both the unionist and

nationalist side of the political divide (ultimately successful all arms decommissioned by 2005)

bull Mutual respect and civil rights between Catholics and Protestants bull The reduction and eventual elimination of British troops in Northern Ireland

(ultimately successful all troops withdrawn by 2005)bull Eventual early prison release for all individuals imprisoned for terrorist offenses as

long as they were apart of a terrorist group that was decommissioning in accordance with the GFA

bull Disbandment of the RUC police service and the installation of the new Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) which was required to be at least 50 Catholic

Northern Ireland Today

Still Conflict But No Warbull Since the complete decommissioning of the arms and

disbandment of the PIRA INLA UDAUFF and UVF due to the Good Friday Agreement there is nowhere near the amount of violence in Northern Ireland or Belfast as there was 20 years ago There are no more weekly bombings and riots and no more British troops patrolling Catholic areas in armored vehicles

bull Despite this there are still occasional riots and clashes with the PSNI several times a year specifically on dates of great historical significance to the Catholic or Protestant communities and there is still a deep distrust and even hatred between many Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland although that continues to change with time

Catholic Slum of Ardoyne Belfast July 2011

Splinter Groups

bull Many former PIRA or UDA terrorists have now taken to organized crime for purely profiteering purposes but are no longer involved in substantial violence or any political-based terrorism

bull Splinter groups such as the Real IRA and Continuity IRA in Catholic communities and the Orange Volunteers and Red Hand Commandos in Protestant communities still conduct occasional violence towards Police and civilians in Northern Ireland but are all rather small poorly armed and poorly funded groups that pose nowhere near the threat that terrorist groups in the 80s and 90s did in Northern Ireland

Herersquos To A Brighter Future in Northern Ireland

Works Citedbull httpwwwbbccoukhistorytroublesbull httpcainulstacukbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiProvisional_Irish_Republican_Armybull httpenwikipediaorgwikiThe_Troublesbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiUlster_Defence_Associationbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiUlster_Volunteer_Forcebull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_National_Liberation_Armybull ldquoA Secret History of the IRArdquo by Ed Moloney ndashWW Norton amp Company Reprint 2003bull ldquoVoices From The Grave Two Menrsquos War in Irelandrdquo by Ed Moloney ndash Public Affairs 2010bull ldquoFifty Dead Men Walkingrdquo by Martin McGartland ndash John Blake 2009bull httpwwwinfopleasecomspotnorthireland1htmlbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_Civil_Warbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_War_of_Independencebull httpenwikipediaorgwiki1981_Irish_hunger_strikebull httpenwikipediaorgwikiDirectory_of_the_Northern_Ireland_Troublesbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiGood_Friday_Agreementbull httpswwwmi5govukhomethe-threatsterrorismnorthern-irelandrepublican-terrorist-groupshtmlbull httpswwwmi5govukhomethe-threatsterrorismnorthern-irelandprovisional-irish-republican-army-

pirahtmlbull httpnewsbbccoukhienglishstaticnorthern_irelandunderstandingeventshunger_strikestm

  • The Troubles
  • Brief Overview
  • 30 Years of Conflict
  • Slide 4
  • Background
  • The Irish War of Independence
  • Slide 7
  • Anglo-Irish Treaty (signed 6 December 1921)
  • Irish Civil War
  • 1922-1966 Ireland
  • The Civil Rights Movement
  • Slide 12
  • Slide 13
  • Objectives of the Civil Rights Movement
  • The 1969 Northern Ireland Riots ndashThe Troubles Begin
  • Culmination of Tension
  • No-Go Areas
  • No-Go Areas (2)
  • Early 1970sndash The Rise of the Provisional IRA
  • The IRA Split
  • Rise of the UVF and Loyalist Terror Groups
  • Beginnings
  • UVF Statement 21 May 1964
  • The Paramilitaries
  • Irish RepublicansCatholics
  • The Provisional IRA
  • IRA Statement Late 80s
  • Statistics
  • RecruitmentFunding
  • Weaponry
  • Weaponry (2)
  • Slide 32
  • Mortars and IEDs
  • EOD Officer Approaches PIRA Car Bomb
  • The Barrack Buster
  • Vigilantism
  • Slide 37
  • Slide 38
  • Policy on Informants
  • Terrorist Activities
  • Terrorist Activities (continued)
  • The INLA
  • Statistics (2)
  • Ideology
  • Terrorist Activities (2)
  • Internal Feuds
  • Slide 47
  • British LoyalistsProtestants
  • The UDAUFF
  • Former UFF Member
  • Statistics (3)
  • Ideology (2)
  • Terrorist Activities (3)
  • Slide 54
  • Organized Crime
  • The UVF
  • Statistics (4)
  • Ideology (3)
  • Terrorist Activities (4)
  • The Shankhill Butchers
  • Weaponry (3)
  • Slide 62
  • Organized Crime (2)
  • Major Incidents 1969-1998
  • Bloody Sunday 30 January 1972
  • Massacre on the Bogside
  • Bloody Friday 21 July 1972
  • A City Under Siege
  • Dublin and Monaghan Bombings 17 May 1974
  • Deadliest Attack of the Troubles
  • Warrenpoint Ambush 27 August 1979
  • Roadside IEDs
  • Summer of 1981 Irish Hunger Strikes
  • A Defining Moment for the Republican Cause
  • The Five Demands
  • Previous Protests
  • Dirty Protesters
  • Thatcherrsquos Response
  • Ten Strikers Die
  • Bobby Sands
  • Reaction to Sandsrsquo Death
  • Conclusion
  • 1983 The Maze Prison Escape
  • The ldquoGreat Escaperdquo
  • 12 October 1984 Brighton Hotel Bombing
  • The PIRA Nearly Gets Thatcher
  • Loughgall Ambush 8 May 1987
  • The SAS Strikes
  • British Army Lynx Shootdown 20 March 1994
  • The PIRA Shoots Down a Helicopter
  • 1996 Manchester Bombing
  • The PIRA Destroys Manchester
  • Omagh Bombing 1998
  • Last Great Deadly Attack of the Troubles
  • The Good Friday Agreement and Northern Ireland Peace Process
  • Beginnings (2)
  • Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein former PIRA Belfast Brigade OC
  • Good Friday Agreement 1998
  • PM Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern Sign the GFA
  • GFA Mandates
  • Northern Ireland Today
  • Still Conflict But No War
  • Catholic Slum of Ardoyne Belfast July 2011
  • Splinter Groups
  • Herersquos To A Brighter Future in Northern Ireland
  • Works Cited
Page 4: The Troubles, 1969-1998

Background

bull Irish Republicanism has existed in Ireland in some way shape or form since the early 1600s

bull In Easter Week of 1916 the armed Irish Republican Brotherhood seized key locations in Dublin and proclaimed the island of Ireland independent of the United Kingdom

bull The Rebellion was put down almost immediately by the British but it would go on to inspire a century of political turbulence in modern Ireland

The Irish War of Independence

bull The Irish War of Independence was fought from 1919 to 1921 and led to the Anglo-Irish Treaty

bull In December of 1918 Irish Republican political party Sinn Fein (lsquowe ourselvesrsquo in gaelic) won a landslide victory in Ireland and in January of 1919 they formed a breakaway government and declared the entire island of Ireland once again independent from Britain

bull The British government was not as successful putting down the rebellions this time as the military wing of Sinn Fein the IRA (Irish Republican Army) waged a bloody guerrilla war of attrition against the British Army until the UK was forced to give in by 1921 and led to the Anglo-Irish Treaty

Anglo-Irish Treaty (signed 6 December 1921)

Provided for establishment of Irish Free State completely independent from the United Kingdom politically It also provided the six counties of Northern Ireland the option to opt out of the treaty which at the time was a massive 23 majority Protestant and Unionist and did so choosing to remain a part of the United Kingdom This has proved to be a very controversial treaty in Northern Ireland up until this very day

Irish Civil WarThe Anglo-Irish Treaty was so controversial that it led to a 10-month civil war in Ireland immediately following itrsquos signing The newly established Irish National Army consisting of many former IRA guerrillas fought the more hardline anti-treaty IRA who felt the Anglo-Irish Treaty betrayed the ideals of the Easter Rising The Irish National Army who was supported by the British easily crushed the anti-treaty IRA

1922-1966 Irelandbull A legacy of the Irish Civil War was the

survival of a marginalized remnant of the IRA Illegal in both Northern Ireland and the Irish Free State and ideologically committed to overthrowing them both the IRA from 1922 to 1966 existed primarily as a secret society with the exception of the failed Northern Campaign of 1942 and the failed Border Campaign between 1956 and 1962 during both of which the IRA assassinated several police officers around the Northern Irish border before declaring each respective campaign a failure

The Civil Rights Movement

bull The NICRA (Northern Irish Civil Rights Association) was formed in 1966 to protest discrimination against Irish Catholics in Northern Ireland Drew significant parallels with the African-American Civil Rights movement in the United States during that time

bull The Civil Rights Movement was peaceful and sought to end discrimination against Irish Catholics and Irish nationalists by the Protestant and Unionist local self-government of Northern Ireland

Objectives of the Civil Rights Movementbull End job discrimination (Catholicsnationalists unlikely to be given certain jobs

especially government jobs)bull Public housing to be allocated based on need rather than religiouspolitical views

(unionist-controlled local councils allocated housing to Protestant unionists ahead of Catholic nationalists)

bull ldquoOne Man One Voterdquo Policy ndash in Northern Ireland only householders could vote in local elections whereas in the rest of the UK all adults could vote

bull An end to gerrymandering of electoral boundaries giving nationalists less electoral power than unionists even in areas where nationalists were the majority

bull Reform of the RUC or Royal Ulster Constabulary the Northern Irish police force which was almost 100 Protestant and disbandment of the B-Specials special police force also exclusively protestant Both of which were heavily accused of police brutality and sectarianism

bull Repeal of the Special Powers Actndash which allowed police to search without a warrant arrest and imprison people without chargetrial ban any assemblies or parades and ban any publications The Act was used almost exclusively against Catholics

bull The Civil Rights movement was violently repressed by police and met with fierce political resistance from the unionist government

The 1969 Northern Ireland Riots ndashThe Troubles Begin

Culmination of Tensionbull The Tensions between Catholics and Protestants culminated in August of

1969 bull ldquoThe Battle of The Bogsiderdquo ndash Loyalists were allowed to march through the

Catholic neighborhood of Derry in a provocative parade This led to Catholic resistance who began throwing stones and bricks at the parade The RUC was then deployed to put down Catholic rioters and laid siege to the Catholic community of Bogside releasing over 1100 canisters of tear gas in the Bogside from August 12 to 14 Catholics in turn set up barricades and were ultimately successful in repelling the police from their communities The Bogside region of Derry would go on to exist as a lsquono go arearsquo for both Northern Irish and British security forces and existed as an autonomous independent nationalist district from 1969 to 1972

bull The Battle of the Bogside and the ensuing violence that raged from August 12-17 across Northern Ireland caused the displacement of approximately 1820 families and the destruction of 150+ Catholic homes

bull It also led to the deployment of the British military to Ulster in what was intended to be a short several weeklong peacekeeping engagement It would turn out to be a 30 year deployment

No-Go Areas

No-Go Areasbull No-Go Areas existed from 1969 to 1972 in Belfast and Derry in

Catholic nationalist neighborhoods in which barricades and militant residents prevented the police forces or British Army from entering

bull The Barricades were demolished and control ldquoofficiallyrdquo restored in the British Operation Motorman in 1972 in which the British Army used tanks to destroy the barricades and reestablish control However the no-go status was generally maintained and police and security forces still rarely entered certain Irish Catholic neighborhoods throughout the duration of the Troubles except in very hostile circumstances such as in the case of an arrest or military engagement

bull Day-to-day policing of these areas was generally controlled by terrorist groups

Early 1970sndash The Rise of the Provisional IRA

The IRA Splitbull The IRA that had existed largely in silence for the past 50 years began to rearm

and militarize itself once again by 1969 in order to protect Catholic nationalist communities in Northern Ireland in wake of the police brutality and sectarian violence that they had began to increasingly experience

bull In the 1960s the IRA had come under the significant influence of Marxist and Socialist thinkers This led the IRA to split in 1969 into the Official IRA and the Provisional IRA ndash the provisionals named for their ldquoProvisional Army Councilrdquo

bull The Official IRA was highly socialistMarxist and prescribed to the idea that class differences were causing the strife in Northern Ireland whilst the Provisional IRA was less interested in socialism and more concerned simply with British presence in Northern Ireland considering it to be the root of all the problems

bull The Official IRA would eventually fade out by 1972 while the Provisional IRA would go on to become the most feared terrorist organization in 20th Century Europe and launch a 30-year campaign against the British presence in Northern Ireland

Rise of the UVF and Loyalist Terror Groups

Beginningsbull The UVF (Ulster Volunteer Force) was formed in 1964 as a continuation

of the Ulster Volunteers that existed from 1912-1914 in Northern Ireland who intended to violently resist any attempts by the British government to release Ulster from the Union

bull It was reformed in rsquo64 by former British soldier Gusty Spence after he and his men burned to the ground a Catholic-owned pub on the loyalist Shankhill Road

bull The Ulster unionists feared that with the ongoing civil rights movement a potential return of the IRA in Northern Ireland could be possible The UVF and other loyalist paramilitary groups such as the UDA and UFF were thus created and seen as vigilantes and defenders of Protestant communities However most of their targets throughout the 30-year Troubles were simply innocent Catholic civilians

UVF Statement 21 May 1964

bull ldquoFrom this day we declare war against the Irish Republican Army and its splinter groups Known IRA men will be executed mercilessly and without hesitation Less extreme measures will be taken against anyone sheltering or helping them but if they persist in giving them aid then more extreme methods will be adopted we solemnly warn the authorities to make no more speeches of appeasement We are heavily armed Protestants dedicated to this causerdquo

The Paramilitaries

Irish RepublicansCatholics

The Provisional IRA

IRA Statement Late 80s

>

Statistics

bull Suffered 293 Casualtiesbull Over 10000 members imprisoned on various charges

throughout the conflictbull Killed 656 members of the British Armed Forcesbull Killed 272 Members of the Royal Ulster Constabulary

(RUC) Police Forcebull Killed 44 members of loyalistprotestant terror groupsbull Killed between 620-650 civiliansbull Killed over 1500 people

RecruitmentFundingbull IRA recruitment in Catholic neighborhoods was similar to the phenomenon

of gang membership in the inner-city United States Young Catholics typically joined to create a sense of belonging to seem ldquohardrdquo or look ldquocoolrdquo to feel protected from the brutality of the RUC during the Troubles or to help defend their communities IRA members were not asked to join but volunteered

bull IRA lsquofunds-raisingrsquo activities included collecting protection money from Catholic businesses (a ldquorevolutionary taxrdquo) robbing banks kidnapping citizens for ransom and cigarette and gasoline smuggling across the Irish border (manipulating the differing tax prices on both sides of the border and selling fuel and cigarettes illicitly) Although the Provisional IRA has officially disbanded and no longer engages in terrorism there is substantial evidence that extortion rackets in poor Catholic neighborhoods and contraband smuggling operations along the border still exist in Northern Ireland and are run by former IRA men solely for profiteering purposes

Weaponry

bull The Provisional IRA obtained a significant amount of arms from both Irish-American supporters in the northeastern United States (including members of notorious gangster Whitey Bulgerrsquos Irish Mob in 1970s-80s Boston) and from the Libyan government under Muammar Gadaffi

bull Gadaffi took over in Libya in 1969 and initially armed the IRA seeing them as comrades-in-arms fighting British imperialism Connections re-emerged in 1986 after the Thatcher Administrationrsquos support of the US bombings of Libya that killed Gadaffirsquos adopted daughter

Weaponrybull When the IRA disarmed as part of the Good Friday Agreement in

1998 (more on that later) they released the following to the British Armed Forces

bull 1000 Rifles (AK-47s AR-15s etc)bull 3 Tons of Semtex (a general-purpose plastic explosive)bull 20-30 Heavy Machine Gunsbull 7 Surface-to-Air Missilesbull 7 Flamethrowersbull 1200 Detonatorsbull 20 RPGrsquosbull 100 Handgunsbull 100+ Hand Grenades

Mortars and IEDsbull The PIRA was incredibly proficient at bomb-making and made

extensive use of Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) during their 30 year campaign

bull IEDs were typically constructed with chemical mixes of fertilizer gasoline and other home-made components Libyan Semtex was also used in several heavy-duty bombs Nails and gunpowder were typically implemented in pipe bombs made out of metal pipes Most IEDs had built in countermeasures such as the mercury tilt switch which would cause the bomb to explode if moved at all should a British EOD officer attempt to dismantle it

bull The PIRA developed the ldquoBarrack Busterrdquo mortar in the late lsquo70s or a homemade mortar made up of common household materials that was used to attack several Army bases from afar and even Prime Minister Margaret Thatcherrsquos househellip 10 Downing Street in a 1991 attack that destroyed the Prime Ministerrsquos rear garden (the mortar was fired out the back of a nearby van)

EOD Officer Approaches PIRA Car Bomb

The Barrack Buster

>

Vigilantismbull The RUC was not trusted in Catholic neighborhoods throughout the

Troubles and did not regularly patrol or even enter them in urban areas of Northern Ireland Thus when there was a community drug dealer car thief burglar rapist or pedophile the IRA took it upon themselves to issue brutal street justice to those involved

bull Occasionally offering warnings for lesser offences such as petty thievery or drug dealing if the IRA had enough of a certain member of the community they perceived as anti-social he or she was usually jumped brutally beaten andor lsquokneecappedrsquo ndash one of the IRArsquos most notorious methods ndash in which the victim was pinned down and shot through the kneecaps with a firearm or occasionally had their kneecaps drilled through with power-drills Other methods included releasing starving Rottweilerrsquos on the offender dropping cinderblocks on the offenderrsquos hands or even tarring and feathering the offender The IRArsquos process in determining an individualrsquos guilt was never open to scrutiny

bull If the offender persisted after an IRA punishment he was then given a notice by the IRA to leave the country as soon as possiblehellip referred to as being ldquoput outrdquo of the community If the offender still did not leave he was murdered

Policy on Informantsbull In an effort to stamp out collusion with the British forces and informants on the

IRA the IRA was responsible for torturing and killing several accused Catholic civilians throughout the conflict

bull Investigations into collusion infiltration and informants were carried out by the Internal Security Unit of the IRA colloquially known as the ldquoNutting Squadrdquo

bull The ISU would carry out debriefings of IRA prisoners upon their release from British detention so as to discover whether or not they had lsquocrackedrsquo and released information to British interrogators

bull Typical ISU torture techniques on those accused of informing included drowning genitalnipple mutilation electrocution with livewires pouring kerosene on the accusedrsquos legs before setting fire to them and branding with hot irons Informants were always killed afterwards with a bullet through the back of the head

bull Of the 18 ldquoDisappearedrdquo accused informants that were abducted and executed by the IRA during the Troubles only 10 bodies have been found

bull Martin McGartland was an IRA informant who was estimated to have saved 50 lives in the conflict before he was discovered and abducted by the ISU He escaped and lives today in seclusion The film ldquo50 Dead Men Walkingrdquo is based on his exploits and is an excellent realistic non-romanticized take on the Troubles in Northern Ireland

Terrorist Activitiesbull Common tactics included breaking into the homes of off-duty RUC police

officers and murdering them in their beds or setting booby-trap bombs underneath RUC police officersrsquo cars and unionist politiciansrsquo cars so that they would blow up as the engine was started RUC men were typically targeted when they were off-duty and many were shot dead in front of their families The PIRA would also impersonate innocent Catholic civilians call the police to report an emergency and ambush the police from hidden positions when they arrived at the stated address (another reason the RUC was hesitant to go into Catholic neighborhoods during this period)

bull Most notorious for their bombings they would typically park car bombs in predominately Protestant communities call in the bomb threat so that the area would be evacuated and an EOD squad would arrive to dismantle it the bomb would then be detonated with hopes of killing an EOD officer and destroying Protestant housing tenements

bull The PIRA rarely intentionally targeted civilians especially in the 80srsquo and 90srsquo but were involved in the bombings of several Protestant-owned pubs during the 1970s in response to loyalist terrorist groups bombing Catholic-owned pubs They also carried out the Kingsmill massacre in 1976 in which eleven Protestant workmen that were traveling on a minibus were held up by the IRA and all individually executed in response to the execution of six Catholic civilians by the UVF the night before

Terrorist Activities (continued)bull Other activities included engaging in firefights with British squadrons as

they patrolled the countrysidestreets of urban areas sniper attacks on RUC or British Army patrolscheckpoints planting landmines along British foot patrol routes in rural areas planting roadside IEDs along British convoy routes and bombing ferries and buses containing on-or-off duty British soldiers

bull The notorious ldquohuman bombrdquo technique in which civilians or off-duty members of the British security forces were kidnapped and then forced to drive car bombs into British military targets ndash such as checkpoints and Army bases ndash after the PIRA had placed their familiesrsquo lives under threat

bull Inciting riots and providing Catholic youths with molotov cocktails (gasoline bombs) during such riots so as to maximize public disorder and destruction was also an almost daily IRA activity in Catholic communities in urban Northern Ireland

The INLA

Statistics

bull Suffered 33 casualtiesbull Killed 46 members of the British Security Forcesbull Killed 2 members of the Irish Security Forcesbull Killed 39 civiliansbull Killed 3 civilian political activistsbull Killed 16 members of rival Republican terror

groupsbull Killed 7 members of Loyalist terror groups

Ideology

bull Founded by Seamus Costello in 1974 as the military wing of the Irish Republican Socialist Party

bull Shared similar goals to the Provisional IRA but far more socialist in ideology INLA wanted a socialist united Irish republic and blamed class struggles for many of the problems in Northern Ireland whereas the PIRA simply wanted a united Irish republic and had little interest in class struggle or economics

bull Whereas the PIRA was almost exclusively Catholic the INLA had some Protestant members most of whom were involved for purely socialist reasons

Terrorist Activitiesbull Although far less powerful and bold than the PIRA the INLA

nevertheless presented a potent terrorist threat to the United Kingdom during the Troubles

bull Similar tactics to the IRA car bombings shooting off-duty police and soldiers dead and high-profile assassinations

bull Their most high-profile attacks included the car bomb assassination of Airey Neave one of Margaret Thatcherrsquos closest political supporters in 1979 the murder of infamous Loyalist terror leader Billy Wright (who was murdered by INLA inmates in a British political prison in 1997) and the Ballykelley Disco Bombing in 1982 in which the INLA bombed a disco-club frequented by off-duty British soldiers managing to kill 11 of them as well as 6 civilians as well as destroying the disco

Internal Feuds

bull A split in 1986 led the INLA to split into the INLA and the IPLO or Irish Peoplersquos Liberation Organization based on IPLO membersrsquo perceived lack of political motivation and heavy involvement in drug dealing and criminality

bull There were several retaliatory killings between the two groups that persisted until 1992 when the PIRA had enough of the IPLOrsquos involvement in drug dealing in Catholic areas of Belfast and on 31 October 1992 virtually destroyed the entire organization in one night with a series of raids killings and kneecappings that killed or crippled the majority of the grouprsquos members

British LoyalistsProtestants

The UDAUFF

Former UFF Member

>

Statistics

bull Suffered 89 casualtiesbull Killed 197 civiliansbull Killed 12 civilian political activistsbull Killed 37 members of rival loyalist terror

groupsbull Killed 11 members of republican terror groupsbull Killed 3 members of the British Security Forces

Ideology

bull The UDA or Ulster Defense Association and its military wing the Ulster Freedom Fighters (UFF) was a loyalist protestant terror squad that targeted PIRA and INLA members as well as general Catholic civilians in bombings and shootings throughout Northern Ireland

bull It pledged to end its campaign of violence whenever the IRA set down its arms yet should the UK government appease the IRA and grant a 32-county Irish Republic the UDA pledged to act as ldquothe IRA in reverserdquo

Terrorist Activitiesbull The UDA saw itself as a militia defending upstanding protestant loyalist

communities from dangerous and lower-class Catholics that were disrupting the status quo in Northern Ireland They pledged primarily to target IRA men but ended up killing a majority of Catholic civilians during the Troubles They were also known to intimidate and exile known Catholic families from predominately-Protestant communities in Belfast and other urban areas

bull Drive-by shootings shooting up or planting bombs in predominately-Catholic pubs and bars and jumping brutally beating andor kneecapping Catholic civilians were all frequent tactics

bull The UDA discreetly worked in collusion with the RUC and other British security agencies so as to track down and assassinate known IRA members They would also patrol Protestant neighborhoods alongside British soldiers at the height of the Troubles Many RUC police officers and prison guards were also UDA members

bull The UDA alongside many other loyalist paramilitaries benefitted from the import of several arms shipments from Lebanese arms dealers in the early 1970s including rocket launchers 200+ AK-47 Rifles 90+ handguns and over 400 grenades They also received various weapons such as the uzi submachine gun and explosive devices from arms dealers in the Soviet bloc in the 1980s

Organized Crime

bull The UDA and its members were also heavily involved in drug dealing from the street level to wholesale purchase primarily in MDMA and cannabis throughout the Troubles

bull Protection racketeering and money laundering were also common amongst the UDA in protestant communities

bull However should a member of a UDA-ran community begin stealing or dealing drugs without UDA consent he was abruptly branded as ldquoanti-socialrdquo and either killed or kneecapped

The UVF

Statistics

bull Suffered unknown number of casualtiesbull Killed 412 civiliansbull Killed 11 civilian political activistsbull Killed 21 members of republican terror groupsbull Killed 42 members of rival loyalist terror

groupsbull Killed 6 members of the Security Forces

Ideology

bull Similar to the UDAUFF the Ulster Volunteer Forcersquos primary aim was to combat Irish republicanism in Northern Ireland primarily the PIRA They wanted Northern Ireland to remain in the UK

Terrorist Activitiesbull The majority of UVF victims were Catholic civilians

many of whom were killed at random These attacks were intended to demoralize the IRA as the IRA drew most of its support from the Catholic community

bull Planting bombs in predominately-Catholic pubs or simply residential areas was a very frequent UVF tactic and in 1973 they detonated more bombs in Northern Ireland than the UDA and the PIRA combined Assassinations mass shootings booby-trap car bombs and kidnappings were also frequent UVF activities

The Shankhill Butchers

bull The ldquoShankhill Butchersrdquo were a notorious offshoot UVF group known for abducting and literally slitting the throats of Catholic civilians and rival loyalist terror groups in the late 1970s They were led by Lenny Murphy (who was eventually imprisoned and upon his release of a 4-year stint murdered by the PIRA) and killed 23 people most of whom were Catholic civilians Many experts liken the Shankhill Butchers more to a group of serial killers than to politically or even ethnically-motivated murderers

bull The Butchers were all eventually all either imprisoned killed by the PIRA or both

Weaponrybull The UVF received the majority of its weaponry in the late 1970s

from Armscor an apartheid-South Africa state-owned arms company which in defiance of various UN sanctions and embargoes sold them to the UVF

bull Weapons were thought to consist ofbull 200 Czech SA vz 58 Assault Riflesbull 90 Browning Pistolsbull 500 RGD-5 Frag Grenadesbull 30000 rounds of ammunitionbull 12 RPG-7 Rocket Launchers and 150+ Rocketsbull The UVF also began using the illegally-obtained mining explosive

Powergel in the early 1990s

Organized Crime

bull The UVF was also heavily involved in organized crime including protection racketeering and drug smugglingdealing including cannabis MDMA cocaine and amphetamines Bank robberies were also very frequent in the 1970s

Major Incidents 1969-1998

Bloody Sunday 30 January 1972

Massacre on the Bogsidebull In 1972 during a large scale but peaceful civil-rights march in the

troubled predominately Catholic neighborhood of Bogside in Derry 26 unarmed civil rights marchers were shot by members of the British Army 14 of whom were killed Five of those shot were shot in the back

bull After several inquiries into the incident there was found to have been no justifiable provocation from the protestors and no shots fired from the protestors during the march The massacre was conducted in full view of the public and the press

bull The PM David Cameron eventually issued a formal apology to the victims and victimsrsquo families of the massacre after several investigations failed to reveal any justifiable provocation for the massacre

bull The massacre sky-rocketed PIRA membership and recruitment as public perception of the British Army in Catholic communities in Northern Ireland reached an all-time low

Bloody Friday 21 July 1972

A City Under Siege

bull On 21 July 1972 the PIRA detonated 26 bombs in the space of 80 minutes in Belfast destroying banks bridges electrical substations Protestant housing tenements gasoline stations and private garages

bull Although warnings were called in at least 30 minutes prior to each bomb the amount of bombs exploding and the addition of multiple hoax warnings at the same time led to the Security Forces being unable to evacuate all the areas in time 11 people were killed and 130 were injured many of them horrifically mutilated Of those injured 77 were women or children

Dublin and Monaghan Bombings 17 May 1974

Deadliest Attack of the Troubles

bull Perpetrated by the UVF in the southern Republic of Ireland three car bombs exploded in Dublin during rush hour and another exploded in Monaghan around 90 minutes later

bull 33 civilians and a full-term unborn child were killed in the bombing while nearly 300 were injured The UVF did not claim responsibility for the bombings until 1993

bull The majority of those killed were young women although the age range of those killed ranged from 5 months old to 80 years old

Warrenpoint Ambush 27 August 1979

Roadside IEDsbull In the southern part of County Armagh Northern Ireland a predominately-

Catholic rural region and former PIRA stronghold right on the border with the southern Republic of Ireland a British troop convoy was hit with a remote-control detonated roadside 500lb truck-bomb and destroyed instantly killing 6 troops The surviving soldiers then wrongly believed they were under sniper fire from the other side of the Irish border and began firing at civilians immediately after the bombing killing 1 and injuring another

bull 32 minutes after the first bombing the IRA used its knowledge of how the British reacted to bombings to correctly predict that they would set up an incident-command point in a nearby gatehouse Unfortunately for the British there was a second 800lb fertilizer bomb planted near the gatehouse that when detonated killed 12 other soldiers who were responding to the initial bomb

bull It was the deadliest single attack on the British Army during the Troubles and a highly successful attack for the PIRA

Summer of 1981 Irish Hunger Strikes

A Defining Moment for the Republican Cause

bull Beginning on 1 March 1981 led by Bobby Sands 7 PIRA and 3 INLA inmates at the notorious ldquoMazerdquo prison began to refuse food until Margaret Thatcher PM of Great Britain at that time began to recognize terrorist prisoners as political prisoners and allowed them their ldquoFive Demandsrdquo

The Five Demands

bull The right to not wear a prison uniformbull The right to not do prison workbull The right of free association with other

prisoners and to organize in educational and recreational pursuits

bull Full restoration of remission lost through any protests towards these demands

Previous Protestsbull The Maze prison was a very high-security and low-quality prison that

housed almost all PIRA prisoners during the Troubles It was run in a very ethically questionable fashion with frequent beatings and borderline-torture techniques used on Republican prisoners and extremely poor living conditions for prisoners Many Maze prison guards were members of the UDAUVF or had strong connections with one of the two groups as well

bull Massive peaceful protests and marches by Irish republicans outside of the Maze Prison proved unsuccessful in attaining political status for republican prisoners as well as previous inmate protests in 1980 including non-fatal hunger strikes inmates refusing to wear prison uniforms and thus living in their cells naked and prisoners refusing to leave their cells to go to the bathroom until their requests had been granted (they therefore urinated and defecated in their cells and spread their excrement across their cell walls in what was known as the ldquoDirty Protestrdquo)

Dirty Protesters

Thatcherrsquos Response

bull ldquoThose terrorists will carry their determination to disrupt society to any lengths Once again we have a hunger strike in the Maze Prison in the quest for what they call lsquopolitical statusrsquo There is no such thing as political murder political bombing or political violence There is only criminal murder criminal bombing and criminal violence We will not compromise on this There will be no political statusrdquo

Ten Strikers Diebull Bobby Sands the leader of the strike was imprisoned as a PIRA member

on charges of firearm possession and in connection with the bombing of a furniture store He was the first to die after 66 days of not eating Sands was elected to a seat in Parliament whilst on Hunger Strike

bull Following Sandsrsquo death there were riots bus-burnings and attacks on the British embassy in the southern Republic of Ireland there were massive demonstrations in France and Italy a tomato was thrown as Queen Elizabeth II by demonstrators in Oslo and there were massive riots and civil disorder all over the streets of Belfast The South African ANC and (at the time) terrorist Nelson Mandela expressed their support for the PIRA and the hunger strikers (Mandela himself claimed he was directly inspired by Sands to undertake hunger strikes against the Apartheid government in South Africa) as well as the Palestine Liberation Organization a middle-eastern terror group

bull Over 100000 attended Sandsrsquo funeral

Bobby Sands

ldquoOur revenge will be the laughter of our childrenrdquo

Reaction to Sandsrsquo Death

>

Conclusion

bull The Hunger Strike was eventually called off after 10 strikers including Sands had died

bull James Prior newly installed secretary of state of Northern Ireland granted the prisoners partial concessions all of the Five Demands except for the right to not do prison work Margaret Thatcher refused to budge on political status

bull The Hunger Strikes opened a new way for the PIRA to pursue its objectives politically whereas previously it had seen violence as the only solution to the plight of Irish nationalists in Northern Ireland

1983 The Maze Prison Escape

The ldquoGreat Escaperdquo

bull Using smuggled-in guns and knives 38 PIRA prisoners who had been convicted of offenses ranging from murder to causing explosions escaped from one of the most high-security prisons in Europe They completely took over the H7 prison block and took their prison guards hostage before escaping in a food supply truck Several prison guards were shot and stabbed but only one died of a heart attack during the escape

bull Fifteen escapees were recaptured the first day with four more captured over the next two days following the breakout The remaining 19 were transported to PIRA strongholds and given the option to either rejoin the IRArsquos cause or be transported to the United States to live under a new identity

12 October 1984 Brighton Hotel Bombing

The PIRA Nearly Gets Thatcherbull Margaret Thatcher the highly controversial far-right British PM from

1979-1990 had become a tremendously hated figure amongst the Irish nationalist community in Northern Ireland following the 1981 Hunger Strikes and for her general uncompromising stand on Irish republicanism

bull PIRA man Patrick Magee stayed at the Brighton Hotel from the 14-17 September 1984 planting a 20-lb bomb under his bath

bull Thatcher was staying at the Brighton Hotel for a political conference and was still up at 254AM on 12 October when the bomb was detonated The bomb decimated her bathroom but left the bedroom and sitting room of her suite largely unscathed

bull The PIRA statement to Thatcher afterwards was ldquoToday we were unlucky But remember we only have to be lucky once You will have to be lucky alwaysrdquo

Loughgall Ambush 8 May 1987

The SAS Strikes

bull A botched attack on Loughgall Villagersquos RUC Police Base in which the PIRA drove a backhoe into the fortified base and ran away to detonate the bomb that was inside of the backhoe went wrong as the SAS the British Special Forces had prior knowledge of the attack and quickly dispatched the 8 PIRA members involved

bull Although the RUC base was wrecked and bombed there were no RUC or SAS casualties and it was the PIRArsquos greatest loss of life in a single incident during the Troubles

British Army Lynx Shootdown 20 March 1994

The PIRA Shoots Down a Helicopter

bull Using the previously mentioned Barrack-Buster homemade mortar PIRA insurgents were able to fire on a British helicopter that was in the process of landing whilst hiding behind a hay bail from around 150 yards out

bull The helicopter was hit with the mortar shell around 100 feet above the ground but the pilot was able to successfully crash-land the helicopter and escape before its propane tanks exploded There were no casualties but the attack was a major propaganda coup for the PIRA

1996 Manchester Bombing

The PIRA Destroys Manchester

bull On Saturday 15 June 1996 the PIRA sent in telephoned warnings and 90 minutes later detonated a 3300lb fertilizer-based truck bomb in the heart of Manchester City Centre the biggest bomb detonated in Great Britain during peacetime The bomb killed nobody due to previous warnings but led to 212 non-fatal injuries and essentially destroyed Manchester City Centre leaving approximately 700 million pounds ($12bn) worth of damage in its wake

Omagh Bombing 1998

Last Great Deadly Attack of the Troubles

bull Perpetrated by a Provisional IRA splinter group that was rejecting the peace process calling themselves the ldquoReal IRArdquo the 510lb fertilizer-based bomb was placed on main street in the town of Omagh Northern Ireland Warnings were called in approximately 30 minutes before the bombing but they were inaccurate and police ended up moving more civilians towards the bomb which ended up killing 29 people and causing over 300 non-fatal injuries This was the highest death toll from a single incident during the Troubles

bull It received universal outrage and was condemned even by the PIRA and its political wing Sinn Fein It spurred on the Northern Ireland peace process and the RIRA apologized and called a ceasefire several days after

The Good Friday Agreement and Northern Ireland Peace Process

Beginningsbull Following the 1981 Hunger Strikes Irish republicans began to

increasingly look towards politics rather than violence as a means of achieving their aims Sinn Fein gaelic for ldquoWe Ourselvesrdquo was a fiercely Irish Republican political party which led by the Machiavellian former PIRA leader and Maze inmate Gerry Adams began to push for a more peaceful solution to the Troubles in Northern Ireland

bull It became apparent by the late 1990s that although the PIRA was not losing a war against the British establishment it would be impossible to truly lsquowin the fightrsquo through violence and that any further terrorism would serve not to achieve any real political aim but only to prolong and continue suffering and violence in Northern Ireland and that politics was a much better way of achieving Republican aims

Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein former PIRA Belfast Brigade OC

Good Friday Agreement 1998

bull The Peace Process began in 1994 and included intermittent terrorist ceasefires and political negotiations between the major Irish republican and British unionist parties and culminated on April 10 1998 when the Good Friday Agreement was signed

PM Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern Sign the GFA

GFA Mandatesbull That Northern Ireland was to remain British until a majority of people in Northern

Ireland and the southern Republic of Ireland wanted otherwise bull The creation of an entirely new far less sectarian and religiously diverse Northern

Irish local governmentbull The decommissioning of arms from terrorist groups on both the unionist and

nationalist side of the political divide (ultimately successful all arms decommissioned by 2005)

bull Mutual respect and civil rights between Catholics and Protestants bull The reduction and eventual elimination of British troops in Northern Ireland

(ultimately successful all troops withdrawn by 2005)bull Eventual early prison release for all individuals imprisoned for terrorist offenses as

long as they were apart of a terrorist group that was decommissioning in accordance with the GFA

bull Disbandment of the RUC police service and the installation of the new Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) which was required to be at least 50 Catholic

Northern Ireland Today

Still Conflict But No Warbull Since the complete decommissioning of the arms and

disbandment of the PIRA INLA UDAUFF and UVF due to the Good Friday Agreement there is nowhere near the amount of violence in Northern Ireland or Belfast as there was 20 years ago There are no more weekly bombings and riots and no more British troops patrolling Catholic areas in armored vehicles

bull Despite this there are still occasional riots and clashes with the PSNI several times a year specifically on dates of great historical significance to the Catholic or Protestant communities and there is still a deep distrust and even hatred between many Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland although that continues to change with time

Catholic Slum of Ardoyne Belfast July 2011

Splinter Groups

bull Many former PIRA or UDA terrorists have now taken to organized crime for purely profiteering purposes but are no longer involved in substantial violence or any political-based terrorism

bull Splinter groups such as the Real IRA and Continuity IRA in Catholic communities and the Orange Volunteers and Red Hand Commandos in Protestant communities still conduct occasional violence towards Police and civilians in Northern Ireland but are all rather small poorly armed and poorly funded groups that pose nowhere near the threat that terrorist groups in the 80s and 90s did in Northern Ireland

Herersquos To A Brighter Future in Northern Ireland

Works Citedbull httpwwwbbccoukhistorytroublesbull httpcainulstacukbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiProvisional_Irish_Republican_Armybull httpenwikipediaorgwikiThe_Troublesbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiUlster_Defence_Associationbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiUlster_Volunteer_Forcebull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_National_Liberation_Armybull ldquoA Secret History of the IRArdquo by Ed Moloney ndashWW Norton amp Company Reprint 2003bull ldquoVoices From The Grave Two Menrsquos War in Irelandrdquo by Ed Moloney ndash Public Affairs 2010bull ldquoFifty Dead Men Walkingrdquo by Martin McGartland ndash John Blake 2009bull httpwwwinfopleasecomspotnorthireland1htmlbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_Civil_Warbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_War_of_Independencebull httpenwikipediaorgwiki1981_Irish_hunger_strikebull httpenwikipediaorgwikiDirectory_of_the_Northern_Ireland_Troublesbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiGood_Friday_Agreementbull httpswwwmi5govukhomethe-threatsterrorismnorthern-irelandrepublican-terrorist-groupshtmlbull httpswwwmi5govukhomethe-threatsterrorismnorthern-irelandprovisional-irish-republican-army-

pirahtmlbull httpnewsbbccoukhienglishstaticnorthern_irelandunderstandingeventshunger_strikestm

  • The Troubles
  • Brief Overview
  • 30 Years of Conflict
  • Slide 4
  • Background
  • The Irish War of Independence
  • Slide 7
  • Anglo-Irish Treaty (signed 6 December 1921)
  • Irish Civil War
  • 1922-1966 Ireland
  • The Civil Rights Movement
  • Slide 12
  • Slide 13
  • Objectives of the Civil Rights Movement
  • The 1969 Northern Ireland Riots ndashThe Troubles Begin
  • Culmination of Tension
  • No-Go Areas
  • No-Go Areas (2)
  • Early 1970sndash The Rise of the Provisional IRA
  • The IRA Split
  • Rise of the UVF and Loyalist Terror Groups
  • Beginnings
  • UVF Statement 21 May 1964
  • The Paramilitaries
  • Irish RepublicansCatholics
  • The Provisional IRA
  • IRA Statement Late 80s
  • Statistics
  • RecruitmentFunding
  • Weaponry
  • Weaponry (2)
  • Slide 32
  • Mortars and IEDs
  • EOD Officer Approaches PIRA Car Bomb
  • The Barrack Buster
  • Vigilantism
  • Slide 37
  • Slide 38
  • Policy on Informants
  • Terrorist Activities
  • Terrorist Activities (continued)
  • The INLA
  • Statistics (2)
  • Ideology
  • Terrorist Activities (2)
  • Internal Feuds
  • Slide 47
  • British LoyalistsProtestants
  • The UDAUFF
  • Former UFF Member
  • Statistics (3)
  • Ideology (2)
  • Terrorist Activities (3)
  • Slide 54
  • Organized Crime
  • The UVF
  • Statistics (4)
  • Ideology (3)
  • Terrorist Activities (4)
  • The Shankhill Butchers
  • Weaponry (3)
  • Slide 62
  • Organized Crime (2)
  • Major Incidents 1969-1998
  • Bloody Sunday 30 January 1972
  • Massacre on the Bogside
  • Bloody Friday 21 July 1972
  • A City Under Siege
  • Dublin and Monaghan Bombings 17 May 1974
  • Deadliest Attack of the Troubles
  • Warrenpoint Ambush 27 August 1979
  • Roadside IEDs
  • Summer of 1981 Irish Hunger Strikes
  • A Defining Moment for the Republican Cause
  • The Five Demands
  • Previous Protests
  • Dirty Protesters
  • Thatcherrsquos Response
  • Ten Strikers Die
  • Bobby Sands
  • Reaction to Sandsrsquo Death
  • Conclusion
  • 1983 The Maze Prison Escape
  • The ldquoGreat Escaperdquo
  • 12 October 1984 Brighton Hotel Bombing
  • The PIRA Nearly Gets Thatcher
  • Loughgall Ambush 8 May 1987
  • The SAS Strikes
  • British Army Lynx Shootdown 20 March 1994
  • The PIRA Shoots Down a Helicopter
  • 1996 Manchester Bombing
  • The PIRA Destroys Manchester
  • Omagh Bombing 1998
  • Last Great Deadly Attack of the Troubles
  • The Good Friday Agreement and Northern Ireland Peace Process
  • Beginnings (2)
  • Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein former PIRA Belfast Brigade OC
  • Good Friday Agreement 1998
  • PM Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern Sign the GFA
  • GFA Mandates
  • Northern Ireland Today
  • Still Conflict But No War
  • Catholic Slum of Ardoyne Belfast July 2011
  • Splinter Groups
  • Herersquos To A Brighter Future in Northern Ireland
  • Works Cited
Page 5: The Troubles, 1969-1998

The Irish War of Independence

bull The Irish War of Independence was fought from 1919 to 1921 and led to the Anglo-Irish Treaty

bull In December of 1918 Irish Republican political party Sinn Fein (lsquowe ourselvesrsquo in gaelic) won a landslide victory in Ireland and in January of 1919 they formed a breakaway government and declared the entire island of Ireland once again independent from Britain

bull The British government was not as successful putting down the rebellions this time as the military wing of Sinn Fein the IRA (Irish Republican Army) waged a bloody guerrilla war of attrition against the British Army until the UK was forced to give in by 1921 and led to the Anglo-Irish Treaty

Anglo-Irish Treaty (signed 6 December 1921)

Provided for establishment of Irish Free State completely independent from the United Kingdom politically It also provided the six counties of Northern Ireland the option to opt out of the treaty which at the time was a massive 23 majority Protestant and Unionist and did so choosing to remain a part of the United Kingdom This has proved to be a very controversial treaty in Northern Ireland up until this very day

Irish Civil WarThe Anglo-Irish Treaty was so controversial that it led to a 10-month civil war in Ireland immediately following itrsquos signing The newly established Irish National Army consisting of many former IRA guerrillas fought the more hardline anti-treaty IRA who felt the Anglo-Irish Treaty betrayed the ideals of the Easter Rising The Irish National Army who was supported by the British easily crushed the anti-treaty IRA

1922-1966 Irelandbull A legacy of the Irish Civil War was the

survival of a marginalized remnant of the IRA Illegal in both Northern Ireland and the Irish Free State and ideologically committed to overthrowing them both the IRA from 1922 to 1966 existed primarily as a secret society with the exception of the failed Northern Campaign of 1942 and the failed Border Campaign between 1956 and 1962 during both of which the IRA assassinated several police officers around the Northern Irish border before declaring each respective campaign a failure

The Civil Rights Movement

bull The NICRA (Northern Irish Civil Rights Association) was formed in 1966 to protest discrimination against Irish Catholics in Northern Ireland Drew significant parallels with the African-American Civil Rights movement in the United States during that time

bull The Civil Rights Movement was peaceful and sought to end discrimination against Irish Catholics and Irish nationalists by the Protestant and Unionist local self-government of Northern Ireland

Objectives of the Civil Rights Movementbull End job discrimination (Catholicsnationalists unlikely to be given certain jobs

especially government jobs)bull Public housing to be allocated based on need rather than religiouspolitical views

(unionist-controlled local councils allocated housing to Protestant unionists ahead of Catholic nationalists)

bull ldquoOne Man One Voterdquo Policy ndash in Northern Ireland only householders could vote in local elections whereas in the rest of the UK all adults could vote

bull An end to gerrymandering of electoral boundaries giving nationalists less electoral power than unionists even in areas where nationalists were the majority

bull Reform of the RUC or Royal Ulster Constabulary the Northern Irish police force which was almost 100 Protestant and disbandment of the B-Specials special police force also exclusively protestant Both of which were heavily accused of police brutality and sectarianism

bull Repeal of the Special Powers Actndash which allowed police to search without a warrant arrest and imprison people without chargetrial ban any assemblies or parades and ban any publications The Act was used almost exclusively against Catholics

bull The Civil Rights movement was violently repressed by police and met with fierce political resistance from the unionist government

The 1969 Northern Ireland Riots ndashThe Troubles Begin

Culmination of Tensionbull The Tensions between Catholics and Protestants culminated in August of

1969 bull ldquoThe Battle of The Bogsiderdquo ndash Loyalists were allowed to march through the

Catholic neighborhood of Derry in a provocative parade This led to Catholic resistance who began throwing stones and bricks at the parade The RUC was then deployed to put down Catholic rioters and laid siege to the Catholic community of Bogside releasing over 1100 canisters of tear gas in the Bogside from August 12 to 14 Catholics in turn set up barricades and were ultimately successful in repelling the police from their communities The Bogside region of Derry would go on to exist as a lsquono go arearsquo for both Northern Irish and British security forces and existed as an autonomous independent nationalist district from 1969 to 1972

bull The Battle of the Bogside and the ensuing violence that raged from August 12-17 across Northern Ireland caused the displacement of approximately 1820 families and the destruction of 150+ Catholic homes

bull It also led to the deployment of the British military to Ulster in what was intended to be a short several weeklong peacekeeping engagement It would turn out to be a 30 year deployment

No-Go Areas

No-Go Areasbull No-Go Areas existed from 1969 to 1972 in Belfast and Derry in

Catholic nationalist neighborhoods in which barricades and militant residents prevented the police forces or British Army from entering

bull The Barricades were demolished and control ldquoofficiallyrdquo restored in the British Operation Motorman in 1972 in which the British Army used tanks to destroy the barricades and reestablish control However the no-go status was generally maintained and police and security forces still rarely entered certain Irish Catholic neighborhoods throughout the duration of the Troubles except in very hostile circumstances such as in the case of an arrest or military engagement

bull Day-to-day policing of these areas was generally controlled by terrorist groups

Early 1970sndash The Rise of the Provisional IRA

The IRA Splitbull The IRA that had existed largely in silence for the past 50 years began to rearm

and militarize itself once again by 1969 in order to protect Catholic nationalist communities in Northern Ireland in wake of the police brutality and sectarian violence that they had began to increasingly experience

bull In the 1960s the IRA had come under the significant influence of Marxist and Socialist thinkers This led the IRA to split in 1969 into the Official IRA and the Provisional IRA ndash the provisionals named for their ldquoProvisional Army Councilrdquo

bull The Official IRA was highly socialistMarxist and prescribed to the idea that class differences were causing the strife in Northern Ireland whilst the Provisional IRA was less interested in socialism and more concerned simply with British presence in Northern Ireland considering it to be the root of all the problems

bull The Official IRA would eventually fade out by 1972 while the Provisional IRA would go on to become the most feared terrorist organization in 20th Century Europe and launch a 30-year campaign against the British presence in Northern Ireland

Rise of the UVF and Loyalist Terror Groups

Beginningsbull The UVF (Ulster Volunteer Force) was formed in 1964 as a continuation

of the Ulster Volunteers that existed from 1912-1914 in Northern Ireland who intended to violently resist any attempts by the British government to release Ulster from the Union

bull It was reformed in rsquo64 by former British soldier Gusty Spence after he and his men burned to the ground a Catholic-owned pub on the loyalist Shankhill Road

bull The Ulster unionists feared that with the ongoing civil rights movement a potential return of the IRA in Northern Ireland could be possible The UVF and other loyalist paramilitary groups such as the UDA and UFF were thus created and seen as vigilantes and defenders of Protestant communities However most of their targets throughout the 30-year Troubles were simply innocent Catholic civilians

UVF Statement 21 May 1964

bull ldquoFrom this day we declare war against the Irish Republican Army and its splinter groups Known IRA men will be executed mercilessly and without hesitation Less extreme measures will be taken against anyone sheltering or helping them but if they persist in giving them aid then more extreme methods will be adopted we solemnly warn the authorities to make no more speeches of appeasement We are heavily armed Protestants dedicated to this causerdquo

The Paramilitaries

Irish RepublicansCatholics

The Provisional IRA

IRA Statement Late 80s

>

Statistics

bull Suffered 293 Casualtiesbull Over 10000 members imprisoned on various charges

throughout the conflictbull Killed 656 members of the British Armed Forcesbull Killed 272 Members of the Royal Ulster Constabulary

(RUC) Police Forcebull Killed 44 members of loyalistprotestant terror groupsbull Killed between 620-650 civiliansbull Killed over 1500 people

RecruitmentFundingbull IRA recruitment in Catholic neighborhoods was similar to the phenomenon

of gang membership in the inner-city United States Young Catholics typically joined to create a sense of belonging to seem ldquohardrdquo or look ldquocoolrdquo to feel protected from the brutality of the RUC during the Troubles or to help defend their communities IRA members were not asked to join but volunteered

bull IRA lsquofunds-raisingrsquo activities included collecting protection money from Catholic businesses (a ldquorevolutionary taxrdquo) robbing banks kidnapping citizens for ransom and cigarette and gasoline smuggling across the Irish border (manipulating the differing tax prices on both sides of the border and selling fuel and cigarettes illicitly) Although the Provisional IRA has officially disbanded and no longer engages in terrorism there is substantial evidence that extortion rackets in poor Catholic neighborhoods and contraband smuggling operations along the border still exist in Northern Ireland and are run by former IRA men solely for profiteering purposes

Weaponry

bull The Provisional IRA obtained a significant amount of arms from both Irish-American supporters in the northeastern United States (including members of notorious gangster Whitey Bulgerrsquos Irish Mob in 1970s-80s Boston) and from the Libyan government under Muammar Gadaffi

bull Gadaffi took over in Libya in 1969 and initially armed the IRA seeing them as comrades-in-arms fighting British imperialism Connections re-emerged in 1986 after the Thatcher Administrationrsquos support of the US bombings of Libya that killed Gadaffirsquos adopted daughter

Weaponrybull When the IRA disarmed as part of the Good Friday Agreement in

1998 (more on that later) they released the following to the British Armed Forces

bull 1000 Rifles (AK-47s AR-15s etc)bull 3 Tons of Semtex (a general-purpose plastic explosive)bull 20-30 Heavy Machine Gunsbull 7 Surface-to-Air Missilesbull 7 Flamethrowersbull 1200 Detonatorsbull 20 RPGrsquosbull 100 Handgunsbull 100+ Hand Grenades

Mortars and IEDsbull The PIRA was incredibly proficient at bomb-making and made

extensive use of Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) during their 30 year campaign

bull IEDs were typically constructed with chemical mixes of fertilizer gasoline and other home-made components Libyan Semtex was also used in several heavy-duty bombs Nails and gunpowder were typically implemented in pipe bombs made out of metal pipes Most IEDs had built in countermeasures such as the mercury tilt switch which would cause the bomb to explode if moved at all should a British EOD officer attempt to dismantle it

bull The PIRA developed the ldquoBarrack Busterrdquo mortar in the late lsquo70s or a homemade mortar made up of common household materials that was used to attack several Army bases from afar and even Prime Minister Margaret Thatcherrsquos househellip 10 Downing Street in a 1991 attack that destroyed the Prime Ministerrsquos rear garden (the mortar was fired out the back of a nearby van)

EOD Officer Approaches PIRA Car Bomb

The Barrack Buster

>

Vigilantismbull The RUC was not trusted in Catholic neighborhoods throughout the

Troubles and did not regularly patrol or even enter them in urban areas of Northern Ireland Thus when there was a community drug dealer car thief burglar rapist or pedophile the IRA took it upon themselves to issue brutal street justice to those involved

bull Occasionally offering warnings for lesser offences such as petty thievery or drug dealing if the IRA had enough of a certain member of the community they perceived as anti-social he or she was usually jumped brutally beaten andor lsquokneecappedrsquo ndash one of the IRArsquos most notorious methods ndash in which the victim was pinned down and shot through the kneecaps with a firearm or occasionally had their kneecaps drilled through with power-drills Other methods included releasing starving Rottweilerrsquos on the offender dropping cinderblocks on the offenderrsquos hands or even tarring and feathering the offender The IRArsquos process in determining an individualrsquos guilt was never open to scrutiny

bull If the offender persisted after an IRA punishment he was then given a notice by the IRA to leave the country as soon as possiblehellip referred to as being ldquoput outrdquo of the community If the offender still did not leave he was murdered

Policy on Informantsbull In an effort to stamp out collusion with the British forces and informants on the

IRA the IRA was responsible for torturing and killing several accused Catholic civilians throughout the conflict

bull Investigations into collusion infiltration and informants were carried out by the Internal Security Unit of the IRA colloquially known as the ldquoNutting Squadrdquo

bull The ISU would carry out debriefings of IRA prisoners upon their release from British detention so as to discover whether or not they had lsquocrackedrsquo and released information to British interrogators

bull Typical ISU torture techniques on those accused of informing included drowning genitalnipple mutilation electrocution with livewires pouring kerosene on the accusedrsquos legs before setting fire to them and branding with hot irons Informants were always killed afterwards with a bullet through the back of the head

bull Of the 18 ldquoDisappearedrdquo accused informants that were abducted and executed by the IRA during the Troubles only 10 bodies have been found

bull Martin McGartland was an IRA informant who was estimated to have saved 50 lives in the conflict before he was discovered and abducted by the ISU He escaped and lives today in seclusion The film ldquo50 Dead Men Walkingrdquo is based on his exploits and is an excellent realistic non-romanticized take on the Troubles in Northern Ireland

Terrorist Activitiesbull Common tactics included breaking into the homes of off-duty RUC police

officers and murdering them in their beds or setting booby-trap bombs underneath RUC police officersrsquo cars and unionist politiciansrsquo cars so that they would blow up as the engine was started RUC men were typically targeted when they were off-duty and many were shot dead in front of their families The PIRA would also impersonate innocent Catholic civilians call the police to report an emergency and ambush the police from hidden positions when they arrived at the stated address (another reason the RUC was hesitant to go into Catholic neighborhoods during this period)

bull Most notorious for their bombings they would typically park car bombs in predominately Protestant communities call in the bomb threat so that the area would be evacuated and an EOD squad would arrive to dismantle it the bomb would then be detonated with hopes of killing an EOD officer and destroying Protestant housing tenements

bull The PIRA rarely intentionally targeted civilians especially in the 80srsquo and 90srsquo but were involved in the bombings of several Protestant-owned pubs during the 1970s in response to loyalist terrorist groups bombing Catholic-owned pubs They also carried out the Kingsmill massacre in 1976 in which eleven Protestant workmen that were traveling on a minibus were held up by the IRA and all individually executed in response to the execution of six Catholic civilians by the UVF the night before

Terrorist Activities (continued)bull Other activities included engaging in firefights with British squadrons as

they patrolled the countrysidestreets of urban areas sniper attacks on RUC or British Army patrolscheckpoints planting landmines along British foot patrol routes in rural areas planting roadside IEDs along British convoy routes and bombing ferries and buses containing on-or-off duty British soldiers

bull The notorious ldquohuman bombrdquo technique in which civilians or off-duty members of the British security forces were kidnapped and then forced to drive car bombs into British military targets ndash such as checkpoints and Army bases ndash after the PIRA had placed their familiesrsquo lives under threat

bull Inciting riots and providing Catholic youths with molotov cocktails (gasoline bombs) during such riots so as to maximize public disorder and destruction was also an almost daily IRA activity in Catholic communities in urban Northern Ireland

The INLA

Statistics

bull Suffered 33 casualtiesbull Killed 46 members of the British Security Forcesbull Killed 2 members of the Irish Security Forcesbull Killed 39 civiliansbull Killed 3 civilian political activistsbull Killed 16 members of rival Republican terror

groupsbull Killed 7 members of Loyalist terror groups

Ideology

bull Founded by Seamus Costello in 1974 as the military wing of the Irish Republican Socialist Party

bull Shared similar goals to the Provisional IRA but far more socialist in ideology INLA wanted a socialist united Irish republic and blamed class struggles for many of the problems in Northern Ireland whereas the PIRA simply wanted a united Irish republic and had little interest in class struggle or economics

bull Whereas the PIRA was almost exclusively Catholic the INLA had some Protestant members most of whom were involved for purely socialist reasons

Terrorist Activitiesbull Although far less powerful and bold than the PIRA the INLA

nevertheless presented a potent terrorist threat to the United Kingdom during the Troubles

bull Similar tactics to the IRA car bombings shooting off-duty police and soldiers dead and high-profile assassinations

bull Their most high-profile attacks included the car bomb assassination of Airey Neave one of Margaret Thatcherrsquos closest political supporters in 1979 the murder of infamous Loyalist terror leader Billy Wright (who was murdered by INLA inmates in a British political prison in 1997) and the Ballykelley Disco Bombing in 1982 in which the INLA bombed a disco-club frequented by off-duty British soldiers managing to kill 11 of them as well as 6 civilians as well as destroying the disco

Internal Feuds

bull A split in 1986 led the INLA to split into the INLA and the IPLO or Irish Peoplersquos Liberation Organization based on IPLO membersrsquo perceived lack of political motivation and heavy involvement in drug dealing and criminality

bull There were several retaliatory killings between the two groups that persisted until 1992 when the PIRA had enough of the IPLOrsquos involvement in drug dealing in Catholic areas of Belfast and on 31 October 1992 virtually destroyed the entire organization in one night with a series of raids killings and kneecappings that killed or crippled the majority of the grouprsquos members

British LoyalistsProtestants

The UDAUFF

Former UFF Member

>

Statistics

bull Suffered 89 casualtiesbull Killed 197 civiliansbull Killed 12 civilian political activistsbull Killed 37 members of rival loyalist terror

groupsbull Killed 11 members of republican terror groupsbull Killed 3 members of the British Security Forces

Ideology

bull The UDA or Ulster Defense Association and its military wing the Ulster Freedom Fighters (UFF) was a loyalist protestant terror squad that targeted PIRA and INLA members as well as general Catholic civilians in bombings and shootings throughout Northern Ireland

bull It pledged to end its campaign of violence whenever the IRA set down its arms yet should the UK government appease the IRA and grant a 32-county Irish Republic the UDA pledged to act as ldquothe IRA in reverserdquo

Terrorist Activitiesbull The UDA saw itself as a militia defending upstanding protestant loyalist

communities from dangerous and lower-class Catholics that were disrupting the status quo in Northern Ireland They pledged primarily to target IRA men but ended up killing a majority of Catholic civilians during the Troubles They were also known to intimidate and exile known Catholic families from predominately-Protestant communities in Belfast and other urban areas

bull Drive-by shootings shooting up or planting bombs in predominately-Catholic pubs and bars and jumping brutally beating andor kneecapping Catholic civilians were all frequent tactics

bull The UDA discreetly worked in collusion with the RUC and other British security agencies so as to track down and assassinate known IRA members They would also patrol Protestant neighborhoods alongside British soldiers at the height of the Troubles Many RUC police officers and prison guards were also UDA members

bull The UDA alongside many other loyalist paramilitaries benefitted from the import of several arms shipments from Lebanese arms dealers in the early 1970s including rocket launchers 200+ AK-47 Rifles 90+ handguns and over 400 grenades They also received various weapons such as the uzi submachine gun and explosive devices from arms dealers in the Soviet bloc in the 1980s

Organized Crime

bull The UDA and its members were also heavily involved in drug dealing from the street level to wholesale purchase primarily in MDMA and cannabis throughout the Troubles

bull Protection racketeering and money laundering were also common amongst the UDA in protestant communities

bull However should a member of a UDA-ran community begin stealing or dealing drugs without UDA consent he was abruptly branded as ldquoanti-socialrdquo and either killed or kneecapped

The UVF

Statistics

bull Suffered unknown number of casualtiesbull Killed 412 civiliansbull Killed 11 civilian political activistsbull Killed 21 members of republican terror groupsbull Killed 42 members of rival loyalist terror

groupsbull Killed 6 members of the Security Forces

Ideology

bull Similar to the UDAUFF the Ulster Volunteer Forcersquos primary aim was to combat Irish republicanism in Northern Ireland primarily the PIRA They wanted Northern Ireland to remain in the UK

Terrorist Activitiesbull The majority of UVF victims were Catholic civilians

many of whom were killed at random These attacks were intended to demoralize the IRA as the IRA drew most of its support from the Catholic community

bull Planting bombs in predominately-Catholic pubs or simply residential areas was a very frequent UVF tactic and in 1973 they detonated more bombs in Northern Ireland than the UDA and the PIRA combined Assassinations mass shootings booby-trap car bombs and kidnappings were also frequent UVF activities

The Shankhill Butchers

bull The ldquoShankhill Butchersrdquo were a notorious offshoot UVF group known for abducting and literally slitting the throats of Catholic civilians and rival loyalist terror groups in the late 1970s They were led by Lenny Murphy (who was eventually imprisoned and upon his release of a 4-year stint murdered by the PIRA) and killed 23 people most of whom were Catholic civilians Many experts liken the Shankhill Butchers more to a group of serial killers than to politically or even ethnically-motivated murderers

bull The Butchers were all eventually all either imprisoned killed by the PIRA or both

Weaponrybull The UVF received the majority of its weaponry in the late 1970s

from Armscor an apartheid-South Africa state-owned arms company which in defiance of various UN sanctions and embargoes sold them to the UVF

bull Weapons were thought to consist ofbull 200 Czech SA vz 58 Assault Riflesbull 90 Browning Pistolsbull 500 RGD-5 Frag Grenadesbull 30000 rounds of ammunitionbull 12 RPG-7 Rocket Launchers and 150+ Rocketsbull The UVF also began using the illegally-obtained mining explosive

Powergel in the early 1990s

Organized Crime

bull The UVF was also heavily involved in organized crime including protection racketeering and drug smugglingdealing including cannabis MDMA cocaine and amphetamines Bank robberies were also very frequent in the 1970s

Major Incidents 1969-1998

Bloody Sunday 30 January 1972

Massacre on the Bogsidebull In 1972 during a large scale but peaceful civil-rights march in the

troubled predominately Catholic neighborhood of Bogside in Derry 26 unarmed civil rights marchers were shot by members of the British Army 14 of whom were killed Five of those shot were shot in the back

bull After several inquiries into the incident there was found to have been no justifiable provocation from the protestors and no shots fired from the protestors during the march The massacre was conducted in full view of the public and the press

bull The PM David Cameron eventually issued a formal apology to the victims and victimsrsquo families of the massacre after several investigations failed to reveal any justifiable provocation for the massacre

bull The massacre sky-rocketed PIRA membership and recruitment as public perception of the British Army in Catholic communities in Northern Ireland reached an all-time low

Bloody Friday 21 July 1972

A City Under Siege

bull On 21 July 1972 the PIRA detonated 26 bombs in the space of 80 minutes in Belfast destroying banks bridges electrical substations Protestant housing tenements gasoline stations and private garages

bull Although warnings were called in at least 30 minutes prior to each bomb the amount of bombs exploding and the addition of multiple hoax warnings at the same time led to the Security Forces being unable to evacuate all the areas in time 11 people were killed and 130 were injured many of them horrifically mutilated Of those injured 77 were women or children

Dublin and Monaghan Bombings 17 May 1974

Deadliest Attack of the Troubles

bull Perpetrated by the UVF in the southern Republic of Ireland three car bombs exploded in Dublin during rush hour and another exploded in Monaghan around 90 minutes later

bull 33 civilians and a full-term unborn child were killed in the bombing while nearly 300 were injured The UVF did not claim responsibility for the bombings until 1993

bull The majority of those killed were young women although the age range of those killed ranged from 5 months old to 80 years old

Warrenpoint Ambush 27 August 1979

Roadside IEDsbull In the southern part of County Armagh Northern Ireland a predominately-

Catholic rural region and former PIRA stronghold right on the border with the southern Republic of Ireland a British troop convoy was hit with a remote-control detonated roadside 500lb truck-bomb and destroyed instantly killing 6 troops The surviving soldiers then wrongly believed they were under sniper fire from the other side of the Irish border and began firing at civilians immediately after the bombing killing 1 and injuring another

bull 32 minutes after the first bombing the IRA used its knowledge of how the British reacted to bombings to correctly predict that they would set up an incident-command point in a nearby gatehouse Unfortunately for the British there was a second 800lb fertilizer bomb planted near the gatehouse that when detonated killed 12 other soldiers who were responding to the initial bomb

bull It was the deadliest single attack on the British Army during the Troubles and a highly successful attack for the PIRA

Summer of 1981 Irish Hunger Strikes

A Defining Moment for the Republican Cause

bull Beginning on 1 March 1981 led by Bobby Sands 7 PIRA and 3 INLA inmates at the notorious ldquoMazerdquo prison began to refuse food until Margaret Thatcher PM of Great Britain at that time began to recognize terrorist prisoners as political prisoners and allowed them their ldquoFive Demandsrdquo

The Five Demands

bull The right to not wear a prison uniformbull The right to not do prison workbull The right of free association with other

prisoners and to organize in educational and recreational pursuits

bull Full restoration of remission lost through any protests towards these demands

Previous Protestsbull The Maze prison was a very high-security and low-quality prison that

housed almost all PIRA prisoners during the Troubles It was run in a very ethically questionable fashion with frequent beatings and borderline-torture techniques used on Republican prisoners and extremely poor living conditions for prisoners Many Maze prison guards were members of the UDAUVF or had strong connections with one of the two groups as well

bull Massive peaceful protests and marches by Irish republicans outside of the Maze Prison proved unsuccessful in attaining political status for republican prisoners as well as previous inmate protests in 1980 including non-fatal hunger strikes inmates refusing to wear prison uniforms and thus living in their cells naked and prisoners refusing to leave their cells to go to the bathroom until their requests had been granted (they therefore urinated and defecated in their cells and spread their excrement across their cell walls in what was known as the ldquoDirty Protestrdquo)

Dirty Protesters

Thatcherrsquos Response

bull ldquoThose terrorists will carry their determination to disrupt society to any lengths Once again we have a hunger strike in the Maze Prison in the quest for what they call lsquopolitical statusrsquo There is no such thing as political murder political bombing or political violence There is only criminal murder criminal bombing and criminal violence We will not compromise on this There will be no political statusrdquo

Ten Strikers Diebull Bobby Sands the leader of the strike was imprisoned as a PIRA member

on charges of firearm possession and in connection with the bombing of a furniture store He was the first to die after 66 days of not eating Sands was elected to a seat in Parliament whilst on Hunger Strike

bull Following Sandsrsquo death there were riots bus-burnings and attacks on the British embassy in the southern Republic of Ireland there were massive demonstrations in France and Italy a tomato was thrown as Queen Elizabeth II by demonstrators in Oslo and there were massive riots and civil disorder all over the streets of Belfast The South African ANC and (at the time) terrorist Nelson Mandela expressed their support for the PIRA and the hunger strikers (Mandela himself claimed he was directly inspired by Sands to undertake hunger strikes against the Apartheid government in South Africa) as well as the Palestine Liberation Organization a middle-eastern terror group

bull Over 100000 attended Sandsrsquo funeral

Bobby Sands

ldquoOur revenge will be the laughter of our childrenrdquo

Reaction to Sandsrsquo Death

>

Conclusion

bull The Hunger Strike was eventually called off after 10 strikers including Sands had died

bull James Prior newly installed secretary of state of Northern Ireland granted the prisoners partial concessions all of the Five Demands except for the right to not do prison work Margaret Thatcher refused to budge on political status

bull The Hunger Strikes opened a new way for the PIRA to pursue its objectives politically whereas previously it had seen violence as the only solution to the plight of Irish nationalists in Northern Ireland

1983 The Maze Prison Escape

The ldquoGreat Escaperdquo

bull Using smuggled-in guns and knives 38 PIRA prisoners who had been convicted of offenses ranging from murder to causing explosions escaped from one of the most high-security prisons in Europe They completely took over the H7 prison block and took their prison guards hostage before escaping in a food supply truck Several prison guards were shot and stabbed but only one died of a heart attack during the escape

bull Fifteen escapees were recaptured the first day with four more captured over the next two days following the breakout The remaining 19 were transported to PIRA strongholds and given the option to either rejoin the IRArsquos cause or be transported to the United States to live under a new identity

12 October 1984 Brighton Hotel Bombing

The PIRA Nearly Gets Thatcherbull Margaret Thatcher the highly controversial far-right British PM from

1979-1990 had become a tremendously hated figure amongst the Irish nationalist community in Northern Ireland following the 1981 Hunger Strikes and for her general uncompromising stand on Irish republicanism

bull PIRA man Patrick Magee stayed at the Brighton Hotel from the 14-17 September 1984 planting a 20-lb bomb under his bath

bull Thatcher was staying at the Brighton Hotel for a political conference and was still up at 254AM on 12 October when the bomb was detonated The bomb decimated her bathroom but left the bedroom and sitting room of her suite largely unscathed

bull The PIRA statement to Thatcher afterwards was ldquoToday we were unlucky But remember we only have to be lucky once You will have to be lucky alwaysrdquo

Loughgall Ambush 8 May 1987

The SAS Strikes

bull A botched attack on Loughgall Villagersquos RUC Police Base in which the PIRA drove a backhoe into the fortified base and ran away to detonate the bomb that was inside of the backhoe went wrong as the SAS the British Special Forces had prior knowledge of the attack and quickly dispatched the 8 PIRA members involved

bull Although the RUC base was wrecked and bombed there were no RUC or SAS casualties and it was the PIRArsquos greatest loss of life in a single incident during the Troubles

British Army Lynx Shootdown 20 March 1994

The PIRA Shoots Down a Helicopter

bull Using the previously mentioned Barrack-Buster homemade mortar PIRA insurgents were able to fire on a British helicopter that was in the process of landing whilst hiding behind a hay bail from around 150 yards out

bull The helicopter was hit with the mortar shell around 100 feet above the ground but the pilot was able to successfully crash-land the helicopter and escape before its propane tanks exploded There were no casualties but the attack was a major propaganda coup for the PIRA

1996 Manchester Bombing

The PIRA Destroys Manchester

bull On Saturday 15 June 1996 the PIRA sent in telephoned warnings and 90 minutes later detonated a 3300lb fertilizer-based truck bomb in the heart of Manchester City Centre the biggest bomb detonated in Great Britain during peacetime The bomb killed nobody due to previous warnings but led to 212 non-fatal injuries and essentially destroyed Manchester City Centre leaving approximately 700 million pounds ($12bn) worth of damage in its wake

Omagh Bombing 1998

Last Great Deadly Attack of the Troubles

bull Perpetrated by a Provisional IRA splinter group that was rejecting the peace process calling themselves the ldquoReal IRArdquo the 510lb fertilizer-based bomb was placed on main street in the town of Omagh Northern Ireland Warnings were called in approximately 30 minutes before the bombing but they were inaccurate and police ended up moving more civilians towards the bomb which ended up killing 29 people and causing over 300 non-fatal injuries This was the highest death toll from a single incident during the Troubles

bull It received universal outrage and was condemned even by the PIRA and its political wing Sinn Fein It spurred on the Northern Ireland peace process and the RIRA apologized and called a ceasefire several days after

The Good Friday Agreement and Northern Ireland Peace Process

Beginningsbull Following the 1981 Hunger Strikes Irish republicans began to

increasingly look towards politics rather than violence as a means of achieving their aims Sinn Fein gaelic for ldquoWe Ourselvesrdquo was a fiercely Irish Republican political party which led by the Machiavellian former PIRA leader and Maze inmate Gerry Adams began to push for a more peaceful solution to the Troubles in Northern Ireland

bull It became apparent by the late 1990s that although the PIRA was not losing a war against the British establishment it would be impossible to truly lsquowin the fightrsquo through violence and that any further terrorism would serve not to achieve any real political aim but only to prolong and continue suffering and violence in Northern Ireland and that politics was a much better way of achieving Republican aims

Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein former PIRA Belfast Brigade OC

Good Friday Agreement 1998

bull The Peace Process began in 1994 and included intermittent terrorist ceasefires and political negotiations between the major Irish republican and British unionist parties and culminated on April 10 1998 when the Good Friday Agreement was signed

PM Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern Sign the GFA

GFA Mandatesbull That Northern Ireland was to remain British until a majority of people in Northern

Ireland and the southern Republic of Ireland wanted otherwise bull The creation of an entirely new far less sectarian and religiously diverse Northern

Irish local governmentbull The decommissioning of arms from terrorist groups on both the unionist and

nationalist side of the political divide (ultimately successful all arms decommissioned by 2005)

bull Mutual respect and civil rights between Catholics and Protestants bull The reduction and eventual elimination of British troops in Northern Ireland

(ultimately successful all troops withdrawn by 2005)bull Eventual early prison release for all individuals imprisoned for terrorist offenses as

long as they were apart of a terrorist group that was decommissioning in accordance with the GFA

bull Disbandment of the RUC police service and the installation of the new Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) which was required to be at least 50 Catholic

Northern Ireland Today

Still Conflict But No Warbull Since the complete decommissioning of the arms and

disbandment of the PIRA INLA UDAUFF and UVF due to the Good Friday Agreement there is nowhere near the amount of violence in Northern Ireland or Belfast as there was 20 years ago There are no more weekly bombings and riots and no more British troops patrolling Catholic areas in armored vehicles

bull Despite this there are still occasional riots and clashes with the PSNI several times a year specifically on dates of great historical significance to the Catholic or Protestant communities and there is still a deep distrust and even hatred between many Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland although that continues to change with time

Catholic Slum of Ardoyne Belfast July 2011

Splinter Groups

bull Many former PIRA or UDA terrorists have now taken to organized crime for purely profiteering purposes but are no longer involved in substantial violence or any political-based terrorism

bull Splinter groups such as the Real IRA and Continuity IRA in Catholic communities and the Orange Volunteers and Red Hand Commandos in Protestant communities still conduct occasional violence towards Police and civilians in Northern Ireland but are all rather small poorly armed and poorly funded groups that pose nowhere near the threat that terrorist groups in the 80s and 90s did in Northern Ireland

Herersquos To A Brighter Future in Northern Ireland

Works Citedbull httpwwwbbccoukhistorytroublesbull httpcainulstacukbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiProvisional_Irish_Republican_Armybull httpenwikipediaorgwikiThe_Troublesbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiUlster_Defence_Associationbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiUlster_Volunteer_Forcebull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_National_Liberation_Armybull ldquoA Secret History of the IRArdquo by Ed Moloney ndashWW Norton amp Company Reprint 2003bull ldquoVoices From The Grave Two Menrsquos War in Irelandrdquo by Ed Moloney ndash Public Affairs 2010bull ldquoFifty Dead Men Walkingrdquo by Martin McGartland ndash John Blake 2009bull httpwwwinfopleasecomspotnorthireland1htmlbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_Civil_Warbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_War_of_Independencebull httpenwikipediaorgwiki1981_Irish_hunger_strikebull httpenwikipediaorgwikiDirectory_of_the_Northern_Ireland_Troublesbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiGood_Friday_Agreementbull httpswwwmi5govukhomethe-threatsterrorismnorthern-irelandrepublican-terrorist-groupshtmlbull httpswwwmi5govukhomethe-threatsterrorismnorthern-irelandprovisional-irish-republican-army-

pirahtmlbull httpnewsbbccoukhienglishstaticnorthern_irelandunderstandingeventshunger_strikestm

  • The Troubles
  • Brief Overview
  • 30 Years of Conflict
  • Slide 4
  • Background
  • The Irish War of Independence
  • Slide 7
  • Anglo-Irish Treaty (signed 6 December 1921)
  • Irish Civil War
  • 1922-1966 Ireland
  • The Civil Rights Movement
  • Slide 12
  • Slide 13
  • Objectives of the Civil Rights Movement
  • The 1969 Northern Ireland Riots ndashThe Troubles Begin
  • Culmination of Tension
  • No-Go Areas
  • No-Go Areas (2)
  • Early 1970sndash The Rise of the Provisional IRA
  • The IRA Split
  • Rise of the UVF and Loyalist Terror Groups
  • Beginnings
  • UVF Statement 21 May 1964
  • The Paramilitaries
  • Irish RepublicansCatholics
  • The Provisional IRA
  • IRA Statement Late 80s
  • Statistics
  • RecruitmentFunding
  • Weaponry
  • Weaponry (2)
  • Slide 32
  • Mortars and IEDs
  • EOD Officer Approaches PIRA Car Bomb
  • The Barrack Buster
  • Vigilantism
  • Slide 37
  • Slide 38
  • Policy on Informants
  • Terrorist Activities
  • Terrorist Activities (continued)
  • The INLA
  • Statistics (2)
  • Ideology
  • Terrorist Activities (2)
  • Internal Feuds
  • Slide 47
  • British LoyalistsProtestants
  • The UDAUFF
  • Former UFF Member
  • Statistics (3)
  • Ideology (2)
  • Terrorist Activities (3)
  • Slide 54
  • Organized Crime
  • The UVF
  • Statistics (4)
  • Ideology (3)
  • Terrorist Activities (4)
  • The Shankhill Butchers
  • Weaponry (3)
  • Slide 62
  • Organized Crime (2)
  • Major Incidents 1969-1998
  • Bloody Sunday 30 January 1972
  • Massacre on the Bogside
  • Bloody Friday 21 July 1972
  • A City Under Siege
  • Dublin and Monaghan Bombings 17 May 1974
  • Deadliest Attack of the Troubles
  • Warrenpoint Ambush 27 August 1979
  • Roadside IEDs
  • Summer of 1981 Irish Hunger Strikes
  • A Defining Moment for the Republican Cause
  • The Five Demands
  • Previous Protests
  • Dirty Protesters
  • Thatcherrsquos Response
  • Ten Strikers Die
  • Bobby Sands
  • Reaction to Sandsrsquo Death
  • Conclusion
  • 1983 The Maze Prison Escape
  • The ldquoGreat Escaperdquo
  • 12 October 1984 Brighton Hotel Bombing
  • The PIRA Nearly Gets Thatcher
  • Loughgall Ambush 8 May 1987
  • The SAS Strikes
  • British Army Lynx Shootdown 20 March 1994
  • The PIRA Shoots Down a Helicopter
  • 1996 Manchester Bombing
  • The PIRA Destroys Manchester
  • Omagh Bombing 1998
  • Last Great Deadly Attack of the Troubles
  • The Good Friday Agreement and Northern Ireland Peace Process
  • Beginnings (2)
  • Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein former PIRA Belfast Brigade OC
  • Good Friday Agreement 1998
  • PM Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern Sign the GFA
  • GFA Mandates
  • Northern Ireland Today
  • Still Conflict But No War
  • Catholic Slum of Ardoyne Belfast July 2011
  • Splinter Groups
  • Herersquos To A Brighter Future in Northern Ireland
  • Works Cited
Page 6: The Troubles, 1969-1998

bull The Irish War of Independence was fought from 1919 to 1921 and led to the Anglo-Irish Treaty

bull In December of 1918 Irish Republican political party Sinn Fein (lsquowe ourselvesrsquo in gaelic) won a landslide victory in Ireland and in January of 1919 they formed a breakaway government and declared the entire island of Ireland once again independent from Britain

bull The British government was not as successful putting down the rebellions this time as the military wing of Sinn Fein the IRA (Irish Republican Army) waged a bloody guerrilla war of attrition against the British Army until the UK was forced to give in by 1921 and led to the Anglo-Irish Treaty

Anglo-Irish Treaty (signed 6 December 1921)

Provided for establishment of Irish Free State completely independent from the United Kingdom politically It also provided the six counties of Northern Ireland the option to opt out of the treaty which at the time was a massive 23 majority Protestant and Unionist and did so choosing to remain a part of the United Kingdom This has proved to be a very controversial treaty in Northern Ireland up until this very day

Irish Civil WarThe Anglo-Irish Treaty was so controversial that it led to a 10-month civil war in Ireland immediately following itrsquos signing The newly established Irish National Army consisting of many former IRA guerrillas fought the more hardline anti-treaty IRA who felt the Anglo-Irish Treaty betrayed the ideals of the Easter Rising The Irish National Army who was supported by the British easily crushed the anti-treaty IRA

1922-1966 Irelandbull A legacy of the Irish Civil War was the

survival of a marginalized remnant of the IRA Illegal in both Northern Ireland and the Irish Free State and ideologically committed to overthrowing them both the IRA from 1922 to 1966 existed primarily as a secret society with the exception of the failed Northern Campaign of 1942 and the failed Border Campaign between 1956 and 1962 during both of which the IRA assassinated several police officers around the Northern Irish border before declaring each respective campaign a failure

The Civil Rights Movement

bull The NICRA (Northern Irish Civil Rights Association) was formed in 1966 to protest discrimination against Irish Catholics in Northern Ireland Drew significant parallels with the African-American Civil Rights movement in the United States during that time

bull The Civil Rights Movement was peaceful and sought to end discrimination against Irish Catholics and Irish nationalists by the Protestant and Unionist local self-government of Northern Ireland

Objectives of the Civil Rights Movementbull End job discrimination (Catholicsnationalists unlikely to be given certain jobs

especially government jobs)bull Public housing to be allocated based on need rather than religiouspolitical views

(unionist-controlled local councils allocated housing to Protestant unionists ahead of Catholic nationalists)

bull ldquoOne Man One Voterdquo Policy ndash in Northern Ireland only householders could vote in local elections whereas in the rest of the UK all adults could vote

bull An end to gerrymandering of electoral boundaries giving nationalists less electoral power than unionists even in areas where nationalists were the majority

bull Reform of the RUC or Royal Ulster Constabulary the Northern Irish police force which was almost 100 Protestant and disbandment of the B-Specials special police force also exclusively protestant Both of which were heavily accused of police brutality and sectarianism

bull Repeal of the Special Powers Actndash which allowed police to search without a warrant arrest and imprison people without chargetrial ban any assemblies or parades and ban any publications The Act was used almost exclusively against Catholics

bull The Civil Rights movement was violently repressed by police and met with fierce political resistance from the unionist government

The 1969 Northern Ireland Riots ndashThe Troubles Begin

Culmination of Tensionbull The Tensions between Catholics and Protestants culminated in August of

1969 bull ldquoThe Battle of The Bogsiderdquo ndash Loyalists were allowed to march through the

Catholic neighborhood of Derry in a provocative parade This led to Catholic resistance who began throwing stones and bricks at the parade The RUC was then deployed to put down Catholic rioters and laid siege to the Catholic community of Bogside releasing over 1100 canisters of tear gas in the Bogside from August 12 to 14 Catholics in turn set up barricades and were ultimately successful in repelling the police from their communities The Bogside region of Derry would go on to exist as a lsquono go arearsquo for both Northern Irish and British security forces and existed as an autonomous independent nationalist district from 1969 to 1972

bull The Battle of the Bogside and the ensuing violence that raged from August 12-17 across Northern Ireland caused the displacement of approximately 1820 families and the destruction of 150+ Catholic homes

bull It also led to the deployment of the British military to Ulster in what was intended to be a short several weeklong peacekeeping engagement It would turn out to be a 30 year deployment

No-Go Areas

No-Go Areasbull No-Go Areas existed from 1969 to 1972 in Belfast and Derry in

Catholic nationalist neighborhoods in which barricades and militant residents prevented the police forces or British Army from entering

bull The Barricades were demolished and control ldquoofficiallyrdquo restored in the British Operation Motorman in 1972 in which the British Army used tanks to destroy the barricades and reestablish control However the no-go status was generally maintained and police and security forces still rarely entered certain Irish Catholic neighborhoods throughout the duration of the Troubles except in very hostile circumstances such as in the case of an arrest or military engagement

bull Day-to-day policing of these areas was generally controlled by terrorist groups

Early 1970sndash The Rise of the Provisional IRA

The IRA Splitbull The IRA that had existed largely in silence for the past 50 years began to rearm

and militarize itself once again by 1969 in order to protect Catholic nationalist communities in Northern Ireland in wake of the police brutality and sectarian violence that they had began to increasingly experience

bull In the 1960s the IRA had come under the significant influence of Marxist and Socialist thinkers This led the IRA to split in 1969 into the Official IRA and the Provisional IRA ndash the provisionals named for their ldquoProvisional Army Councilrdquo

bull The Official IRA was highly socialistMarxist and prescribed to the idea that class differences were causing the strife in Northern Ireland whilst the Provisional IRA was less interested in socialism and more concerned simply with British presence in Northern Ireland considering it to be the root of all the problems

bull The Official IRA would eventually fade out by 1972 while the Provisional IRA would go on to become the most feared terrorist organization in 20th Century Europe and launch a 30-year campaign against the British presence in Northern Ireland

Rise of the UVF and Loyalist Terror Groups

Beginningsbull The UVF (Ulster Volunteer Force) was formed in 1964 as a continuation

of the Ulster Volunteers that existed from 1912-1914 in Northern Ireland who intended to violently resist any attempts by the British government to release Ulster from the Union

bull It was reformed in rsquo64 by former British soldier Gusty Spence after he and his men burned to the ground a Catholic-owned pub on the loyalist Shankhill Road

bull The Ulster unionists feared that with the ongoing civil rights movement a potential return of the IRA in Northern Ireland could be possible The UVF and other loyalist paramilitary groups such as the UDA and UFF were thus created and seen as vigilantes and defenders of Protestant communities However most of their targets throughout the 30-year Troubles were simply innocent Catholic civilians

UVF Statement 21 May 1964

bull ldquoFrom this day we declare war against the Irish Republican Army and its splinter groups Known IRA men will be executed mercilessly and without hesitation Less extreme measures will be taken against anyone sheltering or helping them but if they persist in giving them aid then more extreme methods will be adopted we solemnly warn the authorities to make no more speeches of appeasement We are heavily armed Protestants dedicated to this causerdquo

The Paramilitaries

Irish RepublicansCatholics

The Provisional IRA

IRA Statement Late 80s

>

Statistics

bull Suffered 293 Casualtiesbull Over 10000 members imprisoned on various charges

throughout the conflictbull Killed 656 members of the British Armed Forcesbull Killed 272 Members of the Royal Ulster Constabulary

(RUC) Police Forcebull Killed 44 members of loyalistprotestant terror groupsbull Killed between 620-650 civiliansbull Killed over 1500 people

RecruitmentFundingbull IRA recruitment in Catholic neighborhoods was similar to the phenomenon

of gang membership in the inner-city United States Young Catholics typically joined to create a sense of belonging to seem ldquohardrdquo or look ldquocoolrdquo to feel protected from the brutality of the RUC during the Troubles or to help defend their communities IRA members were not asked to join but volunteered

bull IRA lsquofunds-raisingrsquo activities included collecting protection money from Catholic businesses (a ldquorevolutionary taxrdquo) robbing banks kidnapping citizens for ransom and cigarette and gasoline smuggling across the Irish border (manipulating the differing tax prices on both sides of the border and selling fuel and cigarettes illicitly) Although the Provisional IRA has officially disbanded and no longer engages in terrorism there is substantial evidence that extortion rackets in poor Catholic neighborhoods and contraband smuggling operations along the border still exist in Northern Ireland and are run by former IRA men solely for profiteering purposes

Weaponry

bull The Provisional IRA obtained a significant amount of arms from both Irish-American supporters in the northeastern United States (including members of notorious gangster Whitey Bulgerrsquos Irish Mob in 1970s-80s Boston) and from the Libyan government under Muammar Gadaffi

bull Gadaffi took over in Libya in 1969 and initially armed the IRA seeing them as comrades-in-arms fighting British imperialism Connections re-emerged in 1986 after the Thatcher Administrationrsquos support of the US bombings of Libya that killed Gadaffirsquos adopted daughter

Weaponrybull When the IRA disarmed as part of the Good Friday Agreement in

1998 (more on that later) they released the following to the British Armed Forces

bull 1000 Rifles (AK-47s AR-15s etc)bull 3 Tons of Semtex (a general-purpose plastic explosive)bull 20-30 Heavy Machine Gunsbull 7 Surface-to-Air Missilesbull 7 Flamethrowersbull 1200 Detonatorsbull 20 RPGrsquosbull 100 Handgunsbull 100+ Hand Grenades

Mortars and IEDsbull The PIRA was incredibly proficient at bomb-making and made

extensive use of Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) during their 30 year campaign

bull IEDs were typically constructed with chemical mixes of fertilizer gasoline and other home-made components Libyan Semtex was also used in several heavy-duty bombs Nails and gunpowder were typically implemented in pipe bombs made out of metal pipes Most IEDs had built in countermeasures such as the mercury tilt switch which would cause the bomb to explode if moved at all should a British EOD officer attempt to dismantle it

bull The PIRA developed the ldquoBarrack Busterrdquo mortar in the late lsquo70s or a homemade mortar made up of common household materials that was used to attack several Army bases from afar and even Prime Minister Margaret Thatcherrsquos househellip 10 Downing Street in a 1991 attack that destroyed the Prime Ministerrsquos rear garden (the mortar was fired out the back of a nearby van)

EOD Officer Approaches PIRA Car Bomb

The Barrack Buster

>

Vigilantismbull The RUC was not trusted in Catholic neighborhoods throughout the

Troubles and did not regularly patrol or even enter them in urban areas of Northern Ireland Thus when there was a community drug dealer car thief burglar rapist or pedophile the IRA took it upon themselves to issue brutal street justice to those involved

bull Occasionally offering warnings for lesser offences such as petty thievery or drug dealing if the IRA had enough of a certain member of the community they perceived as anti-social he or she was usually jumped brutally beaten andor lsquokneecappedrsquo ndash one of the IRArsquos most notorious methods ndash in which the victim was pinned down and shot through the kneecaps with a firearm or occasionally had their kneecaps drilled through with power-drills Other methods included releasing starving Rottweilerrsquos on the offender dropping cinderblocks on the offenderrsquos hands or even tarring and feathering the offender The IRArsquos process in determining an individualrsquos guilt was never open to scrutiny

bull If the offender persisted after an IRA punishment he was then given a notice by the IRA to leave the country as soon as possiblehellip referred to as being ldquoput outrdquo of the community If the offender still did not leave he was murdered

Policy on Informantsbull In an effort to stamp out collusion with the British forces and informants on the

IRA the IRA was responsible for torturing and killing several accused Catholic civilians throughout the conflict

bull Investigations into collusion infiltration and informants were carried out by the Internal Security Unit of the IRA colloquially known as the ldquoNutting Squadrdquo

bull The ISU would carry out debriefings of IRA prisoners upon their release from British detention so as to discover whether or not they had lsquocrackedrsquo and released information to British interrogators

bull Typical ISU torture techniques on those accused of informing included drowning genitalnipple mutilation electrocution with livewires pouring kerosene on the accusedrsquos legs before setting fire to them and branding with hot irons Informants were always killed afterwards with a bullet through the back of the head

bull Of the 18 ldquoDisappearedrdquo accused informants that were abducted and executed by the IRA during the Troubles only 10 bodies have been found

bull Martin McGartland was an IRA informant who was estimated to have saved 50 lives in the conflict before he was discovered and abducted by the ISU He escaped and lives today in seclusion The film ldquo50 Dead Men Walkingrdquo is based on his exploits and is an excellent realistic non-romanticized take on the Troubles in Northern Ireland

Terrorist Activitiesbull Common tactics included breaking into the homes of off-duty RUC police

officers and murdering them in their beds or setting booby-trap bombs underneath RUC police officersrsquo cars and unionist politiciansrsquo cars so that they would blow up as the engine was started RUC men were typically targeted when they were off-duty and many were shot dead in front of their families The PIRA would also impersonate innocent Catholic civilians call the police to report an emergency and ambush the police from hidden positions when they arrived at the stated address (another reason the RUC was hesitant to go into Catholic neighborhoods during this period)

bull Most notorious for their bombings they would typically park car bombs in predominately Protestant communities call in the bomb threat so that the area would be evacuated and an EOD squad would arrive to dismantle it the bomb would then be detonated with hopes of killing an EOD officer and destroying Protestant housing tenements

bull The PIRA rarely intentionally targeted civilians especially in the 80srsquo and 90srsquo but were involved in the bombings of several Protestant-owned pubs during the 1970s in response to loyalist terrorist groups bombing Catholic-owned pubs They also carried out the Kingsmill massacre in 1976 in which eleven Protestant workmen that were traveling on a minibus were held up by the IRA and all individually executed in response to the execution of six Catholic civilians by the UVF the night before

Terrorist Activities (continued)bull Other activities included engaging in firefights with British squadrons as

they patrolled the countrysidestreets of urban areas sniper attacks on RUC or British Army patrolscheckpoints planting landmines along British foot patrol routes in rural areas planting roadside IEDs along British convoy routes and bombing ferries and buses containing on-or-off duty British soldiers

bull The notorious ldquohuman bombrdquo technique in which civilians or off-duty members of the British security forces were kidnapped and then forced to drive car bombs into British military targets ndash such as checkpoints and Army bases ndash after the PIRA had placed their familiesrsquo lives under threat

bull Inciting riots and providing Catholic youths with molotov cocktails (gasoline bombs) during such riots so as to maximize public disorder and destruction was also an almost daily IRA activity in Catholic communities in urban Northern Ireland

The INLA

Statistics

bull Suffered 33 casualtiesbull Killed 46 members of the British Security Forcesbull Killed 2 members of the Irish Security Forcesbull Killed 39 civiliansbull Killed 3 civilian political activistsbull Killed 16 members of rival Republican terror

groupsbull Killed 7 members of Loyalist terror groups

Ideology

bull Founded by Seamus Costello in 1974 as the military wing of the Irish Republican Socialist Party

bull Shared similar goals to the Provisional IRA but far more socialist in ideology INLA wanted a socialist united Irish republic and blamed class struggles for many of the problems in Northern Ireland whereas the PIRA simply wanted a united Irish republic and had little interest in class struggle or economics

bull Whereas the PIRA was almost exclusively Catholic the INLA had some Protestant members most of whom were involved for purely socialist reasons

Terrorist Activitiesbull Although far less powerful and bold than the PIRA the INLA

nevertheless presented a potent terrorist threat to the United Kingdom during the Troubles

bull Similar tactics to the IRA car bombings shooting off-duty police and soldiers dead and high-profile assassinations

bull Their most high-profile attacks included the car bomb assassination of Airey Neave one of Margaret Thatcherrsquos closest political supporters in 1979 the murder of infamous Loyalist terror leader Billy Wright (who was murdered by INLA inmates in a British political prison in 1997) and the Ballykelley Disco Bombing in 1982 in which the INLA bombed a disco-club frequented by off-duty British soldiers managing to kill 11 of them as well as 6 civilians as well as destroying the disco

Internal Feuds

bull A split in 1986 led the INLA to split into the INLA and the IPLO or Irish Peoplersquos Liberation Organization based on IPLO membersrsquo perceived lack of political motivation and heavy involvement in drug dealing and criminality

bull There were several retaliatory killings between the two groups that persisted until 1992 when the PIRA had enough of the IPLOrsquos involvement in drug dealing in Catholic areas of Belfast and on 31 October 1992 virtually destroyed the entire organization in one night with a series of raids killings and kneecappings that killed or crippled the majority of the grouprsquos members

British LoyalistsProtestants

The UDAUFF

Former UFF Member

>

Statistics

bull Suffered 89 casualtiesbull Killed 197 civiliansbull Killed 12 civilian political activistsbull Killed 37 members of rival loyalist terror

groupsbull Killed 11 members of republican terror groupsbull Killed 3 members of the British Security Forces

Ideology

bull The UDA or Ulster Defense Association and its military wing the Ulster Freedom Fighters (UFF) was a loyalist protestant terror squad that targeted PIRA and INLA members as well as general Catholic civilians in bombings and shootings throughout Northern Ireland

bull It pledged to end its campaign of violence whenever the IRA set down its arms yet should the UK government appease the IRA and grant a 32-county Irish Republic the UDA pledged to act as ldquothe IRA in reverserdquo

Terrorist Activitiesbull The UDA saw itself as a militia defending upstanding protestant loyalist

communities from dangerous and lower-class Catholics that were disrupting the status quo in Northern Ireland They pledged primarily to target IRA men but ended up killing a majority of Catholic civilians during the Troubles They were also known to intimidate and exile known Catholic families from predominately-Protestant communities in Belfast and other urban areas

bull Drive-by shootings shooting up or planting bombs in predominately-Catholic pubs and bars and jumping brutally beating andor kneecapping Catholic civilians were all frequent tactics

bull The UDA discreetly worked in collusion with the RUC and other British security agencies so as to track down and assassinate known IRA members They would also patrol Protestant neighborhoods alongside British soldiers at the height of the Troubles Many RUC police officers and prison guards were also UDA members

bull The UDA alongside many other loyalist paramilitaries benefitted from the import of several arms shipments from Lebanese arms dealers in the early 1970s including rocket launchers 200+ AK-47 Rifles 90+ handguns and over 400 grenades They also received various weapons such as the uzi submachine gun and explosive devices from arms dealers in the Soviet bloc in the 1980s

Organized Crime

bull The UDA and its members were also heavily involved in drug dealing from the street level to wholesale purchase primarily in MDMA and cannabis throughout the Troubles

bull Protection racketeering and money laundering were also common amongst the UDA in protestant communities

bull However should a member of a UDA-ran community begin stealing or dealing drugs without UDA consent he was abruptly branded as ldquoanti-socialrdquo and either killed or kneecapped

The UVF

Statistics

bull Suffered unknown number of casualtiesbull Killed 412 civiliansbull Killed 11 civilian political activistsbull Killed 21 members of republican terror groupsbull Killed 42 members of rival loyalist terror

groupsbull Killed 6 members of the Security Forces

Ideology

bull Similar to the UDAUFF the Ulster Volunteer Forcersquos primary aim was to combat Irish republicanism in Northern Ireland primarily the PIRA They wanted Northern Ireland to remain in the UK

Terrorist Activitiesbull The majority of UVF victims were Catholic civilians

many of whom were killed at random These attacks were intended to demoralize the IRA as the IRA drew most of its support from the Catholic community

bull Planting bombs in predominately-Catholic pubs or simply residential areas was a very frequent UVF tactic and in 1973 they detonated more bombs in Northern Ireland than the UDA and the PIRA combined Assassinations mass shootings booby-trap car bombs and kidnappings were also frequent UVF activities

The Shankhill Butchers

bull The ldquoShankhill Butchersrdquo were a notorious offshoot UVF group known for abducting and literally slitting the throats of Catholic civilians and rival loyalist terror groups in the late 1970s They were led by Lenny Murphy (who was eventually imprisoned and upon his release of a 4-year stint murdered by the PIRA) and killed 23 people most of whom were Catholic civilians Many experts liken the Shankhill Butchers more to a group of serial killers than to politically or even ethnically-motivated murderers

bull The Butchers were all eventually all either imprisoned killed by the PIRA or both

Weaponrybull The UVF received the majority of its weaponry in the late 1970s

from Armscor an apartheid-South Africa state-owned arms company which in defiance of various UN sanctions and embargoes sold them to the UVF

bull Weapons were thought to consist ofbull 200 Czech SA vz 58 Assault Riflesbull 90 Browning Pistolsbull 500 RGD-5 Frag Grenadesbull 30000 rounds of ammunitionbull 12 RPG-7 Rocket Launchers and 150+ Rocketsbull The UVF also began using the illegally-obtained mining explosive

Powergel in the early 1990s

Organized Crime

bull The UVF was also heavily involved in organized crime including protection racketeering and drug smugglingdealing including cannabis MDMA cocaine and amphetamines Bank robberies were also very frequent in the 1970s

Major Incidents 1969-1998

Bloody Sunday 30 January 1972

Massacre on the Bogsidebull In 1972 during a large scale but peaceful civil-rights march in the

troubled predominately Catholic neighborhood of Bogside in Derry 26 unarmed civil rights marchers were shot by members of the British Army 14 of whom were killed Five of those shot were shot in the back

bull After several inquiries into the incident there was found to have been no justifiable provocation from the protestors and no shots fired from the protestors during the march The massacre was conducted in full view of the public and the press

bull The PM David Cameron eventually issued a formal apology to the victims and victimsrsquo families of the massacre after several investigations failed to reveal any justifiable provocation for the massacre

bull The massacre sky-rocketed PIRA membership and recruitment as public perception of the British Army in Catholic communities in Northern Ireland reached an all-time low

Bloody Friday 21 July 1972

A City Under Siege

bull On 21 July 1972 the PIRA detonated 26 bombs in the space of 80 minutes in Belfast destroying banks bridges electrical substations Protestant housing tenements gasoline stations and private garages

bull Although warnings were called in at least 30 minutes prior to each bomb the amount of bombs exploding and the addition of multiple hoax warnings at the same time led to the Security Forces being unable to evacuate all the areas in time 11 people were killed and 130 were injured many of them horrifically mutilated Of those injured 77 were women or children

Dublin and Monaghan Bombings 17 May 1974

Deadliest Attack of the Troubles

bull Perpetrated by the UVF in the southern Republic of Ireland three car bombs exploded in Dublin during rush hour and another exploded in Monaghan around 90 minutes later

bull 33 civilians and a full-term unborn child were killed in the bombing while nearly 300 were injured The UVF did not claim responsibility for the bombings until 1993

bull The majority of those killed were young women although the age range of those killed ranged from 5 months old to 80 years old

Warrenpoint Ambush 27 August 1979

Roadside IEDsbull In the southern part of County Armagh Northern Ireland a predominately-

Catholic rural region and former PIRA stronghold right on the border with the southern Republic of Ireland a British troop convoy was hit with a remote-control detonated roadside 500lb truck-bomb and destroyed instantly killing 6 troops The surviving soldiers then wrongly believed they were under sniper fire from the other side of the Irish border and began firing at civilians immediately after the bombing killing 1 and injuring another

bull 32 minutes after the first bombing the IRA used its knowledge of how the British reacted to bombings to correctly predict that they would set up an incident-command point in a nearby gatehouse Unfortunately for the British there was a second 800lb fertilizer bomb planted near the gatehouse that when detonated killed 12 other soldiers who were responding to the initial bomb

bull It was the deadliest single attack on the British Army during the Troubles and a highly successful attack for the PIRA

Summer of 1981 Irish Hunger Strikes

A Defining Moment for the Republican Cause

bull Beginning on 1 March 1981 led by Bobby Sands 7 PIRA and 3 INLA inmates at the notorious ldquoMazerdquo prison began to refuse food until Margaret Thatcher PM of Great Britain at that time began to recognize terrorist prisoners as political prisoners and allowed them their ldquoFive Demandsrdquo

The Five Demands

bull The right to not wear a prison uniformbull The right to not do prison workbull The right of free association with other

prisoners and to organize in educational and recreational pursuits

bull Full restoration of remission lost through any protests towards these demands

Previous Protestsbull The Maze prison was a very high-security and low-quality prison that

housed almost all PIRA prisoners during the Troubles It was run in a very ethically questionable fashion with frequent beatings and borderline-torture techniques used on Republican prisoners and extremely poor living conditions for prisoners Many Maze prison guards were members of the UDAUVF or had strong connections with one of the two groups as well

bull Massive peaceful protests and marches by Irish republicans outside of the Maze Prison proved unsuccessful in attaining political status for republican prisoners as well as previous inmate protests in 1980 including non-fatal hunger strikes inmates refusing to wear prison uniforms and thus living in their cells naked and prisoners refusing to leave their cells to go to the bathroom until their requests had been granted (they therefore urinated and defecated in their cells and spread their excrement across their cell walls in what was known as the ldquoDirty Protestrdquo)

Dirty Protesters

Thatcherrsquos Response

bull ldquoThose terrorists will carry their determination to disrupt society to any lengths Once again we have a hunger strike in the Maze Prison in the quest for what they call lsquopolitical statusrsquo There is no such thing as political murder political bombing or political violence There is only criminal murder criminal bombing and criminal violence We will not compromise on this There will be no political statusrdquo

Ten Strikers Diebull Bobby Sands the leader of the strike was imprisoned as a PIRA member

on charges of firearm possession and in connection with the bombing of a furniture store He was the first to die after 66 days of not eating Sands was elected to a seat in Parliament whilst on Hunger Strike

bull Following Sandsrsquo death there were riots bus-burnings and attacks on the British embassy in the southern Republic of Ireland there were massive demonstrations in France and Italy a tomato was thrown as Queen Elizabeth II by demonstrators in Oslo and there were massive riots and civil disorder all over the streets of Belfast The South African ANC and (at the time) terrorist Nelson Mandela expressed their support for the PIRA and the hunger strikers (Mandela himself claimed he was directly inspired by Sands to undertake hunger strikes against the Apartheid government in South Africa) as well as the Palestine Liberation Organization a middle-eastern terror group

bull Over 100000 attended Sandsrsquo funeral

Bobby Sands

ldquoOur revenge will be the laughter of our childrenrdquo

Reaction to Sandsrsquo Death

>

Conclusion

bull The Hunger Strike was eventually called off after 10 strikers including Sands had died

bull James Prior newly installed secretary of state of Northern Ireland granted the prisoners partial concessions all of the Five Demands except for the right to not do prison work Margaret Thatcher refused to budge on political status

bull The Hunger Strikes opened a new way for the PIRA to pursue its objectives politically whereas previously it had seen violence as the only solution to the plight of Irish nationalists in Northern Ireland

1983 The Maze Prison Escape

The ldquoGreat Escaperdquo

bull Using smuggled-in guns and knives 38 PIRA prisoners who had been convicted of offenses ranging from murder to causing explosions escaped from one of the most high-security prisons in Europe They completely took over the H7 prison block and took their prison guards hostage before escaping in a food supply truck Several prison guards were shot and stabbed but only one died of a heart attack during the escape

bull Fifteen escapees were recaptured the first day with four more captured over the next two days following the breakout The remaining 19 were transported to PIRA strongholds and given the option to either rejoin the IRArsquos cause or be transported to the United States to live under a new identity

12 October 1984 Brighton Hotel Bombing

The PIRA Nearly Gets Thatcherbull Margaret Thatcher the highly controversial far-right British PM from

1979-1990 had become a tremendously hated figure amongst the Irish nationalist community in Northern Ireland following the 1981 Hunger Strikes and for her general uncompromising stand on Irish republicanism

bull PIRA man Patrick Magee stayed at the Brighton Hotel from the 14-17 September 1984 planting a 20-lb bomb under his bath

bull Thatcher was staying at the Brighton Hotel for a political conference and was still up at 254AM on 12 October when the bomb was detonated The bomb decimated her bathroom but left the bedroom and sitting room of her suite largely unscathed

bull The PIRA statement to Thatcher afterwards was ldquoToday we were unlucky But remember we only have to be lucky once You will have to be lucky alwaysrdquo

Loughgall Ambush 8 May 1987

The SAS Strikes

bull A botched attack on Loughgall Villagersquos RUC Police Base in which the PIRA drove a backhoe into the fortified base and ran away to detonate the bomb that was inside of the backhoe went wrong as the SAS the British Special Forces had prior knowledge of the attack and quickly dispatched the 8 PIRA members involved

bull Although the RUC base was wrecked and bombed there were no RUC or SAS casualties and it was the PIRArsquos greatest loss of life in a single incident during the Troubles

British Army Lynx Shootdown 20 March 1994

The PIRA Shoots Down a Helicopter

bull Using the previously mentioned Barrack-Buster homemade mortar PIRA insurgents were able to fire on a British helicopter that was in the process of landing whilst hiding behind a hay bail from around 150 yards out

bull The helicopter was hit with the mortar shell around 100 feet above the ground but the pilot was able to successfully crash-land the helicopter and escape before its propane tanks exploded There were no casualties but the attack was a major propaganda coup for the PIRA

1996 Manchester Bombing

The PIRA Destroys Manchester

bull On Saturday 15 June 1996 the PIRA sent in telephoned warnings and 90 minutes later detonated a 3300lb fertilizer-based truck bomb in the heart of Manchester City Centre the biggest bomb detonated in Great Britain during peacetime The bomb killed nobody due to previous warnings but led to 212 non-fatal injuries and essentially destroyed Manchester City Centre leaving approximately 700 million pounds ($12bn) worth of damage in its wake

Omagh Bombing 1998

Last Great Deadly Attack of the Troubles

bull Perpetrated by a Provisional IRA splinter group that was rejecting the peace process calling themselves the ldquoReal IRArdquo the 510lb fertilizer-based bomb was placed on main street in the town of Omagh Northern Ireland Warnings were called in approximately 30 minutes before the bombing but they were inaccurate and police ended up moving more civilians towards the bomb which ended up killing 29 people and causing over 300 non-fatal injuries This was the highest death toll from a single incident during the Troubles

bull It received universal outrage and was condemned even by the PIRA and its political wing Sinn Fein It spurred on the Northern Ireland peace process and the RIRA apologized and called a ceasefire several days after

The Good Friday Agreement and Northern Ireland Peace Process

Beginningsbull Following the 1981 Hunger Strikes Irish republicans began to

increasingly look towards politics rather than violence as a means of achieving their aims Sinn Fein gaelic for ldquoWe Ourselvesrdquo was a fiercely Irish Republican political party which led by the Machiavellian former PIRA leader and Maze inmate Gerry Adams began to push for a more peaceful solution to the Troubles in Northern Ireland

bull It became apparent by the late 1990s that although the PIRA was not losing a war against the British establishment it would be impossible to truly lsquowin the fightrsquo through violence and that any further terrorism would serve not to achieve any real political aim but only to prolong and continue suffering and violence in Northern Ireland and that politics was a much better way of achieving Republican aims

Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein former PIRA Belfast Brigade OC

Good Friday Agreement 1998

bull The Peace Process began in 1994 and included intermittent terrorist ceasefires and political negotiations between the major Irish republican and British unionist parties and culminated on April 10 1998 when the Good Friday Agreement was signed

PM Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern Sign the GFA

GFA Mandatesbull That Northern Ireland was to remain British until a majority of people in Northern

Ireland and the southern Republic of Ireland wanted otherwise bull The creation of an entirely new far less sectarian and religiously diverse Northern

Irish local governmentbull The decommissioning of arms from terrorist groups on both the unionist and

nationalist side of the political divide (ultimately successful all arms decommissioned by 2005)

bull Mutual respect and civil rights between Catholics and Protestants bull The reduction and eventual elimination of British troops in Northern Ireland

(ultimately successful all troops withdrawn by 2005)bull Eventual early prison release for all individuals imprisoned for terrorist offenses as

long as they were apart of a terrorist group that was decommissioning in accordance with the GFA

bull Disbandment of the RUC police service and the installation of the new Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) which was required to be at least 50 Catholic

Northern Ireland Today

Still Conflict But No Warbull Since the complete decommissioning of the arms and

disbandment of the PIRA INLA UDAUFF and UVF due to the Good Friday Agreement there is nowhere near the amount of violence in Northern Ireland or Belfast as there was 20 years ago There are no more weekly bombings and riots and no more British troops patrolling Catholic areas in armored vehicles

bull Despite this there are still occasional riots and clashes with the PSNI several times a year specifically on dates of great historical significance to the Catholic or Protestant communities and there is still a deep distrust and even hatred between many Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland although that continues to change with time

Catholic Slum of Ardoyne Belfast July 2011

Splinter Groups

bull Many former PIRA or UDA terrorists have now taken to organized crime for purely profiteering purposes but are no longer involved in substantial violence or any political-based terrorism

bull Splinter groups such as the Real IRA and Continuity IRA in Catholic communities and the Orange Volunteers and Red Hand Commandos in Protestant communities still conduct occasional violence towards Police and civilians in Northern Ireland but are all rather small poorly armed and poorly funded groups that pose nowhere near the threat that terrorist groups in the 80s and 90s did in Northern Ireland

Herersquos To A Brighter Future in Northern Ireland

Works Citedbull httpwwwbbccoukhistorytroublesbull httpcainulstacukbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiProvisional_Irish_Republican_Armybull httpenwikipediaorgwikiThe_Troublesbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiUlster_Defence_Associationbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiUlster_Volunteer_Forcebull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_National_Liberation_Armybull ldquoA Secret History of the IRArdquo by Ed Moloney ndashWW Norton amp Company Reprint 2003bull ldquoVoices From The Grave Two Menrsquos War in Irelandrdquo by Ed Moloney ndash Public Affairs 2010bull ldquoFifty Dead Men Walkingrdquo by Martin McGartland ndash John Blake 2009bull httpwwwinfopleasecomspotnorthireland1htmlbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_Civil_Warbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_War_of_Independencebull httpenwikipediaorgwiki1981_Irish_hunger_strikebull httpenwikipediaorgwikiDirectory_of_the_Northern_Ireland_Troublesbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiGood_Friday_Agreementbull httpswwwmi5govukhomethe-threatsterrorismnorthern-irelandrepublican-terrorist-groupshtmlbull httpswwwmi5govukhomethe-threatsterrorismnorthern-irelandprovisional-irish-republican-army-

pirahtmlbull httpnewsbbccoukhienglishstaticnorthern_irelandunderstandingeventshunger_strikestm

  • The Troubles
  • Brief Overview
  • 30 Years of Conflict
  • Slide 4
  • Background
  • The Irish War of Independence
  • Slide 7
  • Anglo-Irish Treaty (signed 6 December 1921)
  • Irish Civil War
  • 1922-1966 Ireland
  • The Civil Rights Movement
  • Slide 12
  • Slide 13
  • Objectives of the Civil Rights Movement
  • The 1969 Northern Ireland Riots ndashThe Troubles Begin
  • Culmination of Tension
  • No-Go Areas
  • No-Go Areas (2)
  • Early 1970sndash The Rise of the Provisional IRA
  • The IRA Split
  • Rise of the UVF and Loyalist Terror Groups
  • Beginnings
  • UVF Statement 21 May 1964
  • The Paramilitaries
  • Irish RepublicansCatholics
  • The Provisional IRA
  • IRA Statement Late 80s
  • Statistics
  • RecruitmentFunding
  • Weaponry
  • Weaponry (2)
  • Slide 32
  • Mortars and IEDs
  • EOD Officer Approaches PIRA Car Bomb
  • The Barrack Buster
  • Vigilantism
  • Slide 37
  • Slide 38
  • Policy on Informants
  • Terrorist Activities
  • Terrorist Activities (continued)
  • The INLA
  • Statistics (2)
  • Ideology
  • Terrorist Activities (2)
  • Internal Feuds
  • Slide 47
  • British LoyalistsProtestants
  • The UDAUFF
  • Former UFF Member
  • Statistics (3)
  • Ideology (2)
  • Terrorist Activities (3)
  • Slide 54
  • Organized Crime
  • The UVF
  • Statistics (4)
  • Ideology (3)
  • Terrorist Activities (4)
  • The Shankhill Butchers
  • Weaponry (3)
  • Slide 62
  • Organized Crime (2)
  • Major Incidents 1969-1998
  • Bloody Sunday 30 January 1972
  • Massacre on the Bogside
  • Bloody Friday 21 July 1972
  • A City Under Siege
  • Dublin and Monaghan Bombings 17 May 1974
  • Deadliest Attack of the Troubles
  • Warrenpoint Ambush 27 August 1979
  • Roadside IEDs
  • Summer of 1981 Irish Hunger Strikes
  • A Defining Moment for the Republican Cause
  • The Five Demands
  • Previous Protests
  • Dirty Protesters
  • Thatcherrsquos Response
  • Ten Strikers Die
  • Bobby Sands
  • Reaction to Sandsrsquo Death
  • Conclusion
  • 1983 The Maze Prison Escape
  • The ldquoGreat Escaperdquo
  • 12 October 1984 Brighton Hotel Bombing
  • The PIRA Nearly Gets Thatcher
  • Loughgall Ambush 8 May 1987
  • The SAS Strikes
  • British Army Lynx Shootdown 20 March 1994
  • The PIRA Shoots Down a Helicopter
  • 1996 Manchester Bombing
  • The PIRA Destroys Manchester
  • Omagh Bombing 1998
  • Last Great Deadly Attack of the Troubles
  • The Good Friday Agreement and Northern Ireland Peace Process
  • Beginnings (2)
  • Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein former PIRA Belfast Brigade OC
  • Good Friday Agreement 1998
  • PM Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern Sign the GFA
  • GFA Mandates
  • Northern Ireland Today
  • Still Conflict But No War
  • Catholic Slum of Ardoyne Belfast July 2011
  • Splinter Groups
  • Herersquos To A Brighter Future in Northern Ireland
  • Works Cited
Page 7: The Troubles, 1969-1998

Anglo-Irish Treaty (signed 6 December 1921)

Provided for establishment of Irish Free State completely independent from the United Kingdom politically It also provided the six counties of Northern Ireland the option to opt out of the treaty which at the time was a massive 23 majority Protestant and Unionist and did so choosing to remain a part of the United Kingdom This has proved to be a very controversial treaty in Northern Ireland up until this very day

Irish Civil WarThe Anglo-Irish Treaty was so controversial that it led to a 10-month civil war in Ireland immediately following itrsquos signing The newly established Irish National Army consisting of many former IRA guerrillas fought the more hardline anti-treaty IRA who felt the Anglo-Irish Treaty betrayed the ideals of the Easter Rising The Irish National Army who was supported by the British easily crushed the anti-treaty IRA

1922-1966 Irelandbull A legacy of the Irish Civil War was the

survival of a marginalized remnant of the IRA Illegal in both Northern Ireland and the Irish Free State and ideologically committed to overthrowing them both the IRA from 1922 to 1966 existed primarily as a secret society with the exception of the failed Northern Campaign of 1942 and the failed Border Campaign between 1956 and 1962 during both of which the IRA assassinated several police officers around the Northern Irish border before declaring each respective campaign a failure

The Civil Rights Movement

bull The NICRA (Northern Irish Civil Rights Association) was formed in 1966 to protest discrimination against Irish Catholics in Northern Ireland Drew significant parallels with the African-American Civil Rights movement in the United States during that time

bull The Civil Rights Movement was peaceful and sought to end discrimination against Irish Catholics and Irish nationalists by the Protestant and Unionist local self-government of Northern Ireland

Objectives of the Civil Rights Movementbull End job discrimination (Catholicsnationalists unlikely to be given certain jobs

especially government jobs)bull Public housing to be allocated based on need rather than religiouspolitical views

(unionist-controlled local councils allocated housing to Protestant unionists ahead of Catholic nationalists)

bull ldquoOne Man One Voterdquo Policy ndash in Northern Ireland only householders could vote in local elections whereas in the rest of the UK all adults could vote

bull An end to gerrymandering of electoral boundaries giving nationalists less electoral power than unionists even in areas where nationalists were the majority

bull Reform of the RUC or Royal Ulster Constabulary the Northern Irish police force which was almost 100 Protestant and disbandment of the B-Specials special police force also exclusively protestant Both of which were heavily accused of police brutality and sectarianism

bull Repeal of the Special Powers Actndash which allowed police to search without a warrant arrest and imprison people without chargetrial ban any assemblies or parades and ban any publications The Act was used almost exclusively against Catholics

bull The Civil Rights movement was violently repressed by police and met with fierce political resistance from the unionist government

The 1969 Northern Ireland Riots ndashThe Troubles Begin

Culmination of Tensionbull The Tensions between Catholics and Protestants culminated in August of

1969 bull ldquoThe Battle of The Bogsiderdquo ndash Loyalists were allowed to march through the

Catholic neighborhood of Derry in a provocative parade This led to Catholic resistance who began throwing stones and bricks at the parade The RUC was then deployed to put down Catholic rioters and laid siege to the Catholic community of Bogside releasing over 1100 canisters of tear gas in the Bogside from August 12 to 14 Catholics in turn set up barricades and were ultimately successful in repelling the police from their communities The Bogside region of Derry would go on to exist as a lsquono go arearsquo for both Northern Irish and British security forces and existed as an autonomous independent nationalist district from 1969 to 1972

bull The Battle of the Bogside and the ensuing violence that raged from August 12-17 across Northern Ireland caused the displacement of approximately 1820 families and the destruction of 150+ Catholic homes

bull It also led to the deployment of the British military to Ulster in what was intended to be a short several weeklong peacekeeping engagement It would turn out to be a 30 year deployment

No-Go Areas

No-Go Areasbull No-Go Areas existed from 1969 to 1972 in Belfast and Derry in

Catholic nationalist neighborhoods in which barricades and militant residents prevented the police forces or British Army from entering

bull The Barricades were demolished and control ldquoofficiallyrdquo restored in the British Operation Motorman in 1972 in which the British Army used tanks to destroy the barricades and reestablish control However the no-go status was generally maintained and police and security forces still rarely entered certain Irish Catholic neighborhoods throughout the duration of the Troubles except in very hostile circumstances such as in the case of an arrest or military engagement

bull Day-to-day policing of these areas was generally controlled by terrorist groups

Early 1970sndash The Rise of the Provisional IRA

The IRA Splitbull The IRA that had existed largely in silence for the past 50 years began to rearm

and militarize itself once again by 1969 in order to protect Catholic nationalist communities in Northern Ireland in wake of the police brutality and sectarian violence that they had began to increasingly experience

bull In the 1960s the IRA had come under the significant influence of Marxist and Socialist thinkers This led the IRA to split in 1969 into the Official IRA and the Provisional IRA ndash the provisionals named for their ldquoProvisional Army Councilrdquo

bull The Official IRA was highly socialistMarxist and prescribed to the idea that class differences were causing the strife in Northern Ireland whilst the Provisional IRA was less interested in socialism and more concerned simply with British presence in Northern Ireland considering it to be the root of all the problems

bull The Official IRA would eventually fade out by 1972 while the Provisional IRA would go on to become the most feared terrorist organization in 20th Century Europe and launch a 30-year campaign against the British presence in Northern Ireland

Rise of the UVF and Loyalist Terror Groups

Beginningsbull The UVF (Ulster Volunteer Force) was formed in 1964 as a continuation

of the Ulster Volunteers that existed from 1912-1914 in Northern Ireland who intended to violently resist any attempts by the British government to release Ulster from the Union

bull It was reformed in rsquo64 by former British soldier Gusty Spence after he and his men burned to the ground a Catholic-owned pub on the loyalist Shankhill Road

bull The Ulster unionists feared that with the ongoing civil rights movement a potential return of the IRA in Northern Ireland could be possible The UVF and other loyalist paramilitary groups such as the UDA and UFF were thus created and seen as vigilantes and defenders of Protestant communities However most of their targets throughout the 30-year Troubles were simply innocent Catholic civilians

UVF Statement 21 May 1964

bull ldquoFrom this day we declare war against the Irish Republican Army and its splinter groups Known IRA men will be executed mercilessly and without hesitation Less extreme measures will be taken against anyone sheltering or helping them but if they persist in giving them aid then more extreme methods will be adopted we solemnly warn the authorities to make no more speeches of appeasement We are heavily armed Protestants dedicated to this causerdquo

The Paramilitaries

Irish RepublicansCatholics

The Provisional IRA

IRA Statement Late 80s

>

Statistics

bull Suffered 293 Casualtiesbull Over 10000 members imprisoned on various charges

throughout the conflictbull Killed 656 members of the British Armed Forcesbull Killed 272 Members of the Royal Ulster Constabulary

(RUC) Police Forcebull Killed 44 members of loyalistprotestant terror groupsbull Killed between 620-650 civiliansbull Killed over 1500 people

RecruitmentFundingbull IRA recruitment in Catholic neighborhoods was similar to the phenomenon

of gang membership in the inner-city United States Young Catholics typically joined to create a sense of belonging to seem ldquohardrdquo or look ldquocoolrdquo to feel protected from the brutality of the RUC during the Troubles or to help defend their communities IRA members were not asked to join but volunteered

bull IRA lsquofunds-raisingrsquo activities included collecting protection money from Catholic businesses (a ldquorevolutionary taxrdquo) robbing banks kidnapping citizens for ransom and cigarette and gasoline smuggling across the Irish border (manipulating the differing tax prices on both sides of the border and selling fuel and cigarettes illicitly) Although the Provisional IRA has officially disbanded and no longer engages in terrorism there is substantial evidence that extortion rackets in poor Catholic neighborhoods and contraband smuggling operations along the border still exist in Northern Ireland and are run by former IRA men solely for profiteering purposes

Weaponry

bull The Provisional IRA obtained a significant amount of arms from both Irish-American supporters in the northeastern United States (including members of notorious gangster Whitey Bulgerrsquos Irish Mob in 1970s-80s Boston) and from the Libyan government under Muammar Gadaffi

bull Gadaffi took over in Libya in 1969 and initially armed the IRA seeing them as comrades-in-arms fighting British imperialism Connections re-emerged in 1986 after the Thatcher Administrationrsquos support of the US bombings of Libya that killed Gadaffirsquos adopted daughter

Weaponrybull When the IRA disarmed as part of the Good Friday Agreement in

1998 (more on that later) they released the following to the British Armed Forces

bull 1000 Rifles (AK-47s AR-15s etc)bull 3 Tons of Semtex (a general-purpose plastic explosive)bull 20-30 Heavy Machine Gunsbull 7 Surface-to-Air Missilesbull 7 Flamethrowersbull 1200 Detonatorsbull 20 RPGrsquosbull 100 Handgunsbull 100+ Hand Grenades

Mortars and IEDsbull The PIRA was incredibly proficient at bomb-making and made

extensive use of Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) during their 30 year campaign

bull IEDs were typically constructed with chemical mixes of fertilizer gasoline and other home-made components Libyan Semtex was also used in several heavy-duty bombs Nails and gunpowder were typically implemented in pipe bombs made out of metal pipes Most IEDs had built in countermeasures such as the mercury tilt switch which would cause the bomb to explode if moved at all should a British EOD officer attempt to dismantle it

bull The PIRA developed the ldquoBarrack Busterrdquo mortar in the late lsquo70s or a homemade mortar made up of common household materials that was used to attack several Army bases from afar and even Prime Minister Margaret Thatcherrsquos househellip 10 Downing Street in a 1991 attack that destroyed the Prime Ministerrsquos rear garden (the mortar was fired out the back of a nearby van)

EOD Officer Approaches PIRA Car Bomb

The Barrack Buster

>

Vigilantismbull The RUC was not trusted in Catholic neighborhoods throughout the

Troubles and did not regularly patrol or even enter them in urban areas of Northern Ireland Thus when there was a community drug dealer car thief burglar rapist or pedophile the IRA took it upon themselves to issue brutal street justice to those involved

bull Occasionally offering warnings for lesser offences such as petty thievery or drug dealing if the IRA had enough of a certain member of the community they perceived as anti-social he or she was usually jumped brutally beaten andor lsquokneecappedrsquo ndash one of the IRArsquos most notorious methods ndash in which the victim was pinned down and shot through the kneecaps with a firearm or occasionally had their kneecaps drilled through with power-drills Other methods included releasing starving Rottweilerrsquos on the offender dropping cinderblocks on the offenderrsquos hands or even tarring and feathering the offender The IRArsquos process in determining an individualrsquos guilt was never open to scrutiny

bull If the offender persisted after an IRA punishment he was then given a notice by the IRA to leave the country as soon as possiblehellip referred to as being ldquoput outrdquo of the community If the offender still did not leave he was murdered

Policy on Informantsbull In an effort to stamp out collusion with the British forces and informants on the

IRA the IRA was responsible for torturing and killing several accused Catholic civilians throughout the conflict

bull Investigations into collusion infiltration and informants were carried out by the Internal Security Unit of the IRA colloquially known as the ldquoNutting Squadrdquo

bull The ISU would carry out debriefings of IRA prisoners upon their release from British detention so as to discover whether or not they had lsquocrackedrsquo and released information to British interrogators

bull Typical ISU torture techniques on those accused of informing included drowning genitalnipple mutilation electrocution with livewires pouring kerosene on the accusedrsquos legs before setting fire to them and branding with hot irons Informants were always killed afterwards with a bullet through the back of the head

bull Of the 18 ldquoDisappearedrdquo accused informants that were abducted and executed by the IRA during the Troubles only 10 bodies have been found

bull Martin McGartland was an IRA informant who was estimated to have saved 50 lives in the conflict before he was discovered and abducted by the ISU He escaped and lives today in seclusion The film ldquo50 Dead Men Walkingrdquo is based on his exploits and is an excellent realistic non-romanticized take on the Troubles in Northern Ireland

Terrorist Activitiesbull Common tactics included breaking into the homes of off-duty RUC police

officers and murdering them in their beds or setting booby-trap bombs underneath RUC police officersrsquo cars and unionist politiciansrsquo cars so that they would blow up as the engine was started RUC men were typically targeted when they were off-duty and many were shot dead in front of their families The PIRA would also impersonate innocent Catholic civilians call the police to report an emergency and ambush the police from hidden positions when they arrived at the stated address (another reason the RUC was hesitant to go into Catholic neighborhoods during this period)

bull Most notorious for their bombings they would typically park car bombs in predominately Protestant communities call in the bomb threat so that the area would be evacuated and an EOD squad would arrive to dismantle it the bomb would then be detonated with hopes of killing an EOD officer and destroying Protestant housing tenements

bull The PIRA rarely intentionally targeted civilians especially in the 80srsquo and 90srsquo but were involved in the bombings of several Protestant-owned pubs during the 1970s in response to loyalist terrorist groups bombing Catholic-owned pubs They also carried out the Kingsmill massacre in 1976 in which eleven Protestant workmen that were traveling on a minibus were held up by the IRA and all individually executed in response to the execution of six Catholic civilians by the UVF the night before

Terrorist Activities (continued)bull Other activities included engaging in firefights with British squadrons as

they patrolled the countrysidestreets of urban areas sniper attacks on RUC or British Army patrolscheckpoints planting landmines along British foot patrol routes in rural areas planting roadside IEDs along British convoy routes and bombing ferries and buses containing on-or-off duty British soldiers

bull The notorious ldquohuman bombrdquo technique in which civilians or off-duty members of the British security forces were kidnapped and then forced to drive car bombs into British military targets ndash such as checkpoints and Army bases ndash after the PIRA had placed their familiesrsquo lives under threat

bull Inciting riots and providing Catholic youths with molotov cocktails (gasoline bombs) during such riots so as to maximize public disorder and destruction was also an almost daily IRA activity in Catholic communities in urban Northern Ireland

The INLA

Statistics

bull Suffered 33 casualtiesbull Killed 46 members of the British Security Forcesbull Killed 2 members of the Irish Security Forcesbull Killed 39 civiliansbull Killed 3 civilian political activistsbull Killed 16 members of rival Republican terror

groupsbull Killed 7 members of Loyalist terror groups

Ideology

bull Founded by Seamus Costello in 1974 as the military wing of the Irish Republican Socialist Party

bull Shared similar goals to the Provisional IRA but far more socialist in ideology INLA wanted a socialist united Irish republic and blamed class struggles for many of the problems in Northern Ireland whereas the PIRA simply wanted a united Irish republic and had little interest in class struggle or economics

bull Whereas the PIRA was almost exclusively Catholic the INLA had some Protestant members most of whom were involved for purely socialist reasons

Terrorist Activitiesbull Although far less powerful and bold than the PIRA the INLA

nevertheless presented a potent terrorist threat to the United Kingdom during the Troubles

bull Similar tactics to the IRA car bombings shooting off-duty police and soldiers dead and high-profile assassinations

bull Their most high-profile attacks included the car bomb assassination of Airey Neave one of Margaret Thatcherrsquos closest political supporters in 1979 the murder of infamous Loyalist terror leader Billy Wright (who was murdered by INLA inmates in a British political prison in 1997) and the Ballykelley Disco Bombing in 1982 in which the INLA bombed a disco-club frequented by off-duty British soldiers managing to kill 11 of them as well as 6 civilians as well as destroying the disco

Internal Feuds

bull A split in 1986 led the INLA to split into the INLA and the IPLO or Irish Peoplersquos Liberation Organization based on IPLO membersrsquo perceived lack of political motivation and heavy involvement in drug dealing and criminality

bull There were several retaliatory killings between the two groups that persisted until 1992 when the PIRA had enough of the IPLOrsquos involvement in drug dealing in Catholic areas of Belfast and on 31 October 1992 virtually destroyed the entire organization in one night with a series of raids killings and kneecappings that killed or crippled the majority of the grouprsquos members

British LoyalistsProtestants

The UDAUFF

Former UFF Member

>

Statistics

bull Suffered 89 casualtiesbull Killed 197 civiliansbull Killed 12 civilian political activistsbull Killed 37 members of rival loyalist terror

groupsbull Killed 11 members of republican terror groupsbull Killed 3 members of the British Security Forces

Ideology

bull The UDA or Ulster Defense Association and its military wing the Ulster Freedom Fighters (UFF) was a loyalist protestant terror squad that targeted PIRA and INLA members as well as general Catholic civilians in bombings and shootings throughout Northern Ireland

bull It pledged to end its campaign of violence whenever the IRA set down its arms yet should the UK government appease the IRA and grant a 32-county Irish Republic the UDA pledged to act as ldquothe IRA in reverserdquo

Terrorist Activitiesbull The UDA saw itself as a militia defending upstanding protestant loyalist

communities from dangerous and lower-class Catholics that were disrupting the status quo in Northern Ireland They pledged primarily to target IRA men but ended up killing a majority of Catholic civilians during the Troubles They were also known to intimidate and exile known Catholic families from predominately-Protestant communities in Belfast and other urban areas

bull Drive-by shootings shooting up or planting bombs in predominately-Catholic pubs and bars and jumping brutally beating andor kneecapping Catholic civilians were all frequent tactics

bull The UDA discreetly worked in collusion with the RUC and other British security agencies so as to track down and assassinate known IRA members They would also patrol Protestant neighborhoods alongside British soldiers at the height of the Troubles Many RUC police officers and prison guards were also UDA members

bull The UDA alongside many other loyalist paramilitaries benefitted from the import of several arms shipments from Lebanese arms dealers in the early 1970s including rocket launchers 200+ AK-47 Rifles 90+ handguns and over 400 grenades They also received various weapons such as the uzi submachine gun and explosive devices from arms dealers in the Soviet bloc in the 1980s

Organized Crime

bull The UDA and its members were also heavily involved in drug dealing from the street level to wholesale purchase primarily in MDMA and cannabis throughout the Troubles

bull Protection racketeering and money laundering were also common amongst the UDA in protestant communities

bull However should a member of a UDA-ran community begin stealing or dealing drugs without UDA consent he was abruptly branded as ldquoanti-socialrdquo and either killed or kneecapped

The UVF

Statistics

bull Suffered unknown number of casualtiesbull Killed 412 civiliansbull Killed 11 civilian political activistsbull Killed 21 members of republican terror groupsbull Killed 42 members of rival loyalist terror

groupsbull Killed 6 members of the Security Forces

Ideology

bull Similar to the UDAUFF the Ulster Volunteer Forcersquos primary aim was to combat Irish republicanism in Northern Ireland primarily the PIRA They wanted Northern Ireland to remain in the UK

Terrorist Activitiesbull The majority of UVF victims were Catholic civilians

many of whom were killed at random These attacks were intended to demoralize the IRA as the IRA drew most of its support from the Catholic community

bull Planting bombs in predominately-Catholic pubs or simply residential areas was a very frequent UVF tactic and in 1973 they detonated more bombs in Northern Ireland than the UDA and the PIRA combined Assassinations mass shootings booby-trap car bombs and kidnappings were also frequent UVF activities

The Shankhill Butchers

bull The ldquoShankhill Butchersrdquo were a notorious offshoot UVF group known for abducting and literally slitting the throats of Catholic civilians and rival loyalist terror groups in the late 1970s They were led by Lenny Murphy (who was eventually imprisoned and upon his release of a 4-year stint murdered by the PIRA) and killed 23 people most of whom were Catholic civilians Many experts liken the Shankhill Butchers more to a group of serial killers than to politically or even ethnically-motivated murderers

bull The Butchers were all eventually all either imprisoned killed by the PIRA or both

Weaponrybull The UVF received the majority of its weaponry in the late 1970s

from Armscor an apartheid-South Africa state-owned arms company which in defiance of various UN sanctions and embargoes sold them to the UVF

bull Weapons were thought to consist ofbull 200 Czech SA vz 58 Assault Riflesbull 90 Browning Pistolsbull 500 RGD-5 Frag Grenadesbull 30000 rounds of ammunitionbull 12 RPG-7 Rocket Launchers and 150+ Rocketsbull The UVF also began using the illegally-obtained mining explosive

Powergel in the early 1990s

Organized Crime

bull The UVF was also heavily involved in organized crime including protection racketeering and drug smugglingdealing including cannabis MDMA cocaine and amphetamines Bank robberies were also very frequent in the 1970s

Major Incidents 1969-1998

Bloody Sunday 30 January 1972

Massacre on the Bogsidebull In 1972 during a large scale but peaceful civil-rights march in the

troubled predominately Catholic neighborhood of Bogside in Derry 26 unarmed civil rights marchers were shot by members of the British Army 14 of whom were killed Five of those shot were shot in the back

bull After several inquiries into the incident there was found to have been no justifiable provocation from the protestors and no shots fired from the protestors during the march The massacre was conducted in full view of the public and the press

bull The PM David Cameron eventually issued a formal apology to the victims and victimsrsquo families of the massacre after several investigations failed to reveal any justifiable provocation for the massacre

bull The massacre sky-rocketed PIRA membership and recruitment as public perception of the British Army in Catholic communities in Northern Ireland reached an all-time low

Bloody Friday 21 July 1972

A City Under Siege

bull On 21 July 1972 the PIRA detonated 26 bombs in the space of 80 minutes in Belfast destroying banks bridges electrical substations Protestant housing tenements gasoline stations and private garages

bull Although warnings were called in at least 30 minutes prior to each bomb the amount of bombs exploding and the addition of multiple hoax warnings at the same time led to the Security Forces being unable to evacuate all the areas in time 11 people were killed and 130 were injured many of them horrifically mutilated Of those injured 77 were women or children

Dublin and Monaghan Bombings 17 May 1974

Deadliest Attack of the Troubles

bull Perpetrated by the UVF in the southern Republic of Ireland three car bombs exploded in Dublin during rush hour and another exploded in Monaghan around 90 minutes later

bull 33 civilians and a full-term unborn child were killed in the bombing while nearly 300 were injured The UVF did not claim responsibility for the bombings until 1993

bull The majority of those killed were young women although the age range of those killed ranged from 5 months old to 80 years old

Warrenpoint Ambush 27 August 1979

Roadside IEDsbull In the southern part of County Armagh Northern Ireland a predominately-

Catholic rural region and former PIRA stronghold right on the border with the southern Republic of Ireland a British troop convoy was hit with a remote-control detonated roadside 500lb truck-bomb and destroyed instantly killing 6 troops The surviving soldiers then wrongly believed they were under sniper fire from the other side of the Irish border and began firing at civilians immediately after the bombing killing 1 and injuring another

bull 32 minutes after the first bombing the IRA used its knowledge of how the British reacted to bombings to correctly predict that they would set up an incident-command point in a nearby gatehouse Unfortunately for the British there was a second 800lb fertilizer bomb planted near the gatehouse that when detonated killed 12 other soldiers who were responding to the initial bomb

bull It was the deadliest single attack on the British Army during the Troubles and a highly successful attack for the PIRA

Summer of 1981 Irish Hunger Strikes

A Defining Moment for the Republican Cause

bull Beginning on 1 March 1981 led by Bobby Sands 7 PIRA and 3 INLA inmates at the notorious ldquoMazerdquo prison began to refuse food until Margaret Thatcher PM of Great Britain at that time began to recognize terrorist prisoners as political prisoners and allowed them their ldquoFive Demandsrdquo

The Five Demands

bull The right to not wear a prison uniformbull The right to not do prison workbull The right of free association with other

prisoners and to organize in educational and recreational pursuits

bull Full restoration of remission lost through any protests towards these demands

Previous Protestsbull The Maze prison was a very high-security and low-quality prison that

housed almost all PIRA prisoners during the Troubles It was run in a very ethically questionable fashion with frequent beatings and borderline-torture techniques used on Republican prisoners and extremely poor living conditions for prisoners Many Maze prison guards were members of the UDAUVF or had strong connections with one of the two groups as well

bull Massive peaceful protests and marches by Irish republicans outside of the Maze Prison proved unsuccessful in attaining political status for republican prisoners as well as previous inmate protests in 1980 including non-fatal hunger strikes inmates refusing to wear prison uniforms and thus living in their cells naked and prisoners refusing to leave their cells to go to the bathroom until their requests had been granted (they therefore urinated and defecated in their cells and spread their excrement across their cell walls in what was known as the ldquoDirty Protestrdquo)

Dirty Protesters

Thatcherrsquos Response

bull ldquoThose terrorists will carry their determination to disrupt society to any lengths Once again we have a hunger strike in the Maze Prison in the quest for what they call lsquopolitical statusrsquo There is no such thing as political murder political bombing or political violence There is only criminal murder criminal bombing and criminal violence We will not compromise on this There will be no political statusrdquo

Ten Strikers Diebull Bobby Sands the leader of the strike was imprisoned as a PIRA member

on charges of firearm possession and in connection with the bombing of a furniture store He was the first to die after 66 days of not eating Sands was elected to a seat in Parliament whilst on Hunger Strike

bull Following Sandsrsquo death there were riots bus-burnings and attacks on the British embassy in the southern Republic of Ireland there were massive demonstrations in France and Italy a tomato was thrown as Queen Elizabeth II by demonstrators in Oslo and there were massive riots and civil disorder all over the streets of Belfast The South African ANC and (at the time) terrorist Nelson Mandela expressed their support for the PIRA and the hunger strikers (Mandela himself claimed he was directly inspired by Sands to undertake hunger strikes against the Apartheid government in South Africa) as well as the Palestine Liberation Organization a middle-eastern terror group

bull Over 100000 attended Sandsrsquo funeral

Bobby Sands

ldquoOur revenge will be the laughter of our childrenrdquo

Reaction to Sandsrsquo Death

>

Conclusion

bull The Hunger Strike was eventually called off after 10 strikers including Sands had died

bull James Prior newly installed secretary of state of Northern Ireland granted the prisoners partial concessions all of the Five Demands except for the right to not do prison work Margaret Thatcher refused to budge on political status

bull The Hunger Strikes opened a new way for the PIRA to pursue its objectives politically whereas previously it had seen violence as the only solution to the plight of Irish nationalists in Northern Ireland

1983 The Maze Prison Escape

The ldquoGreat Escaperdquo

bull Using smuggled-in guns and knives 38 PIRA prisoners who had been convicted of offenses ranging from murder to causing explosions escaped from one of the most high-security prisons in Europe They completely took over the H7 prison block and took their prison guards hostage before escaping in a food supply truck Several prison guards were shot and stabbed but only one died of a heart attack during the escape

bull Fifteen escapees were recaptured the first day with four more captured over the next two days following the breakout The remaining 19 were transported to PIRA strongholds and given the option to either rejoin the IRArsquos cause or be transported to the United States to live under a new identity

12 October 1984 Brighton Hotel Bombing

The PIRA Nearly Gets Thatcherbull Margaret Thatcher the highly controversial far-right British PM from

1979-1990 had become a tremendously hated figure amongst the Irish nationalist community in Northern Ireland following the 1981 Hunger Strikes and for her general uncompromising stand on Irish republicanism

bull PIRA man Patrick Magee stayed at the Brighton Hotel from the 14-17 September 1984 planting a 20-lb bomb under his bath

bull Thatcher was staying at the Brighton Hotel for a political conference and was still up at 254AM on 12 October when the bomb was detonated The bomb decimated her bathroom but left the bedroom and sitting room of her suite largely unscathed

bull The PIRA statement to Thatcher afterwards was ldquoToday we were unlucky But remember we only have to be lucky once You will have to be lucky alwaysrdquo

Loughgall Ambush 8 May 1987

The SAS Strikes

bull A botched attack on Loughgall Villagersquos RUC Police Base in which the PIRA drove a backhoe into the fortified base and ran away to detonate the bomb that was inside of the backhoe went wrong as the SAS the British Special Forces had prior knowledge of the attack and quickly dispatched the 8 PIRA members involved

bull Although the RUC base was wrecked and bombed there were no RUC or SAS casualties and it was the PIRArsquos greatest loss of life in a single incident during the Troubles

British Army Lynx Shootdown 20 March 1994

The PIRA Shoots Down a Helicopter

bull Using the previously mentioned Barrack-Buster homemade mortar PIRA insurgents were able to fire on a British helicopter that was in the process of landing whilst hiding behind a hay bail from around 150 yards out

bull The helicopter was hit with the mortar shell around 100 feet above the ground but the pilot was able to successfully crash-land the helicopter and escape before its propane tanks exploded There were no casualties but the attack was a major propaganda coup for the PIRA

1996 Manchester Bombing

The PIRA Destroys Manchester

bull On Saturday 15 June 1996 the PIRA sent in telephoned warnings and 90 minutes later detonated a 3300lb fertilizer-based truck bomb in the heart of Manchester City Centre the biggest bomb detonated in Great Britain during peacetime The bomb killed nobody due to previous warnings but led to 212 non-fatal injuries and essentially destroyed Manchester City Centre leaving approximately 700 million pounds ($12bn) worth of damage in its wake

Omagh Bombing 1998

Last Great Deadly Attack of the Troubles

bull Perpetrated by a Provisional IRA splinter group that was rejecting the peace process calling themselves the ldquoReal IRArdquo the 510lb fertilizer-based bomb was placed on main street in the town of Omagh Northern Ireland Warnings were called in approximately 30 minutes before the bombing but they were inaccurate and police ended up moving more civilians towards the bomb which ended up killing 29 people and causing over 300 non-fatal injuries This was the highest death toll from a single incident during the Troubles

bull It received universal outrage and was condemned even by the PIRA and its political wing Sinn Fein It spurred on the Northern Ireland peace process and the RIRA apologized and called a ceasefire several days after

The Good Friday Agreement and Northern Ireland Peace Process

Beginningsbull Following the 1981 Hunger Strikes Irish republicans began to

increasingly look towards politics rather than violence as a means of achieving their aims Sinn Fein gaelic for ldquoWe Ourselvesrdquo was a fiercely Irish Republican political party which led by the Machiavellian former PIRA leader and Maze inmate Gerry Adams began to push for a more peaceful solution to the Troubles in Northern Ireland

bull It became apparent by the late 1990s that although the PIRA was not losing a war against the British establishment it would be impossible to truly lsquowin the fightrsquo through violence and that any further terrorism would serve not to achieve any real political aim but only to prolong and continue suffering and violence in Northern Ireland and that politics was a much better way of achieving Republican aims

Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein former PIRA Belfast Brigade OC

Good Friday Agreement 1998

bull The Peace Process began in 1994 and included intermittent terrorist ceasefires and political negotiations between the major Irish republican and British unionist parties and culminated on April 10 1998 when the Good Friday Agreement was signed

PM Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern Sign the GFA

GFA Mandatesbull That Northern Ireland was to remain British until a majority of people in Northern

Ireland and the southern Republic of Ireland wanted otherwise bull The creation of an entirely new far less sectarian and religiously diverse Northern

Irish local governmentbull The decommissioning of arms from terrorist groups on both the unionist and

nationalist side of the political divide (ultimately successful all arms decommissioned by 2005)

bull Mutual respect and civil rights between Catholics and Protestants bull The reduction and eventual elimination of British troops in Northern Ireland

(ultimately successful all troops withdrawn by 2005)bull Eventual early prison release for all individuals imprisoned for terrorist offenses as

long as they were apart of a terrorist group that was decommissioning in accordance with the GFA

bull Disbandment of the RUC police service and the installation of the new Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) which was required to be at least 50 Catholic

Northern Ireland Today

Still Conflict But No Warbull Since the complete decommissioning of the arms and

disbandment of the PIRA INLA UDAUFF and UVF due to the Good Friday Agreement there is nowhere near the amount of violence in Northern Ireland or Belfast as there was 20 years ago There are no more weekly bombings and riots and no more British troops patrolling Catholic areas in armored vehicles

bull Despite this there are still occasional riots and clashes with the PSNI several times a year specifically on dates of great historical significance to the Catholic or Protestant communities and there is still a deep distrust and even hatred between many Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland although that continues to change with time

Catholic Slum of Ardoyne Belfast July 2011

Splinter Groups

bull Many former PIRA or UDA terrorists have now taken to organized crime for purely profiteering purposes but are no longer involved in substantial violence or any political-based terrorism

bull Splinter groups such as the Real IRA and Continuity IRA in Catholic communities and the Orange Volunteers and Red Hand Commandos in Protestant communities still conduct occasional violence towards Police and civilians in Northern Ireland but are all rather small poorly armed and poorly funded groups that pose nowhere near the threat that terrorist groups in the 80s and 90s did in Northern Ireland

Herersquos To A Brighter Future in Northern Ireland

Works Citedbull httpwwwbbccoukhistorytroublesbull httpcainulstacukbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiProvisional_Irish_Republican_Armybull httpenwikipediaorgwikiThe_Troublesbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiUlster_Defence_Associationbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiUlster_Volunteer_Forcebull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_National_Liberation_Armybull ldquoA Secret History of the IRArdquo by Ed Moloney ndashWW Norton amp Company Reprint 2003bull ldquoVoices From The Grave Two Menrsquos War in Irelandrdquo by Ed Moloney ndash Public Affairs 2010bull ldquoFifty Dead Men Walkingrdquo by Martin McGartland ndash John Blake 2009bull httpwwwinfopleasecomspotnorthireland1htmlbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_Civil_Warbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_War_of_Independencebull httpenwikipediaorgwiki1981_Irish_hunger_strikebull httpenwikipediaorgwikiDirectory_of_the_Northern_Ireland_Troublesbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiGood_Friday_Agreementbull httpswwwmi5govukhomethe-threatsterrorismnorthern-irelandrepublican-terrorist-groupshtmlbull httpswwwmi5govukhomethe-threatsterrorismnorthern-irelandprovisional-irish-republican-army-

pirahtmlbull httpnewsbbccoukhienglishstaticnorthern_irelandunderstandingeventshunger_strikestm

  • The Troubles
  • Brief Overview
  • 30 Years of Conflict
  • Slide 4
  • Background
  • The Irish War of Independence
  • Slide 7
  • Anglo-Irish Treaty (signed 6 December 1921)
  • Irish Civil War
  • 1922-1966 Ireland
  • The Civil Rights Movement
  • Slide 12
  • Slide 13
  • Objectives of the Civil Rights Movement
  • The 1969 Northern Ireland Riots ndashThe Troubles Begin
  • Culmination of Tension
  • No-Go Areas
  • No-Go Areas (2)
  • Early 1970sndash The Rise of the Provisional IRA
  • The IRA Split
  • Rise of the UVF and Loyalist Terror Groups
  • Beginnings
  • UVF Statement 21 May 1964
  • The Paramilitaries
  • Irish RepublicansCatholics
  • The Provisional IRA
  • IRA Statement Late 80s
  • Statistics
  • RecruitmentFunding
  • Weaponry
  • Weaponry (2)
  • Slide 32
  • Mortars and IEDs
  • EOD Officer Approaches PIRA Car Bomb
  • The Barrack Buster
  • Vigilantism
  • Slide 37
  • Slide 38
  • Policy on Informants
  • Terrorist Activities
  • Terrorist Activities (continued)
  • The INLA
  • Statistics (2)
  • Ideology
  • Terrorist Activities (2)
  • Internal Feuds
  • Slide 47
  • British LoyalistsProtestants
  • The UDAUFF
  • Former UFF Member
  • Statistics (3)
  • Ideology (2)
  • Terrorist Activities (3)
  • Slide 54
  • Organized Crime
  • The UVF
  • Statistics (4)
  • Ideology (3)
  • Terrorist Activities (4)
  • The Shankhill Butchers
  • Weaponry (3)
  • Slide 62
  • Organized Crime (2)
  • Major Incidents 1969-1998
  • Bloody Sunday 30 January 1972
  • Massacre on the Bogside
  • Bloody Friday 21 July 1972
  • A City Under Siege
  • Dublin and Monaghan Bombings 17 May 1974
  • Deadliest Attack of the Troubles
  • Warrenpoint Ambush 27 August 1979
  • Roadside IEDs
  • Summer of 1981 Irish Hunger Strikes
  • A Defining Moment for the Republican Cause
  • The Five Demands
  • Previous Protests
  • Dirty Protesters
  • Thatcherrsquos Response
  • Ten Strikers Die
  • Bobby Sands
  • Reaction to Sandsrsquo Death
  • Conclusion
  • 1983 The Maze Prison Escape
  • The ldquoGreat Escaperdquo
  • 12 October 1984 Brighton Hotel Bombing
  • The PIRA Nearly Gets Thatcher
  • Loughgall Ambush 8 May 1987
  • The SAS Strikes
  • British Army Lynx Shootdown 20 March 1994
  • The PIRA Shoots Down a Helicopter
  • 1996 Manchester Bombing
  • The PIRA Destroys Manchester
  • Omagh Bombing 1998
  • Last Great Deadly Attack of the Troubles
  • The Good Friday Agreement and Northern Ireland Peace Process
  • Beginnings (2)
  • Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein former PIRA Belfast Brigade OC
  • Good Friday Agreement 1998
  • PM Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern Sign the GFA
  • GFA Mandates
  • Northern Ireland Today
  • Still Conflict But No War
  • Catholic Slum of Ardoyne Belfast July 2011
  • Splinter Groups
  • Herersquos To A Brighter Future in Northern Ireland
  • Works Cited
Page 8: The Troubles, 1969-1998

Irish Civil WarThe Anglo-Irish Treaty was so controversial that it led to a 10-month civil war in Ireland immediately following itrsquos signing The newly established Irish National Army consisting of many former IRA guerrillas fought the more hardline anti-treaty IRA who felt the Anglo-Irish Treaty betrayed the ideals of the Easter Rising The Irish National Army who was supported by the British easily crushed the anti-treaty IRA

1922-1966 Irelandbull A legacy of the Irish Civil War was the

survival of a marginalized remnant of the IRA Illegal in both Northern Ireland and the Irish Free State and ideologically committed to overthrowing them both the IRA from 1922 to 1966 existed primarily as a secret society with the exception of the failed Northern Campaign of 1942 and the failed Border Campaign between 1956 and 1962 during both of which the IRA assassinated several police officers around the Northern Irish border before declaring each respective campaign a failure

The Civil Rights Movement

bull The NICRA (Northern Irish Civil Rights Association) was formed in 1966 to protest discrimination against Irish Catholics in Northern Ireland Drew significant parallels with the African-American Civil Rights movement in the United States during that time

bull The Civil Rights Movement was peaceful and sought to end discrimination against Irish Catholics and Irish nationalists by the Protestant and Unionist local self-government of Northern Ireland

Objectives of the Civil Rights Movementbull End job discrimination (Catholicsnationalists unlikely to be given certain jobs

especially government jobs)bull Public housing to be allocated based on need rather than religiouspolitical views

(unionist-controlled local councils allocated housing to Protestant unionists ahead of Catholic nationalists)

bull ldquoOne Man One Voterdquo Policy ndash in Northern Ireland only householders could vote in local elections whereas in the rest of the UK all adults could vote

bull An end to gerrymandering of electoral boundaries giving nationalists less electoral power than unionists even in areas where nationalists were the majority

bull Reform of the RUC or Royal Ulster Constabulary the Northern Irish police force which was almost 100 Protestant and disbandment of the B-Specials special police force also exclusively protestant Both of which were heavily accused of police brutality and sectarianism

bull Repeal of the Special Powers Actndash which allowed police to search without a warrant arrest and imprison people without chargetrial ban any assemblies or parades and ban any publications The Act was used almost exclusively against Catholics

bull The Civil Rights movement was violently repressed by police and met with fierce political resistance from the unionist government

The 1969 Northern Ireland Riots ndashThe Troubles Begin

Culmination of Tensionbull The Tensions between Catholics and Protestants culminated in August of

1969 bull ldquoThe Battle of The Bogsiderdquo ndash Loyalists were allowed to march through the

Catholic neighborhood of Derry in a provocative parade This led to Catholic resistance who began throwing stones and bricks at the parade The RUC was then deployed to put down Catholic rioters and laid siege to the Catholic community of Bogside releasing over 1100 canisters of tear gas in the Bogside from August 12 to 14 Catholics in turn set up barricades and were ultimately successful in repelling the police from their communities The Bogside region of Derry would go on to exist as a lsquono go arearsquo for both Northern Irish and British security forces and existed as an autonomous independent nationalist district from 1969 to 1972

bull The Battle of the Bogside and the ensuing violence that raged from August 12-17 across Northern Ireland caused the displacement of approximately 1820 families and the destruction of 150+ Catholic homes

bull It also led to the deployment of the British military to Ulster in what was intended to be a short several weeklong peacekeeping engagement It would turn out to be a 30 year deployment

No-Go Areas

No-Go Areasbull No-Go Areas existed from 1969 to 1972 in Belfast and Derry in

Catholic nationalist neighborhoods in which barricades and militant residents prevented the police forces or British Army from entering

bull The Barricades were demolished and control ldquoofficiallyrdquo restored in the British Operation Motorman in 1972 in which the British Army used tanks to destroy the barricades and reestablish control However the no-go status was generally maintained and police and security forces still rarely entered certain Irish Catholic neighborhoods throughout the duration of the Troubles except in very hostile circumstances such as in the case of an arrest or military engagement

bull Day-to-day policing of these areas was generally controlled by terrorist groups

Early 1970sndash The Rise of the Provisional IRA

The IRA Splitbull The IRA that had existed largely in silence for the past 50 years began to rearm

and militarize itself once again by 1969 in order to protect Catholic nationalist communities in Northern Ireland in wake of the police brutality and sectarian violence that they had began to increasingly experience

bull In the 1960s the IRA had come under the significant influence of Marxist and Socialist thinkers This led the IRA to split in 1969 into the Official IRA and the Provisional IRA ndash the provisionals named for their ldquoProvisional Army Councilrdquo

bull The Official IRA was highly socialistMarxist and prescribed to the idea that class differences were causing the strife in Northern Ireland whilst the Provisional IRA was less interested in socialism and more concerned simply with British presence in Northern Ireland considering it to be the root of all the problems

bull The Official IRA would eventually fade out by 1972 while the Provisional IRA would go on to become the most feared terrorist organization in 20th Century Europe and launch a 30-year campaign against the British presence in Northern Ireland

Rise of the UVF and Loyalist Terror Groups

Beginningsbull The UVF (Ulster Volunteer Force) was formed in 1964 as a continuation

of the Ulster Volunteers that existed from 1912-1914 in Northern Ireland who intended to violently resist any attempts by the British government to release Ulster from the Union

bull It was reformed in rsquo64 by former British soldier Gusty Spence after he and his men burned to the ground a Catholic-owned pub on the loyalist Shankhill Road

bull The Ulster unionists feared that with the ongoing civil rights movement a potential return of the IRA in Northern Ireland could be possible The UVF and other loyalist paramilitary groups such as the UDA and UFF were thus created and seen as vigilantes and defenders of Protestant communities However most of their targets throughout the 30-year Troubles were simply innocent Catholic civilians

UVF Statement 21 May 1964

bull ldquoFrom this day we declare war against the Irish Republican Army and its splinter groups Known IRA men will be executed mercilessly and without hesitation Less extreme measures will be taken against anyone sheltering or helping them but if they persist in giving them aid then more extreme methods will be adopted we solemnly warn the authorities to make no more speeches of appeasement We are heavily armed Protestants dedicated to this causerdquo

The Paramilitaries

Irish RepublicansCatholics

The Provisional IRA

IRA Statement Late 80s

>

Statistics

bull Suffered 293 Casualtiesbull Over 10000 members imprisoned on various charges

throughout the conflictbull Killed 656 members of the British Armed Forcesbull Killed 272 Members of the Royal Ulster Constabulary

(RUC) Police Forcebull Killed 44 members of loyalistprotestant terror groupsbull Killed between 620-650 civiliansbull Killed over 1500 people

RecruitmentFundingbull IRA recruitment in Catholic neighborhoods was similar to the phenomenon

of gang membership in the inner-city United States Young Catholics typically joined to create a sense of belonging to seem ldquohardrdquo or look ldquocoolrdquo to feel protected from the brutality of the RUC during the Troubles or to help defend their communities IRA members were not asked to join but volunteered

bull IRA lsquofunds-raisingrsquo activities included collecting protection money from Catholic businesses (a ldquorevolutionary taxrdquo) robbing banks kidnapping citizens for ransom and cigarette and gasoline smuggling across the Irish border (manipulating the differing tax prices on both sides of the border and selling fuel and cigarettes illicitly) Although the Provisional IRA has officially disbanded and no longer engages in terrorism there is substantial evidence that extortion rackets in poor Catholic neighborhoods and contraband smuggling operations along the border still exist in Northern Ireland and are run by former IRA men solely for profiteering purposes

Weaponry

bull The Provisional IRA obtained a significant amount of arms from both Irish-American supporters in the northeastern United States (including members of notorious gangster Whitey Bulgerrsquos Irish Mob in 1970s-80s Boston) and from the Libyan government under Muammar Gadaffi

bull Gadaffi took over in Libya in 1969 and initially armed the IRA seeing them as comrades-in-arms fighting British imperialism Connections re-emerged in 1986 after the Thatcher Administrationrsquos support of the US bombings of Libya that killed Gadaffirsquos adopted daughter

Weaponrybull When the IRA disarmed as part of the Good Friday Agreement in

1998 (more on that later) they released the following to the British Armed Forces

bull 1000 Rifles (AK-47s AR-15s etc)bull 3 Tons of Semtex (a general-purpose plastic explosive)bull 20-30 Heavy Machine Gunsbull 7 Surface-to-Air Missilesbull 7 Flamethrowersbull 1200 Detonatorsbull 20 RPGrsquosbull 100 Handgunsbull 100+ Hand Grenades

Mortars and IEDsbull The PIRA was incredibly proficient at bomb-making and made

extensive use of Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) during their 30 year campaign

bull IEDs were typically constructed with chemical mixes of fertilizer gasoline and other home-made components Libyan Semtex was also used in several heavy-duty bombs Nails and gunpowder were typically implemented in pipe bombs made out of metal pipes Most IEDs had built in countermeasures such as the mercury tilt switch which would cause the bomb to explode if moved at all should a British EOD officer attempt to dismantle it

bull The PIRA developed the ldquoBarrack Busterrdquo mortar in the late lsquo70s or a homemade mortar made up of common household materials that was used to attack several Army bases from afar and even Prime Minister Margaret Thatcherrsquos househellip 10 Downing Street in a 1991 attack that destroyed the Prime Ministerrsquos rear garden (the mortar was fired out the back of a nearby van)

EOD Officer Approaches PIRA Car Bomb

The Barrack Buster

>

Vigilantismbull The RUC was not trusted in Catholic neighborhoods throughout the

Troubles and did not regularly patrol or even enter them in urban areas of Northern Ireland Thus when there was a community drug dealer car thief burglar rapist or pedophile the IRA took it upon themselves to issue brutal street justice to those involved

bull Occasionally offering warnings for lesser offences such as petty thievery or drug dealing if the IRA had enough of a certain member of the community they perceived as anti-social he or she was usually jumped brutally beaten andor lsquokneecappedrsquo ndash one of the IRArsquos most notorious methods ndash in which the victim was pinned down and shot through the kneecaps with a firearm or occasionally had their kneecaps drilled through with power-drills Other methods included releasing starving Rottweilerrsquos on the offender dropping cinderblocks on the offenderrsquos hands or even tarring and feathering the offender The IRArsquos process in determining an individualrsquos guilt was never open to scrutiny

bull If the offender persisted after an IRA punishment he was then given a notice by the IRA to leave the country as soon as possiblehellip referred to as being ldquoput outrdquo of the community If the offender still did not leave he was murdered

Policy on Informantsbull In an effort to stamp out collusion with the British forces and informants on the

IRA the IRA was responsible for torturing and killing several accused Catholic civilians throughout the conflict

bull Investigations into collusion infiltration and informants were carried out by the Internal Security Unit of the IRA colloquially known as the ldquoNutting Squadrdquo

bull The ISU would carry out debriefings of IRA prisoners upon their release from British detention so as to discover whether or not they had lsquocrackedrsquo and released information to British interrogators

bull Typical ISU torture techniques on those accused of informing included drowning genitalnipple mutilation electrocution with livewires pouring kerosene on the accusedrsquos legs before setting fire to them and branding with hot irons Informants were always killed afterwards with a bullet through the back of the head

bull Of the 18 ldquoDisappearedrdquo accused informants that were abducted and executed by the IRA during the Troubles only 10 bodies have been found

bull Martin McGartland was an IRA informant who was estimated to have saved 50 lives in the conflict before he was discovered and abducted by the ISU He escaped and lives today in seclusion The film ldquo50 Dead Men Walkingrdquo is based on his exploits and is an excellent realistic non-romanticized take on the Troubles in Northern Ireland

Terrorist Activitiesbull Common tactics included breaking into the homes of off-duty RUC police

officers and murdering them in their beds or setting booby-trap bombs underneath RUC police officersrsquo cars and unionist politiciansrsquo cars so that they would blow up as the engine was started RUC men were typically targeted when they were off-duty and many were shot dead in front of their families The PIRA would also impersonate innocent Catholic civilians call the police to report an emergency and ambush the police from hidden positions when they arrived at the stated address (another reason the RUC was hesitant to go into Catholic neighborhoods during this period)

bull Most notorious for their bombings they would typically park car bombs in predominately Protestant communities call in the bomb threat so that the area would be evacuated and an EOD squad would arrive to dismantle it the bomb would then be detonated with hopes of killing an EOD officer and destroying Protestant housing tenements

bull The PIRA rarely intentionally targeted civilians especially in the 80srsquo and 90srsquo but were involved in the bombings of several Protestant-owned pubs during the 1970s in response to loyalist terrorist groups bombing Catholic-owned pubs They also carried out the Kingsmill massacre in 1976 in which eleven Protestant workmen that were traveling on a minibus were held up by the IRA and all individually executed in response to the execution of six Catholic civilians by the UVF the night before

Terrorist Activities (continued)bull Other activities included engaging in firefights with British squadrons as

they patrolled the countrysidestreets of urban areas sniper attacks on RUC or British Army patrolscheckpoints planting landmines along British foot patrol routes in rural areas planting roadside IEDs along British convoy routes and bombing ferries and buses containing on-or-off duty British soldiers

bull The notorious ldquohuman bombrdquo technique in which civilians or off-duty members of the British security forces were kidnapped and then forced to drive car bombs into British military targets ndash such as checkpoints and Army bases ndash after the PIRA had placed their familiesrsquo lives under threat

bull Inciting riots and providing Catholic youths with molotov cocktails (gasoline bombs) during such riots so as to maximize public disorder and destruction was also an almost daily IRA activity in Catholic communities in urban Northern Ireland

The INLA

Statistics

bull Suffered 33 casualtiesbull Killed 46 members of the British Security Forcesbull Killed 2 members of the Irish Security Forcesbull Killed 39 civiliansbull Killed 3 civilian political activistsbull Killed 16 members of rival Republican terror

groupsbull Killed 7 members of Loyalist terror groups

Ideology

bull Founded by Seamus Costello in 1974 as the military wing of the Irish Republican Socialist Party

bull Shared similar goals to the Provisional IRA but far more socialist in ideology INLA wanted a socialist united Irish republic and blamed class struggles for many of the problems in Northern Ireland whereas the PIRA simply wanted a united Irish republic and had little interest in class struggle or economics

bull Whereas the PIRA was almost exclusively Catholic the INLA had some Protestant members most of whom were involved for purely socialist reasons

Terrorist Activitiesbull Although far less powerful and bold than the PIRA the INLA

nevertheless presented a potent terrorist threat to the United Kingdom during the Troubles

bull Similar tactics to the IRA car bombings shooting off-duty police and soldiers dead and high-profile assassinations

bull Their most high-profile attacks included the car bomb assassination of Airey Neave one of Margaret Thatcherrsquos closest political supporters in 1979 the murder of infamous Loyalist terror leader Billy Wright (who was murdered by INLA inmates in a British political prison in 1997) and the Ballykelley Disco Bombing in 1982 in which the INLA bombed a disco-club frequented by off-duty British soldiers managing to kill 11 of them as well as 6 civilians as well as destroying the disco

Internal Feuds

bull A split in 1986 led the INLA to split into the INLA and the IPLO or Irish Peoplersquos Liberation Organization based on IPLO membersrsquo perceived lack of political motivation and heavy involvement in drug dealing and criminality

bull There were several retaliatory killings between the two groups that persisted until 1992 when the PIRA had enough of the IPLOrsquos involvement in drug dealing in Catholic areas of Belfast and on 31 October 1992 virtually destroyed the entire organization in one night with a series of raids killings and kneecappings that killed or crippled the majority of the grouprsquos members

British LoyalistsProtestants

The UDAUFF

Former UFF Member

>

Statistics

bull Suffered 89 casualtiesbull Killed 197 civiliansbull Killed 12 civilian political activistsbull Killed 37 members of rival loyalist terror

groupsbull Killed 11 members of republican terror groupsbull Killed 3 members of the British Security Forces

Ideology

bull The UDA or Ulster Defense Association and its military wing the Ulster Freedom Fighters (UFF) was a loyalist protestant terror squad that targeted PIRA and INLA members as well as general Catholic civilians in bombings and shootings throughout Northern Ireland

bull It pledged to end its campaign of violence whenever the IRA set down its arms yet should the UK government appease the IRA and grant a 32-county Irish Republic the UDA pledged to act as ldquothe IRA in reverserdquo

Terrorist Activitiesbull The UDA saw itself as a militia defending upstanding protestant loyalist

communities from dangerous and lower-class Catholics that were disrupting the status quo in Northern Ireland They pledged primarily to target IRA men but ended up killing a majority of Catholic civilians during the Troubles They were also known to intimidate and exile known Catholic families from predominately-Protestant communities in Belfast and other urban areas

bull Drive-by shootings shooting up or planting bombs in predominately-Catholic pubs and bars and jumping brutally beating andor kneecapping Catholic civilians were all frequent tactics

bull The UDA discreetly worked in collusion with the RUC and other British security agencies so as to track down and assassinate known IRA members They would also patrol Protestant neighborhoods alongside British soldiers at the height of the Troubles Many RUC police officers and prison guards were also UDA members

bull The UDA alongside many other loyalist paramilitaries benefitted from the import of several arms shipments from Lebanese arms dealers in the early 1970s including rocket launchers 200+ AK-47 Rifles 90+ handguns and over 400 grenades They also received various weapons such as the uzi submachine gun and explosive devices from arms dealers in the Soviet bloc in the 1980s

Organized Crime

bull The UDA and its members were also heavily involved in drug dealing from the street level to wholesale purchase primarily in MDMA and cannabis throughout the Troubles

bull Protection racketeering and money laundering were also common amongst the UDA in protestant communities

bull However should a member of a UDA-ran community begin stealing or dealing drugs without UDA consent he was abruptly branded as ldquoanti-socialrdquo and either killed or kneecapped

The UVF

Statistics

bull Suffered unknown number of casualtiesbull Killed 412 civiliansbull Killed 11 civilian political activistsbull Killed 21 members of republican terror groupsbull Killed 42 members of rival loyalist terror

groupsbull Killed 6 members of the Security Forces

Ideology

bull Similar to the UDAUFF the Ulster Volunteer Forcersquos primary aim was to combat Irish republicanism in Northern Ireland primarily the PIRA They wanted Northern Ireland to remain in the UK

Terrorist Activitiesbull The majority of UVF victims were Catholic civilians

many of whom were killed at random These attacks were intended to demoralize the IRA as the IRA drew most of its support from the Catholic community

bull Planting bombs in predominately-Catholic pubs or simply residential areas was a very frequent UVF tactic and in 1973 they detonated more bombs in Northern Ireland than the UDA and the PIRA combined Assassinations mass shootings booby-trap car bombs and kidnappings were also frequent UVF activities

The Shankhill Butchers

bull The ldquoShankhill Butchersrdquo were a notorious offshoot UVF group known for abducting and literally slitting the throats of Catholic civilians and rival loyalist terror groups in the late 1970s They were led by Lenny Murphy (who was eventually imprisoned and upon his release of a 4-year stint murdered by the PIRA) and killed 23 people most of whom were Catholic civilians Many experts liken the Shankhill Butchers more to a group of serial killers than to politically or even ethnically-motivated murderers

bull The Butchers were all eventually all either imprisoned killed by the PIRA or both

Weaponrybull The UVF received the majority of its weaponry in the late 1970s

from Armscor an apartheid-South Africa state-owned arms company which in defiance of various UN sanctions and embargoes sold them to the UVF

bull Weapons were thought to consist ofbull 200 Czech SA vz 58 Assault Riflesbull 90 Browning Pistolsbull 500 RGD-5 Frag Grenadesbull 30000 rounds of ammunitionbull 12 RPG-7 Rocket Launchers and 150+ Rocketsbull The UVF also began using the illegally-obtained mining explosive

Powergel in the early 1990s

Organized Crime

bull The UVF was also heavily involved in organized crime including protection racketeering and drug smugglingdealing including cannabis MDMA cocaine and amphetamines Bank robberies were also very frequent in the 1970s

Major Incidents 1969-1998

Bloody Sunday 30 January 1972

Massacre on the Bogsidebull In 1972 during a large scale but peaceful civil-rights march in the

troubled predominately Catholic neighborhood of Bogside in Derry 26 unarmed civil rights marchers were shot by members of the British Army 14 of whom were killed Five of those shot were shot in the back

bull After several inquiries into the incident there was found to have been no justifiable provocation from the protestors and no shots fired from the protestors during the march The massacre was conducted in full view of the public and the press

bull The PM David Cameron eventually issued a formal apology to the victims and victimsrsquo families of the massacre after several investigations failed to reveal any justifiable provocation for the massacre

bull The massacre sky-rocketed PIRA membership and recruitment as public perception of the British Army in Catholic communities in Northern Ireland reached an all-time low

Bloody Friday 21 July 1972

A City Under Siege

bull On 21 July 1972 the PIRA detonated 26 bombs in the space of 80 minutes in Belfast destroying banks bridges electrical substations Protestant housing tenements gasoline stations and private garages

bull Although warnings were called in at least 30 minutes prior to each bomb the amount of bombs exploding and the addition of multiple hoax warnings at the same time led to the Security Forces being unable to evacuate all the areas in time 11 people were killed and 130 were injured many of them horrifically mutilated Of those injured 77 were women or children

Dublin and Monaghan Bombings 17 May 1974

Deadliest Attack of the Troubles

bull Perpetrated by the UVF in the southern Republic of Ireland three car bombs exploded in Dublin during rush hour and another exploded in Monaghan around 90 minutes later

bull 33 civilians and a full-term unborn child were killed in the bombing while nearly 300 were injured The UVF did not claim responsibility for the bombings until 1993

bull The majority of those killed were young women although the age range of those killed ranged from 5 months old to 80 years old

Warrenpoint Ambush 27 August 1979

Roadside IEDsbull In the southern part of County Armagh Northern Ireland a predominately-

Catholic rural region and former PIRA stronghold right on the border with the southern Republic of Ireland a British troop convoy was hit with a remote-control detonated roadside 500lb truck-bomb and destroyed instantly killing 6 troops The surviving soldiers then wrongly believed they were under sniper fire from the other side of the Irish border and began firing at civilians immediately after the bombing killing 1 and injuring another

bull 32 minutes after the first bombing the IRA used its knowledge of how the British reacted to bombings to correctly predict that they would set up an incident-command point in a nearby gatehouse Unfortunately for the British there was a second 800lb fertilizer bomb planted near the gatehouse that when detonated killed 12 other soldiers who were responding to the initial bomb

bull It was the deadliest single attack on the British Army during the Troubles and a highly successful attack for the PIRA

Summer of 1981 Irish Hunger Strikes

A Defining Moment for the Republican Cause

bull Beginning on 1 March 1981 led by Bobby Sands 7 PIRA and 3 INLA inmates at the notorious ldquoMazerdquo prison began to refuse food until Margaret Thatcher PM of Great Britain at that time began to recognize terrorist prisoners as political prisoners and allowed them their ldquoFive Demandsrdquo

The Five Demands

bull The right to not wear a prison uniformbull The right to not do prison workbull The right of free association with other

prisoners and to organize in educational and recreational pursuits

bull Full restoration of remission lost through any protests towards these demands

Previous Protestsbull The Maze prison was a very high-security and low-quality prison that

housed almost all PIRA prisoners during the Troubles It was run in a very ethically questionable fashion with frequent beatings and borderline-torture techniques used on Republican prisoners and extremely poor living conditions for prisoners Many Maze prison guards were members of the UDAUVF or had strong connections with one of the two groups as well

bull Massive peaceful protests and marches by Irish republicans outside of the Maze Prison proved unsuccessful in attaining political status for republican prisoners as well as previous inmate protests in 1980 including non-fatal hunger strikes inmates refusing to wear prison uniforms and thus living in their cells naked and prisoners refusing to leave their cells to go to the bathroom until their requests had been granted (they therefore urinated and defecated in their cells and spread their excrement across their cell walls in what was known as the ldquoDirty Protestrdquo)

Dirty Protesters

Thatcherrsquos Response

bull ldquoThose terrorists will carry their determination to disrupt society to any lengths Once again we have a hunger strike in the Maze Prison in the quest for what they call lsquopolitical statusrsquo There is no such thing as political murder political bombing or political violence There is only criminal murder criminal bombing and criminal violence We will not compromise on this There will be no political statusrdquo

Ten Strikers Diebull Bobby Sands the leader of the strike was imprisoned as a PIRA member

on charges of firearm possession and in connection with the bombing of a furniture store He was the first to die after 66 days of not eating Sands was elected to a seat in Parliament whilst on Hunger Strike

bull Following Sandsrsquo death there were riots bus-burnings and attacks on the British embassy in the southern Republic of Ireland there were massive demonstrations in France and Italy a tomato was thrown as Queen Elizabeth II by demonstrators in Oslo and there were massive riots and civil disorder all over the streets of Belfast The South African ANC and (at the time) terrorist Nelson Mandela expressed their support for the PIRA and the hunger strikers (Mandela himself claimed he was directly inspired by Sands to undertake hunger strikes against the Apartheid government in South Africa) as well as the Palestine Liberation Organization a middle-eastern terror group

bull Over 100000 attended Sandsrsquo funeral

Bobby Sands

ldquoOur revenge will be the laughter of our childrenrdquo

Reaction to Sandsrsquo Death

>

Conclusion

bull The Hunger Strike was eventually called off after 10 strikers including Sands had died

bull James Prior newly installed secretary of state of Northern Ireland granted the prisoners partial concessions all of the Five Demands except for the right to not do prison work Margaret Thatcher refused to budge on political status

bull The Hunger Strikes opened a new way for the PIRA to pursue its objectives politically whereas previously it had seen violence as the only solution to the plight of Irish nationalists in Northern Ireland

1983 The Maze Prison Escape

The ldquoGreat Escaperdquo

bull Using smuggled-in guns and knives 38 PIRA prisoners who had been convicted of offenses ranging from murder to causing explosions escaped from one of the most high-security prisons in Europe They completely took over the H7 prison block and took their prison guards hostage before escaping in a food supply truck Several prison guards were shot and stabbed but only one died of a heart attack during the escape

bull Fifteen escapees were recaptured the first day with four more captured over the next two days following the breakout The remaining 19 were transported to PIRA strongholds and given the option to either rejoin the IRArsquos cause or be transported to the United States to live under a new identity

12 October 1984 Brighton Hotel Bombing

The PIRA Nearly Gets Thatcherbull Margaret Thatcher the highly controversial far-right British PM from

1979-1990 had become a tremendously hated figure amongst the Irish nationalist community in Northern Ireland following the 1981 Hunger Strikes and for her general uncompromising stand on Irish republicanism

bull PIRA man Patrick Magee stayed at the Brighton Hotel from the 14-17 September 1984 planting a 20-lb bomb under his bath

bull Thatcher was staying at the Brighton Hotel for a political conference and was still up at 254AM on 12 October when the bomb was detonated The bomb decimated her bathroom but left the bedroom and sitting room of her suite largely unscathed

bull The PIRA statement to Thatcher afterwards was ldquoToday we were unlucky But remember we only have to be lucky once You will have to be lucky alwaysrdquo

Loughgall Ambush 8 May 1987

The SAS Strikes

bull A botched attack on Loughgall Villagersquos RUC Police Base in which the PIRA drove a backhoe into the fortified base and ran away to detonate the bomb that was inside of the backhoe went wrong as the SAS the British Special Forces had prior knowledge of the attack and quickly dispatched the 8 PIRA members involved

bull Although the RUC base was wrecked and bombed there were no RUC or SAS casualties and it was the PIRArsquos greatest loss of life in a single incident during the Troubles

British Army Lynx Shootdown 20 March 1994

The PIRA Shoots Down a Helicopter

bull Using the previously mentioned Barrack-Buster homemade mortar PIRA insurgents were able to fire on a British helicopter that was in the process of landing whilst hiding behind a hay bail from around 150 yards out

bull The helicopter was hit with the mortar shell around 100 feet above the ground but the pilot was able to successfully crash-land the helicopter and escape before its propane tanks exploded There were no casualties but the attack was a major propaganda coup for the PIRA

1996 Manchester Bombing

The PIRA Destroys Manchester

bull On Saturday 15 June 1996 the PIRA sent in telephoned warnings and 90 minutes later detonated a 3300lb fertilizer-based truck bomb in the heart of Manchester City Centre the biggest bomb detonated in Great Britain during peacetime The bomb killed nobody due to previous warnings but led to 212 non-fatal injuries and essentially destroyed Manchester City Centre leaving approximately 700 million pounds ($12bn) worth of damage in its wake

Omagh Bombing 1998

Last Great Deadly Attack of the Troubles

bull Perpetrated by a Provisional IRA splinter group that was rejecting the peace process calling themselves the ldquoReal IRArdquo the 510lb fertilizer-based bomb was placed on main street in the town of Omagh Northern Ireland Warnings were called in approximately 30 minutes before the bombing but they were inaccurate and police ended up moving more civilians towards the bomb which ended up killing 29 people and causing over 300 non-fatal injuries This was the highest death toll from a single incident during the Troubles

bull It received universal outrage and was condemned even by the PIRA and its political wing Sinn Fein It spurred on the Northern Ireland peace process and the RIRA apologized and called a ceasefire several days after

The Good Friday Agreement and Northern Ireland Peace Process

Beginningsbull Following the 1981 Hunger Strikes Irish republicans began to

increasingly look towards politics rather than violence as a means of achieving their aims Sinn Fein gaelic for ldquoWe Ourselvesrdquo was a fiercely Irish Republican political party which led by the Machiavellian former PIRA leader and Maze inmate Gerry Adams began to push for a more peaceful solution to the Troubles in Northern Ireland

bull It became apparent by the late 1990s that although the PIRA was not losing a war against the British establishment it would be impossible to truly lsquowin the fightrsquo through violence and that any further terrorism would serve not to achieve any real political aim but only to prolong and continue suffering and violence in Northern Ireland and that politics was a much better way of achieving Republican aims

Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein former PIRA Belfast Brigade OC

Good Friday Agreement 1998

bull The Peace Process began in 1994 and included intermittent terrorist ceasefires and political negotiations between the major Irish republican and British unionist parties and culminated on April 10 1998 when the Good Friday Agreement was signed

PM Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern Sign the GFA

GFA Mandatesbull That Northern Ireland was to remain British until a majority of people in Northern

Ireland and the southern Republic of Ireland wanted otherwise bull The creation of an entirely new far less sectarian and religiously diverse Northern

Irish local governmentbull The decommissioning of arms from terrorist groups on both the unionist and

nationalist side of the political divide (ultimately successful all arms decommissioned by 2005)

bull Mutual respect and civil rights between Catholics and Protestants bull The reduction and eventual elimination of British troops in Northern Ireland

(ultimately successful all troops withdrawn by 2005)bull Eventual early prison release for all individuals imprisoned for terrorist offenses as

long as they were apart of a terrorist group that was decommissioning in accordance with the GFA

bull Disbandment of the RUC police service and the installation of the new Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) which was required to be at least 50 Catholic

Northern Ireland Today

Still Conflict But No Warbull Since the complete decommissioning of the arms and

disbandment of the PIRA INLA UDAUFF and UVF due to the Good Friday Agreement there is nowhere near the amount of violence in Northern Ireland or Belfast as there was 20 years ago There are no more weekly bombings and riots and no more British troops patrolling Catholic areas in armored vehicles

bull Despite this there are still occasional riots and clashes with the PSNI several times a year specifically on dates of great historical significance to the Catholic or Protestant communities and there is still a deep distrust and even hatred between many Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland although that continues to change with time

Catholic Slum of Ardoyne Belfast July 2011

Splinter Groups

bull Many former PIRA or UDA terrorists have now taken to organized crime for purely profiteering purposes but are no longer involved in substantial violence or any political-based terrorism

bull Splinter groups such as the Real IRA and Continuity IRA in Catholic communities and the Orange Volunteers and Red Hand Commandos in Protestant communities still conduct occasional violence towards Police and civilians in Northern Ireland but are all rather small poorly armed and poorly funded groups that pose nowhere near the threat that terrorist groups in the 80s and 90s did in Northern Ireland

Herersquos To A Brighter Future in Northern Ireland

Works Citedbull httpwwwbbccoukhistorytroublesbull httpcainulstacukbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiProvisional_Irish_Republican_Armybull httpenwikipediaorgwikiThe_Troublesbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiUlster_Defence_Associationbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiUlster_Volunteer_Forcebull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_National_Liberation_Armybull ldquoA Secret History of the IRArdquo by Ed Moloney ndashWW Norton amp Company Reprint 2003bull ldquoVoices From The Grave Two Menrsquos War in Irelandrdquo by Ed Moloney ndash Public Affairs 2010bull ldquoFifty Dead Men Walkingrdquo by Martin McGartland ndash John Blake 2009bull httpwwwinfopleasecomspotnorthireland1htmlbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_Civil_Warbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_War_of_Independencebull httpenwikipediaorgwiki1981_Irish_hunger_strikebull httpenwikipediaorgwikiDirectory_of_the_Northern_Ireland_Troublesbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiGood_Friday_Agreementbull httpswwwmi5govukhomethe-threatsterrorismnorthern-irelandrepublican-terrorist-groupshtmlbull httpswwwmi5govukhomethe-threatsterrorismnorthern-irelandprovisional-irish-republican-army-

pirahtmlbull httpnewsbbccoukhienglishstaticnorthern_irelandunderstandingeventshunger_strikestm

  • The Troubles
  • Brief Overview
  • 30 Years of Conflict
  • Slide 4
  • Background
  • The Irish War of Independence
  • Slide 7
  • Anglo-Irish Treaty (signed 6 December 1921)
  • Irish Civil War
  • 1922-1966 Ireland
  • The Civil Rights Movement
  • Slide 12
  • Slide 13
  • Objectives of the Civil Rights Movement
  • The 1969 Northern Ireland Riots ndashThe Troubles Begin
  • Culmination of Tension
  • No-Go Areas
  • No-Go Areas (2)
  • Early 1970sndash The Rise of the Provisional IRA
  • The IRA Split
  • Rise of the UVF and Loyalist Terror Groups
  • Beginnings
  • UVF Statement 21 May 1964
  • The Paramilitaries
  • Irish RepublicansCatholics
  • The Provisional IRA
  • IRA Statement Late 80s
  • Statistics
  • RecruitmentFunding
  • Weaponry
  • Weaponry (2)
  • Slide 32
  • Mortars and IEDs
  • EOD Officer Approaches PIRA Car Bomb
  • The Barrack Buster
  • Vigilantism
  • Slide 37
  • Slide 38
  • Policy on Informants
  • Terrorist Activities
  • Terrorist Activities (continued)
  • The INLA
  • Statistics (2)
  • Ideology
  • Terrorist Activities (2)
  • Internal Feuds
  • Slide 47
  • British LoyalistsProtestants
  • The UDAUFF
  • Former UFF Member
  • Statistics (3)
  • Ideology (2)
  • Terrorist Activities (3)
  • Slide 54
  • Organized Crime
  • The UVF
  • Statistics (4)
  • Ideology (3)
  • Terrorist Activities (4)
  • The Shankhill Butchers
  • Weaponry (3)
  • Slide 62
  • Organized Crime (2)
  • Major Incidents 1969-1998
  • Bloody Sunday 30 January 1972
  • Massacre on the Bogside
  • Bloody Friday 21 July 1972
  • A City Under Siege
  • Dublin and Monaghan Bombings 17 May 1974
  • Deadliest Attack of the Troubles
  • Warrenpoint Ambush 27 August 1979
  • Roadside IEDs
  • Summer of 1981 Irish Hunger Strikes
  • A Defining Moment for the Republican Cause
  • The Five Demands
  • Previous Protests
  • Dirty Protesters
  • Thatcherrsquos Response
  • Ten Strikers Die
  • Bobby Sands
  • Reaction to Sandsrsquo Death
  • Conclusion
  • 1983 The Maze Prison Escape
  • The ldquoGreat Escaperdquo
  • 12 October 1984 Brighton Hotel Bombing
  • The PIRA Nearly Gets Thatcher
  • Loughgall Ambush 8 May 1987
  • The SAS Strikes
  • British Army Lynx Shootdown 20 March 1994
  • The PIRA Shoots Down a Helicopter
  • 1996 Manchester Bombing
  • The PIRA Destroys Manchester
  • Omagh Bombing 1998
  • Last Great Deadly Attack of the Troubles
  • The Good Friday Agreement and Northern Ireland Peace Process
  • Beginnings (2)
  • Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein former PIRA Belfast Brigade OC
  • Good Friday Agreement 1998
  • PM Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern Sign the GFA
  • GFA Mandates
  • Northern Ireland Today
  • Still Conflict But No War
  • Catholic Slum of Ardoyne Belfast July 2011
  • Splinter Groups
  • Herersquos To A Brighter Future in Northern Ireland
  • Works Cited
Page 9: The Troubles, 1969-1998

1922-1966 Irelandbull A legacy of the Irish Civil War was the

survival of a marginalized remnant of the IRA Illegal in both Northern Ireland and the Irish Free State and ideologically committed to overthrowing them both the IRA from 1922 to 1966 existed primarily as a secret society with the exception of the failed Northern Campaign of 1942 and the failed Border Campaign between 1956 and 1962 during both of which the IRA assassinated several police officers around the Northern Irish border before declaring each respective campaign a failure

The Civil Rights Movement

bull The NICRA (Northern Irish Civil Rights Association) was formed in 1966 to protest discrimination against Irish Catholics in Northern Ireland Drew significant parallels with the African-American Civil Rights movement in the United States during that time

bull The Civil Rights Movement was peaceful and sought to end discrimination against Irish Catholics and Irish nationalists by the Protestant and Unionist local self-government of Northern Ireland

Objectives of the Civil Rights Movementbull End job discrimination (Catholicsnationalists unlikely to be given certain jobs

especially government jobs)bull Public housing to be allocated based on need rather than religiouspolitical views

(unionist-controlled local councils allocated housing to Protestant unionists ahead of Catholic nationalists)

bull ldquoOne Man One Voterdquo Policy ndash in Northern Ireland only householders could vote in local elections whereas in the rest of the UK all adults could vote

bull An end to gerrymandering of electoral boundaries giving nationalists less electoral power than unionists even in areas where nationalists were the majority

bull Reform of the RUC or Royal Ulster Constabulary the Northern Irish police force which was almost 100 Protestant and disbandment of the B-Specials special police force also exclusively protestant Both of which were heavily accused of police brutality and sectarianism

bull Repeal of the Special Powers Actndash which allowed police to search without a warrant arrest and imprison people without chargetrial ban any assemblies or parades and ban any publications The Act was used almost exclusively against Catholics

bull The Civil Rights movement was violently repressed by police and met with fierce political resistance from the unionist government

The 1969 Northern Ireland Riots ndashThe Troubles Begin

Culmination of Tensionbull The Tensions between Catholics and Protestants culminated in August of

1969 bull ldquoThe Battle of The Bogsiderdquo ndash Loyalists were allowed to march through the

Catholic neighborhood of Derry in a provocative parade This led to Catholic resistance who began throwing stones and bricks at the parade The RUC was then deployed to put down Catholic rioters and laid siege to the Catholic community of Bogside releasing over 1100 canisters of tear gas in the Bogside from August 12 to 14 Catholics in turn set up barricades and were ultimately successful in repelling the police from their communities The Bogside region of Derry would go on to exist as a lsquono go arearsquo for both Northern Irish and British security forces and existed as an autonomous independent nationalist district from 1969 to 1972

bull The Battle of the Bogside and the ensuing violence that raged from August 12-17 across Northern Ireland caused the displacement of approximately 1820 families and the destruction of 150+ Catholic homes

bull It also led to the deployment of the British military to Ulster in what was intended to be a short several weeklong peacekeeping engagement It would turn out to be a 30 year deployment

No-Go Areas

No-Go Areasbull No-Go Areas existed from 1969 to 1972 in Belfast and Derry in

Catholic nationalist neighborhoods in which barricades and militant residents prevented the police forces or British Army from entering

bull The Barricades were demolished and control ldquoofficiallyrdquo restored in the British Operation Motorman in 1972 in which the British Army used tanks to destroy the barricades and reestablish control However the no-go status was generally maintained and police and security forces still rarely entered certain Irish Catholic neighborhoods throughout the duration of the Troubles except in very hostile circumstances such as in the case of an arrest or military engagement

bull Day-to-day policing of these areas was generally controlled by terrorist groups

Early 1970sndash The Rise of the Provisional IRA

The IRA Splitbull The IRA that had existed largely in silence for the past 50 years began to rearm

and militarize itself once again by 1969 in order to protect Catholic nationalist communities in Northern Ireland in wake of the police brutality and sectarian violence that they had began to increasingly experience

bull In the 1960s the IRA had come under the significant influence of Marxist and Socialist thinkers This led the IRA to split in 1969 into the Official IRA and the Provisional IRA ndash the provisionals named for their ldquoProvisional Army Councilrdquo

bull The Official IRA was highly socialistMarxist and prescribed to the idea that class differences were causing the strife in Northern Ireland whilst the Provisional IRA was less interested in socialism and more concerned simply with British presence in Northern Ireland considering it to be the root of all the problems

bull The Official IRA would eventually fade out by 1972 while the Provisional IRA would go on to become the most feared terrorist organization in 20th Century Europe and launch a 30-year campaign against the British presence in Northern Ireland

Rise of the UVF and Loyalist Terror Groups

Beginningsbull The UVF (Ulster Volunteer Force) was formed in 1964 as a continuation

of the Ulster Volunteers that existed from 1912-1914 in Northern Ireland who intended to violently resist any attempts by the British government to release Ulster from the Union

bull It was reformed in rsquo64 by former British soldier Gusty Spence after he and his men burned to the ground a Catholic-owned pub on the loyalist Shankhill Road

bull The Ulster unionists feared that with the ongoing civil rights movement a potential return of the IRA in Northern Ireland could be possible The UVF and other loyalist paramilitary groups such as the UDA and UFF were thus created and seen as vigilantes and defenders of Protestant communities However most of their targets throughout the 30-year Troubles were simply innocent Catholic civilians

UVF Statement 21 May 1964

bull ldquoFrom this day we declare war against the Irish Republican Army and its splinter groups Known IRA men will be executed mercilessly and without hesitation Less extreme measures will be taken against anyone sheltering or helping them but if they persist in giving them aid then more extreme methods will be adopted we solemnly warn the authorities to make no more speeches of appeasement We are heavily armed Protestants dedicated to this causerdquo

The Paramilitaries

Irish RepublicansCatholics

The Provisional IRA

IRA Statement Late 80s

>

Statistics

bull Suffered 293 Casualtiesbull Over 10000 members imprisoned on various charges

throughout the conflictbull Killed 656 members of the British Armed Forcesbull Killed 272 Members of the Royal Ulster Constabulary

(RUC) Police Forcebull Killed 44 members of loyalistprotestant terror groupsbull Killed between 620-650 civiliansbull Killed over 1500 people

RecruitmentFundingbull IRA recruitment in Catholic neighborhoods was similar to the phenomenon

of gang membership in the inner-city United States Young Catholics typically joined to create a sense of belonging to seem ldquohardrdquo or look ldquocoolrdquo to feel protected from the brutality of the RUC during the Troubles or to help defend their communities IRA members were not asked to join but volunteered

bull IRA lsquofunds-raisingrsquo activities included collecting protection money from Catholic businesses (a ldquorevolutionary taxrdquo) robbing banks kidnapping citizens for ransom and cigarette and gasoline smuggling across the Irish border (manipulating the differing tax prices on both sides of the border and selling fuel and cigarettes illicitly) Although the Provisional IRA has officially disbanded and no longer engages in terrorism there is substantial evidence that extortion rackets in poor Catholic neighborhoods and contraband smuggling operations along the border still exist in Northern Ireland and are run by former IRA men solely for profiteering purposes

Weaponry

bull The Provisional IRA obtained a significant amount of arms from both Irish-American supporters in the northeastern United States (including members of notorious gangster Whitey Bulgerrsquos Irish Mob in 1970s-80s Boston) and from the Libyan government under Muammar Gadaffi

bull Gadaffi took over in Libya in 1969 and initially armed the IRA seeing them as comrades-in-arms fighting British imperialism Connections re-emerged in 1986 after the Thatcher Administrationrsquos support of the US bombings of Libya that killed Gadaffirsquos adopted daughter

Weaponrybull When the IRA disarmed as part of the Good Friday Agreement in

1998 (more on that later) they released the following to the British Armed Forces

bull 1000 Rifles (AK-47s AR-15s etc)bull 3 Tons of Semtex (a general-purpose plastic explosive)bull 20-30 Heavy Machine Gunsbull 7 Surface-to-Air Missilesbull 7 Flamethrowersbull 1200 Detonatorsbull 20 RPGrsquosbull 100 Handgunsbull 100+ Hand Grenades

Mortars and IEDsbull The PIRA was incredibly proficient at bomb-making and made

extensive use of Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) during their 30 year campaign

bull IEDs were typically constructed with chemical mixes of fertilizer gasoline and other home-made components Libyan Semtex was also used in several heavy-duty bombs Nails and gunpowder were typically implemented in pipe bombs made out of metal pipes Most IEDs had built in countermeasures such as the mercury tilt switch which would cause the bomb to explode if moved at all should a British EOD officer attempt to dismantle it

bull The PIRA developed the ldquoBarrack Busterrdquo mortar in the late lsquo70s or a homemade mortar made up of common household materials that was used to attack several Army bases from afar and even Prime Minister Margaret Thatcherrsquos househellip 10 Downing Street in a 1991 attack that destroyed the Prime Ministerrsquos rear garden (the mortar was fired out the back of a nearby van)

EOD Officer Approaches PIRA Car Bomb

The Barrack Buster

>

Vigilantismbull The RUC was not trusted in Catholic neighborhoods throughout the

Troubles and did not regularly patrol or even enter them in urban areas of Northern Ireland Thus when there was a community drug dealer car thief burglar rapist or pedophile the IRA took it upon themselves to issue brutal street justice to those involved

bull Occasionally offering warnings for lesser offences such as petty thievery or drug dealing if the IRA had enough of a certain member of the community they perceived as anti-social he or she was usually jumped brutally beaten andor lsquokneecappedrsquo ndash one of the IRArsquos most notorious methods ndash in which the victim was pinned down and shot through the kneecaps with a firearm or occasionally had their kneecaps drilled through with power-drills Other methods included releasing starving Rottweilerrsquos on the offender dropping cinderblocks on the offenderrsquos hands or even tarring and feathering the offender The IRArsquos process in determining an individualrsquos guilt was never open to scrutiny

bull If the offender persisted after an IRA punishment he was then given a notice by the IRA to leave the country as soon as possiblehellip referred to as being ldquoput outrdquo of the community If the offender still did not leave he was murdered

Policy on Informantsbull In an effort to stamp out collusion with the British forces and informants on the

IRA the IRA was responsible for torturing and killing several accused Catholic civilians throughout the conflict

bull Investigations into collusion infiltration and informants were carried out by the Internal Security Unit of the IRA colloquially known as the ldquoNutting Squadrdquo

bull The ISU would carry out debriefings of IRA prisoners upon their release from British detention so as to discover whether or not they had lsquocrackedrsquo and released information to British interrogators

bull Typical ISU torture techniques on those accused of informing included drowning genitalnipple mutilation electrocution with livewires pouring kerosene on the accusedrsquos legs before setting fire to them and branding with hot irons Informants were always killed afterwards with a bullet through the back of the head

bull Of the 18 ldquoDisappearedrdquo accused informants that were abducted and executed by the IRA during the Troubles only 10 bodies have been found

bull Martin McGartland was an IRA informant who was estimated to have saved 50 lives in the conflict before he was discovered and abducted by the ISU He escaped and lives today in seclusion The film ldquo50 Dead Men Walkingrdquo is based on his exploits and is an excellent realistic non-romanticized take on the Troubles in Northern Ireland

Terrorist Activitiesbull Common tactics included breaking into the homes of off-duty RUC police

officers and murdering them in their beds or setting booby-trap bombs underneath RUC police officersrsquo cars and unionist politiciansrsquo cars so that they would blow up as the engine was started RUC men were typically targeted when they were off-duty and many were shot dead in front of their families The PIRA would also impersonate innocent Catholic civilians call the police to report an emergency and ambush the police from hidden positions when they arrived at the stated address (another reason the RUC was hesitant to go into Catholic neighborhoods during this period)

bull Most notorious for their bombings they would typically park car bombs in predominately Protestant communities call in the bomb threat so that the area would be evacuated and an EOD squad would arrive to dismantle it the bomb would then be detonated with hopes of killing an EOD officer and destroying Protestant housing tenements

bull The PIRA rarely intentionally targeted civilians especially in the 80srsquo and 90srsquo but were involved in the bombings of several Protestant-owned pubs during the 1970s in response to loyalist terrorist groups bombing Catholic-owned pubs They also carried out the Kingsmill massacre in 1976 in which eleven Protestant workmen that were traveling on a minibus were held up by the IRA and all individually executed in response to the execution of six Catholic civilians by the UVF the night before

Terrorist Activities (continued)bull Other activities included engaging in firefights with British squadrons as

they patrolled the countrysidestreets of urban areas sniper attacks on RUC or British Army patrolscheckpoints planting landmines along British foot patrol routes in rural areas planting roadside IEDs along British convoy routes and bombing ferries and buses containing on-or-off duty British soldiers

bull The notorious ldquohuman bombrdquo technique in which civilians or off-duty members of the British security forces were kidnapped and then forced to drive car bombs into British military targets ndash such as checkpoints and Army bases ndash after the PIRA had placed their familiesrsquo lives under threat

bull Inciting riots and providing Catholic youths with molotov cocktails (gasoline bombs) during such riots so as to maximize public disorder and destruction was also an almost daily IRA activity in Catholic communities in urban Northern Ireland

The INLA

Statistics

bull Suffered 33 casualtiesbull Killed 46 members of the British Security Forcesbull Killed 2 members of the Irish Security Forcesbull Killed 39 civiliansbull Killed 3 civilian political activistsbull Killed 16 members of rival Republican terror

groupsbull Killed 7 members of Loyalist terror groups

Ideology

bull Founded by Seamus Costello in 1974 as the military wing of the Irish Republican Socialist Party

bull Shared similar goals to the Provisional IRA but far more socialist in ideology INLA wanted a socialist united Irish republic and blamed class struggles for many of the problems in Northern Ireland whereas the PIRA simply wanted a united Irish republic and had little interest in class struggle or economics

bull Whereas the PIRA was almost exclusively Catholic the INLA had some Protestant members most of whom were involved for purely socialist reasons

Terrorist Activitiesbull Although far less powerful and bold than the PIRA the INLA

nevertheless presented a potent terrorist threat to the United Kingdom during the Troubles

bull Similar tactics to the IRA car bombings shooting off-duty police and soldiers dead and high-profile assassinations

bull Their most high-profile attacks included the car bomb assassination of Airey Neave one of Margaret Thatcherrsquos closest political supporters in 1979 the murder of infamous Loyalist terror leader Billy Wright (who was murdered by INLA inmates in a British political prison in 1997) and the Ballykelley Disco Bombing in 1982 in which the INLA bombed a disco-club frequented by off-duty British soldiers managing to kill 11 of them as well as 6 civilians as well as destroying the disco

Internal Feuds

bull A split in 1986 led the INLA to split into the INLA and the IPLO or Irish Peoplersquos Liberation Organization based on IPLO membersrsquo perceived lack of political motivation and heavy involvement in drug dealing and criminality

bull There were several retaliatory killings between the two groups that persisted until 1992 when the PIRA had enough of the IPLOrsquos involvement in drug dealing in Catholic areas of Belfast and on 31 October 1992 virtually destroyed the entire organization in one night with a series of raids killings and kneecappings that killed or crippled the majority of the grouprsquos members

British LoyalistsProtestants

The UDAUFF

Former UFF Member

>

Statistics

bull Suffered 89 casualtiesbull Killed 197 civiliansbull Killed 12 civilian political activistsbull Killed 37 members of rival loyalist terror

groupsbull Killed 11 members of republican terror groupsbull Killed 3 members of the British Security Forces

Ideology

bull The UDA or Ulster Defense Association and its military wing the Ulster Freedom Fighters (UFF) was a loyalist protestant terror squad that targeted PIRA and INLA members as well as general Catholic civilians in bombings and shootings throughout Northern Ireland

bull It pledged to end its campaign of violence whenever the IRA set down its arms yet should the UK government appease the IRA and grant a 32-county Irish Republic the UDA pledged to act as ldquothe IRA in reverserdquo

Terrorist Activitiesbull The UDA saw itself as a militia defending upstanding protestant loyalist

communities from dangerous and lower-class Catholics that were disrupting the status quo in Northern Ireland They pledged primarily to target IRA men but ended up killing a majority of Catholic civilians during the Troubles They were also known to intimidate and exile known Catholic families from predominately-Protestant communities in Belfast and other urban areas

bull Drive-by shootings shooting up or planting bombs in predominately-Catholic pubs and bars and jumping brutally beating andor kneecapping Catholic civilians were all frequent tactics

bull The UDA discreetly worked in collusion with the RUC and other British security agencies so as to track down and assassinate known IRA members They would also patrol Protestant neighborhoods alongside British soldiers at the height of the Troubles Many RUC police officers and prison guards were also UDA members

bull The UDA alongside many other loyalist paramilitaries benefitted from the import of several arms shipments from Lebanese arms dealers in the early 1970s including rocket launchers 200+ AK-47 Rifles 90+ handguns and over 400 grenades They also received various weapons such as the uzi submachine gun and explosive devices from arms dealers in the Soviet bloc in the 1980s

Organized Crime

bull The UDA and its members were also heavily involved in drug dealing from the street level to wholesale purchase primarily in MDMA and cannabis throughout the Troubles

bull Protection racketeering and money laundering were also common amongst the UDA in protestant communities

bull However should a member of a UDA-ran community begin stealing or dealing drugs without UDA consent he was abruptly branded as ldquoanti-socialrdquo and either killed or kneecapped

The UVF

Statistics

bull Suffered unknown number of casualtiesbull Killed 412 civiliansbull Killed 11 civilian political activistsbull Killed 21 members of republican terror groupsbull Killed 42 members of rival loyalist terror

groupsbull Killed 6 members of the Security Forces

Ideology

bull Similar to the UDAUFF the Ulster Volunteer Forcersquos primary aim was to combat Irish republicanism in Northern Ireland primarily the PIRA They wanted Northern Ireland to remain in the UK

Terrorist Activitiesbull The majority of UVF victims were Catholic civilians

many of whom were killed at random These attacks were intended to demoralize the IRA as the IRA drew most of its support from the Catholic community

bull Planting bombs in predominately-Catholic pubs or simply residential areas was a very frequent UVF tactic and in 1973 they detonated more bombs in Northern Ireland than the UDA and the PIRA combined Assassinations mass shootings booby-trap car bombs and kidnappings were also frequent UVF activities

The Shankhill Butchers

bull The ldquoShankhill Butchersrdquo were a notorious offshoot UVF group known for abducting and literally slitting the throats of Catholic civilians and rival loyalist terror groups in the late 1970s They were led by Lenny Murphy (who was eventually imprisoned and upon his release of a 4-year stint murdered by the PIRA) and killed 23 people most of whom were Catholic civilians Many experts liken the Shankhill Butchers more to a group of serial killers than to politically or even ethnically-motivated murderers

bull The Butchers were all eventually all either imprisoned killed by the PIRA or both

Weaponrybull The UVF received the majority of its weaponry in the late 1970s

from Armscor an apartheid-South Africa state-owned arms company which in defiance of various UN sanctions and embargoes sold them to the UVF

bull Weapons were thought to consist ofbull 200 Czech SA vz 58 Assault Riflesbull 90 Browning Pistolsbull 500 RGD-5 Frag Grenadesbull 30000 rounds of ammunitionbull 12 RPG-7 Rocket Launchers and 150+ Rocketsbull The UVF also began using the illegally-obtained mining explosive

Powergel in the early 1990s

Organized Crime

bull The UVF was also heavily involved in organized crime including protection racketeering and drug smugglingdealing including cannabis MDMA cocaine and amphetamines Bank robberies were also very frequent in the 1970s

Major Incidents 1969-1998

Bloody Sunday 30 January 1972

Massacre on the Bogsidebull In 1972 during a large scale but peaceful civil-rights march in the

troubled predominately Catholic neighborhood of Bogside in Derry 26 unarmed civil rights marchers were shot by members of the British Army 14 of whom were killed Five of those shot were shot in the back

bull After several inquiries into the incident there was found to have been no justifiable provocation from the protestors and no shots fired from the protestors during the march The massacre was conducted in full view of the public and the press

bull The PM David Cameron eventually issued a formal apology to the victims and victimsrsquo families of the massacre after several investigations failed to reveal any justifiable provocation for the massacre

bull The massacre sky-rocketed PIRA membership and recruitment as public perception of the British Army in Catholic communities in Northern Ireland reached an all-time low

Bloody Friday 21 July 1972

A City Under Siege

bull On 21 July 1972 the PIRA detonated 26 bombs in the space of 80 minutes in Belfast destroying banks bridges electrical substations Protestant housing tenements gasoline stations and private garages

bull Although warnings were called in at least 30 minutes prior to each bomb the amount of bombs exploding and the addition of multiple hoax warnings at the same time led to the Security Forces being unable to evacuate all the areas in time 11 people were killed and 130 were injured many of them horrifically mutilated Of those injured 77 were women or children

Dublin and Monaghan Bombings 17 May 1974

Deadliest Attack of the Troubles

bull Perpetrated by the UVF in the southern Republic of Ireland three car bombs exploded in Dublin during rush hour and another exploded in Monaghan around 90 minutes later

bull 33 civilians and a full-term unborn child were killed in the bombing while nearly 300 were injured The UVF did not claim responsibility for the bombings until 1993

bull The majority of those killed were young women although the age range of those killed ranged from 5 months old to 80 years old

Warrenpoint Ambush 27 August 1979

Roadside IEDsbull In the southern part of County Armagh Northern Ireland a predominately-

Catholic rural region and former PIRA stronghold right on the border with the southern Republic of Ireland a British troop convoy was hit with a remote-control detonated roadside 500lb truck-bomb and destroyed instantly killing 6 troops The surviving soldiers then wrongly believed they were under sniper fire from the other side of the Irish border and began firing at civilians immediately after the bombing killing 1 and injuring another

bull 32 minutes after the first bombing the IRA used its knowledge of how the British reacted to bombings to correctly predict that they would set up an incident-command point in a nearby gatehouse Unfortunately for the British there was a second 800lb fertilizer bomb planted near the gatehouse that when detonated killed 12 other soldiers who were responding to the initial bomb

bull It was the deadliest single attack on the British Army during the Troubles and a highly successful attack for the PIRA

Summer of 1981 Irish Hunger Strikes

A Defining Moment for the Republican Cause

bull Beginning on 1 March 1981 led by Bobby Sands 7 PIRA and 3 INLA inmates at the notorious ldquoMazerdquo prison began to refuse food until Margaret Thatcher PM of Great Britain at that time began to recognize terrorist prisoners as political prisoners and allowed them their ldquoFive Demandsrdquo

The Five Demands

bull The right to not wear a prison uniformbull The right to not do prison workbull The right of free association with other

prisoners and to organize in educational and recreational pursuits

bull Full restoration of remission lost through any protests towards these demands

Previous Protestsbull The Maze prison was a very high-security and low-quality prison that

housed almost all PIRA prisoners during the Troubles It was run in a very ethically questionable fashion with frequent beatings and borderline-torture techniques used on Republican prisoners and extremely poor living conditions for prisoners Many Maze prison guards were members of the UDAUVF or had strong connections with one of the two groups as well

bull Massive peaceful protests and marches by Irish republicans outside of the Maze Prison proved unsuccessful in attaining political status for republican prisoners as well as previous inmate protests in 1980 including non-fatal hunger strikes inmates refusing to wear prison uniforms and thus living in their cells naked and prisoners refusing to leave their cells to go to the bathroom until their requests had been granted (they therefore urinated and defecated in their cells and spread their excrement across their cell walls in what was known as the ldquoDirty Protestrdquo)

Dirty Protesters

Thatcherrsquos Response

bull ldquoThose terrorists will carry their determination to disrupt society to any lengths Once again we have a hunger strike in the Maze Prison in the quest for what they call lsquopolitical statusrsquo There is no such thing as political murder political bombing or political violence There is only criminal murder criminal bombing and criminal violence We will not compromise on this There will be no political statusrdquo

Ten Strikers Diebull Bobby Sands the leader of the strike was imprisoned as a PIRA member

on charges of firearm possession and in connection with the bombing of a furniture store He was the first to die after 66 days of not eating Sands was elected to a seat in Parliament whilst on Hunger Strike

bull Following Sandsrsquo death there were riots bus-burnings and attacks on the British embassy in the southern Republic of Ireland there were massive demonstrations in France and Italy a tomato was thrown as Queen Elizabeth II by demonstrators in Oslo and there were massive riots and civil disorder all over the streets of Belfast The South African ANC and (at the time) terrorist Nelson Mandela expressed their support for the PIRA and the hunger strikers (Mandela himself claimed he was directly inspired by Sands to undertake hunger strikes against the Apartheid government in South Africa) as well as the Palestine Liberation Organization a middle-eastern terror group

bull Over 100000 attended Sandsrsquo funeral

Bobby Sands

ldquoOur revenge will be the laughter of our childrenrdquo

Reaction to Sandsrsquo Death

>

Conclusion

bull The Hunger Strike was eventually called off after 10 strikers including Sands had died

bull James Prior newly installed secretary of state of Northern Ireland granted the prisoners partial concessions all of the Five Demands except for the right to not do prison work Margaret Thatcher refused to budge on political status

bull The Hunger Strikes opened a new way for the PIRA to pursue its objectives politically whereas previously it had seen violence as the only solution to the plight of Irish nationalists in Northern Ireland

1983 The Maze Prison Escape

The ldquoGreat Escaperdquo

bull Using smuggled-in guns and knives 38 PIRA prisoners who had been convicted of offenses ranging from murder to causing explosions escaped from one of the most high-security prisons in Europe They completely took over the H7 prison block and took their prison guards hostage before escaping in a food supply truck Several prison guards were shot and stabbed but only one died of a heart attack during the escape

bull Fifteen escapees were recaptured the first day with four more captured over the next two days following the breakout The remaining 19 were transported to PIRA strongholds and given the option to either rejoin the IRArsquos cause or be transported to the United States to live under a new identity

12 October 1984 Brighton Hotel Bombing

The PIRA Nearly Gets Thatcherbull Margaret Thatcher the highly controversial far-right British PM from

1979-1990 had become a tremendously hated figure amongst the Irish nationalist community in Northern Ireland following the 1981 Hunger Strikes and for her general uncompromising stand on Irish republicanism

bull PIRA man Patrick Magee stayed at the Brighton Hotel from the 14-17 September 1984 planting a 20-lb bomb under his bath

bull Thatcher was staying at the Brighton Hotel for a political conference and was still up at 254AM on 12 October when the bomb was detonated The bomb decimated her bathroom but left the bedroom and sitting room of her suite largely unscathed

bull The PIRA statement to Thatcher afterwards was ldquoToday we were unlucky But remember we only have to be lucky once You will have to be lucky alwaysrdquo

Loughgall Ambush 8 May 1987

The SAS Strikes

bull A botched attack on Loughgall Villagersquos RUC Police Base in which the PIRA drove a backhoe into the fortified base and ran away to detonate the bomb that was inside of the backhoe went wrong as the SAS the British Special Forces had prior knowledge of the attack and quickly dispatched the 8 PIRA members involved

bull Although the RUC base was wrecked and bombed there were no RUC or SAS casualties and it was the PIRArsquos greatest loss of life in a single incident during the Troubles

British Army Lynx Shootdown 20 March 1994

The PIRA Shoots Down a Helicopter

bull Using the previously mentioned Barrack-Buster homemade mortar PIRA insurgents were able to fire on a British helicopter that was in the process of landing whilst hiding behind a hay bail from around 150 yards out

bull The helicopter was hit with the mortar shell around 100 feet above the ground but the pilot was able to successfully crash-land the helicopter and escape before its propane tanks exploded There were no casualties but the attack was a major propaganda coup for the PIRA

1996 Manchester Bombing

The PIRA Destroys Manchester

bull On Saturday 15 June 1996 the PIRA sent in telephoned warnings and 90 minutes later detonated a 3300lb fertilizer-based truck bomb in the heart of Manchester City Centre the biggest bomb detonated in Great Britain during peacetime The bomb killed nobody due to previous warnings but led to 212 non-fatal injuries and essentially destroyed Manchester City Centre leaving approximately 700 million pounds ($12bn) worth of damage in its wake

Omagh Bombing 1998

Last Great Deadly Attack of the Troubles

bull Perpetrated by a Provisional IRA splinter group that was rejecting the peace process calling themselves the ldquoReal IRArdquo the 510lb fertilizer-based bomb was placed on main street in the town of Omagh Northern Ireland Warnings were called in approximately 30 minutes before the bombing but they were inaccurate and police ended up moving more civilians towards the bomb which ended up killing 29 people and causing over 300 non-fatal injuries This was the highest death toll from a single incident during the Troubles

bull It received universal outrage and was condemned even by the PIRA and its political wing Sinn Fein It spurred on the Northern Ireland peace process and the RIRA apologized and called a ceasefire several days after

The Good Friday Agreement and Northern Ireland Peace Process

Beginningsbull Following the 1981 Hunger Strikes Irish republicans began to

increasingly look towards politics rather than violence as a means of achieving their aims Sinn Fein gaelic for ldquoWe Ourselvesrdquo was a fiercely Irish Republican political party which led by the Machiavellian former PIRA leader and Maze inmate Gerry Adams began to push for a more peaceful solution to the Troubles in Northern Ireland

bull It became apparent by the late 1990s that although the PIRA was not losing a war against the British establishment it would be impossible to truly lsquowin the fightrsquo through violence and that any further terrorism would serve not to achieve any real political aim but only to prolong and continue suffering and violence in Northern Ireland and that politics was a much better way of achieving Republican aims

Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein former PIRA Belfast Brigade OC

Good Friday Agreement 1998

bull The Peace Process began in 1994 and included intermittent terrorist ceasefires and political negotiations between the major Irish republican and British unionist parties and culminated on April 10 1998 when the Good Friday Agreement was signed

PM Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern Sign the GFA

GFA Mandatesbull That Northern Ireland was to remain British until a majority of people in Northern

Ireland and the southern Republic of Ireland wanted otherwise bull The creation of an entirely new far less sectarian and religiously diverse Northern

Irish local governmentbull The decommissioning of arms from terrorist groups on both the unionist and

nationalist side of the political divide (ultimately successful all arms decommissioned by 2005)

bull Mutual respect and civil rights between Catholics and Protestants bull The reduction and eventual elimination of British troops in Northern Ireland

(ultimately successful all troops withdrawn by 2005)bull Eventual early prison release for all individuals imprisoned for terrorist offenses as

long as they were apart of a terrorist group that was decommissioning in accordance with the GFA

bull Disbandment of the RUC police service and the installation of the new Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) which was required to be at least 50 Catholic

Northern Ireland Today

Still Conflict But No Warbull Since the complete decommissioning of the arms and

disbandment of the PIRA INLA UDAUFF and UVF due to the Good Friday Agreement there is nowhere near the amount of violence in Northern Ireland or Belfast as there was 20 years ago There are no more weekly bombings and riots and no more British troops patrolling Catholic areas in armored vehicles

bull Despite this there are still occasional riots and clashes with the PSNI several times a year specifically on dates of great historical significance to the Catholic or Protestant communities and there is still a deep distrust and even hatred between many Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland although that continues to change with time

Catholic Slum of Ardoyne Belfast July 2011

Splinter Groups

bull Many former PIRA or UDA terrorists have now taken to organized crime for purely profiteering purposes but are no longer involved in substantial violence or any political-based terrorism

bull Splinter groups such as the Real IRA and Continuity IRA in Catholic communities and the Orange Volunteers and Red Hand Commandos in Protestant communities still conduct occasional violence towards Police and civilians in Northern Ireland but are all rather small poorly armed and poorly funded groups that pose nowhere near the threat that terrorist groups in the 80s and 90s did in Northern Ireland

Herersquos To A Brighter Future in Northern Ireland

Works Citedbull httpwwwbbccoukhistorytroublesbull httpcainulstacukbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiProvisional_Irish_Republican_Armybull httpenwikipediaorgwikiThe_Troublesbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiUlster_Defence_Associationbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiUlster_Volunteer_Forcebull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_National_Liberation_Armybull ldquoA Secret History of the IRArdquo by Ed Moloney ndashWW Norton amp Company Reprint 2003bull ldquoVoices From The Grave Two Menrsquos War in Irelandrdquo by Ed Moloney ndash Public Affairs 2010bull ldquoFifty Dead Men Walkingrdquo by Martin McGartland ndash John Blake 2009bull httpwwwinfopleasecomspotnorthireland1htmlbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_Civil_Warbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_War_of_Independencebull httpenwikipediaorgwiki1981_Irish_hunger_strikebull httpenwikipediaorgwikiDirectory_of_the_Northern_Ireland_Troublesbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiGood_Friday_Agreementbull httpswwwmi5govukhomethe-threatsterrorismnorthern-irelandrepublican-terrorist-groupshtmlbull httpswwwmi5govukhomethe-threatsterrorismnorthern-irelandprovisional-irish-republican-army-

pirahtmlbull httpnewsbbccoukhienglishstaticnorthern_irelandunderstandingeventshunger_strikestm

  • The Troubles
  • Brief Overview
  • 30 Years of Conflict
  • Slide 4
  • Background
  • The Irish War of Independence
  • Slide 7
  • Anglo-Irish Treaty (signed 6 December 1921)
  • Irish Civil War
  • 1922-1966 Ireland
  • The Civil Rights Movement
  • Slide 12
  • Slide 13
  • Objectives of the Civil Rights Movement
  • The 1969 Northern Ireland Riots ndashThe Troubles Begin
  • Culmination of Tension
  • No-Go Areas
  • No-Go Areas (2)
  • Early 1970sndash The Rise of the Provisional IRA
  • The IRA Split
  • Rise of the UVF and Loyalist Terror Groups
  • Beginnings
  • UVF Statement 21 May 1964
  • The Paramilitaries
  • Irish RepublicansCatholics
  • The Provisional IRA
  • IRA Statement Late 80s
  • Statistics
  • RecruitmentFunding
  • Weaponry
  • Weaponry (2)
  • Slide 32
  • Mortars and IEDs
  • EOD Officer Approaches PIRA Car Bomb
  • The Barrack Buster
  • Vigilantism
  • Slide 37
  • Slide 38
  • Policy on Informants
  • Terrorist Activities
  • Terrorist Activities (continued)
  • The INLA
  • Statistics (2)
  • Ideology
  • Terrorist Activities (2)
  • Internal Feuds
  • Slide 47
  • British LoyalistsProtestants
  • The UDAUFF
  • Former UFF Member
  • Statistics (3)
  • Ideology (2)
  • Terrorist Activities (3)
  • Slide 54
  • Organized Crime
  • The UVF
  • Statistics (4)
  • Ideology (3)
  • Terrorist Activities (4)
  • The Shankhill Butchers
  • Weaponry (3)
  • Slide 62
  • Organized Crime (2)
  • Major Incidents 1969-1998
  • Bloody Sunday 30 January 1972
  • Massacre on the Bogside
  • Bloody Friday 21 July 1972
  • A City Under Siege
  • Dublin and Monaghan Bombings 17 May 1974
  • Deadliest Attack of the Troubles
  • Warrenpoint Ambush 27 August 1979
  • Roadside IEDs
  • Summer of 1981 Irish Hunger Strikes
  • A Defining Moment for the Republican Cause
  • The Five Demands
  • Previous Protests
  • Dirty Protesters
  • Thatcherrsquos Response
  • Ten Strikers Die
  • Bobby Sands
  • Reaction to Sandsrsquo Death
  • Conclusion
  • 1983 The Maze Prison Escape
  • The ldquoGreat Escaperdquo
  • 12 October 1984 Brighton Hotel Bombing
  • The PIRA Nearly Gets Thatcher
  • Loughgall Ambush 8 May 1987
  • The SAS Strikes
  • British Army Lynx Shootdown 20 March 1994
  • The PIRA Shoots Down a Helicopter
  • 1996 Manchester Bombing
  • The PIRA Destroys Manchester
  • Omagh Bombing 1998
  • Last Great Deadly Attack of the Troubles
  • The Good Friday Agreement and Northern Ireland Peace Process
  • Beginnings (2)
  • Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein former PIRA Belfast Brigade OC
  • Good Friday Agreement 1998
  • PM Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern Sign the GFA
  • GFA Mandates
  • Northern Ireland Today
  • Still Conflict But No War
  • Catholic Slum of Ardoyne Belfast July 2011
  • Splinter Groups
  • Herersquos To A Brighter Future in Northern Ireland
  • Works Cited
Page 10: The Troubles, 1969-1998

The Civil Rights Movement

bull The NICRA (Northern Irish Civil Rights Association) was formed in 1966 to protest discrimination against Irish Catholics in Northern Ireland Drew significant parallels with the African-American Civil Rights movement in the United States during that time

bull The Civil Rights Movement was peaceful and sought to end discrimination against Irish Catholics and Irish nationalists by the Protestant and Unionist local self-government of Northern Ireland

Objectives of the Civil Rights Movementbull End job discrimination (Catholicsnationalists unlikely to be given certain jobs

especially government jobs)bull Public housing to be allocated based on need rather than religiouspolitical views

(unionist-controlled local councils allocated housing to Protestant unionists ahead of Catholic nationalists)

bull ldquoOne Man One Voterdquo Policy ndash in Northern Ireland only householders could vote in local elections whereas in the rest of the UK all adults could vote

bull An end to gerrymandering of electoral boundaries giving nationalists less electoral power than unionists even in areas where nationalists were the majority

bull Reform of the RUC or Royal Ulster Constabulary the Northern Irish police force which was almost 100 Protestant and disbandment of the B-Specials special police force also exclusively protestant Both of which were heavily accused of police brutality and sectarianism

bull Repeal of the Special Powers Actndash which allowed police to search without a warrant arrest and imprison people without chargetrial ban any assemblies or parades and ban any publications The Act was used almost exclusively against Catholics

bull The Civil Rights movement was violently repressed by police and met with fierce political resistance from the unionist government

The 1969 Northern Ireland Riots ndashThe Troubles Begin

Culmination of Tensionbull The Tensions between Catholics and Protestants culminated in August of

1969 bull ldquoThe Battle of The Bogsiderdquo ndash Loyalists were allowed to march through the

Catholic neighborhood of Derry in a provocative parade This led to Catholic resistance who began throwing stones and bricks at the parade The RUC was then deployed to put down Catholic rioters and laid siege to the Catholic community of Bogside releasing over 1100 canisters of tear gas in the Bogside from August 12 to 14 Catholics in turn set up barricades and were ultimately successful in repelling the police from their communities The Bogside region of Derry would go on to exist as a lsquono go arearsquo for both Northern Irish and British security forces and existed as an autonomous independent nationalist district from 1969 to 1972

bull The Battle of the Bogside and the ensuing violence that raged from August 12-17 across Northern Ireland caused the displacement of approximately 1820 families and the destruction of 150+ Catholic homes

bull It also led to the deployment of the British military to Ulster in what was intended to be a short several weeklong peacekeeping engagement It would turn out to be a 30 year deployment

No-Go Areas

No-Go Areasbull No-Go Areas existed from 1969 to 1972 in Belfast and Derry in

Catholic nationalist neighborhoods in which barricades and militant residents prevented the police forces or British Army from entering

bull The Barricades were demolished and control ldquoofficiallyrdquo restored in the British Operation Motorman in 1972 in which the British Army used tanks to destroy the barricades and reestablish control However the no-go status was generally maintained and police and security forces still rarely entered certain Irish Catholic neighborhoods throughout the duration of the Troubles except in very hostile circumstances such as in the case of an arrest or military engagement

bull Day-to-day policing of these areas was generally controlled by terrorist groups

Early 1970sndash The Rise of the Provisional IRA

The IRA Splitbull The IRA that had existed largely in silence for the past 50 years began to rearm

and militarize itself once again by 1969 in order to protect Catholic nationalist communities in Northern Ireland in wake of the police brutality and sectarian violence that they had began to increasingly experience

bull In the 1960s the IRA had come under the significant influence of Marxist and Socialist thinkers This led the IRA to split in 1969 into the Official IRA and the Provisional IRA ndash the provisionals named for their ldquoProvisional Army Councilrdquo

bull The Official IRA was highly socialistMarxist and prescribed to the idea that class differences were causing the strife in Northern Ireland whilst the Provisional IRA was less interested in socialism and more concerned simply with British presence in Northern Ireland considering it to be the root of all the problems

bull The Official IRA would eventually fade out by 1972 while the Provisional IRA would go on to become the most feared terrorist organization in 20th Century Europe and launch a 30-year campaign against the British presence in Northern Ireland

Rise of the UVF and Loyalist Terror Groups

Beginningsbull The UVF (Ulster Volunteer Force) was formed in 1964 as a continuation

of the Ulster Volunteers that existed from 1912-1914 in Northern Ireland who intended to violently resist any attempts by the British government to release Ulster from the Union

bull It was reformed in rsquo64 by former British soldier Gusty Spence after he and his men burned to the ground a Catholic-owned pub on the loyalist Shankhill Road

bull The Ulster unionists feared that with the ongoing civil rights movement a potential return of the IRA in Northern Ireland could be possible The UVF and other loyalist paramilitary groups such as the UDA and UFF were thus created and seen as vigilantes and defenders of Protestant communities However most of their targets throughout the 30-year Troubles were simply innocent Catholic civilians

UVF Statement 21 May 1964

bull ldquoFrom this day we declare war against the Irish Republican Army and its splinter groups Known IRA men will be executed mercilessly and without hesitation Less extreme measures will be taken against anyone sheltering or helping them but if they persist in giving them aid then more extreme methods will be adopted we solemnly warn the authorities to make no more speeches of appeasement We are heavily armed Protestants dedicated to this causerdquo

The Paramilitaries

Irish RepublicansCatholics

The Provisional IRA

IRA Statement Late 80s

>

Statistics

bull Suffered 293 Casualtiesbull Over 10000 members imprisoned on various charges

throughout the conflictbull Killed 656 members of the British Armed Forcesbull Killed 272 Members of the Royal Ulster Constabulary

(RUC) Police Forcebull Killed 44 members of loyalistprotestant terror groupsbull Killed between 620-650 civiliansbull Killed over 1500 people

RecruitmentFundingbull IRA recruitment in Catholic neighborhoods was similar to the phenomenon

of gang membership in the inner-city United States Young Catholics typically joined to create a sense of belonging to seem ldquohardrdquo or look ldquocoolrdquo to feel protected from the brutality of the RUC during the Troubles or to help defend their communities IRA members were not asked to join but volunteered

bull IRA lsquofunds-raisingrsquo activities included collecting protection money from Catholic businesses (a ldquorevolutionary taxrdquo) robbing banks kidnapping citizens for ransom and cigarette and gasoline smuggling across the Irish border (manipulating the differing tax prices on both sides of the border and selling fuel and cigarettes illicitly) Although the Provisional IRA has officially disbanded and no longer engages in terrorism there is substantial evidence that extortion rackets in poor Catholic neighborhoods and contraband smuggling operations along the border still exist in Northern Ireland and are run by former IRA men solely for profiteering purposes

Weaponry

bull The Provisional IRA obtained a significant amount of arms from both Irish-American supporters in the northeastern United States (including members of notorious gangster Whitey Bulgerrsquos Irish Mob in 1970s-80s Boston) and from the Libyan government under Muammar Gadaffi

bull Gadaffi took over in Libya in 1969 and initially armed the IRA seeing them as comrades-in-arms fighting British imperialism Connections re-emerged in 1986 after the Thatcher Administrationrsquos support of the US bombings of Libya that killed Gadaffirsquos adopted daughter

Weaponrybull When the IRA disarmed as part of the Good Friday Agreement in

1998 (more on that later) they released the following to the British Armed Forces

bull 1000 Rifles (AK-47s AR-15s etc)bull 3 Tons of Semtex (a general-purpose plastic explosive)bull 20-30 Heavy Machine Gunsbull 7 Surface-to-Air Missilesbull 7 Flamethrowersbull 1200 Detonatorsbull 20 RPGrsquosbull 100 Handgunsbull 100+ Hand Grenades

Mortars and IEDsbull The PIRA was incredibly proficient at bomb-making and made

extensive use of Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) during their 30 year campaign

bull IEDs were typically constructed with chemical mixes of fertilizer gasoline and other home-made components Libyan Semtex was also used in several heavy-duty bombs Nails and gunpowder were typically implemented in pipe bombs made out of metal pipes Most IEDs had built in countermeasures such as the mercury tilt switch which would cause the bomb to explode if moved at all should a British EOD officer attempt to dismantle it

bull The PIRA developed the ldquoBarrack Busterrdquo mortar in the late lsquo70s or a homemade mortar made up of common household materials that was used to attack several Army bases from afar and even Prime Minister Margaret Thatcherrsquos househellip 10 Downing Street in a 1991 attack that destroyed the Prime Ministerrsquos rear garden (the mortar was fired out the back of a nearby van)

EOD Officer Approaches PIRA Car Bomb

The Barrack Buster

>

Vigilantismbull The RUC was not trusted in Catholic neighborhoods throughout the

Troubles and did not regularly patrol or even enter them in urban areas of Northern Ireland Thus when there was a community drug dealer car thief burglar rapist or pedophile the IRA took it upon themselves to issue brutal street justice to those involved

bull Occasionally offering warnings for lesser offences such as petty thievery or drug dealing if the IRA had enough of a certain member of the community they perceived as anti-social he or she was usually jumped brutally beaten andor lsquokneecappedrsquo ndash one of the IRArsquos most notorious methods ndash in which the victim was pinned down and shot through the kneecaps with a firearm or occasionally had their kneecaps drilled through with power-drills Other methods included releasing starving Rottweilerrsquos on the offender dropping cinderblocks on the offenderrsquos hands or even tarring and feathering the offender The IRArsquos process in determining an individualrsquos guilt was never open to scrutiny

bull If the offender persisted after an IRA punishment he was then given a notice by the IRA to leave the country as soon as possiblehellip referred to as being ldquoput outrdquo of the community If the offender still did not leave he was murdered

Policy on Informantsbull In an effort to stamp out collusion with the British forces and informants on the

IRA the IRA was responsible for torturing and killing several accused Catholic civilians throughout the conflict

bull Investigations into collusion infiltration and informants were carried out by the Internal Security Unit of the IRA colloquially known as the ldquoNutting Squadrdquo

bull The ISU would carry out debriefings of IRA prisoners upon their release from British detention so as to discover whether or not they had lsquocrackedrsquo and released information to British interrogators

bull Typical ISU torture techniques on those accused of informing included drowning genitalnipple mutilation electrocution with livewires pouring kerosene on the accusedrsquos legs before setting fire to them and branding with hot irons Informants were always killed afterwards with a bullet through the back of the head

bull Of the 18 ldquoDisappearedrdquo accused informants that were abducted and executed by the IRA during the Troubles only 10 bodies have been found

bull Martin McGartland was an IRA informant who was estimated to have saved 50 lives in the conflict before he was discovered and abducted by the ISU He escaped and lives today in seclusion The film ldquo50 Dead Men Walkingrdquo is based on his exploits and is an excellent realistic non-romanticized take on the Troubles in Northern Ireland

Terrorist Activitiesbull Common tactics included breaking into the homes of off-duty RUC police

officers and murdering them in their beds or setting booby-trap bombs underneath RUC police officersrsquo cars and unionist politiciansrsquo cars so that they would blow up as the engine was started RUC men were typically targeted when they were off-duty and many were shot dead in front of their families The PIRA would also impersonate innocent Catholic civilians call the police to report an emergency and ambush the police from hidden positions when they arrived at the stated address (another reason the RUC was hesitant to go into Catholic neighborhoods during this period)

bull Most notorious for their bombings they would typically park car bombs in predominately Protestant communities call in the bomb threat so that the area would be evacuated and an EOD squad would arrive to dismantle it the bomb would then be detonated with hopes of killing an EOD officer and destroying Protestant housing tenements

bull The PIRA rarely intentionally targeted civilians especially in the 80srsquo and 90srsquo but were involved in the bombings of several Protestant-owned pubs during the 1970s in response to loyalist terrorist groups bombing Catholic-owned pubs They also carried out the Kingsmill massacre in 1976 in which eleven Protestant workmen that were traveling on a minibus were held up by the IRA and all individually executed in response to the execution of six Catholic civilians by the UVF the night before

Terrorist Activities (continued)bull Other activities included engaging in firefights with British squadrons as

they patrolled the countrysidestreets of urban areas sniper attacks on RUC or British Army patrolscheckpoints planting landmines along British foot patrol routes in rural areas planting roadside IEDs along British convoy routes and bombing ferries and buses containing on-or-off duty British soldiers

bull The notorious ldquohuman bombrdquo technique in which civilians or off-duty members of the British security forces were kidnapped and then forced to drive car bombs into British military targets ndash such as checkpoints and Army bases ndash after the PIRA had placed their familiesrsquo lives under threat

bull Inciting riots and providing Catholic youths with molotov cocktails (gasoline bombs) during such riots so as to maximize public disorder and destruction was also an almost daily IRA activity in Catholic communities in urban Northern Ireland

The INLA

Statistics

bull Suffered 33 casualtiesbull Killed 46 members of the British Security Forcesbull Killed 2 members of the Irish Security Forcesbull Killed 39 civiliansbull Killed 3 civilian political activistsbull Killed 16 members of rival Republican terror

groupsbull Killed 7 members of Loyalist terror groups

Ideology

bull Founded by Seamus Costello in 1974 as the military wing of the Irish Republican Socialist Party

bull Shared similar goals to the Provisional IRA but far more socialist in ideology INLA wanted a socialist united Irish republic and blamed class struggles for many of the problems in Northern Ireland whereas the PIRA simply wanted a united Irish republic and had little interest in class struggle or economics

bull Whereas the PIRA was almost exclusively Catholic the INLA had some Protestant members most of whom were involved for purely socialist reasons

Terrorist Activitiesbull Although far less powerful and bold than the PIRA the INLA

nevertheless presented a potent terrorist threat to the United Kingdom during the Troubles

bull Similar tactics to the IRA car bombings shooting off-duty police and soldiers dead and high-profile assassinations

bull Their most high-profile attacks included the car bomb assassination of Airey Neave one of Margaret Thatcherrsquos closest political supporters in 1979 the murder of infamous Loyalist terror leader Billy Wright (who was murdered by INLA inmates in a British political prison in 1997) and the Ballykelley Disco Bombing in 1982 in which the INLA bombed a disco-club frequented by off-duty British soldiers managing to kill 11 of them as well as 6 civilians as well as destroying the disco

Internal Feuds

bull A split in 1986 led the INLA to split into the INLA and the IPLO or Irish Peoplersquos Liberation Organization based on IPLO membersrsquo perceived lack of political motivation and heavy involvement in drug dealing and criminality

bull There were several retaliatory killings between the two groups that persisted until 1992 when the PIRA had enough of the IPLOrsquos involvement in drug dealing in Catholic areas of Belfast and on 31 October 1992 virtually destroyed the entire organization in one night with a series of raids killings and kneecappings that killed or crippled the majority of the grouprsquos members

British LoyalistsProtestants

The UDAUFF

Former UFF Member

>

Statistics

bull Suffered 89 casualtiesbull Killed 197 civiliansbull Killed 12 civilian political activistsbull Killed 37 members of rival loyalist terror

groupsbull Killed 11 members of republican terror groupsbull Killed 3 members of the British Security Forces

Ideology

bull The UDA or Ulster Defense Association and its military wing the Ulster Freedom Fighters (UFF) was a loyalist protestant terror squad that targeted PIRA and INLA members as well as general Catholic civilians in bombings and shootings throughout Northern Ireland

bull It pledged to end its campaign of violence whenever the IRA set down its arms yet should the UK government appease the IRA and grant a 32-county Irish Republic the UDA pledged to act as ldquothe IRA in reverserdquo

Terrorist Activitiesbull The UDA saw itself as a militia defending upstanding protestant loyalist

communities from dangerous and lower-class Catholics that were disrupting the status quo in Northern Ireland They pledged primarily to target IRA men but ended up killing a majority of Catholic civilians during the Troubles They were also known to intimidate and exile known Catholic families from predominately-Protestant communities in Belfast and other urban areas

bull Drive-by shootings shooting up or planting bombs in predominately-Catholic pubs and bars and jumping brutally beating andor kneecapping Catholic civilians were all frequent tactics

bull The UDA discreetly worked in collusion with the RUC and other British security agencies so as to track down and assassinate known IRA members They would also patrol Protestant neighborhoods alongside British soldiers at the height of the Troubles Many RUC police officers and prison guards were also UDA members

bull The UDA alongside many other loyalist paramilitaries benefitted from the import of several arms shipments from Lebanese arms dealers in the early 1970s including rocket launchers 200+ AK-47 Rifles 90+ handguns and over 400 grenades They also received various weapons such as the uzi submachine gun and explosive devices from arms dealers in the Soviet bloc in the 1980s

Organized Crime

bull The UDA and its members were also heavily involved in drug dealing from the street level to wholesale purchase primarily in MDMA and cannabis throughout the Troubles

bull Protection racketeering and money laundering were also common amongst the UDA in protestant communities

bull However should a member of a UDA-ran community begin stealing or dealing drugs without UDA consent he was abruptly branded as ldquoanti-socialrdquo and either killed or kneecapped

The UVF

Statistics

bull Suffered unknown number of casualtiesbull Killed 412 civiliansbull Killed 11 civilian political activistsbull Killed 21 members of republican terror groupsbull Killed 42 members of rival loyalist terror

groupsbull Killed 6 members of the Security Forces

Ideology

bull Similar to the UDAUFF the Ulster Volunteer Forcersquos primary aim was to combat Irish republicanism in Northern Ireland primarily the PIRA They wanted Northern Ireland to remain in the UK

Terrorist Activitiesbull The majority of UVF victims were Catholic civilians

many of whom were killed at random These attacks were intended to demoralize the IRA as the IRA drew most of its support from the Catholic community

bull Planting bombs in predominately-Catholic pubs or simply residential areas was a very frequent UVF tactic and in 1973 they detonated more bombs in Northern Ireland than the UDA and the PIRA combined Assassinations mass shootings booby-trap car bombs and kidnappings were also frequent UVF activities

The Shankhill Butchers

bull The ldquoShankhill Butchersrdquo were a notorious offshoot UVF group known for abducting and literally slitting the throats of Catholic civilians and rival loyalist terror groups in the late 1970s They were led by Lenny Murphy (who was eventually imprisoned and upon his release of a 4-year stint murdered by the PIRA) and killed 23 people most of whom were Catholic civilians Many experts liken the Shankhill Butchers more to a group of serial killers than to politically or even ethnically-motivated murderers

bull The Butchers were all eventually all either imprisoned killed by the PIRA or both

Weaponrybull The UVF received the majority of its weaponry in the late 1970s

from Armscor an apartheid-South Africa state-owned arms company which in defiance of various UN sanctions and embargoes sold them to the UVF

bull Weapons were thought to consist ofbull 200 Czech SA vz 58 Assault Riflesbull 90 Browning Pistolsbull 500 RGD-5 Frag Grenadesbull 30000 rounds of ammunitionbull 12 RPG-7 Rocket Launchers and 150+ Rocketsbull The UVF also began using the illegally-obtained mining explosive

Powergel in the early 1990s

Organized Crime

bull The UVF was also heavily involved in organized crime including protection racketeering and drug smugglingdealing including cannabis MDMA cocaine and amphetamines Bank robberies were also very frequent in the 1970s

Major Incidents 1969-1998

Bloody Sunday 30 January 1972

Massacre on the Bogsidebull In 1972 during a large scale but peaceful civil-rights march in the

troubled predominately Catholic neighborhood of Bogside in Derry 26 unarmed civil rights marchers were shot by members of the British Army 14 of whom were killed Five of those shot were shot in the back

bull After several inquiries into the incident there was found to have been no justifiable provocation from the protestors and no shots fired from the protestors during the march The massacre was conducted in full view of the public and the press

bull The PM David Cameron eventually issued a formal apology to the victims and victimsrsquo families of the massacre after several investigations failed to reveal any justifiable provocation for the massacre

bull The massacre sky-rocketed PIRA membership and recruitment as public perception of the British Army in Catholic communities in Northern Ireland reached an all-time low

Bloody Friday 21 July 1972

A City Under Siege

bull On 21 July 1972 the PIRA detonated 26 bombs in the space of 80 minutes in Belfast destroying banks bridges electrical substations Protestant housing tenements gasoline stations and private garages

bull Although warnings were called in at least 30 minutes prior to each bomb the amount of bombs exploding and the addition of multiple hoax warnings at the same time led to the Security Forces being unable to evacuate all the areas in time 11 people were killed and 130 were injured many of them horrifically mutilated Of those injured 77 were women or children

Dublin and Monaghan Bombings 17 May 1974

Deadliest Attack of the Troubles

bull Perpetrated by the UVF in the southern Republic of Ireland three car bombs exploded in Dublin during rush hour and another exploded in Monaghan around 90 minutes later

bull 33 civilians and a full-term unborn child were killed in the bombing while nearly 300 were injured The UVF did not claim responsibility for the bombings until 1993

bull The majority of those killed were young women although the age range of those killed ranged from 5 months old to 80 years old

Warrenpoint Ambush 27 August 1979

Roadside IEDsbull In the southern part of County Armagh Northern Ireland a predominately-

Catholic rural region and former PIRA stronghold right on the border with the southern Republic of Ireland a British troop convoy was hit with a remote-control detonated roadside 500lb truck-bomb and destroyed instantly killing 6 troops The surviving soldiers then wrongly believed they were under sniper fire from the other side of the Irish border and began firing at civilians immediately after the bombing killing 1 and injuring another

bull 32 minutes after the first bombing the IRA used its knowledge of how the British reacted to bombings to correctly predict that they would set up an incident-command point in a nearby gatehouse Unfortunately for the British there was a second 800lb fertilizer bomb planted near the gatehouse that when detonated killed 12 other soldiers who were responding to the initial bomb

bull It was the deadliest single attack on the British Army during the Troubles and a highly successful attack for the PIRA

Summer of 1981 Irish Hunger Strikes

A Defining Moment for the Republican Cause

bull Beginning on 1 March 1981 led by Bobby Sands 7 PIRA and 3 INLA inmates at the notorious ldquoMazerdquo prison began to refuse food until Margaret Thatcher PM of Great Britain at that time began to recognize terrorist prisoners as political prisoners and allowed them their ldquoFive Demandsrdquo

The Five Demands

bull The right to not wear a prison uniformbull The right to not do prison workbull The right of free association with other

prisoners and to organize in educational and recreational pursuits

bull Full restoration of remission lost through any protests towards these demands

Previous Protestsbull The Maze prison was a very high-security and low-quality prison that

housed almost all PIRA prisoners during the Troubles It was run in a very ethically questionable fashion with frequent beatings and borderline-torture techniques used on Republican prisoners and extremely poor living conditions for prisoners Many Maze prison guards were members of the UDAUVF or had strong connections with one of the two groups as well

bull Massive peaceful protests and marches by Irish republicans outside of the Maze Prison proved unsuccessful in attaining political status for republican prisoners as well as previous inmate protests in 1980 including non-fatal hunger strikes inmates refusing to wear prison uniforms and thus living in their cells naked and prisoners refusing to leave their cells to go to the bathroom until their requests had been granted (they therefore urinated and defecated in their cells and spread their excrement across their cell walls in what was known as the ldquoDirty Protestrdquo)

Dirty Protesters

Thatcherrsquos Response

bull ldquoThose terrorists will carry their determination to disrupt society to any lengths Once again we have a hunger strike in the Maze Prison in the quest for what they call lsquopolitical statusrsquo There is no such thing as political murder political bombing or political violence There is only criminal murder criminal bombing and criminal violence We will not compromise on this There will be no political statusrdquo

Ten Strikers Diebull Bobby Sands the leader of the strike was imprisoned as a PIRA member

on charges of firearm possession and in connection with the bombing of a furniture store He was the first to die after 66 days of not eating Sands was elected to a seat in Parliament whilst on Hunger Strike

bull Following Sandsrsquo death there were riots bus-burnings and attacks on the British embassy in the southern Republic of Ireland there were massive demonstrations in France and Italy a tomato was thrown as Queen Elizabeth II by demonstrators in Oslo and there were massive riots and civil disorder all over the streets of Belfast The South African ANC and (at the time) terrorist Nelson Mandela expressed their support for the PIRA and the hunger strikers (Mandela himself claimed he was directly inspired by Sands to undertake hunger strikes against the Apartheid government in South Africa) as well as the Palestine Liberation Organization a middle-eastern terror group

bull Over 100000 attended Sandsrsquo funeral

Bobby Sands

ldquoOur revenge will be the laughter of our childrenrdquo

Reaction to Sandsrsquo Death

>

Conclusion

bull The Hunger Strike was eventually called off after 10 strikers including Sands had died

bull James Prior newly installed secretary of state of Northern Ireland granted the prisoners partial concessions all of the Five Demands except for the right to not do prison work Margaret Thatcher refused to budge on political status

bull The Hunger Strikes opened a new way for the PIRA to pursue its objectives politically whereas previously it had seen violence as the only solution to the plight of Irish nationalists in Northern Ireland

1983 The Maze Prison Escape

The ldquoGreat Escaperdquo

bull Using smuggled-in guns and knives 38 PIRA prisoners who had been convicted of offenses ranging from murder to causing explosions escaped from one of the most high-security prisons in Europe They completely took over the H7 prison block and took their prison guards hostage before escaping in a food supply truck Several prison guards were shot and stabbed but only one died of a heart attack during the escape

bull Fifteen escapees were recaptured the first day with four more captured over the next two days following the breakout The remaining 19 were transported to PIRA strongholds and given the option to either rejoin the IRArsquos cause or be transported to the United States to live under a new identity

12 October 1984 Brighton Hotel Bombing

The PIRA Nearly Gets Thatcherbull Margaret Thatcher the highly controversial far-right British PM from

1979-1990 had become a tremendously hated figure amongst the Irish nationalist community in Northern Ireland following the 1981 Hunger Strikes and for her general uncompromising stand on Irish republicanism

bull PIRA man Patrick Magee stayed at the Brighton Hotel from the 14-17 September 1984 planting a 20-lb bomb under his bath

bull Thatcher was staying at the Brighton Hotel for a political conference and was still up at 254AM on 12 October when the bomb was detonated The bomb decimated her bathroom but left the bedroom and sitting room of her suite largely unscathed

bull The PIRA statement to Thatcher afterwards was ldquoToday we were unlucky But remember we only have to be lucky once You will have to be lucky alwaysrdquo

Loughgall Ambush 8 May 1987

The SAS Strikes

bull A botched attack on Loughgall Villagersquos RUC Police Base in which the PIRA drove a backhoe into the fortified base and ran away to detonate the bomb that was inside of the backhoe went wrong as the SAS the British Special Forces had prior knowledge of the attack and quickly dispatched the 8 PIRA members involved

bull Although the RUC base was wrecked and bombed there were no RUC or SAS casualties and it was the PIRArsquos greatest loss of life in a single incident during the Troubles

British Army Lynx Shootdown 20 March 1994

The PIRA Shoots Down a Helicopter

bull Using the previously mentioned Barrack-Buster homemade mortar PIRA insurgents were able to fire on a British helicopter that was in the process of landing whilst hiding behind a hay bail from around 150 yards out

bull The helicopter was hit with the mortar shell around 100 feet above the ground but the pilot was able to successfully crash-land the helicopter and escape before its propane tanks exploded There were no casualties but the attack was a major propaganda coup for the PIRA

1996 Manchester Bombing

The PIRA Destroys Manchester

bull On Saturday 15 June 1996 the PIRA sent in telephoned warnings and 90 minutes later detonated a 3300lb fertilizer-based truck bomb in the heart of Manchester City Centre the biggest bomb detonated in Great Britain during peacetime The bomb killed nobody due to previous warnings but led to 212 non-fatal injuries and essentially destroyed Manchester City Centre leaving approximately 700 million pounds ($12bn) worth of damage in its wake

Omagh Bombing 1998

Last Great Deadly Attack of the Troubles

bull Perpetrated by a Provisional IRA splinter group that was rejecting the peace process calling themselves the ldquoReal IRArdquo the 510lb fertilizer-based bomb was placed on main street in the town of Omagh Northern Ireland Warnings were called in approximately 30 minutes before the bombing but they were inaccurate and police ended up moving more civilians towards the bomb which ended up killing 29 people and causing over 300 non-fatal injuries This was the highest death toll from a single incident during the Troubles

bull It received universal outrage and was condemned even by the PIRA and its political wing Sinn Fein It spurred on the Northern Ireland peace process and the RIRA apologized and called a ceasefire several days after

The Good Friday Agreement and Northern Ireland Peace Process

Beginningsbull Following the 1981 Hunger Strikes Irish republicans began to

increasingly look towards politics rather than violence as a means of achieving their aims Sinn Fein gaelic for ldquoWe Ourselvesrdquo was a fiercely Irish Republican political party which led by the Machiavellian former PIRA leader and Maze inmate Gerry Adams began to push for a more peaceful solution to the Troubles in Northern Ireland

bull It became apparent by the late 1990s that although the PIRA was not losing a war against the British establishment it would be impossible to truly lsquowin the fightrsquo through violence and that any further terrorism would serve not to achieve any real political aim but only to prolong and continue suffering and violence in Northern Ireland and that politics was a much better way of achieving Republican aims

Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein former PIRA Belfast Brigade OC

Good Friday Agreement 1998

bull The Peace Process began in 1994 and included intermittent terrorist ceasefires and political negotiations between the major Irish republican and British unionist parties and culminated on April 10 1998 when the Good Friday Agreement was signed

PM Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern Sign the GFA

GFA Mandatesbull That Northern Ireland was to remain British until a majority of people in Northern

Ireland and the southern Republic of Ireland wanted otherwise bull The creation of an entirely new far less sectarian and religiously diverse Northern

Irish local governmentbull The decommissioning of arms from terrorist groups on both the unionist and

nationalist side of the political divide (ultimately successful all arms decommissioned by 2005)

bull Mutual respect and civil rights between Catholics and Protestants bull The reduction and eventual elimination of British troops in Northern Ireland

(ultimately successful all troops withdrawn by 2005)bull Eventual early prison release for all individuals imprisoned for terrorist offenses as

long as they were apart of a terrorist group that was decommissioning in accordance with the GFA

bull Disbandment of the RUC police service and the installation of the new Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) which was required to be at least 50 Catholic

Northern Ireland Today

Still Conflict But No Warbull Since the complete decommissioning of the arms and

disbandment of the PIRA INLA UDAUFF and UVF due to the Good Friday Agreement there is nowhere near the amount of violence in Northern Ireland or Belfast as there was 20 years ago There are no more weekly bombings and riots and no more British troops patrolling Catholic areas in armored vehicles

bull Despite this there are still occasional riots and clashes with the PSNI several times a year specifically on dates of great historical significance to the Catholic or Protestant communities and there is still a deep distrust and even hatred between many Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland although that continues to change with time

Catholic Slum of Ardoyne Belfast July 2011

Splinter Groups

bull Many former PIRA or UDA terrorists have now taken to organized crime for purely profiteering purposes but are no longer involved in substantial violence or any political-based terrorism

bull Splinter groups such as the Real IRA and Continuity IRA in Catholic communities and the Orange Volunteers and Red Hand Commandos in Protestant communities still conduct occasional violence towards Police and civilians in Northern Ireland but are all rather small poorly armed and poorly funded groups that pose nowhere near the threat that terrorist groups in the 80s and 90s did in Northern Ireland

Herersquos To A Brighter Future in Northern Ireland

Works Citedbull httpwwwbbccoukhistorytroublesbull httpcainulstacukbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiProvisional_Irish_Republican_Armybull httpenwikipediaorgwikiThe_Troublesbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiUlster_Defence_Associationbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiUlster_Volunteer_Forcebull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_National_Liberation_Armybull ldquoA Secret History of the IRArdquo by Ed Moloney ndashWW Norton amp Company Reprint 2003bull ldquoVoices From The Grave Two Menrsquos War in Irelandrdquo by Ed Moloney ndash Public Affairs 2010bull ldquoFifty Dead Men Walkingrdquo by Martin McGartland ndash John Blake 2009bull httpwwwinfopleasecomspotnorthireland1htmlbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_Civil_Warbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_War_of_Independencebull httpenwikipediaorgwiki1981_Irish_hunger_strikebull httpenwikipediaorgwikiDirectory_of_the_Northern_Ireland_Troublesbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiGood_Friday_Agreementbull httpswwwmi5govukhomethe-threatsterrorismnorthern-irelandrepublican-terrorist-groupshtmlbull httpswwwmi5govukhomethe-threatsterrorismnorthern-irelandprovisional-irish-republican-army-

pirahtmlbull httpnewsbbccoukhienglishstaticnorthern_irelandunderstandingeventshunger_strikestm

  • The Troubles
  • Brief Overview
  • 30 Years of Conflict
  • Slide 4
  • Background
  • The Irish War of Independence
  • Slide 7
  • Anglo-Irish Treaty (signed 6 December 1921)
  • Irish Civil War
  • 1922-1966 Ireland
  • The Civil Rights Movement
  • Slide 12
  • Slide 13
  • Objectives of the Civil Rights Movement
  • The 1969 Northern Ireland Riots ndashThe Troubles Begin
  • Culmination of Tension
  • No-Go Areas
  • No-Go Areas (2)
  • Early 1970sndash The Rise of the Provisional IRA
  • The IRA Split
  • Rise of the UVF and Loyalist Terror Groups
  • Beginnings
  • UVF Statement 21 May 1964
  • The Paramilitaries
  • Irish RepublicansCatholics
  • The Provisional IRA
  • IRA Statement Late 80s
  • Statistics
  • RecruitmentFunding
  • Weaponry
  • Weaponry (2)
  • Slide 32
  • Mortars and IEDs
  • EOD Officer Approaches PIRA Car Bomb
  • The Barrack Buster
  • Vigilantism
  • Slide 37
  • Slide 38
  • Policy on Informants
  • Terrorist Activities
  • Terrorist Activities (continued)
  • The INLA
  • Statistics (2)
  • Ideology
  • Terrorist Activities (2)
  • Internal Feuds
  • Slide 47
  • British LoyalistsProtestants
  • The UDAUFF
  • Former UFF Member
  • Statistics (3)
  • Ideology (2)
  • Terrorist Activities (3)
  • Slide 54
  • Organized Crime
  • The UVF
  • Statistics (4)
  • Ideology (3)
  • Terrorist Activities (4)
  • The Shankhill Butchers
  • Weaponry (3)
  • Slide 62
  • Organized Crime (2)
  • Major Incidents 1969-1998
  • Bloody Sunday 30 January 1972
  • Massacre on the Bogside
  • Bloody Friday 21 July 1972
  • A City Under Siege
  • Dublin and Monaghan Bombings 17 May 1974
  • Deadliest Attack of the Troubles
  • Warrenpoint Ambush 27 August 1979
  • Roadside IEDs
  • Summer of 1981 Irish Hunger Strikes
  • A Defining Moment for the Republican Cause
  • The Five Demands
  • Previous Protests
  • Dirty Protesters
  • Thatcherrsquos Response
  • Ten Strikers Die
  • Bobby Sands
  • Reaction to Sandsrsquo Death
  • Conclusion
  • 1983 The Maze Prison Escape
  • The ldquoGreat Escaperdquo
  • 12 October 1984 Brighton Hotel Bombing
  • The PIRA Nearly Gets Thatcher
  • Loughgall Ambush 8 May 1987
  • The SAS Strikes
  • British Army Lynx Shootdown 20 March 1994
  • The PIRA Shoots Down a Helicopter
  • 1996 Manchester Bombing
  • The PIRA Destroys Manchester
  • Omagh Bombing 1998
  • Last Great Deadly Attack of the Troubles
  • The Good Friday Agreement and Northern Ireland Peace Process
  • Beginnings (2)
  • Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein former PIRA Belfast Brigade OC
  • Good Friday Agreement 1998
  • PM Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern Sign the GFA
  • GFA Mandates
  • Northern Ireland Today
  • Still Conflict But No War
  • Catholic Slum of Ardoyne Belfast July 2011
  • Splinter Groups
  • Herersquos To A Brighter Future in Northern Ireland
  • Works Cited
Page 11: The Troubles, 1969-1998

Objectives of the Civil Rights Movementbull End job discrimination (Catholicsnationalists unlikely to be given certain jobs

especially government jobs)bull Public housing to be allocated based on need rather than religiouspolitical views

(unionist-controlled local councils allocated housing to Protestant unionists ahead of Catholic nationalists)

bull ldquoOne Man One Voterdquo Policy ndash in Northern Ireland only householders could vote in local elections whereas in the rest of the UK all adults could vote

bull An end to gerrymandering of electoral boundaries giving nationalists less electoral power than unionists even in areas where nationalists were the majority

bull Reform of the RUC or Royal Ulster Constabulary the Northern Irish police force which was almost 100 Protestant and disbandment of the B-Specials special police force also exclusively protestant Both of which were heavily accused of police brutality and sectarianism

bull Repeal of the Special Powers Actndash which allowed police to search without a warrant arrest and imprison people without chargetrial ban any assemblies or parades and ban any publications The Act was used almost exclusively against Catholics

bull The Civil Rights movement was violently repressed by police and met with fierce political resistance from the unionist government

The 1969 Northern Ireland Riots ndashThe Troubles Begin

Culmination of Tensionbull The Tensions between Catholics and Protestants culminated in August of

1969 bull ldquoThe Battle of The Bogsiderdquo ndash Loyalists were allowed to march through the

Catholic neighborhood of Derry in a provocative parade This led to Catholic resistance who began throwing stones and bricks at the parade The RUC was then deployed to put down Catholic rioters and laid siege to the Catholic community of Bogside releasing over 1100 canisters of tear gas in the Bogside from August 12 to 14 Catholics in turn set up barricades and were ultimately successful in repelling the police from their communities The Bogside region of Derry would go on to exist as a lsquono go arearsquo for both Northern Irish and British security forces and existed as an autonomous independent nationalist district from 1969 to 1972

bull The Battle of the Bogside and the ensuing violence that raged from August 12-17 across Northern Ireland caused the displacement of approximately 1820 families and the destruction of 150+ Catholic homes

bull It also led to the deployment of the British military to Ulster in what was intended to be a short several weeklong peacekeeping engagement It would turn out to be a 30 year deployment

No-Go Areas

No-Go Areasbull No-Go Areas existed from 1969 to 1972 in Belfast and Derry in

Catholic nationalist neighborhoods in which barricades and militant residents prevented the police forces or British Army from entering

bull The Barricades were demolished and control ldquoofficiallyrdquo restored in the British Operation Motorman in 1972 in which the British Army used tanks to destroy the barricades and reestablish control However the no-go status was generally maintained and police and security forces still rarely entered certain Irish Catholic neighborhoods throughout the duration of the Troubles except in very hostile circumstances such as in the case of an arrest or military engagement

bull Day-to-day policing of these areas was generally controlled by terrorist groups

Early 1970sndash The Rise of the Provisional IRA

The IRA Splitbull The IRA that had existed largely in silence for the past 50 years began to rearm

and militarize itself once again by 1969 in order to protect Catholic nationalist communities in Northern Ireland in wake of the police brutality and sectarian violence that they had began to increasingly experience

bull In the 1960s the IRA had come under the significant influence of Marxist and Socialist thinkers This led the IRA to split in 1969 into the Official IRA and the Provisional IRA ndash the provisionals named for their ldquoProvisional Army Councilrdquo

bull The Official IRA was highly socialistMarxist and prescribed to the idea that class differences were causing the strife in Northern Ireland whilst the Provisional IRA was less interested in socialism and more concerned simply with British presence in Northern Ireland considering it to be the root of all the problems

bull The Official IRA would eventually fade out by 1972 while the Provisional IRA would go on to become the most feared terrorist organization in 20th Century Europe and launch a 30-year campaign against the British presence in Northern Ireland

Rise of the UVF and Loyalist Terror Groups

Beginningsbull The UVF (Ulster Volunteer Force) was formed in 1964 as a continuation

of the Ulster Volunteers that existed from 1912-1914 in Northern Ireland who intended to violently resist any attempts by the British government to release Ulster from the Union

bull It was reformed in rsquo64 by former British soldier Gusty Spence after he and his men burned to the ground a Catholic-owned pub on the loyalist Shankhill Road

bull The Ulster unionists feared that with the ongoing civil rights movement a potential return of the IRA in Northern Ireland could be possible The UVF and other loyalist paramilitary groups such as the UDA and UFF were thus created and seen as vigilantes and defenders of Protestant communities However most of their targets throughout the 30-year Troubles were simply innocent Catholic civilians

UVF Statement 21 May 1964

bull ldquoFrom this day we declare war against the Irish Republican Army and its splinter groups Known IRA men will be executed mercilessly and without hesitation Less extreme measures will be taken against anyone sheltering or helping them but if they persist in giving them aid then more extreme methods will be adopted we solemnly warn the authorities to make no more speeches of appeasement We are heavily armed Protestants dedicated to this causerdquo

The Paramilitaries

Irish RepublicansCatholics

The Provisional IRA

IRA Statement Late 80s

>

Statistics

bull Suffered 293 Casualtiesbull Over 10000 members imprisoned on various charges

throughout the conflictbull Killed 656 members of the British Armed Forcesbull Killed 272 Members of the Royal Ulster Constabulary

(RUC) Police Forcebull Killed 44 members of loyalistprotestant terror groupsbull Killed between 620-650 civiliansbull Killed over 1500 people

RecruitmentFundingbull IRA recruitment in Catholic neighborhoods was similar to the phenomenon

of gang membership in the inner-city United States Young Catholics typically joined to create a sense of belonging to seem ldquohardrdquo or look ldquocoolrdquo to feel protected from the brutality of the RUC during the Troubles or to help defend their communities IRA members were not asked to join but volunteered

bull IRA lsquofunds-raisingrsquo activities included collecting protection money from Catholic businesses (a ldquorevolutionary taxrdquo) robbing banks kidnapping citizens for ransom and cigarette and gasoline smuggling across the Irish border (manipulating the differing tax prices on both sides of the border and selling fuel and cigarettes illicitly) Although the Provisional IRA has officially disbanded and no longer engages in terrorism there is substantial evidence that extortion rackets in poor Catholic neighborhoods and contraband smuggling operations along the border still exist in Northern Ireland and are run by former IRA men solely for profiteering purposes

Weaponry

bull The Provisional IRA obtained a significant amount of arms from both Irish-American supporters in the northeastern United States (including members of notorious gangster Whitey Bulgerrsquos Irish Mob in 1970s-80s Boston) and from the Libyan government under Muammar Gadaffi

bull Gadaffi took over in Libya in 1969 and initially armed the IRA seeing them as comrades-in-arms fighting British imperialism Connections re-emerged in 1986 after the Thatcher Administrationrsquos support of the US bombings of Libya that killed Gadaffirsquos adopted daughter

Weaponrybull When the IRA disarmed as part of the Good Friday Agreement in

1998 (more on that later) they released the following to the British Armed Forces

bull 1000 Rifles (AK-47s AR-15s etc)bull 3 Tons of Semtex (a general-purpose plastic explosive)bull 20-30 Heavy Machine Gunsbull 7 Surface-to-Air Missilesbull 7 Flamethrowersbull 1200 Detonatorsbull 20 RPGrsquosbull 100 Handgunsbull 100+ Hand Grenades

Mortars and IEDsbull The PIRA was incredibly proficient at bomb-making and made

extensive use of Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) during their 30 year campaign

bull IEDs were typically constructed with chemical mixes of fertilizer gasoline and other home-made components Libyan Semtex was also used in several heavy-duty bombs Nails and gunpowder were typically implemented in pipe bombs made out of metal pipes Most IEDs had built in countermeasures such as the mercury tilt switch which would cause the bomb to explode if moved at all should a British EOD officer attempt to dismantle it

bull The PIRA developed the ldquoBarrack Busterrdquo mortar in the late lsquo70s or a homemade mortar made up of common household materials that was used to attack several Army bases from afar and even Prime Minister Margaret Thatcherrsquos househellip 10 Downing Street in a 1991 attack that destroyed the Prime Ministerrsquos rear garden (the mortar was fired out the back of a nearby van)

EOD Officer Approaches PIRA Car Bomb

The Barrack Buster

>

Vigilantismbull The RUC was not trusted in Catholic neighborhoods throughout the

Troubles and did not regularly patrol or even enter them in urban areas of Northern Ireland Thus when there was a community drug dealer car thief burglar rapist or pedophile the IRA took it upon themselves to issue brutal street justice to those involved

bull Occasionally offering warnings for lesser offences such as petty thievery or drug dealing if the IRA had enough of a certain member of the community they perceived as anti-social he or she was usually jumped brutally beaten andor lsquokneecappedrsquo ndash one of the IRArsquos most notorious methods ndash in which the victim was pinned down and shot through the kneecaps with a firearm or occasionally had their kneecaps drilled through with power-drills Other methods included releasing starving Rottweilerrsquos on the offender dropping cinderblocks on the offenderrsquos hands or even tarring and feathering the offender The IRArsquos process in determining an individualrsquos guilt was never open to scrutiny

bull If the offender persisted after an IRA punishment he was then given a notice by the IRA to leave the country as soon as possiblehellip referred to as being ldquoput outrdquo of the community If the offender still did not leave he was murdered

Policy on Informantsbull In an effort to stamp out collusion with the British forces and informants on the

IRA the IRA was responsible for torturing and killing several accused Catholic civilians throughout the conflict

bull Investigations into collusion infiltration and informants were carried out by the Internal Security Unit of the IRA colloquially known as the ldquoNutting Squadrdquo

bull The ISU would carry out debriefings of IRA prisoners upon their release from British detention so as to discover whether or not they had lsquocrackedrsquo and released information to British interrogators

bull Typical ISU torture techniques on those accused of informing included drowning genitalnipple mutilation electrocution with livewires pouring kerosene on the accusedrsquos legs before setting fire to them and branding with hot irons Informants were always killed afterwards with a bullet through the back of the head

bull Of the 18 ldquoDisappearedrdquo accused informants that were abducted and executed by the IRA during the Troubles only 10 bodies have been found

bull Martin McGartland was an IRA informant who was estimated to have saved 50 lives in the conflict before he was discovered and abducted by the ISU He escaped and lives today in seclusion The film ldquo50 Dead Men Walkingrdquo is based on his exploits and is an excellent realistic non-romanticized take on the Troubles in Northern Ireland

Terrorist Activitiesbull Common tactics included breaking into the homes of off-duty RUC police

officers and murdering them in their beds or setting booby-trap bombs underneath RUC police officersrsquo cars and unionist politiciansrsquo cars so that they would blow up as the engine was started RUC men were typically targeted when they were off-duty and many were shot dead in front of their families The PIRA would also impersonate innocent Catholic civilians call the police to report an emergency and ambush the police from hidden positions when they arrived at the stated address (another reason the RUC was hesitant to go into Catholic neighborhoods during this period)

bull Most notorious for their bombings they would typically park car bombs in predominately Protestant communities call in the bomb threat so that the area would be evacuated and an EOD squad would arrive to dismantle it the bomb would then be detonated with hopes of killing an EOD officer and destroying Protestant housing tenements

bull The PIRA rarely intentionally targeted civilians especially in the 80srsquo and 90srsquo but were involved in the bombings of several Protestant-owned pubs during the 1970s in response to loyalist terrorist groups bombing Catholic-owned pubs They also carried out the Kingsmill massacre in 1976 in which eleven Protestant workmen that were traveling on a minibus were held up by the IRA and all individually executed in response to the execution of six Catholic civilians by the UVF the night before

Terrorist Activities (continued)bull Other activities included engaging in firefights with British squadrons as

they patrolled the countrysidestreets of urban areas sniper attacks on RUC or British Army patrolscheckpoints planting landmines along British foot patrol routes in rural areas planting roadside IEDs along British convoy routes and bombing ferries and buses containing on-or-off duty British soldiers

bull The notorious ldquohuman bombrdquo technique in which civilians or off-duty members of the British security forces were kidnapped and then forced to drive car bombs into British military targets ndash such as checkpoints and Army bases ndash after the PIRA had placed their familiesrsquo lives under threat

bull Inciting riots and providing Catholic youths with molotov cocktails (gasoline bombs) during such riots so as to maximize public disorder and destruction was also an almost daily IRA activity in Catholic communities in urban Northern Ireland

The INLA

Statistics

bull Suffered 33 casualtiesbull Killed 46 members of the British Security Forcesbull Killed 2 members of the Irish Security Forcesbull Killed 39 civiliansbull Killed 3 civilian political activistsbull Killed 16 members of rival Republican terror

groupsbull Killed 7 members of Loyalist terror groups

Ideology

bull Founded by Seamus Costello in 1974 as the military wing of the Irish Republican Socialist Party

bull Shared similar goals to the Provisional IRA but far more socialist in ideology INLA wanted a socialist united Irish republic and blamed class struggles for many of the problems in Northern Ireland whereas the PIRA simply wanted a united Irish republic and had little interest in class struggle or economics

bull Whereas the PIRA was almost exclusively Catholic the INLA had some Protestant members most of whom were involved for purely socialist reasons

Terrorist Activitiesbull Although far less powerful and bold than the PIRA the INLA

nevertheless presented a potent terrorist threat to the United Kingdom during the Troubles

bull Similar tactics to the IRA car bombings shooting off-duty police and soldiers dead and high-profile assassinations

bull Their most high-profile attacks included the car bomb assassination of Airey Neave one of Margaret Thatcherrsquos closest political supporters in 1979 the murder of infamous Loyalist terror leader Billy Wright (who was murdered by INLA inmates in a British political prison in 1997) and the Ballykelley Disco Bombing in 1982 in which the INLA bombed a disco-club frequented by off-duty British soldiers managing to kill 11 of them as well as 6 civilians as well as destroying the disco

Internal Feuds

bull A split in 1986 led the INLA to split into the INLA and the IPLO or Irish Peoplersquos Liberation Organization based on IPLO membersrsquo perceived lack of political motivation and heavy involvement in drug dealing and criminality

bull There were several retaliatory killings between the two groups that persisted until 1992 when the PIRA had enough of the IPLOrsquos involvement in drug dealing in Catholic areas of Belfast and on 31 October 1992 virtually destroyed the entire organization in one night with a series of raids killings and kneecappings that killed or crippled the majority of the grouprsquos members

British LoyalistsProtestants

The UDAUFF

Former UFF Member

>

Statistics

bull Suffered 89 casualtiesbull Killed 197 civiliansbull Killed 12 civilian political activistsbull Killed 37 members of rival loyalist terror

groupsbull Killed 11 members of republican terror groupsbull Killed 3 members of the British Security Forces

Ideology

bull The UDA or Ulster Defense Association and its military wing the Ulster Freedom Fighters (UFF) was a loyalist protestant terror squad that targeted PIRA and INLA members as well as general Catholic civilians in bombings and shootings throughout Northern Ireland

bull It pledged to end its campaign of violence whenever the IRA set down its arms yet should the UK government appease the IRA and grant a 32-county Irish Republic the UDA pledged to act as ldquothe IRA in reverserdquo

Terrorist Activitiesbull The UDA saw itself as a militia defending upstanding protestant loyalist

communities from dangerous and lower-class Catholics that were disrupting the status quo in Northern Ireland They pledged primarily to target IRA men but ended up killing a majority of Catholic civilians during the Troubles They were also known to intimidate and exile known Catholic families from predominately-Protestant communities in Belfast and other urban areas

bull Drive-by shootings shooting up or planting bombs in predominately-Catholic pubs and bars and jumping brutally beating andor kneecapping Catholic civilians were all frequent tactics

bull The UDA discreetly worked in collusion with the RUC and other British security agencies so as to track down and assassinate known IRA members They would also patrol Protestant neighborhoods alongside British soldiers at the height of the Troubles Many RUC police officers and prison guards were also UDA members

bull The UDA alongside many other loyalist paramilitaries benefitted from the import of several arms shipments from Lebanese arms dealers in the early 1970s including rocket launchers 200+ AK-47 Rifles 90+ handguns and over 400 grenades They also received various weapons such as the uzi submachine gun and explosive devices from arms dealers in the Soviet bloc in the 1980s

Organized Crime

bull The UDA and its members were also heavily involved in drug dealing from the street level to wholesale purchase primarily in MDMA and cannabis throughout the Troubles

bull Protection racketeering and money laundering were also common amongst the UDA in protestant communities

bull However should a member of a UDA-ran community begin stealing or dealing drugs without UDA consent he was abruptly branded as ldquoanti-socialrdquo and either killed or kneecapped

The UVF

Statistics

bull Suffered unknown number of casualtiesbull Killed 412 civiliansbull Killed 11 civilian political activistsbull Killed 21 members of republican terror groupsbull Killed 42 members of rival loyalist terror

groupsbull Killed 6 members of the Security Forces

Ideology

bull Similar to the UDAUFF the Ulster Volunteer Forcersquos primary aim was to combat Irish republicanism in Northern Ireland primarily the PIRA They wanted Northern Ireland to remain in the UK

Terrorist Activitiesbull The majority of UVF victims were Catholic civilians

many of whom were killed at random These attacks were intended to demoralize the IRA as the IRA drew most of its support from the Catholic community

bull Planting bombs in predominately-Catholic pubs or simply residential areas was a very frequent UVF tactic and in 1973 they detonated more bombs in Northern Ireland than the UDA and the PIRA combined Assassinations mass shootings booby-trap car bombs and kidnappings were also frequent UVF activities

The Shankhill Butchers

bull The ldquoShankhill Butchersrdquo were a notorious offshoot UVF group known for abducting and literally slitting the throats of Catholic civilians and rival loyalist terror groups in the late 1970s They were led by Lenny Murphy (who was eventually imprisoned and upon his release of a 4-year stint murdered by the PIRA) and killed 23 people most of whom were Catholic civilians Many experts liken the Shankhill Butchers more to a group of serial killers than to politically or even ethnically-motivated murderers

bull The Butchers were all eventually all either imprisoned killed by the PIRA or both

Weaponrybull The UVF received the majority of its weaponry in the late 1970s

from Armscor an apartheid-South Africa state-owned arms company which in defiance of various UN sanctions and embargoes sold them to the UVF

bull Weapons were thought to consist ofbull 200 Czech SA vz 58 Assault Riflesbull 90 Browning Pistolsbull 500 RGD-5 Frag Grenadesbull 30000 rounds of ammunitionbull 12 RPG-7 Rocket Launchers and 150+ Rocketsbull The UVF also began using the illegally-obtained mining explosive

Powergel in the early 1990s

Organized Crime

bull The UVF was also heavily involved in organized crime including protection racketeering and drug smugglingdealing including cannabis MDMA cocaine and amphetamines Bank robberies were also very frequent in the 1970s

Major Incidents 1969-1998

Bloody Sunday 30 January 1972

Massacre on the Bogsidebull In 1972 during a large scale but peaceful civil-rights march in the

troubled predominately Catholic neighborhood of Bogside in Derry 26 unarmed civil rights marchers were shot by members of the British Army 14 of whom were killed Five of those shot were shot in the back

bull After several inquiries into the incident there was found to have been no justifiable provocation from the protestors and no shots fired from the protestors during the march The massacre was conducted in full view of the public and the press

bull The PM David Cameron eventually issued a formal apology to the victims and victimsrsquo families of the massacre after several investigations failed to reveal any justifiable provocation for the massacre

bull The massacre sky-rocketed PIRA membership and recruitment as public perception of the British Army in Catholic communities in Northern Ireland reached an all-time low

Bloody Friday 21 July 1972

A City Under Siege

bull On 21 July 1972 the PIRA detonated 26 bombs in the space of 80 minutes in Belfast destroying banks bridges electrical substations Protestant housing tenements gasoline stations and private garages

bull Although warnings were called in at least 30 minutes prior to each bomb the amount of bombs exploding and the addition of multiple hoax warnings at the same time led to the Security Forces being unable to evacuate all the areas in time 11 people were killed and 130 were injured many of them horrifically mutilated Of those injured 77 were women or children

Dublin and Monaghan Bombings 17 May 1974

Deadliest Attack of the Troubles

bull Perpetrated by the UVF in the southern Republic of Ireland three car bombs exploded in Dublin during rush hour and another exploded in Monaghan around 90 minutes later

bull 33 civilians and a full-term unborn child were killed in the bombing while nearly 300 were injured The UVF did not claim responsibility for the bombings until 1993

bull The majority of those killed were young women although the age range of those killed ranged from 5 months old to 80 years old

Warrenpoint Ambush 27 August 1979

Roadside IEDsbull In the southern part of County Armagh Northern Ireland a predominately-

Catholic rural region and former PIRA stronghold right on the border with the southern Republic of Ireland a British troop convoy was hit with a remote-control detonated roadside 500lb truck-bomb and destroyed instantly killing 6 troops The surviving soldiers then wrongly believed they were under sniper fire from the other side of the Irish border and began firing at civilians immediately after the bombing killing 1 and injuring another

bull 32 minutes after the first bombing the IRA used its knowledge of how the British reacted to bombings to correctly predict that they would set up an incident-command point in a nearby gatehouse Unfortunately for the British there was a second 800lb fertilizer bomb planted near the gatehouse that when detonated killed 12 other soldiers who were responding to the initial bomb

bull It was the deadliest single attack on the British Army during the Troubles and a highly successful attack for the PIRA

Summer of 1981 Irish Hunger Strikes

A Defining Moment for the Republican Cause

bull Beginning on 1 March 1981 led by Bobby Sands 7 PIRA and 3 INLA inmates at the notorious ldquoMazerdquo prison began to refuse food until Margaret Thatcher PM of Great Britain at that time began to recognize terrorist prisoners as political prisoners and allowed them their ldquoFive Demandsrdquo

The Five Demands

bull The right to not wear a prison uniformbull The right to not do prison workbull The right of free association with other

prisoners and to organize in educational and recreational pursuits

bull Full restoration of remission lost through any protests towards these demands

Previous Protestsbull The Maze prison was a very high-security and low-quality prison that

housed almost all PIRA prisoners during the Troubles It was run in a very ethically questionable fashion with frequent beatings and borderline-torture techniques used on Republican prisoners and extremely poor living conditions for prisoners Many Maze prison guards were members of the UDAUVF or had strong connections with one of the two groups as well

bull Massive peaceful protests and marches by Irish republicans outside of the Maze Prison proved unsuccessful in attaining political status for republican prisoners as well as previous inmate protests in 1980 including non-fatal hunger strikes inmates refusing to wear prison uniforms and thus living in their cells naked and prisoners refusing to leave their cells to go to the bathroom until their requests had been granted (they therefore urinated and defecated in their cells and spread their excrement across their cell walls in what was known as the ldquoDirty Protestrdquo)

Dirty Protesters

Thatcherrsquos Response

bull ldquoThose terrorists will carry their determination to disrupt society to any lengths Once again we have a hunger strike in the Maze Prison in the quest for what they call lsquopolitical statusrsquo There is no such thing as political murder political bombing or political violence There is only criminal murder criminal bombing and criminal violence We will not compromise on this There will be no political statusrdquo

Ten Strikers Diebull Bobby Sands the leader of the strike was imprisoned as a PIRA member

on charges of firearm possession and in connection with the bombing of a furniture store He was the first to die after 66 days of not eating Sands was elected to a seat in Parliament whilst on Hunger Strike

bull Following Sandsrsquo death there were riots bus-burnings and attacks on the British embassy in the southern Republic of Ireland there were massive demonstrations in France and Italy a tomato was thrown as Queen Elizabeth II by demonstrators in Oslo and there were massive riots and civil disorder all over the streets of Belfast The South African ANC and (at the time) terrorist Nelson Mandela expressed their support for the PIRA and the hunger strikers (Mandela himself claimed he was directly inspired by Sands to undertake hunger strikes against the Apartheid government in South Africa) as well as the Palestine Liberation Organization a middle-eastern terror group

bull Over 100000 attended Sandsrsquo funeral

Bobby Sands

ldquoOur revenge will be the laughter of our childrenrdquo

Reaction to Sandsrsquo Death

>

Conclusion

bull The Hunger Strike was eventually called off after 10 strikers including Sands had died

bull James Prior newly installed secretary of state of Northern Ireland granted the prisoners partial concessions all of the Five Demands except for the right to not do prison work Margaret Thatcher refused to budge on political status

bull The Hunger Strikes opened a new way for the PIRA to pursue its objectives politically whereas previously it had seen violence as the only solution to the plight of Irish nationalists in Northern Ireland

1983 The Maze Prison Escape

The ldquoGreat Escaperdquo

bull Using smuggled-in guns and knives 38 PIRA prisoners who had been convicted of offenses ranging from murder to causing explosions escaped from one of the most high-security prisons in Europe They completely took over the H7 prison block and took their prison guards hostage before escaping in a food supply truck Several prison guards were shot and stabbed but only one died of a heart attack during the escape

bull Fifteen escapees were recaptured the first day with four more captured over the next two days following the breakout The remaining 19 were transported to PIRA strongholds and given the option to either rejoin the IRArsquos cause or be transported to the United States to live under a new identity

12 October 1984 Brighton Hotel Bombing

The PIRA Nearly Gets Thatcherbull Margaret Thatcher the highly controversial far-right British PM from

1979-1990 had become a tremendously hated figure amongst the Irish nationalist community in Northern Ireland following the 1981 Hunger Strikes and for her general uncompromising stand on Irish republicanism

bull PIRA man Patrick Magee stayed at the Brighton Hotel from the 14-17 September 1984 planting a 20-lb bomb under his bath

bull Thatcher was staying at the Brighton Hotel for a political conference and was still up at 254AM on 12 October when the bomb was detonated The bomb decimated her bathroom but left the bedroom and sitting room of her suite largely unscathed

bull The PIRA statement to Thatcher afterwards was ldquoToday we were unlucky But remember we only have to be lucky once You will have to be lucky alwaysrdquo

Loughgall Ambush 8 May 1987

The SAS Strikes

bull A botched attack on Loughgall Villagersquos RUC Police Base in which the PIRA drove a backhoe into the fortified base and ran away to detonate the bomb that was inside of the backhoe went wrong as the SAS the British Special Forces had prior knowledge of the attack and quickly dispatched the 8 PIRA members involved

bull Although the RUC base was wrecked and bombed there were no RUC or SAS casualties and it was the PIRArsquos greatest loss of life in a single incident during the Troubles

British Army Lynx Shootdown 20 March 1994

The PIRA Shoots Down a Helicopter

bull Using the previously mentioned Barrack-Buster homemade mortar PIRA insurgents were able to fire on a British helicopter that was in the process of landing whilst hiding behind a hay bail from around 150 yards out

bull The helicopter was hit with the mortar shell around 100 feet above the ground but the pilot was able to successfully crash-land the helicopter and escape before its propane tanks exploded There were no casualties but the attack was a major propaganda coup for the PIRA

1996 Manchester Bombing

The PIRA Destroys Manchester

bull On Saturday 15 June 1996 the PIRA sent in telephoned warnings and 90 minutes later detonated a 3300lb fertilizer-based truck bomb in the heart of Manchester City Centre the biggest bomb detonated in Great Britain during peacetime The bomb killed nobody due to previous warnings but led to 212 non-fatal injuries and essentially destroyed Manchester City Centre leaving approximately 700 million pounds ($12bn) worth of damage in its wake

Omagh Bombing 1998

Last Great Deadly Attack of the Troubles

bull Perpetrated by a Provisional IRA splinter group that was rejecting the peace process calling themselves the ldquoReal IRArdquo the 510lb fertilizer-based bomb was placed on main street in the town of Omagh Northern Ireland Warnings were called in approximately 30 minutes before the bombing but they were inaccurate and police ended up moving more civilians towards the bomb which ended up killing 29 people and causing over 300 non-fatal injuries This was the highest death toll from a single incident during the Troubles

bull It received universal outrage and was condemned even by the PIRA and its political wing Sinn Fein It spurred on the Northern Ireland peace process and the RIRA apologized and called a ceasefire several days after

The Good Friday Agreement and Northern Ireland Peace Process

Beginningsbull Following the 1981 Hunger Strikes Irish republicans began to

increasingly look towards politics rather than violence as a means of achieving their aims Sinn Fein gaelic for ldquoWe Ourselvesrdquo was a fiercely Irish Republican political party which led by the Machiavellian former PIRA leader and Maze inmate Gerry Adams began to push for a more peaceful solution to the Troubles in Northern Ireland

bull It became apparent by the late 1990s that although the PIRA was not losing a war against the British establishment it would be impossible to truly lsquowin the fightrsquo through violence and that any further terrorism would serve not to achieve any real political aim but only to prolong and continue suffering and violence in Northern Ireland and that politics was a much better way of achieving Republican aims

Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein former PIRA Belfast Brigade OC

Good Friday Agreement 1998

bull The Peace Process began in 1994 and included intermittent terrorist ceasefires and political negotiations between the major Irish republican and British unionist parties and culminated on April 10 1998 when the Good Friday Agreement was signed

PM Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern Sign the GFA

GFA Mandatesbull That Northern Ireland was to remain British until a majority of people in Northern

Ireland and the southern Republic of Ireland wanted otherwise bull The creation of an entirely new far less sectarian and religiously diverse Northern

Irish local governmentbull The decommissioning of arms from terrorist groups on both the unionist and

nationalist side of the political divide (ultimately successful all arms decommissioned by 2005)

bull Mutual respect and civil rights between Catholics and Protestants bull The reduction and eventual elimination of British troops in Northern Ireland

(ultimately successful all troops withdrawn by 2005)bull Eventual early prison release for all individuals imprisoned for terrorist offenses as

long as they were apart of a terrorist group that was decommissioning in accordance with the GFA

bull Disbandment of the RUC police service and the installation of the new Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) which was required to be at least 50 Catholic

Northern Ireland Today

Still Conflict But No Warbull Since the complete decommissioning of the arms and

disbandment of the PIRA INLA UDAUFF and UVF due to the Good Friday Agreement there is nowhere near the amount of violence in Northern Ireland or Belfast as there was 20 years ago There are no more weekly bombings and riots and no more British troops patrolling Catholic areas in armored vehicles

bull Despite this there are still occasional riots and clashes with the PSNI several times a year specifically on dates of great historical significance to the Catholic or Protestant communities and there is still a deep distrust and even hatred between many Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland although that continues to change with time

Catholic Slum of Ardoyne Belfast July 2011

Splinter Groups

bull Many former PIRA or UDA terrorists have now taken to organized crime for purely profiteering purposes but are no longer involved in substantial violence or any political-based terrorism

bull Splinter groups such as the Real IRA and Continuity IRA in Catholic communities and the Orange Volunteers and Red Hand Commandos in Protestant communities still conduct occasional violence towards Police and civilians in Northern Ireland but are all rather small poorly armed and poorly funded groups that pose nowhere near the threat that terrorist groups in the 80s and 90s did in Northern Ireland

Herersquos To A Brighter Future in Northern Ireland

Works Citedbull httpwwwbbccoukhistorytroublesbull httpcainulstacukbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiProvisional_Irish_Republican_Armybull httpenwikipediaorgwikiThe_Troublesbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiUlster_Defence_Associationbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiUlster_Volunteer_Forcebull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_National_Liberation_Armybull ldquoA Secret History of the IRArdquo by Ed Moloney ndashWW Norton amp Company Reprint 2003bull ldquoVoices From The Grave Two Menrsquos War in Irelandrdquo by Ed Moloney ndash Public Affairs 2010bull ldquoFifty Dead Men Walkingrdquo by Martin McGartland ndash John Blake 2009bull httpwwwinfopleasecomspotnorthireland1htmlbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_Civil_Warbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_War_of_Independencebull httpenwikipediaorgwiki1981_Irish_hunger_strikebull httpenwikipediaorgwikiDirectory_of_the_Northern_Ireland_Troublesbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiGood_Friday_Agreementbull httpswwwmi5govukhomethe-threatsterrorismnorthern-irelandrepublican-terrorist-groupshtmlbull httpswwwmi5govukhomethe-threatsterrorismnorthern-irelandprovisional-irish-republican-army-

pirahtmlbull httpnewsbbccoukhienglishstaticnorthern_irelandunderstandingeventshunger_strikestm

  • The Troubles
  • Brief Overview
  • 30 Years of Conflict
  • Slide 4
  • Background
  • The Irish War of Independence
  • Slide 7
  • Anglo-Irish Treaty (signed 6 December 1921)
  • Irish Civil War
  • 1922-1966 Ireland
  • The Civil Rights Movement
  • Slide 12
  • Slide 13
  • Objectives of the Civil Rights Movement
  • The 1969 Northern Ireland Riots ndashThe Troubles Begin
  • Culmination of Tension
  • No-Go Areas
  • No-Go Areas (2)
  • Early 1970sndash The Rise of the Provisional IRA
  • The IRA Split
  • Rise of the UVF and Loyalist Terror Groups
  • Beginnings
  • UVF Statement 21 May 1964
  • The Paramilitaries
  • Irish RepublicansCatholics
  • The Provisional IRA
  • IRA Statement Late 80s
  • Statistics
  • RecruitmentFunding
  • Weaponry
  • Weaponry (2)
  • Slide 32
  • Mortars and IEDs
  • EOD Officer Approaches PIRA Car Bomb
  • The Barrack Buster
  • Vigilantism
  • Slide 37
  • Slide 38
  • Policy on Informants
  • Terrorist Activities
  • Terrorist Activities (continued)
  • The INLA
  • Statistics (2)
  • Ideology
  • Terrorist Activities (2)
  • Internal Feuds
  • Slide 47
  • British LoyalistsProtestants
  • The UDAUFF
  • Former UFF Member
  • Statistics (3)
  • Ideology (2)
  • Terrorist Activities (3)
  • Slide 54
  • Organized Crime
  • The UVF
  • Statistics (4)
  • Ideology (3)
  • Terrorist Activities (4)
  • The Shankhill Butchers
  • Weaponry (3)
  • Slide 62
  • Organized Crime (2)
  • Major Incidents 1969-1998
  • Bloody Sunday 30 January 1972
  • Massacre on the Bogside
  • Bloody Friday 21 July 1972
  • A City Under Siege
  • Dublin and Monaghan Bombings 17 May 1974
  • Deadliest Attack of the Troubles
  • Warrenpoint Ambush 27 August 1979
  • Roadside IEDs
  • Summer of 1981 Irish Hunger Strikes
  • A Defining Moment for the Republican Cause
  • The Five Demands
  • Previous Protests
  • Dirty Protesters
  • Thatcherrsquos Response
  • Ten Strikers Die
  • Bobby Sands
  • Reaction to Sandsrsquo Death
  • Conclusion
  • 1983 The Maze Prison Escape
  • The ldquoGreat Escaperdquo
  • 12 October 1984 Brighton Hotel Bombing
  • The PIRA Nearly Gets Thatcher
  • Loughgall Ambush 8 May 1987
  • The SAS Strikes
  • British Army Lynx Shootdown 20 March 1994
  • The PIRA Shoots Down a Helicopter
  • 1996 Manchester Bombing
  • The PIRA Destroys Manchester
  • Omagh Bombing 1998
  • Last Great Deadly Attack of the Troubles
  • The Good Friday Agreement and Northern Ireland Peace Process
  • Beginnings (2)
  • Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein former PIRA Belfast Brigade OC
  • Good Friday Agreement 1998
  • PM Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern Sign the GFA
  • GFA Mandates
  • Northern Ireland Today
  • Still Conflict But No War
  • Catholic Slum of Ardoyne Belfast July 2011
  • Splinter Groups
  • Herersquos To A Brighter Future in Northern Ireland
  • Works Cited
Page 12: The Troubles, 1969-1998

The 1969 Northern Ireland Riots ndashThe Troubles Begin

Culmination of Tensionbull The Tensions between Catholics and Protestants culminated in August of

1969 bull ldquoThe Battle of The Bogsiderdquo ndash Loyalists were allowed to march through the

Catholic neighborhood of Derry in a provocative parade This led to Catholic resistance who began throwing stones and bricks at the parade The RUC was then deployed to put down Catholic rioters and laid siege to the Catholic community of Bogside releasing over 1100 canisters of tear gas in the Bogside from August 12 to 14 Catholics in turn set up barricades and were ultimately successful in repelling the police from their communities The Bogside region of Derry would go on to exist as a lsquono go arearsquo for both Northern Irish and British security forces and existed as an autonomous independent nationalist district from 1969 to 1972

bull The Battle of the Bogside and the ensuing violence that raged from August 12-17 across Northern Ireland caused the displacement of approximately 1820 families and the destruction of 150+ Catholic homes

bull It also led to the deployment of the British military to Ulster in what was intended to be a short several weeklong peacekeeping engagement It would turn out to be a 30 year deployment

No-Go Areas

No-Go Areasbull No-Go Areas existed from 1969 to 1972 in Belfast and Derry in

Catholic nationalist neighborhoods in which barricades and militant residents prevented the police forces or British Army from entering

bull The Barricades were demolished and control ldquoofficiallyrdquo restored in the British Operation Motorman in 1972 in which the British Army used tanks to destroy the barricades and reestablish control However the no-go status was generally maintained and police and security forces still rarely entered certain Irish Catholic neighborhoods throughout the duration of the Troubles except in very hostile circumstances such as in the case of an arrest or military engagement

bull Day-to-day policing of these areas was generally controlled by terrorist groups

Early 1970sndash The Rise of the Provisional IRA

The IRA Splitbull The IRA that had existed largely in silence for the past 50 years began to rearm

and militarize itself once again by 1969 in order to protect Catholic nationalist communities in Northern Ireland in wake of the police brutality and sectarian violence that they had began to increasingly experience

bull In the 1960s the IRA had come under the significant influence of Marxist and Socialist thinkers This led the IRA to split in 1969 into the Official IRA and the Provisional IRA ndash the provisionals named for their ldquoProvisional Army Councilrdquo

bull The Official IRA was highly socialistMarxist and prescribed to the idea that class differences were causing the strife in Northern Ireland whilst the Provisional IRA was less interested in socialism and more concerned simply with British presence in Northern Ireland considering it to be the root of all the problems

bull The Official IRA would eventually fade out by 1972 while the Provisional IRA would go on to become the most feared terrorist organization in 20th Century Europe and launch a 30-year campaign against the British presence in Northern Ireland

Rise of the UVF and Loyalist Terror Groups

Beginningsbull The UVF (Ulster Volunteer Force) was formed in 1964 as a continuation

of the Ulster Volunteers that existed from 1912-1914 in Northern Ireland who intended to violently resist any attempts by the British government to release Ulster from the Union

bull It was reformed in rsquo64 by former British soldier Gusty Spence after he and his men burned to the ground a Catholic-owned pub on the loyalist Shankhill Road

bull The Ulster unionists feared that with the ongoing civil rights movement a potential return of the IRA in Northern Ireland could be possible The UVF and other loyalist paramilitary groups such as the UDA and UFF were thus created and seen as vigilantes and defenders of Protestant communities However most of their targets throughout the 30-year Troubles were simply innocent Catholic civilians

UVF Statement 21 May 1964

bull ldquoFrom this day we declare war against the Irish Republican Army and its splinter groups Known IRA men will be executed mercilessly and without hesitation Less extreme measures will be taken against anyone sheltering or helping them but if they persist in giving them aid then more extreme methods will be adopted we solemnly warn the authorities to make no more speeches of appeasement We are heavily armed Protestants dedicated to this causerdquo

The Paramilitaries

Irish RepublicansCatholics

The Provisional IRA

IRA Statement Late 80s

>

Statistics

bull Suffered 293 Casualtiesbull Over 10000 members imprisoned on various charges

throughout the conflictbull Killed 656 members of the British Armed Forcesbull Killed 272 Members of the Royal Ulster Constabulary

(RUC) Police Forcebull Killed 44 members of loyalistprotestant terror groupsbull Killed between 620-650 civiliansbull Killed over 1500 people

RecruitmentFundingbull IRA recruitment in Catholic neighborhoods was similar to the phenomenon

of gang membership in the inner-city United States Young Catholics typically joined to create a sense of belonging to seem ldquohardrdquo or look ldquocoolrdquo to feel protected from the brutality of the RUC during the Troubles or to help defend their communities IRA members were not asked to join but volunteered

bull IRA lsquofunds-raisingrsquo activities included collecting protection money from Catholic businesses (a ldquorevolutionary taxrdquo) robbing banks kidnapping citizens for ransom and cigarette and gasoline smuggling across the Irish border (manipulating the differing tax prices on both sides of the border and selling fuel and cigarettes illicitly) Although the Provisional IRA has officially disbanded and no longer engages in terrorism there is substantial evidence that extortion rackets in poor Catholic neighborhoods and contraband smuggling operations along the border still exist in Northern Ireland and are run by former IRA men solely for profiteering purposes

Weaponry

bull The Provisional IRA obtained a significant amount of arms from both Irish-American supporters in the northeastern United States (including members of notorious gangster Whitey Bulgerrsquos Irish Mob in 1970s-80s Boston) and from the Libyan government under Muammar Gadaffi

bull Gadaffi took over in Libya in 1969 and initially armed the IRA seeing them as comrades-in-arms fighting British imperialism Connections re-emerged in 1986 after the Thatcher Administrationrsquos support of the US bombings of Libya that killed Gadaffirsquos adopted daughter

Weaponrybull When the IRA disarmed as part of the Good Friday Agreement in

1998 (more on that later) they released the following to the British Armed Forces

bull 1000 Rifles (AK-47s AR-15s etc)bull 3 Tons of Semtex (a general-purpose plastic explosive)bull 20-30 Heavy Machine Gunsbull 7 Surface-to-Air Missilesbull 7 Flamethrowersbull 1200 Detonatorsbull 20 RPGrsquosbull 100 Handgunsbull 100+ Hand Grenades

Mortars and IEDsbull The PIRA was incredibly proficient at bomb-making and made

extensive use of Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) during their 30 year campaign

bull IEDs were typically constructed with chemical mixes of fertilizer gasoline and other home-made components Libyan Semtex was also used in several heavy-duty bombs Nails and gunpowder were typically implemented in pipe bombs made out of metal pipes Most IEDs had built in countermeasures such as the mercury tilt switch which would cause the bomb to explode if moved at all should a British EOD officer attempt to dismantle it

bull The PIRA developed the ldquoBarrack Busterrdquo mortar in the late lsquo70s or a homemade mortar made up of common household materials that was used to attack several Army bases from afar and even Prime Minister Margaret Thatcherrsquos househellip 10 Downing Street in a 1991 attack that destroyed the Prime Ministerrsquos rear garden (the mortar was fired out the back of a nearby van)

EOD Officer Approaches PIRA Car Bomb

The Barrack Buster

>

Vigilantismbull The RUC was not trusted in Catholic neighborhoods throughout the

Troubles and did not regularly patrol or even enter them in urban areas of Northern Ireland Thus when there was a community drug dealer car thief burglar rapist or pedophile the IRA took it upon themselves to issue brutal street justice to those involved

bull Occasionally offering warnings for lesser offences such as petty thievery or drug dealing if the IRA had enough of a certain member of the community they perceived as anti-social he or she was usually jumped brutally beaten andor lsquokneecappedrsquo ndash one of the IRArsquos most notorious methods ndash in which the victim was pinned down and shot through the kneecaps with a firearm or occasionally had their kneecaps drilled through with power-drills Other methods included releasing starving Rottweilerrsquos on the offender dropping cinderblocks on the offenderrsquos hands or even tarring and feathering the offender The IRArsquos process in determining an individualrsquos guilt was never open to scrutiny

bull If the offender persisted after an IRA punishment he was then given a notice by the IRA to leave the country as soon as possiblehellip referred to as being ldquoput outrdquo of the community If the offender still did not leave he was murdered

Policy on Informantsbull In an effort to stamp out collusion with the British forces and informants on the

IRA the IRA was responsible for torturing and killing several accused Catholic civilians throughout the conflict

bull Investigations into collusion infiltration and informants were carried out by the Internal Security Unit of the IRA colloquially known as the ldquoNutting Squadrdquo

bull The ISU would carry out debriefings of IRA prisoners upon their release from British detention so as to discover whether or not they had lsquocrackedrsquo and released information to British interrogators

bull Typical ISU torture techniques on those accused of informing included drowning genitalnipple mutilation electrocution with livewires pouring kerosene on the accusedrsquos legs before setting fire to them and branding with hot irons Informants were always killed afterwards with a bullet through the back of the head

bull Of the 18 ldquoDisappearedrdquo accused informants that were abducted and executed by the IRA during the Troubles only 10 bodies have been found

bull Martin McGartland was an IRA informant who was estimated to have saved 50 lives in the conflict before he was discovered and abducted by the ISU He escaped and lives today in seclusion The film ldquo50 Dead Men Walkingrdquo is based on his exploits and is an excellent realistic non-romanticized take on the Troubles in Northern Ireland

Terrorist Activitiesbull Common tactics included breaking into the homes of off-duty RUC police

officers and murdering them in their beds or setting booby-trap bombs underneath RUC police officersrsquo cars and unionist politiciansrsquo cars so that they would blow up as the engine was started RUC men were typically targeted when they were off-duty and many were shot dead in front of their families The PIRA would also impersonate innocent Catholic civilians call the police to report an emergency and ambush the police from hidden positions when they arrived at the stated address (another reason the RUC was hesitant to go into Catholic neighborhoods during this period)

bull Most notorious for their bombings they would typically park car bombs in predominately Protestant communities call in the bomb threat so that the area would be evacuated and an EOD squad would arrive to dismantle it the bomb would then be detonated with hopes of killing an EOD officer and destroying Protestant housing tenements

bull The PIRA rarely intentionally targeted civilians especially in the 80srsquo and 90srsquo but were involved in the bombings of several Protestant-owned pubs during the 1970s in response to loyalist terrorist groups bombing Catholic-owned pubs They also carried out the Kingsmill massacre in 1976 in which eleven Protestant workmen that were traveling on a minibus were held up by the IRA and all individually executed in response to the execution of six Catholic civilians by the UVF the night before

Terrorist Activities (continued)bull Other activities included engaging in firefights with British squadrons as

they patrolled the countrysidestreets of urban areas sniper attacks on RUC or British Army patrolscheckpoints planting landmines along British foot patrol routes in rural areas planting roadside IEDs along British convoy routes and bombing ferries and buses containing on-or-off duty British soldiers

bull The notorious ldquohuman bombrdquo technique in which civilians or off-duty members of the British security forces were kidnapped and then forced to drive car bombs into British military targets ndash such as checkpoints and Army bases ndash after the PIRA had placed their familiesrsquo lives under threat

bull Inciting riots and providing Catholic youths with molotov cocktails (gasoline bombs) during such riots so as to maximize public disorder and destruction was also an almost daily IRA activity in Catholic communities in urban Northern Ireland

The INLA

Statistics

bull Suffered 33 casualtiesbull Killed 46 members of the British Security Forcesbull Killed 2 members of the Irish Security Forcesbull Killed 39 civiliansbull Killed 3 civilian political activistsbull Killed 16 members of rival Republican terror

groupsbull Killed 7 members of Loyalist terror groups

Ideology

bull Founded by Seamus Costello in 1974 as the military wing of the Irish Republican Socialist Party

bull Shared similar goals to the Provisional IRA but far more socialist in ideology INLA wanted a socialist united Irish republic and blamed class struggles for many of the problems in Northern Ireland whereas the PIRA simply wanted a united Irish republic and had little interest in class struggle or economics

bull Whereas the PIRA was almost exclusively Catholic the INLA had some Protestant members most of whom were involved for purely socialist reasons

Terrorist Activitiesbull Although far less powerful and bold than the PIRA the INLA

nevertheless presented a potent terrorist threat to the United Kingdom during the Troubles

bull Similar tactics to the IRA car bombings shooting off-duty police and soldiers dead and high-profile assassinations

bull Their most high-profile attacks included the car bomb assassination of Airey Neave one of Margaret Thatcherrsquos closest political supporters in 1979 the murder of infamous Loyalist terror leader Billy Wright (who was murdered by INLA inmates in a British political prison in 1997) and the Ballykelley Disco Bombing in 1982 in which the INLA bombed a disco-club frequented by off-duty British soldiers managing to kill 11 of them as well as 6 civilians as well as destroying the disco

Internal Feuds

bull A split in 1986 led the INLA to split into the INLA and the IPLO or Irish Peoplersquos Liberation Organization based on IPLO membersrsquo perceived lack of political motivation and heavy involvement in drug dealing and criminality

bull There were several retaliatory killings between the two groups that persisted until 1992 when the PIRA had enough of the IPLOrsquos involvement in drug dealing in Catholic areas of Belfast and on 31 October 1992 virtually destroyed the entire organization in one night with a series of raids killings and kneecappings that killed or crippled the majority of the grouprsquos members

British LoyalistsProtestants

The UDAUFF

Former UFF Member

>

Statistics

bull Suffered 89 casualtiesbull Killed 197 civiliansbull Killed 12 civilian political activistsbull Killed 37 members of rival loyalist terror

groupsbull Killed 11 members of republican terror groupsbull Killed 3 members of the British Security Forces

Ideology

bull The UDA or Ulster Defense Association and its military wing the Ulster Freedom Fighters (UFF) was a loyalist protestant terror squad that targeted PIRA and INLA members as well as general Catholic civilians in bombings and shootings throughout Northern Ireland

bull It pledged to end its campaign of violence whenever the IRA set down its arms yet should the UK government appease the IRA and grant a 32-county Irish Republic the UDA pledged to act as ldquothe IRA in reverserdquo

Terrorist Activitiesbull The UDA saw itself as a militia defending upstanding protestant loyalist

communities from dangerous and lower-class Catholics that were disrupting the status quo in Northern Ireland They pledged primarily to target IRA men but ended up killing a majority of Catholic civilians during the Troubles They were also known to intimidate and exile known Catholic families from predominately-Protestant communities in Belfast and other urban areas

bull Drive-by shootings shooting up or planting bombs in predominately-Catholic pubs and bars and jumping brutally beating andor kneecapping Catholic civilians were all frequent tactics

bull The UDA discreetly worked in collusion with the RUC and other British security agencies so as to track down and assassinate known IRA members They would also patrol Protestant neighborhoods alongside British soldiers at the height of the Troubles Many RUC police officers and prison guards were also UDA members

bull The UDA alongside many other loyalist paramilitaries benefitted from the import of several arms shipments from Lebanese arms dealers in the early 1970s including rocket launchers 200+ AK-47 Rifles 90+ handguns and over 400 grenades They also received various weapons such as the uzi submachine gun and explosive devices from arms dealers in the Soviet bloc in the 1980s

Organized Crime

bull The UDA and its members were also heavily involved in drug dealing from the street level to wholesale purchase primarily in MDMA and cannabis throughout the Troubles

bull Protection racketeering and money laundering were also common amongst the UDA in protestant communities

bull However should a member of a UDA-ran community begin stealing or dealing drugs without UDA consent he was abruptly branded as ldquoanti-socialrdquo and either killed or kneecapped

The UVF

Statistics

bull Suffered unknown number of casualtiesbull Killed 412 civiliansbull Killed 11 civilian political activistsbull Killed 21 members of republican terror groupsbull Killed 42 members of rival loyalist terror

groupsbull Killed 6 members of the Security Forces

Ideology

bull Similar to the UDAUFF the Ulster Volunteer Forcersquos primary aim was to combat Irish republicanism in Northern Ireland primarily the PIRA They wanted Northern Ireland to remain in the UK

Terrorist Activitiesbull The majority of UVF victims were Catholic civilians

many of whom were killed at random These attacks were intended to demoralize the IRA as the IRA drew most of its support from the Catholic community

bull Planting bombs in predominately-Catholic pubs or simply residential areas was a very frequent UVF tactic and in 1973 they detonated more bombs in Northern Ireland than the UDA and the PIRA combined Assassinations mass shootings booby-trap car bombs and kidnappings were also frequent UVF activities

The Shankhill Butchers

bull The ldquoShankhill Butchersrdquo were a notorious offshoot UVF group known for abducting and literally slitting the throats of Catholic civilians and rival loyalist terror groups in the late 1970s They were led by Lenny Murphy (who was eventually imprisoned and upon his release of a 4-year stint murdered by the PIRA) and killed 23 people most of whom were Catholic civilians Many experts liken the Shankhill Butchers more to a group of serial killers than to politically or even ethnically-motivated murderers

bull The Butchers were all eventually all either imprisoned killed by the PIRA or both

Weaponrybull The UVF received the majority of its weaponry in the late 1970s

from Armscor an apartheid-South Africa state-owned arms company which in defiance of various UN sanctions and embargoes sold them to the UVF

bull Weapons were thought to consist ofbull 200 Czech SA vz 58 Assault Riflesbull 90 Browning Pistolsbull 500 RGD-5 Frag Grenadesbull 30000 rounds of ammunitionbull 12 RPG-7 Rocket Launchers and 150+ Rocketsbull The UVF also began using the illegally-obtained mining explosive

Powergel in the early 1990s

Organized Crime

bull The UVF was also heavily involved in organized crime including protection racketeering and drug smugglingdealing including cannabis MDMA cocaine and amphetamines Bank robberies were also very frequent in the 1970s

Major Incidents 1969-1998

Bloody Sunday 30 January 1972

Massacre on the Bogsidebull In 1972 during a large scale but peaceful civil-rights march in the

troubled predominately Catholic neighborhood of Bogside in Derry 26 unarmed civil rights marchers were shot by members of the British Army 14 of whom were killed Five of those shot were shot in the back

bull After several inquiries into the incident there was found to have been no justifiable provocation from the protestors and no shots fired from the protestors during the march The massacre was conducted in full view of the public and the press

bull The PM David Cameron eventually issued a formal apology to the victims and victimsrsquo families of the massacre after several investigations failed to reveal any justifiable provocation for the massacre

bull The massacre sky-rocketed PIRA membership and recruitment as public perception of the British Army in Catholic communities in Northern Ireland reached an all-time low

Bloody Friday 21 July 1972

A City Under Siege

bull On 21 July 1972 the PIRA detonated 26 bombs in the space of 80 minutes in Belfast destroying banks bridges electrical substations Protestant housing tenements gasoline stations and private garages

bull Although warnings were called in at least 30 minutes prior to each bomb the amount of bombs exploding and the addition of multiple hoax warnings at the same time led to the Security Forces being unable to evacuate all the areas in time 11 people were killed and 130 were injured many of them horrifically mutilated Of those injured 77 were women or children

Dublin and Monaghan Bombings 17 May 1974

Deadliest Attack of the Troubles

bull Perpetrated by the UVF in the southern Republic of Ireland three car bombs exploded in Dublin during rush hour and another exploded in Monaghan around 90 minutes later

bull 33 civilians and a full-term unborn child were killed in the bombing while nearly 300 were injured The UVF did not claim responsibility for the bombings until 1993

bull The majority of those killed were young women although the age range of those killed ranged from 5 months old to 80 years old

Warrenpoint Ambush 27 August 1979

Roadside IEDsbull In the southern part of County Armagh Northern Ireland a predominately-

Catholic rural region and former PIRA stronghold right on the border with the southern Republic of Ireland a British troop convoy was hit with a remote-control detonated roadside 500lb truck-bomb and destroyed instantly killing 6 troops The surviving soldiers then wrongly believed they were under sniper fire from the other side of the Irish border and began firing at civilians immediately after the bombing killing 1 and injuring another

bull 32 minutes after the first bombing the IRA used its knowledge of how the British reacted to bombings to correctly predict that they would set up an incident-command point in a nearby gatehouse Unfortunately for the British there was a second 800lb fertilizer bomb planted near the gatehouse that when detonated killed 12 other soldiers who were responding to the initial bomb

bull It was the deadliest single attack on the British Army during the Troubles and a highly successful attack for the PIRA

Summer of 1981 Irish Hunger Strikes

A Defining Moment for the Republican Cause

bull Beginning on 1 March 1981 led by Bobby Sands 7 PIRA and 3 INLA inmates at the notorious ldquoMazerdquo prison began to refuse food until Margaret Thatcher PM of Great Britain at that time began to recognize terrorist prisoners as political prisoners and allowed them their ldquoFive Demandsrdquo

The Five Demands

bull The right to not wear a prison uniformbull The right to not do prison workbull The right of free association with other

prisoners and to organize in educational and recreational pursuits

bull Full restoration of remission lost through any protests towards these demands

Previous Protestsbull The Maze prison was a very high-security and low-quality prison that

housed almost all PIRA prisoners during the Troubles It was run in a very ethically questionable fashion with frequent beatings and borderline-torture techniques used on Republican prisoners and extremely poor living conditions for prisoners Many Maze prison guards were members of the UDAUVF or had strong connections with one of the two groups as well

bull Massive peaceful protests and marches by Irish republicans outside of the Maze Prison proved unsuccessful in attaining political status for republican prisoners as well as previous inmate protests in 1980 including non-fatal hunger strikes inmates refusing to wear prison uniforms and thus living in their cells naked and prisoners refusing to leave their cells to go to the bathroom until their requests had been granted (they therefore urinated and defecated in their cells and spread their excrement across their cell walls in what was known as the ldquoDirty Protestrdquo)

Dirty Protesters

Thatcherrsquos Response

bull ldquoThose terrorists will carry their determination to disrupt society to any lengths Once again we have a hunger strike in the Maze Prison in the quest for what they call lsquopolitical statusrsquo There is no such thing as political murder political bombing or political violence There is only criminal murder criminal bombing and criminal violence We will not compromise on this There will be no political statusrdquo

Ten Strikers Diebull Bobby Sands the leader of the strike was imprisoned as a PIRA member

on charges of firearm possession and in connection with the bombing of a furniture store He was the first to die after 66 days of not eating Sands was elected to a seat in Parliament whilst on Hunger Strike

bull Following Sandsrsquo death there were riots bus-burnings and attacks on the British embassy in the southern Republic of Ireland there were massive demonstrations in France and Italy a tomato was thrown as Queen Elizabeth II by demonstrators in Oslo and there were massive riots and civil disorder all over the streets of Belfast The South African ANC and (at the time) terrorist Nelson Mandela expressed their support for the PIRA and the hunger strikers (Mandela himself claimed he was directly inspired by Sands to undertake hunger strikes against the Apartheid government in South Africa) as well as the Palestine Liberation Organization a middle-eastern terror group

bull Over 100000 attended Sandsrsquo funeral

Bobby Sands

ldquoOur revenge will be the laughter of our childrenrdquo

Reaction to Sandsrsquo Death

>

Conclusion

bull The Hunger Strike was eventually called off after 10 strikers including Sands had died

bull James Prior newly installed secretary of state of Northern Ireland granted the prisoners partial concessions all of the Five Demands except for the right to not do prison work Margaret Thatcher refused to budge on political status

bull The Hunger Strikes opened a new way for the PIRA to pursue its objectives politically whereas previously it had seen violence as the only solution to the plight of Irish nationalists in Northern Ireland

1983 The Maze Prison Escape

The ldquoGreat Escaperdquo

bull Using smuggled-in guns and knives 38 PIRA prisoners who had been convicted of offenses ranging from murder to causing explosions escaped from one of the most high-security prisons in Europe They completely took over the H7 prison block and took their prison guards hostage before escaping in a food supply truck Several prison guards were shot and stabbed but only one died of a heart attack during the escape

bull Fifteen escapees were recaptured the first day with four more captured over the next two days following the breakout The remaining 19 were transported to PIRA strongholds and given the option to either rejoin the IRArsquos cause or be transported to the United States to live under a new identity

12 October 1984 Brighton Hotel Bombing

The PIRA Nearly Gets Thatcherbull Margaret Thatcher the highly controversial far-right British PM from

1979-1990 had become a tremendously hated figure amongst the Irish nationalist community in Northern Ireland following the 1981 Hunger Strikes and for her general uncompromising stand on Irish republicanism

bull PIRA man Patrick Magee stayed at the Brighton Hotel from the 14-17 September 1984 planting a 20-lb bomb under his bath

bull Thatcher was staying at the Brighton Hotel for a political conference and was still up at 254AM on 12 October when the bomb was detonated The bomb decimated her bathroom but left the bedroom and sitting room of her suite largely unscathed

bull The PIRA statement to Thatcher afterwards was ldquoToday we were unlucky But remember we only have to be lucky once You will have to be lucky alwaysrdquo

Loughgall Ambush 8 May 1987

The SAS Strikes

bull A botched attack on Loughgall Villagersquos RUC Police Base in which the PIRA drove a backhoe into the fortified base and ran away to detonate the bomb that was inside of the backhoe went wrong as the SAS the British Special Forces had prior knowledge of the attack and quickly dispatched the 8 PIRA members involved

bull Although the RUC base was wrecked and bombed there were no RUC or SAS casualties and it was the PIRArsquos greatest loss of life in a single incident during the Troubles

British Army Lynx Shootdown 20 March 1994

The PIRA Shoots Down a Helicopter

bull Using the previously mentioned Barrack-Buster homemade mortar PIRA insurgents were able to fire on a British helicopter that was in the process of landing whilst hiding behind a hay bail from around 150 yards out

bull The helicopter was hit with the mortar shell around 100 feet above the ground but the pilot was able to successfully crash-land the helicopter and escape before its propane tanks exploded There were no casualties but the attack was a major propaganda coup for the PIRA

1996 Manchester Bombing

The PIRA Destroys Manchester

bull On Saturday 15 June 1996 the PIRA sent in telephoned warnings and 90 minutes later detonated a 3300lb fertilizer-based truck bomb in the heart of Manchester City Centre the biggest bomb detonated in Great Britain during peacetime The bomb killed nobody due to previous warnings but led to 212 non-fatal injuries and essentially destroyed Manchester City Centre leaving approximately 700 million pounds ($12bn) worth of damage in its wake

Omagh Bombing 1998

Last Great Deadly Attack of the Troubles

bull Perpetrated by a Provisional IRA splinter group that was rejecting the peace process calling themselves the ldquoReal IRArdquo the 510lb fertilizer-based bomb was placed on main street in the town of Omagh Northern Ireland Warnings were called in approximately 30 minutes before the bombing but they were inaccurate and police ended up moving more civilians towards the bomb which ended up killing 29 people and causing over 300 non-fatal injuries This was the highest death toll from a single incident during the Troubles

bull It received universal outrage and was condemned even by the PIRA and its political wing Sinn Fein It spurred on the Northern Ireland peace process and the RIRA apologized and called a ceasefire several days after

The Good Friday Agreement and Northern Ireland Peace Process

Beginningsbull Following the 1981 Hunger Strikes Irish republicans began to

increasingly look towards politics rather than violence as a means of achieving their aims Sinn Fein gaelic for ldquoWe Ourselvesrdquo was a fiercely Irish Republican political party which led by the Machiavellian former PIRA leader and Maze inmate Gerry Adams began to push for a more peaceful solution to the Troubles in Northern Ireland

bull It became apparent by the late 1990s that although the PIRA was not losing a war against the British establishment it would be impossible to truly lsquowin the fightrsquo through violence and that any further terrorism would serve not to achieve any real political aim but only to prolong and continue suffering and violence in Northern Ireland and that politics was a much better way of achieving Republican aims

Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein former PIRA Belfast Brigade OC

Good Friday Agreement 1998

bull The Peace Process began in 1994 and included intermittent terrorist ceasefires and political negotiations between the major Irish republican and British unionist parties and culminated on April 10 1998 when the Good Friday Agreement was signed

PM Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern Sign the GFA

GFA Mandatesbull That Northern Ireland was to remain British until a majority of people in Northern

Ireland and the southern Republic of Ireland wanted otherwise bull The creation of an entirely new far less sectarian and religiously diverse Northern

Irish local governmentbull The decommissioning of arms from terrorist groups on both the unionist and

nationalist side of the political divide (ultimately successful all arms decommissioned by 2005)

bull Mutual respect and civil rights between Catholics and Protestants bull The reduction and eventual elimination of British troops in Northern Ireland

(ultimately successful all troops withdrawn by 2005)bull Eventual early prison release for all individuals imprisoned for terrorist offenses as

long as they were apart of a terrorist group that was decommissioning in accordance with the GFA

bull Disbandment of the RUC police service and the installation of the new Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) which was required to be at least 50 Catholic

Northern Ireland Today

Still Conflict But No Warbull Since the complete decommissioning of the arms and

disbandment of the PIRA INLA UDAUFF and UVF due to the Good Friday Agreement there is nowhere near the amount of violence in Northern Ireland or Belfast as there was 20 years ago There are no more weekly bombings and riots and no more British troops patrolling Catholic areas in armored vehicles

bull Despite this there are still occasional riots and clashes with the PSNI several times a year specifically on dates of great historical significance to the Catholic or Protestant communities and there is still a deep distrust and even hatred between many Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland although that continues to change with time

Catholic Slum of Ardoyne Belfast July 2011

Splinter Groups

bull Many former PIRA or UDA terrorists have now taken to organized crime for purely profiteering purposes but are no longer involved in substantial violence or any political-based terrorism

bull Splinter groups such as the Real IRA and Continuity IRA in Catholic communities and the Orange Volunteers and Red Hand Commandos in Protestant communities still conduct occasional violence towards Police and civilians in Northern Ireland but are all rather small poorly armed and poorly funded groups that pose nowhere near the threat that terrorist groups in the 80s and 90s did in Northern Ireland

Herersquos To A Brighter Future in Northern Ireland

Works Citedbull httpwwwbbccoukhistorytroublesbull httpcainulstacukbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiProvisional_Irish_Republican_Armybull httpenwikipediaorgwikiThe_Troublesbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiUlster_Defence_Associationbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiUlster_Volunteer_Forcebull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_National_Liberation_Armybull ldquoA Secret History of the IRArdquo by Ed Moloney ndashWW Norton amp Company Reprint 2003bull ldquoVoices From The Grave Two Menrsquos War in Irelandrdquo by Ed Moloney ndash Public Affairs 2010bull ldquoFifty Dead Men Walkingrdquo by Martin McGartland ndash John Blake 2009bull httpwwwinfopleasecomspotnorthireland1htmlbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_Civil_Warbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_War_of_Independencebull httpenwikipediaorgwiki1981_Irish_hunger_strikebull httpenwikipediaorgwikiDirectory_of_the_Northern_Ireland_Troublesbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiGood_Friday_Agreementbull httpswwwmi5govukhomethe-threatsterrorismnorthern-irelandrepublican-terrorist-groupshtmlbull httpswwwmi5govukhomethe-threatsterrorismnorthern-irelandprovisional-irish-republican-army-

pirahtmlbull httpnewsbbccoukhienglishstaticnorthern_irelandunderstandingeventshunger_strikestm

  • The Troubles
  • Brief Overview
  • 30 Years of Conflict
  • Slide 4
  • Background
  • The Irish War of Independence
  • Slide 7
  • Anglo-Irish Treaty (signed 6 December 1921)
  • Irish Civil War
  • 1922-1966 Ireland
  • The Civil Rights Movement
  • Slide 12
  • Slide 13
  • Objectives of the Civil Rights Movement
  • The 1969 Northern Ireland Riots ndashThe Troubles Begin
  • Culmination of Tension
  • No-Go Areas
  • No-Go Areas (2)
  • Early 1970sndash The Rise of the Provisional IRA
  • The IRA Split
  • Rise of the UVF and Loyalist Terror Groups
  • Beginnings
  • UVF Statement 21 May 1964
  • The Paramilitaries
  • Irish RepublicansCatholics
  • The Provisional IRA
  • IRA Statement Late 80s
  • Statistics
  • RecruitmentFunding
  • Weaponry
  • Weaponry (2)
  • Slide 32
  • Mortars and IEDs
  • EOD Officer Approaches PIRA Car Bomb
  • The Barrack Buster
  • Vigilantism
  • Slide 37
  • Slide 38
  • Policy on Informants
  • Terrorist Activities
  • Terrorist Activities (continued)
  • The INLA
  • Statistics (2)
  • Ideology
  • Terrorist Activities (2)
  • Internal Feuds
  • Slide 47
  • British LoyalistsProtestants
  • The UDAUFF
  • Former UFF Member
  • Statistics (3)
  • Ideology (2)
  • Terrorist Activities (3)
  • Slide 54
  • Organized Crime
  • The UVF
  • Statistics (4)
  • Ideology (3)
  • Terrorist Activities (4)
  • The Shankhill Butchers
  • Weaponry (3)
  • Slide 62
  • Organized Crime (2)
  • Major Incidents 1969-1998
  • Bloody Sunday 30 January 1972
  • Massacre on the Bogside
  • Bloody Friday 21 July 1972
  • A City Under Siege
  • Dublin and Monaghan Bombings 17 May 1974
  • Deadliest Attack of the Troubles
  • Warrenpoint Ambush 27 August 1979
  • Roadside IEDs
  • Summer of 1981 Irish Hunger Strikes
  • A Defining Moment for the Republican Cause
  • The Five Demands
  • Previous Protests
  • Dirty Protesters
  • Thatcherrsquos Response
  • Ten Strikers Die
  • Bobby Sands
  • Reaction to Sandsrsquo Death
  • Conclusion
  • 1983 The Maze Prison Escape
  • The ldquoGreat Escaperdquo
  • 12 October 1984 Brighton Hotel Bombing
  • The PIRA Nearly Gets Thatcher
  • Loughgall Ambush 8 May 1987
  • The SAS Strikes
  • British Army Lynx Shootdown 20 March 1994
  • The PIRA Shoots Down a Helicopter
  • 1996 Manchester Bombing
  • The PIRA Destroys Manchester
  • Omagh Bombing 1998
  • Last Great Deadly Attack of the Troubles
  • The Good Friday Agreement and Northern Ireland Peace Process
  • Beginnings (2)
  • Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein former PIRA Belfast Brigade OC
  • Good Friday Agreement 1998
  • PM Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern Sign the GFA
  • GFA Mandates
  • Northern Ireland Today
  • Still Conflict But No War
  • Catholic Slum of Ardoyne Belfast July 2011
  • Splinter Groups
  • Herersquos To A Brighter Future in Northern Ireland
  • Works Cited
Page 13: The Troubles, 1969-1998

Culmination of Tensionbull The Tensions between Catholics and Protestants culminated in August of

1969 bull ldquoThe Battle of The Bogsiderdquo ndash Loyalists were allowed to march through the

Catholic neighborhood of Derry in a provocative parade This led to Catholic resistance who began throwing stones and bricks at the parade The RUC was then deployed to put down Catholic rioters and laid siege to the Catholic community of Bogside releasing over 1100 canisters of tear gas in the Bogside from August 12 to 14 Catholics in turn set up barricades and were ultimately successful in repelling the police from their communities The Bogside region of Derry would go on to exist as a lsquono go arearsquo for both Northern Irish and British security forces and existed as an autonomous independent nationalist district from 1969 to 1972

bull The Battle of the Bogside and the ensuing violence that raged from August 12-17 across Northern Ireland caused the displacement of approximately 1820 families and the destruction of 150+ Catholic homes

bull It also led to the deployment of the British military to Ulster in what was intended to be a short several weeklong peacekeeping engagement It would turn out to be a 30 year deployment

No-Go Areas

No-Go Areasbull No-Go Areas existed from 1969 to 1972 in Belfast and Derry in

Catholic nationalist neighborhoods in which barricades and militant residents prevented the police forces or British Army from entering

bull The Barricades were demolished and control ldquoofficiallyrdquo restored in the British Operation Motorman in 1972 in which the British Army used tanks to destroy the barricades and reestablish control However the no-go status was generally maintained and police and security forces still rarely entered certain Irish Catholic neighborhoods throughout the duration of the Troubles except in very hostile circumstances such as in the case of an arrest or military engagement

bull Day-to-day policing of these areas was generally controlled by terrorist groups

Early 1970sndash The Rise of the Provisional IRA

The IRA Splitbull The IRA that had existed largely in silence for the past 50 years began to rearm

and militarize itself once again by 1969 in order to protect Catholic nationalist communities in Northern Ireland in wake of the police brutality and sectarian violence that they had began to increasingly experience

bull In the 1960s the IRA had come under the significant influence of Marxist and Socialist thinkers This led the IRA to split in 1969 into the Official IRA and the Provisional IRA ndash the provisionals named for their ldquoProvisional Army Councilrdquo

bull The Official IRA was highly socialistMarxist and prescribed to the idea that class differences were causing the strife in Northern Ireland whilst the Provisional IRA was less interested in socialism and more concerned simply with British presence in Northern Ireland considering it to be the root of all the problems

bull The Official IRA would eventually fade out by 1972 while the Provisional IRA would go on to become the most feared terrorist organization in 20th Century Europe and launch a 30-year campaign against the British presence in Northern Ireland

Rise of the UVF and Loyalist Terror Groups

Beginningsbull The UVF (Ulster Volunteer Force) was formed in 1964 as a continuation

of the Ulster Volunteers that existed from 1912-1914 in Northern Ireland who intended to violently resist any attempts by the British government to release Ulster from the Union

bull It was reformed in rsquo64 by former British soldier Gusty Spence after he and his men burned to the ground a Catholic-owned pub on the loyalist Shankhill Road

bull The Ulster unionists feared that with the ongoing civil rights movement a potential return of the IRA in Northern Ireland could be possible The UVF and other loyalist paramilitary groups such as the UDA and UFF were thus created and seen as vigilantes and defenders of Protestant communities However most of their targets throughout the 30-year Troubles were simply innocent Catholic civilians

UVF Statement 21 May 1964

bull ldquoFrom this day we declare war against the Irish Republican Army and its splinter groups Known IRA men will be executed mercilessly and without hesitation Less extreme measures will be taken against anyone sheltering or helping them but if they persist in giving them aid then more extreme methods will be adopted we solemnly warn the authorities to make no more speeches of appeasement We are heavily armed Protestants dedicated to this causerdquo

The Paramilitaries

Irish RepublicansCatholics

The Provisional IRA

IRA Statement Late 80s

>

Statistics

bull Suffered 293 Casualtiesbull Over 10000 members imprisoned on various charges

throughout the conflictbull Killed 656 members of the British Armed Forcesbull Killed 272 Members of the Royal Ulster Constabulary

(RUC) Police Forcebull Killed 44 members of loyalistprotestant terror groupsbull Killed between 620-650 civiliansbull Killed over 1500 people

RecruitmentFundingbull IRA recruitment in Catholic neighborhoods was similar to the phenomenon

of gang membership in the inner-city United States Young Catholics typically joined to create a sense of belonging to seem ldquohardrdquo or look ldquocoolrdquo to feel protected from the brutality of the RUC during the Troubles or to help defend their communities IRA members were not asked to join but volunteered

bull IRA lsquofunds-raisingrsquo activities included collecting protection money from Catholic businesses (a ldquorevolutionary taxrdquo) robbing banks kidnapping citizens for ransom and cigarette and gasoline smuggling across the Irish border (manipulating the differing tax prices on both sides of the border and selling fuel and cigarettes illicitly) Although the Provisional IRA has officially disbanded and no longer engages in terrorism there is substantial evidence that extortion rackets in poor Catholic neighborhoods and contraband smuggling operations along the border still exist in Northern Ireland and are run by former IRA men solely for profiteering purposes

Weaponry

bull The Provisional IRA obtained a significant amount of arms from both Irish-American supporters in the northeastern United States (including members of notorious gangster Whitey Bulgerrsquos Irish Mob in 1970s-80s Boston) and from the Libyan government under Muammar Gadaffi

bull Gadaffi took over in Libya in 1969 and initially armed the IRA seeing them as comrades-in-arms fighting British imperialism Connections re-emerged in 1986 after the Thatcher Administrationrsquos support of the US bombings of Libya that killed Gadaffirsquos adopted daughter

Weaponrybull When the IRA disarmed as part of the Good Friday Agreement in

1998 (more on that later) they released the following to the British Armed Forces

bull 1000 Rifles (AK-47s AR-15s etc)bull 3 Tons of Semtex (a general-purpose plastic explosive)bull 20-30 Heavy Machine Gunsbull 7 Surface-to-Air Missilesbull 7 Flamethrowersbull 1200 Detonatorsbull 20 RPGrsquosbull 100 Handgunsbull 100+ Hand Grenades

Mortars and IEDsbull The PIRA was incredibly proficient at bomb-making and made

extensive use of Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) during their 30 year campaign

bull IEDs were typically constructed with chemical mixes of fertilizer gasoline and other home-made components Libyan Semtex was also used in several heavy-duty bombs Nails and gunpowder were typically implemented in pipe bombs made out of metal pipes Most IEDs had built in countermeasures such as the mercury tilt switch which would cause the bomb to explode if moved at all should a British EOD officer attempt to dismantle it

bull The PIRA developed the ldquoBarrack Busterrdquo mortar in the late lsquo70s or a homemade mortar made up of common household materials that was used to attack several Army bases from afar and even Prime Minister Margaret Thatcherrsquos househellip 10 Downing Street in a 1991 attack that destroyed the Prime Ministerrsquos rear garden (the mortar was fired out the back of a nearby van)

EOD Officer Approaches PIRA Car Bomb

The Barrack Buster

>

Vigilantismbull The RUC was not trusted in Catholic neighborhoods throughout the

Troubles and did not regularly patrol or even enter them in urban areas of Northern Ireland Thus when there was a community drug dealer car thief burglar rapist or pedophile the IRA took it upon themselves to issue brutal street justice to those involved

bull Occasionally offering warnings for lesser offences such as petty thievery or drug dealing if the IRA had enough of a certain member of the community they perceived as anti-social he or she was usually jumped brutally beaten andor lsquokneecappedrsquo ndash one of the IRArsquos most notorious methods ndash in which the victim was pinned down and shot through the kneecaps with a firearm or occasionally had their kneecaps drilled through with power-drills Other methods included releasing starving Rottweilerrsquos on the offender dropping cinderblocks on the offenderrsquos hands or even tarring and feathering the offender The IRArsquos process in determining an individualrsquos guilt was never open to scrutiny

bull If the offender persisted after an IRA punishment he was then given a notice by the IRA to leave the country as soon as possiblehellip referred to as being ldquoput outrdquo of the community If the offender still did not leave he was murdered

Policy on Informantsbull In an effort to stamp out collusion with the British forces and informants on the

IRA the IRA was responsible for torturing and killing several accused Catholic civilians throughout the conflict

bull Investigations into collusion infiltration and informants were carried out by the Internal Security Unit of the IRA colloquially known as the ldquoNutting Squadrdquo

bull The ISU would carry out debriefings of IRA prisoners upon their release from British detention so as to discover whether or not they had lsquocrackedrsquo and released information to British interrogators

bull Typical ISU torture techniques on those accused of informing included drowning genitalnipple mutilation electrocution with livewires pouring kerosene on the accusedrsquos legs before setting fire to them and branding with hot irons Informants were always killed afterwards with a bullet through the back of the head

bull Of the 18 ldquoDisappearedrdquo accused informants that were abducted and executed by the IRA during the Troubles only 10 bodies have been found

bull Martin McGartland was an IRA informant who was estimated to have saved 50 lives in the conflict before he was discovered and abducted by the ISU He escaped and lives today in seclusion The film ldquo50 Dead Men Walkingrdquo is based on his exploits and is an excellent realistic non-romanticized take on the Troubles in Northern Ireland

Terrorist Activitiesbull Common tactics included breaking into the homes of off-duty RUC police

officers and murdering them in their beds or setting booby-trap bombs underneath RUC police officersrsquo cars and unionist politiciansrsquo cars so that they would blow up as the engine was started RUC men were typically targeted when they were off-duty and many were shot dead in front of their families The PIRA would also impersonate innocent Catholic civilians call the police to report an emergency and ambush the police from hidden positions when they arrived at the stated address (another reason the RUC was hesitant to go into Catholic neighborhoods during this period)

bull Most notorious for their bombings they would typically park car bombs in predominately Protestant communities call in the bomb threat so that the area would be evacuated and an EOD squad would arrive to dismantle it the bomb would then be detonated with hopes of killing an EOD officer and destroying Protestant housing tenements

bull The PIRA rarely intentionally targeted civilians especially in the 80srsquo and 90srsquo but were involved in the bombings of several Protestant-owned pubs during the 1970s in response to loyalist terrorist groups bombing Catholic-owned pubs They also carried out the Kingsmill massacre in 1976 in which eleven Protestant workmen that were traveling on a minibus were held up by the IRA and all individually executed in response to the execution of six Catholic civilians by the UVF the night before

Terrorist Activities (continued)bull Other activities included engaging in firefights with British squadrons as

they patrolled the countrysidestreets of urban areas sniper attacks on RUC or British Army patrolscheckpoints planting landmines along British foot patrol routes in rural areas planting roadside IEDs along British convoy routes and bombing ferries and buses containing on-or-off duty British soldiers

bull The notorious ldquohuman bombrdquo technique in which civilians or off-duty members of the British security forces were kidnapped and then forced to drive car bombs into British military targets ndash such as checkpoints and Army bases ndash after the PIRA had placed their familiesrsquo lives under threat

bull Inciting riots and providing Catholic youths with molotov cocktails (gasoline bombs) during such riots so as to maximize public disorder and destruction was also an almost daily IRA activity in Catholic communities in urban Northern Ireland

The INLA

Statistics

bull Suffered 33 casualtiesbull Killed 46 members of the British Security Forcesbull Killed 2 members of the Irish Security Forcesbull Killed 39 civiliansbull Killed 3 civilian political activistsbull Killed 16 members of rival Republican terror

groupsbull Killed 7 members of Loyalist terror groups

Ideology

bull Founded by Seamus Costello in 1974 as the military wing of the Irish Republican Socialist Party

bull Shared similar goals to the Provisional IRA but far more socialist in ideology INLA wanted a socialist united Irish republic and blamed class struggles for many of the problems in Northern Ireland whereas the PIRA simply wanted a united Irish republic and had little interest in class struggle or economics

bull Whereas the PIRA was almost exclusively Catholic the INLA had some Protestant members most of whom were involved for purely socialist reasons

Terrorist Activitiesbull Although far less powerful and bold than the PIRA the INLA

nevertheless presented a potent terrorist threat to the United Kingdom during the Troubles

bull Similar tactics to the IRA car bombings shooting off-duty police and soldiers dead and high-profile assassinations

bull Their most high-profile attacks included the car bomb assassination of Airey Neave one of Margaret Thatcherrsquos closest political supporters in 1979 the murder of infamous Loyalist terror leader Billy Wright (who was murdered by INLA inmates in a British political prison in 1997) and the Ballykelley Disco Bombing in 1982 in which the INLA bombed a disco-club frequented by off-duty British soldiers managing to kill 11 of them as well as 6 civilians as well as destroying the disco

Internal Feuds

bull A split in 1986 led the INLA to split into the INLA and the IPLO or Irish Peoplersquos Liberation Organization based on IPLO membersrsquo perceived lack of political motivation and heavy involvement in drug dealing and criminality

bull There were several retaliatory killings between the two groups that persisted until 1992 when the PIRA had enough of the IPLOrsquos involvement in drug dealing in Catholic areas of Belfast and on 31 October 1992 virtually destroyed the entire organization in one night with a series of raids killings and kneecappings that killed or crippled the majority of the grouprsquos members

British LoyalistsProtestants

The UDAUFF

Former UFF Member

>

Statistics

bull Suffered 89 casualtiesbull Killed 197 civiliansbull Killed 12 civilian political activistsbull Killed 37 members of rival loyalist terror

groupsbull Killed 11 members of republican terror groupsbull Killed 3 members of the British Security Forces

Ideology

bull The UDA or Ulster Defense Association and its military wing the Ulster Freedom Fighters (UFF) was a loyalist protestant terror squad that targeted PIRA and INLA members as well as general Catholic civilians in bombings and shootings throughout Northern Ireland

bull It pledged to end its campaign of violence whenever the IRA set down its arms yet should the UK government appease the IRA and grant a 32-county Irish Republic the UDA pledged to act as ldquothe IRA in reverserdquo

Terrorist Activitiesbull The UDA saw itself as a militia defending upstanding protestant loyalist

communities from dangerous and lower-class Catholics that were disrupting the status quo in Northern Ireland They pledged primarily to target IRA men but ended up killing a majority of Catholic civilians during the Troubles They were also known to intimidate and exile known Catholic families from predominately-Protestant communities in Belfast and other urban areas

bull Drive-by shootings shooting up or planting bombs in predominately-Catholic pubs and bars and jumping brutally beating andor kneecapping Catholic civilians were all frequent tactics

bull The UDA discreetly worked in collusion with the RUC and other British security agencies so as to track down and assassinate known IRA members They would also patrol Protestant neighborhoods alongside British soldiers at the height of the Troubles Many RUC police officers and prison guards were also UDA members

bull The UDA alongside many other loyalist paramilitaries benefitted from the import of several arms shipments from Lebanese arms dealers in the early 1970s including rocket launchers 200+ AK-47 Rifles 90+ handguns and over 400 grenades They also received various weapons such as the uzi submachine gun and explosive devices from arms dealers in the Soviet bloc in the 1980s

Organized Crime

bull The UDA and its members were also heavily involved in drug dealing from the street level to wholesale purchase primarily in MDMA and cannabis throughout the Troubles

bull Protection racketeering and money laundering were also common amongst the UDA in protestant communities

bull However should a member of a UDA-ran community begin stealing or dealing drugs without UDA consent he was abruptly branded as ldquoanti-socialrdquo and either killed or kneecapped

The UVF

Statistics

bull Suffered unknown number of casualtiesbull Killed 412 civiliansbull Killed 11 civilian political activistsbull Killed 21 members of republican terror groupsbull Killed 42 members of rival loyalist terror

groupsbull Killed 6 members of the Security Forces

Ideology

bull Similar to the UDAUFF the Ulster Volunteer Forcersquos primary aim was to combat Irish republicanism in Northern Ireland primarily the PIRA They wanted Northern Ireland to remain in the UK

Terrorist Activitiesbull The majority of UVF victims were Catholic civilians

many of whom were killed at random These attacks were intended to demoralize the IRA as the IRA drew most of its support from the Catholic community

bull Planting bombs in predominately-Catholic pubs or simply residential areas was a very frequent UVF tactic and in 1973 they detonated more bombs in Northern Ireland than the UDA and the PIRA combined Assassinations mass shootings booby-trap car bombs and kidnappings were also frequent UVF activities

The Shankhill Butchers

bull The ldquoShankhill Butchersrdquo were a notorious offshoot UVF group known for abducting and literally slitting the throats of Catholic civilians and rival loyalist terror groups in the late 1970s They were led by Lenny Murphy (who was eventually imprisoned and upon his release of a 4-year stint murdered by the PIRA) and killed 23 people most of whom were Catholic civilians Many experts liken the Shankhill Butchers more to a group of serial killers than to politically or even ethnically-motivated murderers

bull The Butchers were all eventually all either imprisoned killed by the PIRA or both

Weaponrybull The UVF received the majority of its weaponry in the late 1970s

from Armscor an apartheid-South Africa state-owned arms company which in defiance of various UN sanctions and embargoes sold them to the UVF

bull Weapons were thought to consist ofbull 200 Czech SA vz 58 Assault Riflesbull 90 Browning Pistolsbull 500 RGD-5 Frag Grenadesbull 30000 rounds of ammunitionbull 12 RPG-7 Rocket Launchers and 150+ Rocketsbull The UVF also began using the illegally-obtained mining explosive

Powergel in the early 1990s

Organized Crime

bull The UVF was also heavily involved in organized crime including protection racketeering and drug smugglingdealing including cannabis MDMA cocaine and amphetamines Bank robberies were also very frequent in the 1970s

Major Incidents 1969-1998

Bloody Sunday 30 January 1972

Massacre on the Bogsidebull In 1972 during a large scale but peaceful civil-rights march in the

troubled predominately Catholic neighborhood of Bogside in Derry 26 unarmed civil rights marchers were shot by members of the British Army 14 of whom were killed Five of those shot were shot in the back

bull After several inquiries into the incident there was found to have been no justifiable provocation from the protestors and no shots fired from the protestors during the march The massacre was conducted in full view of the public and the press

bull The PM David Cameron eventually issued a formal apology to the victims and victimsrsquo families of the massacre after several investigations failed to reveal any justifiable provocation for the massacre

bull The massacre sky-rocketed PIRA membership and recruitment as public perception of the British Army in Catholic communities in Northern Ireland reached an all-time low

Bloody Friday 21 July 1972

A City Under Siege

bull On 21 July 1972 the PIRA detonated 26 bombs in the space of 80 minutes in Belfast destroying banks bridges electrical substations Protestant housing tenements gasoline stations and private garages

bull Although warnings were called in at least 30 minutes prior to each bomb the amount of bombs exploding and the addition of multiple hoax warnings at the same time led to the Security Forces being unable to evacuate all the areas in time 11 people were killed and 130 were injured many of them horrifically mutilated Of those injured 77 were women or children

Dublin and Monaghan Bombings 17 May 1974

Deadliest Attack of the Troubles

bull Perpetrated by the UVF in the southern Republic of Ireland three car bombs exploded in Dublin during rush hour and another exploded in Monaghan around 90 minutes later

bull 33 civilians and a full-term unborn child were killed in the bombing while nearly 300 were injured The UVF did not claim responsibility for the bombings until 1993

bull The majority of those killed were young women although the age range of those killed ranged from 5 months old to 80 years old

Warrenpoint Ambush 27 August 1979

Roadside IEDsbull In the southern part of County Armagh Northern Ireland a predominately-

Catholic rural region and former PIRA stronghold right on the border with the southern Republic of Ireland a British troop convoy was hit with a remote-control detonated roadside 500lb truck-bomb and destroyed instantly killing 6 troops The surviving soldiers then wrongly believed they were under sniper fire from the other side of the Irish border and began firing at civilians immediately after the bombing killing 1 and injuring another

bull 32 minutes after the first bombing the IRA used its knowledge of how the British reacted to bombings to correctly predict that they would set up an incident-command point in a nearby gatehouse Unfortunately for the British there was a second 800lb fertilizer bomb planted near the gatehouse that when detonated killed 12 other soldiers who were responding to the initial bomb

bull It was the deadliest single attack on the British Army during the Troubles and a highly successful attack for the PIRA

Summer of 1981 Irish Hunger Strikes

A Defining Moment for the Republican Cause

bull Beginning on 1 March 1981 led by Bobby Sands 7 PIRA and 3 INLA inmates at the notorious ldquoMazerdquo prison began to refuse food until Margaret Thatcher PM of Great Britain at that time began to recognize terrorist prisoners as political prisoners and allowed them their ldquoFive Demandsrdquo

The Five Demands

bull The right to not wear a prison uniformbull The right to not do prison workbull The right of free association with other

prisoners and to organize in educational and recreational pursuits

bull Full restoration of remission lost through any protests towards these demands

Previous Protestsbull The Maze prison was a very high-security and low-quality prison that

housed almost all PIRA prisoners during the Troubles It was run in a very ethically questionable fashion with frequent beatings and borderline-torture techniques used on Republican prisoners and extremely poor living conditions for prisoners Many Maze prison guards were members of the UDAUVF or had strong connections with one of the two groups as well

bull Massive peaceful protests and marches by Irish republicans outside of the Maze Prison proved unsuccessful in attaining political status for republican prisoners as well as previous inmate protests in 1980 including non-fatal hunger strikes inmates refusing to wear prison uniforms and thus living in their cells naked and prisoners refusing to leave their cells to go to the bathroom until their requests had been granted (they therefore urinated and defecated in their cells and spread their excrement across their cell walls in what was known as the ldquoDirty Protestrdquo)

Dirty Protesters

Thatcherrsquos Response

bull ldquoThose terrorists will carry their determination to disrupt society to any lengths Once again we have a hunger strike in the Maze Prison in the quest for what they call lsquopolitical statusrsquo There is no such thing as political murder political bombing or political violence There is only criminal murder criminal bombing and criminal violence We will not compromise on this There will be no political statusrdquo

Ten Strikers Diebull Bobby Sands the leader of the strike was imprisoned as a PIRA member

on charges of firearm possession and in connection with the bombing of a furniture store He was the first to die after 66 days of not eating Sands was elected to a seat in Parliament whilst on Hunger Strike

bull Following Sandsrsquo death there were riots bus-burnings and attacks on the British embassy in the southern Republic of Ireland there were massive demonstrations in France and Italy a tomato was thrown as Queen Elizabeth II by demonstrators in Oslo and there were massive riots and civil disorder all over the streets of Belfast The South African ANC and (at the time) terrorist Nelson Mandela expressed their support for the PIRA and the hunger strikers (Mandela himself claimed he was directly inspired by Sands to undertake hunger strikes against the Apartheid government in South Africa) as well as the Palestine Liberation Organization a middle-eastern terror group

bull Over 100000 attended Sandsrsquo funeral

Bobby Sands

ldquoOur revenge will be the laughter of our childrenrdquo

Reaction to Sandsrsquo Death

>

Conclusion

bull The Hunger Strike was eventually called off after 10 strikers including Sands had died

bull James Prior newly installed secretary of state of Northern Ireland granted the prisoners partial concessions all of the Five Demands except for the right to not do prison work Margaret Thatcher refused to budge on political status

bull The Hunger Strikes opened a new way for the PIRA to pursue its objectives politically whereas previously it had seen violence as the only solution to the plight of Irish nationalists in Northern Ireland

1983 The Maze Prison Escape

The ldquoGreat Escaperdquo

bull Using smuggled-in guns and knives 38 PIRA prisoners who had been convicted of offenses ranging from murder to causing explosions escaped from one of the most high-security prisons in Europe They completely took over the H7 prison block and took their prison guards hostage before escaping in a food supply truck Several prison guards were shot and stabbed but only one died of a heart attack during the escape

bull Fifteen escapees were recaptured the first day with four more captured over the next two days following the breakout The remaining 19 were transported to PIRA strongholds and given the option to either rejoin the IRArsquos cause or be transported to the United States to live under a new identity

12 October 1984 Brighton Hotel Bombing

The PIRA Nearly Gets Thatcherbull Margaret Thatcher the highly controversial far-right British PM from

1979-1990 had become a tremendously hated figure amongst the Irish nationalist community in Northern Ireland following the 1981 Hunger Strikes and for her general uncompromising stand on Irish republicanism

bull PIRA man Patrick Magee stayed at the Brighton Hotel from the 14-17 September 1984 planting a 20-lb bomb under his bath

bull Thatcher was staying at the Brighton Hotel for a political conference and was still up at 254AM on 12 October when the bomb was detonated The bomb decimated her bathroom but left the bedroom and sitting room of her suite largely unscathed

bull The PIRA statement to Thatcher afterwards was ldquoToday we were unlucky But remember we only have to be lucky once You will have to be lucky alwaysrdquo

Loughgall Ambush 8 May 1987

The SAS Strikes

bull A botched attack on Loughgall Villagersquos RUC Police Base in which the PIRA drove a backhoe into the fortified base and ran away to detonate the bomb that was inside of the backhoe went wrong as the SAS the British Special Forces had prior knowledge of the attack and quickly dispatched the 8 PIRA members involved

bull Although the RUC base was wrecked and bombed there were no RUC or SAS casualties and it was the PIRArsquos greatest loss of life in a single incident during the Troubles

British Army Lynx Shootdown 20 March 1994

The PIRA Shoots Down a Helicopter

bull Using the previously mentioned Barrack-Buster homemade mortar PIRA insurgents were able to fire on a British helicopter that was in the process of landing whilst hiding behind a hay bail from around 150 yards out

bull The helicopter was hit with the mortar shell around 100 feet above the ground but the pilot was able to successfully crash-land the helicopter and escape before its propane tanks exploded There were no casualties but the attack was a major propaganda coup for the PIRA

1996 Manchester Bombing

The PIRA Destroys Manchester

bull On Saturday 15 June 1996 the PIRA sent in telephoned warnings and 90 minutes later detonated a 3300lb fertilizer-based truck bomb in the heart of Manchester City Centre the biggest bomb detonated in Great Britain during peacetime The bomb killed nobody due to previous warnings but led to 212 non-fatal injuries and essentially destroyed Manchester City Centre leaving approximately 700 million pounds ($12bn) worth of damage in its wake

Omagh Bombing 1998

Last Great Deadly Attack of the Troubles

bull Perpetrated by a Provisional IRA splinter group that was rejecting the peace process calling themselves the ldquoReal IRArdquo the 510lb fertilizer-based bomb was placed on main street in the town of Omagh Northern Ireland Warnings were called in approximately 30 minutes before the bombing but they were inaccurate and police ended up moving more civilians towards the bomb which ended up killing 29 people and causing over 300 non-fatal injuries This was the highest death toll from a single incident during the Troubles

bull It received universal outrage and was condemned even by the PIRA and its political wing Sinn Fein It spurred on the Northern Ireland peace process and the RIRA apologized and called a ceasefire several days after

The Good Friday Agreement and Northern Ireland Peace Process

Beginningsbull Following the 1981 Hunger Strikes Irish republicans began to

increasingly look towards politics rather than violence as a means of achieving their aims Sinn Fein gaelic for ldquoWe Ourselvesrdquo was a fiercely Irish Republican political party which led by the Machiavellian former PIRA leader and Maze inmate Gerry Adams began to push for a more peaceful solution to the Troubles in Northern Ireland

bull It became apparent by the late 1990s that although the PIRA was not losing a war against the British establishment it would be impossible to truly lsquowin the fightrsquo through violence and that any further terrorism would serve not to achieve any real political aim but only to prolong and continue suffering and violence in Northern Ireland and that politics was a much better way of achieving Republican aims

Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein former PIRA Belfast Brigade OC

Good Friday Agreement 1998

bull The Peace Process began in 1994 and included intermittent terrorist ceasefires and political negotiations between the major Irish republican and British unionist parties and culminated on April 10 1998 when the Good Friday Agreement was signed

PM Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern Sign the GFA

GFA Mandatesbull That Northern Ireland was to remain British until a majority of people in Northern

Ireland and the southern Republic of Ireland wanted otherwise bull The creation of an entirely new far less sectarian and religiously diverse Northern

Irish local governmentbull The decommissioning of arms from terrorist groups on both the unionist and

nationalist side of the political divide (ultimately successful all arms decommissioned by 2005)

bull Mutual respect and civil rights between Catholics and Protestants bull The reduction and eventual elimination of British troops in Northern Ireland

(ultimately successful all troops withdrawn by 2005)bull Eventual early prison release for all individuals imprisoned for terrorist offenses as

long as they were apart of a terrorist group that was decommissioning in accordance with the GFA

bull Disbandment of the RUC police service and the installation of the new Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) which was required to be at least 50 Catholic

Northern Ireland Today

Still Conflict But No Warbull Since the complete decommissioning of the arms and

disbandment of the PIRA INLA UDAUFF and UVF due to the Good Friday Agreement there is nowhere near the amount of violence in Northern Ireland or Belfast as there was 20 years ago There are no more weekly bombings and riots and no more British troops patrolling Catholic areas in armored vehicles

bull Despite this there are still occasional riots and clashes with the PSNI several times a year specifically on dates of great historical significance to the Catholic or Protestant communities and there is still a deep distrust and even hatred between many Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland although that continues to change with time

Catholic Slum of Ardoyne Belfast July 2011

Splinter Groups

bull Many former PIRA or UDA terrorists have now taken to organized crime for purely profiteering purposes but are no longer involved in substantial violence or any political-based terrorism

bull Splinter groups such as the Real IRA and Continuity IRA in Catholic communities and the Orange Volunteers and Red Hand Commandos in Protestant communities still conduct occasional violence towards Police and civilians in Northern Ireland but are all rather small poorly armed and poorly funded groups that pose nowhere near the threat that terrorist groups in the 80s and 90s did in Northern Ireland

Herersquos To A Brighter Future in Northern Ireland

Works Citedbull httpwwwbbccoukhistorytroublesbull httpcainulstacukbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiProvisional_Irish_Republican_Armybull httpenwikipediaorgwikiThe_Troublesbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiUlster_Defence_Associationbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiUlster_Volunteer_Forcebull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_National_Liberation_Armybull ldquoA Secret History of the IRArdquo by Ed Moloney ndashWW Norton amp Company Reprint 2003bull ldquoVoices From The Grave Two Menrsquos War in Irelandrdquo by Ed Moloney ndash Public Affairs 2010bull ldquoFifty Dead Men Walkingrdquo by Martin McGartland ndash John Blake 2009bull httpwwwinfopleasecomspotnorthireland1htmlbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_Civil_Warbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_War_of_Independencebull httpenwikipediaorgwiki1981_Irish_hunger_strikebull httpenwikipediaorgwikiDirectory_of_the_Northern_Ireland_Troublesbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiGood_Friday_Agreementbull httpswwwmi5govukhomethe-threatsterrorismnorthern-irelandrepublican-terrorist-groupshtmlbull httpswwwmi5govukhomethe-threatsterrorismnorthern-irelandprovisional-irish-republican-army-

pirahtmlbull httpnewsbbccoukhienglishstaticnorthern_irelandunderstandingeventshunger_strikestm

  • The Troubles
  • Brief Overview
  • 30 Years of Conflict
  • Slide 4
  • Background
  • The Irish War of Independence
  • Slide 7
  • Anglo-Irish Treaty (signed 6 December 1921)
  • Irish Civil War
  • 1922-1966 Ireland
  • The Civil Rights Movement
  • Slide 12
  • Slide 13
  • Objectives of the Civil Rights Movement
  • The 1969 Northern Ireland Riots ndashThe Troubles Begin
  • Culmination of Tension
  • No-Go Areas
  • No-Go Areas (2)
  • Early 1970sndash The Rise of the Provisional IRA
  • The IRA Split
  • Rise of the UVF and Loyalist Terror Groups
  • Beginnings
  • UVF Statement 21 May 1964
  • The Paramilitaries
  • Irish RepublicansCatholics
  • The Provisional IRA
  • IRA Statement Late 80s
  • Statistics
  • RecruitmentFunding
  • Weaponry
  • Weaponry (2)
  • Slide 32
  • Mortars and IEDs
  • EOD Officer Approaches PIRA Car Bomb
  • The Barrack Buster
  • Vigilantism
  • Slide 37
  • Slide 38
  • Policy on Informants
  • Terrorist Activities
  • Terrorist Activities (continued)
  • The INLA
  • Statistics (2)
  • Ideology
  • Terrorist Activities (2)
  • Internal Feuds
  • Slide 47
  • British LoyalistsProtestants
  • The UDAUFF
  • Former UFF Member
  • Statistics (3)
  • Ideology (2)
  • Terrorist Activities (3)
  • Slide 54
  • Organized Crime
  • The UVF
  • Statistics (4)
  • Ideology (3)
  • Terrorist Activities (4)
  • The Shankhill Butchers
  • Weaponry (3)
  • Slide 62
  • Organized Crime (2)
  • Major Incidents 1969-1998
  • Bloody Sunday 30 January 1972
  • Massacre on the Bogside
  • Bloody Friday 21 July 1972
  • A City Under Siege
  • Dublin and Monaghan Bombings 17 May 1974
  • Deadliest Attack of the Troubles
  • Warrenpoint Ambush 27 August 1979
  • Roadside IEDs
  • Summer of 1981 Irish Hunger Strikes
  • A Defining Moment for the Republican Cause
  • The Five Demands
  • Previous Protests
  • Dirty Protesters
  • Thatcherrsquos Response
  • Ten Strikers Die
  • Bobby Sands
  • Reaction to Sandsrsquo Death
  • Conclusion
  • 1983 The Maze Prison Escape
  • The ldquoGreat Escaperdquo
  • 12 October 1984 Brighton Hotel Bombing
  • The PIRA Nearly Gets Thatcher
  • Loughgall Ambush 8 May 1987
  • The SAS Strikes
  • British Army Lynx Shootdown 20 March 1994
  • The PIRA Shoots Down a Helicopter
  • 1996 Manchester Bombing
  • The PIRA Destroys Manchester
  • Omagh Bombing 1998
  • Last Great Deadly Attack of the Troubles
  • The Good Friday Agreement and Northern Ireland Peace Process
  • Beginnings (2)
  • Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein former PIRA Belfast Brigade OC
  • Good Friday Agreement 1998
  • PM Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern Sign the GFA
  • GFA Mandates
  • Northern Ireland Today
  • Still Conflict But No War
  • Catholic Slum of Ardoyne Belfast July 2011
  • Splinter Groups
  • Herersquos To A Brighter Future in Northern Ireland
  • Works Cited
Page 14: The Troubles, 1969-1998

No-Go Areas

No-Go Areasbull No-Go Areas existed from 1969 to 1972 in Belfast and Derry in

Catholic nationalist neighborhoods in which barricades and militant residents prevented the police forces or British Army from entering

bull The Barricades were demolished and control ldquoofficiallyrdquo restored in the British Operation Motorman in 1972 in which the British Army used tanks to destroy the barricades and reestablish control However the no-go status was generally maintained and police and security forces still rarely entered certain Irish Catholic neighborhoods throughout the duration of the Troubles except in very hostile circumstances such as in the case of an arrest or military engagement

bull Day-to-day policing of these areas was generally controlled by terrorist groups

Early 1970sndash The Rise of the Provisional IRA

The IRA Splitbull The IRA that had existed largely in silence for the past 50 years began to rearm

and militarize itself once again by 1969 in order to protect Catholic nationalist communities in Northern Ireland in wake of the police brutality and sectarian violence that they had began to increasingly experience

bull In the 1960s the IRA had come under the significant influence of Marxist and Socialist thinkers This led the IRA to split in 1969 into the Official IRA and the Provisional IRA ndash the provisionals named for their ldquoProvisional Army Councilrdquo

bull The Official IRA was highly socialistMarxist and prescribed to the idea that class differences were causing the strife in Northern Ireland whilst the Provisional IRA was less interested in socialism and more concerned simply with British presence in Northern Ireland considering it to be the root of all the problems

bull The Official IRA would eventually fade out by 1972 while the Provisional IRA would go on to become the most feared terrorist organization in 20th Century Europe and launch a 30-year campaign against the British presence in Northern Ireland

Rise of the UVF and Loyalist Terror Groups

Beginningsbull The UVF (Ulster Volunteer Force) was formed in 1964 as a continuation

of the Ulster Volunteers that existed from 1912-1914 in Northern Ireland who intended to violently resist any attempts by the British government to release Ulster from the Union

bull It was reformed in rsquo64 by former British soldier Gusty Spence after he and his men burned to the ground a Catholic-owned pub on the loyalist Shankhill Road

bull The Ulster unionists feared that with the ongoing civil rights movement a potential return of the IRA in Northern Ireland could be possible The UVF and other loyalist paramilitary groups such as the UDA and UFF were thus created and seen as vigilantes and defenders of Protestant communities However most of their targets throughout the 30-year Troubles were simply innocent Catholic civilians

UVF Statement 21 May 1964

bull ldquoFrom this day we declare war against the Irish Republican Army and its splinter groups Known IRA men will be executed mercilessly and without hesitation Less extreme measures will be taken against anyone sheltering or helping them but if they persist in giving them aid then more extreme methods will be adopted we solemnly warn the authorities to make no more speeches of appeasement We are heavily armed Protestants dedicated to this causerdquo

The Paramilitaries

Irish RepublicansCatholics

The Provisional IRA

IRA Statement Late 80s

>

Statistics

bull Suffered 293 Casualtiesbull Over 10000 members imprisoned on various charges

throughout the conflictbull Killed 656 members of the British Armed Forcesbull Killed 272 Members of the Royal Ulster Constabulary

(RUC) Police Forcebull Killed 44 members of loyalistprotestant terror groupsbull Killed between 620-650 civiliansbull Killed over 1500 people

RecruitmentFundingbull IRA recruitment in Catholic neighborhoods was similar to the phenomenon

of gang membership in the inner-city United States Young Catholics typically joined to create a sense of belonging to seem ldquohardrdquo or look ldquocoolrdquo to feel protected from the brutality of the RUC during the Troubles or to help defend their communities IRA members were not asked to join but volunteered

bull IRA lsquofunds-raisingrsquo activities included collecting protection money from Catholic businesses (a ldquorevolutionary taxrdquo) robbing banks kidnapping citizens for ransom and cigarette and gasoline smuggling across the Irish border (manipulating the differing tax prices on both sides of the border and selling fuel and cigarettes illicitly) Although the Provisional IRA has officially disbanded and no longer engages in terrorism there is substantial evidence that extortion rackets in poor Catholic neighborhoods and contraband smuggling operations along the border still exist in Northern Ireland and are run by former IRA men solely for profiteering purposes

Weaponry

bull The Provisional IRA obtained a significant amount of arms from both Irish-American supporters in the northeastern United States (including members of notorious gangster Whitey Bulgerrsquos Irish Mob in 1970s-80s Boston) and from the Libyan government under Muammar Gadaffi

bull Gadaffi took over in Libya in 1969 and initially armed the IRA seeing them as comrades-in-arms fighting British imperialism Connections re-emerged in 1986 after the Thatcher Administrationrsquos support of the US bombings of Libya that killed Gadaffirsquos adopted daughter

Weaponrybull When the IRA disarmed as part of the Good Friday Agreement in

1998 (more on that later) they released the following to the British Armed Forces

bull 1000 Rifles (AK-47s AR-15s etc)bull 3 Tons of Semtex (a general-purpose plastic explosive)bull 20-30 Heavy Machine Gunsbull 7 Surface-to-Air Missilesbull 7 Flamethrowersbull 1200 Detonatorsbull 20 RPGrsquosbull 100 Handgunsbull 100+ Hand Grenades

Mortars and IEDsbull The PIRA was incredibly proficient at bomb-making and made

extensive use of Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) during their 30 year campaign

bull IEDs were typically constructed with chemical mixes of fertilizer gasoline and other home-made components Libyan Semtex was also used in several heavy-duty bombs Nails and gunpowder were typically implemented in pipe bombs made out of metal pipes Most IEDs had built in countermeasures such as the mercury tilt switch which would cause the bomb to explode if moved at all should a British EOD officer attempt to dismantle it

bull The PIRA developed the ldquoBarrack Busterrdquo mortar in the late lsquo70s or a homemade mortar made up of common household materials that was used to attack several Army bases from afar and even Prime Minister Margaret Thatcherrsquos househellip 10 Downing Street in a 1991 attack that destroyed the Prime Ministerrsquos rear garden (the mortar was fired out the back of a nearby van)

EOD Officer Approaches PIRA Car Bomb

The Barrack Buster

>

Vigilantismbull The RUC was not trusted in Catholic neighborhoods throughout the

Troubles and did not regularly patrol or even enter them in urban areas of Northern Ireland Thus when there was a community drug dealer car thief burglar rapist or pedophile the IRA took it upon themselves to issue brutal street justice to those involved

bull Occasionally offering warnings for lesser offences such as petty thievery or drug dealing if the IRA had enough of a certain member of the community they perceived as anti-social he or she was usually jumped brutally beaten andor lsquokneecappedrsquo ndash one of the IRArsquos most notorious methods ndash in which the victim was pinned down and shot through the kneecaps with a firearm or occasionally had their kneecaps drilled through with power-drills Other methods included releasing starving Rottweilerrsquos on the offender dropping cinderblocks on the offenderrsquos hands or even tarring and feathering the offender The IRArsquos process in determining an individualrsquos guilt was never open to scrutiny

bull If the offender persisted after an IRA punishment he was then given a notice by the IRA to leave the country as soon as possiblehellip referred to as being ldquoput outrdquo of the community If the offender still did not leave he was murdered

Policy on Informantsbull In an effort to stamp out collusion with the British forces and informants on the

IRA the IRA was responsible for torturing and killing several accused Catholic civilians throughout the conflict

bull Investigations into collusion infiltration and informants were carried out by the Internal Security Unit of the IRA colloquially known as the ldquoNutting Squadrdquo

bull The ISU would carry out debriefings of IRA prisoners upon their release from British detention so as to discover whether or not they had lsquocrackedrsquo and released information to British interrogators

bull Typical ISU torture techniques on those accused of informing included drowning genitalnipple mutilation electrocution with livewires pouring kerosene on the accusedrsquos legs before setting fire to them and branding with hot irons Informants were always killed afterwards with a bullet through the back of the head

bull Of the 18 ldquoDisappearedrdquo accused informants that were abducted and executed by the IRA during the Troubles only 10 bodies have been found

bull Martin McGartland was an IRA informant who was estimated to have saved 50 lives in the conflict before he was discovered and abducted by the ISU He escaped and lives today in seclusion The film ldquo50 Dead Men Walkingrdquo is based on his exploits and is an excellent realistic non-romanticized take on the Troubles in Northern Ireland

Terrorist Activitiesbull Common tactics included breaking into the homes of off-duty RUC police

officers and murdering them in their beds or setting booby-trap bombs underneath RUC police officersrsquo cars and unionist politiciansrsquo cars so that they would blow up as the engine was started RUC men were typically targeted when they were off-duty and many were shot dead in front of their families The PIRA would also impersonate innocent Catholic civilians call the police to report an emergency and ambush the police from hidden positions when they arrived at the stated address (another reason the RUC was hesitant to go into Catholic neighborhoods during this period)

bull Most notorious for their bombings they would typically park car bombs in predominately Protestant communities call in the bomb threat so that the area would be evacuated and an EOD squad would arrive to dismantle it the bomb would then be detonated with hopes of killing an EOD officer and destroying Protestant housing tenements

bull The PIRA rarely intentionally targeted civilians especially in the 80srsquo and 90srsquo but were involved in the bombings of several Protestant-owned pubs during the 1970s in response to loyalist terrorist groups bombing Catholic-owned pubs They also carried out the Kingsmill massacre in 1976 in which eleven Protestant workmen that were traveling on a minibus were held up by the IRA and all individually executed in response to the execution of six Catholic civilians by the UVF the night before

Terrorist Activities (continued)bull Other activities included engaging in firefights with British squadrons as

they patrolled the countrysidestreets of urban areas sniper attacks on RUC or British Army patrolscheckpoints planting landmines along British foot patrol routes in rural areas planting roadside IEDs along British convoy routes and bombing ferries and buses containing on-or-off duty British soldiers

bull The notorious ldquohuman bombrdquo technique in which civilians or off-duty members of the British security forces were kidnapped and then forced to drive car bombs into British military targets ndash such as checkpoints and Army bases ndash after the PIRA had placed their familiesrsquo lives under threat

bull Inciting riots and providing Catholic youths with molotov cocktails (gasoline bombs) during such riots so as to maximize public disorder and destruction was also an almost daily IRA activity in Catholic communities in urban Northern Ireland

The INLA

Statistics

bull Suffered 33 casualtiesbull Killed 46 members of the British Security Forcesbull Killed 2 members of the Irish Security Forcesbull Killed 39 civiliansbull Killed 3 civilian political activistsbull Killed 16 members of rival Republican terror

groupsbull Killed 7 members of Loyalist terror groups

Ideology

bull Founded by Seamus Costello in 1974 as the military wing of the Irish Republican Socialist Party

bull Shared similar goals to the Provisional IRA but far more socialist in ideology INLA wanted a socialist united Irish republic and blamed class struggles for many of the problems in Northern Ireland whereas the PIRA simply wanted a united Irish republic and had little interest in class struggle or economics

bull Whereas the PIRA was almost exclusively Catholic the INLA had some Protestant members most of whom were involved for purely socialist reasons

Terrorist Activitiesbull Although far less powerful and bold than the PIRA the INLA

nevertheless presented a potent terrorist threat to the United Kingdom during the Troubles

bull Similar tactics to the IRA car bombings shooting off-duty police and soldiers dead and high-profile assassinations

bull Their most high-profile attacks included the car bomb assassination of Airey Neave one of Margaret Thatcherrsquos closest political supporters in 1979 the murder of infamous Loyalist terror leader Billy Wright (who was murdered by INLA inmates in a British political prison in 1997) and the Ballykelley Disco Bombing in 1982 in which the INLA bombed a disco-club frequented by off-duty British soldiers managing to kill 11 of them as well as 6 civilians as well as destroying the disco

Internal Feuds

bull A split in 1986 led the INLA to split into the INLA and the IPLO or Irish Peoplersquos Liberation Organization based on IPLO membersrsquo perceived lack of political motivation and heavy involvement in drug dealing and criminality

bull There were several retaliatory killings between the two groups that persisted until 1992 when the PIRA had enough of the IPLOrsquos involvement in drug dealing in Catholic areas of Belfast and on 31 October 1992 virtually destroyed the entire organization in one night with a series of raids killings and kneecappings that killed or crippled the majority of the grouprsquos members

British LoyalistsProtestants

The UDAUFF

Former UFF Member

>

Statistics

bull Suffered 89 casualtiesbull Killed 197 civiliansbull Killed 12 civilian political activistsbull Killed 37 members of rival loyalist terror

groupsbull Killed 11 members of republican terror groupsbull Killed 3 members of the British Security Forces

Ideology

bull The UDA or Ulster Defense Association and its military wing the Ulster Freedom Fighters (UFF) was a loyalist protestant terror squad that targeted PIRA and INLA members as well as general Catholic civilians in bombings and shootings throughout Northern Ireland

bull It pledged to end its campaign of violence whenever the IRA set down its arms yet should the UK government appease the IRA and grant a 32-county Irish Republic the UDA pledged to act as ldquothe IRA in reverserdquo

Terrorist Activitiesbull The UDA saw itself as a militia defending upstanding protestant loyalist

communities from dangerous and lower-class Catholics that were disrupting the status quo in Northern Ireland They pledged primarily to target IRA men but ended up killing a majority of Catholic civilians during the Troubles They were also known to intimidate and exile known Catholic families from predominately-Protestant communities in Belfast and other urban areas

bull Drive-by shootings shooting up or planting bombs in predominately-Catholic pubs and bars and jumping brutally beating andor kneecapping Catholic civilians were all frequent tactics

bull The UDA discreetly worked in collusion with the RUC and other British security agencies so as to track down and assassinate known IRA members They would also patrol Protestant neighborhoods alongside British soldiers at the height of the Troubles Many RUC police officers and prison guards were also UDA members

bull The UDA alongside many other loyalist paramilitaries benefitted from the import of several arms shipments from Lebanese arms dealers in the early 1970s including rocket launchers 200+ AK-47 Rifles 90+ handguns and over 400 grenades They also received various weapons such as the uzi submachine gun and explosive devices from arms dealers in the Soviet bloc in the 1980s

Organized Crime

bull The UDA and its members were also heavily involved in drug dealing from the street level to wholesale purchase primarily in MDMA and cannabis throughout the Troubles

bull Protection racketeering and money laundering were also common amongst the UDA in protestant communities

bull However should a member of a UDA-ran community begin stealing or dealing drugs without UDA consent he was abruptly branded as ldquoanti-socialrdquo and either killed or kneecapped

The UVF

Statistics

bull Suffered unknown number of casualtiesbull Killed 412 civiliansbull Killed 11 civilian political activistsbull Killed 21 members of republican terror groupsbull Killed 42 members of rival loyalist terror

groupsbull Killed 6 members of the Security Forces

Ideology

bull Similar to the UDAUFF the Ulster Volunteer Forcersquos primary aim was to combat Irish republicanism in Northern Ireland primarily the PIRA They wanted Northern Ireland to remain in the UK

Terrorist Activitiesbull The majority of UVF victims were Catholic civilians

many of whom were killed at random These attacks were intended to demoralize the IRA as the IRA drew most of its support from the Catholic community

bull Planting bombs in predominately-Catholic pubs or simply residential areas was a very frequent UVF tactic and in 1973 they detonated more bombs in Northern Ireland than the UDA and the PIRA combined Assassinations mass shootings booby-trap car bombs and kidnappings were also frequent UVF activities

The Shankhill Butchers

bull The ldquoShankhill Butchersrdquo were a notorious offshoot UVF group known for abducting and literally slitting the throats of Catholic civilians and rival loyalist terror groups in the late 1970s They were led by Lenny Murphy (who was eventually imprisoned and upon his release of a 4-year stint murdered by the PIRA) and killed 23 people most of whom were Catholic civilians Many experts liken the Shankhill Butchers more to a group of serial killers than to politically or even ethnically-motivated murderers

bull The Butchers were all eventually all either imprisoned killed by the PIRA or both

Weaponrybull The UVF received the majority of its weaponry in the late 1970s

from Armscor an apartheid-South Africa state-owned arms company which in defiance of various UN sanctions and embargoes sold them to the UVF

bull Weapons were thought to consist ofbull 200 Czech SA vz 58 Assault Riflesbull 90 Browning Pistolsbull 500 RGD-5 Frag Grenadesbull 30000 rounds of ammunitionbull 12 RPG-7 Rocket Launchers and 150+ Rocketsbull The UVF also began using the illegally-obtained mining explosive

Powergel in the early 1990s

Organized Crime

bull The UVF was also heavily involved in organized crime including protection racketeering and drug smugglingdealing including cannabis MDMA cocaine and amphetamines Bank robberies were also very frequent in the 1970s

Major Incidents 1969-1998

Bloody Sunday 30 January 1972

Massacre on the Bogsidebull In 1972 during a large scale but peaceful civil-rights march in the

troubled predominately Catholic neighborhood of Bogside in Derry 26 unarmed civil rights marchers were shot by members of the British Army 14 of whom were killed Five of those shot were shot in the back

bull After several inquiries into the incident there was found to have been no justifiable provocation from the protestors and no shots fired from the protestors during the march The massacre was conducted in full view of the public and the press

bull The PM David Cameron eventually issued a formal apology to the victims and victimsrsquo families of the massacre after several investigations failed to reveal any justifiable provocation for the massacre

bull The massacre sky-rocketed PIRA membership and recruitment as public perception of the British Army in Catholic communities in Northern Ireland reached an all-time low

Bloody Friday 21 July 1972

A City Under Siege

bull On 21 July 1972 the PIRA detonated 26 bombs in the space of 80 minutes in Belfast destroying banks bridges electrical substations Protestant housing tenements gasoline stations and private garages

bull Although warnings were called in at least 30 minutes prior to each bomb the amount of bombs exploding and the addition of multiple hoax warnings at the same time led to the Security Forces being unable to evacuate all the areas in time 11 people were killed and 130 were injured many of them horrifically mutilated Of those injured 77 were women or children

Dublin and Monaghan Bombings 17 May 1974

Deadliest Attack of the Troubles

bull Perpetrated by the UVF in the southern Republic of Ireland three car bombs exploded in Dublin during rush hour and another exploded in Monaghan around 90 minutes later

bull 33 civilians and a full-term unborn child were killed in the bombing while nearly 300 were injured The UVF did not claim responsibility for the bombings until 1993

bull The majority of those killed were young women although the age range of those killed ranged from 5 months old to 80 years old

Warrenpoint Ambush 27 August 1979

Roadside IEDsbull In the southern part of County Armagh Northern Ireland a predominately-

Catholic rural region and former PIRA stronghold right on the border with the southern Republic of Ireland a British troop convoy was hit with a remote-control detonated roadside 500lb truck-bomb and destroyed instantly killing 6 troops The surviving soldiers then wrongly believed they were under sniper fire from the other side of the Irish border and began firing at civilians immediately after the bombing killing 1 and injuring another

bull 32 minutes after the first bombing the IRA used its knowledge of how the British reacted to bombings to correctly predict that they would set up an incident-command point in a nearby gatehouse Unfortunately for the British there was a second 800lb fertilizer bomb planted near the gatehouse that when detonated killed 12 other soldiers who were responding to the initial bomb

bull It was the deadliest single attack on the British Army during the Troubles and a highly successful attack for the PIRA

Summer of 1981 Irish Hunger Strikes

A Defining Moment for the Republican Cause

bull Beginning on 1 March 1981 led by Bobby Sands 7 PIRA and 3 INLA inmates at the notorious ldquoMazerdquo prison began to refuse food until Margaret Thatcher PM of Great Britain at that time began to recognize terrorist prisoners as political prisoners and allowed them their ldquoFive Demandsrdquo

The Five Demands

bull The right to not wear a prison uniformbull The right to not do prison workbull The right of free association with other

prisoners and to organize in educational and recreational pursuits

bull Full restoration of remission lost through any protests towards these demands

Previous Protestsbull The Maze prison was a very high-security and low-quality prison that

housed almost all PIRA prisoners during the Troubles It was run in a very ethically questionable fashion with frequent beatings and borderline-torture techniques used on Republican prisoners and extremely poor living conditions for prisoners Many Maze prison guards were members of the UDAUVF or had strong connections with one of the two groups as well

bull Massive peaceful protests and marches by Irish republicans outside of the Maze Prison proved unsuccessful in attaining political status for republican prisoners as well as previous inmate protests in 1980 including non-fatal hunger strikes inmates refusing to wear prison uniforms and thus living in their cells naked and prisoners refusing to leave their cells to go to the bathroom until their requests had been granted (they therefore urinated and defecated in their cells and spread their excrement across their cell walls in what was known as the ldquoDirty Protestrdquo)

Dirty Protesters

Thatcherrsquos Response

bull ldquoThose terrorists will carry their determination to disrupt society to any lengths Once again we have a hunger strike in the Maze Prison in the quest for what they call lsquopolitical statusrsquo There is no such thing as political murder political bombing or political violence There is only criminal murder criminal bombing and criminal violence We will not compromise on this There will be no political statusrdquo

Ten Strikers Diebull Bobby Sands the leader of the strike was imprisoned as a PIRA member

on charges of firearm possession and in connection with the bombing of a furniture store He was the first to die after 66 days of not eating Sands was elected to a seat in Parliament whilst on Hunger Strike

bull Following Sandsrsquo death there were riots bus-burnings and attacks on the British embassy in the southern Republic of Ireland there were massive demonstrations in France and Italy a tomato was thrown as Queen Elizabeth II by demonstrators in Oslo and there were massive riots and civil disorder all over the streets of Belfast The South African ANC and (at the time) terrorist Nelson Mandela expressed their support for the PIRA and the hunger strikers (Mandela himself claimed he was directly inspired by Sands to undertake hunger strikes against the Apartheid government in South Africa) as well as the Palestine Liberation Organization a middle-eastern terror group

bull Over 100000 attended Sandsrsquo funeral

Bobby Sands

ldquoOur revenge will be the laughter of our childrenrdquo

Reaction to Sandsrsquo Death

>

Conclusion

bull The Hunger Strike was eventually called off after 10 strikers including Sands had died

bull James Prior newly installed secretary of state of Northern Ireland granted the prisoners partial concessions all of the Five Demands except for the right to not do prison work Margaret Thatcher refused to budge on political status

bull The Hunger Strikes opened a new way for the PIRA to pursue its objectives politically whereas previously it had seen violence as the only solution to the plight of Irish nationalists in Northern Ireland

1983 The Maze Prison Escape

The ldquoGreat Escaperdquo

bull Using smuggled-in guns and knives 38 PIRA prisoners who had been convicted of offenses ranging from murder to causing explosions escaped from one of the most high-security prisons in Europe They completely took over the H7 prison block and took their prison guards hostage before escaping in a food supply truck Several prison guards were shot and stabbed but only one died of a heart attack during the escape

bull Fifteen escapees were recaptured the first day with four more captured over the next two days following the breakout The remaining 19 were transported to PIRA strongholds and given the option to either rejoin the IRArsquos cause or be transported to the United States to live under a new identity

12 October 1984 Brighton Hotel Bombing

The PIRA Nearly Gets Thatcherbull Margaret Thatcher the highly controversial far-right British PM from

1979-1990 had become a tremendously hated figure amongst the Irish nationalist community in Northern Ireland following the 1981 Hunger Strikes and for her general uncompromising stand on Irish republicanism

bull PIRA man Patrick Magee stayed at the Brighton Hotel from the 14-17 September 1984 planting a 20-lb bomb under his bath

bull Thatcher was staying at the Brighton Hotel for a political conference and was still up at 254AM on 12 October when the bomb was detonated The bomb decimated her bathroom but left the bedroom and sitting room of her suite largely unscathed

bull The PIRA statement to Thatcher afterwards was ldquoToday we were unlucky But remember we only have to be lucky once You will have to be lucky alwaysrdquo

Loughgall Ambush 8 May 1987

The SAS Strikes

bull A botched attack on Loughgall Villagersquos RUC Police Base in which the PIRA drove a backhoe into the fortified base and ran away to detonate the bomb that was inside of the backhoe went wrong as the SAS the British Special Forces had prior knowledge of the attack and quickly dispatched the 8 PIRA members involved

bull Although the RUC base was wrecked and bombed there were no RUC or SAS casualties and it was the PIRArsquos greatest loss of life in a single incident during the Troubles

British Army Lynx Shootdown 20 March 1994

The PIRA Shoots Down a Helicopter

bull Using the previously mentioned Barrack-Buster homemade mortar PIRA insurgents were able to fire on a British helicopter that was in the process of landing whilst hiding behind a hay bail from around 150 yards out

bull The helicopter was hit with the mortar shell around 100 feet above the ground but the pilot was able to successfully crash-land the helicopter and escape before its propane tanks exploded There were no casualties but the attack was a major propaganda coup for the PIRA

1996 Manchester Bombing

The PIRA Destroys Manchester

bull On Saturday 15 June 1996 the PIRA sent in telephoned warnings and 90 minutes later detonated a 3300lb fertilizer-based truck bomb in the heart of Manchester City Centre the biggest bomb detonated in Great Britain during peacetime The bomb killed nobody due to previous warnings but led to 212 non-fatal injuries and essentially destroyed Manchester City Centre leaving approximately 700 million pounds ($12bn) worth of damage in its wake

Omagh Bombing 1998

Last Great Deadly Attack of the Troubles

bull Perpetrated by a Provisional IRA splinter group that was rejecting the peace process calling themselves the ldquoReal IRArdquo the 510lb fertilizer-based bomb was placed on main street in the town of Omagh Northern Ireland Warnings were called in approximately 30 minutes before the bombing but they were inaccurate and police ended up moving more civilians towards the bomb which ended up killing 29 people and causing over 300 non-fatal injuries This was the highest death toll from a single incident during the Troubles

bull It received universal outrage and was condemned even by the PIRA and its political wing Sinn Fein It spurred on the Northern Ireland peace process and the RIRA apologized and called a ceasefire several days after

The Good Friday Agreement and Northern Ireland Peace Process

Beginningsbull Following the 1981 Hunger Strikes Irish republicans began to

increasingly look towards politics rather than violence as a means of achieving their aims Sinn Fein gaelic for ldquoWe Ourselvesrdquo was a fiercely Irish Republican political party which led by the Machiavellian former PIRA leader and Maze inmate Gerry Adams began to push for a more peaceful solution to the Troubles in Northern Ireland

bull It became apparent by the late 1990s that although the PIRA was not losing a war against the British establishment it would be impossible to truly lsquowin the fightrsquo through violence and that any further terrorism would serve not to achieve any real political aim but only to prolong and continue suffering and violence in Northern Ireland and that politics was a much better way of achieving Republican aims

Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein former PIRA Belfast Brigade OC

Good Friday Agreement 1998

bull The Peace Process began in 1994 and included intermittent terrorist ceasefires and political negotiations between the major Irish republican and British unionist parties and culminated on April 10 1998 when the Good Friday Agreement was signed

PM Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern Sign the GFA

GFA Mandatesbull That Northern Ireland was to remain British until a majority of people in Northern

Ireland and the southern Republic of Ireland wanted otherwise bull The creation of an entirely new far less sectarian and religiously diverse Northern

Irish local governmentbull The decommissioning of arms from terrorist groups on both the unionist and

nationalist side of the political divide (ultimately successful all arms decommissioned by 2005)

bull Mutual respect and civil rights between Catholics and Protestants bull The reduction and eventual elimination of British troops in Northern Ireland

(ultimately successful all troops withdrawn by 2005)bull Eventual early prison release for all individuals imprisoned for terrorist offenses as

long as they were apart of a terrorist group that was decommissioning in accordance with the GFA

bull Disbandment of the RUC police service and the installation of the new Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) which was required to be at least 50 Catholic

Northern Ireland Today

Still Conflict But No Warbull Since the complete decommissioning of the arms and

disbandment of the PIRA INLA UDAUFF and UVF due to the Good Friday Agreement there is nowhere near the amount of violence in Northern Ireland or Belfast as there was 20 years ago There are no more weekly bombings and riots and no more British troops patrolling Catholic areas in armored vehicles

bull Despite this there are still occasional riots and clashes with the PSNI several times a year specifically on dates of great historical significance to the Catholic or Protestant communities and there is still a deep distrust and even hatred between many Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland although that continues to change with time

Catholic Slum of Ardoyne Belfast July 2011

Splinter Groups

bull Many former PIRA or UDA terrorists have now taken to organized crime for purely profiteering purposes but are no longer involved in substantial violence or any political-based terrorism

bull Splinter groups such as the Real IRA and Continuity IRA in Catholic communities and the Orange Volunteers and Red Hand Commandos in Protestant communities still conduct occasional violence towards Police and civilians in Northern Ireland but are all rather small poorly armed and poorly funded groups that pose nowhere near the threat that terrorist groups in the 80s and 90s did in Northern Ireland

Herersquos To A Brighter Future in Northern Ireland

Works Citedbull httpwwwbbccoukhistorytroublesbull httpcainulstacukbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiProvisional_Irish_Republican_Armybull httpenwikipediaorgwikiThe_Troublesbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiUlster_Defence_Associationbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiUlster_Volunteer_Forcebull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_National_Liberation_Armybull ldquoA Secret History of the IRArdquo by Ed Moloney ndashWW Norton amp Company Reprint 2003bull ldquoVoices From The Grave Two Menrsquos War in Irelandrdquo by Ed Moloney ndash Public Affairs 2010bull ldquoFifty Dead Men Walkingrdquo by Martin McGartland ndash John Blake 2009bull httpwwwinfopleasecomspotnorthireland1htmlbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_Civil_Warbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_War_of_Independencebull httpenwikipediaorgwiki1981_Irish_hunger_strikebull httpenwikipediaorgwikiDirectory_of_the_Northern_Ireland_Troublesbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiGood_Friday_Agreementbull httpswwwmi5govukhomethe-threatsterrorismnorthern-irelandrepublican-terrorist-groupshtmlbull httpswwwmi5govukhomethe-threatsterrorismnorthern-irelandprovisional-irish-republican-army-

pirahtmlbull httpnewsbbccoukhienglishstaticnorthern_irelandunderstandingeventshunger_strikestm

  • The Troubles
  • Brief Overview
  • 30 Years of Conflict
  • Slide 4
  • Background
  • The Irish War of Independence
  • Slide 7
  • Anglo-Irish Treaty (signed 6 December 1921)
  • Irish Civil War
  • 1922-1966 Ireland
  • The Civil Rights Movement
  • Slide 12
  • Slide 13
  • Objectives of the Civil Rights Movement
  • The 1969 Northern Ireland Riots ndashThe Troubles Begin
  • Culmination of Tension
  • No-Go Areas
  • No-Go Areas (2)
  • Early 1970sndash The Rise of the Provisional IRA
  • The IRA Split
  • Rise of the UVF and Loyalist Terror Groups
  • Beginnings
  • UVF Statement 21 May 1964
  • The Paramilitaries
  • Irish RepublicansCatholics
  • The Provisional IRA
  • IRA Statement Late 80s
  • Statistics
  • RecruitmentFunding
  • Weaponry
  • Weaponry (2)
  • Slide 32
  • Mortars and IEDs
  • EOD Officer Approaches PIRA Car Bomb
  • The Barrack Buster
  • Vigilantism
  • Slide 37
  • Slide 38
  • Policy on Informants
  • Terrorist Activities
  • Terrorist Activities (continued)
  • The INLA
  • Statistics (2)
  • Ideology
  • Terrorist Activities (2)
  • Internal Feuds
  • Slide 47
  • British LoyalistsProtestants
  • The UDAUFF
  • Former UFF Member
  • Statistics (3)
  • Ideology (2)
  • Terrorist Activities (3)
  • Slide 54
  • Organized Crime
  • The UVF
  • Statistics (4)
  • Ideology (3)
  • Terrorist Activities (4)
  • The Shankhill Butchers
  • Weaponry (3)
  • Slide 62
  • Organized Crime (2)
  • Major Incidents 1969-1998
  • Bloody Sunday 30 January 1972
  • Massacre on the Bogside
  • Bloody Friday 21 July 1972
  • A City Under Siege
  • Dublin and Monaghan Bombings 17 May 1974
  • Deadliest Attack of the Troubles
  • Warrenpoint Ambush 27 August 1979
  • Roadside IEDs
  • Summer of 1981 Irish Hunger Strikes
  • A Defining Moment for the Republican Cause
  • The Five Demands
  • Previous Protests
  • Dirty Protesters
  • Thatcherrsquos Response
  • Ten Strikers Die
  • Bobby Sands
  • Reaction to Sandsrsquo Death
  • Conclusion
  • 1983 The Maze Prison Escape
  • The ldquoGreat Escaperdquo
  • 12 October 1984 Brighton Hotel Bombing
  • The PIRA Nearly Gets Thatcher
  • Loughgall Ambush 8 May 1987
  • The SAS Strikes
  • British Army Lynx Shootdown 20 March 1994
  • The PIRA Shoots Down a Helicopter
  • 1996 Manchester Bombing
  • The PIRA Destroys Manchester
  • Omagh Bombing 1998
  • Last Great Deadly Attack of the Troubles
  • The Good Friday Agreement and Northern Ireland Peace Process
  • Beginnings (2)
  • Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein former PIRA Belfast Brigade OC
  • Good Friday Agreement 1998
  • PM Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern Sign the GFA
  • GFA Mandates
  • Northern Ireland Today
  • Still Conflict But No War
  • Catholic Slum of Ardoyne Belfast July 2011
  • Splinter Groups
  • Herersquos To A Brighter Future in Northern Ireland
  • Works Cited
Page 15: The Troubles, 1969-1998

No-Go Areasbull No-Go Areas existed from 1969 to 1972 in Belfast and Derry in

Catholic nationalist neighborhoods in which barricades and militant residents prevented the police forces or British Army from entering

bull The Barricades were demolished and control ldquoofficiallyrdquo restored in the British Operation Motorman in 1972 in which the British Army used tanks to destroy the barricades and reestablish control However the no-go status was generally maintained and police and security forces still rarely entered certain Irish Catholic neighborhoods throughout the duration of the Troubles except in very hostile circumstances such as in the case of an arrest or military engagement

bull Day-to-day policing of these areas was generally controlled by terrorist groups

Early 1970sndash The Rise of the Provisional IRA

The IRA Splitbull The IRA that had existed largely in silence for the past 50 years began to rearm

and militarize itself once again by 1969 in order to protect Catholic nationalist communities in Northern Ireland in wake of the police brutality and sectarian violence that they had began to increasingly experience

bull In the 1960s the IRA had come under the significant influence of Marxist and Socialist thinkers This led the IRA to split in 1969 into the Official IRA and the Provisional IRA ndash the provisionals named for their ldquoProvisional Army Councilrdquo

bull The Official IRA was highly socialistMarxist and prescribed to the idea that class differences were causing the strife in Northern Ireland whilst the Provisional IRA was less interested in socialism and more concerned simply with British presence in Northern Ireland considering it to be the root of all the problems

bull The Official IRA would eventually fade out by 1972 while the Provisional IRA would go on to become the most feared terrorist organization in 20th Century Europe and launch a 30-year campaign against the British presence in Northern Ireland

Rise of the UVF and Loyalist Terror Groups

Beginningsbull The UVF (Ulster Volunteer Force) was formed in 1964 as a continuation

of the Ulster Volunteers that existed from 1912-1914 in Northern Ireland who intended to violently resist any attempts by the British government to release Ulster from the Union

bull It was reformed in rsquo64 by former British soldier Gusty Spence after he and his men burned to the ground a Catholic-owned pub on the loyalist Shankhill Road

bull The Ulster unionists feared that with the ongoing civil rights movement a potential return of the IRA in Northern Ireland could be possible The UVF and other loyalist paramilitary groups such as the UDA and UFF were thus created and seen as vigilantes and defenders of Protestant communities However most of their targets throughout the 30-year Troubles were simply innocent Catholic civilians

UVF Statement 21 May 1964

bull ldquoFrom this day we declare war against the Irish Republican Army and its splinter groups Known IRA men will be executed mercilessly and without hesitation Less extreme measures will be taken against anyone sheltering or helping them but if they persist in giving them aid then more extreme methods will be adopted we solemnly warn the authorities to make no more speeches of appeasement We are heavily armed Protestants dedicated to this causerdquo

The Paramilitaries

Irish RepublicansCatholics

The Provisional IRA

IRA Statement Late 80s

>

Statistics

bull Suffered 293 Casualtiesbull Over 10000 members imprisoned on various charges

throughout the conflictbull Killed 656 members of the British Armed Forcesbull Killed 272 Members of the Royal Ulster Constabulary

(RUC) Police Forcebull Killed 44 members of loyalistprotestant terror groupsbull Killed between 620-650 civiliansbull Killed over 1500 people

RecruitmentFundingbull IRA recruitment in Catholic neighborhoods was similar to the phenomenon

of gang membership in the inner-city United States Young Catholics typically joined to create a sense of belonging to seem ldquohardrdquo or look ldquocoolrdquo to feel protected from the brutality of the RUC during the Troubles or to help defend their communities IRA members were not asked to join but volunteered

bull IRA lsquofunds-raisingrsquo activities included collecting protection money from Catholic businesses (a ldquorevolutionary taxrdquo) robbing banks kidnapping citizens for ransom and cigarette and gasoline smuggling across the Irish border (manipulating the differing tax prices on both sides of the border and selling fuel and cigarettes illicitly) Although the Provisional IRA has officially disbanded and no longer engages in terrorism there is substantial evidence that extortion rackets in poor Catholic neighborhoods and contraband smuggling operations along the border still exist in Northern Ireland and are run by former IRA men solely for profiteering purposes

Weaponry

bull The Provisional IRA obtained a significant amount of arms from both Irish-American supporters in the northeastern United States (including members of notorious gangster Whitey Bulgerrsquos Irish Mob in 1970s-80s Boston) and from the Libyan government under Muammar Gadaffi

bull Gadaffi took over in Libya in 1969 and initially armed the IRA seeing them as comrades-in-arms fighting British imperialism Connections re-emerged in 1986 after the Thatcher Administrationrsquos support of the US bombings of Libya that killed Gadaffirsquos adopted daughter

Weaponrybull When the IRA disarmed as part of the Good Friday Agreement in

1998 (more on that later) they released the following to the British Armed Forces

bull 1000 Rifles (AK-47s AR-15s etc)bull 3 Tons of Semtex (a general-purpose plastic explosive)bull 20-30 Heavy Machine Gunsbull 7 Surface-to-Air Missilesbull 7 Flamethrowersbull 1200 Detonatorsbull 20 RPGrsquosbull 100 Handgunsbull 100+ Hand Grenades

Mortars and IEDsbull The PIRA was incredibly proficient at bomb-making and made

extensive use of Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) during their 30 year campaign

bull IEDs were typically constructed with chemical mixes of fertilizer gasoline and other home-made components Libyan Semtex was also used in several heavy-duty bombs Nails and gunpowder were typically implemented in pipe bombs made out of metal pipes Most IEDs had built in countermeasures such as the mercury tilt switch which would cause the bomb to explode if moved at all should a British EOD officer attempt to dismantle it

bull The PIRA developed the ldquoBarrack Busterrdquo mortar in the late lsquo70s or a homemade mortar made up of common household materials that was used to attack several Army bases from afar and even Prime Minister Margaret Thatcherrsquos househellip 10 Downing Street in a 1991 attack that destroyed the Prime Ministerrsquos rear garden (the mortar was fired out the back of a nearby van)

EOD Officer Approaches PIRA Car Bomb

The Barrack Buster

>

Vigilantismbull The RUC was not trusted in Catholic neighborhoods throughout the

Troubles and did not regularly patrol or even enter them in urban areas of Northern Ireland Thus when there was a community drug dealer car thief burglar rapist or pedophile the IRA took it upon themselves to issue brutal street justice to those involved

bull Occasionally offering warnings for lesser offences such as petty thievery or drug dealing if the IRA had enough of a certain member of the community they perceived as anti-social he or she was usually jumped brutally beaten andor lsquokneecappedrsquo ndash one of the IRArsquos most notorious methods ndash in which the victim was pinned down and shot through the kneecaps with a firearm or occasionally had their kneecaps drilled through with power-drills Other methods included releasing starving Rottweilerrsquos on the offender dropping cinderblocks on the offenderrsquos hands or even tarring and feathering the offender The IRArsquos process in determining an individualrsquos guilt was never open to scrutiny

bull If the offender persisted after an IRA punishment he was then given a notice by the IRA to leave the country as soon as possiblehellip referred to as being ldquoput outrdquo of the community If the offender still did not leave he was murdered

Policy on Informantsbull In an effort to stamp out collusion with the British forces and informants on the

IRA the IRA was responsible for torturing and killing several accused Catholic civilians throughout the conflict

bull Investigations into collusion infiltration and informants were carried out by the Internal Security Unit of the IRA colloquially known as the ldquoNutting Squadrdquo

bull The ISU would carry out debriefings of IRA prisoners upon their release from British detention so as to discover whether or not they had lsquocrackedrsquo and released information to British interrogators

bull Typical ISU torture techniques on those accused of informing included drowning genitalnipple mutilation electrocution with livewires pouring kerosene on the accusedrsquos legs before setting fire to them and branding with hot irons Informants were always killed afterwards with a bullet through the back of the head

bull Of the 18 ldquoDisappearedrdquo accused informants that were abducted and executed by the IRA during the Troubles only 10 bodies have been found

bull Martin McGartland was an IRA informant who was estimated to have saved 50 lives in the conflict before he was discovered and abducted by the ISU He escaped and lives today in seclusion The film ldquo50 Dead Men Walkingrdquo is based on his exploits and is an excellent realistic non-romanticized take on the Troubles in Northern Ireland

Terrorist Activitiesbull Common tactics included breaking into the homes of off-duty RUC police

officers and murdering them in their beds or setting booby-trap bombs underneath RUC police officersrsquo cars and unionist politiciansrsquo cars so that they would blow up as the engine was started RUC men were typically targeted when they were off-duty and many were shot dead in front of their families The PIRA would also impersonate innocent Catholic civilians call the police to report an emergency and ambush the police from hidden positions when they arrived at the stated address (another reason the RUC was hesitant to go into Catholic neighborhoods during this period)

bull Most notorious for their bombings they would typically park car bombs in predominately Protestant communities call in the bomb threat so that the area would be evacuated and an EOD squad would arrive to dismantle it the bomb would then be detonated with hopes of killing an EOD officer and destroying Protestant housing tenements

bull The PIRA rarely intentionally targeted civilians especially in the 80srsquo and 90srsquo but were involved in the bombings of several Protestant-owned pubs during the 1970s in response to loyalist terrorist groups bombing Catholic-owned pubs They also carried out the Kingsmill massacre in 1976 in which eleven Protestant workmen that were traveling on a minibus were held up by the IRA and all individually executed in response to the execution of six Catholic civilians by the UVF the night before

Terrorist Activities (continued)bull Other activities included engaging in firefights with British squadrons as

they patrolled the countrysidestreets of urban areas sniper attacks on RUC or British Army patrolscheckpoints planting landmines along British foot patrol routes in rural areas planting roadside IEDs along British convoy routes and bombing ferries and buses containing on-or-off duty British soldiers

bull The notorious ldquohuman bombrdquo technique in which civilians or off-duty members of the British security forces were kidnapped and then forced to drive car bombs into British military targets ndash such as checkpoints and Army bases ndash after the PIRA had placed their familiesrsquo lives under threat

bull Inciting riots and providing Catholic youths with molotov cocktails (gasoline bombs) during such riots so as to maximize public disorder and destruction was also an almost daily IRA activity in Catholic communities in urban Northern Ireland

The INLA

Statistics

bull Suffered 33 casualtiesbull Killed 46 members of the British Security Forcesbull Killed 2 members of the Irish Security Forcesbull Killed 39 civiliansbull Killed 3 civilian political activistsbull Killed 16 members of rival Republican terror

groupsbull Killed 7 members of Loyalist terror groups

Ideology

bull Founded by Seamus Costello in 1974 as the military wing of the Irish Republican Socialist Party

bull Shared similar goals to the Provisional IRA but far more socialist in ideology INLA wanted a socialist united Irish republic and blamed class struggles for many of the problems in Northern Ireland whereas the PIRA simply wanted a united Irish republic and had little interest in class struggle or economics

bull Whereas the PIRA was almost exclusively Catholic the INLA had some Protestant members most of whom were involved for purely socialist reasons

Terrorist Activitiesbull Although far less powerful and bold than the PIRA the INLA

nevertheless presented a potent terrorist threat to the United Kingdom during the Troubles

bull Similar tactics to the IRA car bombings shooting off-duty police and soldiers dead and high-profile assassinations

bull Their most high-profile attacks included the car bomb assassination of Airey Neave one of Margaret Thatcherrsquos closest political supporters in 1979 the murder of infamous Loyalist terror leader Billy Wright (who was murdered by INLA inmates in a British political prison in 1997) and the Ballykelley Disco Bombing in 1982 in which the INLA bombed a disco-club frequented by off-duty British soldiers managing to kill 11 of them as well as 6 civilians as well as destroying the disco

Internal Feuds

bull A split in 1986 led the INLA to split into the INLA and the IPLO or Irish Peoplersquos Liberation Organization based on IPLO membersrsquo perceived lack of political motivation and heavy involvement in drug dealing and criminality

bull There were several retaliatory killings between the two groups that persisted until 1992 when the PIRA had enough of the IPLOrsquos involvement in drug dealing in Catholic areas of Belfast and on 31 October 1992 virtually destroyed the entire organization in one night with a series of raids killings and kneecappings that killed or crippled the majority of the grouprsquos members

British LoyalistsProtestants

The UDAUFF

Former UFF Member

>

Statistics

bull Suffered 89 casualtiesbull Killed 197 civiliansbull Killed 12 civilian political activistsbull Killed 37 members of rival loyalist terror

groupsbull Killed 11 members of republican terror groupsbull Killed 3 members of the British Security Forces

Ideology

bull The UDA or Ulster Defense Association and its military wing the Ulster Freedom Fighters (UFF) was a loyalist protestant terror squad that targeted PIRA and INLA members as well as general Catholic civilians in bombings and shootings throughout Northern Ireland

bull It pledged to end its campaign of violence whenever the IRA set down its arms yet should the UK government appease the IRA and grant a 32-county Irish Republic the UDA pledged to act as ldquothe IRA in reverserdquo

Terrorist Activitiesbull The UDA saw itself as a militia defending upstanding protestant loyalist

communities from dangerous and lower-class Catholics that were disrupting the status quo in Northern Ireland They pledged primarily to target IRA men but ended up killing a majority of Catholic civilians during the Troubles They were also known to intimidate and exile known Catholic families from predominately-Protestant communities in Belfast and other urban areas

bull Drive-by shootings shooting up or planting bombs in predominately-Catholic pubs and bars and jumping brutally beating andor kneecapping Catholic civilians were all frequent tactics

bull The UDA discreetly worked in collusion with the RUC and other British security agencies so as to track down and assassinate known IRA members They would also patrol Protestant neighborhoods alongside British soldiers at the height of the Troubles Many RUC police officers and prison guards were also UDA members

bull The UDA alongside many other loyalist paramilitaries benefitted from the import of several arms shipments from Lebanese arms dealers in the early 1970s including rocket launchers 200+ AK-47 Rifles 90+ handguns and over 400 grenades They also received various weapons such as the uzi submachine gun and explosive devices from arms dealers in the Soviet bloc in the 1980s

Organized Crime

bull The UDA and its members were also heavily involved in drug dealing from the street level to wholesale purchase primarily in MDMA and cannabis throughout the Troubles

bull Protection racketeering and money laundering were also common amongst the UDA in protestant communities

bull However should a member of a UDA-ran community begin stealing or dealing drugs without UDA consent he was abruptly branded as ldquoanti-socialrdquo and either killed or kneecapped

The UVF

Statistics

bull Suffered unknown number of casualtiesbull Killed 412 civiliansbull Killed 11 civilian political activistsbull Killed 21 members of republican terror groupsbull Killed 42 members of rival loyalist terror

groupsbull Killed 6 members of the Security Forces

Ideology

bull Similar to the UDAUFF the Ulster Volunteer Forcersquos primary aim was to combat Irish republicanism in Northern Ireland primarily the PIRA They wanted Northern Ireland to remain in the UK

Terrorist Activitiesbull The majority of UVF victims were Catholic civilians

many of whom were killed at random These attacks were intended to demoralize the IRA as the IRA drew most of its support from the Catholic community

bull Planting bombs in predominately-Catholic pubs or simply residential areas was a very frequent UVF tactic and in 1973 they detonated more bombs in Northern Ireland than the UDA and the PIRA combined Assassinations mass shootings booby-trap car bombs and kidnappings were also frequent UVF activities

The Shankhill Butchers

bull The ldquoShankhill Butchersrdquo were a notorious offshoot UVF group known for abducting and literally slitting the throats of Catholic civilians and rival loyalist terror groups in the late 1970s They were led by Lenny Murphy (who was eventually imprisoned and upon his release of a 4-year stint murdered by the PIRA) and killed 23 people most of whom were Catholic civilians Many experts liken the Shankhill Butchers more to a group of serial killers than to politically or even ethnically-motivated murderers

bull The Butchers were all eventually all either imprisoned killed by the PIRA or both

Weaponrybull The UVF received the majority of its weaponry in the late 1970s

from Armscor an apartheid-South Africa state-owned arms company which in defiance of various UN sanctions and embargoes sold them to the UVF

bull Weapons were thought to consist ofbull 200 Czech SA vz 58 Assault Riflesbull 90 Browning Pistolsbull 500 RGD-5 Frag Grenadesbull 30000 rounds of ammunitionbull 12 RPG-7 Rocket Launchers and 150+ Rocketsbull The UVF also began using the illegally-obtained mining explosive

Powergel in the early 1990s

Organized Crime

bull The UVF was also heavily involved in organized crime including protection racketeering and drug smugglingdealing including cannabis MDMA cocaine and amphetamines Bank robberies were also very frequent in the 1970s

Major Incidents 1969-1998

Bloody Sunday 30 January 1972

Massacre on the Bogsidebull In 1972 during a large scale but peaceful civil-rights march in the

troubled predominately Catholic neighborhood of Bogside in Derry 26 unarmed civil rights marchers were shot by members of the British Army 14 of whom were killed Five of those shot were shot in the back

bull After several inquiries into the incident there was found to have been no justifiable provocation from the protestors and no shots fired from the protestors during the march The massacre was conducted in full view of the public and the press

bull The PM David Cameron eventually issued a formal apology to the victims and victimsrsquo families of the massacre after several investigations failed to reveal any justifiable provocation for the massacre

bull The massacre sky-rocketed PIRA membership and recruitment as public perception of the British Army in Catholic communities in Northern Ireland reached an all-time low

Bloody Friday 21 July 1972

A City Under Siege

bull On 21 July 1972 the PIRA detonated 26 bombs in the space of 80 minutes in Belfast destroying banks bridges electrical substations Protestant housing tenements gasoline stations and private garages

bull Although warnings were called in at least 30 minutes prior to each bomb the amount of bombs exploding and the addition of multiple hoax warnings at the same time led to the Security Forces being unable to evacuate all the areas in time 11 people were killed and 130 were injured many of them horrifically mutilated Of those injured 77 were women or children

Dublin and Monaghan Bombings 17 May 1974

Deadliest Attack of the Troubles

bull Perpetrated by the UVF in the southern Republic of Ireland three car bombs exploded in Dublin during rush hour and another exploded in Monaghan around 90 minutes later

bull 33 civilians and a full-term unborn child were killed in the bombing while nearly 300 were injured The UVF did not claim responsibility for the bombings until 1993

bull The majority of those killed were young women although the age range of those killed ranged from 5 months old to 80 years old

Warrenpoint Ambush 27 August 1979

Roadside IEDsbull In the southern part of County Armagh Northern Ireland a predominately-

Catholic rural region and former PIRA stronghold right on the border with the southern Republic of Ireland a British troop convoy was hit with a remote-control detonated roadside 500lb truck-bomb and destroyed instantly killing 6 troops The surviving soldiers then wrongly believed they were under sniper fire from the other side of the Irish border and began firing at civilians immediately after the bombing killing 1 and injuring another

bull 32 minutes after the first bombing the IRA used its knowledge of how the British reacted to bombings to correctly predict that they would set up an incident-command point in a nearby gatehouse Unfortunately for the British there was a second 800lb fertilizer bomb planted near the gatehouse that when detonated killed 12 other soldiers who were responding to the initial bomb

bull It was the deadliest single attack on the British Army during the Troubles and a highly successful attack for the PIRA

Summer of 1981 Irish Hunger Strikes

A Defining Moment for the Republican Cause

bull Beginning on 1 March 1981 led by Bobby Sands 7 PIRA and 3 INLA inmates at the notorious ldquoMazerdquo prison began to refuse food until Margaret Thatcher PM of Great Britain at that time began to recognize terrorist prisoners as political prisoners and allowed them their ldquoFive Demandsrdquo

The Five Demands

bull The right to not wear a prison uniformbull The right to not do prison workbull The right of free association with other

prisoners and to organize in educational and recreational pursuits

bull Full restoration of remission lost through any protests towards these demands

Previous Protestsbull The Maze prison was a very high-security and low-quality prison that

housed almost all PIRA prisoners during the Troubles It was run in a very ethically questionable fashion with frequent beatings and borderline-torture techniques used on Republican prisoners and extremely poor living conditions for prisoners Many Maze prison guards were members of the UDAUVF or had strong connections with one of the two groups as well

bull Massive peaceful protests and marches by Irish republicans outside of the Maze Prison proved unsuccessful in attaining political status for republican prisoners as well as previous inmate protests in 1980 including non-fatal hunger strikes inmates refusing to wear prison uniforms and thus living in their cells naked and prisoners refusing to leave their cells to go to the bathroom until their requests had been granted (they therefore urinated and defecated in their cells and spread their excrement across their cell walls in what was known as the ldquoDirty Protestrdquo)

Dirty Protesters

Thatcherrsquos Response

bull ldquoThose terrorists will carry their determination to disrupt society to any lengths Once again we have a hunger strike in the Maze Prison in the quest for what they call lsquopolitical statusrsquo There is no such thing as political murder political bombing or political violence There is only criminal murder criminal bombing and criminal violence We will not compromise on this There will be no political statusrdquo

Ten Strikers Diebull Bobby Sands the leader of the strike was imprisoned as a PIRA member

on charges of firearm possession and in connection with the bombing of a furniture store He was the first to die after 66 days of not eating Sands was elected to a seat in Parliament whilst on Hunger Strike

bull Following Sandsrsquo death there were riots bus-burnings and attacks on the British embassy in the southern Republic of Ireland there were massive demonstrations in France and Italy a tomato was thrown as Queen Elizabeth II by demonstrators in Oslo and there were massive riots and civil disorder all over the streets of Belfast The South African ANC and (at the time) terrorist Nelson Mandela expressed their support for the PIRA and the hunger strikers (Mandela himself claimed he was directly inspired by Sands to undertake hunger strikes against the Apartheid government in South Africa) as well as the Palestine Liberation Organization a middle-eastern terror group

bull Over 100000 attended Sandsrsquo funeral

Bobby Sands

ldquoOur revenge will be the laughter of our childrenrdquo

Reaction to Sandsrsquo Death

>

Conclusion

bull The Hunger Strike was eventually called off after 10 strikers including Sands had died

bull James Prior newly installed secretary of state of Northern Ireland granted the prisoners partial concessions all of the Five Demands except for the right to not do prison work Margaret Thatcher refused to budge on political status

bull The Hunger Strikes opened a new way for the PIRA to pursue its objectives politically whereas previously it had seen violence as the only solution to the plight of Irish nationalists in Northern Ireland

1983 The Maze Prison Escape

The ldquoGreat Escaperdquo

bull Using smuggled-in guns and knives 38 PIRA prisoners who had been convicted of offenses ranging from murder to causing explosions escaped from one of the most high-security prisons in Europe They completely took over the H7 prison block and took their prison guards hostage before escaping in a food supply truck Several prison guards were shot and stabbed but only one died of a heart attack during the escape

bull Fifteen escapees were recaptured the first day with four more captured over the next two days following the breakout The remaining 19 were transported to PIRA strongholds and given the option to either rejoin the IRArsquos cause or be transported to the United States to live under a new identity

12 October 1984 Brighton Hotel Bombing

The PIRA Nearly Gets Thatcherbull Margaret Thatcher the highly controversial far-right British PM from

1979-1990 had become a tremendously hated figure amongst the Irish nationalist community in Northern Ireland following the 1981 Hunger Strikes and for her general uncompromising stand on Irish republicanism

bull PIRA man Patrick Magee stayed at the Brighton Hotel from the 14-17 September 1984 planting a 20-lb bomb under his bath

bull Thatcher was staying at the Brighton Hotel for a political conference and was still up at 254AM on 12 October when the bomb was detonated The bomb decimated her bathroom but left the bedroom and sitting room of her suite largely unscathed

bull The PIRA statement to Thatcher afterwards was ldquoToday we were unlucky But remember we only have to be lucky once You will have to be lucky alwaysrdquo

Loughgall Ambush 8 May 1987

The SAS Strikes

bull A botched attack on Loughgall Villagersquos RUC Police Base in which the PIRA drove a backhoe into the fortified base and ran away to detonate the bomb that was inside of the backhoe went wrong as the SAS the British Special Forces had prior knowledge of the attack and quickly dispatched the 8 PIRA members involved

bull Although the RUC base was wrecked and bombed there were no RUC or SAS casualties and it was the PIRArsquos greatest loss of life in a single incident during the Troubles

British Army Lynx Shootdown 20 March 1994

The PIRA Shoots Down a Helicopter

bull Using the previously mentioned Barrack-Buster homemade mortar PIRA insurgents were able to fire on a British helicopter that was in the process of landing whilst hiding behind a hay bail from around 150 yards out

bull The helicopter was hit with the mortar shell around 100 feet above the ground but the pilot was able to successfully crash-land the helicopter and escape before its propane tanks exploded There were no casualties but the attack was a major propaganda coup for the PIRA

1996 Manchester Bombing

The PIRA Destroys Manchester

bull On Saturday 15 June 1996 the PIRA sent in telephoned warnings and 90 minutes later detonated a 3300lb fertilizer-based truck bomb in the heart of Manchester City Centre the biggest bomb detonated in Great Britain during peacetime The bomb killed nobody due to previous warnings but led to 212 non-fatal injuries and essentially destroyed Manchester City Centre leaving approximately 700 million pounds ($12bn) worth of damage in its wake

Omagh Bombing 1998

Last Great Deadly Attack of the Troubles

bull Perpetrated by a Provisional IRA splinter group that was rejecting the peace process calling themselves the ldquoReal IRArdquo the 510lb fertilizer-based bomb was placed on main street in the town of Omagh Northern Ireland Warnings were called in approximately 30 minutes before the bombing but they were inaccurate and police ended up moving more civilians towards the bomb which ended up killing 29 people and causing over 300 non-fatal injuries This was the highest death toll from a single incident during the Troubles

bull It received universal outrage and was condemned even by the PIRA and its political wing Sinn Fein It spurred on the Northern Ireland peace process and the RIRA apologized and called a ceasefire several days after

The Good Friday Agreement and Northern Ireland Peace Process

Beginningsbull Following the 1981 Hunger Strikes Irish republicans began to

increasingly look towards politics rather than violence as a means of achieving their aims Sinn Fein gaelic for ldquoWe Ourselvesrdquo was a fiercely Irish Republican political party which led by the Machiavellian former PIRA leader and Maze inmate Gerry Adams began to push for a more peaceful solution to the Troubles in Northern Ireland

bull It became apparent by the late 1990s that although the PIRA was not losing a war against the British establishment it would be impossible to truly lsquowin the fightrsquo through violence and that any further terrorism would serve not to achieve any real political aim but only to prolong and continue suffering and violence in Northern Ireland and that politics was a much better way of achieving Republican aims

Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein former PIRA Belfast Brigade OC

Good Friday Agreement 1998

bull The Peace Process began in 1994 and included intermittent terrorist ceasefires and political negotiations between the major Irish republican and British unionist parties and culminated on April 10 1998 when the Good Friday Agreement was signed

PM Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern Sign the GFA

GFA Mandatesbull That Northern Ireland was to remain British until a majority of people in Northern

Ireland and the southern Republic of Ireland wanted otherwise bull The creation of an entirely new far less sectarian and religiously diverse Northern

Irish local governmentbull The decommissioning of arms from terrorist groups on both the unionist and

nationalist side of the political divide (ultimately successful all arms decommissioned by 2005)

bull Mutual respect and civil rights between Catholics and Protestants bull The reduction and eventual elimination of British troops in Northern Ireland

(ultimately successful all troops withdrawn by 2005)bull Eventual early prison release for all individuals imprisoned for terrorist offenses as

long as they were apart of a terrorist group that was decommissioning in accordance with the GFA

bull Disbandment of the RUC police service and the installation of the new Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) which was required to be at least 50 Catholic

Northern Ireland Today

Still Conflict But No Warbull Since the complete decommissioning of the arms and

disbandment of the PIRA INLA UDAUFF and UVF due to the Good Friday Agreement there is nowhere near the amount of violence in Northern Ireland or Belfast as there was 20 years ago There are no more weekly bombings and riots and no more British troops patrolling Catholic areas in armored vehicles

bull Despite this there are still occasional riots and clashes with the PSNI several times a year specifically on dates of great historical significance to the Catholic or Protestant communities and there is still a deep distrust and even hatred between many Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland although that continues to change with time

Catholic Slum of Ardoyne Belfast July 2011

Splinter Groups

bull Many former PIRA or UDA terrorists have now taken to organized crime for purely profiteering purposes but are no longer involved in substantial violence or any political-based terrorism

bull Splinter groups such as the Real IRA and Continuity IRA in Catholic communities and the Orange Volunteers and Red Hand Commandos in Protestant communities still conduct occasional violence towards Police and civilians in Northern Ireland but are all rather small poorly armed and poorly funded groups that pose nowhere near the threat that terrorist groups in the 80s and 90s did in Northern Ireland

Herersquos To A Brighter Future in Northern Ireland

Works Citedbull httpwwwbbccoukhistorytroublesbull httpcainulstacukbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiProvisional_Irish_Republican_Armybull httpenwikipediaorgwikiThe_Troublesbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiUlster_Defence_Associationbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiUlster_Volunteer_Forcebull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_National_Liberation_Armybull ldquoA Secret History of the IRArdquo by Ed Moloney ndashWW Norton amp Company Reprint 2003bull ldquoVoices From The Grave Two Menrsquos War in Irelandrdquo by Ed Moloney ndash Public Affairs 2010bull ldquoFifty Dead Men Walkingrdquo by Martin McGartland ndash John Blake 2009bull httpwwwinfopleasecomspotnorthireland1htmlbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_Civil_Warbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_War_of_Independencebull httpenwikipediaorgwiki1981_Irish_hunger_strikebull httpenwikipediaorgwikiDirectory_of_the_Northern_Ireland_Troublesbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiGood_Friday_Agreementbull httpswwwmi5govukhomethe-threatsterrorismnorthern-irelandrepublican-terrorist-groupshtmlbull httpswwwmi5govukhomethe-threatsterrorismnorthern-irelandprovisional-irish-republican-army-

pirahtmlbull httpnewsbbccoukhienglishstaticnorthern_irelandunderstandingeventshunger_strikestm

  • The Troubles
  • Brief Overview
  • 30 Years of Conflict
  • Slide 4
  • Background
  • The Irish War of Independence
  • Slide 7
  • Anglo-Irish Treaty (signed 6 December 1921)
  • Irish Civil War
  • 1922-1966 Ireland
  • The Civil Rights Movement
  • Slide 12
  • Slide 13
  • Objectives of the Civil Rights Movement
  • The 1969 Northern Ireland Riots ndashThe Troubles Begin
  • Culmination of Tension
  • No-Go Areas
  • No-Go Areas (2)
  • Early 1970sndash The Rise of the Provisional IRA
  • The IRA Split
  • Rise of the UVF and Loyalist Terror Groups
  • Beginnings
  • UVF Statement 21 May 1964
  • The Paramilitaries
  • Irish RepublicansCatholics
  • The Provisional IRA
  • IRA Statement Late 80s
  • Statistics
  • RecruitmentFunding
  • Weaponry
  • Weaponry (2)
  • Slide 32
  • Mortars and IEDs
  • EOD Officer Approaches PIRA Car Bomb
  • The Barrack Buster
  • Vigilantism
  • Slide 37
  • Slide 38
  • Policy on Informants
  • Terrorist Activities
  • Terrorist Activities (continued)
  • The INLA
  • Statistics (2)
  • Ideology
  • Terrorist Activities (2)
  • Internal Feuds
  • Slide 47
  • British LoyalistsProtestants
  • The UDAUFF
  • Former UFF Member
  • Statistics (3)
  • Ideology (2)
  • Terrorist Activities (3)
  • Slide 54
  • Organized Crime
  • The UVF
  • Statistics (4)
  • Ideology (3)
  • Terrorist Activities (4)
  • The Shankhill Butchers
  • Weaponry (3)
  • Slide 62
  • Organized Crime (2)
  • Major Incidents 1969-1998
  • Bloody Sunday 30 January 1972
  • Massacre on the Bogside
  • Bloody Friday 21 July 1972
  • A City Under Siege
  • Dublin and Monaghan Bombings 17 May 1974
  • Deadliest Attack of the Troubles
  • Warrenpoint Ambush 27 August 1979
  • Roadside IEDs
  • Summer of 1981 Irish Hunger Strikes
  • A Defining Moment for the Republican Cause
  • The Five Demands
  • Previous Protests
  • Dirty Protesters
  • Thatcherrsquos Response
  • Ten Strikers Die
  • Bobby Sands
  • Reaction to Sandsrsquo Death
  • Conclusion
  • 1983 The Maze Prison Escape
  • The ldquoGreat Escaperdquo
  • 12 October 1984 Brighton Hotel Bombing
  • The PIRA Nearly Gets Thatcher
  • Loughgall Ambush 8 May 1987
  • The SAS Strikes
  • British Army Lynx Shootdown 20 March 1994
  • The PIRA Shoots Down a Helicopter
  • 1996 Manchester Bombing
  • The PIRA Destroys Manchester
  • Omagh Bombing 1998
  • Last Great Deadly Attack of the Troubles
  • The Good Friday Agreement and Northern Ireland Peace Process
  • Beginnings (2)
  • Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein former PIRA Belfast Brigade OC
  • Good Friday Agreement 1998
  • PM Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern Sign the GFA
  • GFA Mandates
  • Northern Ireland Today
  • Still Conflict But No War
  • Catholic Slum of Ardoyne Belfast July 2011
  • Splinter Groups
  • Herersquos To A Brighter Future in Northern Ireland
  • Works Cited
Page 16: The Troubles, 1969-1998

Early 1970sndash The Rise of the Provisional IRA

The IRA Splitbull The IRA that had existed largely in silence for the past 50 years began to rearm

and militarize itself once again by 1969 in order to protect Catholic nationalist communities in Northern Ireland in wake of the police brutality and sectarian violence that they had began to increasingly experience

bull In the 1960s the IRA had come under the significant influence of Marxist and Socialist thinkers This led the IRA to split in 1969 into the Official IRA and the Provisional IRA ndash the provisionals named for their ldquoProvisional Army Councilrdquo

bull The Official IRA was highly socialistMarxist and prescribed to the idea that class differences were causing the strife in Northern Ireland whilst the Provisional IRA was less interested in socialism and more concerned simply with British presence in Northern Ireland considering it to be the root of all the problems

bull The Official IRA would eventually fade out by 1972 while the Provisional IRA would go on to become the most feared terrorist organization in 20th Century Europe and launch a 30-year campaign against the British presence in Northern Ireland

Rise of the UVF and Loyalist Terror Groups

Beginningsbull The UVF (Ulster Volunteer Force) was formed in 1964 as a continuation

of the Ulster Volunteers that existed from 1912-1914 in Northern Ireland who intended to violently resist any attempts by the British government to release Ulster from the Union

bull It was reformed in rsquo64 by former British soldier Gusty Spence after he and his men burned to the ground a Catholic-owned pub on the loyalist Shankhill Road

bull The Ulster unionists feared that with the ongoing civil rights movement a potential return of the IRA in Northern Ireland could be possible The UVF and other loyalist paramilitary groups such as the UDA and UFF were thus created and seen as vigilantes and defenders of Protestant communities However most of their targets throughout the 30-year Troubles were simply innocent Catholic civilians

UVF Statement 21 May 1964

bull ldquoFrom this day we declare war against the Irish Republican Army and its splinter groups Known IRA men will be executed mercilessly and without hesitation Less extreme measures will be taken against anyone sheltering or helping them but if they persist in giving them aid then more extreme methods will be adopted we solemnly warn the authorities to make no more speeches of appeasement We are heavily armed Protestants dedicated to this causerdquo

The Paramilitaries

Irish RepublicansCatholics

The Provisional IRA

IRA Statement Late 80s

>

Statistics

bull Suffered 293 Casualtiesbull Over 10000 members imprisoned on various charges

throughout the conflictbull Killed 656 members of the British Armed Forcesbull Killed 272 Members of the Royal Ulster Constabulary

(RUC) Police Forcebull Killed 44 members of loyalistprotestant terror groupsbull Killed between 620-650 civiliansbull Killed over 1500 people

RecruitmentFundingbull IRA recruitment in Catholic neighborhoods was similar to the phenomenon

of gang membership in the inner-city United States Young Catholics typically joined to create a sense of belonging to seem ldquohardrdquo or look ldquocoolrdquo to feel protected from the brutality of the RUC during the Troubles or to help defend their communities IRA members were not asked to join but volunteered

bull IRA lsquofunds-raisingrsquo activities included collecting protection money from Catholic businesses (a ldquorevolutionary taxrdquo) robbing banks kidnapping citizens for ransom and cigarette and gasoline smuggling across the Irish border (manipulating the differing tax prices on both sides of the border and selling fuel and cigarettes illicitly) Although the Provisional IRA has officially disbanded and no longer engages in terrorism there is substantial evidence that extortion rackets in poor Catholic neighborhoods and contraband smuggling operations along the border still exist in Northern Ireland and are run by former IRA men solely for profiteering purposes

Weaponry

bull The Provisional IRA obtained a significant amount of arms from both Irish-American supporters in the northeastern United States (including members of notorious gangster Whitey Bulgerrsquos Irish Mob in 1970s-80s Boston) and from the Libyan government under Muammar Gadaffi

bull Gadaffi took over in Libya in 1969 and initially armed the IRA seeing them as comrades-in-arms fighting British imperialism Connections re-emerged in 1986 after the Thatcher Administrationrsquos support of the US bombings of Libya that killed Gadaffirsquos adopted daughter

Weaponrybull When the IRA disarmed as part of the Good Friday Agreement in

1998 (more on that later) they released the following to the British Armed Forces

bull 1000 Rifles (AK-47s AR-15s etc)bull 3 Tons of Semtex (a general-purpose plastic explosive)bull 20-30 Heavy Machine Gunsbull 7 Surface-to-Air Missilesbull 7 Flamethrowersbull 1200 Detonatorsbull 20 RPGrsquosbull 100 Handgunsbull 100+ Hand Grenades

Mortars and IEDsbull The PIRA was incredibly proficient at bomb-making and made

extensive use of Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) during their 30 year campaign

bull IEDs were typically constructed with chemical mixes of fertilizer gasoline and other home-made components Libyan Semtex was also used in several heavy-duty bombs Nails and gunpowder were typically implemented in pipe bombs made out of metal pipes Most IEDs had built in countermeasures such as the mercury tilt switch which would cause the bomb to explode if moved at all should a British EOD officer attempt to dismantle it

bull The PIRA developed the ldquoBarrack Busterrdquo mortar in the late lsquo70s or a homemade mortar made up of common household materials that was used to attack several Army bases from afar and even Prime Minister Margaret Thatcherrsquos househellip 10 Downing Street in a 1991 attack that destroyed the Prime Ministerrsquos rear garden (the mortar was fired out the back of a nearby van)

EOD Officer Approaches PIRA Car Bomb

The Barrack Buster

>

Vigilantismbull The RUC was not trusted in Catholic neighborhoods throughout the

Troubles and did not regularly patrol or even enter them in urban areas of Northern Ireland Thus when there was a community drug dealer car thief burglar rapist or pedophile the IRA took it upon themselves to issue brutal street justice to those involved

bull Occasionally offering warnings for lesser offences such as petty thievery or drug dealing if the IRA had enough of a certain member of the community they perceived as anti-social he or she was usually jumped brutally beaten andor lsquokneecappedrsquo ndash one of the IRArsquos most notorious methods ndash in which the victim was pinned down and shot through the kneecaps with a firearm or occasionally had their kneecaps drilled through with power-drills Other methods included releasing starving Rottweilerrsquos on the offender dropping cinderblocks on the offenderrsquos hands or even tarring and feathering the offender The IRArsquos process in determining an individualrsquos guilt was never open to scrutiny

bull If the offender persisted after an IRA punishment he was then given a notice by the IRA to leave the country as soon as possiblehellip referred to as being ldquoput outrdquo of the community If the offender still did not leave he was murdered

Policy on Informantsbull In an effort to stamp out collusion with the British forces and informants on the

IRA the IRA was responsible for torturing and killing several accused Catholic civilians throughout the conflict

bull Investigations into collusion infiltration and informants were carried out by the Internal Security Unit of the IRA colloquially known as the ldquoNutting Squadrdquo

bull The ISU would carry out debriefings of IRA prisoners upon their release from British detention so as to discover whether or not they had lsquocrackedrsquo and released information to British interrogators

bull Typical ISU torture techniques on those accused of informing included drowning genitalnipple mutilation electrocution with livewires pouring kerosene on the accusedrsquos legs before setting fire to them and branding with hot irons Informants were always killed afterwards with a bullet through the back of the head

bull Of the 18 ldquoDisappearedrdquo accused informants that were abducted and executed by the IRA during the Troubles only 10 bodies have been found

bull Martin McGartland was an IRA informant who was estimated to have saved 50 lives in the conflict before he was discovered and abducted by the ISU He escaped and lives today in seclusion The film ldquo50 Dead Men Walkingrdquo is based on his exploits and is an excellent realistic non-romanticized take on the Troubles in Northern Ireland

Terrorist Activitiesbull Common tactics included breaking into the homes of off-duty RUC police

officers and murdering them in their beds or setting booby-trap bombs underneath RUC police officersrsquo cars and unionist politiciansrsquo cars so that they would blow up as the engine was started RUC men were typically targeted when they were off-duty and many were shot dead in front of their families The PIRA would also impersonate innocent Catholic civilians call the police to report an emergency and ambush the police from hidden positions when they arrived at the stated address (another reason the RUC was hesitant to go into Catholic neighborhoods during this period)

bull Most notorious for their bombings they would typically park car bombs in predominately Protestant communities call in the bomb threat so that the area would be evacuated and an EOD squad would arrive to dismantle it the bomb would then be detonated with hopes of killing an EOD officer and destroying Protestant housing tenements

bull The PIRA rarely intentionally targeted civilians especially in the 80srsquo and 90srsquo but were involved in the bombings of several Protestant-owned pubs during the 1970s in response to loyalist terrorist groups bombing Catholic-owned pubs They also carried out the Kingsmill massacre in 1976 in which eleven Protestant workmen that were traveling on a minibus were held up by the IRA and all individually executed in response to the execution of six Catholic civilians by the UVF the night before

Terrorist Activities (continued)bull Other activities included engaging in firefights with British squadrons as

they patrolled the countrysidestreets of urban areas sniper attacks on RUC or British Army patrolscheckpoints planting landmines along British foot patrol routes in rural areas planting roadside IEDs along British convoy routes and bombing ferries and buses containing on-or-off duty British soldiers

bull The notorious ldquohuman bombrdquo technique in which civilians or off-duty members of the British security forces were kidnapped and then forced to drive car bombs into British military targets ndash such as checkpoints and Army bases ndash after the PIRA had placed their familiesrsquo lives under threat

bull Inciting riots and providing Catholic youths with molotov cocktails (gasoline bombs) during such riots so as to maximize public disorder and destruction was also an almost daily IRA activity in Catholic communities in urban Northern Ireland

The INLA

Statistics

bull Suffered 33 casualtiesbull Killed 46 members of the British Security Forcesbull Killed 2 members of the Irish Security Forcesbull Killed 39 civiliansbull Killed 3 civilian political activistsbull Killed 16 members of rival Republican terror

groupsbull Killed 7 members of Loyalist terror groups

Ideology

bull Founded by Seamus Costello in 1974 as the military wing of the Irish Republican Socialist Party

bull Shared similar goals to the Provisional IRA but far more socialist in ideology INLA wanted a socialist united Irish republic and blamed class struggles for many of the problems in Northern Ireland whereas the PIRA simply wanted a united Irish republic and had little interest in class struggle or economics

bull Whereas the PIRA was almost exclusively Catholic the INLA had some Protestant members most of whom were involved for purely socialist reasons

Terrorist Activitiesbull Although far less powerful and bold than the PIRA the INLA

nevertheless presented a potent terrorist threat to the United Kingdom during the Troubles

bull Similar tactics to the IRA car bombings shooting off-duty police and soldiers dead and high-profile assassinations

bull Their most high-profile attacks included the car bomb assassination of Airey Neave one of Margaret Thatcherrsquos closest political supporters in 1979 the murder of infamous Loyalist terror leader Billy Wright (who was murdered by INLA inmates in a British political prison in 1997) and the Ballykelley Disco Bombing in 1982 in which the INLA bombed a disco-club frequented by off-duty British soldiers managing to kill 11 of them as well as 6 civilians as well as destroying the disco

Internal Feuds

bull A split in 1986 led the INLA to split into the INLA and the IPLO or Irish Peoplersquos Liberation Organization based on IPLO membersrsquo perceived lack of political motivation and heavy involvement in drug dealing and criminality

bull There were several retaliatory killings between the two groups that persisted until 1992 when the PIRA had enough of the IPLOrsquos involvement in drug dealing in Catholic areas of Belfast and on 31 October 1992 virtually destroyed the entire organization in one night with a series of raids killings and kneecappings that killed or crippled the majority of the grouprsquos members

British LoyalistsProtestants

The UDAUFF

Former UFF Member

>

Statistics

bull Suffered 89 casualtiesbull Killed 197 civiliansbull Killed 12 civilian political activistsbull Killed 37 members of rival loyalist terror

groupsbull Killed 11 members of republican terror groupsbull Killed 3 members of the British Security Forces

Ideology

bull The UDA or Ulster Defense Association and its military wing the Ulster Freedom Fighters (UFF) was a loyalist protestant terror squad that targeted PIRA and INLA members as well as general Catholic civilians in bombings and shootings throughout Northern Ireland

bull It pledged to end its campaign of violence whenever the IRA set down its arms yet should the UK government appease the IRA and grant a 32-county Irish Republic the UDA pledged to act as ldquothe IRA in reverserdquo

Terrorist Activitiesbull The UDA saw itself as a militia defending upstanding protestant loyalist

communities from dangerous and lower-class Catholics that were disrupting the status quo in Northern Ireland They pledged primarily to target IRA men but ended up killing a majority of Catholic civilians during the Troubles They were also known to intimidate and exile known Catholic families from predominately-Protestant communities in Belfast and other urban areas

bull Drive-by shootings shooting up or planting bombs in predominately-Catholic pubs and bars and jumping brutally beating andor kneecapping Catholic civilians were all frequent tactics

bull The UDA discreetly worked in collusion with the RUC and other British security agencies so as to track down and assassinate known IRA members They would also patrol Protestant neighborhoods alongside British soldiers at the height of the Troubles Many RUC police officers and prison guards were also UDA members

bull The UDA alongside many other loyalist paramilitaries benefitted from the import of several arms shipments from Lebanese arms dealers in the early 1970s including rocket launchers 200+ AK-47 Rifles 90+ handguns and over 400 grenades They also received various weapons such as the uzi submachine gun and explosive devices from arms dealers in the Soviet bloc in the 1980s

Organized Crime

bull The UDA and its members were also heavily involved in drug dealing from the street level to wholesale purchase primarily in MDMA and cannabis throughout the Troubles

bull Protection racketeering and money laundering were also common amongst the UDA in protestant communities

bull However should a member of a UDA-ran community begin stealing or dealing drugs without UDA consent he was abruptly branded as ldquoanti-socialrdquo and either killed or kneecapped

The UVF

Statistics

bull Suffered unknown number of casualtiesbull Killed 412 civiliansbull Killed 11 civilian political activistsbull Killed 21 members of republican terror groupsbull Killed 42 members of rival loyalist terror

groupsbull Killed 6 members of the Security Forces

Ideology

bull Similar to the UDAUFF the Ulster Volunteer Forcersquos primary aim was to combat Irish republicanism in Northern Ireland primarily the PIRA They wanted Northern Ireland to remain in the UK

Terrorist Activitiesbull The majority of UVF victims were Catholic civilians

many of whom were killed at random These attacks were intended to demoralize the IRA as the IRA drew most of its support from the Catholic community

bull Planting bombs in predominately-Catholic pubs or simply residential areas was a very frequent UVF tactic and in 1973 they detonated more bombs in Northern Ireland than the UDA and the PIRA combined Assassinations mass shootings booby-trap car bombs and kidnappings were also frequent UVF activities

The Shankhill Butchers

bull The ldquoShankhill Butchersrdquo were a notorious offshoot UVF group known for abducting and literally slitting the throats of Catholic civilians and rival loyalist terror groups in the late 1970s They were led by Lenny Murphy (who was eventually imprisoned and upon his release of a 4-year stint murdered by the PIRA) and killed 23 people most of whom were Catholic civilians Many experts liken the Shankhill Butchers more to a group of serial killers than to politically or even ethnically-motivated murderers

bull The Butchers were all eventually all either imprisoned killed by the PIRA or both

Weaponrybull The UVF received the majority of its weaponry in the late 1970s

from Armscor an apartheid-South Africa state-owned arms company which in defiance of various UN sanctions and embargoes sold them to the UVF

bull Weapons were thought to consist ofbull 200 Czech SA vz 58 Assault Riflesbull 90 Browning Pistolsbull 500 RGD-5 Frag Grenadesbull 30000 rounds of ammunitionbull 12 RPG-7 Rocket Launchers and 150+ Rocketsbull The UVF also began using the illegally-obtained mining explosive

Powergel in the early 1990s

Organized Crime

bull The UVF was also heavily involved in organized crime including protection racketeering and drug smugglingdealing including cannabis MDMA cocaine and amphetamines Bank robberies were also very frequent in the 1970s

Major Incidents 1969-1998

Bloody Sunday 30 January 1972

Massacre on the Bogsidebull In 1972 during a large scale but peaceful civil-rights march in the

troubled predominately Catholic neighborhood of Bogside in Derry 26 unarmed civil rights marchers were shot by members of the British Army 14 of whom were killed Five of those shot were shot in the back

bull After several inquiries into the incident there was found to have been no justifiable provocation from the protestors and no shots fired from the protestors during the march The massacre was conducted in full view of the public and the press

bull The PM David Cameron eventually issued a formal apology to the victims and victimsrsquo families of the massacre after several investigations failed to reveal any justifiable provocation for the massacre

bull The massacre sky-rocketed PIRA membership and recruitment as public perception of the British Army in Catholic communities in Northern Ireland reached an all-time low

Bloody Friday 21 July 1972

A City Under Siege

bull On 21 July 1972 the PIRA detonated 26 bombs in the space of 80 minutes in Belfast destroying banks bridges electrical substations Protestant housing tenements gasoline stations and private garages

bull Although warnings were called in at least 30 minutes prior to each bomb the amount of bombs exploding and the addition of multiple hoax warnings at the same time led to the Security Forces being unable to evacuate all the areas in time 11 people were killed and 130 were injured many of them horrifically mutilated Of those injured 77 were women or children

Dublin and Monaghan Bombings 17 May 1974

Deadliest Attack of the Troubles

bull Perpetrated by the UVF in the southern Republic of Ireland three car bombs exploded in Dublin during rush hour and another exploded in Monaghan around 90 minutes later

bull 33 civilians and a full-term unborn child were killed in the bombing while nearly 300 were injured The UVF did not claim responsibility for the bombings until 1993

bull The majority of those killed were young women although the age range of those killed ranged from 5 months old to 80 years old

Warrenpoint Ambush 27 August 1979

Roadside IEDsbull In the southern part of County Armagh Northern Ireland a predominately-

Catholic rural region and former PIRA stronghold right on the border with the southern Republic of Ireland a British troop convoy was hit with a remote-control detonated roadside 500lb truck-bomb and destroyed instantly killing 6 troops The surviving soldiers then wrongly believed they were under sniper fire from the other side of the Irish border and began firing at civilians immediately after the bombing killing 1 and injuring another

bull 32 minutes after the first bombing the IRA used its knowledge of how the British reacted to bombings to correctly predict that they would set up an incident-command point in a nearby gatehouse Unfortunately for the British there was a second 800lb fertilizer bomb planted near the gatehouse that when detonated killed 12 other soldiers who were responding to the initial bomb

bull It was the deadliest single attack on the British Army during the Troubles and a highly successful attack for the PIRA

Summer of 1981 Irish Hunger Strikes

A Defining Moment for the Republican Cause

bull Beginning on 1 March 1981 led by Bobby Sands 7 PIRA and 3 INLA inmates at the notorious ldquoMazerdquo prison began to refuse food until Margaret Thatcher PM of Great Britain at that time began to recognize terrorist prisoners as political prisoners and allowed them their ldquoFive Demandsrdquo

The Five Demands

bull The right to not wear a prison uniformbull The right to not do prison workbull The right of free association with other

prisoners and to organize in educational and recreational pursuits

bull Full restoration of remission lost through any protests towards these demands

Previous Protestsbull The Maze prison was a very high-security and low-quality prison that

housed almost all PIRA prisoners during the Troubles It was run in a very ethically questionable fashion with frequent beatings and borderline-torture techniques used on Republican prisoners and extremely poor living conditions for prisoners Many Maze prison guards were members of the UDAUVF or had strong connections with one of the two groups as well

bull Massive peaceful protests and marches by Irish republicans outside of the Maze Prison proved unsuccessful in attaining political status for republican prisoners as well as previous inmate protests in 1980 including non-fatal hunger strikes inmates refusing to wear prison uniforms and thus living in their cells naked and prisoners refusing to leave their cells to go to the bathroom until their requests had been granted (they therefore urinated and defecated in their cells and spread their excrement across their cell walls in what was known as the ldquoDirty Protestrdquo)

Dirty Protesters

Thatcherrsquos Response

bull ldquoThose terrorists will carry their determination to disrupt society to any lengths Once again we have a hunger strike in the Maze Prison in the quest for what they call lsquopolitical statusrsquo There is no such thing as political murder political bombing or political violence There is only criminal murder criminal bombing and criminal violence We will not compromise on this There will be no political statusrdquo

Ten Strikers Diebull Bobby Sands the leader of the strike was imprisoned as a PIRA member

on charges of firearm possession and in connection with the bombing of a furniture store He was the first to die after 66 days of not eating Sands was elected to a seat in Parliament whilst on Hunger Strike

bull Following Sandsrsquo death there were riots bus-burnings and attacks on the British embassy in the southern Republic of Ireland there were massive demonstrations in France and Italy a tomato was thrown as Queen Elizabeth II by demonstrators in Oslo and there were massive riots and civil disorder all over the streets of Belfast The South African ANC and (at the time) terrorist Nelson Mandela expressed their support for the PIRA and the hunger strikers (Mandela himself claimed he was directly inspired by Sands to undertake hunger strikes against the Apartheid government in South Africa) as well as the Palestine Liberation Organization a middle-eastern terror group

bull Over 100000 attended Sandsrsquo funeral

Bobby Sands

ldquoOur revenge will be the laughter of our childrenrdquo

Reaction to Sandsrsquo Death

>

Conclusion

bull The Hunger Strike was eventually called off after 10 strikers including Sands had died

bull James Prior newly installed secretary of state of Northern Ireland granted the prisoners partial concessions all of the Five Demands except for the right to not do prison work Margaret Thatcher refused to budge on political status

bull The Hunger Strikes opened a new way for the PIRA to pursue its objectives politically whereas previously it had seen violence as the only solution to the plight of Irish nationalists in Northern Ireland

1983 The Maze Prison Escape

The ldquoGreat Escaperdquo

bull Using smuggled-in guns and knives 38 PIRA prisoners who had been convicted of offenses ranging from murder to causing explosions escaped from one of the most high-security prisons in Europe They completely took over the H7 prison block and took their prison guards hostage before escaping in a food supply truck Several prison guards were shot and stabbed but only one died of a heart attack during the escape

bull Fifteen escapees were recaptured the first day with four more captured over the next two days following the breakout The remaining 19 were transported to PIRA strongholds and given the option to either rejoin the IRArsquos cause or be transported to the United States to live under a new identity

12 October 1984 Brighton Hotel Bombing

The PIRA Nearly Gets Thatcherbull Margaret Thatcher the highly controversial far-right British PM from

1979-1990 had become a tremendously hated figure amongst the Irish nationalist community in Northern Ireland following the 1981 Hunger Strikes and for her general uncompromising stand on Irish republicanism

bull PIRA man Patrick Magee stayed at the Brighton Hotel from the 14-17 September 1984 planting a 20-lb bomb under his bath

bull Thatcher was staying at the Brighton Hotel for a political conference and was still up at 254AM on 12 October when the bomb was detonated The bomb decimated her bathroom but left the bedroom and sitting room of her suite largely unscathed

bull The PIRA statement to Thatcher afterwards was ldquoToday we were unlucky But remember we only have to be lucky once You will have to be lucky alwaysrdquo

Loughgall Ambush 8 May 1987

The SAS Strikes

bull A botched attack on Loughgall Villagersquos RUC Police Base in which the PIRA drove a backhoe into the fortified base and ran away to detonate the bomb that was inside of the backhoe went wrong as the SAS the British Special Forces had prior knowledge of the attack and quickly dispatched the 8 PIRA members involved

bull Although the RUC base was wrecked and bombed there were no RUC or SAS casualties and it was the PIRArsquos greatest loss of life in a single incident during the Troubles

British Army Lynx Shootdown 20 March 1994

The PIRA Shoots Down a Helicopter

bull Using the previously mentioned Barrack-Buster homemade mortar PIRA insurgents were able to fire on a British helicopter that was in the process of landing whilst hiding behind a hay bail from around 150 yards out

bull The helicopter was hit with the mortar shell around 100 feet above the ground but the pilot was able to successfully crash-land the helicopter and escape before its propane tanks exploded There were no casualties but the attack was a major propaganda coup for the PIRA

1996 Manchester Bombing

The PIRA Destroys Manchester

bull On Saturday 15 June 1996 the PIRA sent in telephoned warnings and 90 minutes later detonated a 3300lb fertilizer-based truck bomb in the heart of Manchester City Centre the biggest bomb detonated in Great Britain during peacetime The bomb killed nobody due to previous warnings but led to 212 non-fatal injuries and essentially destroyed Manchester City Centre leaving approximately 700 million pounds ($12bn) worth of damage in its wake

Omagh Bombing 1998

Last Great Deadly Attack of the Troubles

bull Perpetrated by a Provisional IRA splinter group that was rejecting the peace process calling themselves the ldquoReal IRArdquo the 510lb fertilizer-based bomb was placed on main street in the town of Omagh Northern Ireland Warnings were called in approximately 30 minutes before the bombing but they were inaccurate and police ended up moving more civilians towards the bomb which ended up killing 29 people and causing over 300 non-fatal injuries This was the highest death toll from a single incident during the Troubles

bull It received universal outrage and was condemned even by the PIRA and its political wing Sinn Fein It spurred on the Northern Ireland peace process and the RIRA apologized and called a ceasefire several days after

The Good Friday Agreement and Northern Ireland Peace Process

Beginningsbull Following the 1981 Hunger Strikes Irish republicans began to

increasingly look towards politics rather than violence as a means of achieving their aims Sinn Fein gaelic for ldquoWe Ourselvesrdquo was a fiercely Irish Republican political party which led by the Machiavellian former PIRA leader and Maze inmate Gerry Adams began to push for a more peaceful solution to the Troubles in Northern Ireland

bull It became apparent by the late 1990s that although the PIRA was not losing a war against the British establishment it would be impossible to truly lsquowin the fightrsquo through violence and that any further terrorism would serve not to achieve any real political aim but only to prolong and continue suffering and violence in Northern Ireland and that politics was a much better way of achieving Republican aims

Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein former PIRA Belfast Brigade OC

Good Friday Agreement 1998

bull The Peace Process began in 1994 and included intermittent terrorist ceasefires and political negotiations between the major Irish republican and British unionist parties and culminated on April 10 1998 when the Good Friday Agreement was signed

PM Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern Sign the GFA

GFA Mandatesbull That Northern Ireland was to remain British until a majority of people in Northern

Ireland and the southern Republic of Ireland wanted otherwise bull The creation of an entirely new far less sectarian and religiously diverse Northern

Irish local governmentbull The decommissioning of arms from terrorist groups on both the unionist and

nationalist side of the political divide (ultimately successful all arms decommissioned by 2005)

bull Mutual respect and civil rights between Catholics and Protestants bull The reduction and eventual elimination of British troops in Northern Ireland

(ultimately successful all troops withdrawn by 2005)bull Eventual early prison release for all individuals imprisoned for terrorist offenses as

long as they were apart of a terrorist group that was decommissioning in accordance with the GFA

bull Disbandment of the RUC police service and the installation of the new Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) which was required to be at least 50 Catholic

Northern Ireland Today

Still Conflict But No Warbull Since the complete decommissioning of the arms and

disbandment of the PIRA INLA UDAUFF and UVF due to the Good Friday Agreement there is nowhere near the amount of violence in Northern Ireland or Belfast as there was 20 years ago There are no more weekly bombings and riots and no more British troops patrolling Catholic areas in armored vehicles

bull Despite this there are still occasional riots and clashes with the PSNI several times a year specifically on dates of great historical significance to the Catholic or Protestant communities and there is still a deep distrust and even hatred between many Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland although that continues to change with time

Catholic Slum of Ardoyne Belfast July 2011

Splinter Groups

bull Many former PIRA or UDA terrorists have now taken to organized crime for purely profiteering purposes but are no longer involved in substantial violence or any political-based terrorism

bull Splinter groups such as the Real IRA and Continuity IRA in Catholic communities and the Orange Volunteers and Red Hand Commandos in Protestant communities still conduct occasional violence towards Police and civilians in Northern Ireland but are all rather small poorly armed and poorly funded groups that pose nowhere near the threat that terrorist groups in the 80s and 90s did in Northern Ireland

Herersquos To A Brighter Future in Northern Ireland

Works Citedbull httpwwwbbccoukhistorytroublesbull httpcainulstacukbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiProvisional_Irish_Republican_Armybull httpenwikipediaorgwikiThe_Troublesbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiUlster_Defence_Associationbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiUlster_Volunteer_Forcebull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_National_Liberation_Armybull ldquoA Secret History of the IRArdquo by Ed Moloney ndashWW Norton amp Company Reprint 2003bull ldquoVoices From The Grave Two Menrsquos War in Irelandrdquo by Ed Moloney ndash Public Affairs 2010bull ldquoFifty Dead Men Walkingrdquo by Martin McGartland ndash John Blake 2009bull httpwwwinfopleasecomspotnorthireland1htmlbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_Civil_Warbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_War_of_Independencebull httpenwikipediaorgwiki1981_Irish_hunger_strikebull httpenwikipediaorgwikiDirectory_of_the_Northern_Ireland_Troublesbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiGood_Friday_Agreementbull httpswwwmi5govukhomethe-threatsterrorismnorthern-irelandrepublican-terrorist-groupshtmlbull httpswwwmi5govukhomethe-threatsterrorismnorthern-irelandprovisional-irish-republican-army-

pirahtmlbull httpnewsbbccoukhienglishstaticnorthern_irelandunderstandingeventshunger_strikestm

  • The Troubles
  • Brief Overview
  • 30 Years of Conflict
  • Slide 4
  • Background
  • The Irish War of Independence
  • Slide 7
  • Anglo-Irish Treaty (signed 6 December 1921)
  • Irish Civil War
  • 1922-1966 Ireland
  • The Civil Rights Movement
  • Slide 12
  • Slide 13
  • Objectives of the Civil Rights Movement
  • The 1969 Northern Ireland Riots ndashThe Troubles Begin
  • Culmination of Tension
  • No-Go Areas
  • No-Go Areas (2)
  • Early 1970sndash The Rise of the Provisional IRA
  • The IRA Split
  • Rise of the UVF and Loyalist Terror Groups
  • Beginnings
  • UVF Statement 21 May 1964
  • The Paramilitaries
  • Irish RepublicansCatholics
  • The Provisional IRA
  • IRA Statement Late 80s
  • Statistics
  • RecruitmentFunding
  • Weaponry
  • Weaponry (2)
  • Slide 32
  • Mortars and IEDs
  • EOD Officer Approaches PIRA Car Bomb
  • The Barrack Buster
  • Vigilantism
  • Slide 37
  • Slide 38
  • Policy on Informants
  • Terrorist Activities
  • Terrorist Activities (continued)
  • The INLA
  • Statistics (2)
  • Ideology
  • Terrorist Activities (2)
  • Internal Feuds
  • Slide 47
  • British LoyalistsProtestants
  • The UDAUFF
  • Former UFF Member
  • Statistics (3)
  • Ideology (2)
  • Terrorist Activities (3)
  • Slide 54
  • Organized Crime
  • The UVF
  • Statistics (4)
  • Ideology (3)
  • Terrorist Activities (4)
  • The Shankhill Butchers
  • Weaponry (3)
  • Slide 62
  • Organized Crime (2)
  • Major Incidents 1969-1998
  • Bloody Sunday 30 January 1972
  • Massacre on the Bogside
  • Bloody Friday 21 July 1972
  • A City Under Siege
  • Dublin and Monaghan Bombings 17 May 1974
  • Deadliest Attack of the Troubles
  • Warrenpoint Ambush 27 August 1979
  • Roadside IEDs
  • Summer of 1981 Irish Hunger Strikes
  • A Defining Moment for the Republican Cause
  • The Five Demands
  • Previous Protests
  • Dirty Protesters
  • Thatcherrsquos Response
  • Ten Strikers Die
  • Bobby Sands
  • Reaction to Sandsrsquo Death
  • Conclusion
  • 1983 The Maze Prison Escape
  • The ldquoGreat Escaperdquo
  • 12 October 1984 Brighton Hotel Bombing
  • The PIRA Nearly Gets Thatcher
  • Loughgall Ambush 8 May 1987
  • The SAS Strikes
  • British Army Lynx Shootdown 20 March 1994
  • The PIRA Shoots Down a Helicopter
  • 1996 Manchester Bombing
  • The PIRA Destroys Manchester
  • Omagh Bombing 1998
  • Last Great Deadly Attack of the Troubles
  • The Good Friday Agreement and Northern Ireland Peace Process
  • Beginnings (2)
  • Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein former PIRA Belfast Brigade OC
  • Good Friday Agreement 1998
  • PM Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern Sign the GFA
  • GFA Mandates
  • Northern Ireland Today
  • Still Conflict But No War
  • Catholic Slum of Ardoyne Belfast July 2011
  • Splinter Groups
  • Herersquos To A Brighter Future in Northern Ireland
  • Works Cited
Page 17: The Troubles, 1969-1998

The IRA Splitbull The IRA that had existed largely in silence for the past 50 years began to rearm

and militarize itself once again by 1969 in order to protect Catholic nationalist communities in Northern Ireland in wake of the police brutality and sectarian violence that they had began to increasingly experience

bull In the 1960s the IRA had come under the significant influence of Marxist and Socialist thinkers This led the IRA to split in 1969 into the Official IRA and the Provisional IRA ndash the provisionals named for their ldquoProvisional Army Councilrdquo

bull The Official IRA was highly socialistMarxist and prescribed to the idea that class differences were causing the strife in Northern Ireland whilst the Provisional IRA was less interested in socialism and more concerned simply with British presence in Northern Ireland considering it to be the root of all the problems

bull The Official IRA would eventually fade out by 1972 while the Provisional IRA would go on to become the most feared terrorist organization in 20th Century Europe and launch a 30-year campaign against the British presence in Northern Ireland

Rise of the UVF and Loyalist Terror Groups

Beginningsbull The UVF (Ulster Volunteer Force) was formed in 1964 as a continuation

of the Ulster Volunteers that existed from 1912-1914 in Northern Ireland who intended to violently resist any attempts by the British government to release Ulster from the Union

bull It was reformed in rsquo64 by former British soldier Gusty Spence after he and his men burned to the ground a Catholic-owned pub on the loyalist Shankhill Road

bull The Ulster unionists feared that with the ongoing civil rights movement a potential return of the IRA in Northern Ireland could be possible The UVF and other loyalist paramilitary groups such as the UDA and UFF were thus created and seen as vigilantes and defenders of Protestant communities However most of their targets throughout the 30-year Troubles were simply innocent Catholic civilians

UVF Statement 21 May 1964

bull ldquoFrom this day we declare war against the Irish Republican Army and its splinter groups Known IRA men will be executed mercilessly and without hesitation Less extreme measures will be taken against anyone sheltering or helping them but if they persist in giving them aid then more extreme methods will be adopted we solemnly warn the authorities to make no more speeches of appeasement We are heavily armed Protestants dedicated to this causerdquo

The Paramilitaries

Irish RepublicansCatholics

The Provisional IRA

IRA Statement Late 80s

>

Statistics

bull Suffered 293 Casualtiesbull Over 10000 members imprisoned on various charges

throughout the conflictbull Killed 656 members of the British Armed Forcesbull Killed 272 Members of the Royal Ulster Constabulary

(RUC) Police Forcebull Killed 44 members of loyalistprotestant terror groupsbull Killed between 620-650 civiliansbull Killed over 1500 people

RecruitmentFundingbull IRA recruitment in Catholic neighborhoods was similar to the phenomenon

of gang membership in the inner-city United States Young Catholics typically joined to create a sense of belonging to seem ldquohardrdquo or look ldquocoolrdquo to feel protected from the brutality of the RUC during the Troubles or to help defend their communities IRA members were not asked to join but volunteered

bull IRA lsquofunds-raisingrsquo activities included collecting protection money from Catholic businesses (a ldquorevolutionary taxrdquo) robbing banks kidnapping citizens for ransom and cigarette and gasoline smuggling across the Irish border (manipulating the differing tax prices on both sides of the border and selling fuel and cigarettes illicitly) Although the Provisional IRA has officially disbanded and no longer engages in terrorism there is substantial evidence that extortion rackets in poor Catholic neighborhoods and contraband smuggling operations along the border still exist in Northern Ireland and are run by former IRA men solely for profiteering purposes

Weaponry

bull The Provisional IRA obtained a significant amount of arms from both Irish-American supporters in the northeastern United States (including members of notorious gangster Whitey Bulgerrsquos Irish Mob in 1970s-80s Boston) and from the Libyan government under Muammar Gadaffi

bull Gadaffi took over in Libya in 1969 and initially armed the IRA seeing them as comrades-in-arms fighting British imperialism Connections re-emerged in 1986 after the Thatcher Administrationrsquos support of the US bombings of Libya that killed Gadaffirsquos adopted daughter

Weaponrybull When the IRA disarmed as part of the Good Friday Agreement in

1998 (more on that later) they released the following to the British Armed Forces

bull 1000 Rifles (AK-47s AR-15s etc)bull 3 Tons of Semtex (a general-purpose plastic explosive)bull 20-30 Heavy Machine Gunsbull 7 Surface-to-Air Missilesbull 7 Flamethrowersbull 1200 Detonatorsbull 20 RPGrsquosbull 100 Handgunsbull 100+ Hand Grenades

Mortars and IEDsbull The PIRA was incredibly proficient at bomb-making and made

extensive use of Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) during their 30 year campaign

bull IEDs were typically constructed with chemical mixes of fertilizer gasoline and other home-made components Libyan Semtex was also used in several heavy-duty bombs Nails and gunpowder were typically implemented in pipe bombs made out of metal pipes Most IEDs had built in countermeasures such as the mercury tilt switch which would cause the bomb to explode if moved at all should a British EOD officer attempt to dismantle it

bull The PIRA developed the ldquoBarrack Busterrdquo mortar in the late lsquo70s or a homemade mortar made up of common household materials that was used to attack several Army bases from afar and even Prime Minister Margaret Thatcherrsquos househellip 10 Downing Street in a 1991 attack that destroyed the Prime Ministerrsquos rear garden (the mortar was fired out the back of a nearby van)

EOD Officer Approaches PIRA Car Bomb

The Barrack Buster

>

Vigilantismbull The RUC was not trusted in Catholic neighborhoods throughout the

Troubles and did not regularly patrol or even enter them in urban areas of Northern Ireland Thus when there was a community drug dealer car thief burglar rapist or pedophile the IRA took it upon themselves to issue brutal street justice to those involved

bull Occasionally offering warnings for lesser offences such as petty thievery or drug dealing if the IRA had enough of a certain member of the community they perceived as anti-social he or she was usually jumped brutally beaten andor lsquokneecappedrsquo ndash one of the IRArsquos most notorious methods ndash in which the victim was pinned down and shot through the kneecaps with a firearm or occasionally had their kneecaps drilled through with power-drills Other methods included releasing starving Rottweilerrsquos on the offender dropping cinderblocks on the offenderrsquos hands or even tarring and feathering the offender The IRArsquos process in determining an individualrsquos guilt was never open to scrutiny

bull If the offender persisted after an IRA punishment he was then given a notice by the IRA to leave the country as soon as possiblehellip referred to as being ldquoput outrdquo of the community If the offender still did not leave he was murdered

Policy on Informantsbull In an effort to stamp out collusion with the British forces and informants on the

IRA the IRA was responsible for torturing and killing several accused Catholic civilians throughout the conflict

bull Investigations into collusion infiltration and informants were carried out by the Internal Security Unit of the IRA colloquially known as the ldquoNutting Squadrdquo

bull The ISU would carry out debriefings of IRA prisoners upon their release from British detention so as to discover whether or not they had lsquocrackedrsquo and released information to British interrogators

bull Typical ISU torture techniques on those accused of informing included drowning genitalnipple mutilation electrocution with livewires pouring kerosene on the accusedrsquos legs before setting fire to them and branding with hot irons Informants were always killed afterwards with a bullet through the back of the head

bull Of the 18 ldquoDisappearedrdquo accused informants that were abducted and executed by the IRA during the Troubles only 10 bodies have been found

bull Martin McGartland was an IRA informant who was estimated to have saved 50 lives in the conflict before he was discovered and abducted by the ISU He escaped and lives today in seclusion The film ldquo50 Dead Men Walkingrdquo is based on his exploits and is an excellent realistic non-romanticized take on the Troubles in Northern Ireland

Terrorist Activitiesbull Common tactics included breaking into the homes of off-duty RUC police

officers and murdering them in their beds or setting booby-trap bombs underneath RUC police officersrsquo cars and unionist politiciansrsquo cars so that they would blow up as the engine was started RUC men were typically targeted when they were off-duty and many were shot dead in front of their families The PIRA would also impersonate innocent Catholic civilians call the police to report an emergency and ambush the police from hidden positions when they arrived at the stated address (another reason the RUC was hesitant to go into Catholic neighborhoods during this period)

bull Most notorious for their bombings they would typically park car bombs in predominately Protestant communities call in the bomb threat so that the area would be evacuated and an EOD squad would arrive to dismantle it the bomb would then be detonated with hopes of killing an EOD officer and destroying Protestant housing tenements

bull The PIRA rarely intentionally targeted civilians especially in the 80srsquo and 90srsquo but were involved in the bombings of several Protestant-owned pubs during the 1970s in response to loyalist terrorist groups bombing Catholic-owned pubs They also carried out the Kingsmill massacre in 1976 in which eleven Protestant workmen that were traveling on a minibus were held up by the IRA and all individually executed in response to the execution of six Catholic civilians by the UVF the night before

Terrorist Activities (continued)bull Other activities included engaging in firefights with British squadrons as

they patrolled the countrysidestreets of urban areas sniper attacks on RUC or British Army patrolscheckpoints planting landmines along British foot patrol routes in rural areas planting roadside IEDs along British convoy routes and bombing ferries and buses containing on-or-off duty British soldiers

bull The notorious ldquohuman bombrdquo technique in which civilians or off-duty members of the British security forces were kidnapped and then forced to drive car bombs into British military targets ndash such as checkpoints and Army bases ndash after the PIRA had placed their familiesrsquo lives under threat

bull Inciting riots and providing Catholic youths with molotov cocktails (gasoline bombs) during such riots so as to maximize public disorder and destruction was also an almost daily IRA activity in Catholic communities in urban Northern Ireland

The INLA

Statistics

bull Suffered 33 casualtiesbull Killed 46 members of the British Security Forcesbull Killed 2 members of the Irish Security Forcesbull Killed 39 civiliansbull Killed 3 civilian political activistsbull Killed 16 members of rival Republican terror

groupsbull Killed 7 members of Loyalist terror groups

Ideology

bull Founded by Seamus Costello in 1974 as the military wing of the Irish Republican Socialist Party

bull Shared similar goals to the Provisional IRA but far more socialist in ideology INLA wanted a socialist united Irish republic and blamed class struggles for many of the problems in Northern Ireland whereas the PIRA simply wanted a united Irish republic and had little interest in class struggle or economics

bull Whereas the PIRA was almost exclusively Catholic the INLA had some Protestant members most of whom were involved for purely socialist reasons

Terrorist Activitiesbull Although far less powerful and bold than the PIRA the INLA

nevertheless presented a potent terrorist threat to the United Kingdom during the Troubles

bull Similar tactics to the IRA car bombings shooting off-duty police and soldiers dead and high-profile assassinations

bull Their most high-profile attacks included the car bomb assassination of Airey Neave one of Margaret Thatcherrsquos closest political supporters in 1979 the murder of infamous Loyalist terror leader Billy Wright (who was murdered by INLA inmates in a British political prison in 1997) and the Ballykelley Disco Bombing in 1982 in which the INLA bombed a disco-club frequented by off-duty British soldiers managing to kill 11 of them as well as 6 civilians as well as destroying the disco

Internal Feuds

bull A split in 1986 led the INLA to split into the INLA and the IPLO or Irish Peoplersquos Liberation Organization based on IPLO membersrsquo perceived lack of political motivation and heavy involvement in drug dealing and criminality

bull There were several retaliatory killings between the two groups that persisted until 1992 when the PIRA had enough of the IPLOrsquos involvement in drug dealing in Catholic areas of Belfast and on 31 October 1992 virtually destroyed the entire organization in one night with a series of raids killings and kneecappings that killed or crippled the majority of the grouprsquos members

British LoyalistsProtestants

The UDAUFF

Former UFF Member

>

Statistics

bull Suffered 89 casualtiesbull Killed 197 civiliansbull Killed 12 civilian political activistsbull Killed 37 members of rival loyalist terror

groupsbull Killed 11 members of republican terror groupsbull Killed 3 members of the British Security Forces

Ideology

bull The UDA or Ulster Defense Association and its military wing the Ulster Freedom Fighters (UFF) was a loyalist protestant terror squad that targeted PIRA and INLA members as well as general Catholic civilians in bombings and shootings throughout Northern Ireland

bull It pledged to end its campaign of violence whenever the IRA set down its arms yet should the UK government appease the IRA and grant a 32-county Irish Republic the UDA pledged to act as ldquothe IRA in reverserdquo

Terrorist Activitiesbull The UDA saw itself as a militia defending upstanding protestant loyalist

communities from dangerous and lower-class Catholics that were disrupting the status quo in Northern Ireland They pledged primarily to target IRA men but ended up killing a majority of Catholic civilians during the Troubles They were also known to intimidate and exile known Catholic families from predominately-Protestant communities in Belfast and other urban areas

bull Drive-by shootings shooting up or planting bombs in predominately-Catholic pubs and bars and jumping brutally beating andor kneecapping Catholic civilians were all frequent tactics

bull The UDA discreetly worked in collusion with the RUC and other British security agencies so as to track down and assassinate known IRA members They would also patrol Protestant neighborhoods alongside British soldiers at the height of the Troubles Many RUC police officers and prison guards were also UDA members

bull The UDA alongside many other loyalist paramilitaries benefitted from the import of several arms shipments from Lebanese arms dealers in the early 1970s including rocket launchers 200+ AK-47 Rifles 90+ handguns and over 400 grenades They also received various weapons such as the uzi submachine gun and explosive devices from arms dealers in the Soviet bloc in the 1980s

Organized Crime

bull The UDA and its members were also heavily involved in drug dealing from the street level to wholesale purchase primarily in MDMA and cannabis throughout the Troubles

bull Protection racketeering and money laundering were also common amongst the UDA in protestant communities

bull However should a member of a UDA-ran community begin stealing or dealing drugs without UDA consent he was abruptly branded as ldquoanti-socialrdquo and either killed or kneecapped

The UVF

Statistics

bull Suffered unknown number of casualtiesbull Killed 412 civiliansbull Killed 11 civilian political activistsbull Killed 21 members of republican terror groupsbull Killed 42 members of rival loyalist terror

groupsbull Killed 6 members of the Security Forces

Ideology

bull Similar to the UDAUFF the Ulster Volunteer Forcersquos primary aim was to combat Irish republicanism in Northern Ireland primarily the PIRA They wanted Northern Ireland to remain in the UK

Terrorist Activitiesbull The majority of UVF victims were Catholic civilians

many of whom were killed at random These attacks were intended to demoralize the IRA as the IRA drew most of its support from the Catholic community

bull Planting bombs in predominately-Catholic pubs or simply residential areas was a very frequent UVF tactic and in 1973 they detonated more bombs in Northern Ireland than the UDA and the PIRA combined Assassinations mass shootings booby-trap car bombs and kidnappings were also frequent UVF activities

The Shankhill Butchers

bull The ldquoShankhill Butchersrdquo were a notorious offshoot UVF group known for abducting and literally slitting the throats of Catholic civilians and rival loyalist terror groups in the late 1970s They were led by Lenny Murphy (who was eventually imprisoned and upon his release of a 4-year stint murdered by the PIRA) and killed 23 people most of whom were Catholic civilians Many experts liken the Shankhill Butchers more to a group of serial killers than to politically or even ethnically-motivated murderers

bull The Butchers were all eventually all either imprisoned killed by the PIRA or both

Weaponrybull The UVF received the majority of its weaponry in the late 1970s

from Armscor an apartheid-South Africa state-owned arms company which in defiance of various UN sanctions and embargoes sold them to the UVF

bull Weapons were thought to consist ofbull 200 Czech SA vz 58 Assault Riflesbull 90 Browning Pistolsbull 500 RGD-5 Frag Grenadesbull 30000 rounds of ammunitionbull 12 RPG-7 Rocket Launchers and 150+ Rocketsbull The UVF also began using the illegally-obtained mining explosive

Powergel in the early 1990s

Organized Crime

bull The UVF was also heavily involved in organized crime including protection racketeering and drug smugglingdealing including cannabis MDMA cocaine and amphetamines Bank robberies were also very frequent in the 1970s

Major Incidents 1969-1998

Bloody Sunday 30 January 1972

Massacre on the Bogsidebull In 1972 during a large scale but peaceful civil-rights march in the

troubled predominately Catholic neighborhood of Bogside in Derry 26 unarmed civil rights marchers were shot by members of the British Army 14 of whom were killed Five of those shot were shot in the back

bull After several inquiries into the incident there was found to have been no justifiable provocation from the protestors and no shots fired from the protestors during the march The massacre was conducted in full view of the public and the press

bull The PM David Cameron eventually issued a formal apology to the victims and victimsrsquo families of the massacre after several investigations failed to reveal any justifiable provocation for the massacre

bull The massacre sky-rocketed PIRA membership and recruitment as public perception of the British Army in Catholic communities in Northern Ireland reached an all-time low

Bloody Friday 21 July 1972

A City Under Siege

bull On 21 July 1972 the PIRA detonated 26 bombs in the space of 80 minutes in Belfast destroying banks bridges electrical substations Protestant housing tenements gasoline stations and private garages

bull Although warnings were called in at least 30 minutes prior to each bomb the amount of bombs exploding and the addition of multiple hoax warnings at the same time led to the Security Forces being unable to evacuate all the areas in time 11 people were killed and 130 were injured many of them horrifically mutilated Of those injured 77 were women or children

Dublin and Monaghan Bombings 17 May 1974

Deadliest Attack of the Troubles

bull Perpetrated by the UVF in the southern Republic of Ireland three car bombs exploded in Dublin during rush hour and another exploded in Monaghan around 90 minutes later

bull 33 civilians and a full-term unborn child were killed in the bombing while nearly 300 were injured The UVF did not claim responsibility for the bombings until 1993

bull The majority of those killed were young women although the age range of those killed ranged from 5 months old to 80 years old

Warrenpoint Ambush 27 August 1979

Roadside IEDsbull In the southern part of County Armagh Northern Ireland a predominately-

Catholic rural region and former PIRA stronghold right on the border with the southern Republic of Ireland a British troop convoy was hit with a remote-control detonated roadside 500lb truck-bomb and destroyed instantly killing 6 troops The surviving soldiers then wrongly believed they were under sniper fire from the other side of the Irish border and began firing at civilians immediately after the bombing killing 1 and injuring another

bull 32 minutes after the first bombing the IRA used its knowledge of how the British reacted to bombings to correctly predict that they would set up an incident-command point in a nearby gatehouse Unfortunately for the British there was a second 800lb fertilizer bomb planted near the gatehouse that when detonated killed 12 other soldiers who were responding to the initial bomb

bull It was the deadliest single attack on the British Army during the Troubles and a highly successful attack for the PIRA

Summer of 1981 Irish Hunger Strikes

A Defining Moment for the Republican Cause

bull Beginning on 1 March 1981 led by Bobby Sands 7 PIRA and 3 INLA inmates at the notorious ldquoMazerdquo prison began to refuse food until Margaret Thatcher PM of Great Britain at that time began to recognize terrorist prisoners as political prisoners and allowed them their ldquoFive Demandsrdquo

The Five Demands

bull The right to not wear a prison uniformbull The right to not do prison workbull The right of free association with other

prisoners and to organize in educational and recreational pursuits

bull Full restoration of remission lost through any protests towards these demands

Previous Protestsbull The Maze prison was a very high-security and low-quality prison that

housed almost all PIRA prisoners during the Troubles It was run in a very ethically questionable fashion with frequent beatings and borderline-torture techniques used on Republican prisoners and extremely poor living conditions for prisoners Many Maze prison guards were members of the UDAUVF or had strong connections with one of the two groups as well

bull Massive peaceful protests and marches by Irish republicans outside of the Maze Prison proved unsuccessful in attaining political status for republican prisoners as well as previous inmate protests in 1980 including non-fatal hunger strikes inmates refusing to wear prison uniforms and thus living in their cells naked and prisoners refusing to leave their cells to go to the bathroom until their requests had been granted (they therefore urinated and defecated in their cells and spread their excrement across their cell walls in what was known as the ldquoDirty Protestrdquo)

Dirty Protesters

Thatcherrsquos Response

bull ldquoThose terrorists will carry their determination to disrupt society to any lengths Once again we have a hunger strike in the Maze Prison in the quest for what they call lsquopolitical statusrsquo There is no such thing as political murder political bombing or political violence There is only criminal murder criminal bombing and criminal violence We will not compromise on this There will be no political statusrdquo

Ten Strikers Diebull Bobby Sands the leader of the strike was imprisoned as a PIRA member

on charges of firearm possession and in connection with the bombing of a furniture store He was the first to die after 66 days of not eating Sands was elected to a seat in Parliament whilst on Hunger Strike

bull Following Sandsrsquo death there were riots bus-burnings and attacks on the British embassy in the southern Republic of Ireland there were massive demonstrations in France and Italy a tomato was thrown as Queen Elizabeth II by demonstrators in Oslo and there were massive riots and civil disorder all over the streets of Belfast The South African ANC and (at the time) terrorist Nelson Mandela expressed their support for the PIRA and the hunger strikers (Mandela himself claimed he was directly inspired by Sands to undertake hunger strikes against the Apartheid government in South Africa) as well as the Palestine Liberation Organization a middle-eastern terror group

bull Over 100000 attended Sandsrsquo funeral

Bobby Sands

ldquoOur revenge will be the laughter of our childrenrdquo

Reaction to Sandsrsquo Death

>

Conclusion

bull The Hunger Strike was eventually called off after 10 strikers including Sands had died

bull James Prior newly installed secretary of state of Northern Ireland granted the prisoners partial concessions all of the Five Demands except for the right to not do prison work Margaret Thatcher refused to budge on political status

bull The Hunger Strikes opened a new way for the PIRA to pursue its objectives politically whereas previously it had seen violence as the only solution to the plight of Irish nationalists in Northern Ireland

1983 The Maze Prison Escape

The ldquoGreat Escaperdquo

bull Using smuggled-in guns and knives 38 PIRA prisoners who had been convicted of offenses ranging from murder to causing explosions escaped from one of the most high-security prisons in Europe They completely took over the H7 prison block and took their prison guards hostage before escaping in a food supply truck Several prison guards were shot and stabbed but only one died of a heart attack during the escape

bull Fifteen escapees were recaptured the first day with four more captured over the next two days following the breakout The remaining 19 were transported to PIRA strongholds and given the option to either rejoin the IRArsquos cause or be transported to the United States to live under a new identity

12 October 1984 Brighton Hotel Bombing

The PIRA Nearly Gets Thatcherbull Margaret Thatcher the highly controversial far-right British PM from

1979-1990 had become a tremendously hated figure amongst the Irish nationalist community in Northern Ireland following the 1981 Hunger Strikes and for her general uncompromising stand on Irish republicanism

bull PIRA man Patrick Magee stayed at the Brighton Hotel from the 14-17 September 1984 planting a 20-lb bomb under his bath

bull Thatcher was staying at the Brighton Hotel for a political conference and was still up at 254AM on 12 October when the bomb was detonated The bomb decimated her bathroom but left the bedroom and sitting room of her suite largely unscathed

bull The PIRA statement to Thatcher afterwards was ldquoToday we were unlucky But remember we only have to be lucky once You will have to be lucky alwaysrdquo

Loughgall Ambush 8 May 1987

The SAS Strikes

bull A botched attack on Loughgall Villagersquos RUC Police Base in which the PIRA drove a backhoe into the fortified base and ran away to detonate the bomb that was inside of the backhoe went wrong as the SAS the British Special Forces had prior knowledge of the attack and quickly dispatched the 8 PIRA members involved

bull Although the RUC base was wrecked and bombed there were no RUC or SAS casualties and it was the PIRArsquos greatest loss of life in a single incident during the Troubles

British Army Lynx Shootdown 20 March 1994

The PIRA Shoots Down a Helicopter

bull Using the previously mentioned Barrack-Buster homemade mortar PIRA insurgents were able to fire on a British helicopter that was in the process of landing whilst hiding behind a hay bail from around 150 yards out

bull The helicopter was hit with the mortar shell around 100 feet above the ground but the pilot was able to successfully crash-land the helicopter and escape before its propane tanks exploded There were no casualties but the attack was a major propaganda coup for the PIRA

1996 Manchester Bombing

The PIRA Destroys Manchester

bull On Saturday 15 June 1996 the PIRA sent in telephoned warnings and 90 minutes later detonated a 3300lb fertilizer-based truck bomb in the heart of Manchester City Centre the biggest bomb detonated in Great Britain during peacetime The bomb killed nobody due to previous warnings but led to 212 non-fatal injuries and essentially destroyed Manchester City Centre leaving approximately 700 million pounds ($12bn) worth of damage in its wake

Omagh Bombing 1998

Last Great Deadly Attack of the Troubles

bull Perpetrated by a Provisional IRA splinter group that was rejecting the peace process calling themselves the ldquoReal IRArdquo the 510lb fertilizer-based bomb was placed on main street in the town of Omagh Northern Ireland Warnings were called in approximately 30 minutes before the bombing but they were inaccurate and police ended up moving more civilians towards the bomb which ended up killing 29 people and causing over 300 non-fatal injuries This was the highest death toll from a single incident during the Troubles

bull It received universal outrage and was condemned even by the PIRA and its political wing Sinn Fein It spurred on the Northern Ireland peace process and the RIRA apologized and called a ceasefire several days after

The Good Friday Agreement and Northern Ireland Peace Process

Beginningsbull Following the 1981 Hunger Strikes Irish republicans began to

increasingly look towards politics rather than violence as a means of achieving their aims Sinn Fein gaelic for ldquoWe Ourselvesrdquo was a fiercely Irish Republican political party which led by the Machiavellian former PIRA leader and Maze inmate Gerry Adams began to push for a more peaceful solution to the Troubles in Northern Ireland

bull It became apparent by the late 1990s that although the PIRA was not losing a war against the British establishment it would be impossible to truly lsquowin the fightrsquo through violence and that any further terrorism would serve not to achieve any real political aim but only to prolong and continue suffering and violence in Northern Ireland and that politics was a much better way of achieving Republican aims

Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein former PIRA Belfast Brigade OC

Good Friday Agreement 1998

bull The Peace Process began in 1994 and included intermittent terrorist ceasefires and political negotiations between the major Irish republican and British unionist parties and culminated on April 10 1998 when the Good Friday Agreement was signed

PM Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern Sign the GFA

GFA Mandatesbull That Northern Ireland was to remain British until a majority of people in Northern

Ireland and the southern Republic of Ireland wanted otherwise bull The creation of an entirely new far less sectarian and religiously diverse Northern

Irish local governmentbull The decommissioning of arms from terrorist groups on both the unionist and

nationalist side of the political divide (ultimately successful all arms decommissioned by 2005)

bull Mutual respect and civil rights between Catholics and Protestants bull The reduction and eventual elimination of British troops in Northern Ireland

(ultimately successful all troops withdrawn by 2005)bull Eventual early prison release for all individuals imprisoned for terrorist offenses as

long as they were apart of a terrorist group that was decommissioning in accordance with the GFA

bull Disbandment of the RUC police service and the installation of the new Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) which was required to be at least 50 Catholic

Northern Ireland Today

Still Conflict But No Warbull Since the complete decommissioning of the arms and

disbandment of the PIRA INLA UDAUFF and UVF due to the Good Friday Agreement there is nowhere near the amount of violence in Northern Ireland or Belfast as there was 20 years ago There are no more weekly bombings and riots and no more British troops patrolling Catholic areas in armored vehicles

bull Despite this there are still occasional riots and clashes with the PSNI several times a year specifically on dates of great historical significance to the Catholic or Protestant communities and there is still a deep distrust and even hatred between many Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland although that continues to change with time

Catholic Slum of Ardoyne Belfast July 2011

Splinter Groups

bull Many former PIRA or UDA terrorists have now taken to organized crime for purely profiteering purposes but are no longer involved in substantial violence or any political-based terrorism

bull Splinter groups such as the Real IRA and Continuity IRA in Catholic communities and the Orange Volunteers and Red Hand Commandos in Protestant communities still conduct occasional violence towards Police and civilians in Northern Ireland but are all rather small poorly armed and poorly funded groups that pose nowhere near the threat that terrorist groups in the 80s and 90s did in Northern Ireland

Herersquos To A Brighter Future in Northern Ireland

Works Citedbull httpwwwbbccoukhistorytroublesbull httpcainulstacukbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiProvisional_Irish_Republican_Armybull httpenwikipediaorgwikiThe_Troublesbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiUlster_Defence_Associationbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiUlster_Volunteer_Forcebull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_National_Liberation_Armybull ldquoA Secret History of the IRArdquo by Ed Moloney ndashWW Norton amp Company Reprint 2003bull ldquoVoices From The Grave Two Menrsquos War in Irelandrdquo by Ed Moloney ndash Public Affairs 2010bull ldquoFifty Dead Men Walkingrdquo by Martin McGartland ndash John Blake 2009bull httpwwwinfopleasecomspotnorthireland1htmlbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_Civil_Warbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_War_of_Independencebull httpenwikipediaorgwiki1981_Irish_hunger_strikebull httpenwikipediaorgwikiDirectory_of_the_Northern_Ireland_Troublesbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiGood_Friday_Agreementbull httpswwwmi5govukhomethe-threatsterrorismnorthern-irelandrepublican-terrorist-groupshtmlbull httpswwwmi5govukhomethe-threatsterrorismnorthern-irelandprovisional-irish-republican-army-

pirahtmlbull httpnewsbbccoukhienglishstaticnorthern_irelandunderstandingeventshunger_strikestm

  • The Troubles
  • Brief Overview
  • 30 Years of Conflict
  • Slide 4
  • Background
  • The Irish War of Independence
  • Slide 7
  • Anglo-Irish Treaty (signed 6 December 1921)
  • Irish Civil War
  • 1922-1966 Ireland
  • The Civil Rights Movement
  • Slide 12
  • Slide 13
  • Objectives of the Civil Rights Movement
  • The 1969 Northern Ireland Riots ndashThe Troubles Begin
  • Culmination of Tension
  • No-Go Areas
  • No-Go Areas (2)
  • Early 1970sndash The Rise of the Provisional IRA
  • The IRA Split
  • Rise of the UVF and Loyalist Terror Groups
  • Beginnings
  • UVF Statement 21 May 1964
  • The Paramilitaries
  • Irish RepublicansCatholics
  • The Provisional IRA
  • IRA Statement Late 80s
  • Statistics
  • RecruitmentFunding
  • Weaponry
  • Weaponry (2)
  • Slide 32
  • Mortars and IEDs
  • EOD Officer Approaches PIRA Car Bomb
  • The Barrack Buster
  • Vigilantism
  • Slide 37
  • Slide 38
  • Policy on Informants
  • Terrorist Activities
  • Terrorist Activities (continued)
  • The INLA
  • Statistics (2)
  • Ideology
  • Terrorist Activities (2)
  • Internal Feuds
  • Slide 47
  • British LoyalistsProtestants
  • The UDAUFF
  • Former UFF Member
  • Statistics (3)
  • Ideology (2)
  • Terrorist Activities (3)
  • Slide 54
  • Organized Crime
  • The UVF
  • Statistics (4)
  • Ideology (3)
  • Terrorist Activities (4)
  • The Shankhill Butchers
  • Weaponry (3)
  • Slide 62
  • Organized Crime (2)
  • Major Incidents 1969-1998
  • Bloody Sunday 30 January 1972
  • Massacre on the Bogside
  • Bloody Friday 21 July 1972
  • A City Under Siege
  • Dublin and Monaghan Bombings 17 May 1974
  • Deadliest Attack of the Troubles
  • Warrenpoint Ambush 27 August 1979
  • Roadside IEDs
  • Summer of 1981 Irish Hunger Strikes
  • A Defining Moment for the Republican Cause
  • The Five Demands
  • Previous Protests
  • Dirty Protesters
  • Thatcherrsquos Response
  • Ten Strikers Die
  • Bobby Sands
  • Reaction to Sandsrsquo Death
  • Conclusion
  • 1983 The Maze Prison Escape
  • The ldquoGreat Escaperdquo
  • 12 October 1984 Brighton Hotel Bombing
  • The PIRA Nearly Gets Thatcher
  • Loughgall Ambush 8 May 1987
  • The SAS Strikes
  • British Army Lynx Shootdown 20 March 1994
  • The PIRA Shoots Down a Helicopter
  • 1996 Manchester Bombing
  • The PIRA Destroys Manchester
  • Omagh Bombing 1998
  • Last Great Deadly Attack of the Troubles
  • The Good Friday Agreement and Northern Ireland Peace Process
  • Beginnings (2)
  • Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein former PIRA Belfast Brigade OC
  • Good Friday Agreement 1998
  • PM Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern Sign the GFA
  • GFA Mandates
  • Northern Ireland Today
  • Still Conflict But No War
  • Catholic Slum of Ardoyne Belfast July 2011
  • Splinter Groups
  • Herersquos To A Brighter Future in Northern Ireland
  • Works Cited
Page 18: The Troubles, 1969-1998

Rise of the UVF and Loyalist Terror Groups

Beginningsbull The UVF (Ulster Volunteer Force) was formed in 1964 as a continuation

of the Ulster Volunteers that existed from 1912-1914 in Northern Ireland who intended to violently resist any attempts by the British government to release Ulster from the Union

bull It was reformed in rsquo64 by former British soldier Gusty Spence after he and his men burned to the ground a Catholic-owned pub on the loyalist Shankhill Road

bull The Ulster unionists feared that with the ongoing civil rights movement a potential return of the IRA in Northern Ireland could be possible The UVF and other loyalist paramilitary groups such as the UDA and UFF were thus created and seen as vigilantes and defenders of Protestant communities However most of their targets throughout the 30-year Troubles were simply innocent Catholic civilians

UVF Statement 21 May 1964

bull ldquoFrom this day we declare war against the Irish Republican Army and its splinter groups Known IRA men will be executed mercilessly and without hesitation Less extreme measures will be taken against anyone sheltering or helping them but if they persist in giving them aid then more extreme methods will be adopted we solemnly warn the authorities to make no more speeches of appeasement We are heavily armed Protestants dedicated to this causerdquo

The Paramilitaries

Irish RepublicansCatholics

The Provisional IRA

IRA Statement Late 80s

>

Statistics

bull Suffered 293 Casualtiesbull Over 10000 members imprisoned on various charges

throughout the conflictbull Killed 656 members of the British Armed Forcesbull Killed 272 Members of the Royal Ulster Constabulary

(RUC) Police Forcebull Killed 44 members of loyalistprotestant terror groupsbull Killed between 620-650 civiliansbull Killed over 1500 people

RecruitmentFundingbull IRA recruitment in Catholic neighborhoods was similar to the phenomenon

of gang membership in the inner-city United States Young Catholics typically joined to create a sense of belonging to seem ldquohardrdquo or look ldquocoolrdquo to feel protected from the brutality of the RUC during the Troubles or to help defend their communities IRA members were not asked to join but volunteered

bull IRA lsquofunds-raisingrsquo activities included collecting protection money from Catholic businesses (a ldquorevolutionary taxrdquo) robbing banks kidnapping citizens for ransom and cigarette and gasoline smuggling across the Irish border (manipulating the differing tax prices on both sides of the border and selling fuel and cigarettes illicitly) Although the Provisional IRA has officially disbanded and no longer engages in terrorism there is substantial evidence that extortion rackets in poor Catholic neighborhoods and contraband smuggling operations along the border still exist in Northern Ireland and are run by former IRA men solely for profiteering purposes

Weaponry

bull The Provisional IRA obtained a significant amount of arms from both Irish-American supporters in the northeastern United States (including members of notorious gangster Whitey Bulgerrsquos Irish Mob in 1970s-80s Boston) and from the Libyan government under Muammar Gadaffi

bull Gadaffi took over in Libya in 1969 and initially armed the IRA seeing them as comrades-in-arms fighting British imperialism Connections re-emerged in 1986 after the Thatcher Administrationrsquos support of the US bombings of Libya that killed Gadaffirsquos adopted daughter

Weaponrybull When the IRA disarmed as part of the Good Friday Agreement in

1998 (more on that later) they released the following to the British Armed Forces

bull 1000 Rifles (AK-47s AR-15s etc)bull 3 Tons of Semtex (a general-purpose plastic explosive)bull 20-30 Heavy Machine Gunsbull 7 Surface-to-Air Missilesbull 7 Flamethrowersbull 1200 Detonatorsbull 20 RPGrsquosbull 100 Handgunsbull 100+ Hand Grenades

Mortars and IEDsbull The PIRA was incredibly proficient at bomb-making and made

extensive use of Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) during their 30 year campaign

bull IEDs were typically constructed with chemical mixes of fertilizer gasoline and other home-made components Libyan Semtex was also used in several heavy-duty bombs Nails and gunpowder were typically implemented in pipe bombs made out of metal pipes Most IEDs had built in countermeasures such as the mercury tilt switch which would cause the bomb to explode if moved at all should a British EOD officer attempt to dismantle it

bull The PIRA developed the ldquoBarrack Busterrdquo mortar in the late lsquo70s or a homemade mortar made up of common household materials that was used to attack several Army bases from afar and even Prime Minister Margaret Thatcherrsquos househellip 10 Downing Street in a 1991 attack that destroyed the Prime Ministerrsquos rear garden (the mortar was fired out the back of a nearby van)

EOD Officer Approaches PIRA Car Bomb

The Barrack Buster

>

Vigilantismbull The RUC was not trusted in Catholic neighborhoods throughout the

Troubles and did not regularly patrol or even enter them in urban areas of Northern Ireland Thus when there was a community drug dealer car thief burglar rapist or pedophile the IRA took it upon themselves to issue brutal street justice to those involved

bull Occasionally offering warnings for lesser offences such as petty thievery or drug dealing if the IRA had enough of a certain member of the community they perceived as anti-social he or she was usually jumped brutally beaten andor lsquokneecappedrsquo ndash one of the IRArsquos most notorious methods ndash in which the victim was pinned down and shot through the kneecaps with a firearm or occasionally had their kneecaps drilled through with power-drills Other methods included releasing starving Rottweilerrsquos on the offender dropping cinderblocks on the offenderrsquos hands or even tarring and feathering the offender The IRArsquos process in determining an individualrsquos guilt was never open to scrutiny

bull If the offender persisted after an IRA punishment he was then given a notice by the IRA to leave the country as soon as possiblehellip referred to as being ldquoput outrdquo of the community If the offender still did not leave he was murdered

Policy on Informantsbull In an effort to stamp out collusion with the British forces and informants on the

IRA the IRA was responsible for torturing and killing several accused Catholic civilians throughout the conflict

bull Investigations into collusion infiltration and informants were carried out by the Internal Security Unit of the IRA colloquially known as the ldquoNutting Squadrdquo

bull The ISU would carry out debriefings of IRA prisoners upon their release from British detention so as to discover whether or not they had lsquocrackedrsquo and released information to British interrogators

bull Typical ISU torture techniques on those accused of informing included drowning genitalnipple mutilation electrocution with livewires pouring kerosene on the accusedrsquos legs before setting fire to them and branding with hot irons Informants were always killed afterwards with a bullet through the back of the head

bull Of the 18 ldquoDisappearedrdquo accused informants that were abducted and executed by the IRA during the Troubles only 10 bodies have been found

bull Martin McGartland was an IRA informant who was estimated to have saved 50 lives in the conflict before he was discovered and abducted by the ISU He escaped and lives today in seclusion The film ldquo50 Dead Men Walkingrdquo is based on his exploits and is an excellent realistic non-romanticized take on the Troubles in Northern Ireland

Terrorist Activitiesbull Common tactics included breaking into the homes of off-duty RUC police

officers and murdering them in their beds or setting booby-trap bombs underneath RUC police officersrsquo cars and unionist politiciansrsquo cars so that they would blow up as the engine was started RUC men were typically targeted when they were off-duty and many were shot dead in front of their families The PIRA would also impersonate innocent Catholic civilians call the police to report an emergency and ambush the police from hidden positions when they arrived at the stated address (another reason the RUC was hesitant to go into Catholic neighborhoods during this period)

bull Most notorious for their bombings they would typically park car bombs in predominately Protestant communities call in the bomb threat so that the area would be evacuated and an EOD squad would arrive to dismantle it the bomb would then be detonated with hopes of killing an EOD officer and destroying Protestant housing tenements

bull The PIRA rarely intentionally targeted civilians especially in the 80srsquo and 90srsquo but were involved in the bombings of several Protestant-owned pubs during the 1970s in response to loyalist terrorist groups bombing Catholic-owned pubs They also carried out the Kingsmill massacre in 1976 in which eleven Protestant workmen that were traveling on a minibus were held up by the IRA and all individually executed in response to the execution of six Catholic civilians by the UVF the night before

Terrorist Activities (continued)bull Other activities included engaging in firefights with British squadrons as

they patrolled the countrysidestreets of urban areas sniper attacks on RUC or British Army patrolscheckpoints planting landmines along British foot patrol routes in rural areas planting roadside IEDs along British convoy routes and bombing ferries and buses containing on-or-off duty British soldiers

bull The notorious ldquohuman bombrdquo technique in which civilians or off-duty members of the British security forces were kidnapped and then forced to drive car bombs into British military targets ndash such as checkpoints and Army bases ndash after the PIRA had placed their familiesrsquo lives under threat

bull Inciting riots and providing Catholic youths with molotov cocktails (gasoline bombs) during such riots so as to maximize public disorder and destruction was also an almost daily IRA activity in Catholic communities in urban Northern Ireland

The INLA

Statistics

bull Suffered 33 casualtiesbull Killed 46 members of the British Security Forcesbull Killed 2 members of the Irish Security Forcesbull Killed 39 civiliansbull Killed 3 civilian political activistsbull Killed 16 members of rival Republican terror

groupsbull Killed 7 members of Loyalist terror groups

Ideology

bull Founded by Seamus Costello in 1974 as the military wing of the Irish Republican Socialist Party

bull Shared similar goals to the Provisional IRA but far more socialist in ideology INLA wanted a socialist united Irish republic and blamed class struggles for many of the problems in Northern Ireland whereas the PIRA simply wanted a united Irish republic and had little interest in class struggle or economics

bull Whereas the PIRA was almost exclusively Catholic the INLA had some Protestant members most of whom were involved for purely socialist reasons

Terrorist Activitiesbull Although far less powerful and bold than the PIRA the INLA

nevertheless presented a potent terrorist threat to the United Kingdom during the Troubles

bull Similar tactics to the IRA car bombings shooting off-duty police and soldiers dead and high-profile assassinations

bull Their most high-profile attacks included the car bomb assassination of Airey Neave one of Margaret Thatcherrsquos closest political supporters in 1979 the murder of infamous Loyalist terror leader Billy Wright (who was murdered by INLA inmates in a British political prison in 1997) and the Ballykelley Disco Bombing in 1982 in which the INLA bombed a disco-club frequented by off-duty British soldiers managing to kill 11 of them as well as 6 civilians as well as destroying the disco

Internal Feuds

bull A split in 1986 led the INLA to split into the INLA and the IPLO or Irish Peoplersquos Liberation Organization based on IPLO membersrsquo perceived lack of political motivation and heavy involvement in drug dealing and criminality

bull There were several retaliatory killings between the two groups that persisted until 1992 when the PIRA had enough of the IPLOrsquos involvement in drug dealing in Catholic areas of Belfast and on 31 October 1992 virtually destroyed the entire organization in one night with a series of raids killings and kneecappings that killed or crippled the majority of the grouprsquos members

British LoyalistsProtestants

The UDAUFF

Former UFF Member

>

Statistics

bull Suffered 89 casualtiesbull Killed 197 civiliansbull Killed 12 civilian political activistsbull Killed 37 members of rival loyalist terror

groupsbull Killed 11 members of republican terror groupsbull Killed 3 members of the British Security Forces

Ideology

bull The UDA or Ulster Defense Association and its military wing the Ulster Freedom Fighters (UFF) was a loyalist protestant terror squad that targeted PIRA and INLA members as well as general Catholic civilians in bombings and shootings throughout Northern Ireland

bull It pledged to end its campaign of violence whenever the IRA set down its arms yet should the UK government appease the IRA and grant a 32-county Irish Republic the UDA pledged to act as ldquothe IRA in reverserdquo

Terrorist Activitiesbull The UDA saw itself as a militia defending upstanding protestant loyalist

communities from dangerous and lower-class Catholics that were disrupting the status quo in Northern Ireland They pledged primarily to target IRA men but ended up killing a majority of Catholic civilians during the Troubles They were also known to intimidate and exile known Catholic families from predominately-Protestant communities in Belfast and other urban areas

bull Drive-by shootings shooting up or planting bombs in predominately-Catholic pubs and bars and jumping brutally beating andor kneecapping Catholic civilians were all frequent tactics

bull The UDA discreetly worked in collusion with the RUC and other British security agencies so as to track down and assassinate known IRA members They would also patrol Protestant neighborhoods alongside British soldiers at the height of the Troubles Many RUC police officers and prison guards were also UDA members

bull The UDA alongside many other loyalist paramilitaries benefitted from the import of several arms shipments from Lebanese arms dealers in the early 1970s including rocket launchers 200+ AK-47 Rifles 90+ handguns and over 400 grenades They also received various weapons such as the uzi submachine gun and explosive devices from arms dealers in the Soviet bloc in the 1980s

Organized Crime

bull The UDA and its members were also heavily involved in drug dealing from the street level to wholesale purchase primarily in MDMA and cannabis throughout the Troubles

bull Protection racketeering and money laundering were also common amongst the UDA in protestant communities

bull However should a member of a UDA-ran community begin stealing or dealing drugs without UDA consent he was abruptly branded as ldquoanti-socialrdquo and either killed or kneecapped

The UVF

Statistics

bull Suffered unknown number of casualtiesbull Killed 412 civiliansbull Killed 11 civilian political activistsbull Killed 21 members of republican terror groupsbull Killed 42 members of rival loyalist terror

groupsbull Killed 6 members of the Security Forces

Ideology

bull Similar to the UDAUFF the Ulster Volunteer Forcersquos primary aim was to combat Irish republicanism in Northern Ireland primarily the PIRA They wanted Northern Ireland to remain in the UK

Terrorist Activitiesbull The majority of UVF victims were Catholic civilians

many of whom were killed at random These attacks were intended to demoralize the IRA as the IRA drew most of its support from the Catholic community

bull Planting bombs in predominately-Catholic pubs or simply residential areas was a very frequent UVF tactic and in 1973 they detonated more bombs in Northern Ireland than the UDA and the PIRA combined Assassinations mass shootings booby-trap car bombs and kidnappings were also frequent UVF activities

The Shankhill Butchers

bull The ldquoShankhill Butchersrdquo were a notorious offshoot UVF group known for abducting and literally slitting the throats of Catholic civilians and rival loyalist terror groups in the late 1970s They were led by Lenny Murphy (who was eventually imprisoned and upon his release of a 4-year stint murdered by the PIRA) and killed 23 people most of whom were Catholic civilians Many experts liken the Shankhill Butchers more to a group of serial killers than to politically or even ethnically-motivated murderers

bull The Butchers were all eventually all either imprisoned killed by the PIRA or both

Weaponrybull The UVF received the majority of its weaponry in the late 1970s

from Armscor an apartheid-South Africa state-owned arms company which in defiance of various UN sanctions and embargoes sold them to the UVF

bull Weapons were thought to consist ofbull 200 Czech SA vz 58 Assault Riflesbull 90 Browning Pistolsbull 500 RGD-5 Frag Grenadesbull 30000 rounds of ammunitionbull 12 RPG-7 Rocket Launchers and 150+ Rocketsbull The UVF also began using the illegally-obtained mining explosive

Powergel in the early 1990s

Organized Crime

bull The UVF was also heavily involved in organized crime including protection racketeering and drug smugglingdealing including cannabis MDMA cocaine and amphetamines Bank robberies were also very frequent in the 1970s

Major Incidents 1969-1998

Bloody Sunday 30 January 1972

Massacre on the Bogsidebull In 1972 during a large scale but peaceful civil-rights march in the

troubled predominately Catholic neighborhood of Bogside in Derry 26 unarmed civil rights marchers were shot by members of the British Army 14 of whom were killed Five of those shot were shot in the back

bull After several inquiries into the incident there was found to have been no justifiable provocation from the protestors and no shots fired from the protestors during the march The massacre was conducted in full view of the public and the press

bull The PM David Cameron eventually issued a formal apology to the victims and victimsrsquo families of the massacre after several investigations failed to reveal any justifiable provocation for the massacre

bull The massacre sky-rocketed PIRA membership and recruitment as public perception of the British Army in Catholic communities in Northern Ireland reached an all-time low

Bloody Friday 21 July 1972

A City Under Siege

bull On 21 July 1972 the PIRA detonated 26 bombs in the space of 80 minutes in Belfast destroying banks bridges electrical substations Protestant housing tenements gasoline stations and private garages

bull Although warnings were called in at least 30 minutes prior to each bomb the amount of bombs exploding and the addition of multiple hoax warnings at the same time led to the Security Forces being unable to evacuate all the areas in time 11 people were killed and 130 were injured many of them horrifically mutilated Of those injured 77 were women or children

Dublin and Monaghan Bombings 17 May 1974

Deadliest Attack of the Troubles

bull Perpetrated by the UVF in the southern Republic of Ireland three car bombs exploded in Dublin during rush hour and another exploded in Monaghan around 90 minutes later

bull 33 civilians and a full-term unborn child were killed in the bombing while nearly 300 were injured The UVF did not claim responsibility for the bombings until 1993

bull The majority of those killed were young women although the age range of those killed ranged from 5 months old to 80 years old

Warrenpoint Ambush 27 August 1979

Roadside IEDsbull In the southern part of County Armagh Northern Ireland a predominately-

Catholic rural region and former PIRA stronghold right on the border with the southern Republic of Ireland a British troop convoy was hit with a remote-control detonated roadside 500lb truck-bomb and destroyed instantly killing 6 troops The surviving soldiers then wrongly believed they were under sniper fire from the other side of the Irish border and began firing at civilians immediately after the bombing killing 1 and injuring another

bull 32 minutes after the first bombing the IRA used its knowledge of how the British reacted to bombings to correctly predict that they would set up an incident-command point in a nearby gatehouse Unfortunately for the British there was a second 800lb fertilizer bomb planted near the gatehouse that when detonated killed 12 other soldiers who were responding to the initial bomb

bull It was the deadliest single attack on the British Army during the Troubles and a highly successful attack for the PIRA

Summer of 1981 Irish Hunger Strikes

A Defining Moment for the Republican Cause

bull Beginning on 1 March 1981 led by Bobby Sands 7 PIRA and 3 INLA inmates at the notorious ldquoMazerdquo prison began to refuse food until Margaret Thatcher PM of Great Britain at that time began to recognize terrorist prisoners as political prisoners and allowed them their ldquoFive Demandsrdquo

The Five Demands

bull The right to not wear a prison uniformbull The right to not do prison workbull The right of free association with other

prisoners and to organize in educational and recreational pursuits

bull Full restoration of remission lost through any protests towards these demands

Previous Protestsbull The Maze prison was a very high-security and low-quality prison that

housed almost all PIRA prisoners during the Troubles It was run in a very ethically questionable fashion with frequent beatings and borderline-torture techniques used on Republican prisoners and extremely poor living conditions for prisoners Many Maze prison guards were members of the UDAUVF or had strong connections with one of the two groups as well

bull Massive peaceful protests and marches by Irish republicans outside of the Maze Prison proved unsuccessful in attaining political status for republican prisoners as well as previous inmate protests in 1980 including non-fatal hunger strikes inmates refusing to wear prison uniforms and thus living in their cells naked and prisoners refusing to leave their cells to go to the bathroom until their requests had been granted (they therefore urinated and defecated in their cells and spread their excrement across their cell walls in what was known as the ldquoDirty Protestrdquo)

Dirty Protesters

Thatcherrsquos Response

bull ldquoThose terrorists will carry their determination to disrupt society to any lengths Once again we have a hunger strike in the Maze Prison in the quest for what they call lsquopolitical statusrsquo There is no such thing as political murder political bombing or political violence There is only criminal murder criminal bombing and criminal violence We will not compromise on this There will be no political statusrdquo

Ten Strikers Diebull Bobby Sands the leader of the strike was imprisoned as a PIRA member

on charges of firearm possession and in connection with the bombing of a furniture store He was the first to die after 66 days of not eating Sands was elected to a seat in Parliament whilst on Hunger Strike

bull Following Sandsrsquo death there were riots bus-burnings and attacks on the British embassy in the southern Republic of Ireland there were massive demonstrations in France and Italy a tomato was thrown as Queen Elizabeth II by demonstrators in Oslo and there were massive riots and civil disorder all over the streets of Belfast The South African ANC and (at the time) terrorist Nelson Mandela expressed their support for the PIRA and the hunger strikers (Mandela himself claimed he was directly inspired by Sands to undertake hunger strikes against the Apartheid government in South Africa) as well as the Palestine Liberation Organization a middle-eastern terror group

bull Over 100000 attended Sandsrsquo funeral

Bobby Sands

ldquoOur revenge will be the laughter of our childrenrdquo

Reaction to Sandsrsquo Death

>

Conclusion

bull The Hunger Strike was eventually called off after 10 strikers including Sands had died

bull James Prior newly installed secretary of state of Northern Ireland granted the prisoners partial concessions all of the Five Demands except for the right to not do prison work Margaret Thatcher refused to budge on political status

bull The Hunger Strikes opened a new way for the PIRA to pursue its objectives politically whereas previously it had seen violence as the only solution to the plight of Irish nationalists in Northern Ireland

1983 The Maze Prison Escape

The ldquoGreat Escaperdquo

bull Using smuggled-in guns and knives 38 PIRA prisoners who had been convicted of offenses ranging from murder to causing explosions escaped from one of the most high-security prisons in Europe They completely took over the H7 prison block and took their prison guards hostage before escaping in a food supply truck Several prison guards were shot and stabbed but only one died of a heart attack during the escape

bull Fifteen escapees were recaptured the first day with four more captured over the next two days following the breakout The remaining 19 were transported to PIRA strongholds and given the option to either rejoin the IRArsquos cause or be transported to the United States to live under a new identity

12 October 1984 Brighton Hotel Bombing

The PIRA Nearly Gets Thatcherbull Margaret Thatcher the highly controversial far-right British PM from

1979-1990 had become a tremendously hated figure amongst the Irish nationalist community in Northern Ireland following the 1981 Hunger Strikes and for her general uncompromising stand on Irish republicanism

bull PIRA man Patrick Magee stayed at the Brighton Hotel from the 14-17 September 1984 planting a 20-lb bomb under his bath

bull Thatcher was staying at the Brighton Hotel for a political conference and was still up at 254AM on 12 October when the bomb was detonated The bomb decimated her bathroom but left the bedroom and sitting room of her suite largely unscathed

bull The PIRA statement to Thatcher afterwards was ldquoToday we were unlucky But remember we only have to be lucky once You will have to be lucky alwaysrdquo

Loughgall Ambush 8 May 1987

The SAS Strikes

bull A botched attack on Loughgall Villagersquos RUC Police Base in which the PIRA drove a backhoe into the fortified base and ran away to detonate the bomb that was inside of the backhoe went wrong as the SAS the British Special Forces had prior knowledge of the attack and quickly dispatched the 8 PIRA members involved

bull Although the RUC base was wrecked and bombed there were no RUC or SAS casualties and it was the PIRArsquos greatest loss of life in a single incident during the Troubles

British Army Lynx Shootdown 20 March 1994

The PIRA Shoots Down a Helicopter

bull Using the previously mentioned Barrack-Buster homemade mortar PIRA insurgents were able to fire on a British helicopter that was in the process of landing whilst hiding behind a hay bail from around 150 yards out

bull The helicopter was hit with the mortar shell around 100 feet above the ground but the pilot was able to successfully crash-land the helicopter and escape before its propane tanks exploded There were no casualties but the attack was a major propaganda coup for the PIRA

1996 Manchester Bombing

The PIRA Destroys Manchester

bull On Saturday 15 June 1996 the PIRA sent in telephoned warnings and 90 minutes later detonated a 3300lb fertilizer-based truck bomb in the heart of Manchester City Centre the biggest bomb detonated in Great Britain during peacetime The bomb killed nobody due to previous warnings but led to 212 non-fatal injuries and essentially destroyed Manchester City Centre leaving approximately 700 million pounds ($12bn) worth of damage in its wake

Omagh Bombing 1998

Last Great Deadly Attack of the Troubles

bull Perpetrated by a Provisional IRA splinter group that was rejecting the peace process calling themselves the ldquoReal IRArdquo the 510lb fertilizer-based bomb was placed on main street in the town of Omagh Northern Ireland Warnings were called in approximately 30 minutes before the bombing but they were inaccurate and police ended up moving more civilians towards the bomb which ended up killing 29 people and causing over 300 non-fatal injuries This was the highest death toll from a single incident during the Troubles

bull It received universal outrage and was condemned even by the PIRA and its political wing Sinn Fein It spurred on the Northern Ireland peace process and the RIRA apologized and called a ceasefire several days after

The Good Friday Agreement and Northern Ireland Peace Process

Beginningsbull Following the 1981 Hunger Strikes Irish republicans began to

increasingly look towards politics rather than violence as a means of achieving their aims Sinn Fein gaelic for ldquoWe Ourselvesrdquo was a fiercely Irish Republican political party which led by the Machiavellian former PIRA leader and Maze inmate Gerry Adams began to push for a more peaceful solution to the Troubles in Northern Ireland

bull It became apparent by the late 1990s that although the PIRA was not losing a war against the British establishment it would be impossible to truly lsquowin the fightrsquo through violence and that any further terrorism would serve not to achieve any real political aim but only to prolong and continue suffering and violence in Northern Ireland and that politics was a much better way of achieving Republican aims

Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein former PIRA Belfast Brigade OC

Good Friday Agreement 1998

bull The Peace Process began in 1994 and included intermittent terrorist ceasefires and political negotiations between the major Irish republican and British unionist parties and culminated on April 10 1998 when the Good Friday Agreement was signed

PM Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern Sign the GFA

GFA Mandatesbull That Northern Ireland was to remain British until a majority of people in Northern

Ireland and the southern Republic of Ireland wanted otherwise bull The creation of an entirely new far less sectarian and religiously diverse Northern

Irish local governmentbull The decommissioning of arms from terrorist groups on both the unionist and

nationalist side of the political divide (ultimately successful all arms decommissioned by 2005)

bull Mutual respect and civil rights between Catholics and Protestants bull The reduction and eventual elimination of British troops in Northern Ireland

(ultimately successful all troops withdrawn by 2005)bull Eventual early prison release for all individuals imprisoned for terrorist offenses as

long as they were apart of a terrorist group that was decommissioning in accordance with the GFA

bull Disbandment of the RUC police service and the installation of the new Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) which was required to be at least 50 Catholic

Northern Ireland Today

Still Conflict But No Warbull Since the complete decommissioning of the arms and

disbandment of the PIRA INLA UDAUFF and UVF due to the Good Friday Agreement there is nowhere near the amount of violence in Northern Ireland or Belfast as there was 20 years ago There are no more weekly bombings and riots and no more British troops patrolling Catholic areas in armored vehicles

bull Despite this there are still occasional riots and clashes with the PSNI several times a year specifically on dates of great historical significance to the Catholic or Protestant communities and there is still a deep distrust and even hatred between many Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland although that continues to change with time

Catholic Slum of Ardoyne Belfast July 2011

Splinter Groups

bull Many former PIRA or UDA terrorists have now taken to organized crime for purely profiteering purposes but are no longer involved in substantial violence or any political-based terrorism

bull Splinter groups such as the Real IRA and Continuity IRA in Catholic communities and the Orange Volunteers and Red Hand Commandos in Protestant communities still conduct occasional violence towards Police and civilians in Northern Ireland but are all rather small poorly armed and poorly funded groups that pose nowhere near the threat that terrorist groups in the 80s and 90s did in Northern Ireland

Herersquos To A Brighter Future in Northern Ireland

Works Citedbull httpwwwbbccoukhistorytroublesbull httpcainulstacukbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiProvisional_Irish_Republican_Armybull httpenwikipediaorgwikiThe_Troublesbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiUlster_Defence_Associationbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiUlster_Volunteer_Forcebull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_National_Liberation_Armybull ldquoA Secret History of the IRArdquo by Ed Moloney ndashWW Norton amp Company Reprint 2003bull ldquoVoices From The Grave Two Menrsquos War in Irelandrdquo by Ed Moloney ndash Public Affairs 2010bull ldquoFifty Dead Men Walkingrdquo by Martin McGartland ndash John Blake 2009bull httpwwwinfopleasecomspotnorthireland1htmlbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_Civil_Warbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_War_of_Independencebull httpenwikipediaorgwiki1981_Irish_hunger_strikebull httpenwikipediaorgwikiDirectory_of_the_Northern_Ireland_Troublesbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiGood_Friday_Agreementbull httpswwwmi5govukhomethe-threatsterrorismnorthern-irelandrepublican-terrorist-groupshtmlbull httpswwwmi5govukhomethe-threatsterrorismnorthern-irelandprovisional-irish-republican-army-

pirahtmlbull httpnewsbbccoukhienglishstaticnorthern_irelandunderstandingeventshunger_strikestm

  • The Troubles
  • Brief Overview
  • 30 Years of Conflict
  • Slide 4
  • Background
  • The Irish War of Independence
  • Slide 7
  • Anglo-Irish Treaty (signed 6 December 1921)
  • Irish Civil War
  • 1922-1966 Ireland
  • The Civil Rights Movement
  • Slide 12
  • Slide 13
  • Objectives of the Civil Rights Movement
  • The 1969 Northern Ireland Riots ndashThe Troubles Begin
  • Culmination of Tension
  • No-Go Areas
  • No-Go Areas (2)
  • Early 1970sndash The Rise of the Provisional IRA
  • The IRA Split
  • Rise of the UVF and Loyalist Terror Groups
  • Beginnings
  • UVF Statement 21 May 1964
  • The Paramilitaries
  • Irish RepublicansCatholics
  • The Provisional IRA
  • IRA Statement Late 80s
  • Statistics
  • RecruitmentFunding
  • Weaponry
  • Weaponry (2)
  • Slide 32
  • Mortars and IEDs
  • EOD Officer Approaches PIRA Car Bomb
  • The Barrack Buster
  • Vigilantism
  • Slide 37
  • Slide 38
  • Policy on Informants
  • Terrorist Activities
  • Terrorist Activities (continued)
  • The INLA
  • Statistics (2)
  • Ideology
  • Terrorist Activities (2)
  • Internal Feuds
  • Slide 47
  • British LoyalistsProtestants
  • The UDAUFF
  • Former UFF Member
  • Statistics (3)
  • Ideology (2)
  • Terrorist Activities (3)
  • Slide 54
  • Organized Crime
  • The UVF
  • Statistics (4)
  • Ideology (3)
  • Terrorist Activities (4)
  • The Shankhill Butchers
  • Weaponry (3)
  • Slide 62
  • Organized Crime (2)
  • Major Incidents 1969-1998
  • Bloody Sunday 30 January 1972
  • Massacre on the Bogside
  • Bloody Friday 21 July 1972
  • A City Under Siege
  • Dublin and Monaghan Bombings 17 May 1974
  • Deadliest Attack of the Troubles
  • Warrenpoint Ambush 27 August 1979
  • Roadside IEDs
  • Summer of 1981 Irish Hunger Strikes
  • A Defining Moment for the Republican Cause
  • The Five Demands
  • Previous Protests
  • Dirty Protesters
  • Thatcherrsquos Response
  • Ten Strikers Die
  • Bobby Sands
  • Reaction to Sandsrsquo Death
  • Conclusion
  • 1983 The Maze Prison Escape
  • The ldquoGreat Escaperdquo
  • 12 October 1984 Brighton Hotel Bombing
  • The PIRA Nearly Gets Thatcher
  • Loughgall Ambush 8 May 1987
  • The SAS Strikes
  • British Army Lynx Shootdown 20 March 1994
  • The PIRA Shoots Down a Helicopter
  • 1996 Manchester Bombing
  • The PIRA Destroys Manchester
  • Omagh Bombing 1998
  • Last Great Deadly Attack of the Troubles
  • The Good Friday Agreement and Northern Ireland Peace Process
  • Beginnings (2)
  • Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein former PIRA Belfast Brigade OC
  • Good Friday Agreement 1998
  • PM Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern Sign the GFA
  • GFA Mandates
  • Northern Ireland Today
  • Still Conflict But No War
  • Catholic Slum of Ardoyne Belfast July 2011
  • Splinter Groups
  • Herersquos To A Brighter Future in Northern Ireland
  • Works Cited
Page 19: The Troubles, 1969-1998

Beginningsbull The UVF (Ulster Volunteer Force) was formed in 1964 as a continuation

of the Ulster Volunteers that existed from 1912-1914 in Northern Ireland who intended to violently resist any attempts by the British government to release Ulster from the Union

bull It was reformed in rsquo64 by former British soldier Gusty Spence after he and his men burned to the ground a Catholic-owned pub on the loyalist Shankhill Road

bull The Ulster unionists feared that with the ongoing civil rights movement a potential return of the IRA in Northern Ireland could be possible The UVF and other loyalist paramilitary groups such as the UDA and UFF were thus created and seen as vigilantes and defenders of Protestant communities However most of their targets throughout the 30-year Troubles were simply innocent Catholic civilians

UVF Statement 21 May 1964

bull ldquoFrom this day we declare war against the Irish Republican Army and its splinter groups Known IRA men will be executed mercilessly and without hesitation Less extreme measures will be taken against anyone sheltering or helping them but if they persist in giving them aid then more extreme methods will be adopted we solemnly warn the authorities to make no more speeches of appeasement We are heavily armed Protestants dedicated to this causerdquo

The Paramilitaries

Irish RepublicansCatholics

The Provisional IRA

IRA Statement Late 80s

>

Statistics

bull Suffered 293 Casualtiesbull Over 10000 members imprisoned on various charges

throughout the conflictbull Killed 656 members of the British Armed Forcesbull Killed 272 Members of the Royal Ulster Constabulary

(RUC) Police Forcebull Killed 44 members of loyalistprotestant terror groupsbull Killed between 620-650 civiliansbull Killed over 1500 people

RecruitmentFundingbull IRA recruitment in Catholic neighborhoods was similar to the phenomenon

of gang membership in the inner-city United States Young Catholics typically joined to create a sense of belonging to seem ldquohardrdquo or look ldquocoolrdquo to feel protected from the brutality of the RUC during the Troubles or to help defend their communities IRA members were not asked to join but volunteered

bull IRA lsquofunds-raisingrsquo activities included collecting protection money from Catholic businesses (a ldquorevolutionary taxrdquo) robbing banks kidnapping citizens for ransom and cigarette and gasoline smuggling across the Irish border (manipulating the differing tax prices on both sides of the border and selling fuel and cigarettes illicitly) Although the Provisional IRA has officially disbanded and no longer engages in terrorism there is substantial evidence that extortion rackets in poor Catholic neighborhoods and contraband smuggling operations along the border still exist in Northern Ireland and are run by former IRA men solely for profiteering purposes

Weaponry

bull The Provisional IRA obtained a significant amount of arms from both Irish-American supporters in the northeastern United States (including members of notorious gangster Whitey Bulgerrsquos Irish Mob in 1970s-80s Boston) and from the Libyan government under Muammar Gadaffi

bull Gadaffi took over in Libya in 1969 and initially armed the IRA seeing them as comrades-in-arms fighting British imperialism Connections re-emerged in 1986 after the Thatcher Administrationrsquos support of the US bombings of Libya that killed Gadaffirsquos adopted daughter

Weaponrybull When the IRA disarmed as part of the Good Friday Agreement in

1998 (more on that later) they released the following to the British Armed Forces

bull 1000 Rifles (AK-47s AR-15s etc)bull 3 Tons of Semtex (a general-purpose plastic explosive)bull 20-30 Heavy Machine Gunsbull 7 Surface-to-Air Missilesbull 7 Flamethrowersbull 1200 Detonatorsbull 20 RPGrsquosbull 100 Handgunsbull 100+ Hand Grenades

Mortars and IEDsbull The PIRA was incredibly proficient at bomb-making and made

extensive use of Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) during their 30 year campaign

bull IEDs were typically constructed with chemical mixes of fertilizer gasoline and other home-made components Libyan Semtex was also used in several heavy-duty bombs Nails and gunpowder were typically implemented in pipe bombs made out of metal pipes Most IEDs had built in countermeasures such as the mercury tilt switch which would cause the bomb to explode if moved at all should a British EOD officer attempt to dismantle it

bull The PIRA developed the ldquoBarrack Busterrdquo mortar in the late lsquo70s or a homemade mortar made up of common household materials that was used to attack several Army bases from afar and even Prime Minister Margaret Thatcherrsquos househellip 10 Downing Street in a 1991 attack that destroyed the Prime Ministerrsquos rear garden (the mortar was fired out the back of a nearby van)

EOD Officer Approaches PIRA Car Bomb

The Barrack Buster

>

Vigilantismbull The RUC was not trusted in Catholic neighborhoods throughout the

Troubles and did not regularly patrol or even enter them in urban areas of Northern Ireland Thus when there was a community drug dealer car thief burglar rapist or pedophile the IRA took it upon themselves to issue brutal street justice to those involved

bull Occasionally offering warnings for lesser offences such as petty thievery or drug dealing if the IRA had enough of a certain member of the community they perceived as anti-social he or she was usually jumped brutally beaten andor lsquokneecappedrsquo ndash one of the IRArsquos most notorious methods ndash in which the victim was pinned down and shot through the kneecaps with a firearm or occasionally had their kneecaps drilled through with power-drills Other methods included releasing starving Rottweilerrsquos on the offender dropping cinderblocks on the offenderrsquos hands or even tarring and feathering the offender The IRArsquos process in determining an individualrsquos guilt was never open to scrutiny

bull If the offender persisted after an IRA punishment he was then given a notice by the IRA to leave the country as soon as possiblehellip referred to as being ldquoput outrdquo of the community If the offender still did not leave he was murdered

Policy on Informantsbull In an effort to stamp out collusion with the British forces and informants on the

IRA the IRA was responsible for torturing and killing several accused Catholic civilians throughout the conflict

bull Investigations into collusion infiltration and informants were carried out by the Internal Security Unit of the IRA colloquially known as the ldquoNutting Squadrdquo

bull The ISU would carry out debriefings of IRA prisoners upon their release from British detention so as to discover whether or not they had lsquocrackedrsquo and released information to British interrogators

bull Typical ISU torture techniques on those accused of informing included drowning genitalnipple mutilation electrocution with livewires pouring kerosene on the accusedrsquos legs before setting fire to them and branding with hot irons Informants were always killed afterwards with a bullet through the back of the head

bull Of the 18 ldquoDisappearedrdquo accused informants that were abducted and executed by the IRA during the Troubles only 10 bodies have been found

bull Martin McGartland was an IRA informant who was estimated to have saved 50 lives in the conflict before he was discovered and abducted by the ISU He escaped and lives today in seclusion The film ldquo50 Dead Men Walkingrdquo is based on his exploits and is an excellent realistic non-romanticized take on the Troubles in Northern Ireland

Terrorist Activitiesbull Common tactics included breaking into the homes of off-duty RUC police

officers and murdering them in their beds or setting booby-trap bombs underneath RUC police officersrsquo cars and unionist politiciansrsquo cars so that they would blow up as the engine was started RUC men were typically targeted when they were off-duty and many were shot dead in front of their families The PIRA would also impersonate innocent Catholic civilians call the police to report an emergency and ambush the police from hidden positions when they arrived at the stated address (another reason the RUC was hesitant to go into Catholic neighborhoods during this period)

bull Most notorious for their bombings they would typically park car bombs in predominately Protestant communities call in the bomb threat so that the area would be evacuated and an EOD squad would arrive to dismantle it the bomb would then be detonated with hopes of killing an EOD officer and destroying Protestant housing tenements

bull The PIRA rarely intentionally targeted civilians especially in the 80srsquo and 90srsquo but were involved in the bombings of several Protestant-owned pubs during the 1970s in response to loyalist terrorist groups bombing Catholic-owned pubs They also carried out the Kingsmill massacre in 1976 in which eleven Protestant workmen that were traveling on a minibus were held up by the IRA and all individually executed in response to the execution of six Catholic civilians by the UVF the night before

Terrorist Activities (continued)bull Other activities included engaging in firefights with British squadrons as

they patrolled the countrysidestreets of urban areas sniper attacks on RUC or British Army patrolscheckpoints planting landmines along British foot patrol routes in rural areas planting roadside IEDs along British convoy routes and bombing ferries and buses containing on-or-off duty British soldiers

bull The notorious ldquohuman bombrdquo technique in which civilians or off-duty members of the British security forces were kidnapped and then forced to drive car bombs into British military targets ndash such as checkpoints and Army bases ndash after the PIRA had placed their familiesrsquo lives under threat

bull Inciting riots and providing Catholic youths with molotov cocktails (gasoline bombs) during such riots so as to maximize public disorder and destruction was also an almost daily IRA activity in Catholic communities in urban Northern Ireland

The INLA

Statistics

bull Suffered 33 casualtiesbull Killed 46 members of the British Security Forcesbull Killed 2 members of the Irish Security Forcesbull Killed 39 civiliansbull Killed 3 civilian political activistsbull Killed 16 members of rival Republican terror

groupsbull Killed 7 members of Loyalist terror groups

Ideology

bull Founded by Seamus Costello in 1974 as the military wing of the Irish Republican Socialist Party

bull Shared similar goals to the Provisional IRA but far more socialist in ideology INLA wanted a socialist united Irish republic and blamed class struggles for many of the problems in Northern Ireland whereas the PIRA simply wanted a united Irish republic and had little interest in class struggle or economics

bull Whereas the PIRA was almost exclusively Catholic the INLA had some Protestant members most of whom were involved for purely socialist reasons

Terrorist Activitiesbull Although far less powerful and bold than the PIRA the INLA

nevertheless presented a potent terrorist threat to the United Kingdom during the Troubles

bull Similar tactics to the IRA car bombings shooting off-duty police and soldiers dead and high-profile assassinations

bull Their most high-profile attacks included the car bomb assassination of Airey Neave one of Margaret Thatcherrsquos closest political supporters in 1979 the murder of infamous Loyalist terror leader Billy Wright (who was murdered by INLA inmates in a British political prison in 1997) and the Ballykelley Disco Bombing in 1982 in which the INLA bombed a disco-club frequented by off-duty British soldiers managing to kill 11 of them as well as 6 civilians as well as destroying the disco

Internal Feuds

bull A split in 1986 led the INLA to split into the INLA and the IPLO or Irish Peoplersquos Liberation Organization based on IPLO membersrsquo perceived lack of political motivation and heavy involvement in drug dealing and criminality

bull There were several retaliatory killings between the two groups that persisted until 1992 when the PIRA had enough of the IPLOrsquos involvement in drug dealing in Catholic areas of Belfast and on 31 October 1992 virtually destroyed the entire organization in one night with a series of raids killings and kneecappings that killed or crippled the majority of the grouprsquos members

British LoyalistsProtestants

The UDAUFF

Former UFF Member

>

Statistics

bull Suffered 89 casualtiesbull Killed 197 civiliansbull Killed 12 civilian political activistsbull Killed 37 members of rival loyalist terror

groupsbull Killed 11 members of republican terror groupsbull Killed 3 members of the British Security Forces

Ideology

bull The UDA or Ulster Defense Association and its military wing the Ulster Freedom Fighters (UFF) was a loyalist protestant terror squad that targeted PIRA and INLA members as well as general Catholic civilians in bombings and shootings throughout Northern Ireland

bull It pledged to end its campaign of violence whenever the IRA set down its arms yet should the UK government appease the IRA and grant a 32-county Irish Republic the UDA pledged to act as ldquothe IRA in reverserdquo

Terrorist Activitiesbull The UDA saw itself as a militia defending upstanding protestant loyalist

communities from dangerous and lower-class Catholics that were disrupting the status quo in Northern Ireland They pledged primarily to target IRA men but ended up killing a majority of Catholic civilians during the Troubles They were also known to intimidate and exile known Catholic families from predominately-Protestant communities in Belfast and other urban areas

bull Drive-by shootings shooting up or planting bombs in predominately-Catholic pubs and bars and jumping brutally beating andor kneecapping Catholic civilians were all frequent tactics

bull The UDA discreetly worked in collusion with the RUC and other British security agencies so as to track down and assassinate known IRA members They would also patrol Protestant neighborhoods alongside British soldiers at the height of the Troubles Many RUC police officers and prison guards were also UDA members

bull The UDA alongside many other loyalist paramilitaries benefitted from the import of several arms shipments from Lebanese arms dealers in the early 1970s including rocket launchers 200+ AK-47 Rifles 90+ handguns and over 400 grenades They also received various weapons such as the uzi submachine gun and explosive devices from arms dealers in the Soviet bloc in the 1980s

Organized Crime

bull The UDA and its members were also heavily involved in drug dealing from the street level to wholesale purchase primarily in MDMA and cannabis throughout the Troubles

bull Protection racketeering and money laundering were also common amongst the UDA in protestant communities

bull However should a member of a UDA-ran community begin stealing or dealing drugs without UDA consent he was abruptly branded as ldquoanti-socialrdquo and either killed or kneecapped

The UVF

Statistics

bull Suffered unknown number of casualtiesbull Killed 412 civiliansbull Killed 11 civilian political activistsbull Killed 21 members of republican terror groupsbull Killed 42 members of rival loyalist terror

groupsbull Killed 6 members of the Security Forces

Ideology

bull Similar to the UDAUFF the Ulster Volunteer Forcersquos primary aim was to combat Irish republicanism in Northern Ireland primarily the PIRA They wanted Northern Ireland to remain in the UK

Terrorist Activitiesbull The majority of UVF victims were Catholic civilians

many of whom were killed at random These attacks were intended to demoralize the IRA as the IRA drew most of its support from the Catholic community

bull Planting bombs in predominately-Catholic pubs or simply residential areas was a very frequent UVF tactic and in 1973 they detonated more bombs in Northern Ireland than the UDA and the PIRA combined Assassinations mass shootings booby-trap car bombs and kidnappings were also frequent UVF activities

The Shankhill Butchers

bull The ldquoShankhill Butchersrdquo were a notorious offshoot UVF group known for abducting and literally slitting the throats of Catholic civilians and rival loyalist terror groups in the late 1970s They were led by Lenny Murphy (who was eventually imprisoned and upon his release of a 4-year stint murdered by the PIRA) and killed 23 people most of whom were Catholic civilians Many experts liken the Shankhill Butchers more to a group of serial killers than to politically or even ethnically-motivated murderers

bull The Butchers were all eventually all either imprisoned killed by the PIRA or both

Weaponrybull The UVF received the majority of its weaponry in the late 1970s

from Armscor an apartheid-South Africa state-owned arms company which in defiance of various UN sanctions and embargoes sold them to the UVF

bull Weapons were thought to consist ofbull 200 Czech SA vz 58 Assault Riflesbull 90 Browning Pistolsbull 500 RGD-5 Frag Grenadesbull 30000 rounds of ammunitionbull 12 RPG-7 Rocket Launchers and 150+ Rocketsbull The UVF also began using the illegally-obtained mining explosive

Powergel in the early 1990s

Organized Crime

bull The UVF was also heavily involved in organized crime including protection racketeering and drug smugglingdealing including cannabis MDMA cocaine and amphetamines Bank robberies were also very frequent in the 1970s

Major Incidents 1969-1998

Bloody Sunday 30 January 1972

Massacre on the Bogsidebull In 1972 during a large scale but peaceful civil-rights march in the

troubled predominately Catholic neighborhood of Bogside in Derry 26 unarmed civil rights marchers were shot by members of the British Army 14 of whom were killed Five of those shot were shot in the back

bull After several inquiries into the incident there was found to have been no justifiable provocation from the protestors and no shots fired from the protestors during the march The massacre was conducted in full view of the public and the press

bull The PM David Cameron eventually issued a formal apology to the victims and victimsrsquo families of the massacre after several investigations failed to reveal any justifiable provocation for the massacre

bull The massacre sky-rocketed PIRA membership and recruitment as public perception of the British Army in Catholic communities in Northern Ireland reached an all-time low

Bloody Friday 21 July 1972

A City Under Siege

bull On 21 July 1972 the PIRA detonated 26 bombs in the space of 80 minutes in Belfast destroying banks bridges electrical substations Protestant housing tenements gasoline stations and private garages

bull Although warnings were called in at least 30 minutes prior to each bomb the amount of bombs exploding and the addition of multiple hoax warnings at the same time led to the Security Forces being unable to evacuate all the areas in time 11 people were killed and 130 were injured many of them horrifically mutilated Of those injured 77 were women or children

Dublin and Monaghan Bombings 17 May 1974

Deadliest Attack of the Troubles

bull Perpetrated by the UVF in the southern Republic of Ireland three car bombs exploded in Dublin during rush hour and another exploded in Monaghan around 90 minutes later

bull 33 civilians and a full-term unborn child were killed in the bombing while nearly 300 were injured The UVF did not claim responsibility for the bombings until 1993

bull The majority of those killed were young women although the age range of those killed ranged from 5 months old to 80 years old

Warrenpoint Ambush 27 August 1979

Roadside IEDsbull In the southern part of County Armagh Northern Ireland a predominately-

Catholic rural region and former PIRA stronghold right on the border with the southern Republic of Ireland a British troop convoy was hit with a remote-control detonated roadside 500lb truck-bomb and destroyed instantly killing 6 troops The surviving soldiers then wrongly believed they were under sniper fire from the other side of the Irish border and began firing at civilians immediately after the bombing killing 1 and injuring another

bull 32 minutes after the first bombing the IRA used its knowledge of how the British reacted to bombings to correctly predict that they would set up an incident-command point in a nearby gatehouse Unfortunately for the British there was a second 800lb fertilizer bomb planted near the gatehouse that when detonated killed 12 other soldiers who were responding to the initial bomb

bull It was the deadliest single attack on the British Army during the Troubles and a highly successful attack for the PIRA

Summer of 1981 Irish Hunger Strikes

A Defining Moment for the Republican Cause

bull Beginning on 1 March 1981 led by Bobby Sands 7 PIRA and 3 INLA inmates at the notorious ldquoMazerdquo prison began to refuse food until Margaret Thatcher PM of Great Britain at that time began to recognize terrorist prisoners as political prisoners and allowed them their ldquoFive Demandsrdquo

The Five Demands

bull The right to not wear a prison uniformbull The right to not do prison workbull The right of free association with other

prisoners and to organize in educational and recreational pursuits

bull Full restoration of remission lost through any protests towards these demands

Previous Protestsbull The Maze prison was a very high-security and low-quality prison that

housed almost all PIRA prisoners during the Troubles It was run in a very ethically questionable fashion with frequent beatings and borderline-torture techniques used on Republican prisoners and extremely poor living conditions for prisoners Many Maze prison guards were members of the UDAUVF or had strong connections with one of the two groups as well

bull Massive peaceful protests and marches by Irish republicans outside of the Maze Prison proved unsuccessful in attaining political status for republican prisoners as well as previous inmate protests in 1980 including non-fatal hunger strikes inmates refusing to wear prison uniforms and thus living in their cells naked and prisoners refusing to leave their cells to go to the bathroom until their requests had been granted (they therefore urinated and defecated in their cells and spread their excrement across their cell walls in what was known as the ldquoDirty Protestrdquo)

Dirty Protesters

Thatcherrsquos Response

bull ldquoThose terrorists will carry their determination to disrupt society to any lengths Once again we have a hunger strike in the Maze Prison in the quest for what they call lsquopolitical statusrsquo There is no such thing as political murder political bombing or political violence There is only criminal murder criminal bombing and criminal violence We will not compromise on this There will be no political statusrdquo

Ten Strikers Diebull Bobby Sands the leader of the strike was imprisoned as a PIRA member

on charges of firearm possession and in connection with the bombing of a furniture store He was the first to die after 66 days of not eating Sands was elected to a seat in Parliament whilst on Hunger Strike

bull Following Sandsrsquo death there were riots bus-burnings and attacks on the British embassy in the southern Republic of Ireland there were massive demonstrations in France and Italy a tomato was thrown as Queen Elizabeth II by demonstrators in Oslo and there were massive riots and civil disorder all over the streets of Belfast The South African ANC and (at the time) terrorist Nelson Mandela expressed their support for the PIRA and the hunger strikers (Mandela himself claimed he was directly inspired by Sands to undertake hunger strikes against the Apartheid government in South Africa) as well as the Palestine Liberation Organization a middle-eastern terror group

bull Over 100000 attended Sandsrsquo funeral

Bobby Sands

ldquoOur revenge will be the laughter of our childrenrdquo

Reaction to Sandsrsquo Death

>

Conclusion

bull The Hunger Strike was eventually called off after 10 strikers including Sands had died

bull James Prior newly installed secretary of state of Northern Ireland granted the prisoners partial concessions all of the Five Demands except for the right to not do prison work Margaret Thatcher refused to budge on political status

bull The Hunger Strikes opened a new way for the PIRA to pursue its objectives politically whereas previously it had seen violence as the only solution to the plight of Irish nationalists in Northern Ireland

1983 The Maze Prison Escape

The ldquoGreat Escaperdquo

bull Using smuggled-in guns and knives 38 PIRA prisoners who had been convicted of offenses ranging from murder to causing explosions escaped from one of the most high-security prisons in Europe They completely took over the H7 prison block and took their prison guards hostage before escaping in a food supply truck Several prison guards were shot and stabbed but only one died of a heart attack during the escape

bull Fifteen escapees were recaptured the first day with four more captured over the next two days following the breakout The remaining 19 were transported to PIRA strongholds and given the option to either rejoin the IRArsquos cause or be transported to the United States to live under a new identity

12 October 1984 Brighton Hotel Bombing

The PIRA Nearly Gets Thatcherbull Margaret Thatcher the highly controversial far-right British PM from

1979-1990 had become a tremendously hated figure amongst the Irish nationalist community in Northern Ireland following the 1981 Hunger Strikes and for her general uncompromising stand on Irish republicanism

bull PIRA man Patrick Magee stayed at the Brighton Hotel from the 14-17 September 1984 planting a 20-lb bomb under his bath

bull Thatcher was staying at the Brighton Hotel for a political conference and was still up at 254AM on 12 October when the bomb was detonated The bomb decimated her bathroom but left the bedroom and sitting room of her suite largely unscathed

bull The PIRA statement to Thatcher afterwards was ldquoToday we were unlucky But remember we only have to be lucky once You will have to be lucky alwaysrdquo

Loughgall Ambush 8 May 1987

The SAS Strikes

bull A botched attack on Loughgall Villagersquos RUC Police Base in which the PIRA drove a backhoe into the fortified base and ran away to detonate the bomb that was inside of the backhoe went wrong as the SAS the British Special Forces had prior knowledge of the attack and quickly dispatched the 8 PIRA members involved

bull Although the RUC base was wrecked and bombed there were no RUC or SAS casualties and it was the PIRArsquos greatest loss of life in a single incident during the Troubles

British Army Lynx Shootdown 20 March 1994

The PIRA Shoots Down a Helicopter

bull Using the previously mentioned Barrack-Buster homemade mortar PIRA insurgents were able to fire on a British helicopter that was in the process of landing whilst hiding behind a hay bail from around 150 yards out

bull The helicopter was hit with the mortar shell around 100 feet above the ground but the pilot was able to successfully crash-land the helicopter and escape before its propane tanks exploded There were no casualties but the attack was a major propaganda coup for the PIRA

1996 Manchester Bombing

The PIRA Destroys Manchester

bull On Saturday 15 June 1996 the PIRA sent in telephoned warnings and 90 minutes later detonated a 3300lb fertilizer-based truck bomb in the heart of Manchester City Centre the biggest bomb detonated in Great Britain during peacetime The bomb killed nobody due to previous warnings but led to 212 non-fatal injuries and essentially destroyed Manchester City Centre leaving approximately 700 million pounds ($12bn) worth of damage in its wake

Omagh Bombing 1998

Last Great Deadly Attack of the Troubles

bull Perpetrated by a Provisional IRA splinter group that was rejecting the peace process calling themselves the ldquoReal IRArdquo the 510lb fertilizer-based bomb was placed on main street in the town of Omagh Northern Ireland Warnings were called in approximately 30 minutes before the bombing but they were inaccurate and police ended up moving more civilians towards the bomb which ended up killing 29 people and causing over 300 non-fatal injuries This was the highest death toll from a single incident during the Troubles

bull It received universal outrage and was condemned even by the PIRA and its political wing Sinn Fein It spurred on the Northern Ireland peace process and the RIRA apologized and called a ceasefire several days after

The Good Friday Agreement and Northern Ireland Peace Process

Beginningsbull Following the 1981 Hunger Strikes Irish republicans began to

increasingly look towards politics rather than violence as a means of achieving their aims Sinn Fein gaelic for ldquoWe Ourselvesrdquo was a fiercely Irish Republican political party which led by the Machiavellian former PIRA leader and Maze inmate Gerry Adams began to push for a more peaceful solution to the Troubles in Northern Ireland

bull It became apparent by the late 1990s that although the PIRA was not losing a war against the British establishment it would be impossible to truly lsquowin the fightrsquo through violence and that any further terrorism would serve not to achieve any real political aim but only to prolong and continue suffering and violence in Northern Ireland and that politics was a much better way of achieving Republican aims

Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein former PIRA Belfast Brigade OC

Good Friday Agreement 1998

bull The Peace Process began in 1994 and included intermittent terrorist ceasefires and political negotiations between the major Irish republican and British unionist parties and culminated on April 10 1998 when the Good Friday Agreement was signed

PM Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern Sign the GFA

GFA Mandatesbull That Northern Ireland was to remain British until a majority of people in Northern

Ireland and the southern Republic of Ireland wanted otherwise bull The creation of an entirely new far less sectarian and religiously diverse Northern

Irish local governmentbull The decommissioning of arms from terrorist groups on both the unionist and

nationalist side of the political divide (ultimately successful all arms decommissioned by 2005)

bull Mutual respect and civil rights between Catholics and Protestants bull The reduction and eventual elimination of British troops in Northern Ireland

(ultimately successful all troops withdrawn by 2005)bull Eventual early prison release for all individuals imprisoned for terrorist offenses as

long as they were apart of a terrorist group that was decommissioning in accordance with the GFA

bull Disbandment of the RUC police service and the installation of the new Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) which was required to be at least 50 Catholic

Northern Ireland Today

Still Conflict But No Warbull Since the complete decommissioning of the arms and

disbandment of the PIRA INLA UDAUFF and UVF due to the Good Friday Agreement there is nowhere near the amount of violence in Northern Ireland or Belfast as there was 20 years ago There are no more weekly bombings and riots and no more British troops patrolling Catholic areas in armored vehicles

bull Despite this there are still occasional riots and clashes with the PSNI several times a year specifically on dates of great historical significance to the Catholic or Protestant communities and there is still a deep distrust and even hatred between many Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland although that continues to change with time

Catholic Slum of Ardoyne Belfast July 2011

Splinter Groups

bull Many former PIRA or UDA terrorists have now taken to organized crime for purely profiteering purposes but are no longer involved in substantial violence or any political-based terrorism

bull Splinter groups such as the Real IRA and Continuity IRA in Catholic communities and the Orange Volunteers and Red Hand Commandos in Protestant communities still conduct occasional violence towards Police and civilians in Northern Ireland but are all rather small poorly armed and poorly funded groups that pose nowhere near the threat that terrorist groups in the 80s and 90s did in Northern Ireland

Herersquos To A Brighter Future in Northern Ireland

Works Citedbull httpwwwbbccoukhistorytroublesbull httpcainulstacukbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiProvisional_Irish_Republican_Armybull httpenwikipediaorgwikiThe_Troublesbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiUlster_Defence_Associationbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiUlster_Volunteer_Forcebull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_National_Liberation_Armybull ldquoA Secret History of the IRArdquo by Ed Moloney ndashWW Norton amp Company Reprint 2003bull ldquoVoices From The Grave Two Menrsquos War in Irelandrdquo by Ed Moloney ndash Public Affairs 2010bull ldquoFifty Dead Men Walkingrdquo by Martin McGartland ndash John Blake 2009bull httpwwwinfopleasecomspotnorthireland1htmlbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_Civil_Warbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_War_of_Independencebull httpenwikipediaorgwiki1981_Irish_hunger_strikebull httpenwikipediaorgwikiDirectory_of_the_Northern_Ireland_Troublesbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiGood_Friday_Agreementbull httpswwwmi5govukhomethe-threatsterrorismnorthern-irelandrepublican-terrorist-groupshtmlbull httpswwwmi5govukhomethe-threatsterrorismnorthern-irelandprovisional-irish-republican-army-

pirahtmlbull httpnewsbbccoukhienglishstaticnorthern_irelandunderstandingeventshunger_strikestm

  • The Troubles
  • Brief Overview
  • 30 Years of Conflict
  • Slide 4
  • Background
  • The Irish War of Independence
  • Slide 7
  • Anglo-Irish Treaty (signed 6 December 1921)
  • Irish Civil War
  • 1922-1966 Ireland
  • The Civil Rights Movement
  • Slide 12
  • Slide 13
  • Objectives of the Civil Rights Movement
  • The 1969 Northern Ireland Riots ndashThe Troubles Begin
  • Culmination of Tension
  • No-Go Areas
  • No-Go Areas (2)
  • Early 1970sndash The Rise of the Provisional IRA
  • The IRA Split
  • Rise of the UVF and Loyalist Terror Groups
  • Beginnings
  • UVF Statement 21 May 1964
  • The Paramilitaries
  • Irish RepublicansCatholics
  • The Provisional IRA
  • IRA Statement Late 80s
  • Statistics
  • RecruitmentFunding
  • Weaponry
  • Weaponry (2)
  • Slide 32
  • Mortars and IEDs
  • EOD Officer Approaches PIRA Car Bomb
  • The Barrack Buster
  • Vigilantism
  • Slide 37
  • Slide 38
  • Policy on Informants
  • Terrorist Activities
  • Terrorist Activities (continued)
  • The INLA
  • Statistics (2)
  • Ideology
  • Terrorist Activities (2)
  • Internal Feuds
  • Slide 47
  • British LoyalistsProtestants
  • The UDAUFF
  • Former UFF Member
  • Statistics (3)
  • Ideology (2)
  • Terrorist Activities (3)
  • Slide 54
  • Organized Crime
  • The UVF
  • Statistics (4)
  • Ideology (3)
  • Terrorist Activities (4)
  • The Shankhill Butchers
  • Weaponry (3)
  • Slide 62
  • Organized Crime (2)
  • Major Incidents 1969-1998
  • Bloody Sunday 30 January 1972
  • Massacre on the Bogside
  • Bloody Friday 21 July 1972
  • A City Under Siege
  • Dublin and Monaghan Bombings 17 May 1974
  • Deadliest Attack of the Troubles
  • Warrenpoint Ambush 27 August 1979
  • Roadside IEDs
  • Summer of 1981 Irish Hunger Strikes
  • A Defining Moment for the Republican Cause
  • The Five Demands
  • Previous Protests
  • Dirty Protesters
  • Thatcherrsquos Response
  • Ten Strikers Die
  • Bobby Sands
  • Reaction to Sandsrsquo Death
  • Conclusion
  • 1983 The Maze Prison Escape
  • The ldquoGreat Escaperdquo
  • 12 October 1984 Brighton Hotel Bombing
  • The PIRA Nearly Gets Thatcher
  • Loughgall Ambush 8 May 1987
  • The SAS Strikes
  • British Army Lynx Shootdown 20 March 1994
  • The PIRA Shoots Down a Helicopter
  • 1996 Manchester Bombing
  • The PIRA Destroys Manchester
  • Omagh Bombing 1998
  • Last Great Deadly Attack of the Troubles
  • The Good Friday Agreement and Northern Ireland Peace Process
  • Beginnings (2)
  • Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein former PIRA Belfast Brigade OC
  • Good Friday Agreement 1998
  • PM Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern Sign the GFA
  • GFA Mandates
  • Northern Ireland Today
  • Still Conflict But No War
  • Catholic Slum of Ardoyne Belfast July 2011
  • Splinter Groups
  • Herersquos To A Brighter Future in Northern Ireland
  • Works Cited
Page 20: The Troubles, 1969-1998

UVF Statement 21 May 1964

bull ldquoFrom this day we declare war against the Irish Republican Army and its splinter groups Known IRA men will be executed mercilessly and without hesitation Less extreme measures will be taken against anyone sheltering or helping them but if they persist in giving them aid then more extreme methods will be adopted we solemnly warn the authorities to make no more speeches of appeasement We are heavily armed Protestants dedicated to this causerdquo

The Paramilitaries

Irish RepublicansCatholics

The Provisional IRA

IRA Statement Late 80s

>

Statistics

bull Suffered 293 Casualtiesbull Over 10000 members imprisoned on various charges

throughout the conflictbull Killed 656 members of the British Armed Forcesbull Killed 272 Members of the Royal Ulster Constabulary

(RUC) Police Forcebull Killed 44 members of loyalistprotestant terror groupsbull Killed between 620-650 civiliansbull Killed over 1500 people

RecruitmentFundingbull IRA recruitment in Catholic neighborhoods was similar to the phenomenon

of gang membership in the inner-city United States Young Catholics typically joined to create a sense of belonging to seem ldquohardrdquo or look ldquocoolrdquo to feel protected from the brutality of the RUC during the Troubles or to help defend their communities IRA members were not asked to join but volunteered

bull IRA lsquofunds-raisingrsquo activities included collecting protection money from Catholic businesses (a ldquorevolutionary taxrdquo) robbing banks kidnapping citizens for ransom and cigarette and gasoline smuggling across the Irish border (manipulating the differing tax prices on both sides of the border and selling fuel and cigarettes illicitly) Although the Provisional IRA has officially disbanded and no longer engages in terrorism there is substantial evidence that extortion rackets in poor Catholic neighborhoods and contraband smuggling operations along the border still exist in Northern Ireland and are run by former IRA men solely for profiteering purposes

Weaponry

bull The Provisional IRA obtained a significant amount of arms from both Irish-American supporters in the northeastern United States (including members of notorious gangster Whitey Bulgerrsquos Irish Mob in 1970s-80s Boston) and from the Libyan government under Muammar Gadaffi

bull Gadaffi took over in Libya in 1969 and initially armed the IRA seeing them as comrades-in-arms fighting British imperialism Connections re-emerged in 1986 after the Thatcher Administrationrsquos support of the US bombings of Libya that killed Gadaffirsquos adopted daughter

Weaponrybull When the IRA disarmed as part of the Good Friday Agreement in

1998 (more on that later) they released the following to the British Armed Forces

bull 1000 Rifles (AK-47s AR-15s etc)bull 3 Tons of Semtex (a general-purpose plastic explosive)bull 20-30 Heavy Machine Gunsbull 7 Surface-to-Air Missilesbull 7 Flamethrowersbull 1200 Detonatorsbull 20 RPGrsquosbull 100 Handgunsbull 100+ Hand Grenades

Mortars and IEDsbull The PIRA was incredibly proficient at bomb-making and made

extensive use of Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) during their 30 year campaign

bull IEDs were typically constructed with chemical mixes of fertilizer gasoline and other home-made components Libyan Semtex was also used in several heavy-duty bombs Nails and gunpowder were typically implemented in pipe bombs made out of metal pipes Most IEDs had built in countermeasures such as the mercury tilt switch which would cause the bomb to explode if moved at all should a British EOD officer attempt to dismantle it

bull The PIRA developed the ldquoBarrack Busterrdquo mortar in the late lsquo70s or a homemade mortar made up of common household materials that was used to attack several Army bases from afar and even Prime Minister Margaret Thatcherrsquos househellip 10 Downing Street in a 1991 attack that destroyed the Prime Ministerrsquos rear garden (the mortar was fired out the back of a nearby van)

EOD Officer Approaches PIRA Car Bomb

The Barrack Buster

>

Vigilantismbull The RUC was not trusted in Catholic neighborhoods throughout the

Troubles and did not regularly patrol or even enter them in urban areas of Northern Ireland Thus when there was a community drug dealer car thief burglar rapist or pedophile the IRA took it upon themselves to issue brutal street justice to those involved

bull Occasionally offering warnings for lesser offences such as petty thievery or drug dealing if the IRA had enough of a certain member of the community they perceived as anti-social he or she was usually jumped brutally beaten andor lsquokneecappedrsquo ndash one of the IRArsquos most notorious methods ndash in which the victim was pinned down and shot through the kneecaps with a firearm or occasionally had their kneecaps drilled through with power-drills Other methods included releasing starving Rottweilerrsquos on the offender dropping cinderblocks on the offenderrsquos hands or even tarring and feathering the offender The IRArsquos process in determining an individualrsquos guilt was never open to scrutiny

bull If the offender persisted after an IRA punishment he was then given a notice by the IRA to leave the country as soon as possiblehellip referred to as being ldquoput outrdquo of the community If the offender still did not leave he was murdered

Policy on Informantsbull In an effort to stamp out collusion with the British forces and informants on the

IRA the IRA was responsible for torturing and killing several accused Catholic civilians throughout the conflict

bull Investigations into collusion infiltration and informants were carried out by the Internal Security Unit of the IRA colloquially known as the ldquoNutting Squadrdquo

bull The ISU would carry out debriefings of IRA prisoners upon their release from British detention so as to discover whether or not they had lsquocrackedrsquo and released information to British interrogators

bull Typical ISU torture techniques on those accused of informing included drowning genitalnipple mutilation electrocution with livewires pouring kerosene on the accusedrsquos legs before setting fire to them and branding with hot irons Informants were always killed afterwards with a bullet through the back of the head

bull Of the 18 ldquoDisappearedrdquo accused informants that were abducted and executed by the IRA during the Troubles only 10 bodies have been found

bull Martin McGartland was an IRA informant who was estimated to have saved 50 lives in the conflict before he was discovered and abducted by the ISU He escaped and lives today in seclusion The film ldquo50 Dead Men Walkingrdquo is based on his exploits and is an excellent realistic non-romanticized take on the Troubles in Northern Ireland

Terrorist Activitiesbull Common tactics included breaking into the homes of off-duty RUC police

officers and murdering them in their beds or setting booby-trap bombs underneath RUC police officersrsquo cars and unionist politiciansrsquo cars so that they would blow up as the engine was started RUC men were typically targeted when they were off-duty and many were shot dead in front of their families The PIRA would also impersonate innocent Catholic civilians call the police to report an emergency and ambush the police from hidden positions when they arrived at the stated address (another reason the RUC was hesitant to go into Catholic neighborhoods during this period)

bull Most notorious for their bombings they would typically park car bombs in predominately Protestant communities call in the bomb threat so that the area would be evacuated and an EOD squad would arrive to dismantle it the bomb would then be detonated with hopes of killing an EOD officer and destroying Protestant housing tenements

bull The PIRA rarely intentionally targeted civilians especially in the 80srsquo and 90srsquo but were involved in the bombings of several Protestant-owned pubs during the 1970s in response to loyalist terrorist groups bombing Catholic-owned pubs They also carried out the Kingsmill massacre in 1976 in which eleven Protestant workmen that were traveling on a minibus were held up by the IRA and all individually executed in response to the execution of six Catholic civilians by the UVF the night before

Terrorist Activities (continued)bull Other activities included engaging in firefights with British squadrons as

they patrolled the countrysidestreets of urban areas sniper attacks on RUC or British Army patrolscheckpoints planting landmines along British foot patrol routes in rural areas planting roadside IEDs along British convoy routes and bombing ferries and buses containing on-or-off duty British soldiers

bull The notorious ldquohuman bombrdquo technique in which civilians or off-duty members of the British security forces were kidnapped and then forced to drive car bombs into British military targets ndash such as checkpoints and Army bases ndash after the PIRA had placed their familiesrsquo lives under threat

bull Inciting riots and providing Catholic youths with molotov cocktails (gasoline bombs) during such riots so as to maximize public disorder and destruction was also an almost daily IRA activity in Catholic communities in urban Northern Ireland

The INLA

Statistics

bull Suffered 33 casualtiesbull Killed 46 members of the British Security Forcesbull Killed 2 members of the Irish Security Forcesbull Killed 39 civiliansbull Killed 3 civilian political activistsbull Killed 16 members of rival Republican terror

groupsbull Killed 7 members of Loyalist terror groups

Ideology

bull Founded by Seamus Costello in 1974 as the military wing of the Irish Republican Socialist Party

bull Shared similar goals to the Provisional IRA but far more socialist in ideology INLA wanted a socialist united Irish republic and blamed class struggles for many of the problems in Northern Ireland whereas the PIRA simply wanted a united Irish republic and had little interest in class struggle or economics

bull Whereas the PIRA was almost exclusively Catholic the INLA had some Protestant members most of whom were involved for purely socialist reasons

Terrorist Activitiesbull Although far less powerful and bold than the PIRA the INLA

nevertheless presented a potent terrorist threat to the United Kingdom during the Troubles

bull Similar tactics to the IRA car bombings shooting off-duty police and soldiers dead and high-profile assassinations

bull Their most high-profile attacks included the car bomb assassination of Airey Neave one of Margaret Thatcherrsquos closest political supporters in 1979 the murder of infamous Loyalist terror leader Billy Wright (who was murdered by INLA inmates in a British political prison in 1997) and the Ballykelley Disco Bombing in 1982 in which the INLA bombed a disco-club frequented by off-duty British soldiers managing to kill 11 of them as well as 6 civilians as well as destroying the disco

Internal Feuds

bull A split in 1986 led the INLA to split into the INLA and the IPLO or Irish Peoplersquos Liberation Organization based on IPLO membersrsquo perceived lack of political motivation and heavy involvement in drug dealing and criminality

bull There were several retaliatory killings between the two groups that persisted until 1992 when the PIRA had enough of the IPLOrsquos involvement in drug dealing in Catholic areas of Belfast and on 31 October 1992 virtually destroyed the entire organization in one night with a series of raids killings and kneecappings that killed or crippled the majority of the grouprsquos members

British LoyalistsProtestants

The UDAUFF

Former UFF Member

>

Statistics

bull Suffered 89 casualtiesbull Killed 197 civiliansbull Killed 12 civilian political activistsbull Killed 37 members of rival loyalist terror

groupsbull Killed 11 members of republican terror groupsbull Killed 3 members of the British Security Forces

Ideology

bull The UDA or Ulster Defense Association and its military wing the Ulster Freedom Fighters (UFF) was a loyalist protestant terror squad that targeted PIRA and INLA members as well as general Catholic civilians in bombings and shootings throughout Northern Ireland

bull It pledged to end its campaign of violence whenever the IRA set down its arms yet should the UK government appease the IRA and grant a 32-county Irish Republic the UDA pledged to act as ldquothe IRA in reverserdquo

Terrorist Activitiesbull The UDA saw itself as a militia defending upstanding protestant loyalist

communities from dangerous and lower-class Catholics that were disrupting the status quo in Northern Ireland They pledged primarily to target IRA men but ended up killing a majority of Catholic civilians during the Troubles They were also known to intimidate and exile known Catholic families from predominately-Protestant communities in Belfast and other urban areas

bull Drive-by shootings shooting up or planting bombs in predominately-Catholic pubs and bars and jumping brutally beating andor kneecapping Catholic civilians were all frequent tactics

bull The UDA discreetly worked in collusion with the RUC and other British security agencies so as to track down and assassinate known IRA members They would also patrol Protestant neighborhoods alongside British soldiers at the height of the Troubles Many RUC police officers and prison guards were also UDA members

bull The UDA alongside many other loyalist paramilitaries benefitted from the import of several arms shipments from Lebanese arms dealers in the early 1970s including rocket launchers 200+ AK-47 Rifles 90+ handguns and over 400 grenades They also received various weapons such as the uzi submachine gun and explosive devices from arms dealers in the Soviet bloc in the 1980s

Organized Crime

bull The UDA and its members were also heavily involved in drug dealing from the street level to wholesale purchase primarily in MDMA and cannabis throughout the Troubles

bull Protection racketeering and money laundering were also common amongst the UDA in protestant communities

bull However should a member of a UDA-ran community begin stealing or dealing drugs without UDA consent he was abruptly branded as ldquoanti-socialrdquo and either killed or kneecapped

The UVF

Statistics

bull Suffered unknown number of casualtiesbull Killed 412 civiliansbull Killed 11 civilian political activistsbull Killed 21 members of republican terror groupsbull Killed 42 members of rival loyalist terror

groupsbull Killed 6 members of the Security Forces

Ideology

bull Similar to the UDAUFF the Ulster Volunteer Forcersquos primary aim was to combat Irish republicanism in Northern Ireland primarily the PIRA They wanted Northern Ireland to remain in the UK

Terrorist Activitiesbull The majority of UVF victims were Catholic civilians

many of whom were killed at random These attacks were intended to demoralize the IRA as the IRA drew most of its support from the Catholic community

bull Planting bombs in predominately-Catholic pubs or simply residential areas was a very frequent UVF tactic and in 1973 they detonated more bombs in Northern Ireland than the UDA and the PIRA combined Assassinations mass shootings booby-trap car bombs and kidnappings were also frequent UVF activities

The Shankhill Butchers

bull The ldquoShankhill Butchersrdquo were a notorious offshoot UVF group known for abducting and literally slitting the throats of Catholic civilians and rival loyalist terror groups in the late 1970s They were led by Lenny Murphy (who was eventually imprisoned and upon his release of a 4-year stint murdered by the PIRA) and killed 23 people most of whom were Catholic civilians Many experts liken the Shankhill Butchers more to a group of serial killers than to politically or even ethnically-motivated murderers

bull The Butchers were all eventually all either imprisoned killed by the PIRA or both

Weaponrybull The UVF received the majority of its weaponry in the late 1970s

from Armscor an apartheid-South Africa state-owned arms company which in defiance of various UN sanctions and embargoes sold them to the UVF

bull Weapons were thought to consist ofbull 200 Czech SA vz 58 Assault Riflesbull 90 Browning Pistolsbull 500 RGD-5 Frag Grenadesbull 30000 rounds of ammunitionbull 12 RPG-7 Rocket Launchers and 150+ Rocketsbull The UVF also began using the illegally-obtained mining explosive

Powergel in the early 1990s

Organized Crime

bull The UVF was also heavily involved in organized crime including protection racketeering and drug smugglingdealing including cannabis MDMA cocaine and amphetamines Bank robberies were also very frequent in the 1970s

Major Incidents 1969-1998

Bloody Sunday 30 January 1972

Massacre on the Bogsidebull In 1972 during a large scale but peaceful civil-rights march in the

troubled predominately Catholic neighborhood of Bogside in Derry 26 unarmed civil rights marchers were shot by members of the British Army 14 of whom were killed Five of those shot were shot in the back

bull After several inquiries into the incident there was found to have been no justifiable provocation from the protestors and no shots fired from the protestors during the march The massacre was conducted in full view of the public and the press

bull The PM David Cameron eventually issued a formal apology to the victims and victimsrsquo families of the massacre after several investigations failed to reveal any justifiable provocation for the massacre

bull The massacre sky-rocketed PIRA membership and recruitment as public perception of the British Army in Catholic communities in Northern Ireland reached an all-time low

Bloody Friday 21 July 1972

A City Under Siege

bull On 21 July 1972 the PIRA detonated 26 bombs in the space of 80 minutes in Belfast destroying banks bridges electrical substations Protestant housing tenements gasoline stations and private garages

bull Although warnings were called in at least 30 minutes prior to each bomb the amount of bombs exploding and the addition of multiple hoax warnings at the same time led to the Security Forces being unable to evacuate all the areas in time 11 people were killed and 130 were injured many of them horrifically mutilated Of those injured 77 were women or children

Dublin and Monaghan Bombings 17 May 1974

Deadliest Attack of the Troubles

bull Perpetrated by the UVF in the southern Republic of Ireland three car bombs exploded in Dublin during rush hour and another exploded in Monaghan around 90 minutes later

bull 33 civilians and a full-term unborn child were killed in the bombing while nearly 300 were injured The UVF did not claim responsibility for the bombings until 1993

bull The majority of those killed were young women although the age range of those killed ranged from 5 months old to 80 years old

Warrenpoint Ambush 27 August 1979

Roadside IEDsbull In the southern part of County Armagh Northern Ireland a predominately-

Catholic rural region and former PIRA stronghold right on the border with the southern Republic of Ireland a British troop convoy was hit with a remote-control detonated roadside 500lb truck-bomb and destroyed instantly killing 6 troops The surviving soldiers then wrongly believed they were under sniper fire from the other side of the Irish border and began firing at civilians immediately after the bombing killing 1 and injuring another

bull 32 minutes after the first bombing the IRA used its knowledge of how the British reacted to bombings to correctly predict that they would set up an incident-command point in a nearby gatehouse Unfortunately for the British there was a second 800lb fertilizer bomb planted near the gatehouse that when detonated killed 12 other soldiers who were responding to the initial bomb

bull It was the deadliest single attack on the British Army during the Troubles and a highly successful attack for the PIRA

Summer of 1981 Irish Hunger Strikes

A Defining Moment for the Republican Cause

bull Beginning on 1 March 1981 led by Bobby Sands 7 PIRA and 3 INLA inmates at the notorious ldquoMazerdquo prison began to refuse food until Margaret Thatcher PM of Great Britain at that time began to recognize terrorist prisoners as political prisoners and allowed them their ldquoFive Demandsrdquo

The Five Demands

bull The right to not wear a prison uniformbull The right to not do prison workbull The right of free association with other

prisoners and to organize in educational and recreational pursuits

bull Full restoration of remission lost through any protests towards these demands

Previous Protestsbull The Maze prison was a very high-security and low-quality prison that

housed almost all PIRA prisoners during the Troubles It was run in a very ethically questionable fashion with frequent beatings and borderline-torture techniques used on Republican prisoners and extremely poor living conditions for prisoners Many Maze prison guards were members of the UDAUVF or had strong connections with one of the two groups as well

bull Massive peaceful protests and marches by Irish republicans outside of the Maze Prison proved unsuccessful in attaining political status for republican prisoners as well as previous inmate protests in 1980 including non-fatal hunger strikes inmates refusing to wear prison uniforms and thus living in their cells naked and prisoners refusing to leave their cells to go to the bathroom until their requests had been granted (they therefore urinated and defecated in their cells and spread their excrement across their cell walls in what was known as the ldquoDirty Protestrdquo)

Dirty Protesters

Thatcherrsquos Response

bull ldquoThose terrorists will carry their determination to disrupt society to any lengths Once again we have a hunger strike in the Maze Prison in the quest for what they call lsquopolitical statusrsquo There is no such thing as political murder political bombing or political violence There is only criminal murder criminal bombing and criminal violence We will not compromise on this There will be no political statusrdquo

Ten Strikers Diebull Bobby Sands the leader of the strike was imprisoned as a PIRA member

on charges of firearm possession and in connection with the bombing of a furniture store He was the first to die after 66 days of not eating Sands was elected to a seat in Parliament whilst on Hunger Strike

bull Following Sandsrsquo death there were riots bus-burnings and attacks on the British embassy in the southern Republic of Ireland there were massive demonstrations in France and Italy a tomato was thrown as Queen Elizabeth II by demonstrators in Oslo and there were massive riots and civil disorder all over the streets of Belfast The South African ANC and (at the time) terrorist Nelson Mandela expressed their support for the PIRA and the hunger strikers (Mandela himself claimed he was directly inspired by Sands to undertake hunger strikes against the Apartheid government in South Africa) as well as the Palestine Liberation Organization a middle-eastern terror group

bull Over 100000 attended Sandsrsquo funeral

Bobby Sands

ldquoOur revenge will be the laughter of our childrenrdquo

Reaction to Sandsrsquo Death

>

Conclusion

bull The Hunger Strike was eventually called off after 10 strikers including Sands had died

bull James Prior newly installed secretary of state of Northern Ireland granted the prisoners partial concessions all of the Five Demands except for the right to not do prison work Margaret Thatcher refused to budge on political status

bull The Hunger Strikes opened a new way for the PIRA to pursue its objectives politically whereas previously it had seen violence as the only solution to the plight of Irish nationalists in Northern Ireland

1983 The Maze Prison Escape

The ldquoGreat Escaperdquo

bull Using smuggled-in guns and knives 38 PIRA prisoners who had been convicted of offenses ranging from murder to causing explosions escaped from one of the most high-security prisons in Europe They completely took over the H7 prison block and took their prison guards hostage before escaping in a food supply truck Several prison guards were shot and stabbed but only one died of a heart attack during the escape

bull Fifteen escapees were recaptured the first day with four more captured over the next two days following the breakout The remaining 19 were transported to PIRA strongholds and given the option to either rejoin the IRArsquos cause or be transported to the United States to live under a new identity

12 October 1984 Brighton Hotel Bombing

The PIRA Nearly Gets Thatcherbull Margaret Thatcher the highly controversial far-right British PM from

1979-1990 had become a tremendously hated figure amongst the Irish nationalist community in Northern Ireland following the 1981 Hunger Strikes and for her general uncompromising stand on Irish republicanism

bull PIRA man Patrick Magee stayed at the Brighton Hotel from the 14-17 September 1984 planting a 20-lb bomb under his bath

bull Thatcher was staying at the Brighton Hotel for a political conference and was still up at 254AM on 12 October when the bomb was detonated The bomb decimated her bathroom but left the bedroom and sitting room of her suite largely unscathed

bull The PIRA statement to Thatcher afterwards was ldquoToday we were unlucky But remember we only have to be lucky once You will have to be lucky alwaysrdquo

Loughgall Ambush 8 May 1987

The SAS Strikes

bull A botched attack on Loughgall Villagersquos RUC Police Base in which the PIRA drove a backhoe into the fortified base and ran away to detonate the bomb that was inside of the backhoe went wrong as the SAS the British Special Forces had prior knowledge of the attack and quickly dispatched the 8 PIRA members involved

bull Although the RUC base was wrecked and bombed there were no RUC or SAS casualties and it was the PIRArsquos greatest loss of life in a single incident during the Troubles

British Army Lynx Shootdown 20 March 1994

The PIRA Shoots Down a Helicopter

bull Using the previously mentioned Barrack-Buster homemade mortar PIRA insurgents were able to fire on a British helicopter that was in the process of landing whilst hiding behind a hay bail from around 150 yards out

bull The helicopter was hit with the mortar shell around 100 feet above the ground but the pilot was able to successfully crash-land the helicopter and escape before its propane tanks exploded There were no casualties but the attack was a major propaganda coup for the PIRA

1996 Manchester Bombing

The PIRA Destroys Manchester

bull On Saturday 15 June 1996 the PIRA sent in telephoned warnings and 90 minutes later detonated a 3300lb fertilizer-based truck bomb in the heart of Manchester City Centre the biggest bomb detonated in Great Britain during peacetime The bomb killed nobody due to previous warnings but led to 212 non-fatal injuries and essentially destroyed Manchester City Centre leaving approximately 700 million pounds ($12bn) worth of damage in its wake

Omagh Bombing 1998

Last Great Deadly Attack of the Troubles

bull Perpetrated by a Provisional IRA splinter group that was rejecting the peace process calling themselves the ldquoReal IRArdquo the 510lb fertilizer-based bomb was placed on main street in the town of Omagh Northern Ireland Warnings were called in approximately 30 minutes before the bombing but they were inaccurate and police ended up moving more civilians towards the bomb which ended up killing 29 people and causing over 300 non-fatal injuries This was the highest death toll from a single incident during the Troubles

bull It received universal outrage and was condemned even by the PIRA and its political wing Sinn Fein It spurred on the Northern Ireland peace process and the RIRA apologized and called a ceasefire several days after

The Good Friday Agreement and Northern Ireland Peace Process

Beginningsbull Following the 1981 Hunger Strikes Irish republicans began to

increasingly look towards politics rather than violence as a means of achieving their aims Sinn Fein gaelic for ldquoWe Ourselvesrdquo was a fiercely Irish Republican political party which led by the Machiavellian former PIRA leader and Maze inmate Gerry Adams began to push for a more peaceful solution to the Troubles in Northern Ireland

bull It became apparent by the late 1990s that although the PIRA was not losing a war against the British establishment it would be impossible to truly lsquowin the fightrsquo through violence and that any further terrorism would serve not to achieve any real political aim but only to prolong and continue suffering and violence in Northern Ireland and that politics was a much better way of achieving Republican aims

Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein former PIRA Belfast Brigade OC

Good Friday Agreement 1998

bull The Peace Process began in 1994 and included intermittent terrorist ceasefires and political negotiations between the major Irish republican and British unionist parties and culminated on April 10 1998 when the Good Friday Agreement was signed

PM Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern Sign the GFA

GFA Mandatesbull That Northern Ireland was to remain British until a majority of people in Northern

Ireland and the southern Republic of Ireland wanted otherwise bull The creation of an entirely new far less sectarian and religiously diverse Northern

Irish local governmentbull The decommissioning of arms from terrorist groups on both the unionist and

nationalist side of the political divide (ultimately successful all arms decommissioned by 2005)

bull Mutual respect and civil rights between Catholics and Protestants bull The reduction and eventual elimination of British troops in Northern Ireland

(ultimately successful all troops withdrawn by 2005)bull Eventual early prison release for all individuals imprisoned for terrorist offenses as

long as they were apart of a terrorist group that was decommissioning in accordance with the GFA

bull Disbandment of the RUC police service and the installation of the new Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) which was required to be at least 50 Catholic

Northern Ireland Today

Still Conflict But No Warbull Since the complete decommissioning of the arms and

disbandment of the PIRA INLA UDAUFF and UVF due to the Good Friday Agreement there is nowhere near the amount of violence in Northern Ireland or Belfast as there was 20 years ago There are no more weekly bombings and riots and no more British troops patrolling Catholic areas in armored vehicles

bull Despite this there are still occasional riots and clashes with the PSNI several times a year specifically on dates of great historical significance to the Catholic or Protestant communities and there is still a deep distrust and even hatred between many Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland although that continues to change with time

Catholic Slum of Ardoyne Belfast July 2011

Splinter Groups

bull Many former PIRA or UDA terrorists have now taken to organized crime for purely profiteering purposes but are no longer involved in substantial violence or any political-based terrorism

bull Splinter groups such as the Real IRA and Continuity IRA in Catholic communities and the Orange Volunteers and Red Hand Commandos in Protestant communities still conduct occasional violence towards Police and civilians in Northern Ireland but are all rather small poorly armed and poorly funded groups that pose nowhere near the threat that terrorist groups in the 80s and 90s did in Northern Ireland

Herersquos To A Brighter Future in Northern Ireland

Works Citedbull httpwwwbbccoukhistorytroublesbull httpcainulstacukbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiProvisional_Irish_Republican_Armybull httpenwikipediaorgwikiThe_Troublesbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiUlster_Defence_Associationbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiUlster_Volunteer_Forcebull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_National_Liberation_Armybull ldquoA Secret History of the IRArdquo by Ed Moloney ndashWW Norton amp Company Reprint 2003bull ldquoVoices From The Grave Two Menrsquos War in Irelandrdquo by Ed Moloney ndash Public Affairs 2010bull ldquoFifty Dead Men Walkingrdquo by Martin McGartland ndash John Blake 2009bull httpwwwinfopleasecomspotnorthireland1htmlbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_Civil_Warbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_War_of_Independencebull httpenwikipediaorgwiki1981_Irish_hunger_strikebull httpenwikipediaorgwikiDirectory_of_the_Northern_Ireland_Troublesbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiGood_Friday_Agreementbull httpswwwmi5govukhomethe-threatsterrorismnorthern-irelandrepublican-terrorist-groupshtmlbull httpswwwmi5govukhomethe-threatsterrorismnorthern-irelandprovisional-irish-republican-army-

pirahtmlbull httpnewsbbccoukhienglishstaticnorthern_irelandunderstandingeventshunger_strikestm

  • The Troubles
  • Brief Overview
  • 30 Years of Conflict
  • Slide 4
  • Background
  • The Irish War of Independence
  • Slide 7
  • Anglo-Irish Treaty (signed 6 December 1921)
  • Irish Civil War
  • 1922-1966 Ireland
  • The Civil Rights Movement
  • Slide 12
  • Slide 13
  • Objectives of the Civil Rights Movement
  • The 1969 Northern Ireland Riots ndashThe Troubles Begin
  • Culmination of Tension
  • No-Go Areas
  • No-Go Areas (2)
  • Early 1970sndash The Rise of the Provisional IRA
  • The IRA Split
  • Rise of the UVF and Loyalist Terror Groups
  • Beginnings
  • UVF Statement 21 May 1964
  • The Paramilitaries
  • Irish RepublicansCatholics
  • The Provisional IRA
  • IRA Statement Late 80s
  • Statistics
  • RecruitmentFunding
  • Weaponry
  • Weaponry (2)
  • Slide 32
  • Mortars and IEDs
  • EOD Officer Approaches PIRA Car Bomb
  • The Barrack Buster
  • Vigilantism
  • Slide 37
  • Slide 38
  • Policy on Informants
  • Terrorist Activities
  • Terrorist Activities (continued)
  • The INLA
  • Statistics (2)
  • Ideology
  • Terrorist Activities (2)
  • Internal Feuds
  • Slide 47
  • British LoyalistsProtestants
  • The UDAUFF
  • Former UFF Member
  • Statistics (3)
  • Ideology (2)
  • Terrorist Activities (3)
  • Slide 54
  • Organized Crime
  • The UVF
  • Statistics (4)
  • Ideology (3)
  • Terrorist Activities (4)
  • The Shankhill Butchers
  • Weaponry (3)
  • Slide 62
  • Organized Crime (2)
  • Major Incidents 1969-1998
  • Bloody Sunday 30 January 1972
  • Massacre on the Bogside
  • Bloody Friday 21 July 1972
  • A City Under Siege
  • Dublin and Monaghan Bombings 17 May 1974
  • Deadliest Attack of the Troubles
  • Warrenpoint Ambush 27 August 1979
  • Roadside IEDs
  • Summer of 1981 Irish Hunger Strikes
  • A Defining Moment for the Republican Cause
  • The Five Demands
  • Previous Protests
  • Dirty Protesters
  • Thatcherrsquos Response
  • Ten Strikers Die
  • Bobby Sands
  • Reaction to Sandsrsquo Death
  • Conclusion
  • 1983 The Maze Prison Escape
  • The ldquoGreat Escaperdquo
  • 12 October 1984 Brighton Hotel Bombing
  • The PIRA Nearly Gets Thatcher
  • Loughgall Ambush 8 May 1987
  • The SAS Strikes
  • British Army Lynx Shootdown 20 March 1994
  • The PIRA Shoots Down a Helicopter
  • 1996 Manchester Bombing
  • The PIRA Destroys Manchester
  • Omagh Bombing 1998
  • Last Great Deadly Attack of the Troubles
  • The Good Friday Agreement and Northern Ireland Peace Process
  • Beginnings (2)
  • Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein former PIRA Belfast Brigade OC
  • Good Friday Agreement 1998
  • PM Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern Sign the GFA
  • GFA Mandates
  • Northern Ireland Today
  • Still Conflict But No War
  • Catholic Slum of Ardoyne Belfast July 2011
  • Splinter Groups
  • Herersquos To A Brighter Future in Northern Ireland
  • Works Cited
Page 21: The Troubles, 1969-1998

The Paramilitaries

Irish RepublicansCatholics

The Provisional IRA

IRA Statement Late 80s

>

Statistics

bull Suffered 293 Casualtiesbull Over 10000 members imprisoned on various charges

throughout the conflictbull Killed 656 members of the British Armed Forcesbull Killed 272 Members of the Royal Ulster Constabulary

(RUC) Police Forcebull Killed 44 members of loyalistprotestant terror groupsbull Killed between 620-650 civiliansbull Killed over 1500 people

RecruitmentFundingbull IRA recruitment in Catholic neighborhoods was similar to the phenomenon

of gang membership in the inner-city United States Young Catholics typically joined to create a sense of belonging to seem ldquohardrdquo or look ldquocoolrdquo to feel protected from the brutality of the RUC during the Troubles or to help defend their communities IRA members were not asked to join but volunteered

bull IRA lsquofunds-raisingrsquo activities included collecting protection money from Catholic businesses (a ldquorevolutionary taxrdquo) robbing banks kidnapping citizens for ransom and cigarette and gasoline smuggling across the Irish border (manipulating the differing tax prices on both sides of the border and selling fuel and cigarettes illicitly) Although the Provisional IRA has officially disbanded and no longer engages in terrorism there is substantial evidence that extortion rackets in poor Catholic neighborhoods and contraband smuggling operations along the border still exist in Northern Ireland and are run by former IRA men solely for profiteering purposes

Weaponry

bull The Provisional IRA obtained a significant amount of arms from both Irish-American supporters in the northeastern United States (including members of notorious gangster Whitey Bulgerrsquos Irish Mob in 1970s-80s Boston) and from the Libyan government under Muammar Gadaffi

bull Gadaffi took over in Libya in 1969 and initially armed the IRA seeing them as comrades-in-arms fighting British imperialism Connections re-emerged in 1986 after the Thatcher Administrationrsquos support of the US bombings of Libya that killed Gadaffirsquos adopted daughter

Weaponrybull When the IRA disarmed as part of the Good Friday Agreement in

1998 (more on that later) they released the following to the British Armed Forces

bull 1000 Rifles (AK-47s AR-15s etc)bull 3 Tons of Semtex (a general-purpose plastic explosive)bull 20-30 Heavy Machine Gunsbull 7 Surface-to-Air Missilesbull 7 Flamethrowersbull 1200 Detonatorsbull 20 RPGrsquosbull 100 Handgunsbull 100+ Hand Grenades

Mortars and IEDsbull The PIRA was incredibly proficient at bomb-making and made

extensive use of Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) during their 30 year campaign

bull IEDs were typically constructed with chemical mixes of fertilizer gasoline and other home-made components Libyan Semtex was also used in several heavy-duty bombs Nails and gunpowder were typically implemented in pipe bombs made out of metal pipes Most IEDs had built in countermeasures such as the mercury tilt switch which would cause the bomb to explode if moved at all should a British EOD officer attempt to dismantle it

bull The PIRA developed the ldquoBarrack Busterrdquo mortar in the late lsquo70s or a homemade mortar made up of common household materials that was used to attack several Army bases from afar and even Prime Minister Margaret Thatcherrsquos househellip 10 Downing Street in a 1991 attack that destroyed the Prime Ministerrsquos rear garden (the mortar was fired out the back of a nearby van)

EOD Officer Approaches PIRA Car Bomb

The Barrack Buster

>

Vigilantismbull The RUC was not trusted in Catholic neighborhoods throughout the

Troubles and did not regularly patrol or even enter them in urban areas of Northern Ireland Thus when there was a community drug dealer car thief burglar rapist or pedophile the IRA took it upon themselves to issue brutal street justice to those involved

bull Occasionally offering warnings for lesser offences such as petty thievery or drug dealing if the IRA had enough of a certain member of the community they perceived as anti-social he or she was usually jumped brutally beaten andor lsquokneecappedrsquo ndash one of the IRArsquos most notorious methods ndash in which the victim was pinned down and shot through the kneecaps with a firearm or occasionally had their kneecaps drilled through with power-drills Other methods included releasing starving Rottweilerrsquos on the offender dropping cinderblocks on the offenderrsquos hands or even tarring and feathering the offender The IRArsquos process in determining an individualrsquos guilt was never open to scrutiny

bull If the offender persisted after an IRA punishment he was then given a notice by the IRA to leave the country as soon as possiblehellip referred to as being ldquoput outrdquo of the community If the offender still did not leave he was murdered

Policy on Informantsbull In an effort to stamp out collusion with the British forces and informants on the

IRA the IRA was responsible for torturing and killing several accused Catholic civilians throughout the conflict

bull Investigations into collusion infiltration and informants were carried out by the Internal Security Unit of the IRA colloquially known as the ldquoNutting Squadrdquo

bull The ISU would carry out debriefings of IRA prisoners upon their release from British detention so as to discover whether or not they had lsquocrackedrsquo and released information to British interrogators

bull Typical ISU torture techniques on those accused of informing included drowning genitalnipple mutilation electrocution with livewires pouring kerosene on the accusedrsquos legs before setting fire to them and branding with hot irons Informants were always killed afterwards with a bullet through the back of the head

bull Of the 18 ldquoDisappearedrdquo accused informants that were abducted and executed by the IRA during the Troubles only 10 bodies have been found

bull Martin McGartland was an IRA informant who was estimated to have saved 50 lives in the conflict before he was discovered and abducted by the ISU He escaped and lives today in seclusion The film ldquo50 Dead Men Walkingrdquo is based on his exploits and is an excellent realistic non-romanticized take on the Troubles in Northern Ireland

Terrorist Activitiesbull Common tactics included breaking into the homes of off-duty RUC police

officers and murdering them in their beds or setting booby-trap bombs underneath RUC police officersrsquo cars and unionist politiciansrsquo cars so that they would blow up as the engine was started RUC men were typically targeted when they were off-duty and many were shot dead in front of their families The PIRA would also impersonate innocent Catholic civilians call the police to report an emergency and ambush the police from hidden positions when they arrived at the stated address (another reason the RUC was hesitant to go into Catholic neighborhoods during this period)

bull Most notorious for their bombings they would typically park car bombs in predominately Protestant communities call in the bomb threat so that the area would be evacuated and an EOD squad would arrive to dismantle it the bomb would then be detonated with hopes of killing an EOD officer and destroying Protestant housing tenements

bull The PIRA rarely intentionally targeted civilians especially in the 80srsquo and 90srsquo but were involved in the bombings of several Protestant-owned pubs during the 1970s in response to loyalist terrorist groups bombing Catholic-owned pubs They also carried out the Kingsmill massacre in 1976 in which eleven Protestant workmen that were traveling on a minibus were held up by the IRA and all individually executed in response to the execution of six Catholic civilians by the UVF the night before

Terrorist Activities (continued)bull Other activities included engaging in firefights with British squadrons as

they patrolled the countrysidestreets of urban areas sniper attacks on RUC or British Army patrolscheckpoints planting landmines along British foot patrol routes in rural areas planting roadside IEDs along British convoy routes and bombing ferries and buses containing on-or-off duty British soldiers

bull The notorious ldquohuman bombrdquo technique in which civilians or off-duty members of the British security forces were kidnapped and then forced to drive car bombs into British military targets ndash such as checkpoints and Army bases ndash after the PIRA had placed their familiesrsquo lives under threat

bull Inciting riots and providing Catholic youths with molotov cocktails (gasoline bombs) during such riots so as to maximize public disorder and destruction was also an almost daily IRA activity in Catholic communities in urban Northern Ireland

The INLA

Statistics

bull Suffered 33 casualtiesbull Killed 46 members of the British Security Forcesbull Killed 2 members of the Irish Security Forcesbull Killed 39 civiliansbull Killed 3 civilian political activistsbull Killed 16 members of rival Republican terror

groupsbull Killed 7 members of Loyalist terror groups

Ideology

bull Founded by Seamus Costello in 1974 as the military wing of the Irish Republican Socialist Party

bull Shared similar goals to the Provisional IRA but far more socialist in ideology INLA wanted a socialist united Irish republic and blamed class struggles for many of the problems in Northern Ireland whereas the PIRA simply wanted a united Irish republic and had little interest in class struggle or economics

bull Whereas the PIRA was almost exclusively Catholic the INLA had some Protestant members most of whom were involved for purely socialist reasons

Terrorist Activitiesbull Although far less powerful and bold than the PIRA the INLA

nevertheless presented a potent terrorist threat to the United Kingdom during the Troubles

bull Similar tactics to the IRA car bombings shooting off-duty police and soldiers dead and high-profile assassinations

bull Their most high-profile attacks included the car bomb assassination of Airey Neave one of Margaret Thatcherrsquos closest political supporters in 1979 the murder of infamous Loyalist terror leader Billy Wright (who was murdered by INLA inmates in a British political prison in 1997) and the Ballykelley Disco Bombing in 1982 in which the INLA bombed a disco-club frequented by off-duty British soldiers managing to kill 11 of them as well as 6 civilians as well as destroying the disco

Internal Feuds

bull A split in 1986 led the INLA to split into the INLA and the IPLO or Irish Peoplersquos Liberation Organization based on IPLO membersrsquo perceived lack of political motivation and heavy involvement in drug dealing and criminality

bull There were several retaliatory killings between the two groups that persisted until 1992 when the PIRA had enough of the IPLOrsquos involvement in drug dealing in Catholic areas of Belfast and on 31 October 1992 virtually destroyed the entire organization in one night with a series of raids killings and kneecappings that killed or crippled the majority of the grouprsquos members

British LoyalistsProtestants

The UDAUFF

Former UFF Member

>

Statistics

bull Suffered 89 casualtiesbull Killed 197 civiliansbull Killed 12 civilian political activistsbull Killed 37 members of rival loyalist terror

groupsbull Killed 11 members of republican terror groupsbull Killed 3 members of the British Security Forces

Ideology

bull The UDA or Ulster Defense Association and its military wing the Ulster Freedom Fighters (UFF) was a loyalist protestant terror squad that targeted PIRA and INLA members as well as general Catholic civilians in bombings and shootings throughout Northern Ireland

bull It pledged to end its campaign of violence whenever the IRA set down its arms yet should the UK government appease the IRA and grant a 32-county Irish Republic the UDA pledged to act as ldquothe IRA in reverserdquo

Terrorist Activitiesbull The UDA saw itself as a militia defending upstanding protestant loyalist

communities from dangerous and lower-class Catholics that were disrupting the status quo in Northern Ireland They pledged primarily to target IRA men but ended up killing a majority of Catholic civilians during the Troubles They were also known to intimidate and exile known Catholic families from predominately-Protestant communities in Belfast and other urban areas

bull Drive-by shootings shooting up or planting bombs in predominately-Catholic pubs and bars and jumping brutally beating andor kneecapping Catholic civilians were all frequent tactics

bull The UDA discreetly worked in collusion with the RUC and other British security agencies so as to track down and assassinate known IRA members They would also patrol Protestant neighborhoods alongside British soldiers at the height of the Troubles Many RUC police officers and prison guards were also UDA members

bull The UDA alongside many other loyalist paramilitaries benefitted from the import of several arms shipments from Lebanese arms dealers in the early 1970s including rocket launchers 200+ AK-47 Rifles 90+ handguns and over 400 grenades They also received various weapons such as the uzi submachine gun and explosive devices from arms dealers in the Soviet bloc in the 1980s

Organized Crime

bull The UDA and its members were also heavily involved in drug dealing from the street level to wholesale purchase primarily in MDMA and cannabis throughout the Troubles

bull Protection racketeering and money laundering were also common amongst the UDA in protestant communities

bull However should a member of a UDA-ran community begin stealing or dealing drugs without UDA consent he was abruptly branded as ldquoanti-socialrdquo and either killed or kneecapped

The UVF

Statistics

bull Suffered unknown number of casualtiesbull Killed 412 civiliansbull Killed 11 civilian political activistsbull Killed 21 members of republican terror groupsbull Killed 42 members of rival loyalist terror

groupsbull Killed 6 members of the Security Forces

Ideology

bull Similar to the UDAUFF the Ulster Volunteer Forcersquos primary aim was to combat Irish republicanism in Northern Ireland primarily the PIRA They wanted Northern Ireland to remain in the UK

Terrorist Activitiesbull The majority of UVF victims were Catholic civilians

many of whom were killed at random These attacks were intended to demoralize the IRA as the IRA drew most of its support from the Catholic community

bull Planting bombs in predominately-Catholic pubs or simply residential areas was a very frequent UVF tactic and in 1973 they detonated more bombs in Northern Ireland than the UDA and the PIRA combined Assassinations mass shootings booby-trap car bombs and kidnappings were also frequent UVF activities

The Shankhill Butchers

bull The ldquoShankhill Butchersrdquo were a notorious offshoot UVF group known for abducting and literally slitting the throats of Catholic civilians and rival loyalist terror groups in the late 1970s They were led by Lenny Murphy (who was eventually imprisoned and upon his release of a 4-year stint murdered by the PIRA) and killed 23 people most of whom were Catholic civilians Many experts liken the Shankhill Butchers more to a group of serial killers than to politically or even ethnically-motivated murderers

bull The Butchers were all eventually all either imprisoned killed by the PIRA or both

Weaponrybull The UVF received the majority of its weaponry in the late 1970s

from Armscor an apartheid-South Africa state-owned arms company which in defiance of various UN sanctions and embargoes sold them to the UVF

bull Weapons were thought to consist ofbull 200 Czech SA vz 58 Assault Riflesbull 90 Browning Pistolsbull 500 RGD-5 Frag Grenadesbull 30000 rounds of ammunitionbull 12 RPG-7 Rocket Launchers and 150+ Rocketsbull The UVF also began using the illegally-obtained mining explosive

Powergel in the early 1990s

Organized Crime

bull The UVF was also heavily involved in organized crime including protection racketeering and drug smugglingdealing including cannabis MDMA cocaine and amphetamines Bank robberies were also very frequent in the 1970s

Major Incidents 1969-1998

Bloody Sunday 30 January 1972

Massacre on the Bogsidebull In 1972 during a large scale but peaceful civil-rights march in the

troubled predominately Catholic neighborhood of Bogside in Derry 26 unarmed civil rights marchers were shot by members of the British Army 14 of whom were killed Five of those shot were shot in the back

bull After several inquiries into the incident there was found to have been no justifiable provocation from the protestors and no shots fired from the protestors during the march The massacre was conducted in full view of the public and the press

bull The PM David Cameron eventually issued a formal apology to the victims and victimsrsquo families of the massacre after several investigations failed to reveal any justifiable provocation for the massacre

bull The massacre sky-rocketed PIRA membership and recruitment as public perception of the British Army in Catholic communities in Northern Ireland reached an all-time low

Bloody Friday 21 July 1972

A City Under Siege

bull On 21 July 1972 the PIRA detonated 26 bombs in the space of 80 minutes in Belfast destroying banks bridges electrical substations Protestant housing tenements gasoline stations and private garages

bull Although warnings were called in at least 30 minutes prior to each bomb the amount of bombs exploding and the addition of multiple hoax warnings at the same time led to the Security Forces being unable to evacuate all the areas in time 11 people were killed and 130 were injured many of them horrifically mutilated Of those injured 77 were women or children

Dublin and Monaghan Bombings 17 May 1974

Deadliest Attack of the Troubles

bull Perpetrated by the UVF in the southern Republic of Ireland three car bombs exploded in Dublin during rush hour and another exploded in Monaghan around 90 minutes later

bull 33 civilians and a full-term unborn child were killed in the bombing while nearly 300 were injured The UVF did not claim responsibility for the bombings until 1993

bull The majority of those killed were young women although the age range of those killed ranged from 5 months old to 80 years old

Warrenpoint Ambush 27 August 1979

Roadside IEDsbull In the southern part of County Armagh Northern Ireland a predominately-

Catholic rural region and former PIRA stronghold right on the border with the southern Republic of Ireland a British troop convoy was hit with a remote-control detonated roadside 500lb truck-bomb and destroyed instantly killing 6 troops The surviving soldiers then wrongly believed they were under sniper fire from the other side of the Irish border and began firing at civilians immediately after the bombing killing 1 and injuring another

bull 32 minutes after the first bombing the IRA used its knowledge of how the British reacted to bombings to correctly predict that they would set up an incident-command point in a nearby gatehouse Unfortunately for the British there was a second 800lb fertilizer bomb planted near the gatehouse that when detonated killed 12 other soldiers who were responding to the initial bomb

bull It was the deadliest single attack on the British Army during the Troubles and a highly successful attack for the PIRA

Summer of 1981 Irish Hunger Strikes

A Defining Moment for the Republican Cause

bull Beginning on 1 March 1981 led by Bobby Sands 7 PIRA and 3 INLA inmates at the notorious ldquoMazerdquo prison began to refuse food until Margaret Thatcher PM of Great Britain at that time began to recognize terrorist prisoners as political prisoners and allowed them their ldquoFive Demandsrdquo

The Five Demands

bull The right to not wear a prison uniformbull The right to not do prison workbull The right of free association with other

prisoners and to organize in educational and recreational pursuits

bull Full restoration of remission lost through any protests towards these demands

Previous Protestsbull The Maze prison was a very high-security and low-quality prison that

housed almost all PIRA prisoners during the Troubles It was run in a very ethically questionable fashion with frequent beatings and borderline-torture techniques used on Republican prisoners and extremely poor living conditions for prisoners Many Maze prison guards were members of the UDAUVF or had strong connections with one of the two groups as well

bull Massive peaceful protests and marches by Irish republicans outside of the Maze Prison proved unsuccessful in attaining political status for republican prisoners as well as previous inmate protests in 1980 including non-fatal hunger strikes inmates refusing to wear prison uniforms and thus living in their cells naked and prisoners refusing to leave their cells to go to the bathroom until their requests had been granted (they therefore urinated and defecated in their cells and spread their excrement across their cell walls in what was known as the ldquoDirty Protestrdquo)

Dirty Protesters

Thatcherrsquos Response

bull ldquoThose terrorists will carry their determination to disrupt society to any lengths Once again we have a hunger strike in the Maze Prison in the quest for what they call lsquopolitical statusrsquo There is no such thing as political murder political bombing or political violence There is only criminal murder criminal bombing and criminal violence We will not compromise on this There will be no political statusrdquo

Ten Strikers Diebull Bobby Sands the leader of the strike was imprisoned as a PIRA member

on charges of firearm possession and in connection with the bombing of a furniture store He was the first to die after 66 days of not eating Sands was elected to a seat in Parliament whilst on Hunger Strike

bull Following Sandsrsquo death there were riots bus-burnings and attacks on the British embassy in the southern Republic of Ireland there were massive demonstrations in France and Italy a tomato was thrown as Queen Elizabeth II by demonstrators in Oslo and there were massive riots and civil disorder all over the streets of Belfast The South African ANC and (at the time) terrorist Nelson Mandela expressed their support for the PIRA and the hunger strikers (Mandela himself claimed he was directly inspired by Sands to undertake hunger strikes against the Apartheid government in South Africa) as well as the Palestine Liberation Organization a middle-eastern terror group

bull Over 100000 attended Sandsrsquo funeral

Bobby Sands

ldquoOur revenge will be the laughter of our childrenrdquo

Reaction to Sandsrsquo Death

>

Conclusion

bull The Hunger Strike was eventually called off after 10 strikers including Sands had died

bull James Prior newly installed secretary of state of Northern Ireland granted the prisoners partial concessions all of the Five Demands except for the right to not do prison work Margaret Thatcher refused to budge on political status

bull The Hunger Strikes opened a new way for the PIRA to pursue its objectives politically whereas previously it had seen violence as the only solution to the plight of Irish nationalists in Northern Ireland

1983 The Maze Prison Escape

The ldquoGreat Escaperdquo

bull Using smuggled-in guns and knives 38 PIRA prisoners who had been convicted of offenses ranging from murder to causing explosions escaped from one of the most high-security prisons in Europe They completely took over the H7 prison block and took their prison guards hostage before escaping in a food supply truck Several prison guards were shot and stabbed but only one died of a heart attack during the escape

bull Fifteen escapees were recaptured the first day with four more captured over the next two days following the breakout The remaining 19 were transported to PIRA strongholds and given the option to either rejoin the IRArsquos cause or be transported to the United States to live under a new identity

12 October 1984 Brighton Hotel Bombing

The PIRA Nearly Gets Thatcherbull Margaret Thatcher the highly controversial far-right British PM from

1979-1990 had become a tremendously hated figure amongst the Irish nationalist community in Northern Ireland following the 1981 Hunger Strikes and for her general uncompromising stand on Irish republicanism

bull PIRA man Patrick Magee stayed at the Brighton Hotel from the 14-17 September 1984 planting a 20-lb bomb under his bath

bull Thatcher was staying at the Brighton Hotel for a political conference and was still up at 254AM on 12 October when the bomb was detonated The bomb decimated her bathroom but left the bedroom and sitting room of her suite largely unscathed

bull The PIRA statement to Thatcher afterwards was ldquoToday we were unlucky But remember we only have to be lucky once You will have to be lucky alwaysrdquo

Loughgall Ambush 8 May 1987

The SAS Strikes

bull A botched attack on Loughgall Villagersquos RUC Police Base in which the PIRA drove a backhoe into the fortified base and ran away to detonate the bomb that was inside of the backhoe went wrong as the SAS the British Special Forces had prior knowledge of the attack and quickly dispatched the 8 PIRA members involved

bull Although the RUC base was wrecked and bombed there were no RUC or SAS casualties and it was the PIRArsquos greatest loss of life in a single incident during the Troubles

British Army Lynx Shootdown 20 March 1994

The PIRA Shoots Down a Helicopter

bull Using the previously mentioned Barrack-Buster homemade mortar PIRA insurgents were able to fire on a British helicopter that was in the process of landing whilst hiding behind a hay bail from around 150 yards out

bull The helicopter was hit with the mortar shell around 100 feet above the ground but the pilot was able to successfully crash-land the helicopter and escape before its propane tanks exploded There were no casualties but the attack was a major propaganda coup for the PIRA

1996 Manchester Bombing

The PIRA Destroys Manchester

bull On Saturday 15 June 1996 the PIRA sent in telephoned warnings and 90 minutes later detonated a 3300lb fertilizer-based truck bomb in the heart of Manchester City Centre the biggest bomb detonated in Great Britain during peacetime The bomb killed nobody due to previous warnings but led to 212 non-fatal injuries and essentially destroyed Manchester City Centre leaving approximately 700 million pounds ($12bn) worth of damage in its wake

Omagh Bombing 1998

Last Great Deadly Attack of the Troubles

bull Perpetrated by a Provisional IRA splinter group that was rejecting the peace process calling themselves the ldquoReal IRArdquo the 510lb fertilizer-based bomb was placed on main street in the town of Omagh Northern Ireland Warnings were called in approximately 30 minutes before the bombing but they were inaccurate and police ended up moving more civilians towards the bomb which ended up killing 29 people and causing over 300 non-fatal injuries This was the highest death toll from a single incident during the Troubles

bull It received universal outrage and was condemned even by the PIRA and its political wing Sinn Fein It spurred on the Northern Ireland peace process and the RIRA apologized and called a ceasefire several days after

The Good Friday Agreement and Northern Ireland Peace Process

Beginningsbull Following the 1981 Hunger Strikes Irish republicans began to

increasingly look towards politics rather than violence as a means of achieving their aims Sinn Fein gaelic for ldquoWe Ourselvesrdquo was a fiercely Irish Republican political party which led by the Machiavellian former PIRA leader and Maze inmate Gerry Adams began to push for a more peaceful solution to the Troubles in Northern Ireland

bull It became apparent by the late 1990s that although the PIRA was not losing a war against the British establishment it would be impossible to truly lsquowin the fightrsquo through violence and that any further terrorism would serve not to achieve any real political aim but only to prolong and continue suffering and violence in Northern Ireland and that politics was a much better way of achieving Republican aims

Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein former PIRA Belfast Brigade OC

Good Friday Agreement 1998

bull The Peace Process began in 1994 and included intermittent terrorist ceasefires and political negotiations between the major Irish republican and British unionist parties and culminated on April 10 1998 when the Good Friday Agreement was signed

PM Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern Sign the GFA

GFA Mandatesbull That Northern Ireland was to remain British until a majority of people in Northern

Ireland and the southern Republic of Ireland wanted otherwise bull The creation of an entirely new far less sectarian and religiously diverse Northern

Irish local governmentbull The decommissioning of arms from terrorist groups on both the unionist and

nationalist side of the political divide (ultimately successful all arms decommissioned by 2005)

bull Mutual respect and civil rights between Catholics and Protestants bull The reduction and eventual elimination of British troops in Northern Ireland

(ultimately successful all troops withdrawn by 2005)bull Eventual early prison release for all individuals imprisoned for terrorist offenses as

long as they were apart of a terrorist group that was decommissioning in accordance with the GFA

bull Disbandment of the RUC police service and the installation of the new Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) which was required to be at least 50 Catholic

Northern Ireland Today

Still Conflict But No Warbull Since the complete decommissioning of the arms and

disbandment of the PIRA INLA UDAUFF and UVF due to the Good Friday Agreement there is nowhere near the amount of violence in Northern Ireland or Belfast as there was 20 years ago There are no more weekly bombings and riots and no more British troops patrolling Catholic areas in armored vehicles

bull Despite this there are still occasional riots and clashes with the PSNI several times a year specifically on dates of great historical significance to the Catholic or Protestant communities and there is still a deep distrust and even hatred between many Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland although that continues to change with time

Catholic Slum of Ardoyne Belfast July 2011

Splinter Groups

bull Many former PIRA or UDA terrorists have now taken to organized crime for purely profiteering purposes but are no longer involved in substantial violence or any political-based terrorism

bull Splinter groups such as the Real IRA and Continuity IRA in Catholic communities and the Orange Volunteers and Red Hand Commandos in Protestant communities still conduct occasional violence towards Police and civilians in Northern Ireland but are all rather small poorly armed and poorly funded groups that pose nowhere near the threat that terrorist groups in the 80s and 90s did in Northern Ireland

Herersquos To A Brighter Future in Northern Ireland

Works Citedbull httpwwwbbccoukhistorytroublesbull httpcainulstacukbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiProvisional_Irish_Republican_Armybull httpenwikipediaorgwikiThe_Troublesbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiUlster_Defence_Associationbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiUlster_Volunteer_Forcebull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_National_Liberation_Armybull ldquoA Secret History of the IRArdquo by Ed Moloney ndashWW Norton amp Company Reprint 2003bull ldquoVoices From The Grave Two Menrsquos War in Irelandrdquo by Ed Moloney ndash Public Affairs 2010bull ldquoFifty Dead Men Walkingrdquo by Martin McGartland ndash John Blake 2009bull httpwwwinfopleasecomspotnorthireland1htmlbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_Civil_Warbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_War_of_Independencebull httpenwikipediaorgwiki1981_Irish_hunger_strikebull httpenwikipediaorgwikiDirectory_of_the_Northern_Ireland_Troublesbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiGood_Friday_Agreementbull httpswwwmi5govukhomethe-threatsterrorismnorthern-irelandrepublican-terrorist-groupshtmlbull httpswwwmi5govukhomethe-threatsterrorismnorthern-irelandprovisional-irish-republican-army-

pirahtmlbull httpnewsbbccoukhienglishstaticnorthern_irelandunderstandingeventshunger_strikestm

  • The Troubles
  • Brief Overview
  • 30 Years of Conflict
  • Slide 4
  • Background
  • The Irish War of Independence
  • Slide 7
  • Anglo-Irish Treaty (signed 6 December 1921)
  • Irish Civil War
  • 1922-1966 Ireland
  • The Civil Rights Movement
  • Slide 12
  • Slide 13
  • Objectives of the Civil Rights Movement
  • The 1969 Northern Ireland Riots ndashThe Troubles Begin
  • Culmination of Tension
  • No-Go Areas
  • No-Go Areas (2)
  • Early 1970sndash The Rise of the Provisional IRA
  • The IRA Split
  • Rise of the UVF and Loyalist Terror Groups
  • Beginnings
  • UVF Statement 21 May 1964
  • The Paramilitaries
  • Irish RepublicansCatholics
  • The Provisional IRA
  • IRA Statement Late 80s
  • Statistics
  • RecruitmentFunding
  • Weaponry
  • Weaponry (2)
  • Slide 32
  • Mortars and IEDs
  • EOD Officer Approaches PIRA Car Bomb
  • The Barrack Buster
  • Vigilantism
  • Slide 37
  • Slide 38
  • Policy on Informants
  • Terrorist Activities
  • Terrorist Activities (continued)
  • The INLA
  • Statistics (2)
  • Ideology
  • Terrorist Activities (2)
  • Internal Feuds
  • Slide 47
  • British LoyalistsProtestants
  • The UDAUFF
  • Former UFF Member
  • Statistics (3)
  • Ideology (2)
  • Terrorist Activities (3)
  • Slide 54
  • Organized Crime
  • The UVF
  • Statistics (4)
  • Ideology (3)
  • Terrorist Activities (4)
  • The Shankhill Butchers
  • Weaponry (3)
  • Slide 62
  • Organized Crime (2)
  • Major Incidents 1969-1998
  • Bloody Sunday 30 January 1972
  • Massacre on the Bogside
  • Bloody Friday 21 July 1972
  • A City Under Siege
  • Dublin and Monaghan Bombings 17 May 1974
  • Deadliest Attack of the Troubles
  • Warrenpoint Ambush 27 August 1979
  • Roadside IEDs
  • Summer of 1981 Irish Hunger Strikes
  • A Defining Moment for the Republican Cause
  • The Five Demands
  • Previous Protests
  • Dirty Protesters
  • Thatcherrsquos Response
  • Ten Strikers Die
  • Bobby Sands
  • Reaction to Sandsrsquo Death
  • Conclusion
  • 1983 The Maze Prison Escape
  • The ldquoGreat Escaperdquo
  • 12 October 1984 Brighton Hotel Bombing
  • The PIRA Nearly Gets Thatcher
  • Loughgall Ambush 8 May 1987
  • The SAS Strikes
  • British Army Lynx Shootdown 20 March 1994
  • The PIRA Shoots Down a Helicopter
  • 1996 Manchester Bombing
  • The PIRA Destroys Manchester
  • Omagh Bombing 1998
  • Last Great Deadly Attack of the Troubles
  • The Good Friday Agreement and Northern Ireland Peace Process
  • Beginnings (2)
  • Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein former PIRA Belfast Brigade OC
  • Good Friday Agreement 1998
  • PM Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern Sign the GFA
  • GFA Mandates
  • Northern Ireland Today
  • Still Conflict But No War
  • Catholic Slum of Ardoyne Belfast July 2011
  • Splinter Groups
  • Herersquos To A Brighter Future in Northern Ireland
  • Works Cited
Page 22: The Troubles, 1969-1998

Irish RepublicansCatholics

The Provisional IRA

IRA Statement Late 80s

>

Statistics

bull Suffered 293 Casualtiesbull Over 10000 members imprisoned on various charges

throughout the conflictbull Killed 656 members of the British Armed Forcesbull Killed 272 Members of the Royal Ulster Constabulary

(RUC) Police Forcebull Killed 44 members of loyalistprotestant terror groupsbull Killed between 620-650 civiliansbull Killed over 1500 people

RecruitmentFundingbull IRA recruitment in Catholic neighborhoods was similar to the phenomenon

of gang membership in the inner-city United States Young Catholics typically joined to create a sense of belonging to seem ldquohardrdquo or look ldquocoolrdquo to feel protected from the brutality of the RUC during the Troubles or to help defend their communities IRA members were not asked to join but volunteered

bull IRA lsquofunds-raisingrsquo activities included collecting protection money from Catholic businesses (a ldquorevolutionary taxrdquo) robbing banks kidnapping citizens for ransom and cigarette and gasoline smuggling across the Irish border (manipulating the differing tax prices on both sides of the border and selling fuel and cigarettes illicitly) Although the Provisional IRA has officially disbanded and no longer engages in terrorism there is substantial evidence that extortion rackets in poor Catholic neighborhoods and contraband smuggling operations along the border still exist in Northern Ireland and are run by former IRA men solely for profiteering purposes

Weaponry

bull The Provisional IRA obtained a significant amount of arms from both Irish-American supporters in the northeastern United States (including members of notorious gangster Whitey Bulgerrsquos Irish Mob in 1970s-80s Boston) and from the Libyan government under Muammar Gadaffi

bull Gadaffi took over in Libya in 1969 and initially armed the IRA seeing them as comrades-in-arms fighting British imperialism Connections re-emerged in 1986 after the Thatcher Administrationrsquos support of the US bombings of Libya that killed Gadaffirsquos adopted daughter

Weaponrybull When the IRA disarmed as part of the Good Friday Agreement in

1998 (more on that later) they released the following to the British Armed Forces

bull 1000 Rifles (AK-47s AR-15s etc)bull 3 Tons of Semtex (a general-purpose plastic explosive)bull 20-30 Heavy Machine Gunsbull 7 Surface-to-Air Missilesbull 7 Flamethrowersbull 1200 Detonatorsbull 20 RPGrsquosbull 100 Handgunsbull 100+ Hand Grenades

Mortars and IEDsbull The PIRA was incredibly proficient at bomb-making and made

extensive use of Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) during their 30 year campaign

bull IEDs were typically constructed with chemical mixes of fertilizer gasoline and other home-made components Libyan Semtex was also used in several heavy-duty bombs Nails and gunpowder were typically implemented in pipe bombs made out of metal pipes Most IEDs had built in countermeasures such as the mercury tilt switch which would cause the bomb to explode if moved at all should a British EOD officer attempt to dismantle it

bull The PIRA developed the ldquoBarrack Busterrdquo mortar in the late lsquo70s or a homemade mortar made up of common household materials that was used to attack several Army bases from afar and even Prime Minister Margaret Thatcherrsquos househellip 10 Downing Street in a 1991 attack that destroyed the Prime Ministerrsquos rear garden (the mortar was fired out the back of a nearby van)

EOD Officer Approaches PIRA Car Bomb

The Barrack Buster

>

Vigilantismbull The RUC was not trusted in Catholic neighborhoods throughout the

Troubles and did not regularly patrol or even enter them in urban areas of Northern Ireland Thus when there was a community drug dealer car thief burglar rapist or pedophile the IRA took it upon themselves to issue brutal street justice to those involved

bull Occasionally offering warnings for lesser offences such as petty thievery or drug dealing if the IRA had enough of a certain member of the community they perceived as anti-social he or she was usually jumped brutally beaten andor lsquokneecappedrsquo ndash one of the IRArsquos most notorious methods ndash in which the victim was pinned down and shot through the kneecaps with a firearm or occasionally had their kneecaps drilled through with power-drills Other methods included releasing starving Rottweilerrsquos on the offender dropping cinderblocks on the offenderrsquos hands or even tarring and feathering the offender The IRArsquos process in determining an individualrsquos guilt was never open to scrutiny

bull If the offender persisted after an IRA punishment he was then given a notice by the IRA to leave the country as soon as possiblehellip referred to as being ldquoput outrdquo of the community If the offender still did not leave he was murdered

Policy on Informantsbull In an effort to stamp out collusion with the British forces and informants on the

IRA the IRA was responsible for torturing and killing several accused Catholic civilians throughout the conflict

bull Investigations into collusion infiltration and informants were carried out by the Internal Security Unit of the IRA colloquially known as the ldquoNutting Squadrdquo

bull The ISU would carry out debriefings of IRA prisoners upon their release from British detention so as to discover whether or not they had lsquocrackedrsquo and released information to British interrogators

bull Typical ISU torture techniques on those accused of informing included drowning genitalnipple mutilation electrocution with livewires pouring kerosene on the accusedrsquos legs before setting fire to them and branding with hot irons Informants were always killed afterwards with a bullet through the back of the head

bull Of the 18 ldquoDisappearedrdquo accused informants that were abducted and executed by the IRA during the Troubles only 10 bodies have been found

bull Martin McGartland was an IRA informant who was estimated to have saved 50 lives in the conflict before he was discovered and abducted by the ISU He escaped and lives today in seclusion The film ldquo50 Dead Men Walkingrdquo is based on his exploits and is an excellent realistic non-romanticized take on the Troubles in Northern Ireland

Terrorist Activitiesbull Common tactics included breaking into the homes of off-duty RUC police

officers and murdering them in their beds or setting booby-trap bombs underneath RUC police officersrsquo cars and unionist politiciansrsquo cars so that they would blow up as the engine was started RUC men were typically targeted when they were off-duty and many were shot dead in front of their families The PIRA would also impersonate innocent Catholic civilians call the police to report an emergency and ambush the police from hidden positions when they arrived at the stated address (another reason the RUC was hesitant to go into Catholic neighborhoods during this period)

bull Most notorious for their bombings they would typically park car bombs in predominately Protestant communities call in the bomb threat so that the area would be evacuated and an EOD squad would arrive to dismantle it the bomb would then be detonated with hopes of killing an EOD officer and destroying Protestant housing tenements

bull The PIRA rarely intentionally targeted civilians especially in the 80srsquo and 90srsquo but were involved in the bombings of several Protestant-owned pubs during the 1970s in response to loyalist terrorist groups bombing Catholic-owned pubs They also carried out the Kingsmill massacre in 1976 in which eleven Protestant workmen that were traveling on a minibus were held up by the IRA and all individually executed in response to the execution of six Catholic civilians by the UVF the night before

Terrorist Activities (continued)bull Other activities included engaging in firefights with British squadrons as

they patrolled the countrysidestreets of urban areas sniper attacks on RUC or British Army patrolscheckpoints planting landmines along British foot patrol routes in rural areas planting roadside IEDs along British convoy routes and bombing ferries and buses containing on-or-off duty British soldiers

bull The notorious ldquohuman bombrdquo technique in which civilians or off-duty members of the British security forces were kidnapped and then forced to drive car bombs into British military targets ndash such as checkpoints and Army bases ndash after the PIRA had placed their familiesrsquo lives under threat

bull Inciting riots and providing Catholic youths with molotov cocktails (gasoline bombs) during such riots so as to maximize public disorder and destruction was also an almost daily IRA activity in Catholic communities in urban Northern Ireland

The INLA

Statistics

bull Suffered 33 casualtiesbull Killed 46 members of the British Security Forcesbull Killed 2 members of the Irish Security Forcesbull Killed 39 civiliansbull Killed 3 civilian political activistsbull Killed 16 members of rival Republican terror

groupsbull Killed 7 members of Loyalist terror groups

Ideology

bull Founded by Seamus Costello in 1974 as the military wing of the Irish Republican Socialist Party

bull Shared similar goals to the Provisional IRA but far more socialist in ideology INLA wanted a socialist united Irish republic and blamed class struggles for many of the problems in Northern Ireland whereas the PIRA simply wanted a united Irish republic and had little interest in class struggle or economics

bull Whereas the PIRA was almost exclusively Catholic the INLA had some Protestant members most of whom were involved for purely socialist reasons

Terrorist Activitiesbull Although far less powerful and bold than the PIRA the INLA

nevertheless presented a potent terrorist threat to the United Kingdom during the Troubles

bull Similar tactics to the IRA car bombings shooting off-duty police and soldiers dead and high-profile assassinations

bull Their most high-profile attacks included the car bomb assassination of Airey Neave one of Margaret Thatcherrsquos closest political supporters in 1979 the murder of infamous Loyalist terror leader Billy Wright (who was murdered by INLA inmates in a British political prison in 1997) and the Ballykelley Disco Bombing in 1982 in which the INLA bombed a disco-club frequented by off-duty British soldiers managing to kill 11 of them as well as 6 civilians as well as destroying the disco

Internal Feuds

bull A split in 1986 led the INLA to split into the INLA and the IPLO or Irish Peoplersquos Liberation Organization based on IPLO membersrsquo perceived lack of political motivation and heavy involvement in drug dealing and criminality

bull There were several retaliatory killings between the two groups that persisted until 1992 when the PIRA had enough of the IPLOrsquos involvement in drug dealing in Catholic areas of Belfast and on 31 October 1992 virtually destroyed the entire organization in one night with a series of raids killings and kneecappings that killed or crippled the majority of the grouprsquos members

British LoyalistsProtestants

The UDAUFF

Former UFF Member

>

Statistics

bull Suffered 89 casualtiesbull Killed 197 civiliansbull Killed 12 civilian political activistsbull Killed 37 members of rival loyalist terror

groupsbull Killed 11 members of republican terror groupsbull Killed 3 members of the British Security Forces

Ideology

bull The UDA or Ulster Defense Association and its military wing the Ulster Freedom Fighters (UFF) was a loyalist protestant terror squad that targeted PIRA and INLA members as well as general Catholic civilians in bombings and shootings throughout Northern Ireland

bull It pledged to end its campaign of violence whenever the IRA set down its arms yet should the UK government appease the IRA and grant a 32-county Irish Republic the UDA pledged to act as ldquothe IRA in reverserdquo

Terrorist Activitiesbull The UDA saw itself as a militia defending upstanding protestant loyalist

communities from dangerous and lower-class Catholics that were disrupting the status quo in Northern Ireland They pledged primarily to target IRA men but ended up killing a majority of Catholic civilians during the Troubles They were also known to intimidate and exile known Catholic families from predominately-Protestant communities in Belfast and other urban areas

bull Drive-by shootings shooting up or planting bombs in predominately-Catholic pubs and bars and jumping brutally beating andor kneecapping Catholic civilians were all frequent tactics

bull The UDA discreetly worked in collusion with the RUC and other British security agencies so as to track down and assassinate known IRA members They would also patrol Protestant neighborhoods alongside British soldiers at the height of the Troubles Many RUC police officers and prison guards were also UDA members

bull The UDA alongside many other loyalist paramilitaries benefitted from the import of several arms shipments from Lebanese arms dealers in the early 1970s including rocket launchers 200+ AK-47 Rifles 90+ handguns and over 400 grenades They also received various weapons such as the uzi submachine gun and explosive devices from arms dealers in the Soviet bloc in the 1980s

Organized Crime

bull The UDA and its members were also heavily involved in drug dealing from the street level to wholesale purchase primarily in MDMA and cannabis throughout the Troubles

bull Protection racketeering and money laundering were also common amongst the UDA in protestant communities

bull However should a member of a UDA-ran community begin stealing or dealing drugs without UDA consent he was abruptly branded as ldquoanti-socialrdquo and either killed or kneecapped

The UVF

Statistics

bull Suffered unknown number of casualtiesbull Killed 412 civiliansbull Killed 11 civilian political activistsbull Killed 21 members of republican terror groupsbull Killed 42 members of rival loyalist terror

groupsbull Killed 6 members of the Security Forces

Ideology

bull Similar to the UDAUFF the Ulster Volunteer Forcersquos primary aim was to combat Irish republicanism in Northern Ireland primarily the PIRA They wanted Northern Ireland to remain in the UK

Terrorist Activitiesbull The majority of UVF victims were Catholic civilians

many of whom were killed at random These attacks were intended to demoralize the IRA as the IRA drew most of its support from the Catholic community

bull Planting bombs in predominately-Catholic pubs or simply residential areas was a very frequent UVF tactic and in 1973 they detonated more bombs in Northern Ireland than the UDA and the PIRA combined Assassinations mass shootings booby-trap car bombs and kidnappings were also frequent UVF activities

The Shankhill Butchers

bull The ldquoShankhill Butchersrdquo were a notorious offshoot UVF group known for abducting and literally slitting the throats of Catholic civilians and rival loyalist terror groups in the late 1970s They were led by Lenny Murphy (who was eventually imprisoned and upon his release of a 4-year stint murdered by the PIRA) and killed 23 people most of whom were Catholic civilians Many experts liken the Shankhill Butchers more to a group of serial killers than to politically or even ethnically-motivated murderers

bull The Butchers were all eventually all either imprisoned killed by the PIRA or both

Weaponrybull The UVF received the majority of its weaponry in the late 1970s

from Armscor an apartheid-South Africa state-owned arms company which in defiance of various UN sanctions and embargoes sold them to the UVF

bull Weapons were thought to consist ofbull 200 Czech SA vz 58 Assault Riflesbull 90 Browning Pistolsbull 500 RGD-5 Frag Grenadesbull 30000 rounds of ammunitionbull 12 RPG-7 Rocket Launchers and 150+ Rocketsbull The UVF also began using the illegally-obtained mining explosive

Powergel in the early 1990s

Organized Crime

bull The UVF was also heavily involved in organized crime including protection racketeering and drug smugglingdealing including cannabis MDMA cocaine and amphetamines Bank robberies were also very frequent in the 1970s

Major Incidents 1969-1998

Bloody Sunday 30 January 1972

Massacre on the Bogsidebull In 1972 during a large scale but peaceful civil-rights march in the

troubled predominately Catholic neighborhood of Bogside in Derry 26 unarmed civil rights marchers were shot by members of the British Army 14 of whom were killed Five of those shot were shot in the back

bull After several inquiries into the incident there was found to have been no justifiable provocation from the protestors and no shots fired from the protestors during the march The massacre was conducted in full view of the public and the press

bull The PM David Cameron eventually issued a formal apology to the victims and victimsrsquo families of the massacre after several investigations failed to reveal any justifiable provocation for the massacre

bull The massacre sky-rocketed PIRA membership and recruitment as public perception of the British Army in Catholic communities in Northern Ireland reached an all-time low

Bloody Friday 21 July 1972

A City Under Siege

bull On 21 July 1972 the PIRA detonated 26 bombs in the space of 80 minutes in Belfast destroying banks bridges electrical substations Protestant housing tenements gasoline stations and private garages

bull Although warnings were called in at least 30 minutes prior to each bomb the amount of bombs exploding and the addition of multiple hoax warnings at the same time led to the Security Forces being unable to evacuate all the areas in time 11 people were killed and 130 were injured many of them horrifically mutilated Of those injured 77 were women or children

Dublin and Monaghan Bombings 17 May 1974

Deadliest Attack of the Troubles

bull Perpetrated by the UVF in the southern Republic of Ireland three car bombs exploded in Dublin during rush hour and another exploded in Monaghan around 90 minutes later

bull 33 civilians and a full-term unborn child were killed in the bombing while nearly 300 were injured The UVF did not claim responsibility for the bombings until 1993

bull The majority of those killed were young women although the age range of those killed ranged from 5 months old to 80 years old

Warrenpoint Ambush 27 August 1979

Roadside IEDsbull In the southern part of County Armagh Northern Ireland a predominately-

Catholic rural region and former PIRA stronghold right on the border with the southern Republic of Ireland a British troop convoy was hit with a remote-control detonated roadside 500lb truck-bomb and destroyed instantly killing 6 troops The surviving soldiers then wrongly believed they were under sniper fire from the other side of the Irish border and began firing at civilians immediately after the bombing killing 1 and injuring another

bull 32 minutes after the first bombing the IRA used its knowledge of how the British reacted to bombings to correctly predict that they would set up an incident-command point in a nearby gatehouse Unfortunately for the British there was a second 800lb fertilizer bomb planted near the gatehouse that when detonated killed 12 other soldiers who were responding to the initial bomb

bull It was the deadliest single attack on the British Army during the Troubles and a highly successful attack for the PIRA

Summer of 1981 Irish Hunger Strikes

A Defining Moment for the Republican Cause

bull Beginning on 1 March 1981 led by Bobby Sands 7 PIRA and 3 INLA inmates at the notorious ldquoMazerdquo prison began to refuse food until Margaret Thatcher PM of Great Britain at that time began to recognize terrorist prisoners as political prisoners and allowed them their ldquoFive Demandsrdquo

The Five Demands

bull The right to not wear a prison uniformbull The right to not do prison workbull The right of free association with other

prisoners and to organize in educational and recreational pursuits

bull Full restoration of remission lost through any protests towards these demands

Previous Protestsbull The Maze prison was a very high-security and low-quality prison that

housed almost all PIRA prisoners during the Troubles It was run in a very ethically questionable fashion with frequent beatings and borderline-torture techniques used on Republican prisoners and extremely poor living conditions for prisoners Many Maze prison guards were members of the UDAUVF or had strong connections with one of the two groups as well

bull Massive peaceful protests and marches by Irish republicans outside of the Maze Prison proved unsuccessful in attaining political status for republican prisoners as well as previous inmate protests in 1980 including non-fatal hunger strikes inmates refusing to wear prison uniforms and thus living in their cells naked and prisoners refusing to leave their cells to go to the bathroom until their requests had been granted (they therefore urinated and defecated in their cells and spread their excrement across their cell walls in what was known as the ldquoDirty Protestrdquo)

Dirty Protesters

Thatcherrsquos Response

bull ldquoThose terrorists will carry their determination to disrupt society to any lengths Once again we have a hunger strike in the Maze Prison in the quest for what they call lsquopolitical statusrsquo There is no such thing as political murder political bombing or political violence There is only criminal murder criminal bombing and criminal violence We will not compromise on this There will be no political statusrdquo

Ten Strikers Diebull Bobby Sands the leader of the strike was imprisoned as a PIRA member

on charges of firearm possession and in connection with the bombing of a furniture store He was the first to die after 66 days of not eating Sands was elected to a seat in Parliament whilst on Hunger Strike

bull Following Sandsrsquo death there were riots bus-burnings and attacks on the British embassy in the southern Republic of Ireland there were massive demonstrations in France and Italy a tomato was thrown as Queen Elizabeth II by demonstrators in Oslo and there were massive riots and civil disorder all over the streets of Belfast The South African ANC and (at the time) terrorist Nelson Mandela expressed their support for the PIRA and the hunger strikers (Mandela himself claimed he was directly inspired by Sands to undertake hunger strikes against the Apartheid government in South Africa) as well as the Palestine Liberation Organization a middle-eastern terror group

bull Over 100000 attended Sandsrsquo funeral

Bobby Sands

ldquoOur revenge will be the laughter of our childrenrdquo

Reaction to Sandsrsquo Death

>

Conclusion

bull The Hunger Strike was eventually called off after 10 strikers including Sands had died

bull James Prior newly installed secretary of state of Northern Ireland granted the prisoners partial concessions all of the Five Demands except for the right to not do prison work Margaret Thatcher refused to budge on political status

bull The Hunger Strikes opened a new way for the PIRA to pursue its objectives politically whereas previously it had seen violence as the only solution to the plight of Irish nationalists in Northern Ireland

1983 The Maze Prison Escape

The ldquoGreat Escaperdquo

bull Using smuggled-in guns and knives 38 PIRA prisoners who had been convicted of offenses ranging from murder to causing explosions escaped from one of the most high-security prisons in Europe They completely took over the H7 prison block and took their prison guards hostage before escaping in a food supply truck Several prison guards were shot and stabbed but only one died of a heart attack during the escape

bull Fifteen escapees were recaptured the first day with four more captured over the next two days following the breakout The remaining 19 were transported to PIRA strongholds and given the option to either rejoin the IRArsquos cause or be transported to the United States to live under a new identity

12 October 1984 Brighton Hotel Bombing

The PIRA Nearly Gets Thatcherbull Margaret Thatcher the highly controversial far-right British PM from

1979-1990 had become a tremendously hated figure amongst the Irish nationalist community in Northern Ireland following the 1981 Hunger Strikes and for her general uncompromising stand on Irish republicanism

bull PIRA man Patrick Magee stayed at the Brighton Hotel from the 14-17 September 1984 planting a 20-lb bomb under his bath

bull Thatcher was staying at the Brighton Hotel for a political conference and was still up at 254AM on 12 October when the bomb was detonated The bomb decimated her bathroom but left the bedroom and sitting room of her suite largely unscathed

bull The PIRA statement to Thatcher afterwards was ldquoToday we were unlucky But remember we only have to be lucky once You will have to be lucky alwaysrdquo

Loughgall Ambush 8 May 1987

The SAS Strikes

bull A botched attack on Loughgall Villagersquos RUC Police Base in which the PIRA drove a backhoe into the fortified base and ran away to detonate the bomb that was inside of the backhoe went wrong as the SAS the British Special Forces had prior knowledge of the attack and quickly dispatched the 8 PIRA members involved

bull Although the RUC base was wrecked and bombed there were no RUC or SAS casualties and it was the PIRArsquos greatest loss of life in a single incident during the Troubles

British Army Lynx Shootdown 20 March 1994

The PIRA Shoots Down a Helicopter

bull Using the previously mentioned Barrack-Buster homemade mortar PIRA insurgents were able to fire on a British helicopter that was in the process of landing whilst hiding behind a hay bail from around 150 yards out

bull The helicopter was hit with the mortar shell around 100 feet above the ground but the pilot was able to successfully crash-land the helicopter and escape before its propane tanks exploded There were no casualties but the attack was a major propaganda coup for the PIRA

1996 Manchester Bombing

The PIRA Destroys Manchester

bull On Saturday 15 June 1996 the PIRA sent in telephoned warnings and 90 minutes later detonated a 3300lb fertilizer-based truck bomb in the heart of Manchester City Centre the biggest bomb detonated in Great Britain during peacetime The bomb killed nobody due to previous warnings but led to 212 non-fatal injuries and essentially destroyed Manchester City Centre leaving approximately 700 million pounds ($12bn) worth of damage in its wake

Omagh Bombing 1998

Last Great Deadly Attack of the Troubles

bull Perpetrated by a Provisional IRA splinter group that was rejecting the peace process calling themselves the ldquoReal IRArdquo the 510lb fertilizer-based bomb was placed on main street in the town of Omagh Northern Ireland Warnings were called in approximately 30 minutes before the bombing but they were inaccurate and police ended up moving more civilians towards the bomb which ended up killing 29 people and causing over 300 non-fatal injuries This was the highest death toll from a single incident during the Troubles

bull It received universal outrage and was condemned even by the PIRA and its political wing Sinn Fein It spurred on the Northern Ireland peace process and the RIRA apologized and called a ceasefire several days after

The Good Friday Agreement and Northern Ireland Peace Process

Beginningsbull Following the 1981 Hunger Strikes Irish republicans began to

increasingly look towards politics rather than violence as a means of achieving their aims Sinn Fein gaelic for ldquoWe Ourselvesrdquo was a fiercely Irish Republican political party which led by the Machiavellian former PIRA leader and Maze inmate Gerry Adams began to push for a more peaceful solution to the Troubles in Northern Ireland

bull It became apparent by the late 1990s that although the PIRA was not losing a war against the British establishment it would be impossible to truly lsquowin the fightrsquo through violence and that any further terrorism would serve not to achieve any real political aim but only to prolong and continue suffering and violence in Northern Ireland and that politics was a much better way of achieving Republican aims

Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein former PIRA Belfast Brigade OC

Good Friday Agreement 1998

bull The Peace Process began in 1994 and included intermittent terrorist ceasefires and political negotiations between the major Irish republican and British unionist parties and culminated on April 10 1998 when the Good Friday Agreement was signed

PM Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern Sign the GFA

GFA Mandatesbull That Northern Ireland was to remain British until a majority of people in Northern

Ireland and the southern Republic of Ireland wanted otherwise bull The creation of an entirely new far less sectarian and religiously diverse Northern

Irish local governmentbull The decommissioning of arms from terrorist groups on both the unionist and

nationalist side of the political divide (ultimately successful all arms decommissioned by 2005)

bull Mutual respect and civil rights between Catholics and Protestants bull The reduction and eventual elimination of British troops in Northern Ireland

(ultimately successful all troops withdrawn by 2005)bull Eventual early prison release for all individuals imprisoned for terrorist offenses as

long as they were apart of a terrorist group that was decommissioning in accordance with the GFA

bull Disbandment of the RUC police service and the installation of the new Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) which was required to be at least 50 Catholic

Northern Ireland Today

Still Conflict But No Warbull Since the complete decommissioning of the arms and

disbandment of the PIRA INLA UDAUFF and UVF due to the Good Friday Agreement there is nowhere near the amount of violence in Northern Ireland or Belfast as there was 20 years ago There are no more weekly bombings and riots and no more British troops patrolling Catholic areas in armored vehicles

bull Despite this there are still occasional riots and clashes with the PSNI several times a year specifically on dates of great historical significance to the Catholic or Protestant communities and there is still a deep distrust and even hatred between many Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland although that continues to change with time

Catholic Slum of Ardoyne Belfast July 2011

Splinter Groups

bull Many former PIRA or UDA terrorists have now taken to organized crime for purely profiteering purposes but are no longer involved in substantial violence or any political-based terrorism

bull Splinter groups such as the Real IRA and Continuity IRA in Catholic communities and the Orange Volunteers and Red Hand Commandos in Protestant communities still conduct occasional violence towards Police and civilians in Northern Ireland but are all rather small poorly armed and poorly funded groups that pose nowhere near the threat that terrorist groups in the 80s and 90s did in Northern Ireland

Herersquos To A Brighter Future in Northern Ireland

Works Citedbull httpwwwbbccoukhistorytroublesbull httpcainulstacukbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiProvisional_Irish_Republican_Armybull httpenwikipediaorgwikiThe_Troublesbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiUlster_Defence_Associationbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiUlster_Volunteer_Forcebull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_National_Liberation_Armybull ldquoA Secret History of the IRArdquo by Ed Moloney ndashWW Norton amp Company Reprint 2003bull ldquoVoices From The Grave Two Menrsquos War in Irelandrdquo by Ed Moloney ndash Public Affairs 2010bull ldquoFifty Dead Men Walkingrdquo by Martin McGartland ndash John Blake 2009bull httpwwwinfopleasecomspotnorthireland1htmlbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_Civil_Warbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_War_of_Independencebull httpenwikipediaorgwiki1981_Irish_hunger_strikebull httpenwikipediaorgwikiDirectory_of_the_Northern_Ireland_Troublesbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiGood_Friday_Agreementbull httpswwwmi5govukhomethe-threatsterrorismnorthern-irelandrepublican-terrorist-groupshtmlbull httpswwwmi5govukhomethe-threatsterrorismnorthern-irelandprovisional-irish-republican-army-

pirahtmlbull httpnewsbbccoukhienglishstaticnorthern_irelandunderstandingeventshunger_strikestm

  • The Troubles
  • Brief Overview
  • 30 Years of Conflict
  • Slide 4
  • Background
  • The Irish War of Independence
  • Slide 7
  • Anglo-Irish Treaty (signed 6 December 1921)
  • Irish Civil War
  • 1922-1966 Ireland
  • The Civil Rights Movement
  • Slide 12
  • Slide 13
  • Objectives of the Civil Rights Movement
  • The 1969 Northern Ireland Riots ndashThe Troubles Begin
  • Culmination of Tension
  • No-Go Areas
  • No-Go Areas (2)
  • Early 1970sndash The Rise of the Provisional IRA
  • The IRA Split
  • Rise of the UVF and Loyalist Terror Groups
  • Beginnings
  • UVF Statement 21 May 1964
  • The Paramilitaries
  • Irish RepublicansCatholics
  • The Provisional IRA
  • IRA Statement Late 80s
  • Statistics
  • RecruitmentFunding
  • Weaponry
  • Weaponry (2)
  • Slide 32
  • Mortars and IEDs
  • EOD Officer Approaches PIRA Car Bomb
  • The Barrack Buster
  • Vigilantism
  • Slide 37
  • Slide 38
  • Policy on Informants
  • Terrorist Activities
  • Terrorist Activities (continued)
  • The INLA
  • Statistics (2)
  • Ideology
  • Terrorist Activities (2)
  • Internal Feuds
  • Slide 47
  • British LoyalistsProtestants
  • The UDAUFF
  • Former UFF Member
  • Statistics (3)
  • Ideology (2)
  • Terrorist Activities (3)
  • Slide 54
  • Organized Crime
  • The UVF
  • Statistics (4)
  • Ideology (3)
  • Terrorist Activities (4)
  • The Shankhill Butchers
  • Weaponry (3)
  • Slide 62
  • Organized Crime (2)
  • Major Incidents 1969-1998
  • Bloody Sunday 30 January 1972
  • Massacre on the Bogside
  • Bloody Friday 21 July 1972
  • A City Under Siege
  • Dublin and Monaghan Bombings 17 May 1974
  • Deadliest Attack of the Troubles
  • Warrenpoint Ambush 27 August 1979
  • Roadside IEDs
  • Summer of 1981 Irish Hunger Strikes
  • A Defining Moment for the Republican Cause
  • The Five Demands
  • Previous Protests
  • Dirty Protesters
  • Thatcherrsquos Response
  • Ten Strikers Die
  • Bobby Sands
  • Reaction to Sandsrsquo Death
  • Conclusion
  • 1983 The Maze Prison Escape
  • The ldquoGreat Escaperdquo
  • 12 October 1984 Brighton Hotel Bombing
  • The PIRA Nearly Gets Thatcher
  • Loughgall Ambush 8 May 1987
  • The SAS Strikes
  • British Army Lynx Shootdown 20 March 1994
  • The PIRA Shoots Down a Helicopter
  • 1996 Manchester Bombing
  • The PIRA Destroys Manchester
  • Omagh Bombing 1998
  • Last Great Deadly Attack of the Troubles
  • The Good Friday Agreement and Northern Ireland Peace Process
  • Beginnings (2)
  • Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein former PIRA Belfast Brigade OC
  • Good Friday Agreement 1998
  • PM Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern Sign the GFA
  • GFA Mandates
  • Northern Ireland Today
  • Still Conflict But No War
  • Catholic Slum of Ardoyne Belfast July 2011
  • Splinter Groups
  • Herersquos To A Brighter Future in Northern Ireland
  • Works Cited
Page 23: The Troubles, 1969-1998

The Provisional IRA

IRA Statement Late 80s

>

Statistics

bull Suffered 293 Casualtiesbull Over 10000 members imprisoned on various charges

throughout the conflictbull Killed 656 members of the British Armed Forcesbull Killed 272 Members of the Royal Ulster Constabulary

(RUC) Police Forcebull Killed 44 members of loyalistprotestant terror groupsbull Killed between 620-650 civiliansbull Killed over 1500 people

RecruitmentFundingbull IRA recruitment in Catholic neighborhoods was similar to the phenomenon

of gang membership in the inner-city United States Young Catholics typically joined to create a sense of belonging to seem ldquohardrdquo or look ldquocoolrdquo to feel protected from the brutality of the RUC during the Troubles or to help defend their communities IRA members were not asked to join but volunteered

bull IRA lsquofunds-raisingrsquo activities included collecting protection money from Catholic businesses (a ldquorevolutionary taxrdquo) robbing banks kidnapping citizens for ransom and cigarette and gasoline smuggling across the Irish border (manipulating the differing tax prices on both sides of the border and selling fuel and cigarettes illicitly) Although the Provisional IRA has officially disbanded and no longer engages in terrorism there is substantial evidence that extortion rackets in poor Catholic neighborhoods and contraband smuggling operations along the border still exist in Northern Ireland and are run by former IRA men solely for profiteering purposes

Weaponry

bull The Provisional IRA obtained a significant amount of arms from both Irish-American supporters in the northeastern United States (including members of notorious gangster Whitey Bulgerrsquos Irish Mob in 1970s-80s Boston) and from the Libyan government under Muammar Gadaffi

bull Gadaffi took over in Libya in 1969 and initially armed the IRA seeing them as comrades-in-arms fighting British imperialism Connections re-emerged in 1986 after the Thatcher Administrationrsquos support of the US bombings of Libya that killed Gadaffirsquos adopted daughter

Weaponrybull When the IRA disarmed as part of the Good Friday Agreement in

1998 (more on that later) they released the following to the British Armed Forces

bull 1000 Rifles (AK-47s AR-15s etc)bull 3 Tons of Semtex (a general-purpose plastic explosive)bull 20-30 Heavy Machine Gunsbull 7 Surface-to-Air Missilesbull 7 Flamethrowersbull 1200 Detonatorsbull 20 RPGrsquosbull 100 Handgunsbull 100+ Hand Grenades

Mortars and IEDsbull The PIRA was incredibly proficient at bomb-making and made

extensive use of Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) during their 30 year campaign

bull IEDs were typically constructed with chemical mixes of fertilizer gasoline and other home-made components Libyan Semtex was also used in several heavy-duty bombs Nails and gunpowder were typically implemented in pipe bombs made out of metal pipes Most IEDs had built in countermeasures such as the mercury tilt switch which would cause the bomb to explode if moved at all should a British EOD officer attempt to dismantle it

bull The PIRA developed the ldquoBarrack Busterrdquo mortar in the late lsquo70s or a homemade mortar made up of common household materials that was used to attack several Army bases from afar and even Prime Minister Margaret Thatcherrsquos househellip 10 Downing Street in a 1991 attack that destroyed the Prime Ministerrsquos rear garden (the mortar was fired out the back of a nearby van)

EOD Officer Approaches PIRA Car Bomb

The Barrack Buster

>

Vigilantismbull The RUC was not trusted in Catholic neighborhoods throughout the

Troubles and did not regularly patrol or even enter them in urban areas of Northern Ireland Thus when there was a community drug dealer car thief burglar rapist or pedophile the IRA took it upon themselves to issue brutal street justice to those involved

bull Occasionally offering warnings for lesser offences such as petty thievery or drug dealing if the IRA had enough of a certain member of the community they perceived as anti-social he or she was usually jumped brutally beaten andor lsquokneecappedrsquo ndash one of the IRArsquos most notorious methods ndash in which the victim was pinned down and shot through the kneecaps with a firearm or occasionally had their kneecaps drilled through with power-drills Other methods included releasing starving Rottweilerrsquos on the offender dropping cinderblocks on the offenderrsquos hands or even tarring and feathering the offender The IRArsquos process in determining an individualrsquos guilt was never open to scrutiny

bull If the offender persisted after an IRA punishment he was then given a notice by the IRA to leave the country as soon as possiblehellip referred to as being ldquoput outrdquo of the community If the offender still did not leave he was murdered

Policy on Informantsbull In an effort to stamp out collusion with the British forces and informants on the

IRA the IRA was responsible for torturing and killing several accused Catholic civilians throughout the conflict

bull Investigations into collusion infiltration and informants were carried out by the Internal Security Unit of the IRA colloquially known as the ldquoNutting Squadrdquo

bull The ISU would carry out debriefings of IRA prisoners upon their release from British detention so as to discover whether or not they had lsquocrackedrsquo and released information to British interrogators

bull Typical ISU torture techniques on those accused of informing included drowning genitalnipple mutilation electrocution with livewires pouring kerosene on the accusedrsquos legs before setting fire to them and branding with hot irons Informants were always killed afterwards with a bullet through the back of the head

bull Of the 18 ldquoDisappearedrdquo accused informants that were abducted and executed by the IRA during the Troubles only 10 bodies have been found

bull Martin McGartland was an IRA informant who was estimated to have saved 50 lives in the conflict before he was discovered and abducted by the ISU He escaped and lives today in seclusion The film ldquo50 Dead Men Walkingrdquo is based on his exploits and is an excellent realistic non-romanticized take on the Troubles in Northern Ireland

Terrorist Activitiesbull Common tactics included breaking into the homes of off-duty RUC police

officers and murdering them in their beds or setting booby-trap bombs underneath RUC police officersrsquo cars and unionist politiciansrsquo cars so that they would blow up as the engine was started RUC men were typically targeted when they were off-duty and many were shot dead in front of their families The PIRA would also impersonate innocent Catholic civilians call the police to report an emergency and ambush the police from hidden positions when they arrived at the stated address (another reason the RUC was hesitant to go into Catholic neighborhoods during this period)

bull Most notorious for their bombings they would typically park car bombs in predominately Protestant communities call in the bomb threat so that the area would be evacuated and an EOD squad would arrive to dismantle it the bomb would then be detonated with hopes of killing an EOD officer and destroying Protestant housing tenements

bull The PIRA rarely intentionally targeted civilians especially in the 80srsquo and 90srsquo but were involved in the bombings of several Protestant-owned pubs during the 1970s in response to loyalist terrorist groups bombing Catholic-owned pubs They also carried out the Kingsmill massacre in 1976 in which eleven Protestant workmen that were traveling on a minibus were held up by the IRA and all individually executed in response to the execution of six Catholic civilians by the UVF the night before

Terrorist Activities (continued)bull Other activities included engaging in firefights with British squadrons as

they patrolled the countrysidestreets of urban areas sniper attacks on RUC or British Army patrolscheckpoints planting landmines along British foot patrol routes in rural areas planting roadside IEDs along British convoy routes and bombing ferries and buses containing on-or-off duty British soldiers

bull The notorious ldquohuman bombrdquo technique in which civilians or off-duty members of the British security forces were kidnapped and then forced to drive car bombs into British military targets ndash such as checkpoints and Army bases ndash after the PIRA had placed their familiesrsquo lives under threat

bull Inciting riots and providing Catholic youths with molotov cocktails (gasoline bombs) during such riots so as to maximize public disorder and destruction was also an almost daily IRA activity in Catholic communities in urban Northern Ireland

The INLA

Statistics

bull Suffered 33 casualtiesbull Killed 46 members of the British Security Forcesbull Killed 2 members of the Irish Security Forcesbull Killed 39 civiliansbull Killed 3 civilian political activistsbull Killed 16 members of rival Republican terror

groupsbull Killed 7 members of Loyalist terror groups

Ideology

bull Founded by Seamus Costello in 1974 as the military wing of the Irish Republican Socialist Party

bull Shared similar goals to the Provisional IRA but far more socialist in ideology INLA wanted a socialist united Irish republic and blamed class struggles for many of the problems in Northern Ireland whereas the PIRA simply wanted a united Irish republic and had little interest in class struggle or economics

bull Whereas the PIRA was almost exclusively Catholic the INLA had some Protestant members most of whom were involved for purely socialist reasons

Terrorist Activitiesbull Although far less powerful and bold than the PIRA the INLA

nevertheless presented a potent terrorist threat to the United Kingdom during the Troubles

bull Similar tactics to the IRA car bombings shooting off-duty police and soldiers dead and high-profile assassinations

bull Their most high-profile attacks included the car bomb assassination of Airey Neave one of Margaret Thatcherrsquos closest political supporters in 1979 the murder of infamous Loyalist terror leader Billy Wright (who was murdered by INLA inmates in a British political prison in 1997) and the Ballykelley Disco Bombing in 1982 in which the INLA bombed a disco-club frequented by off-duty British soldiers managing to kill 11 of them as well as 6 civilians as well as destroying the disco

Internal Feuds

bull A split in 1986 led the INLA to split into the INLA and the IPLO or Irish Peoplersquos Liberation Organization based on IPLO membersrsquo perceived lack of political motivation and heavy involvement in drug dealing and criminality

bull There were several retaliatory killings between the two groups that persisted until 1992 when the PIRA had enough of the IPLOrsquos involvement in drug dealing in Catholic areas of Belfast and on 31 October 1992 virtually destroyed the entire organization in one night with a series of raids killings and kneecappings that killed or crippled the majority of the grouprsquos members

British LoyalistsProtestants

The UDAUFF

Former UFF Member

>

Statistics

bull Suffered 89 casualtiesbull Killed 197 civiliansbull Killed 12 civilian political activistsbull Killed 37 members of rival loyalist terror

groupsbull Killed 11 members of republican terror groupsbull Killed 3 members of the British Security Forces

Ideology

bull The UDA or Ulster Defense Association and its military wing the Ulster Freedom Fighters (UFF) was a loyalist protestant terror squad that targeted PIRA and INLA members as well as general Catholic civilians in bombings and shootings throughout Northern Ireland

bull It pledged to end its campaign of violence whenever the IRA set down its arms yet should the UK government appease the IRA and grant a 32-county Irish Republic the UDA pledged to act as ldquothe IRA in reverserdquo

Terrorist Activitiesbull The UDA saw itself as a militia defending upstanding protestant loyalist

communities from dangerous and lower-class Catholics that were disrupting the status quo in Northern Ireland They pledged primarily to target IRA men but ended up killing a majority of Catholic civilians during the Troubles They were also known to intimidate and exile known Catholic families from predominately-Protestant communities in Belfast and other urban areas

bull Drive-by shootings shooting up or planting bombs in predominately-Catholic pubs and bars and jumping brutally beating andor kneecapping Catholic civilians were all frequent tactics

bull The UDA discreetly worked in collusion with the RUC and other British security agencies so as to track down and assassinate known IRA members They would also patrol Protestant neighborhoods alongside British soldiers at the height of the Troubles Many RUC police officers and prison guards were also UDA members

bull The UDA alongside many other loyalist paramilitaries benefitted from the import of several arms shipments from Lebanese arms dealers in the early 1970s including rocket launchers 200+ AK-47 Rifles 90+ handguns and over 400 grenades They also received various weapons such as the uzi submachine gun and explosive devices from arms dealers in the Soviet bloc in the 1980s

Organized Crime

bull The UDA and its members were also heavily involved in drug dealing from the street level to wholesale purchase primarily in MDMA and cannabis throughout the Troubles

bull Protection racketeering and money laundering were also common amongst the UDA in protestant communities

bull However should a member of a UDA-ran community begin stealing or dealing drugs without UDA consent he was abruptly branded as ldquoanti-socialrdquo and either killed or kneecapped

The UVF

Statistics

bull Suffered unknown number of casualtiesbull Killed 412 civiliansbull Killed 11 civilian political activistsbull Killed 21 members of republican terror groupsbull Killed 42 members of rival loyalist terror

groupsbull Killed 6 members of the Security Forces

Ideology

bull Similar to the UDAUFF the Ulster Volunteer Forcersquos primary aim was to combat Irish republicanism in Northern Ireland primarily the PIRA They wanted Northern Ireland to remain in the UK

Terrorist Activitiesbull The majority of UVF victims were Catholic civilians

many of whom were killed at random These attacks were intended to demoralize the IRA as the IRA drew most of its support from the Catholic community

bull Planting bombs in predominately-Catholic pubs or simply residential areas was a very frequent UVF tactic and in 1973 they detonated more bombs in Northern Ireland than the UDA and the PIRA combined Assassinations mass shootings booby-trap car bombs and kidnappings were also frequent UVF activities

The Shankhill Butchers

bull The ldquoShankhill Butchersrdquo were a notorious offshoot UVF group known for abducting and literally slitting the throats of Catholic civilians and rival loyalist terror groups in the late 1970s They were led by Lenny Murphy (who was eventually imprisoned and upon his release of a 4-year stint murdered by the PIRA) and killed 23 people most of whom were Catholic civilians Many experts liken the Shankhill Butchers more to a group of serial killers than to politically or even ethnically-motivated murderers

bull The Butchers were all eventually all either imprisoned killed by the PIRA or both

Weaponrybull The UVF received the majority of its weaponry in the late 1970s

from Armscor an apartheid-South Africa state-owned arms company which in defiance of various UN sanctions and embargoes sold them to the UVF

bull Weapons were thought to consist ofbull 200 Czech SA vz 58 Assault Riflesbull 90 Browning Pistolsbull 500 RGD-5 Frag Grenadesbull 30000 rounds of ammunitionbull 12 RPG-7 Rocket Launchers and 150+ Rocketsbull The UVF also began using the illegally-obtained mining explosive

Powergel in the early 1990s

Organized Crime

bull The UVF was also heavily involved in organized crime including protection racketeering and drug smugglingdealing including cannabis MDMA cocaine and amphetamines Bank robberies were also very frequent in the 1970s

Major Incidents 1969-1998

Bloody Sunday 30 January 1972

Massacre on the Bogsidebull In 1972 during a large scale but peaceful civil-rights march in the

troubled predominately Catholic neighborhood of Bogside in Derry 26 unarmed civil rights marchers were shot by members of the British Army 14 of whom were killed Five of those shot were shot in the back

bull After several inquiries into the incident there was found to have been no justifiable provocation from the protestors and no shots fired from the protestors during the march The massacre was conducted in full view of the public and the press

bull The PM David Cameron eventually issued a formal apology to the victims and victimsrsquo families of the massacre after several investigations failed to reveal any justifiable provocation for the massacre

bull The massacre sky-rocketed PIRA membership and recruitment as public perception of the British Army in Catholic communities in Northern Ireland reached an all-time low

Bloody Friday 21 July 1972

A City Under Siege

bull On 21 July 1972 the PIRA detonated 26 bombs in the space of 80 minutes in Belfast destroying banks bridges electrical substations Protestant housing tenements gasoline stations and private garages

bull Although warnings were called in at least 30 minutes prior to each bomb the amount of bombs exploding and the addition of multiple hoax warnings at the same time led to the Security Forces being unable to evacuate all the areas in time 11 people were killed and 130 were injured many of them horrifically mutilated Of those injured 77 were women or children

Dublin and Monaghan Bombings 17 May 1974

Deadliest Attack of the Troubles

bull Perpetrated by the UVF in the southern Republic of Ireland three car bombs exploded in Dublin during rush hour and another exploded in Monaghan around 90 minutes later

bull 33 civilians and a full-term unborn child were killed in the bombing while nearly 300 were injured The UVF did not claim responsibility for the bombings until 1993

bull The majority of those killed were young women although the age range of those killed ranged from 5 months old to 80 years old

Warrenpoint Ambush 27 August 1979

Roadside IEDsbull In the southern part of County Armagh Northern Ireland a predominately-

Catholic rural region and former PIRA stronghold right on the border with the southern Republic of Ireland a British troop convoy was hit with a remote-control detonated roadside 500lb truck-bomb and destroyed instantly killing 6 troops The surviving soldiers then wrongly believed they were under sniper fire from the other side of the Irish border and began firing at civilians immediately after the bombing killing 1 and injuring another

bull 32 minutes after the first bombing the IRA used its knowledge of how the British reacted to bombings to correctly predict that they would set up an incident-command point in a nearby gatehouse Unfortunately for the British there was a second 800lb fertilizer bomb planted near the gatehouse that when detonated killed 12 other soldiers who were responding to the initial bomb

bull It was the deadliest single attack on the British Army during the Troubles and a highly successful attack for the PIRA

Summer of 1981 Irish Hunger Strikes

A Defining Moment for the Republican Cause

bull Beginning on 1 March 1981 led by Bobby Sands 7 PIRA and 3 INLA inmates at the notorious ldquoMazerdquo prison began to refuse food until Margaret Thatcher PM of Great Britain at that time began to recognize terrorist prisoners as political prisoners and allowed them their ldquoFive Demandsrdquo

The Five Demands

bull The right to not wear a prison uniformbull The right to not do prison workbull The right of free association with other

prisoners and to organize in educational and recreational pursuits

bull Full restoration of remission lost through any protests towards these demands

Previous Protestsbull The Maze prison was a very high-security and low-quality prison that

housed almost all PIRA prisoners during the Troubles It was run in a very ethically questionable fashion with frequent beatings and borderline-torture techniques used on Republican prisoners and extremely poor living conditions for prisoners Many Maze prison guards were members of the UDAUVF or had strong connections with one of the two groups as well

bull Massive peaceful protests and marches by Irish republicans outside of the Maze Prison proved unsuccessful in attaining political status for republican prisoners as well as previous inmate protests in 1980 including non-fatal hunger strikes inmates refusing to wear prison uniforms and thus living in their cells naked and prisoners refusing to leave their cells to go to the bathroom until their requests had been granted (they therefore urinated and defecated in their cells and spread their excrement across their cell walls in what was known as the ldquoDirty Protestrdquo)

Dirty Protesters

Thatcherrsquos Response

bull ldquoThose terrorists will carry their determination to disrupt society to any lengths Once again we have a hunger strike in the Maze Prison in the quest for what they call lsquopolitical statusrsquo There is no such thing as political murder political bombing or political violence There is only criminal murder criminal bombing and criminal violence We will not compromise on this There will be no political statusrdquo

Ten Strikers Diebull Bobby Sands the leader of the strike was imprisoned as a PIRA member

on charges of firearm possession and in connection with the bombing of a furniture store He was the first to die after 66 days of not eating Sands was elected to a seat in Parliament whilst on Hunger Strike

bull Following Sandsrsquo death there were riots bus-burnings and attacks on the British embassy in the southern Republic of Ireland there were massive demonstrations in France and Italy a tomato was thrown as Queen Elizabeth II by demonstrators in Oslo and there were massive riots and civil disorder all over the streets of Belfast The South African ANC and (at the time) terrorist Nelson Mandela expressed their support for the PIRA and the hunger strikers (Mandela himself claimed he was directly inspired by Sands to undertake hunger strikes against the Apartheid government in South Africa) as well as the Palestine Liberation Organization a middle-eastern terror group

bull Over 100000 attended Sandsrsquo funeral

Bobby Sands

ldquoOur revenge will be the laughter of our childrenrdquo

Reaction to Sandsrsquo Death

>

Conclusion

bull The Hunger Strike was eventually called off after 10 strikers including Sands had died

bull James Prior newly installed secretary of state of Northern Ireland granted the prisoners partial concessions all of the Five Demands except for the right to not do prison work Margaret Thatcher refused to budge on political status

bull The Hunger Strikes opened a new way for the PIRA to pursue its objectives politically whereas previously it had seen violence as the only solution to the plight of Irish nationalists in Northern Ireland

1983 The Maze Prison Escape

The ldquoGreat Escaperdquo

bull Using smuggled-in guns and knives 38 PIRA prisoners who had been convicted of offenses ranging from murder to causing explosions escaped from one of the most high-security prisons in Europe They completely took over the H7 prison block and took their prison guards hostage before escaping in a food supply truck Several prison guards were shot and stabbed but only one died of a heart attack during the escape

bull Fifteen escapees were recaptured the first day with four more captured over the next two days following the breakout The remaining 19 were transported to PIRA strongholds and given the option to either rejoin the IRArsquos cause or be transported to the United States to live under a new identity

12 October 1984 Brighton Hotel Bombing

The PIRA Nearly Gets Thatcherbull Margaret Thatcher the highly controversial far-right British PM from

1979-1990 had become a tremendously hated figure amongst the Irish nationalist community in Northern Ireland following the 1981 Hunger Strikes and for her general uncompromising stand on Irish republicanism

bull PIRA man Patrick Magee stayed at the Brighton Hotel from the 14-17 September 1984 planting a 20-lb bomb under his bath

bull Thatcher was staying at the Brighton Hotel for a political conference and was still up at 254AM on 12 October when the bomb was detonated The bomb decimated her bathroom but left the bedroom and sitting room of her suite largely unscathed

bull The PIRA statement to Thatcher afterwards was ldquoToday we were unlucky But remember we only have to be lucky once You will have to be lucky alwaysrdquo

Loughgall Ambush 8 May 1987

The SAS Strikes

bull A botched attack on Loughgall Villagersquos RUC Police Base in which the PIRA drove a backhoe into the fortified base and ran away to detonate the bomb that was inside of the backhoe went wrong as the SAS the British Special Forces had prior knowledge of the attack and quickly dispatched the 8 PIRA members involved

bull Although the RUC base was wrecked and bombed there were no RUC or SAS casualties and it was the PIRArsquos greatest loss of life in a single incident during the Troubles

British Army Lynx Shootdown 20 March 1994

The PIRA Shoots Down a Helicopter

bull Using the previously mentioned Barrack-Buster homemade mortar PIRA insurgents were able to fire on a British helicopter that was in the process of landing whilst hiding behind a hay bail from around 150 yards out

bull The helicopter was hit with the mortar shell around 100 feet above the ground but the pilot was able to successfully crash-land the helicopter and escape before its propane tanks exploded There were no casualties but the attack was a major propaganda coup for the PIRA

1996 Manchester Bombing

The PIRA Destroys Manchester

bull On Saturday 15 June 1996 the PIRA sent in telephoned warnings and 90 minutes later detonated a 3300lb fertilizer-based truck bomb in the heart of Manchester City Centre the biggest bomb detonated in Great Britain during peacetime The bomb killed nobody due to previous warnings but led to 212 non-fatal injuries and essentially destroyed Manchester City Centre leaving approximately 700 million pounds ($12bn) worth of damage in its wake

Omagh Bombing 1998

Last Great Deadly Attack of the Troubles

bull Perpetrated by a Provisional IRA splinter group that was rejecting the peace process calling themselves the ldquoReal IRArdquo the 510lb fertilizer-based bomb was placed on main street in the town of Omagh Northern Ireland Warnings were called in approximately 30 minutes before the bombing but they were inaccurate and police ended up moving more civilians towards the bomb which ended up killing 29 people and causing over 300 non-fatal injuries This was the highest death toll from a single incident during the Troubles

bull It received universal outrage and was condemned even by the PIRA and its political wing Sinn Fein It spurred on the Northern Ireland peace process and the RIRA apologized and called a ceasefire several days after

The Good Friday Agreement and Northern Ireland Peace Process

Beginningsbull Following the 1981 Hunger Strikes Irish republicans began to

increasingly look towards politics rather than violence as a means of achieving their aims Sinn Fein gaelic for ldquoWe Ourselvesrdquo was a fiercely Irish Republican political party which led by the Machiavellian former PIRA leader and Maze inmate Gerry Adams began to push for a more peaceful solution to the Troubles in Northern Ireland

bull It became apparent by the late 1990s that although the PIRA was not losing a war against the British establishment it would be impossible to truly lsquowin the fightrsquo through violence and that any further terrorism would serve not to achieve any real political aim but only to prolong and continue suffering and violence in Northern Ireland and that politics was a much better way of achieving Republican aims

Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein former PIRA Belfast Brigade OC

Good Friday Agreement 1998

bull The Peace Process began in 1994 and included intermittent terrorist ceasefires and political negotiations between the major Irish republican and British unionist parties and culminated on April 10 1998 when the Good Friday Agreement was signed

PM Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern Sign the GFA

GFA Mandatesbull That Northern Ireland was to remain British until a majority of people in Northern

Ireland and the southern Republic of Ireland wanted otherwise bull The creation of an entirely new far less sectarian and religiously diverse Northern

Irish local governmentbull The decommissioning of arms from terrorist groups on both the unionist and

nationalist side of the political divide (ultimately successful all arms decommissioned by 2005)

bull Mutual respect and civil rights between Catholics and Protestants bull The reduction and eventual elimination of British troops in Northern Ireland

(ultimately successful all troops withdrawn by 2005)bull Eventual early prison release for all individuals imprisoned for terrorist offenses as

long as they were apart of a terrorist group that was decommissioning in accordance with the GFA

bull Disbandment of the RUC police service and the installation of the new Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) which was required to be at least 50 Catholic

Northern Ireland Today

Still Conflict But No Warbull Since the complete decommissioning of the arms and

disbandment of the PIRA INLA UDAUFF and UVF due to the Good Friday Agreement there is nowhere near the amount of violence in Northern Ireland or Belfast as there was 20 years ago There are no more weekly bombings and riots and no more British troops patrolling Catholic areas in armored vehicles

bull Despite this there are still occasional riots and clashes with the PSNI several times a year specifically on dates of great historical significance to the Catholic or Protestant communities and there is still a deep distrust and even hatred between many Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland although that continues to change with time

Catholic Slum of Ardoyne Belfast July 2011

Splinter Groups

bull Many former PIRA or UDA terrorists have now taken to organized crime for purely profiteering purposes but are no longer involved in substantial violence or any political-based terrorism

bull Splinter groups such as the Real IRA and Continuity IRA in Catholic communities and the Orange Volunteers and Red Hand Commandos in Protestant communities still conduct occasional violence towards Police and civilians in Northern Ireland but are all rather small poorly armed and poorly funded groups that pose nowhere near the threat that terrorist groups in the 80s and 90s did in Northern Ireland

Herersquos To A Brighter Future in Northern Ireland

Works Citedbull httpwwwbbccoukhistorytroublesbull httpcainulstacukbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiProvisional_Irish_Republican_Armybull httpenwikipediaorgwikiThe_Troublesbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiUlster_Defence_Associationbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiUlster_Volunteer_Forcebull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_National_Liberation_Armybull ldquoA Secret History of the IRArdquo by Ed Moloney ndashWW Norton amp Company Reprint 2003bull ldquoVoices From The Grave Two Menrsquos War in Irelandrdquo by Ed Moloney ndash Public Affairs 2010bull ldquoFifty Dead Men Walkingrdquo by Martin McGartland ndash John Blake 2009bull httpwwwinfopleasecomspotnorthireland1htmlbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_Civil_Warbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_War_of_Independencebull httpenwikipediaorgwiki1981_Irish_hunger_strikebull httpenwikipediaorgwikiDirectory_of_the_Northern_Ireland_Troublesbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiGood_Friday_Agreementbull httpswwwmi5govukhomethe-threatsterrorismnorthern-irelandrepublican-terrorist-groupshtmlbull httpswwwmi5govukhomethe-threatsterrorismnorthern-irelandprovisional-irish-republican-army-

pirahtmlbull httpnewsbbccoukhienglishstaticnorthern_irelandunderstandingeventshunger_strikestm

  • The Troubles
  • Brief Overview
  • 30 Years of Conflict
  • Slide 4
  • Background
  • The Irish War of Independence
  • Slide 7
  • Anglo-Irish Treaty (signed 6 December 1921)
  • Irish Civil War
  • 1922-1966 Ireland
  • The Civil Rights Movement
  • Slide 12
  • Slide 13
  • Objectives of the Civil Rights Movement
  • The 1969 Northern Ireland Riots ndashThe Troubles Begin
  • Culmination of Tension
  • No-Go Areas
  • No-Go Areas (2)
  • Early 1970sndash The Rise of the Provisional IRA
  • The IRA Split
  • Rise of the UVF and Loyalist Terror Groups
  • Beginnings
  • UVF Statement 21 May 1964
  • The Paramilitaries
  • Irish RepublicansCatholics
  • The Provisional IRA
  • IRA Statement Late 80s
  • Statistics
  • RecruitmentFunding
  • Weaponry
  • Weaponry (2)
  • Slide 32
  • Mortars and IEDs
  • EOD Officer Approaches PIRA Car Bomb
  • The Barrack Buster
  • Vigilantism
  • Slide 37
  • Slide 38
  • Policy on Informants
  • Terrorist Activities
  • Terrorist Activities (continued)
  • The INLA
  • Statistics (2)
  • Ideology
  • Terrorist Activities (2)
  • Internal Feuds
  • Slide 47
  • British LoyalistsProtestants
  • The UDAUFF
  • Former UFF Member
  • Statistics (3)
  • Ideology (2)
  • Terrorist Activities (3)
  • Slide 54
  • Organized Crime
  • The UVF
  • Statistics (4)
  • Ideology (3)
  • Terrorist Activities (4)
  • The Shankhill Butchers
  • Weaponry (3)
  • Slide 62
  • Organized Crime (2)
  • Major Incidents 1969-1998
  • Bloody Sunday 30 January 1972
  • Massacre on the Bogside
  • Bloody Friday 21 July 1972
  • A City Under Siege
  • Dublin and Monaghan Bombings 17 May 1974
  • Deadliest Attack of the Troubles
  • Warrenpoint Ambush 27 August 1979
  • Roadside IEDs
  • Summer of 1981 Irish Hunger Strikes
  • A Defining Moment for the Republican Cause
  • The Five Demands
  • Previous Protests
  • Dirty Protesters
  • Thatcherrsquos Response
  • Ten Strikers Die
  • Bobby Sands
  • Reaction to Sandsrsquo Death
  • Conclusion
  • 1983 The Maze Prison Escape
  • The ldquoGreat Escaperdquo
  • 12 October 1984 Brighton Hotel Bombing
  • The PIRA Nearly Gets Thatcher
  • Loughgall Ambush 8 May 1987
  • The SAS Strikes
  • British Army Lynx Shootdown 20 March 1994
  • The PIRA Shoots Down a Helicopter
  • 1996 Manchester Bombing
  • The PIRA Destroys Manchester
  • Omagh Bombing 1998
  • Last Great Deadly Attack of the Troubles
  • The Good Friday Agreement and Northern Ireland Peace Process
  • Beginnings (2)
  • Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein former PIRA Belfast Brigade OC
  • Good Friday Agreement 1998
  • PM Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern Sign the GFA
  • GFA Mandates
  • Northern Ireland Today
  • Still Conflict But No War
  • Catholic Slum of Ardoyne Belfast July 2011
  • Splinter Groups
  • Herersquos To A Brighter Future in Northern Ireland
  • Works Cited
Page 24: The Troubles, 1969-1998

IRA Statement Late 80s

>

Statistics

bull Suffered 293 Casualtiesbull Over 10000 members imprisoned on various charges

throughout the conflictbull Killed 656 members of the British Armed Forcesbull Killed 272 Members of the Royal Ulster Constabulary

(RUC) Police Forcebull Killed 44 members of loyalistprotestant terror groupsbull Killed between 620-650 civiliansbull Killed over 1500 people

RecruitmentFundingbull IRA recruitment in Catholic neighborhoods was similar to the phenomenon

of gang membership in the inner-city United States Young Catholics typically joined to create a sense of belonging to seem ldquohardrdquo or look ldquocoolrdquo to feel protected from the brutality of the RUC during the Troubles or to help defend their communities IRA members were not asked to join but volunteered

bull IRA lsquofunds-raisingrsquo activities included collecting protection money from Catholic businesses (a ldquorevolutionary taxrdquo) robbing banks kidnapping citizens for ransom and cigarette and gasoline smuggling across the Irish border (manipulating the differing tax prices on both sides of the border and selling fuel and cigarettes illicitly) Although the Provisional IRA has officially disbanded and no longer engages in terrorism there is substantial evidence that extortion rackets in poor Catholic neighborhoods and contraband smuggling operations along the border still exist in Northern Ireland and are run by former IRA men solely for profiteering purposes

Weaponry

bull The Provisional IRA obtained a significant amount of arms from both Irish-American supporters in the northeastern United States (including members of notorious gangster Whitey Bulgerrsquos Irish Mob in 1970s-80s Boston) and from the Libyan government under Muammar Gadaffi

bull Gadaffi took over in Libya in 1969 and initially armed the IRA seeing them as comrades-in-arms fighting British imperialism Connections re-emerged in 1986 after the Thatcher Administrationrsquos support of the US bombings of Libya that killed Gadaffirsquos adopted daughter

Weaponrybull When the IRA disarmed as part of the Good Friday Agreement in

1998 (more on that later) they released the following to the British Armed Forces

bull 1000 Rifles (AK-47s AR-15s etc)bull 3 Tons of Semtex (a general-purpose plastic explosive)bull 20-30 Heavy Machine Gunsbull 7 Surface-to-Air Missilesbull 7 Flamethrowersbull 1200 Detonatorsbull 20 RPGrsquosbull 100 Handgunsbull 100+ Hand Grenades

Mortars and IEDsbull The PIRA was incredibly proficient at bomb-making and made

extensive use of Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) during their 30 year campaign

bull IEDs were typically constructed with chemical mixes of fertilizer gasoline and other home-made components Libyan Semtex was also used in several heavy-duty bombs Nails and gunpowder were typically implemented in pipe bombs made out of metal pipes Most IEDs had built in countermeasures such as the mercury tilt switch which would cause the bomb to explode if moved at all should a British EOD officer attempt to dismantle it

bull The PIRA developed the ldquoBarrack Busterrdquo mortar in the late lsquo70s or a homemade mortar made up of common household materials that was used to attack several Army bases from afar and even Prime Minister Margaret Thatcherrsquos househellip 10 Downing Street in a 1991 attack that destroyed the Prime Ministerrsquos rear garden (the mortar was fired out the back of a nearby van)

EOD Officer Approaches PIRA Car Bomb

The Barrack Buster

>

Vigilantismbull The RUC was not trusted in Catholic neighborhoods throughout the

Troubles and did not regularly patrol or even enter them in urban areas of Northern Ireland Thus when there was a community drug dealer car thief burglar rapist or pedophile the IRA took it upon themselves to issue brutal street justice to those involved

bull Occasionally offering warnings for lesser offences such as petty thievery or drug dealing if the IRA had enough of a certain member of the community they perceived as anti-social he or she was usually jumped brutally beaten andor lsquokneecappedrsquo ndash one of the IRArsquos most notorious methods ndash in which the victim was pinned down and shot through the kneecaps with a firearm or occasionally had their kneecaps drilled through with power-drills Other methods included releasing starving Rottweilerrsquos on the offender dropping cinderblocks on the offenderrsquos hands or even tarring and feathering the offender The IRArsquos process in determining an individualrsquos guilt was never open to scrutiny

bull If the offender persisted after an IRA punishment he was then given a notice by the IRA to leave the country as soon as possiblehellip referred to as being ldquoput outrdquo of the community If the offender still did not leave he was murdered

Policy on Informantsbull In an effort to stamp out collusion with the British forces and informants on the

IRA the IRA was responsible for torturing and killing several accused Catholic civilians throughout the conflict

bull Investigations into collusion infiltration and informants were carried out by the Internal Security Unit of the IRA colloquially known as the ldquoNutting Squadrdquo

bull The ISU would carry out debriefings of IRA prisoners upon their release from British detention so as to discover whether or not they had lsquocrackedrsquo and released information to British interrogators

bull Typical ISU torture techniques on those accused of informing included drowning genitalnipple mutilation electrocution with livewires pouring kerosene on the accusedrsquos legs before setting fire to them and branding with hot irons Informants were always killed afterwards with a bullet through the back of the head

bull Of the 18 ldquoDisappearedrdquo accused informants that were abducted and executed by the IRA during the Troubles only 10 bodies have been found

bull Martin McGartland was an IRA informant who was estimated to have saved 50 lives in the conflict before he was discovered and abducted by the ISU He escaped and lives today in seclusion The film ldquo50 Dead Men Walkingrdquo is based on his exploits and is an excellent realistic non-romanticized take on the Troubles in Northern Ireland

Terrorist Activitiesbull Common tactics included breaking into the homes of off-duty RUC police

officers and murdering them in their beds or setting booby-trap bombs underneath RUC police officersrsquo cars and unionist politiciansrsquo cars so that they would blow up as the engine was started RUC men were typically targeted when they were off-duty and many were shot dead in front of their families The PIRA would also impersonate innocent Catholic civilians call the police to report an emergency and ambush the police from hidden positions when they arrived at the stated address (another reason the RUC was hesitant to go into Catholic neighborhoods during this period)

bull Most notorious for their bombings they would typically park car bombs in predominately Protestant communities call in the bomb threat so that the area would be evacuated and an EOD squad would arrive to dismantle it the bomb would then be detonated with hopes of killing an EOD officer and destroying Protestant housing tenements

bull The PIRA rarely intentionally targeted civilians especially in the 80srsquo and 90srsquo but were involved in the bombings of several Protestant-owned pubs during the 1970s in response to loyalist terrorist groups bombing Catholic-owned pubs They also carried out the Kingsmill massacre in 1976 in which eleven Protestant workmen that were traveling on a minibus were held up by the IRA and all individually executed in response to the execution of six Catholic civilians by the UVF the night before

Terrorist Activities (continued)bull Other activities included engaging in firefights with British squadrons as

they patrolled the countrysidestreets of urban areas sniper attacks on RUC or British Army patrolscheckpoints planting landmines along British foot patrol routes in rural areas planting roadside IEDs along British convoy routes and bombing ferries and buses containing on-or-off duty British soldiers

bull The notorious ldquohuman bombrdquo technique in which civilians or off-duty members of the British security forces were kidnapped and then forced to drive car bombs into British military targets ndash such as checkpoints and Army bases ndash after the PIRA had placed their familiesrsquo lives under threat

bull Inciting riots and providing Catholic youths with molotov cocktails (gasoline bombs) during such riots so as to maximize public disorder and destruction was also an almost daily IRA activity in Catholic communities in urban Northern Ireland

The INLA

Statistics

bull Suffered 33 casualtiesbull Killed 46 members of the British Security Forcesbull Killed 2 members of the Irish Security Forcesbull Killed 39 civiliansbull Killed 3 civilian political activistsbull Killed 16 members of rival Republican terror

groupsbull Killed 7 members of Loyalist terror groups

Ideology

bull Founded by Seamus Costello in 1974 as the military wing of the Irish Republican Socialist Party

bull Shared similar goals to the Provisional IRA but far more socialist in ideology INLA wanted a socialist united Irish republic and blamed class struggles for many of the problems in Northern Ireland whereas the PIRA simply wanted a united Irish republic and had little interest in class struggle or economics

bull Whereas the PIRA was almost exclusively Catholic the INLA had some Protestant members most of whom were involved for purely socialist reasons

Terrorist Activitiesbull Although far less powerful and bold than the PIRA the INLA

nevertheless presented a potent terrorist threat to the United Kingdom during the Troubles

bull Similar tactics to the IRA car bombings shooting off-duty police and soldiers dead and high-profile assassinations

bull Their most high-profile attacks included the car bomb assassination of Airey Neave one of Margaret Thatcherrsquos closest political supporters in 1979 the murder of infamous Loyalist terror leader Billy Wright (who was murdered by INLA inmates in a British political prison in 1997) and the Ballykelley Disco Bombing in 1982 in which the INLA bombed a disco-club frequented by off-duty British soldiers managing to kill 11 of them as well as 6 civilians as well as destroying the disco

Internal Feuds

bull A split in 1986 led the INLA to split into the INLA and the IPLO or Irish Peoplersquos Liberation Organization based on IPLO membersrsquo perceived lack of political motivation and heavy involvement in drug dealing and criminality

bull There were several retaliatory killings between the two groups that persisted until 1992 when the PIRA had enough of the IPLOrsquos involvement in drug dealing in Catholic areas of Belfast and on 31 October 1992 virtually destroyed the entire organization in one night with a series of raids killings and kneecappings that killed or crippled the majority of the grouprsquos members

British LoyalistsProtestants

The UDAUFF

Former UFF Member

>

Statistics

bull Suffered 89 casualtiesbull Killed 197 civiliansbull Killed 12 civilian political activistsbull Killed 37 members of rival loyalist terror

groupsbull Killed 11 members of republican terror groupsbull Killed 3 members of the British Security Forces

Ideology

bull The UDA or Ulster Defense Association and its military wing the Ulster Freedom Fighters (UFF) was a loyalist protestant terror squad that targeted PIRA and INLA members as well as general Catholic civilians in bombings and shootings throughout Northern Ireland

bull It pledged to end its campaign of violence whenever the IRA set down its arms yet should the UK government appease the IRA and grant a 32-county Irish Republic the UDA pledged to act as ldquothe IRA in reverserdquo

Terrorist Activitiesbull The UDA saw itself as a militia defending upstanding protestant loyalist

communities from dangerous and lower-class Catholics that were disrupting the status quo in Northern Ireland They pledged primarily to target IRA men but ended up killing a majority of Catholic civilians during the Troubles They were also known to intimidate and exile known Catholic families from predominately-Protestant communities in Belfast and other urban areas

bull Drive-by shootings shooting up or planting bombs in predominately-Catholic pubs and bars and jumping brutally beating andor kneecapping Catholic civilians were all frequent tactics

bull The UDA discreetly worked in collusion with the RUC and other British security agencies so as to track down and assassinate known IRA members They would also patrol Protestant neighborhoods alongside British soldiers at the height of the Troubles Many RUC police officers and prison guards were also UDA members

bull The UDA alongside many other loyalist paramilitaries benefitted from the import of several arms shipments from Lebanese arms dealers in the early 1970s including rocket launchers 200+ AK-47 Rifles 90+ handguns and over 400 grenades They also received various weapons such as the uzi submachine gun and explosive devices from arms dealers in the Soviet bloc in the 1980s

Organized Crime

bull The UDA and its members were also heavily involved in drug dealing from the street level to wholesale purchase primarily in MDMA and cannabis throughout the Troubles

bull Protection racketeering and money laundering were also common amongst the UDA in protestant communities

bull However should a member of a UDA-ran community begin stealing or dealing drugs without UDA consent he was abruptly branded as ldquoanti-socialrdquo and either killed or kneecapped

The UVF

Statistics

bull Suffered unknown number of casualtiesbull Killed 412 civiliansbull Killed 11 civilian political activistsbull Killed 21 members of republican terror groupsbull Killed 42 members of rival loyalist terror

groupsbull Killed 6 members of the Security Forces

Ideology

bull Similar to the UDAUFF the Ulster Volunteer Forcersquos primary aim was to combat Irish republicanism in Northern Ireland primarily the PIRA They wanted Northern Ireland to remain in the UK

Terrorist Activitiesbull The majority of UVF victims were Catholic civilians

many of whom were killed at random These attacks were intended to demoralize the IRA as the IRA drew most of its support from the Catholic community

bull Planting bombs in predominately-Catholic pubs or simply residential areas was a very frequent UVF tactic and in 1973 they detonated more bombs in Northern Ireland than the UDA and the PIRA combined Assassinations mass shootings booby-trap car bombs and kidnappings were also frequent UVF activities

The Shankhill Butchers

bull The ldquoShankhill Butchersrdquo were a notorious offshoot UVF group known for abducting and literally slitting the throats of Catholic civilians and rival loyalist terror groups in the late 1970s They were led by Lenny Murphy (who was eventually imprisoned and upon his release of a 4-year stint murdered by the PIRA) and killed 23 people most of whom were Catholic civilians Many experts liken the Shankhill Butchers more to a group of serial killers than to politically or even ethnically-motivated murderers

bull The Butchers were all eventually all either imprisoned killed by the PIRA or both

Weaponrybull The UVF received the majority of its weaponry in the late 1970s

from Armscor an apartheid-South Africa state-owned arms company which in defiance of various UN sanctions and embargoes sold them to the UVF

bull Weapons were thought to consist ofbull 200 Czech SA vz 58 Assault Riflesbull 90 Browning Pistolsbull 500 RGD-5 Frag Grenadesbull 30000 rounds of ammunitionbull 12 RPG-7 Rocket Launchers and 150+ Rocketsbull The UVF also began using the illegally-obtained mining explosive

Powergel in the early 1990s

Organized Crime

bull The UVF was also heavily involved in organized crime including protection racketeering and drug smugglingdealing including cannabis MDMA cocaine and amphetamines Bank robberies were also very frequent in the 1970s

Major Incidents 1969-1998

Bloody Sunday 30 January 1972

Massacre on the Bogsidebull In 1972 during a large scale but peaceful civil-rights march in the

troubled predominately Catholic neighborhood of Bogside in Derry 26 unarmed civil rights marchers were shot by members of the British Army 14 of whom were killed Five of those shot were shot in the back

bull After several inquiries into the incident there was found to have been no justifiable provocation from the protestors and no shots fired from the protestors during the march The massacre was conducted in full view of the public and the press

bull The PM David Cameron eventually issued a formal apology to the victims and victimsrsquo families of the massacre after several investigations failed to reveal any justifiable provocation for the massacre

bull The massacre sky-rocketed PIRA membership and recruitment as public perception of the British Army in Catholic communities in Northern Ireland reached an all-time low

Bloody Friday 21 July 1972

A City Under Siege

bull On 21 July 1972 the PIRA detonated 26 bombs in the space of 80 minutes in Belfast destroying banks bridges electrical substations Protestant housing tenements gasoline stations and private garages

bull Although warnings were called in at least 30 minutes prior to each bomb the amount of bombs exploding and the addition of multiple hoax warnings at the same time led to the Security Forces being unable to evacuate all the areas in time 11 people were killed and 130 were injured many of them horrifically mutilated Of those injured 77 were women or children

Dublin and Monaghan Bombings 17 May 1974

Deadliest Attack of the Troubles

bull Perpetrated by the UVF in the southern Republic of Ireland three car bombs exploded in Dublin during rush hour and another exploded in Monaghan around 90 minutes later

bull 33 civilians and a full-term unborn child were killed in the bombing while nearly 300 were injured The UVF did not claim responsibility for the bombings until 1993

bull The majority of those killed were young women although the age range of those killed ranged from 5 months old to 80 years old

Warrenpoint Ambush 27 August 1979

Roadside IEDsbull In the southern part of County Armagh Northern Ireland a predominately-

Catholic rural region and former PIRA stronghold right on the border with the southern Republic of Ireland a British troop convoy was hit with a remote-control detonated roadside 500lb truck-bomb and destroyed instantly killing 6 troops The surviving soldiers then wrongly believed they were under sniper fire from the other side of the Irish border and began firing at civilians immediately after the bombing killing 1 and injuring another

bull 32 minutes after the first bombing the IRA used its knowledge of how the British reacted to bombings to correctly predict that they would set up an incident-command point in a nearby gatehouse Unfortunately for the British there was a second 800lb fertilizer bomb planted near the gatehouse that when detonated killed 12 other soldiers who were responding to the initial bomb

bull It was the deadliest single attack on the British Army during the Troubles and a highly successful attack for the PIRA

Summer of 1981 Irish Hunger Strikes

A Defining Moment for the Republican Cause

bull Beginning on 1 March 1981 led by Bobby Sands 7 PIRA and 3 INLA inmates at the notorious ldquoMazerdquo prison began to refuse food until Margaret Thatcher PM of Great Britain at that time began to recognize terrorist prisoners as political prisoners and allowed them their ldquoFive Demandsrdquo

The Five Demands

bull The right to not wear a prison uniformbull The right to not do prison workbull The right of free association with other

prisoners and to organize in educational and recreational pursuits

bull Full restoration of remission lost through any protests towards these demands

Previous Protestsbull The Maze prison was a very high-security and low-quality prison that

housed almost all PIRA prisoners during the Troubles It was run in a very ethically questionable fashion with frequent beatings and borderline-torture techniques used on Republican prisoners and extremely poor living conditions for prisoners Many Maze prison guards were members of the UDAUVF or had strong connections with one of the two groups as well

bull Massive peaceful protests and marches by Irish republicans outside of the Maze Prison proved unsuccessful in attaining political status for republican prisoners as well as previous inmate protests in 1980 including non-fatal hunger strikes inmates refusing to wear prison uniforms and thus living in their cells naked and prisoners refusing to leave their cells to go to the bathroom until their requests had been granted (they therefore urinated and defecated in their cells and spread their excrement across their cell walls in what was known as the ldquoDirty Protestrdquo)

Dirty Protesters

Thatcherrsquos Response

bull ldquoThose terrorists will carry their determination to disrupt society to any lengths Once again we have a hunger strike in the Maze Prison in the quest for what they call lsquopolitical statusrsquo There is no such thing as political murder political bombing or political violence There is only criminal murder criminal bombing and criminal violence We will not compromise on this There will be no political statusrdquo

Ten Strikers Diebull Bobby Sands the leader of the strike was imprisoned as a PIRA member

on charges of firearm possession and in connection with the bombing of a furniture store He was the first to die after 66 days of not eating Sands was elected to a seat in Parliament whilst on Hunger Strike

bull Following Sandsrsquo death there were riots bus-burnings and attacks on the British embassy in the southern Republic of Ireland there were massive demonstrations in France and Italy a tomato was thrown as Queen Elizabeth II by demonstrators in Oslo and there were massive riots and civil disorder all over the streets of Belfast The South African ANC and (at the time) terrorist Nelson Mandela expressed their support for the PIRA and the hunger strikers (Mandela himself claimed he was directly inspired by Sands to undertake hunger strikes against the Apartheid government in South Africa) as well as the Palestine Liberation Organization a middle-eastern terror group

bull Over 100000 attended Sandsrsquo funeral

Bobby Sands

ldquoOur revenge will be the laughter of our childrenrdquo

Reaction to Sandsrsquo Death

>

Conclusion

bull The Hunger Strike was eventually called off after 10 strikers including Sands had died

bull James Prior newly installed secretary of state of Northern Ireland granted the prisoners partial concessions all of the Five Demands except for the right to not do prison work Margaret Thatcher refused to budge on political status

bull The Hunger Strikes opened a new way for the PIRA to pursue its objectives politically whereas previously it had seen violence as the only solution to the plight of Irish nationalists in Northern Ireland

1983 The Maze Prison Escape

The ldquoGreat Escaperdquo

bull Using smuggled-in guns and knives 38 PIRA prisoners who had been convicted of offenses ranging from murder to causing explosions escaped from one of the most high-security prisons in Europe They completely took over the H7 prison block and took their prison guards hostage before escaping in a food supply truck Several prison guards were shot and stabbed but only one died of a heart attack during the escape

bull Fifteen escapees were recaptured the first day with four more captured over the next two days following the breakout The remaining 19 were transported to PIRA strongholds and given the option to either rejoin the IRArsquos cause or be transported to the United States to live under a new identity

12 October 1984 Brighton Hotel Bombing

The PIRA Nearly Gets Thatcherbull Margaret Thatcher the highly controversial far-right British PM from

1979-1990 had become a tremendously hated figure amongst the Irish nationalist community in Northern Ireland following the 1981 Hunger Strikes and for her general uncompromising stand on Irish republicanism

bull PIRA man Patrick Magee stayed at the Brighton Hotel from the 14-17 September 1984 planting a 20-lb bomb under his bath

bull Thatcher was staying at the Brighton Hotel for a political conference and was still up at 254AM on 12 October when the bomb was detonated The bomb decimated her bathroom but left the bedroom and sitting room of her suite largely unscathed

bull The PIRA statement to Thatcher afterwards was ldquoToday we were unlucky But remember we only have to be lucky once You will have to be lucky alwaysrdquo

Loughgall Ambush 8 May 1987

The SAS Strikes

bull A botched attack on Loughgall Villagersquos RUC Police Base in which the PIRA drove a backhoe into the fortified base and ran away to detonate the bomb that was inside of the backhoe went wrong as the SAS the British Special Forces had prior knowledge of the attack and quickly dispatched the 8 PIRA members involved

bull Although the RUC base was wrecked and bombed there were no RUC or SAS casualties and it was the PIRArsquos greatest loss of life in a single incident during the Troubles

British Army Lynx Shootdown 20 March 1994

The PIRA Shoots Down a Helicopter

bull Using the previously mentioned Barrack-Buster homemade mortar PIRA insurgents were able to fire on a British helicopter that was in the process of landing whilst hiding behind a hay bail from around 150 yards out

bull The helicopter was hit with the mortar shell around 100 feet above the ground but the pilot was able to successfully crash-land the helicopter and escape before its propane tanks exploded There were no casualties but the attack was a major propaganda coup for the PIRA

1996 Manchester Bombing

The PIRA Destroys Manchester

bull On Saturday 15 June 1996 the PIRA sent in telephoned warnings and 90 minutes later detonated a 3300lb fertilizer-based truck bomb in the heart of Manchester City Centre the biggest bomb detonated in Great Britain during peacetime The bomb killed nobody due to previous warnings but led to 212 non-fatal injuries and essentially destroyed Manchester City Centre leaving approximately 700 million pounds ($12bn) worth of damage in its wake

Omagh Bombing 1998

Last Great Deadly Attack of the Troubles

bull Perpetrated by a Provisional IRA splinter group that was rejecting the peace process calling themselves the ldquoReal IRArdquo the 510lb fertilizer-based bomb was placed on main street in the town of Omagh Northern Ireland Warnings were called in approximately 30 minutes before the bombing but they were inaccurate and police ended up moving more civilians towards the bomb which ended up killing 29 people and causing over 300 non-fatal injuries This was the highest death toll from a single incident during the Troubles

bull It received universal outrage and was condemned even by the PIRA and its political wing Sinn Fein It spurred on the Northern Ireland peace process and the RIRA apologized and called a ceasefire several days after

The Good Friday Agreement and Northern Ireland Peace Process

Beginningsbull Following the 1981 Hunger Strikes Irish republicans began to

increasingly look towards politics rather than violence as a means of achieving their aims Sinn Fein gaelic for ldquoWe Ourselvesrdquo was a fiercely Irish Republican political party which led by the Machiavellian former PIRA leader and Maze inmate Gerry Adams began to push for a more peaceful solution to the Troubles in Northern Ireland

bull It became apparent by the late 1990s that although the PIRA was not losing a war against the British establishment it would be impossible to truly lsquowin the fightrsquo through violence and that any further terrorism would serve not to achieve any real political aim but only to prolong and continue suffering and violence in Northern Ireland and that politics was a much better way of achieving Republican aims

Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein former PIRA Belfast Brigade OC

Good Friday Agreement 1998

bull The Peace Process began in 1994 and included intermittent terrorist ceasefires and political negotiations between the major Irish republican and British unionist parties and culminated on April 10 1998 when the Good Friday Agreement was signed

PM Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern Sign the GFA

GFA Mandatesbull That Northern Ireland was to remain British until a majority of people in Northern

Ireland and the southern Republic of Ireland wanted otherwise bull The creation of an entirely new far less sectarian and religiously diverse Northern

Irish local governmentbull The decommissioning of arms from terrorist groups on both the unionist and

nationalist side of the political divide (ultimately successful all arms decommissioned by 2005)

bull Mutual respect and civil rights between Catholics and Protestants bull The reduction and eventual elimination of British troops in Northern Ireland

(ultimately successful all troops withdrawn by 2005)bull Eventual early prison release for all individuals imprisoned for terrorist offenses as

long as they were apart of a terrorist group that was decommissioning in accordance with the GFA

bull Disbandment of the RUC police service and the installation of the new Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) which was required to be at least 50 Catholic

Northern Ireland Today

Still Conflict But No Warbull Since the complete decommissioning of the arms and

disbandment of the PIRA INLA UDAUFF and UVF due to the Good Friday Agreement there is nowhere near the amount of violence in Northern Ireland or Belfast as there was 20 years ago There are no more weekly bombings and riots and no more British troops patrolling Catholic areas in armored vehicles

bull Despite this there are still occasional riots and clashes with the PSNI several times a year specifically on dates of great historical significance to the Catholic or Protestant communities and there is still a deep distrust and even hatred between many Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland although that continues to change with time

Catholic Slum of Ardoyne Belfast July 2011

Splinter Groups

bull Many former PIRA or UDA terrorists have now taken to organized crime for purely profiteering purposes but are no longer involved in substantial violence or any political-based terrorism

bull Splinter groups such as the Real IRA and Continuity IRA in Catholic communities and the Orange Volunteers and Red Hand Commandos in Protestant communities still conduct occasional violence towards Police and civilians in Northern Ireland but are all rather small poorly armed and poorly funded groups that pose nowhere near the threat that terrorist groups in the 80s and 90s did in Northern Ireland

Herersquos To A Brighter Future in Northern Ireland

Works Citedbull httpwwwbbccoukhistorytroublesbull httpcainulstacukbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiProvisional_Irish_Republican_Armybull httpenwikipediaorgwikiThe_Troublesbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiUlster_Defence_Associationbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiUlster_Volunteer_Forcebull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_National_Liberation_Armybull ldquoA Secret History of the IRArdquo by Ed Moloney ndashWW Norton amp Company Reprint 2003bull ldquoVoices From The Grave Two Menrsquos War in Irelandrdquo by Ed Moloney ndash Public Affairs 2010bull ldquoFifty Dead Men Walkingrdquo by Martin McGartland ndash John Blake 2009bull httpwwwinfopleasecomspotnorthireland1htmlbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_Civil_Warbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_War_of_Independencebull httpenwikipediaorgwiki1981_Irish_hunger_strikebull httpenwikipediaorgwikiDirectory_of_the_Northern_Ireland_Troublesbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiGood_Friday_Agreementbull httpswwwmi5govukhomethe-threatsterrorismnorthern-irelandrepublican-terrorist-groupshtmlbull httpswwwmi5govukhomethe-threatsterrorismnorthern-irelandprovisional-irish-republican-army-

pirahtmlbull httpnewsbbccoukhienglishstaticnorthern_irelandunderstandingeventshunger_strikestm

  • The Troubles
  • Brief Overview
  • 30 Years of Conflict
  • Slide 4
  • Background
  • The Irish War of Independence
  • Slide 7
  • Anglo-Irish Treaty (signed 6 December 1921)
  • Irish Civil War
  • 1922-1966 Ireland
  • The Civil Rights Movement
  • Slide 12
  • Slide 13
  • Objectives of the Civil Rights Movement
  • The 1969 Northern Ireland Riots ndashThe Troubles Begin
  • Culmination of Tension
  • No-Go Areas
  • No-Go Areas (2)
  • Early 1970sndash The Rise of the Provisional IRA
  • The IRA Split
  • Rise of the UVF and Loyalist Terror Groups
  • Beginnings
  • UVF Statement 21 May 1964
  • The Paramilitaries
  • Irish RepublicansCatholics
  • The Provisional IRA
  • IRA Statement Late 80s
  • Statistics
  • RecruitmentFunding
  • Weaponry
  • Weaponry (2)
  • Slide 32
  • Mortars and IEDs
  • EOD Officer Approaches PIRA Car Bomb
  • The Barrack Buster
  • Vigilantism
  • Slide 37
  • Slide 38
  • Policy on Informants
  • Terrorist Activities
  • Terrorist Activities (continued)
  • The INLA
  • Statistics (2)
  • Ideology
  • Terrorist Activities (2)
  • Internal Feuds
  • Slide 47
  • British LoyalistsProtestants
  • The UDAUFF
  • Former UFF Member
  • Statistics (3)
  • Ideology (2)
  • Terrorist Activities (3)
  • Slide 54
  • Organized Crime
  • The UVF
  • Statistics (4)
  • Ideology (3)
  • Terrorist Activities (4)
  • The Shankhill Butchers
  • Weaponry (3)
  • Slide 62
  • Organized Crime (2)
  • Major Incidents 1969-1998
  • Bloody Sunday 30 January 1972
  • Massacre on the Bogside
  • Bloody Friday 21 July 1972
  • A City Under Siege
  • Dublin and Monaghan Bombings 17 May 1974
  • Deadliest Attack of the Troubles
  • Warrenpoint Ambush 27 August 1979
  • Roadside IEDs
  • Summer of 1981 Irish Hunger Strikes
  • A Defining Moment for the Republican Cause
  • The Five Demands
  • Previous Protests
  • Dirty Protesters
  • Thatcherrsquos Response
  • Ten Strikers Die
  • Bobby Sands
  • Reaction to Sandsrsquo Death
  • Conclusion
  • 1983 The Maze Prison Escape
  • The ldquoGreat Escaperdquo
  • 12 October 1984 Brighton Hotel Bombing
  • The PIRA Nearly Gets Thatcher
  • Loughgall Ambush 8 May 1987
  • The SAS Strikes
  • British Army Lynx Shootdown 20 March 1994
  • The PIRA Shoots Down a Helicopter
  • 1996 Manchester Bombing
  • The PIRA Destroys Manchester
  • Omagh Bombing 1998
  • Last Great Deadly Attack of the Troubles
  • The Good Friday Agreement and Northern Ireland Peace Process
  • Beginnings (2)
  • Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein former PIRA Belfast Brigade OC
  • Good Friday Agreement 1998
  • PM Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern Sign the GFA
  • GFA Mandates
  • Northern Ireland Today
  • Still Conflict But No War
  • Catholic Slum of Ardoyne Belfast July 2011
  • Splinter Groups
  • Herersquos To A Brighter Future in Northern Ireland
  • Works Cited
Page 25: The Troubles, 1969-1998

Statistics

bull Suffered 293 Casualtiesbull Over 10000 members imprisoned on various charges

throughout the conflictbull Killed 656 members of the British Armed Forcesbull Killed 272 Members of the Royal Ulster Constabulary

(RUC) Police Forcebull Killed 44 members of loyalistprotestant terror groupsbull Killed between 620-650 civiliansbull Killed over 1500 people

RecruitmentFundingbull IRA recruitment in Catholic neighborhoods was similar to the phenomenon

of gang membership in the inner-city United States Young Catholics typically joined to create a sense of belonging to seem ldquohardrdquo or look ldquocoolrdquo to feel protected from the brutality of the RUC during the Troubles or to help defend their communities IRA members were not asked to join but volunteered

bull IRA lsquofunds-raisingrsquo activities included collecting protection money from Catholic businesses (a ldquorevolutionary taxrdquo) robbing banks kidnapping citizens for ransom and cigarette and gasoline smuggling across the Irish border (manipulating the differing tax prices on both sides of the border and selling fuel and cigarettes illicitly) Although the Provisional IRA has officially disbanded and no longer engages in terrorism there is substantial evidence that extortion rackets in poor Catholic neighborhoods and contraband smuggling operations along the border still exist in Northern Ireland and are run by former IRA men solely for profiteering purposes

Weaponry

bull The Provisional IRA obtained a significant amount of arms from both Irish-American supporters in the northeastern United States (including members of notorious gangster Whitey Bulgerrsquos Irish Mob in 1970s-80s Boston) and from the Libyan government under Muammar Gadaffi

bull Gadaffi took over in Libya in 1969 and initially armed the IRA seeing them as comrades-in-arms fighting British imperialism Connections re-emerged in 1986 after the Thatcher Administrationrsquos support of the US bombings of Libya that killed Gadaffirsquos adopted daughter

Weaponrybull When the IRA disarmed as part of the Good Friday Agreement in

1998 (more on that later) they released the following to the British Armed Forces

bull 1000 Rifles (AK-47s AR-15s etc)bull 3 Tons of Semtex (a general-purpose plastic explosive)bull 20-30 Heavy Machine Gunsbull 7 Surface-to-Air Missilesbull 7 Flamethrowersbull 1200 Detonatorsbull 20 RPGrsquosbull 100 Handgunsbull 100+ Hand Grenades

Mortars and IEDsbull The PIRA was incredibly proficient at bomb-making and made

extensive use of Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) during their 30 year campaign

bull IEDs were typically constructed with chemical mixes of fertilizer gasoline and other home-made components Libyan Semtex was also used in several heavy-duty bombs Nails and gunpowder were typically implemented in pipe bombs made out of metal pipes Most IEDs had built in countermeasures such as the mercury tilt switch which would cause the bomb to explode if moved at all should a British EOD officer attempt to dismantle it

bull The PIRA developed the ldquoBarrack Busterrdquo mortar in the late lsquo70s or a homemade mortar made up of common household materials that was used to attack several Army bases from afar and even Prime Minister Margaret Thatcherrsquos househellip 10 Downing Street in a 1991 attack that destroyed the Prime Ministerrsquos rear garden (the mortar was fired out the back of a nearby van)

EOD Officer Approaches PIRA Car Bomb

The Barrack Buster

>

Vigilantismbull The RUC was not trusted in Catholic neighborhoods throughout the

Troubles and did not regularly patrol or even enter them in urban areas of Northern Ireland Thus when there was a community drug dealer car thief burglar rapist or pedophile the IRA took it upon themselves to issue brutal street justice to those involved

bull Occasionally offering warnings for lesser offences such as petty thievery or drug dealing if the IRA had enough of a certain member of the community they perceived as anti-social he or she was usually jumped brutally beaten andor lsquokneecappedrsquo ndash one of the IRArsquos most notorious methods ndash in which the victim was pinned down and shot through the kneecaps with a firearm or occasionally had their kneecaps drilled through with power-drills Other methods included releasing starving Rottweilerrsquos on the offender dropping cinderblocks on the offenderrsquos hands or even tarring and feathering the offender The IRArsquos process in determining an individualrsquos guilt was never open to scrutiny

bull If the offender persisted after an IRA punishment he was then given a notice by the IRA to leave the country as soon as possiblehellip referred to as being ldquoput outrdquo of the community If the offender still did not leave he was murdered

Policy on Informantsbull In an effort to stamp out collusion with the British forces and informants on the

IRA the IRA was responsible for torturing and killing several accused Catholic civilians throughout the conflict

bull Investigations into collusion infiltration and informants were carried out by the Internal Security Unit of the IRA colloquially known as the ldquoNutting Squadrdquo

bull The ISU would carry out debriefings of IRA prisoners upon their release from British detention so as to discover whether or not they had lsquocrackedrsquo and released information to British interrogators

bull Typical ISU torture techniques on those accused of informing included drowning genitalnipple mutilation electrocution with livewires pouring kerosene on the accusedrsquos legs before setting fire to them and branding with hot irons Informants were always killed afterwards with a bullet through the back of the head

bull Of the 18 ldquoDisappearedrdquo accused informants that were abducted and executed by the IRA during the Troubles only 10 bodies have been found

bull Martin McGartland was an IRA informant who was estimated to have saved 50 lives in the conflict before he was discovered and abducted by the ISU He escaped and lives today in seclusion The film ldquo50 Dead Men Walkingrdquo is based on his exploits and is an excellent realistic non-romanticized take on the Troubles in Northern Ireland

Terrorist Activitiesbull Common tactics included breaking into the homes of off-duty RUC police

officers and murdering them in their beds or setting booby-trap bombs underneath RUC police officersrsquo cars and unionist politiciansrsquo cars so that they would blow up as the engine was started RUC men were typically targeted when they were off-duty and many were shot dead in front of their families The PIRA would also impersonate innocent Catholic civilians call the police to report an emergency and ambush the police from hidden positions when they arrived at the stated address (another reason the RUC was hesitant to go into Catholic neighborhoods during this period)

bull Most notorious for their bombings they would typically park car bombs in predominately Protestant communities call in the bomb threat so that the area would be evacuated and an EOD squad would arrive to dismantle it the bomb would then be detonated with hopes of killing an EOD officer and destroying Protestant housing tenements

bull The PIRA rarely intentionally targeted civilians especially in the 80srsquo and 90srsquo but were involved in the bombings of several Protestant-owned pubs during the 1970s in response to loyalist terrorist groups bombing Catholic-owned pubs They also carried out the Kingsmill massacre in 1976 in which eleven Protestant workmen that were traveling on a minibus were held up by the IRA and all individually executed in response to the execution of six Catholic civilians by the UVF the night before

Terrorist Activities (continued)bull Other activities included engaging in firefights with British squadrons as

they patrolled the countrysidestreets of urban areas sniper attacks on RUC or British Army patrolscheckpoints planting landmines along British foot patrol routes in rural areas planting roadside IEDs along British convoy routes and bombing ferries and buses containing on-or-off duty British soldiers

bull The notorious ldquohuman bombrdquo technique in which civilians or off-duty members of the British security forces were kidnapped and then forced to drive car bombs into British military targets ndash such as checkpoints and Army bases ndash after the PIRA had placed their familiesrsquo lives under threat

bull Inciting riots and providing Catholic youths with molotov cocktails (gasoline bombs) during such riots so as to maximize public disorder and destruction was also an almost daily IRA activity in Catholic communities in urban Northern Ireland

The INLA

Statistics

bull Suffered 33 casualtiesbull Killed 46 members of the British Security Forcesbull Killed 2 members of the Irish Security Forcesbull Killed 39 civiliansbull Killed 3 civilian political activistsbull Killed 16 members of rival Republican terror

groupsbull Killed 7 members of Loyalist terror groups

Ideology

bull Founded by Seamus Costello in 1974 as the military wing of the Irish Republican Socialist Party

bull Shared similar goals to the Provisional IRA but far more socialist in ideology INLA wanted a socialist united Irish republic and blamed class struggles for many of the problems in Northern Ireland whereas the PIRA simply wanted a united Irish republic and had little interest in class struggle or economics

bull Whereas the PIRA was almost exclusively Catholic the INLA had some Protestant members most of whom were involved for purely socialist reasons

Terrorist Activitiesbull Although far less powerful and bold than the PIRA the INLA

nevertheless presented a potent terrorist threat to the United Kingdom during the Troubles

bull Similar tactics to the IRA car bombings shooting off-duty police and soldiers dead and high-profile assassinations

bull Their most high-profile attacks included the car bomb assassination of Airey Neave one of Margaret Thatcherrsquos closest political supporters in 1979 the murder of infamous Loyalist terror leader Billy Wright (who was murdered by INLA inmates in a British political prison in 1997) and the Ballykelley Disco Bombing in 1982 in which the INLA bombed a disco-club frequented by off-duty British soldiers managing to kill 11 of them as well as 6 civilians as well as destroying the disco

Internal Feuds

bull A split in 1986 led the INLA to split into the INLA and the IPLO or Irish Peoplersquos Liberation Organization based on IPLO membersrsquo perceived lack of political motivation and heavy involvement in drug dealing and criminality

bull There were several retaliatory killings between the two groups that persisted until 1992 when the PIRA had enough of the IPLOrsquos involvement in drug dealing in Catholic areas of Belfast and on 31 October 1992 virtually destroyed the entire organization in one night with a series of raids killings and kneecappings that killed or crippled the majority of the grouprsquos members

British LoyalistsProtestants

The UDAUFF

Former UFF Member

>

Statistics

bull Suffered 89 casualtiesbull Killed 197 civiliansbull Killed 12 civilian political activistsbull Killed 37 members of rival loyalist terror

groupsbull Killed 11 members of republican terror groupsbull Killed 3 members of the British Security Forces

Ideology

bull The UDA or Ulster Defense Association and its military wing the Ulster Freedom Fighters (UFF) was a loyalist protestant terror squad that targeted PIRA and INLA members as well as general Catholic civilians in bombings and shootings throughout Northern Ireland

bull It pledged to end its campaign of violence whenever the IRA set down its arms yet should the UK government appease the IRA and grant a 32-county Irish Republic the UDA pledged to act as ldquothe IRA in reverserdquo

Terrorist Activitiesbull The UDA saw itself as a militia defending upstanding protestant loyalist

communities from dangerous and lower-class Catholics that were disrupting the status quo in Northern Ireland They pledged primarily to target IRA men but ended up killing a majority of Catholic civilians during the Troubles They were also known to intimidate and exile known Catholic families from predominately-Protestant communities in Belfast and other urban areas

bull Drive-by shootings shooting up or planting bombs in predominately-Catholic pubs and bars and jumping brutally beating andor kneecapping Catholic civilians were all frequent tactics

bull The UDA discreetly worked in collusion with the RUC and other British security agencies so as to track down and assassinate known IRA members They would also patrol Protestant neighborhoods alongside British soldiers at the height of the Troubles Many RUC police officers and prison guards were also UDA members

bull The UDA alongside many other loyalist paramilitaries benefitted from the import of several arms shipments from Lebanese arms dealers in the early 1970s including rocket launchers 200+ AK-47 Rifles 90+ handguns and over 400 grenades They also received various weapons such as the uzi submachine gun and explosive devices from arms dealers in the Soviet bloc in the 1980s

Organized Crime

bull The UDA and its members were also heavily involved in drug dealing from the street level to wholesale purchase primarily in MDMA and cannabis throughout the Troubles

bull Protection racketeering and money laundering were also common amongst the UDA in protestant communities

bull However should a member of a UDA-ran community begin stealing or dealing drugs without UDA consent he was abruptly branded as ldquoanti-socialrdquo and either killed or kneecapped

The UVF

Statistics

bull Suffered unknown number of casualtiesbull Killed 412 civiliansbull Killed 11 civilian political activistsbull Killed 21 members of republican terror groupsbull Killed 42 members of rival loyalist terror

groupsbull Killed 6 members of the Security Forces

Ideology

bull Similar to the UDAUFF the Ulster Volunteer Forcersquos primary aim was to combat Irish republicanism in Northern Ireland primarily the PIRA They wanted Northern Ireland to remain in the UK

Terrorist Activitiesbull The majority of UVF victims were Catholic civilians

many of whom were killed at random These attacks were intended to demoralize the IRA as the IRA drew most of its support from the Catholic community

bull Planting bombs in predominately-Catholic pubs or simply residential areas was a very frequent UVF tactic and in 1973 they detonated more bombs in Northern Ireland than the UDA and the PIRA combined Assassinations mass shootings booby-trap car bombs and kidnappings were also frequent UVF activities

The Shankhill Butchers

bull The ldquoShankhill Butchersrdquo were a notorious offshoot UVF group known for abducting and literally slitting the throats of Catholic civilians and rival loyalist terror groups in the late 1970s They were led by Lenny Murphy (who was eventually imprisoned and upon his release of a 4-year stint murdered by the PIRA) and killed 23 people most of whom were Catholic civilians Many experts liken the Shankhill Butchers more to a group of serial killers than to politically or even ethnically-motivated murderers

bull The Butchers were all eventually all either imprisoned killed by the PIRA or both

Weaponrybull The UVF received the majority of its weaponry in the late 1970s

from Armscor an apartheid-South Africa state-owned arms company which in defiance of various UN sanctions and embargoes sold them to the UVF

bull Weapons were thought to consist ofbull 200 Czech SA vz 58 Assault Riflesbull 90 Browning Pistolsbull 500 RGD-5 Frag Grenadesbull 30000 rounds of ammunitionbull 12 RPG-7 Rocket Launchers and 150+ Rocketsbull The UVF also began using the illegally-obtained mining explosive

Powergel in the early 1990s

Organized Crime

bull The UVF was also heavily involved in organized crime including protection racketeering and drug smugglingdealing including cannabis MDMA cocaine and amphetamines Bank robberies were also very frequent in the 1970s

Major Incidents 1969-1998

Bloody Sunday 30 January 1972

Massacre on the Bogsidebull In 1972 during a large scale but peaceful civil-rights march in the

troubled predominately Catholic neighborhood of Bogside in Derry 26 unarmed civil rights marchers were shot by members of the British Army 14 of whom were killed Five of those shot were shot in the back

bull After several inquiries into the incident there was found to have been no justifiable provocation from the protestors and no shots fired from the protestors during the march The massacre was conducted in full view of the public and the press

bull The PM David Cameron eventually issued a formal apology to the victims and victimsrsquo families of the massacre after several investigations failed to reveal any justifiable provocation for the massacre

bull The massacre sky-rocketed PIRA membership and recruitment as public perception of the British Army in Catholic communities in Northern Ireland reached an all-time low

Bloody Friday 21 July 1972

A City Under Siege

bull On 21 July 1972 the PIRA detonated 26 bombs in the space of 80 minutes in Belfast destroying banks bridges electrical substations Protestant housing tenements gasoline stations and private garages

bull Although warnings were called in at least 30 minutes prior to each bomb the amount of bombs exploding and the addition of multiple hoax warnings at the same time led to the Security Forces being unable to evacuate all the areas in time 11 people were killed and 130 were injured many of them horrifically mutilated Of those injured 77 were women or children

Dublin and Monaghan Bombings 17 May 1974

Deadliest Attack of the Troubles

bull Perpetrated by the UVF in the southern Republic of Ireland three car bombs exploded in Dublin during rush hour and another exploded in Monaghan around 90 minutes later

bull 33 civilians and a full-term unborn child were killed in the bombing while nearly 300 were injured The UVF did not claim responsibility for the bombings until 1993

bull The majority of those killed were young women although the age range of those killed ranged from 5 months old to 80 years old

Warrenpoint Ambush 27 August 1979

Roadside IEDsbull In the southern part of County Armagh Northern Ireland a predominately-

Catholic rural region and former PIRA stronghold right on the border with the southern Republic of Ireland a British troop convoy was hit with a remote-control detonated roadside 500lb truck-bomb and destroyed instantly killing 6 troops The surviving soldiers then wrongly believed they were under sniper fire from the other side of the Irish border and began firing at civilians immediately after the bombing killing 1 and injuring another

bull 32 minutes after the first bombing the IRA used its knowledge of how the British reacted to bombings to correctly predict that they would set up an incident-command point in a nearby gatehouse Unfortunately for the British there was a second 800lb fertilizer bomb planted near the gatehouse that when detonated killed 12 other soldiers who were responding to the initial bomb

bull It was the deadliest single attack on the British Army during the Troubles and a highly successful attack for the PIRA

Summer of 1981 Irish Hunger Strikes

A Defining Moment for the Republican Cause

bull Beginning on 1 March 1981 led by Bobby Sands 7 PIRA and 3 INLA inmates at the notorious ldquoMazerdquo prison began to refuse food until Margaret Thatcher PM of Great Britain at that time began to recognize terrorist prisoners as political prisoners and allowed them their ldquoFive Demandsrdquo

The Five Demands

bull The right to not wear a prison uniformbull The right to not do prison workbull The right of free association with other

prisoners and to organize in educational and recreational pursuits

bull Full restoration of remission lost through any protests towards these demands

Previous Protestsbull The Maze prison was a very high-security and low-quality prison that

housed almost all PIRA prisoners during the Troubles It was run in a very ethically questionable fashion with frequent beatings and borderline-torture techniques used on Republican prisoners and extremely poor living conditions for prisoners Many Maze prison guards were members of the UDAUVF or had strong connections with one of the two groups as well

bull Massive peaceful protests and marches by Irish republicans outside of the Maze Prison proved unsuccessful in attaining political status for republican prisoners as well as previous inmate protests in 1980 including non-fatal hunger strikes inmates refusing to wear prison uniforms and thus living in their cells naked and prisoners refusing to leave their cells to go to the bathroom until their requests had been granted (they therefore urinated and defecated in their cells and spread their excrement across their cell walls in what was known as the ldquoDirty Protestrdquo)

Dirty Protesters

Thatcherrsquos Response

bull ldquoThose terrorists will carry their determination to disrupt society to any lengths Once again we have a hunger strike in the Maze Prison in the quest for what they call lsquopolitical statusrsquo There is no such thing as political murder political bombing or political violence There is only criminal murder criminal bombing and criminal violence We will not compromise on this There will be no political statusrdquo

Ten Strikers Diebull Bobby Sands the leader of the strike was imprisoned as a PIRA member

on charges of firearm possession and in connection with the bombing of a furniture store He was the first to die after 66 days of not eating Sands was elected to a seat in Parliament whilst on Hunger Strike

bull Following Sandsrsquo death there were riots bus-burnings and attacks on the British embassy in the southern Republic of Ireland there were massive demonstrations in France and Italy a tomato was thrown as Queen Elizabeth II by demonstrators in Oslo and there were massive riots and civil disorder all over the streets of Belfast The South African ANC and (at the time) terrorist Nelson Mandela expressed their support for the PIRA and the hunger strikers (Mandela himself claimed he was directly inspired by Sands to undertake hunger strikes against the Apartheid government in South Africa) as well as the Palestine Liberation Organization a middle-eastern terror group

bull Over 100000 attended Sandsrsquo funeral

Bobby Sands

ldquoOur revenge will be the laughter of our childrenrdquo

Reaction to Sandsrsquo Death

>

Conclusion

bull The Hunger Strike was eventually called off after 10 strikers including Sands had died

bull James Prior newly installed secretary of state of Northern Ireland granted the prisoners partial concessions all of the Five Demands except for the right to not do prison work Margaret Thatcher refused to budge on political status

bull The Hunger Strikes opened a new way for the PIRA to pursue its objectives politically whereas previously it had seen violence as the only solution to the plight of Irish nationalists in Northern Ireland

1983 The Maze Prison Escape

The ldquoGreat Escaperdquo

bull Using smuggled-in guns and knives 38 PIRA prisoners who had been convicted of offenses ranging from murder to causing explosions escaped from one of the most high-security prisons in Europe They completely took over the H7 prison block and took their prison guards hostage before escaping in a food supply truck Several prison guards were shot and stabbed but only one died of a heart attack during the escape

bull Fifteen escapees were recaptured the first day with four more captured over the next two days following the breakout The remaining 19 were transported to PIRA strongholds and given the option to either rejoin the IRArsquos cause or be transported to the United States to live under a new identity

12 October 1984 Brighton Hotel Bombing

The PIRA Nearly Gets Thatcherbull Margaret Thatcher the highly controversial far-right British PM from

1979-1990 had become a tremendously hated figure amongst the Irish nationalist community in Northern Ireland following the 1981 Hunger Strikes and for her general uncompromising stand on Irish republicanism

bull PIRA man Patrick Magee stayed at the Brighton Hotel from the 14-17 September 1984 planting a 20-lb bomb under his bath

bull Thatcher was staying at the Brighton Hotel for a political conference and was still up at 254AM on 12 October when the bomb was detonated The bomb decimated her bathroom but left the bedroom and sitting room of her suite largely unscathed

bull The PIRA statement to Thatcher afterwards was ldquoToday we were unlucky But remember we only have to be lucky once You will have to be lucky alwaysrdquo

Loughgall Ambush 8 May 1987

The SAS Strikes

bull A botched attack on Loughgall Villagersquos RUC Police Base in which the PIRA drove a backhoe into the fortified base and ran away to detonate the bomb that was inside of the backhoe went wrong as the SAS the British Special Forces had prior knowledge of the attack and quickly dispatched the 8 PIRA members involved

bull Although the RUC base was wrecked and bombed there were no RUC or SAS casualties and it was the PIRArsquos greatest loss of life in a single incident during the Troubles

British Army Lynx Shootdown 20 March 1994

The PIRA Shoots Down a Helicopter

bull Using the previously mentioned Barrack-Buster homemade mortar PIRA insurgents were able to fire on a British helicopter that was in the process of landing whilst hiding behind a hay bail from around 150 yards out

bull The helicopter was hit with the mortar shell around 100 feet above the ground but the pilot was able to successfully crash-land the helicopter and escape before its propane tanks exploded There were no casualties but the attack was a major propaganda coup for the PIRA

1996 Manchester Bombing

The PIRA Destroys Manchester

bull On Saturday 15 June 1996 the PIRA sent in telephoned warnings and 90 minutes later detonated a 3300lb fertilizer-based truck bomb in the heart of Manchester City Centre the biggest bomb detonated in Great Britain during peacetime The bomb killed nobody due to previous warnings but led to 212 non-fatal injuries and essentially destroyed Manchester City Centre leaving approximately 700 million pounds ($12bn) worth of damage in its wake

Omagh Bombing 1998

Last Great Deadly Attack of the Troubles

bull Perpetrated by a Provisional IRA splinter group that was rejecting the peace process calling themselves the ldquoReal IRArdquo the 510lb fertilizer-based bomb was placed on main street in the town of Omagh Northern Ireland Warnings were called in approximately 30 minutes before the bombing but they were inaccurate and police ended up moving more civilians towards the bomb which ended up killing 29 people and causing over 300 non-fatal injuries This was the highest death toll from a single incident during the Troubles

bull It received universal outrage and was condemned even by the PIRA and its political wing Sinn Fein It spurred on the Northern Ireland peace process and the RIRA apologized and called a ceasefire several days after

The Good Friday Agreement and Northern Ireland Peace Process

Beginningsbull Following the 1981 Hunger Strikes Irish republicans began to

increasingly look towards politics rather than violence as a means of achieving their aims Sinn Fein gaelic for ldquoWe Ourselvesrdquo was a fiercely Irish Republican political party which led by the Machiavellian former PIRA leader and Maze inmate Gerry Adams began to push for a more peaceful solution to the Troubles in Northern Ireland

bull It became apparent by the late 1990s that although the PIRA was not losing a war against the British establishment it would be impossible to truly lsquowin the fightrsquo through violence and that any further terrorism would serve not to achieve any real political aim but only to prolong and continue suffering and violence in Northern Ireland and that politics was a much better way of achieving Republican aims

Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein former PIRA Belfast Brigade OC

Good Friday Agreement 1998

bull The Peace Process began in 1994 and included intermittent terrorist ceasefires and political negotiations between the major Irish republican and British unionist parties and culminated on April 10 1998 when the Good Friday Agreement was signed

PM Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern Sign the GFA

GFA Mandatesbull That Northern Ireland was to remain British until a majority of people in Northern

Ireland and the southern Republic of Ireland wanted otherwise bull The creation of an entirely new far less sectarian and religiously diverse Northern

Irish local governmentbull The decommissioning of arms from terrorist groups on both the unionist and

nationalist side of the political divide (ultimately successful all arms decommissioned by 2005)

bull Mutual respect and civil rights between Catholics and Protestants bull The reduction and eventual elimination of British troops in Northern Ireland

(ultimately successful all troops withdrawn by 2005)bull Eventual early prison release for all individuals imprisoned for terrorist offenses as

long as they were apart of a terrorist group that was decommissioning in accordance with the GFA

bull Disbandment of the RUC police service and the installation of the new Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) which was required to be at least 50 Catholic

Northern Ireland Today

Still Conflict But No Warbull Since the complete decommissioning of the arms and

disbandment of the PIRA INLA UDAUFF and UVF due to the Good Friday Agreement there is nowhere near the amount of violence in Northern Ireland or Belfast as there was 20 years ago There are no more weekly bombings and riots and no more British troops patrolling Catholic areas in armored vehicles

bull Despite this there are still occasional riots and clashes with the PSNI several times a year specifically on dates of great historical significance to the Catholic or Protestant communities and there is still a deep distrust and even hatred between many Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland although that continues to change with time

Catholic Slum of Ardoyne Belfast July 2011

Splinter Groups

bull Many former PIRA or UDA terrorists have now taken to organized crime for purely profiteering purposes but are no longer involved in substantial violence or any political-based terrorism

bull Splinter groups such as the Real IRA and Continuity IRA in Catholic communities and the Orange Volunteers and Red Hand Commandos in Protestant communities still conduct occasional violence towards Police and civilians in Northern Ireland but are all rather small poorly armed and poorly funded groups that pose nowhere near the threat that terrorist groups in the 80s and 90s did in Northern Ireland

Herersquos To A Brighter Future in Northern Ireland

Works Citedbull httpwwwbbccoukhistorytroublesbull httpcainulstacukbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiProvisional_Irish_Republican_Armybull httpenwikipediaorgwikiThe_Troublesbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiUlster_Defence_Associationbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiUlster_Volunteer_Forcebull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_National_Liberation_Armybull ldquoA Secret History of the IRArdquo by Ed Moloney ndashWW Norton amp Company Reprint 2003bull ldquoVoices From The Grave Two Menrsquos War in Irelandrdquo by Ed Moloney ndash Public Affairs 2010bull ldquoFifty Dead Men Walkingrdquo by Martin McGartland ndash John Blake 2009bull httpwwwinfopleasecomspotnorthireland1htmlbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_Civil_Warbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_War_of_Independencebull httpenwikipediaorgwiki1981_Irish_hunger_strikebull httpenwikipediaorgwikiDirectory_of_the_Northern_Ireland_Troublesbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiGood_Friday_Agreementbull httpswwwmi5govukhomethe-threatsterrorismnorthern-irelandrepublican-terrorist-groupshtmlbull httpswwwmi5govukhomethe-threatsterrorismnorthern-irelandprovisional-irish-republican-army-

pirahtmlbull httpnewsbbccoukhienglishstaticnorthern_irelandunderstandingeventshunger_strikestm

  • The Troubles
  • Brief Overview
  • 30 Years of Conflict
  • Slide 4
  • Background
  • The Irish War of Independence
  • Slide 7
  • Anglo-Irish Treaty (signed 6 December 1921)
  • Irish Civil War
  • 1922-1966 Ireland
  • The Civil Rights Movement
  • Slide 12
  • Slide 13
  • Objectives of the Civil Rights Movement
  • The 1969 Northern Ireland Riots ndashThe Troubles Begin
  • Culmination of Tension
  • No-Go Areas
  • No-Go Areas (2)
  • Early 1970sndash The Rise of the Provisional IRA
  • The IRA Split
  • Rise of the UVF and Loyalist Terror Groups
  • Beginnings
  • UVF Statement 21 May 1964
  • The Paramilitaries
  • Irish RepublicansCatholics
  • The Provisional IRA
  • IRA Statement Late 80s
  • Statistics
  • RecruitmentFunding
  • Weaponry
  • Weaponry (2)
  • Slide 32
  • Mortars and IEDs
  • EOD Officer Approaches PIRA Car Bomb
  • The Barrack Buster
  • Vigilantism
  • Slide 37
  • Slide 38
  • Policy on Informants
  • Terrorist Activities
  • Terrorist Activities (continued)
  • The INLA
  • Statistics (2)
  • Ideology
  • Terrorist Activities (2)
  • Internal Feuds
  • Slide 47
  • British LoyalistsProtestants
  • The UDAUFF
  • Former UFF Member
  • Statistics (3)
  • Ideology (2)
  • Terrorist Activities (3)
  • Slide 54
  • Organized Crime
  • The UVF
  • Statistics (4)
  • Ideology (3)
  • Terrorist Activities (4)
  • The Shankhill Butchers
  • Weaponry (3)
  • Slide 62
  • Organized Crime (2)
  • Major Incidents 1969-1998
  • Bloody Sunday 30 January 1972
  • Massacre on the Bogside
  • Bloody Friday 21 July 1972
  • A City Under Siege
  • Dublin and Monaghan Bombings 17 May 1974
  • Deadliest Attack of the Troubles
  • Warrenpoint Ambush 27 August 1979
  • Roadside IEDs
  • Summer of 1981 Irish Hunger Strikes
  • A Defining Moment for the Republican Cause
  • The Five Demands
  • Previous Protests
  • Dirty Protesters
  • Thatcherrsquos Response
  • Ten Strikers Die
  • Bobby Sands
  • Reaction to Sandsrsquo Death
  • Conclusion
  • 1983 The Maze Prison Escape
  • The ldquoGreat Escaperdquo
  • 12 October 1984 Brighton Hotel Bombing
  • The PIRA Nearly Gets Thatcher
  • Loughgall Ambush 8 May 1987
  • The SAS Strikes
  • British Army Lynx Shootdown 20 March 1994
  • The PIRA Shoots Down a Helicopter
  • 1996 Manchester Bombing
  • The PIRA Destroys Manchester
  • Omagh Bombing 1998
  • Last Great Deadly Attack of the Troubles
  • The Good Friday Agreement and Northern Ireland Peace Process
  • Beginnings (2)
  • Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein former PIRA Belfast Brigade OC
  • Good Friday Agreement 1998
  • PM Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern Sign the GFA
  • GFA Mandates
  • Northern Ireland Today
  • Still Conflict But No War
  • Catholic Slum of Ardoyne Belfast July 2011
  • Splinter Groups
  • Herersquos To A Brighter Future in Northern Ireland
  • Works Cited
Page 26: The Troubles, 1969-1998

RecruitmentFundingbull IRA recruitment in Catholic neighborhoods was similar to the phenomenon

of gang membership in the inner-city United States Young Catholics typically joined to create a sense of belonging to seem ldquohardrdquo or look ldquocoolrdquo to feel protected from the brutality of the RUC during the Troubles or to help defend their communities IRA members were not asked to join but volunteered

bull IRA lsquofunds-raisingrsquo activities included collecting protection money from Catholic businesses (a ldquorevolutionary taxrdquo) robbing banks kidnapping citizens for ransom and cigarette and gasoline smuggling across the Irish border (manipulating the differing tax prices on both sides of the border and selling fuel and cigarettes illicitly) Although the Provisional IRA has officially disbanded and no longer engages in terrorism there is substantial evidence that extortion rackets in poor Catholic neighborhoods and contraband smuggling operations along the border still exist in Northern Ireland and are run by former IRA men solely for profiteering purposes

Weaponry

bull The Provisional IRA obtained a significant amount of arms from both Irish-American supporters in the northeastern United States (including members of notorious gangster Whitey Bulgerrsquos Irish Mob in 1970s-80s Boston) and from the Libyan government under Muammar Gadaffi

bull Gadaffi took over in Libya in 1969 and initially armed the IRA seeing them as comrades-in-arms fighting British imperialism Connections re-emerged in 1986 after the Thatcher Administrationrsquos support of the US bombings of Libya that killed Gadaffirsquos adopted daughter

Weaponrybull When the IRA disarmed as part of the Good Friday Agreement in

1998 (more on that later) they released the following to the British Armed Forces

bull 1000 Rifles (AK-47s AR-15s etc)bull 3 Tons of Semtex (a general-purpose plastic explosive)bull 20-30 Heavy Machine Gunsbull 7 Surface-to-Air Missilesbull 7 Flamethrowersbull 1200 Detonatorsbull 20 RPGrsquosbull 100 Handgunsbull 100+ Hand Grenades

Mortars and IEDsbull The PIRA was incredibly proficient at bomb-making and made

extensive use of Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) during their 30 year campaign

bull IEDs were typically constructed with chemical mixes of fertilizer gasoline and other home-made components Libyan Semtex was also used in several heavy-duty bombs Nails and gunpowder were typically implemented in pipe bombs made out of metal pipes Most IEDs had built in countermeasures such as the mercury tilt switch which would cause the bomb to explode if moved at all should a British EOD officer attempt to dismantle it

bull The PIRA developed the ldquoBarrack Busterrdquo mortar in the late lsquo70s or a homemade mortar made up of common household materials that was used to attack several Army bases from afar and even Prime Minister Margaret Thatcherrsquos househellip 10 Downing Street in a 1991 attack that destroyed the Prime Ministerrsquos rear garden (the mortar was fired out the back of a nearby van)

EOD Officer Approaches PIRA Car Bomb

The Barrack Buster

>

Vigilantismbull The RUC was not trusted in Catholic neighborhoods throughout the

Troubles and did not regularly patrol or even enter them in urban areas of Northern Ireland Thus when there was a community drug dealer car thief burglar rapist or pedophile the IRA took it upon themselves to issue brutal street justice to those involved

bull Occasionally offering warnings for lesser offences such as petty thievery or drug dealing if the IRA had enough of a certain member of the community they perceived as anti-social he or she was usually jumped brutally beaten andor lsquokneecappedrsquo ndash one of the IRArsquos most notorious methods ndash in which the victim was pinned down and shot through the kneecaps with a firearm or occasionally had their kneecaps drilled through with power-drills Other methods included releasing starving Rottweilerrsquos on the offender dropping cinderblocks on the offenderrsquos hands or even tarring and feathering the offender The IRArsquos process in determining an individualrsquos guilt was never open to scrutiny

bull If the offender persisted after an IRA punishment he was then given a notice by the IRA to leave the country as soon as possiblehellip referred to as being ldquoput outrdquo of the community If the offender still did not leave he was murdered

Policy on Informantsbull In an effort to stamp out collusion with the British forces and informants on the

IRA the IRA was responsible for torturing and killing several accused Catholic civilians throughout the conflict

bull Investigations into collusion infiltration and informants were carried out by the Internal Security Unit of the IRA colloquially known as the ldquoNutting Squadrdquo

bull The ISU would carry out debriefings of IRA prisoners upon their release from British detention so as to discover whether or not they had lsquocrackedrsquo and released information to British interrogators

bull Typical ISU torture techniques on those accused of informing included drowning genitalnipple mutilation electrocution with livewires pouring kerosene on the accusedrsquos legs before setting fire to them and branding with hot irons Informants were always killed afterwards with a bullet through the back of the head

bull Of the 18 ldquoDisappearedrdquo accused informants that were abducted and executed by the IRA during the Troubles only 10 bodies have been found

bull Martin McGartland was an IRA informant who was estimated to have saved 50 lives in the conflict before he was discovered and abducted by the ISU He escaped and lives today in seclusion The film ldquo50 Dead Men Walkingrdquo is based on his exploits and is an excellent realistic non-romanticized take on the Troubles in Northern Ireland

Terrorist Activitiesbull Common tactics included breaking into the homes of off-duty RUC police

officers and murdering them in their beds or setting booby-trap bombs underneath RUC police officersrsquo cars and unionist politiciansrsquo cars so that they would blow up as the engine was started RUC men were typically targeted when they were off-duty and many were shot dead in front of their families The PIRA would also impersonate innocent Catholic civilians call the police to report an emergency and ambush the police from hidden positions when they arrived at the stated address (another reason the RUC was hesitant to go into Catholic neighborhoods during this period)

bull Most notorious for their bombings they would typically park car bombs in predominately Protestant communities call in the bomb threat so that the area would be evacuated and an EOD squad would arrive to dismantle it the bomb would then be detonated with hopes of killing an EOD officer and destroying Protestant housing tenements

bull The PIRA rarely intentionally targeted civilians especially in the 80srsquo and 90srsquo but were involved in the bombings of several Protestant-owned pubs during the 1970s in response to loyalist terrorist groups bombing Catholic-owned pubs They also carried out the Kingsmill massacre in 1976 in which eleven Protestant workmen that were traveling on a minibus were held up by the IRA and all individually executed in response to the execution of six Catholic civilians by the UVF the night before

Terrorist Activities (continued)bull Other activities included engaging in firefights with British squadrons as

they patrolled the countrysidestreets of urban areas sniper attacks on RUC or British Army patrolscheckpoints planting landmines along British foot patrol routes in rural areas planting roadside IEDs along British convoy routes and bombing ferries and buses containing on-or-off duty British soldiers

bull The notorious ldquohuman bombrdquo technique in which civilians or off-duty members of the British security forces were kidnapped and then forced to drive car bombs into British military targets ndash such as checkpoints and Army bases ndash after the PIRA had placed their familiesrsquo lives under threat

bull Inciting riots and providing Catholic youths with molotov cocktails (gasoline bombs) during such riots so as to maximize public disorder and destruction was also an almost daily IRA activity in Catholic communities in urban Northern Ireland

The INLA

Statistics

bull Suffered 33 casualtiesbull Killed 46 members of the British Security Forcesbull Killed 2 members of the Irish Security Forcesbull Killed 39 civiliansbull Killed 3 civilian political activistsbull Killed 16 members of rival Republican terror

groupsbull Killed 7 members of Loyalist terror groups

Ideology

bull Founded by Seamus Costello in 1974 as the military wing of the Irish Republican Socialist Party

bull Shared similar goals to the Provisional IRA but far more socialist in ideology INLA wanted a socialist united Irish republic and blamed class struggles for many of the problems in Northern Ireland whereas the PIRA simply wanted a united Irish republic and had little interest in class struggle or economics

bull Whereas the PIRA was almost exclusively Catholic the INLA had some Protestant members most of whom were involved for purely socialist reasons

Terrorist Activitiesbull Although far less powerful and bold than the PIRA the INLA

nevertheless presented a potent terrorist threat to the United Kingdom during the Troubles

bull Similar tactics to the IRA car bombings shooting off-duty police and soldiers dead and high-profile assassinations

bull Their most high-profile attacks included the car bomb assassination of Airey Neave one of Margaret Thatcherrsquos closest political supporters in 1979 the murder of infamous Loyalist terror leader Billy Wright (who was murdered by INLA inmates in a British political prison in 1997) and the Ballykelley Disco Bombing in 1982 in which the INLA bombed a disco-club frequented by off-duty British soldiers managing to kill 11 of them as well as 6 civilians as well as destroying the disco

Internal Feuds

bull A split in 1986 led the INLA to split into the INLA and the IPLO or Irish Peoplersquos Liberation Organization based on IPLO membersrsquo perceived lack of political motivation and heavy involvement in drug dealing and criminality

bull There were several retaliatory killings between the two groups that persisted until 1992 when the PIRA had enough of the IPLOrsquos involvement in drug dealing in Catholic areas of Belfast and on 31 October 1992 virtually destroyed the entire organization in one night with a series of raids killings and kneecappings that killed or crippled the majority of the grouprsquos members

British LoyalistsProtestants

The UDAUFF

Former UFF Member

>

Statistics

bull Suffered 89 casualtiesbull Killed 197 civiliansbull Killed 12 civilian political activistsbull Killed 37 members of rival loyalist terror

groupsbull Killed 11 members of republican terror groupsbull Killed 3 members of the British Security Forces

Ideology

bull The UDA or Ulster Defense Association and its military wing the Ulster Freedom Fighters (UFF) was a loyalist protestant terror squad that targeted PIRA and INLA members as well as general Catholic civilians in bombings and shootings throughout Northern Ireland

bull It pledged to end its campaign of violence whenever the IRA set down its arms yet should the UK government appease the IRA and grant a 32-county Irish Republic the UDA pledged to act as ldquothe IRA in reverserdquo

Terrorist Activitiesbull The UDA saw itself as a militia defending upstanding protestant loyalist

communities from dangerous and lower-class Catholics that were disrupting the status quo in Northern Ireland They pledged primarily to target IRA men but ended up killing a majority of Catholic civilians during the Troubles They were also known to intimidate and exile known Catholic families from predominately-Protestant communities in Belfast and other urban areas

bull Drive-by shootings shooting up or planting bombs in predominately-Catholic pubs and bars and jumping brutally beating andor kneecapping Catholic civilians were all frequent tactics

bull The UDA discreetly worked in collusion with the RUC and other British security agencies so as to track down and assassinate known IRA members They would also patrol Protestant neighborhoods alongside British soldiers at the height of the Troubles Many RUC police officers and prison guards were also UDA members

bull The UDA alongside many other loyalist paramilitaries benefitted from the import of several arms shipments from Lebanese arms dealers in the early 1970s including rocket launchers 200+ AK-47 Rifles 90+ handguns and over 400 grenades They also received various weapons such as the uzi submachine gun and explosive devices from arms dealers in the Soviet bloc in the 1980s

Organized Crime

bull The UDA and its members were also heavily involved in drug dealing from the street level to wholesale purchase primarily in MDMA and cannabis throughout the Troubles

bull Protection racketeering and money laundering were also common amongst the UDA in protestant communities

bull However should a member of a UDA-ran community begin stealing or dealing drugs without UDA consent he was abruptly branded as ldquoanti-socialrdquo and either killed or kneecapped

The UVF

Statistics

bull Suffered unknown number of casualtiesbull Killed 412 civiliansbull Killed 11 civilian political activistsbull Killed 21 members of republican terror groupsbull Killed 42 members of rival loyalist terror

groupsbull Killed 6 members of the Security Forces

Ideology

bull Similar to the UDAUFF the Ulster Volunteer Forcersquos primary aim was to combat Irish republicanism in Northern Ireland primarily the PIRA They wanted Northern Ireland to remain in the UK

Terrorist Activitiesbull The majority of UVF victims were Catholic civilians

many of whom were killed at random These attacks were intended to demoralize the IRA as the IRA drew most of its support from the Catholic community

bull Planting bombs in predominately-Catholic pubs or simply residential areas was a very frequent UVF tactic and in 1973 they detonated more bombs in Northern Ireland than the UDA and the PIRA combined Assassinations mass shootings booby-trap car bombs and kidnappings were also frequent UVF activities

The Shankhill Butchers

bull The ldquoShankhill Butchersrdquo were a notorious offshoot UVF group known for abducting and literally slitting the throats of Catholic civilians and rival loyalist terror groups in the late 1970s They were led by Lenny Murphy (who was eventually imprisoned and upon his release of a 4-year stint murdered by the PIRA) and killed 23 people most of whom were Catholic civilians Many experts liken the Shankhill Butchers more to a group of serial killers than to politically or even ethnically-motivated murderers

bull The Butchers were all eventually all either imprisoned killed by the PIRA or both

Weaponrybull The UVF received the majority of its weaponry in the late 1970s

from Armscor an apartheid-South Africa state-owned arms company which in defiance of various UN sanctions and embargoes sold them to the UVF

bull Weapons were thought to consist ofbull 200 Czech SA vz 58 Assault Riflesbull 90 Browning Pistolsbull 500 RGD-5 Frag Grenadesbull 30000 rounds of ammunitionbull 12 RPG-7 Rocket Launchers and 150+ Rocketsbull The UVF also began using the illegally-obtained mining explosive

Powergel in the early 1990s

Organized Crime

bull The UVF was also heavily involved in organized crime including protection racketeering and drug smugglingdealing including cannabis MDMA cocaine and amphetamines Bank robberies were also very frequent in the 1970s

Major Incidents 1969-1998

Bloody Sunday 30 January 1972

Massacre on the Bogsidebull In 1972 during a large scale but peaceful civil-rights march in the

troubled predominately Catholic neighborhood of Bogside in Derry 26 unarmed civil rights marchers were shot by members of the British Army 14 of whom were killed Five of those shot were shot in the back

bull After several inquiries into the incident there was found to have been no justifiable provocation from the protestors and no shots fired from the protestors during the march The massacre was conducted in full view of the public and the press

bull The PM David Cameron eventually issued a formal apology to the victims and victimsrsquo families of the massacre after several investigations failed to reveal any justifiable provocation for the massacre

bull The massacre sky-rocketed PIRA membership and recruitment as public perception of the British Army in Catholic communities in Northern Ireland reached an all-time low

Bloody Friday 21 July 1972

A City Under Siege

bull On 21 July 1972 the PIRA detonated 26 bombs in the space of 80 minutes in Belfast destroying banks bridges electrical substations Protestant housing tenements gasoline stations and private garages

bull Although warnings were called in at least 30 minutes prior to each bomb the amount of bombs exploding and the addition of multiple hoax warnings at the same time led to the Security Forces being unable to evacuate all the areas in time 11 people were killed and 130 were injured many of them horrifically mutilated Of those injured 77 were women or children

Dublin and Monaghan Bombings 17 May 1974

Deadliest Attack of the Troubles

bull Perpetrated by the UVF in the southern Republic of Ireland three car bombs exploded in Dublin during rush hour and another exploded in Monaghan around 90 minutes later

bull 33 civilians and a full-term unborn child were killed in the bombing while nearly 300 were injured The UVF did not claim responsibility for the bombings until 1993

bull The majority of those killed were young women although the age range of those killed ranged from 5 months old to 80 years old

Warrenpoint Ambush 27 August 1979

Roadside IEDsbull In the southern part of County Armagh Northern Ireland a predominately-

Catholic rural region and former PIRA stronghold right on the border with the southern Republic of Ireland a British troop convoy was hit with a remote-control detonated roadside 500lb truck-bomb and destroyed instantly killing 6 troops The surviving soldiers then wrongly believed they were under sniper fire from the other side of the Irish border and began firing at civilians immediately after the bombing killing 1 and injuring another

bull 32 minutes after the first bombing the IRA used its knowledge of how the British reacted to bombings to correctly predict that they would set up an incident-command point in a nearby gatehouse Unfortunately for the British there was a second 800lb fertilizer bomb planted near the gatehouse that when detonated killed 12 other soldiers who were responding to the initial bomb

bull It was the deadliest single attack on the British Army during the Troubles and a highly successful attack for the PIRA

Summer of 1981 Irish Hunger Strikes

A Defining Moment for the Republican Cause

bull Beginning on 1 March 1981 led by Bobby Sands 7 PIRA and 3 INLA inmates at the notorious ldquoMazerdquo prison began to refuse food until Margaret Thatcher PM of Great Britain at that time began to recognize terrorist prisoners as political prisoners and allowed them their ldquoFive Demandsrdquo

The Five Demands

bull The right to not wear a prison uniformbull The right to not do prison workbull The right of free association with other

prisoners and to organize in educational and recreational pursuits

bull Full restoration of remission lost through any protests towards these demands

Previous Protestsbull The Maze prison was a very high-security and low-quality prison that

housed almost all PIRA prisoners during the Troubles It was run in a very ethically questionable fashion with frequent beatings and borderline-torture techniques used on Republican prisoners and extremely poor living conditions for prisoners Many Maze prison guards were members of the UDAUVF or had strong connections with one of the two groups as well

bull Massive peaceful protests and marches by Irish republicans outside of the Maze Prison proved unsuccessful in attaining political status for republican prisoners as well as previous inmate protests in 1980 including non-fatal hunger strikes inmates refusing to wear prison uniforms and thus living in their cells naked and prisoners refusing to leave their cells to go to the bathroom until their requests had been granted (they therefore urinated and defecated in their cells and spread their excrement across their cell walls in what was known as the ldquoDirty Protestrdquo)

Dirty Protesters

Thatcherrsquos Response

bull ldquoThose terrorists will carry their determination to disrupt society to any lengths Once again we have a hunger strike in the Maze Prison in the quest for what they call lsquopolitical statusrsquo There is no such thing as political murder political bombing or political violence There is only criminal murder criminal bombing and criminal violence We will not compromise on this There will be no political statusrdquo

Ten Strikers Diebull Bobby Sands the leader of the strike was imprisoned as a PIRA member

on charges of firearm possession and in connection with the bombing of a furniture store He was the first to die after 66 days of not eating Sands was elected to a seat in Parliament whilst on Hunger Strike

bull Following Sandsrsquo death there were riots bus-burnings and attacks on the British embassy in the southern Republic of Ireland there were massive demonstrations in France and Italy a tomato was thrown as Queen Elizabeth II by demonstrators in Oslo and there were massive riots and civil disorder all over the streets of Belfast The South African ANC and (at the time) terrorist Nelson Mandela expressed their support for the PIRA and the hunger strikers (Mandela himself claimed he was directly inspired by Sands to undertake hunger strikes against the Apartheid government in South Africa) as well as the Palestine Liberation Organization a middle-eastern terror group

bull Over 100000 attended Sandsrsquo funeral

Bobby Sands

ldquoOur revenge will be the laughter of our childrenrdquo

Reaction to Sandsrsquo Death

>

Conclusion

bull The Hunger Strike was eventually called off after 10 strikers including Sands had died

bull James Prior newly installed secretary of state of Northern Ireland granted the prisoners partial concessions all of the Five Demands except for the right to not do prison work Margaret Thatcher refused to budge on political status

bull The Hunger Strikes opened a new way for the PIRA to pursue its objectives politically whereas previously it had seen violence as the only solution to the plight of Irish nationalists in Northern Ireland

1983 The Maze Prison Escape

The ldquoGreat Escaperdquo

bull Using smuggled-in guns and knives 38 PIRA prisoners who had been convicted of offenses ranging from murder to causing explosions escaped from one of the most high-security prisons in Europe They completely took over the H7 prison block and took their prison guards hostage before escaping in a food supply truck Several prison guards were shot and stabbed but only one died of a heart attack during the escape

bull Fifteen escapees were recaptured the first day with four more captured over the next two days following the breakout The remaining 19 were transported to PIRA strongholds and given the option to either rejoin the IRArsquos cause or be transported to the United States to live under a new identity

12 October 1984 Brighton Hotel Bombing

The PIRA Nearly Gets Thatcherbull Margaret Thatcher the highly controversial far-right British PM from

1979-1990 had become a tremendously hated figure amongst the Irish nationalist community in Northern Ireland following the 1981 Hunger Strikes and for her general uncompromising stand on Irish republicanism

bull PIRA man Patrick Magee stayed at the Brighton Hotel from the 14-17 September 1984 planting a 20-lb bomb under his bath

bull Thatcher was staying at the Brighton Hotel for a political conference and was still up at 254AM on 12 October when the bomb was detonated The bomb decimated her bathroom but left the bedroom and sitting room of her suite largely unscathed

bull The PIRA statement to Thatcher afterwards was ldquoToday we were unlucky But remember we only have to be lucky once You will have to be lucky alwaysrdquo

Loughgall Ambush 8 May 1987

The SAS Strikes

bull A botched attack on Loughgall Villagersquos RUC Police Base in which the PIRA drove a backhoe into the fortified base and ran away to detonate the bomb that was inside of the backhoe went wrong as the SAS the British Special Forces had prior knowledge of the attack and quickly dispatched the 8 PIRA members involved

bull Although the RUC base was wrecked and bombed there were no RUC or SAS casualties and it was the PIRArsquos greatest loss of life in a single incident during the Troubles

British Army Lynx Shootdown 20 March 1994

The PIRA Shoots Down a Helicopter

bull Using the previously mentioned Barrack-Buster homemade mortar PIRA insurgents were able to fire on a British helicopter that was in the process of landing whilst hiding behind a hay bail from around 150 yards out

bull The helicopter was hit with the mortar shell around 100 feet above the ground but the pilot was able to successfully crash-land the helicopter and escape before its propane tanks exploded There were no casualties but the attack was a major propaganda coup for the PIRA

1996 Manchester Bombing

The PIRA Destroys Manchester

bull On Saturday 15 June 1996 the PIRA sent in telephoned warnings and 90 minutes later detonated a 3300lb fertilizer-based truck bomb in the heart of Manchester City Centre the biggest bomb detonated in Great Britain during peacetime The bomb killed nobody due to previous warnings but led to 212 non-fatal injuries and essentially destroyed Manchester City Centre leaving approximately 700 million pounds ($12bn) worth of damage in its wake

Omagh Bombing 1998

Last Great Deadly Attack of the Troubles

bull Perpetrated by a Provisional IRA splinter group that was rejecting the peace process calling themselves the ldquoReal IRArdquo the 510lb fertilizer-based bomb was placed on main street in the town of Omagh Northern Ireland Warnings were called in approximately 30 minutes before the bombing but they were inaccurate and police ended up moving more civilians towards the bomb which ended up killing 29 people and causing over 300 non-fatal injuries This was the highest death toll from a single incident during the Troubles

bull It received universal outrage and was condemned even by the PIRA and its political wing Sinn Fein It spurred on the Northern Ireland peace process and the RIRA apologized and called a ceasefire several days after

The Good Friday Agreement and Northern Ireland Peace Process

Beginningsbull Following the 1981 Hunger Strikes Irish republicans began to

increasingly look towards politics rather than violence as a means of achieving their aims Sinn Fein gaelic for ldquoWe Ourselvesrdquo was a fiercely Irish Republican political party which led by the Machiavellian former PIRA leader and Maze inmate Gerry Adams began to push for a more peaceful solution to the Troubles in Northern Ireland

bull It became apparent by the late 1990s that although the PIRA was not losing a war against the British establishment it would be impossible to truly lsquowin the fightrsquo through violence and that any further terrorism would serve not to achieve any real political aim but only to prolong and continue suffering and violence in Northern Ireland and that politics was a much better way of achieving Republican aims

Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein former PIRA Belfast Brigade OC

Good Friday Agreement 1998

bull The Peace Process began in 1994 and included intermittent terrorist ceasefires and political negotiations between the major Irish republican and British unionist parties and culminated on April 10 1998 when the Good Friday Agreement was signed

PM Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern Sign the GFA

GFA Mandatesbull That Northern Ireland was to remain British until a majority of people in Northern

Ireland and the southern Republic of Ireland wanted otherwise bull The creation of an entirely new far less sectarian and religiously diverse Northern

Irish local governmentbull The decommissioning of arms from terrorist groups on both the unionist and

nationalist side of the political divide (ultimately successful all arms decommissioned by 2005)

bull Mutual respect and civil rights between Catholics and Protestants bull The reduction and eventual elimination of British troops in Northern Ireland

(ultimately successful all troops withdrawn by 2005)bull Eventual early prison release for all individuals imprisoned for terrorist offenses as

long as they were apart of a terrorist group that was decommissioning in accordance with the GFA

bull Disbandment of the RUC police service and the installation of the new Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) which was required to be at least 50 Catholic

Northern Ireland Today

Still Conflict But No Warbull Since the complete decommissioning of the arms and

disbandment of the PIRA INLA UDAUFF and UVF due to the Good Friday Agreement there is nowhere near the amount of violence in Northern Ireland or Belfast as there was 20 years ago There are no more weekly bombings and riots and no more British troops patrolling Catholic areas in armored vehicles

bull Despite this there are still occasional riots and clashes with the PSNI several times a year specifically on dates of great historical significance to the Catholic or Protestant communities and there is still a deep distrust and even hatred between many Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland although that continues to change with time

Catholic Slum of Ardoyne Belfast July 2011

Splinter Groups

bull Many former PIRA or UDA terrorists have now taken to organized crime for purely profiteering purposes but are no longer involved in substantial violence or any political-based terrorism

bull Splinter groups such as the Real IRA and Continuity IRA in Catholic communities and the Orange Volunteers and Red Hand Commandos in Protestant communities still conduct occasional violence towards Police and civilians in Northern Ireland but are all rather small poorly armed and poorly funded groups that pose nowhere near the threat that terrorist groups in the 80s and 90s did in Northern Ireland

Herersquos To A Brighter Future in Northern Ireland

Works Citedbull httpwwwbbccoukhistorytroublesbull httpcainulstacukbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiProvisional_Irish_Republican_Armybull httpenwikipediaorgwikiThe_Troublesbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiUlster_Defence_Associationbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiUlster_Volunteer_Forcebull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_National_Liberation_Armybull ldquoA Secret History of the IRArdquo by Ed Moloney ndashWW Norton amp Company Reprint 2003bull ldquoVoices From The Grave Two Menrsquos War in Irelandrdquo by Ed Moloney ndash Public Affairs 2010bull ldquoFifty Dead Men Walkingrdquo by Martin McGartland ndash John Blake 2009bull httpwwwinfopleasecomspotnorthireland1htmlbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_Civil_Warbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_War_of_Independencebull httpenwikipediaorgwiki1981_Irish_hunger_strikebull httpenwikipediaorgwikiDirectory_of_the_Northern_Ireland_Troublesbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiGood_Friday_Agreementbull httpswwwmi5govukhomethe-threatsterrorismnorthern-irelandrepublican-terrorist-groupshtmlbull httpswwwmi5govukhomethe-threatsterrorismnorthern-irelandprovisional-irish-republican-army-

pirahtmlbull httpnewsbbccoukhienglishstaticnorthern_irelandunderstandingeventshunger_strikestm

  • The Troubles
  • Brief Overview
  • 30 Years of Conflict
  • Slide 4
  • Background
  • The Irish War of Independence
  • Slide 7
  • Anglo-Irish Treaty (signed 6 December 1921)
  • Irish Civil War
  • 1922-1966 Ireland
  • The Civil Rights Movement
  • Slide 12
  • Slide 13
  • Objectives of the Civil Rights Movement
  • The 1969 Northern Ireland Riots ndashThe Troubles Begin
  • Culmination of Tension
  • No-Go Areas
  • No-Go Areas (2)
  • Early 1970sndash The Rise of the Provisional IRA
  • The IRA Split
  • Rise of the UVF and Loyalist Terror Groups
  • Beginnings
  • UVF Statement 21 May 1964
  • The Paramilitaries
  • Irish RepublicansCatholics
  • The Provisional IRA
  • IRA Statement Late 80s
  • Statistics
  • RecruitmentFunding
  • Weaponry
  • Weaponry (2)
  • Slide 32
  • Mortars and IEDs
  • EOD Officer Approaches PIRA Car Bomb
  • The Barrack Buster
  • Vigilantism
  • Slide 37
  • Slide 38
  • Policy on Informants
  • Terrorist Activities
  • Terrorist Activities (continued)
  • The INLA
  • Statistics (2)
  • Ideology
  • Terrorist Activities (2)
  • Internal Feuds
  • Slide 47
  • British LoyalistsProtestants
  • The UDAUFF
  • Former UFF Member
  • Statistics (3)
  • Ideology (2)
  • Terrorist Activities (3)
  • Slide 54
  • Organized Crime
  • The UVF
  • Statistics (4)
  • Ideology (3)
  • Terrorist Activities (4)
  • The Shankhill Butchers
  • Weaponry (3)
  • Slide 62
  • Organized Crime (2)
  • Major Incidents 1969-1998
  • Bloody Sunday 30 January 1972
  • Massacre on the Bogside
  • Bloody Friday 21 July 1972
  • A City Under Siege
  • Dublin and Monaghan Bombings 17 May 1974
  • Deadliest Attack of the Troubles
  • Warrenpoint Ambush 27 August 1979
  • Roadside IEDs
  • Summer of 1981 Irish Hunger Strikes
  • A Defining Moment for the Republican Cause
  • The Five Demands
  • Previous Protests
  • Dirty Protesters
  • Thatcherrsquos Response
  • Ten Strikers Die
  • Bobby Sands
  • Reaction to Sandsrsquo Death
  • Conclusion
  • 1983 The Maze Prison Escape
  • The ldquoGreat Escaperdquo
  • 12 October 1984 Brighton Hotel Bombing
  • The PIRA Nearly Gets Thatcher
  • Loughgall Ambush 8 May 1987
  • The SAS Strikes
  • British Army Lynx Shootdown 20 March 1994
  • The PIRA Shoots Down a Helicopter
  • 1996 Manchester Bombing
  • The PIRA Destroys Manchester
  • Omagh Bombing 1998
  • Last Great Deadly Attack of the Troubles
  • The Good Friday Agreement and Northern Ireland Peace Process
  • Beginnings (2)
  • Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein former PIRA Belfast Brigade OC
  • Good Friday Agreement 1998
  • PM Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern Sign the GFA
  • GFA Mandates
  • Northern Ireland Today
  • Still Conflict But No War
  • Catholic Slum of Ardoyne Belfast July 2011
  • Splinter Groups
  • Herersquos To A Brighter Future in Northern Ireland
  • Works Cited
Page 27: The Troubles, 1969-1998

Weaponry

bull The Provisional IRA obtained a significant amount of arms from both Irish-American supporters in the northeastern United States (including members of notorious gangster Whitey Bulgerrsquos Irish Mob in 1970s-80s Boston) and from the Libyan government under Muammar Gadaffi

bull Gadaffi took over in Libya in 1969 and initially armed the IRA seeing them as comrades-in-arms fighting British imperialism Connections re-emerged in 1986 after the Thatcher Administrationrsquos support of the US bombings of Libya that killed Gadaffirsquos adopted daughter

Weaponrybull When the IRA disarmed as part of the Good Friday Agreement in

1998 (more on that later) they released the following to the British Armed Forces

bull 1000 Rifles (AK-47s AR-15s etc)bull 3 Tons of Semtex (a general-purpose plastic explosive)bull 20-30 Heavy Machine Gunsbull 7 Surface-to-Air Missilesbull 7 Flamethrowersbull 1200 Detonatorsbull 20 RPGrsquosbull 100 Handgunsbull 100+ Hand Grenades

Mortars and IEDsbull The PIRA was incredibly proficient at bomb-making and made

extensive use of Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) during their 30 year campaign

bull IEDs were typically constructed with chemical mixes of fertilizer gasoline and other home-made components Libyan Semtex was also used in several heavy-duty bombs Nails and gunpowder were typically implemented in pipe bombs made out of metal pipes Most IEDs had built in countermeasures such as the mercury tilt switch which would cause the bomb to explode if moved at all should a British EOD officer attempt to dismantle it

bull The PIRA developed the ldquoBarrack Busterrdquo mortar in the late lsquo70s or a homemade mortar made up of common household materials that was used to attack several Army bases from afar and even Prime Minister Margaret Thatcherrsquos househellip 10 Downing Street in a 1991 attack that destroyed the Prime Ministerrsquos rear garden (the mortar was fired out the back of a nearby van)

EOD Officer Approaches PIRA Car Bomb

The Barrack Buster

>

Vigilantismbull The RUC was not trusted in Catholic neighborhoods throughout the

Troubles and did not regularly patrol or even enter them in urban areas of Northern Ireland Thus when there was a community drug dealer car thief burglar rapist or pedophile the IRA took it upon themselves to issue brutal street justice to those involved

bull Occasionally offering warnings for lesser offences such as petty thievery or drug dealing if the IRA had enough of a certain member of the community they perceived as anti-social he or she was usually jumped brutally beaten andor lsquokneecappedrsquo ndash one of the IRArsquos most notorious methods ndash in which the victim was pinned down and shot through the kneecaps with a firearm or occasionally had their kneecaps drilled through with power-drills Other methods included releasing starving Rottweilerrsquos on the offender dropping cinderblocks on the offenderrsquos hands or even tarring and feathering the offender The IRArsquos process in determining an individualrsquos guilt was never open to scrutiny

bull If the offender persisted after an IRA punishment he was then given a notice by the IRA to leave the country as soon as possiblehellip referred to as being ldquoput outrdquo of the community If the offender still did not leave he was murdered

Policy on Informantsbull In an effort to stamp out collusion with the British forces and informants on the

IRA the IRA was responsible for torturing and killing several accused Catholic civilians throughout the conflict

bull Investigations into collusion infiltration and informants were carried out by the Internal Security Unit of the IRA colloquially known as the ldquoNutting Squadrdquo

bull The ISU would carry out debriefings of IRA prisoners upon their release from British detention so as to discover whether or not they had lsquocrackedrsquo and released information to British interrogators

bull Typical ISU torture techniques on those accused of informing included drowning genitalnipple mutilation electrocution with livewires pouring kerosene on the accusedrsquos legs before setting fire to them and branding with hot irons Informants were always killed afterwards with a bullet through the back of the head

bull Of the 18 ldquoDisappearedrdquo accused informants that were abducted and executed by the IRA during the Troubles only 10 bodies have been found

bull Martin McGartland was an IRA informant who was estimated to have saved 50 lives in the conflict before he was discovered and abducted by the ISU He escaped and lives today in seclusion The film ldquo50 Dead Men Walkingrdquo is based on his exploits and is an excellent realistic non-romanticized take on the Troubles in Northern Ireland

Terrorist Activitiesbull Common tactics included breaking into the homes of off-duty RUC police

officers and murdering them in their beds or setting booby-trap bombs underneath RUC police officersrsquo cars and unionist politiciansrsquo cars so that they would blow up as the engine was started RUC men were typically targeted when they were off-duty and many were shot dead in front of their families The PIRA would also impersonate innocent Catholic civilians call the police to report an emergency and ambush the police from hidden positions when they arrived at the stated address (another reason the RUC was hesitant to go into Catholic neighborhoods during this period)

bull Most notorious for their bombings they would typically park car bombs in predominately Protestant communities call in the bomb threat so that the area would be evacuated and an EOD squad would arrive to dismantle it the bomb would then be detonated with hopes of killing an EOD officer and destroying Protestant housing tenements

bull The PIRA rarely intentionally targeted civilians especially in the 80srsquo and 90srsquo but were involved in the bombings of several Protestant-owned pubs during the 1970s in response to loyalist terrorist groups bombing Catholic-owned pubs They also carried out the Kingsmill massacre in 1976 in which eleven Protestant workmen that were traveling on a minibus were held up by the IRA and all individually executed in response to the execution of six Catholic civilians by the UVF the night before

Terrorist Activities (continued)bull Other activities included engaging in firefights with British squadrons as

they patrolled the countrysidestreets of urban areas sniper attacks on RUC or British Army patrolscheckpoints planting landmines along British foot patrol routes in rural areas planting roadside IEDs along British convoy routes and bombing ferries and buses containing on-or-off duty British soldiers

bull The notorious ldquohuman bombrdquo technique in which civilians or off-duty members of the British security forces were kidnapped and then forced to drive car bombs into British military targets ndash such as checkpoints and Army bases ndash after the PIRA had placed their familiesrsquo lives under threat

bull Inciting riots and providing Catholic youths with molotov cocktails (gasoline bombs) during such riots so as to maximize public disorder and destruction was also an almost daily IRA activity in Catholic communities in urban Northern Ireland

The INLA

Statistics

bull Suffered 33 casualtiesbull Killed 46 members of the British Security Forcesbull Killed 2 members of the Irish Security Forcesbull Killed 39 civiliansbull Killed 3 civilian political activistsbull Killed 16 members of rival Republican terror

groupsbull Killed 7 members of Loyalist terror groups

Ideology

bull Founded by Seamus Costello in 1974 as the military wing of the Irish Republican Socialist Party

bull Shared similar goals to the Provisional IRA but far more socialist in ideology INLA wanted a socialist united Irish republic and blamed class struggles for many of the problems in Northern Ireland whereas the PIRA simply wanted a united Irish republic and had little interest in class struggle or economics

bull Whereas the PIRA was almost exclusively Catholic the INLA had some Protestant members most of whom were involved for purely socialist reasons

Terrorist Activitiesbull Although far less powerful and bold than the PIRA the INLA

nevertheless presented a potent terrorist threat to the United Kingdom during the Troubles

bull Similar tactics to the IRA car bombings shooting off-duty police and soldiers dead and high-profile assassinations

bull Their most high-profile attacks included the car bomb assassination of Airey Neave one of Margaret Thatcherrsquos closest political supporters in 1979 the murder of infamous Loyalist terror leader Billy Wright (who was murdered by INLA inmates in a British political prison in 1997) and the Ballykelley Disco Bombing in 1982 in which the INLA bombed a disco-club frequented by off-duty British soldiers managing to kill 11 of them as well as 6 civilians as well as destroying the disco

Internal Feuds

bull A split in 1986 led the INLA to split into the INLA and the IPLO or Irish Peoplersquos Liberation Organization based on IPLO membersrsquo perceived lack of political motivation and heavy involvement in drug dealing and criminality

bull There were several retaliatory killings between the two groups that persisted until 1992 when the PIRA had enough of the IPLOrsquos involvement in drug dealing in Catholic areas of Belfast and on 31 October 1992 virtually destroyed the entire organization in one night with a series of raids killings and kneecappings that killed or crippled the majority of the grouprsquos members

British LoyalistsProtestants

The UDAUFF

Former UFF Member

>

Statistics

bull Suffered 89 casualtiesbull Killed 197 civiliansbull Killed 12 civilian political activistsbull Killed 37 members of rival loyalist terror

groupsbull Killed 11 members of republican terror groupsbull Killed 3 members of the British Security Forces

Ideology

bull The UDA or Ulster Defense Association and its military wing the Ulster Freedom Fighters (UFF) was a loyalist protestant terror squad that targeted PIRA and INLA members as well as general Catholic civilians in bombings and shootings throughout Northern Ireland

bull It pledged to end its campaign of violence whenever the IRA set down its arms yet should the UK government appease the IRA and grant a 32-county Irish Republic the UDA pledged to act as ldquothe IRA in reverserdquo

Terrorist Activitiesbull The UDA saw itself as a militia defending upstanding protestant loyalist

communities from dangerous and lower-class Catholics that were disrupting the status quo in Northern Ireland They pledged primarily to target IRA men but ended up killing a majority of Catholic civilians during the Troubles They were also known to intimidate and exile known Catholic families from predominately-Protestant communities in Belfast and other urban areas

bull Drive-by shootings shooting up or planting bombs in predominately-Catholic pubs and bars and jumping brutally beating andor kneecapping Catholic civilians were all frequent tactics

bull The UDA discreetly worked in collusion with the RUC and other British security agencies so as to track down and assassinate known IRA members They would also patrol Protestant neighborhoods alongside British soldiers at the height of the Troubles Many RUC police officers and prison guards were also UDA members

bull The UDA alongside many other loyalist paramilitaries benefitted from the import of several arms shipments from Lebanese arms dealers in the early 1970s including rocket launchers 200+ AK-47 Rifles 90+ handguns and over 400 grenades They also received various weapons such as the uzi submachine gun and explosive devices from arms dealers in the Soviet bloc in the 1980s

Organized Crime

bull The UDA and its members were also heavily involved in drug dealing from the street level to wholesale purchase primarily in MDMA and cannabis throughout the Troubles

bull Protection racketeering and money laundering were also common amongst the UDA in protestant communities

bull However should a member of a UDA-ran community begin stealing or dealing drugs without UDA consent he was abruptly branded as ldquoanti-socialrdquo and either killed or kneecapped

The UVF

Statistics

bull Suffered unknown number of casualtiesbull Killed 412 civiliansbull Killed 11 civilian political activistsbull Killed 21 members of republican terror groupsbull Killed 42 members of rival loyalist terror

groupsbull Killed 6 members of the Security Forces

Ideology

bull Similar to the UDAUFF the Ulster Volunteer Forcersquos primary aim was to combat Irish republicanism in Northern Ireland primarily the PIRA They wanted Northern Ireland to remain in the UK

Terrorist Activitiesbull The majority of UVF victims were Catholic civilians

many of whom were killed at random These attacks were intended to demoralize the IRA as the IRA drew most of its support from the Catholic community

bull Planting bombs in predominately-Catholic pubs or simply residential areas was a very frequent UVF tactic and in 1973 they detonated more bombs in Northern Ireland than the UDA and the PIRA combined Assassinations mass shootings booby-trap car bombs and kidnappings were also frequent UVF activities

The Shankhill Butchers

bull The ldquoShankhill Butchersrdquo were a notorious offshoot UVF group known for abducting and literally slitting the throats of Catholic civilians and rival loyalist terror groups in the late 1970s They were led by Lenny Murphy (who was eventually imprisoned and upon his release of a 4-year stint murdered by the PIRA) and killed 23 people most of whom were Catholic civilians Many experts liken the Shankhill Butchers more to a group of serial killers than to politically or even ethnically-motivated murderers

bull The Butchers were all eventually all either imprisoned killed by the PIRA or both

Weaponrybull The UVF received the majority of its weaponry in the late 1970s

from Armscor an apartheid-South Africa state-owned arms company which in defiance of various UN sanctions and embargoes sold them to the UVF

bull Weapons were thought to consist ofbull 200 Czech SA vz 58 Assault Riflesbull 90 Browning Pistolsbull 500 RGD-5 Frag Grenadesbull 30000 rounds of ammunitionbull 12 RPG-7 Rocket Launchers and 150+ Rocketsbull The UVF also began using the illegally-obtained mining explosive

Powergel in the early 1990s

Organized Crime

bull The UVF was also heavily involved in organized crime including protection racketeering and drug smugglingdealing including cannabis MDMA cocaine and amphetamines Bank robberies were also very frequent in the 1970s

Major Incidents 1969-1998

Bloody Sunday 30 January 1972

Massacre on the Bogsidebull In 1972 during a large scale but peaceful civil-rights march in the

troubled predominately Catholic neighborhood of Bogside in Derry 26 unarmed civil rights marchers were shot by members of the British Army 14 of whom were killed Five of those shot were shot in the back

bull After several inquiries into the incident there was found to have been no justifiable provocation from the protestors and no shots fired from the protestors during the march The massacre was conducted in full view of the public and the press

bull The PM David Cameron eventually issued a formal apology to the victims and victimsrsquo families of the massacre after several investigations failed to reveal any justifiable provocation for the massacre

bull The massacre sky-rocketed PIRA membership and recruitment as public perception of the British Army in Catholic communities in Northern Ireland reached an all-time low

Bloody Friday 21 July 1972

A City Under Siege

bull On 21 July 1972 the PIRA detonated 26 bombs in the space of 80 minutes in Belfast destroying banks bridges electrical substations Protestant housing tenements gasoline stations and private garages

bull Although warnings were called in at least 30 minutes prior to each bomb the amount of bombs exploding and the addition of multiple hoax warnings at the same time led to the Security Forces being unable to evacuate all the areas in time 11 people were killed and 130 were injured many of them horrifically mutilated Of those injured 77 were women or children

Dublin and Monaghan Bombings 17 May 1974

Deadliest Attack of the Troubles

bull Perpetrated by the UVF in the southern Republic of Ireland three car bombs exploded in Dublin during rush hour and another exploded in Monaghan around 90 minutes later

bull 33 civilians and a full-term unborn child were killed in the bombing while nearly 300 were injured The UVF did not claim responsibility for the bombings until 1993

bull The majority of those killed were young women although the age range of those killed ranged from 5 months old to 80 years old

Warrenpoint Ambush 27 August 1979

Roadside IEDsbull In the southern part of County Armagh Northern Ireland a predominately-

Catholic rural region and former PIRA stronghold right on the border with the southern Republic of Ireland a British troop convoy was hit with a remote-control detonated roadside 500lb truck-bomb and destroyed instantly killing 6 troops The surviving soldiers then wrongly believed they were under sniper fire from the other side of the Irish border and began firing at civilians immediately after the bombing killing 1 and injuring another

bull 32 minutes after the first bombing the IRA used its knowledge of how the British reacted to bombings to correctly predict that they would set up an incident-command point in a nearby gatehouse Unfortunately for the British there was a second 800lb fertilizer bomb planted near the gatehouse that when detonated killed 12 other soldiers who were responding to the initial bomb

bull It was the deadliest single attack on the British Army during the Troubles and a highly successful attack for the PIRA

Summer of 1981 Irish Hunger Strikes

A Defining Moment for the Republican Cause

bull Beginning on 1 March 1981 led by Bobby Sands 7 PIRA and 3 INLA inmates at the notorious ldquoMazerdquo prison began to refuse food until Margaret Thatcher PM of Great Britain at that time began to recognize terrorist prisoners as political prisoners and allowed them their ldquoFive Demandsrdquo

The Five Demands

bull The right to not wear a prison uniformbull The right to not do prison workbull The right of free association with other

prisoners and to organize in educational and recreational pursuits

bull Full restoration of remission lost through any protests towards these demands

Previous Protestsbull The Maze prison was a very high-security and low-quality prison that

housed almost all PIRA prisoners during the Troubles It was run in a very ethically questionable fashion with frequent beatings and borderline-torture techniques used on Republican prisoners and extremely poor living conditions for prisoners Many Maze prison guards were members of the UDAUVF or had strong connections with one of the two groups as well

bull Massive peaceful protests and marches by Irish republicans outside of the Maze Prison proved unsuccessful in attaining political status for republican prisoners as well as previous inmate protests in 1980 including non-fatal hunger strikes inmates refusing to wear prison uniforms and thus living in their cells naked and prisoners refusing to leave their cells to go to the bathroom until their requests had been granted (they therefore urinated and defecated in their cells and spread their excrement across their cell walls in what was known as the ldquoDirty Protestrdquo)

Dirty Protesters

Thatcherrsquos Response

bull ldquoThose terrorists will carry their determination to disrupt society to any lengths Once again we have a hunger strike in the Maze Prison in the quest for what they call lsquopolitical statusrsquo There is no such thing as political murder political bombing or political violence There is only criminal murder criminal bombing and criminal violence We will not compromise on this There will be no political statusrdquo

Ten Strikers Diebull Bobby Sands the leader of the strike was imprisoned as a PIRA member

on charges of firearm possession and in connection with the bombing of a furniture store He was the first to die after 66 days of not eating Sands was elected to a seat in Parliament whilst on Hunger Strike

bull Following Sandsrsquo death there were riots bus-burnings and attacks on the British embassy in the southern Republic of Ireland there were massive demonstrations in France and Italy a tomato was thrown as Queen Elizabeth II by demonstrators in Oslo and there were massive riots and civil disorder all over the streets of Belfast The South African ANC and (at the time) terrorist Nelson Mandela expressed their support for the PIRA and the hunger strikers (Mandela himself claimed he was directly inspired by Sands to undertake hunger strikes against the Apartheid government in South Africa) as well as the Palestine Liberation Organization a middle-eastern terror group

bull Over 100000 attended Sandsrsquo funeral

Bobby Sands

ldquoOur revenge will be the laughter of our childrenrdquo

Reaction to Sandsrsquo Death

>

Conclusion

bull The Hunger Strike was eventually called off after 10 strikers including Sands had died

bull James Prior newly installed secretary of state of Northern Ireland granted the prisoners partial concessions all of the Five Demands except for the right to not do prison work Margaret Thatcher refused to budge on political status

bull The Hunger Strikes opened a new way for the PIRA to pursue its objectives politically whereas previously it had seen violence as the only solution to the plight of Irish nationalists in Northern Ireland

1983 The Maze Prison Escape

The ldquoGreat Escaperdquo

bull Using smuggled-in guns and knives 38 PIRA prisoners who had been convicted of offenses ranging from murder to causing explosions escaped from one of the most high-security prisons in Europe They completely took over the H7 prison block and took their prison guards hostage before escaping in a food supply truck Several prison guards were shot and stabbed but only one died of a heart attack during the escape

bull Fifteen escapees were recaptured the first day with four more captured over the next two days following the breakout The remaining 19 were transported to PIRA strongholds and given the option to either rejoin the IRArsquos cause or be transported to the United States to live under a new identity

12 October 1984 Brighton Hotel Bombing

The PIRA Nearly Gets Thatcherbull Margaret Thatcher the highly controversial far-right British PM from

1979-1990 had become a tremendously hated figure amongst the Irish nationalist community in Northern Ireland following the 1981 Hunger Strikes and for her general uncompromising stand on Irish republicanism

bull PIRA man Patrick Magee stayed at the Brighton Hotel from the 14-17 September 1984 planting a 20-lb bomb under his bath

bull Thatcher was staying at the Brighton Hotel for a political conference and was still up at 254AM on 12 October when the bomb was detonated The bomb decimated her bathroom but left the bedroom and sitting room of her suite largely unscathed

bull The PIRA statement to Thatcher afterwards was ldquoToday we were unlucky But remember we only have to be lucky once You will have to be lucky alwaysrdquo

Loughgall Ambush 8 May 1987

The SAS Strikes

bull A botched attack on Loughgall Villagersquos RUC Police Base in which the PIRA drove a backhoe into the fortified base and ran away to detonate the bomb that was inside of the backhoe went wrong as the SAS the British Special Forces had prior knowledge of the attack and quickly dispatched the 8 PIRA members involved

bull Although the RUC base was wrecked and bombed there were no RUC or SAS casualties and it was the PIRArsquos greatest loss of life in a single incident during the Troubles

British Army Lynx Shootdown 20 March 1994

The PIRA Shoots Down a Helicopter

bull Using the previously mentioned Barrack-Buster homemade mortar PIRA insurgents were able to fire on a British helicopter that was in the process of landing whilst hiding behind a hay bail from around 150 yards out

bull The helicopter was hit with the mortar shell around 100 feet above the ground but the pilot was able to successfully crash-land the helicopter and escape before its propane tanks exploded There were no casualties but the attack was a major propaganda coup for the PIRA

1996 Manchester Bombing

The PIRA Destroys Manchester

bull On Saturday 15 June 1996 the PIRA sent in telephoned warnings and 90 minutes later detonated a 3300lb fertilizer-based truck bomb in the heart of Manchester City Centre the biggest bomb detonated in Great Britain during peacetime The bomb killed nobody due to previous warnings but led to 212 non-fatal injuries and essentially destroyed Manchester City Centre leaving approximately 700 million pounds ($12bn) worth of damage in its wake

Omagh Bombing 1998

Last Great Deadly Attack of the Troubles

bull Perpetrated by a Provisional IRA splinter group that was rejecting the peace process calling themselves the ldquoReal IRArdquo the 510lb fertilizer-based bomb was placed on main street in the town of Omagh Northern Ireland Warnings were called in approximately 30 minutes before the bombing but they were inaccurate and police ended up moving more civilians towards the bomb which ended up killing 29 people and causing over 300 non-fatal injuries This was the highest death toll from a single incident during the Troubles

bull It received universal outrage and was condemned even by the PIRA and its political wing Sinn Fein It spurred on the Northern Ireland peace process and the RIRA apologized and called a ceasefire several days after

The Good Friday Agreement and Northern Ireland Peace Process

Beginningsbull Following the 1981 Hunger Strikes Irish republicans began to

increasingly look towards politics rather than violence as a means of achieving their aims Sinn Fein gaelic for ldquoWe Ourselvesrdquo was a fiercely Irish Republican political party which led by the Machiavellian former PIRA leader and Maze inmate Gerry Adams began to push for a more peaceful solution to the Troubles in Northern Ireland

bull It became apparent by the late 1990s that although the PIRA was not losing a war against the British establishment it would be impossible to truly lsquowin the fightrsquo through violence and that any further terrorism would serve not to achieve any real political aim but only to prolong and continue suffering and violence in Northern Ireland and that politics was a much better way of achieving Republican aims

Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein former PIRA Belfast Brigade OC

Good Friday Agreement 1998

bull The Peace Process began in 1994 and included intermittent terrorist ceasefires and political negotiations between the major Irish republican and British unionist parties and culminated on April 10 1998 when the Good Friday Agreement was signed

PM Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern Sign the GFA

GFA Mandatesbull That Northern Ireland was to remain British until a majority of people in Northern

Ireland and the southern Republic of Ireland wanted otherwise bull The creation of an entirely new far less sectarian and religiously diverse Northern

Irish local governmentbull The decommissioning of arms from terrorist groups on both the unionist and

nationalist side of the political divide (ultimately successful all arms decommissioned by 2005)

bull Mutual respect and civil rights between Catholics and Protestants bull The reduction and eventual elimination of British troops in Northern Ireland

(ultimately successful all troops withdrawn by 2005)bull Eventual early prison release for all individuals imprisoned for terrorist offenses as

long as they were apart of a terrorist group that was decommissioning in accordance with the GFA

bull Disbandment of the RUC police service and the installation of the new Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) which was required to be at least 50 Catholic

Northern Ireland Today

Still Conflict But No Warbull Since the complete decommissioning of the arms and

disbandment of the PIRA INLA UDAUFF and UVF due to the Good Friday Agreement there is nowhere near the amount of violence in Northern Ireland or Belfast as there was 20 years ago There are no more weekly bombings and riots and no more British troops patrolling Catholic areas in armored vehicles

bull Despite this there are still occasional riots and clashes with the PSNI several times a year specifically on dates of great historical significance to the Catholic or Protestant communities and there is still a deep distrust and even hatred between many Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland although that continues to change with time

Catholic Slum of Ardoyne Belfast July 2011

Splinter Groups

bull Many former PIRA or UDA terrorists have now taken to organized crime for purely profiteering purposes but are no longer involved in substantial violence or any political-based terrorism

bull Splinter groups such as the Real IRA and Continuity IRA in Catholic communities and the Orange Volunteers and Red Hand Commandos in Protestant communities still conduct occasional violence towards Police and civilians in Northern Ireland but are all rather small poorly armed and poorly funded groups that pose nowhere near the threat that terrorist groups in the 80s and 90s did in Northern Ireland

Herersquos To A Brighter Future in Northern Ireland

Works Citedbull httpwwwbbccoukhistorytroublesbull httpcainulstacukbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiProvisional_Irish_Republican_Armybull httpenwikipediaorgwikiThe_Troublesbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiUlster_Defence_Associationbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiUlster_Volunteer_Forcebull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_National_Liberation_Armybull ldquoA Secret History of the IRArdquo by Ed Moloney ndashWW Norton amp Company Reprint 2003bull ldquoVoices From The Grave Two Menrsquos War in Irelandrdquo by Ed Moloney ndash Public Affairs 2010bull ldquoFifty Dead Men Walkingrdquo by Martin McGartland ndash John Blake 2009bull httpwwwinfopleasecomspotnorthireland1htmlbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_Civil_Warbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_War_of_Independencebull httpenwikipediaorgwiki1981_Irish_hunger_strikebull httpenwikipediaorgwikiDirectory_of_the_Northern_Ireland_Troublesbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiGood_Friday_Agreementbull httpswwwmi5govukhomethe-threatsterrorismnorthern-irelandrepublican-terrorist-groupshtmlbull httpswwwmi5govukhomethe-threatsterrorismnorthern-irelandprovisional-irish-republican-army-

pirahtmlbull httpnewsbbccoukhienglishstaticnorthern_irelandunderstandingeventshunger_strikestm

  • The Troubles
  • Brief Overview
  • 30 Years of Conflict
  • Slide 4
  • Background
  • The Irish War of Independence
  • Slide 7
  • Anglo-Irish Treaty (signed 6 December 1921)
  • Irish Civil War
  • 1922-1966 Ireland
  • The Civil Rights Movement
  • Slide 12
  • Slide 13
  • Objectives of the Civil Rights Movement
  • The 1969 Northern Ireland Riots ndashThe Troubles Begin
  • Culmination of Tension
  • No-Go Areas
  • No-Go Areas (2)
  • Early 1970sndash The Rise of the Provisional IRA
  • The IRA Split
  • Rise of the UVF and Loyalist Terror Groups
  • Beginnings
  • UVF Statement 21 May 1964
  • The Paramilitaries
  • Irish RepublicansCatholics
  • The Provisional IRA
  • IRA Statement Late 80s
  • Statistics
  • RecruitmentFunding
  • Weaponry
  • Weaponry (2)
  • Slide 32
  • Mortars and IEDs
  • EOD Officer Approaches PIRA Car Bomb
  • The Barrack Buster
  • Vigilantism
  • Slide 37
  • Slide 38
  • Policy on Informants
  • Terrorist Activities
  • Terrorist Activities (continued)
  • The INLA
  • Statistics (2)
  • Ideology
  • Terrorist Activities (2)
  • Internal Feuds
  • Slide 47
  • British LoyalistsProtestants
  • The UDAUFF
  • Former UFF Member
  • Statistics (3)
  • Ideology (2)
  • Terrorist Activities (3)
  • Slide 54
  • Organized Crime
  • The UVF
  • Statistics (4)
  • Ideology (3)
  • Terrorist Activities (4)
  • The Shankhill Butchers
  • Weaponry (3)
  • Slide 62
  • Organized Crime (2)
  • Major Incidents 1969-1998
  • Bloody Sunday 30 January 1972
  • Massacre on the Bogside
  • Bloody Friday 21 July 1972
  • A City Under Siege
  • Dublin and Monaghan Bombings 17 May 1974
  • Deadliest Attack of the Troubles
  • Warrenpoint Ambush 27 August 1979
  • Roadside IEDs
  • Summer of 1981 Irish Hunger Strikes
  • A Defining Moment for the Republican Cause
  • The Five Demands
  • Previous Protests
  • Dirty Protesters
  • Thatcherrsquos Response
  • Ten Strikers Die
  • Bobby Sands
  • Reaction to Sandsrsquo Death
  • Conclusion
  • 1983 The Maze Prison Escape
  • The ldquoGreat Escaperdquo
  • 12 October 1984 Brighton Hotel Bombing
  • The PIRA Nearly Gets Thatcher
  • Loughgall Ambush 8 May 1987
  • The SAS Strikes
  • British Army Lynx Shootdown 20 March 1994
  • The PIRA Shoots Down a Helicopter
  • 1996 Manchester Bombing
  • The PIRA Destroys Manchester
  • Omagh Bombing 1998
  • Last Great Deadly Attack of the Troubles
  • The Good Friday Agreement and Northern Ireland Peace Process
  • Beginnings (2)
  • Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein former PIRA Belfast Brigade OC
  • Good Friday Agreement 1998
  • PM Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern Sign the GFA
  • GFA Mandates
  • Northern Ireland Today
  • Still Conflict But No War
  • Catholic Slum of Ardoyne Belfast July 2011
  • Splinter Groups
  • Herersquos To A Brighter Future in Northern Ireland
  • Works Cited
Page 28: The Troubles, 1969-1998

Weaponrybull When the IRA disarmed as part of the Good Friday Agreement in

1998 (more on that later) they released the following to the British Armed Forces

bull 1000 Rifles (AK-47s AR-15s etc)bull 3 Tons of Semtex (a general-purpose plastic explosive)bull 20-30 Heavy Machine Gunsbull 7 Surface-to-Air Missilesbull 7 Flamethrowersbull 1200 Detonatorsbull 20 RPGrsquosbull 100 Handgunsbull 100+ Hand Grenades

Mortars and IEDsbull The PIRA was incredibly proficient at bomb-making and made

extensive use of Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) during their 30 year campaign

bull IEDs were typically constructed with chemical mixes of fertilizer gasoline and other home-made components Libyan Semtex was also used in several heavy-duty bombs Nails and gunpowder were typically implemented in pipe bombs made out of metal pipes Most IEDs had built in countermeasures such as the mercury tilt switch which would cause the bomb to explode if moved at all should a British EOD officer attempt to dismantle it

bull The PIRA developed the ldquoBarrack Busterrdquo mortar in the late lsquo70s or a homemade mortar made up of common household materials that was used to attack several Army bases from afar and even Prime Minister Margaret Thatcherrsquos househellip 10 Downing Street in a 1991 attack that destroyed the Prime Ministerrsquos rear garden (the mortar was fired out the back of a nearby van)

EOD Officer Approaches PIRA Car Bomb

The Barrack Buster

>

Vigilantismbull The RUC was not trusted in Catholic neighborhoods throughout the

Troubles and did not regularly patrol or even enter them in urban areas of Northern Ireland Thus when there was a community drug dealer car thief burglar rapist or pedophile the IRA took it upon themselves to issue brutal street justice to those involved

bull Occasionally offering warnings for lesser offences such as petty thievery or drug dealing if the IRA had enough of a certain member of the community they perceived as anti-social he or she was usually jumped brutally beaten andor lsquokneecappedrsquo ndash one of the IRArsquos most notorious methods ndash in which the victim was pinned down and shot through the kneecaps with a firearm or occasionally had their kneecaps drilled through with power-drills Other methods included releasing starving Rottweilerrsquos on the offender dropping cinderblocks on the offenderrsquos hands or even tarring and feathering the offender The IRArsquos process in determining an individualrsquos guilt was never open to scrutiny

bull If the offender persisted after an IRA punishment he was then given a notice by the IRA to leave the country as soon as possiblehellip referred to as being ldquoput outrdquo of the community If the offender still did not leave he was murdered

Policy on Informantsbull In an effort to stamp out collusion with the British forces and informants on the

IRA the IRA was responsible for torturing and killing several accused Catholic civilians throughout the conflict

bull Investigations into collusion infiltration and informants were carried out by the Internal Security Unit of the IRA colloquially known as the ldquoNutting Squadrdquo

bull The ISU would carry out debriefings of IRA prisoners upon their release from British detention so as to discover whether or not they had lsquocrackedrsquo and released information to British interrogators

bull Typical ISU torture techniques on those accused of informing included drowning genitalnipple mutilation electrocution with livewires pouring kerosene on the accusedrsquos legs before setting fire to them and branding with hot irons Informants were always killed afterwards with a bullet through the back of the head

bull Of the 18 ldquoDisappearedrdquo accused informants that were abducted and executed by the IRA during the Troubles only 10 bodies have been found

bull Martin McGartland was an IRA informant who was estimated to have saved 50 lives in the conflict before he was discovered and abducted by the ISU He escaped and lives today in seclusion The film ldquo50 Dead Men Walkingrdquo is based on his exploits and is an excellent realistic non-romanticized take on the Troubles in Northern Ireland

Terrorist Activitiesbull Common tactics included breaking into the homes of off-duty RUC police

officers and murdering them in their beds or setting booby-trap bombs underneath RUC police officersrsquo cars and unionist politiciansrsquo cars so that they would blow up as the engine was started RUC men were typically targeted when they were off-duty and many were shot dead in front of their families The PIRA would also impersonate innocent Catholic civilians call the police to report an emergency and ambush the police from hidden positions when they arrived at the stated address (another reason the RUC was hesitant to go into Catholic neighborhoods during this period)

bull Most notorious for their bombings they would typically park car bombs in predominately Protestant communities call in the bomb threat so that the area would be evacuated and an EOD squad would arrive to dismantle it the bomb would then be detonated with hopes of killing an EOD officer and destroying Protestant housing tenements

bull The PIRA rarely intentionally targeted civilians especially in the 80srsquo and 90srsquo but were involved in the bombings of several Protestant-owned pubs during the 1970s in response to loyalist terrorist groups bombing Catholic-owned pubs They also carried out the Kingsmill massacre in 1976 in which eleven Protestant workmen that were traveling on a minibus were held up by the IRA and all individually executed in response to the execution of six Catholic civilians by the UVF the night before

Terrorist Activities (continued)bull Other activities included engaging in firefights with British squadrons as

they patrolled the countrysidestreets of urban areas sniper attacks on RUC or British Army patrolscheckpoints planting landmines along British foot patrol routes in rural areas planting roadside IEDs along British convoy routes and bombing ferries and buses containing on-or-off duty British soldiers

bull The notorious ldquohuman bombrdquo technique in which civilians or off-duty members of the British security forces were kidnapped and then forced to drive car bombs into British military targets ndash such as checkpoints and Army bases ndash after the PIRA had placed their familiesrsquo lives under threat

bull Inciting riots and providing Catholic youths with molotov cocktails (gasoline bombs) during such riots so as to maximize public disorder and destruction was also an almost daily IRA activity in Catholic communities in urban Northern Ireland

The INLA

Statistics

bull Suffered 33 casualtiesbull Killed 46 members of the British Security Forcesbull Killed 2 members of the Irish Security Forcesbull Killed 39 civiliansbull Killed 3 civilian political activistsbull Killed 16 members of rival Republican terror

groupsbull Killed 7 members of Loyalist terror groups

Ideology

bull Founded by Seamus Costello in 1974 as the military wing of the Irish Republican Socialist Party

bull Shared similar goals to the Provisional IRA but far more socialist in ideology INLA wanted a socialist united Irish republic and blamed class struggles for many of the problems in Northern Ireland whereas the PIRA simply wanted a united Irish republic and had little interest in class struggle or economics

bull Whereas the PIRA was almost exclusively Catholic the INLA had some Protestant members most of whom were involved for purely socialist reasons

Terrorist Activitiesbull Although far less powerful and bold than the PIRA the INLA

nevertheless presented a potent terrorist threat to the United Kingdom during the Troubles

bull Similar tactics to the IRA car bombings shooting off-duty police and soldiers dead and high-profile assassinations

bull Their most high-profile attacks included the car bomb assassination of Airey Neave one of Margaret Thatcherrsquos closest political supporters in 1979 the murder of infamous Loyalist terror leader Billy Wright (who was murdered by INLA inmates in a British political prison in 1997) and the Ballykelley Disco Bombing in 1982 in which the INLA bombed a disco-club frequented by off-duty British soldiers managing to kill 11 of them as well as 6 civilians as well as destroying the disco

Internal Feuds

bull A split in 1986 led the INLA to split into the INLA and the IPLO or Irish Peoplersquos Liberation Organization based on IPLO membersrsquo perceived lack of political motivation and heavy involvement in drug dealing and criminality

bull There were several retaliatory killings between the two groups that persisted until 1992 when the PIRA had enough of the IPLOrsquos involvement in drug dealing in Catholic areas of Belfast and on 31 October 1992 virtually destroyed the entire organization in one night with a series of raids killings and kneecappings that killed or crippled the majority of the grouprsquos members

British LoyalistsProtestants

The UDAUFF

Former UFF Member

>

Statistics

bull Suffered 89 casualtiesbull Killed 197 civiliansbull Killed 12 civilian political activistsbull Killed 37 members of rival loyalist terror

groupsbull Killed 11 members of republican terror groupsbull Killed 3 members of the British Security Forces

Ideology

bull The UDA or Ulster Defense Association and its military wing the Ulster Freedom Fighters (UFF) was a loyalist protestant terror squad that targeted PIRA and INLA members as well as general Catholic civilians in bombings and shootings throughout Northern Ireland

bull It pledged to end its campaign of violence whenever the IRA set down its arms yet should the UK government appease the IRA and grant a 32-county Irish Republic the UDA pledged to act as ldquothe IRA in reverserdquo

Terrorist Activitiesbull The UDA saw itself as a militia defending upstanding protestant loyalist

communities from dangerous and lower-class Catholics that were disrupting the status quo in Northern Ireland They pledged primarily to target IRA men but ended up killing a majority of Catholic civilians during the Troubles They were also known to intimidate and exile known Catholic families from predominately-Protestant communities in Belfast and other urban areas

bull Drive-by shootings shooting up or planting bombs in predominately-Catholic pubs and bars and jumping brutally beating andor kneecapping Catholic civilians were all frequent tactics

bull The UDA discreetly worked in collusion with the RUC and other British security agencies so as to track down and assassinate known IRA members They would also patrol Protestant neighborhoods alongside British soldiers at the height of the Troubles Many RUC police officers and prison guards were also UDA members

bull The UDA alongside many other loyalist paramilitaries benefitted from the import of several arms shipments from Lebanese arms dealers in the early 1970s including rocket launchers 200+ AK-47 Rifles 90+ handguns and over 400 grenades They also received various weapons such as the uzi submachine gun and explosive devices from arms dealers in the Soviet bloc in the 1980s

Organized Crime

bull The UDA and its members were also heavily involved in drug dealing from the street level to wholesale purchase primarily in MDMA and cannabis throughout the Troubles

bull Protection racketeering and money laundering were also common amongst the UDA in protestant communities

bull However should a member of a UDA-ran community begin stealing or dealing drugs without UDA consent he was abruptly branded as ldquoanti-socialrdquo and either killed or kneecapped

The UVF

Statistics

bull Suffered unknown number of casualtiesbull Killed 412 civiliansbull Killed 11 civilian political activistsbull Killed 21 members of republican terror groupsbull Killed 42 members of rival loyalist terror

groupsbull Killed 6 members of the Security Forces

Ideology

bull Similar to the UDAUFF the Ulster Volunteer Forcersquos primary aim was to combat Irish republicanism in Northern Ireland primarily the PIRA They wanted Northern Ireland to remain in the UK

Terrorist Activitiesbull The majority of UVF victims were Catholic civilians

many of whom were killed at random These attacks were intended to demoralize the IRA as the IRA drew most of its support from the Catholic community

bull Planting bombs in predominately-Catholic pubs or simply residential areas was a very frequent UVF tactic and in 1973 they detonated more bombs in Northern Ireland than the UDA and the PIRA combined Assassinations mass shootings booby-trap car bombs and kidnappings were also frequent UVF activities

The Shankhill Butchers

bull The ldquoShankhill Butchersrdquo were a notorious offshoot UVF group known for abducting and literally slitting the throats of Catholic civilians and rival loyalist terror groups in the late 1970s They were led by Lenny Murphy (who was eventually imprisoned and upon his release of a 4-year stint murdered by the PIRA) and killed 23 people most of whom were Catholic civilians Many experts liken the Shankhill Butchers more to a group of serial killers than to politically or even ethnically-motivated murderers

bull The Butchers were all eventually all either imprisoned killed by the PIRA or both

Weaponrybull The UVF received the majority of its weaponry in the late 1970s

from Armscor an apartheid-South Africa state-owned arms company which in defiance of various UN sanctions and embargoes sold them to the UVF

bull Weapons were thought to consist ofbull 200 Czech SA vz 58 Assault Riflesbull 90 Browning Pistolsbull 500 RGD-5 Frag Grenadesbull 30000 rounds of ammunitionbull 12 RPG-7 Rocket Launchers and 150+ Rocketsbull The UVF also began using the illegally-obtained mining explosive

Powergel in the early 1990s

Organized Crime

bull The UVF was also heavily involved in organized crime including protection racketeering and drug smugglingdealing including cannabis MDMA cocaine and amphetamines Bank robberies were also very frequent in the 1970s

Major Incidents 1969-1998

Bloody Sunday 30 January 1972

Massacre on the Bogsidebull In 1972 during a large scale but peaceful civil-rights march in the

troubled predominately Catholic neighborhood of Bogside in Derry 26 unarmed civil rights marchers were shot by members of the British Army 14 of whom were killed Five of those shot were shot in the back

bull After several inquiries into the incident there was found to have been no justifiable provocation from the protestors and no shots fired from the protestors during the march The massacre was conducted in full view of the public and the press

bull The PM David Cameron eventually issued a formal apology to the victims and victimsrsquo families of the massacre after several investigations failed to reveal any justifiable provocation for the massacre

bull The massacre sky-rocketed PIRA membership and recruitment as public perception of the British Army in Catholic communities in Northern Ireland reached an all-time low

Bloody Friday 21 July 1972

A City Under Siege

bull On 21 July 1972 the PIRA detonated 26 bombs in the space of 80 minutes in Belfast destroying banks bridges electrical substations Protestant housing tenements gasoline stations and private garages

bull Although warnings were called in at least 30 minutes prior to each bomb the amount of bombs exploding and the addition of multiple hoax warnings at the same time led to the Security Forces being unable to evacuate all the areas in time 11 people were killed and 130 were injured many of them horrifically mutilated Of those injured 77 were women or children

Dublin and Monaghan Bombings 17 May 1974

Deadliest Attack of the Troubles

bull Perpetrated by the UVF in the southern Republic of Ireland three car bombs exploded in Dublin during rush hour and another exploded in Monaghan around 90 minutes later

bull 33 civilians and a full-term unborn child were killed in the bombing while nearly 300 were injured The UVF did not claim responsibility for the bombings until 1993

bull The majority of those killed were young women although the age range of those killed ranged from 5 months old to 80 years old

Warrenpoint Ambush 27 August 1979

Roadside IEDsbull In the southern part of County Armagh Northern Ireland a predominately-

Catholic rural region and former PIRA stronghold right on the border with the southern Republic of Ireland a British troop convoy was hit with a remote-control detonated roadside 500lb truck-bomb and destroyed instantly killing 6 troops The surviving soldiers then wrongly believed they were under sniper fire from the other side of the Irish border and began firing at civilians immediately after the bombing killing 1 and injuring another

bull 32 minutes after the first bombing the IRA used its knowledge of how the British reacted to bombings to correctly predict that they would set up an incident-command point in a nearby gatehouse Unfortunately for the British there was a second 800lb fertilizer bomb planted near the gatehouse that when detonated killed 12 other soldiers who were responding to the initial bomb

bull It was the deadliest single attack on the British Army during the Troubles and a highly successful attack for the PIRA

Summer of 1981 Irish Hunger Strikes

A Defining Moment for the Republican Cause

bull Beginning on 1 March 1981 led by Bobby Sands 7 PIRA and 3 INLA inmates at the notorious ldquoMazerdquo prison began to refuse food until Margaret Thatcher PM of Great Britain at that time began to recognize terrorist prisoners as political prisoners and allowed them their ldquoFive Demandsrdquo

The Five Demands

bull The right to not wear a prison uniformbull The right to not do prison workbull The right of free association with other

prisoners and to organize in educational and recreational pursuits

bull Full restoration of remission lost through any protests towards these demands

Previous Protestsbull The Maze prison was a very high-security and low-quality prison that

housed almost all PIRA prisoners during the Troubles It was run in a very ethically questionable fashion with frequent beatings and borderline-torture techniques used on Republican prisoners and extremely poor living conditions for prisoners Many Maze prison guards were members of the UDAUVF or had strong connections with one of the two groups as well

bull Massive peaceful protests and marches by Irish republicans outside of the Maze Prison proved unsuccessful in attaining political status for republican prisoners as well as previous inmate protests in 1980 including non-fatal hunger strikes inmates refusing to wear prison uniforms and thus living in their cells naked and prisoners refusing to leave their cells to go to the bathroom until their requests had been granted (they therefore urinated and defecated in their cells and spread their excrement across their cell walls in what was known as the ldquoDirty Protestrdquo)

Dirty Protesters

Thatcherrsquos Response

bull ldquoThose terrorists will carry their determination to disrupt society to any lengths Once again we have a hunger strike in the Maze Prison in the quest for what they call lsquopolitical statusrsquo There is no such thing as political murder political bombing or political violence There is only criminal murder criminal bombing and criminal violence We will not compromise on this There will be no political statusrdquo

Ten Strikers Diebull Bobby Sands the leader of the strike was imprisoned as a PIRA member

on charges of firearm possession and in connection with the bombing of a furniture store He was the first to die after 66 days of not eating Sands was elected to a seat in Parliament whilst on Hunger Strike

bull Following Sandsrsquo death there were riots bus-burnings and attacks on the British embassy in the southern Republic of Ireland there were massive demonstrations in France and Italy a tomato was thrown as Queen Elizabeth II by demonstrators in Oslo and there were massive riots and civil disorder all over the streets of Belfast The South African ANC and (at the time) terrorist Nelson Mandela expressed their support for the PIRA and the hunger strikers (Mandela himself claimed he was directly inspired by Sands to undertake hunger strikes against the Apartheid government in South Africa) as well as the Palestine Liberation Organization a middle-eastern terror group

bull Over 100000 attended Sandsrsquo funeral

Bobby Sands

ldquoOur revenge will be the laughter of our childrenrdquo

Reaction to Sandsrsquo Death

>

Conclusion

bull The Hunger Strike was eventually called off after 10 strikers including Sands had died

bull James Prior newly installed secretary of state of Northern Ireland granted the prisoners partial concessions all of the Five Demands except for the right to not do prison work Margaret Thatcher refused to budge on political status

bull The Hunger Strikes opened a new way for the PIRA to pursue its objectives politically whereas previously it had seen violence as the only solution to the plight of Irish nationalists in Northern Ireland

1983 The Maze Prison Escape

The ldquoGreat Escaperdquo

bull Using smuggled-in guns and knives 38 PIRA prisoners who had been convicted of offenses ranging from murder to causing explosions escaped from one of the most high-security prisons in Europe They completely took over the H7 prison block and took their prison guards hostage before escaping in a food supply truck Several prison guards were shot and stabbed but only one died of a heart attack during the escape

bull Fifteen escapees were recaptured the first day with four more captured over the next two days following the breakout The remaining 19 were transported to PIRA strongholds and given the option to either rejoin the IRArsquos cause or be transported to the United States to live under a new identity

12 October 1984 Brighton Hotel Bombing

The PIRA Nearly Gets Thatcherbull Margaret Thatcher the highly controversial far-right British PM from

1979-1990 had become a tremendously hated figure amongst the Irish nationalist community in Northern Ireland following the 1981 Hunger Strikes and for her general uncompromising stand on Irish republicanism

bull PIRA man Patrick Magee stayed at the Brighton Hotel from the 14-17 September 1984 planting a 20-lb bomb under his bath

bull Thatcher was staying at the Brighton Hotel for a political conference and was still up at 254AM on 12 October when the bomb was detonated The bomb decimated her bathroom but left the bedroom and sitting room of her suite largely unscathed

bull The PIRA statement to Thatcher afterwards was ldquoToday we were unlucky But remember we only have to be lucky once You will have to be lucky alwaysrdquo

Loughgall Ambush 8 May 1987

The SAS Strikes

bull A botched attack on Loughgall Villagersquos RUC Police Base in which the PIRA drove a backhoe into the fortified base and ran away to detonate the bomb that was inside of the backhoe went wrong as the SAS the British Special Forces had prior knowledge of the attack and quickly dispatched the 8 PIRA members involved

bull Although the RUC base was wrecked and bombed there were no RUC or SAS casualties and it was the PIRArsquos greatest loss of life in a single incident during the Troubles

British Army Lynx Shootdown 20 March 1994

The PIRA Shoots Down a Helicopter

bull Using the previously mentioned Barrack-Buster homemade mortar PIRA insurgents were able to fire on a British helicopter that was in the process of landing whilst hiding behind a hay bail from around 150 yards out

bull The helicopter was hit with the mortar shell around 100 feet above the ground but the pilot was able to successfully crash-land the helicopter and escape before its propane tanks exploded There were no casualties but the attack was a major propaganda coup for the PIRA

1996 Manchester Bombing

The PIRA Destroys Manchester

bull On Saturday 15 June 1996 the PIRA sent in telephoned warnings and 90 minutes later detonated a 3300lb fertilizer-based truck bomb in the heart of Manchester City Centre the biggest bomb detonated in Great Britain during peacetime The bomb killed nobody due to previous warnings but led to 212 non-fatal injuries and essentially destroyed Manchester City Centre leaving approximately 700 million pounds ($12bn) worth of damage in its wake

Omagh Bombing 1998

Last Great Deadly Attack of the Troubles

bull Perpetrated by a Provisional IRA splinter group that was rejecting the peace process calling themselves the ldquoReal IRArdquo the 510lb fertilizer-based bomb was placed on main street in the town of Omagh Northern Ireland Warnings were called in approximately 30 minutes before the bombing but they were inaccurate and police ended up moving more civilians towards the bomb which ended up killing 29 people and causing over 300 non-fatal injuries This was the highest death toll from a single incident during the Troubles

bull It received universal outrage and was condemned even by the PIRA and its political wing Sinn Fein It spurred on the Northern Ireland peace process and the RIRA apologized and called a ceasefire several days after

The Good Friday Agreement and Northern Ireland Peace Process

Beginningsbull Following the 1981 Hunger Strikes Irish republicans began to

increasingly look towards politics rather than violence as a means of achieving their aims Sinn Fein gaelic for ldquoWe Ourselvesrdquo was a fiercely Irish Republican political party which led by the Machiavellian former PIRA leader and Maze inmate Gerry Adams began to push for a more peaceful solution to the Troubles in Northern Ireland

bull It became apparent by the late 1990s that although the PIRA was not losing a war against the British establishment it would be impossible to truly lsquowin the fightrsquo through violence and that any further terrorism would serve not to achieve any real political aim but only to prolong and continue suffering and violence in Northern Ireland and that politics was a much better way of achieving Republican aims

Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein former PIRA Belfast Brigade OC

Good Friday Agreement 1998

bull The Peace Process began in 1994 and included intermittent terrorist ceasefires and political negotiations between the major Irish republican and British unionist parties and culminated on April 10 1998 when the Good Friday Agreement was signed

PM Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern Sign the GFA

GFA Mandatesbull That Northern Ireland was to remain British until a majority of people in Northern

Ireland and the southern Republic of Ireland wanted otherwise bull The creation of an entirely new far less sectarian and religiously diverse Northern

Irish local governmentbull The decommissioning of arms from terrorist groups on both the unionist and

nationalist side of the political divide (ultimately successful all arms decommissioned by 2005)

bull Mutual respect and civil rights between Catholics and Protestants bull The reduction and eventual elimination of British troops in Northern Ireland

(ultimately successful all troops withdrawn by 2005)bull Eventual early prison release for all individuals imprisoned for terrorist offenses as

long as they were apart of a terrorist group that was decommissioning in accordance with the GFA

bull Disbandment of the RUC police service and the installation of the new Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) which was required to be at least 50 Catholic

Northern Ireland Today

Still Conflict But No Warbull Since the complete decommissioning of the arms and

disbandment of the PIRA INLA UDAUFF and UVF due to the Good Friday Agreement there is nowhere near the amount of violence in Northern Ireland or Belfast as there was 20 years ago There are no more weekly bombings and riots and no more British troops patrolling Catholic areas in armored vehicles

bull Despite this there are still occasional riots and clashes with the PSNI several times a year specifically on dates of great historical significance to the Catholic or Protestant communities and there is still a deep distrust and even hatred between many Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland although that continues to change with time

Catholic Slum of Ardoyne Belfast July 2011

Splinter Groups

bull Many former PIRA or UDA terrorists have now taken to organized crime for purely profiteering purposes but are no longer involved in substantial violence or any political-based terrorism

bull Splinter groups such as the Real IRA and Continuity IRA in Catholic communities and the Orange Volunteers and Red Hand Commandos in Protestant communities still conduct occasional violence towards Police and civilians in Northern Ireland but are all rather small poorly armed and poorly funded groups that pose nowhere near the threat that terrorist groups in the 80s and 90s did in Northern Ireland

Herersquos To A Brighter Future in Northern Ireland

Works Citedbull httpwwwbbccoukhistorytroublesbull httpcainulstacukbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiProvisional_Irish_Republican_Armybull httpenwikipediaorgwikiThe_Troublesbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiUlster_Defence_Associationbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiUlster_Volunteer_Forcebull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_National_Liberation_Armybull ldquoA Secret History of the IRArdquo by Ed Moloney ndashWW Norton amp Company Reprint 2003bull ldquoVoices From The Grave Two Menrsquos War in Irelandrdquo by Ed Moloney ndash Public Affairs 2010bull ldquoFifty Dead Men Walkingrdquo by Martin McGartland ndash John Blake 2009bull httpwwwinfopleasecomspotnorthireland1htmlbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_Civil_Warbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_War_of_Independencebull httpenwikipediaorgwiki1981_Irish_hunger_strikebull httpenwikipediaorgwikiDirectory_of_the_Northern_Ireland_Troublesbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiGood_Friday_Agreementbull httpswwwmi5govukhomethe-threatsterrorismnorthern-irelandrepublican-terrorist-groupshtmlbull httpswwwmi5govukhomethe-threatsterrorismnorthern-irelandprovisional-irish-republican-army-

pirahtmlbull httpnewsbbccoukhienglishstaticnorthern_irelandunderstandingeventshunger_strikestm

  • The Troubles
  • Brief Overview
  • 30 Years of Conflict
  • Slide 4
  • Background
  • The Irish War of Independence
  • Slide 7
  • Anglo-Irish Treaty (signed 6 December 1921)
  • Irish Civil War
  • 1922-1966 Ireland
  • The Civil Rights Movement
  • Slide 12
  • Slide 13
  • Objectives of the Civil Rights Movement
  • The 1969 Northern Ireland Riots ndashThe Troubles Begin
  • Culmination of Tension
  • No-Go Areas
  • No-Go Areas (2)
  • Early 1970sndash The Rise of the Provisional IRA
  • The IRA Split
  • Rise of the UVF and Loyalist Terror Groups
  • Beginnings
  • UVF Statement 21 May 1964
  • The Paramilitaries
  • Irish RepublicansCatholics
  • The Provisional IRA
  • IRA Statement Late 80s
  • Statistics
  • RecruitmentFunding
  • Weaponry
  • Weaponry (2)
  • Slide 32
  • Mortars and IEDs
  • EOD Officer Approaches PIRA Car Bomb
  • The Barrack Buster
  • Vigilantism
  • Slide 37
  • Slide 38
  • Policy on Informants
  • Terrorist Activities
  • Terrorist Activities (continued)
  • The INLA
  • Statistics (2)
  • Ideology
  • Terrorist Activities (2)
  • Internal Feuds
  • Slide 47
  • British LoyalistsProtestants
  • The UDAUFF
  • Former UFF Member
  • Statistics (3)
  • Ideology (2)
  • Terrorist Activities (3)
  • Slide 54
  • Organized Crime
  • The UVF
  • Statistics (4)
  • Ideology (3)
  • Terrorist Activities (4)
  • The Shankhill Butchers
  • Weaponry (3)
  • Slide 62
  • Organized Crime (2)
  • Major Incidents 1969-1998
  • Bloody Sunday 30 January 1972
  • Massacre on the Bogside
  • Bloody Friday 21 July 1972
  • A City Under Siege
  • Dublin and Monaghan Bombings 17 May 1974
  • Deadliest Attack of the Troubles
  • Warrenpoint Ambush 27 August 1979
  • Roadside IEDs
  • Summer of 1981 Irish Hunger Strikes
  • A Defining Moment for the Republican Cause
  • The Five Demands
  • Previous Protests
  • Dirty Protesters
  • Thatcherrsquos Response
  • Ten Strikers Die
  • Bobby Sands
  • Reaction to Sandsrsquo Death
  • Conclusion
  • 1983 The Maze Prison Escape
  • The ldquoGreat Escaperdquo
  • 12 October 1984 Brighton Hotel Bombing
  • The PIRA Nearly Gets Thatcher
  • Loughgall Ambush 8 May 1987
  • The SAS Strikes
  • British Army Lynx Shootdown 20 March 1994
  • The PIRA Shoots Down a Helicopter
  • 1996 Manchester Bombing
  • The PIRA Destroys Manchester
  • Omagh Bombing 1998
  • Last Great Deadly Attack of the Troubles
  • The Good Friday Agreement and Northern Ireland Peace Process
  • Beginnings (2)
  • Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein former PIRA Belfast Brigade OC
  • Good Friday Agreement 1998
  • PM Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern Sign the GFA
  • GFA Mandates
  • Northern Ireland Today
  • Still Conflict But No War
  • Catholic Slum of Ardoyne Belfast July 2011
  • Splinter Groups
  • Herersquos To A Brighter Future in Northern Ireland
  • Works Cited
Page 29: The Troubles, 1969-1998

Mortars and IEDsbull The PIRA was incredibly proficient at bomb-making and made

extensive use of Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) during their 30 year campaign

bull IEDs were typically constructed with chemical mixes of fertilizer gasoline and other home-made components Libyan Semtex was also used in several heavy-duty bombs Nails and gunpowder were typically implemented in pipe bombs made out of metal pipes Most IEDs had built in countermeasures such as the mercury tilt switch which would cause the bomb to explode if moved at all should a British EOD officer attempt to dismantle it

bull The PIRA developed the ldquoBarrack Busterrdquo mortar in the late lsquo70s or a homemade mortar made up of common household materials that was used to attack several Army bases from afar and even Prime Minister Margaret Thatcherrsquos househellip 10 Downing Street in a 1991 attack that destroyed the Prime Ministerrsquos rear garden (the mortar was fired out the back of a nearby van)

EOD Officer Approaches PIRA Car Bomb

The Barrack Buster

>

Vigilantismbull The RUC was not trusted in Catholic neighborhoods throughout the

Troubles and did not regularly patrol or even enter them in urban areas of Northern Ireland Thus when there was a community drug dealer car thief burglar rapist or pedophile the IRA took it upon themselves to issue brutal street justice to those involved

bull Occasionally offering warnings for lesser offences such as petty thievery or drug dealing if the IRA had enough of a certain member of the community they perceived as anti-social he or she was usually jumped brutally beaten andor lsquokneecappedrsquo ndash one of the IRArsquos most notorious methods ndash in which the victim was pinned down and shot through the kneecaps with a firearm or occasionally had their kneecaps drilled through with power-drills Other methods included releasing starving Rottweilerrsquos on the offender dropping cinderblocks on the offenderrsquos hands or even tarring and feathering the offender The IRArsquos process in determining an individualrsquos guilt was never open to scrutiny

bull If the offender persisted after an IRA punishment he was then given a notice by the IRA to leave the country as soon as possiblehellip referred to as being ldquoput outrdquo of the community If the offender still did not leave he was murdered

Policy on Informantsbull In an effort to stamp out collusion with the British forces and informants on the

IRA the IRA was responsible for torturing and killing several accused Catholic civilians throughout the conflict

bull Investigations into collusion infiltration and informants were carried out by the Internal Security Unit of the IRA colloquially known as the ldquoNutting Squadrdquo

bull The ISU would carry out debriefings of IRA prisoners upon their release from British detention so as to discover whether or not they had lsquocrackedrsquo and released information to British interrogators

bull Typical ISU torture techniques on those accused of informing included drowning genitalnipple mutilation electrocution with livewires pouring kerosene on the accusedrsquos legs before setting fire to them and branding with hot irons Informants were always killed afterwards with a bullet through the back of the head

bull Of the 18 ldquoDisappearedrdquo accused informants that were abducted and executed by the IRA during the Troubles only 10 bodies have been found

bull Martin McGartland was an IRA informant who was estimated to have saved 50 lives in the conflict before he was discovered and abducted by the ISU He escaped and lives today in seclusion The film ldquo50 Dead Men Walkingrdquo is based on his exploits and is an excellent realistic non-romanticized take on the Troubles in Northern Ireland

Terrorist Activitiesbull Common tactics included breaking into the homes of off-duty RUC police

officers and murdering them in their beds or setting booby-trap bombs underneath RUC police officersrsquo cars and unionist politiciansrsquo cars so that they would blow up as the engine was started RUC men were typically targeted when they were off-duty and many were shot dead in front of their families The PIRA would also impersonate innocent Catholic civilians call the police to report an emergency and ambush the police from hidden positions when they arrived at the stated address (another reason the RUC was hesitant to go into Catholic neighborhoods during this period)

bull Most notorious for their bombings they would typically park car bombs in predominately Protestant communities call in the bomb threat so that the area would be evacuated and an EOD squad would arrive to dismantle it the bomb would then be detonated with hopes of killing an EOD officer and destroying Protestant housing tenements

bull The PIRA rarely intentionally targeted civilians especially in the 80srsquo and 90srsquo but were involved in the bombings of several Protestant-owned pubs during the 1970s in response to loyalist terrorist groups bombing Catholic-owned pubs They also carried out the Kingsmill massacre in 1976 in which eleven Protestant workmen that were traveling on a minibus were held up by the IRA and all individually executed in response to the execution of six Catholic civilians by the UVF the night before

Terrorist Activities (continued)bull Other activities included engaging in firefights with British squadrons as

they patrolled the countrysidestreets of urban areas sniper attacks on RUC or British Army patrolscheckpoints planting landmines along British foot patrol routes in rural areas planting roadside IEDs along British convoy routes and bombing ferries and buses containing on-or-off duty British soldiers

bull The notorious ldquohuman bombrdquo technique in which civilians or off-duty members of the British security forces were kidnapped and then forced to drive car bombs into British military targets ndash such as checkpoints and Army bases ndash after the PIRA had placed their familiesrsquo lives under threat

bull Inciting riots and providing Catholic youths with molotov cocktails (gasoline bombs) during such riots so as to maximize public disorder and destruction was also an almost daily IRA activity in Catholic communities in urban Northern Ireland

The INLA

Statistics

bull Suffered 33 casualtiesbull Killed 46 members of the British Security Forcesbull Killed 2 members of the Irish Security Forcesbull Killed 39 civiliansbull Killed 3 civilian political activistsbull Killed 16 members of rival Republican terror

groupsbull Killed 7 members of Loyalist terror groups

Ideology

bull Founded by Seamus Costello in 1974 as the military wing of the Irish Republican Socialist Party

bull Shared similar goals to the Provisional IRA but far more socialist in ideology INLA wanted a socialist united Irish republic and blamed class struggles for many of the problems in Northern Ireland whereas the PIRA simply wanted a united Irish republic and had little interest in class struggle or economics

bull Whereas the PIRA was almost exclusively Catholic the INLA had some Protestant members most of whom were involved for purely socialist reasons

Terrorist Activitiesbull Although far less powerful and bold than the PIRA the INLA

nevertheless presented a potent terrorist threat to the United Kingdom during the Troubles

bull Similar tactics to the IRA car bombings shooting off-duty police and soldiers dead and high-profile assassinations

bull Their most high-profile attacks included the car bomb assassination of Airey Neave one of Margaret Thatcherrsquos closest political supporters in 1979 the murder of infamous Loyalist terror leader Billy Wright (who was murdered by INLA inmates in a British political prison in 1997) and the Ballykelley Disco Bombing in 1982 in which the INLA bombed a disco-club frequented by off-duty British soldiers managing to kill 11 of them as well as 6 civilians as well as destroying the disco

Internal Feuds

bull A split in 1986 led the INLA to split into the INLA and the IPLO or Irish Peoplersquos Liberation Organization based on IPLO membersrsquo perceived lack of political motivation and heavy involvement in drug dealing and criminality

bull There were several retaliatory killings between the two groups that persisted until 1992 when the PIRA had enough of the IPLOrsquos involvement in drug dealing in Catholic areas of Belfast and on 31 October 1992 virtually destroyed the entire organization in one night with a series of raids killings and kneecappings that killed or crippled the majority of the grouprsquos members

British LoyalistsProtestants

The UDAUFF

Former UFF Member

>

Statistics

bull Suffered 89 casualtiesbull Killed 197 civiliansbull Killed 12 civilian political activistsbull Killed 37 members of rival loyalist terror

groupsbull Killed 11 members of republican terror groupsbull Killed 3 members of the British Security Forces

Ideology

bull The UDA or Ulster Defense Association and its military wing the Ulster Freedom Fighters (UFF) was a loyalist protestant terror squad that targeted PIRA and INLA members as well as general Catholic civilians in bombings and shootings throughout Northern Ireland

bull It pledged to end its campaign of violence whenever the IRA set down its arms yet should the UK government appease the IRA and grant a 32-county Irish Republic the UDA pledged to act as ldquothe IRA in reverserdquo

Terrorist Activitiesbull The UDA saw itself as a militia defending upstanding protestant loyalist

communities from dangerous and lower-class Catholics that were disrupting the status quo in Northern Ireland They pledged primarily to target IRA men but ended up killing a majority of Catholic civilians during the Troubles They were also known to intimidate and exile known Catholic families from predominately-Protestant communities in Belfast and other urban areas

bull Drive-by shootings shooting up or planting bombs in predominately-Catholic pubs and bars and jumping brutally beating andor kneecapping Catholic civilians were all frequent tactics

bull The UDA discreetly worked in collusion with the RUC and other British security agencies so as to track down and assassinate known IRA members They would also patrol Protestant neighborhoods alongside British soldiers at the height of the Troubles Many RUC police officers and prison guards were also UDA members

bull The UDA alongside many other loyalist paramilitaries benefitted from the import of several arms shipments from Lebanese arms dealers in the early 1970s including rocket launchers 200+ AK-47 Rifles 90+ handguns and over 400 grenades They also received various weapons such as the uzi submachine gun and explosive devices from arms dealers in the Soviet bloc in the 1980s

Organized Crime

bull The UDA and its members were also heavily involved in drug dealing from the street level to wholesale purchase primarily in MDMA and cannabis throughout the Troubles

bull Protection racketeering and money laundering were also common amongst the UDA in protestant communities

bull However should a member of a UDA-ran community begin stealing or dealing drugs without UDA consent he was abruptly branded as ldquoanti-socialrdquo and either killed or kneecapped

The UVF

Statistics

bull Suffered unknown number of casualtiesbull Killed 412 civiliansbull Killed 11 civilian political activistsbull Killed 21 members of republican terror groupsbull Killed 42 members of rival loyalist terror

groupsbull Killed 6 members of the Security Forces

Ideology

bull Similar to the UDAUFF the Ulster Volunteer Forcersquos primary aim was to combat Irish republicanism in Northern Ireland primarily the PIRA They wanted Northern Ireland to remain in the UK

Terrorist Activitiesbull The majority of UVF victims were Catholic civilians

many of whom were killed at random These attacks were intended to demoralize the IRA as the IRA drew most of its support from the Catholic community

bull Planting bombs in predominately-Catholic pubs or simply residential areas was a very frequent UVF tactic and in 1973 they detonated more bombs in Northern Ireland than the UDA and the PIRA combined Assassinations mass shootings booby-trap car bombs and kidnappings were also frequent UVF activities

The Shankhill Butchers

bull The ldquoShankhill Butchersrdquo were a notorious offshoot UVF group known for abducting and literally slitting the throats of Catholic civilians and rival loyalist terror groups in the late 1970s They were led by Lenny Murphy (who was eventually imprisoned and upon his release of a 4-year stint murdered by the PIRA) and killed 23 people most of whom were Catholic civilians Many experts liken the Shankhill Butchers more to a group of serial killers than to politically or even ethnically-motivated murderers

bull The Butchers were all eventually all either imprisoned killed by the PIRA or both

Weaponrybull The UVF received the majority of its weaponry in the late 1970s

from Armscor an apartheid-South Africa state-owned arms company which in defiance of various UN sanctions and embargoes sold them to the UVF

bull Weapons were thought to consist ofbull 200 Czech SA vz 58 Assault Riflesbull 90 Browning Pistolsbull 500 RGD-5 Frag Grenadesbull 30000 rounds of ammunitionbull 12 RPG-7 Rocket Launchers and 150+ Rocketsbull The UVF also began using the illegally-obtained mining explosive

Powergel in the early 1990s

Organized Crime

bull The UVF was also heavily involved in organized crime including protection racketeering and drug smugglingdealing including cannabis MDMA cocaine and amphetamines Bank robberies were also very frequent in the 1970s

Major Incidents 1969-1998

Bloody Sunday 30 January 1972

Massacre on the Bogsidebull In 1972 during a large scale but peaceful civil-rights march in the

troubled predominately Catholic neighborhood of Bogside in Derry 26 unarmed civil rights marchers were shot by members of the British Army 14 of whom were killed Five of those shot were shot in the back

bull After several inquiries into the incident there was found to have been no justifiable provocation from the protestors and no shots fired from the protestors during the march The massacre was conducted in full view of the public and the press

bull The PM David Cameron eventually issued a formal apology to the victims and victimsrsquo families of the massacre after several investigations failed to reveal any justifiable provocation for the massacre

bull The massacre sky-rocketed PIRA membership and recruitment as public perception of the British Army in Catholic communities in Northern Ireland reached an all-time low

Bloody Friday 21 July 1972

A City Under Siege

bull On 21 July 1972 the PIRA detonated 26 bombs in the space of 80 minutes in Belfast destroying banks bridges electrical substations Protestant housing tenements gasoline stations and private garages

bull Although warnings were called in at least 30 minutes prior to each bomb the amount of bombs exploding and the addition of multiple hoax warnings at the same time led to the Security Forces being unable to evacuate all the areas in time 11 people were killed and 130 were injured many of them horrifically mutilated Of those injured 77 were women or children

Dublin and Monaghan Bombings 17 May 1974

Deadliest Attack of the Troubles

bull Perpetrated by the UVF in the southern Republic of Ireland three car bombs exploded in Dublin during rush hour and another exploded in Monaghan around 90 minutes later

bull 33 civilians and a full-term unborn child were killed in the bombing while nearly 300 were injured The UVF did not claim responsibility for the bombings until 1993

bull The majority of those killed were young women although the age range of those killed ranged from 5 months old to 80 years old

Warrenpoint Ambush 27 August 1979

Roadside IEDsbull In the southern part of County Armagh Northern Ireland a predominately-

Catholic rural region and former PIRA stronghold right on the border with the southern Republic of Ireland a British troop convoy was hit with a remote-control detonated roadside 500lb truck-bomb and destroyed instantly killing 6 troops The surviving soldiers then wrongly believed they were under sniper fire from the other side of the Irish border and began firing at civilians immediately after the bombing killing 1 and injuring another

bull 32 minutes after the first bombing the IRA used its knowledge of how the British reacted to bombings to correctly predict that they would set up an incident-command point in a nearby gatehouse Unfortunately for the British there was a second 800lb fertilizer bomb planted near the gatehouse that when detonated killed 12 other soldiers who were responding to the initial bomb

bull It was the deadliest single attack on the British Army during the Troubles and a highly successful attack for the PIRA

Summer of 1981 Irish Hunger Strikes

A Defining Moment for the Republican Cause

bull Beginning on 1 March 1981 led by Bobby Sands 7 PIRA and 3 INLA inmates at the notorious ldquoMazerdquo prison began to refuse food until Margaret Thatcher PM of Great Britain at that time began to recognize terrorist prisoners as political prisoners and allowed them their ldquoFive Demandsrdquo

The Five Demands

bull The right to not wear a prison uniformbull The right to not do prison workbull The right of free association with other

prisoners and to organize in educational and recreational pursuits

bull Full restoration of remission lost through any protests towards these demands

Previous Protestsbull The Maze prison was a very high-security and low-quality prison that

housed almost all PIRA prisoners during the Troubles It was run in a very ethically questionable fashion with frequent beatings and borderline-torture techniques used on Republican prisoners and extremely poor living conditions for prisoners Many Maze prison guards were members of the UDAUVF or had strong connections with one of the two groups as well

bull Massive peaceful protests and marches by Irish republicans outside of the Maze Prison proved unsuccessful in attaining political status for republican prisoners as well as previous inmate protests in 1980 including non-fatal hunger strikes inmates refusing to wear prison uniforms and thus living in their cells naked and prisoners refusing to leave their cells to go to the bathroom until their requests had been granted (they therefore urinated and defecated in their cells and spread their excrement across their cell walls in what was known as the ldquoDirty Protestrdquo)

Dirty Protesters

Thatcherrsquos Response

bull ldquoThose terrorists will carry their determination to disrupt society to any lengths Once again we have a hunger strike in the Maze Prison in the quest for what they call lsquopolitical statusrsquo There is no such thing as political murder political bombing or political violence There is only criminal murder criminal bombing and criminal violence We will not compromise on this There will be no political statusrdquo

Ten Strikers Diebull Bobby Sands the leader of the strike was imprisoned as a PIRA member

on charges of firearm possession and in connection with the bombing of a furniture store He was the first to die after 66 days of not eating Sands was elected to a seat in Parliament whilst on Hunger Strike

bull Following Sandsrsquo death there were riots bus-burnings and attacks on the British embassy in the southern Republic of Ireland there were massive demonstrations in France and Italy a tomato was thrown as Queen Elizabeth II by demonstrators in Oslo and there were massive riots and civil disorder all over the streets of Belfast The South African ANC and (at the time) terrorist Nelson Mandela expressed their support for the PIRA and the hunger strikers (Mandela himself claimed he was directly inspired by Sands to undertake hunger strikes against the Apartheid government in South Africa) as well as the Palestine Liberation Organization a middle-eastern terror group

bull Over 100000 attended Sandsrsquo funeral

Bobby Sands

ldquoOur revenge will be the laughter of our childrenrdquo

Reaction to Sandsrsquo Death

>

Conclusion

bull The Hunger Strike was eventually called off after 10 strikers including Sands had died

bull James Prior newly installed secretary of state of Northern Ireland granted the prisoners partial concessions all of the Five Demands except for the right to not do prison work Margaret Thatcher refused to budge on political status

bull The Hunger Strikes opened a new way for the PIRA to pursue its objectives politically whereas previously it had seen violence as the only solution to the plight of Irish nationalists in Northern Ireland

1983 The Maze Prison Escape

The ldquoGreat Escaperdquo

bull Using smuggled-in guns and knives 38 PIRA prisoners who had been convicted of offenses ranging from murder to causing explosions escaped from one of the most high-security prisons in Europe They completely took over the H7 prison block and took their prison guards hostage before escaping in a food supply truck Several prison guards were shot and stabbed but only one died of a heart attack during the escape

bull Fifteen escapees were recaptured the first day with four more captured over the next two days following the breakout The remaining 19 were transported to PIRA strongholds and given the option to either rejoin the IRArsquos cause or be transported to the United States to live under a new identity

12 October 1984 Brighton Hotel Bombing

The PIRA Nearly Gets Thatcherbull Margaret Thatcher the highly controversial far-right British PM from

1979-1990 had become a tremendously hated figure amongst the Irish nationalist community in Northern Ireland following the 1981 Hunger Strikes and for her general uncompromising stand on Irish republicanism

bull PIRA man Patrick Magee stayed at the Brighton Hotel from the 14-17 September 1984 planting a 20-lb bomb under his bath

bull Thatcher was staying at the Brighton Hotel for a political conference and was still up at 254AM on 12 October when the bomb was detonated The bomb decimated her bathroom but left the bedroom and sitting room of her suite largely unscathed

bull The PIRA statement to Thatcher afterwards was ldquoToday we were unlucky But remember we only have to be lucky once You will have to be lucky alwaysrdquo

Loughgall Ambush 8 May 1987

The SAS Strikes

bull A botched attack on Loughgall Villagersquos RUC Police Base in which the PIRA drove a backhoe into the fortified base and ran away to detonate the bomb that was inside of the backhoe went wrong as the SAS the British Special Forces had prior knowledge of the attack and quickly dispatched the 8 PIRA members involved

bull Although the RUC base was wrecked and bombed there were no RUC or SAS casualties and it was the PIRArsquos greatest loss of life in a single incident during the Troubles

British Army Lynx Shootdown 20 March 1994

The PIRA Shoots Down a Helicopter

bull Using the previously mentioned Barrack-Buster homemade mortar PIRA insurgents were able to fire on a British helicopter that was in the process of landing whilst hiding behind a hay bail from around 150 yards out

bull The helicopter was hit with the mortar shell around 100 feet above the ground but the pilot was able to successfully crash-land the helicopter and escape before its propane tanks exploded There were no casualties but the attack was a major propaganda coup for the PIRA

1996 Manchester Bombing

The PIRA Destroys Manchester

bull On Saturday 15 June 1996 the PIRA sent in telephoned warnings and 90 minutes later detonated a 3300lb fertilizer-based truck bomb in the heart of Manchester City Centre the biggest bomb detonated in Great Britain during peacetime The bomb killed nobody due to previous warnings but led to 212 non-fatal injuries and essentially destroyed Manchester City Centre leaving approximately 700 million pounds ($12bn) worth of damage in its wake

Omagh Bombing 1998

Last Great Deadly Attack of the Troubles

bull Perpetrated by a Provisional IRA splinter group that was rejecting the peace process calling themselves the ldquoReal IRArdquo the 510lb fertilizer-based bomb was placed on main street in the town of Omagh Northern Ireland Warnings were called in approximately 30 minutes before the bombing but they were inaccurate and police ended up moving more civilians towards the bomb which ended up killing 29 people and causing over 300 non-fatal injuries This was the highest death toll from a single incident during the Troubles

bull It received universal outrage and was condemned even by the PIRA and its political wing Sinn Fein It spurred on the Northern Ireland peace process and the RIRA apologized and called a ceasefire several days after

The Good Friday Agreement and Northern Ireland Peace Process

Beginningsbull Following the 1981 Hunger Strikes Irish republicans began to

increasingly look towards politics rather than violence as a means of achieving their aims Sinn Fein gaelic for ldquoWe Ourselvesrdquo was a fiercely Irish Republican political party which led by the Machiavellian former PIRA leader and Maze inmate Gerry Adams began to push for a more peaceful solution to the Troubles in Northern Ireland

bull It became apparent by the late 1990s that although the PIRA was not losing a war against the British establishment it would be impossible to truly lsquowin the fightrsquo through violence and that any further terrorism would serve not to achieve any real political aim but only to prolong and continue suffering and violence in Northern Ireland and that politics was a much better way of achieving Republican aims

Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein former PIRA Belfast Brigade OC

Good Friday Agreement 1998

bull The Peace Process began in 1994 and included intermittent terrorist ceasefires and political negotiations between the major Irish republican and British unionist parties and culminated on April 10 1998 when the Good Friday Agreement was signed

PM Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern Sign the GFA

GFA Mandatesbull That Northern Ireland was to remain British until a majority of people in Northern

Ireland and the southern Republic of Ireland wanted otherwise bull The creation of an entirely new far less sectarian and religiously diverse Northern

Irish local governmentbull The decommissioning of arms from terrorist groups on both the unionist and

nationalist side of the political divide (ultimately successful all arms decommissioned by 2005)

bull Mutual respect and civil rights between Catholics and Protestants bull The reduction and eventual elimination of British troops in Northern Ireland

(ultimately successful all troops withdrawn by 2005)bull Eventual early prison release for all individuals imprisoned for terrorist offenses as

long as they were apart of a terrorist group that was decommissioning in accordance with the GFA

bull Disbandment of the RUC police service and the installation of the new Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) which was required to be at least 50 Catholic

Northern Ireland Today

Still Conflict But No Warbull Since the complete decommissioning of the arms and

disbandment of the PIRA INLA UDAUFF and UVF due to the Good Friday Agreement there is nowhere near the amount of violence in Northern Ireland or Belfast as there was 20 years ago There are no more weekly bombings and riots and no more British troops patrolling Catholic areas in armored vehicles

bull Despite this there are still occasional riots and clashes with the PSNI several times a year specifically on dates of great historical significance to the Catholic or Protestant communities and there is still a deep distrust and even hatred between many Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland although that continues to change with time

Catholic Slum of Ardoyne Belfast July 2011

Splinter Groups

bull Many former PIRA or UDA terrorists have now taken to organized crime for purely profiteering purposes but are no longer involved in substantial violence or any political-based terrorism

bull Splinter groups such as the Real IRA and Continuity IRA in Catholic communities and the Orange Volunteers and Red Hand Commandos in Protestant communities still conduct occasional violence towards Police and civilians in Northern Ireland but are all rather small poorly armed and poorly funded groups that pose nowhere near the threat that terrorist groups in the 80s and 90s did in Northern Ireland

Herersquos To A Brighter Future in Northern Ireland

Works Citedbull httpwwwbbccoukhistorytroublesbull httpcainulstacukbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiProvisional_Irish_Republican_Armybull httpenwikipediaorgwikiThe_Troublesbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiUlster_Defence_Associationbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiUlster_Volunteer_Forcebull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_National_Liberation_Armybull ldquoA Secret History of the IRArdquo by Ed Moloney ndashWW Norton amp Company Reprint 2003bull ldquoVoices From The Grave Two Menrsquos War in Irelandrdquo by Ed Moloney ndash Public Affairs 2010bull ldquoFifty Dead Men Walkingrdquo by Martin McGartland ndash John Blake 2009bull httpwwwinfopleasecomspotnorthireland1htmlbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_Civil_Warbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_War_of_Independencebull httpenwikipediaorgwiki1981_Irish_hunger_strikebull httpenwikipediaorgwikiDirectory_of_the_Northern_Ireland_Troublesbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiGood_Friday_Agreementbull httpswwwmi5govukhomethe-threatsterrorismnorthern-irelandrepublican-terrorist-groupshtmlbull httpswwwmi5govukhomethe-threatsterrorismnorthern-irelandprovisional-irish-republican-army-

pirahtmlbull httpnewsbbccoukhienglishstaticnorthern_irelandunderstandingeventshunger_strikestm

  • The Troubles
  • Brief Overview
  • 30 Years of Conflict
  • Slide 4
  • Background
  • The Irish War of Independence
  • Slide 7
  • Anglo-Irish Treaty (signed 6 December 1921)
  • Irish Civil War
  • 1922-1966 Ireland
  • The Civil Rights Movement
  • Slide 12
  • Slide 13
  • Objectives of the Civil Rights Movement
  • The 1969 Northern Ireland Riots ndashThe Troubles Begin
  • Culmination of Tension
  • No-Go Areas
  • No-Go Areas (2)
  • Early 1970sndash The Rise of the Provisional IRA
  • The IRA Split
  • Rise of the UVF and Loyalist Terror Groups
  • Beginnings
  • UVF Statement 21 May 1964
  • The Paramilitaries
  • Irish RepublicansCatholics
  • The Provisional IRA
  • IRA Statement Late 80s
  • Statistics
  • RecruitmentFunding
  • Weaponry
  • Weaponry (2)
  • Slide 32
  • Mortars and IEDs
  • EOD Officer Approaches PIRA Car Bomb
  • The Barrack Buster
  • Vigilantism
  • Slide 37
  • Slide 38
  • Policy on Informants
  • Terrorist Activities
  • Terrorist Activities (continued)
  • The INLA
  • Statistics (2)
  • Ideology
  • Terrorist Activities (2)
  • Internal Feuds
  • Slide 47
  • British LoyalistsProtestants
  • The UDAUFF
  • Former UFF Member
  • Statistics (3)
  • Ideology (2)
  • Terrorist Activities (3)
  • Slide 54
  • Organized Crime
  • The UVF
  • Statistics (4)
  • Ideology (3)
  • Terrorist Activities (4)
  • The Shankhill Butchers
  • Weaponry (3)
  • Slide 62
  • Organized Crime (2)
  • Major Incidents 1969-1998
  • Bloody Sunday 30 January 1972
  • Massacre on the Bogside
  • Bloody Friday 21 July 1972
  • A City Under Siege
  • Dublin and Monaghan Bombings 17 May 1974
  • Deadliest Attack of the Troubles
  • Warrenpoint Ambush 27 August 1979
  • Roadside IEDs
  • Summer of 1981 Irish Hunger Strikes
  • A Defining Moment for the Republican Cause
  • The Five Demands
  • Previous Protests
  • Dirty Protesters
  • Thatcherrsquos Response
  • Ten Strikers Die
  • Bobby Sands
  • Reaction to Sandsrsquo Death
  • Conclusion
  • 1983 The Maze Prison Escape
  • The ldquoGreat Escaperdquo
  • 12 October 1984 Brighton Hotel Bombing
  • The PIRA Nearly Gets Thatcher
  • Loughgall Ambush 8 May 1987
  • The SAS Strikes
  • British Army Lynx Shootdown 20 March 1994
  • The PIRA Shoots Down a Helicopter
  • 1996 Manchester Bombing
  • The PIRA Destroys Manchester
  • Omagh Bombing 1998
  • Last Great Deadly Attack of the Troubles
  • The Good Friday Agreement and Northern Ireland Peace Process
  • Beginnings (2)
  • Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein former PIRA Belfast Brigade OC
  • Good Friday Agreement 1998
  • PM Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern Sign the GFA
  • GFA Mandates
  • Northern Ireland Today
  • Still Conflict But No War
  • Catholic Slum of Ardoyne Belfast July 2011
  • Splinter Groups
  • Herersquos To A Brighter Future in Northern Ireland
  • Works Cited
Page 30: The Troubles, 1969-1998

EOD Officer Approaches PIRA Car Bomb

The Barrack Buster

>

Vigilantismbull The RUC was not trusted in Catholic neighborhoods throughout the

Troubles and did not regularly patrol or even enter them in urban areas of Northern Ireland Thus when there was a community drug dealer car thief burglar rapist or pedophile the IRA took it upon themselves to issue brutal street justice to those involved

bull Occasionally offering warnings for lesser offences such as petty thievery or drug dealing if the IRA had enough of a certain member of the community they perceived as anti-social he or she was usually jumped brutally beaten andor lsquokneecappedrsquo ndash one of the IRArsquos most notorious methods ndash in which the victim was pinned down and shot through the kneecaps with a firearm or occasionally had their kneecaps drilled through with power-drills Other methods included releasing starving Rottweilerrsquos on the offender dropping cinderblocks on the offenderrsquos hands or even tarring and feathering the offender The IRArsquos process in determining an individualrsquos guilt was never open to scrutiny

bull If the offender persisted after an IRA punishment he was then given a notice by the IRA to leave the country as soon as possiblehellip referred to as being ldquoput outrdquo of the community If the offender still did not leave he was murdered

Policy on Informantsbull In an effort to stamp out collusion with the British forces and informants on the

IRA the IRA was responsible for torturing and killing several accused Catholic civilians throughout the conflict

bull Investigations into collusion infiltration and informants were carried out by the Internal Security Unit of the IRA colloquially known as the ldquoNutting Squadrdquo

bull The ISU would carry out debriefings of IRA prisoners upon their release from British detention so as to discover whether or not they had lsquocrackedrsquo and released information to British interrogators

bull Typical ISU torture techniques on those accused of informing included drowning genitalnipple mutilation electrocution with livewires pouring kerosene on the accusedrsquos legs before setting fire to them and branding with hot irons Informants were always killed afterwards with a bullet through the back of the head

bull Of the 18 ldquoDisappearedrdquo accused informants that were abducted and executed by the IRA during the Troubles only 10 bodies have been found

bull Martin McGartland was an IRA informant who was estimated to have saved 50 lives in the conflict before he was discovered and abducted by the ISU He escaped and lives today in seclusion The film ldquo50 Dead Men Walkingrdquo is based on his exploits and is an excellent realistic non-romanticized take on the Troubles in Northern Ireland

Terrorist Activitiesbull Common tactics included breaking into the homes of off-duty RUC police

officers and murdering them in their beds or setting booby-trap bombs underneath RUC police officersrsquo cars and unionist politiciansrsquo cars so that they would blow up as the engine was started RUC men were typically targeted when they were off-duty and many were shot dead in front of their families The PIRA would also impersonate innocent Catholic civilians call the police to report an emergency and ambush the police from hidden positions when they arrived at the stated address (another reason the RUC was hesitant to go into Catholic neighborhoods during this period)

bull Most notorious for their bombings they would typically park car bombs in predominately Protestant communities call in the bomb threat so that the area would be evacuated and an EOD squad would arrive to dismantle it the bomb would then be detonated with hopes of killing an EOD officer and destroying Protestant housing tenements

bull The PIRA rarely intentionally targeted civilians especially in the 80srsquo and 90srsquo but were involved in the bombings of several Protestant-owned pubs during the 1970s in response to loyalist terrorist groups bombing Catholic-owned pubs They also carried out the Kingsmill massacre in 1976 in which eleven Protestant workmen that were traveling on a minibus were held up by the IRA and all individually executed in response to the execution of six Catholic civilians by the UVF the night before

Terrorist Activities (continued)bull Other activities included engaging in firefights with British squadrons as

they patrolled the countrysidestreets of urban areas sniper attacks on RUC or British Army patrolscheckpoints planting landmines along British foot patrol routes in rural areas planting roadside IEDs along British convoy routes and bombing ferries and buses containing on-or-off duty British soldiers

bull The notorious ldquohuman bombrdquo technique in which civilians or off-duty members of the British security forces were kidnapped and then forced to drive car bombs into British military targets ndash such as checkpoints and Army bases ndash after the PIRA had placed their familiesrsquo lives under threat

bull Inciting riots and providing Catholic youths with molotov cocktails (gasoline bombs) during such riots so as to maximize public disorder and destruction was also an almost daily IRA activity in Catholic communities in urban Northern Ireland

The INLA

Statistics

bull Suffered 33 casualtiesbull Killed 46 members of the British Security Forcesbull Killed 2 members of the Irish Security Forcesbull Killed 39 civiliansbull Killed 3 civilian political activistsbull Killed 16 members of rival Republican terror

groupsbull Killed 7 members of Loyalist terror groups

Ideology

bull Founded by Seamus Costello in 1974 as the military wing of the Irish Republican Socialist Party

bull Shared similar goals to the Provisional IRA but far more socialist in ideology INLA wanted a socialist united Irish republic and blamed class struggles for many of the problems in Northern Ireland whereas the PIRA simply wanted a united Irish republic and had little interest in class struggle or economics

bull Whereas the PIRA was almost exclusively Catholic the INLA had some Protestant members most of whom were involved for purely socialist reasons

Terrorist Activitiesbull Although far less powerful and bold than the PIRA the INLA

nevertheless presented a potent terrorist threat to the United Kingdom during the Troubles

bull Similar tactics to the IRA car bombings shooting off-duty police and soldiers dead and high-profile assassinations

bull Their most high-profile attacks included the car bomb assassination of Airey Neave one of Margaret Thatcherrsquos closest political supporters in 1979 the murder of infamous Loyalist terror leader Billy Wright (who was murdered by INLA inmates in a British political prison in 1997) and the Ballykelley Disco Bombing in 1982 in which the INLA bombed a disco-club frequented by off-duty British soldiers managing to kill 11 of them as well as 6 civilians as well as destroying the disco

Internal Feuds

bull A split in 1986 led the INLA to split into the INLA and the IPLO or Irish Peoplersquos Liberation Organization based on IPLO membersrsquo perceived lack of political motivation and heavy involvement in drug dealing and criminality

bull There were several retaliatory killings between the two groups that persisted until 1992 when the PIRA had enough of the IPLOrsquos involvement in drug dealing in Catholic areas of Belfast and on 31 October 1992 virtually destroyed the entire organization in one night with a series of raids killings and kneecappings that killed or crippled the majority of the grouprsquos members

British LoyalistsProtestants

The UDAUFF

Former UFF Member

>

Statistics

bull Suffered 89 casualtiesbull Killed 197 civiliansbull Killed 12 civilian political activistsbull Killed 37 members of rival loyalist terror

groupsbull Killed 11 members of republican terror groupsbull Killed 3 members of the British Security Forces

Ideology

bull The UDA or Ulster Defense Association and its military wing the Ulster Freedom Fighters (UFF) was a loyalist protestant terror squad that targeted PIRA and INLA members as well as general Catholic civilians in bombings and shootings throughout Northern Ireland

bull It pledged to end its campaign of violence whenever the IRA set down its arms yet should the UK government appease the IRA and grant a 32-county Irish Republic the UDA pledged to act as ldquothe IRA in reverserdquo

Terrorist Activitiesbull The UDA saw itself as a militia defending upstanding protestant loyalist

communities from dangerous and lower-class Catholics that were disrupting the status quo in Northern Ireland They pledged primarily to target IRA men but ended up killing a majority of Catholic civilians during the Troubles They were also known to intimidate and exile known Catholic families from predominately-Protestant communities in Belfast and other urban areas

bull Drive-by shootings shooting up or planting bombs in predominately-Catholic pubs and bars and jumping brutally beating andor kneecapping Catholic civilians were all frequent tactics

bull The UDA discreetly worked in collusion with the RUC and other British security agencies so as to track down and assassinate known IRA members They would also patrol Protestant neighborhoods alongside British soldiers at the height of the Troubles Many RUC police officers and prison guards were also UDA members

bull The UDA alongside many other loyalist paramilitaries benefitted from the import of several arms shipments from Lebanese arms dealers in the early 1970s including rocket launchers 200+ AK-47 Rifles 90+ handguns and over 400 grenades They also received various weapons such as the uzi submachine gun and explosive devices from arms dealers in the Soviet bloc in the 1980s

Organized Crime

bull The UDA and its members were also heavily involved in drug dealing from the street level to wholesale purchase primarily in MDMA and cannabis throughout the Troubles

bull Protection racketeering and money laundering were also common amongst the UDA in protestant communities

bull However should a member of a UDA-ran community begin stealing or dealing drugs without UDA consent he was abruptly branded as ldquoanti-socialrdquo and either killed or kneecapped

The UVF

Statistics

bull Suffered unknown number of casualtiesbull Killed 412 civiliansbull Killed 11 civilian political activistsbull Killed 21 members of republican terror groupsbull Killed 42 members of rival loyalist terror

groupsbull Killed 6 members of the Security Forces

Ideology

bull Similar to the UDAUFF the Ulster Volunteer Forcersquos primary aim was to combat Irish republicanism in Northern Ireland primarily the PIRA They wanted Northern Ireland to remain in the UK

Terrorist Activitiesbull The majority of UVF victims were Catholic civilians

many of whom were killed at random These attacks were intended to demoralize the IRA as the IRA drew most of its support from the Catholic community

bull Planting bombs in predominately-Catholic pubs or simply residential areas was a very frequent UVF tactic and in 1973 they detonated more bombs in Northern Ireland than the UDA and the PIRA combined Assassinations mass shootings booby-trap car bombs and kidnappings were also frequent UVF activities

The Shankhill Butchers

bull The ldquoShankhill Butchersrdquo were a notorious offshoot UVF group known for abducting and literally slitting the throats of Catholic civilians and rival loyalist terror groups in the late 1970s They were led by Lenny Murphy (who was eventually imprisoned and upon his release of a 4-year stint murdered by the PIRA) and killed 23 people most of whom were Catholic civilians Many experts liken the Shankhill Butchers more to a group of serial killers than to politically or even ethnically-motivated murderers

bull The Butchers were all eventually all either imprisoned killed by the PIRA or both

Weaponrybull The UVF received the majority of its weaponry in the late 1970s

from Armscor an apartheid-South Africa state-owned arms company which in defiance of various UN sanctions and embargoes sold them to the UVF

bull Weapons were thought to consist ofbull 200 Czech SA vz 58 Assault Riflesbull 90 Browning Pistolsbull 500 RGD-5 Frag Grenadesbull 30000 rounds of ammunitionbull 12 RPG-7 Rocket Launchers and 150+ Rocketsbull The UVF also began using the illegally-obtained mining explosive

Powergel in the early 1990s

Organized Crime

bull The UVF was also heavily involved in organized crime including protection racketeering and drug smugglingdealing including cannabis MDMA cocaine and amphetamines Bank robberies were also very frequent in the 1970s

Major Incidents 1969-1998

Bloody Sunday 30 January 1972

Massacre on the Bogsidebull In 1972 during a large scale but peaceful civil-rights march in the

troubled predominately Catholic neighborhood of Bogside in Derry 26 unarmed civil rights marchers were shot by members of the British Army 14 of whom were killed Five of those shot were shot in the back

bull After several inquiries into the incident there was found to have been no justifiable provocation from the protestors and no shots fired from the protestors during the march The massacre was conducted in full view of the public and the press

bull The PM David Cameron eventually issued a formal apology to the victims and victimsrsquo families of the massacre after several investigations failed to reveal any justifiable provocation for the massacre

bull The massacre sky-rocketed PIRA membership and recruitment as public perception of the British Army in Catholic communities in Northern Ireland reached an all-time low

Bloody Friday 21 July 1972

A City Under Siege

bull On 21 July 1972 the PIRA detonated 26 bombs in the space of 80 minutes in Belfast destroying banks bridges electrical substations Protestant housing tenements gasoline stations and private garages

bull Although warnings were called in at least 30 minutes prior to each bomb the amount of bombs exploding and the addition of multiple hoax warnings at the same time led to the Security Forces being unable to evacuate all the areas in time 11 people were killed and 130 were injured many of them horrifically mutilated Of those injured 77 were women or children

Dublin and Monaghan Bombings 17 May 1974

Deadliest Attack of the Troubles

bull Perpetrated by the UVF in the southern Republic of Ireland three car bombs exploded in Dublin during rush hour and another exploded in Monaghan around 90 minutes later

bull 33 civilians and a full-term unborn child were killed in the bombing while nearly 300 were injured The UVF did not claim responsibility for the bombings until 1993

bull The majority of those killed were young women although the age range of those killed ranged from 5 months old to 80 years old

Warrenpoint Ambush 27 August 1979

Roadside IEDsbull In the southern part of County Armagh Northern Ireland a predominately-

Catholic rural region and former PIRA stronghold right on the border with the southern Republic of Ireland a British troop convoy was hit with a remote-control detonated roadside 500lb truck-bomb and destroyed instantly killing 6 troops The surviving soldiers then wrongly believed they were under sniper fire from the other side of the Irish border and began firing at civilians immediately after the bombing killing 1 and injuring another

bull 32 minutes after the first bombing the IRA used its knowledge of how the British reacted to bombings to correctly predict that they would set up an incident-command point in a nearby gatehouse Unfortunately for the British there was a second 800lb fertilizer bomb planted near the gatehouse that when detonated killed 12 other soldiers who were responding to the initial bomb

bull It was the deadliest single attack on the British Army during the Troubles and a highly successful attack for the PIRA

Summer of 1981 Irish Hunger Strikes

A Defining Moment for the Republican Cause

bull Beginning on 1 March 1981 led by Bobby Sands 7 PIRA and 3 INLA inmates at the notorious ldquoMazerdquo prison began to refuse food until Margaret Thatcher PM of Great Britain at that time began to recognize terrorist prisoners as political prisoners and allowed them their ldquoFive Demandsrdquo

The Five Demands

bull The right to not wear a prison uniformbull The right to not do prison workbull The right of free association with other

prisoners and to organize in educational and recreational pursuits

bull Full restoration of remission lost through any protests towards these demands

Previous Protestsbull The Maze prison was a very high-security and low-quality prison that

housed almost all PIRA prisoners during the Troubles It was run in a very ethically questionable fashion with frequent beatings and borderline-torture techniques used on Republican prisoners and extremely poor living conditions for prisoners Many Maze prison guards were members of the UDAUVF or had strong connections with one of the two groups as well

bull Massive peaceful protests and marches by Irish republicans outside of the Maze Prison proved unsuccessful in attaining political status for republican prisoners as well as previous inmate protests in 1980 including non-fatal hunger strikes inmates refusing to wear prison uniforms and thus living in their cells naked and prisoners refusing to leave their cells to go to the bathroom until their requests had been granted (they therefore urinated and defecated in their cells and spread their excrement across their cell walls in what was known as the ldquoDirty Protestrdquo)

Dirty Protesters

Thatcherrsquos Response

bull ldquoThose terrorists will carry their determination to disrupt society to any lengths Once again we have a hunger strike in the Maze Prison in the quest for what they call lsquopolitical statusrsquo There is no such thing as political murder political bombing or political violence There is only criminal murder criminal bombing and criminal violence We will not compromise on this There will be no political statusrdquo

Ten Strikers Diebull Bobby Sands the leader of the strike was imprisoned as a PIRA member

on charges of firearm possession and in connection with the bombing of a furniture store He was the first to die after 66 days of not eating Sands was elected to a seat in Parliament whilst on Hunger Strike

bull Following Sandsrsquo death there were riots bus-burnings and attacks on the British embassy in the southern Republic of Ireland there were massive demonstrations in France and Italy a tomato was thrown as Queen Elizabeth II by demonstrators in Oslo and there were massive riots and civil disorder all over the streets of Belfast The South African ANC and (at the time) terrorist Nelson Mandela expressed their support for the PIRA and the hunger strikers (Mandela himself claimed he was directly inspired by Sands to undertake hunger strikes against the Apartheid government in South Africa) as well as the Palestine Liberation Organization a middle-eastern terror group

bull Over 100000 attended Sandsrsquo funeral

Bobby Sands

ldquoOur revenge will be the laughter of our childrenrdquo

Reaction to Sandsrsquo Death

>

Conclusion

bull The Hunger Strike was eventually called off after 10 strikers including Sands had died

bull James Prior newly installed secretary of state of Northern Ireland granted the prisoners partial concessions all of the Five Demands except for the right to not do prison work Margaret Thatcher refused to budge on political status

bull The Hunger Strikes opened a new way for the PIRA to pursue its objectives politically whereas previously it had seen violence as the only solution to the plight of Irish nationalists in Northern Ireland

1983 The Maze Prison Escape

The ldquoGreat Escaperdquo

bull Using smuggled-in guns and knives 38 PIRA prisoners who had been convicted of offenses ranging from murder to causing explosions escaped from one of the most high-security prisons in Europe They completely took over the H7 prison block and took their prison guards hostage before escaping in a food supply truck Several prison guards were shot and stabbed but only one died of a heart attack during the escape

bull Fifteen escapees were recaptured the first day with four more captured over the next two days following the breakout The remaining 19 were transported to PIRA strongholds and given the option to either rejoin the IRArsquos cause or be transported to the United States to live under a new identity

12 October 1984 Brighton Hotel Bombing

The PIRA Nearly Gets Thatcherbull Margaret Thatcher the highly controversial far-right British PM from

1979-1990 had become a tremendously hated figure amongst the Irish nationalist community in Northern Ireland following the 1981 Hunger Strikes and for her general uncompromising stand on Irish republicanism

bull PIRA man Patrick Magee stayed at the Brighton Hotel from the 14-17 September 1984 planting a 20-lb bomb under his bath

bull Thatcher was staying at the Brighton Hotel for a political conference and was still up at 254AM on 12 October when the bomb was detonated The bomb decimated her bathroom but left the bedroom and sitting room of her suite largely unscathed

bull The PIRA statement to Thatcher afterwards was ldquoToday we were unlucky But remember we only have to be lucky once You will have to be lucky alwaysrdquo

Loughgall Ambush 8 May 1987

The SAS Strikes

bull A botched attack on Loughgall Villagersquos RUC Police Base in which the PIRA drove a backhoe into the fortified base and ran away to detonate the bomb that was inside of the backhoe went wrong as the SAS the British Special Forces had prior knowledge of the attack and quickly dispatched the 8 PIRA members involved

bull Although the RUC base was wrecked and bombed there were no RUC or SAS casualties and it was the PIRArsquos greatest loss of life in a single incident during the Troubles

British Army Lynx Shootdown 20 March 1994

The PIRA Shoots Down a Helicopter

bull Using the previously mentioned Barrack-Buster homemade mortar PIRA insurgents were able to fire on a British helicopter that was in the process of landing whilst hiding behind a hay bail from around 150 yards out

bull The helicopter was hit with the mortar shell around 100 feet above the ground but the pilot was able to successfully crash-land the helicopter and escape before its propane tanks exploded There were no casualties but the attack was a major propaganda coup for the PIRA

1996 Manchester Bombing

The PIRA Destroys Manchester

bull On Saturday 15 June 1996 the PIRA sent in telephoned warnings and 90 minutes later detonated a 3300lb fertilizer-based truck bomb in the heart of Manchester City Centre the biggest bomb detonated in Great Britain during peacetime The bomb killed nobody due to previous warnings but led to 212 non-fatal injuries and essentially destroyed Manchester City Centre leaving approximately 700 million pounds ($12bn) worth of damage in its wake

Omagh Bombing 1998

Last Great Deadly Attack of the Troubles

bull Perpetrated by a Provisional IRA splinter group that was rejecting the peace process calling themselves the ldquoReal IRArdquo the 510lb fertilizer-based bomb was placed on main street in the town of Omagh Northern Ireland Warnings were called in approximately 30 minutes before the bombing but they were inaccurate and police ended up moving more civilians towards the bomb which ended up killing 29 people and causing over 300 non-fatal injuries This was the highest death toll from a single incident during the Troubles

bull It received universal outrage and was condemned even by the PIRA and its political wing Sinn Fein It spurred on the Northern Ireland peace process and the RIRA apologized and called a ceasefire several days after

The Good Friday Agreement and Northern Ireland Peace Process

Beginningsbull Following the 1981 Hunger Strikes Irish republicans began to

increasingly look towards politics rather than violence as a means of achieving their aims Sinn Fein gaelic for ldquoWe Ourselvesrdquo was a fiercely Irish Republican political party which led by the Machiavellian former PIRA leader and Maze inmate Gerry Adams began to push for a more peaceful solution to the Troubles in Northern Ireland

bull It became apparent by the late 1990s that although the PIRA was not losing a war against the British establishment it would be impossible to truly lsquowin the fightrsquo through violence and that any further terrorism would serve not to achieve any real political aim but only to prolong and continue suffering and violence in Northern Ireland and that politics was a much better way of achieving Republican aims

Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein former PIRA Belfast Brigade OC

Good Friday Agreement 1998

bull The Peace Process began in 1994 and included intermittent terrorist ceasefires and political negotiations between the major Irish republican and British unionist parties and culminated on April 10 1998 when the Good Friday Agreement was signed

PM Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern Sign the GFA

GFA Mandatesbull That Northern Ireland was to remain British until a majority of people in Northern

Ireland and the southern Republic of Ireland wanted otherwise bull The creation of an entirely new far less sectarian and religiously diverse Northern

Irish local governmentbull The decommissioning of arms from terrorist groups on both the unionist and

nationalist side of the political divide (ultimately successful all arms decommissioned by 2005)

bull Mutual respect and civil rights between Catholics and Protestants bull The reduction and eventual elimination of British troops in Northern Ireland

(ultimately successful all troops withdrawn by 2005)bull Eventual early prison release for all individuals imprisoned for terrorist offenses as

long as they were apart of a terrorist group that was decommissioning in accordance with the GFA

bull Disbandment of the RUC police service and the installation of the new Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) which was required to be at least 50 Catholic

Northern Ireland Today

Still Conflict But No Warbull Since the complete decommissioning of the arms and

disbandment of the PIRA INLA UDAUFF and UVF due to the Good Friday Agreement there is nowhere near the amount of violence in Northern Ireland or Belfast as there was 20 years ago There are no more weekly bombings and riots and no more British troops patrolling Catholic areas in armored vehicles

bull Despite this there are still occasional riots and clashes with the PSNI several times a year specifically on dates of great historical significance to the Catholic or Protestant communities and there is still a deep distrust and even hatred between many Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland although that continues to change with time

Catholic Slum of Ardoyne Belfast July 2011

Splinter Groups

bull Many former PIRA or UDA terrorists have now taken to organized crime for purely profiteering purposes but are no longer involved in substantial violence or any political-based terrorism

bull Splinter groups such as the Real IRA and Continuity IRA in Catholic communities and the Orange Volunteers and Red Hand Commandos in Protestant communities still conduct occasional violence towards Police and civilians in Northern Ireland but are all rather small poorly armed and poorly funded groups that pose nowhere near the threat that terrorist groups in the 80s and 90s did in Northern Ireland

Herersquos To A Brighter Future in Northern Ireland

Works Citedbull httpwwwbbccoukhistorytroublesbull httpcainulstacukbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiProvisional_Irish_Republican_Armybull httpenwikipediaorgwikiThe_Troublesbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiUlster_Defence_Associationbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiUlster_Volunteer_Forcebull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_National_Liberation_Armybull ldquoA Secret History of the IRArdquo by Ed Moloney ndashWW Norton amp Company Reprint 2003bull ldquoVoices From The Grave Two Menrsquos War in Irelandrdquo by Ed Moloney ndash Public Affairs 2010bull ldquoFifty Dead Men Walkingrdquo by Martin McGartland ndash John Blake 2009bull httpwwwinfopleasecomspotnorthireland1htmlbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_Civil_Warbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_War_of_Independencebull httpenwikipediaorgwiki1981_Irish_hunger_strikebull httpenwikipediaorgwikiDirectory_of_the_Northern_Ireland_Troublesbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiGood_Friday_Agreementbull httpswwwmi5govukhomethe-threatsterrorismnorthern-irelandrepublican-terrorist-groupshtmlbull httpswwwmi5govukhomethe-threatsterrorismnorthern-irelandprovisional-irish-republican-army-

pirahtmlbull httpnewsbbccoukhienglishstaticnorthern_irelandunderstandingeventshunger_strikestm

  • The Troubles
  • Brief Overview
  • 30 Years of Conflict
  • Slide 4
  • Background
  • The Irish War of Independence
  • Slide 7
  • Anglo-Irish Treaty (signed 6 December 1921)
  • Irish Civil War
  • 1922-1966 Ireland
  • The Civil Rights Movement
  • Slide 12
  • Slide 13
  • Objectives of the Civil Rights Movement
  • The 1969 Northern Ireland Riots ndashThe Troubles Begin
  • Culmination of Tension
  • No-Go Areas
  • No-Go Areas (2)
  • Early 1970sndash The Rise of the Provisional IRA
  • The IRA Split
  • Rise of the UVF and Loyalist Terror Groups
  • Beginnings
  • UVF Statement 21 May 1964
  • The Paramilitaries
  • Irish RepublicansCatholics
  • The Provisional IRA
  • IRA Statement Late 80s
  • Statistics
  • RecruitmentFunding
  • Weaponry
  • Weaponry (2)
  • Slide 32
  • Mortars and IEDs
  • EOD Officer Approaches PIRA Car Bomb
  • The Barrack Buster
  • Vigilantism
  • Slide 37
  • Slide 38
  • Policy on Informants
  • Terrorist Activities
  • Terrorist Activities (continued)
  • The INLA
  • Statistics (2)
  • Ideology
  • Terrorist Activities (2)
  • Internal Feuds
  • Slide 47
  • British LoyalistsProtestants
  • The UDAUFF
  • Former UFF Member
  • Statistics (3)
  • Ideology (2)
  • Terrorist Activities (3)
  • Slide 54
  • Organized Crime
  • The UVF
  • Statistics (4)
  • Ideology (3)
  • Terrorist Activities (4)
  • The Shankhill Butchers
  • Weaponry (3)
  • Slide 62
  • Organized Crime (2)
  • Major Incidents 1969-1998
  • Bloody Sunday 30 January 1972
  • Massacre on the Bogside
  • Bloody Friday 21 July 1972
  • A City Under Siege
  • Dublin and Monaghan Bombings 17 May 1974
  • Deadliest Attack of the Troubles
  • Warrenpoint Ambush 27 August 1979
  • Roadside IEDs
  • Summer of 1981 Irish Hunger Strikes
  • A Defining Moment for the Republican Cause
  • The Five Demands
  • Previous Protests
  • Dirty Protesters
  • Thatcherrsquos Response
  • Ten Strikers Die
  • Bobby Sands
  • Reaction to Sandsrsquo Death
  • Conclusion
  • 1983 The Maze Prison Escape
  • The ldquoGreat Escaperdquo
  • 12 October 1984 Brighton Hotel Bombing
  • The PIRA Nearly Gets Thatcher
  • Loughgall Ambush 8 May 1987
  • The SAS Strikes
  • British Army Lynx Shootdown 20 March 1994
  • The PIRA Shoots Down a Helicopter
  • 1996 Manchester Bombing
  • The PIRA Destroys Manchester
  • Omagh Bombing 1998
  • Last Great Deadly Attack of the Troubles
  • The Good Friday Agreement and Northern Ireland Peace Process
  • Beginnings (2)
  • Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein former PIRA Belfast Brigade OC
  • Good Friday Agreement 1998
  • PM Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern Sign the GFA
  • GFA Mandates
  • Northern Ireland Today
  • Still Conflict But No War
  • Catholic Slum of Ardoyne Belfast July 2011
  • Splinter Groups
  • Herersquos To A Brighter Future in Northern Ireland
  • Works Cited
Page 31: The Troubles, 1969-1998

The Barrack Buster

>

Vigilantismbull The RUC was not trusted in Catholic neighborhoods throughout the

Troubles and did not regularly patrol or even enter them in urban areas of Northern Ireland Thus when there was a community drug dealer car thief burglar rapist or pedophile the IRA took it upon themselves to issue brutal street justice to those involved

bull Occasionally offering warnings for lesser offences such as petty thievery or drug dealing if the IRA had enough of a certain member of the community they perceived as anti-social he or she was usually jumped brutally beaten andor lsquokneecappedrsquo ndash one of the IRArsquos most notorious methods ndash in which the victim was pinned down and shot through the kneecaps with a firearm or occasionally had their kneecaps drilled through with power-drills Other methods included releasing starving Rottweilerrsquos on the offender dropping cinderblocks on the offenderrsquos hands or even tarring and feathering the offender The IRArsquos process in determining an individualrsquos guilt was never open to scrutiny

bull If the offender persisted after an IRA punishment he was then given a notice by the IRA to leave the country as soon as possiblehellip referred to as being ldquoput outrdquo of the community If the offender still did not leave he was murdered

Policy on Informantsbull In an effort to stamp out collusion with the British forces and informants on the

IRA the IRA was responsible for torturing and killing several accused Catholic civilians throughout the conflict

bull Investigations into collusion infiltration and informants were carried out by the Internal Security Unit of the IRA colloquially known as the ldquoNutting Squadrdquo

bull The ISU would carry out debriefings of IRA prisoners upon their release from British detention so as to discover whether or not they had lsquocrackedrsquo and released information to British interrogators

bull Typical ISU torture techniques on those accused of informing included drowning genitalnipple mutilation electrocution with livewires pouring kerosene on the accusedrsquos legs before setting fire to them and branding with hot irons Informants were always killed afterwards with a bullet through the back of the head

bull Of the 18 ldquoDisappearedrdquo accused informants that were abducted and executed by the IRA during the Troubles only 10 bodies have been found

bull Martin McGartland was an IRA informant who was estimated to have saved 50 lives in the conflict before he was discovered and abducted by the ISU He escaped and lives today in seclusion The film ldquo50 Dead Men Walkingrdquo is based on his exploits and is an excellent realistic non-romanticized take on the Troubles in Northern Ireland

Terrorist Activitiesbull Common tactics included breaking into the homes of off-duty RUC police

officers and murdering them in their beds or setting booby-trap bombs underneath RUC police officersrsquo cars and unionist politiciansrsquo cars so that they would blow up as the engine was started RUC men were typically targeted when they were off-duty and many were shot dead in front of their families The PIRA would also impersonate innocent Catholic civilians call the police to report an emergency and ambush the police from hidden positions when they arrived at the stated address (another reason the RUC was hesitant to go into Catholic neighborhoods during this period)

bull Most notorious for their bombings they would typically park car bombs in predominately Protestant communities call in the bomb threat so that the area would be evacuated and an EOD squad would arrive to dismantle it the bomb would then be detonated with hopes of killing an EOD officer and destroying Protestant housing tenements

bull The PIRA rarely intentionally targeted civilians especially in the 80srsquo and 90srsquo but were involved in the bombings of several Protestant-owned pubs during the 1970s in response to loyalist terrorist groups bombing Catholic-owned pubs They also carried out the Kingsmill massacre in 1976 in which eleven Protestant workmen that were traveling on a minibus were held up by the IRA and all individually executed in response to the execution of six Catholic civilians by the UVF the night before

Terrorist Activities (continued)bull Other activities included engaging in firefights with British squadrons as

they patrolled the countrysidestreets of urban areas sniper attacks on RUC or British Army patrolscheckpoints planting landmines along British foot patrol routes in rural areas planting roadside IEDs along British convoy routes and bombing ferries and buses containing on-or-off duty British soldiers

bull The notorious ldquohuman bombrdquo technique in which civilians or off-duty members of the British security forces were kidnapped and then forced to drive car bombs into British military targets ndash such as checkpoints and Army bases ndash after the PIRA had placed their familiesrsquo lives under threat

bull Inciting riots and providing Catholic youths with molotov cocktails (gasoline bombs) during such riots so as to maximize public disorder and destruction was also an almost daily IRA activity in Catholic communities in urban Northern Ireland

The INLA

Statistics

bull Suffered 33 casualtiesbull Killed 46 members of the British Security Forcesbull Killed 2 members of the Irish Security Forcesbull Killed 39 civiliansbull Killed 3 civilian political activistsbull Killed 16 members of rival Republican terror

groupsbull Killed 7 members of Loyalist terror groups

Ideology

bull Founded by Seamus Costello in 1974 as the military wing of the Irish Republican Socialist Party

bull Shared similar goals to the Provisional IRA but far more socialist in ideology INLA wanted a socialist united Irish republic and blamed class struggles for many of the problems in Northern Ireland whereas the PIRA simply wanted a united Irish republic and had little interest in class struggle or economics

bull Whereas the PIRA was almost exclusively Catholic the INLA had some Protestant members most of whom were involved for purely socialist reasons

Terrorist Activitiesbull Although far less powerful and bold than the PIRA the INLA

nevertheless presented a potent terrorist threat to the United Kingdom during the Troubles

bull Similar tactics to the IRA car bombings shooting off-duty police and soldiers dead and high-profile assassinations

bull Their most high-profile attacks included the car bomb assassination of Airey Neave one of Margaret Thatcherrsquos closest political supporters in 1979 the murder of infamous Loyalist terror leader Billy Wright (who was murdered by INLA inmates in a British political prison in 1997) and the Ballykelley Disco Bombing in 1982 in which the INLA bombed a disco-club frequented by off-duty British soldiers managing to kill 11 of them as well as 6 civilians as well as destroying the disco

Internal Feuds

bull A split in 1986 led the INLA to split into the INLA and the IPLO or Irish Peoplersquos Liberation Organization based on IPLO membersrsquo perceived lack of political motivation and heavy involvement in drug dealing and criminality

bull There were several retaliatory killings between the two groups that persisted until 1992 when the PIRA had enough of the IPLOrsquos involvement in drug dealing in Catholic areas of Belfast and on 31 October 1992 virtually destroyed the entire organization in one night with a series of raids killings and kneecappings that killed or crippled the majority of the grouprsquos members

British LoyalistsProtestants

The UDAUFF

Former UFF Member

>

Statistics

bull Suffered 89 casualtiesbull Killed 197 civiliansbull Killed 12 civilian political activistsbull Killed 37 members of rival loyalist terror

groupsbull Killed 11 members of republican terror groupsbull Killed 3 members of the British Security Forces

Ideology

bull The UDA or Ulster Defense Association and its military wing the Ulster Freedom Fighters (UFF) was a loyalist protestant terror squad that targeted PIRA and INLA members as well as general Catholic civilians in bombings and shootings throughout Northern Ireland

bull It pledged to end its campaign of violence whenever the IRA set down its arms yet should the UK government appease the IRA and grant a 32-county Irish Republic the UDA pledged to act as ldquothe IRA in reverserdquo

Terrorist Activitiesbull The UDA saw itself as a militia defending upstanding protestant loyalist

communities from dangerous and lower-class Catholics that were disrupting the status quo in Northern Ireland They pledged primarily to target IRA men but ended up killing a majority of Catholic civilians during the Troubles They were also known to intimidate and exile known Catholic families from predominately-Protestant communities in Belfast and other urban areas

bull Drive-by shootings shooting up or planting bombs in predominately-Catholic pubs and bars and jumping brutally beating andor kneecapping Catholic civilians were all frequent tactics

bull The UDA discreetly worked in collusion with the RUC and other British security agencies so as to track down and assassinate known IRA members They would also patrol Protestant neighborhoods alongside British soldiers at the height of the Troubles Many RUC police officers and prison guards were also UDA members

bull The UDA alongside many other loyalist paramilitaries benefitted from the import of several arms shipments from Lebanese arms dealers in the early 1970s including rocket launchers 200+ AK-47 Rifles 90+ handguns and over 400 grenades They also received various weapons such as the uzi submachine gun and explosive devices from arms dealers in the Soviet bloc in the 1980s

Organized Crime

bull The UDA and its members were also heavily involved in drug dealing from the street level to wholesale purchase primarily in MDMA and cannabis throughout the Troubles

bull Protection racketeering and money laundering were also common amongst the UDA in protestant communities

bull However should a member of a UDA-ran community begin stealing or dealing drugs without UDA consent he was abruptly branded as ldquoanti-socialrdquo and either killed or kneecapped

The UVF

Statistics

bull Suffered unknown number of casualtiesbull Killed 412 civiliansbull Killed 11 civilian political activistsbull Killed 21 members of republican terror groupsbull Killed 42 members of rival loyalist terror

groupsbull Killed 6 members of the Security Forces

Ideology

bull Similar to the UDAUFF the Ulster Volunteer Forcersquos primary aim was to combat Irish republicanism in Northern Ireland primarily the PIRA They wanted Northern Ireland to remain in the UK

Terrorist Activitiesbull The majority of UVF victims were Catholic civilians

many of whom were killed at random These attacks were intended to demoralize the IRA as the IRA drew most of its support from the Catholic community

bull Planting bombs in predominately-Catholic pubs or simply residential areas was a very frequent UVF tactic and in 1973 they detonated more bombs in Northern Ireland than the UDA and the PIRA combined Assassinations mass shootings booby-trap car bombs and kidnappings were also frequent UVF activities

The Shankhill Butchers

bull The ldquoShankhill Butchersrdquo were a notorious offshoot UVF group known for abducting and literally slitting the throats of Catholic civilians and rival loyalist terror groups in the late 1970s They were led by Lenny Murphy (who was eventually imprisoned and upon his release of a 4-year stint murdered by the PIRA) and killed 23 people most of whom were Catholic civilians Many experts liken the Shankhill Butchers more to a group of serial killers than to politically or even ethnically-motivated murderers

bull The Butchers were all eventually all either imprisoned killed by the PIRA or both

Weaponrybull The UVF received the majority of its weaponry in the late 1970s

from Armscor an apartheid-South Africa state-owned arms company which in defiance of various UN sanctions and embargoes sold them to the UVF

bull Weapons were thought to consist ofbull 200 Czech SA vz 58 Assault Riflesbull 90 Browning Pistolsbull 500 RGD-5 Frag Grenadesbull 30000 rounds of ammunitionbull 12 RPG-7 Rocket Launchers and 150+ Rocketsbull The UVF also began using the illegally-obtained mining explosive

Powergel in the early 1990s

Organized Crime

bull The UVF was also heavily involved in organized crime including protection racketeering and drug smugglingdealing including cannabis MDMA cocaine and amphetamines Bank robberies were also very frequent in the 1970s

Major Incidents 1969-1998

Bloody Sunday 30 January 1972

Massacre on the Bogsidebull In 1972 during a large scale but peaceful civil-rights march in the

troubled predominately Catholic neighborhood of Bogside in Derry 26 unarmed civil rights marchers were shot by members of the British Army 14 of whom were killed Five of those shot were shot in the back

bull After several inquiries into the incident there was found to have been no justifiable provocation from the protestors and no shots fired from the protestors during the march The massacre was conducted in full view of the public and the press

bull The PM David Cameron eventually issued a formal apology to the victims and victimsrsquo families of the massacre after several investigations failed to reveal any justifiable provocation for the massacre

bull The massacre sky-rocketed PIRA membership and recruitment as public perception of the British Army in Catholic communities in Northern Ireland reached an all-time low

Bloody Friday 21 July 1972

A City Under Siege

bull On 21 July 1972 the PIRA detonated 26 bombs in the space of 80 minutes in Belfast destroying banks bridges electrical substations Protestant housing tenements gasoline stations and private garages

bull Although warnings were called in at least 30 minutes prior to each bomb the amount of bombs exploding and the addition of multiple hoax warnings at the same time led to the Security Forces being unable to evacuate all the areas in time 11 people were killed and 130 were injured many of them horrifically mutilated Of those injured 77 were women or children

Dublin and Monaghan Bombings 17 May 1974

Deadliest Attack of the Troubles

bull Perpetrated by the UVF in the southern Republic of Ireland three car bombs exploded in Dublin during rush hour and another exploded in Monaghan around 90 minutes later

bull 33 civilians and a full-term unborn child were killed in the bombing while nearly 300 were injured The UVF did not claim responsibility for the bombings until 1993

bull The majority of those killed were young women although the age range of those killed ranged from 5 months old to 80 years old

Warrenpoint Ambush 27 August 1979

Roadside IEDsbull In the southern part of County Armagh Northern Ireland a predominately-

Catholic rural region and former PIRA stronghold right on the border with the southern Republic of Ireland a British troop convoy was hit with a remote-control detonated roadside 500lb truck-bomb and destroyed instantly killing 6 troops The surviving soldiers then wrongly believed they were under sniper fire from the other side of the Irish border and began firing at civilians immediately after the bombing killing 1 and injuring another

bull 32 minutes after the first bombing the IRA used its knowledge of how the British reacted to bombings to correctly predict that they would set up an incident-command point in a nearby gatehouse Unfortunately for the British there was a second 800lb fertilizer bomb planted near the gatehouse that when detonated killed 12 other soldiers who were responding to the initial bomb

bull It was the deadliest single attack on the British Army during the Troubles and a highly successful attack for the PIRA

Summer of 1981 Irish Hunger Strikes

A Defining Moment for the Republican Cause

bull Beginning on 1 March 1981 led by Bobby Sands 7 PIRA and 3 INLA inmates at the notorious ldquoMazerdquo prison began to refuse food until Margaret Thatcher PM of Great Britain at that time began to recognize terrorist prisoners as political prisoners and allowed them their ldquoFive Demandsrdquo

The Five Demands

bull The right to not wear a prison uniformbull The right to not do prison workbull The right of free association with other

prisoners and to organize in educational and recreational pursuits

bull Full restoration of remission lost through any protests towards these demands

Previous Protestsbull The Maze prison was a very high-security and low-quality prison that

housed almost all PIRA prisoners during the Troubles It was run in a very ethically questionable fashion with frequent beatings and borderline-torture techniques used on Republican prisoners and extremely poor living conditions for prisoners Many Maze prison guards were members of the UDAUVF or had strong connections with one of the two groups as well

bull Massive peaceful protests and marches by Irish republicans outside of the Maze Prison proved unsuccessful in attaining political status for republican prisoners as well as previous inmate protests in 1980 including non-fatal hunger strikes inmates refusing to wear prison uniforms and thus living in their cells naked and prisoners refusing to leave their cells to go to the bathroom until their requests had been granted (they therefore urinated and defecated in their cells and spread their excrement across their cell walls in what was known as the ldquoDirty Protestrdquo)

Dirty Protesters

Thatcherrsquos Response

bull ldquoThose terrorists will carry their determination to disrupt society to any lengths Once again we have a hunger strike in the Maze Prison in the quest for what they call lsquopolitical statusrsquo There is no such thing as political murder political bombing or political violence There is only criminal murder criminal bombing and criminal violence We will not compromise on this There will be no political statusrdquo

Ten Strikers Diebull Bobby Sands the leader of the strike was imprisoned as a PIRA member

on charges of firearm possession and in connection with the bombing of a furniture store He was the first to die after 66 days of not eating Sands was elected to a seat in Parliament whilst on Hunger Strike

bull Following Sandsrsquo death there were riots bus-burnings and attacks on the British embassy in the southern Republic of Ireland there were massive demonstrations in France and Italy a tomato was thrown as Queen Elizabeth II by demonstrators in Oslo and there were massive riots and civil disorder all over the streets of Belfast The South African ANC and (at the time) terrorist Nelson Mandela expressed their support for the PIRA and the hunger strikers (Mandela himself claimed he was directly inspired by Sands to undertake hunger strikes against the Apartheid government in South Africa) as well as the Palestine Liberation Organization a middle-eastern terror group

bull Over 100000 attended Sandsrsquo funeral

Bobby Sands

ldquoOur revenge will be the laughter of our childrenrdquo

Reaction to Sandsrsquo Death

>

Conclusion

bull The Hunger Strike was eventually called off after 10 strikers including Sands had died

bull James Prior newly installed secretary of state of Northern Ireland granted the prisoners partial concessions all of the Five Demands except for the right to not do prison work Margaret Thatcher refused to budge on political status

bull The Hunger Strikes opened a new way for the PIRA to pursue its objectives politically whereas previously it had seen violence as the only solution to the plight of Irish nationalists in Northern Ireland

1983 The Maze Prison Escape

The ldquoGreat Escaperdquo

bull Using smuggled-in guns and knives 38 PIRA prisoners who had been convicted of offenses ranging from murder to causing explosions escaped from one of the most high-security prisons in Europe They completely took over the H7 prison block and took their prison guards hostage before escaping in a food supply truck Several prison guards were shot and stabbed but only one died of a heart attack during the escape

bull Fifteen escapees were recaptured the first day with four more captured over the next two days following the breakout The remaining 19 were transported to PIRA strongholds and given the option to either rejoin the IRArsquos cause or be transported to the United States to live under a new identity

12 October 1984 Brighton Hotel Bombing

The PIRA Nearly Gets Thatcherbull Margaret Thatcher the highly controversial far-right British PM from

1979-1990 had become a tremendously hated figure amongst the Irish nationalist community in Northern Ireland following the 1981 Hunger Strikes and for her general uncompromising stand on Irish republicanism

bull PIRA man Patrick Magee stayed at the Brighton Hotel from the 14-17 September 1984 planting a 20-lb bomb under his bath

bull Thatcher was staying at the Brighton Hotel for a political conference and was still up at 254AM on 12 October when the bomb was detonated The bomb decimated her bathroom but left the bedroom and sitting room of her suite largely unscathed

bull The PIRA statement to Thatcher afterwards was ldquoToday we were unlucky But remember we only have to be lucky once You will have to be lucky alwaysrdquo

Loughgall Ambush 8 May 1987

The SAS Strikes

bull A botched attack on Loughgall Villagersquos RUC Police Base in which the PIRA drove a backhoe into the fortified base and ran away to detonate the bomb that was inside of the backhoe went wrong as the SAS the British Special Forces had prior knowledge of the attack and quickly dispatched the 8 PIRA members involved

bull Although the RUC base was wrecked and bombed there were no RUC or SAS casualties and it was the PIRArsquos greatest loss of life in a single incident during the Troubles

British Army Lynx Shootdown 20 March 1994

The PIRA Shoots Down a Helicopter

bull Using the previously mentioned Barrack-Buster homemade mortar PIRA insurgents were able to fire on a British helicopter that was in the process of landing whilst hiding behind a hay bail from around 150 yards out

bull The helicopter was hit with the mortar shell around 100 feet above the ground but the pilot was able to successfully crash-land the helicopter and escape before its propane tanks exploded There were no casualties but the attack was a major propaganda coup for the PIRA

1996 Manchester Bombing

The PIRA Destroys Manchester

bull On Saturday 15 June 1996 the PIRA sent in telephoned warnings and 90 minutes later detonated a 3300lb fertilizer-based truck bomb in the heart of Manchester City Centre the biggest bomb detonated in Great Britain during peacetime The bomb killed nobody due to previous warnings but led to 212 non-fatal injuries and essentially destroyed Manchester City Centre leaving approximately 700 million pounds ($12bn) worth of damage in its wake

Omagh Bombing 1998

Last Great Deadly Attack of the Troubles

bull Perpetrated by a Provisional IRA splinter group that was rejecting the peace process calling themselves the ldquoReal IRArdquo the 510lb fertilizer-based bomb was placed on main street in the town of Omagh Northern Ireland Warnings were called in approximately 30 minutes before the bombing but they were inaccurate and police ended up moving more civilians towards the bomb which ended up killing 29 people and causing over 300 non-fatal injuries This was the highest death toll from a single incident during the Troubles

bull It received universal outrage and was condemned even by the PIRA and its political wing Sinn Fein It spurred on the Northern Ireland peace process and the RIRA apologized and called a ceasefire several days after

The Good Friday Agreement and Northern Ireland Peace Process

Beginningsbull Following the 1981 Hunger Strikes Irish republicans began to

increasingly look towards politics rather than violence as a means of achieving their aims Sinn Fein gaelic for ldquoWe Ourselvesrdquo was a fiercely Irish Republican political party which led by the Machiavellian former PIRA leader and Maze inmate Gerry Adams began to push for a more peaceful solution to the Troubles in Northern Ireland

bull It became apparent by the late 1990s that although the PIRA was not losing a war against the British establishment it would be impossible to truly lsquowin the fightrsquo through violence and that any further terrorism would serve not to achieve any real political aim but only to prolong and continue suffering and violence in Northern Ireland and that politics was a much better way of achieving Republican aims

Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein former PIRA Belfast Brigade OC

Good Friday Agreement 1998

bull The Peace Process began in 1994 and included intermittent terrorist ceasefires and political negotiations between the major Irish republican and British unionist parties and culminated on April 10 1998 when the Good Friday Agreement was signed

PM Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern Sign the GFA

GFA Mandatesbull That Northern Ireland was to remain British until a majority of people in Northern

Ireland and the southern Republic of Ireland wanted otherwise bull The creation of an entirely new far less sectarian and religiously diverse Northern

Irish local governmentbull The decommissioning of arms from terrorist groups on both the unionist and

nationalist side of the political divide (ultimately successful all arms decommissioned by 2005)

bull Mutual respect and civil rights between Catholics and Protestants bull The reduction and eventual elimination of British troops in Northern Ireland

(ultimately successful all troops withdrawn by 2005)bull Eventual early prison release for all individuals imprisoned for terrorist offenses as

long as they were apart of a terrorist group that was decommissioning in accordance with the GFA

bull Disbandment of the RUC police service and the installation of the new Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) which was required to be at least 50 Catholic

Northern Ireland Today

Still Conflict But No Warbull Since the complete decommissioning of the arms and

disbandment of the PIRA INLA UDAUFF and UVF due to the Good Friday Agreement there is nowhere near the amount of violence in Northern Ireland or Belfast as there was 20 years ago There are no more weekly bombings and riots and no more British troops patrolling Catholic areas in armored vehicles

bull Despite this there are still occasional riots and clashes with the PSNI several times a year specifically on dates of great historical significance to the Catholic or Protestant communities and there is still a deep distrust and even hatred between many Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland although that continues to change with time

Catholic Slum of Ardoyne Belfast July 2011

Splinter Groups

bull Many former PIRA or UDA terrorists have now taken to organized crime for purely profiteering purposes but are no longer involved in substantial violence or any political-based terrorism

bull Splinter groups such as the Real IRA and Continuity IRA in Catholic communities and the Orange Volunteers and Red Hand Commandos in Protestant communities still conduct occasional violence towards Police and civilians in Northern Ireland but are all rather small poorly armed and poorly funded groups that pose nowhere near the threat that terrorist groups in the 80s and 90s did in Northern Ireland

Herersquos To A Brighter Future in Northern Ireland

Works Citedbull httpwwwbbccoukhistorytroublesbull httpcainulstacukbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiProvisional_Irish_Republican_Armybull httpenwikipediaorgwikiThe_Troublesbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiUlster_Defence_Associationbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiUlster_Volunteer_Forcebull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_National_Liberation_Armybull ldquoA Secret History of the IRArdquo by Ed Moloney ndashWW Norton amp Company Reprint 2003bull ldquoVoices From The Grave Two Menrsquos War in Irelandrdquo by Ed Moloney ndash Public Affairs 2010bull ldquoFifty Dead Men Walkingrdquo by Martin McGartland ndash John Blake 2009bull httpwwwinfopleasecomspotnorthireland1htmlbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_Civil_Warbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_War_of_Independencebull httpenwikipediaorgwiki1981_Irish_hunger_strikebull httpenwikipediaorgwikiDirectory_of_the_Northern_Ireland_Troublesbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiGood_Friday_Agreementbull httpswwwmi5govukhomethe-threatsterrorismnorthern-irelandrepublican-terrorist-groupshtmlbull httpswwwmi5govukhomethe-threatsterrorismnorthern-irelandprovisional-irish-republican-army-

pirahtmlbull httpnewsbbccoukhienglishstaticnorthern_irelandunderstandingeventshunger_strikestm

  • The Troubles
  • Brief Overview
  • 30 Years of Conflict
  • Slide 4
  • Background
  • The Irish War of Independence
  • Slide 7
  • Anglo-Irish Treaty (signed 6 December 1921)
  • Irish Civil War
  • 1922-1966 Ireland
  • The Civil Rights Movement
  • Slide 12
  • Slide 13
  • Objectives of the Civil Rights Movement
  • The 1969 Northern Ireland Riots ndashThe Troubles Begin
  • Culmination of Tension
  • No-Go Areas
  • No-Go Areas (2)
  • Early 1970sndash The Rise of the Provisional IRA
  • The IRA Split
  • Rise of the UVF and Loyalist Terror Groups
  • Beginnings
  • UVF Statement 21 May 1964
  • The Paramilitaries
  • Irish RepublicansCatholics
  • The Provisional IRA
  • IRA Statement Late 80s
  • Statistics
  • RecruitmentFunding
  • Weaponry
  • Weaponry (2)
  • Slide 32
  • Mortars and IEDs
  • EOD Officer Approaches PIRA Car Bomb
  • The Barrack Buster
  • Vigilantism
  • Slide 37
  • Slide 38
  • Policy on Informants
  • Terrorist Activities
  • Terrorist Activities (continued)
  • The INLA
  • Statistics (2)
  • Ideology
  • Terrorist Activities (2)
  • Internal Feuds
  • Slide 47
  • British LoyalistsProtestants
  • The UDAUFF
  • Former UFF Member
  • Statistics (3)
  • Ideology (2)
  • Terrorist Activities (3)
  • Slide 54
  • Organized Crime
  • The UVF
  • Statistics (4)
  • Ideology (3)
  • Terrorist Activities (4)
  • The Shankhill Butchers
  • Weaponry (3)
  • Slide 62
  • Organized Crime (2)
  • Major Incidents 1969-1998
  • Bloody Sunday 30 January 1972
  • Massacre on the Bogside
  • Bloody Friday 21 July 1972
  • A City Under Siege
  • Dublin and Monaghan Bombings 17 May 1974
  • Deadliest Attack of the Troubles
  • Warrenpoint Ambush 27 August 1979
  • Roadside IEDs
  • Summer of 1981 Irish Hunger Strikes
  • A Defining Moment for the Republican Cause
  • The Five Demands
  • Previous Protests
  • Dirty Protesters
  • Thatcherrsquos Response
  • Ten Strikers Die
  • Bobby Sands
  • Reaction to Sandsrsquo Death
  • Conclusion
  • 1983 The Maze Prison Escape
  • The ldquoGreat Escaperdquo
  • 12 October 1984 Brighton Hotel Bombing
  • The PIRA Nearly Gets Thatcher
  • Loughgall Ambush 8 May 1987
  • The SAS Strikes
  • British Army Lynx Shootdown 20 March 1994
  • The PIRA Shoots Down a Helicopter
  • 1996 Manchester Bombing
  • The PIRA Destroys Manchester
  • Omagh Bombing 1998
  • Last Great Deadly Attack of the Troubles
  • The Good Friday Agreement and Northern Ireland Peace Process
  • Beginnings (2)
  • Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein former PIRA Belfast Brigade OC
  • Good Friday Agreement 1998
  • PM Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern Sign the GFA
  • GFA Mandates
  • Northern Ireland Today
  • Still Conflict But No War
  • Catholic Slum of Ardoyne Belfast July 2011
  • Splinter Groups
  • Herersquos To A Brighter Future in Northern Ireland
  • Works Cited
Page 32: The Troubles, 1969-1998

Vigilantismbull The RUC was not trusted in Catholic neighborhoods throughout the

Troubles and did not regularly patrol or even enter them in urban areas of Northern Ireland Thus when there was a community drug dealer car thief burglar rapist or pedophile the IRA took it upon themselves to issue brutal street justice to those involved

bull Occasionally offering warnings for lesser offences such as petty thievery or drug dealing if the IRA had enough of a certain member of the community they perceived as anti-social he or she was usually jumped brutally beaten andor lsquokneecappedrsquo ndash one of the IRArsquos most notorious methods ndash in which the victim was pinned down and shot through the kneecaps with a firearm or occasionally had their kneecaps drilled through with power-drills Other methods included releasing starving Rottweilerrsquos on the offender dropping cinderblocks on the offenderrsquos hands or even tarring and feathering the offender The IRArsquos process in determining an individualrsquos guilt was never open to scrutiny

bull If the offender persisted after an IRA punishment he was then given a notice by the IRA to leave the country as soon as possiblehellip referred to as being ldquoput outrdquo of the community If the offender still did not leave he was murdered

Policy on Informantsbull In an effort to stamp out collusion with the British forces and informants on the

IRA the IRA was responsible for torturing and killing several accused Catholic civilians throughout the conflict

bull Investigations into collusion infiltration and informants were carried out by the Internal Security Unit of the IRA colloquially known as the ldquoNutting Squadrdquo

bull The ISU would carry out debriefings of IRA prisoners upon their release from British detention so as to discover whether or not they had lsquocrackedrsquo and released information to British interrogators

bull Typical ISU torture techniques on those accused of informing included drowning genitalnipple mutilation electrocution with livewires pouring kerosene on the accusedrsquos legs before setting fire to them and branding with hot irons Informants were always killed afterwards with a bullet through the back of the head

bull Of the 18 ldquoDisappearedrdquo accused informants that were abducted and executed by the IRA during the Troubles only 10 bodies have been found

bull Martin McGartland was an IRA informant who was estimated to have saved 50 lives in the conflict before he was discovered and abducted by the ISU He escaped and lives today in seclusion The film ldquo50 Dead Men Walkingrdquo is based on his exploits and is an excellent realistic non-romanticized take on the Troubles in Northern Ireland

Terrorist Activitiesbull Common tactics included breaking into the homes of off-duty RUC police

officers and murdering them in their beds or setting booby-trap bombs underneath RUC police officersrsquo cars and unionist politiciansrsquo cars so that they would blow up as the engine was started RUC men were typically targeted when they were off-duty and many were shot dead in front of their families The PIRA would also impersonate innocent Catholic civilians call the police to report an emergency and ambush the police from hidden positions when they arrived at the stated address (another reason the RUC was hesitant to go into Catholic neighborhoods during this period)

bull Most notorious for their bombings they would typically park car bombs in predominately Protestant communities call in the bomb threat so that the area would be evacuated and an EOD squad would arrive to dismantle it the bomb would then be detonated with hopes of killing an EOD officer and destroying Protestant housing tenements

bull The PIRA rarely intentionally targeted civilians especially in the 80srsquo and 90srsquo but were involved in the bombings of several Protestant-owned pubs during the 1970s in response to loyalist terrorist groups bombing Catholic-owned pubs They also carried out the Kingsmill massacre in 1976 in which eleven Protestant workmen that were traveling on a minibus were held up by the IRA and all individually executed in response to the execution of six Catholic civilians by the UVF the night before

Terrorist Activities (continued)bull Other activities included engaging in firefights with British squadrons as

they patrolled the countrysidestreets of urban areas sniper attacks on RUC or British Army patrolscheckpoints planting landmines along British foot patrol routes in rural areas planting roadside IEDs along British convoy routes and bombing ferries and buses containing on-or-off duty British soldiers

bull The notorious ldquohuman bombrdquo technique in which civilians or off-duty members of the British security forces were kidnapped and then forced to drive car bombs into British military targets ndash such as checkpoints and Army bases ndash after the PIRA had placed their familiesrsquo lives under threat

bull Inciting riots and providing Catholic youths with molotov cocktails (gasoline bombs) during such riots so as to maximize public disorder and destruction was also an almost daily IRA activity in Catholic communities in urban Northern Ireland

The INLA

Statistics

bull Suffered 33 casualtiesbull Killed 46 members of the British Security Forcesbull Killed 2 members of the Irish Security Forcesbull Killed 39 civiliansbull Killed 3 civilian political activistsbull Killed 16 members of rival Republican terror

groupsbull Killed 7 members of Loyalist terror groups

Ideology

bull Founded by Seamus Costello in 1974 as the military wing of the Irish Republican Socialist Party

bull Shared similar goals to the Provisional IRA but far more socialist in ideology INLA wanted a socialist united Irish republic and blamed class struggles for many of the problems in Northern Ireland whereas the PIRA simply wanted a united Irish republic and had little interest in class struggle or economics

bull Whereas the PIRA was almost exclusively Catholic the INLA had some Protestant members most of whom were involved for purely socialist reasons

Terrorist Activitiesbull Although far less powerful and bold than the PIRA the INLA

nevertheless presented a potent terrorist threat to the United Kingdom during the Troubles

bull Similar tactics to the IRA car bombings shooting off-duty police and soldiers dead and high-profile assassinations

bull Their most high-profile attacks included the car bomb assassination of Airey Neave one of Margaret Thatcherrsquos closest political supporters in 1979 the murder of infamous Loyalist terror leader Billy Wright (who was murdered by INLA inmates in a British political prison in 1997) and the Ballykelley Disco Bombing in 1982 in which the INLA bombed a disco-club frequented by off-duty British soldiers managing to kill 11 of them as well as 6 civilians as well as destroying the disco

Internal Feuds

bull A split in 1986 led the INLA to split into the INLA and the IPLO or Irish Peoplersquos Liberation Organization based on IPLO membersrsquo perceived lack of political motivation and heavy involvement in drug dealing and criminality

bull There were several retaliatory killings between the two groups that persisted until 1992 when the PIRA had enough of the IPLOrsquos involvement in drug dealing in Catholic areas of Belfast and on 31 October 1992 virtually destroyed the entire organization in one night with a series of raids killings and kneecappings that killed or crippled the majority of the grouprsquos members

British LoyalistsProtestants

The UDAUFF

Former UFF Member

>

Statistics

bull Suffered 89 casualtiesbull Killed 197 civiliansbull Killed 12 civilian political activistsbull Killed 37 members of rival loyalist terror

groupsbull Killed 11 members of republican terror groupsbull Killed 3 members of the British Security Forces

Ideology

bull The UDA or Ulster Defense Association and its military wing the Ulster Freedom Fighters (UFF) was a loyalist protestant terror squad that targeted PIRA and INLA members as well as general Catholic civilians in bombings and shootings throughout Northern Ireland

bull It pledged to end its campaign of violence whenever the IRA set down its arms yet should the UK government appease the IRA and grant a 32-county Irish Republic the UDA pledged to act as ldquothe IRA in reverserdquo

Terrorist Activitiesbull The UDA saw itself as a militia defending upstanding protestant loyalist

communities from dangerous and lower-class Catholics that were disrupting the status quo in Northern Ireland They pledged primarily to target IRA men but ended up killing a majority of Catholic civilians during the Troubles They were also known to intimidate and exile known Catholic families from predominately-Protestant communities in Belfast and other urban areas

bull Drive-by shootings shooting up or planting bombs in predominately-Catholic pubs and bars and jumping brutally beating andor kneecapping Catholic civilians were all frequent tactics

bull The UDA discreetly worked in collusion with the RUC and other British security agencies so as to track down and assassinate known IRA members They would also patrol Protestant neighborhoods alongside British soldiers at the height of the Troubles Many RUC police officers and prison guards were also UDA members

bull The UDA alongside many other loyalist paramilitaries benefitted from the import of several arms shipments from Lebanese arms dealers in the early 1970s including rocket launchers 200+ AK-47 Rifles 90+ handguns and over 400 grenades They also received various weapons such as the uzi submachine gun and explosive devices from arms dealers in the Soviet bloc in the 1980s

Organized Crime

bull The UDA and its members were also heavily involved in drug dealing from the street level to wholesale purchase primarily in MDMA and cannabis throughout the Troubles

bull Protection racketeering and money laundering were also common amongst the UDA in protestant communities

bull However should a member of a UDA-ran community begin stealing or dealing drugs without UDA consent he was abruptly branded as ldquoanti-socialrdquo and either killed or kneecapped

The UVF

Statistics

bull Suffered unknown number of casualtiesbull Killed 412 civiliansbull Killed 11 civilian political activistsbull Killed 21 members of republican terror groupsbull Killed 42 members of rival loyalist terror

groupsbull Killed 6 members of the Security Forces

Ideology

bull Similar to the UDAUFF the Ulster Volunteer Forcersquos primary aim was to combat Irish republicanism in Northern Ireland primarily the PIRA They wanted Northern Ireland to remain in the UK

Terrorist Activitiesbull The majority of UVF victims were Catholic civilians

many of whom were killed at random These attacks were intended to demoralize the IRA as the IRA drew most of its support from the Catholic community

bull Planting bombs in predominately-Catholic pubs or simply residential areas was a very frequent UVF tactic and in 1973 they detonated more bombs in Northern Ireland than the UDA and the PIRA combined Assassinations mass shootings booby-trap car bombs and kidnappings were also frequent UVF activities

The Shankhill Butchers

bull The ldquoShankhill Butchersrdquo were a notorious offshoot UVF group known for abducting and literally slitting the throats of Catholic civilians and rival loyalist terror groups in the late 1970s They were led by Lenny Murphy (who was eventually imprisoned and upon his release of a 4-year stint murdered by the PIRA) and killed 23 people most of whom were Catholic civilians Many experts liken the Shankhill Butchers more to a group of serial killers than to politically or even ethnically-motivated murderers

bull The Butchers were all eventually all either imprisoned killed by the PIRA or both

Weaponrybull The UVF received the majority of its weaponry in the late 1970s

from Armscor an apartheid-South Africa state-owned arms company which in defiance of various UN sanctions and embargoes sold them to the UVF

bull Weapons were thought to consist ofbull 200 Czech SA vz 58 Assault Riflesbull 90 Browning Pistolsbull 500 RGD-5 Frag Grenadesbull 30000 rounds of ammunitionbull 12 RPG-7 Rocket Launchers and 150+ Rocketsbull The UVF also began using the illegally-obtained mining explosive

Powergel in the early 1990s

Organized Crime

bull The UVF was also heavily involved in organized crime including protection racketeering and drug smugglingdealing including cannabis MDMA cocaine and amphetamines Bank robberies were also very frequent in the 1970s

Major Incidents 1969-1998

Bloody Sunday 30 January 1972

Massacre on the Bogsidebull In 1972 during a large scale but peaceful civil-rights march in the

troubled predominately Catholic neighborhood of Bogside in Derry 26 unarmed civil rights marchers were shot by members of the British Army 14 of whom were killed Five of those shot were shot in the back

bull After several inquiries into the incident there was found to have been no justifiable provocation from the protestors and no shots fired from the protestors during the march The massacre was conducted in full view of the public and the press

bull The PM David Cameron eventually issued a formal apology to the victims and victimsrsquo families of the massacre after several investigations failed to reveal any justifiable provocation for the massacre

bull The massacre sky-rocketed PIRA membership and recruitment as public perception of the British Army in Catholic communities in Northern Ireland reached an all-time low

Bloody Friday 21 July 1972

A City Under Siege

bull On 21 July 1972 the PIRA detonated 26 bombs in the space of 80 minutes in Belfast destroying banks bridges electrical substations Protestant housing tenements gasoline stations and private garages

bull Although warnings were called in at least 30 minutes prior to each bomb the amount of bombs exploding and the addition of multiple hoax warnings at the same time led to the Security Forces being unable to evacuate all the areas in time 11 people were killed and 130 were injured many of them horrifically mutilated Of those injured 77 were women or children

Dublin and Monaghan Bombings 17 May 1974

Deadliest Attack of the Troubles

bull Perpetrated by the UVF in the southern Republic of Ireland three car bombs exploded in Dublin during rush hour and another exploded in Monaghan around 90 minutes later

bull 33 civilians and a full-term unborn child were killed in the bombing while nearly 300 were injured The UVF did not claim responsibility for the bombings until 1993

bull The majority of those killed were young women although the age range of those killed ranged from 5 months old to 80 years old

Warrenpoint Ambush 27 August 1979

Roadside IEDsbull In the southern part of County Armagh Northern Ireland a predominately-

Catholic rural region and former PIRA stronghold right on the border with the southern Republic of Ireland a British troop convoy was hit with a remote-control detonated roadside 500lb truck-bomb and destroyed instantly killing 6 troops The surviving soldiers then wrongly believed they were under sniper fire from the other side of the Irish border and began firing at civilians immediately after the bombing killing 1 and injuring another

bull 32 minutes after the first bombing the IRA used its knowledge of how the British reacted to bombings to correctly predict that they would set up an incident-command point in a nearby gatehouse Unfortunately for the British there was a second 800lb fertilizer bomb planted near the gatehouse that when detonated killed 12 other soldiers who were responding to the initial bomb

bull It was the deadliest single attack on the British Army during the Troubles and a highly successful attack for the PIRA

Summer of 1981 Irish Hunger Strikes

A Defining Moment for the Republican Cause

bull Beginning on 1 March 1981 led by Bobby Sands 7 PIRA and 3 INLA inmates at the notorious ldquoMazerdquo prison began to refuse food until Margaret Thatcher PM of Great Britain at that time began to recognize terrorist prisoners as political prisoners and allowed them their ldquoFive Demandsrdquo

The Five Demands

bull The right to not wear a prison uniformbull The right to not do prison workbull The right of free association with other

prisoners and to organize in educational and recreational pursuits

bull Full restoration of remission lost through any protests towards these demands

Previous Protestsbull The Maze prison was a very high-security and low-quality prison that

housed almost all PIRA prisoners during the Troubles It was run in a very ethically questionable fashion with frequent beatings and borderline-torture techniques used on Republican prisoners and extremely poor living conditions for prisoners Many Maze prison guards were members of the UDAUVF or had strong connections with one of the two groups as well

bull Massive peaceful protests and marches by Irish republicans outside of the Maze Prison proved unsuccessful in attaining political status for republican prisoners as well as previous inmate protests in 1980 including non-fatal hunger strikes inmates refusing to wear prison uniforms and thus living in their cells naked and prisoners refusing to leave their cells to go to the bathroom until their requests had been granted (they therefore urinated and defecated in their cells and spread their excrement across their cell walls in what was known as the ldquoDirty Protestrdquo)

Dirty Protesters

Thatcherrsquos Response

bull ldquoThose terrorists will carry their determination to disrupt society to any lengths Once again we have a hunger strike in the Maze Prison in the quest for what they call lsquopolitical statusrsquo There is no such thing as political murder political bombing or political violence There is only criminal murder criminal bombing and criminal violence We will not compromise on this There will be no political statusrdquo

Ten Strikers Diebull Bobby Sands the leader of the strike was imprisoned as a PIRA member

on charges of firearm possession and in connection with the bombing of a furniture store He was the first to die after 66 days of not eating Sands was elected to a seat in Parliament whilst on Hunger Strike

bull Following Sandsrsquo death there were riots bus-burnings and attacks on the British embassy in the southern Republic of Ireland there were massive demonstrations in France and Italy a tomato was thrown as Queen Elizabeth II by demonstrators in Oslo and there were massive riots and civil disorder all over the streets of Belfast The South African ANC and (at the time) terrorist Nelson Mandela expressed their support for the PIRA and the hunger strikers (Mandela himself claimed he was directly inspired by Sands to undertake hunger strikes against the Apartheid government in South Africa) as well as the Palestine Liberation Organization a middle-eastern terror group

bull Over 100000 attended Sandsrsquo funeral

Bobby Sands

ldquoOur revenge will be the laughter of our childrenrdquo

Reaction to Sandsrsquo Death

>

Conclusion

bull The Hunger Strike was eventually called off after 10 strikers including Sands had died

bull James Prior newly installed secretary of state of Northern Ireland granted the prisoners partial concessions all of the Five Demands except for the right to not do prison work Margaret Thatcher refused to budge on political status

bull The Hunger Strikes opened a new way for the PIRA to pursue its objectives politically whereas previously it had seen violence as the only solution to the plight of Irish nationalists in Northern Ireland

1983 The Maze Prison Escape

The ldquoGreat Escaperdquo

bull Using smuggled-in guns and knives 38 PIRA prisoners who had been convicted of offenses ranging from murder to causing explosions escaped from one of the most high-security prisons in Europe They completely took over the H7 prison block and took their prison guards hostage before escaping in a food supply truck Several prison guards were shot and stabbed but only one died of a heart attack during the escape

bull Fifteen escapees were recaptured the first day with four more captured over the next two days following the breakout The remaining 19 were transported to PIRA strongholds and given the option to either rejoin the IRArsquos cause or be transported to the United States to live under a new identity

12 October 1984 Brighton Hotel Bombing

The PIRA Nearly Gets Thatcherbull Margaret Thatcher the highly controversial far-right British PM from

1979-1990 had become a tremendously hated figure amongst the Irish nationalist community in Northern Ireland following the 1981 Hunger Strikes and for her general uncompromising stand on Irish republicanism

bull PIRA man Patrick Magee stayed at the Brighton Hotel from the 14-17 September 1984 planting a 20-lb bomb under his bath

bull Thatcher was staying at the Brighton Hotel for a political conference and was still up at 254AM on 12 October when the bomb was detonated The bomb decimated her bathroom but left the bedroom and sitting room of her suite largely unscathed

bull The PIRA statement to Thatcher afterwards was ldquoToday we were unlucky But remember we only have to be lucky once You will have to be lucky alwaysrdquo

Loughgall Ambush 8 May 1987

The SAS Strikes

bull A botched attack on Loughgall Villagersquos RUC Police Base in which the PIRA drove a backhoe into the fortified base and ran away to detonate the bomb that was inside of the backhoe went wrong as the SAS the British Special Forces had prior knowledge of the attack and quickly dispatched the 8 PIRA members involved

bull Although the RUC base was wrecked and bombed there were no RUC or SAS casualties and it was the PIRArsquos greatest loss of life in a single incident during the Troubles

British Army Lynx Shootdown 20 March 1994

The PIRA Shoots Down a Helicopter

bull Using the previously mentioned Barrack-Buster homemade mortar PIRA insurgents were able to fire on a British helicopter that was in the process of landing whilst hiding behind a hay bail from around 150 yards out

bull The helicopter was hit with the mortar shell around 100 feet above the ground but the pilot was able to successfully crash-land the helicopter and escape before its propane tanks exploded There were no casualties but the attack was a major propaganda coup for the PIRA

1996 Manchester Bombing

The PIRA Destroys Manchester

bull On Saturday 15 June 1996 the PIRA sent in telephoned warnings and 90 minutes later detonated a 3300lb fertilizer-based truck bomb in the heart of Manchester City Centre the biggest bomb detonated in Great Britain during peacetime The bomb killed nobody due to previous warnings but led to 212 non-fatal injuries and essentially destroyed Manchester City Centre leaving approximately 700 million pounds ($12bn) worth of damage in its wake

Omagh Bombing 1998

Last Great Deadly Attack of the Troubles

bull Perpetrated by a Provisional IRA splinter group that was rejecting the peace process calling themselves the ldquoReal IRArdquo the 510lb fertilizer-based bomb was placed on main street in the town of Omagh Northern Ireland Warnings were called in approximately 30 minutes before the bombing but they were inaccurate and police ended up moving more civilians towards the bomb which ended up killing 29 people and causing over 300 non-fatal injuries This was the highest death toll from a single incident during the Troubles

bull It received universal outrage and was condemned even by the PIRA and its political wing Sinn Fein It spurred on the Northern Ireland peace process and the RIRA apologized and called a ceasefire several days after

The Good Friday Agreement and Northern Ireland Peace Process

Beginningsbull Following the 1981 Hunger Strikes Irish republicans began to

increasingly look towards politics rather than violence as a means of achieving their aims Sinn Fein gaelic for ldquoWe Ourselvesrdquo was a fiercely Irish Republican political party which led by the Machiavellian former PIRA leader and Maze inmate Gerry Adams began to push for a more peaceful solution to the Troubles in Northern Ireland

bull It became apparent by the late 1990s that although the PIRA was not losing a war against the British establishment it would be impossible to truly lsquowin the fightrsquo through violence and that any further terrorism would serve not to achieve any real political aim but only to prolong and continue suffering and violence in Northern Ireland and that politics was a much better way of achieving Republican aims

Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein former PIRA Belfast Brigade OC

Good Friday Agreement 1998

bull The Peace Process began in 1994 and included intermittent terrorist ceasefires and political negotiations between the major Irish republican and British unionist parties and culminated on April 10 1998 when the Good Friday Agreement was signed

PM Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern Sign the GFA

GFA Mandatesbull That Northern Ireland was to remain British until a majority of people in Northern

Ireland and the southern Republic of Ireland wanted otherwise bull The creation of an entirely new far less sectarian and religiously diverse Northern

Irish local governmentbull The decommissioning of arms from terrorist groups on both the unionist and

nationalist side of the political divide (ultimately successful all arms decommissioned by 2005)

bull Mutual respect and civil rights between Catholics and Protestants bull The reduction and eventual elimination of British troops in Northern Ireland

(ultimately successful all troops withdrawn by 2005)bull Eventual early prison release for all individuals imprisoned for terrorist offenses as

long as they were apart of a terrorist group that was decommissioning in accordance with the GFA

bull Disbandment of the RUC police service and the installation of the new Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) which was required to be at least 50 Catholic

Northern Ireland Today

Still Conflict But No Warbull Since the complete decommissioning of the arms and

disbandment of the PIRA INLA UDAUFF and UVF due to the Good Friday Agreement there is nowhere near the amount of violence in Northern Ireland or Belfast as there was 20 years ago There are no more weekly bombings and riots and no more British troops patrolling Catholic areas in armored vehicles

bull Despite this there are still occasional riots and clashes with the PSNI several times a year specifically on dates of great historical significance to the Catholic or Protestant communities and there is still a deep distrust and even hatred between many Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland although that continues to change with time

Catholic Slum of Ardoyne Belfast July 2011

Splinter Groups

bull Many former PIRA or UDA terrorists have now taken to organized crime for purely profiteering purposes but are no longer involved in substantial violence or any political-based terrorism

bull Splinter groups such as the Real IRA and Continuity IRA in Catholic communities and the Orange Volunteers and Red Hand Commandos in Protestant communities still conduct occasional violence towards Police and civilians in Northern Ireland but are all rather small poorly armed and poorly funded groups that pose nowhere near the threat that terrorist groups in the 80s and 90s did in Northern Ireland

Herersquos To A Brighter Future in Northern Ireland

Works Citedbull httpwwwbbccoukhistorytroublesbull httpcainulstacukbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiProvisional_Irish_Republican_Armybull httpenwikipediaorgwikiThe_Troublesbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiUlster_Defence_Associationbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiUlster_Volunteer_Forcebull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_National_Liberation_Armybull ldquoA Secret History of the IRArdquo by Ed Moloney ndashWW Norton amp Company Reprint 2003bull ldquoVoices From The Grave Two Menrsquos War in Irelandrdquo by Ed Moloney ndash Public Affairs 2010bull ldquoFifty Dead Men Walkingrdquo by Martin McGartland ndash John Blake 2009bull httpwwwinfopleasecomspotnorthireland1htmlbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_Civil_Warbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_War_of_Independencebull httpenwikipediaorgwiki1981_Irish_hunger_strikebull httpenwikipediaorgwikiDirectory_of_the_Northern_Ireland_Troublesbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiGood_Friday_Agreementbull httpswwwmi5govukhomethe-threatsterrorismnorthern-irelandrepublican-terrorist-groupshtmlbull httpswwwmi5govukhomethe-threatsterrorismnorthern-irelandprovisional-irish-republican-army-

pirahtmlbull httpnewsbbccoukhienglishstaticnorthern_irelandunderstandingeventshunger_strikestm

  • The Troubles
  • Brief Overview
  • 30 Years of Conflict
  • Slide 4
  • Background
  • The Irish War of Independence
  • Slide 7
  • Anglo-Irish Treaty (signed 6 December 1921)
  • Irish Civil War
  • 1922-1966 Ireland
  • The Civil Rights Movement
  • Slide 12
  • Slide 13
  • Objectives of the Civil Rights Movement
  • The 1969 Northern Ireland Riots ndashThe Troubles Begin
  • Culmination of Tension
  • No-Go Areas
  • No-Go Areas (2)
  • Early 1970sndash The Rise of the Provisional IRA
  • The IRA Split
  • Rise of the UVF and Loyalist Terror Groups
  • Beginnings
  • UVF Statement 21 May 1964
  • The Paramilitaries
  • Irish RepublicansCatholics
  • The Provisional IRA
  • IRA Statement Late 80s
  • Statistics
  • RecruitmentFunding
  • Weaponry
  • Weaponry (2)
  • Slide 32
  • Mortars and IEDs
  • EOD Officer Approaches PIRA Car Bomb
  • The Barrack Buster
  • Vigilantism
  • Slide 37
  • Slide 38
  • Policy on Informants
  • Terrorist Activities
  • Terrorist Activities (continued)
  • The INLA
  • Statistics (2)
  • Ideology
  • Terrorist Activities (2)
  • Internal Feuds
  • Slide 47
  • British LoyalistsProtestants
  • The UDAUFF
  • Former UFF Member
  • Statistics (3)
  • Ideology (2)
  • Terrorist Activities (3)
  • Slide 54
  • Organized Crime
  • The UVF
  • Statistics (4)
  • Ideology (3)
  • Terrorist Activities (4)
  • The Shankhill Butchers
  • Weaponry (3)
  • Slide 62
  • Organized Crime (2)
  • Major Incidents 1969-1998
  • Bloody Sunday 30 January 1972
  • Massacre on the Bogside
  • Bloody Friday 21 July 1972
  • A City Under Siege
  • Dublin and Monaghan Bombings 17 May 1974
  • Deadliest Attack of the Troubles
  • Warrenpoint Ambush 27 August 1979
  • Roadside IEDs
  • Summer of 1981 Irish Hunger Strikes
  • A Defining Moment for the Republican Cause
  • The Five Demands
  • Previous Protests
  • Dirty Protesters
  • Thatcherrsquos Response
  • Ten Strikers Die
  • Bobby Sands
  • Reaction to Sandsrsquo Death
  • Conclusion
  • 1983 The Maze Prison Escape
  • The ldquoGreat Escaperdquo
  • 12 October 1984 Brighton Hotel Bombing
  • The PIRA Nearly Gets Thatcher
  • Loughgall Ambush 8 May 1987
  • The SAS Strikes
  • British Army Lynx Shootdown 20 March 1994
  • The PIRA Shoots Down a Helicopter
  • 1996 Manchester Bombing
  • The PIRA Destroys Manchester
  • Omagh Bombing 1998
  • Last Great Deadly Attack of the Troubles
  • The Good Friday Agreement and Northern Ireland Peace Process
  • Beginnings (2)
  • Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein former PIRA Belfast Brigade OC
  • Good Friday Agreement 1998
  • PM Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern Sign the GFA
  • GFA Mandates
  • Northern Ireland Today
  • Still Conflict But No War
  • Catholic Slum of Ardoyne Belfast July 2011
  • Splinter Groups
  • Herersquos To A Brighter Future in Northern Ireland
  • Works Cited
Page 33: The Troubles, 1969-1998

Policy on Informantsbull In an effort to stamp out collusion with the British forces and informants on the

IRA the IRA was responsible for torturing and killing several accused Catholic civilians throughout the conflict

bull Investigations into collusion infiltration and informants were carried out by the Internal Security Unit of the IRA colloquially known as the ldquoNutting Squadrdquo

bull The ISU would carry out debriefings of IRA prisoners upon their release from British detention so as to discover whether or not they had lsquocrackedrsquo and released information to British interrogators

bull Typical ISU torture techniques on those accused of informing included drowning genitalnipple mutilation electrocution with livewires pouring kerosene on the accusedrsquos legs before setting fire to them and branding with hot irons Informants were always killed afterwards with a bullet through the back of the head

bull Of the 18 ldquoDisappearedrdquo accused informants that were abducted and executed by the IRA during the Troubles only 10 bodies have been found

bull Martin McGartland was an IRA informant who was estimated to have saved 50 lives in the conflict before he was discovered and abducted by the ISU He escaped and lives today in seclusion The film ldquo50 Dead Men Walkingrdquo is based on his exploits and is an excellent realistic non-romanticized take on the Troubles in Northern Ireland

Terrorist Activitiesbull Common tactics included breaking into the homes of off-duty RUC police

officers and murdering them in their beds or setting booby-trap bombs underneath RUC police officersrsquo cars and unionist politiciansrsquo cars so that they would blow up as the engine was started RUC men were typically targeted when they were off-duty and many were shot dead in front of their families The PIRA would also impersonate innocent Catholic civilians call the police to report an emergency and ambush the police from hidden positions when they arrived at the stated address (another reason the RUC was hesitant to go into Catholic neighborhoods during this period)

bull Most notorious for their bombings they would typically park car bombs in predominately Protestant communities call in the bomb threat so that the area would be evacuated and an EOD squad would arrive to dismantle it the bomb would then be detonated with hopes of killing an EOD officer and destroying Protestant housing tenements

bull The PIRA rarely intentionally targeted civilians especially in the 80srsquo and 90srsquo but were involved in the bombings of several Protestant-owned pubs during the 1970s in response to loyalist terrorist groups bombing Catholic-owned pubs They also carried out the Kingsmill massacre in 1976 in which eleven Protestant workmen that were traveling on a minibus were held up by the IRA and all individually executed in response to the execution of six Catholic civilians by the UVF the night before

Terrorist Activities (continued)bull Other activities included engaging in firefights with British squadrons as

they patrolled the countrysidestreets of urban areas sniper attacks on RUC or British Army patrolscheckpoints planting landmines along British foot patrol routes in rural areas planting roadside IEDs along British convoy routes and bombing ferries and buses containing on-or-off duty British soldiers

bull The notorious ldquohuman bombrdquo technique in which civilians or off-duty members of the British security forces were kidnapped and then forced to drive car bombs into British military targets ndash such as checkpoints and Army bases ndash after the PIRA had placed their familiesrsquo lives under threat

bull Inciting riots and providing Catholic youths with molotov cocktails (gasoline bombs) during such riots so as to maximize public disorder and destruction was also an almost daily IRA activity in Catholic communities in urban Northern Ireland

The INLA

Statistics

bull Suffered 33 casualtiesbull Killed 46 members of the British Security Forcesbull Killed 2 members of the Irish Security Forcesbull Killed 39 civiliansbull Killed 3 civilian political activistsbull Killed 16 members of rival Republican terror

groupsbull Killed 7 members of Loyalist terror groups

Ideology

bull Founded by Seamus Costello in 1974 as the military wing of the Irish Republican Socialist Party

bull Shared similar goals to the Provisional IRA but far more socialist in ideology INLA wanted a socialist united Irish republic and blamed class struggles for many of the problems in Northern Ireland whereas the PIRA simply wanted a united Irish republic and had little interest in class struggle or economics

bull Whereas the PIRA was almost exclusively Catholic the INLA had some Protestant members most of whom were involved for purely socialist reasons

Terrorist Activitiesbull Although far less powerful and bold than the PIRA the INLA

nevertheless presented a potent terrorist threat to the United Kingdom during the Troubles

bull Similar tactics to the IRA car bombings shooting off-duty police and soldiers dead and high-profile assassinations

bull Their most high-profile attacks included the car bomb assassination of Airey Neave one of Margaret Thatcherrsquos closest political supporters in 1979 the murder of infamous Loyalist terror leader Billy Wright (who was murdered by INLA inmates in a British political prison in 1997) and the Ballykelley Disco Bombing in 1982 in which the INLA bombed a disco-club frequented by off-duty British soldiers managing to kill 11 of them as well as 6 civilians as well as destroying the disco

Internal Feuds

bull A split in 1986 led the INLA to split into the INLA and the IPLO or Irish Peoplersquos Liberation Organization based on IPLO membersrsquo perceived lack of political motivation and heavy involvement in drug dealing and criminality

bull There were several retaliatory killings between the two groups that persisted until 1992 when the PIRA had enough of the IPLOrsquos involvement in drug dealing in Catholic areas of Belfast and on 31 October 1992 virtually destroyed the entire organization in one night with a series of raids killings and kneecappings that killed or crippled the majority of the grouprsquos members

British LoyalistsProtestants

The UDAUFF

Former UFF Member

>

Statistics

bull Suffered 89 casualtiesbull Killed 197 civiliansbull Killed 12 civilian political activistsbull Killed 37 members of rival loyalist terror

groupsbull Killed 11 members of republican terror groupsbull Killed 3 members of the British Security Forces

Ideology

bull The UDA or Ulster Defense Association and its military wing the Ulster Freedom Fighters (UFF) was a loyalist protestant terror squad that targeted PIRA and INLA members as well as general Catholic civilians in bombings and shootings throughout Northern Ireland

bull It pledged to end its campaign of violence whenever the IRA set down its arms yet should the UK government appease the IRA and grant a 32-county Irish Republic the UDA pledged to act as ldquothe IRA in reverserdquo

Terrorist Activitiesbull The UDA saw itself as a militia defending upstanding protestant loyalist

communities from dangerous and lower-class Catholics that were disrupting the status quo in Northern Ireland They pledged primarily to target IRA men but ended up killing a majority of Catholic civilians during the Troubles They were also known to intimidate and exile known Catholic families from predominately-Protestant communities in Belfast and other urban areas

bull Drive-by shootings shooting up or planting bombs in predominately-Catholic pubs and bars and jumping brutally beating andor kneecapping Catholic civilians were all frequent tactics

bull The UDA discreetly worked in collusion with the RUC and other British security agencies so as to track down and assassinate known IRA members They would also patrol Protestant neighborhoods alongside British soldiers at the height of the Troubles Many RUC police officers and prison guards were also UDA members

bull The UDA alongside many other loyalist paramilitaries benefitted from the import of several arms shipments from Lebanese arms dealers in the early 1970s including rocket launchers 200+ AK-47 Rifles 90+ handguns and over 400 grenades They also received various weapons such as the uzi submachine gun and explosive devices from arms dealers in the Soviet bloc in the 1980s

Organized Crime

bull The UDA and its members were also heavily involved in drug dealing from the street level to wholesale purchase primarily in MDMA and cannabis throughout the Troubles

bull Protection racketeering and money laundering were also common amongst the UDA in protestant communities

bull However should a member of a UDA-ran community begin stealing or dealing drugs without UDA consent he was abruptly branded as ldquoanti-socialrdquo and either killed or kneecapped

The UVF

Statistics

bull Suffered unknown number of casualtiesbull Killed 412 civiliansbull Killed 11 civilian political activistsbull Killed 21 members of republican terror groupsbull Killed 42 members of rival loyalist terror

groupsbull Killed 6 members of the Security Forces

Ideology

bull Similar to the UDAUFF the Ulster Volunteer Forcersquos primary aim was to combat Irish republicanism in Northern Ireland primarily the PIRA They wanted Northern Ireland to remain in the UK

Terrorist Activitiesbull The majority of UVF victims were Catholic civilians

many of whom were killed at random These attacks were intended to demoralize the IRA as the IRA drew most of its support from the Catholic community

bull Planting bombs in predominately-Catholic pubs or simply residential areas was a very frequent UVF tactic and in 1973 they detonated more bombs in Northern Ireland than the UDA and the PIRA combined Assassinations mass shootings booby-trap car bombs and kidnappings were also frequent UVF activities

The Shankhill Butchers

bull The ldquoShankhill Butchersrdquo were a notorious offshoot UVF group known for abducting and literally slitting the throats of Catholic civilians and rival loyalist terror groups in the late 1970s They were led by Lenny Murphy (who was eventually imprisoned and upon his release of a 4-year stint murdered by the PIRA) and killed 23 people most of whom were Catholic civilians Many experts liken the Shankhill Butchers more to a group of serial killers than to politically or even ethnically-motivated murderers

bull The Butchers were all eventually all either imprisoned killed by the PIRA or both

Weaponrybull The UVF received the majority of its weaponry in the late 1970s

from Armscor an apartheid-South Africa state-owned arms company which in defiance of various UN sanctions and embargoes sold them to the UVF

bull Weapons were thought to consist ofbull 200 Czech SA vz 58 Assault Riflesbull 90 Browning Pistolsbull 500 RGD-5 Frag Grenadesbull 30000 rounds of ammunitionbull 12 RPG-7 Rocket Launchers and 150+ Rocketsbull The UVF also began using the illegally-obtained mining explosive

Powergel in the early 1990s

Organized Crime

bull The UVF was also heavily involved in organized crime including protection racketeering and drug smugglingdealing including cannabis MDMA cocaine and amphetamines Bank robberies were also very frequent in the 1970s

Major Incidents 1969-1998

Bloody Sunday 30 January 1972

Massacre on the Bogsidebull In 1972 during a large scale but peaceful civil-rights march in the

troubled predominately Catholic neighborhood of Bogside in Derry 26 unarmed civil rights marchers were shot by members of the British Army 14 of whom were killed Five of those shot were shot in the back

bull After several inquiries into the incident there was found to have been no justifiable provocation from the protestors and no shots fired from the protestors during the march The massacre was conducted in full view of the public and the press

bull The PM David Cameron eventually issued a formal apology to the victims and victimsrsquo families of the massacre after several investigations failed to reveal any justifiable provocation for the massacre

bull The massacre sky-rocketed PIRA membership and recruitment as public perception of the British Army in Catholic communities in Northern Ireland reached an all-time low

Bloody Friday 21 July 1972

A City Under Siege

bull On 21 July 1972 the PIRA detonated 26 bombs in the space of 80 minutes in Belfast destroying banks bridges electrical substations Protestant housing tenements gasoline stations and private garages

bull Although warnings were called in at least 30 minutes prior to each bomb the amount of bombs exploding and the addition of multiple hoax warnings at the same time led to the Security Forces being unable to evacuate all the areas in time 11 people were killed and 130 were injured many of them horrifically mutilated Of those injured 77 were women or children

Dublin and Monaghan Bombings 17 May 1974

Deadliest Attack of the Troubles

bull Perpetrated by the UVF in the southern Republic of Ireland three car bombs exploded in Dublin during rush hour and another exploded in Monaghan around 90 minutes later

bull 33 civilians and a full-term unborn child were killed in the bombing while nearly 300 were injured The UVF did not claim responsibility for the bombings until 1993

bull The majority of those killed were young women although the age range of those killed ranged from 5 months old to 80 years old

Warrenpoint Ambush 27 August 1979

Roadside IEDsbull In the southern part of County Armagh Northern Ireland a predominately-

Catholic rural region and former PIRA stronghold right on the border with the southern Republic of Ireland a British troop convoy was hit with a remote-control detonated roadside 500lb truck-bomb and destroyed instantly killing 6 troops The surviving soldiers then wrongly believed they were under sniper fire from the other side of the Irish border and began firing at civilians immediately after the bombing killing 1 and injuring another

bull 32 minutes after the first bombing the IRA used its knowledge of how the British reacted to bombings to correctly predict that they would set up an incident-command point in a nearby gatehouse Unfortunately for the British there was a second 800lb fertilizer bomb planted near the gatehouse that when detonated killed 12 other soldiers who were responding to the initial bomb

bull It was the deadliest single attack on the British Army during the Troubles and a highly successful attack for the PIRA

Summer of 1981 Irish Hunger Strikes

A Defining Moment for the Republican Cause

bull Beginning on 1 March 1981 led by Bobby Sands 7 PIRA and 3 INLA inmates at the notorious ldquoMazerdquo prison began to refuse food until Margaret Thatcher PM of Great Britain at that time began to recognize terrorist prisoners as political prisoners and allowed them their ldquoFive Demandsrdquo

The Five Demands

bull The right to not wear a prison uniformbull The right to not do prison workbull The right of free association with other

prisoners and to organize in educational and recreational pursuits

bull Full restoration of remission lost through any protests towards these demands

Previous Protestsbull The Maze prison was a very high-security and low-quality prison that

housed almost all PIRA prisoners during the Troubles It was run in a very ethically questionable fashion with frequent beatings and borderline-torture techniques used on Republican prisoners and extremely poor living conditions for prisoners Many Maze prison guards were members of the UDAUVF or had strong connections with one of the two groups as well

bull Massive peaceful protests and marches by Irish republicans outside of the Maze Prison proved unsuccessful in attaining political status for republican prisoners as well as previous inmate protests in 1980 including non-fatal hunger strikes inmates refusing to wear prison uniforms and thus living in their cells naked and prisoners refusing to leave their cells to go to the bathroom until their requests had been granted (they therefore urinated and defecated in their cells and spread their excrement across their cell walls in what was known as the ldquoDirty Protestrdquo)

Dirty Protesters

Thatcherrsquos Response

bull ldquoThose terrorists will carry their determination to disrupt society to any lengths Once again we have a hunger strike in the Maze Prison in the quest for what they call lsquopolitical statusrsquo There is no such thing as political murder political bombing or political violence There is only criminal murder criminal bombing and criminal violence We will not compromise on this There will be no political statusrdquo

Ten Strikers Diebull Bobby Sands the leader of the strike was imprisoned as a PIRA member

on charges of firearm possession and in connection with the bombing of a furniture store He was the first to die after 66 days of not eating Sands was elected to a seat in Parliament whilst on Hunger Strike

bull Following Sandsrsquo death there were riots bus-burnings and attacks on the British embassy in the southern Republic of Ireland there were massive demonstrations in France and Italy a tomato was thrown as Queen Elizabeth II by demonstrators in Oslo and there were massive riots and civil disorder all over the streets of Belfast The South African ANC and (at the time) terrorist Nelson Mandela expressed their support for the PIRA and the hunger strikers (Mandela himself claimed he was directly inspired by Sands to undertake hunger strikes against the Apartheid government in South Africa) as well as the Palestine Liberation Organization a middle-eastern terror group

bull Over 100000 attended Sandsrsquo funeral

Bobby Sands

ldquoOur revenge will be the laughter of our childrenrdquo

Reaction to Sandsrsquo Death

>

Conclusion

bull The Hunger Strike was eventually called off after 10 strikers including Sands had died

bull James Prior newly installed secretary of state of Northern Ireland granted the prisoners partial concessions all of the Five Demands except for the right to not do prison work Margaret Thatcher refused to budge on political status

bull The Hunger Strikes opened a new way for the PIRA to pursue its objectives politically whereas previously it had seen violence as the only solution to the plight of Irish nationalists in Northern Ireland

1983 The Maze Prison Escape

The ldquoGreat Escaperdquo

bull Using smuggled-in guns and knives 38 PIRA prisoners who had been convicted of offenses ranging from murder to causing explosions escaped from one of the most high-security prisons in Europe They completely took over the H7 prison block and took their prison guards hostage before escaping in a food supply truck Several prison guards were shot and stabbed but only one died of a heart attack during the escape

bull Fifteen escapees were recaptured the first day with four more captured over the next two days following the breakout The remaining 19 were transported to PIRA strongholds and given the option to either rejoin the IRArsquos cause or be transported to the United States to live under a new identity

12 October 1984 Brighton Hotel Bombing

The PIRA Nearly Gets Thatcherbull Margaret Thatcher the highly controversial far-right British PM from

1979-1990 had become a tremendously hated figure amongst the Irish nationalist community in Northern Ireland following the 1981 Hunger Strikes and for her general uncompromising stand on Irish republicanism

bull PIRA man Patrick Magee stayed at the Brighton Hotel from the 14-17 September 1984 planting a 20-lb bomb under his bath

bull Thatcher was staying at the Brighton Hotel for a political conference and was still up at 254AM on 12 October when the bomb was detonated The bomb decimated her bathroom but left the bedroom and sitting room of her suite largely unscathed

bull The PIRA statement to Thatcher afterwards was ldquoToday we were unlucky But remember we only have to be lucky once You will have to be lucky alwaysrdquo

Loughgall Ambush 8 May 1987

The SAS Strikes

bull A botched attack on Loughgall Villagersquos RUC Police Base in which the PIRA drove a backhoe into the fortified base and ran away to detonate the bomb that was inside of the backhoe went wrong as the SAS the British Special Forces had prior knowledge of the attack and quickly dispatched the 8 PIRA members involved

bull Although the RUC base was wrecked and bombed there were no RUC or SAS casualties and it was the PIRArsquos greatest loss of life in a single incident during the Troubles

British Army Lynx Shootdown 20 March 1994

The PIRA Shoots Down a Helicopter

bull Using the previously mentioned Barrack-Buster homemade mortar PIRA insurgents were able to fire on a British helicopter that was in the process of landing whilst hiding behind a hay bail from around 150 yards out

bull The helicopter was hit with the mortar shell around 100 feet above the ground but the pilot was able to successfully crash-land the helicopter and escape before its propane tanks exploded There were no casualties but the attack was a major propaganda coup for the PIRA

1996 Manchester Bombing

The PIRA Destroys Manchester

bull On Saturday 15 June 1996 the PIRA sent in telephoned warnings and 90 minutes later detonated a 3300lb fertilizer-based truck bomb in the heart of Manchester City Centre the biggest bomb detonated in Great Britain during peacetime The bomb killed nobody due to previous warnings but led to 212 non-fatal injuries and essentially destroyed Manchester City Centre leaving approximately 700 million pounds ($12bn) worth of damage in its wake

Omagh Bombing 1998

Last Great Deadly Attack of the Troubles

bull Perpetrated by a Provisional IRA splinter group that was rejecting the peace process calling themselves the ldquoReal IRArdquo the 510lb fertilizer-based bomb was placed on main street in the town of Omagh Northern Ireland Warnings were called in approximately 30 minutes before the bombing but they were inaccurate and police ended up moving more civilians towards the bomb which ended up killing 29 people and causing over 300 non-fatal injuries This was the highest death toll from a single incident during the Troubles

bull It received universal outrage and was condemned even by the PIRA and its political wing Sinn Fein It spurred on the Northern Ireland peace process and the RIRA apologized and called a ceasefire several days after

The Good Friday Agreement and Northern Ireland Peace Process

Beginningsbull Following the 1981 Hunger Strikes Irish republicans began to

increasingly look towards politics rather than violence as a means of achieving their aims Sinn Fein gaelic for ldquoWe Ourselvesrdquo was a fiercely Irish Republican political party which led by the Machiavellian former PIRA leader and Maze inmate Gerry Adams began to push for a more peaceful solution to the Troubles in Northern Ireland

bull It became apparent by the late 1990s that although the PIRA was not losing a war against the British establishment it would be impossible to truly lsquowin the fightrsquo through violence and that any further terrorism would serve not to achieve any real political aim but only to prolong and continue suffering and violence in Northern Ireland and that politics was a much better way of achieving Republican aims

Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein former PIRA Belfast Brigade OC

Good Friday Agreement 1998

bull The Peace Process began in 1994 and included intermittent terrorist ceasefires and political negotiations between the major Irish republican and British unionist parties and culminated on April 10 1998 when the Good Friday Agreement was signed

PM Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern Sign the GFA

GFA Mandatesbull That Northern Ireland was to remain British until a majority of people in Northern

Ireland and the southern Republic of Ireland wanted otherwise bull The creation of an entirely new far less sectarian and religiously diverse Northern

Irish local governmentbull The decommissioning of arms from terrorist groups on both the unionist and

nationalist side of the political divide (ultimately successful all arms decommissioned by 2005)

bull Mutual respect and civil rights between Catholics and Protestants bull The reduction and eventual elimination of British troops in Northern Ireland

(ultimately successful all troops withdrawn by 2005)bull Eventual early prison release for all individuals imprisoned for terrorist offenses as

long as they were apart of a terrorist group that was decommissioning in accordance with the GFA

bull Disbandment of the RUC police service and the installation of the new Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) which was required to be at least 50 Catholic

Northern Ireland Today

Still Conflict But No Warbull Since the complete decommissioning of the arms and

disbandment of the PIRA INLA UDAUFF and UVF due to the Good Friday Agreement there is nowhere near the amount of violence in Northern Ireland or Belfast as there was 20 years ago There are no more weekly bombings and riots and no more British troops patrolling Catholic areas in armored vehicles

bull Despite this there are still occasional riots and clashes with the PSNI several times a year specifically on dates of great historical significance to the Catholic or Protestant communities and there is still a deep distrust and even hatred between many Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland although that continues to change with time

Catholic Slum of Ardoyne Belfast July 2011

Splinter Groups

bull Many former PIRA or UDA terrorists have now taken to organized crime for purely profiteering purposes but are no longer involved in substantial violence or any political-based terrorism

bull Splinter groups such as the Real IRA and Continuity IRA in Catholic communities and the Orange Volunteers and Red Hand Commandos in Protestant communities still conduct occasional violence towards Police and civilians in Northern Ireland but are all rather small poorly armed and poorly funded groups that pose nowhere near the threat that terrorist groups in the 80s and 90s did in Northern Ireland

Herersquos To A Brighter Future in Northern Ireland

Works Citedbull httpwwwbbccoukhistorytroublesbull httpcainulstacukbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiProvisional_Irish_Republican_Armybull httpenwikipediaorgwikiThe_Troublesbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiUlster_Defence_Associationbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiUlster_Volunteer_Forcebull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_National_Liberation_Armybull ldquoA Secret History of the IRArdquo by Ed Moloney ndashWW Norton amp Company Reprint 2003bull ldquoVoices From The Grave Two Menrsquos War in Irelandrdquo by Ed Moloney ndash Public Affairs 2010bull ldquoFifty Dead Men Walkingrdquo by Martin McGartland ndash John Blake 2009bull httpwwwinfopleasecomspotnorthireland1htmlbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_Civil_Warbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_War_of_Independencebull httpenwikipediaorgwiki1981_Irish_hunger_strikebull httpenwikipediaorgwikiDirectory_of_the_Northern_Ireland_Troublesbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiGood_Friday_Agreementbull httpswwwmi5govukhomethe-threatsterrorismnorthern-irelandrepublican-terrorist-groupshtmlbull httpswwwmi5govukhomethe-threatsterrorismnorthern-irelandprovisional-irish-republican-army-

pirahtmlbull httpnewsbbccoukhienglishstaticnorthern_irelandunderstandingeventshunger_strikestm

  • The Troubles
  • Brief Overview
  • 30 Years of Conflict
  • Slide 4
  • Background
  • The Irish War of Independence
  • Slide 7
  • Anglo-Irish Treaty (signed 6 December 1921)
  • Irish Civil War
  • 1922-1966 Ireland
  • The Civil Rights Movement
  • Slide 12
  • Slide 13
  • Objectives of the Civil Rights Movement
  • The 1969 Northern Ireland Riots ndashThe Troubles Begin
  • Culmination of Tension
  • No-Go Areas
  • No-Go Areas (2)
  • Early 1970sndash The Rise of the Provisional IRA
  • The IRA Split
  • Rise of the UVF and Loyalist Terror Groups
  • Beginnings
  • UVF Statement 21 May 1964
  • The Paramilitaries
  • Irish RepublicansCatholics
  • The Provisional IRA
  • IRA Statement Late 80s
  • Statistics
  • RecruitmentFunding
  • Weaponry
  • Weaponry (2)
  • Slide 32
  • Mortars and IEDs
  • EOD Officer Approaches PIRA Car Bomb
  • The Barrack Buster
  • Vigilantism
  • Slide 37
  • Slide 38
  • Policy on Informants
  • Terrorist Activities
  • Terrorist Activities (continued)
  • The INLA
  • Statistics (2)
  • Ideology
  • Terrorist Activities (2)
  • Internal Feuds
  • Slide 47
  • British LoyalistsProtestants
  • The UDAUFF
  • Former UFF Member
  • Statistics (3)
  • Ideology (2)
  • Terrorist Activities (3)
  • Slide 54
  • Organized Crime
  • The UVF
  • Statistics (4)
  • Ideology (3)
  • Terrorist Activities (4)
  • The Shankhill Butchers
  • Weaponry (3)
  • Slide 62
  • Organized Crime (2)
  • Major Incidents 1969-1998
  • Bloody Sunday 30 January 1972
  • Massacre on the Bogside
  • Bloody Friday 21 July 1972
  • A City Under Siege
  • Dublin and Monaghan Bombings 17 May 1974
  • Deadliest Attack of the Troubles
  • Warrenpoint Ambush 27 August 1979
  • Roadside IEDs
  • Summer of 1981 Irish Hunger Strikes
  • A Defining Moment for the Republican Cause
  • The Five Demands
  • Previous Protests
  • Dirty Protesters
  • Thatcherrsquos Response
  • Ten Strikers Die
  • Bobby Sands
  • Reaction to Sandsrsquo Death
  • Conclusion
  • 1983 The Maze Prison Escape
  • The ldquoGreat Escaperdquo
  • 12 October 1984 Brighton Hotel Bombing
  • The PIRA Nearly Gets Thatcher
  • Loughgall Ambush 8 May 1987
  • The SAS Strikes
  • British Army Lynx Shootdown 20 March 1994
  • The PIRA Shoots Down a Helicopter
  • 1996 Manchester Bombing
  • The PIRA Destroys Manchester
  • Omagh Bombing 1998
  • Last Great Deadly Attack of the Troubles
  • The Good Friday Agreement and Northern Ireland Peace Process
  • Beginnings (2)
  • Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein former PIRA Belfast Brigade OC
  • Good Friday Agreement 1998
  • PM Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern Sign the GFA
  • GFA Mandates
  • Northern Ireland Today
  • Still Conflict But No War
  • Catholic Slum of Ardoyne Belfast July 2011
  • Splinter Groups
  • Herersquos To A Brighter Future in Northern Ireland
  • Works Cited
Page 34: The Troubles, 1969-1998

Terrorist Activitiesbull Common tactics included breaking into the homes of off-duty RUC police

officers and murdering them in their beds or setting booby-trap bombs underneath RUC police officersrsquo cars and unionist politiciansrsquo cars so that they would blow up as the engine was started RUC men were typically targeted when they were off-duty and many were shot dead in front of their families The PIRA would also impersonate innocent Catholic civilians call the police to report an emergency and ambush the police from hidden positions when they arrived at the stated address (another reason the RUC was hesitant to go into Catholic neighborhoods during this period)

bull Most notorious for their bombings they would typically park car bombs in predominately Protestant communities call in the bomb threat so that the area would be evacuated and an EOD squad would arrive to dismantle it the bomb would then be detonated with hopes of killing an EOD officer and destroying Protestant housing tenements

bull The PIRA rarely intentionally targeted civilians especially in the 80srsquo and 90srsquo but were involved in the bombings of several Protestant-owned pubs during the 1970s in response to loyalist terrorist groups bombing Catholic-owned pubs They also carried out the Kingsmill massacre in 1976 in which eleven Protestant workmen that were traveling on a minibus were held up by the IRA and all individually executed in response to the execution of six Catholic civilians by the UVF the night before

Terrorist Activities (continued)bull Other activities included engaging in firefights with British squadrons as

they patrolled the countrysidestreets of urban areas sniper attacks on RUC or British Army patrolscheckpoints planting landmines along British foot patrol routes in rural areas planting roadside IEDs along British convoy routes and bombing ferries and buses containing on-or-off duty British soldiers

bull The notorious ldquohuman bombrdquo technique in which civilians or off-duty members of the British security forces were kidnapped and then forced to drive car bombs into British military targets ndash such as checkpoints and Army bases ndash after the PIRA had placed their familiesrsquo lives under threat

bull Inciting riots and providing Catholic youths with molotov cocktails (gasoline bombs) during such riots so as to maximize public disorder and destruction was also an almost daily IRA activity in Catholic communities in urban Northern Ireland

The INLA

Statistics

bull Suffered 33 casualtiesbull Killed 46 members of the British Security Forcesbull Killed 2 members of the Irish Security Forcesbull Killed 39 civiliansbull Killed 3 civilian political activistsbull Killed 16 members of rival Republican terror

groupsbull Killed 7 members of Loyalist terror groups

Ideology

bull Founded by Seamus Costello in 1974 as the military wing of the Irish Republican Socialist Party

bull Shared similar goals to the Provisional IRA but far more socialist in ideology INLA wanted a socialist united Irish republic and blamed class struggles for many of the problems in Northern Ireland whereas the PIRA simply wanted a united Irish republic and had little interest in class struggle or economics

bull Whereas the PIRA was almost exclusively Catholic the INLA had some Protestant members most of whom were involved for purely socialist reasons

Terrorist Activitiesbull Although far less powerful and bold than the PIRA the INLA

nevertheless presented a potent terrorist threat to the United Kingdom during the Troubles

bull Similar tactics to the IRA car bombings shooting off-duty police and soldiers dead and high-profile assassinations

bull Their most high-profile attacks included the car bomb assassination of Airey Neave one of Margaret Thatcherrsquos closest political supporters in 1979 the murder of infamous Loyalist terror leader Billy Wright (who was murdered by INLA inmates in a British political prison in 1997) and the Ballykelley Disco Bombing in 1982 in which the INLA bombed a disco-club frequented by off-duty British soldiers managing to kill 11 of them as well as 6 civilians as well as destroying the disco

Internal Feuds

bull A split in 1986 led the INLA to split into the INLA and the IPLO or Irish Peoplersquos Liberation Organization based on IPLO membersrsquo perceived lack of political motivation and heavy involvement in drug dealing and criminality

bull There were several retaliatory killings between the two groups that persisted until 1992 when the PIRA had enough of the IPLOrsquos involvement in drug dealing in Catholic areas of Belfast and on 31 October 1992 virtually destroyed the entire organization in one night with a series of raids killings and kneecappings that killed or crippled the majority of the grouprsquos members

British LoyalistsProtestants

The UDAUFF

Former UFF Member

>

Statistics

bull Suffered 89 casualtiesbull Killed 197 civiliansbull Killed 12 civilian political activistsbull Killed 37 members of rival loyalist terror

groupsbull Killed 11 members of republican terror groupsbull Killed 3 members of the British Security Forces

Ideology

bull The UDA or Ulster Defense Association and its military wing the Ulster Freedom Fighters (UFF) was a loyalist protestant terror squad that targeted PIRA and INLA members as well as general Catholic civilians in bombings and shootings throughout Northern Ireland

bull It pledged to end its campaign of violence whenever the IRA set down its arms yet should the UK government appease the IRA and grant a 32-county Irish Republic the UDA pledged to act as ldquothe IRA in reverserdquo

Terrorist Activitiesbull The UDA saw itself as a militia defending upstanding protestant loyalist

communities from dangerous and lower-class Catholics that were disrupting the status quo in Northern Ireland They pledged primarily to target IRA men but ended up killing a majority of Catholic civilians during the Troubles They were also known to intimidate and exile known Catholic families from predominately-Protestant communities in Belfast and other urban areas

bull Drive-by shootings shooting up or planting bombs in predominately-Catholic pubs and bars and jumping brutally beating andor kneecapping Catholic civilians were all frequent tactics

bull The UDA discreetly worked in collusion with the RUC and other British security agencies so as to track down and assassinate known IRA members They would also patrol Protestant neighborhoods alongside British soldiers at the height of the Troubles Many RUC police officers and prison guards were also UDA members

bull The UDA alongside many other loyalist paramilitaries benefitted from the import of several arms shipments from Lebanese arms dealers in the early 1970s including rocket launchers 200+ AK-47 Rifles 90+ handguns and over 400 grenades They also received various weapons such as the uzi submachine gun and explosive devices from arms dealers in the Soviet bloc in the 1980s

Organized Crime

bull The UDA and its members were also heavily involved in drug dealing from the street level to wholesale purchase primarily in MDMA and cannabis throughout the Troubles

bull Protection racketeering and money laundering were also common amongst the UDA in protestant communities

bull However should a member of a UDA-ran community begin stealing or dealing drugs without UDA consent he was abruptly branded as ldquoanti-socialrdquo and either killed or kneecapped

The UVF

Statistics

bull Suffered unknown number of casualtiesbull Killed 412 civiliansbull Killed 11 civilian political activistsbull Killed 21 members of republican terror groupsbull Killed 42 members of rival loyalist terror

groupsbull Killed 6 members of the Security Forces

Ideology

bull Similar to the UDAUFF the Ulster Volunteer Forcersquos primary aim was to combat Irish republicanism in Northern Ireland primarily the PIRA They wanted Northern Ireland to remain in the UK

Terrorist Activitiesbull The majority of UVF victims were Catholic civilians

many of whom were killed at random These attacks were intended to demoralize the IRA as the IRA drew most of its support from the Catholic community

bull Planting bombs in predominately-Catholic pubs or simply residential areas was a very frequent UVF tactic and in 1973 they detonated more bombs in Northern Ireland than the UDA and the PIRA combined Assassinations mass shootings booby-trap car bombs and kidnappings were also frequent UVF activities

The Shankhill Butchers

bull The ldquoShankhill Butchersrdquo were a notorious offshoot UVF group known for abducting and literally slitting the throats of Catholic civilians and rival loyalist terror groups in the late 1970s They were led by Lenny Murphy (who was eventually imprisoned and upon his release of a 4-year stint murdered by the PIRA) and killed 23 people most of whom were Catholic civilians Many experts liken the Shankhill Butchers more to a group of serial killers than to politically or even ethnically-motivated murderers

bull The Butchers were all eventually all either imprisoned killed by the PIRA or both

Weaponrybull The UVF received the majority of its weaponry in the late 1970s

from Armscor an apartheid-South Africa state-owned arms company which in defiance of various UN sanctions and embargoes sold them to the UVF

bull Weapons were thought to consist ofbull 200 Czech SA vz 58 Assault Riflesbull 90 Browning Pistolsbull 500 RGD-5 Frag Grenadesbull 30000 rounds of ammunitionbull 12 RPG-7 Rocket Launchers and 150+ Rocketsbull The UVF also began using the illegally-obtained mining explosive

Powergel in the early 1990s

Organized Crime

bull The UVF was also heavily involved in organized crime including protection racketeering and drug smugglingdealing including cannabis MDMA cocaine and amphetamines Bank robberies were also very frequent in the 1970s

Major Incidents 1969-1998

Bloody Sunday 30 January 1972

Massacre on the Bogsidebull In 1972 during a large scale but peaceful civil-rights march in the

troubled predominately Catholic neighborhood of Bogside in Derry 26 unarmed civil rights marchers were shot by members of the British Army 14 of whom were killed Five of those shot were shot in the back

bull After several inquiries into the incident there was found to have been no justifiable provocation from the protestors and no shots fired from the protestors during the march The massacre was conducted in full view of the public and the press

bull The PM David Cameron eventually issued a formal apology to the victims and victimsrsquo families of the massacre after several investigations failed to reveal any justifiable provocation for the massacre

bull The massacre sky-rocketed PIRA membership and recruitment as public perception of the British Army in Catholic communities in Northern Ireland reached an all-time low

Bloody Friday 21 July 1972

A City Under Siege

bull On 21 July 1972 the PIRA detonated 26 bombs in the space of 80 minutes in Belfast destroying banks bridges electrical substations Protestant housing tenements gasoline stations and private garages

bull Although warnings were called in at least 30 minutes prior to each bomb the amount of bombs exploding and the addition of multiple hoax warnings at the same time led to the Security Forces being unable to evacuate all the areas in time 11 people were killed and 130 were injured many of them horrifically mutilated Of those injured 77 were women or children

Dublin and Monaghan Bombings 17 May 1974

Deadliest Attack of the Troubles

bull Perpetrated by the UVF in the southern Republic of Ireland three car bombs exploded in Dublin during rush hour and another exploded in Monaghan around 90 minutes later

bull 33 civilians and a full-term unborn child were killed in the bombing while nearly 300 were injured The UVF did not claim responsibility for the bombings until 1993

bull The majority of those killed were young women although the age range of those killed ranged from 5 months old to 80 years old

Warrenpoint Ambush 27 August 1979

Roadside IEDsbull In the southern part of County Armagh Northern Ireland a predominately-

Catholic rural region and former PIRA stronghold right on the border with the southern Republic of Ireland a British troop convoy was hit with a remote-control detonated roadside 500lb truck-bomb and destroyed instantly killing 6 troops The surviving soldiers then wrongly believed they were under sniper fire from the other side of the Irish border and began firing at civilians immediately after the bombing killing 1 and injuring another

bull 32 minutes after the first bombing the IRA used its knowledge of how the British reacted to bombings to correctly predict that they would set up an incident-command point in a nearby gatehouse Unfortunately for the British there was a second 800lb fertilizer bomb planted near the gatehouse that when detonated killed 12 other soldiers who were responding to the initial bomb

bull It was the deadliest single attack on the British Army during the Troubles and a highly successful attack for the PIRA

Summer of 1981 Irish Hunger Strikes

A Defining Moment for the Republican Cause

bull Beginning on 1 March 1981 led by Bobby Sands 7 PIRA and 3 INLA inmates at the notorious ldquoMazerdquo prison began to refuse food until Margaret Thatcher PM of Great Britain at that time began to recognize terrorist prisoners as political prisoners and allowed them their ldquoFive Demandsrdquo

The Five Demands

bull The right to not wear a prison uniformbull The right to not do prison workbull The right of free association with other

prisoners and to organize in educational and recreational pursuits

bull Full restoration of remission lost through any protests towards these demands

Previous Protestsbull The Maze prison was a very high-security and low-quality prison that

housed almost all PIRA prisoners during the Troubles It was run in a very ethically questionable fashion with frequent beatings and borderline-torture techniques used on Republican prisoners and extremely poor living conditions for prisoners Many Maze prison guards were members of the UDAUVF or had strong connections with one of the two groups as well

bull Massive peaceful protests and marches by Irish republicans outside of the Maze Prison proved unsuccessful in attaining political status for republican prisoners as well as previous inmate protests in 1980 including non-fatal hunger strikes inmates refusing to wear prison uniforms and thus living in their cells naked and prisoners refusing to leave their cells to go to the bathroom until their requests had been granted (they therefore urinated and defecated in their cells and spread their excrement across their cell walls in what was known as the ldquoDirty Protestrdquo)

Dirty Protesters

Thatcherrsquos Response

bull ldquoThose terrorists will carry their determination to disrupt society to any lengths Once again we have a hunger strike in the Maze Prison in the quest for what they call lsquopolitical statusrsquo There is no such thing as political murder political bombing or political violence There is only criminal murder criminal bombing and criminal violence We will not compromise on this There will be no political statusrdquo

Ten Strikers Diebull Bobby Sands the leader of the strike was imprisoned as a PIRA member

on charges of firearm possession and in connection with the bombing of a furniture store He was the first to die after 66 days of not eating Sands was elected to a seat in Parliament whilst on Hunger Strike

bull Following Sandsrsquo death there were riots bus-burnings and attacks on the British embassy in the southern Republic of Ireland there were massive demonstrations in France and Italy a tomato was thrown as Queen Elizabeth II by demonstrators in Oslo and there were massive riots and civil disorder all over the streets of Belfast The South African ANC and (at the time) terrorist Nelson Mandela expressed their support for the PIRA and the hunger strikers (Mandela himself claimed he was directly inspired by Sands to undertake hunger strikes against the Apartheid government in South Africa) as well as the Palestine Liberation Organization a middle-eastern terror group

bull Over 100000 attended Sandsrsquo funeral

Bobby Sands

ldquoOur revenge will be the laughter of our childrenrdquo

Reaction to Sandsrsquo Death

>

Conclusion

bull The Hunger Strike was eventually called off after 10 strikers including Sands had died

bull James Prior newly installed secretary of state of Northern Ireland granted the prisoners partial concessions all of the Five Demands except for the right to not do prison work Margaret Thatcher refused to budge on political status

bull The Hunger Strikes opened a new way for the PIRA to pursue its objectives politically whereas previously it had seen violence as the only solution to the plight of Irish nationalists in Northern Ireland

1983 The Maze Prison Escape

The ldquoGreat Escaperdquo

bull Using smuggled-in guns and knives 38 PIRA prisoners who had been convicted of offenses ranging from murder to causing explosions escaped from one of the most high-security prisons in Europe They completely took over the H7 prison block and took their prison guards hostage before escaping in a food supply truck Several prison guards were shot and stabbed but only one died of a heart attack during the escape

bull Fifteen escapees were recaptured the first day with four more captured over the next two days following the breakout The remaining 19 were transported to PIRA strongholds and given the option to either rejoin the IRArsquos cause or be transported to the United States to live under a new identity

12 October 1984 Brighton Hotel Bombing

The PIRA Nearly Gets Thatcherbull Margaret Thatcher the highly controversial far-right British PM from

1979-1990 had become a tremendously hated figure amongst the Irish nationalist community in Northern Ireland following the 1981 Hunger Strikes and for her general uncompromising stand on Irish republicanism

bull PIRA man Patrick Magee stayed at the Brighton Hotel from the 14-17 September 1984 planting a 20-lb bomb under his bath

bull Thatcher was staying at the Brighton Hotel for a political conference and was still up at 254AM on 12 October when the bomb was detonated The bomb decimated her bathroom but left the bedroom and sitting room of her suite largely unscathed

bull The PIRA statement to Thatcher afterwards was ldquoToday we were unlucky But remember we only have to be lucky once You will have to be lucky alwaysrdquo

Loughgall Ambush 8 May 1987

The SAS Strikes

bull A botched attack on Loughgall Villagersquos RUC Police Base in which the PIRA drove a backhoe into the fortified base and ran away to detonate the bomb that was inside of the backhoe went wrong as the SAS the British Special Forces had prior knowledge of the attack and quickly dispatched the 8 PIRA members involved

bull Although the RUC base was wrecked and bombed there were no RUC or SAS casualties and it was the PIRArsquos greatest loss of life in a single incident during the Troubles

British Army Lynx Shootdown 20 March 1994

The PIRA Shoots Down a Helicopter

bull Using the previously mentioned Barrack-Buster homemade mortar PIRA insurgents were able to fire on a British helicopter that was in the process of landing whilst hiding behind a hay bail from around 150 yards out

bull The helicopter was hit with the mortar shell around 100 feet above the ground but the pilot was able to successfully crash-land the helicopter and escape before its propane tanks exploded There were no casualties but the attack was a major propaganda coup for the PIRA

1996 Manchester Bombing

The PIRA Destroys Manchester

bull On Saturday 15 June 1996 the PIRA sent in telephoned warnings and 90 minutes later detonated a 3300lb fertilizer-based truck bomb in the heart of Manchester City Centre the biggest bomb detonated in Great Britain during peacetime The bomb killed nobody due to previous warnings but led to 212 non-fatal injuries and essentially destroyed Manchester City Centre leaving approximately 700 million pounds ($12bn) worth of damage in its wake

Omagh Bombing 1998

Last Great Deadly Attack of the Troubles

bull Perpetrated by a Provisional IRA splinter group that was rejecting the peace process calling themselves the ldquoReal IRArdquo the 510lb fertilizer-based bomb was placed on main street in the town of Omagh Northern Ireland Warnings were called in approximately 30 minutes before the bombing but they were inaccurate and police ended up moving more civilians towards the bomb which ended up killing 29 people and causing over 300 non-fatal injuries This was the highest death toll from a single incident during the Troubles

bull It received universal outrage and was condemned even by the PIRA and its political wing Sinn Fein It spurred on the Northern Ireland peace process and the RIRA apologized and called a ceasefire several days after

The Good Friday Agreement and Northern Ireland Peace Process

Beginningsbull Following the 1981 Hunger Strikes Irish republicans began to

increasingly look towards politics rather than violence as a means of achieving their aims Sinn Fein gaelic for ldquoWe Ourselvesrdquo was a fiercely Irish Republican political party which led by the Machiavellian former PIRA leader and Maze inmate Gerry Adams began to push for a more peaceful solution to the Troubles in Northern Ireland

bull It became apparent by the late 1990s that although the PIRA was not losing a war against the British establishment it would be impossible to truly lsquowin the fightrsquo through violence and that any further terrorism would serve not to achieve any real political aim but only to prolong and continue suffering and violence in Northern Ireland and that politics was a much better way of achieving Republican aims

Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein former PIRA Belfast Brigade OC

Good Friday Agreement 1998

bull The Peace Process began in 1994 and included intermittent terrorist ceasefires and political negotiations between the major Irish republican and British unionist parties and culminated on April 10 1998 when the Good Friday Agreement was signed

PM Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern Sign the GFA

GFA Mandatesbull That Northern Ireland was to remain British until a majority of people in Northern

Ireland and the southern Republic of Ireland wanted otherwise bull The creation of an entirely new far less sectarian and religiously diverse Northern

Irish local governmentbull The decommissioning of arms from terrorist groups on both the unionist and

nationalist side of the political divide (ultimately successful all arms decommissioned by 2005)

bull Mutual respect and civil rights between Catholics and Protestants bull The reduction and eventual elimination of British troops in Northern Ireland

(ultimately successful all troops withdrawn by 2005)bull Eventual early prison release for all individuals imprisoned for terrorist offenses as

long as they were apart of a terrorist group that was decommissioning in accordance with the GFA

bull Disbandment of the RUC police service and the installation of the new Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) which was required to be at least 50 Catholic

Northern Ireland Today

Still Conflict But No Warbull Since the complete decommissioning of the arms and

disbandment of the PIRA INLA UDAUFF and UVF due to the Good Friday Agreement there is nowhere near the amount of violence in Northern Ireland or Belfast as there was 20 years ago There are no more weekly bombings and riots and no more British troops patrolling Catholic areas in armored vehicles

bull Despite this there are still occasional riots and clashes with the PSNI several times a year specifically on dates of great historical significance to the Catholic or Protestant communities and there is still a deep distrust and even hatred between many Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland although that continues to change with time

Catholic Slum of Ardoyne Belfast July 2011

Splinter Groups

bull Many former PIRA or UDA terrorists have now taken to organized crime for purely profiteering purposes but are no longer involved in substantial violence or any political-based terrorism

bull Splinter groups such as the Real IRA and Continuity IRA in Catholic communities and the Orange Volunteers and Red Hand Commandos in Protestant communities still conduct occasional violence towards Police and civilians in Northern Ireland but are all rather small poorly armed and poorly funded groups that pose nowhere near the threat that terrorist groups in the 80s and 90s did in Northern Ireland

Herersquos To A Brighter Future in Northern Ireland

Works Citedbull httpwwwbbccoukhistorytroublesbull httpcainulstacukbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiProvisional_Irish_Republican_Armybull httpenwikipediaorgwikiThe_Troublesbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiUlster_Defence_Associationbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiUlster_Volunteer_Forcebull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_National_Liberation_Armybull ldquoA Secret History of the IRArdquo by Ed Moloney ndashWW Norton amp Company Reprint 2003bull ldquoVoices From The Grave Two Menrsquos War in Irelandrdquo by Ed Moloney ndash Public Affairs 2010bull ldquoFifty Dead Men Walkingrdquo by Martin McGartland ndash John Blake 2009bull httpwwwinfopleasecomspotnorthireland1htmlbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_Civil_Warbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_War_of_Independencebull httpenwikipediaorgwiki1981_Irish_hunger_strikebull httpenwikipediaorgwikiDirectory_of_the_Northern_Ireland_Troublesbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiGood_Friday_Agreementbull httpswwwmi5govukhomethe-threatsterrorismnorthern-irelandrepublican-terrorist-groupshtmlbull httpswwwmi5govukhomethe-threatsterrorismnorthern-irelandprovisional-irish-republican-army-

pirahtmlbull httpnewsbbccoukhienglishstaticnorthern_irelandunderstandingeventshunger_strikestm

  • The Troubles
  • Brief Overview
  • 30 Years of Conflict
  • Slide 4
  • Background
  • The Irish War of Independence
  • Slide 7
  • Anglo-Irish Treaty (signed 6 December 1921)
  • Irish Civil War
  • 1922-1966 Ireland
  • The Civil Rights Movement
  • Slide 12
  • Slide 13
  • Objectives of the Civil Rights Movement
  • The 1969 Northern Ireland Riots ndashThe Troubles Begin
  • Culmination of Tension
  • No-Go Areas
  • No-Go Areas (2)
  • Early 1970sndash The Rise of the Provisional IRA
  • The IRA Split
  • Rise of the UVF and Loyalist Terror Groups
  • Beginnings
  • UVF Statement 21 May 1964
  • The Paramilitaries
  • Irish RepublicansCatholics
  • The Provisional IRA
  • IRA Statement Late 80s
  • Statistics
  • RecruitmentFunding
  • Weaponry
  • Weaponry (2)
  • Slide 32
  • Mortars and IEDs
  • EOD Officer Approaches PIRA Car Bomb
  • The Barrack Buster
  • Vigilantism
  • Slide 37
  • Slide 38
  • Policy on Informants
  • Terrorist Activities
  • Terrorist Activities (continued)
  • The INLA
  • Statistics (2)
  • Ideology
  • Terrorist Activities (2)
  • Internal Feuds
  • Slide 47
  • British LoyalistsProtestants
  • The UDAUFF
  • Former UFF Member
  • Statistics (3)
  • Ideology (2)
  • Terrorist Activities (3)
  • Slide 54
  • Organized Crime
  • The UVF
  • Statistics (4)
  • Ideology (3)
  • Terrorist Activities (4)
  • The Shankhill Butchers
  • Weaponry (3)
  • Slide 62
  • Organized Crime (2)
  • Major Incidents 1969-1998
  • Bloody Sunday 30 January 1972
  • Massacre on the Bogside
  • Bloody Friday 21 July 1972
  • A City Under Siege
  • Dublin and Monaghan Bombings 17 May 1974
  • Deadliest Attack of the Troubles
  • Warrenpoint Ambush 27 August 1979
  • Roadside IEDs
  • Summer of 1981 Irish Hunger Strikes
  • A Defining Moment for the Republican Cause
  • The Five Demands
  • Previous Protests
  • Dirty Protesters
  • Thatcherrsquos Response
  • Ten Strikers Die
  • Bobby Sands
  • Reaction to Sandsrsquo Death
  • Conclusion
  • 1983 The Maze Prison Escape
  • The ldquoGreat Escaperdquo
  • 12 October 1984 Brighton Hotel Bombing
  • The PIRA Nearly Gets Thatcher
  • Loughgall Ambush 8 May 1987
  • The SAS Strikes
  • British Army Lynx Shootdown 20 March 1994
  • The PIRA Shoots Down a Helicopter
  • 1996 Manchester Bombing
  • The PIRA Destroys Manchester
  • Omagh Bombing 1998
  • Last Great Deadly Attack of the Troubles
  • The Good Friday Agreement and Northern Ireland Peace Process
  • Beginnings (2)
  • Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein former PIRA Belfast Brigade OC
  • Good Friday Agreement 1998
  • PM Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern Sign the GFA
  • GFA Mandates
  • Northern Ireland Today
  • Still Conflict But No War
  • Catholic Slum of Ardoyne Belfast July 2011
  • Splinter Groups
  • Herersquos To A Brighter Future in Northern Ireland
  • Works Cited
Page 35: The Troubles, 1969-1998

Terrorist Activities (continued)bull Other activities included engaging in firefights with British squadrons as

they patrolled the countrysidestreets of urban areas sniper attacks on RUC or British Army patrolscheckpoints planting landmines along British foot patrol routes in rural areas planting roadside IEDs along British convoy routes and bombing ferries and buses containing on-or-off duty British soldiers

bull The notorious ldquohuman bombrdquo technique in which civilians or off-duty members of the British security forces were kidnapped and then forced to drive car bombs into British military targets ndash such as checkpoints and Army bases ndash after the PIRA had placed their familiesrsquo lives under threat

bull Inciting riots and providing Catholic youths with molotov cocktails (gasoline bombs) during such riots so as to maximize public disorder and destruction was also an almost daily IRA activity in Catholic communities in urban Northern Ireland

The INLA

Statistics

bull Suffered 33 casualtiesbull Killed 46 members of the British Security Forcesbull Killed 2 members of the Irish Security Forcesbull Killed 39 civiliansbull Killed 3 civilian political activistsbull Killed 16 members of rival Republican terror

groupsbull Killed 7 members of Loyalist terror groups

Ideology

bull Founded by Seamus Costello in 1974 as the military wing of the Irish Republican Socialist Party

bull Shared similar goals to the Provisional IRA but far more socialist in ideology INLA wanted a socialist united Irish republic and blamed class struggles for many of the problems in Northern Ireland whereas the PIRA simply wanted a united Irish republic and had little interest in class struggle or economics

bull Whereas the PIRA was almost exclusively Catholic the INLA had some Protestant members most of whom were involved for purely socialist reasons

Terrorist Activitiesbull Although far less powerful and bold than the PIRA the INLA

nevertheless presented a potent terrorist threat to the United Kingdom during the Troubles

bull Similar tactics to the IRA car bombings shooting off-duty police and soldiers dead and high-profile assassinations

bull Their most high-profile attacks included the car bomb assassination of Airey Neave one of Margaret Thatcherrsquos closest political supporters in 1979 the murder of infamous Loyalist terror leader Billy Wright (who was murdered by INLA inmates in a British political prison in 1997) and the Ballykelley Disco Bombing in 1982 in which the INLA bombed a disco-club frequented by off-duty British soldiers managing to kill 11 of them as well as 6 civilians as well as destroying the disco

Internal Feuds

bull A split in 1986 led the INLA to split into the INLA and the IPLO or Irish Peoplersquos Liberation Organization based on IPLO membersrsquo perceived lack of political motivation and heavy involvement in drug dealing and criminality

bull There were several retaliatory killings between the two groups that persisted until 1992 when the PIRA had enough of the IPLOrsquos involvement in drug dealing in Catholic areas of Belfast and on 31 October 1992 virtually destroyed the entire organization in one night with a series of raids killings and kneecappings that killed or crippled the majority of the grouprsquos members

British LoyalistsProtestants

The UDAUFF

Former UFF Member

>

Statistics

bull Suffered 89 casualtiesbull Killed 197 civiliansbull Killed 12 civilian political activistsbull Killed 37 members of rival loyalist terror

groupsbull Killed 11 members of republican terror groupsbull Killed 3 members of the British Security Forces

Ideology

bull The UDA or Ulster Defense Association and its military wing the Ulster Freedom Fighters (UFF) was a loyalist protestant terror squad that targeted PIRA and INLA members as well as general Catholic civilians in bombings and shootings throughout Northern Ireland

bull It pledged to end its campaign of violence whenever the IRA set down its arms yet should the UK government appease the IRA and grant a 32-county Irish Republic the UDA pledged to act as ldquothe IRA in reverserdquo

Terrorist Activitiesbull The UDA saw itself as a militia defending upstanding protestant loyalist

communities from dangerous and lower-class Catholics that were disrupting the status quo in Northern Ireland They pledged primarily to target IRA men but ended up killing a majority of Catholic civilians during the Troubles They were also known to intimidate and exile known Catholic families from predominately-Protestant communities in Belfast and other urban areas

bull Drive-by shootings shooting up or planting bombs in predominately-Catholic pubs and bars and jumping brutally beating andor kneecapping Catholic civilians were all frequent tactics

bull The UDA discreetly worked in collusion with the RUC and other British security agencies so as to track down and assassinate known IRA members They would also patrol Protestant neighborhoods alongside British soldiers at the height of the Troubles Many RUC police officers and prison guards were also UDA members

bull The UDA alongside many other loyalist paramilitaries benefitted from the import of several arms shipments from Lebanese arms dealers in the early 1970s including rocket launchers 200+ AK-47 Rifles 90+ handguns and over 400 grenades They also received various weapons such as the uzi submachine gun and explosive devices from arms dealers in the Soviet bloc in the 1980s

Organized Crime

bull The UDA and its members were also heavily involved in drug dealing from the street level to wholesale purchase primarily in MDMA and cannabis throughout the Troubles

bull Protection racketeering and money laundering were also common amongst the UDA in protestant communities

bull However should a member of a UDA-ran community begin stealing or dealing drugs without UDA consent he was abruptly branded as ldquoanti-socialrdquo and either killed or kneecapped

The UVF

Statistics

bull Suffered unknown number of casualtiesbull Killed 412 civiliansbull Killed 11 civilian political activistsbull Killed 21 members of republican terror groupsbull Killed 42 members of rival loyalist terror

groupsbull Killed 6 members of the Security Forces

Ideology

bull Similar to the UDAUFF the Ulster Volunteer Forcersquos primary aim was to combat Irish republicanism in Northern Ireland primarily the PIRA They wanted Northern Ireland to remain in the UK

Terrorist Activitiesbull The majority of UVF victims were Catholic civilians

many of whom were killed at random These attacks were intended to demoralize the IRA as the IRA drew most of its support from the Catholic community

bull Planting bombs in predominately-Catholic pubs or simply residential areas was a very frequent UVF tactic and in 1973 they detonated more bombs in Northern Ireland than the UDA and the PIRA combined Assassinations mass shootings booby-trap car bombs and kidnappings were also frequent UVF activities

The Shankhill Butchers

bull The ldquoShankhill Butchersrdquo were a notorious offshoot UVF group known for abducting and literally slitting the throats of Catholic civilians and rival loyalist terror groups in the late 1970s They were led by Lenny Murphy (who was eventually imprisoned and upon his release of a 4-year stint murdered by the PIRA) and killed 23 people most of whom were Catholic civilians Many experts liken the Shankhill Butchers more to a group of serial killers than to politically or even ethnically-motivated murderers

bull The Butchers were all eventually all either imprisoned killed by the PIRA or both

Weaponrybull The UVF received the majority of its weaponry in the late 1970s

from Armscor an apartheid-South Africa state-owned arms company which in defiance of various UN sanctions and embargoes sold them to the UVF

bull Weapons were thought to consist ofbull 200 Czech SA vz 58 Assault Riflesbull 90 Browning Pistolsbull 500 RGD-5 Frag Grenadesbull 30000 rounds of ammunitionbull 12 RPG-7 Rocket Launchers and 150+ Rocketsbull The UVF also began using the illegally-obtained mining explosive

Powergel in the early 1990s

Organized Crime

bull The UVF was also heavily involved in organized crime including protection racketeering and drug smugglingdealing including cannabis MDMA cocaine and amphetamines Bank robberies were also very frequent in the 1970s

Major Incidents 1969-1998

Bloody Sunday 30 January 1972

Massacre on the Bogsidebull In 1972 during a large scale but peaceful civil-rights march in the

troubled predominately Catholic neighborhood of Bogside in Derry 26 unarmed civil rights marchers were shot by members of the British Army 14 of whom were killed Five of those shot were shot in the back

bull After several inquiries into the incident there was found to have been no justifiable provocation from the protestors and no shots fired from the protestors during the march The massacre was conducted in full view of the public and the press

bull The PM David Cameron eventually issued a formal apology to the victims and victimsrsquo families of the massacre after several investigations failed to reveal any justifiable provocation for the massacre

bull The massacre sky-rocketed PIRA membership and recruitment as public perception of the British Army in Catholic communities in Northern Ireland reached an all-time low

Bloody Friday 21 July 1972

A City Under Siege

bull On 21 July 1972 the PIRA detonated 26 bombs in the space of 80 minutes in Belfast destroying banks bridges electrical substations Protestant housing tenements gasoline stations and private garages

bull Although warnings were called in at least 30 minutes prior to each bomb the amount of bombs exploding and the addition of multiple hoax warnings at the same time led to the Security Forces being unable to evacuate all the areas in time 11 people were killed and 130 were injured many of them horrifically mutilated Of those injured 77 were women or children

Dublin and Monaghan Bombings 17 May 1974

Deadliest Attack of the Troubles

bull Perpetrated by the UVF in the southern Republic of Ireland three car bombs exploded in Dublin during rush hour and another exploded in Monaghan around 90 minutes later

bull 33 civilians and a full-term unborn child were killed in the bombing while nearly 300 were injured The UVF did not claim responsibility for the bombings until 1993

bull The majority of those killed were young women although the age range of those killed ranged from 5 months old to 80 years old

Warrenpoint Ambush 27 August 1979

Roadside IEDsbull In the southern part of County Armagh Northern Ireland a predominately-

Catholic rural region and former PIRA stronghold right on the border with the southern Republic of Ireland a British troop convoy was hit with a remote-control detonated roadside 500lb truck-bomb and destroyed instantly killing 6 troops The surviving soldiers then wrongly believed they were under sniper fire from the other side of the Irish border and began firing at civilians immediately after the bombing killing 1 and injuring another

bull 32 minutes after the first bombing the IRA used its knowledge of how the British reacted to bombings to correctly predict that they would set up an incident-command point in a nearby gatehouse Unfortunately for the British there was a second 800lb fertilizer bomb planted near the gatehouse that when detonated killed 12 other soldiers who were responding to the initial bomb

bull It was the deadliest single attack on the British Army during the Troubles and a highly successful attack for the PIRA

Summer of 1981 Irish Hunger Strikes

A Defining Moment for the Republican Cause

bull Beginning on 1 March 1981 led by Bobby Sands 7 PIRA and 3 INLA inmates at the notorious ldquoMazerdquo prison began to refuse food until Margaret Thatcher PM of Great Britain at that time began to recognize terrorist prisoners as political prisoners and allowed them their ldquoFive Demandsrdquo

The Five Demands

bull The right to not wear a prison uniformbull The right to not do prison workbull The right of free association with other

prisoners and to organize in educational and recreational pursuits

bull Full restoration of remission lost through any protests towards these demands

Previous Protestsbull The Maze prison was a very high-security and low-quality prison that

housed almost all PIRA prisoners during the Troubles It was run in a very ethically questionable fashion with frequent beatings and borderline-torture techniques used on Republican prisoners and extremely poor living conditions for prisoners Many Maze prison guards were members of the UDAUVF or had strong connections with one of the two groups as well

bull Massive peaceful protests and marches by Irish republicans outside of the Maze Prison proved unsuccessful in attaining political status for republican prisoners as well as previous inmate protests in 1980 including non-fatal hunger strikes inmates refusing to wear prison uniforms and thus living in their cells naked and prisoners refusing to leave their cells to go to the bathroom until their requests had been granted (they therefore urinated and defecated in their cells and spread their excrement across their cell walls in what was known as the ldquoDirty Protestrdquo)

Dirty Protesters

Thatcherrsquos Response

bull ldquoThose terrorists will carry their determination to disrupt society to any lengths Once again we have a hunger strike in the Maze Prison in the quest for what they call lsquopolitical statusrsquo There is no such thing as political murder political bombing or political violence There is only criminal murder criminal bombing and criminal violence We will not compromise on this There will be no political statusrdquo

Ten Strikers Diebull Bobby Sands the leader of the strike was imprisoned as a PIRA member

on charges of firearm possession and in connection with the bombing of a furniture store He was the first to die after 66 days of not eating Sands was elected to a seat in Parliament whilst on Hunger Strike

bull Following Sandsrsquo death there were riots bus-burnings and attacks on the British embassy in the southern Republic of Ireland there were massive demonstrations in France and Italy a tomato was thrown as Queen Elizabeth II by demonstrators in Oslo and there were massive riots and civil disorder all over the streets of Belfast The South African ANC and (at the time) terrorist Nelson Mandela expressed their support for the PIRA and the hunger strikers (Mandela himself claimed he was directly inspired by Sands to undertake hunger strikes against the Apartheid government in South Africa) as well as the Palestine Liberation Organization a middle-eastern terror group

bull Over 100000 attended Sandsrsquo funeral

Bobby Sands

ldquoOur revenge will be the laughter of our childrenrdquo

Reaction to Sandsrsquo Death

>

Conclusion

bull The Hunger Strike was eventually called off after 10 strikers including Sands had died

bull James Prior newly installed secretary of state of Northern Ireland granted the prisoners partial concessions all of the Five Demands except for the right to not do prison work Margaret Thatcher refused to budge on political status

bull The Hunger Strikes opened a new way for the PIRA to pursue its objectives politically whereas previously it had seen violence as the only solution to the plight of Irish nationalists in Northern Ireland

1983 The Maze Prison Escape

The ldquoGreat Escaperdquo

bull Using smuggled-in guns and knives 38 PIRA prisoners who had been convicted of offenses ranging from murder to causing explosions escaped from one of the most high-security prisons in Europe They completely took over the H7 prison block and took their prison guards hostage before escaping in a food supply truck Several prison guards were shot and stabbed but only one died of a heart attack during the escape

bull Fifteen escapees were recaptured the first day with four more captured over the next two days following the breakout The remaining 19 were transported to PIRA strongholds and given the option to either rejoin the IRArsquos cause or be transported to the United States to live under a new identity

12 October 1984 Brighton Hotel Bombing

The PIRA Nearly Gets Thatcherbull Margaret Thatcher the highly controversial far-right British PM from

1979-1990 had become a tremendously hated figure amongst the Irish nationalist community in Northern Ireland following the 1981 Hunger Strikes and for her general uncompromising stand on Irish republicanism

bull PIRA man Patrick Magee stayed at the Brighton Hotel from the 14-17 September 1984 planting a 20-lb bomb under his bath

bull Thatcher was staying at the Brighton Hotel for a political conference and was still up at 254AM on 12 October when the bomb was detonated The bomb decimated her bathroom but left the bedroom and sitting room of her suite largely unscathed

bull The PIRA statement to Thatcher afterwards was ldquoToday we were unlucky But remember we only have to be lucky once You will have to be lucky alwaysrdquo

Loughgall Ambush 8 May 1987

The SAS Strikes

bull A botched attack on Loughgall Villagersquos RUC Police Base in which the PIRA drove a backhoe into the fortified base and ran away to detonate the bomb that was inside of the backhoe went wrong as the SAS the British Special Forces had prior knowledge of the attack and quickly dispatched the 8 PIRA members involved

bull Although the RUC base was wrecked and bombed there were no RUC or SAS casualties and it was the PIRArsquos greatest loss of life in a single incident during the Troubles

British Army Lynx Shootdown 20 March 1994

The PIRA Shoots Down a Helicopter

bull Using the previously mentioned Barrack-Buster homemade mortar PIRA insurgents were able to fire on a British helicopter that was in the process of landing whilst hiding behind a hay bail from around 150 yards out

bull The helicopter was hit with the mortar shell around 100 feet above the ground but the pilot was able to successfully crash-land the helicopter and escape before its propane tanks exploded There were no casualties but the attack was a major propaganda coup for the PIRA

1996 Manchester Bombing

The PIRA Destroys Manchester

bull On Saturday 15 June 1996 the PIRA sent in telephoned warnings and 90 minutes later detonated a 3300lb fertilizer-based truck bomb in the heart of Manchester City Centre the biggest bomb detonated in Great Britain during peacetime The bomb killed nobody due to previous warnings but led to 212 non-fatal injuries and essentially destroyed Manchester City Centre leaving approximately 700 million pounds ($12bn) worth of damage in its wake

Omagh Bombing 1998

Last Great Deadly Attack of the Troubles

bull Perpetrated by a Provisional IRA splinter group that was rejecting the peace process calling themselves the ldquoReal IRArdquo the 510lb fertilizer-based bomb was placed on main street in the town of Omagh Northern Ireland Warnings were called in approximately 30 minutes before the bombing but they were inaccurate and police ended up moving more civilians towards the bomb which ended up killing 29 people and causing over 300 non-fatal injuries This was the highest death toll from a single incident during the Troubles

bull It received universal outrage and was condemned even by the PIRA and its political wing Sinn Fein It spurred on the Northern Ireland peace process and the RIRA apologized and called a ceasefire several days after

The Good Friday Agreement and Northern Ireland Peace Process

Beginningsbull Following the 1981 Hunger Strikes Irish republicans began to

increasingly look towards politics rather than violence as a means of achieving their aims Sinn Fein gaelic for ldquoWe Ourselvesrdquo was a fiercely Irish Republican political party which led by the Machiavellian former PIRA leader and Maze inmate Gerry Adams began to push for a more peaceful solution to the Troubles in Northern Ireland

bull It became apparent by the late 1990s that although the PIRA was not losing a war against the British establishment it would be impossible to truly lsquowin the fightrsquo through violence and that any further terrorism would serve not to achieve any real political aim but only to prolong and continue suffering and violence in Northern Ireland and that politics was a much better way of achieving Republican aims

Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein former PIRA Belfast Brigade OC

Good Friday Agreement 1998

bull The Peace Process began in 1994 and included intermittent terrorist ceasefires and political negotiations between the major Irish republican and British unionist parties and culminated on April 10 1998 when the Good Friday Agreement was signed

PM Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern Sign the GFA

GFA Mandatesbull That Northern Ireland was to remain British until a majority of people in Northern

Ireland and the southern Republic of Ireland wanted otherwise bull The creation of an entirely new far less sectarian and religiously diverse Northern

Irish local governmentbull The decommissioning of arms from terrorist groups on both the unionist and

nationalist side of the political divide (ultimately successful all arms decommissioned by 2005)

bull Mutual respect and civil rights between Catholics and Protestants bull The reduction and eventual elimination of British troops in Northern Ireland

(ultimately successful all troops withdrawn by 2005)bull Eventual early prison release for all individuals imprisoned for terrorist offenses as

long as they were apart of a terrorist group that was decommissioning in accordance with the GFA

bull Disbandment of the RUC police service and the installation of the new Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) which was required to be at least 50 Catholic

Northern Ireland Today

Still Conflict But No Warbull Since the complete decommissioning of the arms and

disbandment of the PIRA INLA UDAUFF and UVF due to the Good Friday Agreement there is nowhere near the amount of violence in Northern Ireland or Belfast as there was 20 years ago There are no more weekly bombings and riots and no more British troops patrolling Catholic areas in armored vehicles

bull Despite this there are still occasional riots and clashes with the PSNI several times a year specifically on dates of great historical significance to the Catholic or Protestant communities and there is still a deep distrust and even hatred between many Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland although that continues to change with time

Catholic Slum of Ardoyne Belfast July 2011

Splinter Groups

bull Many former PIRA or UDA terrorists have now taken to organized crime for purely profiteering purposes but are no longer involved in substantial violence or any political-based terrorism

bull Splinter groups such as the Real IRA and Continuity IRA in Catholic communities and the Orange Volunteers and Red Hand Commandos in Protestant communities still conduct occasional violence towards Police and civilians in Northern Ireland but are all rather small poorly armed and poorly funded groups that pose nowhere near the threat that terrorist groups in the 80s and 90s did in Northern Ireland

Herersquos To A Brighter Future in Northern Ireland

Works Citedbull httpwwwbbccoukhistorytroublesbull httpcainulstacukbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiProvisional_Irish_Republican_Armybull httpenwikipediaorgwikiThe_Troublesbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiUlster_Defence_Associationbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiUlster_Volunteer_Forcebull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_National_Liberation_Armybull ldquoA Secret History of the IRArdquo by Ed Moloney ndashWW Norton amp Company Reprint 2003bull ldquoVoices From The Grave Two Menrsquos War in Irelandrdquo by Ed Moloney ndash Public Affairs 2010bull ldquoFifty Dead Men Walkingrdquo by Martin McGartland ndash John Blake 2009bull httpwwwinfopleasecomspotnorthireland1htmlbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_Civil_Warbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_War_of_Independencebull httpenwikipediaorgwiki1981_Irish_hunger_strikebull httpenwikipediaorgwikiDirectory_of_the_Northern_Ireland_Troublesbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiGood_Friday_Agreementbull httpswwwmi5govukhomethe-threatsterrorismnorthern-irelandrepublican-terrorist-groupshtmlbull httpswwwmi5govukhomethe-threatsterrorismnorthern-irelandprovisional-irish-republican-army-

pirahtmlbull httpnewsbbccoukhienglishstaticnorthern_irelandunderstandingeventshunger_strikestm

  • The Troubles
  • Brief Overview
  • 30 Years of Conflict
  • Slide 4
  • Background
  • The Irish War of Independence
  • Slide 7
  • Anglo-Irish Treaty (signed 6 December 1921)
  • Irish Civil War
  • 1922-1966 Ireland
  • The Civil Rights Movement
  • Slide 12
  • Slide 13
  • Objectives of the Civil Rights Movement
  • The 1969 Northern Ireland Riots ndashThe Troubles Begin
  • Culmination of Tension
  • No-Go Areas
  • No-Go Areas (2)
  • Early 1970sndash The Rise of the Provisional IRA
  • The IRA Split
  • Rise of the UVF and Loyalist Terror Groups
  • Beginnings
  • UVF Statement 21 May 1964
  • The Paramilitaries
  • Irish RepublicansCatholics
  • The Provisional IRA
  • IRA Statement Late 80s
  • Statistics
  • RecruitmentFunding
  • Weaponry
  • Weaponry (2)
  • Slide 32
  • Mortars and IEDs
  • EOD Officer Approaches PIRA Car Bomb
  • The Barrack Buster
  • Vigilantism
  • Slide 37
  • Slide 38
  • Policy on Informants
  • Terrorist Activities
  • Terrorist Activities (continued)
  • The INLA
  • Statistics (2)
  • Ideology
  • Terrorist Activities (2)
  • Internal Feuds
  • Slide 47
  • British LoyalistsProtestants
  • The UDAUFF
  • Former UFF Member
  • Statistics (3)
  • Ideology (2)
  • Terrorist Activities (3)
  • Slide 54
  • Organized Crime
  • The UVF
  • Statistics (4)
  • Ideology (3)
  • Terrorist Activities (4)
  • The Shankhill Butchers
  • Weaponry (3)
  • Slide 62
  • Organized Crime (2)
  • Major Incidents 1969-1998
  • Bloody Sunday 30 January 1972
  • Massacre on the Bogside
  • Bloody Friday 21 July 1972
  • A City Under Siege
  • Dublin and Monaghan Bombings 17 May 1974
  • Deadliest Attack of the Troubles
  • Warrenpoint Ambush 27 August 1979
  • Roadside IEDs
  • Summer of 1981 Irish Hunger Strikes
  • A Defining Moment for the Republican Cause
  • The Five Demands
  • Previous Protests
  • Dirty Protesters
  • Thatcherrsquos Response
  • Ten Strikers Die
  • Bobby Sands
  • Reaction to Sandsrsquo Death
  • Conclusion
  • 1983 The Maze Prison Escape
  • The ldquoGreat Escaperdquo
  • 12 October 1984 Brighton Hotel Bombing
  • The PIRA Nearly Gets Thatcher
  • Loughgall Ambush 8 May 1987
  • The SAS Strikes
  • British Army Lynx Shootdown 20 March 1994
  • The PIRA Shoots Down a Helicopter
  • 1996 Manchester Bombing
  • The PIRA Destroys Manchester
  • Omagh Bombing 1998
  • Last Great Deadly Attack of the Troubles
  • The Good Friday Agreement and Northern Ireland Peace Process
  • Beginnings (2)
  • Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein former PIRA Belfast Brigade OC
  • Good Friday Agreement 1998
  • PM Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern Sign the GFA
  • GFA Mandates
  • Northern Ireland Today
  • Still Conflict But No War
  • Catholic Slum of Ardoyne Belfast July 2011
  • Splinter Groups
  • Herersquos To A Brighter Future in Northern Ireland
  • Works Cited
Page 36: The Troubles, 1969-1998

The INLA

Statistics

bull Suffered 33 casualtiesbull Killed 46 members of the British Security Forcesbull Killed 2 members of the Irish Security Forcesbull Killed 39 civiliansbull Killed 3 civilian political activistsbull Killed 16 members of rival Republican terror

groupsbull Killed 7 members of Loyalist terror groups

Ideology

bull Founded by Seamus Costello in 1974 as the military wing of the Irish Republican Socialist Party

bull Shared similar goals to the Provisional IRA but far more socialist in ideology INLA wanted a socialist united Irish republic and blamed class struggles for many of the problems in Northern Ireland whereas the PIRA simply wanted a united Irish republic and had little interest in class struggle or economics

bull Whereas the PIRA was almost exclusively Catholic the INLA had some Protestant members most of whom were involved for purely socialist reasons

Terrorist Activitiesbull Although far less powerful and bold than the PIRA the INLA

nevertheless presented a potent terrorist threat to the United Kingdom during the Troubles

bull Similar tactics to the IRA car bombings shooting off-duty police and soldiers dead and high-profile assassinations

bull Their most high-profile attacks included the car bomb assassination of Airey Neave one of Margaret Thatcherrsquos closest political supporters in 1979 the murder of infamous Loyalist terror leader Billy Wright (who was murdered by INLA inmates in a British political prison in 1997) and the Ballykelley Disco Bombing in 1982 in which the INLA bombed a disco-club frequented by off-duty British soldiers managing to kill 11 of them as well as 6 civilians as well as destroying the disco

Internal Feuds

bull A split in 1986 led the INLA to split into the INLA and the IPLO or Irish Peoplersquos Liberation Organization based on IPLO membersrsquo perceived lack of political motivation and heavy involvement in drug dealing and criminality

bull There were several retaliatory killings between the two groups that persisted until 1992 when the PIRA had enough of the IPLOrsquos involvement in drug dealing in Catholic areas of Belfast and on 31 October 1992 virtually destroyed the entire organization in one night with a series of raids killings and kneecappings that killed or crippled the majority of the grouprsquos members

British LoyalistsProtestants

The UDAUFF

Former UFF Member

>

Statistics

bull Suffered 89 casualtiesbull Killed 197 civiliansbull Killed 12 civilian political activistsbull Killed 37 members of rival loyalist terror

groupsbull Killed 11 members of republican terror groupsbull Killed 3 members of the British Security Forces

Ideology

bull The UDA or Ulster Defense Association and its military wing the Ulster Freedom Fighters (UFF) was a loyalist protestant terror squad that targeted PIRA and INLA members as well as general Catholic civilians in bombings and shootings throughout Northern Ireland

bull It pledged to end its campaign of violence whenever the IRA set down its arms yet should the UK government appease the IRA and grant a 32-county Irish Republic the UDA pledged to act as ldquothe IRA in reverserdquo

Terrorist Activitiesbull The UDA saw itself as a militia defending upstanding protestant loyalist

communities from dangerous and lower-class Catholics that were disrupting the status quo in Northern Ireland They pledged primarily to target IRA men but ended up killing a majority of Catholic civilians during the Troubles They were also known to intimidate and exile known Catholic families from predominately-Protestant communities in Belfast and other urban areas

bull Drive-by shootings shooting up or planting bombs in predominately-Catholic pubs and bars and jumping brutally beating andor kneecapping Catholic civilians were all frequent tactics

bull The UDA discreetly worked in collusion with the RUC and other British security agencies so as to track down and assassinate known IRA members They would also patrol Protestant neighborhoods alongside British soldiers at the height of the Troubles Many RUC police officers and prison guards were also UDA members

bull The UDA alongside many other loyalist paramilitaries benefitted from the import of several arms shipments from Lebanese arms dealers in the early 1970s including rocket launchers 200+ AK-47 Rifles 90+ handguns and over 400 grenades They also received various weapons such as the uzi submachine gun and explosive devices from arms dealers in the Soviet bloc in the 1980s

Organized Crime

bull The UDA and its members were also heavily involved in drug dealing from the street level to wholesale purchase primarily in MDMA and cannabis throughout the Troubles

bull Protection racketeering and money laundering were also common amongst the UDA in protestant communities

bull However should a member of a UDA-ran community begin stealing or dealing drugs without UDA consent he was abruptly branded as ldquoanti-socialrdquo and either killed or kneecapped

The UVF

Statistics

bull Suffered unknown number of casualtiesbull Killed 412 civiliansbull Killed 11 civilian political activistsbull Killed 21 members of republican terror groupsbull Killed 42 members of rival loyalist terror

groupsbull Killed 6 members of the Security Forces

Ideology

bull Similar to the UDAUFF the Ulster Volunteer Forcersquos primary aim was to combat Irish republicanism in Northern Ireland primarily the PIRA They wanted Northern Ireland to remain in the UK

Terrorist Activitiesbull The majority of UVF victims were Catholic civilians

many of whom were killed at random These attacks were intended to demoralize the IRA as the IRA drew most of its support from the Catholic community

bull Planting bombs in predominately-Catholic pubs or simply residential areas was a very frequent UVF tactic and in 1973 they detonated more bombs in Northern Ireland than the UDA and the PIRA combined Assassinations mass shootings booby-trap car bombs and kidnappings were also frequent UVF activities

The Shankhill Butchers

bull The ldquoShankhill Butchersrdquo were a notorious offshoot UVF group known for abducting and literally slitting the throats of Catholic civilians and rival loyalist terror groups in the late 1970s They were led by Lenny Murphy (who was eventually imprisoned and upon his release of a 4-year stint murdered by the PIRA) and killed 23 people most of whom were Catholic civilians Many experts liken the Shankhill Butchers more to a group of serial killers than to politically or even ethnically-motivated murderers

bull The Butchers were all eventually all either imprisoned killed by the PIRA or both

Weaponrybull The UVF received the majority of its weaponry in the late 1970s

from Armscor an apartheid-South Africa state-owned arms company which in defiance of various UN sanctions and embargoes sold them to the UVF

bull Weapons were thought to consist ofbull 200 Czech SA vz 58 Assault Riflesbull 90 Browning Pistolsbull 500 RGD-5 Frag Grenadesbull 30000 rounds of ammunitionbull 12 RPG-7 Rocket Launchers and 150+ Rocketsbull The UVF also began using the illegally-obtained mining explosive

Powergel in the early 1990s

Organized Crime

bull The UVF was also heavily involved in organized crime including protection racketeering and drug smugglingdealing including cannabis MDMA cocaine and amphetamines Bank robberies were also very frequent in the 1970s

Major Incidents 1969-1998

Bloody Sunday 30 January 1972

Massacre on the Bogsidebull In 1972 during a large scale but peaceful civil-rights march in the

troubled predominately Catholic neighborhood of Bogside in Derry 26 unarmed civil rights marchers were shot by members of the British Army 14 of whom were killed Five of those shot were shot in the back

bull After several inquiries into the incident there was found to have been no justifiable provocation from the protestors and no shots fired from the protestors during the march The massacre was conducted in full view of the public and the press

bull The PM David Cameron eventually issued a formal apology to the victims and victimsrsquo families of the massacre after several investigations failed to reveal any justifiable provocation for the massacre

bull The massacre sky-rocketed PIRA membership and recruitment as public perception of the British Army in Catholic communities in Northern Ireland reached an all-time low

Bloody Friday 21 July 1972

A City Under Siege

bull On 21 July 1972 the PIRA detonated 26 bombs in the space of 80 minutes in Belfast destroying banks bridges electrical substations Protestant housing tenements gasoline stations and private garages

bull Although warnings were called in at least 30 minutes prior to each bomb the amount of bombs exploding and the addition of multiple hoax warnings at the same time led to the Security Forces being unable to evacuate all the areas in time 11 people were killed and 130 were injured many of them horrifically mutilated Of those injured 77 were women or children

Dublin and Monaghan Bombings 17 May 1974

Deadliest Attack of the Troubles

bull Perpetrated by the UVF in the southern Republic of Ireland three car bombs exploded in Dublin during rush hour and another exploded in Monaghan around 90 minutes later

bull 33 civilians and a full-term unborn child were killed in the bombing while nearly 300 were injured The UVF did not claim responsibility for the bombings until 1993

bull The majority of those killed were young women although the age range of those killed ranged from 5 months old to 80 years old

Warrenpoint Ambush 27 August 1979

Roadside IEDsbull In the southern part of County Armagh Northern Ireland a predominately-

Catholic rural region and former PIRA stronghold right on the border with the southern Republic of Ireland a British troop convoy was hit with a remote-control detonated roadside 500lb truck-bomb and destroyed instantly killing 6 troops The surviving soldiers then wrongly believed they were under sniper fire from the other side of the Irish border and began firing at civilians immediately after the bombing killing 1 and injuring another

bull 32 minutes after the first bombing the IRA used its knowledge of how the British reacted to bombings to correctly predict that they would set up an incident-command point in a nearby gatehouse Unfortunately for the British there was a second 800lb fertilizer bomb planted near the gatehouse that when detonated killed 12 other soldiers who were responding to the initial bomb

bull It was the deadliest single attack on the British Army during the Troubles and a highly successful attack for the PIRA

Summer of 1981 Irish Hunger Strikes

A Defining Moment for the Republican Cause

bull Beginning on 1 March 1981 led by Bobby Sands 7 PIRA and 3 INLA inmates at the notorious ldquoMazerdquo prison began to refuse food until Margaret Thatcher PM of Great Britain at that time began to recognize terrorist prisoners as political prisoners and allowed them their ldquoFive Demandsrdquo

The Five Demands

bull The right to not wear a prison uniformbull The right to not do prison workbull The right of free association with other

prisoners and to organize in educational and recreational pursuits

bull Full restoration of remission lost through any protests towards these demands

Previous Protestsbull The Maze prison was a very high-security and low-quality prison that

housed almost all PIRA prisoners during the Troubles It was run in a very ethically questionable fashion with frequent beatings and borderline-torture techniques used on Republican prisoners and extremely poor living conditions for prisoners Many Maze prison guards were members of the UDAUVF or had strong connections with one of the two groups as well

bull Massive peaceful protests and marches by Irish republicans outside of the Maze Prison proved unsuccessful in attaining political status for republican prisoners as well as previous inmate protests in 1980 including non-fatal hunger strikes inmates refusing to wear prison uniforms and thus living in their cells naked and prisoners refusing to leave their cells to go to the bathroom until their requests had been granted (they therefore urinated and defecated in their cells and spread their excrement across their cell walls in what was known as the ldquoDirty Protestrdquo)

Dirty Protesters

Thatcherrsquos Response

bull ldquoThose terrorists will carry their determination to disrupt society to any lengths Once again we have a hunger strike in the Maze Prison in the quest for what they call lsquopolitical statusrsquo There is no such thing as political murder political bombing or political violence There is only criminal murder criminal bombing and criminal violence We will not compromise on this There will be no political statusrdquo

Ten Strikers Diebull Bobby Sands the leader of the strike was imprisoned as a PIRA member

on charges of firearm possession and in connection with the bombing of a furniture store He was the first to die after 66 days of not eating Sands was elected to a seat in Parliament whilst on Hunger Strike

bull Following Sandsrsquo death there were riots bus-burnings and attacks on the British embassy in the southern Republic of Ireland there were massive demonstrations in France and Italy a tomato was thrown as Queen Elizabeth II by demonstrators in Oslo and there were massive riots and civil disorder all over the streets of Belfast The South African ANC and (at the time) terrorist Nelson Mandela expressed their support for the PIRA and the hunger strikers (Mandela himself claimed he was directly inspired by Sands to undertake hunger strikes against the Apartheid government in South Africa) as well as the Palestine Liberation Organization a middle-eastern terror group

bull Over 100000 attended Sandsrsquo funeral

Bobby Sands

ldquoOur revenge will be the laughter of our childrenrdquo

Reaction to Sandsrsquo Death

>

Conclusion

bull The Hunger Strike was eventually called off after 10 strikers including Sands had died

bull James Prior newly installed secretary of state of Northern Ireland granted the prisoners partial concessions all of the Five Demands except for the right to not do prison work Margaret Thatcher refused to budge on political status

bull The Hunger Strikes opened a new way for the PIRA to pursue its objectives politically whereas previously it had seen violence as the only solution to the plight of Irish nationalists in Northern Ireland

1983 The Maze Prison Escape

The ldquoGreat Escaperdquo

bull Using smuggled-in guns and knives 38 PIRA prisoners who had been convicted of offenses ranging from murder to causing explosions escaped from one of the most high-security prisons in Europe They completely took over the H7 prison block and took their prison guards hostage before escaping in a food supply truck Several prison guards were shot and stabbed but only one died of a heart attack during the escape

bull Fifteen escapees were recaptured the first day with four more captured over the next two days following the breakout The remaining 19 were transported to PIRA strongholds and given the option to either rejoin the IRArsquos cause or be transported to the United States to live under a new identity

12 October 1984 Brighton Hotel Bombing

The PIRA Nearly Gets Thatcherbull Margaret Thatcher the highly controversial far-right British PM from

1979-1990 had become a tremendously hated figure amongst the Irish nationalist community in Northern Ireland following the 1981 Hunger Strikes and for her general uncompromising stand on Irish republicanism

bull PIRA man Patrick Magee stayed at the Brighton Hotel from the 14-17 September 1984 planting a 20-lb bomb under his bath

bull Thatcher was staying at the Brighton Hotel for a political conference and was still up at 254AM on 12 October when the bomb was detonated The bomb decimated her bathroom but left the bedroom and sitting room of her suite largely unscathed

bull The PIRA statement to Thatcher afterwards was ldquoToday we were unlucky But remember we only have to be lucky once You will have to be lucky alwaysrdquo

Loughgall Ambush 8 May 1987

The SAS Strikes

bull A botched attack on Loughgall Villagersquos RUC Police Base in which the PIRA drove a backhoe into the fortified base and ran away to detonate the bomb that was inside of the backhoe went wrong as the SAS the British Special Forces had prior knowledge of the attack and quickly dispatched the 8 PIRA members involved

bull Although the RUC base was wrecked and bombed there were no RUC or SAS casualties and it was the PIRArsquos greatest loss of life in a single incident during the Troubles

British Army Lynx Shootdown 20 March 1994

The PIRA Shoots Down a Helicopter

bull Using the previously mentioned Barrack-Buster homemade mortar PIRA insurgents were able to fire on a British helicopter that was in the process of landing whilst hiding behind a hay bail from around 150 yards out

bull The helicopter was hit with the mortar shell around 100 feet above the ground but the pilot was able to successfully crash-land the helicopter and escape before its propane tanks exploded There were no casualties but the attack was a major propaganda coup for the PIRA

1996 Manchester Bombing

The PIRA Destroys Manchester

bull On Saturday 15 June 1996 the PIRA sent in telephoned warnings and 90 minutes later detonated a 3300lb fertilizer-based truck bomb in the heart of Manchester City Centre the biggest bomb detonated in Great Britain during peacetime The bomb killed nobody due to previous warnings but led to 212 non-fatal injuries and essentially destroyed Manchester City Centre leaving approximately 700 million pounds ($12bn) worth of damage in its wake

Omagh Bombing 1998

Last Great Deadly Attack of the Troubles

bull Perpetrated by a Provisional IRA splinter group that was rejecting the peace process calling themselves the ldquoReal IRArdquo the 510lb fertilizer-based bomb was placed on main street in the town of Omagh Northern Ireland Warnings were called in approximately 30 minutes before the bombing but they were inaccurate and police ended up moving more civilians towards the bomb which ended up killing 29 people and causing over 300 non-fatal injuries This was the highest death toll from a single incident during the Troubles

bull It received universal outrage and was condemned even by the PIRA and its political wing Sinn Fein It spurred on the Northern Ireland peace process and the RIRA apologized and called a ceasefire several days after

The Good Friday Agreement and Northern Ireland Peace Process

Beginningsbull Following the 1981 Hunger Strikes Irish republicans began to

increasingly look towards politics rather than violence as a means of achieving their aims Sinn Fein gaelic for ldquoWe Ourselvesrdquo was a fiercely Irish Republican political party which led by the Machiavellian former PIRA leader and Maze inmate Gerry Adams began to push for a more peaceful solution to the Troubles in Northern Ireland

bull It became apparent by the late 1990s that although the PIRA was not losing a war against the British establishment it would be impossible to truly lsquowin the fightrsquo through violence and that any further terrorism would serve not to achieve any real political aim but only to prolong and continue suffering and violence in Northern Ireland and that politics was a much better way of achieving Republican aims

Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein former PIRA Belfast Brigade OC

Good Friday Agreement 1998

bull The Peace Process began in 1994 and included intermittent terrorist ceasefires and political negotiations between the major Irish republican and British unionist parties and culminated on April 10 1998 when the Good Friday Agreement was signed

PM Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern Sign the GFA

GFA Mandatesbull That Northern Ireland was to remain British until a majority of people in Northern

Ireland and the southern Republic of Ireland wanted otherwise bull The creation of an entirely new far less sectarian and religiously diverse Northern

Irish local governmentbull The decommissioning of arms from terrorist groups on both the unionist and

nationalist side of the political divide (ultimately successful all arms decommissioned by 2005)

bull Mutual respect and civil rights between Catholics and Protestants bull The reduction and eventual elimination of British troops in Northern Ireland

(ultimately successful all troops withdrawn by 2005)bull Eventual early prison release for all individuals imprisoned for terrorist offenses as

long as they were apart of a terrorist group that was decommissioning in accordance with the GFA

bull Disbandment of the RUC police service and the installation of the new Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) which was required to be at least 50 Catholic

Northern Ireland Today

Still Conflict But No Warbull Since the complete decommissioning of the arms and

disbandment of the PIRA INLA UDAUFF and UVF due to the Good Friday Agreement there is nowhere near the amount of violence in Northern Ireland or Belfast as there was 20 years ago There are no more weekly bombings and riots and no more British troops patrolling Catholic areas in armored vehicles

bull Despite this there are still occasional riots and clashes with the PSNI several times a year specifically on dates of great historical significance to the Catholic or Protestant communities and there is still a deep distrust and even hatred between many Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland although that continues to change with time

Catholic Slum of Ardoyne Belfast July 2011

Splinter Groups

bull Many former PIRA or UDA terrorists have now taken to organized crime for purely profiteering purposes but are no longer involved in substantial violence or any political-based terrorism

bull Splinter groups such as the Real IRA and Continuity IRA in Catholic communities and the Orange Volunteers and Red Hand Commandos in Protestant communities still conduct occasional violence towards Police and civilians in Northern Ireland but are all rather small poorly armed and poorly funded groups that pose nowhere near the threat that terrorist groups in the 80s and 90s did in Northern Ireland

Herersquos To A Brighter Future in Northern Ireland

Works Citedbull httpwwwbbccoukhistorytroublesbull httpcainulstacukbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiProvisional_Irish_Republican_Armybull httpenwikipediaorgwikiThe_Troublesbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiUlster_Defence_Associationbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiUlster_Volunteer_Forcebull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_National_Liberation_Armybull ldquoA Secret History of the IRArdquo by Ed Moloney ndashWW Norton amp Company Reprint 2003bull ldquoVoices From The Grave Two Menrsquos War in Irelandrdquo by Ed Moloney ndash Public Affairs 2010bull ldquoFifty Dead Men Walkingrdquo by Martin McGartland ndash John Blake 2009bull httpwwwinfopleasecomspotnorthireland1htmlbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_Civil_Warbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_War_of_Independencebull httpenwikipediaorgwiki1981_Irish_hunger_strikebull httpenwikipediaorgwikiDirectory_of_the_Northern_Ireland_Troublesbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiGood_Friday_Agreementbull httpswwwmi5govukhomethe-threatsterrorismnorthern-irelandrepublican-terrorist-groupshtmlbull httpswwwmi5govukhomethe-threatsterrorismnorthern-irelandprovisional-irish-republican-army-

pirahtmlbull httpnewsbbccoukhienglishstaticnorthern_irelandunderstandingeventshunger_strikestm

  • The Troubles
  • Brief Overview
  • 30 Years of Conflict
  • Slide 4
  • Background
  • The Irish War of Independence
  • Slide 7
  • Anglo-Irish Treaty (signed 6 December 1921)
  • Irish Civil War
  • 1922-1966 Ireland
  • The Civil Rights Movement
  • Slide 12
  • Slide 13
  • Objectives of the Civil Rights Movement
  • The 1969 Northern Ireland Riots ndashThe Troubles Begin
  • Culmination of Tension
  • No-Go Areas
  • No-Go Areas (2)
  • Early 1970sndash The Rise of the Provisional IRA
  • The IRA Split
  • Rise of the UVF and Loyalist Terror Groups
  • Beginnings
  • UVF Statement 21 May 1964
  • The Paramilitaries
  • Irish RepublicansCatholics
  • The Provisional IRA
  • IRA Statement Late 80s
  • Statistics
  • RecruitmentFunding
  • Weaponry
  • Weaponry (2)
  • Slide 32
  • Mortars and IEDs
  • EOD Officer Approaches PIRA Car Bomb
  • The Barrack Buster
  • Vigilantism
  • Slide 37
  • Slide 38
  • Policy on Informants
  • Terrorist Activities
  • Terrorist Activities (continued)
  • The INLA
  • Statistics (2)
  • Ideology
  • Terrorist Activities (2)
  • Internal Feuds
  • Slide 47
  • British LoyalistsProtestants
  • The UDAUFF
  • Former UFF Member
  • Statistics (3)
  • Ideology (2)
  • Terrorist Activities (3)
  • Slide 54
  • Organized Crime
  • The UVF
  • Statistics (4)
  • Ideology (3)
  • Terrorist Activities (4)
  • The Shankhill Butchers
  • Weaponry (3)
  • Slide 62
  • Organized Crime (2)
  • Major Incidents 1969-1998
  • Bloody Sunday 30 January 1972
  • Massacre on the Bogside
  • Bloody Friday 21 July 1972
  • A City Under Siege
  • Dublin and Monaghan Bombings 17 May 1974
  • Deadliest Attack of the Troubles
  • Warrenpoint Ambush 27 August 1979
  • Roadside IEDs
  • Summer of 1981 Irish Hunger Strikes
  • A Defining Moment for the Republican Cause
  • The Five Demands
  • Previous Protests
  • Dirty Protesters
  • Thatcherrsquos Response
  • Ten Strikers Die
  • Bobby Sands
  • Reaction to Sandsrsquo Death
  • Conclusion
  • 1983 The Maze Prison Escape
  • The ldquoGreat Escaperdquo
  • 12 October 1984 Brighton Hotel Bombing
  • The PIRA Nearly Gets Thatcher
  • Loughgall Ambush 8 May 1987
  • The SAS Strikes
  • British Army Lynx Shootdown 20 March 1994
  • The PIRA Shoots Down a Helicopter
  • 1996 Manchester Bombing
  • The PIRA Destroys Manchester
  • Omagh Bombing 1998
  • Last Great Deadly Attack of the Troubles
  • The Good Friday Agreement and Northern Ireland Peace Process
  • Beginnings (2)
  • Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein former PIRA Belfast Brigade OC
  • Good Friday Agreement 1998
  • PM Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern Sign the GFA
  • GFA Mandates
  • Northern Ireland Today
  • Still Conflict But No War
  • Catholic Slum of Ardoyne Belfast July 2011
  • Splinter Groups
  • Herersquos To A Brighter Future in Northern Ireland
  • Works Cited
Page 37: The Troubles, 1969-1998

Statistics

bull Suffered 33 casualtiesbull Killed 46 members of the British Security Forcesbull Killed 2 members of the Irish Security Forcesbull Killed 39 civiliansbull Killed 3 civilian political activistsbull Killed 16 members of rival Republican terror

groupsbull Killed 7 members of Loyalist terror groups

Ideology

bull Founded by Seamus Costello in 1974 as the military wing of the Irish Republican Socialist Party

bull Shared similar goals to the Provisional IRA but far more socialist in ideology INLA wanted a socialist united Irish republic and blamed class struggles for many of the problems in Northern Ireland whereas the PIRA simply wanted a united Irish republic and had little interest in class struggle or economics

bull Whereas the PIRA was almost exclusively Catholic the INLA had some Protestant members most of whom were involved for purely socialist reasons

Terrorist Activitiesbull Although far less powerful and bold than the PIRA the INLA

nevertheless presented a potent terrorist threat to the United Kingdom during the Troubles

bull Similar tactics to the IRA car bombings shooting off-duty police and soldiers dead and high-profile assassinations

bull Their most high-profile attacks included the car bomb assassination of Airey Neave one of Margaret Thatcherrsquos closest political supporters in 1979 the murder of infamous Loyalist terror leader Billy Wright (who was murdered by INLA inmates in a British political prison in 1997) and the Ballykelley Disco Bombing in 1982 in which the INLA bombed a disco-club frequented by off-duty British soldiers managing to kill 11 of them as well as 6 civilians as well as destroying the disco

Internal Feuds

bull A split in 1986 led the INLA to split into the INLA and the IPLO or Irish Peoplersquos Liberation Organization based on IPLO membersrsquo perceived lack of political motivation and heavy involvement in drug dealing and criminality

bull There were several retaliatory killings between the two groups that persisted until 1992 when the PIRA had enough of the IPLOrsquos involvement in drug dealing in Catholic areas of Belfast and on 31 October 1992 virtually destroyed the entire organization in one night with a series of raids killings and kneecappings that killed or crippled the majority of the grouprsquos members

British LoyalistsProtestants

The UDAUFF

Former UFF Member

>

Statistics

bull Suffered 89 casualtiesbull Killed 197 civiliansbull Killed 12 civilian political activistsbull Killed 37 members of rival loyalist terror

groupsbull Killed 11 members of republican terror groupsbull Killed 3 members of the British Security Forces

Ideology

bull The UDA or Ulster Defense Association and its military wing the Ulster Freedom Fighters (UFF) was a loyalist protestant terror squad that targeted PIRA and INLA members as well as general Catholic civilians in bombings and shootings throughout Northern Ireland

bull It pledged to end its campaign of violence whenever the IRA set down its arms yet should the UK government appease the IRA and grant a 32-county Irish Republic the UDA pledged to act as ldquothe IRA in reverserdquo

Terrorist Activitiesbull The UDA saw itself as a militia defending upstanding protestant loyalist

communities from dangerous and lower-class Catholics that were disrupting the status quo in Northern Ireland They pledged primarily to target IRA men but ended up killing a majority of Catholic civilians during the Troubles They were also known to intimidate and exile known Catholic families from predominately-Protestant communities in Belfast and other urban areas

bull Drive-by shootings shooting up or planting bombs in predominately-Catholic pubs and bars and jumping brutally beating andor kneecapping Catholic civilians were all frequent tactics

bull The UDA discreetly worked in collusion with the RUC and other British security agencies so as to track down and assassinate known IRA members They would also patrol Protestant neighborhoods alongside British soldiers at the height of the Troubles Many RUC police officers and prison guards were also UDA members

bull The UDA alongside many other loyalist paramilitaries benefitted from the import of several arms shipments from Lebanese arms dealers in the early 1970s including rocket launchers 200+ AK-47 Rifles 90+ handguns and over 400 grenades They also received various weapons such as the uzi submachine gun and explosive devices from arms dealers in the Soviet bloc in the 1980s

Organized Crime

bull The UDA and its members were also heavily involved in drug dealing from the street level to wholesale purchase primarily in MDMA and cannabis throughout the Troubles

bull Protection racketeering and money laundering were also common amongst the UDA in protestant communities

bull However should a member of a UDA-ran community begin stealing or dealing drugs without UDA consent he was abruptly branded as ldquoanti-socialrdquo and either killed or kneecapped

The UVF

Statistics

bull Suffered unknown number of casualtiesbull Killed 412 civiliansbull Killed 11 civilian political activistsbull Killed 21 members of republican terror groupsbull Killed 42 members of rival loyalist terror

groupsbull Killed 6 members of the Security Forces

Ideology

bull Similar to the UDAUFF the Ulster Volunteer Forcersquos primary aim was to combat Irish republicanism in Northern Ireland primarily the PIRA They wanted Northern Ireland to remain in the UK

Terrorist Activitiesbull The majority of UVF victims were Catholic civilians

many of whom were killed at random These attacks were intended to demoralize the IRA as the IRA drew most of its support from the Catholic community

bull Planting bombs in predominately-Catholic pubs or simply residential areas was a very frequent UVF tactic and in 1973 they detonated more bombs in Northern Ireland than the UDA and the PIRA combined Assassinations mass shootings booby-trap car bombs and kidnappings were also frequent UVF activities

The Shankhill Butchers

bull The ldquoShankhill Butchersrdquo were a notorious offshoot UVF group known for abducting and literally slitting the throats of Catholic civilians and rival loyalist terror groups in the late 1970s They were led by Lenny Murphy (who was eventually imprisoned and upon his release of a 4-year stint murdered by the PIRA) and killed 23 people most of whom were Catholic civilians Many experts liken the Shankhill Butchers more to a group of serial killers than to politically or even ethnically-motivated murderers

bull The Butchers were all eventually all either imprisoned killed by the PIRA or both

Weaponrybull The UVF received the majority of its weaponry in the late 1970s

from Armscor an apartheid-South Africa state-owned arms company which in defiance of various UN sanctions and embargoes sold them to the UVF

bull Weapons were thought to consist ofbull 200 Czech SA vz 58 Assault Riflesbull 90 Browning Pistolsbull 500 RGD-5 Frag Grenadesbull 30000 rounds of ammunitionbull 12 RPG-7 Rocket Launchers and 150+ Rocketsbull The UVF also began using the illegally-obtained mining explosive

Powergel in the early 1990s

Organized Crime

bull The UVF was also heavily involved in organized crime including protection racketeering and drug smugglingdealing including cannabis MDMA cocaine and amphetamines Bank robberies were also very frequent in the 1970s

Major Incidents 1969-1998

Bloody Sunday 30 January 1972

Massacre on the Bogsidebull In 1972 during a large scale but peaceful civil-rights march in the

troubled predominately Catholic neighborhood of Bogside in Derry 26 unarmed civil rights marchers were shot by members of the British Army 14 of whom were killed Five of those shot were shot in the back

bull After several inquiries into the incident there was found to have been no justifiable provocation from the protestors and no shots fired from the protestors during the march The massacre was conducted in full view of the public and the press

bull The PM David Cameron eventually issued a formal apology to the victims and victimsrsquo families of the massacre after several investigations failed to reveal any justifiable provocation for the massacre

bull The massacre sky-rocketed PIRA membership and recruitment as public perception of the British Army in Catholic communities in Northern Ireland reached an all-time low

Bloody Friday 21 July 1972

A City Under Siege

bull On 21 July 1972 the PIRA detonated 26 bombs in the space of 80 minutes in Belfast destroying banks bridges electrical substations Protestant housing tenements gasoline stations and private garages

bull Although warnings were called in at least 30 minutes prior to each bomb the amount of bombs exploding and the addition of multiple hoax warnings at the same time led to the Security Forces being unable to evacuate all the areas in time 11 people were killed and 130 were injured many of them horrifically mutilated Of those injured 77 were women or children

Dublin and Monaghan Bombings 17 May 1974

Deadliest Attack of the Troubles

bull Perpetrated by the UVF in the southern Republic of Ireland three car bombs exploded in Dublin during rush hour and another exploded in Monaghan around 90 minutes later

bull 33 civilians and a full-term unborn child were killed in the bombing while nearly 300 were injured The UVF did not claim responsibility for the bombings until 1993

bull The majority of those killed were young women although the age range of those killed ranged from 5 months old to 80 years old

Warrenpoint Ambush 27 August 1979

Roadside IEDsbull In the southern part of County Armagh Northern Ireland a predominately-

Catholic rural region and former PIRA stronghold right on the border with the southern Republic of Ireland a British troop convoy was hit with a remote-control detonated roadside 500lb truck-bomb and destroyed instantly killing 6 troops The surviving soldiers then wrongly believed they were under sniper fire from the other side of the Irish border and began firing at civilians immediately after the bombing killing 1 and injuring another

bull 32 minutes after the first bombing the IRA used its knowledge of how the British reacted to bombings to correctly predict that they would set up an incident-command point in a nearby gatehouse Unfortunately for the British there was a second 800lb fertilizer bomb planted near the gatehouse that when detonated killed 12 other soldiers who were responding to the initial bomb

bull It was the deadliest single attack on the British Army during the Troubles and a highly successful attack for the PIRA

Summer of 1981 Irish Hunger Strikes

A Defining Moment for the Republican Cause

bull Beginning on 1 March 1981 led by Bobby Sands 7 PIRA and 3 INLA inmates at the notorious ldquoMazerdquo prison began to refuse food until Margaret Thatcher PM of Great Britain at that time began to recognize terrorist prisoners as political prisoners and allowed them their ldquoFive Demandsrdquo

The Five Demands

bull The right to not wear a prison uniformbull The right to not do prison workbull The right of free association with other

prisoners and to organize in educational and recreational pursuits

bull Full restoration of remission lost through any protests towards these demands

Previous Protestsbull The Maze prison was a very high-security and low-quality prison that

housed almost all PIRA prisoners during the Troubles It was run in a very ethically questionable fashion with frequent beatings and borderline-torture techniques used on Republican prisoners and extremely poor living conditions for prisoners Many Maze prison guards were members of the UDAUVF or had strong connections with one of the two groups as well

bull Massive peaceful protests and marches by Irish republicans outside of the Maze Prison proved unsuccessful in attaining political status for republican prisoners as well as previous inmate protests in 1980 including non-fatal hunger strikes inmates refusing to wear prison uniforms and thus living in their cells naked and prisoners refusing to leave their cells to go to the bathroom until their requests had been granted (they therefore urinated and defecated in their cells and spread their excrement across their cell walls in what was known as the ldquoDirty Protestrdquo)

Dirty Protesters

Thatcherrsquos Response

bull ldquoThose terrorists will carry their determination to disrupt society to any lengths Once again we have a hunger strike in the Maze Prison in the quest for what they call lsquopolitical statusrsquo There is no such thing as political murder political bombing or political violence There is only criminal murder criminal bombing and criminal violence We will not compromise on this There will be no political statusrdquo

Ten Strikers Diebull Bobby Sands the leader of the strike was imprisoned as a PIRA member

on charges of firearm possession and in connection with the bombing of a furniture store He was the first to die after 66 days of not eating Sands was elected to a seat in Parliament whilst on Hunger Strike

bull Following Sandsrsquo death there were riots bus-burnings and attacks on the British embassy in the southern Republic of Ireland there were massive demonstrations in France and Italy a tomato was thrown as Queen Elizabeth II by demonstrators in Oslo and there were massive riots and civil disorder all over the streets of Belfast The South African ANC and (at the time) terrorist Nelson Mandela expressed their support for the PIRA and the hunger strikers (Mandela himself claimed he was directly inspired by Sands to undertake hunger strikes against the Apartheid government in South Africa) as well as the Palestine Liberation Organization a middle-eastern terror group

bull Over 100000 attended Sandsrsquo funeral

Bobby Sands

ldquoOur revenge will be the laughter of our childrenrdquo

Reaction to Sandsrsquo Death

>

Conclusion

bull The Hunger Strike was eventually called off after 10 strikers including Sands had died

bull James Prior newly installed secretary of state of Northern Ireland granted the prisoners partial concessions all of the Five Demands except for the right to not do prison work Margaret Thatcher refused to budge on political status

bull The Hunger Strikes opened a new way for the PIRA to pursue its objectives politically whereas previously it had seen violence as the only solution to the plight of Irish nationalists in Northern Ireland

1983 The Maze Prison Escape

The ldquoGreat Escaperdquo

bull Using smuggled-in guns and knives 38 PIRA prisoners who had been convicted of offenses ranging from murder to causing explosions escaped from one of the most high-security prisons in Europe They completely took over the H7 prison block and took their prison guards hostage before escaping in a food supply truck Several prison guards were shot and stabbed but only one died of a heart attack during the escape

bull Fifteen escapees were recaptured the first day with four more captured over the next two days following the breakout The remaining 19 were transported to PIRA strongholds and given the option to either rejoin the IRArsquos cause or be transported to the United States to live under a new identity

12 October 1984 Brighton Hotel Bombing

The PIRA Nearly Gets Thatcherbull Margaret Thatcher the highly controversial far-right British PM from

1979-1990 had become a tremendously hated figure amongst the Irish nationalist community in Northern Ireland following the 1981 Hunger Strikes and for her general uncompromising stand on Irish republicanism

bull PIRA man Patrick Magee stayed at the Brighton Hotel from the 14-17 September 1984 planting a 20-lb bomb under his bath

bull Thatcher was staying at the Brighton Hotel for a political conference and was still up at 254AM on 12 October when the bomb was detonated The bomb decimated her bathroom but left the bedroom and sitting room of her suite largely unscathed

bull The PIRA statement to Thatcher afterwards was ldquoToday we were unlucky But remember we only have to be lucky once You will have to be lucky alwaysrdquo

Loughgall Ambush 8 May 1987

The SAS Strikes

bull A botched attack on Loughgall Villagersquos RUC Police Base in which the PIRA drove a backhoe into the fortified base and ran away to detonate the bomb that was inside of the backhoe went wrong as the SAS the British Special Forces had prior knowledge of the attack and quickly dispatched the 8 PIRA members involved

bull Although the RUC base was wrecked and bombed there were no RUC or SAS casualties and it was the PIRArsquos greatest loss of life in a single incident during the Troubles

British Army Lynx Shootdown 20 March 1994

The PIRA Shoots Down a Helicopter

bull Using the previously mentioned Barrack-Buster homemade mortar PIRA insurgents were able to fire on a British helicopter that was in the process of landing whilst hiding behind a hay bail from around 150 yards out

bull The helicopter was hit with the mortar shell around 100 feet above the ground but the pilot was able to successfully crash-land the helicopter and escape before its propane tanks exploded There were no casualties but the attack was a major propaganda coup for the PIRA

1996 Manchester Bombing

The PIRA Destroys Manchester

bull On Saturday 15 June 1996 the PIRA sent in telephoned warnings and 90 minutes later detonated a 3300lb fertilizer-based truck bomb in the heart of Manchester City Centre the biggest bomb detonated in Great Britain during peacetime The bomb killed nobody due to previous warnings but led to 212 non-fatal injuries and essentially destroyed Manchester City Centre leaving approximately 700 million pounds ($12bn) worth of damage in its wake

Omagh Bombing 1998

Last Great Deadly Attack of the Troubles

bull Perpetrated by a Provisional IRA splinter group that was rejecting the peace process calling themselves the ldquoReal IRArdquo the 510lb fertilizer-based bomb was placed on main street in the town of Omagh Northern Ireland Warnings were called in approximately 30 minutes before the bombing but they were inaccurate and police ended up moving more civilians towards the bomb which ended up killing 29 people and causing over 300 non-fatal injuries This was the highest death toll from a single incident during the Troubles

bull It received universal outrage and was condemned even by the PIRA and its political wing Sinn Fein It spurred on the Northern Ireland peace process and the RIRA apologized and called a ceasefire several days after

The Good Friday Agreement and Northern Ireland Peace Process

Beginningsbull Following the 1981 Hunger Strikes Irish republicans began to

increasingly look towards politics rather than violence as a means of achieving their aims Sinn Fein gaelic for ldquoWe Ourselvesrdquo was a fiercely Irish Republican political party which led by the Machiavellian former PIRA leader and Maze inmate Gerry Adams began to push for a more peaceful solution to the Troubles in Northern Ireland

bull It became apparent by the late 1990s that although the PIRA was not losing a war against the British establishment it would be impossible to truly lsquowin the fightrsquo through violence and that any further terrorism would serve not to achieve any real political aim but only to prolong and continue suffering and violence in Northern Ireland and that politics was a much better way of achieving Republican aims

Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein former PIRA Belfast Brigade OC

Good Friday Agreement 1998

bull The Peace Process began in 1994 and included intermittent terrorist ceasefires and political negotiations between the major Irish republican and British unionist parties and culminated on April 10 1998 when the Good Friday Agreement was signed

PM Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern Sign the GFA

GFA Mandatesbull That Northern Ireland was to remain British until a majority of people in Northern

Ireland and the southern Republic of Ireland wanted otherwise bull The creation of an entirely new far less sectarian and religiously diverse Northern

Irish local governmentbull The decommissioning of arms from terrorist groups on both the unionist and

nationalist side of the political divide (ultimately successful all arms decommissioned by 2005)

bull Mutual respect and civil rights between Catholics and Protestants bull The reduction and eventual elimination of British troops in Northern Ireland

(ultimately successful all troops withdrawn by 2005)bull Eventual early prison release for all individuals imprisoned for terrorist offenses as

long as they were apart of a terrorist group that was decommissioning in accordance with the GFA

bull Disbandment of the RUC police service and the installation of the new Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) which was required to be at least 50 Catholic

Northern Ireland Today

Still Conflict But No Warbull Since the complete decommissioning of the arms and

disbandment of the PIRA INLA UDAUFF and UVF due to the Good Friday Agreement there is nowhere near the amount of violence in Northern Ireland or Belfast as there was 20 years ago There are no more weekly bombings and riots and no more British troops patrolling Catholic areas in armored vehicles

bull Despite this there are still occasional riots and clashes with the PSNI several times a year specifically on dates of great historical significance to the Catholic or Protestant communities and there is still a deep distrust and even hatred between many Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland although that continues to change with time

Catholic Slum of Ardoyne Belfast July 2011

Splinter Groups

bull Many former PIRA or UDA terrorists have now taken to organized crime for purely profiteering purposes but are no longer involved in substantial violence or any political-based terrorism

bull Splinter groups such as the Real IRA and Continuity IRA in Catholic communities and the Orange Volunteers and Red Hand Commandos in Protestant communities still conduct occasional violence towards Police and civilians in Northern Ireland but are all rather small poorly armed and poorly funded groups that pose nowhere near the threat that terrorist groups in the 80s and 90s did in Northern Ireland

Herersquos To A Brighter Future in Northern Ireland

Works Citedbull httpwwwbbccoukhistorytroublesbull httpcainulstacukbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiProvisional_Irish_Republican_Armybull httpenwikipediaorgwikiThe_Troublesbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiUlster_Defence_Associationbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiUlster_Volunteer_Forcebull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_National_Liberation_Armybull ldquoA Secret History of the IRArdquo by Ed Moloney ndashWW Norton amp Company Reprint 2003bull ldquoVoices From The Grave Two Menrsquos War in Irelandrdquo by Ed Moloney ndash Public Affairs 2010bull ldquoFifty Dead Men Walkingrdquo by Martin McGartland ndash John Blake 2009bull httpwwwinfopleasecomspotnorthireland1htmlbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_Civil_Warbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_War_of_Independencebull httpenwikipediaorgwiki1981_Irish_hunger_strikebull httpenwikipediaorgwikiDirectory_of_the_Northern_Ireland_Troublesbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiGood_Friday_Agreementbull httpswwwmi5govukhomethe-threatsterrorismnorthern-irelandrepublican-terrorist-groupshtmlbull httpswwwmi5govukhomethe-threatsterrorismnorthern-irelandprovisional-irish-republican-army-

pirahtmlbull httpnewsbbccoukhienglishstaticnorthern_irelandunderstandingeventshunger_strikestm

  • The Troubles
  • Brief Overview
  • 30 Years of Conflict
  • Slide 4
  • Background
  • The Irish War of Independence
  • Slide 7
  • Anglo-Irish Treaty (signed 6 December 1921)
  • Irish Civil War
  • 1922-1966 Ireland
  • The Civil Rights Movement
  • Slide 12
  • Slide 13
  • Objectives of the Civil Rights Movement
  • The 1969 Northern Ireland Riots ndashThe Troubles Begin
  • Culmination of Tension
  • No-Go Areas
  • No-Go Areas (2)
  • Early 1970sndash The Rise of the Provisional IRA
  • The IRA Split
  • Rise of the UVF and Loyalist Terror Groups
  • Beginnings
  • UVF Statement 21 May 1964
  • The Paramilitaries
  • Irish RepublicansCatholics
  • The Provisional IRA
  • IRA Statement Late 80s
  • Statistics
  • RecruitmentFunding
  • Weaponry
  • Weaponry (2)
  • Slide 32
  • Mortars and IEDs
  • EOD Officer Approaches PIRA Car Bomb
  • The Barrack Buster
  • Vigilantism
  • Slide 37
  • Slide 38
  • Policy on Informants
  • Terrorist Activities
  • Terrorist Activities (continued)
  • The INLA
  • Statistics (2)
  • Ideology
  • Terrorist Activities (2)
  • Internal Feuds
  • Slide 47
  • British LoyalistsProtestants
  • The UDAUFF
  • Former UFF Member
  • Statistics (3)
  • Ideology (2)
  • Terrorist Activities (3)
  • Slide 54
  • Organized Crime
  • The UVF
  • Statistics (4)
  • Ideology (3)
  • Terrorist Activities (4)
  • The Shankhill Butchers
  • Weaponry (3)
  • Slide 62
  • Organized Crime (2)
  • Major Incidents 1969-1998
  • Bloody Sunday 30 January 1972
  • Massacre on the Bogside
  • Bloody Friday 21 July 1972
  • A City Under Siege
  • Dublin and Monaghan Bombings 17 May 1974
  • Deadliest Attack of the Troubles
  • Warrenpoint Ambush 27 August 1979
  • Roadside IEDs
  • Summer of 1981 Irish Hunger Strikes
  • A Defining Moment for the Republican Cause
  • The Five Demands
  • Previous Protests
  • Dirty Protesters
  • Thatcherrsquos Response
  • Ten Strikers Die
  • Bobby Sands
  • Reaction to Sandsrsquo Death
  • Conclusion
  • 1983 The Maze Prison Escape
  • The ldquoGreat Escaperdquo
  • 12 October 1984 Brighton Hotel Bombing
  • The PIRA Nearly Gets Thatcher
  • Loughgall Ambush 8 May 1987
  • The SAS Strikes
  • British Army Lynx Shootdown 20 March 1994
  • The PIRA Shoots Down a Helicopter
  • 1996 Manchester Bombing
  • The PIRA Destroys Manchester
  • Omagh Bombing 1998
  • Last Great Deadly Attack of the Troubles
  • The Good Friday Agreement and Northern Ireland Peace Process
  • Beginnings (2)
  • Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein former PIRA Belfast Brigade OC
  • Good Friday Agreement 1998
  • PM Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern Sign the GFA
  • GFA Mandates
  • Northern Ireland Today
  • Still Conflict But No War
  • Catholic Slum of Ardoyne Belfast July 2011
  • Splinter Groups
  • Herersquos To A Brighter Future in Northern Ireland
  • Works Cited
Page 38: The Troubles, 1969-1998

Ideology

bull Founded by Seamus Costello in 1974 as the military wing of the Irish Republican Socialist Party

bull Shared similar goals to the Provisional IRA but far more socialist in ideology INLA wanted a socialist united Irish republic and blamed class struggles for many of the problems in Northern Ireland whereas the PIRA simply wanted a united Irish republic and had little interest in class struggle or economics

bull Whereas the PIRA was almost exclusively Catholic the INLA had some Protestant members most of whom were involved for purely socialist reasons

Terrorist Activitiesbull Although far less powerful and bold than the PIRA the INLA

nevertheless presented a potent terrorist threat to the United Kingdom during the Troubles

bull Similar tactics to the IRA car bombings shooting off-duty police and soldiers dead and high-profile assassinations

bull Their most high-profile attacks included the car bomb assassination of Airey Neave one of Margaret Thatcherrsquos closest political supporters in 1979 the murder of infamous Loyalist terror leader Billy Wright (who was murdered by INLA inmates in a British political prison in 1997) and the Ballykelley Disco Bombing in 1982 in which the INLA bombed a disco-club frequented by off-duty British soldiers managing to kill 11 of them as well as 6 civilians as well as destroying the disco

Internal Feuds

bull A split in 1986 led the INLA to split into the INLA and the IPLO or Irish Peoplersquos Liberation Organization based on IPLO membersrsquo perceived lack of political motivation and heavy involvement in drug dealing and criminality

bull There were several retaliatory killings between the two groups that persisted until 1992 when the PIRA had enough of the IPLOrsquos involvement in drug dealing in Catholic areas of Belfast and on 31 October 1992 virtually destroyed the entire organization in one night with a series of raids killings and kneecappings that killed or crippled the majority of the grouprsquos members

British LoyalistsProtestants

The UDAUFF

Former UFF Member

>

Statistics

bull Suffered 89 casualtiesbull Killed 197 civiliansbull Killed 12 civilian political activistsbull Killed 37 members of rival loyalist terror

groupsbull Killed 11 members of republican terror groupsbull Killed 3 members of the British Security Forces

Ideology

bull The UDA or Ulster Defense Association and its military wing the Ulster Freedom Fighters (UFF) was a loyalist protestant terror squad that targeted PIRA and INLA members as well as general Catholic civilians in bombings and shootings throughout Northern Ireland

bull It pledged to end its campaign of violence whenever the IRA set down its arms yet should the UK government appease the IRA and grant a 32-county Irish Republic the UDA pledged to act as ldquothe IRA in reverserdquo

Terrorist Activitiesbull The UDA saw itself as a militia defending upstanding protestant loyalist

communities from dangerous and lower-class Catholics that were disrupting the status quo in Northern Ireland They pledged primarily to target IRA men but ended up killing a majority of Catholic civilians during the Troubles They were also known to intimidate and exile known Catholic families from predominately-Protestant communities in Belfast and other urban areas

bull Drive-by shootings shooting up or planting bombs in predominately-Catholic pubs and bars and jumping brutally beating andor kneecapping Catholic civilians were all frequent tactics

bull The UDA discreetly worked in collusion with the RUC and other British security agencies so as to track down and assassinate known IRA members They would also patrol Protestant neighborhoods alongside British soldiers at the height of the Troubles Many RUC police officers and prison guards were also UDA members

bull The UDA alongside many other loyalist paramilitaries benefitted from the import of several arms shipments from Lebanese arms dealers in the early 1970s including rocket launchers 200+ AK-47 Rifles 90+ handguns and over 400 grenades They also received various weapons such as the uzi submachine gun and explosive devices from arms dealers in the Soviet bloc in the 1980s

Organized Crime

bull The UDA and its members were also heavily involved in drug dealing from the street level to wholesale purchase primarily in MDMA and cannabis throughout the Troubles

bull Protection racketeering and money laundering were also common amongst the UDA in protestant communities

bull However should a member of a UDA-ran community begin stealing or dealing drugs without UDA consent he was abruptly branded as ldquoanti-socialrdquo and either killed or kneecapped

The UVF

Statistics

bull Suffered unknown number of casualtiesbull Killed 412 civiliansbull Killed 11 civilian political activistsbull Killed 21 members of republican terror groupsbull Killed 42 members of rival loyalist terror

groupsbull Killed 6 members of the Security Forces

Ideology

bull Similar to the UDAUFF the Ulster Volunteer Forcersquos primary aim was to combat Irish republicanism in Northern Ireland primarily the PIRA They wanted Northern Ireland to remain in the UK

Terrorist Activitiesbull The majority of UVF victims were Catholic civilians

many of whom were killed at random These attacks were intended to demoralize the IRA as the IRA drew most of its support from the Catholic community

bull Planting bombs in predominately-Catholic pubs or simply residential areas was a very frequent UVF tactic and in 1973 they detonated more bombs in Northern Ireland than the UDA and the PIRA combined Assassinations mass shootings booby-trap car bombs and kidnappings were also frequent UVF activities

The Shankhill Butchers

bull The ldquoShankhill Butchersrdquo were a notorious offshoot UVF group known for abducting and literally slitting the throats of Catholic civilians and rival loyalist terror groups in the late 1970s They were led by Lenny Murphy (who was eventually imprisoned and upon his release of a 4-year stint murdered by the PIRA) and killed 23 people most of whom were Catholic civilians Many experts liken the Shankhill Butchers more to a group of serial killers than to politically or even ethnically-motivated murderers

bull The Butchers were all eventually all either imprisoned killed by the PIRA or both

Weaponrybull The UVF received the majority of its weaponry in the late 1970s

from Armscor an apartheid-South Africa state-owned arms company which in defiance of various UN sanctions and embargoes sold them to the UVF

bull Weapons were thought to consist ofbull 200 Czech SA vz 58 Assault Riflesbull 90 Browning Pistolsbull 500 RGD-5 Frag Grenadesbull 30000 rounds of ammunitionbull 12 RPG-7 Rocket Launchers and 150+ Rocketsbull The UVF also began using the illegally-obtained mining explosive

Powergel in the early 1990s

Organized Crime

bull The UVF was also heavily involved in organized crime including protection racketeering and drug smugglingdealing including cannabis MDMA cocaine and amphetamines Bank robberies were also very frequent in the 1970s

Major Incidents 1969-1998

Bloody Sunday 30 January 1972

Massacre on the Bogsidebull In 1972 during a large scale but peaceful civil-rights march in the

troubled predominately Catholic neighborhood of Bogside in Derry 26 unarmed civil rights marchers were shot by members of the British Army 14 of whom were killed Five of those shot were shot in the back

bull After several inquiries into the incident there was found to have been no justifiable provocation from the protestors and no shots fired from the protestors during the march The massacre was conducted in full view of the public and the press

bull The PM David Cameron eventually issued a formal apology to the victims and victimsrsquo families of the massacre after several investigations failed to reveal any justifiable provocation for the massacre

bull The massacre sky-rocketed PIRA membership and recruitment as public perception of the British Army in Catholic communities in Northern Ireland reached an all-time low

Bloody Friday 21 July 1972

A City Under Siege

bull On 21 July 1972 the PIRA detonated 26 bombs in the space of 80 minutes in Belfast destroying banks bridges electrical substations Protestant housing tenements gasoline stations and private garages

bull Although warnings were called in at least 30 minutes prior to each bomb the amount of bombs exploding and the addition of multiple hoax warnings at the same time led to the Security Forces being unable to evacuate all the areas in time 11 people were killed and 130 were injured many of them horrifically mutilated Of those injured 77 were women or children

Dublin and Monaghan Bombings 17 May 1974

Deadliest Attack of the Troubles

bull Perpetrated by the UVF in the southern Republic of Ireland three car bombs exploded in Dublin during rush hour and another exploded in Monaghan around 90 minutes later

bull 33 civilians and a full-term unborn child were killed in the bombing while nearly 300 were injured The UVF did not claim responsibility for the bombings until 1993

bull The majority of those killed were young women although the age range of those killed ranged from 5 months old to 80 years old

Warrenpoint Ambush 27 August 1979

Roadside IEDsbull In the southern part of County Armagh Northern Ireland a predominately-

Catholic rural region and former PIRA stronghold right on the border with the southern Republic of Ireland a British troop convoy was hit with a remote-control detonated roadside 500lb truck-bomb and destroyed instantly killing 6 troops The surviving soldiers then wrongly believed they were under sniper fire from the other side of the Irish border and began firing at civilians immediately after the bombing killing 1 and injuring another

bull 32 minutes after the first bombing the IRA used its knowledge of how the British reacted to bombings to correctly predict that they would set up an incident-command point in a nearby gatehouse Unfortunately for the British there was a second 800lb fertilizer bomb planted near the gatehouse that when detonated killed 12 other soldiers who were responding to the initial bomb

bull It was the deadliest single attack on the British Army during the Troubles and a highly successful attack for the PIRA

Summer of 1981 Irish Hunger Strikes

A Defining Moment for the Republican Cause

bull Beginning on 1 March 1981 led by Bobby Sands 7 PIRA and 3 INLA inmates at the notorious ldquoMazerdquo prison began to refuse food until Margaret Thatcher PM of Great Britain at that time began to recognize terrorist prisoners as political prisoners and allowed them their ldquoFive Demandsrdquo

The Five Demands

bull The right to not wear a prison uniformbull The right to not do prison workbull The right of free association with other

prisoners and to organize in educational and recreational pursuits

bull Full restoration of remission lost through any protests towards these demands

Previous Protestsbull The Maze prison was a very high-security and low-quality prison that

housed almost all PIRA prisoners during the Troubles It was run in a very ethically questionable fashion with frequent beatings and borderline-torture techniques used on Republican prisoners and extremely poor living conditions for prisoners Many Maze prison guards were members of the UDAUVF or had strong connections with one of the two groups as well

bull Massive peaceful protests and marches by Irish republicans outside of the Maze Prison proved unsuccessful in attaining political status for republican prisoners as well as previous inmate protests in 1980 including non-fatal hunger strikes inmates refusing to wear prison uniforms and thus living in their cells naked and prisoners refusing to leave their cells to go to the bathroom until their requests had been granted (they therefore urinated and defecated in their cells and spread their excrement across their cell walls in what was known as the ldquoDirty Protestrdquo)

Dirty Protesters

Thatcherrsquos Response

bull ldquoThose terrorists will carry their determination to disrupt society to any lengths Once again we have a hunger strike in the Maze Prison in the quest for what they call lsquopolitical statusrsquo There is no such thing as political murder political bombing or political violence There is only criminal murder criminal bombing and criminal violence We will not compromise on this There will be no political statusrdquo

Ten Strikers Diebull Bobby Sands the leader of the strike was imprisoned as a PIRA member

on charges of firearm possession and in connection with the bombing of a furniture store He was the first to die after 66 days of not eating Sands was elected to a seat in Parliament whilst on Hunger Strike

bull Following Sandsrsquo death there were riots bus-burnings and attacks on the British embassy in the southern Republic of Ireland there were massive demonstrations in France and Italy a tomato was thrown as Queen Elizabeth II by demonstrators in Oslo and there were massive riots and civil disorder all over the streets of Belfast The South African ANC and (at the time) terrorist Nelson Mandela expressed their support for the PIRA and the hunger strikers (Mandela himself claimed he was directly inspired by Sands to undertake hunger strikes against the Apartheid government in South Africa) as well as the Palestine Liberation Organization a middle-eastern terror group

bull Over 100000 attended Sandsrsquo funeral

Bobby Sands

ldquoOur revenge will be the laughter of our childrenrdquo

Reaction to Sandsrsquo Death

>

Conclusion

bull The Hunger Strike was eventually called off after 10 strikers including Sands had died

bull James Prior newly installed secretary of state of Northern Ireland granted the prisoners partial concessions all of the Five Demands except for the right to not do prison work Margaret Thatcher refused to budge on political status

bull The Hunger Strikes opened a new way for the PIRA to pursue its objectives politically whereas previously it had seen violence as the only solution to the plight of Irish nationalists in Northern Ireland

1983 The Maze Prison Escape

The ldquoGreat Escaperdquo

bull Using smuggled-in guns and knives 38 PIRA prisoners who had been convicted of offenses ranging from murder to causing explosions escaped from one of the most high-security prisons in Europe They completely took over the H7 prison block and took their prison guards hostage before escaping in a food supply truck Several prison guards were shot and stabbed but only one died of a heart attack during the escape

bull Fifteen escapees were recaptured the first day with four more captured over the next two days following the breakout The remaining 19 were transported to PIRA strongholds and given the option to either rejoin the IRArsquos cause or be transported to the United States to live under a new identity

12 October 1984 Brighton Hotel Bombing

The PIRA Nearly Gets Thatcherbull Margaret Thatcher the highly controversial far-right British PM from

1979-1990 had become a tremendously hated figure amongst the Irish nationalist community in Northern Ireland following the 1981 Hunger Strikes and for her general uncompromising stand on Irish republicanism

bull PIRA man Patrick Magee stayed at the Brighton Hotel from the 14-17 September 1984 planting a 20-lb bomb under his bath

bull Thatcher was staying at the Brighton Hotel for a political conference and was still up at 254AM on 12 October when the bomb was detonated The bomb decimated her bathroom but left the bedroom and sitting room of her suite largely unscathed

bull The PIRA statement to Thatcher afterwards was ldquoToday we were unlucky But remember we only have to be lucky once You will have to be lucky alwaysrdquo

Loughgall Ambush 8 May 1987

The SAS Strikes

bull A botched attack on Loughgall Villagersquos RUC Police Base in which the PIRA drove a backhoe into the fortified base and ran away to detonate the bomb that was inside of the backhoe went wrong as the SAS the British Special Forces had prior knowledge of the attack and quickly dispatched the 8 PIRA members involved

bull Although the RUC base was wrecked and bombed there were no RUC or SAS casualties and it was the PIRArsquos greatest loss of life in a single incident during the Troubles

British Army Lynx Shootdown 20 March 1994

The PIRA Shoots Down a Helicopter

bull Using the previously mentioned Barrack-Buster homemade mortar PIRA insurgents were able to fire on a British helicopter that was in the process of landing whilst hiding behind a hay bail from around 150 yards out

bull The helicopter was hit with the mortar shell around 100 feet above the ground but the pilot was able to successfully crash-land the helicopter and escape before its propane tanks exploded There were no casualties but the attack was a major propaganda coup for the PIRA

1996 Manchester Bombing

The PIRA Destroys Manchester

bull On Saturday 15 June 1996 the PIRA sent in telephoned warnings and 90 minutes later detonated a 3300lb fertilizer-based truck bomb in the heart of Manchester City Centre the biggest bomb detonated in Great Britain during peacetime The bomb killed nobody due to previous warnings but led to 212 non-fatal injuries and essentially destroyed Manchester City Centre leaving approximately 700 million pounds ($12bn) worth of damage in its wake

Omagh Bombing 1998

Last Great Deadly Attack of the Troubles

bull Perpetrated by a Provisional IRA splinter group that was rejecting the peace process calling themselves the ldquoReal IRArdquo the 510lb fertilizer-based bomb was placed on main street in the town of Omagh Northern Ireland Warnings were called in approximately 30 minutes before the bombing but they were inaccurate and police ended up moving more civilians towards the bomb which ended up killing 29 people and causing over 300 non-fatal injuries This was the highest death toll from a single incident during the Troubles

bull It received universal outrage and was condemned even by the PIRA and its political wing Sinn Fein It spurred on the Northern Ireland peace process and the RIRA apologized and called a ceasefire several days after

The Good Friday Agreement and Northern Ireland Peace Process

Beginningsbull Following the 1981 Hunger Strikes Irish republicans began to

increasingly look towards politics rather than violence as a means of achieving their aims Sinn Fein gaelic for ldquoWe Ourselvesrdquo was a fiercely Irish Republican political party which led by the Machiavellian former PIRA leader and Maze inmate Gerry Adams began to push for a more peaceful solution to the Troubles in Northern Ireland

bull It became apparent by the late 1990s that although the PIRA was not losing a war against the British establishment it would be impossible to truly lsquowin the fightrsquo through violence and that any further terrorism would serve not to achieve any real political aim but only to prolong and continue suffering and violence in Northern Ireland and that politics was a much better way of achieving Republican aims

Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein former PIRA Belfast Brigade OC

Good Friday Agreement 1998

bull The Peace Process began in 1994 and included intermittent terrorist ceasefires and political negotiations between the major Irish republican and British unionist parties and culminated on April 10 1998 when the Good Friday Agreement was signed

PM Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern Sign the GFA

GFA Mandatesbull That Northern Ireland was to remain British until a majority of people in Northern

Ireland and the southern Republic of Ireland wanted otherwise bull The creation of an entirely new far less sectarian and religiously diverse Northern

Irish local governmentbull The decommissioning of arms from terrorist groups on both the unionist and

nationalist side of the political divide (ultimately successful all arms decommissioned by 2005)

bull Mutual respect and civil rights between Catholics and Protestants bull The reduction and eventual elimination of British troops in Northern Ireland

(ultimately successful all troops withdrawn by 2005)bull Eventual early prison release for all individuals imprisoned for terrorist offenses as

long as they were apart of a terrorist group that was decommissioning in accordance with the GFA

bull Disbandment of the RUC police service and the installation of the new Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) which was required to be at least 50 Catholic

Northern Ireland Today

Still Conflict But No Warbull Since the complete decommissioning of the arms and

disbandment of the PIRA INLA UDAUFF and UVF due to the Good Friday Agreement there is nowhere near the amount of violence in Northern Ireland or Belfast as there was 20 years ago There are no more weekly bombings and riots and no more British troops patrolling Catholic areas in armored vehicles

bull Despite this there are still occasional riots and clashes with the PSNI several times a year specifically on dates of great historical significance to the Catholic or Protestant communities and there is still a deep distrust and even hatred between many Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland although that continues to change with time

Catholic Slum of Ardoyne Belfast July 2011

Splinter Groups

bull Many former PIRA or UDA terrorists have now taken to organized crime for purely profiteering purposes but are no longer involved in substantial violence or any political-based terrorism

bull Splinter groups such as the Real IRA and Continuity IRA in Catholic communities and the Orange Volunteers and Red Hand Commandos in Protestant communities still conduct occasional violence towards Police and civilians in Northern Ireland but are all rather small poorly armed and poorly funded groups that pose nowhere near the threat that terrorist groups in the 80s and 90s did in Northern Ireland

Herersquos To A Brighter Future in Northern Ireland

Works Citedbull httpwwwbbccoukhistorytroublesbull httpcainulstacukbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiProvisional_Irish_Republican_Armybull httpenwikipediaorgwikiThe_Troublesbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiUlster_Defence_Associationbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiUlster_Volunteer_Forcebull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_National_Liberation_Armybull ldquoA Secret History of the IRArdquo by Ed Moloney ndashWW Norton amp Company Reprint 2003bull ldquoVoices From The Grave Two Menrsquos War in Irelandrdquo by Ed Moloney ndash Public Affairs 2010bull ldquoFifty Dead Men Walkingrdquo by Martin McGartland ndash John Blake 2009bull httpwwwinfopleasecomspotnorthireland1htmlbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_Civil_Warbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_War_of_Independencebull httpenwikipediaorgwiki1981_Irish_hunger_strikebull httpenwikipediaorgwikiDirectory_of_the_Northern_Ireland_Troublesbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiGood_Friday_Agreementbull httpswwwmi5govukhomethe-threatsterrorismnorthern-irelandrepublican-terrorist-groupshtmlbull httpswwwmi5govukhomethe-threatsterrorismnorthern-irelandprovisional-irish-republican-army-

pirahtmlbull httpnewsbbccoukhienglishstaticnorthern_irelandunderstandingeventshunger_strikestm

  • The Troubles
  • Brief Overview
  • 30 Years of Conflict
  • Slide 4
  • Background
  • The Irish War of Independence
  • Slide 7
  • Anglo-Irish Treaty (signed 6 December 1921)
  • Irish Civil War
  • 1922-1966 Ireland
  • The Civil Rights Movement
  • Slide 12
  • Slide 13
  • Objectives of the Civil Rights Movement
  • The 1969 Northern Ireland Riots ndashThe Troubles Begin
  • Culmination of Tension
  • No-Go Areas
  • No-Go Areas (2)
  • Early 1970sndash The Rise of the Provisional IRA
  • The IRA Split
  • Rise of the UVF and Loyalist Terror Groups
  • Beginnings
  • UVF Statement 21 May 1964
  • The Paramilitaries
  • Irish RepublicansCatholics
  • The Provisional IRA
  • IRA Statement Late 80s
  • Statistics
  • RecruitmentFunding
  • Weaponry
  • Weaponry (2)
  • Slide 32
  • Mortars and IEDs
  • EOD Officer Approaches PIRA Car Bomb
  • The Barrack Buster
  • Vigilantism
  • Slide 37
  • Slide 38
  • Policy on Informants
  • Terrorist Activities
  • Terrorist Activities (continued)
  • The INLA
  • Statistics (2)
  • Ideology
  • Terrorist Activities (2)
  • Internal Feuds
  • Slide 47
  • British LoyalistsProtestants
  • The UDAUFF
  • Former UFF Member
  • Statistics (3)
  • Ideology (2)
  • Terrorist Activities (3)
  • Slide 54
  • Organized Crime
  • The UVF
  • Statistics (4)
  • Ideology (3)
  • Terrorist Activities (4)
  • The Shankhill Butchers
  • Weaponry (3)
  • Slide 62
  • Organized Crime (2)
  • Major Incidents 1969-1998
  • Bloody Sunday 30 January 1972
  • Massacre on the Bogside
  • Bloody Friday 21 July 1972
  • A City Under Siege
  • Dublin and Monaghan Bombings 17 May 1974
  • Deadliest Attack of the Troubles
  • Warrenpoint Ambush 27 August 1979
  • Roadside IEDs
  • Summer of 1981 Irish Hunger Strikes
  • A Defining Moment for the Republican Cause
  • The Five Demands
  • Previous Protests
  • Dirty Protesters
  • Thatcherrsquos Response
  • Ten Strikers Die
  • Bobby Sands
  • Reaction to Sandsrsquo Death
  • Conclusion
  • 1983 The Maze Prison Escape
  • The ldquoGreat Escaperdquo
  • 12 October 1984 Brighton Hotel Bombing
  • The PIRA Nearly Gets Thatcher
  • Loughgall Ambush 8 May 1987
  • The SAS Strikes
  • British Army Lynx Shootdown 20 March 1994
  • The PIRA Shoots Down a Helicopter
  • 1996 Manchester Bombing
  • The PIRA Destroys Manchester
  • Omagh Bombing 1998
  • Last Great Deadly Attack of the Troubles
  • The Good Friday Agreement and Northern Ireland Peace Process
  • Beginnings (2)
  • Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein former PIRA Belfast Brigade OC
  • Good Friday Agreement 1998
  • PM Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern Sign the GFA
  • GFA Mandates
  • Northern Ireland Today
  • Still Conflict But No War
  • Catholic Slum of Ardoyne Belfast July 2011
  • Splinter Groups
  • Herersquos To A Brighter Future in Northern Ireland
  • Works Cited
Page 39: The Troubles, 1969-1998

Terrorist Activitiesbull Although far less powerful and bold than the PIRA the INLA

nevertheless presented a potent terrorist threat to the United Kingdom during the Troubles

bull Similar tactics to the IRA car bombings shooting off-duty police and soldiers dead and high-profile assassinations

bull Their most high-profile attacks included the car bomb assassination of Airey Neave one of Margaret Thatcherrsquos closest political supporters in 1979 the murder of infamous Loyalist terror leader Billy Wright (who was murdered by INLA inmates in a British political prison in 1997) and the Ballykelley Disco Bombing in 1982 in which the INLA bombed a disco-club frequented by off-duty British soldiers managing to kill 11 of them as well as 6 civilians as well as destroying the disco

Internal Feuds

bull A split in 1986 led the INLA to split into the INLA and the IPLO or Irish Peoplersquos Liberation Organization based on IPLO membersrsquo perceived lack of political motivation and heavy involvement in drug dealing and criminality

bull There were several retaliatory killings between the two groups that persisted until 1992 when the PIRA had enough of the IPLOrsquos involvement in drug dealing in Catholic areas of Belfast and on 31 October 1992 virtually destroyed the entire organization in one night with a series of raids killings and kneecappings that killed or crippled the majority of the grouprsquos members

British LoyalistsProtestants

The UDAUFF

Former UFF Member

>

Statistics

bull Suffered 89 casualtiesbull Killed 197 civiliansbull Killed 12 civilian political activistsbull Killed 37 members of rival loyalist terror

groupsbull Killed 11 members of republican terror groupsbull Killed 3 members of the British Security Forces

Ideology

bull The UDA or Ulster Defense Association and its military wing the Ulster Freedom Fighters (UFF) was a loyalist protestant terror squad that targeted PIRA and INLA members as well as general Catholic civilians in bombings and shootings throughout Northern Ireland

bull It pledged to end its campaign of violence whenever the IRA set down its arms yet should the UK government appease the IRA and grant a 32-county Irish Republic the UDA pledged to act as ldquothe IRA in reverserdquo

Terrorist Activitiesbull The UDA saw itself as a militia defending upstanding protestant loyalist

communities from dangerous and lower-class Catholics that were disrupting the status quo in Northern Ireland They pledged primarily to target IRA men but ended up killing a majority of Catholic civilians during the Troubles They were also known to intimidate and exile known Catholic families from predominately-Protestant communities in Belfast and other urban areas

bull Drive-by shootings shooting up or planting bombs in predominately-Catholic pubs and bars and jumping brutally beating andor kneecapping Catholic civilians were all frequent tactics

bull The UDA discreetly worked in collusion with the RUC and other British security agencies so as to track down and assassinate known IRA members They would also patrol Protestant neighborhoods alongside British soldiers at the height of the Troubles Many RUC police officers and prison guards were also UDA members

bull The UDA alongside many other loyalist paramilitaries benefitted from the import of several arms shipments from Lebanese arms dealers in the early 1970s including rocket launchers 200+ AK-47 Rifles 90+ handguns and over 400 grenades They also received various weapons such as the uzi submachine gun and explosive devices from arms dealers in the Soviet bloc in the 1980s

Organized Crime

bull The UDA and its members were also heavily involved in drug dealing from the street level to wholesale purchase primarily in MDMA and cannabis throughout the Troubles

bull Protection racketeering and money laundering were also common amongst the UDA in protestant communities

bull However should a member of a UDA-ran community begin stealing or dealing drugs without UDA consent he was abruptly branded as ldquoanti-socialrdquo and either killed or kneecapped

The UVF

Statistics

bull Suffered unknown number of casualtiesbull Killed 412 civiliansbull Killed 11 civilian political activistsbull Killed 21 members of republican terror groupsbull Killed 42 members of rival loyalist terror

groupsbull Killed 6 members of the Security Forces

Ideology

bull Similar to the UDAUFF the Ulster Volunteer Forcersquos primary aim was to combat Irish republicanism in Northern Ireland primarily the PIRA They wanted Northern Ireland to remain in the UK

Terrorist Activitiesbull The majority of UVF victims were Catholic civilians

many of whom were killed at random These attacks were intended to demoralize the IRA as the IRA drew most of its support from the Catholic community

bull Planting bombs in predominately-Catholic pubs or simply residential areas was a very frequent UVF tactic and in 1973 they detonated more bombs in Northern Ireland than the UDA and the PIRA combined Assassinations mass shootings booby-trap car bombs and kidnappings were also frequent UVF activities

The Shankhill Butchers

bull The ldquoShankhill Butchersrdquo were a notorious offshoot UVF group known for abducting and literally slitting the throats of Catholic civilians and rival loyalist terror groups in the late 1970s They were led by Lenny Murphy (who was eventually imprisoned and upon his release of a 4-year stint murdered by the PIRA) and killed 23 people most of whom were Catholic civilians Many experts liken the Shankhill Butchers more to a group of serial killers than to politically or even ethnically-motivated murderers

bull The Butchers were all eventually all either imprisoned killed by the PIRA or both

Weaponrybull The UVF received the majority of its weaponry in the late 1970s

from Armscor an apartheid-South Africa state-owned arms company which in defiance of various UN sanctions and embargoes sold them to the UVF

bull Weapons were thought to consist ofbull 200 Czech SA vz 58 Assault Riflesbull 90 Browning Pistolsbull 500 RGD-5 Frag Grenadesbull 30000 rounds of ammunitionbull 12 RPG-7 Rocket Launchers and 150+ Rocketsbull The UVF also began using the illegally-obtained mining explosive

Powergel in the early 1990s

Organized Crime

bull The UVF was also heavily involved in organized crime including protection racketeering and drug smugglingdealing including cannabis MDMA cocaine and amphetamines Bank robberies were also very frequent in the 1970s

Major Incidents 1969-1998

Bloody Sunday 30 January 1972

Massacre on the Bogsidebull In 1972 during a large scale but peaceful civil-rights march in the

troubled predominately Catholic neighborhood of Bogside in Derry 26 unarmed civil rights marchers were shot by members of the British Army 14 of whom were killed Five of those shot were shot in the back

bull After several inquiries into the incident there was found to have been no justifiable provocation from the protestors and no shots fired from the protestors during the march The massacre was conducted in full view of the public and the press

bull The PM David Cameron eventually issued a formal apology to the victims and victimsrsquo families of the massacre after several investigations failed to reveal any justifiable provocation for the massacre

bull The massacre sky-rocketed PIRA membership and recruitment as public perception of the British Army in Catholic communities in Northern Ireland reached an all-time low

Bloody Friday 21 July 1972

A City Under Siege

bull On 21 July 1972 the PIRA detonated 26 bombs in the space of 80 minutes in Belfast destroying banks bridges electrical substations Protestant housing tenements gasoline stations and private garages

bull Although warnings were called in at least 30 minutes prior to each bomb the amount of bombs exploding and the addition of multiple hoax warnings at the same time led to the Security Forces being unable to evacuate all the areas in time 11 people were killed and 130 were injured many of them horrifically mutilated Of those injured 77 were women or children

Dublin and Monaghan Bombings 17 May 1974

Deadliest Attack of the Troubles

bull Perpetrated by the UVF in the southern Republic of Ireland three car bombs exploded in Dublin during rush hour and another exploded in Monaghan around 90 minutes later

bull 33 civilians and a full-term unborn child were killed in the bombing while nearly 300 were injured The UVF did not claim responsibility for the bombings until 1993

bull The majority of those killed were young women although the age range of those killed ranged from 5 months old to 80 years old

Warrenpoint Ambush 27 August 1979

Roadside IEDsbull In the southern part of County Armagh Northern Ireland a predominately-

Catholic rural region and former PIRA stronghold right on the border with the southern Republic of Ireland a British troop convoy was hit with a remote-control detonated roadside 500lb truck-bomb and destroyed instantly killing 6 troops The surviving soldiers then wrongly believed they were under sniper fire from the other side of the Irish border and began firing at civilians immediately after the bombing killing 1 and injuring another

bull 32 minutes after the first bombing the IRA used its knowledge of how the British reacted to bombings to correctly predict that they would set up an incident-command point in a nearby gatehouse Unfortunately for the British there was a second 800lb fertilizer bomb planted near the gatehouse that when detonated killed 12 other soldiers who were responding to the initial bomb

bull It was the deadliest single attack on the British Army during the Troubles and a highly successful attack for the PIRA

Summer of 1981 Irish Hunger Strikes

A Defining Moment for the Republican Cause

bull Beginning on 1 March 1981 led by Bobby Sands 7 PIRA and 3 INLA inmates at the notorious ldquoMazerdquo prison began to refuse food until Margaret Thatcher PM of Great Britain at that time began to recognize terrorist prisoners as political prisoners and allowed them their ldquoFive Demandsrdquo

The Five Demands

bull The right to not wear a prison uniformbull The right to not do prison workbull The right of free association with other

prisoners and to organize in educational and recreational pursuits

bull Full restoration of remission lost through any protests towards these demands

Previous Protestsbull The Maze prison was a very high-security and low-quality prison that

housed almost all PIRA prisoners during the Troubles It was run in a very ethically questionable fashion with frequent beatings and borderline-torture techniques used on Republican prisoners and extremely poor living conditions for prisoners Many Maze prison guards were members of the UDAUVF or had strong connections with one of the two groups as well

bull Massive peaceful protests and marches by Irish republicans outside of the Maze Prison proved unsuccessful in attaining political status for republican prisoners as well as previous inmate protests in 1980 including non-fatal hunger strikes inmates refusing to wear prison uniforms and thus living in their cells naked and prisoners refusing to leave their cells to go to the bathroom until their requests had been granted (they therefore urinated and defecated in their cells and spread their excrement across their cell walls in what was known as the ldquoDirty Protestrdquo)

Dirty Protesters

Thatcherrsquos Response

bull ldquoThose terrorists will carry their determination to disrupt society to any lengths Once again we have a hunger strike in the Maze Prison in the quest for what they call lsquopolitical statusrsquo There is no such thing as political murder political bombing or political violence There is only criminal murder criminal bombing and criminal violence We will not compromise on this There will be no political statusrdquo

Ten Strikers Diebull Bobby Sands the leader of the strike was imprisoned as a PIRA member

on charges of firearm possession and in connection with the bombing of a furniture store He was the first to die after 66 days of not eating Sands was elected to a seat in Parliament whilst on Hunger Strike

bull Following Sandsrsquo death there were riots bus-burnings and attacks on the British embassy in the southern Republic of Ireland there were massive demonstrations in France and Italy a tomato was thrown as Queen Elizabeth II by demonstrators in Oslo and there were massive riots and civil disorder all over the streets of Belfast The South African ANC and (at the time) terrorist Nelson Mandela expressed their support for the PIRA and the hunger strikers (Mandela himself claimed he was directly inspired by Sands to undertake hunger strikes against the Apartheid government in South Africa) as well as the Palestine Liberation Organization a middle-eastern terror group

bull Over 100000 attended Sandsrsquo funeral

Bobby Sands

ldquoOur revenge will be the laughter of our childrenrdquo

Reaction to Sandsrsquo Death

>

Conclusion

bull The Hunger Strike was eventually called off after 10 strikers including Sands had died

bull James Prior newly installed secretary of state of Northern Ireland granted the prisoners partial concessions all of the Five Demands except for the right to not do prison work Margaret Thatcher refused to budge on political status

bull The Hunger Strikes opened a new way for the PIRA to pursue its objectives politically whereas previously it had seen violence as the only solution to the plight of Irish nationalists in Northern Ireland

1983 The Maze Prison Escape

The ldquoGreat Escaperdquo

bull Using smuggled-in guns and knives 38 PIRA prisoners who had been convicted of offenses ranging from murder to causing explosions escaped from one of the most high-security prisons in Europe They completely took over the H7 prison block and took their prison guards hostage before escaping in a food supply truck Several prison guards were shot and stabbed but only one died of a heart attack during the escape

bull Fifteen escapees were recaptured the first day with four more captured over the next two days following the breakout The remaining 19 were transported to PIRA strongholds and given the option to either rejoin the IRArsquos cause or be transported to the United States to live under a new identity

12 October 1984 Brighton Hotel Bombing

The PIRA Nearly Gets Thatcherbull Margaret Thatcher the highly controversial far-right British PM from

1979-1990 had become a tremendously hated figure amongst the Irish nationalist community in Northern Ireland following the 1981 Hunger Strikes and for her general uncompromising stand on Irish republicanism

bull PIRA man Patrick Magee stayed at the Brighton Hotel from the 14-17 September 1984 planting a 20-lb bomb under his bath

bull Thatcher was staying at the Brighton Hotel for a political conference and was still up at 254AM on 12 October when the bomb was detonated The bomb decimated her bathroom but left the bedroom and sitting room of her suite largely unscathed

bull The PIRA statement to Thatcher afterwards was ldquoToday we were unlucky But remember we only have to be lucky once You will have to be lucky alwaysrdquo

Loughgall Ambush 8 May 1987

The SAS Strikes

bull A botched attack on Loughgall Villagersquos RUC Police Base in which the PIRA drove a backhoe into the fortified base and ran away to detonate the bomb that was inside of the backhoe went wrong as the SAS the British Special Forces had prior knowledge of the attack and quickly dispatched the 8 PIRA members involved

bull Although the RUC base was wrecked and bombed there were no RUC or SAS casualties and it was the PIRArsquos greatest loss of life in a single incident during the Troubles

British Army Lynx Shootdown 20 March 1994

The PIRA Shoots Down a Helicopter

bull Using the previously mentioned Barrack-Buster homemade mortar PIRA insurgents were able to fire on a British helicopter that was in the process of landing whilst hiding behind a hay bail from around 150 yards out

bull The helicopter was hit with the mortar shell around 100 feet above the ground but the pilot was able to successfully crash-land the helicopter and escape before its propane tanks exploded There were no casualties but the attack was a major propaganda coup for the PIRA

1996 Manchester Bombing

The PIRA Destroys Manchester

bull On Saturday 15 June 1996 the PIRA sent in telephoned warnings and 90 minutes later detonated a 3300lb fertilizer-based truck bomb in the heart of Manchester City Centre the biggest bomb detonated in Great Britain during peacetime The bomb killed nobody due to previous warnings but led to 212 non-fatal injuries and essentially destroyed Manchester City Centre leaving approximately 700 million pounds ($12bn) worth of damage in its wake

Omagh Bombing 1998

Last Great Deadly Attack of the Troubles

bull Perpetrated by a Provisional IRA splinter group that was rejecting the peace process calling themselves the ldquoReal IRArdquo the 510lb fertilizer-based bomb was placed on main street in the town of Omagh Northern Ireland Warnings were called in approximately 30 minutes before the bombing but they were inaccurate and police ended up moving more civilians towards the bomb which ended up killing 29 people and causing over 300 non-fatal injuries This was the highest death toll from a single incident during the Troubles

bull It received universal outrage and was condemned even by the PIRA and its political wing Sinn Fein It spurred on the Northern Ireland peace process and the RIRA apologized and called a ceasefire several days after

The Good Friday Agreement and Northern Ireland Peace Process

Beginningsbull Following the 1981 Hunger Strikes Irish republicans began to

increasingly look towards politics rather than violence as a means of achieving their aims Sinn Fein gaelic for ldquoWe Ourselvesrdquo was a fiercely Irish Republican political party which led by the Machiavellian former PIRA leader and Maze inmate Gerry Adams began to push for a more peaceful solution to the Troubles in Northern Ireland

bull It became apparent by the late 1990s that although the PIRA was not losing a war against the British establishment it would be impossible to truly lsquowin the fightrsquo through violence and that any further terrorism would serve not to achieve any real political aim but only to prolong and continue suffering and violence in Northern Ireland and that politics was a much better way of achieving Republican aims

Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein former PIRA Belfast Brigade OC

Good Friday Agreement 1998

bull The Peace Process began in 1994 and included intermittent terrorist ceasefires and political negotiations between the major Irish republican and British unionist parties and culminated on April 10 1998 when the Good Friday Agreement was signed

PM Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern Sign the GFA

GFA Mandatesbull That Northern Ireland was to remain British until a majority of people in Northern

Ireland and the southern Republic of Ireland wanted otherwise bull The creation of an entirely new far less sectarian and religiously diverse Northern

Irish local governmentbull The decommissioning of arms from terrorist groups on both the unionist and

nationalist side of the political divide (ultimately successful all arms decommissioned by 2005)

bull Mutual respect and civil rights between Catholics and Protestants bull The reduction and eventual elimination of British troops in Northern Ireland

(ultimately successful all troops withdrawn by 2005)bull Eventual early prison release for all individuals imprisoned for terrorist offenses as

long as they were apart of a terrorist group that was decommissioning in accordance with the GFA

bull Disbandment of the RUC police service and the installation of the new Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) which was required to be at least 50 Catholic

Northern Ireland Today

Still Conflict But No Warbull Since the complete decommissioning of the arms and

disbandment of the PIRA INLA UDAUFF and UVF due to the Good Friday Agreement there is nowhere near the amount of violence in Northern Ireland or Belfast as there was 20 years ago There are no more weekly bombings and riots and no more British troops patrolling Catholic areas in armored vehicles

bull Despite this there are still occasional riots and clashes with the PSNI several times a year specifically on dates of great historical significance to the Catholic or Protestant communities and there is still a deep distrust and even hatred between many Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland although that continues to change with time

Catholic Slum of Ardoyne Belfast July 2011

Splinter Groups

bull Many former PIRA or UDA terrorists have now taken to organized crime for purely profiteering purposes but are no longer involved in substantial violence or any political-based terrorism

bull Splinter groups such as the Real IRA and Continuity IRA in Catholic communities and the Orange Volunteers and Red Hand Commandos in Protestant communities still conduct occasional violence towards Police and civilians in Northern Ireland but are all rather small poorly armed and poorly funded groups that pose nowhere near the threat that terrorist groups in the 80s and 90s did in Northern Ireland

Herersquos To A Brighter Future in Northern Ireland

Works Citedbull httpwwwbbccoukhistorytroublesbull httpcainulstacukbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiProvisional_Irish_Republican_Armybull httpenwikipediaorgwikiThe_Troublesbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiUlster_Defence_Associationbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiUlster_Volunteer_Forcebull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_National_Liberation_Armybull ldquoA Secret History of the IRArdquo by Ed Moloney ndashWW Norton amp Company Reprint 2003bull ldquoVoices From The Grave Two Menrsquos War in Irelandrdquo by Ed Moloney ndash Public Affairs 2010bull ldquoFifty Dead Men Walkingrdquo by Martin McGartland ndash John Blake 2009bull httpwwwinfopleasecomspotnorthireland1htmlbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_Civil_Warbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_War_of_Independencebull httpenwikipediaorgwiki1981_Irish_hunger_strikebull httpenwikipediaorgwikiDirectory_of_the_Northern_Ireland_Troublesbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiGood_Friday_Agreementbull httpswwwmi5govukhomethe-threatsterrorismnorthern-irelandrepublican-terrorist-groupshtmlbull httpswwwmi5govukhomethe-threatsterrorismnorthern-irelandprovisional-irish-republican-army-

pirahtmlbull httpnewsbbccoukhienglishstaticnorthern_irelandunderstandingeventshunger_strikestm

  • The Troubles
  • Brief Overview
  • 30 Years of Conflict
  • Slide 4
  • Background
  • The Irish War of Independence
  • Slide 7
  • Anglo-Irish Treaty (signed 6 December 1921)
  • Irish Civil War
  • 1922-1966 Ireland
  • The Civil Rights Movement
  • Slide 12
  • Slide 13
  • Objectives of the Civil Rights Movement
  • The 1969 Northern Ireland Riots ndashThe Troubles Begin
  • Culmination of Tension
  • No-Go Areas
  • No-Go Areas (2)
  • Early 1970sndash The Rise of the Provisional IRA
  • The IRA Split
  • Rise of the UVF and Loyalist Terror Groups
  • Beginnings
  • UVF Statement 21 May 1964
  • The Paramilitaries
  • Irish RepublicansCatholics
  • The Provisional IRA
  • IRA Statement Late 80s
  • Statistics
  • RecruitmentFunding
  • Weaponry
  • Weaponry (2)
  • Slide 32
  • Mortars and IEDs
  • EOD Officer Approaches PIRA Car Bomb
  • The Barrack Buster
  • Vigilantism
  • Slide 37
  • Slide 38
  • Policy on Informants
  • Terrorist Activities
  • Terrorist Activities (continued)
  • The INLA
  • Statistics (2)
  • Ideology
  • Terrorist Activities (2)
  • Internal Feuds
  • Slide 47
  • British LoyalistsProtestants
  • The UDAUFF
  • Former UFF Member
  • Statistics (3)
  • Ideology (2)
  • Terrorist Activities (3)
  • Slide 54
  • Organized Crime
  • The UVF
  • Statistics (4)
  • Ideology (3)
  • Terrorist Activities (4)
  • The Shankhill Butchers
  • Weaponry (3)
  • Slide 62
  • Organized Crime (2)
  • Major Incidents 1969-1998
  • Bloody Sunday 30 January 1972
  • Massacre on the Bogside
  • Bloody Friday 21 July 1972
  • A City Under Siege
  • Dublin and Monaghan Bombings 17 May 1974
  • Deadliest Attack of the Troubles
  • Warrenpoint Ambush 27 August 1979
  • Roadside IEDs
  • Summer of 1981 Irish Hunger Strikes
  • A Defining Moment for the Republican Cause
  • The Five Demands
  • Previous Protests
  • Dirty Protesters
  • Thatcherrsquos Response
  • Ten Strikers Die
  • Bobby Sands
  • Reaction to Sandsrsquo Death
  • Conclusion
  • 1983 The Maze Prison Escape
  • The ldquoGreat Escaperdquo
  • 12 October 1984 Brighton Hotel Bombing
  • The PIRA Nearly Gets Thatcher
  • Loughgall Ambush 8 May 1987
  • The SAS Strikes
  • British Army Lynx Shootdown 20 March 1994
  • The PIRA Shoots Down a Helicopter
  • 1996 Manchester Bombing
  • The PIRA Destroys Manchester
  • Omagh Bombing 1998
  • Last Great Deadly Attack of the Troubles
  • The Good Friday Agreement and Northern Ireland Peace Process
  • Beginnings (2)
  • Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein former PIRA Belfast Brigade OC
  • Good Friday Agreement 1998
  • PM Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern Sign the GFA
  • GFA Mandates
  • Northern Ireland Today
  • Still Conflict But No War
  • Catholic Slum of Ardoyne Belfast July 2011
  • Splinter Groups
  • Herersquos To A Brighter Future in Northern Ireland
  • Works Cited
Page 40: The Troubles, 1969-1998

Internal Feuds

bull A split in 1986 led the INLA to split into the INLA and the IPLO or Irish Peoplersquos Liberation Organization based on IPLO membersrsquo perceived lack of political motivation and heavy involvement in drug dealing and criminality

bull There were several retaliatory killings between the two groups that persisted until 1992 when the PIRA had enough of the IPLOrsquos involvement in drug dealing in Catholic areas of Belfast and on 31 October 1992 virtually destroyed the entire organization in one night with a series of raids killings and kneecappings that killed or crippled the majority of the grouprsquos members

British LoyalistsProtestants

The UDAUFF

Former UFF Member

>

Statistics

bull Suffered 89 casualtiesbull Killed 197 civiliansbull Killed 12 civilian political activistsbull Killed 37 members of rival loyalist terror

groupsbull Killed 11 members of republican terror groupsbull Killed 3 members of the British Security Forces

Ideology

bull The UDA or Ulster Defense Association and its military wing the Ulster Freedom Fighters (UFF) was a loyalist protestant terror squad that targeted PIRA and INLA members as well as general Catholic civilians in bombings and shootings throughout Northern Ireland

bull It pledged to end its campaign of violence whenever the IRA set down its arms yet should the UK government appease the IRA and grant a 32-county Irish Republic the UDA pledged to act as ldquothe IRA in reverserdquo

Terrorist Activitiesbull The UDA saw itself as a militia defending upstanding protestant loyalist

communities from dangerous and lower-class Catholics that were disrupting the status quo in Northern Ireland They pledged primarily to target IRA men but ended up killing a majority of Catholic civilians during the Troubles They were also known to intimidate and exile known Catholic families from predominately-Protestant communities in Belfast and other urban areas

bull Drive-by shootings shooting up or planting bombs in predominately-Catholic pubs and bars and jumping brutally beating andor kneecapping Catholic civilians were all frequent tactics

bull The UDA discreetly worked in collusion with the RUC and other British security agencies so as to track down and assassinate known IRA members They would also patrol Protestant neighborhoods alongside British soldiers at the height of the Troubles Many RUC police officers and prison guards were also UDA members

bull The UDA alongside many other loyalist paramilitaries benefitted from the import of several arms shipments from Lebanese arms dealers in the early 1970s including rocket launchers 200+ AK-47 Rifles 90+ handguns and over 400 grenades They also received various weapons such as the uzi submachine gun and explosive devices from arms dealers in the Soviet bloc in the 1980s

Organized Crime

bull The UDA and its members were also heavily involved in drug dealing from the street level to wholesale purchase primarily in MDMA and cannabis throughout the Troubles

bull Protection racketeering and money laundering were also common amongst the UDA in protestant communities

bull However should a member of a UDA-ran community begin stealing or dealing drugs without UDA consent he was abruptly branded as ldquoanti-socialrdquo and either killed or kneecapped

The UVF

Statistics

bull Suffered unknown number of casualtiesbull Killed 412 civiliansbull Killed 11 civilian political activistsbull Killed 21 members of republican terror groupsbull Killed 42 members of rival loyalist terror

groupsbull Killed 6 members of the Security Forces

Ideology

bull Similar to the UDAUFF the Ulster Volunteer Forcersquos primary aim was to combat Irish republicanism in Northern Ireland primarily the PIRA They wanted Northern Ireland to remain in the UK

Terrorist Activitiesbull The majority of UVF victims were Catholic civilians

many of whom were killed at random These attacks were intended to demoralize the IRA as the IRA drew most of its support from the Catholic community

bull Planting bombs in predominately-Catholic pubs or simply residential areas was a very frequent UVF tactic and in 1973 they detonated more bombs in Northern Ireland than the UDA and the PIRA combined Assassinations mass shootings booby-trap car bombs and kidnappings were also frequent UVF activities

The Shankhill Butchers

bull The ldquoShankhill Butchersrdquo were a notorious offshoot UVF group known for abducting and literally slitting the throats of Catholic civilians and rival loyalist terror groups in the late 1970s They were led by Lenny Murphy (who was eventually imprisoned and upon his release of a 4-year stint murdered by the PIRA) and killed 23 people most of whom were Catholic civilians Many experts liken the Shankhill Butchers more to a group of serial killers than to politically or even ethnically-motivated murderers

bull The Butchers were all eventually all either imprisoned killed by the PIRA or both

Weaponrybull The UVF received the majority of its weaponry in the late 1970s

from Armscor an apartheid-South Africa state-owned arms company which in defiance of various UN sanctions and embargoes sold them to the UVF

bull Weapons were thought to consist ofbull 200 Czech SA vz 58 Assault Riflesbull 90 Browning Pistolsbull 500 RGD-5 Frag Grenadesbull 30000 rounds of ammunitionbull 12 RPG-7 Rocket Launchers and 150+ Rocketsbull The UVF also began using the illegally-obtained mining explosive

Powergel in the early 1990s

Organized Crime

bull The UVF was also heavily involved in organized crime including protection racketeering and drug smugglingdealing including cannabis MDMA cocaine and amphetamines Bank robberies were also very frequent in the 1970s

Major Incidents 1969-1998

Bloody Sunday 30 January 1972

Massacre on the Bogsidebull In 1972 during a large scale but peaceful civil-rights march in the

troubled predominately Catholic neighborhood of Bogside in Derry 26 unarmed civil rights marchers were shot by members of the British Army 14 of whom were killed Five of those shot were shot in the back

bull After several inquiries into the incident there was found to have been no justifiable provocation from the protestors and no shots fired from the protestors during the march The massacre was conducted in full view of the public and the press

bull The PM David Cameron eventually issued a formal apology to the victims and victimsrsquo families of the massacre after several investigations failed to reveal any justifiable provocation for the massacre

bull The massacre sky-rocketed PIRA membership and recruitment as public perception of the British Army in Catholic communities in Northern Ireland reached an all-time low

Bloody Friday 21 July 1972

A City Under Siege

bull On 21 July 1972 the PIRA detonated 26 bombs in the space of 80 minutes in Belfast destroying banks bridges electrical substations Protestant housing tenements gasoline stations and private garages

bull Although warnings were called in at least 30 minutes prior to each bomb the amount of bombs exploding and the addition of multiple hoax warnings at the same time led to the Security Forces being unable to evacuate all the areas in time 11 people were killed and 130 were injured many of them horrifically mutilated Of those injured 77 were women or children

Dublin and Monaghan Bombings 17 May 1974

Deadliest Attack of the Troubles

bull Perpetrated by the UVF in the southern Republic of Ireland three car bombs exploded in Dublin during rush hour and another exploded in Monaghan around 90 minutes later

bull 33 civilians and a full-term unborn child were killed in the bombing while nearly 300 were injured The UVF did not claim responsibility for the bombings until 1993

bull The majority of those killed were young women although the age range of those killed ranged from 5 months old to 80 years old

Warrenpoint Ambush 27 August 1979

Roadside IEDsbull In the southern part of County Armagh Northern Ireland a predominately-

Catholic rural region and former PIRA stronghold right on the border with the southern Republic of Ireland a British troop convoy was hit with a remote-control detonated roadside 500lb truck-bomb and destroyed instantly killing 6 troops The surviving soldiers then wrongly believed they were under sniper fire from the other side of the Irish border and began firing at civilians immediately after the bombing killing 1 and injuring another

bull 32 minutes after the first bombing the IRA used its knowledge of how the British reacted to bombings to correctly predict that they would set up an incident-command point in a nearby gatehouse Unfortunately for the British there was a second 800lb fertilizer bomb planted near the gatehouse that when detonated killed 12 other soldiers who were responding to the initial bomb

bull It was the deadliest single attack on the British Army during the Troubles and a highly successful attack for the PIRA

Summer of 1981 Irish Hunger Strikes

A Defining Moment for the Republican Cause

bull Beginning on 1 March 1981 led by Bobby Sands 7 PIRA and 3 INLA inmates at the notorious ldquoMazerdquo prison began to refuse food until Margaret Thatcher PM of Great Britain at that time began to recognize terrorist prisoners as political prisoners and allowed them their ldquoFive Demandsrdquo

The Five Demands

bull The right to not wear a prison uniformbull The right to not do prison workbull The right of free association with other

prisoners and to organize in educational and recreational pursuits

bull Full restoration of remission lost through any protests towards these demands

Previous Protestsbull The Maze prison was a very high-security and low-quality prison that

housed almost all PIRA prisoners during the Troubles It was run in a very ethically questionable fashion with frequent beatings and borderline-torture techniques used on Republican prisoners and extremely poor living conditions for prisoners Many Maze prison guards were members of the UDAUVF or had strong connections with one of the two groups as well

bull Massive peaceful protests and marches by Irish republicans outside of the Maze Prison proved unsuccessful in attaining political status for republican prisoners as well as previous inmate protests in 1980 including non-fatal hunger strikes inmates refusing to wear prison uniforms and thus living in their cells naked and prisoners refusing to leave their cells to go to the bathroom until their requests had been granted (they therefore urinated and defecated in their cells and spread their excrement across their cell walls in what was known as the ldquoDirty Protestrdquo)

Dirty Protesters

Thatcherrsquos Response

bull ldquoThose terrorists will carry their determination to disrupt society to any lengths Once again we have a hunger strike in the Maze Prison in the quest for what they call lsquopolitical statusrsquo There is no such thing as political murder political bombing or political violence There is only criminal murder criminal bombing and criminal violence We will not compromise on this There will be no political statusrdquo

Ten Strikers Diebull Bobby Sands the leader of the strike was imprisoned as a PIRA member

on charges of firearm possession and in connection with the bombing of a furniture store He was the first to die after 66 days of not eating Sands was elected to a seat in Parliament whilst on Hunger Strike

bull Following Sandsrsquo death there were riots bus-burnings and attacks on the British embassy in the southern Republic of Ireland there were massive demonstrations in France and Italy a tomato was thrown as Queen Elizabeth II by demonstrators in Oslo and there were massive riots and civil disorder all over the streets of Belfast The South African ANC and (at the time) terrorist Nelson Mandela expressed their support for the PIRA and the hunger strikers (Mandela himself claimed he was directly inspired by Sands to undertake hunger strikes against the Apartheid government in South Africa) as well as the Palestine Liberation Organization a middle-eastern terror group

bull Over 100000 attended Sandsrsquo funeral

Bobby Sands

ldquoOur revenge will be the laughter of our childrenrdquo

Reaction to Sandsrsquo Death

>

Conclusion

bull The Hunger Strike was eventually called off after 10 strikers including Sands had died

bull James Prior newly installed secretary of state of Northern Ireland granted the prisoners partial concessions all of the Five Demands except for the right to not do prison work Margaret Thatcher refused to budge on political status

bull The Hunger Strikes opened a new way for the PIRA to pursue its objectives politically whereas previously it had seen violence as the only solution to the plight of Irish nationalists in Northern Ireland

1983 The Maze Prison Escape

The ldquoGreat Escaperdquo

bull Using smuggled-in guns and knives 38 PIRA prisoners who had been convicted of offenses ranging from murder to causing explosions escaped from one of the most high-security prisons in Europe They completely took over the H7 prison block and took their prison guards hostage before escaping in a food supply truck Several prison guards were shot and stabbed but only one died of a heart attack during the escape

bull Fifteen escapees were recaptured the first day with four more captured over the next two days following the breakout The remaining 19 were transported to PIRA strongholds and given the option to either rejoin the IRArsquos cause or be transported to the United States to live under a new identity

12 October 1984 Brighton Hotel Bombing

The PIRA Nearly Gets Thatcherbull Margaret Thatcher the highly controversial far-right British PM from

1979-1990 had become a tremendously hated figure amongst the Irish nationalist community in Northern Ireland following the 1981 Hunger Strikes and for her general uncompromising stand on Irish republicanism

bull PIRA man Patrick Magee stayed at the Brighton Hotel from the 14-17 September 1984 planting a 20-lb bomb under his bath

bull Thatcher was staying at the Brighton Hotel for a political conference and was still up at 254AM on 12 October when the bomb was detonated The bomb decimated her bathroom but left the bedroom and sitting room of her suite largely unscathed

bull The PIRA statement to Thatcher afterwards was ldquoToday we were unlucky But remember we only have to be lucky once You will have to be lucky alwaysrdquo

Loughgall Ambush 8 May 1987

The SAS Strikes

bull A botched attack on Loughgall Villagersquos RUC Police Base in which the PIRA drove a backhoe into the fortified base and ran away to detonate the bomb that was inside of the backhoe went wrong as the SAS the British Special Forces had prior knowledge of the attack and quickly dispatched the 8 PIRA members involved

bull Although the RUC base was wrecked and bombed there were no RUC or SAS casualties and it was the PIRArsquos greatest loss of life in a single incident during the Troubles

British Army Lynx Shootdown 20 March 1994

The PIRA Shoots Down a Helicopter

bull Using the previously mentioned Barrack-Buster homemade mortar PIRA insurgents were able to fire on a British helicopter that was in the process of landing whilst hiding behind a hay bail from around 150 yards out

bull The helicopter was hit with the mortar shell around 100 feet above the ground but the pilot was able to successfully crash-land the helicopter and escape before its propane tanks exploded There were no casualties but the attack was a major propaganda coup for the PIRA

1996 Manchester Bombing

The PIRA Destroys Manchester

bull On Saturday 15 June 1996 the PIRA sent in telephoned warnings and 90 minutes later detonated a 3300lb fertilizer-based truck bomb in the heart of Manchester City Centre the biggest bomb detonated in Great Britain during peacetime The bomb killed nobody due to previous warnings but led to 212 non-fatal injuries and essentially destroyed Manchester City Centre leaving approximately 700 million pounds ($12bn) worth of damage in its wake

Omagh Bombing 1998

Last Great Deadly Attack of the Troubles

bull Perpetrated by a Provisional IRA splinter group that was rejecting the peace process calling themselves the ldquoReal IRArdquo the 510lb fertilizer-based bomb was placed on main street in the town of Omagh Northern Ireland Warnings were called in approximately 30 minutes before the bombing but they were inaccurate and police ended up moving more civilians towards the bomb which ended up killing 29 people and causing over 300 non-fatal injuries This was the highest death toll from a single incident during the Troubles

bull It received universal outrage and was condemned even by the PIRA and its political wing Sinn Fein It spurred on the Northern Ireland peace process and the RIRA apologized and called a ceasefire several days after

The Good Friday Agreement and Northern Ireland Peace Process

Beginningsbull Following the 1981 Hunger Strikes Irish republicans began to

increasingly look towards politics rather than violence as a means of achieving their aims Sinn Fein gaelic for ldquoWe Ourselvesrdquo was a fiercely Irish Republican political party which led by the Machiavellian former PIRA leader and Maze inmate Gerry Adams began to push for a more peaceful solution to the Troubles in Northern Ireland

bull It became apparent by the late 1990s that although the PIRA was not losing a war against the British establishment it would be impossible to truly lsquowin the fightrsquo through violence and that any further terrorism would serve not to achieve any real political aim but only to prolong and continue suffering and violence in Northern Ireland and that politics was a much better way of achieving Republican aims

Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein former PIRA Belfast Brigade OC

Good Friday Agreement 1998

bull The Peace Process began in 1994 and included intermittent terrorist ceasefires and political negotiations between the major Irish republican and British unionist parties and culminated on April 10 1998 when the Good Friday Agreement was signed

PM Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern Sign the GFA

GFA Mandatesbull That Northern Ireland was to remain British until a majority of people in Northern

Ireland and the southern Republic of Ireland wanted otherwise bull The creation of an entirely new far less sectarian and religiously diverse Northern

Irish local governmentbull The decommissioning of arms from terrorist groups on both the unionist and

nationalist side of the political divide (ultimately successful all arms decommissioned by 2005)

bull Mutual respect and civil rights between Catholics and Protestants bull The reduction and eventual elimination of British troops in Northern Ireland

(ultimately successful all troops withdrawn by 2005)bull Eventual early prison release for all individuals imprisoned for terrorist offenses as

long as they were apart of a terrorist group that was decommissioning in accordance with the GFA

bull Disbandment of the RUC police service and the installation of the new Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) which was required to be at least 50 Catholic

Northern Ireland Today

Still Conflict But No Warbull Since the complete decommissioning of the arms and

disbandment of the PIRA INLA UDAUFF and UVF due to the Good Friday Agreement there is nowhere near the amount of violence in Northern Ireland or Belfast as there was 20 years ago There are no more weekly bombings and riots and no more British troops patrolling Catholic areas in armored vehicles

bull Despite this there are still occasional riots and clashes with the PSNI several times a year specifically on dates of great historical significance to the Catholic or Protestant communities and there is still a deep distrust and even hatred between many Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland although that continues to change with time

Catholic Slum of Ardoyne Belfast July 2011

Splinter Groups

bull Many former PIRA or UDA terrorists have now taken to organized crime for purely profiteering purposes but are no longer involved in substantial violence or any political-based terrorism

bull Splinter groups such as the Real IRA and Continuity IRA in Catholic communities and the Orange Volunteers and Red Hand Commandos in Protestant communities still conduct occasional violence towards Police and civilians in Northern Ireland but are all rather small poorly armed and poorly funded groups that pose nowhere near the threat that terrorist groups in the 80s and 90s did in Northern Ireland

Herersquos To A Brighter Future in Northern Ireland

Works Citedbull httpwwwbbccoukhistorytroublesbull httpcainulstacukbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiProvisional_Irish_Republican_Armybull httpenwikipediaorgwikiThe_Troublesbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiUlster_Defence_Associationbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiUlster_Volunteer_Forcebull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_National_Liberation_Armybull ldquoA Secret History of the IRArdquo by Ed Moloney ndashWW Norton amp Company Reprint 2003bull ldquoVoices From The Grave Two Menrsquos War in Irelandrdquo by Ed Moloney ndash Public Affairs 2010bull ldquoFifty Dead Men Walkingrdquo by Martin McGartland ndash John Blake 2009bull httpwwwinfopleasecomspotnorthireland1htmlbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_Civil_Warbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_War_of_Independencebull httpenwikipediaorgwiki1981_Irish_hunger_strikebull httpenwikipediaorgwikiDirectory_of_the_Northern_Ireland_Troublesbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiGood_Friday_Agreementbull httpswwwmi5govukhomethe-threatsterrorismnorthern-irelandrepublican-terrorist-groupshtmlbull httpswwwmi5govukhomethe-threatsterrorismnorthern-irelandprovisional-irish-republican-army-

pirahtmlbull httpnewsbbccoukhienglishstaticnorthern_irelandunderstandingeventshunger_strikestm

  • The Troubles
  • Brief Overview
  • 30 Years of Conflict
  • Slide 4
  • Background
  • The Irish War of Independence
  • Slide 7
  • Anglo-Irish Treaty (signed 6 December 1921)
  • Irish Civil War
  • 1922-1966 Ireland
  • The Civil Rights Movement
  • Slide 12
  • Slide 13
  • Objectives of the Civil Rights Movement
  • The 1969 Northern Ireland Riots ndashThe Troubles Begin
  • Culmination of Tension
  • No-Go Areas
  • No-Go Areas (2)
  • Early 1970sndash The Rise of the Provisional IRA
  • The IRA Split
  • Rise of the UVF and Loyalist Terror Groups
  • Beginnings
  • UVF Statement 21 May 1964
  • The Paramilitaries
  • Irish RepublicansCatholics
  • The Provisional IRA
  • IRA Statement Late 80s
  • Statistics
  • RecruitmentFunding
  • Weaponry
  • Weaponry (2)
  • Slide 32
  • Mortars and IEDs
  • EOD Officer Approaches PIRA Car Bomb
  • The Barrack Buster
  • Vigilantism
  • Slide 37
  • Slide 38
  • Policy on Informants
  • Terrorist Activities
  • Terrorist Activities (continued)
  • The INLA
  • Statistics (2)
  • Ideology
  • Terrorist Activities (2)
  • Internal Feuds
  • Slide 47
  • British LoyalistsProtestants
  • The UDAUFF
  • Former UFF Member
  • Statistics (3)
  • Ideology (2)
  • Terrorist Activities (3)
  • Slide 54
  • Organized Crime
  • The UVF
  • Statistics (4)
  • Ideology (3)
  • Terrorist Activities (4)
  • The Shankhill Butchers
  • Weaponry (3)
  • Slide 62
  • Organized Crime (2)
  • Major Incidents 1969-1998
  • Bloody Sunday 30 January 1972
  • Massacre on the Bogside
  • Bloody Friday 21 July 1972
  • A City Under Siege
  • Dublin and Monaghan Bombings 17 May 1974
  • Deadliest Attack of the Troubles
  • Warrenpoint Ambush 27 August 1979
  • Roadside IEDs
  • Summer of 1981 Irish Hunger Strikes
  • A Defining Moment for the Republican Cause
  • The Five Demands
  • Previous Protests
  • Dirty Protesters
  • Thatcherrsquos Response
  • Ten Strikers Die
  • Bobby Sands
  • Reaction to Sandsrsquo Death
  • Conclusion
  • 1983 The Maze Prison Escape
  • The ldquoGreat Escaperdquo
  • 12 October 1984 Brighton Hotel Bombing
  • The PIRA Nearly Gets Thatcher
  • Loughgall Ambush 8 May 1987
  • The SAS Strikes
  • British Army Lynx Shootdown 20 March 1994
  • The PIRA Shoots Down a Helicopter
  • 1996 Manchester Bombing
  • The PIRA Destroys Manchester
  • Omagh Bombing 1998
  • Last Great Deadly Attack of the Troubles
  • The Good Friday Agreement and Northern Ireland Peace Process
  • Beginnings (2)
  • Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein former PIRA Belfast Brigade OC
  • Good Friday Agreement 1998
  • PM Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern Sign the GFA
  • GFA Mandates
  • Northern Ireland Today
  • Still Conflict But No War
  • Catholic Slum of Ardoyne Belfast July 2011
  • Splinter Groups
  • Herersquos To A Brighter Future in Northern Ireland
  • Works Cited
Page 41: The Troubles, 1969-1998

British LoyalistsProtestants

The UDAUFF

Former UFF Member

>

Statistics

bull Suffered 89 casualtiesbull Killed 197 civiliansbull Killed 12 civilian political activistsbull Killed 37 members of rival loyalist terror

groupsbull Killed 11 members of republican terror groupsbull Killed 3 members of the British Security Forces

Ideology

bull The UDA or Ulster Defense Association and its military wing the Ulster Freedom Fighters (UFF) was a loyalist protestant terror squad that targeted PIRA and INLA members as well as general Catholic civilians in bombings and shootings throughout Northern Ireland

bull It pledged to end its campaign of violence whenever the IRA set down its arms yet should the UK government appease the IRA and grant a 32-county Irish Republic the UDA pledged to act as ldquothe IRA in reverserdquo

Terrorist Activitiesbull The UDA saw itself as a militia defending upstanding protestant loyalist

communities from dangerous and lower-class Catholics that were disrupting the status quo in Northern Ireland They pledged primarily to target IRA men but ended up killing a majority of Catholic civilians during the Troubles They were also known to intimidate and exile known Catholic families from predominately-Protestant communities in Belfast and other urban areas

bull Drive-by shootings shooting up or planting bombs in predominately-Catholic pubs and bars and jumping brutally beating andor kneecapping Catholic civilians were all frequent tactics

bull The UDA discreetly worked in collusion with the RUC and other British security agencies so as to track down and assassinate known IRA members They would also patrol Protestant neighborhoods alongside British soldiers at the height of the Troubles Many RUC police officers and prison guards were also UDA members

bull The UDA alongside many other loyalist paramilitaries benefitted from the import of several arms shipments from Lebanese arms dealers in the early 1970s including rocket launchers 200+ AK-47 Rifles 90+ handguns and over 400 grenades They also received various weapons such as the uzi submachine gun and explosive devices from arms dealers in the Soviet bloc in the 1980s

Organized Crime

bull The UDA and its members were also heavily involved in drug dealing from the street level to wholesale purchase primarily in MDMA and cannabis throughout the Troubles

bull Protection racketeering and money laundering were also common amongst the UDA in protestant communities

bull However should a member of a UDA-ran community begin stealing or dealing drugs without UDA consent he was abruptly branded as ldquoanti-socialrdquo and either killed or kneecapped

The UVF

Statistics

bull Suffered unknown number of casualtiesbull Killed 412 civiliansbull Killed 11 civilian political activistsbull Killed 21 members of republican terror groupsbull Killed 42 members of rival loyalist terror

groupsbull Killed 6 members of the Security Forces

Ideology

bull Similar to the UDAUFF the Ulster Volunteer Forcersquos primary aim was to combat Irish republicanism in Northern Ireland primarily the PIRA They wanted Northern Ireland to remain in the UK

Terrorist Activitiesbull The majority of UVF victims were Catholic civilians

many of whom were killed at random These attacks were intended to demoralize the IRA as the IRA drew most of its support from the Catholic community

bull Planting bombs in predominately-Catholic pubs or simply residential areas was a very frequent UVF tactic and in 1973 they detonated more bombs in Northern Ireland than the UDA and the PIRA combined Assassinations mass shootings booby-trap car bombs and kidnappings were also frequent UVF activities

The Shankhill Butchers

bull The ldquoShankhill Butchersrdquo were a notorious offshoot UVF group known for abducting and literally slitting the throats of Catholic civilians and rival loyalist terror groups in the late 1970s They were led by Lenny Murphy (who was eventually imprisoned and upon his release of a 4-year stint murdered by the PIRA) and killed 23 people most of whom were Catholic civilians Many experts liken the Shankhill Butchers more to a group of serial killers than to politically or even ethnically-motivated murderers

bull The Butchers were all eventually all either imprisoned killed by the PIRA or both

Weaponrybull The UVF received the majority of its weaponry in the late 1970s

from Armscor an apartheid-South Africa state-owned arms company which in defiance of various UN sanctions and embargoes sold them to the UVF

bull Weapons were thought to consist ofbull 200 Czech SA vz 58 Assault Riflesbull 90 Browning Pistolsbull 500 RGD-5 Frag Grenadesbull 30000 rounds of ammunitionbull 12 RPG-7 Rocket Launchers and 150+ Rocketsbull The UVF also began using the illegally-obtained mining explosive

Powergel in the early 1990s

Organized Crime

bull The UVF was also heavily involved in organized crime including protection racketeering and drug smugglingdealing including cannabis MDMA cocaine and amphetamines Bank robberies were also very frequent in the 1970s

Major Incidents 1969-1998

Bloody Sunday 30 January 1972

Massacre on the Bogsidebull In 1972 during a large scale but peaceful civil-rights march in the

troubled predominately Catholic neighborhood of Bogside in Derry 26 unarmed civil rights marchers were shot by members of the British Army 14 of whom were killed Five of those shot were shot in the back

bull After several inquiries into the incident there was found to have been no justifiable provocation from the protestors and no shots fired from the protestors during the march The massacre was conducted in full view of the public and the press

bull The PM David Cameron eventually issued a formal apology to the victims and victimsrsquo families of the massacre after several investigations failed to reveal any justifiable provocation for the massacre

bull The massacre sky-rocketed PIRA membership and recruitment as public perception of the British Army in Catholic communities in Northern Ireland reached an all-time low

Bloody Friday 21 July 1972

A City Under Siege

bull On 21 July 1972 the PIRA detonated 26 bombs in the space of 80 minutes in Belfast destroying banks bridges electrical substations Protestant housing tenements gasoline stations and private garages

bull Although warnings were called in at least 30 minutes prior to each bomb the amount of bombs exploding and the addition of multiple hoax warnings at the same time led to the Security Forces being unable to evacuate all the areas in time 11 people were killed and 130 were injured many of them horrifically mutilated Of those injured 77 were women or children

Dublin and Monaghan Bombings 17 May 1974

Deadliest Attack of the Troubles

bull Perpetrated by the UVF in the southern Republic of Ireland three car bombs exploded in Dublin during rush hour and another exploded in Monaghan around 90 minutes later

bull 33 civilians and a full-term unborn child were killed in the bombing while nearly 300 were injured The UVF did not claim responsibility for the bombings until 1993

bull The majority of those killed were young women although the age range of those killed ranged from 5 months old to 80 years old

Warrenpoint Ambush 27 August 1979

Roadside IEDsbull In the southern part of County Armagh Northern Ireland a predominately-

Catholic rural region and former PIRA stronghold right on the border with the southern Republic of Ireland a British troop convoy was hit with a remote-control detonated roadside 500lb truck-bomb and destroyed instantly killing 6 troops The surviving soldiers then wrongly believed they were under sniper fire from the other side of the Irish border and began firing at civilians immediately after the bombing killing 1 and injuring another

bull 32 minutes after the first bombing the IRA used its knowledge of how the British reacted to bombings to correctly predict that they would set up an incident-command point in a nearby gatehouse Unfortunately for the British there was a second 800lb fertilizer bomb planted near the gatehouse that when detonated killed 12 other soldiers who were responding to the initial bomb

bull It was the deadliest single attack on the British Army during the Troubles and a highly successful attack for the PIRA

Summer of 1981 Irish Hunger Strikes

A Defining Moment for the Republican Cause

bull Beginning on 1 March 1981 led by Bobby Sands 7 PIRA and 3 INLA inmates at the notorious ldquoMazerdquo prison began to refuse food until Margaret Thatcher PM of Great Britain at that time began to recognize terrorist prisoners as political prisoners and allowed them their ldquoFive Demandsrdquo

The Five Demands

bull The right to not wear a prison uniformbull The right to not do prison workbull The right of free association with other

prisoners and to organize in educational and recreational pursuits

bull Full restoration of remission lost through any protests towards these demands

Previous Protestsbull The Maze prison was a very high-security and low-quality prison that

housed almost all PIRA prisoners during the Troubles It was run in a very ethically questionable fashion with frequent beatings and borderline-torture techniques used on Republican prisoners and extremely poor living conditions for prisoners Many Maze prison guards were members of the UDAUVF or had strong connections with one of the two groups as well

bull Massive peaceful protests and marches by Irish republicans outside of the Maze Prison proved unsuccessful in attaining political status for republican prisoners as well as previous inmate protests in 1980 including non-fatal hunger strikes inmates refusing to wear prison uniforms and thus living in their cells naked and prisoners refusing to leave their cells to go to the bathroom until their requests had been granted (they therefore urinated and defecated in their cells and spread their excrement across their cell walls in what was known as the ldquoDirty Protestrdquo)

Dirty Protesters

Thatcherrsquos Response

bull ldquoThose terrorists will carry their determination to disrupt society to any lengths Once again we have a hunger strike in the Maze Prison in the quest for what they call lsquopolitical statusrsquo There is no such thing as political murder political bombing or political violence There is only criminal murder criminal bombing and criminal violence We will not compromise on this There will be no political statusrdquo

Ten Strikers Diebull Bobby Sands the leader of the strike was imprisoned as a PIRA member

on charges of firearm possession and in connection with the bombing of a furniture store He was the first to die after 66 days of not eating Sands was elected to a seat in Parliament whilst on Hunger Strike

bull Following Sandsrsquo death there were riots bus-burnings and attacks on the British embassy in the southern Republic of Ireland there were massive demonstrations in France and Italy a tomato was thrown as Queen Elizabeth II by demonstrators in Oslo and there were massive riots and civil disorder all over the streets of Belfast The South African ANC and (at the time) terrorist Nelson Mandela expressed their support for the PIRA and the hunger strikers (Mandela himself claimed he was directly inspired by Sands to undertake hunger strikes against the Apartheid government in South Africa) as well as the Palestine Liberation Organization a middle-eastern terror group

bull Over 100000 attended Sandsrsquo funeral

Bobby Sands

ldquoOur revenge will be the laughter of our childrenrdquo

Reaction to Sandsrsquo Death

>

Conclusion

bull The Hunger Strike was eventually called off after 10 strikers including Sands had died

bull James Prior newly installed secretary of state of Northern Ireland granted the prisoners partial concessions all of the Five Demands except for the right to not do prison work Margaret Thatcher refused to budge on political status

bull The Hunger Strikes opened a new way for the PIRA to pursue its objectives politically whereas previously it had seen violence as the only solution to the plight of Irish nationalists in Northern Ireland

1983 The Maze Prison Escape

The ldquoGreat Escaperdquo

bull Using smuggled-in guns and knives 38 PIRA prisoners who had been convicted of offenses ranging from murder to causing explosions escaped from one of the most high-security prisons in Europe They completely took over the H7 prison block and took their prison guards hostage before escaping in a food supply truck Several prison guards were shot and stabbed but only one died of a heart attack during the escape

bull Fifteen escapees were recaptured the first day with four more captured over the next two days following the breakout The remaining 19 were transported to PIRA strongholds and given the option to either rejoin the IRArsquos cause or be transported to the United States to live under a new identity

12 October 1984 Brighton Hotel Bombing

The PIRA Nearly Gets Thatcherbull Margaret Thatcher the highly controversial far-right British PM from

1979-1990 had become a tremendously hated figure amongst the Irish nationalist community in Northern Ireland following the 1981 Hunger Strikes and for her general uncompromising stand on Irish republicanism

bull PIRA man Patrick Magee stayed at the Brighton Hotel from the 14-17 September 1984 planting a 20-lb bomb under his bath

bull Thatcher was staying at the Brighton Hotel for a political conference and was still up at 254AM on 12 October when the bomb was detonated The bomb decimated her bathroom but left the bedroom and sitting room of her suite largely unscathed

bull The PIRA statement to Thatcher afterwards was ldquoToday we were unlucky But remember we only have to be lucky once You will have to be lucky alwaysrdquo

Loughgall Ambush 8 May 1987

The SAS Strikes

bull A botched attack on Loughgall Villagersquos RUC Police Base in which the PIRA drove a backhoe into the fortified base and ran away to detonate the bomb that was inside of the backhoe went wrong as the SAS the British Special Forces had prior knowledge of the attack and quickly dispatched the 8 PIRA members involved

bull Although the RUC base was wrecked and bombed there were no RUC or SAS casualties and it was the PIRArsquos greatest loss of life in a single incident during the Troubles

British Army Lynx Shootdown 20 March 1994

The PIRA Shoots Down a Helicopter

bull Using the previously mentioned Barrack-Buster homemade mortar PIRA insurgents were able to fire on a British helicopter that was in the process of landing whilst hiding behind a hay bail from around 150 yards out

bull The helicopter was hit with the mortar shell around 100 feet above the ground but the pilot was able to successfully crash-land the helicopter and escape before its propane tanks exploded There were no casualties but the attack was a major propaganda coup for the PIRA

1996 Manchester Bombing

The PIRA Destroys Manchester

bull On Saturday 15 June 1996 the PIRA sent in telephoned warnings and 90 minutes later detonated a 3300lb fertilizer-based truck bomb in the heart of Manchester City Centre the biggest bomb detonated in Great Britain during peacetime The bomb killed nobody due to previous warnings but led to 212 non-fatal injuries and essentially destroyed Manchester City Centre leaving approximately 700 million pounds ($12bn) worth of damage in its wake

Omagh Bombing 1998

Last Great Deadly Attack of the Troubles

bull Perpetrated by a Provisional IRA splinter group that was rejecting the peace process calling themselves the ldquoReal IRArdquo the 510lb fertilizer-based bomb was placed on main street in the town of Omagh Northern Ireland Warnings were called in approximately 30 minutes before the bombing but they were inaccurate and police ended up moving more civilians towards the bomb which ended up killing 29 people and causing over 300 non-fatal injuries This was the highest death toll from a single incident during the Troubles

bull It received universal outrage and was condemned even by the PIRA and its political wing Sinn Fein It spurred on the Northern Ireland peace process and the RIRA apologized and called a ceasefire several days after

The Good Friday Agreement and Northern Ireland Peace Process

Beginningsbull Following the 1981 Hunger Strikes Irish republicans began to

increasingly look towards politics rather than violence as a means of achieving their aims Sinn Fein gaelic for ldquoWe Ourselvesrdquo was a fiercely Irish Republican political party which led by the Machiavellian former PIRA leader and Maze inmate Gerry Adams began to push for a more peaceful solution to the Troubles in Northern Ireland

bull It became apparent by the late 1990s that although the PIRA was not losing a war against the British establishment it would be impossible to truly lsquowin the fightrsquo through violence and that any further terrorism would serve not to achieve any real political aim but only to prolong and continue suffering and violence in Northern Ireland and that politics was a much better way of achieving Republican aims

Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein former PIRA Belfast Brigade OC

Good Friday Agreement 1998

bull The Peace Process began in 1994 and included intermittent terrorist ceasefires and political negotiations between the major Irish republican and British unionist parties and culminated on April 10 1998 when the Good Friday Agreement was signed

PM Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern Sign the GFA

GFA Mandatesbull That Northern Ireland was to remain British until a majority of people in Northern

Ireland and the southern Republic of Ireland wanted otherwise bull The creation of an entirely new far less sectarian and religiously diverse Northern

Irish local governmentbull The decommissioning of arms from terrorist groups on both the unionist and

nationalist side of the political divide (ultimately successful all arms decommissioned by 2005)

bull Mutual respect and civil rights between Catholics and Protestants bull The reduction and eventual elimination of British troops in Northern Ireland

(ultimately successful all troops withdrawn by 2005)bull Eventual early prison release for all individuals imprisoned for terrorist offenses as

long as they were apart of a terrorist group that was decommissioning in accordance with the GFA

bull Disbandment of the RUC police service and the installation of the new Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) which was required to be at least 50 Catholic

Northern Ireland Today

Still Conflict But No Warbull Since the complete decommissioning of the arms and

disbandment of the PIRA INLA UDAUFF and UVF due to the Good Friday Agreement there is nowhere near the amount of violence in Northern Ireland or Belfast as there was 20 years ago There are no more weekly bombings and riots and no more British troops patrolling Catholic areas in armored vehicles

bull Despite this there are still occasional riots and clashes with the PSNI several times a year specifically on dates of great historical significance to the Catholic or Protestant communities and there is still a deep distrust and even hatred between many Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland although that continues to change with time

Catholic Slum of Ardoyne Belfast July 2011

Splinter Groups

bull Many former PIRA or UDA terrorists have now taken to organized crime for purely profiteering purposes but are no longer involved in substantial violence or any political-based terrorism

bull Splinter groups such as the Real IRA and Continuity IRA in Catholic communities and the Orange Volunteers and Red Hand Commandos in Protestant communities still conduct occasional violence towards Police and civilians in Northern Ireland but are all rather small poorly armed and poorly funded groups that pose nowhere near the threat that terrorist groups in the 80s and 90s did in Northern Ireland

Herersquos To A Brighter Future in Northern Ireland

Works Citedbull httpwwwbbccoukhistorytroublesbull httpcainulstacukbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiProvisional_Irish_Republican_Armybull httpenwikipediaorgwikiThe_Troublesbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiUlster_Defence_Associationbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiUlster_Volunteer_Forcebull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_National_Liberation_Armybull ldquoA Secret History of the IRArdquo by Ed Moloney ndashWW Norton amp Company Reprint 2003bull ldquoVoices From The Grave Two Menrsquos War in Irelandrdquo by Ed Moloney ndash Public Affairs 2010bull ldquoFifty Dead Men Walkingrdquo by Martin McGartland ndash John Blake 2009bull httpwwwinfopleasecomspotnorthireland1htmlbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_Civil_Warbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_War_of_Independencebull httpenwikipediaorgwiki1981_Irish_hunger_strikebull httpenwikipediaorgwikiDirectory_of_the_Northern_Ireland_Troublesbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiGood_Friday_Agreementbull httpswwwmi5govukhomethe-threatsterrorismnorthern-irelandrepublican-terrorist-groupshtmlbull httpswwwmi5govukhomethe-threatsterrorismnorthern-irelandprovisional-irish-republican-army-

pirahtmlbull httpnewsbbccoukhienglishstaticnorthern_irelandunderstandingeventshunger_strikestm

  • The Troubles
  • Brief Overview
  • 30 Years of Conflict
  • Slide 4
  • Background
  • The Irish War of Independence
  • Slide 7
  • Anglo-Irish Treaty (signed 6 December 1921)
  • Irish Civil War
  • 1922-1966 Ireland
  • The Civil Rights Movement
  • Slide 12
  • Slide 13
  • Objectives of the Civil Rights Movement
  • The 1969 Northern Ireland Riots ndashThe Troubles Begin
  • Culmination of Tension
  • No-Go Areas
  • No-Go Areas (2)
  • Early 1970sndash The Rise of the Provisional IRA
  • The IRA Split
  • Rise of the UVF and Loyalist Terror Groups
  • Beginnings
  • UVF Statement 21 May 1964
  • The Paramilitaries
  • Irish RepublicansCatholics
  • The Provisional IRA
  • IRA Statement Late 80s
  • Statistics
  • RecruitmentFunding
  • Weaponry
  • Weaponry (2)
  • Slide 32
  • Mortars and IEDs
  • EOD Officer Approaches PIRA Car Bomb
  • The Barrack Buster
  • Vigilantism
  • Slide 37
  • Slide 38
  • Policy on Informants
  • Terrorist Activities
  • Terrorist Activities (continued)
  • The INLA
  • Statistics (2)
  • Ideology
  • Terrorist Activities (2)
  • Internal Feuds
  • Slide 47
  • British LoyalistsProtestants
  • The UDAUFF
  • Former UFF Member
  • Statistics (3)
  • Ideology (2)
  • Terrorist Activities (3)
  • Slide 54
  • Organized Crime
  • The UVF
  • Statistics (4)
  • Ideology (3)
  • Terrorist Activities (4)
  • The Shankhill Butchers
  • Weaponry (3)
  • Slide 62
  • Organized Crime (2)
  • Major Incidents 1969-1998
  • Bloody Sunday 30 January 1972
  • Massacre on the Bogside
  • Bloody Friday 21 July 1972
  • A City Under Siege
  • Dublin and Monaghan Bombings 17 May 1974
  • Deadliest Attack of the Troubles
  • Warrenpoint Ambush 27 August 1979
  • Roadside IEDs
  • Summer of 1981 Irish Hunger Strikes
  • A Defining Moment for the Republican Cause
  • The Five Demands
  • Previous Protests
  • Dirty Protesters
  • Thatcherrsquos Response
  • Ten Strikers Die
  • Bobby Sands
  • Reaction to Sandsrsquo Death
  • Conclusion
  • 1983 The Maze Prison Escape
  • The ldquoGreat Escaperdquo
  • 12 October 1984 Brighton Hotel Bombing
  • The PIRA Nearly Gets Thatcher
  • Loughgall Ambush 8 May 1987
  • The SAS Strikes
  • British Army Lynx Shootdown 20 March 1994
  • The PIRA Shoots Down a Helicopter
  • 1996 Manchester Bombing
  • The PIRA Destroys Manchester
  • Omagh Bombing 1998
  • Last Great Deadly Attack of the Troubles
  • The Good Friday Agreement and Northern Ireland Peace Process
  • Beginnings (2)
  • Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein former PIRA Belfast Brigade OC
  • Good Friday Agreement 1998
  • PM Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern Sign the GFA
  • GFA Mandates
  • Northern Ireland Today
  • Still Conflict But No War
  • Catholic Slum of Ardoyne Belfast July 2011
  • Splinter Groups
  • Herersquos To A Brighter Future in Northern Ireland
  • Works Cited
Page 42: The Troubles, 1969-1998

The UDAUFF

Former UFF Member

>

Statistics

bull Suffered 89 casualtiesbull Killed 197 civiliansbull Killed 12 civilian political activistsbull Killed 37 members of rival loyalist terror

groupsbull Killed 11 members of republican terror groupsbull Killed 3 members of the British Security Forces

Ideology

bull The UDA or Ulster Defense Association and its military wing the Ulster Freedom Fighters (UFF) was a loyalist protestant terror squad that targeted PIRA and INLA members as well as general Catholic civilians in bombings and shootings throughout Northern Ireland

bull It pledged to end its campaign of violence whenever the IRA set down its arms yet should the UK government appease the IRA and grant a 32-county Irish Republic the UDA pledged to act as ldquothe IRA in reverserdquo

Terrorist Activitiesbull The UDA saw itself as a militia defending upstanding protestant loyalist

communities from dangerous and lower-class Catholics that were disrupting the status quo in Northern Ireland They pledged primarily to target IRA men but ended up killing a majority of Catholic civilians during the Troubles They were also known to intimidate and exile known Catholic families from predominately-Protestant communities in Belfast and other urban areas

bull Drive-by shootings shooting up or planting bombs in predominately-Catholic pubs and bars and jumping brutally beating andor kneecapping Catholic civilians were all frequent tactics

bull The UDA discreetly worked in collusion with the RUC and other British security agencies so as to track down and assassinate known IRA members They would also patrol Protestant neighborhoods alongside British soldiers at the height of the Troubles Many RUC police officers and prison guards were also UDA members

bull The UDA alongside many other loyalist paramilitaries benefitted from the import of several arms shipments from Lebanese arms dealers in the early 1970s including rocket launchers 200+ AK-47 Rifles 90+ handguns and over 400 grenades They also received various weapons such as the uzi submachine gun and explosive devices from arms dealers in the Soviet bloc in the 1980s

Organized Crime

bull The UDA and its members were also heavily involved in drug dealing from the street level to wholesale purchase primarily in MDMA and cannabis throughout the Troubles

bull Protection racketeering and money laundering were also common amongst the UDA in protestant communities

bull However should a member of a UDA-ran community begin stealing or dealing drugs without UDA consent he was abruptly branded as ldquoanti-socialrdquo and either killed or kneecapped

The UVF

Statistics

bull Suffered unknown number of casualtiesbull Killed 412 civiliansbull Killed 11 civilian political activistsbull Killed 21 members of republican terror groupsbull Killed 42 members of rival loyalist terror

groupsbull Killed 6 members of the Security Forces

Ideology

bull Similar to the UDAUFF the Ulster Volunteer Forcersquos primary aim was to combat Irish republicanism in Northern Ireland primarily the PIRA They wanted Northern Ireland to remain in the UK

Terrorist Activitiesbull The majority of UVF victims were Catholic civilians

many of whom were killed at random These attacks were intended to demoralize the IRA as the IRA drew most of its support from the Catholic community

bull Planting bombs in predominately-Catholic pubs or simply residential areas was a very frequent UVF tactic and in 1973 they detonated more bombs in Northern Ireland than the UDA and the PIRA combined Assassinations mass shootings booby-trap car bombs and kidnappings were also frequent UVF activities

The Shankhill Butchers

bull The ldquoShankhill Butchersrdquo were a notorious offshoot UVF group known for abducting and literally slitting the throats of Catholic civilians and rival loyalist terror groups in the late 1970s They were led by Lenny Murphy (who was eventually imprisoned and upon his release of a 4-year stint murdered by the PIRA) and killed 23 people most of whom were Catholic civilians Many experts liken the Shankhill Butchers more to a group of serial killers than to politically or even ethnically-motivated murderers

bull The Butchers were all eventually all either imprisoned killed by the PIRA or both

Weaponrybull The UVF received the majority of its weaponry in the late 1970s

from Armscor an apartheid-South Africa state-owned arms company which in defiance of various UN sanctions and embargoes sold them to the UVF

bull Weapons were thought to consist ofbull 200 Czech SA vz 58 Assault Riflesbull 90 Browning Pistolsbull 500 RGD-5 Frag Grenadesbull 30000 rounds of ammunitionbull 12 RPG-7 Rocket Launchers and 150+ Rocketsbull The UVF also began using the illegally-obtained mining explosive

Powergel in the early 1990s

Organized Crime

bull The UVF was also heavily involved in organized crime including protection racketeering and drug smugglingdealing including cannabis MDMA cocaine and amphetamines Bank robberies were also very frequent in the 1970s

Major Incidents 1969-1998

Bloody Sunday 30 January 1972

Massacre on the Bogsidebull In 1972 during a large scale but peaceful civil-rights march in the

troubled predominately Catholic neighborhood of Bogside in Derry 26 unarmed civil rights marchers were shot by members of the British Army 14 of whom were killed Five of those shot were shot in the back

bull After several inquiries into the incident there was found to have been no justifiable provocation from the protestors and no shots fired from the protestors during the march The massacre was conducted in full view of the public and the press

bull The PM David Cameron eventually issued a formal apology to the victims and victimsrsquo families of the massacre after several investigations failed to reveal any justifiable provocation for the massacre

bull The massacre sky-rocketed PIRA membership and recruitment as public perception of the British Army in Catholic communities in Northern Ireland reached an all-time low

Bloody Friday 21 July 1972

A City Under Siege

bull On 21 July 1972 the PIRA detonated 26 bombs in the space of 80 minutes in Belfast destroying banks bridges electrical substations Protestant housing tenements gasoline stations and private garages

bull Although warnings were called in at least 30 minutes prior to each bomb the amount of bombs exploding and the addition of multiple hoax warnings at the same time led to the Security Forces being unable to evacuate all the areas in time 11 people were killed and 130 were injured many of them horrifically mutilated Of those injured 77 were women or children

Dublin and Monaghan Bombings 17 May 1974

Deadliest Attack of the Troubles

bull Perpetrated by the UVF in the southern Republic of Ireland three car bombs exploded in Dublin during rush hour and another exploded in Monaghan around 90 minutes later

bull 33 civilians and a full-term unborn child were killed in the bombing while nearly 300 were injured The UVF did not claim responsibility for the bombings until 1993

bull The majority of those killed were young women although the age range of those killed ranged from 5 months old to 80 years old

Warrenpoint Ambush 27 August 1979

Roadside IEDsbull In the southern part of County Armagh Northern Ireland a predominately-

Catholic rural region and former PIRA stronghold right on the border with the southern Republic of Ireland a British troop convoy was hit with a remote-control detonated roadside 500lb truck-bomb and destroyed instantly killing 6 troops The surviving soldiers then wrongly believed they were under sniper fire from the other side of the Irish border and began firing at civilians immediately after the bombing killing 1 and injuring another

bull 32 minutes after the first bombing the IRA used its knowledge of how the British reacted to bombings to correctly predict that they would set up an incident-command point in a nearby gatehouse Unfortunately for the British there was a second 800lb fertilizer bomb planted near the gatehouse that when detonated killed 12 other soldiers who were responding to the initial bomb

bull It was the deadliest single attack on the British Army during the Troubles and a highly successful attack for the PIRA

Summer of 1981 Irish Hunger Strikes

A Defining Moment for the Republican Cause

bull Beginning on 1 March 1981 led by Bobby Sands 7 PIRA and 3 INLA inmates at the notorious ldquoMazerdquo prison began to refuse food until Margaret Thatcher PM of Great Britain at that time began to recognize terrorist prisoners as political prisoners and allowed them their ldquoFive Demandsrdquo

The Five Demands

bull The right to not wear a prison uniformbull The right to not do prison workbull The right of free association with other

prisoners and to organize in educational and recreational pursuits

bull Full restoration of remission lost through any protests towards these demands

Previous Protestsbull The Maze prison was a very high-security and low-quality prison that

housed almost all PIRA prisoners during the Troubles It was run in a very ethically questionable fashion with frequent beatings and borderline-torture techniques used on Republican prisoners and extremely poor living conditions for prisoners Many Maze prison guards were members of the UDAUVF or had strong connections with one of the two groups as well

bull Massive peaceful protests and marches by Irish republicans outside of the Maze Prison proved unsuccessful in attaining political status for republican prisoners as well as previous inmate protests in 1980 including non-fatal hunger strikes inmates refusing to wear prison uniforms and thus living in their cells naked and prisoners refusing to leave their cells to go to the bathroom until their requests had been granted (they therefore urinated and defecated in their cells and spread their excrement across their cell walls in what was known as the ldquoDirty Protestrdquo)

Dirty Protesters

Thatcherrsquos Response

bull ldquoThose terrorists will carry their determination to disrupt society to any lengths Once again we have a hunger strike in the Maze Prison in the quest for what they call lsquopolitical statusrsquo There is no such thing as political murder political bombing or political violence There is only criminal murder criminal bombing and criminal violence We will not compromise on this There will be no political statusrdquo

Ten Strikers Diebull Bobby Sands the leader of the strike was imprisoned as a PIRA member

on charges of firearm possession and in connection with the bombing of a furniture store He was the first to die after 66 days of not eating Sands was elected to a seat in Parliament whilst on Hunger Strike

bull Following Sandsrsquo death there were riots bus-burnings and attacks on the British embassy in the southern Republic of Ireland there were massive demonstrations in France and Italy a tomato was thrown as Queen Elizabeth II by demonstrators in Oslo and there were massive riots and civil disorder all over the streets of Belfast The South African ANC and (at the time) terrorist Nelson Mandela expressed their support for the PIRA and the hunger strikers (Mandela himself claimed he was directly inspired by Sands to undertake hunger strikes against the Apartheid government in South Africa) as well as the Palestine Liberation Organization a middle-eastern terror group

bull Over 100000 attended Sandsrsquo funeral

Bobby Sands

ldquoOur revenge will be the laughter of our childrenrdquo

Reaction to Sandsrsquo Death

>

Conclusion

bull The Hunger Strike was eventually called off after 10 strikers including Sands had died

bull James Prior newly installed secretary of state of Northern Ireland granted the prisoners partial concessions all of the Five Demands except for the right to not do prison work Margaret Thatcher refused to budge on political status

bull The Hunger Strikes opened a new way for the PIRA to pursue its objectives politically whereas previously it had seen violence as the only solution to the plight of Irish nationalists in Northern Ireland

1983 The Maze Prison Escape

The ldquoGreat Escaperdquo

bull Using smuggled-in guns and knives 38 PIRA prisoners who had been convicted of offenses ranging from murder to causing explosions escaped from one of the most high-security prisons in Europe They completely took over the H7 prison block and took their prison guards hostage before escaping in a food supply truck Several prison guards were shot and stabbed but only one died of a heart attack during the escape

bull Fifteen escapees were recaptured the first day with four more captured over the next two days following the breakout The remaining 19 were transported to PIRA strongholds and given the option to either rejoin the IRArsquos cause or be transported to the United States to live under a new identity

12 October 1984 Brighton Hotel Bombing

The PIRA Nearly Gets Thatcherbull Margaret Thatcher the highly controversial far-right British PM from

1979-1990 had become a tremendously hated figure amongst the Irish nationalist community in Northern Ireland following the 1981 Hunger Strikes and for her general uncompromising stand on Irish republicanism

bull PIRA man Patrick Magee stayed at the Brighton Hotel from the 14-17 September 1984 planting a 20-lb bomb under his bath

bull Thatcher was staying at the Brighton Hotel for a political conference and was still up at 254AM on 12 October when the bomb was detonated The bomb decimated her bathroom but left the bedroom and sitting room of her suite largely unscathed

bull The PIRA statement to Thatcher afterwards was ldquoToday we were unlucky But remember we only have to be lucky once You will have to be lucky alwaysrdquo

Loughgall Ambush 8 May 1987

The SAS Strikes

bull A botched attack on Loughgall Villagersquos RUC Police Base in which the PIRA drove a backhoe into the fortified base and ran away to detonate the bomb that was inside of the backhoe went wrong as the SAS the British Special Forces had prior knowledge of the attack and quickly dispatched the 8 PIRA members involved

bull Although the RUC base was wrecked and bombed there were no RUC or SAS casualties and it was the PIRArsquos greatest loss of life in a single incident during the Troubles

British Army Lynx Shootdown 20 March 1994

The PIRA Shoots Down a Helicopter

bull Using the previously mentioned Barrack-Buster homemade mortar PIRA insurgents were able to fire on a British helicopter that was in the process of landing whilst hiding behind a hay bail from around 150 yards out

bull The helicopter was hit with the mortar shell around 100 feet above the ground but the pilot was able to successfully crash-land the helicopter and escape before its propane tanks exploded There were no casualties but the attack was a major propaganda coup for the PIRA

1996 Manchester Bombing

The PIRA Destroys Manchester

bull On Saturday 15 June 1996 the PIRA sent in telephoned warnings and 90 minutes later detonated a 3300lb fertilizer-based truck bomb in the heart of Manchester City Centre the biggest bomb detonated in Great Britain during peacetime The bomb killed nobody due to previous warnings but led to 212 non-fatal injuries and essentially destroyed Manchester City Centre leaving approximately 700 million pounds ($12bn) worth of damage in its wake

Omagh Bombing 1998

Last Great Deadly Attack of the Troubles

bull Perpetrated by a Provisional IRA splinter group that was rejecting the peace process calling themselves the ldquoReal IRArdquo the 510lb fertilizer-based bomb was placed on main street in the town of Omagh Northern Ireland Warnings were called in approximately 30 minutes before the bombing but they were inaccurate and police ended up moving more civilians towards the bomb which ended up killing 29 people and causing over 300 non-fatal injuries This was the highest death toll from a single incident during the Troubles

bull It received universal outrage and was condemned even by the PIRA and its political wing Sinn Fein It spurred on the Northern Ireland peace process and the RIRA apologized and called a ceasefire several days after

The Good Friday Agreement and Northern Ireland Peace Process

Beginningsbull Following the 1981 Hunger Strikes Irish republicans began to

increasingly look towards politics rather than violence as a means of achieving their aims Sinn Fein gaelic for ldquoWe Ourselvesrdquo was a fiercely Irish Republican political party which led by the Machiavellian former PIRA leader and Maze inmate Gerry Adams began to push for a more peaceful solution to the Troubles in Northern Ireland

bull It became apparent by the late 1990s that although the PIRA was not losing a war against the British establishment it would be impossible to truly lsquowin the fightrsquo through violence and that any further terrorism would serve not to achieve any real political aim but only to prolong and continue suffering and violence in Northern Ireland and that politics was a much better way of achieving Republican aims

Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein former PIRA Belfast Brigade OC

Good Friday Agreement 1998

bull The Peace Process began in 1994 and included intermittent terrorist ceasefires and political negotiations between the major Irish republican and British unionist parties and culminated on April 10 1998 when the Good Friday Agreement was signed

PM Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern Sign the GFA

GFA Mandatesbull That Northern Ireland was to remain British until a majority of people in Northern

Ireland and the southern Republic of Ireland wanted otherwise bull The creation of an entirely new far less sectarian and religiously diverse Northern

Irish local governmentbull The decommissioning of arms from terrorist groups on both the unionist and

nationalist side of the political divide (ultimately successful all arms decommissioned by 2005)

bull Mutual respect and civil rights between Catholics and Protestants bull The reduction and eventual elimination of British troops in Northern Ireland

(ultimately successful all troops withdrawn by 2005)bull Eventual early prison release for all individuals imprisoned for terrorist offenses as

long as they were apart of a terrorist group that was decommissioning in accordance with the GFA

bull Disbandment of the RUC police service and the installation of the new Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) which was required to be at least 50 Catholic

Northern Ireland Today

Still Conflict But No Warbull Since the complete decommissioning of the arms and

disbandment of the PIRA INLA UDAUFF and UVF due to the Good Friday Agreement there is nowhere near the amount of violence in Northern Ireland or Belfast as there was 20 years ago There are no more weekly bombings and riots and no more British troops patrolling Catholic areas in armored vehicles

bull Despite this there are still occasional riots and clashes with the PSNI several times a year specifically on dates of great historical significance to the Catholic or Protestant communities and there is still a deep distrust and even hatred between many Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland although that continues to change with time

Catholic Slum of Ardoyne Belfast July 2011

Splinter Groups

bull Many former PIRA or UDA terrorists have now taken to organized crime for purely profiteering purposes but are no longer involved in substantial violence or any political-based terrorism

bull Splinter groups such as the Real IRA and Continuity IRA in Catholic communities and the Orange Volunteers and Red Hand Commandos in Protestant communities still conduct occasional violence towards Police and civilians in Northern Ireland but are all rather small poorly armed and poorly funded groups that pose nowhere near the threat that terrorist groups in the 80s and 90s did in Northern Ireland

Herersquos To A Brighter Future in Northern Ireland

Works Citedbull httpwwwbbccoukhistorytroublesbull httpcainulstacukbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiProvisional_Irish_Republican_Armybull httpenwikipediaorgwikiThe_Troublesbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiUlster_Defence_Associationbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiUlster_Volunteer_Forcebull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_National_Liberation_Armybull ldquoA Secret History of the IRArdquo by Ed Moloney ndashWW Norton amp Company Reprint 2003bull ldquoVoices From The Grave Two Menrsquos War in Irelandrdquo by Ed Moloney ndash Public Affairs 2010bull ldquoFifty Dead Men Walkingrdquo by Martin McGartland ndash John Blake 2009bull httpwwwinfopleasecomspotnorthireland1htmlbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_Civil_Warbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_War_of_Independencebull httpenwikipediaorgwiki1981_Irish_hunger_strikebull httpenwikipediaorgwikiDirectory_of_the_Northern_Ireland_Troublesbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiGood_Friday_Agreementbull httpswwwmi5govukhomethe-threatsterrorismnorthern-irelandrepublican-terrorist-groupshtmlbull httpswwwmi5govukhomethe-threatsterrorismnorthern-irelandprovisional-irish-republican-army-

pirahtmlbull httpnewsbbccoukhienglishstaticnorthern_irelandunderstandingeventshunger_strikestm

  • The Troubles
  • Brief Overview
  • 30 Years of Conflict
  • Slide 4
  • Background
  • The Irish War of Independence
  • Slide 7
  • Anglo-Irish Treaty (signed 6 December 1921)
  • Irish Civil War
  • 1922-1966 Ireland
  • The Civil Rights Movement
  • Slide 12
  • Slide 13
  • Objectives of the Civil Rights Movement
  • The 1969 Northern Ireland Riots ndashThe Troubles Begin
  • Culmination of Tension
  • No-Go Areas
  • No-Go Areas (2)
  • Early 1970sndash The Rise of the Provisional IRA
  • The IRA Split
  • Rise of the UVF and Loyalist Terror Groups
  • Beginnings
  • UVF Statement 21 May 1964
  • The Paramilitaries
  • Irish RepublicansCatholics
  • The Provisional IRA
  • IRA Statement Late 80s
  • Statistics
  • RecruitmentFunding
  • Weaponry
  • Weaponry (2)
  • Slide 32
  • Mortars and IEDs
  • EOD Officer Approaches PIRA Car Bomb
  • The Barrack Buster
  • Vigilantism
  • Slide 37
  • Slide 38
  • Policy on Informants
  • Terrorist Activities
  • Terrorist Activities (continued)
  • The INLA
  • Statistics (2)
  • Ideology
  • Terrorist Activities (2)
  • Internal Feuds
  • Slide 47
  • British LoyalistsProtestants
  • The UDAUFF
  • Former UFF Member
  • Statistics (3)
  • Ideology (2)
  • Terrorist Activities (3)
  • Slide 54
  • Organized Crime
  • The UVF
  • Statistics (4)
  • Ideology (3)
  • Terrorist Activities (4)
  • The Shankhill Butchers
  • Weaponry (3)
  • Slide 62
  • Organized Crime (2)
  • Major Incidents 1969-1998
  • Bloody Sunday 30 January 1972
  • Massacre on the Bogside
  • Bloody Friday 21 July 1972
  • A City Under Siege
  • Dublin and Monaghan Bombings 17 May 1974
  • Deadliest Attack of the Troubles
  • Warrenpoint Ambush 27 August 1979
  • Roadside IEDs
  • Summer of 1981 Irish Hunger Strikes
  • A Defining Moment for the Republican Cause
  • The Five Demands
  • Previous Protests
  • Dirty Protesters
  • Thatcherrsquos Response
  • Ten Strikers Die
  • Bobby Sands
  • Reaction to Sandsrsquo Death
  • Conclusion
  • 1983 The Maze Prison Escape
  • The ldquoGreat Escaperdquo
  • 12 October 1984 Brighton Hotel Bombing
  • The PIRA Nearly Gets Thatcher
  • Loughgall Ambush 8 May 1987
  • The SAS Strikes
  • British Army Lynx Shootdown 20 March 1994
  • The PIRA Shoots Down a Helicopter
  • 1996 Manchester Bombing
  • The PIRA Destroys Manchester
  • Omagh Bombing 1998
  • Last Great Deadly Attack of the Troubles
  • The Good Friday Agreement and Northern Ireland Peace Process
  • Beginnings (2)
  • Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein former PIRA Belfast Brigade OC
  • Good Friday Agreement 1998
  • PM Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern Sign the GFA
  • GFA Mandates
  • Northern Ireland Today
  • Still Conflict But No War
  • Catholic Slum of Ardoyne Belfast July 2011
  • Splinter Groups
  • Herersquos To A Brighter Future in Northern Ireland
  • Works Cited
Page 43: The Troubles, 1969-1998

Former UFF Member

>

Statistics

bull Suffered 89 casualtiesbull Killed 197 civiliansbull Killed 12 civilian political activistsbull Killed 37 members of rival loyalist terror

groupsbull Killed 11 members of republican terror groupsbull Killed 3 members of the British Security Forces

Ideology

bull The UDA or Ulster Defense Association and its military wing the Ulster Freedom Fighters (UFF) was a loyalist protestant terror squad that targeted PIRA and INLA members as well as general Catholic civilians in bombings and shootings throughout Northern Ireland

bull It pledged to end its campaign of violence whenever the IRA set down its arms yet should the UK government appease the IRA and grant a 32-county Irish Republic the UDA pledged to act as ldquothe IRA in reverserdquo

Terrorist Activitiesbull The UDA saw itself as a militia defending upstanding protestant loyalist

communities from dangerous and lower-class Catholics that were disrupting the status quo in Northern Ireland They pledged primarily to target IRA men but ended up killing a majority of Catholic civilians during the Troubles They were also known to intimidate and exile known Catholic families from predominately-Protestant communities in Belfast and other urban areas

bull Drive-by shootings shooting up or planting bombs in predominately-Catholic pubs and bars and jumping brutally beating andor kneecapping Catholic civilians were all frequent tactics

bull The UDA discreetly worked in collusion with the RUC and other British security agencies so as to track down and assassinate known IRA members They would also patrol Protestant neighborhoods alongside British soldiers at the height of the Troubles Many RUC police officers and prison guards were also UDA members

bull The UDA alongside many other loyalist paramilitaries benefitted from the import of several arms shipments from Lebanese arms dealers in the early 1970s including rocket launchers 200+ AK-47 Rifles 90+ handguns and over 400 grenades They also received various weapons such as the uzi submachine gun and explosive devices from arms dealers in the Soviet bloc in the 1980s

Organized Crime

bull The UDA and its members were also heavily involved in drug dealing from the street level to wholesale purchase primarily in MDMA and cannabis throughout the Troubles

bull Protection racketeering and money laundering were also common amongst the UDA in protestant communities

bull However should a member of a UDA-ran community begin stealing or dealing drugs without UDA consent he was abruptly branded as ldquoanti-socialrdquo and either killed or kneecapped

The UVF

Statistics

bull Suffered unknown number of casualtiesbull Killed 412 civiliansbull Killed 11 civilian political activistsbull Killed 21 members of republican terror groupsbull Killed 42 members of rival loyalist terror

groupsbull Killed 6 members of the Security Forces

Ideology

bull Similar to the UDAUFF the Ulster Volunteer Forcersquos primary aim was to combat Irish republicanism in Northern Ireland primarily the PIRA They wanted Northern Ireland to remain in the UK

Terrorist Activitiesbull The majority of UVF victims were Catholic civilians

many of whom were killed at random These attacks were intended to demoralize the IRA as the IRA drew most of its support from the Catholic community

bull Planting bombs in predominately-Catholic pubs or simply residential areas was a very frequent UVF tactic and in 1973 they detonated more bombs in Northern Ireland than the UDA and the PIRA combined Assassinations mass shootings booby-trap car bombs and kidnappings were also frequent UVF activities

The Shankhill Butchers

bull The ldquoShankhill Butchersrdquo were a notorious offshoot UVF group known for abducting and literally slitting the throats of Catholic civilians and rival loyalist terror groups in the late 1970s They were led by Lenny Murphy (who was eventually imprisoned and upon his release of a 4-year stint murdered by the PIRA) and killed 23 people most of whom were Catholic civilians Many experts liken the Shankhill Butchers more to a group of serial killers than to politically or even ethnically-motivated murderers

bull The Butchers were all eventually all either imprisoned killed by the PIRA or both

Weaponrybull The UVF received the majority of its weaponry in the late 1970s

from Armscor an apartheid-South Africa state-owned arms company which in defiance of various UN sanctions and embargoes sold them to the UVF

bull Weapons were thought to consist ofbull 200 Czech SA vz 58 Assault Riflesbull 90 Browning Pistolsbull 500 RGD-5 Frag Grenadesbull 30000 rounds of ammunitionbull 12 RPG-7 Rocket Launchers and 150+ Rocketsbull The UVF also began using the illegally-obtained mining explosive

Powergel in the early 1990s

Organized Crime

bull The UVF was also heavily involved in organized crime including protection racketeering and drug smugglingdealing including cannabis MDMA cocaine and amphetamines Bank robberies were also very frequent in the 1970s

Major Incidents 1969-1998

Bloody Sunday 30 January 1972

Massacre on the Bogsidebull In 1972 during a large scale but peaceful civil-rights march in the

troubled predominately Catholic neighborhood of Bogside in Derry 26 unarmed civil rights marchers were shot by members of the British Army 14 of whom were killed Five of those shot were shot in the back

bull After several inquiries into the incident there was found to have been no justifiable provocation from the protestors and no shots fired from the protestors during the march The massacre was conducted in full view of the public and the press

bull The PM David Cameron eventually issued a formal apology to the victims and victimsrsquo families of the massacre after several investigations failed to reveal any justifiable provocation for the massacre

bull The massacre sky-rocketed PIRA membership and recruitment as public perception of the British Army in Catholic communities in Northern Ireland reached an all-time low

Bloody Friday 21 July 1972

A City Under Siege

bull On 21 July 1972 the PIRA detonated 26 bombs in the space of 80 minutes in Belfast destroying banks bridges electrical substations Protestant housing tenements gasoline stations and private garages

bull Although warnings were called in at least 30 minutes prior to each bomb the amount of bombs exploding and the addition of multiple hoax warnings at the same time led to the Security Forces being unable to evacuate all the areas in time 11 people were killed and 130 were injured many of them horrifically mutilated Of those injured 77 were women or children

Dublin and Monaghan Bombings 17 May 1974

Deadliest Attack of the Troubles

bull Perpetrated by the UVF in the southern Republic of Ireland three car bombs exploded in Dublin during rush hour and another exploded in Monaghan around 90 minutes later

bull 33 civilians and a full-term unborn child were killed in the bombing while nearly 300 were injured The UVF did not claim responsibility for the bombings until 1993

bull The majority of those killed were young women although the age range of those killed ranged from 5 months old to 80 years old

Warrenpoint Ambush 27 August 1979

Roadside IEDsbull In the southern part of County Armagh Northern Ireland a predominately-

Catholic rural region and former PIRA stronghold right on the border with the southern Republic of Ireland a British troop convoy was hit with a remote-control detonated roadside 500lb truck-bomb and destroyed instantly killing 6 troops The surviving soldiers then wrongly believed they were under sniper fire from the other side of the Irish border and began firing at civilians immediately after the bombing killing 1 and injuring another

bull 32 minutes after the first bombing the IRA used its knowledge of how the British reacted to bombings to correctly predict that they would set up an incident-command point in a nearby gatehouse Unfortunately for the British there was a second 800lb fertilizer bomb planted near the gatehouse that when detonated killed 12 other soldiers who were responding to the initial bomb

bull It was the deadliest single attack on the British Army during the Troubles and a highly successful attack for the PIRA

Summer of 1981 Irish Hunger Strikes

A Defining Moment for the Republican Cause

bull Beginning on 1 March 1981 led by Bobby Sands 7 PIRA and 3 INLA inmates at the notorious ldquoMazerdquo prison began to refuse food until Margaret Thatcher PM of Great Britain at that time began to recognize terrorist prisoners as political prisoners and allowed them their ldquoFive Demandsrdquo

The Five Demands

bull The right to not wear a prison uniformbull The right to not do prison workbull The right of free association with other

prisoners and to organize in educational and recreational pursuits

bull Full restoration of remission lost through any protests towards these demands

Previous Protestsbull The Maze prison was a very high-security and low-quality prison that

housed almost all PIRA prisoners during the Troubles It was run in a very ethically questionable fashion with frequent beatings and borderline-torture techniques used on Republican prisoners and extremely poor living conditions for prisoners Many Maze prison guards were members of the UDAUVF or had strong connections with one of the two groups as well

bull Massive peaceful protests and marches by Irish republicans outside of the Maze Prison proved unsuccessful in attaining political status for republican prisoners as well as previous inmate protests in 1980 including non-fatal hunger strikes inmates refusing to wear prison uniforms and thus living in their cells naked and prisoners refusing to leave their cells to go to the bathroom until their requests had been granted (they therefore urinated and defecated in their cells and spread their excrement across their cell walls in what was known as the ldquoDirty Protestrdquo)

Dirty Protesters

Thatcherrsquos Response

bull ldquoThose terrorists will carry their determination to disrupt society to any lengths Once again we have a hunger strike in the Maze Prison in the quest for what they call lsquopolitical statusrsquo There is no such thing as political murder political bombing or political violence There is only criminal murder criminal bombing and criminal violence We will not compromise on this There will be no political statusrdquo

Ten Strikers Diebull Bobby Sands the leader of the strike was imprisoned as a PIRA member

on charges of firearm possession and in connection with the bombing of a furniture store He was the first to die after 66 days of not eating Sands was elected to a seat in Parliament whilst on Hunger Strike

bull Following Sandsrsquo death there were riots bus-burnings and attacks on the British embassy in the southern Republic of Ireland there were massive demonstrations in France and Italy a tomato was thrown as Queen Elizabeth II by demonstrators in Oslo and there were massive riots and civil disorder all over the streets of Belfast The South African ANC and (at the time) terrorist Nelson Mandela expressed their support for the PIRA and the hunger strikers (Mandela himself claimed he was directly inspired by Sands to undertake hunger strikes against the Apartheid government in South Africa) as well as the Palestine Liberation Organization a middle-eastern terror group

bull Over 100000 attended Sandsrsquo funeral

Bobby Sands

ldquoOur revenge will be the laughter of our childrenrdquo

Reaction to Sandsrsquo Death

>

Conclusion

bull The Hunger Strike was eventually called off after 10 strikers including Sands had died

bull James Prior newly installed secretary of state of Northern Ireland granted the prisoners partial concessions all of the Five Demands except for the right to not do prison work Margaret Thatcher refused to budge on political status

bull The Hunger Strikes opened a new way for the PIRA to pursue its objectives politically whereas previously it had seen violence as the only solution to the plight of Irish nationalists in Northern Ireland

1983 The Maze Prison Escape

The ldquoGreat Escaperdquo

bull Using smuggled-in guns and knives 38 PIRA prisoners who had been convicted of offenses ranging from murder to causing explosions escaped from one of the most high-security prisons in Europe They completely took over the H7 prison block and took their prison guards hostage before escaping in a food supply truck Several prison guards were shot and stabbed but only one died of a heart attack during the escape

bull Fifteen escapees were recaptured the first day with four more captured over the next two days following the breakout The remaining 19 were transported to PIRA strongholds and given the option to either rejoin the IRArsquos cause or be transported to the United States to live under a new identity

12 October 1984 Brighton Hotel Bombing

The PIRA Nearly Gets Thatcherbull Margaret Thatcher the highly controversial far-right British PM from

1979-1990 had become a tremendously hated figure amongst the Irish nationalist community in Northern Ireland following the 1981 Hunger Strikes and for her general uncompromising stand on Irish republicanism

bull PIRA man Patrick Magee stayed at the Brighton Hotel from the 14-17 September 1984 planting a 20-lb bomb under his bath

bull Thatcher was staying at the Brighton Hotel for a political conference and was still up at 254AM on 12 October when the bomb was detonated The bomb decimated her bathroom but left the bedroom and sitting room of her suite largely unscathed

bull The PIRA statement to Thatcher afterwards was ldquoToday we were unlucky But remember we only have to be lucky once You will have to be lucky alwaysrdquo

Loughgall Ambush 8 May 1987

The SAS Strikes

bull A botched attack on Loughgall Villagersquos RUC Police Base in which the PIRA drove a backhoe into the fortified base and ran away to detonate the bomb that was inside of the backhoe went wrong as the SAS the British Special Forces had prior knowledge of the attack and quickly dispatched the 8 PIRA members involved

bull Although the RUC base was wrecked and bombed there were no RUC or SAS casualties and it was the PIRArsquos greatest loss of life in a single incident during the Troubles

British Army Lynx Shootdown 20 March 1994

The PIRA Shoots Down a Helicopter

bull Using the previously mentioned Barrack-Buster homemade mortar PIRA insurgents were able to fire on a British helicopter that was in the process of landing whilst hiding behind a hay bail from around 150 yards out

bull The helicopter was hit with the mortar shell around 100 feet above the ground but the pilot was able to successfully crash-land the helicopter and escape before its propane tanks exploded There were no casualties but the attack was a major propaganda coup for the PIRA

1996 Manchester Bombing

The PIRA Destroys Manchester

bull On Saturday 15 June 1996 the PIRA sent in telephoned warnings and 90 minutes later detonated a 3300lb fertilizer-based truck bomb in the heart of Manchester City Centre the biggest bomb detonated in Great Britain during peacetime The bomb killed nobody due to previous warnings but led to 212 non-fatal injuries and essentially destroyed Manchester City Centre leaving approximately 700 million pounds ($12bn) worth of damage in its wake

Omagh Bombing 1998

Last Great Deadly Attack of the Troubles

bull Perpetrated by a Provisional IRA splinter group that was rejecting the peace process calling themselves the ldquoReal IRArdquo the 510lb fertilizer-based bomb was placed on main street in the town of Omagh Northern Ireland Warnings were called in approximately 30 minutes before the bombing but they were inaccurate and police ended up moving more civilians towards the bomb which ended up killing 29 people and causing over 300 non-fatal injuries This was the highest death toll from a single incident during the Troubles

bull It received universal outrage and was condemned even by the PIRA and its political wing Sinn Fein It spurred on the Northern Ireland peace process and the RIRA apologized and called a ceasefire several days after

The Good Friday Agreement and Northern Ireland Peace Process

Beginningsbull Following the 1981 Hunger Strikes Irish republicans began to

increasingly look towards politics rather than violence as a means of achieving their aims Sinn Fein gaelic for ldquoWe Ourselvesrdquo was a fiercely Irish Republican political party which led by the Machiavellian former PIRA leader and Maze inmate Gerry Adams began to push for a more peaceful solution to the Troubles in Northern Ireland

bull It became apparent by the late 1990s that although the PIRA was not losing a war against the British establishment it would be impossible to truly lsquowin the fightrsquo through violence and that any further terrorism would serve not to achieve any real political aim but only to prolong and continue suffering and violence in Northern Ireland and that politics was a much better way of achieving Republican aims

Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein former PIRA Belfast Brigade OC

Good Friday Agreement 1998

bull The Peace Process began in 1994 and included intermittent terrorist ceasefires and political negotiations between the major Irish republican and British unionist parties and culminated on April 10 1998 when the Good Friday Agreement was signed

PM Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern Sign the GFA

GFA Mandatesbull That Northern Ireland was to remain British until a majority of people in Northern

Ireland and the southern Republic of Ireland wanted otherwise bull The creation of an entirely new far less sectarian and religiously diverse Northern

Irish local governmentbull The decommissioning of arms from terrorist groups on both the unionist and

nationalist side of the political divide (ultimately successful all arms decommissioned by 2005)

bull Mutual respect and civil rights between Catholics and Protestants bull The reduction and eventual elimination of British troops in Northern Ireland

(ultimately successful all troops withdrawn by 2005)bull Eventual early prison release for all individuals imprisoned for terrorist offenses as

long as they were apart of a terrorist group that was decommissioning in accordance with the GFA

bull Disbandment of the RUC police service and the installation of the new Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) which was required to be at least 50 Catholic

Northern Ireland Today

Still Conflict But No Warbull Since the complete decommissioning of the arms and

disbandment of the PIRA INLA UDAUFF and UVF due to the Good Friday Agreement there is nowhere near the amount of violence in Northern Ireland or Belfast as there was 20 years ago There are no more weekly bombings and riots and no more British troops patrolling Catholic areas in armored vehicles

bull Despite this there are still occasional riots and clashes with the PSNI several times a year specifically on dates of great historical significance to the Catholic or Protestant communities and there is still a deep distrust and even hatred between many Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland although that continues to change with time

Catholic Slum of Ardoyne Belfast July 2011

Splinter Groups

bull Many former PIRA or UDA terrorists have now taken to organized crime for purely profiteering purposes but are no longer involved in substantial violence or any political-based terrorism

bull Splinter groups such as the Real IRA and Continuity IRA in Catholic communities and the Orange Volunteers and Red Hand Commandos in Protestant communities still conduct occasional violence towards Police and civilians in Northern Ireland but are all rather small poorly armed and poorly funded groups that pose nowhere near the threat that terrorist groups in the 80s and 90s did in Northern Ireland

Herersquos To A Brighter Future in Northern Ireland

Works Citedbull httpwwwbbccoukhistorytroublesbull httpcainulstacukbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiProvisional_Irish_Republican_Armybull httpenwikipediaorgwikiThe_Troublesbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiUlster_Defence_Associationbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiUlster_Volunteer_Forcebull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_National_Liberation_Armybull ldquoA Secret History of the IRArdquo by Ed Moloney ndashWW Norton amp Company Reprint 2003bull ldquoVoices From The Grave Two Menrsquos War in Irelandrdquo by Ed Moloney ndash Public Affairs 2010bull ldquoFifty Dead Men Walkingrdquo by Martin McGartland ndash John Blake 2009bull httpwwwinfopleasecomspotnorthireland1htmlbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_Civil_Warbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_War_of_Independencebull httpenwikipediaorgwiki1981_Irish_hunger_strikebull httpenwikipediaorgwikiDirectory_of_the_Northern_Ireland_Troublesbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiGood_Friday_Agreementbull httpswwwmi5govukhomethe-threatsterrorismnorthern-irelandrepublican-terrorist-groupshtmlbull httpswwwmi5govukhomethe-threatsterrorismnorthern-irelandprovisional-irish-republican-army-

pirahtmlbull httpnewsbbccoukhienglishstaticnorthern_irelandunderstandingeventshunger_strikestm

  • The Troubles
  • Brief Overview
  • 30 Years of Conflict
  • Slide 4
  • Background
  • The Irish War of Independence
  • Slide 7
  • Anglo-Irish Treaty (signed 6 December 1921)
  • Irish Civil War
  • 1922-1966 Ireland
  • The Civil Rights Movement
  • Slide 12
  • Slide 13
  • Objectives of the Civil Rights Movement
  • The 1969 Northern Ireland Riots ndashThe Troubles Begin
  • Culmination of Tension
  • No-Go Areas
  • No-Go Areas (2)
  • Early 1970sndash The Rise of the Provisional IRA
  • The IRA Split
  • Rise of the UVF and Loyalist Terror Groups
  • Beginnings
  • UVF Statement 21 May 1964
  • The Paramilitaries
  • Irish RepublicansCatholics
  • The Provisional IRA
  • IRA Statement Late 80s
  • Statistics
  • RecruitmentFunding
  • Weaponry
  • Weaponry (2)
  • Slide 32
  • Mortars and IEDs
  • EOD Officer Approaches PIRA Car Bomb
  • The Barrack Buster
  • Vigilantism
  • Slide 37
  • Slide 38
  • Policy on Informants
  • Terrorist Activities
  • Terrorist Activities (continued)
  • The INLA
  • Statistics (2)
  • Ideology
  • Terrorist Activities (2)
  • Internal Feuds
  • Slide 47
  • British LoyalistsProtestants
  • The UDAUFF
  • Former UFF Member
  • Statistics (3)
  • Ideology (2)
  • Terrorist Activities (3)
  • Slide 54
  • Organized Crime
  • The UVF
  • Statistics (4)
  • Ideology (3)
  • Terrorist Activities (4)
  • The Shankhill Butchers
  • Weaponry (3)
  • Slide 62
  • Organized Crime (2)
  • Major Incidents 1969-1998
  • Bloody Sunday 30 January 1972
  • Massacre on the Bogside
  • Bloody Friday 21 July 1972
  • A City Under Siege
  • Dublin and Monaghan Bombings 17 May 1974
  • Deadliest Attack of the Troubles
  • Warrenpoint Ambush 27 August 1979
  • Roadside IEDs
  • Summer of 1981 Irish Hunger Strikes
  • A Defining Moment for the Republican Cause
  • The Five Demands
  • Previous Protests
  • Dirty Protesters
  • Thatcherrsquos Response
  • Ten Strikers Die
  • Bobby Sands
  • Reaction to Sandsrsquo Death
  • Conclusion
  • 1983 The Maze Prison Escape
  • The ldquoGreat Escaperdquo
  • 12 October 1984 Brighton Hotel Bombing
  • The PIRA Nearly Gets Thatcher
  • Loughgall Ambush 8 May 1987
  • The SAS Strikes
  • British Army Lynx Shootdown 20 March 1994
  • The PIRA Shoots Down a Helicopter
  • 1996 Manchester Bombing
  • The PIRA Destroys Manchester
  • Omagh Bombing 1998
  • Last Great Deadly Attack of the Troubles
  • The Good Friday Agreement and Northern Ireland Peace Process
  • Beginnings (2)
  • Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein former PIRA Belfast Brigade OC
  • Good Friday Agreement 1998
  • PM Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern Sign the GFA
  • GFA Mandates
  • Northern Ireland Today
  • Still Conflict But No War
  • Catholic Slum of Ardoyne Belfast July 2011
  • Splinter Groups
  • Herersquos To A Brighter Future in Northern Ireland
  • Works Cited
Page 44: The Troubles, 1969-1998

Statistics

bull Suffered 89 casualtiesbull Killed 197 civiliansbull Killed 12 civilian political activistsbull Killed 37 members of rival loyalist terror

groupsbull Killed 11 members of republican terror groupsbull Killed 3 members of the British Security Forces

Ideology

bull The UDA or Ulster Defense Association and its military wing the Ulster Freedom Fighters (UFF) was a loyalist protestant terror squad that targeted PIRA and INLA members as well as general Catholic civilians in bombings and shootings throughout Northern Ireland

bull It pledged to end its campaign of violence whenever the IRA set down its arms yet should the UK government appease the IRA and grant a 32-county Irish Republic the UDA pledged to act as ldquothe IRA in reverserdquo

Terrorist Activitiesbull The UDA saw itself as a militia defending upstanding protestant loyalist

communities from dangerous and lower-class Catholics that were disrupting the status quo in Northern Ireland They pledged primarily to target IRA men but ended up killing a majority of Catholic civilians during the Troubles They were also known to intimidate and exile known Catholic families from predominately-Protestant communities in Belfast and other urban areas

bull Drive-by shootings shooting up or planting bombs in predominately-Catholic pubs and bars and jumping brutally beating andor kneecapping Catholic civilians were all frequent tactics

bull The UDA discreetly worked in collusion with the RUC and other British security agencies so as to track down and assassinate known IRA members They would also patrol Protestant neighborhoods alongside British soldiers at the height of the Troubles Many RUC police officers and prison guards were also UDA members

bull The UDA alongside many other loyalist paramilitaries benefitted from the import of several arms shipments from Lebanese arms dealers in the early 1970s including rocket launchers 200+ AK-47 Rifles 90+ handguns and over 400 grenades They also received various weapons such as the uzi submachine gun and explosive devices from arms dealers in the Soviet bloc in the 1980s

Organized Crime

bull The UDA and its members were also heavily involved in drug dealing from the street level to wholesale purchase primarily in MDMA and cannabis throughout the Troubles

bull Protection racketeering and money laundering were also common amongst the UDA in protestant communities

bull However should a member of a UDA-ran community begin stealing or dealing drugs without UDA consent he was abruptly branded as ldquoanti-socialrdquo and either killed or kneecapped

The UVF

Statistics

bull Suffered unknown number of casualtiesbull Killed 412 civiliansbull Killed 11 civilian political activistsbull Killed 21 members of republican terror groupsbull Killed 42 members of rival loyalist terror

groupsbull Killed 6 members of the Security Forces

Ideology

bull Similar to the UDAUFF the Ulster Volunteer Forcersquos primary aim was to combat Irish republicanism in Northern Ireland primarily the PIRA They wanted Northern Ireland to remain in the UK

Terrorist Activitiesbull The majority of UVF victims were Catholic civilians

many of whom were killed at random These attacks were intended to demoralize the IRA as the IRA drew most of its support from the Catholic community

bull Planting bombs in predominately-Catholic pubs or simply residential areas was a very frequent UVF tactic and in 1973 they detonated more bombs in Northern Ireland than the UDA and the PIRA combined Assassinations mass shootings booby-trap car bombs and kidnappings were also frequent UVF activities

The Shankhill Butchers

bull The ldquoShankhill Butchersrdquo were a notorious offshoot UVF group known for abducting and literally slitting the throats of Catholic civilians and rival loyalist terror groups in the late 1970s They were led by Lenny Murphy (who was eventually imprisoned and upon his release of a 4-year stint murdered by the PIRA) and killed 23 people most of whom were Catholic civilians Many experts liken the Shankhill Butchers more to a group of serial killers than to politically or even ethnically-motivated murderers

bull The Butchers were all eventually all either imprisoned killed by the PIRA or both

Weaponrybull The UVF received the majority of its weaponry in the late 1970s

from Armscor an apartheid-South Africa state-owned arms company which in defiance of various UN sanctions and embargoes sold them to the UVF

bull Weapons were thought to consist ofbull 200 Czech SA vz 58 Assault Riflesbull 90 Browning Pistolsbull 500 RGD-5 Frag Grenadesbull 30000 rounds of ammunitionbull 12 RPG-7 Rocket Launchers and 150+ Rocketsbull The UVF also began using the illegally-obtained mining explosive

Powergel in the early 1990s

Organized Crime

bull The UVF was also heavily involved in organized crime including protection racketeering and drug smugglingdealing including cannabis MDMA cocaine and amphetamines Bank robberies were also very frequent in the 1970s

Major Incidents 1969-1998

Bloody Sunday 30 January 1972

Massacre on the Bogsidebull In 1972 during a large scale but peaceful civil-rights march in the

troubled predominately Catholic neighborhood of Bogside in Derry 26 unarmed civil rights marchers were shot by members of the British Army 14 of whom were killed Five of those shot were shot in the back

bull After several inquiries into the incident there was found to have been no justifiable provocation from the protestors and no shots fired from the protestors during the march The massacre was conducted in full view of the public and the press

bull The PM David Cameron eventually issued a formal apology to the victims and victimsrsquo families of the massacre after several investigations failed to reveal any justifiable provocation for the massacre

bull The massacre sky-rocketed PIRA membership and recruitment as public perception of the British Army in Catholic communities in Northern Ireland reached an all-time low

Bloody Friday 21 July 1972

A City Under Siege

bull On 21 July 1972 the PIRA detonated 26 bombs in the space of 80 minutes in Belfast destroying banks bridges electrical substations Protestant housing tenements gasoline stations and private garages

bull Although warnings were called in at least 30 minutes prior to each bomb the amount of bombs exploding and the addition of multiple hoax warnings at the same time led to the Security Forces being unable to evacuate all the areas in time 11 people were killed and 130 were injured many of them horrifically mutilated Of those injured 77 were women or children

Dublin and Monaghan Bombings 17 May 1974

Deadliest Attack of the Troubles

bull Perpetrated by the UVF in the southern Republic of Ireland three car bombs exploded in Dublin during rush hour and another exploded in Monaghan around 90 minutes later

bull 33 civilians and a full-term unborn child were killed in the bombing while nearly 300 were injured The UVF did not claim responsibility for the bombings until 1993

bull The majority of those killed were young women although the age range of those killed ranged from 5 months old to 80 years old

Warrenpoint Ambush 27 August 1979

Roadside IEDsbull In the southern part of County Armagh Northern Ireland a predominately-

Catholic rural region and former PIRA stronghold right on the border with the southern Republic of Ireland a British troop convoy was hit with a remote-control detonated roadside 500lb truck-bomb and destroyed instantly killing 6 troops The surviving soldiers then wrongly believed they were under sniper fire from the other side of the Irish border and began firing at civilians immediately after the bombing killing 1 and injuring another

bull 32 minutes after the first bombing the IRA used its knowledge of how the British reacted to bombings to correctly predict that they would set up an incident-command point in a nearby gatehouse Unfortunately for the British there was a second 800lb fertilizer bomb planted near the gatehouse that when detonated killed 12 other soldiers who were responding to the initial bomb

bull It was the deadliest single attack on the British Army during the Troubles and a highly successful attack for the PIRA

Summer of 1981 Irish Hunger Strikes

A Defining Moment for the Republican Cause

bull Beginning on 1 March 1981 led by Bobby Sands 7 PIRA and 3 INLA inmates at the notorious ldquoMazerdquo prison began to refuse food until Margaret Thatcher PM of Great Britain at that time began to recognize terrorist prisoners as political prisoners and allowed them their ldquoFive Demandsrdquo

The Five Demands

bull The right to not wear a prison uniformbull The right to not do prison workbull The right of free association with other

prisoners and to organize in educational and recreational pursuits

bull Full restoration of remission lost through any protests towards these demands

Previous Protestsbull The Maze prison was a very high-security and low-quality prison that

housed almost all PIRA prisoners during the Troubles It was run in a very ethically questionable fashion with frequent beatings and borderline-torture techniques used on Republican prisoners and extremely poor living conditions for prisoners Many Maze prison guards were members of the UDAUVF or had strong connections with one of the two groups as well

bull Massive peaceful protests and marches by Irish republicans outside of the Maze Prison proved unsuccessful in attaining political status for republican prisoners as well as previous inmate protests in 1980 including non-fatal hunger strikes inmates refusing to wear prison uniforms and thus living in their cells naked and prisoners refusing to leave their cells to go to the bathroom until their requests had been granted (they therefore urinated and defecated in their cells and spread their excrement across their cell walls in what was known as the ldquoDirty Protestrdquo)

Dirty Protesters

Thatcherrsquos Response

bull ldquoThose terrorists will carry their determination to disrupt society to any lengths Once again we have a hunger strike in the Maze Prison in the quest for what they call lsquopolitical statusrsquo There is no such thing as political murder political bombing or political violence There is only criminal murder criminal bombing and criminal violence We will not compromise on this There will be no political statusrdquo

Ten Strikers Diebull Bobby Sands the leader of the strike was imprisoned as a PIRA member

on charges of firearm possession and in connection with the bombing of a furniture store He was the first to die after 66 days of not eating Sands was elected to a seat in Parliament whilst on Hunger Strike

bull Following Sandsrsquo death there were riots bus-burnings and attacks on the British embassy in the southern Republic of Ireland there were massive demonstrations in France and Italy a tomato was thrown as Queen Elizabeth II by demonstrators in Oslo and there were massive riots and civil disorder all over the streets of Belfast The South African ANC and (at the time) terrorist Nelson Mandela expressed their support for the PIRA and the hunger strikers (Mandela himself claimed he was directly inspired by Sands to undertake hunger strikes against the Apartheid government in South Africa) as well as the Palestine Liberation Organization a middle-eastern terror group

bull Over 100000 attended Sandsrsquo funeral

Bobby Sands

ldquoOur revenge will be the laughter of our childrenrdquo

Reaction to Sandsrsquo Death

>

Conclusion

bull The Hunger Strike was eventually called off after 10 strikers including Sands had died

bull James Prior newly installed secretary of state of Northern Ireland granted the prisoners partial concessions all of the Five Demands except for the right to not do prison work Margaret Thatcher refused to budge on political status

bull The Hunger Strikes opened a new way for the PIRA to pursue its objectives politically whereas previously it had seen violence as the only solution to the plight of Irish nationalists in Northern Ireland

1983 The Maze Prison Escape

The ldquoGreat Escaperdquo

bull Using smuggled-in guns and knives 38 PIRA prisoners who had been convicted of offenses ranging from murder to causing explosions escaped from one of the most high-security prisons in Europe They completely took over the H7 prison block and took their prison guards hostage before escaping in a food supply truck Several prison guards were shot and stabbed but only one died of a heart attack during the escape

bull Fifteen escapees were recaptured the first day with four more captured over the next two days following the breakout The remaining 19 were transported to PIRA strongholds and given the option to either rejoin the IRArsquos cause or be transported to the United States to live under a new identity

12 October 1984 Brighton Hotel Bombing

The PIRA Nearly Gets Thatcherbull Margaret Thatcher the highly controversial far-right British PM from

1979-1990 had become a tremendously hated figure amongst the Irish nationalist community in Northern Ireland following the 1981 Hunger Strikes and for her general uncompromising stand on Irish republicanism

bull PIRA man Patrick Magee stayed at the Brighton Hotel from the 14-17 September 1984 planting a 20-lb bomb under his bath

bull Thatcher was staying at the Brighton Hotel for a political conference and was still up at 254AM on 12 October when the bomb was detonated The bomb decimated her bathroom but left the bedroom and sitting room of her suite largely unscathed

bull The PIRA statement to Thatcher afterwards was ldquoToday we were unlucky But remember we only have to be lucky once You will have to be lucky alwaysrdquo

Loughgall Ambush 8 May 1987

The SAS Strikes

bull A botched attack on Loughgall Villagersquos RUC Police Base in which the PIRA drove a backhoe into the fortified base and ran away to detonate the bomb that was inside of the backhoe went wrong as the SAS the British Special Forces had prior knowledge of the attack and quickly dispatched the 8 PIRA members involved

bull Although the RUC base was wrecked and bombed there were no RUC or SAS casualties and it was the PIRArsquos greatest loss of life in a single incident during the Troubles

British Army Lynx Shootdown 20 March 1994

The PIRA Shoots Down a Helicopter

bull Using the previously mentioned Barrack-Buster homemade mortar PIRA insurgents were able to fire on a British helicopter that was in the process of landing whilst hiding behind a hay bail from around 150 yards out

bull The helicopter was hit with the mortar shell around 100 feet above the ground but the pilot was able to successfully crash-land the helicopter and escape before its propane tanks exploded There were no casualties but the attack was a major propaganda coup for the PIRA

1996 Manchester Bombing

The PIRA Destroys Manchester

bull On Saturday 15 June 1996 the PIRA sent in telephoned warnings and 90 minutes later detonated a 3300lb fertilizer-based truck bomb in the heart of Manchester City Centre the biggest bomb detonated in Great Britain during peacetime The bomb killed nobody due to previous warnings but led to 212 non-fatal injuries and essentially destroyed Manchester City Centre leaving approximately 700 million pounds ($12bn) worth of damage in its wake

Omagh Bombing 1998

Last Great Deadly Attack of the Troubles

bull Perpetrated by a Provisional IRA splinter group that was rejecting the peace process calling themselves the ldquoReal IRArdquo the 510lb fertilizer-based bomb was placed on main street in the town of Omagh Northern Ireland Warnings were called in approximately 30 minutes before the bombing but they were inaccurate and police ended up moving more civilians towards the bomb which ended up killing 29 people and causing over 300 non-fatal injuries This was the highest death toll from a single incident during the Troubles

bull It received universal outrage and was condemned even by the PIRA and its political wing Sinn Fein It spurred on the Northern Ireland peace process and the RIRA apologized and called a ceasefire several days after

The Good Friday Agreement and Northern Ireland Peace Process

Beginningsbull Following the 1981 Hunger Strikes Irish republicans began to

increasingly look towards politics rather than violence as a means of achieving their aims Sinn Fein gaelic for ldquoWe Ourselvesrdquo was a fiercely Irish Republican political party which led by the Machiavellian former PIRA leader and Maze inmate Gerry Adams began to push for a more peaceful solution to the Troubles in Northern Ireland

bull It became apparent by the late 1990s that although the PIRA was not losing a war against the British establishment it would be impossible to truly lsquowin the fightrsquo through violence and that any further terrorism would serve not to achieve any real political aim but only to prolong and continue suffering and violence in Northern Ireland and that politics was a much better way of achieving Republican aims

Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein former PIRA Belfast Brigade OC

Good Friday Agreement 1998

bull The Peace Process began in 1994 and included intermittent terrorist ceasefires and political negotiations between the major Irish republican and British unionist parties and culminated on April 10 1998 when the Good Friday Agreement was signed

PM Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern Sign the GFA

GFA Mandatesbull That Northern Ireland was to remain British until a majority of people in Northern

Ireland and the southern Republic of Ireland wanted otherwise bull The creation of an entirely new far less sectarian and religiously diverse Northern

Irish local governmentbull The decommissioning of arms from terrorist groups on both the unionist and

nationalist side of the political divide (ultimately successful all arms decommissioned by 2005)

bull Mutual respect and civil rights between Catholics and Protestants bull The reduction and eventual elimination of British troops in Northern Ireland

(ultimately successful all troops withdrawn by 2005)bull Eventual early prison release for all individuals imprisoned for terrorist offenses as

long as they were apart of a terrorist group that was decommissioning in accordance with the GFA

bull Disbandment of the RUC police service and the installation of the new Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) which was required to be at least 50 Catholic

Northern Ireland Today

Still Conflict But No Warbull Since the complete decommissioning of the arms and

disbandment of the PIRA INLA UDAUFF and UVF due to the Good Friday Agreement there is nowhere near the amount of violence in Northern Ireland or Belfast as there was 20 years ago There are no more weekly bombings and riots and no more British troops patrolling Catholic areas in armored vehicles

bull Despite this there are still occasional riots and clashes with the PSNI several times a year specifically on dates of great historical significance to the Catholic or Protestant communities and there is still a deep distrust and even hatred between many Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland although that continues to change with time

Catholic Slum of Ardoyne Belfast July 2011

Splinter Groups

bull Many former PIRA or UDA terrorists have now taken to organized crime for purely profiteering purposes but are no longer involved in substantial violence or any political-based terrorism

bull Splinter groups such as the Real IRA and Continuity IRA in Catholic communities and the Orange Volunteers and Red Hand Commandos in Protestant communities still conduct occasional violence towards Police and civilians in Northern Ireland but are all rather small poorly armed and poorly funded groups that pose nowhere near the threat that terrorist groups in the 80s and 90s did in Northern Ireland

Herersquos To A Brighter Future in Northern Ireland

Works Citedbull httpwwwbbccoukhistorytroublesbull httpcainulstacukbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiProvisional_Irish_Republican_Armybull httpenwikipediaorgwikiThe_Troublesbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiUlster_Defence_Associationbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiUlster_Volunteer_Forcebull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_National_Liberation_Armybull ldquoA Secret History of the IRArdquo by Ed Moloney ndashWW Norton amp Company Reprint 2003bull ldquoVoices From The Grave Two Menrsquos War in Irelandrdquo by Ed Moloney ndash Public Affairs 2010bull ldquoFifty Dead Men Walkingrdquo by Martin McGartland ndash John Blake 2009bull httpwwwinfopleasecomspotnorthireland1htmlbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_Civil_Warbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_War_of_Independencebull httpenwikipediaorgwiki1981_Irish_hunger_strikebull httpenwikipediaorgwikiDirectory_of_the_Northern_Ireland_Troublesbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiGood_Friday_Agreementbull httpswwwmi5govukhomethe-threatsterrorismnorthern-irelandrepublican-terrorist-groupshtmlbull httpswwwmi5govukhomethe-threatsterrorismnorthern-irelandprovisional-irish-republican-army-

pirahtmlbull httpnewsbbccoukhienglishstaticnorthern_irelandunderstandingeventshunger_strikestm

  • The Troubles
  • Brief Overview
  • 30 Years of Conflict
  • Slide 4
  • Background
  • The Irish War of Independence
  • Slide 7
  • Anglo-Irish Treaty (signed 6 December 1921)
  • Irish Civil War
  • 1922-1966 Ireland
  • The Civil Rights Movement
  • Slide 12
  • Slide 13
  • Objectives of the Civil Rights Movement
  • The 1969 Northern Ireland Riots ndashThe Troubles Begin
  • Culmination of Tension
  • No-Go Areas
  • No-Go Areas (2)
  • Early 1970sndash The Rise of the Provisional IRA
  • The IRA Split
  • Rise of the UVF and Loyalist Terror Groups
  • Beginnings
  • UVF Statement 21 May 1964
  • The Paramilitaries
  • Irish RepublicansCatholics
  • The Provisional IRA
  • IRA Statement Late 80s
  • Statistics
  • RecruitmentFunding
  • Weaponry
  • Weaponry (2)
  • Slide 32
  • Mortars and IEDs
  • EOD Officer Approaches PIRA Car Bomb
  • The Barrack Buster
  • Vigilantism
  • Slide 37
  • Slide 38
  • Policy on Informants
  • Terrorist Activities
  • Terrorist Activities (continued)
  • The INLA
  • Statistics (2)
  • Ideology
  • Terrorist Activities (2)
  • Internal Feuds
  • Slide 47
  • British LoyalistsProtestants
  • The UDAUFF
  • Former UFF Member
  • Statistics (3)
  • Ideology (2)
  • Terrorist Activities (3)
  • Slide 54
  • Organized Crime
  • The UVF
  • Statistics (4)
  • Ideology (3)
  • Terrorist Activities (4)
  • The Shankhill Butchers
  • Weaponry (3)
  • Slide 62
  • Organized Crime (2)
  • Major Incidents 1969-1998
  • Bloody Sunday 30 January 1972
  • Massacre on the Bogside
  • Bloody Friday 21 July 1972
  • A City Under Siege
  • Dublin and Monaghan Bombings 17 May 1974
  • Deadliest Attack of the Troubles
  • Warrenpoint Ambush 27 August 1979
  • Roadside IEDs
  • Summer of 1981 Irish Hunger Strikes
  • A Defining Moment for the Republican Cause
  • The Five Demands
  • Previous Protests
  • Dirty Protesters
  • Thatcherrsquos Response
  • Ten Strikers Die
  • Bobby Sands
  • Reaction to Sandsrsquo Death
  • Conclusion
  • 1983 The Maze Prison Escape
  • The ldquoGreat Escaperdquo
  • 12 October 1984 Brighton Hotel Bombing
  • The PIRA Nearly Gets Thatcher
  • Loughgall Ambush 8 May 1987
  • The SAS Strikes
  • British Army Lynx Shootdown 20 March 1994
  • The PIRA Shoots Down a Helicopter
  • 1996 Manchester Bombing
  • The PIRA Destroys Manchester
  • Omagh Bombing 1998
  • Last Great Deadly Attack of the Troubles
  • The Good Friday Agreement and Northern Ireland Peace Process
  • Beginnings (2)
  • Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein former PIRA Belfast Brigade OC
  • Good Friday Agreement 1998
  • PM Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern Sign the GFA
  • GFA Mandates
  • Northern Ireland Today
  • Still Conflict But No War
  • Catholic Slum of Ardoyne Belfast July 2011
  • Splinter Groups
  • Herersquos To A Brighter Future in Northern Ireland
  • Works Cited
Page 45: The Troubles, 1969-1998

Ideology

bull The UDA or Ulster Defense Association and its military wing the Ulster Freedom Fighters (UFF) was a loyalist protestant terror squad that targeted PIRA and INLA members as well as general Catholic civilians in bombings and shootings throughout Northern Ireland

bull It pledged to end its campaign of violence whenever the IRA set down its arms yet should the UK government appease the IRA and grant a 32-county Irish Republic the UDA pledged to act as ldquothe IRA in reverserdquo

Terrorist Activitiesbull The UDA saw itself as a militia defending upstanding protestant loyalist

communities from dangerous and lower-class Catholics that were disrupting the status quo in Northern Ireland They pledged primarily to target IRA men but ended up killing a majority of Catholic civilians during the Troubles They were also known to intimidate and exile known Catholic families from predominately-Protestant communities in Belfast and other urban areas

bull Drive-by shootings shooting up or planting bombs in predominately-Catholic pubs and bars and jumping brutally beating andor kneecapping Catholic civilians were all frequent tactics

bull The UDA discreetly worked in collusion with the RUC and other British security agencies so as to track down and assassinate known IRA members They would also patrol Protestant neighborhoods alongside British soldiers at the height of the Troubles Many RUC police officers and prison guards were also UDA members

bull The UDA alongside many other loyalist paramilitaries benefitted from the import of several arms shipments from Lebanese arms dealers in the early 1970s including rocket launchers 200+ AK-47 Rifles 90+ handguns and over 400 grenades They also received various weapons such as the uzi submachine gun and explosive devices from arms dealers in the Soviet bloc in the 1980s

Organized Crime

bull The UDA and its members were also heavily involved in drug dealing from the street level to wholesale purchase primarily in MDMA and cannabis throughout the Troubles

bull Protection racketeering and money laundering were also common amongst the UDA in protestant communities

bull However should a member of a UDA-ran community begin stealing or dealing drugs without UDA consent he was abruptly branded as ldquoanti-socialrdquo and either killed or kneecapped

The UVF

Statistics

bull Suffered unknown number of casualtiesbull Killed 412 civiliansbull Killed 11 civilian political activistsbull Killed 21 members of republican terror groupsbull Killed 42 members of rival loyalist terror

groupsbull Killed 6 members of the Security Forces

Ideology

bull Similar to the UDAUFF the Ulster Volunteer Forcersquos primary aim was to combat Irish republicanism in Northern Ireland primarily the PIRA They wanted Northern Ireland to remain in the UK

Terrorist Activitiesbull The majority of UVF victims were Catholic civilians

many of whom were killed at random These attacks were intended to demoralize the IRA as the IRA drew most of its support from the Catholic community

bull Planting bombs in predominately-Catholic pubs or simply residential areas was a very frequent UVF tactic and in 1973 they detonated more bombs in Northern Ireland than the UDA and the PIRA combined Assassinations mass shootings booby-trap car bombs and kidnappings were also frequent UVF activities

The Shankhill Butchers

bull The ldquoShankhill Butchersrdquo were a notorious offshoot UVF group known for abducting and literally slitting the throats of Catholic civilians and rival loyalist terror groups in the late 1970s They were led by Lenny Murphy (who was eventually imprisoned and upon his release of a 4-year stint murdered by the PIRA) and killed 23 people most of whom were Catholic civilians Many experts liken the Shankhill Butchers more to a group of serial killers than to politically or even ethnically-motivated murderers

bull The Butchers were all eventually all either imprisoned killed by the PIRA or both

Weaponrybull The UVF received the majority of its weaponry in the late 1970s

from Armscor an apartheid-South Africa state-owned arms company which in defiance of various UN sanctions and embargoes sold them to the UVF

bull Weapons were thought to consist ofbull 200 Czech SA vz 58 Assault Riflesbull 90 Browning Pistolsbull 500 RGD-5 Frag Grenadesbull 30000 rounds of ammunitionbull 12 RPG-7 Rocket Launchers and 150+ Rocketsbull The UVF also began using the illegally-obtained mining explosive

Powergel in the early 1990s

Organized Crime

bull The UVF was also heavily involved in organized crime including protection racketeering and drug smugglingdealing including cannabis MDMA cocaine and amphetamines Bank robberies were also very frequent in the 1970s

Major Incidents 1969-1998

Bloody Sunday 30 January 1972

Massacre on the Bogsidebull In 1972 during a large scale but peaceful civil-rights march in the

troubled predominately Catholic neighborhood of Bogside in Derry 26 unarmed civil rights marchers were shot by members of the British Army 14 of whom were killed Five of those shot were shot in the back

bull After several inquiries into the incident there was found to have been no justifiable provocation from the protestors and no shots fired from the protestors during the march The massacre was conducted in full view of the public and the press

bull The PM David Cameron eventually issued a formal apology to the victims and victimsrsquo families of the massacre after several investigations failed to reveal any justifiable provocation for the massacre

bull The massacre sky-rocketed PIRA membership and recruitment as public perception of the British Army in Catholic communities in Northern Ireland reached an all-time low

Bloody Friday 21 July 1972

A City Under Siege

bull On 21 July 1972 the PIRA detonated 26 bombs in the space of 80 minutes in Belfast destroying banks bridges electrical substations Protestant housing tenements gasoline stations and private garages

bull Although warnings were called in at least 30 minutes prior to each bomb the amount of bombs exploding and the addition of multiple hoax warnings at the same time led to the Security Forces being unable to evacuate all the areas in time 11 people were killed and 130 were injured many of them horrifically mutilated Of those injured 77 were women or children

Dublin and Monaghan Bombings 17 May 1974

Deadliest Attack of the Troubles

bull Perpetrated by the UVF in the southern Republic of Ireland three car bombs exploded in Dublin during rush hour and another exploded in Monaghan around 90 minutes later

bull 33 civilians and a full-term unborn child were killed in the bombing while nearly 300 were injured The UVF did not claim responsibility for the bombings until 1993

bull The majority of those killed were young women although the age range of those killed ranged from 5 months old to 80 years old

Warrenpoint Ambush 27 August 1979

Roadside IEDsbull In the southern part of County Armagh Northern Ireland a predominately-

Catholic rural region and former PIRA stronghold right on the border with the southern Republic of Ireland a British troop convoy was hit with a remote-control detonated roadside 500lb truck-bomb and destroyed instantly killing 6 troops The surviving soldiers then wrongly believed they were under sniper fire from the other side of the Irish border and began firing at civilians immediately after the bombing killing 1 and injuring another

bull 32 minutes after the first bombing the IRA used its knowledge of how the British reacted to bombings to correctly predict that they would set up an incident-command point in a nearby gatehouse Unfortunately for the British there was a second 800lb fertilizer bomb planted near the gatehouse that when detonated killed 12 other soldiers who were responding to the initial bomb

bull It was the deadliest single attack on the British Army during the Troubles and a highly successful attack for the PIRA

Summer of 1981 Irish Hunger Strikes

A Defining Moment for the Republican Cause

bull Beginning on 1 March 1981 led by Bobby Sands 7 PIRA and 3 INLA inmates at the notorious ldquoMazerdquo prison began to refuse food until Margaret Thatcher PM of Great Britain at that time began to recognize terrorist prisoners as political prisoners and allowed them their ldquoFive Demandsrdquo

The Five Demands

bull The right to not wear a prison uniformbull The right to not do prison workbull The right of free association with other

prisoners and to organize in educational and recreational pursuits

bull Full restoration of remission lost through any protests towards these demands

Previous Protestsbull The Maze prison was a very high-security and low-quality prison that

housed almost all PIRA prisoners during the Troubles It was run in a very ethically questionable fashion with frequent beatings and borderline-torture techniques used on Republican prisoners and extremely poor living conditions for prisoners Many Maze prison guards were members of the UDAUVF or had strong connections with one of the two groups as well

bull Massive peaceful protests and marches by Irish republicans outside of the Maze Prison proved unsuccessful in attaining political status for republican prisoners as well as previous inmate protests in 1980 including non-fatal hunger strikes inmates refusing to wear prison uniforms and thus living in their cells naked and prisoners refusing to leave their cells to go to the bathroom until their requests had been granted (they therefore urinated and defecated in their cells and spread their excrement across their cell walls in what was known as the ldquoDirty Protestrdquo)

Dirty Protesters

Thatcherrsquos Response

bull ldquoThose terrorists will carry their determination to disrupt society to any lengths Once again we have a hunger strike in the Maze Prison in the quest for what they call lsquopolitical statusrsquo There is no such thing as political murder political bombing or political violence There is only criminal murder criminal bombing and criminal violence We will not compromise on this There will be no political statusrdquo

Ten Strikers Diebull Bobby Sands the leader of the strike was imprisoned as a PIRA member

on charges of firearm possession and in connection with the bombing of a furniture store He was the first to die after 66 days of not eating Sands was elected to a seat in Parliament whilst on Hunger Strike

bull Following Sandsrsquo death there were riots bus-burnings and attacks on the British embassy in the southern Republic of Ireland there were massive demonstrations in France and Italy a tomato was thrown as Queen Elizabeth II by demonstrators in Oslo and there were massive riots and civil disorder all over the streets of Belfast The South African ANC and (at the time) terrorist Nelson Mandela expressed their support for the PIRA and the hunger strikers (Mandela himself claimed he was directly inspired by Sands to undertake hunger strikes against the Apartheid government in South Africa) as well as the Palestine Liberation Organization a middle-eastern terror group

bull Over 100000 attended Sandsrsquo funeral

Bobby Sands

ldquoOur revenge will be the laughter of our childrenrdquo

Reaction to Sandsrsquo Death

>

Conclusion

bull The Hunger Strike was eventually called off after 10 strikers including Sands had died

bull James Prior newly installed secretary of state of Northern Ireland granted the prisoners partial concessions all of the Five Demands except for the right to not do prison work Margaret Thatcher refused to budge on political status

bull The Hunger Strikes opened a new way for the PIRA to pursue its objectives politically whereas previously it had seen violence as the only solution to the plight of Irish nationalists in Northern Ireland

1983 The Maze Prison Escape

The ldquoGreat Escaperdquo

bull Using smuggled-in guns and knives 38 PIRA prisoners who had been convicted of offenses ranging from murder to causing explosions escaped from one of the most high-security prisons in Europe They completely took over the H7 prison block and took their prison guards hostage before escaping in a food supply truck Several prison guards were shot and stabbed but only one died of a heart attack during the escape

bull Fifteen escapees were recaptured the first day with four more captured over the next two days following the breakout The remaining 19 were transported to PIRA strongholds and given the option to either rejoin the IRArsquos cause or be transported to the United States to live under a new identity

12 October 1984 Brighton Hotel Bombing

The PIRA Nearly Gets Thatcherbull Margaret Thatcher the highly controversial far-right British PM from

1979-1990 had become a tremendously hated figure amongst the Irish nationalist community in Northern Ireland following the 1981 Hunger Strikes and for her general uncompromising stand on Irish republicanism

bull PIRA man Patrick Magee stayed at the Brighton Hotel from the 14-17 September 1984 planting a 20-lb bomb under his bath

bull Thatcher was staying at the Brighton Hotel for a political conference and was still up at 254AM on 12 October when the bomb was detonated The bomb decimated her bathroom but left the bedroom and sitting room of her suite largely unscathed

bull The PIRA statement to Thatcher afterwards was ldquoToday we were unlucky But remember we only have to be lucky once You will have to be lucky alwaysrdquo

Loughgall Ambush 8 May 1987

The SAS Strikes

bull A botched attack on Loughgall Villagersquos RUC Police Base in which the PIRA drove a backhoe into the fortified base and ran away to detonate the bomb that was inside of the backhoe went wrong as the SAS the British Special Forces had prior knowledge of the attack and quickly dispatched the 8 PIRA members involved

bull Although the RUC base was wrecked and bombed there were no RUC or SAS casualties and it was the PIRArsquos greatest loss of life in a single incident during the Troubles

British Army Lynx Shootdown 20 March 1994

The PIRA Shoots Down a Helicopter

bull Using the previously mentioned Barrack-Buster homemade mortar PIRA insurgents were able to fire on a British helicopter that was in the process of landing whilst hiding behind a hay bail from around 150 yards out

bull The helicopter was hit with the mortar shell around 100 feet above the ground but the pilot was able to successfully crash-land the helicopter and escape before its propane tanks exploded There were no casualties but the attack was a major propaganda coup for the PIRA

1996 Manchester Bombing

The PIRA Destroys Manchester

bull On Saturday 15 June 1996 the PIRA sent in telephoned warnings and 90 minutes later detonated a 3300lb fertilizer-based truck bomb in the heart of Manchester City Centre the biggest bomb detonated in Great Britain during peacetime The bomb killed nobody due to previous warnings but led to 212 non-fatal injuries and essentially destroyed Manchester City Centre leaving approximately 700 million pounds ($12bn) worth of damage in its wake

Omagh Bombing 1998

Last Great Deadly Attack of the Troubles

bull Perpetrated by a Provisional IRA splinter group that was rejecting the peace process calling themselves the ldquoReal IRArdquo the 510lb fertilizer-based bomb was placed on main street in the town of Omagh Northern Ireland Warnings were called in approximately 30 minutes before the bombing but they were inaccurate and police ended up moving more civilians towards the bomb which ended up killing 29 people and causing over 300 non-fatal injuries This was the highest death toll from a single incident during the Troubles

bull It received universal outrage and was condemned even by the PIRA and its political wing Sinn Fein It spurred on the Northern Ireland peace process and the RIRA apologized and called a ceasefire several days after

The Good Friday Agreement and Northern Ireland Peace Process

Beginningsbull Following the 1981 Hunger Strikes Irish republicans began to

increasingly look towards politics rather than violence as a means of achieving their aims Sinn Fein gaelic for ldquoWe Ourselvesrdquo was a fiercely Irish Republican political party which led by the Machiavellian former PIRA leader and Maze inmate Gerry Adams began to push for a more peaceful solution to the Troubles in Northern Ireland

bull It became apparent by the late 1990s that although the PIRA was not losing a war against the British establishment it would be impossible to truly lsquowin the fightrsquo through violence and that any further terrorism would serve not to achieve any real political aim but only to prolong and continue suffering and violence in Northern Ireland and that politics was a much better way of achieving Republican aims

Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein former PIRA Belfast Brigade OC

Good Friday Agreement 1998

bull The Peace Process began in 1994 and included intermittent terrorist ceasefires and political negotiations between the major Irish republican and British unionist parties and culminated on April 10 1998 when the Good Friday Agreement was signed

PM Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern Sign the GFA

GFA Mandatesbull That Northern Ireland was to remain British until a majority of people in Northern

Ireland and the southern Republic of Ireland wanted otherwise bull The creation of an entirely new far less sectarian and religiously diverse Northern

Irish local governmentbull The decommissioning of arms from terrorist groups on both the unionist and

nationalist side of the political divide (ultimately successful all arms decommissioned by 2005)

bull Mutual respect and civil rights between Catholics and Protestants bull The reduction and eventual elimination of British troops in Northern Ireland

(ultimately successful all troops withdrawn by 2005)bull Eventual early prison release for all individuals imprisoned for terrorist offenses as

long as they were apart of a terrorist group that was decommissioning in accordance with the GFA

bull Disbandment of the RUC police service and the installation of the new Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) which was required to be at least 50 Catholic

Northern Ireland Today

Still Conflict But No Warbull Since the complete decommissioning of the arms and

disbandment of the PIRA INLA UDAUFF and UVF due to the Good Friday Agreement there is nowhere near the amount of violence in Northern Ireland or Belfast as there was 20 years ago There are no more weekly bombings and riots and no more British troops patrolling Catholic areas in armored vehicles

bull Despite this there are still occasional riots and clashes with the PSNI several times a year specifically on dates of great historical significance to the Catholic or Protestant communities and there is still a deep distrust and even hatred between many Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland although that continues to change with time

Catholic Slum of Ardoyne Belfast July 2011

Splinter Groups

bull Many former PIRA or UDA terrorists have now taken to organized crime for purely profiteering purposes but are no longer involved in substantial violence or any political-based terrorism

bull Splinter groups such as the Real IRA and Continuity IRA in Catholic communities and the Orange Volunteers and Red Hand Commandos in Protestant communities still conduct occasional violence towards Police and civilians in Northern Ireland but are all rather small poorly armed and poorly funded groups that pose nowhere near the threat that terrorist groups in the 80s and 90s did in Northern Ireland

Herersquos To A Brighter Future in Northern Ireland

Works Citedbull httpwwwbbccoukhistorytroublesbull httpcainulstacukbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiProvisional_Irish_Republican_Armybull httpenwikipediaorgwikiThe_Troublesbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiUlster_Defence_Associationbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiUlster_Volunteer_Forcebull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_National_Liberation_Armybull ldquoA Secret History of the IRArdquo by Ed Moloney ndashWW Norton amp Company Reprint 2003bull ldquoVoices From The Grave Two Menrsquos War in Irelandrdquo by Ed Moloney ndash Public Affairs 2010bull ldquoFifty Dead Men Walkingrdquo by Martin McGartland ndash John Blake 2009bull httpwwwinfopleasecomspotnorthireland1htmlbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_Civil_Warbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_War_of_Independencebull httpenwikipediaorgwiki1981_Irish_hunger_strikebull httpenwikipediaorgwikiDirectory_of_the_Northern_Ireland_Troublesbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiGood_Friday_Agreementbull httpswwwmi5govukhomethe-threatsterrorismnorthern-irelandrepublican-terrorist-groupshtmlbull httpswwwmi5govukhomethe-threatsterrorismnorthern-irelandprovisional-irish-republican-army-

pirahtmlbull httpnewsbbccoukhienglishstaticnorthern_irelandunderstandingeventshunger_strikestm

  • The Troubles
  • Brief Overview
  • 30 Years of Conflict
  • Slide 4
  • Background
  • The Irish War of Independence
  • Slide 7
  • Anglo-Irish Treaty (signed 6 December 1921)
  • Irish Civil War
  • 1922-1966 Ireland
  • The Civil Rights Movement
  • Slide 12
  • Slide 13
  • Objectives of the Civil Rights Movement
  • The 1969 Northern Ireland Riots ndashThe Troubles Begin
  • Culmination of Tension
  • No-Go Areas
  • No-Go Areas (2)
  • Early 1970sndash The Rise of the Provisional IRA
  • The IRA Split
  • Rise of the UVF and Loyalist Terror Groups
  • Beginnings
  • UVF Statement 21 May 1964
  • The Paramilitaries
  • Irish RepublicansCatholics
  • The Provisional IRA
  • IRA Statement Late 80s
  • Statistics
  • RecruitmentFunding
  • Weaponry
  • Weaponry (2)
  • Slide 32
  • Mortars and IEDs
  • EOD Officer Approaches PIRA Car Bomb
  • The Barrack Buster
  • Vigilantism
  • Slide 37
  • Slide 38
  • Policy on Informants
  • Terrorist Activities
  • Terrorist Activities (continued)
  • The INLA
  • Statistics (2)
  • Ideology
  • Terrorist Activities (2)
  • Internal Feuds
  • Slide 47
  • British LoyalistsProtestants
  • The UDAUFF
  • Former UFF Member
  • Statistics (3)
  • Ideology (2)
  • Terrorist Activities (3)
  • Slide 54
  • Organized Crime
  • The UVF
  • Statistics (4)
  • Ideology (3)
  • Terrorist Activities (4)
  • The Shankhill Butchers
  • Weaponry (3)
  • Slide 62
  • Organized Crime (2)
  • Major Incidents 1969-1998
  • Bloody Sunday 30 January 1972
  • Massacre on the Bogside
  • Bloody Friday 21 July 1972
  • A City Under Siege
  • Dublin and Monaghan Bombings 17 May 1974
  • Deadliest Attack of the Troubles
  • Warrenpoint Ambush 27 August 1979
  • Roadside IEDs
  • Summer of 1981 Irish Hunger Strikes
  • A Defining Moment for the Republican Cause
  • The Five Demands
  • Previous Protests
  • Dirty Protesters
  • Thatcherrsquos Response
  • Ten Strikers Die
  • Bobby Sands
  • Reaction to Sandsrsquo Death
  • Conclusion
  • 1983 The Maze Prison Escape
  • The ldquoGreat Escaperdquo
  • 12 October 1984 Brighton Hotel Bombing
  • The PIRA Nearly Gets Thatcher
  • Loughgall Ambush 8 May 1987
  • The SAS Strikes
  • British Army Lynx Shootdown 20 March 1994
  • The PIRA Shoots Down a Helicopter
  • 1996 Manchester Bombing
  • The PIRA Destroys Manchester
  • Omagh Bombing 1998
  • Last Great Deadly Attack of the Troubles
  • The Good Friday Agreement and Northern Ireland Peace Process
  • Beginnings (2)
  • Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein former PIRA Belfast Brigade OC
  • Good Friday Agreement 1998
  • PM Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern Sign the GFA
  • GFA Mandates
  • Northern Ireland Today
  • Still Conflict But No War
  • Catholic Slum of Ardoyne Belfast July 2011
  • Splinter Groups
  • Herersquos To A Brighter Future in Northern Ireland
  • Works Cited
Page 46: The Troubles, 1969-1998

Terrorist Activitiesbull The UDA saw itself as a militia defending upstanding protestant loyalist

communities from dangerous and lower-class Catholics that were disrupting the status quo in Northern Ireland They pledged primarily to target IRA men but ended up killing a majority of Catholic civilians during the Troubles They were also known to intimidate and exile known Catholic families from predominately-Protestant communities in Belfast and other urban areas

bull Drive-by shootings shooting up or planting bombs in predominately-Catholic pubs and bars and jumping brutally beating andor kneecapping Catholic civilians were all frequent tactics

bull The UDA discreetly worked in collusion with the RUC and other British security agencies so as to track down and assassinate known IRA members They would also patrol Protestant neighborhoods alongside British soldiers at the height of the Troubles Many RUC police officers and prison guards were also UDA members

bull The UDA alongside many other loyalist paramilitaries benefitted from the import of several arms shipments from Lebanese arms dealers in the early 1970s including rocket launchers 200+ AK-47 Rifles 90+ handguns and over 400 grenades They also received various weapons such as the uzi submachine gun and explosive devices from arms dealers in the Soviet bloc in the 1980s

Organized Crime

bull The UDA and its members were also heavily involved in drug dealing from the street level to wholesale purchase primarily in MDMA and cannabis throughout the Troubles

bull Protection racketeering and money laundering were also common amongst the UDA in protestant communities

bull However should a member of a UDA-ran community begin stealing or dealing drugs without UDA consent he was abruptly branded as ldquoanti-socialrdquo and either killed or kneecapped

The UVF

Statistics

bull Suffered unknown number of casualtiesbull Killed 412 civiliansbull Killed 11 civilian political activistsbull Killed 21 members of republican terror groupsbull Killed 42 members of rival loyalist terror

groupsbull Killed 6 members of the Security Forces

Ideology

bull Similar to the UDAUFF the Ulster Volunteer Forcersquos primary aim was to combat Irish republicanism in Northern Ireland primarily the PIRA They wanted Northern Ireland to remain in the UK

Terrorist Activitiesbull The majority of UVF victims were Catholic civilians

many of whom were killed at random These attacks were intended to demoralize the IRA as the IRA drew most of its support from the Catholic community

bull Planting bombs in predominately-Catholic pubs or simply residential areas was a very frequent UVF tactic and in 1973 they detonated more bombs in Northern Ireland than the UDA and the PIRA combined Assassinations mass shootings booby-trap car bombs and kidnappings were also frequent UVF activities

The Shankhill Butchers

bull The ldquoShankhill Butchersrdquo were a notorious offshoot UVF group known for abducting and literally slitting the throats of Catholic civilians and rival loyalist terror groups in the late 1970s They were led by Lenny Murphy (who was eventually imprisoned and upon his release of a 4-year stint murdered by the PIRA) and killed 23 people most of whom were Catholic civilians Many experts liken the Shankhill Butchers more to a group of serial killers than to politically or even ethnically-motivated murderers

bull The Butchers were all eventually all either imprisoned killed by the PIRA or both

Weaponrybull The UVF received the majority of its weaponry in the late 1970s

from Armscor an apartheid-South Africa state-owned arms company which in defiance of various UN sanctions and embargoes sold them to the UVF

bull Weapons were thought to consist ofbull 200 Czech SA vz 58 Assault Riflesbull 90 Browning Pistolsbull 500 RGD-5 Frag Grenadesbull 30000 rounds of ammunitionbull 12 RPG-7 Rocket Launchers and 150+ Rocketsbull The UVF also began using the illegally-obtained mining explosive

Powergel in the early 1990s

Organized Crime

bull The UVF was also heavily involved in organized crime including protection racketeering and drug smugglingdealing including cannabis MDMA cocaine and amphetamines Bank robberies were also very frequent in the 1970s

Major Incidents 1969-1998

Bloody Sunday 30 January 1972

Massacre on the Bogsidebull In 1972 during a large scale but peaceful civil-rights march in the

troubled predominately Catholic neighborhood of Bogside in Derry 26 unarmed civil rights marchers were shot by members of the British Army 14 of whom were killed Five of those shot were shot in the back

bull After several inquiries into the incident there was found to have been no justifiable provocation from the protestors and no shots fired from the protestors during the march The massacre was conducted in full view of the public and the press

bull The PM David Cameron eventually issued a formal apology to the victims and victimsrsquo families of the massacre after several investigations failed to reveal any justifiable provocation for the massacre

bull The massacre sky-rocketed PIRA membership and recruitment as public perception of the British Army in Catholic communities in Northern Ireland reached an all-time low

Bloody Friday 21 July 1972

A City Under Siege

bull On 21 July 1972 the PIRA detonated 26 bombs in the space of 80 minutes in Belfast destroying banks bridges electrical substations Protestant housing tenements gasoline stations and private garages

bull Although warnings were called in at least 30 minutes prior to each bomb the amount of bombs exploding and the addition of multiple hoax warnings at the same time led to the Security Forces being unable to evacuate all the areas in time 11 people were killed and 130 were injured many of them horrifically mutilated Of those injured 77 were women or children

Dublin and Monaghan Bombings 17 May 1974

Deadliest Attack of the Troubles

bull Perpetrated by the UVF in the southern Republic of Ireland three car bombs exploded in Dublin during rush hour and another exploded in Monaghan around 90 minutes later

bull 33 civilians and a full-term unborn child were killed in the bombing while nearly 300 were injured The UVF did not claim responsibility for the bombings until 1993

bull The majority of those killed were young women although the age range of those killed ranged from 5 months old to 80 years old

Warrenpoint Ambush 27 August 1979

Roadside IEDsbull In the southern part of County Armagh Northern Ireland a predominately-

Catholic rural region and former PIRA stronghold right on the border with the southern Republic of Ireland a British troop convoy was hit with a remote-control detonated roadside 500lb truck-bomb and destroyed instantly killing 6 troops The surviving soldiers then wrongly believed they were under sniper fire from the other side of the Irish border and began firing at civilians immediately after the bombing killing 1 and injuring another

bull 32 minutes after the first bombing the IRA used its knowledge of how the British reacted to bombings to correctly predict that they would set up an incident-command point in a nearby gatehouse Unfortunately for the British there was a second 800lb fertilizer bomb planted near the gatehouse that when detonated killed 12 other soldiers who were responding to the initial bomb

bull It was the deadliest single attack on the British Army during the Troubles and a highly successful attack for the PIRA

Summer of 1981 Irish Hunger Strikes

A Defining Moment for the Republican Cause

bull Beginning on 1 March 1981 led by Bobby Sands 7 PIRA and 3 INLA inmates at the notorious ldquoMazerdquo prison began to refuse food until Margaret Thatcher PM of Great Britain at that time began to recognize terrorist prisoners as political prisoners and allowed them their ldquoFive Demandsrdquo

The Five Demands

bull The right to not wear a prison uniformbull The right to not do prison workbull The right of free association with other

prisoners and to organize in educational and recreational pursuits

bull Full restoration of remission lost through any protests towards these demands

Previous Protestsbull The Maze prison was a very high-security and low-quality prison that

housed almost all PIRA prisoners during the Troubles It was run in a very ethically questionable fashion with frequent beatings and borderline-torture techniques used on Republican prisoners and extremely poor living conditions for prisoners Many Maze prison guards were members of the UDAUVF or had strong connections with one of the two groups as well

bull Massive peaceful protests and marches by Irish republicans outside of the Maze Prison proved unsuccessful in attaining political status for republican prisoners as well as previous inmate protests in 1980 including non-fatal hunger strikes inmates refusing to wear prison uniforms and thus living in their cells naked and prisoners refusing to leave their cells to go to the bathroom until their requests had been granted (they therefore urinated and defecated in their cells and spread their excrement across their cell walls in what was known as the ldquoDirty Protestrdquo)

Dirty Protesters

Thatcherrsquos Response

bull ldquoThose terrorists will carry their determination to disrupt society to any lengths Once again we have a hunger strike in the Maze Prison in the quest for what they call lsquopolitical statusrsquo There is no such thing as political murder political bombing or political violence There is only criminal murder criminal bombing and criminal violence We will not compromise on this There will be no political statusrdquo

Ten Strikers Diebull Bobby Sands the leader of the strike was imprisoned as a PIRA member

on charges of firearm possession and in connection with the bombing of a furniture store He was the first to die after 66 days of not eating Sands was elected to a seat in Parliament whilst on Hunger Strike

bull Following Sandsrsquo death there were riots bus-burnings and attacks on the British embassy in the southern Republic of Ireland there were massive demonstrations in France and Italy a tomato was thrown as Queen Elizabeth II by demonstrators in Oslo and there were massive riots and civil disorder all over the streets of Belfast The South African ANC and (at the time) terrorist Nelson Mandela expressed their support for the PIRA and the hunger strikers (Mandela himself claimed he was directly inspired by Sands to undertake hunger strikes against the Apartheid government in South Africa) as well as the Palestine Liberation Organization a middle-eastern terror group

bull Over 100000 attended Sandsrsquo funeral

Bobby Sands

ldquoOur revenge will be the laughter of our childrenrdquo

Reaction to Sandsrsquo Death

>

Conclusion

bull The Hunger Strike was eventually called off after 10 strikers including Sands had died

bull James Prior newly installed secretary of state of Northern Ireland granted the prisoners partial concessions all of the Five Demands except for the right to not do prison work Margaret Thatcher refused to budge on political status

bull The Hunger Strikes opened a new way for the PIRA to pursue its objectives politically whereas previously it had seen violence as the only solution to the plight of Irish nationalists in Northern Ireland

1983 The Maze Prison Escape

The ldquoGreat Escaperdquo

bull Using smuggled-in guns and knives 38 PIRA prisoners who had been convicted of offenses ranging from murder to causing explosions escaped from one of the most high-security prisons in Europe They completely took over the H7 prison block and took their prison guards hostage before escaping in a food supply truck Several prison guards were shot and stabbed but only one died of a heart attack during the escape

bull Fifteen escapees were recaptured the first day with four more captured over the next two days following the breakout The remaining 19 were transported to PIRA strongholds and given the option to either rejoin the IRArsquos cause or be transported to the United States to live under a new identity

12 October 1984 Brighton Hotel Bombing

The PIRA Nearly Gets Thatcherbull Margaret Thatcher the highly controversial far-right British PM from

1979-1990 had become a tremendously hated figure amongst the Irish nationalist community in Northern Ireland following the 1981 Hunger Strikes and for her general uncompromising stand on Irish republicanism

bull PIRA man Patrick Magee stayed at the Brighton Hotel from the 14-17 September 1984 planting a 20-lb bomb under his bath

bull Thatcher was staying at the Brighton Hotel for a political conference and was still up at 254AM on 12 October when the bomb was detonated The bomb decimated her bathroom but left the bedroom and sitting room of her suite largely unscathed

bull The PIRA statement to Thatcher afterwards was ldquoToday we were unlucky But remember we only have to be lucky once You will have to be lucky alwaysrdquo

Loughgall Ambush 8 May 1987

The SAS Strikes

bull A botched attack on Loughgall Villagersquos RUC Police Base in which the PIRA drove a backhoe into the fortified base and ran away to detonate the bomb that was inside of the backhoe went wrong as the SAS the British Special Forces had prior knowledge of the attack and quickly dispatched the 8 PIRA members involved

bull Although the RUC base was wrecked and bombed there were no RUC or SAS casualties and it was the PIRArsquos greatest loss of life in a single incident during the Troubles

British Army Lynx Shootdown 20 March 1994

The PIRA Shoots Down a Helicopter

bull Using the previously mentioned Barrack-Buster homemade mortar PIRA insurgents were able to fire on a British helicopter that was in the process of landing whilst hiding behind a hay bail from around 150 yards out

bull The helicopter was hit with the mortar shell around 100 feet above the ground but the pilot was able to successfully crash-land the helicopter and escape before its propane tanks exploded There were no casualties but the attack was a major propaganda coup for the PIRA

1996 Manchester Bombing

The PIRA Destroys Manchester

bull On Saturday 15 June 1996 the PIRA sent in telephoned warnings and 90 minutes later detonated a 3300lb fertilizer-based truck bomb in the heart of Manchester City Centre the biggest bomb detonated in Great Britain during peacetime The bomb killed nobody due to previous warnings but led to 212 non-fatal injuries and essentially destroyed Manchester City Centre leaving approximately 700 million pounds ($12bn) worth of damage in its wake

Omagh Bombing 1998

Last Great Deadly Attack of the Troubles

bull Perpetrated by a Provisional IRA splinter group that was rejecting the peace process calling themselves the ldquoReal IRArdquo the 510lb fertilizer-based bomb was placed on main street in the town of Omagh Northern Ireland Warnings were called in approximately 30 minutes before the bombing but they were inaccurate and police ended up moving more civilians towards the bomb which ended up killing 29 people and causing over 300 non-fatal injuries This was the highest death toll from a single incident during the Troubles

bull It received universal outrage and was condemned even by the PIRA and its political wing Sinn Fein It spurred on the Northern Ireland peace process and the RIRA apologized and called a ceasefire several days after

The Good Friday Agreement and Northern Ireland Peace Process

Beginningsbull Following the 1981 Hunger Strikes Irish republicans began to

increasingly look towards politics rather than violence as a means of achieving their aims Sinn Fein gaelic for ldquoWe Ourselvesrdquo was a fiercely Irish Republican political party which led by the Machiavellian former PIRA leader and Maze inmate Gerry Adams began to push for a more peaceful solution to the Troubles in Northern Ireland

bull It became apparent by the late 1990s that although the PIRA was not losing a war against the British establishment it would be impossible to truly lsquowin the fightrsquo through violence and that any further terrorism would serve not to achieve any real political aim but only to prolong and continue suffering and violence in Northern Ireland and that politics was a much better way of achieving Republican aims

Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein former PIRA Belfast Brigade OC

Good Friday Agreement 1998

bull The Peace Process began in 1994 and included intermittent terrorist ceasefires and political negotiations between the major Irish republican and British unionist parties and culminated on April 10 1998 when the Good Friday Agreement was signed

PM Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern Sign the GFA

GFA Mandatesbull That Northern Ireland was to remain British until a majority of people in Northern

Ireland and the southern Republic of Ireland wanted otherwise bull The creation of an entirely new far less sectarian and religiously diverse Northern

Irish local governmentbull The decommissioning of arms from terrorist groups on both the unionist and

nationalist side of the political divide (ultimately successful all arms decommissioned by 2005)

bull Mutual respect and civil rights between Catholics and Protestants bull The reduction and eventual elimination of British troops in Northern Ireland

(ultimately successful all troops withdrawn by 2005)bull Eventual early prison release for all individuals imprisoned for terrorist offenses as

long as they were apart of a terrorist group that was decommissioning in accordance with the GFA

bull Disbandment of the RUC police service and the installation of the new Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) which was required to be at least 50 Catholic

Northern Ireland Today

Still Conflict But No Warbull Since the complete decommissioning of the arms and

disbandment of the PIRA INLA UDAUFF and UVF due to the Good Friday Agreement there is nowhere near the amount of violence in Northern Ireland or Belfast as there was 20 years ago There are no more weekly bombings and riots and no more British troops patrolling Catholic areas in armored vehicles

bull Despite this there are still occasional riots and clashes with the PSNI several times a year specifically on dates of great historical significance to the Catholic or Protestant communities and there is still a deep distrust and even hatred between many Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland although that continues to change with time

Catholic Slum of Ardoyne Belfast July 2011

Splinter Groups

bull Many former PIRA or UDA terrorists have now taken to organized crime for purely profiteering purposes but are no longer involved in substantial violence or any political-based terrorism

bull Splinter groups such as the Real IRA and Continuity IRA in Catholic communities and the Orange Volunteers and Red Hand Commandos in Protestant communities still conduct occasional violence towards Police and civilians in Northern Ireland but are all rather small poorly armed and poorly funded groups that pose nowhere near the threat that terrorist groups in the 80s and 90s did in Northern Ireland

Herersquos To A Brighter Future in Northern Ireland

Works Citedbull httpwwwbbccoukhistorytroublesbull httpcainulstacukbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiProvisional_Irish_Republican_Armybull httpenwikipediaorgwikiThe_Troublesbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiUlster_Defence_Associationbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiUlster_Volunteer_Forcebull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_National_Liberation_Armybull ldquoA Secret History of the IRArdquo by Ed Moloney ndashWW Norton amp Company Reprint 2003bull ldquoVoices From The Grave Two Menrsquos War in Irelandrdquo by Ed Moloney ndash Public Affairs 2010bull ldquoFifty Dead Men Walkingrdquo by Martin McGartland ndash John Blake 2009bull httpwwwinfopleasecomspotnorthireland1htmlbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_Civil_Warbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_War_of_Independencebull httpenwikipediaorgwiki1981_Irish_hunger_strikebull httpenwikipediaorgwikiDirectory_of_the_Northern_Ireland_Troublesbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiGood_Friday_Agreementbull httpswwwmi5govukhomethe-threatsterrorismnorthern-irelandrepublican-terrorist-groupshtmlbull httpswwwmi5govukhomethe-threatsterrorismnorthern-irelandprovisional-irish-republican-army-

pirahtmlbull httpnewsbbccoukhienglishstaticnorthern_irelandunderstandingeventshunger_strikestm

  • The Troubles
  • Brief Overview
  • 30 Years of Conflict
  • Slide 4
  • Background
  • The Irish War of Independence
  • Slide 7
  • Anglo-Irish Treaty (signed 6 December 1921)
  • Irish Civil War
  • 1922-1966 Ireland
  • The Civil Rights Movement
  • Slide 12
  • Slide 13
  • Objectives of the Civil Rights Movement
  • The 1969 Northern Ireland Riots ndashThe Troubles Begin
  • Culmination of Tension
  • No-Go Areas
  • No-Go Areas (2)
  • Early 1970sndash The Rise of the Provisional IRA
  • The IRA Split
  • Rise of the UVF and Loyalist Terror Groups
  • Beginnings
  • UVF Statement 21 May 1964
  • The Paramilitaries
  • Irish RepublicansCatholics
  • The Provisional IRA
  • IRA Statement Late 80s
  • Statistics
  • RecruitmentFunding
  • Weaponry
  • Weaponry (2)
  • Slide 32
  • Mortars and IEDs
  • EOD Officer Approaches PIRA Car Bomb
  • The Barrack Buster
  • Vigilantism
  • Slide 37
  • Slide 38
  • Policy on Informants
  • Terrorist Activities
  • Terrorist Activities (continued)
  • The INLA
  • Statistics (2)
  • Ideology
  • Terrorist Activities (2)
  • Internal Feuds
  • Slide 47
  • British LoyalistsProtestants
  • The UDAUFF
  • Former UFF Member
  • Statistics (3)
  • Ideology (2)
  • Terrorist Activities (3)
  • Slide 54
  • Organized Crime
  • The UVF
  • Statistics (4)
  • Ideology (3)
  • Terrorist Activities (4)
  • The Shankhill Butchers
  • Weaponry (3)
  • Slide 62
  • Organized Crime (2)
  • Major Incidents 1969-1998
  • Bloody Sunday 30 January 1972
  • Massacre on the Bogside
  • Bloody Friday 21 July 1972
  • A City Under Siege
  • Dublin and Monaghan Bombings 17 May 1974
  • Deadliest Attack of the Troubles
  • Warrenpoint Ambush 27 August 1979
  • Roadside IEDs
  • Summer of 1981 Irish Hunger Strikes
  • A Defining Moment for the Republican Cause
  • The Five Demands
  • Previous Protests
  • Dirty Protesters
  • Thatcherrsquos Response
  • Ten Strikers Die
  • Bobby Sands
  • Reaction to Sandsrsquo Death
  • Conclusion
  • 1983 The Maze Prison Escape
  • The ldquoGreat Escaperdquo
  • 12 October 1984 Brighton Hotel Bombing
  • The PIRA Nearly Gets Thatcher
  • Loughgall Ambush 8 May 1987
  • The SAS Strikes
  • British Army Lynx Shootdown 20 March 1994
  • The PIRA Shoots Down a Helicopter
  • 1996 Manchester Bombing
  • The PIRA Destroys Manchester
  • Omagh Bombing 1998
  • Last Great Deadly Attack of the Troubles
  • The Good Friday Agreement and Northern Ireland Peace Process
  • Beginnings (2)
  • Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein former PIRA Belfast Brigade OC
  • Good Friday Agreement 1998
  • PM Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern Sign the GFA
  • GFA Mandates
  • Northern Ireland Today
  • Still Conflict But No War
  • Catholic Slum of Ardoyne Belfast July 2011
  • Splinter Groups
  • Herersquos To A Brighter Future in Northern Ireland
  • Works Cited
Page 47: The Troubles, 1969-1998

Organized Crime

bull The UDA and its members were also heavily involved in drug dealing from the street level to wholesale purchase primarily in MDMA and cannabis throughout the Troubles

bull Protection racketeering and money laundering were also common amongst the UDA in protestant communities

bull However should a member of a UDA-ran community begin stealing or dealing drugs without UDA consent he was abruptly branded as ldquoanti-socialrdquo and either killed or kneecapped

The UVF

Statistics

bull Suffered unknown number of casualtiesbull Killed 412 civiliansbull Killed 11 civilian political activistsbull Killed 21 members of republican terror groupsbull Killed 42 members of rival loyalist terror

groupsbull Killed 6 members of the Security Forces

Ideology

bull Similar to the UDAUFF the Ulster Volunteer Forcersquos primary aim was to combat Irish republicanism in Northern Ireland primarily the PIRA They wanted Northern Ireland to remain in the UK

Terrorist Activitiesbull The majority of UVF victims were Catholic civilians

many of whom were killed at random These attacks were intended to demoralize the IRA as the IRA drew most of its support from the Catholic community

bull Planting bombs in predominately-Catholic pubs or simply residential areas was a very frequent UVF tactic and in 1973 they detonated more bombs in Northern Ireland than the UDA and the PIRA combined Assassinations mass shootings booby-trap car bombs and kidnappings were also frequent UVF activities

The Shankhill Butchers

bull The ldquoShankhill Butchersrdquo were a notorious offshoot UVF group known for abducting and literally slitting the throats of Catholic civilians and rival loyalist terror groups in the late 1970s They were led by Lenny Murphy (who was eventually imprisoned and upon his release of a 4-year stint murdered by the PIRA) and killed 23 people most of whom were Catholic civilians Many experts liken the Shankhill Butchers more to a group of serial killers than to politically or even ethnically-motivated murderers

bull The Butchers were all eventually all either imprisoned killed by the PIRA or both

Weaponrybull The UVF received the majority of its weaponry in the late 1970s

from Armscor an apartheid-South Africa state-owned arms company which in defiance of various UN sanctions and embargoes sold them to the UVF

bull Weapons were thought to consist ofbull 200 Czech SA vz 58 Assault Riflesbull 90 Browning Pistolsbull 500 RGD-5 Frag Grenadesbull 30000 rounds of ammunitionbull 12 RPG-7 Rocket Launchers and 150+ Rocketsbull The UVF also began using the illegally-obtained mining explosive

Powergel in the early 1990s

Organized Crime

bull The UVF was also heavily involved in organized crime including protection racketeering and drug smugglingdealing including cannabis MDMA cocaine and amphetamines Bank robberies were also very frequent in the 1970s

Major Incidents 1969-1998

Bloody Sunday 30 January 1972

Massacre on the Bogsidebull In 1972 during a large scale but peaceful civil-rights march in the

troubled predominately Catholic neighborhood of Bogside in Derry 26 unarmed civil rights marchers were shot by members of the British Army 14 of whom were killed Five of those shot were shot in the back

bull After several inquiries into the incident there was found to have been no justifiable provocation from the protestors and no shots fired from the protestors during the march The massacre was conducted in full view of the public and the press

bull The PM David Cameron eventually issued a formal apology to the victims and victimsrsquo families of the massacre after several investigations failed to reveal any justifiable provocation for the massacre

bull The massacre sky-rocketed PIRA membership and recruitment as public perception of the British Army in Catholic communities in Northern Ireland reached an all-time low

Bloody Friday 21 July 1972

A City Under Siege

bull On 21 July 1972 the PIRA detonated 26 bombs in the space of 80 minutes in Belfast destroying banks bridges electrical substations Protestant housing tenements gasoline stations and private garages

bull Although warnings were called in at least 30 minutes prior to each bomb the amount of bombs exploding and the addition of multiple hoax warnings at the same time led to the Security Forces being unable to evacuate all the areas in time 11 people were killed and 130 were injured many of them horrifically mutilated Of those injured 77 were women or children

Dublin and Monaghan Bombings 17 May 1974

Deadliest Attack of the Troubles

bull Perpetrated by the UVF in the southern Republic of Ireland three car bombs exploded in Dublin during rush hour and another exploded in Monaghan around 90 minutes later

bull 33 civilians and a full-term unborn child were killed in the bombing while nearly 300 were injured The UVF did not claim responsibility for the bombings until 1993

bull The majority of those killed were young women although the age range of those killed ranged from 5 months old to 80 years old

Warrenpoint Ambush 27 August 1979

Roadside IEDsbull In the southern part of County Armagh Northern Ireland a predominately-

Catholic rural region and former PIRA stronghold right on the border with the southern Republic of Ireland a British troop convoy was hit with a remote-control detonated roadside 500lb truck-bomb and destroyed instantly killing 6 troops The surviving soldiers then wrongly believed they were under sniper fire from the other side of the Irish border and began firing at civilians immediately after the bombing killing 1 and injuring another

bull 32 minutes after the first bombing the IRA used its knowledge of how the British reacted to bombings to correctly predict that they would set up an incident-command point in a nearby gatehouse Unfortunately for the British there was a second 800lb fertilizer bomb planted near the gatehouse that when detonated killed 12 other soldiers who were responding to the initial bomb

bull It was the deadliest single attack on the British Army during the Troubles and a highly successful attack for the PIRA

Summer of 1981 Irish Hunger Strikes

A Defining Moment for the Republican Cause

bull Beginning on 1 March 1981 led by Bobby Sands 7 PIRA and 3 INLA inmates at the notorious ldquoMazerdquo prison began to refuse food until Margaret Thatcher PM of Great Britain at that time began to recognize terrorist prisoners as political prisoners and allowed them their ldquoFive Demandsrdquo

The Five Demands

bull The right to not wear a prison uniformbull The right to not do prison workbull The right of free association with other

prisoners and to organize in educational and recreational pursuits

bull Full restoration of remission lost through any protests towards these demands

Previous Protestsbull The Maze prison was a very high-security and low-quality prison that

housed almost all PIRA prisoners during the Troubles It was run in a very ethically questionable fashion with frequent beatings and borderline-torture techniques used on Republican prisoners and extremely poor living conditions for prisoners Many Maze prison guards were members of the UDAUVF or had strong connections with one of the two groups as well

bull Massive peaceful protests and marches by Irish republicans outside of the Maze Prison proved unsuccessful in attaining political status for republican prisoners as well as previous inmate protests in 1980 including non-fatal hunger strikes inmates refusing to wear prison uniforms and thus living in their cells naked and prisoners refusing to leave their cells to go to the bathroom until their requests had been granted (they therefore urinated and defecated in their cells and spread their excrement across their cell walls in what was known as the ldquoDirty Protestrdquo)

Dirty Protesters

Thatcherrsquos Response

bull ldquoThose terrorists will carry their determination to disrupt society to any lengths Once again we have a hunger strike in the Maze Prison in the quest for what they call lsquopolitical statusrsquo There is no such thing as political murder political bombing or political violence There is only criminal murder criminal bombing and criminal violence We will not compromise on this There will be no political statusrdquo

Ten Strikers Diebull Bobby Sands the leader of the strike was imprisoned as a PIRA member

on charges of firearm possession and in connection with the bombing of a furniture store He was the first to die after 66 days of not eating Sands was elected to a seat in Parliament whilst on Hunger Strike

bull Following Sandsrsquo death there were riots bus-burnings and attacks on the British embassy in the southern Republic of Ireland there were massive demonstrations in France and Italy a tomato was thrown as Queen Elizabeth II by demonstrators in Oslo and there were massive riots and civil disorder all over the streets of Belfast The South African ANC and (at the time) terrorist Nelson Mandela expressed their support for the PIRA and the hunger strikers (Mandela himself claimed he was directly inspired by Sands to undertake hunger strikes against the Apartheid government in South Africa) as well as the Palestine Liberation Organization a middle-eastern terror group

bull Over 100000 attended Sandsrsquo funeral

Bobby Sands

ldquoOur revenge will be the laughter of our childrenrdquo

Reaction to Sandsrsquo Death

>

Conclusion

bull The Hunger Strike was eventually called off after 10 strikers including Sands had died

bull James Prior newly installed secretary of state of Northern Ireland granted the prisoners partial concessions all of the Five Demands except for the right to not do prison work Margaret Thatcher refused to budge on political status

bull The Hunger Strikes opened a new way for the PIRA to pursue its objectives politically whereas previously it had seen violence as the only solution to the plight of Irish nationalists in Northern Ireland

1983 The Maze Prison Escape

The ldquoGreat Escaperdquo

bull Using smuggled-in guns and knives 38 PIRA prisoners who had been convicted of offenses ranging from murder to causing explosions escaped from one of the most high-security prisons in Europe They completely took over the H7 prison block and took their prison guards hostage before escaping in a food supply truck Several prison guards were shot and stabbed but only one died of a heart attack during the escape

bull Fifteen escapees were recaptured the first day with four more captured over the next two days following the breakout The remaining 19 were transported to PIRA strongholds and given the option to either rejoin the IRArsquos cause or be transported to the United States to live under a new identity

12 October 1984 Brighton Hotel Bombing

The PIRA Nearly Gets Thatcherbull Margaret Thatcher the highly controversial far-right British PM from

1979-1990 had become a tremendously hated figure amongst the Irish nationalist community in Northern Ireland following the 1981 Hunger Strikes and for her general uncompromising stand on Irish republicanism

bull PIRA man Patrick Magee stayed at the Brighton Hotel from the 14-17 September 1984 planting a 20-lb bomb under his bath

bull Thatcher was staying at the Brighton Hotel for a political conference and was still up at 254AM on 12 October when the bomb was detonated The bomb decimated her bathroom but left the bedroom and sitting room of her suite largely unscathed

bull The PIRA statement to Thatcher afterwards was ldquoToday we were unlucky But remember we only have to be lucky once You will have to be lucky alwaysrdquo

Loughgall Ambush 8 May 1987

The SAS Strikes

bull A botched attack on Loughgall Villagersquos RUC Police Base in which the PIRA drove a backhoe into the fortified base and ran away to detonate the bomb that was inside of the backhoe went wrong as the SAS the British Special Forces had prior knowledge of the attack and quickly dispatched the 8 PIRA members involved

bull Although the RUC base was wrecked and bombed there were no RUC or SAS casualties and it was the PIRArsquos greatest loss of life in a single incident during the Troubles

British Army Lynx Shootdown 20 March 1994

The PIRA Shoots Down a Helicopter

bull Using the previously mentioned Barrack-Buster homemade mortar PIRA insurgents were able to fire on a British helicopter that was in the process of landing whilst hiding behind a hay bail from around 150 yards out

bull The helicopter was hit with the mortar shell around 100 feet above the ground but the pilot was able to successfully crash-land the helicopter and escape before its propane tanks exploded There were no casualties but the attack was a major propaganda coup for the PIRA

1996 Manchester Bombing

The PIRA Destroys Manchester

bull On Saturday 15 June 1996 the PIRA sent in telephoned warnings and 90 minutes later detonated a 3300lb fertilizer-based truck bomb in the heart of Manchester City Centre the biggest bomb detonated in Great Britain during peacetime The bomb killed nobody due to previous warnings but led to 212 non-fatal injuries and essentially destroyed Manchester City Centre leaving approximately 700 million pounds ($12bn) worth of damage in its wake

Omagh Bombing 1998

Last Great Deadly Attack of the Troubles

bull Perpetrated by a Provisional IRA splinter group that was rejecting the peace process calling themselves the ldquoReal IRArdquo the 510lb fertilizer-based bomb was placed on main street in the town of Omagh Northern Ireland Warnings were called in approximately 30 minutes before the bombing but they were inaccurate and police ended up moving more civilians towards the bomb which ended up killing 29 people and causing over 300 non-fatal injuries This was the highest death toll from a single incident during the Troubles

bull It received universal outrage and was condemned even by the PIRA and its political wing Sinn Fein It spurred on the Northern Ireland peace process and the RIRA apologized and called a ceasefire several days after

The Good Friday Agreement and Northern Ireland Peace Process

Beginningsbull Following the 1981 Hunger Strikes Irish republicans began to

increasingly look towards politics rather than violence as a means of achieving their aims Sinn Fein gaelic for ldquoWe Ourselvesrdquo was a fiercely Irish Republican political party which led by the Machiavellian former PIRA leader and Maze inmate Gerry Adams began to push for a more peaceful solution to the Troubles in Northern Ireland

bull It became apparent by the late 1990s that although the PIRA was not losing a war against the British establishment it would be impossible to truly lsquowin the fightrsquo through violence and that any further terrorism would serve not to achieve any real political aim but only to prolong and continue suffering and violence in Northern Ireland and that politics was a much better way of achieving Republican aims

Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein former PIRA Belfast Brigade OC

Good Friday Agreement 1998

bull The Peace Process began in 1994 and included intermittent terrorist ceasefires and political negotiations between the major Irish republican and British unionist parties and culminated on April 10 1998 when the Good Friday Agreement was signed

PM Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern Sign the GFA

GFA Mandatesbull That Northern Ireland was to remain British until a majority of people in Northern

Ireland and the southern Republic of Ireland wanted otherwise bull The creation of an entirely new far less sectarian and religiously diverse Northern

Irish local governmentbull The decommissioning of arms from terrorist groups on both the unionist and

nationalist side of the political divide (ultimately successful all arms decommissioned by 2005)

bull Mutual respect and civil rights between Catholics and Protestants bull The reduction and eventual elimination of British troops in Northern Ireland

(ultimately successful all troops withdrawn by 2005)bull Eventual early prison release for all individuals imprisoned for terrorist offenses as

long as they were apart of a terrorist group that was decommissioning in accordance with the GFA

bull Disbandment of the RUC police service and the installation of the new Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) which was required to be at least 50 Catholic

Northern Ireland Today

Still Conflict But No Warbull Since the complete decommissioning of the arms and

disbandment of the PIRA INLA UDAUFF and UVF due to the Good Friday Agreement there is nowhere near the amount of violence in Northern Ireland or Belfast as there was 20 years ago There are no more weekly bombings and riots and no more British troops patrolling Catholic areas in armored vehicles

bull Despite this there are still occasional riots and clashes with the PSNI several times a year specifically on dates of great historical significance to the Catholic or Protestant communities and there is still a deep distrust and even hatred between many Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland although that continues to change with time

Catholic Slum of Ardoyne Belfast July 2011

Splinter Groups

bull Many former PIRA or UDA terrorists have now taken to organized crime for purely profiteering purposes but are no longer involved in substantial violence or any political-based terrorism

bull Splinter groups such as the Real IRA and Continuity IRA in Catholic communities and the Orange Volunteers and Red Hand Commandos in Protestant communities still conduct occasional violence towards Police and civilians in Northern Ireland but are all rather small poorly armed and poorly funded groups that pose nowhere near the threat that terrorist groups in the 80s and 90s did in Northern Ireland

Herersquos To A Brighter Future in Northern Ireland

Works Citedbull httpwwwbbccoukhistorytroublesbull httpcainulstacukbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiProvisional_Irish_Republican_Armybull httpenwikipediaorgwikiThe_Troublesbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiUlster_Defence_Associationbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiUlster_Volunteer_Forcebull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_National_Liberation_Armybull ldquoA Secret History of the IRArdquo by Ed Moloney ndashWW Norton amp Company Reprint 2003bull ldquoVoices From The Grave Two Menrsquos War in Irelandrdquo by Ed Moloney ndash Public Affairs 2010bull ldquoFifty Dead Men Walkingrdquo by Martin McGartland ndash John Blake 2009bull httpwwwinfopleasecomspotnorthireland1htmlbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_Civil_Warbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_War_of_Independencebull httpenwikipediaorgwiki1981_Irish_hunger_strikebull httpenwikipediaorgwikiDirectory_of_the_Northern_Ireland_Troublesbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiGood_Friday_Agreementbull httpswwwmi5govukhomethe-threatsterrorismnorthern-irelandrepublican-terrorist-groupshtmlbull httpswwwmi5govukhomethe-threatsterrorismnorthern-irelandprovisional-irish-republican-army-

pirahtmlbull httpnewsbbccoukhienglishstaticnorthern_irelandunderstandingeventshunger_strikestm

  • The Troubles
  • Brief Overview
  • 30 Years of Conflict
  • Slide 4
  • Background
  • The Irish War of Independence
  • Slide 7
  • Anglo-Irish Treaty (signed 6 December 1921)
  • Irish Civil War
  • 1922-1966 Ireland
  • The Civil Rights Movement
  • Slide 12
  • Slide 13
  • Objectives of the Civil Rights Movement
  • The 1969 Northern Ireland Riots ndashThe Troubles Begin
  • Culmination of Tension
  • No-Go Areas
  • No-Go Areas (2)
  • Early 1970sndash The Rise of the Provisional IRA
  • The IRA Split
  • Rise of the UVF and Loyalist Terror Groups
  • Beginnings
  • UVF Statement 21 May 1964
  • The Paramilitaries
  • Irish RepublicansCatholics
  • The Provisional IRA
  • IRA Statement Late 80s
  • Statistics
  • RecruitmentFunding
  • Weaponry
  • Weaponry (2)
  • Slide 32
  • Mortars and IEDs
  • EOD Officer Approaches PIRA Car Bomb
  • The Barrack Buster
  • Vigilantism
  • Slide 37
  • Slide 38
  • Policy on Informants
  • Terrorist Activities
  • Terrorist Activities (continued)
  • The INLA
  • Statistics (2)
  • Ideology
  • Terrorist Activities (2)
  • Internal Feuds
  • Slide 47
  • British LoyalistsProtestants
  • The UDAUFF
  • Former UFF Member
  • Statistics (3)
  • Ideology (2)
  • Terrorist Activities (3)
  • Slide 54
  • Organized Crime
  • The UVF
  • Statistics (4)
  • Ideology (3)
  • Terrorist Activities (4)
  • The Shankhill Butchers
  • Weaponry (3)
  • Slide 62
  • Organized Crime (2)
  • Major Incidents 1969-1998
  • Bloody Sunday 30 January 1972
  • Massacre on the Bogside
  • Bloody Friday 21 July 1972
  • A City Under Siege
  • Dublin and Monaghan Bombings 17 May 1974
  • Deadliest Attack of the Troubles
  • Warrenpoint Ambush 27 August 1979
  • Roadside IEDs
  • Summer of 1981 Irish Hunger Strikes
  • A Defining Moment for the Republican Cause
  • The Five Demands
  • Previous Protests
  • Dirty Protesters
  • Thatcherrsquos Response
  • Ten Strikers Die
  • Bobby Sands
  • Reaction to Sandsrsquo Death
  • Conclusion
  • 1983 The Maze Prison Escape
  • The ldquoGreat Escaperdquo
  • 12 October 1984 Brighton Hotel Bombing
  • The PIRA Nearly Gets Thatcher
  • Loughgall Ambush 8 May 1987
  • The SAS Strikes
  • British Army Lynx Shootdown 20 March 1994
  • The PIRA Shoots Down a Helicopter
  • 1996 Manchester Bombing
  • The PIRA Destroys Manchester
  • Omagh Bombing 1998
  • Last Great Deadly Attack of the Troubles
  • The Good Friday Agreement and Northern Ireland Peace Process
  • Beginnings (2)
  • Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein former PIRA Belfast Brigade OC
  • Good Friday Agreement 1998
  • PM Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern Sign the GFA
  • GFA Mandates
  • Northern Ireland Today
  • Still Conflict But No War
  • Catholic Slum of Ardoyne Belfast July 2011
  • Splinter Groups
  • Herersquos To A Brighter Future in Northern Ireland
  • Works Cited
Page 48: The Troubles, 1969-1998

The UVF

Statistics

bull Suffered unknown number of casualtiesbull Killed 412 civiliansbull Killed 11 civilian political activistsbull Killed 21 members of republican terror groupsbull Killed 42 members of rival loyalist terror

groupsbull Killed 6 members of the Security Forces

Ideology

bull Similar to the UDAUFF the Ulster Volunteer Forcersquos primary aim was to combat Irish republicanism in Northern Ireland primarily the PIRA They wanted Northern Ireland to remain in the UK

Terrorist Activitiesbull The majority of UVF victims were Catholic civilians

many of whom were killed at random These attacks were intended to demoralize the IRA as the IRA drew most of its support from the Catholic community

bull Planting bombs in predominately-Catholic pubs or simply residential areas was a very frequent UVF tactic and in 1973 they detonated more bombs in Northern Ireland than the UDA and the PIRA combined Assassinations mass shootings booby-trap car bombs and kidnappings were also frequent UVF activities

The Shankhill Butchers

bull The ldquoShankhill Butchersrdquo were a notorious offshoot UVF group known for abducting and literally slitting the throats of Catholic civilians and rival loyalist terror groups in the late 1970s They were led by Lenny Murphy (who was eventually imprisoned and upon his release of a 4-year stint murdered by the PIRA) and killed 23 people most of whom were Catholic civilians Many experts liken the Shankhill Butchers more to a group of serial killers than to politically or even ethnically-motivated murderers

bull The Butchers were all eventually all either imprisoned killed by the PIRA or both

Weaponrybull The UVF received the majority of its weaponry in the late 1970s

from Armscor an apartheid-South Africa state-owned arms company which in defiance of various UN sanctions and embargoes sold them to the UVF

bull Weapons were thought to consist ofbull 200 Czech SA vz 58 Assault Riflesbull 90 Browning Pistolsbull 500 RGD-5 Frag Grenadesbull 30000 rounds of ammunitionbull 12 RPG-7 Rocket Launchers and 150+ Rocketsbull The UVF also began using the illegally-obtained mining explosive

Powergel in the early 1990s

Organized Crime

bull The UVF was also heavily involved in organized crime including protection racketeering and drug smugglingdealing including cannabis MDMA cocaine and amphetamines Bank robberies were also very frequent in the 1970s

Major Incidents 1969-1998

Bloody Sunday 30 January 1972

Massacre on the Bogsidebull In 1972 during a large scale but peaceful civil-rights march in the

troubled predominately Catholic neighborhood of Bogside in Derry 26 unarmed civil rights marchers were shot by members of the British Army 14 of whom were killed Five of those shot were shot in the back

bull After several inquiries into the incident there was found to have been no justifiable provocation from the protestors and no shots fired from the protestors during the march The massacre was conducted in full view of the public and the press

bull The PM David Cameron eventually issued a formal apology to the victims and victimsrsquo families of the massacre after several investigations failed to reveal any justifiable provocation for the massacre

bull The massacre sky-rocketed PIRA membership and recruitment as public perception of the British Army in Catholic communities in Northern Ireland reached an all-time low

Bloody Friday 21 July 1972

A City Under Siege

bull On 21 July 1972 the PIRA detonated 26 bombs in the space of 80 minutes in Belfast destroying banks bridges electrical substations Protestant housing tenements gasoline stations and private garages

bull Although warnings were called in at least 30 minutes prior to each bomb the amount of bombs exploding and the addition of multiple hoax warnings at the same time led to the Security Forces being unable to evacuate all the areas in time 11 people were killed and 130 were injured many of them horrifically mutilated Of those injured 77 were women or children

Dublin and Monaghan Bombings 17 May 1974

Deadliest Attack of the Troubles

bull Perpetrated by the UVF in the southern Republic of Ireland three car bombs exploded in Dublin during rush hour and another exploded in Monaghan around 90 minutes later

bull 33 civilians and a full-term unborn child were killed in the bombing while nearly 300 were injured The UVF did not claim responsibility for the bombings until 1993

bull The majority of those killed were young women although the age range of those killed ranged from 5 months old to 80 years old

Warrenpoint Ambush 27 August 1979

Roadside IEDsbull In the southern part of County Armagh Northern Ireland a predominately-

Catholic rural region and former PIRA stronghold right on the border with the southern Republic of Ireland a British troop convoy was hit with a remote-control detonated roadside 500lb truck-bomb and destroyed instantly killing 6 troops The surviving soldiers then wrongly believed they were under sniper fire from the other side of the Irish border and began firing at civilians immediately after the bombing killing 1 and injuring another

bull 32 minutes after the first bombing the IRA used its knowledge of how the British reacted to bombings to correctly predict that they would set up an incident-command point in a nearby gatehouse Unfortunately for the British there was a second 800lb fertilizer bomb planted near the gatehouse that when detonated killed 12 other soldiers who were responding to the initial bomb

bull It was the deadliest single attack on the British Army during the Troubles and a highly successful attack for the PIRA

Summer of 1981 Irish Hunger Strikes

A Defining Moment for the Republican Cause

bull Beginning on 1 March 1981 led by Bobby Sands 7 PIRA and 3 INLA inmates at the notorious ldquoMazerdquo prison began to refuse food until Margaret Thatcher PM of Great Britain at that time began to recognize terrorist prisoners as political prisoners and allowed them their ldquoFive Demandsrdquo

The Five Demands

bull The right to not wear a prison uniformbull The right to not do prison workbull The right of free association with other

prisoners and to organize in educational and recreational pursuits

bull Full restoration of remission lost through any protests towards these demands

Previous Protestsbull The Maze prison was a very high-security and low-quality prison that

housed almost all PIRA prisoners during the Troubles It was run in a very ethically questionable fashion with frequent beatings and borderline-torture techniques used on Republican prisoners and extremely poor living conditions for prisoners Many Maze prison guards were members of the UDAUVF or had strong connections with one of the two groups as well

bull Massive peaceful protests and marches by Irish republicans outside of the Maze Prison proved unsuccessful in attaining political status for republican prisoners as well as previous inmate protests in 1980 including non-fatal hunger strikes inmates refusing to wear prison uniforms and thus living in their cells naked and prisoners refusing to leave their cells to go to the bathroom until their requests had been granted (they therefore urinated and defecated in their cells and spread their excrement across their cell walls in what was known as the ldquoDirty Protestrdquo)

Dirty Protesters

Thatcherrsquos Response

bull ldquoThose terrorists will carry their determination to disrupt society to any lengths Once again we have a hunger strike in the Maze Prison in the quest for what they call lsquopolitical statusrsquo There is no such thing as political murder political bombing or political violence There is only criminal murder criminal bombing and criminal violence We will not compromise on this There will be no political statusrdquo

Ten Strikers Diebull Bobby Sands the leader of the strike was imprisoned as a PIRA member

on charges of firearm possession and in connection with the bombing of a furniture store He was the first to die after 66 days of not eating Sands was elected to a seat in Parliament whilst on Hunger Strike

bull Following Sandsrsquo death there were riots bus-burnings and attacks on the British embassy in the southern Republic of Ireland there were massive demonstrations in France and Italy a tomato was thrown as Queen Elizabeth II by demonstrators in Oslo and there were massive riots and civil disorder all over the streets of Belfast The South African ANC and (at the time) terrorist Nelson Mandela expressed their support for the PIRA and the hunger strikers (Mandela himself claimed he was directly inspired by Sands to undertake hunger strikes against the Apartheid government in South Africa) as well as the Palestine Liberation Organization a middle-eastern terror group

bull Over 100000 attended Sandsrsquo funeral

Bobby Sands

ldquoOur revenge will be the laughter of our childrenrdquo

Reaction to Sandsrsquo Death

>

Conclusion

bull The Hunger Strike was eventually called off after 10 strikers including Sands had died

bull James Prior newly installed secretary of state of Northern Ireland granted the prisoners partial concessions all of the Five Demands except for the right to not do prison work Margaret Thatcher refused to budge on political status

bull The Hunger Strikes opened a new way for the PIRA to pursue its objectives politically whereas previously it had seen violence as the only solution to the plight of Irish nationalists in Northern Ireland

1983 The Maze Prison Escape

The ldquoGreat Escaperdquo

bull Using smuggled-in guns and knives 38 PIRA prisoners who had been convicted of offenses ranging from murder to causing explosions escaped from one of the most high-security prisons in Europe They completely took over the H7 prison block and took their prison guards hostage before escaping in a food supply truck Several prison guards were shot and stabbed but only one died of a heart attack during the escape

bull Fifteen escapees were recaptured the first day with four more captured over the next two days following the breakout The remaining 19 were transported to PIRA strongholds and given the option to either rejoin the IRArsquos cause or be transported to the United States to live under a new identity

12 October 1984 Brighton Hotel Bombing

The PIRA Nearly Gets Thatcherbull Margaret Thatcher the highly controversial far-right British PM from

1979-1990 had become a tremendously hated figure amongst the Irish nationalist community in Northern Ireland following the 1981 Hunger Strikes and for her general uncompromising stand on Irish republicanism

bull PIRA man Patrick Magee stayed at the Brighton Hotel from the 14-17 September 1984 planting a 20-lb bomb under his bath

bull Thatcher was staying at the Brighton Hotel for a political conference and was still up at 254AM on 12 October when the bomb was detonated The bomb decimated her bathroom but left the bedroom and sitting room of her suite largely unscathed

bull The PIRA statement to Thatcher afterwards was ldquoToday we were unlucky But remember we only have to be lucky once You will have to be lucky alwaysrdquo

Loughgall Ambush 8 May 1987

The SAS Strikes

bull A botched attack on Loughgall Villagersquos RUC Police Base in which the PIRA drove a backhoe into the fortified base and ran away to detonate the bomb that was inside of the backhoe went wrong as the SAS the British Special Forces had prior knowledge of the attack and quickly dispatched the 8 PIRA members involved

bull Although the RUC base was wrecked and bombed there were no RUC or SAS casualties and it was the PIRArsquos greatest loss of life in a single incident during the Troubles

British Army Lynx Shootdown 20 March 1994

The PIRA Shoots Down a Helicopter

bull Using the previously mentioned Barrack-Buster homemade mortar PIRA insurgents were able to fire on a British helicopter that was in the process of landing whilst hiding behind a hay bail from around 150 yards out

bull The helicopter was hit with the mortar shell around 100 feet above the ground but the pilot was able to successfully crash-land the helicopter and escape before its propane tanks exploded There were no casualties but the attack was a major propaganda coup for the PIRA

1996 Manchester Bombing

The PIRA Destroys Manchester

bull On Saturday 15 June 1996 the PIRA sent in telephoned warnings and 90 minutes later detonated a 3300lb fertilizer-based truck bomb in the heart of Manchester City Centre the biggest bomb detonated in Great Britain during peacetime The bomb killed nobody due to previous warnings but led to 212 non-fatal injuries and essentially destroyed Manchester City Centre leaving approximately 700 million pounds ($12bn) worth of damage in its wake

Omagh Bombing 1998

Last Great Deadly Attack of the Troubles

bull Perpetrated by a Provisional IRA splinter group that was rejecting the peace process calling themselves the ldquoReal IRArdquo the 510lb fertilizer-based bomb was placed on main street in the town of Omagh Northern Ireland Warnings were called in approximately 30 minutes before the bombing but they were inaccurate and police ended up moving more civilians towards the bomb which ended up killing 29 people and causing over 300 non-fatal injuries This was the highest death toll from a single incident during the Troubles

bull It received universal outrage and was condemned even by the PIRA and its political wing Sinn Fein It spurred on the Northern Ireland peace process and the RIRA apologized and called a ceasefire several days after

The Good Friday Agreement and Northern Ireland Peace Process

Beginningsbull Following the 1981 Hunger Strikes Irish republicans began to

increasingly look towards politics rather than violence as a means of achieving their aims Sinn Fein gaelic for ldquoWe Ourselvesrdquo was a fiercely Irish Republican political party which led by the Machiavellian former PIRA leader and Maze inmate Gerry Adams began to push for a more peaceful solution to the Troubles in Northern Ireland

bull It became apparent by the late 1990s that although the PIRA was not losing a war against the British establishment it would be impossible to truly lsquowin the fightrsquo through violence and that any further terrorism would serve not to achieve any real political aim but only to prolong and continue suffering and violence in Northern Ireland and that politics was a much better way of achieving Republican aims

Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein former PIRA Belfast Brigade OC

Good Friday Agreement 1998

bull The Peace Process began in 1994 and included intermittent terrorist ceasefires and political negotiations between the major Irish republican and British unionist parties and culminated on April 10 1998 when the Good Friday Agreement was signed

PM Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern Sign the GFA

GFA Mandatesbull That Northern Ireland was to remain British until a majority of people in Northern

Ireland and the southern Republic of Ireland wanted otherwise bull The creation of an entirely new far less sectarian and religiously diverse Northern

Irish local governmentbull The decommissioning of arms from terrorist groups on both the unionist and

nationalist side of the political divide (ultimately successful all arms decommissioned by 2005)

bull Mutual respect and civil rights between Catholics and Protestants bull The reduction and eventual elimination of British troops in Northern Ireland

(ultimately successful all troops withdrawn by 2005)bull Eventual early prison release for all individuals imprisoned for terrorist offenses as

long as they were apart of a terrorist group that was decommissioning in accordance with the GFA

bull Disbandment of the RUC police service and the installation of the new Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) which was required to be at least 50 Catholic

Northern Ireland Today

Still Conflict But No Warbull Since the complete decommissioning of the arms and

disbandment of the PIRA INLA UDAUFF and UVF due to the Good Friday Agreement there is nowhere near the amount of violence in Northern Ireland or Belfast as there was 20 years ago There are no more weekly bombings and riots and no more British troops patrolling Catholic areas in armored vehicles

bull Despite this there are still occasional riots and clashes with the PSNI several times a year specifically on dates of great historical significance to the Catholic or Protestant communities and there is still a deep distrust and even hatred between many Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland although that continues to change with time

Catholic Slum of Ardoyne Belfast July 2011

Splinter Groups

bull Many former PIRA or UDA terrorists have now taken to organized crime for purely profiteering purposes but are no longer involved in substantial violence or any political-based terrorism

bull Splinter groups such as the Real IRA and Continuity IRA in Catholic communities and the Orange Volunteers and Red Hand Commandos in Protestant communities still conduct occasional violence towards Police and civilians in Northern Ireland but are all rather small poorly armed and poorly funded groups that pose nowhere near the threat that terrorist groups in the 80s and 90s did in Northern Ireland

Herersquos To A Brighter Future in Northern Ireland

Works Citedbull httpwwwbbccoukhistorytroublesbull httpcainulstacukbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiProvisional_Irish_Republican_Armybull httpenwikipediaorgwikiThe_Troublesbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiUlster_Defence_Associationbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiUlster_Volunteer_Forcebull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_National_Liberation_Armybull ldquoA Secret History of the IRArdquo by Ed Moloney ndashWW Norton amp Company Reprint 2003bull ldquoVoices From The Grave Two Menrsquos War in Irelandrdquo by Ed Moloney ndash Public Affairs 2010bull ldquoFifty Dead Men Walkingrdquo by Martin McGartland ndash John Blake 2009bull httpwwwinfopleasecomspotnorthireland1htmlbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_Civil_Warbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_War_of_Independencebull httpenwikipediaorgwiki1981_Irish_hunger_strikebull httpenwikipediaorgwikiDirectory_of_the_Northern_Ireland_Troublesbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiGood_Friday_Agreementbull httpswwwmi5govukhomethe-threatsterrorismnorthern-irelandrepublican-terrorist-groupshtmlbull httpswwwmi5govukhomethe-threatsterrorismnorthern-irelandprovisional-irish-republican-army-

pirahtmlbull httpnewsbbccoukhienglishstaticnorthern_irelandunderstandingeventshunger_strikestm

  • The Troubles
  • Brief Overview
  • 30 Years of Conflict
  • Slide 4
  • Background
  • The Irish War of Independence
  • Slide 7
  • Anglo-Irish Treaty (signed 6 December 1921)
  • Irish Civil War
  • 1922-1966 Ireland
  • The Civil Rights Movement
  • Slide 12
  • Slide 13
  • Objectives of the Civil Rights Movement
  • The 1969 Northern Ireland Riots ndashThe Troubles Begin
  • Culmination of Tension
  • No-Go Areas
  • No-Go Areas (2)
  • Early 1970sndash The Rise of the Provisional IRA
  • The IRA Split
  • Rise of the UVF and Loyalist Terror Groups
  • Beginnings
  • UVF Statement 21 May 1964
  • The Paramilitaries
  • Irish RepublicansCatholics
  • The Provisional IRA
  • IRA Statement Late 80s
  • Statistics
  • RecruitmentFunding
  • Weaponry
  • Weaponry (2)
  • Slide 32
  • Mortars and IEDs
  • EOD Officer Approaches PIRA Car Bomb
  • The Barrack Buster
  • Vigilantism
  • Slide 37
  • Slide 38
  • Policy on Informants
  • Terrorist Activities
  • Terrorist Activities (continued)
  • The INLA
  • Statistics (2)
  • Ideology
  • Terrorist Activities (2)
  • Internal Feuds
  • Slide 47
  • British LoyalistsProtestants
  • The UDAUFF
  • Former UFF Member
  • Statistics (3)
  • Ideology (2)
  • Terrorist Activities (3)
  • Slide 54
  • Organized Crime
  • The UVF
  • Statistics (4)
  • Ideology (3)
  • Terrorist Activities (4)
  • The Shankhill Butchers
  • Weaponry (3)
  • Slide 62
  • Organized Crime (2)
  • Major Incidents 1969-1998
  • Bloody Sunday 30 January 1972
  • Massacre on the Bogside
  • Bloody Friday 21 July 1972
  • A City Under Siege
  • Dublin and Monaghan Bombings 17 May 1974
  • Deadliest Attack of the Troubles
  • Warrenpoint Ambush 27 August 1979
  • Roadside IEDs
  • Summer of 1981 Irish Hunger Strikes
  • A Defining Moment for the Republican Cause
  • The Five Demands
  • Previous Protests
  • Dirty Protesters
  • Thatcherrsquos Response
  • Ten Strikers Die
  • Bobby Sands
  • Reaction to Sandsrsquo Death
  • Conclusion
  • 1983 The Maze Prison Escape
  • The ldquoGreat Escaperdquo
  • 12 October 1984 Brighton Hotel Bombing
  • The PIRA Nearly Gets Thatcher
  • Loughgall Ambush 8 May 1987
  • The SAS Strikes
  • British Army Lynx Shootdown 20 March 1994
  • The PIRA Shoots Down a Helicopter
  • 1996 Manchester Bombing
  • The PIRA Destroys Manchester
  • Omagh Bombing 1998
  • Last Great Deadly Attack of the Troubles
  • The Good Friday Agreement and Northern Ireland Peace Process
  • Beginnings (2)
  • Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein former PIRA Belfast Brigade OC
  • Good Friday Agreement 1998
  • PM Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern Sign the GFA
  • GFA Mandates
  • Northern Ireland Today
  • Still Conflict But No War
  • Catholic Slum of Ardoyne Belfast July 2011
  • Splinter Groups
  • Herersquos To A Brighter Future in Northern Ireland
  • Works Cited
Page 49: The Troubles, 1969-1998

Statistics

bull Suffered unknown number of casualtiesbull Killed 412 civiliansbull Killed 11 civilian political activistsbull Killed 21 members of republican terror groupsbull Killed 42 members of rival loyalist terror

groupsbull Killed 6 members of the Security Forces

Ideology

bull Similar to the UDAUFF the Ulster Volunteer Forcersquos primary aim was to combat Irish republicanism in Northern Ireland primarily the PIRA They wanted Northern Ireland to remain in the UK

Terrorist Activitiesbull The majority of UVF victims were Catholic civilians

many of whom were killed at random These attacks were intended to demoralize the IRA as the IRA drew most of its support from the Catholic community

bull Planting bombs in predominately-Catholic pubs or simply residential areas was a very frequent UVF tactic and in 1973 they detonated more bombs in Northern Ireland than the UDA and the PIRA combined Assassinations mass shootings booby-trap car bombs and kidnappings were also frequent UVF activities

The Shankhill Butchers

bull The ldquoShankhill Butchersrdquo were a notorious offshoot UVF group known for abducting and literally slitting the throats of Catholic civilians and rival loyalist terror groups in the late 1970s They were led by Lenny Murphy (who was eventually imprisoned and upon his release of a 4-year stint murdered by the PIRA) and killed 23 people most of whom were Catholic civilians Many experts liken the Shankhill Butchers more to a group of serial killers than to politically or even ethnically-motivated murderers

bull The Butchers were all eventually all either imprisoned killed by the PIRA or both

Weaponrybull The UVF received the majority of its weaponry in the late 1970s

from Armscor an apartheid-South Africa state-owned arms company which in defiance of various UN sanctions and embargoes sold them to the UVF

bull Weapons were thought to consist ofbull 200 Czech SA vz 58 Assault Riflesbull 90 Browning Pistolsbull 500 RGD-5 Frag Grenadesbull 30000 rounds of ammunitionbull 12 RPG-7 Rocket Launchers and 150+ Rocketsbull The UVF also began using the illegally-obtained mining explosive

Powergel in the early 1990s

Organized Crime

bull The UVF was also heavily involved in organized crime including protection racketeering and drug smugglingdealing including cannabis MDMA cocaine and amphetamines Bank robberies were also very frequent in the 1970s

Major Incidents 1969-1998

Bloody Sunday 30 January 1972

Massacre on the Bogsidebull In 1972 during a large scale but peaceful civil-rights march in the

troubled predominately Catholic neighborhood of Bogside in Derry 26 unarmed civil rights marchers were shot by members of the British Army 14 of whom were killed Five of those shot were shot in the back

bull After several inquiries into the incident there was found to have been no justifiable provocation from the protestors and no shots fired from the protestors during the march The massacre was conducted in full view of the public and the press

bull The PM David Cameron eventually issued a formal apology to the victims and victimsrsquo families of the massacre after several investigations failed to reveal any justifiable provocation for the massacre

bull The massacre sky-rocketed PIRA membership and recruitment as public perception of the British Army in Catholic communities in Northern Ireland reached an all-time low

Bloody Friday 21 July 1972

A City Under Siege

bull On 21 July 1972 the PIRA detonated 26 bombs in the space of 80 minutes in Belfast destroying banks bridges electrical substations Protestant housing tenements gasoline stations and private garages

bull Although warnings were called in at least 30 minutes prior to each bomb the amount of bombs exploding and the addition of multiple hoax warnings at the same time led to the Security Forces being unable to evacuate all the areas in time 11 people were killed and 130 were injured many of them horrifically mutilated Of those injured 77 were women or children

Dublin and Monaghan Bombings 17 May 1974

Deadliest Attack of the Troubles

bull Perpetrated by the UVF in the southern Republic of Ireland three car bombs exploded in Dublin during rush hour and another exploded in Monaghan around 90 minutes later

bull 33 civilians and a full-term unborn child were killed in the bombing while nearly 300 were injured The UVF did not claim responsibility for the bombings until 1993

bull The majority of those killed were young women although the age range of those killed ranged from 5 months old to 80 years old

Warrenpoint Ambush 27 August 1979

Roadside IEDsbull In the southern part of County Armagh Northern Ireland a predominately-

Catholic rural region and former PIRA stronghold right on the border with the southern Republic of Ireland a British troop convoy was hit with a remote-control detonated roadside 500lb truck-bomb and destroyed instantly killing 6 troops The surviving soldiers then wrongly believed they were under sniper fire from the other side of the Irish border and began firing at civilians immediately after the bombing killing 1 and injuring another

bull 32 minutes after the first bombing the IRA used its knowledge of how the British reacted to bombings to correctly predict that they would set up an incident-command point in a nearby gatehouse Unfortunately for the British there was a second 800lb fertilizer bomb planted near the gatehouse that when detonated killed 12 other soldiers who were responding to the initial bomb

bull It was the deadliest single attack on the British Army during the Troubles and a highly successful attack for the PIRA

Summer of 1981 Irish Hunger Strikes

A Defining Moment for the Republican Cause

bull Beginning on 1 March 1981 led by Bobby Sands 7 PIRA and 3 INLA inmates at the notorious ldquoMazerdquo prison began to refuse food until Margaret Thatcher PM of Great Britain at that time began to recognize terrorist prisoners as political prisoners and allowed them their ldquoFive Demandsrdquo

The Five Demands

bull The right to not wear a prison uniformbull The right to not do prison workbull The right of free association with other

prisoners and to organize in educational and recreational pursuits

bull Full restoration of remission lost through any protests towards these demands

Previous Protestsbull The Maze prison was a very high-security and low-quality prison that

housed almost all PIRA prisoners during the Troubles It was run in a very ethically questionable fashion with frequent beatings and borderline-torture techniques used on Republican prisoners and extremely poor living conditions for prisoners Many Maze prison guards were members of the UDAUVF or had strong connections with one of the two groups as well

bull Massive peaceful protests and marches by Irish republicans outside of the Maze Prison proved unsuccessful in attaining political status for republican prisoners as well as previous inmate protests in 1980 including non-fatal hunger strikes inmates refusing to wear prison uniforms and thus living in their cells naked and prisoners refusing to leave their cells to go to the bathroom until their requests had been granted (they therefore urinated and defecated in their cells and spread their excrement across their cell walls in what was known as the ldquoDirty Protestrdquo)

Dirty Protesters

Thatcherrsquos Response

bull ldquoThose terrorists will carry their determination to disrupt society to any lengths Once again we have a hunger strike in the Maze Prison in the quest for what they call lsquopolitical statusrsquo There is no such thing as political murder political bombing or political violence There is only criminal murder criminal bombing and criminal violence We will not compromise on this There will be no political statusrdquo

Ten Strikers Diebull Bobby Sands the leader of the strike was imprisoned as a PIRA member

on charges of firearm possession and in connection with the bombing of a furniture store He was the first to die after 66 days of not eating Sands was elected to a seat in Parliament whilst on Hunger Strike

bull Following Sandsrsquo death there were riots bus-burnings and attacks on the British embassy in the southern Republic of Ireland there were massive demonstrations in France and Italy a tomato was thrown as Queen Elizabeth II by demonstrators in Oslo and there were massive riots and civil disorder all over the streets of Belfast The South African ANC and (at the time) terrorist Nelson Mandela expressed their support for the PIRA and the hunger strikers (Mandela himself claimed he was directly inspired by Sands to undertake hunger strikes against the Apartheid government in South Africa) as well as the Palestine Liberation Organization a middle-eastern terror group

bull Over 100000 attended Sandsrsquo funeral

Bobby Sands

ldquoOur revenge will be the laughter of our childrenrdquo

Reaction to Sandsrsquo Death

>

Conclusion

bull The Hunger Strike was eventually called off after 10 strikers including Sands had died

bull James Prior newly installed secretary of state of Northern Ireland granted the prisoners partial concessions all of the Five Demands except for the right to not do prison work Margaret Thatcher refused to budge on political status

bull The Hunger Strikes opened a new way for the PIRA to pursue its objectives politically whereas previously it had seen violence as the only solution to the plight of Irish nationalists in Northern Ireland

1983 The Maze Prison Escape

The ldquoGreat Escaperdquo

bull Using smuggled-in guns and knives 38 PIRA prisoners who had been convicted of offenses ranging from murder to causing explosions escaped from one of the most high-security prisons in Europe They completely took over the H7 prison block and took their prison guards hostage before escaping in a food supply truck Several prison guards were shot and stabbed but only one died of a heart attack during the escape

bull Fifteen escapees were recaptured the first day with four more captured over the next two days following the breakout The remaining 19 were transported to PIRA strongholds and given the option to either rejoin the IRArsquos cause or be transported to the United States to live under a new identity

12 October 1984 Brighton Hotel Bombing

The PIRA Nearly Gets Thatcherbull Margaret Thatcher the highly controversial far-right British PM from

1979-1990 had become a tremendously hated figure amongst the Irish nationalist community in Northern Ireland following the 1981 Hunger Strikes and for her general uncompromising stand on Irish republicanism

bull PIRA man Patrick Magee stayed at the Brighton Hotel from the 14-17 September 1984 planting a 20-lb bomb under his bath

bull Thatcher was staying at the Brighton Hotel for a political conference and was still up at 254AM on 12 October when the bomb was detonated The bomb decimated her bathroom but left the bedroom and sitting room of her suite largely unscathed

bull The PIRA statement to Thatcher afterwards was ldquoToday we were unlucky But remember we only have to be lucky once You will have to be lucky alwaysrdquo

Loughgall Ambush 8 May 1987

The SAS Strikes

bull A botched attack on Loughgall Villagersquos RUC Police Base in which the PIRA drove a backhoe into the fortified base and ran away to detonate the bomb that was inside of the backhoe went wrong as the SAS the British Special Forces had prior knowledge of the attack and quickly dispatched the 8 PIRA members involved

bull Although the RUC base was wrecked and bombed there were no RUC or SAS casualties and it was the PIRArsquos greatest loss of life in a single incident during the Troubles

British Army Lynx Shootdown 20 March 1994

The PIRA Shoots Down a Helicopter

bull Using the previously mentioned Barrack-Buster homemade mortar PIRA insurgents were able to fire on a British helicopter that was in the process of landing whilst hiding behind a hay bail from around 150 yards out

bull The helicopter was hit with the mortar shell around 100 feet above the ground but the pilot was able to successfully crash-land the helicopter and escape before its propane tanks exploded There were no casualties but the attack was a major propaganda coup for the PIRA

1996 Manchester Bombing

The PIRA Destroys Manchester

bull On Saturday 15 June 1996 the PIRA sent in telephoned warnings and 90 minutes later detonated a 3300lb fertilizer-based truck bomb in the heart of Manchester City Centre the biggest bomb detonated in Great Britain during peacetime The bomb killed nobody due to previous warnings but led to 212 non-fatal injuries and essentially destroyed Manchester City Centre leaving approximately 700 million pounds ($12bn) worth of damage in its wake

Omagh Bombing 1998

Last Great Deadly Attack of the Troubles

bull Perpetrated by a Provisional IRA splinter group that was rejecting the peace process calling themselves the ldquoReal IRArdquo the 510lb fertilizer-based bomb was placed on main street in the town of Omagh Northern Ireland Warnings were called in approximately 30 minutes before the bombing but they were inaccurate and police ended up moving more civilians towards the bomb which ended up killing 29 people and causing over 300 non-fatal injuries This was the highest death toll from a single incident during the Troubles

bull It received universal outrage and was condemned even by the PIRA and its political wing Sinn Fein It spurred on the Northern Ireland peace process and the RIRA apologized and called a ceasefire several days after

The Good Friday Agreement and Northern Ireland Peace Process

Beginningsbull Following the 1981 Hunger Strikes Irish republicans began to

increasingly look towards politics rather than violence as a means of achieving their aims Sinn Fein gaelic for ldquoWe Ourselvesrdquo was a fiercely Irish Republican political party which led by the Machiavellian former PIRA leader and Maze inmate Gerry Adams began to push for a more peaceful solution to the Troubles in Northern Ireland

bull It became apparent by the late 1990s that although the PIRA was not losing a war against the British establishment it would be impossible to truly lsquowin the fightrsquo through violence and that any further terrorism would serve not to achieve any real political aim but only to prolong and continue suffering and violence in Northern Ireland and that politics was a much better way of achieving Republican aims

Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein former PIRA Belfast Brigade OC

Good Friday Agreement 1998

bull The Peace Process began in 1994 and included intermittent terrorist ceasefires and political negotiations between the major Irish republican and British unionist parties and culminated on April 10 1998 when the Good Friday Agreement was signed

PM Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern Sign the GFA

GFA Mandatesbull That Northern Ireland was to remain British until a majority of people in Northern

Ireland and the southern Republic of Ireland wanted otherwise bull The creation of an entirely new far less sectarian and religiously diverse Northern

Irish local governmentbull The decommissioning of arms from terrorist groups on both the unionist and

nationalist side of the political divide (ultimately successful all arms decommissioned by 2005)

bull Mutual respect and civil rights between Catholics and Protestants bull The reduction and eventual elimination of British troops in Northern Ireland

(ultimately successful all troops withdrawn by 2005)bull Eventual early prison release for all individuals imprisoned for terrorist offenses as

long as they were apart of a terrorist group that was decommissioning in accordance with the GFA

bull Disbandment of the RUC police service and the installation of the new Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) which was required to be at least 50 Catholic

Northern Ireland Today

Still Conflict But No Warbull Since the complete decommissioning of the arms and

disbandment of the PIRA INLA UDAUFF and UVF due to the Good Friday Agreement there is nowhere near the amount of violence in Northern Ireland or Belfast as there was 20 years ago There are no more weekly bombings and riots and no more British troops patrolling Catholic areas in armored vehicles

bull Despite this there are still occasional riots and clashes with the PSNI several times a year specifically on dates of great historical significance to the Catholic or Protestant communities and there is still a deep distrust and even hatred between many Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland although that continues to change with time

Catholic Slum of Ardoyne Belfast July 2011

Splinter Groups

bull Many former PIRA or UDA terrorists have now taken to organized crime for purely profiteering purposes but are no longer involved in substantial violence or any political-based terrorism

bull Splinter groups such as the Real IRA and Continuity IRA in Catholic communities and the Orange Volunteers and Red Hand Commandos in Protestant communities still conduct occasional violence towards Police and civilians in Northern Ireland but are all rather small poorly armed and poorly funded groups that pose nowhere near the threat that terrorist groups in the 80s and 90s did in Northern Ireland

Herersquos To A Brighter Future in Northern Ireland

Works Citedbull httpwwwbbccoukhistorytroublesbull httpcainulstacukbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiProvisional_Irish_Republican_Armybull httpenwikipediaorgwikiThe_Troublesbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiUlster_Defence_Associationbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiUlster_Volunteer_Forcebull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_National_Liberation_Armybull ldquoA Secret History of the IRArdquo by Ed Moloney ndashWW Norton amp Company Reprint 2003bull ldquoVoices From The Grave Two Menrsquos War in Irelandrdquo by Ed Moloney ndash Public Affairs 2010bull ldquoFifty Dead Men Walkingrdquo by Martin McGartland ndash John Blake 2009bull httpwwwinfopleasecomspotnorthireland1htmlbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_Civil_Warbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_War_of_Independencebull httpenwikipediaorgwiki1981_Irish_hunger_strikebull httpenwikipediaorgwikiDirectory_of_the_Northern_Ireland_Troublesbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiGood_Friday_Agreementbull httpswwwmi5govukhomethe-threatsterrorismnorthern-irelandrepublican-terrorist-groupshtmlbull httpswwwmi5govukhomethe-threatsterrorismnorthern-irelandprovisional-irish-republican-army-

pirahtmlbull httpnewsbbccoukhienglishstaticnorthern_irelandunderstandingeventshunger_strikestm

  • The Troubles
  • Brief Overview
  • 30 Years of Conflict
  • Slide 4
  • Background
  • The Irish War of Independence
  • Slide 7
  • Anglo-Irish Treaty (signed 6 December 1921)
  • Irish Civil War
  • 1922-1966 Ireland
  • The Civil Rights Movement
  • Slide 12
  • Slide 13
  • Objectives of the Civil Rights Movement
  • The 1969 Northern Ireland Riots ndashThe Troubles Begin
  • Culmination of Tension
  • No-Go Areas
  • No-Go Areas (2)
  • Early 1970sndash The Rise of the Provisional IRA
  • The IRA Split
  • Rise of the UVF and Loyalist Terror Groups
  • Beginnings
  • UVF Statement 21 May 1964
  • The Paramilitaries
  • Irish RepublicansCatholics
  • The Provisional IRA
  • IRA Statement Late 80s
  • Statistics
  • RecruitmentFunding
  • Weaponry
  • Weaponry (2)
  • Slide 32
  • Mortars and IEDs
  • EOD Officer Approaches PIRA Car Bomb
  • The Barrack Buster
  • Vigilantism
  • Slide 37
  • Slide 38
  • Policy on Informants
  • Terrorist Activities
  • Terrorist Activities (continued)
  • The INLA
  • Statistics (2)
  • Ideology
  • Terrorist Activities (2)
  • Internal Feuds
  • Slide 47
  • British LoyalistsProtestants
  • The UDAUFF
  • Former UFF Member
  • Statistics (3)
  • Ideology (2)
  • Terrorist Activities (3)
  • Slide 54
  • Organized Crime
  • The UVF
  • Statistics (4)
  • Ideology (3)
  • Terrorist Activities (4)
  • The Shankhill Butchers
  • Weaponry (3)
  • Slide 62
  • Organized Crime (2)
  • Major Incidents 1969-1998
  • Bloody Sunday 30 January 1972
  • Massacre on the Bogside
  • Bloody Friday 21 July 1972
  • A City Under Siege
  • Dublin and Monaghan Bombings 17 May 1974
  • Deadliest Attack of the Troubles
  • Warrenpoint Ambush 27 August 1979
  • Roadside IEDs
  • Summer of 1981 Irish Hunger Strikes
  • A Defining Moment for the Republican Cause
  • The Five Demands
  • Previous Protests
  • Dirty Protesters
  • Thatcherrsquos Response
  • Ten Strikers Die
  • Bobby Sands
  • Reaction to Sandsrsquo Death
  • Conclusion
  • 1983 The Maze Prison Escape
  • The ldquoGreat Escaperdquo
  • 12 October 1984 Brighton Hotel Bombing
  • The PIRA Nearly Gets Thatcher
  • Loughgall Ambush 8 May 1987
  • The SAS Strikes
  • British Army Lynx Shootdown 20 March 1994
  • The PIRA Shoots Down a Helicopter
  • 1996 Manchester Bombing
  • The PIRA Destroys Manchester
  • Omagh Bombing 1998
  • Last Great Deadly Attack of the Troubles
  • The Good Friday Agreement and Northern Ireland Peace Process
  • Beginnings (2)
  • Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein former PIRA Belfast Brigade OC
  • Good Friday Agreement 1998
  • PM Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern Sign the GFA
  • GFA Mandates
  • Northern Ireland Today
  • Still Conflict But No War
  • Catholic Slum of Ardoyne Belfast July 2011
  • Splinter Groups
  • Herersquos To A Brighter Future in Northern Ireland
  • Works Cited
Page 50: The Troubles, 1969-1998

Ideology

bull Similar to the UDAUFF the Ulster Volunteer Forcersquos primary aim was to combat Irish republicanism in Northern Ireland primarily the PIRA They wanted Northern Ireland to remain in the UK

Terrorist Activitiesbull The majority of UVF victims were Catholic civilians

many of whom were killed at random These attacks were intended to demoralize the IRA as the IRA drew most of its support from the Catholic community

bull Planting bombs in predominately-Catholic pubs or simply residential areas was a very frequent UVF tactic and in 1973 they detonated more bombs in Northern Ireland than the UDA and the PIRA combined Assassinations mass shootings booby-trap car bombs and kidnappings were also frequent UVF activities

The Shankhill Butchers

bull The ldquoShankhill Butchersrdquo were a notorious offshoot UVF group known for abducting and literally slitting the throats of Catholic civilians and rival loyalist terror groups in the late 1970s They were led by Lenny Murphy (who was eventually imprisoned and upon his release of a 4-year stint murdered by the PIRA) and killed 23 people most of whom were Catholic civilians Many experts liken the Shankhill Butchers more to a group of serial killers than to politically or even ethnically-motivated murderers

bull The Butchers were all eventually all either imprisoned killed by the PIRA or both

Weaponrybull The UVF received the majority of its weaponry in the late 1970s

from Armscor an apartheid-South Africa state-owned arms company which in defiance of various UN sanctions and embargoes sold them to the UVF

bull Weapons were thought to consist ofbull 200 Czech SA vz 58 Assault Riflesbull 90 Browning Pistolsbull 500 RGD-5 Frag Grenadesbull 30000 rounds of ammunitionbull 12 RPG-7 Rocket Launchers and 150+ Rocketsbull The UVF also began using the illegally-obtained mining explosive

Powergel in the early 1990s

Organized Crime

bull The UVF was also heavily involved in organized crime including protection racketeering and drug smugglingdealing including cannabis MDMA cocaine and amphetamines Bank robberies were also very frequent in the 1970s

Major Incidents 1969-1998

Bloody Sunday 30 January 1972

Massacre on the Bogsidebull In 1972 during a large scale but peaceful civil-rights march in the

troubled predominately Catholic neighborhood of Bogside in Derry 26 unarmed civil rights marchers were shot by members of the British Army 14 of whom were killed Five of those shot were shot in the back

bull After several inquiries into the incident there was found to have been no justifiable provocation from the protestors and no shots fired from the protestors during the march The massacre was conducted in full view of the public and the press

bull The PM David Cameron eventually issued a formal apology to the victims and victimsrsquo families of the massacre after several investigations failed to reveal any justifiable provocation for the massacre

bull The massacre sky-rocketed PIRA membership and recruitment as public perception of the British Army in Catholic communities in Northern Ireland reached an all-time low

Bloody Friday 21 July 1972

A City Under Siege

bull On 21 July 1972 the PIRA detonated 26 bombs in the space of 80 minutes in Belfast destroying banks bridges electrical substations Protestant housing tenements gasoline stations and private garages

bull Although warnings were called in at least 30 minutes prior to each bomb the amount of bombs exploding and the addition of multiple hoax warnings at the same time led to the Security Forces being unable to evacuate all the areas in time 11 people were killed and 130 were injured many of them horrifically mutilated Of those injured 77 were women or children

Dublin and Monaghan Bombings 17 May 1974

Deadliest Attack of the Troubles

bull Perpetrated by the UVF in the southern Republic of Ireland three car bombs exploded in Dublin during rush hour and another exploded in Monaghan around 90 minutes later

bull 33 civilians and a full-term unborn child were killed in the bombing while nearly 300 were injured The UVF did not claim responsibility for the bombings until 1993

bull The majority of those killed were young women although the age range of those killed ranged from 5 months old to 80 years old

Warrenpoint Ambush 27 August 1979

Roadside IEDsbull In the southern part of County Armagh Northern Ireland a predominately-

Catholic rural region and former PIRA stronghold right on the border with the southern Republic of Ireland a British troop convoy was hit with a remote-control detonated roadside 500lb truck-bomb and destroyed instantly killing 6 troops The surviving soldiers then wrongly believed they were under sniper fire from the other side of the Irish border and began firing at civilians immediately after the bombing killing 1 and injuring another

bull 32 minutes after the first bombing the IRA used its knowledge of how the British reacted to bombings to correctly predict that they would set up an incident-command point in a nearby gatehouse Unfortunately for the British there was a second 800lb fertilizer bomb planted near the gatehouse that when detonated killed 12 other soldiers who were responding to the initial bomb

bull It was the deadliest single attack on the British Army during the Troubles and a highly successful attack for the PIRA

Summer of 1981 Irish Hunger Strikes

A Defining Moment for the Republican Cause

bull Beginning on 1 March 1981 led by Bobby Sands 7 PIRA and 3 INLA inmates at the notorious ldquoMazerdquo prison began to refuse food until Margaret Thatcher PM of Great Britain at that time began to recognize terrorist prisoners as political prisoners and allowed them their ldquoFive Demandsrdquo

The Five Demands

bull The right to not wear a prison uniformbull The right to not do prison workbull The right of free association with other

prisoners and to organize in educational and recreational pursuits

bull Full restoration of remission lost through any protests towards these demands

Previous Protestsbull The Maze prison was a very high-security and low-quality prison that

housed almost all PIRA prisoners during the Troubles It was run in a very ethically questionable fashion with frequent beatings and borderline-torture techniques used on Republican prisoners and extremely poor living conditions for prisoners Many Maze prison guards were members of the UDAUVF or had strong connections with one of the two groups as well

bull Massive peaceful protests and marches by Irish republicans outside of the Maze Prison proved unsuccessful in attaining political status for republican prisoners as well as previous inmate protests in 1980 including non-fatal hunger strikes inmates refusing to wear prison uniforms and thus living in their cells naked and prisoners refusing to leave their cells to go to the bathroom until their requests had been granted (they therefore urinated and defecated in their cells and spread their excrement across their cell walls in what was known as the ldquoDirty Protestrdquo)

Dirty Protesters

Thatcherrsquos Response

bull ldquoThose terrorists will carry their determination to disrupt society to any lengths Once again we have a hunger strike in the Maze Prison in the quest for what they call lsquopolitical statusrsquo There is no such thing as political murder political bombing or political violence There is only criminal murder criminal bombing and criminal violence We will not compromise on this There will be no political statusrdquo

Ten Strikers Diebull Bobby Sands the leader of the strike was imprisoned as a PIRA member

on charges of firearm possession and in connection with the bombing of a furniture store He was the first to die after 66 days of not eating Sands was elected to a seat in Parliament whilst on Hunger Strike

bull Following Sandsrsquo death there were riots bus-burnings and attacks on the British embassy in the southern Republic of Ireland there were massive demonstrations in France and Italy a tomato was thrown as Queen Elizabeth II by demonstrators in Oslo and there were massive riots and civil disorder all over the streets of Belfast The South African ANC and (at the time) terrorist Nelson Mandela expressed their support for the PIRA and the hunger strikers (Mandela himself claimed he was directly inspired by Sands to undertake hunger strikes against the Apartheid government in South Africa) as well as the Palestine Liberation Organization a middle-eastern terror group

bull Over 100000 attended Sandsrsquo funeral

Bobby Sands

ldquoOur revenge will be the laughter of our childrenrdquo

Reaction to Sandsrsquo Death

>

Conclusion

bull The Hunger Strike was eventually called off after 10 strikers including Sands had died

bull James Prior newly installed secretary of state of Northern Ireland granted the prisoners partial concessions all of the Five Demands except for the right to not do prison work Margaret Thatcher refused to budge on political status

bull The Hunger Strikes opened a new way for the PIRA to pursue its objectives politically whereas previously it had seen violence as the only solution to the plight of Irish nationalists in Northern Ireland

1983 The Maze Prison Escape

The ldquoGreat Escaperdquo

bull Using smuggled-in guns and knives 38 PIRA prisoners who had been convicted of offenses ranging from murder to causing explosions escaped from one of the most high-security prisons in Europe They completely took over the H7 prison block and took their prison guards hostage before escaping in a food supply truck Several prison guards were shot and stabbed but only one died of a heart attack during the escape

bull Fifteen escapees were recaptured the first day with four more captured over the next two days following the breakout The remaining 19 were transported to PIRA strongholds and given the option to either rejoin the IRArsquos cause or be transported to the United States to live under a new identity

12 October 1984 Brighton Hotel Bombing

The PIRA Nearly Gets Thatcherbull Margaret Thatcher the highly controversial far-right British PM from

1979-1990 had become a tremendously hated figure amongst the Irish nationalist community in Northern Ireland following the 1981 Hunger Strikes and for her general uncompromising stand on Irish republicanism

bull PIRA man Patrick Magee stayed at the Brighton Hotel from the 14-17 September 1984 planting a 20-lb bomb under his bath

bull Thatcher was staying at the Brighton Hotel for a political conference and was still up at 254AM on 12 October when the bomb was detonated The bomb decimated her bathroom but left the bedroom and sitting room of her suite largely unscathed

bull The PIRA statement to Thatcher afterwards was ldquoToday we were unlucky But remember we only have to be lucky once You will have to be lucky alwaysrdquo

Loughgall Ambush 8 May 1987

The SAS Strikes

bull A botched attack on Loughgall Villagersquos RUC Police Base in which the PIRA drove a backhoe into the fortified base and ran away to detonate the bomb that was inside of the backhoe went wrong as the SAS the British Special Forces had prior knowledge of the attack and quickly dispatched the 8 PIRA members involved

bull Although the RUC base was wrecked and bombed there were no RUC or SAS casualties and it was the PIRArsquos greatest loss of life in a single incident during the Troubles

British Army Lynx Shootdown 20 March 1994

The PIRA Shoots Down a Helicopter

bull Using the previously mentioned Barrack-Buster homemade mortar PIRA insurgents were able to fire on a British helicopter that was in the process of landing whilst hiding behind a hay bail from around 150 yards out

bull The helicopter was hit with the mortar shell around 100 feet above the ground but the pilot was able to successfully crash-land the helicopter and escape before its propane tanks exploded There were no casualties but the attack was a major propaganda coup for the PIRA

1996 Manchester Bombing

The PIRA Destroys Manchester

bull On Saturday 15 June 1996 the PIRA sent in telephoned warnings and 90 minutes later detonated a 3300lb fertilizer-based truck bomb in the heart of Manchester City Centre the biggest bomb detonated in Great Britain during peacetime The bomb killed nobody due to previous warnings but led to 212 non-fatal injuries and essentially destroyed Manchester City Centre leaving approximately 700 million pounds ($12bn) worth of damage in its wake

Omagh Bombing 1998

Last Great Deadly Attack of the Troubles

bull Perpetrated by a Provisional IRA splinter group that was rejecting the peace process calling themselves the ldquoReal IRArdquo the 510lb fertilizer-based bomb was placed on main street in the town of Omagh Northern Ireland Warnings were called in approximately 30 minutes before the bombing but they were inaccurate and police ended up moving more civilians towards the bomb which ended up killing 29 people and causing over 300 non-fatal injuries This was the highest death toll from a single incident during the Troubles

bull It received universal outrage and was condemned even by the PIRA and its political wing Sinn Fein It spurred on the Northern Ireland peace process and the RIRA apologized and called a ceasefire several days after

The Good Friday Agreement and Northern Ireland Peace Process

Beginningsbull Following the 1981 Hunger Strikes Irish republicans began to

increasingly look towards politics rather than violence as a means of achieving their aims Sinn Fein gaelic for ldquoWe Ourselvesrdquo was a fiercely Irish Republican political party which led by the Machiavellian former PIRA leader and Maze inmate Gerry Adams began to push for a more peaceful solution to the Troubles in Northern Ireland

bull It became apparent by the late 1990s that although the PIRA was not losing a war against the British establishment it would be impossible to truly lsquowin the fightrsquo through violence and that any further terrorism would serve not to achieve any real political aim but only to prolong and continue suffering and violence in Northern Ireland and that politics was a much better way of achieving Republican aims

Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein former PIRA Belfast Brigade OC

Good Friday Agreement 1998

bull The Peace Process began in 1994 and included intermittent terrorist ceasefires and political negotiations between the major Irish republican and British unionist parties and culminated on April 10 1998 when the Good Friday Agreement was signed

PM Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern Sign the GFA

GFA Mandatesbull That Northern Ireland was to remain British until a majority of people in Northern

Ireland and the southern Republic of Ireland wanted otherwise bull The creation of an entirely new far less sectarian and religiously diverse Northern

Irish local governmentbull The decommissioning of arms from terrorist groups on both the unionist and

nationalist side of the political divide (ultimately successful all arms decommissioned by 2005)

bull Mutual respect and civil rights between Catholics and Protestants bull The reduction and eventual elimination of British troops in Northern Ireland

(ultimately successful all troops withdrawn by 2005)bull Eventual early prison release for all individuals imprisoned for terrorist offenses as

long as they were apart of a terrorist group that was decommissioning in accordance with the GFA

bull Disbandment of the RUC police service and the installation of the new Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) which was required to be at least 50 Catholic

Northern Ireland Today

Still Conflict But No Warbull Since the complete decommissioning of the arms and

disbandment of the PIRA INLA UDAUFF and UVF due to the Good Friday Agreement there is nowhere near the amount of violence in Northern Ireland or Belfast as there was 20 years ago There are no more weekly bombings and riots and no more British troops patrolling Catholic areas in armored vehicles

bull Despite this there are still occasional riots and clashes with the PSNI several times a year specifically on dates of great historical significance to the Catholic or Protestant communities and there is still a deep distrust and even hatred between many Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland although that continues to change with time

Catholic Slum of Ardoyne Belfast July 2011

Splinter Groups

bull Many former PIRA or UDA terrorists have now taken to organized crime for purely profiteering purposes but are no longer involved in substantial violence or any political-based terrorism

bull Splinter groups such as the Real IRA and Continuity IRA in Catholic communities and the Orange Volunteers and Red Hand Commandos in Protestant communities still conduct occasional violence towards Police and civilians in Northern Ireland but are all rather small poorly armed and poorly funded groups that pose nowhere near the threat that terrorist groups in the 80s and 90s did in Northern Ireland

Herersquos To A Brighter Future in Northern Ireland

Works Citedbull httpwwwbbccoukhistorytroublesbull httpcainulstacukbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiProvisional_Irish_Republican_Armybull httpenwikipediaorgwikiThe_Troublesbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiUlster_Defence_Associationbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiUlster_Volunteer_Forcebull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_National_Liberation_Armybull ldquoA Secret History of the IRArdquo by Ed Moloney ndashWW Norton amp Company Reprint 2003bull ldquoVoices From The Grave Two Menrsquos War in Irelandrdquo by Ed Moloney ndash Public Affairs 2010bull ldquoFifty Dead Men Walkingrdquo by Martin McGartland ndash John Blake 2009bull httpwwwinfopleasecomspotnorthireland1htmlbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_Civil_Warbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_War_of_Independencebull httpenwikipediaorgwiki1981_Irish_hunger_strikebull httpenwikipediaorgwikiDirectory_of_the_Northern_Ireland_Troublesbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiGood_Friday_Agreementbull httpswwwmi5govukhomethe-threatsterrorismnorthern-irelandrepublican-terrorist-groupshtmlbull httpswwwmi5govukhomethe-threatsterrorismnorthern-irelandprovisional-irish-republican-army-

pirahtmlbull httpnewsbbccoukhienglishstaticnorthern_irelandunderstandingeventshunger_strikestm

  • The Troubles
  • Brief Overview
  • 30 Years of Conflict
  • Slide 4
  • Background
  • The Irish War of Independence
  • Slide 7
  • Anglo-Irish Treaty (signed 6 December 1921)
  • Irish Civil War
  • 1922-1966 Ireland
  • The Civil Rights Movement
  • Slide 12
  • Slide 13
  • Objectives of the Civil Rights Movement
  • The 1969 Northern Ireland Riots ndashThe Troubles Begin
  • Culmination of Tension
  • No-Go Areas
  • No-Go Areas (2)
  • Early 1970sndash The Rise of the Provisional IRA
  • The IRA Split
  • Rise of the UVF and Loyalist Terror Groups
  • Beginnings
  • UVF Statement 21 May 1964
  • The Paramilitaries
  • Irish RepublicansCatholics
  • The Provisional IRA
  • IRA Statement Late 80s
  • Statistics
  • RecruitmentFunding
  • Weaponry
  • Weaponry (2)
  • Slide 32
  • Mortars and IEDs
  • EOD Officer Approaches PIRA Car Bomb
  • The Barrack Buster
  • Vigilantism
  • Slide 37
  • Slide 38
  • Policy on Informants
  • Terrorist Activities
  • Terrorist Activities (continued)
  • The INLA
  • Statistics (2)
  • Ideology
  • Terrorist Activities (2)
  • Internal Feuds
  • Slide 47
  • British LoyalistsProtestants
  • The UDAUFF
  • Former UFF Member
  • Statistics (3)
  • Ideology (2)
  • Terrorist Activities (3)
  • Slide 54
  • Organized Crime
  • The UVF
  • Statistics (4)
  • Ideology (3)
  • Terrorist Activities (4)
  • The Shankhill Butchers
  • Weaponry (3)
  • Slide 62
  • Organized Crime (2)
  • Major Incidents 1969-1998
  • Bloody Sunday 30 January 1972
  • Massacre on the Bogside
  • Bloody Friday 21 July 1972
  • A City Under Siege
  • Dublin and Monaghan Bombings 17 May 1974
  • Deadliest Attack of the Troubles
  • Warrenpoint Ambush 27 August 1979
  • Roadside IEDs
  • Summer of 1981 Irish Hunger Strikes
  • A Defining Moment for the Republican Cause
  • The Five Demands
  • Previous Protests
  • Dirty Protesters
  • Thatcherrsquos Response
  • Ten Strikers Die
  • Bobby Sands
  • Reaction to Sandsrsquo Death
  • Conclusion
  • 1983 The Maze Prison Escape
  • The ldquoGreat Escaperdquo
  • 12 October 1984 Brighton Hotel Bombing
  • The PIRA Nearly Gets Thatcher
  • Loughgall Ambush 8 May 1987
  • The SAS Strikes
  • British Army Lynx Shootdown 20 March 1994
  • The PIRA Shoots Down a Helicopter
  • 1996 Manchester Bombing
  • The PIRA Destroys Manchester
  • Omagh Bombing 1998
  • Last Great Deadly Attack of the Troubles
  • The Good Friday Agreement and Northern Ireland Peace Process
  • Beginnings (2)
  • Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein former PIRA Belfast Brigade OC
  • Good Friday Agreement 1998
  • PM Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern Sign the GFA
  • GFA Mandates
  • Northern Ireland Today
  • Still Conflict But No War
  • Catholic Slum of Ardoyne Belfast July 2011
  • Splinter Groups
  • Herersquos To A Brighter Future in Northern Ireland
  • Works Cited
Page 51: The Troubles, 1969-1998

Terrorist Activitiesbull The majority of UVF victims were Catholic civilians

many of whom were killed at random These attacks were intended to demoralize the IRA as the IRA drew most of its support from the Catholic community

bull Planting bombs in predominately-Catholic pubs or simply residential areas was a very frequent UVF tactic and in 1973 they detonated more bombs in Northern Ireland than the UDA and the PIRA combined Assassinations mass shootings booby-trap car bombs and kidnappings were also frequent UVF activities

The Shankhill Butchers

bull The ldquoShankhill Butchersrdquo were a notorious offshoot UVF group known for abducting and literally slitting the throats of Catholic civilians and rival loyalist terror groups in the late 1970s They were led by Lenny Murphy (who was eventually imprisoned and upon his release of a 4-year stint murdered by the PIRA) and killed 23 people most of whom were Catholic civilians Many experts liken the Shankhill Butchers more to a group of serial killers than to politically or even ethnically-motivated murderers

bull The Butchers were all eventually all either imprisoned killed by the PIRA or both

Weaponrybull The UVF received the majority of its weaponry in the late 1970s

from Armscor an apartheid-South Africa state-owned arms company which in defiance of various UN sanctions and embargoes sold them to the UVF

bull Weapons were thought to consist ofbull 200 Czech SA vz 58 Assault Riflesbull 90 Browning Pistolsbull 500 RGD-5 Frag Grenadesbull 30000 rounds of ammunitionbull 12 RPG-7 Rocket Launchers and 150+ Rocketsbull The UVF also began using the illegally-obtained mining explosive

Powergel in the early 1990s

Organized Crime

bull The UVF was also heavily involved in organized crime including protection racketeering and drug smugglingdealing including cannabis MDMA cocaine and amphetamines Bank robberies were also very frequent in the 1970s

Major Incidents 1969-1998

Bloody Sunday 30 January 1972

Massacre on the Bogsidebull In 1972 during a large scale but peaceful civil-rights march in the

troubled predominately Catholic neighborhood of Bogside in Derry 26 unarmed civil rights marchers were shot by members of the British Army 14 of whom were killed Five of those shot were shot in the back

bull After several inquiries into the incident there was found to have been no justifiable provocation from the protestors and no shots fired from the protestors during the march The massacre was conducted in full view of the public and the press

bull The PM David Cameron eventually issued a formal apology to the victims and victimsrsquo families of the massacre after several investigations failed to reveal any justifiable provocation for the massacre

bull The massacre sky-rocketed PIRA membership and recruitment as public perception of the British Army in Catholic communities in Northern Ireland reached an all-time low

Bloody Friday 21 July 1972

A City Under Siege

bull On 21 July 1972 the PIRA detonated 26 bombs in the space of 80 minutes in Belfast destroying banks bridges electrical substations Protestant housing tenements gasoline stations and private garages

bull Although warnings were called in at least 30 minutes prior to each bomb the amount of bombs exploding and the addition of multiple hoax warnings at the same time led to the Security Forces being unable to evacuate all the areas in time 11 people were killed and 130 were injured many of them horrifically mutilated Of those injured 77 were women or children

Dublin and Monaghan Bombings 17 May 1974

Deadliest Attack of the Troubles

bull Perpetrated by the UVF in the southern Republic of Ireland three car bombs exploded in Dublin during rush hour and another exploded in Monaghan around 90 minutes later

bull 33 civilians and a full-term unborn child were killed in the bombing while nearly 300 were injured The UVF did not claim responsibility for the bombings until 1993

bull The majority of those killed were young women although the age range of those killed ranged from 5 months old to 80 years old

Warrenpoint Ambush 27 August 1979

Roadside IEDsbull In the southern part of County Armagh Northern Ireland a predominately-

Catholic rural region and former PIRA stronghold right on the border with the southern Republic of Ireland a British troop convoy was hit with a remote-control detonated roadside 500lb truck-bomb and destroyed instantly killing 6 troops The surviving soldiers then wrongly believed they were under sniper fire from the other side of the Irish border and began firing at civilians immediately after the bombing killing 1 and injuring another

bull 32 minutes after the first bombing the IRA used its knowledge of how the British reacted to bombings to correctly predict that they would set up an incident-command point in a nearby gatehouse Unfortunately for the British there was a second 800lb fertilizer bomb planted near the gatehouse that when detonated killed 12 other soldiers who were responding to the initial bomb

bull It was the deadliest single attack on the British Army during the Troubles and a highly successful attack for the PIRA

Summer of 1981 Irish Hunger Strikes

A Defining Moment for the Republican Cause

bull Beginning on 1 March 1981 led by Bobby Sands 7 PIRA and 3 INLA inmates at the notorious ldquoMazerdquo prison began to refuse food until Margaret Thatcher PM of Great Britain at that time began to recognize terrorist prisoners as political prisoners and allowed them their ldquoFive Demandsrdquo

The Five Demands

bull The right to not wear a prison uniformbull The right to not do prison workbull The right of free association with other

prisoners and to organize in educational and recreational pursuits

bull Full restoration of remission lost through any protests towards these demands

Previous Protestsbull The Maze prison was a very high-security and low-quality prison that

housed almost all PIRA prisoners during the Troubles It was run in a very ethically questionable fashion with frequent beatings and borderline-torture techniques used on Republican prisoners and extremely poor living conditions for prisoners Many Maze prison guards were members of the UDAUVF or had strong connections with one of the two groups as well

bull Massive peaceful protests and marches by Irish republicans outside of the Maze Prison proved unsuccessful in attaining political status for republican prisoners as well as previous inmate protests in 1980 including non-fatal hunger strikes inmates refusing to wear prison uniforms and thus living in their cells naked and prisoners refusing to leave their cells to go to the bathroom until their requests had been granted (they therefore urinated and defecated in their cells and spread their excrement across their cell walls in what was known as the ldquoDirty Protestrdquo)

Dirty Protesters

Thatcherrsquos Response

bull ldquoThose terrorists will carry their determination to disrupt society to any lengths Once again we have a hunger strike in the Maze Prison in the quest for what they call lsquopolitical statusrsquo There is no such thing as political murder political bombing or political violence There is only criminal murder criminal bombing and criminal violence We will not compromise on this There will be no political statusrdquo

Ten Strikers Diebull Bobby Sands the leader of the strike was imprisoned as a PIRA member

on charges of firearm possession and in connection with the bombing of a furniture store He was the first to die after 66 days of not eating Sands was elected to a seat in Parliament whilst on Hunger Strike

bull Following Sandsrsquo death there were riots bus-burnings and attacks on the British embassy in the southern Republic of Ireland there were massive demonstrations in France and Italy a tomato was thrown as Queen Elizabeth II by demonstrators in Oslo and there were massive riots and civil disorder all over the streets of Belfast The South African ANC and (at the time) terrorist Nelson Mandela expressed their support for the PIRA and the hunger strikers (Mandela himself claimed he was directly inspired by Sands to undertake hunger strikes against the Apartheid government in South Africa) as well as the Palestine Liberation Organization a middle-eastern terror group

bull Over 100000 attended Sandsrsquo funeral

Bobby Sands

ldquoOur revenge will be the laughter of our childrenrdquo

Reaction to Sandsrsquo Death

>

Conclusion

bull The Hunger Strike was eventually called off after 10 strikers including Sands had died

bull James Prior newly installed secretary of state of Northern Ireland granted the prisoners partial concessions all of the Five Demands except for the right to not do prison work Margaret Thatcher refused to budge on political status

bull The Hunger Strikes opened a new way for the PIRA to pursue its objectives politically whereas previously it had seen violence as the only solution to the plight of Irish nationalists in Northern Ireland

1983 The Maze Prison Escape

The ldquoGreat Escaperdquo

bull Using smuggled-in guns and knives 38 PIRA prisoners who had been convicted of offenses ranging from murder to causing explosions escaped from one of the most high-security prisons in Europe They completely took over the H7 prison block and took their prison guards hostage before escaping in a food supply truck Several prison guards were shot and stabbed but only one died of a heart attack during the escape

bull Fifteen escapees were recaptured the first day with four more captured over the next two days following the breakout The remaining 19 were transported to PIRA strongholds and given the option to either rejoin the IRArsquos cause or be transported to the United States to live under a new identity

12 October 1984 Brighton Hotel Bombing

The PIRA Nearly Gets Thatcherbull Margaret Thatcher the highly controversial far-right British PM from

1979-1990 had become a tremendously hated figure amongst the Irish nationalist community in Northern Ireland following the 1981 Hunger Strikes and for her general uncompromising stand on Irish republicanism

bull PIRA man Patrick Magee stayed at the Brighton Hotel from the 14-17 September 1984 planting a 20-lb bomb under his bath

bull Thatcher was staying at the Brighton Hotel for a political conference and was still up at 254AM on 12 October when the bomb was detonated The bomb decimated her bathroom but left the bedroom and sitting room of her suite largely unscathed

bull The PIRA statement to Thatcher afterwards was ldquoToday we were unlucky But remember we only have to be lucky once You will have to be lucky alwaysrdquo

Loughgall Ambush 8 May 1987

The SAS Strikes

bull A botched attack on Loughgall Villagersquos RUC Police Base in which the PIRA drove a backhoe into the fortified base and ran away to detonate the bomb that was inside of the backhoe went wrong as the SAS the British Special Forces had prior knowledge of the attack and quickly dispatched the 8 PIRA members involved

bull Although the RUC base was wrecked and bombed there were no RUC or SAS casualties and it was the PIRArsquos greatest loss of life in a single incident during the Troubles

British Army Lynx Shootdown 20 March 1994

The PIRA Shoots Down a Helicopter

bull Using the previously mentioned Barrack-Buster homemade mortar PIRA insurgents were able to fire on a British helicopter that was in the process of landing whilst hiding behind a hay bail from around 150 yards out

bull The helicopter was hit with the mortar shell around 100 feet above the ground but the pilot was able to successfully crash-land the helicopter and escape before its propane tanks exploded There were no casualties but the attack was a major propaganda coup for the PIRA

1996 Manchester Bombing

The PIRA Destroys Manchester

bull On Saturday 15 June 1996 the PIRA sent in telephoned warnings and 90 minutes later detonated a 3300lb fertilizer-based truck bomb in the heart of Manchester City Centre the biggest bomb detonated in Great Britain during peacetime The bomb killed nobody due to previous warnings but led to 212 non-fatal injuries and essentially destroyed Manchester City Centre leaving approximately 700 million pounds ($12bn) worth of damage in its wake

Omagh Bombing 1998

Last Great Deadly Attack of the Troubles

bull Perpetrated by a Provisional IRA splinter group that was rejecting the peace process calling themselves the ldquoReal IRArdquo the 510lb fertilizer-based bomb was placed on main street in the town of Omagh Northern Ireland Warnings were called in approximately 30 minutes before the bombing but they were inaccurate and police ended up moving more civilians towards the bomb which ended up killing 29 people and causing over 300 non-fatal injuries This was the highest death toll from a single incident during the Troubles

bull It received universal outrage and was condemned even by the PIRA and its political wing Sinn Fein It spurred on the Northern Ireland peace process and the RIRA apologized and called a ceasefire several days after

The Good Friday Agreement and Northern Ireland Peace Process

Beginningsbull Following the 1981 Hunger Strikes Irish republicans began to

increasingly look towards politics rather than violence as a means of achieving their aims Sinn Fein gaelic for ldquoWe Ourselvesrdquo was a fiercely Irish Republican political party which led by the Machiavellian former PIRA leader and Maze inmate Gerry Adams began to push for a more peaceful solution to the Troubles in Northern Ireland

bull It became apparent by the late 1990s that although the PIRA was not losing a war against the British establishment it would be impossible to truly lsquowin the fightrsquo through violence and that any further terrorism would serve not to achieve any real political aim but only to prolong and continue suffering and violence in Northern Ireland and that politics was a much better way of achieving Republican aims

Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein former PIRA Belfast Brigade OC

Good Friday Agreement 1998

bull The Peace Process began in 1994 and included intermittent terrorist ceasefires and political negotiations between the major Irish republican and British unionist parties and culminated on April 10 1998 when the Good Friday Agreement was signed

PM Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern Sign the GFA

GFA Mandatesbull That Northern Ireland was to remain British until a majority of people in Northern

Ireland and the southern Republic of Ireland wanted otherwise bull The creation of an entirely new far less sectarian and religiously diverse Northern

Irish local governmentbull The decommissioning of arms from terrorist groups on both the unionist and

nationalist side of the political divide (ultimately successful all arms decommissioned by 2005)

bull Mutual respect and civil rights between Catholics and Protestants bull The reduction and eventual elimination of British troops in Northern Ireland

(ultimately successful all troops withdrawn by 2005)bull Eventual early prison release for all individuals imprisoned for terrorist offenses as

long as they were apart of a terrorist group that was decommissioning in accordance with the GFA

bull Disbandment of the RUC police service and the installation of the new Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) which was required to be at least 50 Catholic

Northern Ireland Today

Still Conflict But No Warbull Since the complete decommissioning of the arms and

disbandment of the PIRA INLA UDAUFF and UVF due to the Good Friday Agreement there is nowhere near the amount of violence in Northern Ireland or Belfast as there was 20 years ago There are no more weekly bombings and riots and no more British troops patrolling Catholic areas in armored vehicles

bull Despite this there are still occasional riots and clashes with the PSNI several times a year specifically on dates of great historical significance to the Catholic or Protestant communities and there is still a deep distrust and even hatred between many Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland although that continues to change with time

Catholic Slum of Ardoyne Belfast July 2011

Splinter Groups

bull Many former PIRA or UDA terrorists have now taken to organized crime for purely profiteering purposes but are no longer involved in substantial violence or any political-based terrorism

bull Splinter groups such as the Real IRA and Continuity IRA in Catholic communities and the Orange Volunteers and Red Hand Commandos in Protestant communities still conduct occasional violence towards Police and civilians in Northern Ireland but are all rather small poorly armed and poorly funded groups that pose nowhere near the threat that terrorist groups in the 80s and 90s did in Northern Ireland

Herersquos To A Brighter Future in Northern Ireland

Works Citedbull httpwwwbbccoukhistorytroublesbull httpcainulstacukbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiProvisional_Irish_Republican_Armybull httpenwikipediaorgwikiThe_Troublesbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiUlster_Defence_Associationbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiUlster_Volunteer_Forcebull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_National_Liberation_Armybull ldquoA Secret History of the IRArdquo by Ed Moloney ndashWW Norton amp Company Reprint 2003bull ldquoVoices From The Grave Two Menrsquos War in Irelandrdquo by Ed Moloney ndash Public Affairs 2010bull ldquoFifty Dead Men Walkingrdquo by Martin McGartland ndash John Blake 2009bull httpwwwinfopleasecomspotnorthireland1htmlbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_Civil_Warbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_War_of_Independencebull httpenwikipediaorgwiki1981_Irish_hunger_strikebull httpenwikipediaorgwikiDirectory_of_the_Northern_Ireland_Troublesbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiGood_Friday_Agreementbull httpswwwmi5govukhomethe-threatsterrorismnorthern-irelandrepublican-terrorist-groupshtmlbull httpswwwmi5govukhomethe-threatsterrorismnorthern-irelandprovisional-irish-republican-army-

pirahtmlbull httpnewsbbccoukhienglishstaticnorthern_irelandunderstandingeventshunger_strikestm

  • The Troubles
  • Brief Overview
  • 30 Years of Conflict
  • Slide 4
  • Background
  • The Irish War of Independence
  • Slide 7
  • Anglo-Irish Treaty (signed 6 December 1921)
  • Irish Civil War
  • 1922-1966 Ireland
  • The Civil Rights Movement
  • Slide 12
  • Slide 13
  • Objectives of the Civil Rights Movement
  • The 1969 Northern Ireland Riots ndashThe Troubles Begin
  • Culmination of Tension
  • No-Go Areas
  • No-Go Areas (2)
  • Early 1970sndash The Rise of the Provisional IRA
  • The IRA Split
  • Rise of the UVF and Loyalist Terror Groups
  • Beginnings
  • UVF Statement 21 May 1964
  • The Paramilitaries
  • Irish RepublicansCatholics
  • The Provisional IRA
  • IRA Statement Late 80s
  • Statistics
  • RecruitmentFunding
  • Weaponry
  • Weaponry (2)
  • Slide 32
  • Mortars and IEDs
  • EOD Officer Approaches PIRA Car Bomb
  • The Barrack Buster
  • Vigilantism
  • Slide 37
  • Slide 38
  • Policy on Informants
  • Terrorist Activities
  • Terrorist Activities (continued)
  • The INLA
  • Statistics (2)
  • Ideology
  • Terrorist Activities (2)
  • Internal Feuds
  • Slide 47
  • British LoyalistsProtestants
  • The UDAUFF
  • Former UFF Member
  • Statistics (3)
  • Ideology (2)
  • Terrorist Activities (3)
  • Slide 54
  • Organized Crime
  • The UVF
  • Statistics (4)
  • Ideology (3)
  • Terrorist Activities (4)
  • The Shankhill Butchers
  • Weaponry (3)
  • Slide 62
  • Organized Crime (2)
  • Major Incidents 1969-1998
  • Bloody Sunday 30 January 1972
  • Massacre on the Bogside
  • Bloody Friday 21 July 1972
  • A City Under Siege
  • Dublin and Monaghan Bombings 17 May 1974
  • Deadliest Attack of the Troubles
  • Warrenpoint Ambush 27 August 1979
  • Roadside IEDs
  • Summer of 1981 Irish Hunger Strikes
  • A Defining Moment for the Republican Cause
  • The Five Demands
  • Previous Protests
  • Dirty Protesters
  • Thatcherrsquos Response
  • Ten Strikers Die
  • Bobby Sands
  • Reaction to Sandsrsquo Death
  • Conclusion
  • 1983 The Maze Prison Escape
  • The ldquoGreat Escaperdquo
  • 12 October 1984 Brighton Hotel Bombing
  • The PIRA Nearly Gets Thatcher
  • Loughgall Ambush 8 May 1987
  • The SAS Strikes
  • British Army Lynx Shootdown 20 March 1994
  • The PIRA Shoots Down a Helicopter
  • 1996 Manchester Bombing
  • The PIRA Destroys Manchester
  • Omagh Bombing 1998
  • Last Great Deadly Attack of the Troubles
  • The Good Friday Agreement and Northern Ireland Peace Process
  • Beginnings (2)
  • Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein former PIRA Belfast Brigade OC
  • Good Friday Agreement 1998
  • PM Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern Sign the GFA
  • GFA Mandates
  • Northern Ireland Today
  • Still Conflict But No War
  • Catholic Slum of Ardoyne Belfast July 2011
  • Splinter Groups
  • Herersquos To A Brighter Future in Northern Ireland
  • Works Cited
Page 52: The Troubles, 1969-1998

The Shankhill Butchers

bull The ldquoShankhill Butchersrdquo were a notorious offshoot UVF group known for abducting and literally slitting the throats of Catholic civilians and rival loyalist terror groups in the late 1970s They were led by Lenny Murphy (who was eventually imprisoned and upon his release of a 4-year stint murdered by the PIRA) and killed 23 people most of whom were Catholic civilians Many experts liken the Shankhill Butchers more to a group of serial killers than to politically or even ethnically-motivated murderers

bull The Butchers were all eventually all either imprisoned killed by the PIRA or both

Weaponrybull The UVF received the majority of its weaponry in the late 1970s

from Armscor an apartheid-South Africa state-owned arms company which in defiance of various UN sanctions and embargoes sold them to the UVF

bull Weapons were thought to consist ofbull 200 Czech SA vz 58 Assault Riflesbull 90 Browning Pistolsbull 500 RGD-5 Frag Grenadesbull 30000 rounds of ammunitionbull 12 RPG-7 Rocket Launchers and 150+ Rocketsbull The UVF also began using the illegally-obtained mining explosive

Powergel in the early 1990s

Organized Crime

bull The UVF was also heavily involved in organized crime including protection racketeering and drug smugglingdealing including cannabis MDMA cocaine and amphetamines Bank robberies were also very frequent in the 1970s

Major Incidents 1969-1998

Bloody Sunday 30 January 1972

Massacre on the Bogsidebull In 1972 during a large scale but peaceful civil-rights march in the

troubled predominately Catholic neighborhood of Bogside in Derry 26 unarmed civil rights marchers were shot by members of the British Army 14 of whom were killed Five of those shot were shot in the back

bull After several inquiries into the incident there was found to have been no justifiable provocation from the protestors and no shots fired from the protestors during the march The massacre was conducted in full view of the public and the press

bull The PM David Cameron eventually issued a formal apology to the victims and victimsrsquo families of the massacre after several investigations failed to reveal any justifiable provocation for the massacre

bull The massacre sky-rocketed PIRA membership and recruitment as public perception of the British Army in Catholic communities in Northern Ireland reached an all-time low

Bloody Friday 21 July 1972

A City Under Siege

bull On 21 July 1972 the PIRA detonated 26 bombs in the space of 80 minutes in Belfast destroying banks bridges electrical substations Protestant housing tenements gasoline stations and private garages

bull Although warnings were called in at least 30 minutes prior to each bomb the amount of bombs exploding and the addition of multiple hoax warnings at the same time led to the Security Forces being unable to evacuate all the areas in time 11 people were killed and 130 were injured many of them horrifically mutilated Of those injured 77 were women or children

Dublin and Monaghan Bombings 17 May 1974

Deadliest Attack of the Troubles

bull Perpetrated by the UVF in the southern Republic of Ireland three car bombs exploded in Dublin during rush hour and another exploded in Monaghan around 90 minutes later

bull 33 civilians and a full-term unborn child were killed in the bombing while nearly 300 were injured The UVF did not claim responsibility for the bombings until 1993

bull The majority of those killed were young women although the age range of those killed ranged from 5 months old to 80 years old

Warrenpoint Ambush 27 August 1979

Roadside IEDsbull In the southern part of County Armagh Northern Ireland a predominately-

Catholic rural region and former PIRA stronghold right on the border with the southern Republic of Ireland a British troop convoy was hit with a remote-control detonated roadside 500lb truck-bomb and destroyed instantly killing 6 troops The surviving soldiers then wrongly believed they were under sniper fire from the other side of the Irish border and began firing at civilians immediately after the bombing killing 1 and injuring another

bull 32 minutes after the first bombing the IRA used its knowledge of how the British reacted to bombings to correctly predict that they would set up an incident-command point in a nearby gatehouse Unfortunately for the British there was a second 800lb fertilizer bomb planted near the gatehouse that when detonated killed 12 other soldiers who were responding to the initial bomb

bull It was the deadliest single attack on the British Army during the Troubles and a highly successful attack for the PIRA

Summer of 1981 Irish Hunger Strikes

A Defining Moment for the Republican Cause

bull Beginning on 1 March 1981 led by Bobby Sands 7 PIRA and 3 INLA inmates at the notorious ldquoMazerdquo prison began to refuse food until Margaret Thatcher PM of Great Britain at that time began to recognize terrorist prisoners as political prisoners and allowed them their ldquoFive Demandsrdquo

The Five Demands

bull The right to not wear a prison uniformbull The right to not do prison workbull The right of free association with other

prisoners and to organize in educational and recreational pursuits

bull Full restoration of remission lost through any protests towards these demands

Previous Protestsbull The Maze prison was a very high-security and low-quality prison that

housed almost all PIRA prisoners during the Troubles It was run in a very ethically questionable fashion with frequent beatings and borderline-torture techniques used on Republican prisoners and extremely poor living conditions for prisoners Many Maze prison guards were members of the UDAUVF or had strong connections with one of the two groups as well

bull Massive peaceful protests and marches by Irish republicans outside of the Maze Prison proved unsuccessful in attaining political status for republican prisoners as well as previous inmate protests in 1980 including non-fatal hunger strikes inmates refusing to wear prison uniforms and thus living in their cells naked and prisoners refusing to leave their cells to go to the bathroom until their requests had been granted (they therefore urinated and defecated in their cells and spread their excrement across their cell walls in what was known as the ldquoDirty Protestrdquo)

Dirty Protesters

Thatcherrsquos Response

bull ldquoThose terrorists will carry their determination to disrupt society to any lengths Once again we have a hunger strike in the Maze Prison in the quest for what they call lsquopolitical statusrsquo There is no such thing as political murder political bombing or political violence There is only criminal murder criminal bombing and criminal violence We will not compromise on this There will be no political statusrdquo

Ten Strikers Diebull Bobby Sands the leader of the strike was imprisoned as a PIRA member

on charges of firearm possession and in connection with the bombing of a furniture store He was the first to die after 66 days of not eating Sands was elected to a seat in Parliament whilst on Hunger Strike

bull Following Sandsrsquo death there were riots bus-burnings and attacks on the British embassy in the southern Republic of Ireland there were massive demonstrations in France and Italy a tomato was thrown as Queen Elizabeth II by demonstrators in Oslo and there were massive riots and civil disorder all over the streets of Belfast The South African ANC and (at the time) terrorist Nelson Mandela expressed their support for the PIRA and the hunger strikers (Mandela himself claimed he was directly inspired by Sands to undertake hunger strikes against the Apartheid government in South Africa) as well as the Palestine Liberation Organization a middle-eastern terror group

bull Over 100000 attended Sandsrsquo funeral

Bobby Sands

ldquoOur revenge will be the laughter of our childrenrdquo

Reaction to Sandsrsquo Death

>

Conclusion

bull The Hunger Strike was eventually called off after 10 strikers including Sands had died

bull James Prior newly installed secretary of state of Northern Ireland granted the prisoners partial concessions all of the Five Demands except for the right to not do prison work Margaret Thatcher refused to budge on political status

bull The Hunger Strikes opened a new way for the PIRA to pursue its objectives politically whereas previously it had seen violence as the only solution to the plight of Irish nationalists in Northern Ireland

1983 The Maze Prison Escape

The ldquoGreat Escaperdquo

bull Using smuggled-in guns and knives 38 PIRA prisoners who had been convicted of offenses ranging from murder to causing explosions escaped from one of the most high-security prisons in Europe They completely took over the H7 prison block and took their prison guards hostage before escaping in a food supply truck Several prison guards were shot and stabbed but only one died of a heart attack during the escape

bull Fifteen escapees were recaptured the first day with four more captured over the next two days following the breakout The remaining 19 were transported to PIRA strongholds and given the option to either rejoin the IRArsquos cause or be transported to the United States to live under a new identity

12 October 1984 Brighton Hotel Bombing

The PIRA Nearly Gets Thatcherbull Margaret Thatcher the highly controversial far-right British PM from

1979-1990 had become a tremendously hated figure amongst the Irish nationalist community in Northern Ireland following the 1981 Hunger Strikes and for her general uncompromising stand on Irish republicanism

bull PIRA man Patrick Magee stayed at the Brighton Hotel from the 14-17 September 1984 planting a 20-lb bomb under his bath

bull Thatcher was staying at the Brighton Hotel for a political conference and was still up at 254AM on 12 October when the bomb was detonated The bomb decimated her bathroom but left the bedroom and sitting room of her suite largely unscathed

bull The PIRA statement to Thatcher afterwards was ldquoToday we were unlucky But remember we only have to be lucky once You will have to be lucky alwaysrdquo

Loughgall Ambush 8 May 1987

The SAS Strikes

bull A botched attack on Loughgall Villagersquos RUC Police Base in which the PIRA drove a backhoe into the fortified base and ran away to detonate the bomb that was inside of the backhoe went wrong as the SAS the British Special Forces had prior knowledge of the attack and quickly dispatched the 8 PIRA members involved

bull Although the RUC base was wrecked and bombed there were no RUC or SAS casualties and it was the PIRArsquos greatest loss of life in a single incident during the Troubles

British Army Lynx Shootdown 20 March 1994

The PIRA Shoots Down a Helicopter

bull Using the previously mentioned Barrack-Buster homemade mortar PIRA insurgents were able to fire on a British helicopter that was in the process of landing whilst hiding behind a hay bail from around 150 yards out

bull The helicopter was hit with the mortar shell around 100 feet above the ground but the pilot was able to successfully crash-land the helicopter and escape before its propane tanks exploded There were no casualties but the attack was a major propaganda coup for the PIRA

1996 Manchester Bombing

The PIRA Destroys Manchester

bull On Saturday 15 June 1996 the PIRA sent in telephoned warnings and 90 minutes later detonated a 3300lb fertilizer-based truck bomb in the heart of Manchester City Centre the biggest bomb detonated in Great Britain during peacetime The bomb killed nobody due to previous warnings but led to 212 non-fatal injuries and essentially destroyed Manchester City Centre leaving approximately 700 million pounds ($12bn) worth of damage in its wake

Omagh Bombing 1998

Last Great Deadly Attack of the Troubles

bull Perpetrated by a Provisional IRA splinter group that was rejecting the peace process calling themselves the ldquoReal IRArdquo the 510lb fertilizer-based bomb was placed on main street in the town of Omagh Northern Ireland Warnings were called in approximately 30 minutes before the bombing but they were inaccurate and police ended up moving more civilians towards the bomb which ended up killing 29 people and causing over 300 non-fatal injuries This was the highest death toll from a single incident during the Troubles

bull It received universal outrage and was condemned even by the PIRA and its political wing Sinn Fein It spurred on the Northern Ireland peace process and the RIRA apologized and called a ceasefire several days after

The Good Friday Agreement and Northern Ireland Peace Process

Beginningsbull Following the 1981 Hunger Strikes Irish republicans began to

increasingly look towards politics rather than violence as a means of achieving their aims Sinn Fein gaelic for ldquoWe Ourselvesrdquo was a fiercely Irish Republican political party which led by the Machiavellian former PIRA leader and Maze inmate Gerry Adams began to push for a more peaceful solution to the Troubles in Northern Ireland

bull It became apparent by the late 1990s that although the PIRA was not losing a war against the British establishment it would be impossible to truly lsquowin the fightrsquo through violence and that any further terrorism would serve not to achieve any real political aim but only to prolong and continue suffering and violence in Northern Ireland and that politics was a much better way of achieving Republican aims

Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein former PIRA Belfast Brigade OC

Good Friday Agreement 1998

bull The Peace Process began in 1994 and included intermittent terrorist ceasefires and political negotiations between the major Irish republican and British unionist parties and culminated on April 10 1998 when the Good Friday Agreement was signed

PM Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern Sign the GFA

GFA Mandatesbull That Northern Ireland was to remain British until a majority of people in Northern

Ireland and the southern Republic of Ireland wanted otherwise bull The creation of an entirely new far less sectarian and religiously diverse Northern

Irish local governmentbull The decommissioning of arms from terrorist groups on both the unionist and

nationalist side of the political divide (ultimately successful all arms decommissioned by 2005)

bull Mutual respect and civil rights between Catholics and Protestants bull The reduction and eventual elimination of British troops in Northern Ireland

(ultimately successful all troops withdrawn by 2005)bull Eventual early prison release for all individuals imprisoned for terrorist offenses as

long as they were apart of a terrorist group that was decommissioning in accordance with the GFA

bull Disbandment of the RUC police service and the installation of the new Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) which was required to be at least 50 Catholic

Northern Ireland Today

Still Conflict But No Warbull Since the complete decommissioning of the arms and

disbandment of the PIRA INLA UDAUFF and UVF due to the Good Friday Agreement there is nowhere near the amount of violence in Northern Ireland or Belfast as there was 20 years ago There are no more weekly bombings and riots and no more British troops patrolling Catholic areas in armored vehicles

bull Despite this there are still occasional riots and clashes with the PSNI several times a year specifically on dates of great historical significance to the Catholic or Protestant communities and there is still a deep distrust and even hatred between many Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland although that continues to change with time

Catholic Slum of Ardoyne Belfast July 2011

Splinter Groups

bull Many former PIRA or UDA terrorists have now taken to organized crime for purely profiteering purposes but are no longer involved in substantial violence or any political-based terrorism

bull Splinter groups such as the Real IRA and Continuity IRA in Catholic communities and the Orange Volunteers and Red Hand Commandos in Protestant communities still conduct occasional violence towards Police and civilians in Northern Ireland but are all rather small poorly armed and poorly funded groups that pose nowhere near the threat that terrorist groups in the 80s and 90s did in Northern Ireland

Herersquos To A Brighter Future in Northern Ireland

Works Citedbull httpwwwbbccoukhistorytroublesbull httpcainulstacukbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiProvisional_Irish_Republican_Armybull httpenwikipediaorgwikiThe_Troublesbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiUlster_Defence_Associationbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiUlster_Volunteer_Forcebull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_National_Liberation_Armybull ldquoA Secret History of the IRArdquo by Ed Moloney ndashWW Norton amp Company Reprint 2003bull ldquoVoices From The Grave Two Menrsquos War in Irelandrdquo by Ed Moloney ndash Public Affairs 2010bull ldquoFifty Dead Men Walkingrdquo by Martin McGartland ndash John Blake 2009bull httpwwwinfopleasecomspotnorthireland1htmlbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_Civil_Warbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_War_of_Independencebull httpenwikipediaorgwiki1981_Irish_hunger_strikebull httpenwikipediaorgwikiDirectory_of_the_Northern_Ireland_Troublesbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiGood_Friday_Agreementbull httpswwwmi5govukhomethe-threatsterrorismnorthern-irelandrepublican-terrorist-groupshtmlbull httpswwwmi5govukhomethe-threatsterrorismnorthern-irelandprovisional-irish-republican-army-

pirahtmlbull httpnewsbbccoukhienglishstaticnorthern_irelandunderstandingeventshunger_strikestm

  • The Troubles
  • Brief Overview
  • 30 Years of Conflict
  • Slide 4
  • Background
  • The Irish War of Independence
  • Slide 7
  • Anglo-Irish Treaty (signed 6 December 1921)
  • Irish Civil War
  • 1922-1966 Ireland
  • The Civil Rights Movement
  • Slide 12
  • Slide 13
  • Objectives of the Civil Rights Movement
  • The 1969 Northern Ireland Riots ndashThe Troubles Begin
  • Culmination of Tension
  • No-Go Areas
  • No-Go Areas (2)
  • Early 1970sndash The Rise of the Provisional IRA
  • The IRA Split
  • Rise of the UVF and Loyalist Terror Groups
  • Beginnings
  • UVF Statement 21 May 1964
  • The Paramilitaries
  • Irish RepublicansCatholics
  • The Provisional IRA
  • IRA Statement Late 80s
  • Statistics
  • RecruitmentFunding
  • Weaponry
  • Weaponry (2)
  • Slide 32
  • Mortars and IEDs
  • EOD Officer Approaches PIRA Car Bomb
  • The Barrack Buster
  • Vigilantism
  • Slide 37
  • Slide 38
  • Policy on Informants
  • Terrorist Activities
  • Terrorist Activities (continued)
  • The INLA
  • Statistics (2)
  • Ideology
  • Terrorist Activities (2)
  • Internal Feuds
  • Slide 47
  • British LoyalistsProtestants
  • The UDAUFF
  • Former UFF Member
  • Statistics (3)
  • Ideology (2)
  • Terrorist Activities (3)
  • Slide 54
  • Organized Crime
  • The UVF
  • Statistics (4)
  • Ideology (3)
  • Terrorist Activities (4)
  • The Shankhill Butchers
  • Weaponry (3)
  • Slide 62
  • Organized Crime (2)
  • Major Incidents 1969-1998
  • Bloody Sunday 30 January 1972
  • Massacre on the Bogside
  • Bloody Friday 21 July 1972
  • A City Under Siege
  • Dublin and Monaghan Bombings 17 May 1974
  • Deadliest Attack of the Troubles
  • Warrenpoint Ambush 27 August 1979
  • Roadside IEDs
  • Summer of 1981 Irish Hunger Strikes
  • A Defining Moment for the Republican Cause
  • The Five Demands
  • Previous Protests
  • Dirty Protesters
  • Thatcherrsquos Response
  • Ten Strikers Die
  • Bobby Sands
  • Reaction to Sandsrsquo Death
  • Conclusion
  • 1983 The Maze Prison Escape
  • The ldquoGreat Escaperdquo
  • 12 October 1984 Brighton Hotel Bombing
  • The PIRA Nearly Gets Thatcher
  • Loughgall Ambush 8 May 1987
  • The SAS Strikes
  • British Army Lynx Shootdown 20 March 1994
  • The PIRA Shoots Down a Helicopter
  • 1996 Manchester Bombing
  • The PIRA Destroys Manchester
  • Omagh Bombing 1998
  • Last Great Deadly Attack of the Troubles
  • The Good Friday Agreement and Northern Ireland Peace Process
  • Beginnings (2)
  • Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein former PIRA Belfast Brigade OC
  • Good Friday Agreement 1998
  • PM Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern Sign the GFA
  • GFA Mandates
  • Northern Ireland Today
  • Still Conflict But No War
  • Catholic Slum of Ardoyne Belfast July 2011
  • Splinter Groups
  • Herersquos To A Brighter Future in Northern Ireland
  • Works Cited
Page 53: The Troubles, 1969-1998

Weaponrybull The UVF received the majority of its weaponry in the late 1970s

from Armscor an apartheid-South Africa state-owned arms company which in defiance of various UN sanctions and embargoes sold them to the UVF

bull Weapons were thought to consist ofbull 200 Czech SA vz 58 Assault Riflesbull 90 Browning Pistolsbull 500 RGD-5 Frag Grenadesbull 30000 rounds of ammunitionbull 12 RPG-7 Rocket Launchers and 150+ Rocketsbull The UVF also began using the illegally-obtained mining explosive

Powergel in the early 1990s

Organized Crime

bull The UVF was also heavily involved in organized crime including protection racketeering and drug smugglingdealing including cannabis MDMA cocaine and amphetamines Bank robberies were also very frequent in the 1970s

Major Incidents 1969-1998

Bloody Sunday 30 January 1972

Massacre on the Bogsidebull In 1972 during a large scale but peaceful civil-rights march in the

troubled predominately Catholic neighborhood of Bogside in Derry 26 unarmed civil rights marchers were shot by members of the British Army 14 of whom were killed Five of those shot were shot in the back

bull After several inquiries into the incident there was found to have been no justifiable provocation from the protestors and no shots fired from the protestors during the march The massacre was conducted in full view of the public and the press

bull The PM David Cameron eventually issued a formal apology to the victims and victimsrsquo families of the massacre after several investigations failed to reveal any justifiable provocation for the massacre

bull The massacre sky-rocketed PIRA membership and recruitment as public perception of the British Army in Catholic communities in Northern Ireland reached an all-time low

Bloody Friday 21 July 1972

A City Under Siege

bull On 21 July 1972 the PIRA detonated 26 bombs in the space of 80 minutes in Belfast destroying banks bridges electrical substations Protestant housing tenements gasoline stations and private garages

bull Although warnings were called in at least 30 minutes prior to each bomb the amount of bombs exploding and the addition of multiple hoax warnings at the same time led to the Security Forces being unable to evacuate all the areas in time 11 people were killed and 130 were injured many of them horrifically mutilated Of those injured 77 were women or children

Dublin and Monaghan Bombings 17 May 1974

Deadliest Attack of the Troubles

bull Perpetrated by the UVF in the southern Republic of Ireland three car bombs exploded in Dublin during rush hour and another exploded in Monaghan around 90 minutes later

bull 33 civilians and a full-term unborn child were killed in the bombing while nearly 300 were injured The UVF did not claim responsibility for the bombings until 1993

bull The majority of those killed were young women although the age range of those killed ranged from 5 months old to 80 years old

Warrenpoint Ambush 27 August 1979

Roadside IEDsbull In the southern part of County Armagh Northern Ireland a predominately-

Catholic rural region and former PIRA stronghold right on the border with the southern Republic of Ireland a British troop convoy was hit with a remote-control detonated roadside 500lb truck-bomb and destroyed instantly killing 6 troops The surviving soldiers then wrongly believed they were under sniper fire from the other side of the Irish border and began firing at civilians immediately after the bombing killing 1 and injuring another

bull 32 minutes after the first bombing the IRA used its knowledge of how the British reacted to bombings to correctly predict that they would set up an incident-command point in a nearby gatehouse Unfortunately for the British there was a second 800lb fertilizer bomb planted near the gatehouse that when detonated killed 12 other soldiers who were responding to the initial bomb

bull It was the deadliest single attack on the British Army during the Troubles and a highly successful attack for the PIRA

Summer of 1981 Irish Hunger Strikes

A Defining Moment for the Republican Cause

bull Beginning on 1 March 1981 led by Bobby Sands 7 PIRA and 3 INLA inmates at the notorious ldquoMazerdquo prison began to refuse food until Margaret Thatcher PM of Great Britain at that time began to recognize terrorist prisoners as political prisoners and allowed them their ldquoFive Demandsrdquo

The Five Demands

bull The right to not wear a prison uniformbull The right to not do prison workbull The right of free association with other

prisoners and to organize in educational and recreational pursuits

bull Full restoration of remission lost through any protests towards these demands

Previous Protestsbull The Maze prison was a very high-security and low-quality prison that

housed almost all PIRA prisoners during the Troubles It was run in a very ethically questionable fashion with frequent beatings and borderline-torture techniques used on Republican prisoners and extremely poor living conditions for prisoners Many Maze prison guards were members of the UDAUVF or had strong connections with one of the two groups as well

bull Massive peaceful protests and marches by Irish republicans outside of the Maze Prison proved unsuccessful in attaining political status for republican prisoners as well as previous inmate protests in 1980 including non-fatal hunger strikes inmates refusing to wear prison uniforms and thus living in their cells naked and prisoners refusing to leave their cells to go to the bathroom until their requests had been granted (they therefore urinated and defecated in their cells and spread their excrement across their cell walls in what was known as the ldquoDirty Protestrdquo)

Dirty Protesters

Thatcherrsquos Response

bull ldquoThose terrorists will carry their determination to disrupt society to any lengths Once again we have a hunger strike in the Maze Prison in the quest for what they call lsquopolitical statusrsquo There is no such thing as political murder political bombing or political violence There is only criminal murder criminal bombing and criminal violence We will not compromise on this There will be no political statusrdquo

Ten Strikers Diebull Bobby Sands the leader of the strike was imprisoned as a PIRA member

on charges of firearm possession and in connection with the bombing of a furniture store He was the first to die after 66 days of not eating Sands was elected to a seat in Parliament whilst on Hunger Strike

bull Following Sandsrsquo death there were riots bus-burnings and attacks on the British embassy in the southern Republic of Ireland there were massive demonstrations in France and Italy a tomato was thrown as Queen Elizabeth II by demonstrators in Oslo and there were massive riots and civil disorder all over the streets of Belfast The South African ANC and (at the time) terrorist Nelson Mandela expressed their support for the PIRA and the hunger strikers (Mandela himself claimed he was directly inspired by Sands to undertake hunger strikes against the Apartheid government in South Africa) as well as the Palestine Liberation Organization a middle-eastern terror group

bull Over 100000 attended Sandsrsquo funeral

Bobby Sands

ldquoOur revenge will be the laughter of our childrenrdquo

Reaction to Sandsrsquo Death

>

Conclusion

bull The Hunger Strike was eventually called off after 10 strikers including Sands had died

bull James Prior newly installed secretary of state of Northern Ireland granted the prisoners partial concessions all of the Five Demands except for the right to not do prison work Margaret Thatcher refused to budge on political status

bull The Hunger Strikes opened a new way for the PIRA to pursue its objectives politically whereas previously it had seen violence as the only solution to the plight of Irish nationalists in Northern Ireland

1983 The Maze Prison Escape

The ldquoGreat Escaperdquo

bull Using smuggled-in guns and knives 38 PIRA prisoners who had been convicted of offenses ranging from murder to causing explosions escaped from one of the most high-security prisons in Europe They completely took over the H7 prison block and took their prison guards hostage before escaping in a food supply truck Several prison guards were shot and stabbed but only one died of a heart attack during the escape

bull Fifteen escapees were recaptured the first day with four more captured over the next two days following the breakout The remaining 19 were transported to PIRA strongholds and given the option to either rejoin the IRArsquos cause or be transported to the United States to live under a new identity

12 October 1984 Brighton Hotel Bombing

The PIRA Nearly Gets Thatcherbull Margaret Thatcher the highly controversial far-right British PM from

1979-1990 had become a tremendously hated figure amongst the Irish nationalist community in Northern Ireland following the 1981 Hunger Strikes and for her general uncompromising stand on Irish republicanism

bull PIRA man Patrick Magee stayed at the Brighton Hotel from the 14-17 September 1984 planting a 20-lb bomb under his bath

bull Thatcher was staying at the Brighton Hotel for a political conference and was still up at 254AM on 12 October when the bomb was detonated The bomb decimated her bathroom but left the bedroom and sitting room of her suite largely unscathed

bull The PIRA statement to Thatcher afterwards was ldquoToday we were unlucky But remember we only have to be lucky once You will have to be lucky alwaysrdquo

Loughgall Ambush 8 May 1987

The SAS Strikes

bull A botched attack on Loughgall Villagersquos RUC Police Base in which the PIRA drove a backhoe into the fortified base and ran away to detonate the bomb that was inside of the backhoe went wrong as the SAS the British Special Forces had prior knowledge of the attack and quickly dispatched the 8 PIRA members involved

bull Although the RUC base was wrecked and bombed there were no RUC or SAS casualties and it was the PIRArsquos greatest loss of life in a single incident during the Troubles

British Army Lynx Shootdown 20 March 1994

The PIRA Shoots Down a Helicopter

bull Using the previously mentioned Barrack-Buster homemade mortar PIRA insurgents were able to fire on a British helicopter that was in the process of landing whilst hiding behind a hay bail from around 150 yards out

bull The helicopter was hit with the mortar shell around 100 feet above the ground but the pilot was able to successfully crash-land the helicopter and escape before its propane tanks exploded There were no casualties but the attack was a major propaganda coup for the PIRA

1996 Manchester Bombing

The PIRA Destroys Manchester

bull On Saturday 15 June 1996 the PIRA sent in telephoned warnings and 90 minutes later detonated a 3300lb fertilizer-based truck bomb in the heart of Manchester City Centre the biggest bomb detonated in Great Britain during peacetime The bomb killed nobody due to previous warnings but led to 212 non-fatal injuries and essentially destroyed Manchester City Centre leaving approximately 700 million pounds ($12bn) worth of damage in its wake

Omagh Bombing 1998

Last Great Deadly Attack of the Troubles

bull Perpetrated by a Provisional IRA splinter group that was rejecting the peace process calling themselves the ldquoReal IRArdquo the 510lb fertilizer-based bomb was placed on main street in the town of Omagh Northern Ireland Warnings were called in approximately 30 minutes before the bombing but they were inaccurate and police ended up moving more civilians towards the bomb which ended up killing 29 people and causing over 300 non-fatal injuries This was the highest death toll from a single incident during the Troubles

bull It received universal outrage and was condemned even by the PIRA and its political wing Sinn Fein It spurred on the Northern Ireland peace process and the RIRA apologized and called a ceasefire several days after

The Good Friday Agreement and Northern Ireland Peace Process

Beginningsbull Following the 1981 Hunger Strikes Irish republicans began to

increasingly look towards politics rather than violence as a means of achieving their aims Sinn Fein gaelic for ldquoWe Ourselvesrdquo was a fiercely Irish Republican political party which led by the Machiavellian former PIRA leader and Maze inmate Gerry Adams began to push for a more peaceful solution to the Troubles in Northern Ireland

bull It became apparent by the late 1990s that although the PIRA was not losing a war against the British establishment it would be impossible to truly lsquowin the fightrsquo through violence and that any further terrorism would serve not to achieve any real political aim but only to prolong and continue suffering and violence in Northern Ireland and that politics was a much better way of achieving Republican aims

Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein former PIRA Belfast Brigade OC

Good Friday Agreement 1998

bull The Peace Process began in 1994 and included intermittent terrorist ceasefires and political negotiations between the major Irish republican and British unionist parties and culminated on April 10 1998 when the Good Friday Agreement was signed

PM Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern Sign the GFA

GFA Mandatesbull That Northern Ireland was to remain British until a majority of people in Northern

Ireland and the southern Republic of Ireland wanted otherwise bull The creation of an entirely new far less sectarian and religiously diverse Northern

Irish local governmentbull The decommissioning of arms from terrorist groups on both the unionist and

nationalist side of the political divide (ultimately successful all arms decommissioned by 2005)

bull Mutual respect and civil rights between Catholics and Protestants bull The reduction and eventual elimination of British troops in Northern Ireland

(ultimately successful all troops withdrawn by 2005)bull Eventual early prison release for all individuals imprisoned for terrorist offenses as

long as they were apart of a terrorist group that was decommissioning in accordance with the GFA

bull Disbandment of the RUC police service and the installation of the new Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) which was required to be at least 50 Catholic

Northern Ireland Today

Still Conflict But No Warbull Since the complete decommissioning of the arms and

disbandment of the PIRA INLA UDAUFF and UVF due to the Good Friday Agreement there is nowhere near the amount of violence in Northern Ireland or Belfast as there was 20 years ago There are no more weekly bombings and riots and no more British troops patrolling Catholic areas in armored vehicles

bull Despite this there are still occasional riots and clashes with the PSNI several times a year specifically on dates of great historical significance to the Catholic or Protestant communities and there is still a deep distrust and even hatred between many Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland although that continues to change with time

Catholic Slum of Ardoyne Belfast July 2011

Splinter Groups

bull Many former PIRA or UDA terrorists have now taken to organized crime for purely profiteering purposes but are no longer involved in substantial violence or any political-based terrorism

bull Splinter groups such as the Real IRA and Continuity IRA in Catholic communities and the Orange Volunteers and Red Hand Commandos in Protestant communities still conduct occasional violence towards Police and civilians in Northern Ireland but are all rather small poorly armed and poorly funded groups that pose nowhere near the threat that terrorist groups in the 80s and 90s did in Northern Ireland

Herersquos To A Brighter Future in Northern Ireland

Works Citedbull httpwwwbbccoukhistorytroublesbull httpcainulstacukbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiProvisional_Irish_Republican_Armybull httpenwikipediaorgwikiThe_Troublesbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiUlster_Defence_Associationbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiUlster_Volunteer_Forcebull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_National_Liberation_Armybull ldquoA Secret History of the IRArdquo by Ed Moloney ndashWW Norton amp Company Reprint 2003bull ldquoVoices From The Grave Two Menrsquos War in Irelandrdquo by Ed Moloney ndash Public Affairs 2010bull ldquoFifty Dead Men Walkingrdquo by Martin McGartland ndash John Blake 2009bull httpwwwinfopleasecomspotnorthireland1htmlbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_Civil_Warbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_War_of_Independencebull httpenwikipediaorgwiki1981_Irish_hunger_strikebull httpenwikipediaorgwikiDirectory_of_the_Northern_Ireland_Troublesbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiGood_Friday_Agreementbull httpswwwmi5govukhomethe-threatsterrorismnorthern-irelandrepublican-terrorist-groupshtmlbull httpswwwmi5govukhomethe-threatsterrorismnorthern-irelandprovisional-irish-republican-army-

pirahtmlbull httpnewsbbccoukhienglishstaticnorthern_irelandunderstandingeventshunger_strikestm

  • The Troubles
  • Brief Overview
  • 30 Years of Conflict
  • Slide 4
  • Background
  • The Irish War of Independence
  • Slide 7
  • Anglo-Irish Treaty (signed 6 December 1921)
  • Irish Civil War
  • 1922-1966 Ireland
  • The Civil Rights Movement
  • Slide 12
  • Slide 13
  • Objectives of the Civil Rights Movement
  • The 1969 Northern Ireland Riots ndashThe Troubles Begin
  • Culmination of Tension
  • No-Go Areas
  • No-Go Areas (2)
  • Early 1970sndash The Rise of the Provisional IRA
  • The IRA Split
  • Rise of the UVF and Loyalist Terror Groups
  • Beginnings
  • UVF Statement 21 May 1964
  • The Paramilitaries
  • Irish RepublicansCatholics
  • The Provisional IRA
  • IRA Statement Late 80s
  • Statistics
  • RecruitmentFunding
  • Weaponry
  • Weaponry (2)
  • Slide 32
  • Mortars and IEDs
  • EOD Officer Approaches PIRA Car Bomb
  • The Barrack Buster
  • Vigilantism
  • Slide 37
  • Slide 38
  • Policy on Informants
  • Terrorist Activities
  • Terrorist Activities (continued)
  • The INLA
  • Statistics (2)
  • Ideology
  • Terrorist Activities (2)
  • Internal Feuds
  • Slide 47
  • British LoyalistsProtestants
  • The UDAUFF
  • Former UFF Member
  • Statistics (3)
  • Ideology (2)
  • Terrorist Activities (3)
  • Slide 54
  • Organized Crime
  • The UVF
  • Statistics (4)
  • Ideology (3)
  • Terrorist Activities (4)
  • The Shankhill Butchers
  • Weaponry (3)
  • Slide 62
  • Organized Crime (2)
  • Major Incidents 1969-1998
  • Bloody Sunday 30 January 1972
  • Massacre on the Bogside
  • Bloody Friday 21 July 1972
  • A City Under Siege
  • Dublin and Monaghan Bombings 17 May 1974
  • Deadliest Attack of the Troubles
  • Warrenpoint Ambush 27 August 1979
  • Roadside IEDs
  • Summer of 1981 Irish Hunger Strikes
  • A Defining Moment for the Republican Cause
  • The Five Demands
  • Previous Protests
  • Dirty Protesters
  • Thatcherrsquos Response
  • Ten Strikers Die
  • Bobby Sands
  • Reaction to Sandsrsquo Death
  • Conclusion
  • 1983 The Maze Prison Escape
  • The ldquoGreat Escaperdquo
  • 12 October 1984 Brighton Hotel Bombing
  • The PIRA Nearly Gets Thatcher
  • Loughgall Ambush 8 May 1987
  • The SAS Strikes
  • British Army Lynx Shootdown 20 March 1994
  • The PIRA Shoots Down a Helicopter
  • 1996 Manchester Bombing
  • The PIRA Destroys Manchester
  • Omagh Bombing 1998
  • Last Great Deadly Attack of the Troubles
  • The Good Friday Agreement and Northern Ireland Peace Process
  • Beginnings (2)
  • Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein former PIRA Belfast Brigade OC
  • Good Friday Agreement 1998
  • PM Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern Sign the GFA
  • GFA Mandates
  • Northern Ireland Today
  • Still Conflict But No War
  • Catholic Slum of Ardoyne Belfast July 2011
  • Splinter Groups
  • Herersquos To A Brighter Future in Northern Ireland
  • Works Cited
Page 54: The Troubles, 1969-1998

Organized Crime

bull The UVF was also heavily involved in organized crime including protection racketeering and drug smugglingdealing including cannabis MDMA cocaine and amphetamines Bank robberies were also very frequent in the 1970s

Major Incidents 1969-1998

Bloody Sunday 30 January 1972

Massacre on the Bogsidebull In 1972 during a large scale but peaceful civil-rights march in the

troubled predominately Catholic neighborhood of Bogside in Derry 26 unarmed civil rights marchers were shot by members of the British Army 14 of whom were killed Five of those shot were shot in the back

bull After several inquiries into the incident there was found to have been no justifiable provocation from the protestors and no shots fired from the protestors during the march The massacre was conducted in full view of the public and the press

bull The PM David Cameron eventually issued a formal apology to the victims and victimsrsquo families of the massacre after several investigations failed to reveal any justifiable provocation for the massacre

bull The massacre sky-rocketed PIRA membership and recruitment as public perception of the British Army in Catholic communities in Northern Ireland reached an all-time low

Bloody Friday 21 July 1972

A City Under Siege

bull On 21 July 1972 the PIRA detonated 26 bombs in the space of 80 minutes in Belfast destroying banks bridges electrical substations Protestant housing tenements gasoline stations and private garages

bull Although warnings were called in at least 30 minutes prior to each bomb the amount of bombs exploding and the addition of multiple hoax warnings at the same time led to the Security Forces being unable to evacuate all the areas in time 11 people were killed and 130 were injured many of them horrifically mutilated Of those injured 77 were women or children

Dublin and Monaghan Bombings 17 May 1974

Deadliest Attack of the Troubles

bull Perpetrated by the UVF in the southern Republic of Ireland three car bombs exploded in Dublin during rush hour and another exploded in Monaghan around 90 minutes later

bull 33 civilians and a full-term unborn child were killed in the bombing while nearly 300 were injured The UVF did not claim responsibility for the bombings until 1993

bull The majority of those killed were young women although the age range of those killed ranged from 5 months old to 80 years old

Warrenpoint Ambush 27 August 1979

Roadside IEDsbull In the southern part of County Armagh Northern Ireland a predominately-

Catholic rural region and former PIRA stronghold right on the border with the southern Republic of Ireland a British troop convoy was hit with a remote-control detonated roadside 500lb truck-bomb and destroyed instantly killing 6 troops The surviving soldiers then wrongly believed they were under sniper fire from the other side of the Irish border and began firing at civilians immediately after the bombing killing 1 and injuring another

bull 32 minutes after the first bombing the IRA used its knowledge of how the British reacted to bombings to correctly predict that they would set up an incident-command point in a nearby gatehouse Unfortunately for the British there was a second 800lb fertilizer bomb planted near the gatehouse that when detonated killed 12 other soldiers who were responding to the initial bomb

bull It was the deadliest single attack on the British Army during the Troubles and a highly successful attack for the PIRA

Summer of 1981 Irish Hunger Strikes

A Defining Moment for the Republican Cause

bull Beginning on 1 March 1981 led by Bobby Sands 7 PIRA and 3 INLA inmates at the notorious ldquoMazerdquo prison began to refuse food until Margaret Thatcher PM of Great Britain at that time began to recognize terrorist prisoners as political prisoners and allowed them their ldquoFive Demandsrdquo

The Five Demands

bull The right to not wear a prison uniformbull The right to not do prison workbull The right of free association with other

prisoners and to organize in educational and recreational pursuits

bull Full restoration of remission lost through any protests towards these demands

Previous Protestsbull The Maze prison was a very high-security and low-quality prison that

housed almost all PIRA prisoners during the Troubles It was run in a very ethically questionable fashion with frequent beatings and borderline-torture techniques used on Republican prisoners and extremely poor living conditions for prisoners Many Maze prison guards were members of the UDAUVF or had strong connections with one of the two groups as well

bull Massive peaceful protests and marches by Irish republicans outside of the Maze Prison proved unsuccessful in attaining political status for republican prisoners as well as previous inmate protests in 1980 including non-fatal hunger strikes inmates refusing to wear prison uniforms and thus living in their cells naked and prisoners refusing to leave their cells to go to the bathroom until their requests had been granted (they therefore urinated and defecated in their cells and spread their excrement across their cell walls in what was known as the ldquoDirty Protestrdquo)

Dirty Protesters

Thatcherrsquos Response

bull ldquoThose terrorists will carry their determination to disrupt society to any lengths Once again we have a hunger strike in the Maze Prison in the quest for what they call lsquopolitical statusrsquo There is no such thing as political murder political bombing or political violence There is only criminal murder criminal bombing and criminal violence We will not compromise on this There will be no political statusrdquo

Ten Strikers Diebull Bobby Sands the leader of the strike was imprisoned as a PIRA member

on charges of firearm possession and in connection with the bombing of a furniture store He was the first to die after 66 days of not eating Sands was elected to a seat in Parliament whilst on Hunger Strike

bull Following Sandsrsquo death there were riots bus-burnings and attacks on the British embassy in the southern Republic of Ireland there were massive demonstrations in France and Italy a tomato was thrown as Queen Elizabeth II by demonstrators in Oslo and there were massive riots and civil disorder all over the streets of Belfast The South African ANC and (at the time) terrorist Nelson Mandela expressed their support for the PIRA and the hunger strikers (Mandela himself claimed he was directly inspired by Sands to undertake hunger strikes against the Apartheid government in South Africa) as well as the Palestine Liberation Organization a middle-eastern terror group

bull Over 100000 attended Sandsrsquo funeral

Bobby Sands

ldquoOur revenge will be the laughter of our childrenrdquo

Reaction to Sandsrsquo Death

>

Conclusion

bull The Hunger Strike was eventually called off after 10 strikers including Sands had died

bull James Prior newly installed secretary of state of Northern Ireland granted the prisoners partial concessions all of the Five Demands except for the right to not do prison work Margaret Thatcher refused to budge on political status

bull The Hunger Strikes opened a new way for the PIRA to pursue its objectives politically whereas previously it had seen violence as the only solution to the plight of Irish nationalists in Northern Ireland

1983 The Maze Prison Escape

The ldquoGreat Escaperdquo

bull Using smuggled-in guns and knives 38 PIRA prisoners who had been convicted of offenses ranging from murder to causing explosions escaped from one of the most high-security prisons in Europe They completely took over the H7 prison block and took their prison guards hostage before escaping in a food supply truck Several prison guards were shot and stabbed but only one died of a heart attack during the escape

bull Fifteen escapees were recaptured the first day with four more captured over the next two days following the breakout The remaining 19 were transported to PIRA strongholds and given the option to either rejoin the IRArsquos cause or be transported to the United States to live under a new identity

12 October 1984 Brighton Hotel Bombing

The PIRA Nearly Gets Thatcherbull Margaret Thatcher the highly controversial far-right British PM from

1979-1990 had become a tremendously hated figure amongst the Irish nationalist community in Northern Ireland following the 1981 Hunger Strikes and for her general uncompromising stand on Irish republicanism

bull PIRA man Patrick Magee stayed at the Brighton Hotel from the 14-17 September 1984 planting a 20-lb bomb under his bath

bull Thatcher was staying at the Brighton Hotel for a political conference and was still up at 254AM on 12 October when the bomb was detonated The bomb decimated her bathroom but left the bedroom and sitting room of her suite largely unscathed

bull The PIRA statement to Thatcher afterwards was ldquoToday we were unlucky But remember we only have to be lucky once You will have to be lucky alwaysrdquo

Loughgall Ambush 8 May 1987

The SAS Strikes

bull A botched attack on Loughgall Villagersquos RUC Police Base in which the PIRA drove a backhoe into the fortified base and ran away to detonate the bomb that was inside of the backhoe went wrong as the SAS the British Special Forces had prior knowledge of the attack and quickly dispatched the 8 PIRA members involved

bull Although the RUC base was wrecked and bombed there were no RUC or SAS casualties and it was the PIRArsquos greatest loss of life in a single incident during the Troubles

British Army Lynx Shootdown 20 March 1994

The PIRA Shoots Down a Helicopter

bull Using the previously mentioned Barrack-Buster homemade mortar PIRA insurgents were able to fire on a British helicopter that was in the process of landing whilst hiding behind a hay bail from around 150 yards out

bull The helicopter was hit with the mortar shell around 100 feet above the ground but the pilot was able to successfully crash-land the helicopter and escape before its propane tanks exploded There were no casualties but the attack was a major propaganda coup for the PIRA

1996 Manchester Bombing

The PIRA Destroys Manchester

bull On Saturday 15 June 1996 the PIRA sent in telephoned warnings and 90 minutes later detonated a 3300lb fertilizer-based truck bomb in the heart of Manchester City Centre the biggest bomb detonated in Great Britain during peacetime The bomb killed nobody due to previous warnings but led to 212 non-fatal injuries and essentially destroyed Manchester City Centre leaving approximately 700 million pounds ($12bn) worth of damage in its wake

Omagh Bombing 1998

Last Great Deadly Attack of the Troubles

bull Perpetrated by a Provisional IRA splinter group that was rejecting the peace process calling themselves the ldquoReal IRArdquo the 510lb fertilizer-based bomb was placed on main street in the town of Omagh Northern Ireland Warnings were called in approximately 30 minutes before the bombing but they were inaccurate and police ended up moving more civilians towards the bomb which ended up killing 29 people and causing over 300 non-fatal injuries This was the highest death toll from a single incident during the Troubles

bull It received universal outrage and was condemned even by the PIRA and its political wing Sinn Fein It spurred on the Northern Ireland peace process and the RIRA apologized and called a ceasefire several days after

The Good Friday Agreement and Northern Ireland Peace Process

Beginningsbull Following the 1981 Hunger Strikes Irish republicans began to

increasingly look towards politics rather than violence as a means of achieving their aims Sinn Fein gaelic for ldquoWe Ourselvesrdquo was a fiercely Irish Republican political party which led by the Machiavellian former PIRA leader and Maze inmate Gerry Adams began to push for a more peaceful solution to the Troubles in Northern Ireland

bull It became apparent by the late 1990s that although the PIRA was not losing a war against the British establishment it would be impossible to truly lsquowin the fightrsquo through violence and that any further terrorism would serve not to achieve any real political aim but only to prolong and continue suffering and violence in Northern Ireland and that politics was a much better way of achieving Republican aims

Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein former PIRA Belfast Brigade OC

Good Friday Agreement 1998

bull The Peace Process began in 1994 and included intermittent terrorist ceasefires and political negotiations between the major Irish republican and British unionist parties and culminated on April 10 1998 when the Good Friday Agreement was signed

PM Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern Sign the GFA

GFA Mandatesbull That Northern Ireland was to remain British until a majority of people in Northern

Ireland and the southern Republic of Ireland wanted otherwise bull The creation of an entirely new far less sectarian and religiously diverse Northern

Irish local governmentbull The decommissioning of arms from terrorist groups on both the unionist and

nationalist side of the political divide (ultimately successful all arms decommissioned by 2005)

bull Mutual respect and civil rights between Catholics and Protestants bull The reduction and eventual elimination of British troops in Northern Ireland

(ultimately successful all troops withdrawn by 2005)bull Eventual early prison release for all individuals imprisoned for terrorist offenses as

long as they were apart of a terrorist group that was decommissioning in accordance with the GFA

bull Disbandment of the RUC police service and the installation of the new Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) which was required to be at least 50 Catholic

Northern Ireland Today

Still Conflict But No Warbull Since the complete decommissioning of the arms and

disbandment of the PIRA INLA UDAUFF and UVF due to the Good Friday Agreement there is nowhere near the amount of violence in Northern Ireland or Belfast as there was 20 years ago There are no more weekly bombings and riots and no more British troops patrolling Catholic areas in armored vehicles

bull Despite this there are still occasional riots and clashes with the PSNI several times a year specifically on dates of great historical significance to the Catholic or Protestant communities and there is still a deep distrust and even hatred between many Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland although that continues to change with time

Catholic Slum of Ardoyne Belfast July 2011

Splinter Groups

bull Many former PIRA or UDA terrorists have now taken to organized crime for purely profiteering purposes but are no longer involved in substantial violence or any political-based terrorism

bull Splinter groups such as the Real IRA and Continuity IRA in Catholic communities and the Orange Volunteers and Red Hand Commandos in Protestant communities still conduct occasional violence towards Police and civilians in Northern Ireland but are all rather small poorly armed and poorly funded groups that pose nowhere near the threat that terrorist groups in the 80s and 90s did in Northern Ireland

Herersquos To A Brighter Future in Northern Ireland

Works Citedbull httpwwwbbccoukhistorytroublesbull httpcainulstacukbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiProvisional_Irish_Republican_Armybull httpenwikipediaorgwikiThe_Troublesbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiUlster_Defence_Associationbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiUlster_Volunteer_Forcebull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_National_Liberation_Armybull ldquoA Secret History of the IRArdquo by Ed Moloney ndashWW Norton amp Company Reprint 2003bull ldquoVoices From The Grave Two Menrsquos War in Irelandrdquo by Ed Moloney ndash Public Affairs 2010bull ldquoFifty Dead Men Walkingrdquo by Martin McGartland ndash John Blake 2009bull httpwwwinfopleasecomspotnorthireland1htmlbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_Civil_Warbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_War_of_Independencebull httpenwikipediaorgwiki1981_Irish_hunger_strikebull httpenwikipediaorgwikiDirectory_of_the_Northern_Ireland_Troublesbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiGood_Friday_Agreementbull httpswwwmi5govukhomethe-threatsterrorismnorthern-irelandrepublican-terrorist-groupshtmlbull httpswwwmi5govukhomethe-threatsterrorismnorthern-irelandprovisional-irish-republican-army-

pirahtmlbull httpnewsbbccoukhienglishstaticnorthern_irelandunderstandingeventshunger_strikestm

  • The Troubles
  • Brief Overview
  • 30 Years of Conflict
  • Slide 4
  • Background
  • The Irish War of Independence
  • Slide 7
  • Anglo-Irish Treaty (signed 6 December 1921)
  • Irish Civil War
  • 1922-1966 Ireland
  • The Civil Rights Movement
  • Slide 12
  • Slide 13
  • Objectives of the Civil Rights Movement
  • The 1969 Northern Ireland Riots ndashThe Troubles Begin
  • Culmination of Tension
  • No-Go Areas
  • No-Go Areas (2)
  • Early 1970sndash The Rise of the Provisional IRA
  • The IRA Split
  • Rise of the UVF and Loyalist Terror Groups
  • Beginnings
  • UVF Statement 21 May 1964
  • The Paramilitaries
  • Irish RepublicansCatholics
  • The Provisional IRA
  • IRA Statement Late 80s
  • Statistics
  • RecruitmentFunding
  • Weaponry
  • Weaponry (2)
  • Slide 32
  • Mortars and IEDs
  • EOD Officer Approaches PIRA Car Bomb
  • The Barrack Buster
  • Vigilantism
  • Slide 37
  • Slide 38
  • Policy on Informants
  • Terrorist Activities
  • Terrorist Activities (continued)
  • The INLA
  • Statistics (2)
  • Ideology
  • Terrorist Activities (2)
  • Internal Feuds
  • Slide 47
  • British LoyalistsProtestants
  • The UDAUFF
  • Former UFF Member
  • Statistics (3)
  • Ideology (2)
  • Terrorist Activities (3)
  • Slide 54
  • Organized Crime
  • The UVF
  • Statistics (4)
  • Ideology (3)
  • Terrorist Activities (4)
  • The Shankhill Butchers
  • Weaponry (3)
  • Slide 62
  • Organized Crime (2)
  • Major Incidents 1969-1998
  • Bloody Sunday 30 January 1972
  • Massacre on the Bogside
  • Bloody Friday 21 July 1972
  • A City Under Siege
  • Dublin and Monaghan Bombings 17 May 1974
  • Deadliest Attack of the Troubles
  • Warrenpoint Ambush 27 August 1979
  • Roadside IEDs
  • Summer of 1981 Irish Hunger Strikes
  • A Defining Moment for the Republican Cause
  • The Five Demands
  • Previous Protests
  • Dirty Protesters
  • Thatcherrsquos Response
  • Ten Strikers Die
  • Bobby Sands
  • Reaction to Sandsrsquo Death
  • Conclusion
  • 1983 The Maze Prison Escape
  • The ldquoGreat Escaperdquo
  • 12 October 1984 Brighton Hotel Bombing
  • The PIRA Nearly Gets Thatcher
  • Loughgall Ambush 8 May 1987
  • The SAS Strikes
  • British Army Lynx Shootdown 20 March 1994
  • The PIRA Shoots Down a Helicopter
  • 1996 Manchester Bombing
  • The PIRA Destroys Manchester
  • Omagh Bombing 1998
  • Last Great Deadly Attack of the Troubles
  • The Good Friday Agreement and Northern Ireland Peace Process
  • Beginnings (2)
  • Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein former PIRA Belfast Brigade OC
  • Good Friday Agreement 1998
  • PM Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern Sign the GFA
  • GFA Mandates
  • Northern Ireland Today
  • Still Conflict But No War
  • Catholic Slum of Ardoyne Belfast July 2011
  • Splinter Groups
  • Herersquos To A Brighter Future in Northern Ireland
  • Works Cited
Page 55: The Troubles, 1969-1998

Major Incidents 1969-1998

Bloody Sunday 30 January 1972

Massacre on the Bogsidebull In 1972 during a large scale but peaceful civil-rights march in the

troubled predominately Catholic neighborhood of Bogside in Derry 26 unarmed civil rights marchers were shot by members of the British Army 14 of whom were killed Five of those shot were shot in the back

bull After several inquiries into the incident there was found to have been no justifiable provocation from the protestors and no shots fired from the protestors during the march The massacre was conducted in full view of the public and the press

bull The PM David Cameron eventually issued a formal apology to the victims and victimsrsquo families of the massacre after several investigations failed to reveal any justifiable provocation for the massacre

bull The massacre sky-rocketed PIRA membership and recruitment as public perception of the British Army in Catholic communities in Northern Ireland reached an all-time low

Bloody Friday 21 July 1972

A City Under Siege

bull On 21 July 1972 the PIRA detonated 26 bombs in the space of 80 minutes in Belfast destroying banks bridges electrical substations Protestant housing tenements gasoline stations and private garages

bull Although warnings were called in at least 30 minutes prior to each bomb the amount of bombs exploding and the addition of multiple hoax warnings at the same time led to the Security Forces being unable to evacuate all the areas in time 11 people were killed and 130 were injured many of them horrifically mutilated Of those injured 77 were women or children

Dublin and Monaghan Bombings 17 May 1974

Deadliest Attack of the Troubles

bull Perpetrated by the UVF in the southern Republic of Ireland three car bombs exploded in Dublin during rush hour and another exploded in Monaghan around 90 minutes later

bull 33 civilians and a full-term unborn child were killed in the bombing while nearly 300 were injured The UVF did not claim responsibility for the bombings until 1993

bull The majority of those killed were young women although the age range of those killed ranged from 5 months old to 80 years old

Warrenpoint Ambush 27 August 1979

Roadside IEDsbull In the southern part of County Armagh Northern Ireland a predominately-

Catholic rural region and former PIRA stronghold right on the border with the southern Republic of Ireland a British troop convoy was hit with a remote-control detonated roadside 500lb truck-bomb and destroyed instantly killing 6 troops The surviving soldiers then wrongly believed they were under sniper fire from the other side of the Irish border and began firing at civilians immediately after the bombing killing 1 and injuring another

bull 32 minutes after the first bombing the IRA used its knowledge of how the British reacted to bombings to correctly predict that they would set up an incident-command point in a nearby gatehouse Unfortunately for the British there was a second 800lb fertilizer bomb planted near the gatehouse that when detonated killed 12 other soldiers who were responding to the initial bomb

bull It was the deadliest single attack on the British Army during the Troubles and a highly successful attack for the PIRA

Summer of 1981 Irish Hunger Strikes

A Defining Moment for the Republican Cause

bull Beginning on 1 March 1981 led by Bobby Sands 7 PIRA and 3 INLA inmates at the notorious ldquoMazerdquo prison began to refuse food until Margaret Thatcher PM of Great Britain at that time began to recognize terrorist prisoners as political prisoners and allowed them their ldquoFive Demandsrdquo

The Five Demands

bull The right to not wear a prison uniformbull The right to not do prison workbull The right of free association with other

prisoners and to organize in educational and recreational pursuits

bull Full restoration of remission lost through any protests towards these demands

Previous Protestsbull The Maze prison was a very high-security and low-quality prison that

housed almost all PIRA prisoners during the Troubles It was run in a very ethically questionable fashion with frequent beatings and borderline-torture techniques used on Republican prisoners and extremely poor living conditions for prisoners Many Maze prison guards were members of the UDAUVF or had strong connections with one of the two groups as well

bull Massive peaceful protests and marches by Irish republicans outside of the Maze Prison proved unsuccessful in attaining political status for republican prisoners as well as previous inmate protests in 1980 including non-fatal hunger strikes inmates refusing to wear prison uniforms and thus living in their cells naked and prisoners refusing to leave their cells to go to the bathroom until their requests had been granted (they therefore urinated and defecated in their cells and spread their excrement across their cell walls in what was known as the ldquoDirty Protestrdquo)

Dirty Protesters

Thatcherrsquos Response

bull ldquoThose terrorists will carry their determination to disrupt society to any lengths Once again we have a hunger strike in the Maze Prison in the quest for what they call lsquopolitical statusrsquo There is no such thing as political murder political bombing or political violence There is only criminal murder criminal bombing and criminal violence We will not compromise on this There will be no political statusrdquo

Ten Strikers Diebull Bobby Sands the leader of the strike was imprisoned as a PIRA member

on charges of firearm possession and in connection with the bombing of a furniture store He was the first to die after 66 days of not eating Sands was elected to a seat in Parliament whilst on Hunger Strike

bull Following Sandsrsquo death there were riots bus-burnings and attacks on the British embassy in the southern Republic of Ireland there were massive demonstrations in France and Italy a tomato was thrown as Queen Elizabeth II by demonstrators in Oslo and there were massive riots and civil disorder all over the streets of Belfast The South African ANC and (at the time) terrorist Nelson Mandela expressed their support for the PIRA and the hunger strikers (Mandela himself claimed he was directly inspired by Sands to undertake hunger strikes against the Apartheid government in South Africa) as well as the Palestine Liberation Organization a middle-eastern terror group

bull Over 100000 attended Sandsrsquo funeral

Bobby Sands

ldquoOur revenge will be the laughter of our childrenrdquo

Reaction to Sandsrsquo Death

>

Conclusion

bull The Hunger Strike was eventually called off after 10 strikers including Sands had died

bull James Prior newly installed secretary of state of Northern Ireland granted the prisoners partial concessions all of the Five Demands except for the right to not do prison work Margaret Thatcher refused to budge on political status

bull The Hunger Strikes opened a new way for the PIRA to pursue its objectives politically whereas previously it had seen violence as the only solution to the plight of Irish nationalists in Northern Ireland

1983 The Maze Prison Escape

The ldquoGreat Escaperdquo

bull Using smuggled-in guns and knives 38 PIRA prisoners who had been convicted of offenses ranging from murder to causing explosions escaped from one of the most high-security prisons in Europe They completely took over the H7 prison block and took their prison guards hostage before escaping in a food supply truck Several prison guards were shot and stabbed but only one died of a heart attack during the escape

bull Fifteen escapees were recaptured the first day with four more captured over the next two days following the breakout The remaining 19 were transported to PIRA strongholds and given the option to either rejoin the IRArsquos cause or be transported to the United States to live under a new identity

12 October 1984 Brighton Hotel Bombing

The PIRA Nearly Gets Thatcherbull Margaret Thatcher the highly controversial far-right British PM from

1979-1990 had become a tremendously hated figure amongst the Irish nationalist community in Northern Ireland following the 1981 Hunger Strikes and for her general uncompromising stand on Irish republicanism

bull PIRA man Patrick Magee stayed at the Brighton Hotel from the 14-17 September 1984 planting a 20-lb bomb under his bath

bull Thatcher was staying at the Brighton Hotel for a political conference and was still up at 254AM on 12 October when the bomb was detonated The bomb decimated her bathroom but left the bedroom and sitting room of her suite largely unscathed

bull The PIRA statement to Thatcher afterwards was ldquoToday we were unlucky But remember we only have to be lucky once You will have to be lucky alwaysrdquo

Loughgall Ambush 8 May 1987

The SAS Strikes

bull A botched attack on Loughgall Villagersquos RUC Police Base in which the PIRA drove a backhoe into the fortified base and ran away to detonate the bomb that was inside of the backhoe went wrong as the SAS the British Special Forces had prior knowledge of the attack and quickly dispatched the 8 PIRA members involved

bull Although the RUC base was wrecked and bombed there were no RUC or SAS casualties and it was the PIRArsquos greatest loss of life in a single incident during the Troubles

British Army Lynx Shootdown 20 March 1994

The PIRA Shoots Down a Helicopter

bull Using the previously mentioned Barrack-Buster homemade mortar PIRA insurgents were able to fire on a British helicopter that was in the process of landing whilst hiding behind a hay bail from around 150 yards out

bull The helicopter was hit with the mortar shell around 100 feet above the ground but the pilot was able to successfully crash-land the helicopter and escape before its propane tanks exploded There were no casualties but the attack was a major propaganda coup for the PIRA

1996 Manchester Bombing

The PIRA Destroys Manchester

bull On Saturday 15 June 1996 the PIRA sent in telephoned warnings and 90 minutes later detonated a 3300lb fertilizer-based truck bomb in the heart of Manchester City Centre the biggest bomb detonated in Great Britain during peacetime The bomb killed nobody due to previous warnings but led to 212 non-fatal injuries and essentially destroyed Manchester City Centre leaving approximately 700 million pounds ($12bn) worth of damage in its wake

Omagh Bombing 1998

Last Great Deadly Attack of the Troubles

bull Perpetrated by a Provisional IRA splinter group that was rejecting the peace process calling themselves the ldquoReal IRArdquo the 510lb fertilizer-based bomb was placed on main street in the town of Omagh Northern Ireland Warnings were called in approximately 30 minutes before the bombing but they were inaccurate and police ended up moving more civilians towards the bomb which ended up killing 29 people and causing over 300 non-fatal injuries This was the highest death toll from a single incident during the Troubles

bull It received universal outrage and was condemned even by the PIRA and its political wing Sinn Fein It spurred on the Northern Ireland peace process and the RIRA apologized and called a ceasefire several days after

The Good Friday Agreement and Northern Ireland Peace Process

Beginningsbull Following the 1981 Hunger Strikes Irish republicans began to

increasingly look towards politics rather than violence as a means of achieving their aims Sinn Fein gaelic for ldquoWe Ourselvesrdquo was a fiercely Irish Republican political party which led by the Machiavellian former PIRA leader and Maze inmate Gerry Adams began to push for a more peaceful solution to the Troubles in Northern Ireland

bull It became apparent by the late 1990s that although the PIRA was not losing a war against the British establishment it would be impossible to truly lsquowin the fightrsquo through violence and that any further terrorism would serve not to achieve any real political aim but only to prolong and continue suffering and violence in Northern Ireland and that politics was a much better way of achieving Republican aims

Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein former PIRA Belfast Brigade OC

Good Friday Agreement 1998

bull The Peace Process began in 1994 and included intermittent terrorist ceasefires and political negotiations between the major Irish republican and British unionist parties and culminated on April 10 1998 when the Good Friday Agreement was signed

PM Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern Sign the GFA

GFA Mandatesbull That Northern Ireland was to remain British until a majority of people in Northern

Ireland and the southern Republic of Ireland wanted otherwise bull The creation of an entirely new far less sectarian and religiously diverse Northern

Irish local governmentbull The decommissioning of arms from terrorist groups on both the unionist and

nationalist side of the political divide (ultimately successful all arms decommissioned by 2005)

bull Mutual respect and civil rights between Catholics and Protestants bull The reduction and eventual elimination of British troops in Northern Ireland

(ultimately successful all troops withdrawn by 2005)bull Eventual early prison release for all individuals imprisoned for terrorist offenses as

long as they were apart of a terrorist group that was decommissioning in accordance with the GFA

bull Disbandment of the RUC police service and the installation of the new Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) which was required to be at least 50 Catholic

Northern Ireland Today

Still Conflict But No Warbull Since the complete decommissioning of the arms and

disbandment of the PIRA INLA UDAUFF and UVF due to the Good Friday Agreement there is nowhere near the amount of violence in Northern Ireland or Belfast as there was 20 years ago There are no more weekly bombings and riots and no more British troops patrolling Catholic areas in armored vehicles

bull Despite this there are still occasional riots and clashes with the PSNI several times a year specifically on dates of great historical significance to the Catholic or Protestant communities and there is still a deep distrust and even hatred between many Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland although that continues to change with time

Catholic Slum of Ardoyne Belfast July 2011

Splinter Groups

bull Many former PIRA or UDA terrorists have now taken to organized crime for purely profiteering purposes but are no longer involved in substantial violence or any political-based terrorism

bull Splinter groups such as the Real IRA and Continuity IRA in Catholic communities and the Orange Volunteers and Red Hand Commandos in Protestant communities still conduct occasional violence towards Police and civilians in Northern Ireland but are all rather small poorly armed and poorly funded groups that pose nowhere near the threat that terrorist groups in the 80s and 90s did in Northern Ireland

Herersquos To A Brighter Future in Northern Ireland

Works Citedbull httpwwwbbccoukhistorytroublesbull httpcainulstacukbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiProvisional_Irish_Republican_Armybull httpenwikipediaorgwikiThe_Troublesbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiUlster_Defence_Associationbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiUlster_Volunteer_Forcebull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_National_Liberation_Armybull ldquoA Secret History of the IRArdquo by Ed Moloney ndashWW Norton amp Company Reprint 2003bull ldquoVoices From The Grave Two Menrsquos War in Irelandrdquo by Ed Moloney ndash Public Affairs 2010bull ldquoFifty Dead Men Walkingrdquo by Martin McGartland ndash John Blake 2009bull httpwwwinfopleasecomspotnorthireland1htmlbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_Civil_Warbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_War_of_Independencebull httpenwikipediaorgwiki1981_Irish_hunger_strikebull httpenwikipediaorgwikiDirectory_of_the_Northern_Ireland_Troublesbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiGood_Friday_Agreementbull httpswwwmi5govukhomethe-threatsterrorismnorthern-irelandrepublican-terrorist-groupshtmlbull httpswwwmi5govukhomethe-threatsterrorismnorthern-irelandprovisional-irish-republican-army-

pirahtmlbull httpnewsbbccoukhienglishstaticnorthern_irelandunderstandingeventshunger_strikestm

  • The Troubles
  • Brief Overview
  • 30 Years of Conflict
  • Slide 4
  • Background
  • The Irish War of Independence
  • Slide 7
  • Anglo-Irish Treaty (signed 6 December 1921)
  • Irish Civil War
  • 1922-1966 Ireland
  • The Civil Rights Movement
  • Slide 12
  • Slide 13
  • Objectives of the Civil Rights Movement
  • The 1969 Northern Ireland Riots ndashThe Troubles Begin
  • Culmination of Tension
  • No-Go Areas
  • No-Go Areas (2)
  • Early 1970sndash The Rise of the Provisional IRA
  • The IRA Split
  • Rise of the UVF and Loyalist Terror Groups
  • Beginnings
  • UVF Statement 21 May 1964
  • The Paramilitaries
  • Irish RepublicansCatholics
  • The Provisional IRA
  • IRA Statement Late 80s
  • Statistics
  • RecruitmentFunding
  • Weaponry
  • Weaponry (2)
  • Slide 32
  • Mortars and IEDs
  • EOD Officer Approaches PIRA Car Bomb
  • The Barrack Buster
  • Vigilantism
  • Slide 37
  • Slide 38
  • Policy on Informants
  • Terrorist Activities
  • Terrorist Activities (continued)
  • The INLA
  • Statistics (2)
  • Ideology
  • Terrorist Activities (2)
  • Internal Feuds
  • Slide 47
  • British LoyalistsProtestants
  • The UDAUFF
  • Former UFF Member
  • Statistics (3)
  • Ideology (2)
  • Terrorist Activities (3)
  • Slide 54
  • Organized Crime
  • The UVF
  • Statistics (4)
  • Ideology (3)
  • Terrorist Activities (4)
  • The Shankhill Butchers
  • Weaponry (3)
  • Slide 62
  • Organized Crime (2)
  • Major Incidents 1969-1998
  • Bloody Sunday 30 January 1972
  • Massacre on the Bogside
  • Bloody Friday 21 July 1972
  • A City Under Siege
  • Dublin and Monaghan Bombings 17 May 1974
  • Deadliest Attack of the Troubles
  • Warrenpoint Ambush 27 August 1979
  • Roadside IEDs
  • Summer of 1981 Irish Hunger Strikes
  • A Defining Moment for the Republican Cause
  • The Five Demands
  • Previous Protests
  • Dirty Protesters
  • Thatcherrsquos Response
  • Ten Strikers Die
  • Bobby Sands
  • Reaction to Sandsrsquo Death
  • Conclusion
  • 1983 The Maze Prison Escape
  • The ldquoGreat Escaperdquo
  • 12 October 1984 Brighton Hotel Bombing
  • The PIRA Nearly Gets Thatcher
  • Loughgall Ambush 8 May 1987
  • The SAS Strikes
  • British Army Lynx Shootdown 20 March 1994
  • The PIRA Shoots Down a Helicopter
  • 1996 Manchester Bombing
  • The PIRA Destroys Manchester
  • Omagh Bombing 1998
  • Last Great Deadly Attack of the Troubles
  • The Good Friday Agreement and Northern Ireland Peace Process
  • Beginnings (2)
  • Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein former PIRA Belfast Brigade OC
  • Good Friday Agreement 1998
  • PM Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern Sign the GFA
  • GFA Mandates
  • Northern Ireland Today
  • Still Conflict But No War
  • Catholic Slum of Ardoyne Belfast July 2011
  • Splinter Groups
  • Herersquos To A Brighter Future in Northern Ireland
  • Works Cited
Page 56: The Troubles, 1969-1998

Bloody Sunday 30 January 1972

Massacre on the Bogsidebull In 1972 during a large scale but peaceful civil-rights march in the

troubled predominately Catholic neighborhood of Bogside in Derry 26 unarmed civil rights marchers were shot by members of the British Army 14 of whom were killed Five of those shot were shot in the back

bull After several inquiries into the incident there was found to have been no justifiable provocation from the protestors and no shots fired from the protestors during the march The massacre was conducted in full view of the public and the press

bull The PM David Cameron eventually issued a formal apology to the victims and victimsrsquo families of the massacre after several investigations failed to reveal any justifiable provocation for the massacre

bull The massacre sky-rocketed PIRA membership and recruitment as public perception of the British Army in Catholic communities in Northern Ireland reached an all-time low

Bloody Friday 21 July 1972

A City Under Siege

bull On 21 July 1972 the PIRA detonated 26 bombs in the space of 80 minutes in Belfast destroying banks bridges electrical substations Protestant housing tenements gasoline stations and private garages

bull Although warnings were called in at least 30 minutes prior to each bomb the amount of bombs exploding and the addition of multiple hoax warnings at the same time led to the Security Forces being unable to evacuate all the areas in time 11 people were killed and 130 were injured many of them horrifically mutilated Of those injured 77 were women or children

Dublin and Monaghan Bombings 17 May 1974

Deadliest Attack of the Troubles

bull Perpetrated by the UVF in the southern Republic of Ireland three car bombs exploded in Dublin during rush hour and another exploded in Monaghan around 90 minutes later

bull 33 civilians and a full-term unborn child were killed in the bombing while nearly 300 were injured The UVF did not claim responsibility for the bombings until 1993

bull The majority of those killed were young women although the age range of those killed ranged from 5 months old to 80 years old

Warrenpoint Ambush 27 August 1979

Roadside IEDsbull In the southern part of County Armagh Northern Ireland a predominately-

Catholic rural region and former PIRA stronghold right on the border with the southern Republic of Ireland a British troop convoy was hit with a remote-control detonated roadside 500lb truck-bomb and destroyed instantly killing 6 troops The surviving soldiers then wrongly believed they were under sniper fire from the other side of the Irish border and began firing at civilians immediately after the bombing killing 1 and injuring another

bull 32 minutes after the first bombing the IRA used its knowledge of how the British reacted to bombings to correctly predict that they would set up an incident-command point in a nearby gatehouse Unfortunately for the British there was a second 800lb fertilizer bomb planted near the gatehouse that when detonated killed 12 other soldiers who were responding to the initial bomb

bull It was the deadliest single attack on the British Army during the Troubles and a highly successful attack for the PIRA

Summer of 1981 Irish Hunger Strikes

A Defining Moment for the Republican Cause

bull Beginning on 1 March 1981 led by Bobby Sands 7 PIRA and 3 INLA inmates at the notorious ldquoMazerdquo prison began to refuse food until Margaret Thatcher PM of Great Britain at that time began to recognize terrorist prisoners as political prisoners and allowed them their ldquoFive Demandsrdquo

The Five Demands

bull The right to not wear a prison uniformbull The right to not do prison workbull The right of free association with other

prisoners and to organize in educational and recreational pursuits

bull Full restoration of remission lost through any protests towards these demands

Previous Protestsbull The Maze prison was a very high-security and low-quality prison that

housed almost all PIRA prisoners during the Troubles It was run in a very ethically questionable fashion with frequent beatings and borderline-torture techniques used on Republican prisoners and extremely poor living conditions for prisoners Many Maze prison guards were members of the UDAUVF or had strong connections with one of the two groups as well

bull Massive peaceful protests and marches by Irish republicans outside of the Maze Prison proved unsuccessful in attaining political status for republican prisoners as well as previous inmate protests in 1980 including non-fatal hunger strikes inmates refusing to wear prison uniforms and thus living in their cells naked and prisoners refusing to leave their cells to go to the bathroom until their requests had been granted (they therefore urinated and defecated in their cells and spread their excrement across their cell walls in what was known as the ldquoDirty Protestrdquo)

Dirty Protesters

Thatcherrsquos Response

bull ldquoThose terrorists will carry their determination to disrupt society to any lengths Once again we have a hunger strike in the Maze Prison in the quest for what they call lsquopolitical statusrsquo There is no such thing as political murder political bombing or political violence There is only criminal murder criminal bombing and criminal violence We will not compromise on this There will be no political statusrdquo

Ten Strikers Diebull Bobby Sands the leader of the strike was imprisoned as a PIRA member

on charges of firearm possession and in connection with the bombing of a furniture store He was the first to die after 66 days of not eating Sands was elected to a seat in Parliament whilst on Hunger Strike

bull Following Sandsrsquo death there were riots bus-burnings and attacks on the British embassy in the southern Republic of Ireland there were massive demonstrations in France and Italy a tomato was thrown as Queen Elizabeth II by demonstrators in Oslo and there were massive riots and civil disorder all over the streets of Belfast The South African ANC and (at the time) terrorist Nelson Mandela expressed their support for the PIRA and the hunger strikers (Mandela himself claimed he was directly inspired by Sands to undertake hunger strikes against the Apartheid government in South Africa) as well as the Palestine Liberation Organization a middle-eastern terror group

bull Over 100000 attended Sandsrsquo funeral

Bobby Sands

ldquoOur revenge will be the laughter of our childrenrdquo

Reaction to Sandsrsquo Death

>

Conclusion

bull The Hunger Strike was eventually called off after 10 strikers including Sands had died

bull James Prior newly installed secretary of state of Northern Ireland granted the prisoners partial concessions all of the Five Demands except for the right to not do prison work Margaret Thatcher refused to budge on political status

bull The Hunger Strikes opened a new way for the PIRA to pursue its objectives politically whereas previously it had seen violence as the only solution to the plight of Irish nationalists in Northern Ireland

1983 The Maze Prison Escape

The ldquoGreat Escaperdquo

bull Using smuggled-in guns and knives 38 PIRA prisoners who had been convicted of offenses ranging from murder to causing explosions escaped from one of the most high-security prisons in Europe They completely took over the H7 prison block and took their prison guards hostage before escaping in a food supply truck Several prison guards were shot and stabbed but only one died of a heart attack during the escape

bull Fifteen escapees were recaptured the first day with four more captured over the next two days following the breakout The remaining 19 were transported to PIRA strongholds and given the option to either rejoin the IRArsquos cause or be transported to the United States to live under a new identity

12 October 1984 Brighton Hotel Bombing

The PIRA Nearly Gets Thatcherbull Margaret Thatcher the highly controversial far-right British PM from

1979-1990 had become a tremendously hated figure amongst the Irish nationalist community in Northern Ireland following the 1981 Hunger Strikes and for her general uncompromising stand on Irish republicanism

bull PIRA man Patrick Magee stayed at the Brighton Hotel from the 14-17 September 1984 planting a 20-lb bomb under his bath

bull Thatcher was staying at the Brighton Hotel for a political conference and was still up at 254AM on 12 October when the bomb was detonated The bomb decimated her bathroom but left the bedroom and sitting room of her suite largely unscathed

bull The PIRA statement to Thatcher afterwards was ldquoToday we were unlucky But remember we only have to be lucky once You will have to be lucky alwaysrdquo

Loughgall Ambush 8 May 1987

The SAS Strikes

bull A botched attack on Loughgall Villagersquos RUC Police Base in which the PIRA drove a backhoe into the fortified base and ran away to detonate the bomb that was inside of the backhoe went wrong as the SAS the British Special Forces had prior knowledge of the attack and quickly dispatched the 8 PIRA members involved

bull Although the RUC base was wrecked and bombed there were no RUC or SAS casualties and it was the PIRArsquos greatest loss of life in a single incident during the Troubles

British Army Lynx Shootdown 20 March 1994

The PIRA Shoots Down a Helicopter

bull Using the previously mentioned Barrack-Buster homemade mortar PIRA insurgents were able to fire on a British helicopter that was in the process of landing whilst hiding behind a hay bail from around 150 yards out

bull The helicopter was hit with the mortar shell around 100 feet above the ground but the pilot was able to successfully crash-land the helicopter and escape before its propane tanks exploded There were no casualties but the attack was a major propaganda coup for the PIRA

1996 Manchester Bombing

The PIRA Destroys Manchester

bull On Saturday 15 June 1996 the PIRA sent in telephoned warnings and 90 minutes later detonated a 3300lb fertilizer-based truck bomb in the heart of Manchester City Centre the biggest bomb detonated in Great Britain during peacetime The bomb killed nobody due to previous warnings but led to 212 non-fatal injuries and essentially destroyed Manchester City Centre leaving approximately 700 million pounds ($12bn) worth of damage in its wake

Omagh Bombing 1998

Last Great Deadly Attack of the Troubles

bull Perpetrated by a Provisional IRA splinter group that was rejecting the peace process calling themselves the ldquoReal IRArdquo the 510lb fertilizer-based bomb was placed on main street in the town of Omagh Northern Ireland Warnings were called in approximately 30 minutes before the bombing but they were inaccurate and police ended up moving more civilians towards the bomb which ended up killing 29 people and causing over 300 non-fatal injuries This was the highest death toll from a single incident during the Troubles

bull It received universal outrage and was condemned even by the PIRA and its political wing Sinn Fein It spurred on the Northern Ireland peace process and the RIRA apologized and called a ceasefire several days after

The Good Friday Agreement and Northern Ireland Peace Process

Beginningsbull Following the 1981 Hunger Strikes Irish republicans began to

increasingly look towards politics rather than violence as a means of achieving their aims Sinn Fein gaelic for ldquoWe Ourselvesrdquo was a fiercely Irish Republican political party which led by the Machiavellian former PIRA leader and Maze inmate Gerry Adams began to push for a more peaceful solution to the Troubles in Northern Ireland

bull It became apparent by the late 1990s that although the PIRA was not losing a war against the British establishment it would be impossible to truly lsquowin the fightrsquo through violence and that any further terrorism would serve not to achieve any real political aim but only to prolong and continue suffering and violence in Northern Ireland and that politics was a much better way of achieving Republican aims

Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein former PIRA Belfast Brigade OC

Good Friday Agreement 1998

bull The Peace Process began in 1994 and included intermittent terrorist ceasefires and political negotiations between the major Irish republican and British unionist parties and culminated on April 10 1998 when the Good Friday Agreement was signed

PM Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern Sign the GFA

GFA Mandatesbull That Northern Ireland was to remain British until a majority of people in Northern

Ireland and the southern Republic of Ireland wanted otherwise bull The creation of an entirely new far less sectarian and religiously diverse Northern

Irish local governmentbull The decommissioning of arms from terrorist groups on both the unionist and

nationalist side of the political divide (ultimately successful all arms decommissioned by 2005)

bull Mutual respect and civil rights between Catholics and Protestants bull The reduction and eventual elimination of British troops in Northern Ireland

(ultimately successful all troops withdrawn by 2005)bull Eventual early prison release for all individuals imprisoned for terrorist offenses as

long as they were apart of a terrorist group that was decommissioning in accordance with the GFA

bull Disbandment of the RUC police service and the installation of the new Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) which was required to be at least 50 Catholic

Northern Ireland Today

Still Conflict But No Warbull Since the complete decommissioning of the arms and

disbandment of the PIRA INLA UDAUFF and UVF due to the Good Friday Agreement there is nowhere near the amount of violence in Northern Ireland or Belfast as there was 20 years ago There are no more weekly bombings and riots and no more British troops patrolling Catholic areas in armored vehicles

bull Despite this there are still occasional riots and clashes with the PSNI several times a year specifically on dates of great historical significance to the Catholic or Protestant communities and there is still a deep distrust and even hatred between many Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland although that continues to change with time

Catholic Slum of Ardoyne Belfast July 2011

Splinter Groups

bull Many former PIRA or UDA terrorists have now taken to organized crime for purely profiteering purposes but are no longer involved in substantial violence or any political-based terrorism

bull Splinter groups such as the Real IRA and Continuity IRA in Catholic communities and the Orange Volunteers and Red Hand Commandos in Protestant communities still conduct occasional violence towards Police and civilians in Northern Ireland but are all rather small poorly armed and poorly funded groups that pose nowhere near the threat that terrorist groups in the 80s and 90s did in Northern Ireland

Herersquos To A Brighter Future in Northern Ireland

Works Citedbull httpwwwbbccoukhistorytroublesbull httpcainulstacukbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiProvisional_Irish_Republican_Armybull httpenwikipediaorgwikiThe_Troublesbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiUlster_Defence_Associationbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiUlster_Volunteer_Forcebull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_National_Liberation_Armybull ldquoA Secret History of the IRArdquo by Ed Moloney ndashWW Norton amp Company Reprint 2003bull ldquoVoices From The Grave Two Menrsquos War in Irelandrdquo by Ed Moloney ndash Public Affairs 2010bull ldquoFifty Dead Men Walkingrdquo by Martin McGartland ndash John Blake 2009bull httpwwwinfopleasecomspotnorthireland1htmlbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_Civil_Warbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_War_of_Independencebull httpenwikipediaorgwiki1981_Irish_hunger_strikebull httpenwikipediaorgwikiDirectory_of_the_Northern_Ireland_Troublesbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiGood_Friday_Agreementbull httpswwwmi5govukhomethe-threatsterrorismnorthern-irelandrepublican-terrorist-groupshtmlbull httpswwwmi5govukhomethe-threatsterrorismnorthern-irelandprovisional-irish-republican-army-

pirahtmlbull httpnewsbbccoukhienglishstaticnorthern_irelandunderstandingeventshunger_strikestm

  • The Troubles
  • Brief Overview
  • 30 Years of Conflict
  • Slide 4
  • Background
  • The Irish War of Independence
  • Slide 7
  • Anglo-Irish Treaty (signed 6 December 1921)
  • Irish Civil War
  • 1922-1966 Ireland
  • The Civil Rights Movement
  • Slide 12
  • Slide 13
  • Objectives of the Civil Rights Movement
  • The 1969 Northern Ireland Riots ndashThe Troubles Begin
  • Culmination of Tension
  • No-Go Areas
  • No-Go Areas (2)
  • Early 1970sndash The Rise of the Provisional IRA
  • The IRA Split
  • Rise of the UVF and Loyalist Terror Groups
  • Beginnings
  • UVF Statement 21 May 1964
  • The Paramilitaries
  • Irish RepublicansCatholics
  • The Provisional IRA
  • IRA Statement Late 80s
  • Statistics
  • RecruitmentFunding
  • Weaponry
  • Weaponry (2)
  • Slide 32
  • Mortars and IEDs
  • EOD Officer Approaches PIRA Car Bomb
  • The Barrack Buster
  • Vigilantism
  • Slide 37
  • Slide 38
  • Policy on Informants
  • Terrorist Activities
  • Terrorist Activities (continued)
  • The INLA
  • Statistics (2)
  • Ideology
  • Terrorist Activities (2)
  • Internal Feuds
  • Slide 47
  • British LoyalistsProtestants
  • The UDAUFF
  • Former UFF Member
  • Statistics (3)
  • Ideology (2)
  • Terrorist Activities (3)
  • Slide 54
  • Organized Crime
  • The UVF
  • Statistics (4)
  • Ideology (3)
  • Terrorist Activities (4)
  • The Shankhill Butchers
  • Weaponry (3)
  • Slide 62
  • Organized Crime (2)
  • Major Incidents 1969-1998
  • Bloody Sunday 30 January 1972
  • Massacre on the Bogside
  • Bloody Friday 21 July 1972
  • A City Under Siege
  • Dublin and Monaghan Bombings 17 May 1974
  • Deadliest Attack of the Troubles
  • Warrenpoint Ambush 27 August 1979
  • Roadside IEDs
  • Summer of 1981 Irish Hunger Strikes
  • A Defining Moment for the Republican Cause
  • The Five Demands
  • Previous Protests
  • Dirty Protesters
  • Thatcherrsquos Response
  • Ten Strikers Die
  • Bobby Sands
  • Reaction to Sandsrsquo Death
  • Conclusion
  • 1983 The Maze Prison Escape
  • The ldquoGreat Escaperdquo
  • 12 October 1984 Brighton Hotel Bombing
  • The PIRA Nearly Gets Thatcher
  • Loughgall Ambush 8 May 1987
  • The SAS Strikes
  • British Army Lynx Shootdown 20 March 1994
  • The PIRA Shoots Down a Helicopter
  • 1996 Manchester Bombing
  • The PIRA Destroys Manchester
  • Omagh Bombing 1998
  • Last Great Deadly Attack of the Troubles
  • The Good Friday Agreement and Northern Ireland Peace Process
  • Beginnings (2)
  • Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein former PIRA Belfast Brigade OC
  • Good Friday Agreement 1998
  • PM Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern Sign the GFA
  • GFA Mandates
  • Northern Ireland Today
  • Still Conflict But No War
  • Catholic Slum of Ardoyne Belfast July 2011
  • Splinter Groups
  • Herersquos To A Brighter Future in Northern Ireland
  • Works Cited
Page 57: The Troubles, 1969-1998

Massacre on the Bogsidebull In 1972 during a large scale but peaceful civil-rights march in the

troubled predominately Catholic neighborhood of Bogside in Derry 26 unarmed civil rights marchers were shot by members of the British Army 14 of whom were killed Five of those shot were shot in the back

bull After several inquiries into the incident there was found to have been no justifiable provocation from the protestors and no shots fired from the protestors during the march The massacre was conducted in full view of the public and the press

bull The PM David Cameron eventually issued a formal apology to the victims and victimsrsquo families of the massacre after several investigations failed to reveal any justifiable provocation for the massacre

bull The massacre sky-rocketed PIRA membership and recruitment as public perception of the British Army in Catholic communities in Northern Ireland reached an all-time low

Bloody Friday 21 July 1972

A City Under Siege

bull On 21 July 1972 the PIRA detonated 26 bombs in the space of 80 minutes in Belfast destroying banks bridges electrical substations Protestant housing tenements gasoline stations and private garages

bull Although warnings were called in at least 30 minutes prior to each bomb the amount of bombs exploding and the addition of multiple hoax warnings at the same time led to the Security Forces being unable to evacuate all the areas in time 11 people were killed and 130 were injured many of them horrifically mutilated Of those injured 77 were women or children

Dublin and Monaghan Bombings 17 May 1974

Deadliest Attack of the Troubles

bull Perpetrated by the UVF in the southern Republic of Ireland three car bombs exploded in Dublin during rush hour and another exploded in Monaghan around 90 minutes later

bull 33 civilians and a full-term unborn child were killed in the bombing while nearly 300 were injured The UVF did not claim responsibility for the bombings until 1993

bull The majority of those killed were young women although the age range of those killed ranged from 5 months old to 80 years old

Warrenpoint Ambush 27 August 1979

Roadside IEDsbull In the southern part of County Armagh Northern Ireland a predominately-

Catholic rural region and former PIRA stronghold right on the border with the southern Republic of Ireland a British troop convoy was hit with a remote-control detonated roadside 500lb truck-bomb and destroyed instantly killing 6 troops The surviving soldiers then wrongly believed they were under sniper fire from the other side of the Irish border and began firing at civilians immediately after the bombing killing 1 and injuring another

bull 32 minutes after the first bombing the IRA used its knowledge of how the British reacted to bombings to correctly predict that they would set up an incident-command point in a nearby gatehouse Unfortunately for the British there was a second 800lb fertilizer bomb planted near the gatehouse that when detonated killed 12 other soldiers who were responding to the initial bomb

bull It was the deadliest single attack on the British Army during the Troubles and a highly successful attack for the PIRA

Summer of 1981 Irish Hunger Strikes

A Defining Moment for the Republican Cause

bull Beginning on 1 March 1981 led by Bobby Sands 7 PIRA and 3 INLA inmates at the notorious ldquoMazerdquo prison began to refuse food until Margaret Thatcher PM of Great Britain at that time began to recognize terrorist prisoners as political prisoners and allowed them their ldquoFive Demandsrdquo

The Five Demands

bull The right to not wear a prison uniformbull The right to not do prison workbull The right of free association with other

prisoners and to organize in educational and recreational pursuits

bull Full restoration of remission lost through any protests towards these demands

Previous Protestsbull The Maze prison was a very high-security and low-quality prison that

housed almost all PIRA prisoners during the Troubles It was run in a very ethically questionable fashion with frequent beatings and borderline-torture techniques used on Republican prisoners and extremely poor living conditions for prisoners Many Maze prison guards were members of the UDAUVF or had strong connections with one of the two groups as well

bull Massive peaceful protests and marches by Irish republicans outside of the Maze Prison proved unsuccessful in attaining political status for republican prisoners as well as previous inmate protests in 1980 including non-fatal hunger strikes inmates refusing to wear prison uniforms and thus living in their cells naked and prisoners refusing to leave their cells to go to the bathroom until their requests had been granted (they therefore urinated and defecated in their cells and spread their excrement across their cell walls in what was known as the ldquoDirty Protestrdquo)

Dirty Protesters

Thatcherrsquos Response

bull ldquoThose terrorists will carry their determination to disrupt society to any lengths Once again we have a hunger strike in the Maze Prison in the quest for what they call lsquopolitical statusrsquo There is no such thing as political murder political bombing or political violence There is only criminal murder criminal bombing and criminal violence We will not compromise on this There will be no political statusrdquo

Ten Strikers Diebull Bobby Sands the leader of the strike was imprisoned as a PIRA member

on charges of firearm possession and in connection with the bombing of a furniture store He was the first to die after 66 days of not eating Sands was elected to a seat in Parliament whilst on Hunger Strike

bull Following Sandsrsquo death there were riots bus-burnings and attacks on the British embassy in the southern Republic of Ireland there were massive demonstrations in France and Italy a tomato was thrown as Queen Elizabeth II by demonstrators in Oslo and there were massive riots and civil disorder all over the streets of Belfast The South African ANC and (at the time) terrorist Nelson Mandela expressed their support for the PIRA and the hunger strikers (Mandela himself claimed he was directly inspired by Sands to undertake hunger strikes against the Apartheid government in South Africa) as well as the Palestine Liberation Organization a middle-eastern terror group

bull Over 100000 attended Sandsrsquo funeral

Bobby Sands

ldquoOur revenge will be the laughter of our childrenrdquo

Reaction to Sandsrsquo Death

>

Conclusion

bull The Hunger Strike was eventually called off after 10 strikers including Sands had died

bull James Prior newly installed secretary of state of Northern Ireland granted the prisoners partial concessions all of the Five Demands except for the right to not do prison work Margaret Thatcher refused to budge on political status

bull The Hunger Strikes opened a new way for the PIRA to pursue its objectives politically whereas previously it had seen violence as the only solution to the plight of Irish nationalists in Northern Ireland

1983 The Maze Prison Escape

The ldquoGreat Escaperdquo

bull Using smuggled-in guns and knives 38 PIRA prisoners who had been convicted of offenses ranging from murder to causing explosions escaped from one of the most high-security prisons in Europe They completely took over the H7 prison block and took their prison guards hostage before escaping in a food supply truck Several prison guards were shot and stabbed but only one died of a heart attack during the escape

bull Fifteen escapees were recaptured the first day with four more captured over the next two days following the breakout The remaining 19 were transported to PIRA strongholds and given the option to either rejoin the IRArsquos cause or be transported to the United States to live under a new identity

12 October 1984 Brighton Hotel Bombing

The PIRA Nearly Gets Thatcherbull Margaret Thatcher the highly controversial far-right British PM from

1979-1990 had become a tremendously hated figure amongst the Irish nationalist community in Northern Ireland following the 1981 Hunger Strikes and for her general uncompromising stand on Irish republicanism

bull PIRA man Patrick Magee stayed at the Brighton Hotel from the 14-17 September 1984 planting a 20-lb bomb under his bath

bull Thatcher was staying at the Brighton Hotel for a political conference and was still up at 254AM on 12 October when the bomb was detonated The bomb decimated her bathroom but left the bedroom and sitting room of her suite largely unscathed

bull The PIRA statement to Thatcher afterwards was ldquoToday we were unlucky But remember we only have to be lucky once You will have to be lucky alwaysrdquo

Loughgall Ambush 8 May 1987

The SAS Strikes

bull A botched attack on Loughgall Villagersquos RUC Police Base in which the PIRA drove a backhoe into the fortified base and ran away to detonate the bomb that was inside of the backhoe went wrong as the SAS the British Special Forces had prior knowledge of the attack and quickly dispatched the 8 PIRA members involved

bull Although the RUC base was wrecked and bombed there were no RUC or SAS casualties and it was the PIRArsquos greatest loss of life in a single incident during the Troubles

British Army Lynx Shootdown 20 March 1994

The PIRA Shoots Down a Helicopter

bull Using the previously mentioned Barrack-Buster homemade mortar PIRA insurgents were able to fire on a British helicopter that was in the process of landing whilst hiding behind a hay bail from around 150 yards out

bull The helicopter was hit with the mortar shell around 100 feet above the ground but the pilot was able to successfully crash-land the helicopter and escape before its propane tanks exploded There were no casualties but the attack was a major propaganda coup for the PIRA

1996 Manchester Bombing

The PIRA Destroys Manchester

bull On Saturday 15 June 1996 the PIRA sent in telephoned warnings and 90 minutes later detonated a 3300lb fertilizer-based truck bomb in the heart of Manchester City Centre the biggest bomb detonated in Great Britain during peacetime The bomb killed nobody due to previous warnings but led to 212 non-fatal injuries and essentially destroyed Manchester City Centre leaving approximately 700 million pounds ($12bn) worth of damage in its wake

Omagh Bombing 1998

Last Great Deadly Attack of the Troubles

bull Perpetrated by a Provisional IRA splinter group that was rejecting the peace process calling themselves the ldquoReal IRArdquo the 510lb fertilizer-based bomb was placed on main street in the town of Omagh Northern Ireland Warnings were called in approximately 30 minutes before the bombing but they were inaccurate and police ended up moving more civilians towards the bomb which ended up killing 29 people and causing over 300 non-fatal injuries This was the highest death toll from a single incident during the Troubles

bull It received universal outrage and was condemned even by the PIRA and its political wing Sinn Fein It spurred on the Northern Ireland peace process and the RIRA apologized and called a ceasefire several days after

The Good Friday Agreement and Northern Ireland Peace Process

Beginningsbull Following the 1981 Hunger Strikes Irish republicans began to

increasingly look towards politics rather than violence as a means of achieving their aims Sinn Fein gaelic for ldquoWe Ourselvesrdquo was a fiercely Irish Republican political party which led by the Machiavellian former PIRA leader and Maze inmate Gerry Adams began to push for a more peaceful solution to the Troubles in Northern Ireland

bull It became apparent by the late 1990s that although the PIRA was not losing a war against the British establishment it would be impossible to truly lsquowin the fightrsquo through violence and that any further terrorism would serve not to achieve any real political aim but only to prolong and continue suffering and violence in Northern Ireland and that politics was a much better way of achieving Republican aims

Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein former PIRA Belfast Brigade OC

Good Friday Agreement 1998

bull The Peace Process began in 1994 and included intermittent terrorist ceasefires and political negotiations between the major Irish republican and British unionist parties and culminated on April 10 1998 when the Good Friday Agreement was signed

PM Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern Sign the GFA

GFA Mandatesbull That Northern Ireland was to remain British until a majority of people in Northern

Ireland and the southern Republic of Ireland wanted otherwise bull The creation of an entirely new far less sectarian and religiously diverse Northern

Irish local governmentbull The decommissioning of arms from terrorist groups on both the unionist and

nationalist side of the political divide (ultimately successful all arms decommissioned by 2005)

bull Mutual respect and civil rights between Catholics and Protestants bull The reduction and eventual elimination of British troops in Northern Ireland

(ultimately successful all troops withdrawn by 2005)bull Eventual early prison release for all individuals imprisoned for terrorist offenses as

long as they were apart of a terrorist group that was decommissioning in accordance with the GFA

bull Disbandment of the RUC police service and the installation of the new Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) which was required to be at least 50 Catholic

Northern Ireland Today

Still Conflict But No Warbull Since the complete decommissioning of the arms and

disbandment of the PIRA INLA UDAUFF and UVF due to the Good Friday Agreement there is nowhere near the amount of violence in Northern Ireland or Belfast as there was 20 years ago There are no more weekly bombings and riots and no more British troops patrolling Catholic areas in armored vehicles

bull Despite this there are still occasional riots and clashes with the PSNI several times a year specifically on dates of great historical significance to the Catholic or Protestant communities and there is still a deep distrust and even hatred between many Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland although that continues to change with time

Catholic Slum of Ardoyne Belfast July 2011

Splinter Groups

bull Many former PIRA or UDA terrorists have now taken to organized crime for purely profiteering purposes but are no longer involved in substantial violence or any political-based terrorism

bull Splinter groups such as the Real IRA and Continuity IRA in Catholic communities and the Orange Volunteers and Red Hand Commandos in Protestant communities still conduct occasional violence towards Police and civilians in Northern Ireland but are all rather small poorly armed and poorly funded groups that pose nowhere near the threat that terrorist groups in the 80s and 90s did in Northern Ireland

Herersquos To A Brighter Future in Northern Ireland

Works Citedbull httpwwwbbccoukhistorytroublesbull httpcainulstacukbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiProvisional_Irish_Republican_Armybull httpenwikipediaorgwikiThe_Troublesbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiUlster_Defence_Associationbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiUlster_Volunteer_Forcebull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_National_Liberation_Armybull ldquoA Secret History of the IRArdquo by Ed Moloney ndashWW Norton amp Company Reprint 2003bull ldquoVoices From The Grave Two Menrsquos War in Irelandrdquo by Ed Moloney ndash Public Affairs 2010bull ldquoFifty Dead Men Walkingrdquo by Martin McGartland ndash John Blake 2009bull httpwwwinfopleasecomspotnorthireland1htmlbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_Civil_Warbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_War_of_Independencebull httpenwikipediaorgwiki1981_Irish_hunger_strikebull httpenwikipediaorgwikiDirectory_of_the_Northern_Ireland_Troublesbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiGood_Friday_Agreementbull httpswwwmi5govukhomethe-threatsterrorismnorthern-irelandrepublican-terrorist-groupshtmlbull httpswwwmi5govukhomethe-threatsterrorismnorthern-irelandprovisional-irish-republican-army-

pirahtmlbull httpnewsbbccoukhienglishstaticnorthern_irelandunderstandingeventshunger_strikestm

  • The Troubles
  • Brief Overview
  • 30 Years of Conflict
  • Slide 4
  • Background
  • The Irish War of Independence
  • Slide 7
  • Anglo-Irish Treaty (signed 6 December 1921)
  • Irish Civil War
  • 1922-1966 Ireland
  • The Civil Rights Movement
  • Slide 12
  • Slide 13
  • Objectives of the Civil Rights Movement
  • The 1969 Northern Ireland Riots ndashThe Troubles Begin
  • Culmination of Tension
  • No-Go Areas
  • No-Go Areas (2)
  • Early 1970sndash The Rise of the Provisional IRA
  • The IRA Split
  • Rise of the UVF and Loyalist Terror Groups
  • Beginnings
  • UVF Statement 21 May 1964
  • The Paramilitaries
  • Irish RepublicansCatholics
  • The Provisional IRA
  • IRA Statement Late 80s
  • Statistics
  • RecruitmentFunding
  • Weaponry
  • Weaponry (2)
  • Slide 32
  • Mortars and IEDs
  • EOD Officer Approaches PIRA Car Bomb
  • The Barrack Buster
  • Vigilantism
  • Slide 37
  • Slide 38
  • Policy on Informants
  • Terrorist Activities
  • Terrorist Activities (continued)
  • The INLA
  • Statistics (2)
  • Ideology
  • Terrorist Activities (2)
  • Internal Feuds
  • Slide 47
  • British LoyalistsProtestants
  • The UDAUFF
  • Former UFF Member
  • Statistics (3)
  • Ideology (2)
  • Terrorist Activities (3)
  • Slide 54
  • Organized Crime
  • The UVF
  • Statistics (4)
  • Ideology (3)
  • Terrorist Activities (4)
  • The Shankhill Butchers
  • Weaponry (3)
  • Slide 62
  • Organized Crime (2)
  • Major Incidents 1969-1998
  • Bloody Sunday 30 January 1972
  • Massacre on the Bogside
  • Bloody Friday 21 July 1972
  • A City Under Siege
  • Dublin and Monaghan Bombings 17 May 1974
  • Deadliest Attack of the Troubles
  • Warrenpoint Ambush 27 August 1979
  • Roadside IEDs
  • Summer of 1981 Irish Hunger Strikes
  • A Defining Moment for the Republican Cause
  • The Five Demands
  • Previous Protests
  • Dirty Protesters
  • Thatcherrsquos Response
  • Ten Strikers Die
  • Bobby Sands
  • Reaction to Sandsrsquo Death
  • Conclusion
  • 1983 The Maze Prison Escape
  • The ldquoGreat Escaperdquo
  • 12 October 1984 Brighton Hotel Bombing
  • The PIRA Nearly Gets Thatcher
  • Loughgall Ambush 8 May 1987
  • The SAS Strikes
  • British Army Lynx Shootdown 20 March 1994
  • The PIRA Shoots Down a Helicopter
  • 1996 Manchester Bombing
  • The PIRA Destroys Manchester
  • Omagh Bombing 1998
  • Last Great Deadly Attack of the Troubles
  • The Good Friday Agreement and Northern Ireland Peace Process
  • Beginnings (2)
  • Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein former PIRA Belfast Brigade OC
  • Good Friday Agreement 1998
  • PM Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern Sign the GFA
  • GFA Mandates
  • Northern Ireland Today
  • Still Conflict But No War
  • Catholic Slum of Ardoyne Belfast July 2011
  • Splinter Groups
  • Herersquos To A Brighter Future in Northern Ireland
  • Works Cited
Page 58: The Troubles, 1969-1998

Bloody Friday 21 July 1972

A City Under Siege

bull On 21 July 1972 the PIRA detonated 26 bombs in the space of 80 minutes in Belfast destroying banks bridges electrical substations Protestant housing tenements gasoline stations and private garages

bull Although warnings were called in at least 30 minutes prior to each bomb the amount of bombs exploding and the addition of multiple hoax warnings at the same time led to the Security Forces being unable to evacuate all the areas in time 11 people were killed and 130 were injured many of them horrifically mutilated Of those injured 77 were women or children

Dublin and Monaghan Bombings 17 May 1974

Deadliest Attack of the Troubles

bull Perpetrated by the UVF in the southern Republic of Ireland three car bombs exploded in Dublin during rush hour and another exploded in Monaghan around 90 minutes later

bull 33 civilians and a full-term unborn child were killed in the bombing while nearly 300 were injured The UVF did not claim responsibility for the bombings until 1993

bull The majority of those killed were young women although the age range of those killed ranged from 5 months old to 80 years old

Warrenpoint Ambush 27 August 1979

Roadside IEDsbull In the southern part of County Armagh Northern Ireland a predominately-

Catholic rural region and former PIRA stronghold right on the border with the southern Republic of Ireland a British troop convoy was hit with a remote-control detonated roadside 500lb truck-bomb and destroyed instantly killing 6 troops The surviving soldiers then wrongly believed they were under sniper fire from the other side of the Irish border and began firing at civilians immediately after the bombing killing 1 and injuring another

bull 32 minutes after the first bombing the IRA used its knowledge of how the British reacted to bombings to correctly predict that they would set up an incident-command point in a nearby gatehouse Unfortunately for the British there was a second 800lb fertilizer bomb planted near the gatehouse that when detonated killed 12 other soldiers who were responding to the initial bomb

bull It was the deadliest single attack on the British Army during the Troubles and a highly successful attack for the PIRA

Summer of 1981 Irish Hunger Strikes

A Defining Moment for the Republican Cause

bull Beginning on 1 March 1981 led by Bobby Sands 7 PIRA and 3 INLA inmates at the notorious ldquoMazerdquo prison began to refuse food until Margaret Thatcher PM of Great Britain at that time began to recognize terrorist prisoners as political prisoners and allowed them their ldquoFive Demandsrdquo

The Five Demands

bull The right to not wear a prison uniformbull The right to not do prison workbull The right of free association with other

prisoners and to organize in educational and recreational pursuits

bull Full restoration of remission lost through any protests towards these demands

Previous Protestsbull The Maze prison was a very high-security and low-quality prison that

housed almost all PIRA prisoners during the Troubles It was run in a very ethically questionable fashion with frequent beatings and borderline-torture techniques used on Republican prisoners and extremely poor living conditions for prisoners Many Maze prison guards were members of the UDAUVF or had strong connections with one of the two groups as well

bull Massive peaceful protests and marches by Irish republicans outside of the Maze Prison proved unsuccessful in attaining political status for republican prisoners as well as previous inmate protests in 1980 including non-fatal hunger strikes inmates refusing to wear prison uniforms and thus living in their cells naked and prisoners refusing to leave their cells to go to the bathroom until their requests had been granted (they therefore urinated and defecated in their cells and spread their excrement across their cell walls in what was known as the ldquoDirty Protestrdquo)

Dirty Protesters

Thatcherrsquos Response

bull ldquoThose terrorists will carry their determination to disrupt society to any lengths Once again we have a hunger strike in the Maze Prison in the quest for what they call lsquopolitical statusrsquo There is no such thing as political murder political bombing or political violence There is only criminal murder criminal bombing and criminal violence We will not compromise on this There will be no political statusrdquo

Ten Strikers Diebull Bobby Sands the leader of the strike was imprisoned as a PIRA member

on charges of firearm possession and in connection with the bombing of a furniture store He was the first to die after 66 days of not eating Sands was elected to a seat in Parliament whilst on Hunger Strike

bull Following Sandsrsquo death there were riots bus-burnings and attacks on the British embassy in the southern Republic of Ireland there were massive demonstrations in France and Italy a tomato was thrown as Queen Elizabeth II by demonstrators in Oslo and there were massive riots and civil disorder all over the streets of Belfast The South African ANC and (at the time) terrorist Nelson Mandela expressed their support for the PIRA and the hunger strikers (Mandela himself claimed he was directly inspired by Sands to undertake hunger strikes against the Apartheid government in South Africa) as well as the Palestine Liberation Organization a middle-eastern terror group

bull Over 100000 attended Sandsrsquo funeral

Bobby Sands

ldquoOur revenge will be the laughter of our childrenrdquo

Reaction to Sandsrsquo Death

>

Conclusion

bull The Hunger Strike was eventually called off after 10 strikers including Sands had died

bull James Prior newly installed secretary of state of Northern Ireland granted the prisoners partial concessions all of the Five Demands except for the right to not do prison work Margaret Thatcher refused to budge on political status

bull The Hunger Strikes opened a new way for the PIRA to pursue its objectives politically whereas previously it had seen violence as the only solution to the plight of Irish nationalists in Northern Ireland

1983 The Maze Prison Escape

The ldquoGreat Escaperdquo

bull Using smuggled-in guns and knives 38 PIRA prisoners who had been convicted of offenses ranging from murder to causing explosions escaped from one of the most high-security prisons in Europe They completely took over the H7 prison block and took their prison guards hostage before escaping in a food supply truck Several prison guards were shot and stabbed but only one died of a heart attack during the escape

bull Fifteen escapees were recaptured the first day with four more captured over the next two days following the breakout The remaining 19 were transported to PIRA strongholds and given the option to either rejoin the IRArsquos cause or be transported to the United States to live under a new identity

12 October 1984 Brighton Hotel Bombing

The PIRA Nearly Gets Thatcherbull Margaret Thatcher the highly controversial far-right British PM from

1979-1990 had become a tremendously hated figure amongst the Irish nationalist community in Northern Ireland following the 1981 Hunger Strikes and for her general uncompromising stand on Irish republicanism

bull PIRA man Patrick Magee stayed at the Brighton Hotel from the 14-17 September 1984 planting a 20-lb bomb under his bath

bull Thatcher was staying at the Brighton Hotel for a political conference and was still up at 254AM on 12 October when the bomb was detonated The bomb decimated her bathroom but left the bedroom and sitting room of her suite largely unscathed

bull The PIRA statement to Thatcher afterwards was ldquoToday we were unlucky But remember we only have to be lucky once You will have to be lucky alwaysrdquo

Loughgall Ambush 8 May 1987

The SAS Strikes

bull A botched attack on Loughgall Villagersquos RUC Police Base in which the PIRA drove a backhoe into the fortified base and ran away to detonate the bomb that was inside of the backhoe went wrong as the SAS the British Special Forces had prior knowledge of the attack and quickly dispatched the 8 PIRA members involved

bull Although the RUC base was wrecked and bombed there were no RUC or SAS casualties and it was the PIRArsquos greatest loss of life in a single incident during the Troubles

British Army Lynx Shootdown 20 March 1994

The PIRA Shoots Down a Helicopter

bull Using the previously mentioned Barrack-Buster homemade mortar PIRA insurgents were able to fire on a British helicopter that was in the process of landing whilst hiding behind a hay bail from around 150 yards out

bull The helicopter was hit with the mortar shell around 100 feet above the ground but the pilot was able to successfully crash-land the helicopter and escape before its propane tanks exploded There were no casualties but the attack was a major propaganda coup for the PIRA

1996 Manchester Bombing

The PIRA Destroys Manchester

bull On Saturday 15 June 1996 the PIRA sent in telephoned warnings and 90 minutes later detonated a 3300lb fertilizer-based truck bomb in the heart of Manchester City Centre the biggest bomb detonated in Great Britain during peacetime The bomb killed nobody due to previous warnings but led to 212 non-fatal injuries and essentially destroyed Manchester City Centre leaving approximately 700 million pounds ($12bn) worth of damage in its wake

Omagh Bombing 1998

Last Great Deadly Attack of the Troubles

bull Perpetrated by a Provisional IRA splinter group that was rejecting the peace process calling themselves the ldquoReal IRArdquo the 510lb fertilizer-based bomb was placed on main street in the town of Omagh Northern Ireland Warnings were called in approximately 30 minutes before the bombing but they were inaccurate and police ended up moving more civilians towards the bomb which ended up killing 29 people and causing over 300 non-fatal injuries This was the highest death toll from a single incident during the Troubles

bull It received universal outrage and was condemned even by the PIRA and its political wing Sinn Fein It spurred on the Northern Ireland peace process and the RIRA apologized and called a ceasefire several days after

The Good Friday Agreement and Northern Ireland Peace Process

Beginningsbull Following the 1981 Hunger Strikes Irish republicans began to

increasingly look towards politics rather than violence as a means of achieving their aims Sinn Fein gaelic for ldquoWe Ourselvesrdquo was a fiercely Irish Republican political party which led by the Machiavellian former PIRA leader and Maze inmate Gerry Adams began to push for a more peaceful solution to the Troubles in Northern Ireland

bull It became apparent by the late 1990s that although the PIRA was not losing a war against the British establishment it would be impossible to truly lsquowin the fightrsquo through violence and that any further terrorism would serve not to achieve any real political aim but only to prolong and continue suffering and violence in Northern Ireland and that politics was a much better way of achieving Republican aims

Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein former PIRA Belfast Brigade OC

Good Friday Agreement 1998

bull The Peace Process began in 1994 and included intermittent terrorist ceasefires and political negotiations between the major Irish republican and British unionist parties and culminated on April 10 1998 when the Good Friday Agreement was signed

PM Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern Sign the GFA

GFA Mandatesbull That Northern Ireland was to remain British until a majority of people in Northern

Ireland and the southern Republic of Ireland wanted otherwise bull The creation of an entirely new far less sectarian and religiously diverse Northern

Irish local governmentbull The decommissioning of arms from terrorist groups on both the unionist and

nationalist side of the political divide (ultimately successful all arms decommissioned by 2005)

bull Mutual respect and civil rights between Catholics and Protestants bull The reduction and eventual elimination of British troops in Northern Ireland

(ultimately successful all troops withdrawn by 2005)bull Eventual early prison release for all individuals imprisoned for terrorist offenses as

long as they were apart of a terrorist group that was decommissioning in accordance with the GFA

bull Disbandment of the RUC police service and the installation of the new Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) which was required to be at least 50 Catholic

Northern Ireland Today

Still Conflict But No Warbull Since the complete decommissioning of the arms and

disbandment of the PIRA INLA UDAUFF and UVF due to the Good Friday Agreement there is nowhere near the amount of violence in Northern Ireland or Belfast as there was 20 years ago There are no more weekly bombings and riots and no more British troops patrolling Catholic areas in armored vehicles

bull Despite this there are still occasional riots and clashes with the PSNI several times a year specifically on dates of great historical significance to the Catholic or Protestant communities and there is still a deep distrust and even hatred between many Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland although that continues to change with time

Catholic Slum of Ardoyne Belfast July 2011

Splinter Groups

bull Many former PIRA or UDA terrorists have now taken to organized crime for purely profiteering purposes but are no longer involved in substantial violence or any political-based terrorism

bull Splinter groups such as the Real IRA and Continuity IRA in Catholic communities and the Orange Volunteers and Red Hand Commandos in Protestant communities still conduct occasional violence towards Police and civilians in Northern Ireland but are all rather small poorly armed and poorly funded groups that pose nowhere near the threat that terrorist groups in the 80s and 90s did in Northern Ireland

Herersquos To A Brighter Future in Northern Ireland

Works Citedbull httpwwwbbccoukhistorytroublesbull httpcainulstacukbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiProvisional_Irish_Republican_Armybull httpenwikipediaorgwikiThe_Troublesbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiUlster_Defence_Associationbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiUlster_Volunteer_Forcebull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_National_Liberation_Armybull ldquoA Secret History of the IRArdquo by Ed Moloney ndashWW Norton amp Company Reprint 2003bull ldquoVoices From The Grave Two Menrsquos War in Irelandrdquo by Ed Moloney ndash Public Affairs 2010bull ldquoFifty Dead Men Walkingrdquo by Martin McGartland ndash John Blake 2009bull httpwwwinfopleasecomspotnorthireland1htmlbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_Civil_Warbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_War_of_Independencebull httpenwikipediaorgwiki1981_Irish_hunger_strikebull httpenwikipediaorgwikiDirectory_of_the_Northern_Ireland_Troublesbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiGood_Friday_Agreementbull httpswwwmi5govukhomethe-threatsterrorismnorthern-irelandrepublican-terrorist-groupshtmlbull httpswwwmi5govukhomethe-threatsterrorismnorthern-irelandprovisional-irish-republican-army-

pirahtmlbull httpnewsbbccoukhienglishstaticnorthern_irelandunderstandingeventshunger_strikestm

  • The Troubles
  • Brief Overview
  • 30 Years of Conflict
  • Slide 4
  • Background
  • The Irish War of Independence
  • Slide 7
  • Anglo-Irish Treaty (signed 6 December 1921)
  • Irish Civil War
  • 1922-1966 Ireland
  • The Civil Rights Movement
  • Slide 12
  • Slide 13
  • Objectives of the Civil Rights Movement
  • The 1969 Northern Ireland Riots ndashThe Troubles Begin
  • Culmination of Tension
  • No-Go Areas
  • No-Go Areas (2)
  • Early 1970sndash The Rise of the Provisional IRA
  • The IRA Split
  • Rise of the UVF and Loyalist Terror Groups
  • Beginnings
  • UVF Statement 21 May 1964
  • The Paramilitaries
  • Irish RepublicansCatholics
  • The Provisional IRA
  • IRA Statement Late 80s
  • Statistics
  • RecruitmentFunding
  • Weaponry
  • Weaponry (2)
  • Slide 32
  • Mortars and IEDs
  • EOD Officer Approaches PIRA Car Bomb
  • The Barrack Buster
  • Vigilantism
  • Slide 37
  • Slide 38
  • Policy on Informants
  • Terrorist Activities
  • Terrorist Activities (continued)
  • The INLA
  • Statistics (2)
  • Ideology
  • Terrorist Activities (2)
  • Internal Feuds
  • Slide 47
  • British LoyalistsProtestants
  • The UDAUFF
  • Former UFF Member
  • Statistics (3)
  • Ideology (2)
  • Terrorist Activities (3)
  • Slide 54
  • Organized Crime
  • The UVF
  • Statistics (4)
  • Ideology (3)
  • Terrorist Activities (4)
  • The Shankhill Butchers
  • Weaponry (3)
  • Slide 62
  • Organized Crime (2)
  • Major Incidents 1969-1998
  • Bloody Sunday 30 January 1972
  • Massacre on the Bogside
  • Bloody Friday 21 July 1972
  • A City Under Siege
  • Dublin and Monaghan Bombings 17 May 1974
  • Deadliest Attack of the Troubles
  • Warrenpoint Ambush 27 August 1979
  • Roadside IEDs
  • Summer of 1981 Irish Hunger Strikes
  • A Defining Moment for the Republican Cause
  • The Five Demands
  • Previous Protests
  • Dirty Protesters
  • Thatcherrsquos Response
  • Ten Strikers Die
  • Bobby Sands
  • Reaction to Sandsrsquo Death
  • Conclusion
  • 1983 The Maze Prison Escape
  • The ldquoGreat Escaperdquo
  • 12 October 1984 Brighton Hotel Bombing
  • The PIRA Nearly Gets Thatcher
  • Loughgall Ambush 8 May 1987
  • The SAS Strikes
  • British Army Lynx Shootdown 20 March 1994
  • The PIRA Shoots Down a Helicopter
  • 1996 Manchester Bombing
  • The PIRA Destroys Manchester
  • Omagh Bombing 1998
  • Last Great Deadly Attack of the Troubles
  • The Good Friday Agreement and Northern Ireland Peace Process
  • Beginnings (2)
  • Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein former PIRA Belfast Brigade OC
  • Good Friday Agreement 1998
  • PM Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern Sign the GFA
  • GFA Mandates
  • Northern Ireland Today
  • Still Conflict But No War
  • Catholic Slum of Ardoyne Belfast July 2011
  • Splinter Groups
  • Herersquos To A Brighter Future in Northern Ireland
  • Works Cited
Page 59: The Troubles, 1969-1998

A City Under Siege

bull On 21 July 1972 the PIRA detonated 26 bombs in the space of 80 minutes in Belfast destroying banks bridges electrical substations Protestant housing tenements gasoline stations and private garages

bull Although warnings were called in at least 30 minutes prior to each bomb the amount of bombs exploding and the addition of multiple hoax warnings at the same time led to the Security Forces being unable to evacuate all the areas in time 11 people were killed and 130 were injured many of them horrifically mutilated Of those injured 77 were women or children

Dublin and Monaghan Bombings 17 May 1974

Deadliest Attack of the Troubles

bull Perpetrated by the UVF in the southern Republic of Ireland three car bombs exploded in Dublin during rush hour and another exploded in Monaghan around 90 minutes later

bull 33 civilians and a full-term unborn child were killed in the bombing while nearly 300 were injured The UVF did not claim responsibility for the bombings until 1993

bull The majority of those killed were young women although the age range of those killed ranged from 5 months old to 80 years old

Warrenpoint Ambush 27 August 1979

Roadside IEDsbull In the southern part of County Armagh Northern Ireland a predominately-

Catholic rural region and former PIRA stronghold right on the border with the southern Republic of Ireland a British troop convoy was hit with a remote-control detonated roadside 500lb truck-bomb and destroyed instantly killing 6 troops The surviving soldiers then wrongly believed they were under sniper fire from the other side of the Irish border and began firing at civilians immediately after the bombing killing 1 and injuring another

bull 32 minutes after the first bombing the IRA used its knowledge of how the British reacted to bombings to correctly predict that they would set up an incident-command point in a nearby gatehouse Unfortunately for the British there was a second 800lb fertilizer bomb planted near the gatehouse that when detonated killed 12 other soldiers who were responding to the initial bomb

bull It was the deadliest single attack on the British Army during the Troubles and a highly successful attack for the PIRA

Summer of 1981 Irish Hunger Strikes

A Defining Moment for the Republican Cause

bull Beginning on 1 March 1981 led by Bobby Sands 7 PIRA and 3 INLA inmates at the notorious ldquoMazerdquo prison began to refuse food until Margaret Thatcher PM of Great Britain at that time began to recognize terrorist prisoners as political prisoners and allowed them their ldquoFive Demandsrdquo

The Five Demands

bull The right to not wear a prison uniformbull The right to not do prison workbull The right of free association with other

prisoners and to organize in educational and recreational pursuits

bull Full restoration of remission lost through any protests towards these demands

Previous Protestsbull The Maze prison was a very high-security and low-quality prison that

housed almost all PIRA prisoners during the Troubles It was run in a very ethically questionable fashion with frequent beatings and borderline-torture techniques used on Republican prisoners and extremely poor living conditions for prisoners Many Maze prison guards were members of the UDAUVF or had strong connections with one of the two groups as well

bull Massive peaceful protests and marches by Irish republicans outside of the Maze Prison proved unsuccessful in attaining political status for republican prisoners as well as previous inmate protests in 1980 including non-fatal hunger strikes inmates refusing to wear prison uniforms and thus living in their cells naked and prisoners refusing to leave their cells to go to the bathroom until their requests had been granted (they therefore urinated and defecated in their cells and spread their excrement across their cell walls in what was known as the ldquoDirty Protestrdquo)

Dirty Protesters

Thatcherrsquos Response

bull ldquoThose terrorists will carry their determination to disrupt society to any lengths Once again we have a hunger strike in the Maze Prison in the quest for what they call lsquopolitical statusrsquo There is no such thing as political murder political bombing or political violence There is only criminal murder criminal bombing and criminal violence We will not compromise on this There will be no political statusrdquo

Ten Strikers Diebull Bobby Sands the leader of the strike was imprisoned as a PIRA member

on charges of firearm possession and in connection with the bombing of a furniture store He was the first to die after 66 days of not eating Sands was elected to a seat in Parliament whilst on Hunger Strike

bull Following Sandsrsquo death there were riots bus-burnings and attacks on the British embassy in the southern Republic of Ireland there were massive demonstrations in France and Italy a tomato was thrown as Queen Elizabeth II by demonstrators in Oslo and there were massive riots and civil disorder all over the streets of Belfast The South African ANC and (at the time) terrorist Nelson Mandela expressed their support for the PIRA and the hunger strikers (Mandela himself claimed he was directly inspired by Sands to undertake hunger strikes against the Apartheid government in South Africa) as well as the Palestine Liberation Organization a middle-eastern terror group

bull Over 100000 attended Sandsrsquo funeral

Bobby Sands

ldquoOur revenge will be the laughter of our childrenrdquo

Reaction to Sandsrsquo Death

>

Conclusion

bull The Hunger Strike was eventually called off after 10 strikers including Sands had died

bull James Prior newly installed secretary of state of Northern Ireland granted the prisoners partial concessions all of the Five Demands except for the right to not do prison work Margaret Thatcher refused to budge on political status

bull The Hunger Strikes opened a new way for the PIRA to pursue its objectives politically whereas previously it had seen violence as the only solution to the plight of Irish nationalists in Northern Ireland

1983 The Maze Prison Escape

The ldquoGreat Escaperdquo

bull Using smuggled-in guns and knives 38 PIRA prisoners who had been convicted of offenses ranging from murder to causing explosions escaped from one of the most high-security prisons in Europe They completely took over the H7 prison block and took their prison guards hostage before escaping in a food supply truck Several prison guards were shot and stabbed but only one died of a heart attack during the escape

bull Fifteen escapees were recaptured the first day with four more captured over the next two days following the breakout The remaining 19 were transported to PIRA strongholds and given the option to either rejoin the IRArsquos cause or be transported to the United States to live under a new identity

12 October 1984 Brighton Hotel Bombing

The PIRA Nearly Gets Thatcherbull Margaret Thatcher the highly controversial far-right British PM from

1979-1990 had become a tremendously hated figure amongst the Irish nationalist community in Northern Ireland following the 1981 Hunger Strikes and for her general uncompromising stand on Irish republicanism

bull PIRA man Patrick Magee stayed at the Brighton Hotel from the 14-17 September 1984 planting a 20-lb bomb under his bath

bull Thatcher was staying at the Brighton Hotel for a political conference and was still up at 254AM on 12 October when the bomb was detonated The bomb decimated her bathroom but left the bedroom and sitting room of her suite largely unscathed

bull The PIRA statement to Thatcher afterwards was ldquoToday we were unlucky But remember we only have to be lucky once You will have to be lucky alwaysrdquo

Loughgall Ambush 8 May 1987

The SAS Strikes

bull A botched attack on Loughgall Villagersquos RUC Police Base in which the PIRA drove a backhoe into the fortified base and ran away to detonate the bomb that was inside of the backhoe went wrong as the SAS the British Special Forces had prior knowledge of the attack and quickly dispatched the 8 PIRA members involved

bull Although the RUC base was wrecked and bombed there were no RUC or SAS casualties and it was the PIRArsquos greatest loss of life in a single incident during the Troubles

British Army Lynx Shootdown 20 March 1994

The PIRA Shoots Down a Helicopter

bull Using the previously mentioned Barrack-Buster homemade mortar PIRA insurgents were able to fire on a British helicopter that was in the process of landing whilst hiding behind a hay bail from around 150 yards out

bull The helicopter was hit with the mortar shell around 100 feet above the ground but the pilot was able to successfully crash-land the helicopter and escape before its propane tanks exploded There were no casualties but the attack was a major propaganda coup for the PIRA

1996 Manchester Bombing

The PIRA Destroys Manchester

bull On Saturday 15 June 1996 the PIRA sent in telephoned warnings and 90 minutes later detonated a 3300lb fertilizer-based truck bomb in the heart of Manchester City Centre the biggest bomb detonated in Great Britain during peacetime The bomb killed nobody due to previous warnings but led to 212 non-fatal injuries and essentially destroyed Manchester City Centre leaving approximately 700 million pounds ($12bn) worth of damage in its wake

Omagh Bombing 1998

Last Great Deadly Attack of the Troubles

bull Perpetrated by a Provisional IRA splinter group that was rejecting the peace process calling themselves the ldquoReal IRArdquo the 510lb fertilizer-based bomb was placed on main street in the town of Omagh Northern Ireland Warnings were called in approximately 30 minutes before the bombing but they were inaccurate and police ended up moving more civilians towards the bomb which ended up killing 29 people and causing over 300 non-fatal injuries This was the highest death toll from a single incident during the Troubles

bull It received universal outrage and was condemned even by the PIRA and its political wing Sinn Fein It spurred on the Northern Ireland peace process and the RIRA apologized and called a ceasefire several days after

The Good Friday Agreement and Northern Ireland Peace Process

Beginningsbull Following the 1981 Hunger Strikes Irish republicans began to

increasingly look towards politics rather than violence as a means of achieving their aims Sinn Fein gaelic for ldquoWe Ourselvesrdquo was a fiercely Irish Republican political party which led by the Machiavellian former PIRA leader and Maze inmate Gerry Adams began to push for a more peaceful solution to the Troubles in Northern Ireland

bull It became apparent by the late 1990s that although the PIRA was not losing a war against the British establishment it would be impossible to truly lsquowin the fightrsquo through violence and that any further terrorism would serve not to achieve any real political aim but only to prolong and continue suffering and violence in Northern Ireland and that politics was a much better way of achieving Republican aims

Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein former PIRA Belfast Brigade OC

Good Friday Agreement 1998

bull The Peace Process began in 1994 and included intermittent terrorist ceasefires and political negotiations between the major Irish republican and British unionist parties and culminated on April 10 1998 when the Good Friday Agreement was signed

PM Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern Sign the GFA

GFA Mandatesbull That Northern Ireland was to remain British until a majority of people in Northern

Ireland and the southern Republic of Ireland wanted otherwise bull The creation of an entirely new far less sectarian and religiously diverse Northern

Irish local governmentbull The decommissioning of arms from terrorist groups on both the unionist and

nationalist side of the political divide (ultimately successful all arms decommissioned by 2005)

bull Mutual respect and civil rights between Catholics and Protestants bull The reduction and eventual elimination of British troops in Northern Ireland

(ultimately successful all troops withdrawn by 2005)bull Eventual early prison release for all individuals imprisoned for terrorist offenses as

long as they were apart of a terrorist group that was decommissioning in accordance with the GFA

bull Disbandment of the RUC police service and the installation of the new Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) which was required to be at least 50 Catholic

Northern Ireland Today

Still Conflict But No Warbull Since the complete decommissioning of the arms and

disbandment of the PIRA INLA UDAUFF and UVF due to the Good Friday Agreement there is nowhere near the amount of violence in Northern Ireland or Belfast as there was 20 years ago There are no more weekly bombings and riots and no more British troops patrolling Catholic areas in armored vehicles

bull Despite this there are still occasional riots and clashes with the PSNI several times a year specifically on dates of great historical significance to the Catholic or Protestant communities and there is still a deep distrust and even hatred between many Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland although that continues to change with time

Catholic Slum of Ardoyne Belfast July 2011

Splinter Groups

bull Many former PIRA or UDA terrorists have now taken to organized crime for purely profiteering purposes but are no longer involved in substantial violence or any political-based terrorism

bull Splinter groups such as the Real IRA and Continuity IRA in Catholic communities and the Orange Volunteers and Red Hand Commandos in Protestant communities still conduct occasional violence towards Police and civilians in Northern Ireland but are all rather small poorly armed and poorly funded groups that pose nowhere near the threat that terrorist groups in the 80s and 90s did in Northern Ireland

Herersquos To A Brighter Future in Northern Ireland

Works Citedbull httpwwwbbccoukhistorytroublesbull httpcainulstacukbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiProvisional_Irish_Republican_Armybull httpenwikipediaorgwikiThe_Troublesbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiUlster_Defence_Associationbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiUlster_Volunteer_Forcebull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_National_Liberation_Armybull ldquoA Secret History of the IRArdquo by Ed Moloney ndashWW Norton amp Company Reprint 2003bull ldquoVoices From The Grave Two Menrsquos War in Irelandrdquo by Ed Moloney ndash Public Affairs 2010bull ldquoFifty Dead Men Walkingrdquo by Martin McGartland ndash John Blake 2009bull httpwwwinfopleasecomspotnorthireland1htmlbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_Civil_Warbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_War_of_Independencebull httpenwikipediaorgwiki1981_Irish_hunger_strikebull httpenwikipediaorgwikiDirectory_of_the_Northern_Ireland_Troublesbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiGood_Friday_Agreementbull httpswwwmi5govukhomethe-threatsterrorismnorthern-irelandrepublican-terrorist-groupshtmlbull httpswwwmi5govukhomethe-threatsterrorismnorthern-irelandprovisional-irish-republican-army-

pirahtmlbull httpnewsbbccoukhienglishstaticnorthern_irelandunderstandingeventshunger_strikestm

  • The Troubles
  • Brief Overview
  • 30 Years of Conflict
  • Slide 4
  • Background
  • The Irish War of Independence
  • Slide 7
  • Anglo-Irish Treaty (signed 6 December 1921)
  • Irish Civil War
  • 1922-1966 Ireland
  • The Civil Rights Movement
  • Slide 12
  • Slide 13
  • Objectives of the Civil Rights Movement
  • The 1969 Northern Ireland Riots ndashThe Troubles Begin
  • Culmination of Tension
  • No-Go Areas
  • No-Go Areas (2)
  • Early 1970sndash The Rise of the Provisional IRA
  • The IRA Split
  • Rise of the UVF and Loyalist Terror Groups
  • Beginnings
  • UVF Statement 21 May 1964
  • The Paramilitaries
  • Irish RepublicansCatholics
  • The Provisional IRA
  • IRA Statement Late 80s
  • Statistics
  • RecruitmentFunding
  • Weaponry
  • Weaponry (2)
  • Slide 32
  • Mortars and IEDs
  • EOD Officer Approaches PIRA Car Bomb
  • The Barrack Buster
  • Vigilantism
  • Slide 37
  • Slide 38
  • Policy on Informants
  • Terrorist Activities
  • Terrorist Activities (continued)
  • The INLA
  • Statistics (2)
  • Ideology
  • Terrorist Activities (2)
  • Internal Feuds
  • Slide 47
  • British LoyalistsProtestants
  • The UDAUFF
  • Former UFF Member
  • Statistics (3)
  • Ideology (2)
  • Terrorist Activities (3)
  • Slide 54
  • Organized Crime
  • The UVF
  • Statistics (4)
  • Ideology (3)
  • Terrorist Activities (4)
  • The Shankhill Butchers
  • Weaponry (3)
  • Slide 62
  • Organized Crime (2)
  • Major Incidents 1969-1998
  • Bloody Sunday 30 January 1972
  • Massacre on the Bogside
  • Bloody Friday 21 July 1972
  • A City Under Siege
  • Dublin and Monaghan Bombings 17 May 1974
  • Deadliest Attack of the Troubles
  • Warrenpoint Ambush 27 August 1979
  • Roadside IEDs
  • Summer of 1981 Irish Hunger Strikes
  • A Defining Moment for the Republican Cause
  • The Five Demands
  • Previous Protests
  • Dirty Protesters
  • Thatcherrsquos Response
  • Ten Strikers Die
  • Bobby Sands
  • Reaction to Sandsrsquo Death
  • Conclusion
  • 1983 The Maze Prison Escape
  • The ldquoGreat Escaperdquo
  • 12 October 1984 Brighton Hotel Bombing
  • The PIRA Nearly Gets Thatcher
  • Loughgall Ambush 8 May 1987
  • The SAS Strikes
  • British Army Lynx Shootdown 20 March 1994
  • The PIRA Shoots Down a Helicopter
  • 1996 Manchester Bombing
  • The PIRA Destroys Manchester
  • Omagh Bombing 1998
  • Last Great Deadly Attack of the Troubles
  • The Good Friday Agreement and Northern Ireland Peace Process
  • Beginnings (2)
  • Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein former PIRA Belfast Brigade OC
  • Good Friday Agreement 1998
  • PM Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern Sign the GFA
  • GFA Mandates
  • Northern Ireland Today
  • Still Conflict But No War
  • Catholic Slum of Ardoyne Belfast July 2011
  • Splinter Groups
  • Herersquos To A Brighter Future in Northern Ireland
  • Works Cited
Page 60: The Troubles, 1969-1998

Dublin and Monaghan Bombings 17 May 1974

Deadliest Attack of the Troubles

bull Perpetrated by the UVF in the southern Republic of Ireland three car bombs exploded in Dublin during rush hour and another exploded in Monaghan around 90 minutes later

bull 33 civilians and a full-term unborn child were killed in the bombing while nearly 300 were injured The UVF did not claim responsibility for the bombings until 1993

bull The majority of those killed were young women although the age range of those killed ranged from 5 months old to 80 years old

Warrenpoint Ambush 27 August 1979

Roadside IEDsbull In the southern part of County Armagh Northern Ireland a predominately-

Catholic rural region and former PIRA stronghold right on the border with the southern Republic of Ireland a British troop convoy was hit with a remote-control detonated roadside 500lb truck-bomb and destroyed instantly killing 6 troops The surviving soldiers then wrongly believed they were under sniper fire from the other side of the Irish border and began firing at civilians immediately after the bombing killing 1 and injuring another

bull 32 minutes after the first bombing the IRA used its knowledge of how the British reacted to bombings to correctly predict that they would set up an incident-command point in a nearby gatehouse Unfortunately for the British there was a second 800lb fertilizer bomb planted near the gatehouse that when detonated killed 12 other soldiers who were responding to the initial bomb

bull It was the deadliest single attack on the British Army during the Troubles and a highly successful attack for the PIRA

Summer of 1981 Irish Hunger Strikes

A Defining Moment for the Republican Cause

bull Beginning on 1 March 1981 led by Bobby Sands 7 PIRA and 3 INLA inmates at the notorious ldquoMazerdquo prison began to refuse food until Margaret Thatcher PM of Great Britain at that time began to recognize terrorist prisoners as political prisoners and allowed them their ldquoFive Demandsrdquo

The Five Demands

bull The right to not wear a prison uniformbull The right to not do prison workbull The right of free association with other

prisoners and to organize in educational and recreational pursuits

bull Full restoration of remission lost through any protests towards these demands

Previous Protestsbull The Maze prison was a very high-security and low-quality prison that

housed almost all PIRA prisoners during the Troubles It was run in a very ethically questionable fashion with frequent beatings and borderline-torture techniques used on Republican prisoners and extremely poor living conditions for prisoners Many Maze prison guards were members of the UDAUVF or had strong connections with one of the two groups as well

bull Massive peaceful protests and marches by Irish republicans outside of the Maze Prison proved unsuccessful in attaining political status for republican prisoners as well as previous inmate protests in 1980 including non-fatal hunger strikes inmates refusing to wear prison uniforms and thus living in their cells naked and prisoners refusing to leave their cells to go to the bathroom until their requests had been granted (they therefore urinated and defecated in their cells and spread their excrement across their cell walls in what was known as the ldquoDirty Protestrdquo)

Dirty Protesters

Thatcherrsquos Response

bull ldquoThose terrorists will carry their determination to disrupt society to any lengths Once again we have a hunger strike in the Maze Prison in the quest for what they call lsquopolitical statusrsquo There is no such thing as political murder political bombing or political violence There is only criminal murder criminal bombing and criminal violence We will not compromise on this There will be no political statusrdquo

Ten Strikers Diebull Bobby Sands the leader of the strike was imprisoned as a PIRA member

on charges of firearm possession and in connection with the bombing of a furniture store He was the first to die after 66 days of not eating Sands was elected to a seat in Parliament whilst on Hunger Strike

bull Following Sandsrsquo death there were riots bus-burnings and attacks on the British embassy in the southern Republic of Ireland there were massive demonstrations in France and Italy a tomato was thrown as Queen Elizabeth II by demonstrators in Oslo and there were massive riots and civil disorder all over the streets of Belfast The South African ANC and (at the time) terrorist Nelson Mandela expressed their support for the PIRA and the hunger strikers (Mandela himself claimed he was directly inspired by Sands to undertake hunger strikes against the Apartheid government in South Africa) as well as the Palestine Liberation Organization a middle-eastern terror group

bull Over 100000 attended Sandsrsquo funeral

Bobby Sands

ldquoOur revenge will be the laughter of our childrenrdquo

Reaction to Sandsrsquo Death

>

Conclusion

bull The Hunger Strike was eventually called off after 10 strikers including Sands had died

bull James Prior newly installed secretary of state of Northern Ireland granted the prisoners partial concessions all of the Five Demands except for the right to not do prison work Margaret Thatcher refused to budge on political status

bull The Hunger Strikes opened a new way for the PIRA to pursue its objectives politically whereas previously it had seen violence as the only solution to the plight of Irish nationalists in Northern Ireland

1983 The Maze Prison Escape

The ldquoGreat Escaperdquo

bull Using smuggled-in guns and knives 38 PIRA prisoners who had been convicted of offenses ranging from murder to causing explosions escaped from one of the most high-security prisons in Europe They completely took over the H7 prison block and took their prison guards hostage before escaping in a food supply truck Several prison guards were shot and stabbed but only one died of a heart attack during the escape

bull Fifteen escapees were recaptured the first day with four more captured over the next two days following the breakout The remaining 19 were transported to PIRA strongholds and given the option to either rejoin the IRArsquos cause or be transported to the United States to live under a new identity

12 October 1984 Brighton Hotel Bombing

The PIRA Nearly Gets Thatcherbull Margaret Thatcher the highly controversial far-right British PM from

1979-1990 had become a tremendously hated figure amongst the Irish nationalist community in Northern Ireland following the 1981 Hunger Strikes and for her general uncompromising stand on Irish republicanism

bull PIRA man Patrick Magee stayed at the Brighton Hotel from the 14-17 September 1984 planting a 20-lb bomb under his bath

bull Thatcher was staying at the Brighton Hotel for a political conference and was still up at 254AM on 12 October when the bomb was detonated The bomb decimated her bathroom but left the bedroom and sitting room of her suite largely unscathed

bull The PIRA statement to Thatcher afterwards was ldquoToday we were unlucky But remember we only have to be lucky once You will have to be lucky alwaysrdquo

Loughgall Ambush 8 May 1987

The SAS Strikes

bull A botched attack on Loughgall Villagersquos RUC Police Base in which the PIRA drove a backhoe into the fortified base and ran away to detonate the bomb that was inside of the backhoe went wrong as the SAS the British Special Forces had prior knowledge of the attack and quickly dispatched the 8 PIRA members involved

bull Although the RUC base was wrecked and bombed there were no RUC or SAS casualties and it was the PIRArsquos greatest loss of life in a single incident during the Troubles

British Army Lynx Shootdown 20 March 1994

The PIRA Shoots Down a Helicopter

bull Using the previously mentioned Barrack-Buster homemade mortar PIRA insurgents were able to fire on a British helicopter that was in the process of landing whilst hiding behind a hay bail from around 150 yards out

bull The helicopter was hit with the mortar shell around 100 feet above the ground but the pilot was able to successfully crash-land the helicopter and escape before its propane tanks exploded There were no casualties but the attack was a major propaganda coup for the PIRA

1996 Manchester Bombing

The PIRA Destroys Manchester

bull On Saturday 15 June 1996 the PIRA sent in telephoned warnings and 90 minutes later detonated a 3300lb fertilizer-based truck bomb in the heart of Manchester City Centre the biggest bomb detonated in Great Britain during peacetime The bomb killed nobody due to previous warnings but led to 212 non-fatal injuries and essentially destroyed Manchester City Centre leaving approximately 700 million pounds ($12bn) worth of damage in its wake

Omagh Bombing 1998

Last Great Deadly Attack of the Troubles

bull Perpetrated by a Provisional IRA splinter group that was rejecting the peace process calling themselves the ldquoReal IRArdquo the 510lb fertilizer-based bomb was placed on main street in the town of Omagh Northern Ireland Warnings were called in approximately 30 minutes before the bombing but they were inaccurate and police ended up moving more civilians towards the bomb which ended up killing 29 people and causing over 300 non-fatal injuries This was the highest death toll from a single incident during the Troubles

bull It received universal outrage and was condemned even by the PIRA and its political wing Sinn Fein It spurred on the Northern Ireland peace process and the RIRA apologized and called a ceasefire several days after

The Good Friday Agreement and Northern Ireland Peace Process

Beginningsbull Following the 1981 Hunger Strikes Irish republicans began to

increasingly look towards politics rather than violence as a means of achieving their aims Sinn Fein gaelic for ldquoWe Ourselvesrdquo was a fiercely Irish Republican political party which led by the Machiavellian former PIRA leader and Maze inmate Gerry Adams began to push for a more peaceful solution to the Troubles in Northern Ireland

bull It became apparent by the late 1990s that although the PIRA was not losing a war against the British establishment it would be impossible to truly lsquowin the fightrsquo through violence and that any further terrorism would serve not to achieve any real political aim but only to prolong and continue suffering and violence in Northern Ireland and that politics was a much better way of achieving Republican aims

Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein former PIRA Belfast Brigade OC

Good Friday Agreement 1998

bull The Peace Process began in 1994 and included intermittent terrorist ceasefires and political negotiations between the major Irish republican and British unionist parties and culminated on April 10 1998 when the Good Friday Agreement was signed

PM Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern Sign the GFA

GFA Mandatesbull That Northern Ireland was to remain British until a majority of people in Northern

Ireland and the southern Republic of Ireland wanted otherwise bull The creation of an entirely new far less sectarian and religiously diverse Northern

Irish local governmentbull The decommissioning of arms from terrorist groups on both the unionist and

nationalist side of the political divide (ultimately successful all arms decommissioned by 2005)

bull Mutual respect and civil rights between Catholics and Protestants bull The reduction and eventual elimination of British troops in Northern Ireland

(ultimately successful all troops withdrawn by 2005)bull Eventual early prison release for all individuals imprisoned for terrorist offenses as

long as they were apart of a terrorist group that was decommissioning in accordance with the GFA

bull Disbandment of the RUC police service and the installation of the new Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) which was required to be at least 50 Catholic

Northern Ireland Today

Still Conflict But No Warbull Since the complete decommissioning of the arms and

disbandment of the PIRA INLA UDAUFF and UVF due to the Good Friday Agreement there is nowhere near the amount of violence in Northern Ireland or Belfast as there was 20 years ago There are no more weekly bombings and riots and no more British troops patrolling Catholic areas in armored vehicles

bull Despite this there are still occasional riots and clashes with the PSNI several times a year specifically on dates of great historical significance to the Catholic or Protestant communities and there is still a deep distrust and even hatred between many Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland although that continues to change with time

Catholic Slum of Ardoyne Belfast July 2011

Splinter Groups

bull Many former PIRA or UDA terrorists have now taken to organized crime for purely profiteering purposes but are no longer involved in substantial violence or any political-based terrorism

bull Splinter groups such as the Real IRA and Continuity IRA in Catholic communities and the Orange Volunteers and Red Hand Commandos in Protestant communities still conduct occasional violence towards Police and civilians in Northern Ireland but are all rather small poorly armed and poorly funded groups that pose nowhere near the threat that terrorist groups in the 80s and 90s did in Northern Ireland

Herersquos To A Brighter Future in Northern Ireland

Works Citedbull httpwwwbbccoukhistorytroublesbull httpcainulstacukbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiProvisional_Irish_Republican_Armybull httpenwikipediaorgwikiThe_Troublesbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiUlster_Defence_Associationbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiUlster_Volunteer_Forcebull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_National_Liberation_Armybull ldquoA Secret History of the IRArdquo by Ed Moloney ndashWW Norton amp Company Reprint 2003bull ldquoVoices From The Grave Two Menrsquos War in Irelandrdquo by Ed Moloney ndash Public Affairs 2010bull ldquoFifty Dead Men Walkingrdquo by Martin McGartland ndash John Blake 2009bull httpwwwinfopleasecomspotnorthireland1htmlbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_Civil_Warbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_War_of_Independencebull httpenwikipediaorgwiki1981_Irish_hunger_strikebull httpenwikipediaorgwikiDirectory_of_the_Northern_Ireland_Troublesbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiGood_Friday_Agreementbull httpswwwmi5govukhomethe-threatsterrorismnorthern-irelandrepublican-terrorist-groupshtmlbull httpswwwmi5govukhomethe-threatsterrorismnorthern-irelandprovisional-irish-republican-army-

pirahtmlbull httpnewsbbccoukhienglishstaticnorthern_irelandunderstandingeventshunger_strikestm

  • The Troubles
  • Brief Overview
  • 30 Years of Conflict
  • Slide 4
  • Background
  • The Irish War of Independence
  • Slide 7
  • Anglo-Irish Treaty (signed 6 December 1921)
  • Irish Civil War
  • 1922-1966 Ireland
  • The Civil Rights Movement
  • Slide 12
  • Slide 13
  • Objectives of the Civil Rights Movement
  • The 1969 Northern Ireland Riots ndashThe Troubles Begin
  • Culmination of Tension
  • No-Go Areas
  • No-Go Areas (2)
  • Early 1970sndash The Rise of the Provisional IRA
  • The IRA Split
  • Rise of the UVF and Loyalist Terror Groups
  • Beginnings
  • UVF Statement 21 May 1964
  • The Paramilitaries
  • Irish RepublicansCatholics
  • The Provisional IRA
  • IRA Statement Late 80s
  • Statistics
  • RecruitmentFunding
  • Weaponry
  • Weaponry (2)
  • Slide 32
  • Mortars and IEDs
  • EOD Officer Approaches PIRA Car Bomb
  • The Barrack Buster
  • Vigilantism
  • Slide 37
  • Slide 38
  • Policy on Informants
  • Terrorist Activities
  • Terrorist Activities (continued)
  • The INLA
  • Statistics (2)
  • Ideology
  • Terrorist Activities (2)
  • Internal Feuds
  • Slide 47
  • British LoyalistsProtestants
  • The UDAUFF
  • Former UFF Member
  • Statistics (3)
  • Ideology (2)
  • Terrorist Activities (3)
  • Slide 54
  • Organized Crime
  • The UVF
  • Statistics (4)
  • Ideology (3)
  • Terrorist Activities (4)
  • The Shankhill Butchers
  • Weaponry (3)
  • Slide 62
  • Organized Crime (2)
  • Major Incidents 1969-1998
  • Bloody Sunday 30 January 1972
  • Massacre on the Bogside
  • Bloody Friday 21 July 1972
  • A City Under Siege
  • Dublin and Monaghan Bombings 17 May 1974
  • Deadliest Attack of the Troubles
  • Warrenpoint Ambush 27 August 1979
  • Roadside IEDs
  • Summer of 1981 Irish Hunger Strikes
  • A Defining Moment for the Republican Cause
  • The Five Demands
  • Previous Protests
  • Dirty Protesters
  • Thatcherrsquos Response
  • Ten Strikers Die
  • Bobby Sands
  • Reaction to Sandsrsquo Death
  • Conclusion
  • 1983 The Maze Prison Escape
  • The ldquoGreat Escaperdquo
  • 12 October 1984 Brighton Hotel Bombing
  • The PIRA Nearly Gets Thatcher
  • Loughgall Ambush 8 May 1987
  • The SAS Strikes
  • British Army Lynx Shootdown 20 March 1994
  • The PIRA Shoots Down a Helicopter
  • 1996 Manchester Bombing
  • The PIRA Destroys Manchester
  • Omagh Bombing 1998
  • Last Great Deadly Attack of the Troubles
  • The Good Friday Agreement and Northern Ireland Peace Process
  • Beginnings (2)
  • Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein former PIRA Belfast Brigade OC
  • Good Friday Agreement 1998
  • PM Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern Sign the GFA
  • GFA Mandates
  • Northern Ireland Today
  • Still Conflict But No War
  • Catholic Slum of Ardoyne Belfast July 2011
  • Splinter Groups
  • Herersquos To A Brighter Future in Northern Ireland
  • Works Cited
Page 61: The Troubles, 1969-1998

Deadliest Attack of the Troubles

bull Perpetrated by the UVF in the southern Republic of Ireland three car bombs exploded in Dublin during rush hour and another exploded in Monaghan around 90 minutes later

bull 33 civilians and a full-term unborn child were killed in the bombing while nearly 300 were injured The UVF did not claim responsibility for the bombings until 1993

bull The majority of those killed were young women although the age range of those killed ranged from 5 months old to 80 years old

Warrenpoint Ambush 27 August 1979

Roadside IEDsbull In the southern part of County Armagh Northern Ireland a predominately-

Catholic rural region and former PIRA stronghold right on the border with the southern Republic of Ireland a British troop convoy was hit with a remote-control detonated roadside 500lb truck-bomb and destroyed instantly killing 6 troops The surviving soldiers then wrongly believed they were under sniper fire from the other side of the Irish border and began firing at civilians immediately after the bombing killing 1 and injuring another

bull 32 minutes after the first bombing the IRA used its knowledge of how the British reacted to bombings to correctly predict that they would set up an incident-command point in a nearby gatehouse Unfortunately for the British there was a second 800lb fertilizer bomb planted near the gatehouse that when detonated killed 12 other soldiers who were responding to the initial bomb

bull It was the deadliest single attack on the British Army during the Troubles and a highly successful attack for the PIRA

Summer of 1981 Irish Hunger Strikes

A Defining Moment for the Republican Cause

bull Beginning on 1 March 1981 led by Bobby Sands 7 PIRA and 3 INLA inmates at the notorious ldquoMazerdquo prison began to refuse food until Margaret Thatcher PM of Great Britain at that time began to recognize terrorist prisoners as political prisoners and allowed them their ldquoFive Demandsrdquo

The Five Demands

bull The right to not wear a prison uniformbull The right to not do prison workbull The right of free association with other

prisoners and to organize in educational and recreational pursuits

bull Full restoration of remission lost through any protests towards these demands

Previous Protestsbull The Maze prison was a very high-security and low-quality prison that

housed almost all PIRA prisoners during the Troubles It was run in a very ethically questionable fashion with frequent beatings and borderline-torture techniques used on Republican prisoners and extremely poor living conditions for prisoners Many Maze prison guards were members of the UDAUVF or had strong connections with one of the two groups as well

bull Massive peaceful protests and marches by Irish republicans outside of the Maze Prison proved unsuccessful in attaining political status for republican prisoners as well as previous inmate protests in 1980 including non-fatal hunger strikes inmates refusing to wear prison uniforms and thus living in their cells naked and prisoners refusing to leave their cells to go to the bathroom until their requests had been granted (they therefore urinated and defecated in their cells and spread their excrement across their cell walls in what was known as the ldquoDirty Protestrdquo)

Dirty Protesters

Thatcherrsquos Response

bull ldquoThose terrorists will carry their determination to disrupt society to any lengths Once again we have a hunger strike in the Maze Prison in the quest for what they call lsquopolitical statusrsquo There is no such thing as political murder political bombing or political violence There is only criminal murder criminal bombing and criminal violence We will not compromise on this There will be no political statusrdquo

Ten Strikers Diebull Bobby Sands the leader of the strike was imprisoned as a PIRA member

on charges of firearm possession and in connection with the bombing of a furniture store He was the first to die after 66 days of not eating Sands was elected to a seat in Parliament whilst on Hunger Strike

bull Following Sandsrsquo death there were riots bus-burnings and attacks on the British embassy in the southern Republic of Ireland there were massive demonstrations in France and Italy a tomato was thrown as Queen Elizabeth II by demonstrators in Oslo and there were massive riots and civil disorder all over the streets of Belfast The South African ANC and (at the time) terrorist Nelson Mandela expressed their support for the PIRA and the hunger strikers (Mandela himself claimed he was directly inspired by Sands to undertake hunger strikes against the Apartheid government in South Africa) as well as the Palestine Liberation Organization a middle-eastern terror group

bull Over 100000 attended Sandsrsquo funeral

Bobby Sands

ldquoOur revenge will be the laughter of our childrenrdquo

Reaction to Sandsrsquo Death

>

Conclusion

bull The Hunger Strike was eventually called off after 10 strikers including Sands had died

bull James Prior newly installed secretary of state of Northern Ireland granted the prisoners partial concessions all of the Five Demands except for the right to not do prison work Margaret Thatcher refused to budge on political status

bull The Hunger Strikes opened a new way for the PIRA to pursue its objectives politically whereas previously it had seen violence as the only solution to the plight of Irish nationalists in Northern Ireland

1983 The Maze Prison Escape

The ldquoGreat Escaperdquo

bull Using smuggled-in guns and knives 38 PIRA prisoners who had been convicted of offenses ranging from murder to causing explosions escaped from one of the most high-security prisons in Europe They completely took over the H7 prison block and took their prison guards hostage before escaping in a food supply truck Several prison guards were shot and stabbed but only one died of a heart attack during the escape

bull Fifteen escapees were recaptured the first day with four more captured over the next two days following the breakout The remaining 19 were transported to PIRA strongholds and given the option to either rejoin the IRArsquos cause or be transported to the United States to live under a new identity

12 October 1984 Brighton Hotel Bombing

The PIRA Nearly Gets Thatcherbull Margaret Thatcher the highly controversial far-right British PM from

1979-1990 had become a tremendously hated figure amongst the Irish nationalist community in Northern Ireland following the 1981 Hunger Strikes and for her general uncompromising stand on Irish republicanism

bull PIRA man Patrick Magee stayed at the Brighton Hotel from the 14-17 September 1984 planting a 20-lb bomb under his bath

bull Thatcher was staying at the Brighton Hotel for a political conference and was still up at 254AM on 12 October when the bomb was detonated The bomb decimated her bathroom but left the bedroom and sitting room of her suite largely unscathed

bull The PIRA statement to Thatcher afterwards was ldquoToday we were unlucky But remember we only have to be lucky once You will have to be lucky alwaysrdquo

Loughgall Ambush 8 May 1987

The SAS Strikes

bull A botched attack on Loughgall Villagersquos RUC Police Base in which the PIRA drove a backhoe into the fortified base and ran away to detonate the bomb that was inside of the backhoe went wrong as the SAS the British Special Forces had prior knowledge of the attack and quickly dispatched the 8 PIRA members involved

bull Although the RUC base was wrecked and bombed there were no RUC or SAS casualties and it was the PIRArsquos greatest loss of life in a single incident during the Troubles

British Army Lynx Shootdown 20 March 1994

The PIRA Shoots Down a Helicopter

bull Using the previously mentioned Barrack-Buster homemade mortar PIRA insurgents were able to fire on a British helicopter that was in the process of landing whilst hiding behind a hay bail from around 150 yards out

bull The helicopter was hit with the mortar shell around 100 feet above the ground but the pilot was able to successfully crash-land the helicopter and escape before its propane tanks exploded There were no casualties but the attack was a major propaganda coup for the PIRA

1996 Manchester Bombing

The PIRA Destroys Manchester

bull On Saturday 15 June 1996 the PIRA sent in telephoned warnings and 90 minutes later detonated a 3300lb fertilizer-based truck bomb in the heart of Manchester City Centre the biggest bomb detonated in Great Britain during peacetime The bomb killed nobody due to previous warnings but led to 212 non-fatal injuries and essentially destroyed Manchester City Centre leaving approximately 700 million pounds ($12bn) worth of damage in its wake

Omagh Bombing 1998

Last Great Deadly Attack of the Troubles

bull Perpetrated by a Provisional IRA splinter group that was rejecting the peace process calling themselves the ldquoReal IRArdquo the 510lb fertilizer-based bomb was placed on main street in the town of Omagh Northern Ireland Warnings were called in approximately 30 minutes before the bombing but they were inaccurate and police ended up moving more civilians towards the bomb which ended up killing 29 people and causing over 300 non-fatal injuries This was the highest death toll from a single incident during the Troubles

bull It received universal outrage and was condemned even by the PIRA and its political wing Sinn Fein It spurred on the Northern Ireland peace process and the RIRA apologized and called a ceasefire several days after

The Good Friday Agreement and Northern Ireland Peace Process

Beginningsbull Following the 1981 Hunger Strikes Irish republicans began to

increasingly look towards politics rather than violence as a means of achieving their aims Sinn Fein gaelic for ldquoWe Ourselvesrdquo was a fiercely Irish Republican political party which led by the Machiavellian former PIRA leader and Maze inmate Gerry Adams began to push for a more peaceful solution to the Troubles in Northern Ireland

bull It became apparent by the late 1990s that although the PIRA was not losing a war against the British establishment it would be impossible to truly lsquowin the fightrsquo through violence and that any further terrorism would serve not to achieve any real political aim but only to prolong and continue suffering and violence in Northern Ireland and that politics was a much better way of achieving Republican aims

Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein former PIRA Belfast Brigade OC

Good Friday Agreement 1998

bull The Peace Process began in 1994 and included intermittent terrorist ceasefires and political negotiations between the major Irish republican and British unionist parties and culminated on April 10 1998 when the Good Friday Agreement was signed

PM Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern Sign the GFA

GFA Mandatesbull That Northern Ireland was to remain British until a majority of people in Northern

Ireland and the southern Republic of Ireland wanted otherwise bull The creation of an entirely new far less sectarian and religiously diverse Northern

Irish local governmentbull The decommissioning of arms from terrorist groups on both the unionist and

nationalist side of the political divide (ultimately successful all arms decommissioned by 2005)

bull Mutual respect and civil rights between Catholics and Protestants bull The reduction and eventual elimination of British troops in Northern Ireland

(ultimately successful all troops withdrawn by 2005)bull Eventual early prison release for all individuals imprisoned for terrorist offenses as

long as they were apart of a terrorist group that was decommissioning in accordance with the GFA

bull Disbandment of the RUC police service and the installation of the new Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) which was required to be at least 50 Catholic

Northern Ireland Today

Still Conflict But No Warbull Since the complete decommissioning of the arms and

disbandment of the PIRA INLA UDAUFF and UVF due to the Good Friday Agreement there is nowhere near the amount of violence in Northern Ireland or Belfast as there was 20 years ago There are no more weekly bombings and riots and no more British troops patrolling Catholic areas in armored vehicles

bull Despite this there are still occasional riots and clashes with the PSNI several times a year specifically on dates of great historical significance to the Catholic or Protestant communities and there is still a deep distrust and even hatred between many Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland although that continues to change with time

Catholic Slum of Ardoyne Belfast July 2011

Splinter Groups

bull Many former PIRA or UDA terrorists have now taken to organized crime for purely profiteering purposes but are no longer involved in substantial violence or any political-based terrorism

bull Splinter groups such as the Real IRA and Continuity IRA in Catholic communities and the Orange Volunteers and Red Hand Commandos in Protestant communities still conduct occasional violence towards Police and civilians in Northern Ireland but are all rather small poorly armed and poorly funded groups that pose nowhere near the threat that terrorist groups in the 80s and 90s did in Northern Ireland

Herersquos To A Brighter Future in Northern Ireland

Works Citedbull httpwwwbbccoukhistorytroublesbull httpcainulstacukbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiProvisional_Irish_Republican_Armybull httpenwikipediaorgwikiThe_Troublesbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiUlster_Defence_Associationbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiUlster_Volunteer_Forcebull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_National_Liberation_Armybull ldquoA Secret History of the IRArdquo by Ed Moloney ndashWW Norton amp Company Reprint 2003bull ldquoVoices From The Grave Two Menrsquos War in Irelandrdquo by Ed Moloney ndash Public Affairs 2010bull ldquoFifty Dead Men Walkingrdquo by Martin McGartland ndash John Blake 2009bull httpwwwinfopleasecomspotnorthireland1htmlbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_Civil_Warbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_War_of_Independencebull httpenwikipediaorgwiki1981_Irish_hunger_strikebull httpenwikipediaorgwikiDirectory_of_the_Northern_Ireland_Troublesbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiGood_Friday_Agreementbull httpswwwmi5govukhomethe-threatsterrorismnorthern-irelandrepublican-terrorist-groupshtmlbull httpswwwmi5govukhomethe-threatsterrorismnorthern-irelandprovisional-irish-republican-army-

pirahtmlbull httpnewsbbccoukhienglishstaticnorthern_irelandunderstandingeventshunger_strikestm

  • The Troubles
  • Brief Overview
  • 30 Years of Conflict
  • Slide 4
  • Background
  • The Irish War of Independence
  • Slide 7
  • Anglo-Irish Treaty (signed 6 December 1921)
  • Irish Civil War
  • 1922-1966 Ireland
  • The Civil Rights Movement
  • Slide 12
  • Slide 13
  • Objectives of the Civil Rights Movement
  • The 1969 Northern Ireland Riots ndashThe Troubles Begin
  • Culmination of Tension
  • No-Go Areas
  • No-Go Areas (2)
  • Early 1970sndash The Rise of the Provisional IRA
  • The IRA Split
  • Rise of the UVF and Loyalist Terror Groups
  • Beginnings
  • UVF Statement 21 May 1964
  • The Paramilitaries
  • Irish RepublicansCatholics
  • The Provisional IRA
  • IRA Statement Late 80s
  • Statistics
  • RecruitmentFunding
  • Weaponry
  • Weaponry (2)
  • Slide 32
  • Mortars and IEDs
  • EOD Officer Approaches PIRA Car Bomb
  • The Barrack Buster
  • Vigilantism
  • Slide 37
  • Slide 38
  • Policy on Informants
  • Terrorist Activities
  • Terrorist Activities (continued)
  • The INLA
  • Statistics (2)
  • Ideology
  • Terrorist Activities (2)
  • Internal Feuds
  • Slide 47
  • British LoyalistsProtestants
  • The UDAUFF
  • Former UFF Member
  • Statistics (3)
  • Ideology (2)
  • Terrorist Activities (3)
  • Slide 54
  • Organized Crime
  • The UVF
  • Statistics (4)
  • Ideology (3)
  • Terrorist Activities (4)
  • The Shankhill Butchers
  • Weaponry (3)
  • Slide 62
  • Organized Crime (2)
  • Major Incidents 1969-1998
  • Bloody Sunday 30 January 1972
  • Massacre on the Bogside
  • Bloody Friday 21 July 1972
  • A City Under Siege
  • Dublin and Monaghan Bombings 17 May 1974
  • Deadliest Attack of the Troubles
  • Warrenpoint Ambush 27 August 1979
  • Roadside IEDs
  • Summer of 1981 Irish Hunger Strikes
  • A Defining Moment for the Republican Cause
  • The Five Demands
  • Previous Protests
  • Dirty Protesters
  • Thatcherrsquos Response
  • Ten Strikers Die
  • Bobby Sands
  • Reaction to Sandsrsquo Death
  • Conclusion
  • 1983 The Maze Prison Escape
  • The ldquoGreat Escaperdquo
  • 12 October 1984 Brighton Hotel Bombing
  • The PIRA Nearly Gets Thatcher
  • Loughgall Ambush 8 May 1987
  • The SAS Strikes
  • British Army Lynx Shootdown 20 March 1994
  • The PIRA Shoots Down a Helicopter
  • 1996 Manchester Bombing
  • The PIRA Destroys Manchester
  • Omagh Bombing 1998
  • Last Great Deadly Attack of the Troubles
  • The Good Friday Agreement and Northern Ireland Peace Process
  • Beginnings (2)
  • Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein former PIRA Belfast Brigade OC
  • Good Friday Agreement 1998
  • PM Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern Sign the GFA
  • GFA Mandates
  • Northern Ireland Today
  • Still Conflict But No War
  • Catholic Slum of Ardoyne Belfast July 2011
  • Splinter Groups
  • Herersquos To A Brighter Future in Northern Ireland
  • Works Cited
Page 62: The Troubles, 1969-1998

Warrenpoint Ambush 27 August 1979

Roadside IEDsbull In the southern part of County Armagh Northern Ireland a predominately-

Catholic rural region and former PIRA stronghold right on the border with the southern Republic of Ireland a British troop convoy was hit with a remote-control detonated roadside 500lb truck-bomb and destroyed instantly killing 6 troops The surviving soldiers then wrongly believed they were under sniper fire from the other side of the Irish border and began firing at civilians immediately after the bombing killing 1 and injuring another

bull 32 minutes after the first bombing the IRA used its knowledge of how the British reacted to bombings to correctly predict that they would set up an incident-command point in a nearby gatehouse Unfortunately for the British there was a second 800lb fertilizer bomb planted near the gatehouse that when detonated killed 12 other soldiers who were responding to the initial bomb

bull It was the deadliest single attack on the British Army during the Troubles and a highly successful attack for the PIRA

Summer of 1981 Irish Hunger Strikes

A Defining Moment for the Republican Cause

bull Beginning on 1 March 1981 led by Bobby Sands 7 PIRA and 3 INLA inmates at the notorious ldquoMazerdquo prison began to refuse food until Margaret Thatcher PM of Great Britain at that time began to recognize terrorist prisoners as political prisoners and allowed them their ldquoFive Demandsrdquo

The Five Demands

bull The right to not wear a prison uniformbull The right to not do prison workbull The right of free association with other

prisoners and to organize in educational and recreational pursuits

bull Full restoration of remission lost through any protests towards these demands

Previous Protestsbull The Maze prison was a very high-security and low-quality prison that

housed almost all PIRA prisoners during the Troubles It was run in a very ethically questionable fashion with frequent beatings and borderline-torture techniques used on Republican prisoners and extremely poor living conditions for prisoners Many Maze prison guards were members of the UDAUVF or had strong connections with one of the two groups as well

bull Massive peaceful protests and marches by Irish republicans outside of the Maze Prison proved unsuccessful in attaining political status for republican prisoners as well as previous inmate protests in 1980 including non-fatal hunger strikes inmates refusing to wear prison uniforms and thus living in their cells naked and prisoners refusing to leave their cells to go to the bathroom until their requests had been granted (they therefore urinated and defecated in their cells and spread their excrement across their cell walls in what was known as the ldquoDirty Protestrdquo)

Dirty Protesters

Thatcherrsquos Response

bull ldquoThose terrorists will carry their determination to disrupt society to any lengths Once again we have a hunger strike in the Maze Prison in the quest for what they call lsquopolitical statusrsquo There is no such thing as political murder political bombing or political violence There is only criminal murder criminal bombing and criminal violence We will not compromise on this There will be no political statusrdquo

Ten Strikers Diebull Bobby Sands the leader of the strike was imprisoned as a PIRA member

on charges of firearm possession and in connection with the bombing of a furniture store He was the first to die after 66 days of not eating Sands was elected to a seat in Parliament whilst on Hunger Strike

bull Following Sandsrsquo death there were riots bus-burnings and attacks on the British embassy in the southern Republic of Ireland there were massive demonstrations in France and Italy a tomato was thrown as Queen Elizabeth II by demonstrators in Oslo and there were massive riots and civil disorder all over the streets of Belfast The South African ANC and (at the time) terrorist Nelson Mandela expressed their support for the PIRA and the hunger strikers (Mandela himself claimed he was directly inspired by Sands to undertake hunger strikes against the Apartheid government in South Africa) as well as the Palestine Liberation Organization a middle-eastern terror group

bull Over 100000 attended Sandsrsquo funeral

Bobby Sands

ldquoOur revenge will be the laughter of our childrenrdquo

Reaction to Sandsrsquo Death

>

Conclusion

bull The Hunger Strike was eventually called off after 10 strikers including Sands had died

bull James Prior newly installed secretary of state of Northern Ireland granted the prisoners partial concessions all of the Five Demands except for the right to not do prison work Margaret Thatcher refused to budge on political status

bull The Hunger Strikes opened a new way for the PIRA to pursue its objectives politically whereas previously it had seen violence as the only solution to the plight of Irish nationalists in Northern Ireland

1983 The Maze Prison Escape

The ldquoGreat Escaperdquo

bull Using smuggled-in guns and knives 38 PIRA prisoners who had been convicted of offenses ranging from murder to causing explosions escaped from one of the most high-security prisons in Europe They completely took over the H7 prison block and took their prison guards hostage before escaping in a food supply truck Several prison guards were shot and stabbed but only one died of a heart attack during the escape

bull Fifteen escapees were recaptured the first day with four more captured over the next two days following the breakout The remaining 19 were transported to PIRA strongholds and given the option to either rejoin the IRArsquos cause or be transported to the United States to live under a new identity

12 October 1984 Brighton Hotel Bombing

The PIRA Nearly Gets Thatcherbull Margaret Thatcher the highly controversial far-right British PM from

1979-1990 had become a tremendously hated figure amongst the Irish nationalist community in Northern Ireland following the 1981 Hunger Strikes and for her general uncompromising stand on Irish republicanism

bull PIRA man Patrick Magee stayed at the Brighton Hotel from the 14-17 September 1984 planting a 20-lb bomb under his bath

bull Thatcher was staying at the Brighton Hotel for a political conference and was still up at 254AM on 12 October when the bomb was detonated The bomb decimated her bathroom but left the bedroom and sitting room of her suite largely unscathed

bull The PIRA statement to Thatcher afterwards was ldquoToday we were unlucky But remember we only have to be lucky once You will have to be lucky alwaysrdquo

Loughgall Ambush 8 May 1987

The SAS Strikes

bull A botched attack on Loughgall Villagersquos RUC Police Base in which the PIRA drove a backhoe into the fortified base and ran away to detonate the bomb that was inside of the backhoe went wrong as the SAS the British Special Forces had prior knowledge of the attack and quickly dispatched the 8 PIRA members involved

bull Although the RUC base was wrecked and bombed there were no RUC or SAS casualties and it was the PIRArsquos greatest loss of life in a single incident during the Troubles

British Army Lynx Shootdown 20 March 1994

The PIRA Shoots Down a Helicopter

bull Using the previously mentioned Barrack-Buster homemade mortar PIRA insurgents were able to fire on a British helicopter that was in the process of landing whilst hiding behind a hay bail from around 150 yards out

bull The helicopter was hit with the mortar shell around 100 feet above the ground but the pilot was able to successfully crash-land the helicopter and escape before its propane tanks exploded There were no casualties but the attack was a major propaganda coup for the PIRA

1996 Manchester Bombing

The PIRA Destroys Manchester

bull On Saturday 15 June 1996 the PIRA sent in telephoned warnings and 90 minutes later detonated a 3300lb fertilizer-based truck bomb in the heart of Manchester City Centre the biggest bomb detonated in Great Britain during peacetime The bomb killed nobody due to previous warnings but led to 212 non-fatal injuries and essentially destroyed Manchester City Centre leaving approximately 700 million pounds ($12bn) worth of damage in its wake

Omagh Bombing 1998

Last Great Deadly Attack of the Troubles

bull Perpetrated by a Provisional IRA splinter group that was rejecting the peace process calling themselves the ldquoReal IRArdquo the 510lb fertilizer-based bomb was placed on main street in the town of Omagh Northern Ireland Warnings were called in approximately 30 minutes before the bombing but they were inaccurate and police ended up moving more civilians towards the bomb which ended up killing 29 people and causing over 300 non-fatal injuries This was the highest death toll from a single incident during the Troubles

bull It received universal outrage and was condemned even by the PIRA and its political wing Sinn Fein It spurred on the Northern Ireland peace process and the RIRA apologized and called a ceasefire several days after

The Good Friday Agreement and Northern Ireland Peace Process

Beginningsbull Following the 1981 Hunger Strikes Irish republicans began to

increasingly look towards politics rather than violence as a means of achieving their aims Sinn Fein gaelic for ldquoWe Ourselvesrdquo was a fiercely Irish Republican political party which led by the Machiavellian former PIRA leader and Maze inmate Gerry Adams began to push for a more peaceful solution to the Troubles in Northern Ireland

bull It became apparent by the late 1990s that although the PIRA was not losing a war against the British establishment it would be impossible to truly lsquowin the fightrsquo through violence and that any further terrorism would serve not to achieve any real political aim but only to prolong and continue suffering and violence in Northern Ireland and that politics was a much better way of achieving Republican aims

Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein former PIRA Belfast Brigade OC

Good Friday Agreement 1998

bull The Peace Process began in 1994 and included intermittent terrorist ceasefires and political negotiations between the major Irish republican and British unionist parties and culminated on April 10 1998 when the Good Friday Agreement was signed

PM Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern Sign the GFA

GFA Mandatesbull That Northern Ireland was to remain British until a majority of people in Northern

Ireland and the southern Republic of Ireland wanted otherwise bull The creation of an entirely new far less sectarian and religiously diverse Northern

Irish local governmentbull The decommissioning of arms from terrorist groups on both the unionist and

nationalist side of the political divide (ultimately successful all arms decommissioned by 2005)

bull Mutual respect and civil rights between Catholics and Protestants bull The reduction and eventual elimination of British troops in Northern Ireland

(ultimately successful all troops withdrawn by 2005)bull Eventual early prison release for all individuals imprisoned for terrorist offenses as

long as they were apart of a terrorist group that was decommissioning in accordance with the GFA

bull Disbandment of the RUC police service and the installation of the new Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) which was required to be at least 50 Catholic

Northern Ireland Today

Still Conflict But No Warbull Since the complete decommissioning of the arms and

disbandment of the PIRA INLA UDAUFF and UVF due to the Good Friday Agreement there is nowhere near the amount of violence in Northern Ireland or Belfast as there was 20 years ago There are no more weekly bombings and riots and no more British troops patrolling Catholic areas in armored vehicles

bull Despite this there are still occasional riots and clashes with the PSNI several times a year specifically on dates of great historical significance to the Catholic or Protestant communities and there is still a deep distrust and even hatred between many Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland although that continues to change with time

Catholic Slum of Ardoyne Belfast July 2011

Splinter Groups

bull Many former PIRA or UDA terrorists have now taken to organized crime for purely profiteering purposes but are no longer involved in substantial violence or any political-based terrorism

bull Splinter groups such as the Real IRA and Continuity IRA in Catholic communities and the Orange Volunteers and Red Hand Commandos in Protestant communities still conduct occasional violence towards Police and civilians in Northern Ireland but are all rather small poorly armed and poorly funded groups that pose nowhere near the threat that terrorist groups in the 80s and 90s did in Northern Ireland

Herersquos To A Brighter Future in Northern Ireland

Works Citedbull httpwwwbbccoukhistorytroublesbull httpcainulstacukbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiProvisional_Irish_Republican_Armybull httpenwikipediaorgwikiThe_Troublesbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiUlster_Defence_Associationbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiUlster_Volunteer_Forcebull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_National_Liberation_Armybull ldquoA Secret History of the IRArdquo by Ed Moloney ndashWW Norton amp Company Reprint 2003bull ldquoVoices From The Grave Two Menrsquos War in Irelandrdquo by Ed Moloney ndash Public Affairs 2010bull ldquoFifty Dead Men Walkingrdquo by Martin McGartland ndash John Blake 2009bull httpwwwinfopleasecomspotnorthireland1htmlbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_Civil_Warbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_War_of_Independencebull httpenwikipediaorgwiki1981_Irish_hunger_strikebull httpenwikipediaorgwikiDirectory_of_the_Northern_Ireland_Troublesbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiGood_Friday_Agreementbull httpswwwmi5govukhomethe-threatsterrorismnorthern-irelandrepublican-terrorist-groupshtmlbull httpswwwmi5govukhomethe-threatsterrorismnorthern-irelandprovisional-irish-republican-army-

pirahtmlbull httpnewsbbccoukhienglishstaticnorthern_irelandunderstandingeventshunger_strikestm

  • The Troubles
  • Brief Overview
  • 30 Years of Conflict
  • Slide 4
  • Background
  • The Irish War of Independence
  • Slide 7
  • Anglo-Irish Treaty (signed 6 December 1921)
  • Irish Civil War
  • 1922-1966 Ireland
  • The Civil Rights Movement
  • Slide 12
  • Slide 13
  • Objectives of the Civil Rights Movement
  • The 1969 Northern Ireland Riots ndashThe Troubles Begin
  • Culmination of Tension
  • No-Go Areas
  • No-Go Areas (2)
  • Early 1970sndash The Rise of the Provisional IRA
  • The IRA Split
  • Rise of the UVF and Loyalist Terror Groups
  • Beginnings
  • UVF Statement 21 May 1964
  • The Paramilitaries
  • Irish RepublicansCatholics
  • The Provisional IRA
  • IRA Statement Late 80s
  • Statistics
  • RecruitmentFunding
  • Weaponry
  • Weaponry (2)
  • Slide 32
  • Mortars and IEDs
  • EOD Officer Approaches PIRA Car Bomb
  • The Barrack Buster
  • Vigilantism
  • Slide 37
  • Slide 38
  • Policy on Informants
  • Terrorist Activities
  • Terrorist Activities (continued)
  • The INLA
  • Statistics (2)
  • Ideology
  • Terrorist Activities (2)
  • Internal Feuds
  • Slide 47
  • British LoyalistsProtestants
  • The UDAUFF
  • Former UFF Member
  • Statistics (3)
  • Ideology (2)
  • Terrorist Activities (3)
  • Slide 54
  • Organized Crime
  • The UVF
  • Statistics (4)
  • Ideology (3)
  • Terrorist Activities (4)
  • The Shankhill Butchers
  • Weaponry (3)
  • Slide 62
  • Organized Crime (2)
  • Major Incidents 1969-1998
  • Bloody Sunday 30 January 1972
  • Massacre on the Bogside
  • Bloody Friday 21 July 1972
  • A City Under Siege
  • Dublin and Monaghan Bombings 17 May 1974
  • Deadliest Attack of the Troubles
  • Warrenpoint Ambush 27 August 1979
  • Roadside IEDs
  • Summer of 1981 Irish Hunger Strikes
  • A Defining Moment for the Republican Cause
  • The Five Demands
  • Previous Protests
  • Dirty Protesters
  • Thatcherrsquos Response
  • Ten Strikers Die
  • Bobby Sands
  • Reaction to Sandsrsquo Death
  • Conclusion
  • 1983 The Maze Prison Escape
  • The ldquoGreat Escaperdquo
  • 12 October 1984 Brighton Hotel Bombing
  • The PIRA Nearly Gets Thatcher
  • Loughgall Ambush 8 May 1987
  • The SAS Strikes
  • British Army Lynx Shootdown 20 March 1994
  • The PIRA Shoots Down a Helicopter
  • 1996 Manchester Bombing
  • The PIRA Destroys Manchester
  • Omagh Bombing 1998
  • Last Great Deadly Attack of the Troubles
  • The Good Friday Agreement and Northern Ireland Peace Process
  • Beginnings (2)
  • Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein former PIRA Belfast Brigade OC
  • Good Friday Agreement 1998
  • PM Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern Sign the GFA
  • GFA Mandates
  • Northern Ireland Today
  • Still Conflict But No War
  • Catholic Slum of Ardoyne Belfast July 2011
  • Splinter Groups
  • Herersquos To A Brighter Future in Northern Ireland
  • Works Cited
Page 63: The Troubles, 1969-1998

Roadside IEDsbull In the southern part of County Armagh Northern Ireland a predominately-

Catholic rural region and former PIRA stronghold right on the border with the southern Republic of Ireland a British troop convoy was hit with a remote-control detonated roadside 500lb truck-bomb and destroyed instantly killing 6 troops The surviving soldiers then wrongly believed they were under sniper fire from the other side of the Irish border and began firing at civilians immediately after the bombing killing 1 and injuring another

bull 32 minutes after the first bombing the IRA used its knowledge of how the British reacted to bombings to correctly predict that they would set up an incident-command point in a nearby gatehouse Unfortunately for the British there was a second 800lb fertilizer bomb planted near the gatehouse that when detonated killed 12 other soldiers who were responding to the initial bomb

bull It was the deadliest single attack on the British Army during the Troubles and a highly successful attack for the PIRA

Summer of 1981 Irish Hunger Strikes

A Defining Moment for the Republican Cause

bull Beginning on 1 March 1981 led by Bobby Sands 7 PIRA and 3 INLA inmates at the notorious ldquoMazerdquo prison began to refuse food until Margaret Thatcher PM of Great Britain at that time began to recognize terrorist prisoners as political prisoners and allowed them their ldquoFive Demandsrdquo

The Five Demands

bull The right to not wear a prison uniformbull The right to not do prison workbull The right of free association with other

prisoners and to organize in educational and recreational pursuits

bull Full restoration of remission lost through any protests towards these demands

Previous Protestsbull The Maze prison was a very high-security and low-quality prison that

housed almost all PIRA prisoners during the Troubles It was run in a very ethically questionable fashion with frequent beatings and borderline-torture techniques used on Republican prisoners and extremely poor living conditions for prisoners Many Maze prison guards were members of the UDAUVF or had strong connections with one of the two groups as well

bull Massive peaceful protests and marches by Irish republicans outside of the Maze Prison proved unsuccessful in attaining political status for republican prisoners as well as previous inmate protests in 1980 including non-fatal hunger strikes inmates refusing to wear prison uniforms and thus living in their cells naked and prisoners refusing to leave their cells to go to the bathroom until their requests had been granted (they therefore urinated and defecated in their cells and spread their excrement across their cell walls in what was known as the ldquoDirty Protestrdquo)

Dirty Protesters

Thatcherrsquos Response

bull ldquoThose terrorists will carry their determination to disrupt society to any lengths Once again we have a hunger strike in the Maze Prison in the quest for what they call lsquopolitical statusrsquo There is no such thing as political murder political bombing or political violence There is only criminal murder criminal bombing and criminal violence We will not compromise on this There will be no political statusrdquo

Ten Strikers Diebull Bobby Sands the leader of the strike was imprisoned as a PIRA member

on charges of firearm possession and in connection with the bombing of a furniture store He was the first to die after 66 days of not eating Sands was elected to a seat in Parliament whilst on Hunger Strike

bull Following Sandsrsquo death there were riots bus-burnings and attacks on the British embassy in the southern Republic of Ireland there were massive demonstrations in France and Italy a tomato was thrown as Queen Elizabeth II by demonstrators in Oslo and there were massive riots and civil disorder all over the streets of Belfast The South African ANC and (at the time) terrorist Nelson Mandela expressed their support for the PIRA and the hunger strikers (Mandela himself claimed he was directly inspired by Sands to undertake hunger strikes against the Apartheid government in South Africa) as well as the Palestine Liberation Organization a middle-eastern terror group

bull Over 100000 attended Sandsrsquo funeral

Bobby Sands

ldquoOur revenge will be the laughter of our childrenrdquo

Reaction to Sandsrsquo Death

>

Conclusion

bull The Hunger Strike was eventually called off after 10 strikers including Sands had died

bull James Prior newly installed secretary of state of Northern Ireland granted the prisoners partial concessions all of the Five Demands except for the right to not do prison work Margaret Thatcher refused to budge on political status

bull The Hunger Strikes opened a new way for the PIRA to pursue its objectives politically whereas previously it had seen violence as the only solution to the plight of Irish nationalists in Northern Ireland

1983 The Maze Prison Escape

The ldquoGreat Escaperdquo

bull Using smuggled-in guns and knives 38 PIRA prisoners who had been convicted of offenses ranging from murder to causing explosions escaped from one of the most high-security prisons in Europe They completely took over the H7 prison block and took their prison guards hostage before escaping in a food supply truck Several prison guards were shot and stabbed but only one died of a heart attack during the escape

bull Fifteen escapees were recaptured the first day with four more captured over the next two days following the breakout The remaining 19 were transported to PIRA strongholds and given the option to either rejoin the IRArsquos cause or be transported to the United States to live under a new identity

12 October 1984 Brighton Hotel Bombing

The PIRA Nearly Gets Thatcherbull Margaret Thatcher the highly controversial far-right British PM from

1979-1990 had become a tremendously hated figure amongst the Irish nationalist community in Northern Ireland following the 1981 Hunger Strikes and for her general uncompromising stand on Irish republicanism

bull PIRA man Patrick Magee stayed at the Brighton Hotel from the 14-17 September 1984 planting a 20-lb bomb under his bath

bull Thatcher was staying at the Brighton Hotel for a political conference and was still up at 254AM on 12 October when the bomb was detonated The bomb decimated her bathroom but left the bedroom and sitting room of her suite largely unscathed

bull The PIRA statement to Thatcher afterwards was ldquoToday we were unlucky But remember we only have to be lucky once You will have to be lucky alwaysrdquo

Loughgall Ambush 8 May 1987

The SAS Strikes

bull A botched attack on Loughgall Villagersquos RUC Police Base in which the PIRA drove a backhoe into the fortified base and ran away to detonate the bomb that was inside of the backhoe went wrong as the SAS the British Special Forces had prior knowledge of the attack and quickly dispatched the 8 PIRA members involved

bull Although the RUC base was wrecked and bombed there were no RUC or SAS casualties and it was the PIRArsquos greatest loss of life in a single incident during the Troubles

British Army Lynx Shootdown 20 March 1994

The PIRA Shoots Down a Helicopter

bull Using the previously mentioned Barrack-Buster homemade mortar PIRA insurgents were able to fire on a British helicopter that was in the process of landing whilst hiding behind a hay bail from around 150 yards out

bull The helicopter was hit with the mortar shell around 100 feet above the ground but the pilot was able to successfully crash-land the helicopter and escape before its propane tanks exploded There were no casualties but the attack was a major propaganda coup for the PIRA

1996 Manchester Bombing

The PIRA Destroys Manchester

bull On Saturday 15 June 1996 the PIRA sent in telephoned warnings and 90 minutes later detonated a 3300lb fertilizer-based truck bomb in the heart of Manchester City Centre the biggest bomb detonated in Great Britain during peacetime The bomb killed nobody due to previous warnings but led to 212 non-fatal injuries and essentially destroyed Manchester City Centre leaving approximately 700 million pounds ($12bn) worth of damage in its wake

Omagh Bombing 1998

Last Great Deadly Attack of the Troubles

bull Perpetrated by a Provisional IRA splinter group that was rejecting the peace process calling themselves the ldquoReal IRArdquo the 510lb fertilizer-based bomb was placed on main street in the town of Omagh Northern Ireland Warnings were called in approximately 30 minutes before the bombing but they were inaccurate and police ended up moving more civilians towards the bomb which ended up killing 29 people and causing over 300 non-fatal injuries This was the highest death toll from a single incident during the Troubles

bull It received universal outrage and was condemned even by the PIRA and its political wing Sinn Fein It spurred on the Northern Ireland peace process and the RIRA apologized and called a ceasefire several days after

The Good Friday Agreement and Northern Ireland Peace Process

Beginningsbull Following the 1981 Hunger Strikes Irish republicans began to

increasingly look towards politics rather than violence as a means of achieving their aims Sinn Fein gaelic for ldquoWe Ourselvesrdquo was a fiercely Irish Republican political party which led by the Machiavellian former PIRA leader and Maze inmate Gerry Adams began to push for a more peaceful solution to the Troubles in Northern Ireland

bull It became apparent by the late 1990s that although the PIRA was not losing a war against the British establishment it would be impossible to truly lsquowin the fightrsquo through violence and that any further terrorism would serve not to achieve any real political aim but only to prolong and continue suffering and violence in Northern Ireland and that politics was a much better way of achieving Republican aims

Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein former PIRA Belfast Brigade OC

Good Friday Agreement 1998

bull The Peace Process began in 1994 and included intermittent terrorist ceasefires and political negotiations between the major Irish republican and British unionist parties and culminated on April 10 1998 when the Good Friday Agreement was signed

PM Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern Sign the GFA

GFA Mandatesbull That Northern Ireland was to remain British until a majority of people in Northern

Ireland and the southern Republic of Ireland wanted otherwise bull The creation of an entirely new far less sectarian and religiously diverse Northern

Irish local governmentbull The decommissioning of arms from terrorist groups on both the unionist and

nationalist side of the political divide (ultimately successful all arms decommissioned by 2005)

bull Mutual respect and civil rights between Catholics and Protestants bull The reduction and eventual elimination of British troops in Northern Ireland

(ultimately successful all troops withdrawn by 2005)bull Eventual early prison release for all individuals imprisoned for terrorist offenses as

long as they were apart of a terrorist group that was decommissioning in accordance with the GFA

bull Disbandment of the RUC police service and the installation of the new Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) which was required to be at least 50 Catholic

Northern Ireland Today

Still Conflict But No Warbull Since the complete decommissioning of the arms and

disbandment of the PIRA INLA UDAUFF and UVF due to the Good Friday Agreement there is nowhere near the amount of violence in Northern Ireland or Belfast as there was 20 years ago There are no more weekly bombings and riots and no more British troops patrolling Catholic areas in armored vehicles

bull Despite this there are still occasional riots and clashes with the PSNI several times a year specifically on dates of great historical significance to the Catholic or Protestant communities and there is still a deep distrust and even hatred between many Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland although that continues to change with time

Catholic Slum of Ardoyne Belfast July 2011

Splinter Groups

bull Many former PIRA or UDA terrorists have now taken to organized crime for purely profiteering purposes but are no longer involved in substantial violence or any political-based terrorism

bull Splinter groups such as the Real IRA and Continuity IRA in Catholic communities and the Orange Volunteers and Red Hand Commandos in Protestant communities still conduct occasional violence towards Police and civilians in Northern Ireland but are all rather small poorly armed and poorly funded groups that pose nowhere near the threat that terrorist groups in the 80s and 90s did in Northern Ireland

Herersquos To A Brighter Future in Northern Ireland

Works Citedbull httpwwwbbccoukhistorytroublesbull httpcainulstacukbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiProvisional_Irish_Republican_Armybull httpenwikipediaorgwikiThe_Troublesbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiUlster_Defence_Associationbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiUlster_Volunteer_Forcebull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_National_Liberation_Armybull ldquoA Secret History of the IRArdquo by Ed Moloney ndashWW Norton amp Company Reprint 2003bull ldquoVoices From The Grave Two Menrsquos War in Irelandrdquo by Ed Moloney ndash Public Affairs 2010bull ldquoFifty Dead Men Walkingrdquo by Martin McGartland ndash John Blake 2009bull httpwwwinfopleasecomspotnorthireland1htmlbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_Civil_Warbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_War_of_Independencebull httpenwikipediaorgwiki1981_Irish_hunger_strikebull httpenwikipediaorgwikiDirectory_of_the_Northern_Ireland_Troublesbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiGood_Friday_Agreementbull httpswwwmi5govukhomethe-threatsterrorismnorthern-irelandrepublican-terrorist-groupshtmlbull httpswwwmi5govukhomethe-threatsterrorismnorthern-irelandprovisional-irish-republican-army-

pirahtmlbull httpnewsbbccoukhienglishstaticnorthern_irelandunderstandingeventshunger_strikestm

  • The Troubles
  • Brief Overview
  • 30 Years of Conflict
  • Slide 4
  • Background
  • The Irish War of Independence
  • Slide 7
  • Anglo-Irish Treaty (signed 6 December 1921)
  • Irish Civil War
  • 1922-1966 Ireland
  • The Civil Rights Movement
  • Slide 12
  • Slide 13
  • Objectives of the Civil Rights Movement
  • The 1969 Northern Ireland Riots ndashThe Troubles Begin
  • Culmination of Tension
  • No-Go Areas
  • No-Go Areas (2)
  • Early 1970sndash The Rise of the Provisional IRA
  • The IRA Split
  • Rise of the UVF and Loyalist Terror Groups
  • Beginnings
  • UVF Statement 21 May 1964
  • The Paramilitaries
  • Irish RepublicansCatholics
  • The Provisional IRA
  • IRA Statement Late 80s
  • Statistics
  • RecruitmentFunding
  • Weaponry
  • Weaponry (2)
  • Slide 32
  • Mortars and IEDs
  • EOD Officer Approaches PIRA Car Bomb
  • The Barrack Buster
  • Vigilantism
  • Slide 37
  • Slide 38
  • Policy on Informants
  • Terrorist Activities
  • Terrorist Activities (continued)
  • The INLA
  • Statistics (2)
  • Ideology
  • Terrorist Activities (2)
  • Internal Feuds
  • Slide 47
  • British LoyalistsProtestants
  • The UDAUFF
  • Former UFF Member
  • Statistics (3)
  • Ideology (2)
  • Terrorist Activities (3)
  • Slide 54
  • Organized Crime
  • The UVF
  • Statistics (4)
  • Ideology (3)
  • Terrorist Activities (4)
  • The Shankhill Butchers
  • Weaponry (3)
  • Slide 62
  • Organized Crime (2)
  • Major Incidents 1969-1998
  • Bloody Sunday 30 January 1972
  • Massacre on the Bogside
  • Bloody Friday 21 July 1972
  • A City Under Siege
  • Dublin and Monaghan Bombings 17 May 1974
  • Deadliest Attack of the Troubles
  • Warrenpoint Ambush 27 August 1979
  • Roadside IEDs
  • Summer of 1981 Irish Hunger Strikes
  • A Defining Moment for the Republican Cause
  • The Five Demands
  • Previous Protests
  • Dirty Protesters
  • Thatcherrsquos Response
  • Ten Strikers Die
  • Bobby Sands
  • Reaction to Sandsrsquo Death
  • Conclusion
  • 1983 The Maze Prison Escape
  • The ldquoGreat Escaperdquo
  • 12 October 1984 Brighton Hotel Bombing
  • The PIRA Nearly Gets Thatcher
  • Loughgall Ambush 8 May 1987
  • The SAS Strikes
  • British Army Lynx Shootdown 20 March 1994
  • The PIRA Shoots Down a Helicopter
  • 1996 Manchester Bombing
  • The PIRA Destroys Manchester
  • Omagh Bombing 1998
  • Last Great Deadly Attack of the Troubles
  • The Good Friday Agreement and Northern Ireland Peace Process
  • Beginnings (2)
  • Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein former PIRA Belfast Brigade OC
  • Good Friday Agreement 1998
  • PM Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern Sign the GFA
  • GFA Mandates
  • Northern Ireland Today
  • Still Conflict But No War
  • Catholic Slum of Ardoyne Belfast July 2011
  • Splinter Groups
  • Herersquos To A Brighter Future in Northern Ireland
  • Works Cited
Page 64: The Troubles, 1969-1998

Summer of 1981 Irish Hunger Strikes

A Defining Moment for the Republican Cause

bull Beginning on 1 March 1981 led by Bobby Sands 7 PIRA and 3 INLA inmates at the notorious ldquoMazerdquo prison began to refuse food until Margaret Thatcher PM of Great Britain at that time began to recognize terrorist prisoners as political prisoners and allowed them their ldquoFive Demandsrdquo

The Five Demands

bull The right to not wear a prison uniformbull The right to not do prison workbull The right of free association with other

prisoners and to organize in educational and recreational pursuits

bull Full restoration of remission lost through any protests towards these demands

Previous Protestsbull The Maze prison was a very high-security and low-quality prison that

housed almost all PIRA prisoners during the Troubles It was run in a very ethically questionable fashion with frequent beatings and borderline-torture techniques used on Republican prisoners and extremely poor living conditions for prisoners Many Maze prison guards were members of the UDAUVF or had strong connections with one of the two groups as well

bull Massive peaceful protests and marches by Irish republicans outside of the Maze Prison proved unsuccessful in attaining political status for republican prisoners as well as previous inmate protests in 1980 including non-fatal hunger strikes inmates refusing to wear prison uniforms and thus living in their cells naked and prisoners refusing to leave their cells to go to the bathroom until their requests had been granted (they therefore urinated and defecated in their cells and spread their excrement across their cell walls in what was known as the ldquoDirty Protestrdquo)

Dirty Protesters

Thatcherrsquos Response

bull ldquoThose terrorists will carry their determination to disrupt society to any lengths Once again we have a hunger strike in the Maze Prison in the quest for what they call lsquopolitical statusrsquo There is no such thing as political murder political bombing or political violence There is only criminal murder criminal bombing and criminal violence We will not compromise on this There will be no political statusrdquo

Ten Strikers Diebull Bobby Sands the leader of the strike was imprisoned as a PIRA member

on charges of firearm possession and in connection with the bombing of a furniture store He was the first to die after 66 days of not eating Sands was elected to a seat in Parliament whilst on Hunger Strike

bull Following Sandsrsquo death there were riots bus-burnings and attacks on the British embassy in the southern Republic of Ireland there were massive demonstrations in France and Italy a tomato was thrown as Queen Elizabeth II by demonstrators in Oslo and there were massive riots and civil disorder all over the streets of Belfast The South African ANC and (at the time) terrorist Nelson Mandela expressed their support for the PIRA and the hunger strikers (Mandela himself claimed he was directly inspired by Sands to undertake hunger strikes against the Apartheid government in South Africa) as well as the Palestine Liberation Organization a middle-eastern terror group

bull Over 100000 attended Sandsrsquo funeral

Bobby Sands

ldquoOur revenge will be the laughter of our childrenrdquo

Reaction to Sandsrsquo Death

>

Conclusion

bull The Hunger Strike was eventually called off after 10 strikers including Sands had died

bull James Prior newly installed secretary of state of Northern Ireland granted the prisoners partial concessions all of the Five Demands except for the right to not do prison work Margaret Thatcher refused to budge on political status

bull The Hunger Strikes opened a new way for the PIRA to pursue its objectives politically whereas previously it had seen violence as the only solution to the plight of Irish nationalists in Northern Ireland

1983 The Maze Prison Escape

The ldquoGreat Escaperdquo

bull Using smuggled-in guns and knives 38 PIRA prisoners who had been convicted of offenses ranging from murder to causing explosions escaped from one of the most high-security prisons in Europe They completely took over the H7 prison block and took their prison guards hostage before escaping in a food supply truck Several prison guards were shot and stabbed but only one died of a heart attack during the escape

bull Fifteen escapees were recaptured the first day with four more captured over the next two days following the breakout The remaining 19 were transported to PIRA strongholds and given the option to either rejoin the IRArsquos cause or be transported to the United States to live under a new identity

12 October 1984 Brighton Hotel Bombing

The PIRA Nearly Gets Thatcherbull Margaret Thatcher the highly controversial far-right British PM from

1979-1990 had become a tremendously hated figure amongst the Irish nationalist community in Northern Ireland following the 1981 Hunger Strikes and for her general uncompromising stand on Irish republicanism

bull PIRA man Patrick Magee stayed at the Brighton Hotel from the 14-17 September 1984 planting a 20-lb bomb under his bath

bull Thatcher was staying at the Brighton Hotel for a political conference and was still up at 254AM on 12 October when the bomb was detonated The bomb decimated her bathroom but left the bedroom and sitting room of her suite largely unscathed

bull The PIRA statement to Thatcher afterwards was ldquoToday we were unlucky But remember we only have to be lucky once You will have to be lucky alwaysrdquo

Loughgall Ambush 8 May 1987

The SAS Strikes

bull A botched attack on Loughgall Villagersquos RUC Police Base in which the PIRA drove a backhoe into the fortified base and ran away to detonate the bomb that was inside of the backhoe went wrong as the SAS the British Special Forces had prior knowledge of the attack and quickly dispatched the 8 PIRA members involved

bull Although the RUC base was wrecked and bombed there were no RUC or SAS casualties and it was the PIRArsquos greatest loss of life in a single incident during the Troubles

British Army Lynx Shootdown 20 March 1994

The PIRA Shoots Down a Helicopter

bull Using the previously mentioned Barrack-Buster homemade mortar PIRA insurgents were able to fire on a British helicopter that was in the process of landing whilst hiding behind a hay bail from around 150 yards out

bull The helicopter was hit with the mortar shell around 100 feet above the ground but the pilot was able to successfully crash-land the helicopter and escape before its propane tanks exploded There were no casualties but the attack was a major propaganda coup for the PIRA

1996 Manchester Bombing

The PIRA Destroys Manchester

bull On Saturday 15 June 1996 the PIRA sent in telephoned warnings and 90 minutes later detonated a 3300lb fertilizer-based truck bomb in the heart of Manchester City Centre the biggest bomb detonated in Great Britain during peacetime The bomb killed nobody due to previous warnings but led to 212 non-fatal injuries and essentially destroyed Manchester City Centre leaving approximately 700 million pounds ($12bn) worth of damage in its wake

Omagh Bombing 1998

Last Great Deadly Attack of the Troubles

bull Perpetrated by a Provisional IRA splinter group that was rejecting the peace process calling themselves the ldquoReal IRArdquo the 510lb fertilizer-based bomb was placed on main street in the town of Omagh Northern Ireland Warnings were called in approximately 30 minutes before the bombing but they were inaccurate and police ended up moving more civilians towards the bomb which ended up killing 29 people and causing over 300 non-fatal injuries This was the highest death toll from a single incident during the Troubles

bull It received universal outrage and was condemned even by the PIRA and its political wing Sinn Fein It spurred on the Northern Ireland peace process and the RIRA apologized and called a ceasefire several days after

The Good Friday Agreement and Northern Ireland Peace Process

Beginningsbull Following the 1981 Hunger Strikes Irish republicans began to

increasingly look towards politics rather than violence as a means of achieving their aims Sinn Fein gaelic for ldquoWe Ourselvesrdquo was a fiercely Irish Republican political party which led by the Machiavellian former PIRA leader and Maze inmate Gerry Adams began to push for a more peaceful solution to the Troubles in Northern Ireland

bull It became apparent by the late 1990s that although the PIRA was not losing a war against the British establishment it would be impossible to truly lsquowin the fightrsquo through violence and that any further terrorism would serve not to achieve any real political aim but only to prolong and continue suffering and violence in Northern Ireland and that politics was a much better way of achieving Republican aims

Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein former PIRA Belfast Brigade OC

Good Friday Agreement 1998

bull The Peace Process began in 1994 and included intermittent terrorist ceasefires and political negotiations between the major Irish republican and British unionist parties and culminated on April 10 1998 when the Good Friday Agreement was signed

PM Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern Sign the GFA

GFA Mandatesbull That Northern Ireland was to remain British until a majority of people in Northern

Ireland and the southern Republic of Ireland wanted otherwise bull The creation of an entirely new far less sectarian and religiously diverse Northern

Irish local governmentbull The decommissioning of arms from terrorist groups on both the unionist and

nationalist side of the political divide (ultimately successful all arms decommissioned by 2005)

bull Mutual respect and civil rights between Catholics and Protestants bull The reduction and eventual elimination of British troops in Northern Ireland

(ultimately successful all troops withdrawn by 2005)bull Eventual early prison release for all individuals imprisoned for terrorist offenses as

long as they were apart of a terrorist group that was decommissioning in accordance with the GFA

bull Disbandment of the RUC police service and the installation of the new Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) which was required to be at least 50 Catholic

Northern Ireland Today

Still Conflict But No Warbull Since the complete decommissioning of the arms and

disbandment of the PIRA INLA UDAUFF and UVF due to the Good Friday Agreement there is nowhere near the amount of violence in Northern Ireland or Belfast as there was 20 years ago There are no more weekly bombings and riots and no more British troops patrolling Catholic areas in armored vehicles

bull Despite this there are still occasional riots and clashes with the PSNI several times a year specifically on dates of great historical significance to the Catholic or Protestant communities and there is still a deep distrust and even hatred between many Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland although that continues to change with time

Catholic Slum of Ardoyne Belfast July 2011

Splinter Groups

bull Many former PIRA or UDA terrorists have now taken to organized crime for purely profiteering purposes but are no longer involved in substantial violence or any political-based terrorism

bull Splinter groups such as the Real IRA and Continuity IRA in Catholic communities and the Orange Volunteers and Red Hand Commandos in Protestant communities still conduct occasional violence towards Police and civilians in Northern Ireland but are all rather small poorly armed and poorly funded groups that pose nowhere near the threat that terrorist groups in the 80s and 90s did in Northern Ireland

Herersquos To A Brighter Future in Northern Ireland

Works Citedbull httpwwwbbccoukhistorytroublesbull httpcainulstacukbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiProvisional_Irish_Republican_Armybull httpenwikipediaorgwikiThe_Troublesbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiUlster_Defence_Associationbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiUlster_Volunteer_Forcebull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_National_Liberation_Armybull ldquoA Secret History of the IRArdquo by Ed Moloney ndashWW Norton amp Company Reprint 2003bull ldquoVoices From The Grave Two Menrsquos War in Irelandrdquo by Ed Moloney ndash Public Affairs 2010bull ldquoFifty Dead Men Walkingrdquo by Martin McGartland ndash John Blake 2009bull httpwwwinfopleasecomspotnorthireland1htmlbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_Civil_Warbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_War_of_Independencebull httpenwikipediaorgwiki1981_Irish_hunger_strikebull httpenwikipediaorgwikiDirectory_of_the_Northern_Ireland_Troublesbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiGood_Friday_Agreementbull httpswwwmi5govukhomethe-threatsterrorismnorthern-irelandrepublican-terrorist-groupshtmlbull httpswwwmi5govukhomethe-threatsterrorismnorthern-irelandprovisional-irish-republican-army-

pirahtmlbull httpnewsbbccoukhienglishstaticnorthern_irelandunderstandingeventshunger_strikestm

  • The Troubles
  • Brief Overview
  • 30 Years of Conflict
  • Slide 4
  • Background
  • The Irish War of Independence
  • Slide 7
  • Anglo-Irish Treaty (signed 6 December 1921)
  • Irish Civil War
  • 1922-1966 Ireland
  • The Civil Rights Movement
  • Slide 12
  • Slide 13
  • Objectives of the Civil Rights Movement
  • The 1969 Northern Ireland Riots ndashThe Troubles Begin
  • Culmination of Tension
  • No-Go Areas
  • No-Go Areas (2)
  • Early 1970sndash The Rise of the Provisional IRA
  • The IRA Split
  • Rise of the UVF and Loyalist Terror Groups
  • Beginnings
  • UVF Statement 21 May 1964
  • The Paramilitaries
  • Irish RepublicansCatholics
  • The Provisional IRA
  • IRA Statement Late 80s
  • Statistics
  • RecruitmentFunding
  • Weaponry
  • Weaponry (2)
  • Slide 32
  • Mortars and IEDs
  • EOD Officer Approaches PIRA Car Bomb
  • The Barrack Buster
  • Vigilantism
  • Slide 37
  • Slide 38
  • Policy on Informants
  • Terrorist Activities
  • Terrorist Activities (continued)
  • The INLA
  • Statistics (2)
  • Ideology
  • Terrorist Activities (2)
  • Internal Feuds
  • Slide 47
  • British LoyalistsProtestants
  • The UDAUFF
  • Former UFF Member
  • Statistics (3)
  • Ideology (2)
  • Terrorist Activities (3)
  • Slide 54
  • Organized Crime
  • The UVF
  • Statistics (4)
  • Ideology (3)
  • Terrorist Activities (4)
  • The Shankhill Butchers
  • Weaponry (3)
  • Slide 62
  • Organized Crime (2)
  • Major Incidents 1969-1998
  • Bloody Sunday 30 January 1972
  • Massacre on the Bogside
  • Bloody Friday 21 July 1972
  • A City Under Siege
  • Dublin and Monaghan Bombings 17 May 1974
  • Deadliest Attack of the Troubles
  • Warrenpoint Ambush 27 August 1979
  • Roadside IEDs
  • Summer of 1981 Irish Hunger Strikes
  • A Defining Moment for the Republican Cause
  • The Five Demands
  • Previous Protests
  • Dirty Protesters
  • Thatcherrsquos Response
  • Ten Strikers Die
  • Bobby Sands
  • Reaction to Sandsrsquo Death
  • Conclusion
  • 1983 The Maze Prison Escape
  • The ldquoGreat Escaperdquo
  • 12 October 1984 Brighton Hotel Bombing
  • The PIRA Nearly Gets Thatcher
  • Loughgall Ambush 8 May 1987
  • The SAS Strikes
  • British Army Lynx Shootdown 20 March 1994
  • The PIRA Shoots Down a Helicopter
  • 1996 Manchester Bombing
  • The PIRA Destroys Manchester
  • Omagh Bombing 1998
  • Last Great Deadly Attack of the Troubles
  • The Good Friday Agreement and Northern Ireland Peace Process
  • Beginnings (2)
  • Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein former PIRA Belfast Brigade OC
  • Good Friday Agreement 1998
  • PM Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern Sign the GFA
  • GFA Mandates
  • Northern Ireland Today
  • Still Conflict But No War
  • Catholic Slum of Ardoyne Belfast July 2011
  • Splinter Groups
  • Herersquos To A Brighter Future in Northern Ireland
  • Works Cited
Page 65: The Troubles, 1969-1998

A Defining Moment for the Republican Cause

bull Beginning on 1 March 1981 led by Bobby Sands 7 PIRA and 3 INLA inmates at the notorious ldquoMazerdquo prison began to refuse food until Margaret Thatcher PM of Great Britain at that time began to recognize terrorist prisoners as political prisoners and allowed them their ldquoFive Demandsrdquo

The Five Demands

bull The right to not wear a prison uniformbull The right to not do prison workbull The right of free association with other

prisoners and to organize in educational and recreational pursuits

bull Full restoration of remission lost through any protests towards these demands

Previous Protestsbull The Maze prison was a very high-security and low-quality prison that

housed almost all PIRA prisoners during the Troubles It was run in a very ethically questionable fashion with frequent beatings and borderline-torture techniques used on Republican prisoners and extremely poor living conditions for prisoners Many Maze prison guards were members of the UDAUVF or had strong connections with one of the two groups as well

bull Massive peaceful protests and marches by Irish republicans outside of the Maze Prison proved unsuccessful in attaining political status for republican prisoners as well as previous inmate protests in 1980 including non-fatal hunger strikes inmates refusing to wear prison uniforms and thus living in their cells naked and prisoners refusing to leave their cells to go to the bathroom until their requests had been granted (they therefore urinated and defecated in their cells and spread their excrement across their cell walls in what was known as the ldquoDirty Protestrdquo)

Dirty Protesters

Thatcherrsquos Response

bull ldquoThose terrorists will carry their determination to disrupt society to any lengths Once again we have a hunger strike in the Maze Prison in the quest for what they call lsquopolitical statusrsquo There is no such thing as political murder political bombing or political violence There is only criminal murder criminal bombing and criminal violence We will not compromise on this There will be no political statusrdquo

Ten Strikers Diebull Bobby Sands the leader of the strike was imprisoned as a PIRA member

on charges of firearm possession and in connection with the bombing of a furniture store He was the first to die after 66 days of not eating Sands was elected to a seat in Parliament whilst on Hunger Strike

bull Following Sandsrsquo death there were riots bus-burnings and attacks on the British embassy in the southern Republic of Ireland there were massive demonstrations in France and Italy a tomato was thrown as Queen Elizabeth II by demonstrators in Oslo and there were massive riots and civil disorder all over the streets of Belfast The South African ANC and (at the time) terrorist Nelson Mandela expressed their support for the PIRA and the hunger strikers (Mandela himself claimed he was directly inspired by Sands to undertake hunger strikes against the Apartheid government in South Africa) as well as the Palestine Liberation Organization a middle-eastern terror group

bull Over 100000 attended Sandsrsquo funeral

Bobby Sands

ldquoOur revenge will be the laughter of our childrenrdquo

Reaction to Sandsrsquo Death

>

Conclusion

bull The Hunger Strike was eventually called off after 10 strikers including Sands had died

bull James Prior newly installed secretary of state of Northern Ireland granted the prisoners partial concessions all of the Five Demands except for the right to not do prison work Margaret Thatcher refused to budge on political status

bull The Hunger Strikes opened a new way for the PIRA to pursue its objectives politically whereas previously it had seen violence as the only solution to the plight of Irish nationalists in Northern Ireland

1983 The Maze Prison Escape

The ldquoGreat Escaperdquo

bull Using smuggled-in guns and knives 38 PIRA prisoners who had been convicted of offenses ranging from murder to causing explosions escaped from one of the most high-security prisons in Europe They completely took over the H7 prison block and took their prison guards hostage before escaping in a food supply truck Several prison guards were shot and stabbed but only one died of a heart attack during the escape

bull Fifteen escapees were recaptured the first day with four more captured over the next two days following the breakout The remaining 19 were transported to PIRA strongholds and given the option to either rejoin the IRArsquos cause or be transported to the United States to live under a new identity

12 October 1984 Brighton Hotel Bombing

The PIRA Nearly Gets Thatcherbull Margaret Thatcher the highly controversial far-right British PM from

1979-1990 had become a tremendously hated figure amongst the Irish nationalist community in Northern Ireland following the 1981 Hunger Strikes and for her general uncompromising stand on Irish republicanism

bull PIRA man Patrick Magee stayed at the Brighton Hotel from the 14-17 September 1984 planting a 20-lb bomb under his bath

bull Thatcher was staying at the Brighton Hotel for a political conference and was still up at 254AM on 12 October when the bomb was detonated The bomb decimated her bathroom but left the bedroom and sitting room of her suite largely unscathed

bull The PIRA statement to Thatcher afterwards was ldquoToday we were unlucky But remember we only have to be lucky once You will have to be lucky alwaysrdquo

Loughgall Ambush 8 May 1987

The SAS Strikes

bull A botched attack on Loughgall Villagersquos RUC Police Base in which the PIRA drove a backhoe into the fortified base and ran away to detonate the bomb that was inside of the backhoe went wrong as the SAS the British Special Forces had prior knowledge of the attack and quickly dispatched the 8 PIRA members involved

bull Although the RUC base was wrecked and bombed there were no RUC or SAS casualties and it was the PIRArsquos greatest loss of life in a single incident during the Troubles

British Army Lynx Shootdown 20 March 1994

The PIRA Shoots Down a Helicopter

bull Using the previously mentioned Barrack-Buster homemade mortar PIRA insurgents were able to fire on a British helicopter that was in the process of landing whilst hiding behind a hay bail from around 150 yards out

bull The helicopter was hit with the mortar shell around 100 feet above the ground but the pilot was able to successfully crash-land the helicopter and escape before its propane tanks exploded There were no casualties but the attack was a major propaganda coup for the PIRA

1996 Manchester Bombing

The PIRA Destroys Manchester

bull On Saturday 15 June 1996 the PIRA sent in telephoned warnings and 90 minutes later detonated a 3300lb fertilizer-based truck bomb in the heart of Manchester City Centre the biggest bomb detonated in Great Britain during peacetime The bomb killed nobody due to previous warnings but led to 212 non-fatal injuries and essentially destroyed Manchester City Centre leaving approximately 700 million pounds ($12bn) worth of damage in its wake

Omagh Bombing 1998

Last Great Deadly Attack of the Troubles

bull Perpetrated by a Provisional IRA splinter group that was rejecting the peace process calling themselves the ldquoReal IRArdquo the 510lb fertilizer-based bomb was placed on main street in the town of Omagh Northern Ireland Warnings were called in approximately 30 minutes before the bombing but they were inaccurate and police ended up moving more civilians towards the bomb which ended up killing 29 people and causing over 300 non-fatal injuries This was the highest death toll from a single incident during the Troubles

bull It received universal outrage and was condemned even by the PIRA and its political wing Sinn Fein It spurred on the Northern Ireland peace process and the RIRA apologized and called a ceasefire several days after

The Good Friday Agreement and Northern Ireland Peace Process

Beginningsbull Following the 1981 Hunger Strikes Irish republicans began to

increasingly look towards politics rather than violence as a means of achieving their aims Sinn Fein gaelic for ldquoWe Ourselvesrdquo was a fiercely Irish Republican political party which led by the Machiavellian former PIRA leader and Maze inmate Gerry Adams began to push for a more peaceful solution to the Troubles in Northern Ireland

bull It became apparent by the late 1990s that although the PIRA was not losing a war against the British establishment it would be impossible to truly lsquowin the fightrsquo through violence and that any further terrorism would serve not to achieve any real political aim but only to prolong and continue suffering and violence in Northern Ireland and that politics was a much better way of achieving Republican aims

Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein former PIRA Belfast Brigade OC

Good Friday Agreement 1998

bull The Peace Process began in 1994 and included intermittent terrorist ceasefires and political negotiations between the major Irish republican and British unionist parties and culminated on April 10 1998 when the Good Friday Agreement was signed

PM Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern Sign the GFA

GFA Mandatesbull That Northern Ireland was to remain British until a majority of people in Northern

Ireland and the southern Republic of Ireland wanted otherwise bull The creation of an entirely new far less sectarian and religiously diverse Northern

Irish local governmentbull The decommissioning of arms from terrorist groups on both the unionist and

nationalist side of the political divide (ultimately successful all arms decommissioned by 2005)

bull Mutual respect and civil rights between Catholics and Protestants bull The reduction and eventual elimination of British troops in Northern Ireland

(ultimately successful all troops withdrawn by 2005)bull Eventual early prison release for all individuals imprisoned for terrorist offenses as

long as they were apart of a terrorist group that was decommissioning in accordance with the GFA

bull Disbandment of the RUC police service and the installation of the new Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) which was required to be at least 50 Catholic

Northern Ireland Today

Still Conflict But No Warbull Since the complete decommissioning of the arms and

disbandment of the PIRA INLA UDAUFF and UVF due to the Good Friday Agreement there is nowhere near the amount of violence in Northern Ireland or Belfast as there was 20 years ago There are no more weekly bombings and riots and no more British troops patrolling Catholic areas in armored vehicles

bull Despite this there are still occasional riots and clashes with the PSNI several times a year specifically on dates of great historical significance to the Catholic or Protestant communities and there is still a deep distrust and even hatred between many Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland although that continues to change with time

Catholic Slum of Ardoyne Belfast July 2011

Splinter Groups

bull Many former PIRA or UDA terrorists have now taken to organized crime for purely profiteering purposes but are no longer involved in substantial violence or any political-based terrorism

bull Splinter groups such as the Real IRA and Continuity IRA in Catholic communities and the Orange Volunteers and Red Hand Commandos in Protestant communities still conduct occasional violence towards Police and civilians in Northern Ireland but are all rather small poorly armed and poorly funded groups that pose nowhere near the threat that terrorist groups in the 80s and 90s did in Northern Ireland

Herersquos To A Brighter Future in Northern Ireland

Works Citedbull httpwwwbbccoukhistorytroublesbull httpcainulstacukbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiProvisional_Irish_Republican_Armybull httpenwikipediaorgwikiThe_Troublesbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiUlster_Defence_Associationbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiUlster_Volunteer_Forcebull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_National_Liberation_Armybull ldquoA Secret History of the IRArdquo by Ed Moloney ndashWW Norton amp Company Reprint 2003bull ldquoVoices From The Grave Two Menrsquos War in Irelandrdquo by Ed Moloney ndash Public Affairs 2010bull ldquoFifty Dead Men Walkingrdquo by Martin McGartland ndash John Blake 2009bull httpwwwinfopleasecomspotnorthireland1htmlbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_Civil_Warbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_War_of_Independencebull httpenwikipediaorgwiki1981_Irish_hunger_strikebull httpenwikipediaorgwikiDirectory_of_the_Northern_Ireland_Troublesbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiGood_Friday_Agreementbull httpswwwmi5govukhomethe-threatsterrorismnorthern-irelandrepublican-terrorist-groupshtmlbull httpswwwmi5govukhomethe-threatsterrorismnorthern-irelandprovisional-irish-republican-army-

pirahtmlbull httpnewsbbccoukhienglishstaticnorthern_irelandunderstandingeventshunger_strikestm

  • The Troubles
  • Brief Overview
  • 30 Years of Conflict
  • Slide 4
  • Background
  • The Irish War of Independence
  • Slide 7
  • Anglo-Irish Treaty (signed 6 December 1921)
  • Irish Civil War
  • 1922-1966 Ireland
  • The Civil Rights Movement
  • Slide 12
  • Slide 13
  • Objectives of the Civil Rights Movement
  • The 1969 Northern Ireland Riots ndashThe Troubles Begin
  • Culmination of Tension
  • No-Go Areas
  • No-Go Areas (2)
  • Early 1970sndash The Rise of the Provisional IRA
  • The IRA Split
  • Rise of the UVF and Loyalist Terror Groups
  • Beginnings
  • UVF Statement 21 May 1964
  • The Paramilitaries
  • Irish RepublicansCatholics
  • The Provisional IRA
  • IRA Statement Late 80s
  • Statistics
  • RecruitmentFunding
  • Weaponry
  • Weaponry (2)
  • Slide 32
  • Mortars and IEDs
  • EOD Officer Approaches PIRA Car Bomb
  • The Barrack Buster
  • Vigilantism
  • Slide 37
  • Slide 38
  • Policy on Informants
  • Terrorist Activities
  • Terrorist Activities (continued)
  • The INLA
  • Statistics (2)
  • Ideology
  • Terrorist Activities (2)
  • Internal Feuds
  • Slide 47
  • British LoyalistsProtestants
  • The UDAUFF
  • Former UFF Member
  • Statistics (3)
  • Ideology (2)
  • Terrorist Activities (3)
  • Slide 54
  • Organized Crime
  • The UVF
  • Statistics (4)
  • Ideology (3)
  • Terrorist Activities (4)
  • The Shankhill Butchers
  • Weaponry (3)
  • Slide 62
  • Organized Crime (2)
  • Major Incidents 1969-1998
  • Bloody Sunday 30 January 1972
  • Massacre on the Bogside
  • Bloody Friday 21 July 1972
  • A City Under Siege
  • Dublin and Monaghan Bombings 17 May 1974
  • Deadliest Attack of the Troubles
  • Warrenpoint Ambush 27 August 1979
  • Roadside IEDs
  • Summer of 1981 Irish Hunger Strikes
  • A Defining Moment for the Republican Cause
  • The Five Demands
  • Previous Protests
  • Dirty Protesters
  • Thatcherrsquos Response
  • Ten Strikers Die
  • Bobby Sands
  • Reaction to Sandsrsquo Death
  • Conclusion
  • 1983 The Maze Prison Escape
  • The ldquoGreat Escaperdquo
  • 12 October 1984 Brighton Hotel Bombing
  • The PIRA Nearly Gets Thatcher
  • Loughgall Ambush 8 May 1987
  • The SAS Strikes
  • British Army Lynx Shootdown 20 March 1994
  • The PIRA Shoots Down a Helicopter
  • 1996 Manchester Bombing
  • The PIRA Destroys Manchester
  • Omagh Bombing 1998
  • Last Great Deadly Attack of the Troubles
  • The Good Friday Agreement and Northern Ireland Peace Process
  • Beginnings (2)
  • Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein former PIRA Belfast Brigade OC
  • Good Friday Agreement 1998
  • PM Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern Sign the GFA
  • GFA Mandates
  • Northern Ireland Today
  • Still Conflict But No War
  • Catholic Slum of Ardoyne Belfast July 2011
  • Splinter Groups
  • Herersquos To A Brighter Future in Northern Ireland
  • Works Cited
Page 66: The Troubles, 1969-1998

The Five Demands

bull The right to not wear a prison uniformbull The right to not do prison workbull The right of free association with other

prisoners and to organize in educational and recreational pursuits

bull Full restoration of remission lost through any protests towards these demands

Previous Protestsbull The Maze prison was a very high-security and low-quality prison that

housed almost all PIRA prisoners during the Troubles It was run in a very ethically questionable fashion with frequent beatings and borderline-torture techniques used on Republican prisoners and extremely poor living conditions for prisoners Many Maze prison guards were members of the UDAUVF or had strong connections with one of the two groups as well

bull Massive peaceful protests and marches by Irish republicans outside of the Maze Prison proved unsuccessful in attaining political status for republican prisoners as well as previous inmate protests in 1980 including non-fatal hunger strikes inmates refusing to wear prison uniforms and thus living in their cells naked and prisoners refusing to leave their cells to go to the bathroom until their requests had been granted (they therefore urinated and defecated in their cells and spread their excrement across their cell walls in what was known as the ldquoDirty Protestrdquo)

Dirty Protesters

Thatcherrsquos Response

bull ldquoThose terrorists will carry their determination to disrupt society to any lengths Once again we have a hunger strike in the Maze Prison in the quest for what they call lsquopolitical statusrsquo There is no such thing as political murder political bombing or political violence There is only criminal murder criminal bombing and criminal violence We will not compromise on this There will be no political statusrdquo

Ten Strikers Diebull Bobby Sands the leader of the strike was imprisoned as a PIRA member

on charges of firearm possession and in connection with the bombing of a furniture store He was the first to die after 66 days of not eating Sands was elected to a seat in Parliament whilst on Hunger Strike

bull Following Sandsrsquo death there were riots bus-burnings and attacks on the British embassy in the southern Republic of Ireland there were massive demonstrations in France and Italy a tomato was thrown as Queen Elizabeth II by demonstrators in Oslo and there were massive riots and civil disorder all over the streets of Belfast The South African ANC and (at the time) terrorist Nelson Mandela expressed their support for the PIRA and the hunger strikers (Mandela himself claimed he was directly inspired by Sands to undertake hunger strikes against the Apartheid government in South Africa) as well as the Palestine Liberation Organization a middle-eastern terror group

bull Over 100000 attended Sandsrsquo funeral

Bobby Sands

ldquoOur revenge will be the laughter of our childrenrdquo

Reaction to Sandsrsquo Death

>

Conclusion

bull The Hunger Strike was eventually called off after 10 strikers including Sands had died

bull James Prior newly installed secretary of state of Northern Ireland granted the prisoners partial concessions all of the Five Demands except for the right to not do prison work Margaret Thatcher refused to budge on political status

bull The Hunger Strikes opened a new way for the PIRA to pursue its objectives politically whereas previously it had seen violence as the only solution to the plight of Irish nationalists in Northern Ireland

1983 The Maze Prison Escape

The ldquoGreat Escaperdquo

bull Using smuggled-in guns and knives 38 PIRA prisoners who had been convicted of offenses ranging from murder to causing explosions escaped from one of the most high-security prisons in Europe They completely took over the H7 prison block and took their prison guards hostage before escaping in a food supply truck Several prison guards were shot and stabbed but only one died of a heart attack during the escape

bull Fifteen escapees were recaptured the first day with four more captured over the next two days following the breakout The remaining 19 were transported to PIRA strongholds and given the option to either rejoin the IRArsquos cause or be transported to the United States to live under a new identity

12 October 1984 Brighton Hotel Bombing

The PIRA Nearly Gets Thatcherbull Margaret Thatcher the highly controversial far-right British PM from

1979-1990 had become a tremendously hated figure amongst the Irish nationalist community in Northern Ireland following the 1981 Hunger Strikes and for her general uncompromising stand on Irish republicanism

bull PIRA man Patrick Magee stayed at the Brighton Hotel from the 14-17 September 1984 planting a 20-lb bomb under his bath

bull Thatcher was staying at the Brighton Hotel for a political conference and was still up at 254AM on 12 October when the bomb was detonated The bomb decimated her bathroom but left the bedroom and sitting room of her suite largely unscathed

bull The PIRA statement to Thatcher afterwards was ldquoToday we were unlucky But remember we only have to be lucky once You will have to be lucky alwaysrdquo

Loughgall Ambush 8 May 1987

The SAS Strikes

bull A botched attack on Loughgall Villagersquos RUC Police Base in which the PIRA drove a backhoe into the fortified base and ran away to detonate the bomb that was inside of the backhoe went wrong as the SAS the British Special Forces had prior knowledge of the attack and quickly dispatched the 8 PIRA members involved

bull Although the RUC base was wrecked and bombed there were no RUC or SAS casualties and it was the PIRArsquos greatest loss of life in a single incident during the Troubles

British Army Lynx Shootdown 20 March 1994

The PIRA Shoots Down a Helicopter

bull Using the previously mentioned Barrack-Buster homemade mortar PIRA insurgents were able to fire on a British helicopter that was in the process of landing whilst hiding behind a hay bail from around 150 yards out

bull The helicopter was hit with the mortar shell around 100 feet above the ground but the pilot was able to successfully crash-land the helicopter and escape before its propane tanks exploded There were no casualties but the attack was a major propaganda coup for the PIRA

1996 Manchester Bombing

The PIRA Destroys Manchester

bull On Saturday 15 June 1996 the PIRA sent in telephoned warnings and 90 minutes later detonated a 3300lb fertilizer-based truck bomb in the heart of Manchester City Centre the biggest bomb detonated in Great Britain during peacetime The bomb killed nobody due to previous warnings but led to 212 non-fatal injuries and essentially destroyed Manchester City Centre leaving approximately 700 million pounds ($12bn) worth of damage in its wake

Omagh Bombing 1998

Last Great Deadly Attack of the Troubles

bull Perpetrated by a Provisional IRA splinter group that was rejecting the peace process calling themselves the ldquoReal IRArdquo the 510lb fertilizer-based bomb was placed on main street in the town of Omagh Northern Ireland Warnings were called in approximately 30 minutes before the bombing but they were inaccurate and police ended up moving more civilians towards the bomb which ended up killing 29 people and causing over 300 non-fatal injuries This was the highest death toll from a single incident during the Troubles

bull It received universal outrage and was condemned even by the PIRA and its political wing Sinn Fein It spurred on the Northern Ireland peace process and the RIRA apologized and called a ceasefire several days after

The Good Friday Agreement and Northern Ireland Peace Process

Beginningsbull Following the 1981 Hunger Strikes Irish republicans began to

increasingly look towards politics rather than violence as a means of achieving their aims Sinn Fein gaelic for ldquoWe Ourselvesrdquo was a fiercely Irish Republican political party which led by the Machiavellian former PIRA leader and Maze inmate Gerry Adams began to push for a more peaceful solution to the Troubles in Northern Ireland

bull It became apparent by the late 1990s that although the PIRA was not losing a war against the British establishment it would be impossible to truly lsquowin the fightrsquo through violence and that any further terrorism would serve not to achieve any real political aim but only to prolong and continue suffering and violence in Northern Ireland and that politics was a much better way of achieving Republican aims

Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein former PIRA Belfast Brigade OC

Good Friday Agreement 1998

bull The Peace Process began in 1994 and included intermittent terrorist ceasefires and political negotiations between the major Irish republican and British unionist parties and culminated on April 10 1998 when the Good Friday Agreement was signed

PM Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern Sign the GFA

GFA Mandatesbull That Northern Ireland was to remain British until a majority of people in Northern

Ireland and the southern Republic of Ireland wanted otherwise bull The creation of an entirely new far less sectarian and religiously diverse Northern

Irish local governmentbull The decommissioning of arms from terrorist groups on both the unionist and

nationalist side of the political divide (ultimately successful all arms decommissioned by 2005)

bull Mutual respect and civil rights between Catholics and Protestants bull The reduction and eventual elimination of British troops in Northern Ireland

(ultimately successful all troops withdrawn by 2005)bull Eventual early prison release for all individuals imprisoned for terrorist offenses as

long as they were apart of a terrorist group that was decommissioning in accordance with the GFA

bull Disbandment of the RUC police service and the installation of the new Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) which was required to be at least 50 Catholic

Northern Ireland Today

Still Conflict But No Warbull Since the complete decommissioning of the arms and

disbandment of the PIRA INLA UDAUFF and UVF due to the Good Friday Agreement there is nowhere near the amount of violence in Northern Ireland or Belfast as there was 20 years ago There are no more weekly bombings and riots and no more British troops patrolling Catholic areas in armored vehicles

bull Despite this there are still occasional riots and clashes with the PSNI several times a year specifically on dates of great historical significance to the Catholic or Protestant communities and there is still a deep distrust and even hatred between many Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland although that continues to change with time

Catholic Slum of Ardoyne Belfast July 2011

Splinter Groups

bull Many former PIRA or UDA terrorists have now taken to organized crime for purely profiteering purposes but are no longer involved in substantial violence or any political-based terrorism

bull Splinter groups such as the Real IRA and Continuity IRA in Catholic communities and the Orange Volunteers and Red Hand Commandos in Protestant communities still conduct occasional violence towards Police and civilians in Northern Ireland but are all rather small poorly armed and poorly funded groups that pose nowhere near the threat that terrorist groups in the 80s and 90s did in Northern Ireland

Herersquos To A Brighter Future in Northern Ireland

Works Citedbull httpwwwbbccoukhistorytroublesbull httpcainulstacukbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiProvisional_Irish_Republican_Armybull httpenwikipediaorgwikiThe_Troublesbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiUlster_Defence_Associationbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiUlster_Volunteer_Forcebull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_National_Liberation_Armybull ldquoA Secret History of the IRArdquo by Ed Moloney ndashWW Norton amp Company Reprint 2003bull ldquoVoices From The Grave Two Menrsquos War in Irelandrdquo by Ed Moloney ndash Public Affairs 2010bull ldquoFifty Dead Men Walkingrdquo by Martin McGartland ndash John Blake 2009bull httpwwwinfopleasecomspotnorthireland1htmlbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_Civil_Warbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_War_of_Independencebull httpenwikipediaorgwiki1981_Irish_hunger_strikebull httpenwikipediaorgwikiDirectory_of_the_Northern_Ireland_Troublesbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiGood_Friday_Agreementbull httpswwwmi5govukhomethe-threatsterrorismnorthern-irelandrepublican-terrorist-groupshtmlbull httpswwwmi5govukhomethe-threatsterrorismnorthern-irelandprovisional-irish-republican-army-

pirahtmlbull httpnewsbbccoukhienglishstaticnorthern_irelandunderstandingeventshunger_strikestm

  • The Troubles
  • Brief Overview
  • 30 Years of Conflict
  • Slide 4
  • Background
  • The Irish War of Independence
  • Slide 7
  • Anglo-Irish Treaty (signed 6 December 1921)
  • Irish Civil War
  • 1922-1966 Ireland
  • The Civil Rights Movement
  • Slide 12
  • Slide 13
  • Objectives of the Civil Rights Movement
  • The 1969 Northern Ireland Riots ndashThe Troubles Begin
  • Culmination of Tension
  • No-Go Areas
  • No-Go Areas (2)
  • Early 1970sndash The Rise of the Provisional IRA
  • The IRA Split
  • Rise of the UVF and Loyalist Terror Groups
  • Beginnings
  • UVF Statement 21 May 1964
  • The Paramilitaries
  • Irish RepublicansCatholics
  • The Provisional IRA
  • IRA Statement Late 80s
  • Statistics
  • RecruitmentFunding
  • Weaponry
  • Weaponry (2)
  • Slide 32
  • Mortars and IEDs
  • EOD Officer Approaches PIRA Car Bomb
  • The Barrack Buster
  • Vigilantism
  • Slide 37
  • Slide 38
  • Policy on Informants
  • Terrorist Activities
  • Terrorist Activities (continued)
  • The INLA
  • Statistics (2)
  • Ideology
  • Terrorist Activities (2)
  • Internal Feuds
  • Slide 47
  • British LoyalistsProtestants
  • The UDAUFF
  • Former UFF Member
  • Statistics (3)
  • Ideology (2)
  • Terrorist Activities (3)
  • Slide 54
  • Organized Crime
  • The UVF
  • Statistics (4)
  • Ideology (3)
  • Terrorist Activities (4)
  • The Shankhill Butchers
  • Weaponry (3)
  • Slide 62
  • Organized Crime (2)
  • Major Incidents 1969-1998
  • Bloody Sunday 30 January 1972
  • Massacre on the Bogside
  • Bloody Friday 21 July 1972
  • A City Under Siege
  • Dublin and Monaghan Bombings 17 May 1974
  • Deadliest Attack of the Troubles
  • Warrenpoint Ambush 27 August 1979
  • Roadside IEDs
  • Summer of 1981 Irish Hunger Strikes
  • A Defining Moment for the Republican Cause
  • The Five Demands
  • Previous Protests
  • Dirty Protesters
  • Thatcherrsquos Response
  • Ten Strikers Die
  • Bobby Sands
  • Reaction to Sandsrsquo Death
  • Conclusion
  • 1983 The Maze Prison Escape
  • The ldquoGreat Escaperdquo
  • 12 October 1984 Brighton Hotel Bombing
  • The PIRA Nearly Gets Thatcher
  • Loughgall Ambush 8 May 1987
  • The SAS Strikes
  • British Army Lynx Shootdown 20 March 1994
  • The PIRA Shoots Down a Helicopter
  • 1996 Manchester Bombing
  • The PIRA Destroys Manchester
  • Omagh Bombing 1998
  • Last Great Deadly Attack of the Troubles
  • The Good Friday Agreement and Northern Ireland Peace Process
  • Beginnings (2)
  • Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein former PIRA Belfast Brigade OC
  • Good Friday Agreement 1998
  • PM Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern Sign the GFA
  • GFA Mandates
  • Northern Ireland Today
  • Still Conflict But No War
  • Catholic Slum of Ardoyne Belfast July 2011
  • Splinter Groups
  • Herersquos To A Brighter Future in Northern Ireland
  • Works Cited
Page 67: The Troubles, 1969-1998

Previous Protestsbull The Maze prison was a very high-security and low-quality prison that

housed almost all PIRA prisoners during the Troubles It was run in a very ethically questionable fashion with frequent beatings and borderline-torture techniques used on Republican prisoners and extremely poor living conditions for prisoners Many Maze prison guards were members of the UDAUVF or had strong connections with one of the two groups as well

bull Massive peaceful protests and marches by Irish republicans outside of the Maze Prison proved unsuccessful in attaining political status for republican prisoners as well as previous inmate protests in 1980 including non-fatal hunger strikes inmates refusing to wear prison uniforms and thus living in their cells naked and prisoners refusing to leave their cells to go to the bathroom until their requests had been granted (they therefore urinated and defecated in their cells and spread their excrement across their cell walls in what was known as the ldquoDirty Protestrdquo)

Dirty Protesters

Thatcherrsquos Response

bull ldquoThose terrorists will carry their determination to disrupt society to any lengths Once again we have a hunger strike in the Maze Prison in the quest for what they call lsquopolitical statusrsquo There is no such thing as political murder political bombing or political violence There is only criminal murder criminal bombing and criminal violence We will not compromise on this There will be no political statusrdquo

Ten Strikers Diebull Bobby Sands the leader of the strike was imprisoned as a PIRA member

on charges of firearm possession and in connection with the bombing of a furniture store He was the first to die after 66 days of not eating Sands was elected to a seat in Parliament whilst on Hunger Strike

bull Following Sandsrsquo death there were riots bus-burnings and attacks on the British embassy in the southern Republic of Ireland there were massive demonstrations in France and Italy a tomato was thrown as Queen Elizabeth II by demonstrators in Oslo and there were massive riots and civil disorder all over the streets of Belfast The South African ANC and (at the time) terrorist Nelson Mandela expressed their support for the PIRA and the hunger strikers (Mandela himself claimed he was directly inspired by Sands to undertake hunger strikes against the Apartheid government in South Africa) as well as the Palestine Liberation Organization a middle-eastern terror group

bull Over 100000 attended Sandsrsquo funeral

Bobby Sands

ldquoOur revenge will be the laughter of our childrenrdquo

Reaction to Sandsrsquo Death

>

Conclusion

bull The Hunger Strike was eventually called off after 10 strikers including Sands had died

bull James Prior newly installed secretary of state of Northern Ireland granted the prisoners partial concessions all of the Five Demands except for the right to not do prison work Margaret Thatcher refused to budge on political status

bull The Hunger Strikes opened a new way for the PIRA to pursue its objectives politically whereas previously it had seen violence as the only solution to the plight of Irish nationalists in Northern Ireland

1983 The Maze Prison Escape

The ldquoGreat Escaperdquo

bull Using smuggled-in guns and knives 38 PIRA prisoners who had been convicted of offenses ranging from murder to causing explosions escaped from one of the most high-security prisons in Europe They completely took over the H7 prison block and took their prison guards hostage before escaping in a food supply truck Several prison guards were shot and stabbed but only one died of a heart attack during the escape

bull Fifteen escapees were recaptured the first day with four more captured over the next two days following the breakout The remaining 19 were transported to PIRA strongholds and given the option to either rejoin the IRArsquos cause or be transported to the United States to live under a new identity

12 October 1984 Brighton Hotel Bombing

The PIRA Nearly Gets Thatcherbull Margaret Thatcher the highly controversial far-right British PM from

1979-1990 had become a tremendously hated figure amongst the Irish nationalist community in Northern Ireland following the 1981 Hunger Strikes and for her general uncompromising stand on Irish republicanism

bull PIRA man Patrick Magee stayed at the Brighton Hotel from the 14-17 September 1984 planting a 20-lb bomb under his bath

bull Thatcher was staying at the Brighton Hotel for a political conference and was still up at 254AM on 12 October when the bomb was detonated The bomb decimated her bathroom but left the bedroom and sitting room of her suite largely unscathed

bull The PIRA statement to Thatcher afterwards was ldquoToday we were unlucky But remember we only have to be lucky once You will have to be lucky alwaysrdquo

Loughgall Ambush 8 May 1987

The SAS Strikes

bull A botched attack on Loughgall Villagersquos RUC Police Base in which the PIRA drove a backhoe into the fortified base and ran away to detonate the bomb that was inside of the backhoe went wrong as the SAS the British Special Forces had prior knowledge of the attack and quickly dispatched the 8 PIRA members involved

bull Although the RUC base was wrecked and bombed there were no RUC or SAS casualties and it was the PIRArsquos greatest loss of life in a single incident during the Troubles

British Army Lynx Shootdown 20 March 1994

The PIRA Shoots Down a Helicopter

bull Using the previously mentioned Barrack-Buster homemade mortar PIRA insurgents were able to fire on a British helicopter that was in the process of landing whilst hiding behind a hay bail from around 150 yards out

bull The helicopter was hit with the mortar shell around 100 feet above the ground but the pilot was able to successfully crash-land the helicopter and escape before its propane tanks exploded There were no casualties but the attack was a major propaganda coup for the PIRA

1996 Manchester Bombing

The PIRA Destroys Manchester

bull On Saturday 15 June 1996 the PIRA sent in telephoned warnings and 90 minutes later detonated a 3300lb fertilizer-based truck bomb in the heart of Manchester City Centre the biggest bomb detonated in Great Britain during peacetime The bomb killed nobody due to previous warnings but led to 212 non-fatal injuries and essentially destroyed Manchester City Centre leaving approximately 700 million pounds ($12bn) worth of damage in its wake

Omagh Bombing 1998

Last Great Deadly Attack of the Troubles

bull Perpetrated by a Provisional IRA splinter group that was rejecting the peace process calling themselves the ldquoReal IRArdquo the 510lb fertilizer-based bomb was placed on main street in the town of Omagh Northern Ireland Warnings were called in approximately 30 minutes before the bombing but they were inaccurate and police ended up moving more civilians towards the bomb which ended up killing 29 people and causing over 300 non-fatal injuries This was the highest death toll from a single incident during the Troubles

bull It received universal outrage and was condemned even by the PIRA and its political wing Sinn Fein It spurred on the Northern Ireland peace process and the RIRA apologized and called a ceasefire several days after

The Good Friday Agreement and Northern Ireland Peace Process

Beginningsbull Following the 1981 Hunger Strikes Irish republicans began to

increasingly look towards politics rather than violence as a means of achieving their aims Sinn Fein gaelic for ldquoWe Ourselvesrdquo was a fiercely Irish Republican political party which led by the Machiavellian former PIRA leader and Maze inmate Gerry Adams began to push for a more peaceful solution to the Troubles in Northern Ireland

bull It became apparent by the late 1990s that although the PIRA was not losing a war against the British establishment it would be impossible to truly lsquowin the fightrsquo through violence and that any further terrorism would serve not to achieve any real political aim but only to prolong and continue suffering and violence in Northern Ireland and that politics was a much better way of achieving Republican aims

Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein former PIRA Belfast Brigade OC

Good Friday Agreement 1998

bull The Peace Process began in 1994 and included intermittent terrorist ceasefires and political negotiations between the major Irish republican and British unionist parties and culminated on April 10 1998 when the Good Friday Agreement was signed

PM Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern Sign the GFA

GFA Mandatesbull That Northern Ireland was to remain British until a majority of people in Northern

Ireland and the southern Republic of Ireland wanted otherwise bull The creation of an entirely new far less sectarian and religiously diverse Northern

Irish local governmentbull The decommissioning of arms from terrorist groups on both the unionist and

nationalist side of the political divide (ultimately successful all arms decommissioned by 2005)

bull Mutual respect and civil rights between Catholics and Protestants bull The reduction and eventual elimination of British troops in Northern Ireland

(ultimately successful all troops withdrawn by 2005)bull Eventual early prison release for all individuals imprisoned for terrorist offenses as

long as they were apart of a terrorist group that was decommissioning in accordance with the GFA

bull Disbandment of the RUC police service and the installation of the new Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) which was required to be at least 50 Catholic

Northern Ireland Today

Still Conflict But No Warbull Since the complete decommissioning of the arms and

disbandment of the PIRA INLA UDAUFF and UVF due to the Good Friday Agreement there is nowhere near the amount of violence in Northern Ireland or Belfast as there was 20 years ago There are no more weekly bombings and riots and no more British troops patrolling Catholic areas in armored vehicles

bull Despite this there are still occasional riots and clashes with the PSNI several times a year specifically on dates of great historical significance to the Catholic or Protestant communities and there is still a deep distrust and even hatred between many Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland although that continues to change with time

Catholic Slum of Ardoyne Belfast July 2011

Splinter Groups

bull Many former PIRA or UDA terrorists have now taken to organized crime for purely profiteering purposes but are no longer involved in substantial violence or any political-based terrorism

bull Splinter groups such as the Real IRA and Continuity IRA in Catholic communities and the Orange Volunteers and Red Hand Commandos in Protestant communities still conduct occasional violence towards Police and civilians in Northern Ireland but are all rather small poorly armed and poorly funded groups that pose nowhere near the threat that terrorist groups in the 80s and 90s did in Northern Ireland

Herersquos To A Brighter Future in Northern Ireland

Works Citedbull httpwwwbbccoukhistorytroublesbull httpcainulstacukbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiProvisional_Irish_Republican_Armybull httpenwikipediaorgwikiThe_Troublesbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiUlster_Defence_Associationbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiUlster_Volunteer_Forcebull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_National_Liberation_Armybull ldquoA Secret History of the IRArdquo by Ed Moloney ndashWW Norton amp Company Reprint 2003bull ldquoVoices From The Grave Two Menrsquos War in Irelandrdquo by Ed Moloney ndash Public Affairs 2010bull ldquoFifty Dead Men Walkingrdquo by Martin McGartland ndash John Blake 2009bull httpwwwinfopleasecomspotnorthireland1htmlbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_Civil_Warbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_War_of_Independencebull httpenwikipediaorgwiki1981_Irish_hunger_strikebull httpenwikipediaorgwikiDirectory_of_the_Northern_Ireland_Troublesbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiGood_Friday_Agreementbull httpswwwmi5govukhomethe-threatsterrorismnorthern-irelandrepublican-terrorist-groupshtmlbull httpswwwmi5govukhomethe-threatsterrorismnorthern-irelandprovisional-irish-republican-army-

pirahtmlbull httpnewsbbccoukhienglishstaticnorthern_irelandunderstandingeventshunger_strikestm

  • The Troubles
  • Brief Overview
  • 30 Years of Conflict
  • Slide 4
  • Background
  • The Irish War of Independence
  • Slide 7
  • Anglo-Irish Treaty (signed 6 December 1921)
  • Irish Civil War
  • 1922-1966 Ireland
  • The Civil Rights Movement
  • Slide 12
  • Slide 13
  • Objectives of the Civil Rights Movement
  • The 1969 Northern Ireland Riots ndashThe Troubles Begin
  • Culmination of Tension
  • No-Go Areas
  • No-Go Areas (2)
  • Early 1970sndash The Rise of the Provisional IRA
  • The IRA Split
  • Rise of the UVF and Loyalist Terror Groups
  • Beginnings
  • UVF Statement 21 May 1964
  • The Paramilitaries
  • Irish RepublicansCatholics
  • The Provisional IRA
  • IRA Statement Late 80s
  • Statistics
  • RecruitmentFunding
  • Weaponry
  • Weaponry (2)
  • Slide 32
  • Mortars and IEDs
  • EOD Officer Approaches PIRA Car Bomb
  • The Barrack Buster
  • Vigilantism
  • Slide 37
  • Slide 38
  • Policy on Informants
  • Terrorist Activities
  • Terrorist Activities (continued)
  • The INLA
  • Statistics (2)
  • Ideology
  • Terrorist Activities (2)
  • Internal Feuds
  • Slide 47
  • British LoyalistsProtestants
  • The UDAUFF
  • Former UFF Member
  • Statistics (3)
  • Ideology (2)
  • Terrorist Activities (3)
  • Slide 54
  • Organized Crime
  • The UVF
  • Statistics (4)
  • Ideology (3)
  • Terrorist Activities (4)
  • The Shankhill Butchers
  • Weaponry (3)
  • Slide 62
  • Organized Crime (2)
  • Major Incidents 1969-1998
  • Bloody Sunday 30 January 1972
  • Massacre on the Bogside
  • Bloody Friday 21 July 1972
  • A City Under Siege
  • Dublin and Monaghan Bombings 17 May 1974
  • Deadliest Attack of the Troubles
  • Warrenpoint Ambush 27 August 1979
  • Roadside IEDs
  • Summer of 1981 Irish Hunger Strikes
  • A Defining Moment for the Republican Cause
  • The Five Demands
  • Previous Protests
  • Dirty Protesters
  • Thatcherrsquos Response
  • Ten Strikers Die
  • Bobby Sands
  • Reaction to Sandsrsquo Death
  • Conclusion
  • 1983 The Maze Prison Escape
  • The ldquoGreat Escaperdquo
  • 12 October 1984 Brighton Hotel Bombing
  • The PIRA Nearly Gets Thatcher
  • Loughgall Ambush 8 May 1987
  • The SAS Strikes
  • British Army Lynx Shootdown 20 March 1994
  • The PIRA Shoots Down a Helicopter
  • 1996 Manchester Bombing
  • The PIRA Destroys Manchester
  • Omagh Bombing 1998
  • Last Great Deadly Attack of the Troubles
  • The Good Friday Agreement and Northern Ireland Peace Process
  • Beginnings (2)
  • Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein former PIRA Belfast Brigade OC
  • Good Friday Agreement 1998
  • PM Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern Sign the GFA
  • GFA Mandates
  • Northern Ireland Today
  • Still Conflict But No War
  • Catholic Slum of Ardoyne Belfast July 2011
  • Splinter Groups
  • Herersquos To A Brighter Future in Northern Ireland
  • Works Cited
Page 68: The Troubles, 1969-1998

Dirty Protesters

Thatcherrsquos Response

bull ldquoThose terrorists will carry their determination to disrupt society to any lengths Once again we have a hunger strike in the Maze Prison in the quest for what they call lsquopolitical statusrsquo There is no such thing as political murder political bombing or political violence There is only criminal murder criminal bombing and criminal violence We will not compromise on this There will be no political statusrdquo

Ten Strikers Diebull Bobby Sands the leader of the strike was imprisoned as a PIRA member

on charges of firearm possession and in connection with the bombing of a furniture store He was the first to die after 66 days of not eating Sands was elected to a seat in Parliament whilst on Hunger Strike

bull Following Sandsrsquo death there were riots bus-burnings and attacks on the British embassy in the southern Republic of Ireland there were massive demonstrations in France and Italy a tomato was thrown as Queen Elizabeth II by demonstrators in Oslo and there were massive riots and civil disorder all over the streets of Belfast The South African ANC and (at the time) terrorist Nelson Mandela expressed their support for the PIRA and the hunger strikers (Mandela himself claimed he was directly inspired by Sands to undertake hunger strikes against the Apartheid government in South Africa) as well as the Palestine Liberation Organization a middle-eastern terror group

bull Over 100000 attended Sandsrsquo funeral

Bobby Sands

ldquoOur revenge will be the laughter of our childrenrdquo

Reaction to Sandsrsquo Death

>

Conclusion

bull The Hunger Strike was eventually called off after 10 strikers including Sands had died

bull James Prior newly installed secretary of state of Northern Ireland granted the prisoners partial concessions all of the Five Demands except for the right to not do prison work Margaret Thatcher refused to budge on political status

bull The Hunger Strikes opened a new way for the PIRA to pursue its objectives politically whereas previously it had seen violence as the only solution to the plight of Irish nationalists in Northern Ireland

1983 The Maze Prison Escape

The ldquoGreat Escaperdquo

bull Using smuggled-in guns and knives 38 PIRA prisoners who had been convicted of offenses ranging from murder to causing explosions escaped from one of the most high-security prisons in Europe They completely took over the H7 prison block and took their prison guards hostage before escaping in a food supply truck Several prison guards were shot and stabbed but only one died of a heart attack during the escape

bull Fifteen escapees were recaptured the first day with four more captured over the next two days following the breakout The remaining 19 were transported to PIRA strongholds and given the option to either rejoin the IRArsquos cause or be transported to the United States to live under a new identity

12 October 1984 Brighton Hotel Bombing

The PIRA Nearly Gets Thatcherbull Margaret Thatcher the highly controversial far-right British PM from

1979-1990 had become a tremendously hated figure amongst the Irish nationalist community in Northern Ireland following the 1981 Hunger Strikes and for her general uncompromising stand on Irish republicanism

bull PIRA man Patrick Magee stayed at the Brighton Hotel from the 14-17 September 1984 planting a 20-lb bomb under his bath

bull Thatcher was staying at the Brighton Hotel for a political conference and was still up at 254AM on 12 October when the bomb was detonated The bomb decimated her bathroom but left the bedroom and sitting room of her suite largely unscathed

bull The PIRA statement to Thatcher afterwards was ldquoToday we were unlucky But remember we only have to be lucky once You will have to be lucky alwaysrdquo

Loughgall Ambush 8 May 1987

The SAS Strikes

bull A botched attack on Loughgall Villagersquos RUC Police Base in which the PIRA drove a backhoe into the fortified base and ran away to detonate the bomb that was inside of the backhoe went wrong as the SAS the British Special Forces had prior knowledge of the attack and quickly dispatched the 8 PIRA members involved

bull Although the RUC base was wrecked and bombed there were no RUC or SAS casualties and it was the PIRArsquos greatest loss of life in a single incident during the Troubles

British Army Lynx Shootdown 20 March 1994

The PIRA Shoots Down a Helicopter

bull Using the previously mentioned Barrack-Buster homemade mortar PIRA insurgents were able to fire on a British helicopter that was in the process of landing whilst hiding behind a hay bail from around 150 yards out

bull The helicopter was hit with the mortar shell around 100 feet above the ground but the pilot was able to successfully crash-land the helicopter and escape before its propane tanks exploded There were no casualties but the attack was a major propaganda coup for the PIRA

1996 Manchester Bombing

The PIRA Destroys Manchester

bull On Saturday 15 June 1996 the PIRA sent in telephoned warnings and 90 minutes later detonated a 3300lb fertilizer-based truck bomb in the heart of Manchester City Centre the biggest bomb detonated in Great Britain during peacetime The bomb killed nobody due to previous warnings but led to 212 non-fatal injuries and essentially destroyed Manchester City Centre leaving approximately 700 million pounds ($12bn) worth of damage in its wake

Omagh Bombing 1998

Last Great Deadly Attack of the Troubles

bull Perpetrated by a Provisional IRA splinter group that was rejecting the peace process calling themselves the ldquoReal IRArdquo the 510lb fertilizer-based bomb was placed on main street in the town of Omagh Northern Ireland Warnings were called in approximately 30 minutes before the bombing but they were inaccurate and police ended up moving more civilians towards the bomb which ended up killing 29 people and causing over 300 non-fatal injuries This was the highest death toll from a single incident during the Troubles

bull It received universal outrage and was condemned even by the PIRA and its political wing Sinn Fein It spurred on the Northern Ireland peace process and the RIRA apologized and called a ceasefire several days after

The Good Friday Agreement and Northern Ireland Peace Process

Beginningsbull Following the 1981 Hunger Strikes Irish republicans began to

increasingly look towards politics rather than violence as a means of achieving their aims Sinn Fein gaelic for ldquoWe Ourselvesrdquo was a fiercely Irish Republican political party which led by the Machiavellian former PIRA leader and Maze inmate Gerry Adams began to push for a more peaceful solution to the Troubles in Northern Ireland

bull It became apparent by the late 1990s that although the PIRA was not losing a war against the British establishment it would be impossible to truly lsquowin the fightrsquo through violence and that any further terrorism would serve not to achieve any real political aim but only to prolong and continue suffering and violence in Northern Ireland and that politics was a much better way of achieving Republican aims

Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein former PIRA Belfast Brigade OC

Good Friday Agreement 1998

bull The Peace Process began in 1994 and included intermittent terrorist ceasefires and political negotiations between the major Irish republican and British unionist parties and culminated on April 10 1998 when the Good Friday Agreement was signed

PM Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern Sign the GFA

GFA Mandatesbull That Northern Ireland was to remain British until a majority of people in Northern

Ireland and the southern Republic of Ireland wanted otherwise bull The creation of an entirely new far less sectarian and religiously diverse Northern

Irish local governmentbull The decommissioning of arms from terrorist groups on both the unionist and

nationalist side of the political divide (ultimately successful all arms decommissioned by 2005)

bull Mutual respect and civil rights between Catholics and Protestants bull The reduction and eventual elimination of British troops in Northern Ireland

(ultimately successful all troops withdrawn by 2005)bull Eventual early prison release for all individuals imprisoned for terrorist offenses as

long as they were apart of a terrorist group that was decommissioning in accordance with the GFA

bull Disbandment of the RUC police service and the installation of the new Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) which was required to be at least 50 Catholic

Northern Ireland Today

Still Conflict But No Warbull Since the complete decommissioning of the arms and

disbandment of the PIRA INLA UDAUFF and UVF due to the Good Friday Agreement there is nowhere near the amount of violence in Northern Ireland or Belfast as there was 20 years ago There are no more weekly bombings and riots and no more British troops patrolling Catholic areas in armored vehicles

bull Despite this there are still occasional riots and clashes with the PSNI several times a year specifically on dates of great historical significance to the Catholic or Protestant communities and there is still a deep distrust and even hatred between many Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland although that continues to change with time

Catholic Slum of Ardoyne Belfast July 2011

Splinter Groups

bull Many former PIRA or UDA terrorists have now taken to organized crime for purely profiteering purposes but are no longer involved in substantial violence or any political-based terrorism

bull Splinter groups such as the Real IRA and Continuity IRA in Catholic communities and the Orange Volunteers and Red Hand Commandos in Protestant communities still conduct occasional violence towards Police and civilians in Northern Ireland but are all rather small poorly armed and poorly funded groups that pose nowhere near the threat that terrorist groups in the 80s and 90s did in Northern Ireland

Herersquos To A Brighter Future in Northern Ireland

Works Citedbull httpwwwbbccoukhistorytroublesbull httpcainulstacukbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiProvisional_Irish_Republican_Armybull httpenwikipediaorgwikiThe_Troublesbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiUlster_Defence_Associationbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiUlster_Volunteer_Forcebull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_National_Liberation_Armybull ldquoA Secret History of the IRArdquo by Ed Moloney ndashWW Norton amp Company Reprint 2003bull ldquoVoices From The Grave Two Menrsquos War in Irelandrdquo by Ed Moloney ndash Public Affairs 2010bull ldquoFifty Dead Men Walkingrdquo by Martin McGartland ndash John Blake 2009bull httpwwwinfopleasecomspotnorthireland1htmlbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_Civil_Warbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_War_of_Independencebull httpenwikipediaorgwiki1981_Irish_hunger_strikebull httpenwikipediaorgwikiDirectory_of_the_Northern_Ireland_Troublesbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiGood_Friday_Agreementbull httpswwwmi5govukhomethe-threatsterrorismnorthern-irelandrepublican-terrorist-groupshtmlbull httpswwwmi5govukhomethe-threatsterrorismnorthern-irelandprovisional-irish-republican-army-

pirahtmlbull httpnewsbbccoukhienglishstaticnorthern_irelandunderstandingeventshunger_strikestm

  • The Troubles
  • Brief Overview
  • 30 Years of Conflict
  • Slide 4
  • Background
  • The Irish War of Independence
  • Slide 7
  • Anglo-Irish Treaty (signed 6 December 1921)
  • Irish Civil War
  • 1922-1966 Ireland
  • The Civil Rights Movement
  • Slide 12
  • Slide 13
  • Objectives of the Civil Rights Movement
  • The 1969 Northern Ireland Riots ndashThe Troubles Begin
  • Culmination of Tension
  • No-Go Areas
  • No-Go Areas (2)
  • Early 1970sndash The Rise of the Provisional IRA
  • The IRA Split
  • Rise of the UVF and Loyalist Terror Groups
  • Beginnings
  • UVF Statement 21 May 1964
  • The Paramilitaries
  • Irish RepublicansCatholics
  • The Provisional IRA
  • IRA Statement Late 80s
  • Statistics
  • RecruitmentFunding
  • Weaponry
  • Weaponry (2)
  • Slide 32
  • Mortars and IEDs
  • EOD Officer Approaches PIRA Car Bomb
  • The Barrack Buster
  • Vigilantism
  • Slide 37
  • Slide 38
  • Policy on Informants
  • Terrorist Activities
  • Terrorist Activities (continued)
  • The INLA
  • Statistics (2)
  • Ideology
  • Terrorist Activities (2)
  • Internal Feuds
  • Slide 47
  • British LoyalistsProtestants
  • The UDAUFF
  • Former UFF Member
  • Statistics (3)
  • Ideology (2)
  • Terrorist Activities (3)
  • Slide 54
  • Organized Crime
  • The UVF
  • Statistics (4)
  • Ideology (3)
  • Terrorist Activities (4)
  • The Shankhill Butchers
  • Weaponry (3)
  • Slide 62
  • Organized Crime (2)
  • Major Incidents 1969-1998
  • Bloody Sunday 30 January 1972
  • Massacre on the Bogside
  • Bloody Friday 21 July 1972
  • A City Under Siege
  • Dublin and Monaghan Bombings 17 May 1974
  • Deadliest Attack of the Troubles
  • Warrenpoint Ambush 27 August 1979
  • Roadside IEDs
  • Summer of 1981 Irish Hunger Strikes
  • A Defining Moment for the Republican Cause
  • The Five Demands
  • Previous Protests
  • Dirty Protesters
  • Thatcherrsquos Response
  • Ten Strikers Die
  • Bobby Sands
  • Reaction to Sandsrsquo Death
  • Conclusion
  • 1983 The Maze Prison Escape
  • The ldquoGreat Escaperdquo
  • 12 October 1984 Brighton Hotel Bombing
  • The PIRA Nearly Gets Thatcher
  • Loughgall Ambush 8 May 1987
  • The SAS Strikes
  • British Army Lynx Shootdown 20 March 1994
  • The PIRA Shoots Down a Helicopter
  • 1996 Manchester Bombing
  • The PIRA Destroys Manchester
  • Omagh Bombing 1998
  • Last Great Deadly Attack of the Troubles
  • The Good Friday Agreement and Northern Ireland Peace Process
  • Beginnings (2)
  • Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein former PIRA Belfast Brigade OC
  • Good Friday Agreement 1998
  • PM Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern Sign the GFA
  • GFA Mandates
  • Northern Ireland Today
  • Still Conflict But No War
  • Catholic Slum of Ardoyne Belfast July 2011
  • Splinter Groups
  • Herersquos To A Brighter Future in Northern Ireland
  • Works Cited
Page 69: The Troubles, 1969-1998

Thatcherrsquos Response

bull ldquoThose terrorists will carry their determination to disrupt society to any lengths Once again we have a hunger strike in the Maze Prison in the quest for what they call lsquopolitical statusrsquo There is no such thing as political murder political bombing or political violence There is only criminal murder criminal bombing and criminal violence We will not compromise on this There will be no political statusrdquo

Ten Strikers Diebull Bobby Sands the leader of the strike was imprisoned as a PIRA member

on charges of firearm possession and in connection with the bombing of a furniture store He was the first to die after 66 days of not eating Sands was elected to a seat in Parliament whilst on Hunger Strike

bull Following Sandsrsquo death there were riots bus-burnings and attacks on the British embassy in the southern Republic of Ireland there were massive demonstrations in France and Italy a tomato was thrown as Queen Elizabeth II by demonstrators in Oslo and there were massive riots and civil disorder all over the streets of Belfast The South African ANC and (at the time) terrorist Nelson Mandela expressed their support for the PIRA and the hunger strikers (Mandela himself claimed he was directly inspired by Sands to undertake hunger strikes against the Apartheid government in South Africa) as well as the Palestine Liberation Organization a middle-eastern terror group

bull Over 100000 attended Sandsrsquo funeral

Bobby Sands

ldquoOur revenge will be the laughter of our childrenrdquo

Reaction to Sandsrsquo Death

>

Conclusion

bull The Hunger Strike was eventually called off after 10 strikers including Sands had died

bull James Prior newly installed secretary of state of Northern Ireland granted the prisoners partial concessions all of the Five Demands except for the right to not do prison work Margaret Thatcher refused to budge on political status

bull The Hunger Strikes opened a new way for the PIRA to pursue its objectives politically whereas previously it had seen violence as the only solution to the plight of Irish nationalists in Northern Ireland

1983 The Maze Prison Escape

The ldquoGreat Escaperdquo

bull Using smuggled-in guns and knives 38 PIRA prisoners who had been convicted of offenses ranging from murder to causing explosions escaped from one of the most high-security prisons in Europe They completely took over the H7 prison block and took their prison guards hostage before escaping in a food supply truck Several prison guards were shot and stabbed but only one died of a heart attack during the escape

bull Fifteen escapees were recaptured the first day with four more captured over the next two days following the breakout The remaining 19 were transported to PIRA strongholds and given the option to either rejoin the IRArsquos cause or be transported to the United States to live under a new identity

12 October 1984 Brighton Hotel Bombing

The PIRA Nearly Gets Thatcherbull Margaret Thatcher the highly controversial far-right British PM from

1979-1990 had become a tremendously hated figure amongst the Irish nationalist community in Northern Ireland following the 1981 Hunger Strikes and for her general uncompromising stand on Irish republicanism

bull PIRA man Patrick Magee stayed at the Brighton Hotel from the 14-17 September 1984 planting a 20-lb bomb under his bath

bull Thatcher was staying at the Brighton Hotel for a political conference and was still up at 254AM on 12 October when the bomb was detonated The bomb decimated her bathroom but left the bedroom and sitting room of her suite largely unscathed

bull The PIRA statement to Thatcher afterwards was ldquoToday we were unlucky But remember we only have to be lucky once You will have to be lucky alwaysrdquo

Loughgall Ambush 8 May 1987

The SAS Strikes

bull A botched attack on Loughgall Villagersquos RUC Police Base in which the PIRA drove a backhoe into the fortified base and ran away to detonate the bomb that was inside of the backhoe went wrong as the SAS the British Special Forces had prior knowledge of the attack and quickly dispatched the 8 PIRA members involved

bull Although the RUC base was wrecked and bombed there were no RUC or SAS casualties and it was the PIRArsquos greatest loss of life in a single incident during the Troubles

British Army Lynx Shootdown 20 March 1994

The PIRA Shoots Down a Helicopter

bull Using the previously mentioned Barrack-Buster homemade mortar PIRA insurgents were able to fire on a British helicopter that was in the process of landing whilst hiding behind a hay bail from around 150 yards out

bull The helicopter was hit with the mortar shell around 100 feet above the ground but the pilot was able to successfully crash-land the helicopter and escape before its propane tanks exploded There were no casualties but the attack was a major propaganda coup for the PIRA

1996 Manchester Bombing

The PIRA Destroys Manchester

bull On Saturday 15 June 1996 the PIRA sent in telephoned warnings and 90 minutes later detonated a 3300lb fertilizer-based truck bomb in the heart of Manchester City Centre the biggest bomb detonated in Great Britain during peacetime The bomb killed nobody due to previous warnings but led to 212 non-fatal injuries and essentially destroyed Manchester City Centre leaving approximately 700 million pounds ($12bn) worth of damage in its wake

Omagh Bombing 1998

Last Great Deadly Attack of the Troubles

bull Perpetrated by a Provisional IRA splinter group that was rejecting the peace process calling themselves the ldquoReal IRArdquo the 510lb fertilizer-based bomb was placed on main street in the town of Omagh Northern Ireland Warnings were called in approximately 30 minutes before the bombing but they were inaccurate and police ended up moving more civilians towards the bomb which ended up killing 29 people and causing over 300 non-fatal injuries This was the highest death toll from a single incident during the Troubles

bull It received universal outrage and was condemned even by the PIRA and its political wing Sinn Fein It spurred on the Northern Ireland peace process and the RIRA apologized and called a ceasefire several days after

The Good Friday Agreement and Northern Ireland Peace Process

Beginningsbull Following the 1981 Hunger Strikes Irish republicans began to

increasingly look towards politics rather than violence as a means of achieving their aims Sinn Fein gaelic for ldquoWe Ourselvesrdquo was a fiercely Irish Republican political party which led by the Machiavellian former PIRA leader and Maze inmate Gerry Adams began to push for a more peaceful solution to the Troubles in Northern Ireland

bull It became apparent by the late 1990s that although the PIRA was not losing a war against the British establishment it would be impossible to truly lsquowin the fightrsquo through violence and that any further terrorism would serve not to achieve any real political aim but only to prolong and continue suffering and violence in Northern Ireland and that politics was a much better way of achieving Republican aims

Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein former PIRA Belfast Brigade OC

Good Friday Agreement 1998

bull The Peace Process began in 1994 and included intermittent terrorist ceasefires and political negotiations between the major Irish republican and British unionist parties and culminated on April 10 1998 when the Good Friday Agreement was signed

PM Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern Sign the GFA

GFA Mandatesbull That Northern Ireland was to remain British until a majority of people in Northern

Ireland and the southern Republic of Ireland wanted otherwise bull The creation of an entirely new far less sectarian and religiously diverse Northern

Irish local governmentbull The decommissioning of arms from terrorist groups on both the unionist and

nationalist side of the political divide (ultimately successful all arms decommissioned by 2005)

bull Mutual respect and civil rights between Catholics and Protestants bull The reduction and eventual elimination of British troops in Northern Ireland

(ultimately successful all troops withdrawn by 2005)bull Eventual early prison release for all individuals imprisoned for terrorist offenses as

long as they were apart of a terrorist group that was decommissioning in accordance with the GFA

bull Disbandment of the RUC police service and the installation of the new Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) which was required to be at least 50 Catholic

Northern Ireland Today

Still Conflict But No Warbull Since the complete decommissioning of the arms and

disbandment of the PIRA INLA UDAUFF and UVF due to the Good Friday Agreement there is nowhere near the amount of violence in Northern Ireland or Belfast as there was 20 years ago There are no more weekly bombings and riots and no more British troops patrolling Catholic areas in armored vehicles

bull Despite this there are still occasional riots and clashes with the PSNI several times a year specifically on dates of great historical significance to the Catholic or Protestant communities and there is still a deep distrust and even hatred between many Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland although that continues to change with time

Catholic Slum of Ardoyne Belfast July 2011

Splinter Groups

bull Many former PIRA or UDA terrorists have now taken to organized crime for purely profiteering purposes but are no longer involved in substantial violence or any political-based terrorism

bull Splinter groups such as the Real IRA and Continuity IRA in Catholic communities and the Orange Volunteers and Red Hand Commandos in Protestant communities still conduct occasional violence towards Police and civilians in Northern Ireland but are all rather small poorly armed and poorly funded groups that pose nowhere near the threat that terrorist groups in the 80s and 90s did in Northern Ireland

Herersquos To A Brighter Future in Northern Ireland

Works Citedbull httpwwwbbccoukhistorytroublesbull httpcainulstacukbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiProvisional_Irish_Republican_Armybull httpenwikipediaorgwikiThe_Troublesbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiUlster_Defence_Associationbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiUlster_Volunteer_Forcebull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_National_Liberation_Armybull ldquoA Secret History of the IRArdquo by Ed Moloney ndashWW Norton amp Company Reprint 2003bull ldquoVoices From The Grave Two Menrsquos War in Irelandrdquo by Ed Moloney ndash Public Affairs 2010bull ldquoFifty Dead Men Walkingrdquo by Martin McGartland ndash John Blake 2009bull httpwwwinfopleasecomspotnorthireland1htmlbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_Civil_Warbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_War_of_Independencebull httpenwikipediaorgwiki1981_Irish_hunger_strikebull httpenwikipediaorgwikiDirectory_of_the_Northern_Ireland_Troublesbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiGood_Friday_Agreementbull httpswwwmi5govukhomethe-threatsterrorismnorthern-irelandrepublican-terrorist-groupshtmlbull httpswwwmi5govukhomethe-threatsterrorismnorthern-irelandprovisional-irish-republican-army-

pirahtmlbull httpnewsbbccoukhienglishstaticnorthern_irelandunderstandingeventshunger_strikestm

  • The Troubles
  • Brief Overview
  • 30 Years of Conflict
  • Slide 4
  • Background
  • The Irish War of Independence
  • Slide 7
  • Anglo-Irish Treaty (signed 6 December 1921)
  • Irish Civil War
  • 1922-1966 Ireland
  • The Civil Rights Movement
  • Slide 12
  • Slide 13
  • Objectives of the Civil Rights Movement
  • The 1969 Northern Ireland Riots ndashThe Troubles Begin
  • Culmination of Tension
  • No-Go Areas
  • No-Go Areas (2)
  • Early 1970sndash The Rise of the Provisional IRA
  • The IRA Split
  • Rise of the UVF and Loyalist Terror Groups
  • Beginnings
  • UVF Statement 21 May 1964
  • The Paramilitaries
  • Irish RepublicansCatholics
  • The Provisional IRA
  • IRA Statement Late 80s
  • Statistics
  • RecruitmentFunding
  • Weaponry
  • Weaponry (2)
  • Slide 32
  • Mortars and IEDs
  • EOD Officer Approaches PIRA Car Bomb
  • The Barrack Buster
  • Vigilantism
  • Slide 37
  • Slide 38
  • Policy on Informants
  • Terrorist Activities
  • Terrorist Activities (continued)
  • The INLA
  • Statistics (2)
  • Ideology
  • Terrorist Activities (2)
  • Internal Feuds
  • Slide 47
  • British LoyalistsProtestants
  • The UDAUFF
  • Former UFF Member
  • Statistics (3)
  • Ideology (2)
  • Terrorist Activities (3)
  • Slide 54
  • Organized Crime
  • The UVF
  • Statistics (4)
  • Ideology (3)
  • Terrorist Activities (4)
  • The Shankhill Butchers
  • Weaponry (3)
  • Slide 62
  • Organized Crime (2)
  • Major Incidents 1969-1998
  • Bloody Sunday 30 January 1972
  • Massacre on the Bogside
  • Bloody Friday 21 July 1972
  • A City Under Siege
  • Dublin and Monaghan Bombings 17 May 1974
  • Deadliest Attack of the Troubles
  • Warrenpoint Ambush 27 August 1979
  • Roadside IEDs
  • Summer of 1981 Irish Hunger Strikes
  • A Defining Moment for the Republican Cause
  • The Five Demands
  • Previous Protests
  • Dirty Protesters
  • Thatcherrsquos Response
  • Ten Strikers Die
  • Bobby Sands
  • Reaction to Sandsrsquo Death
  • Conclusion
  • 1983 The Maze Prison Escape
  • The ldquoGreat Escaperdquo
  • 12 October 1984 Brighton Hotel Bombing
  • The PIRA Nearly Gets Thatcher
  • Loughgall Ambush 8 May 1987
  • The SAS Strikes
  • British Army Lynx Shootdown 20 March 1994
  • The PIRA Shoots Down a Helicopter
  • 1996 Manchester Bombing
  • The PIRA Destroys Manchester
  • Omagh Bombing 1998
  • Last Great Deadly Attack of the Troubles
  • The Good Friday Agreement and Northern Ireland Peace Process
  • Beginnings (2)
  • Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein former PIRA Belfast Brigade OC
  • Good Friday Agreement 1998
  • PM Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern Sign the GFA
  • GFA Mandates
  • Northern Ireland Today
  • Still Conflict But No War
  • Catholic Slum of Ardoyne Belfast July 2011
  • Splinter Groups
  • Herersquos To A Brighter Future in Northern Ireland
  • Works Cited
Page 70: The Troubles, 1969-1998

Ten Strikers Diebull Bobby Sands the leader of the strike was imprisoned as a PIRA member

on charges of firearm possession and in connection with the bombing of a furniture store He was the first to die after 66 days of not eating Sands was elected to a seat in Parliament whilst on Hunger Strike

bull Following Sandsrsquo death there were riots bus-burnings and attacks on the British embassy in the southern Republic of Ireland there were massive demonstrations in France and Italy a tomato was thrown as Queen Elizabeth II by demonstrators in Oslo and there were massive riots and civil disorder all over the streets of Belfast The South African ANC and (at the time) terrorist Nelson Mandela expressed their support for the PIRA and the hunger strikers (Mandela himself claimed he was directly inspired by Sands to undertake hunger strikes against the Apartheid government in South Africa) as well as the Palestine Liberation Organization a middle-eastern terror group

bull Over 100000 attended Sandsrsquo funeral

Bobby Sands

ldquoOur revenge will be the laughter of our childrenrdquo

Reaction to Sandsrsquo Death

>

Conclusion

bull The Hunger Strike was eventually called off after 10 strikers including Sands had died

bull James Prior newly installed secretary of state of Northern Ireland granted the prisoners partial concessions all of the Five Demands except for the right to not do prison work Margaret Thatcher refused to budge on political status

bull The Hunger Strikes opened a new way for the PIRA to pursue its objectives politically whereas previously it had seen violence as the only solution to the plight of Irish nationalists in Northern Ireland

1983 The Maze Prison Escape

The ldquoGreat Escaperdquo

bull Using smuggled-in guns and knives 38 PIRA prisoners who had been convicted of offenses ranging from murder to causing explosions escaped from one of the most high-security prisons in Europe They completely took over the H7 prison block and took their prison guards hostage before escaping in a food supply truck Several prison guards were shot and stabbed but only one died of a heart attack during the escape

bull Fifteen escapees were recaptured the first day with four more captured over the next two days following the breakout The remaining 19 were transported to PIRA strongholds and given the option to either rejoin the IRArsquos cause or be transported to the United States to live under a new identity

12 October 1984 Brighton Hotel Bombing

The PIRA Nearly Gets Thatcherbull Margaret Thatcher the highly controversial far-right British PM from

1979-1990 had become a tremendously hated figure amongst the Irish nationalist community in Northern Ireland following the 1981 Hunger Strikes and for her general uncompromising stand on Irish republicanism

bull PIRA man Patrick Magee stayed at the Brighton Hotel from the 14-17 September 1984 planting a 20-lb bomb under his bath

bull Thatcher was staying at the Brighton Hotel for a political conference and was still up at 254AM on 12 October when the bomb was detonated The bomb decimated her bathroom but left the bedroom and sitting room of her suite largely unscathed

bull The PIRA statement to Thatcher afterwards was ldquoToday we were unlucky But remember we only have to be lucky once You will have to be lucky alwaysrdquo

Loughgall Ambush 8 May 1987

The SAS Strikes

bull A botched attack on Loughgall Villagersquos RUC Police Base in which the PIRA drove a backhoe into the fortified base and ran away to detonate the bomb that was inside of the backhoe went wrong as the SAS the British Special Forces had prior knowledge of the attack and quickly dispatched the 8 PIRA members involved

bull Although the RUC base was wrecked and bombed there were no RUC or SAS casualties and it was the PIRArsquos greatest loss of life in a single incident during the Troubles

British Army Lynx Shootdown 20 March 1994

The PIRA Shoots Down a Helicopter

bull Using the previously mentioned Barrack-Buster homemade mortar PIRA insurgents were able to fire on a British helicopter that was in the process of landing whilst hiding behind a hay bail from around 150 yards out

bull The helicopter was hit with the mortar shell around 100 feet above the ground but the pilot was able to successfully crash-land the helicopter and escape before its propane tanks exploded There were no casualties but the attack was a major propaganda coup for the PIRA

1996 Manchester Bombing

The PIRA Destroys Manchester

bull On Saturday 15 June 1996 the PIRA sent in telephoned warnings and 90 minutes later detonated a 3300lb fertilizer-based truck bomb in the heart of Manchester City Centre the biggest bomb detonated in Great Britain during peacetime The bomb killed nobody due to previous warnings but led to 212 non-fatal injuries and essentially destroyed Manchester City Centre leaving approximately 700 million pounds ($12bn) worth of damage in its wake

Omagh Bombing 1998

Last Great Deadly Attack of the Troubles

bull Perpetrated by a Provisional IRA splinter group that was rejecting the peace process calling themselves the ldquoReal IRArdquo the 510lb fertilizer-based bomb was placed on main street in the town of Omagh Northern Ireland Warnings were called in approximately 30 minutes before the bombing but they were inaccurate and police ended up moving more civilians towards the bomb which ended up killing 29 people and causing over 300 non-fatal injuries This was the highest death toll from a single incident during the Troubles

bull It received universal outrage and was condemned even by the PIRA and its political wing Sinn Fein It spurred on the Northern Ireland peace process and the RIRA apologized and called a ceasefire several days after

The Good Friday Agreement and Northern Ireland Peace Process

Beginningsbull Following the 1981 Hunger Strikes Irish republicans began to

increasingly look towards politics rather than violence as a means of achieving their aims Sinn Fein gaelic for ldquoWe Ourselvesrdquo was a fiercely Irish Republican political party which led by the Machiavellian former PIRA leader and Maze inmate Gerry Adams began to push for a more peaceful solution to the Troubles in Northern Ireland

bull It became apparent by the late 1990s that although the PIRA was not losing a war against the British establishment it would be impossible to truly lsquowin the fightrsquo through violence and that any further terrorism would serve not to achieve any real political aim but only to prolong and continue suffering and violence in Northern Ireland and that politics was a much better way of achieving Republican aims

Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein former PIRA Belfast Brigade OC

Good Friday Agreement 1998

bull The Peace Process began in 1994 and included intermittent terrorist ceasefires and political negotiations between the major Irish republican and British unionist parties and culminated on April 10 1998 when the Good Friday Agreement was signed

PM Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern Sign the GFA

GFA Mandatesbull That Northern Ireland was to remain British until a majority of people in Northern

Ireland and the southern Republic of Ireland wanted otherwise bull The creation of an entirely new far less sectarian and religiously diverse Northern

Irish local governmentbull The decommissioning of arms from terrorist groups on both the unionist and

nationalist side of the political divide (ultimately successful all arms decommissioned by 2005)

bull Mutual respect and civil rights between Catholics and Protestants bull The reduction and eventual elimination of British troops in Northern Ireland

(ultimately successful all troops withdrawn by 2005)bull Eventual early prison release for all individuals imprisoned for terrorist offenses as

long as they were apart of a terrorist group that was decommissioning in accordance with the GFA

bull Disbandment of the RUC police service and the installation of the new Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) which was required to be at least 50 Catholic

Northern Ireland Today

Still Conflict But No Warbull Since the complete decommissioning of the arms and

disbandment of the PIRA INLA UDAUFF and UVF due to the Good Friday Agreement there is nowhere near the amount of violence in Northern Ireland or Belfast as there was 20 years ago There are no more weekly bombings and riots and no more British troops patrolling Catholic areas in armored vehicles

bull Despite this there are still occasional riots and clashes with the PSNI several times a year specifically on dates of great historical significance to the Catholic or Protestant communities and there is still a deep distrust and even hatred between many Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland although that continues to change with time

Catholic Slum of Ardoyne Belfast July 2011

Splinter Groups

bull Many former PIRA or UDA terrorists have now taken to organized crime for purely profiteering purposes but are no longer involved in substantial violence or any political-based terrorism

bull Splinter groups such as the Real IRA and Continuity IRA in Catholic communities and the Orange Volunteers and Red Hand Commandos in Protestant communities still conduct occasional violence towards Police and civilians in Northern Ireland but are all rather small poorly armed and poorly funded groups that pose nowhere near the threat that terrorist groups in the 80s and 90s did in Northern Ireland

Herersquos To A Brighter Future in Northern Ireland

Works Citedbull httpwwwbbccoukhistorytroublesbull httpcainulstacukbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiProvisional_Irish_Republican_Armybull httpenwikipediaorgwikiThe_Troublesbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiUlster_Defence_Associationbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiUlster_Volunteer_Forcebull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_National_Liberation_Armybull ldquoA Secret History of the IRArdquo by Ed Moloney ndashWW Norton amp Company Reprint 2003bull ldquoVoices From The Grave Two Menrsquos War in Irelandrdquo by Ed Moloney ndash Public Affairs 2010bull ldquoFifty Dead Men Walkingrdquo by Martin McGartland ndash John Blake 2009bull httpwwwinfopleasecomspotnorthireland1htmlbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_Civil_Warbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_War_of_Independencebull httpenwikipediaorgwiki1981_Irish_hunger_strikebull httpenwikipediaorgwikiDirectory_of_the_Northern_Ireland_Troublesbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiGood_Friday_Agreementbull httpswwwmi5govukhomethe-threatsterrorismnorthern-irelandrepublican-terrorist-groupshtmlbull httpswwwmi5govukhomethe-threatsterrorismnorthern-irelandprovisional-irish-republican-army-

pirahtmlbull httpnewsbbccoukhienglishstaticnorthern_irelandunderstandingeventshunger_strikestm

  • The Troubles
  • Brief Overview
  • 30 Years of Conflict
  • Slide 4
  • Background
  • The Irish War of Independence
  • Slide 7
  • Anglo-Irish Treaty (signed 6 December 1921)
  • Irish Civil War
  • 1922-1966 Ireland
  • The Civil Rights Movement
  • Slide 12
  • Slide 13
  • Objectives of the Civil Rights Movement
  • The 1969 Northern Ireland Riots ndashThe Troubles Begin
  • Culmination of Tension
  • No-Go Areas
  • No-Go Areas (2)
  • Early 1970sndash The Rise of the Provisional IRA
  • The IRA Split
  • Rise of the UVF and Loyalist Terror Groups
  • Beginnings
  • UVF Statement 21 May 1964
  • The Paramilitaries
  • Irish RepublicansCatholics
  • The Provisional IRA
  • IRA Statement Late 80s
  • Statistics
  • RecruitmentFunding
  • Weaponry
  • Weaponry (2)
  • Slide 32
  • Mortars and IEDs
  • EOD Officer Approaches PIRA Car Bomb
  • The Barrack Buster
  • Vigilantism
  • Slide 37
  • Slide 38
  • Policy on Informants
  • Terrorist Activities
  • Terrorist Activities (continued)
  • The INLA
  • Statistics (2)
  • Ideology
  • Terrorist Activities (2)
  • Internal Feuds
  • Slide 47
  • British LoyalistsProtestants
  • The UDAUFF
  • Former UFF Member
  • Statistics (3)
  • Ideology (2)
  • Terrorist Activities (3)
  • Slide 54
  • Organized Crime
  • The UVF
  • Statistics (4)
  • Ideology (3)
  • Terrorist Activities (4)
  • The Shankhill Butchers
  • Weaponry (3)
  • Slide 62
  • Organized Crime (2)
  • Major Incidents 1969-1998
  • Bloody Sunday 30 January 1972
  • Massacre on the Bogside
  • Bloody Friday 21 July 1972
  • A City Under Siege
  • Dublin and Monaghan Bombings 17 May 1974
  • Deadliest Attack of the Troubles
  • Warrenpoint Ambush 27 August 1979
  • Roadside IEDs
  • Summer of 1981 Irish Hunger Strikes
  • A Defining Moment for the Republican Cause
  • The Five Demands
  • Previous Protests
  • Dirty Protesters
  • Thatcherrsquos Response
  • Ten Strikers Die
  • Bobby Sands
  • Reaction to Sandsrsquo Death
  • Conclusion
  • 1983 The Maze Prison Escape
  • The ldquoGreat Escaperdquo
  • 12 October 1984 Brighton Hotel Bombing
  • The PIRA Nearly Gets Thatcher
  • Loughgall Ambush 8 May 1987
  • The SAS Strikes
  • British Army Lynx Shootdown 20 March 1994
  • The PIRA Shoots Down a Helicopter
  • 1996 Manchester Bombing
  • The PIRA Destroys Manchester
  • Omagh Bombing 1998
  • Last Great Deadly Attack of the Troubles
  • The Good Friday Agreement and Northern Ireland Peace Process
  • Beginnings (2)
  • Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein former PIRA Belfast Brigade OC
  • Good Friday Agreement 1998
  • PM Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern Sign the GFA
  • GFA Mandates
  • Northern Ireland Today
  • Still Conflict But No War
  • Catholic Slum of Ardoyne Belfast July 2011
  • Splinter Groups
  • Herersquos To A Brighter Future in Northern Ireland
  • Works Cited
Page 71: The Troubles, 1969-1998

Bobby Sands

ldquoOur revenge will be the laughter of our childrenrdquo

Reaction to Sandsrsquo Death

>

Conclusion

bull The Hunger Strike was eventually called off after 10 strikers including Sands had died

bull James Prior newly installed secretary of state of Northern Ireland granted the prisoners partial concessions all of the Five Demands except for the right to not do prison work Margaret Thatcher refused to budge on political status

bull The Hunger Strikes opened a new way for the PIRA to pursue its objectives politically whereas previously it had seen violence as the only solution to the plight of Irish nationalists in Northern Ireland

1983 The Maze Prison Escape

The ldquoGreat Escaperdquo

bull Using smuggled-in guns and knives 38 PIRA prisoners who had been convicted of offenses ranging from murder to causing explosions escaped from one of the most high-security prisons in Europe They completely took over the H7 prison block and took their prison guards hostage before escaping in a food supply truck Several prison guards were shot and stabbed but only one died of a heart attack during the escape

bull Fifteen escapees were recaptured the first day with four more captured over the next two days following the breakout The remaining 19 were transported to PIRA strongholds and given the option to either rejoin the IRArsquos cause or be transported to the United States to live under a new identity

12 October 1984 Brighton Hotel Bombing

The PIRA Nearly Gets Thatcherbull Margaret Thatcher the highly controversial far-right British PM from

1979-1990 had become a tremendously hated figure amongst the Irish nationalist community in Northern Ireland following the 1981 Hunger Strikes and for her general uncompromising stand on Irish republicanism

bull PIRA man Patrick Magee stayed at the Brighton Hotel from the 14-17 September 1984 planting a 20-lb bomb under his bath

bull Thatcher was staying at the Brighton Hotel for a political conference and was still up at 254AM on 12 October when the bomb was detonated The bomb decimated her bathroom but left the bedroom and sitting room of her suite largely unscathed

bull The PIRA statement to Thatcher afterwards was ldquoToday we were unlucky But remember we only have to be lucky once You will have to be lucky alwaysrdquo

Loughgall Ambush 8 May 1987

The SAS Strikes

bull A botched attack on Loughgall Villagersquos RUC Police Base in which the PIRA drove a backhoe into the fortified base and ran away to detonate the bomb that was inside of the backhoe went wrong as the SAS the British Special Forces had prior knowledge of the attack and quickly dispatched the 8 PIRA members involved

bull Although the RUC base was wrecked and bombed there were no RUC or SAS casualties and it was the PIRArsquos greatest loss of life in a single incident during the Troubles

British Army Lynx Shootdown 20 March 1994

The PIRA Shoots Down a Helicopter

bull Using the previously mentioned Barrack-Buster homemade mortar PIRA insurgents were able to fire on a British helicopter that was in the process of landing whilst hiding behind a hay bail from around 150 yards out

bull The helicopter was hit with the mortar shell around 100 feet above the ground but the pilot was able to successfully crash-land the helicopter and escape before its propane tanks exploded There were no casualties but the attack was a major propaganda coup for the PIRA

1996 Manchester Bombing

The PIRA Destroys Manchester

bull On Saturday 15 June 1996 the PIRA sent in telephoned warnings and 90 minutes later detonated a 3300lb fertilizer-based truck bomb in the heart of Manchester City Centre the biggest bomb detonated in Great Britain during peacetime The bomb killed nobody due to previous warnings but led to 212 non-fatal injuries and essentially destroyed Manchester City Centre leaving approximately 700 million pounds ($12bn) worth of damage in its wake

Omagh Bombing 1998

Last Great Deadly Attack of the Troubles

bull Perpetrated by a Provisional IRA splinter group that was rejecting the peace process calling themselves the ldquoReal IRArdquo the 510lb fertilizer-based bomb was placed on main street in the town of Omagh Northern Ireland Warnings were called in approximately 30 minutes before the bombing but they were inaccurate and police ended up moving more civilians towards the bomb which ended up killing 29 people and causing over 300 non-fatal injuries This was the highest death toll from a single incident during the Troubles

bull It received universal outrage and was condemned even by the PIRA and its political wing Sinn Fein It spurred on the Northern Ireland peace process and the RIRA apologized and called a ceasefire several days after

The Good Friday Agreement and Northern Ireland Peace Process

Beginningsbull Following the 1981 Hunger Strikes Irish republicans began to

increasingly look towards politics rather than violence as a means of achieving their aims Sinn Fein gaelic for ldquoWe Ourselvesrdquo was a fiercely Irish Republican political party which led by the Machiavellian former PIRA leader and Maze inmate Gerry Adams began to push for a more peaceful solution to the Troubles in Northern Ireland

bull It became apparent by the late 1990s that although the PIRA was not losing a war against the British establishment it would be impossible to truly lsquowin the fightrsquo through violence and that any further terrorism would serve not to achieve any real political aim but only to prolong and continue suffering and violence in Northern Ireland and that politics was a much better way of achieving Republican aims

Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein former PIRA Belfast Brigade OC

Good Friday Agreement 1998

bull The Peace Process began in 1994 and included intermittent terrorist ceasefires and political negotiations between the major Irish republican and British unionist parties and culminated on April 10 1998 when the Good Friday Agreement was signed

PM Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern Sign the GFA

GFA Mandatesbull That Northern Ireland was to remain British until a majority of people in Northern

Ireland and the southern Republic of Ireland wanted otherwise bull The creation of an entirely new far less sectarian and religiously diverse Northern

Irish local governmentbull The decommissioning of arms from terrorist groups on both the unionist and

nationalist side of the political divide (ultimately successful all arms decommissioned by 2005)

bull Mutual respect and civil rights between Catholics and Protestants bull The reduction and eventual elimination of British troops in Northern Ireland

(ultimately successful all troops withdrawn by 2005)bull Eventual early prison release for all individuals imprisoned for terrorist offenses as

long as they were apart of a terrorist group that was decommissioning in accordance with the GFA

bull Disbandment of the RUC police service and the installation of the new Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) which was required to be at least 50 Catholic

Northern Ireland Today

Still Conflict But No Warbull Since the complete decommissioning of the arms and

disbandment of the PIRA INLA UDAUFF and UVF due to the Good Friday Agreement there is nowhere near the amount of violence in Northern Ireland or Belfast as there was 20 years ago There are no more weekly bombings and riots and no more British troops patrolling Catholic areas in armored vehicles

bull Despite this there are still occasional riots and clashes with the PSNI several times a year specifically on dates of great historical significance to the Catholic or Protestant communities and there is still a deep distrust and even hatred between many Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland although that continues to change with time

Catholic Slum of Ardoyne Belfast July 2011

Splinter Groups

bull Many former PIRA or UDA terrorists have now taken to organized crime for purely profiteering purposes but are no longer involved in substantial violence or any political-based terrorism

bull Splinter groups such as the Real IRA and Continuity IRA in Catholic communities and the Orange Volunteers and Red Hand Commandos in Protestant communities still conduct occasional violence towards Police and civilians in Northern Ireland but are all rather small poorly armed and poorly funded groups that pose nowhere near the threat that terrorist groups in the 80s and 90s did in Northern Ireland

Herersquos To A Brighter Future in Northern Ireland

Works Citedbull httpwwwbbccoukhistorytroublesbull httpcainulstacukbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiProvisional_Irish_Republican_Armybull httpenwikipediaorgwikiThe_Troublesbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiUlster_Defence_Associationbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiUlster_Volunteer_Forcebull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_National_Liberation_Armybull ldquoA Secret History of the IRArdquo by Ed Moloney ndashWW Norton amp Company Reprint 2003bull ldquoVoices From The Grave Two Menrsquos War in Irelandrdquo by Ed Moloney ndash Public Affairs 2010bull ldquoFifty Dead Men Walkingrdquo by Martin McGartland ndash John Blake 2009bull httpwwwinfopleasecomspotnorthireland1htmlbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_Civil_Warbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_War_of_Independencebull httpenwikipediaorgwiki1981_Irish_hunger_strikebull httpenwikipediaorgwikiDirectory_of_the_Northern_Ireland_Troublesbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiGood_Friday_Agreementbull httpswwwmi5govukhomethe-threatsterrorismnorthern-irelandrepublican-terrorist-groupshtmlbull httpswwwmi5govukhomethe-threatsterrorismnorthern-irelandprovisional-irish-republican-army-

pirahtmlbull httpnewsbbccoukhienglishstaticnorthern_irelandunderstandingeventshunger_strikestm

  • The Troubles
  • Brief Overview
  • 30 Years of Conflict
  • Slide 4
  • Background
  • The Irish War of Independence
  • Slide 7
  • Anglo-Irish Treaty (signed 6 December 1921)
  • Irish Civil War
  • 1922-1966 Ireland
  • The Civil Rights Movement
  • Slide 12
  • Slide 13
  • Objectives of the Civil Rights Movement
  • The 1969 Northern Ireland Riots ndashThe Troubles Begin
  • Culmination of Tension
  • No-Go Areas
  • No-Go Areas (2)
  • Early 1970sndash The Rise of the Provisional IRA
  • The IRA Split
  • Rise of the UVF and Loyalist Terror Groups
  • Beginnings
  • UVF Statement 21 May 1964
  • The Paramilitaries
  • Irish RepublicansCatholics
  • The Provisional IRA
  • IRA Statement Late 80s
  • Statistics
  • RecruitmentFunding
  • Weaponry
  • Weaponry (2)
  • Slide 32
  • Mortars and IEDs
  • EOD Officer Approaches PIRA Car Bomb
  • The Barrack Buster
  • Vigilantism
  • Slide 37
  • Slide 38
  • Policy on Informants
  • Terrorist Activities
  • Terrorist Activities (continued)
  • The INLA
  • Statistics (2)
  • Ideology
  • Terrorist Activities (2)
  • Internal Feuds
  • Slide 47
  • British LoyalistsProtestants
  • The UDAUFF
  • Former UFF Member
  • Statistics (3)
  • Ideology (2)
  • Terrorist Activities (3)
  • Slide 54
  • Organized Crime
  • The UVF
  • Statistics (4)
  • Ideology (3)
  • Terrorist Activities (4)
  • The Shankhill Butchers
  • Weaponry (3)
  • Slide 62
  • Organized Crime (2)
  • Major Incidents 1969-1998
  • Bloody Sunday 30 January 1972
  • Massacre on the Bogside
  • Bloody Friday 21 July 1972
  • A City Under Siege
  • Dublin and Monaghan Bombings 17 May 1974
  • Deadliest Attack of the Troubles
  • Warrenpoint Ambush 27 August 1979
  • Roadside IEDs
  • Summer of 1981 Irish Hunger Strikes
  • A Defining Moment for the Republican Cause
  • The Five Demands
  • Previous Protests
  • Dirty Protesters
  • Thatcherrsquos Response
  • Ten Strikers Die
  • Bobby Sands
  • Reaction to Sandsrsquo Death
  • Conclusion
  • 1983 The Maze Prison Escape
  • The ldquoGreat Escaperdquo
  • 12 October 1984 Brighton Hotel Bombing
  • The PIRA Nearly Gets Thatcher
  • Loughgall Ambush 8 May 1987
  • The SAS Strikes
  • British Army Lynx Shootdown 20 March 1994
  • The PIRA Shoots Down a Helicopter
  • 1996 Manchester Bombing
  • The PIRA Destroys Manchester
  • Omagh Bombing 1998
  • Last Great Deadly Attack of the Troubles
  • The Good Friday Agreement and Northern Ireland Peace Process
  • Beginnings (2)
  • Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein former PIRA Belfast Brigade OC
  • Good Friday Agreement 1998
  • PM Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern Sign the GFA
  • GFA Mandates
  • Northern Ireland Today
  • Still Conflict But No War
  • Catholic Slum of Ardoyne Belfast July 2011
  • Splinter Groups
  • Herersquos To A Brighter Future in Northern Ireland
  • Works Cited
Page 72: The Troubles, 1969-1998

Reaction to Sandsrsquo Death

>

Conclusion

bull The Hunger Strike was eventually called off after 10 strikers including Sands had died

bull James Prior newly installed secretary of state of Northern Ireland granted the prisoners partial concessions all of the Five Demands except for the right to not do prison work Margaret Thatcher refused to budge on political status

bull The Hunger Strikes opened a new way for the PIRA to pursue its objectives politically whereas previously it had seen violence as the only solution to the plight of Irish nationalists in Northern Ireland

1983 The Maze Prison Escape

The ldquoGreat Escaperdquo

bull Using smuggled-in guns and knives 38 PIRA prisoners who had been convicted of offenses ranging from murder to causing explosions escaped from one of the most high-security prisons in Europe They completely took over the H7 prison block and took their prison guards hostage before escaping in a food supply truck Several prison guards were shot and stabbed but only one died of a heart attack during the escape

bull Fifteen escapees were recaptured the first day with four more captured over the next two days following the breakout The remaining 19 were transported to PIRA strongholds and given the option to either rejoin the IRArsquos cause or be transported to the United States to live under a new identity

12 October 1984 Brighton Hotel Bombing

The PIRA Nearly Gets Thatcherbull Margaret Thatcher the highly controversial far-right British PM from

1979-1990 had become a tremendously hated figure amongst the Irish nationalist community in Northern Ireland following the 1981 Hunger Strikes and for her general uncompromising stand on Irish republicanism

bull PIRA man Patrick Magee stayed at the Brighton Hotel from the 14-17 September 1984 planting a 20-lb bomb under his bath

bull Thatcher was staying at the Brighton Hotel for a political conference and was still up at 254AM on 12 October when the bomb was detonated The bomb decimated her bathroom but left the bedroom and sitting room of her suite largely unscathed

bull The PIRA statement to Thatcher afterwards was ldquoToday we were unlucky But remember we only have to be lucky once You will have to be lucky alwaysrdquo

Loughgall Ambush 8 May 1987

The SAS Strikes

bull A botched attack on Loughgall Villagersquos RUC Police Base in which the PIRA drove a backhoe into the fortified base and ran away to detonate the bomb that was inside of the backhoe went wrong as the SAS the British Special Forces had prior knowledge of the attack and quickly dispatched the 8 PIRA members involved

bull Although the RUC base was wrecked and bombed there were no RUC or SAS casualties and it was the PIRArsquos greatest loss of life in a single incident during the Troubles

British Army Lynx Shootdown 20 March 1994

The PIRA Shoots Down a Helicopter

bull Using the previously mentioned Barrack-Buster homemade mortar PIRA insurgents were able to fire on a British helicopter that was in the process of landing whilst hiding behind a hay bail from around 150 yards out

bull The helicopter was hit with the mortar shell around 100 feet above the ground but the pilot was able to successfully crash-land the helicopter and escape before its propane tanks exploded There were no casualties but the attack was a major propaganda coup for the PIRA

1996 Manchester Bombing

The PIRA Destroys Manchester

bull On Saturday 15 June 1996 the PIRA sent in telephoned warnings and 90 minutes later detonated a 3300lb fertilizer-based truck bomb in the heart of Manchester City Centre the biggest bomb detonated in Great Britain during peacetime The bomb killed nobody due to previous warnings but led to 212 non-fatal injuries and essentially destroyed Manchester City Centre leaving approximately 700 million pounds ($12bn) worth of damage in its wake

Omagh Bombing 1998

Last Great Deadly Attack of the Troubles

bull Perpetrated by a Provisional IRA splinter group that was rejecting the peace process calling themselves the ldquoReal IRArdquo the 510lb fertilizer-based bomb was placed on main street in the town of Omagh Northern Ireland Warnings were called in approximately 30 minutes before the bombing but they were inaccurate and police ended up moving more civilians towards the bomb which ended up killing 29 people and causing over 300 non-fatal injuries This was the highest death toll from a single incident during the Troubles

bull It received universal outrage and was condemned even by the PIRA and its political wing Sinn Fein It spurred on the Northern Ireland peace process and the RIRA apologized and called a ceasefire several days after

The Good Friday Agreement and Northern Ireland Peace Process

Beginningsbull Following the 1981 Hunger Strikes Irish republicans began to

increasingly look towards politics rather than violence as a means of achieving their aims Sinn Fein gaelic for ldquoWe Ourselvesrdquo was a fiercely Irish Republican political party which led by the Machiavellian former PIRA leader and Maze inmate Gerry Adams began to push for a more peaceful solution to the Troubles in Northern Ireland

bull It became apparent by the late 1990s that although the PIRA was not losing a war against the British establishment it would be impossible to truly lsquowin the fightrsquo through violence and that any further terrorism would serve not to achieve any real political aim but only to prolong and continue suffering and violence in Northern Ireland and that politics was a much better way of achieving Republican aims

Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein former PIRA Belfast Brigade OC

Good Friday Agreement 1998

bull The Peace Process began in 1994 and included intermittent terrorist ceasefires and political negotiations between the major Irish republican and British unionist parties and culminated on April 10 1998 when the Good Friday Agreement was signed

PM Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern Sign the GFA

GFA Mandatesbull That Northern Ireland was to remain British until a majority of people in Northern

Ireland and the southern Republic of Ireland wanted otherwise bull The creation of an entirely new far less sectarian and religiously diverse Northern

Irish local governmentbull The decommissioning of arms from terrorist groups on both the unionist and

nationalist side of the political divide (ultimately successful all arms decommissioned by 2005)

bull Mutual respect and civil rights between Catholics and Protestants bull The reduction and eventual elimination of British troops in Northern Ireland

(ultimately successful all troops withdrawn by 2005)bull Eventual early prison release for all individuals imprisoned for terrorist offenses as

long as they were apart of a terrorist group that was decommissioning in accordance with the GFA

bull Disbandment of the RUC police service and the installation of the new Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) which was required to be at least 50 Catholic

Northern Ireland Today

Still Conflict But No Warbull Since the complete decommissioning of the arms and

disbandment of the PIRA INLA UDAUFF and UVF due to the Good Friday Agreement there is nowhere near the amount of violence in Northern Ireland or Belfast as there was 20 years ago There are no more weekly bombings and riots and no more British troops patrolling Catholic areas in armored vehicles

bull Despite this there are still occasional riots and clashes with the PSNI several times a year specifically on dates of great historical significance to the Catholic or Protestant communities and there is still a deep distrust and even hatred between many Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland although that continues to change with time

Catholic Slum of Ardoyne Belfast July 2011

Splinter Groups

bull Many former PIRA or UDA terrorists have now taken to organized crime for purely profiteering purposes but are no longer involved in substantial violence or any political-based terrorism

bull Splinter groups such as the Real IRA and Continuity IRA in Catholic communities and the Orange Volunteers and Red Hand Commandos in Protestant communities still conduct occasional violence towards Police and civilians in Northern Ireland but are all rather small poorly armed and poorly funded groups that pose nowhere near the threat that terrorist groups in the 80s and 90s did in Northern Ireland

Herersquos To A Brighter Future in Northern Ireland

Works Citedbull httpwwwbbccoukhistorytroublesbull httpcainulstacukbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiProvisional_Irish_Republican_Armybull httpenwikipediaorgwikiThe_Troublesbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiUlster_Defence_Associationbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiUlster_Volunteer_Forcebull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_National_Liberation_Armybull ldquoA Secret History of the IRArdquo by Ed Moloney ndashWW Norton amp Company Reprint 2003bull ldquoVoices From The Grave Two Menrsquos War in Irelandrdquo by Ed Moloney ndash Public Affairs 2010bull ldquoFifty Dead Men Walkingrdquo by Martin McGartland ndash John Blake 2009bull httpwwwinfopleasecomspotnorthireland1htmlbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_Civil_Warbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_War_of_Independencebull httpenwikipediaorgwiki1981_Irish_hunger_strikebull httpenwikipediaorgwikiDirectory_of_the_Northern_Ireland_Troublesbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiGood_Friday_Agreementbull httpswwwmi5govukhomethe-threatsterrorismnorthern-irelandrepublican-terrorist-groupshtmlbull httpswwwmi5govukhomethe-threatsterrorismnorthern-irelandprovisional-irish-republican-army-

pirahtmlbull httpnewsbbccoukhienglishstaticnorthern_irelandunderstandingeventshunger_strikestm

  • The Troubles
  • Brief Overview
  • 30 Years of Conflict
  • Slide 4
  • Background
  • The Irish War of Independence
  • Slide 7
  • Anglo-Irish Treaty (signed 6 December 1921)
  • Irish Civil War
  • 1922-1966 Ireland
  • The Civil Rights Movement
  • Slide 12
  • Slide 13
  • Objectives of the Civil Rights Movement
  • The 1969 Northern Ireland Riots ndashThe Troubles Begin
  • Culmination of Tension
  • No-Go Areas
  • No-Go Areas (2)
  • Early 1970sndash The Rise of the Provisional IRA
  • The IRA Split
  • Rise of the UVF and Loyalist Terror Groups
  • Beginnings
  • UVF Statement 21 May 1964
  • The Paramilitaries
  • Irish RepublicansCatholics
  • The Provisional IRA
  • IRA Statement Late 80s
  • Statistics
  • RecruitmentFunding
  • Weaponry
  • Weaponry (2)
  • Slide 32
  • Mortars and IEDs
  • EOD Officer Approaches PIRA Car Bomb
  • The Barrack Buster
  • Vigilantism
  • Slide 37
  • Slide 38
  • Policy on Informants
  • Terrorist Activities
  • Terrorist Activities (continued)
  • The INLA
  • Statistics (2)
  • Ideology
  • Terrorist Activities (2)
  • Internal Feuds
  • Slide 47
  • British LoyalistsProtestants
  • The UDAUFF
  • Former UFF Member
  • Statistics (3)
  • Ideology (2)
  • Terrorist Activities (3)
  • Slide 54
  • Organized Crime
  • The UVF
  • Statistics (4)
  • Ideology (3)
  • Terrorist Activities (4)
  • The Shankhill Butchers
  • Weaponry (3)
  • Slide 62
  • Organized Crime (2)
  • Major Incidents 1969-1998
  • Bloody Sunday 30 January 1972
  • Massacre on the Bogside
  • Bloody Friday 21 July 1972
  • A City Under Siege
  • Dublin and Monaghan Bombings 17 May 1974
  • Deadliest Attack of the Troubles
  • Warrenpoint Ambush 27 August 1979
  • Roadside IEDs
  • Summer of 1981 Irish Hunger Strikes
  • A Defining Moment for the Republican Cause
  • The Five Demands
  • Previous Protests
  • Dirty Protesters
  • Thatcherrsquos Response
  • Ten Strikers Die
  • Bobby Sands
  • Reaction to Sandsrsquo Death
  • Conclusion
  • 1983 The Maze Prison Escape
  • The ldquoGreat Escaperdquo
  • 12 October 1984 Brighton Hotel Bombing
  • The PIRA Nearly Gets Thatcher
  • Loughgall Ambush 8 May 1987
  • The SAS Strikes
  • British Army Lynx Shootdown 20 March 1994
  • The PIRA Shoots Down a Helicopter
  • 1996 Manchester Bombing
  • The PIRA Destroys Manchester
  • Omagh Bombing 1998
  • Last Great Deadly Attack of the Troubles
  • The Good Friday Agreement and Northern Ireland Peace Process
  • Beginnings (2)
  • Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein former PIRA Belfast Brigade OC
  • Good Friday Agreement 1998
  • PM Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern Sign the GFA
  • GFA Mandates
  • Northern Ireland Today
  • Still Conflict But No War
  • Catholic Slum of Ardoyne Belfast July 2011
  • Splinter Groups
  • Herersquos To A Brighter Future in Northern Ireland
  • Works Cited
Page 73: The Troubles, 1969-1998

Conclusion

bull The Hunger Strike was eventually called off after 10 strikers including Sands had died

bull James Prior newly installed secretary of state of Northern Ireland granted the prisoners partial concessions all of the Five Demands except for the right to not do prison work Margaret Thatcher refused to budge on political status

bull The Hunger Strikes opened a new way for the PIRA to pursue its objectives politically whereas previously it had seen violence as the only solution to the plight of Irish nationalists in Northern Ireland

1983 The Maze Prison Escape

The ldquoGreat Escaperdquo

bull Using smuggled-in guns and knives 38 PIRA prisoners who had been convicted of offenses ranging from murder to causing explosions escaped from one of the most high-security prisons in Europe They completely took over the H7 prison block and took their prison guards hostage before escaping in a food supply truck Several prison guards were shot and stabbed but only one died of a heart attack during the escape

bull Fifteen escapees were recaptured the first day with four more captured over the next two days following the breakout The remaining 19 were transported to PIRA strongholds and given the option to either rejoin the IRArsquos cause or be transported to the United States to live under a new identity

12 October 1984 Brighton Hotel Bombing

The PIRA Nearly Gets Thatcherbull Margaret Thatcher the highly controversial far-right British PM from

1979-1990 had become a tremendously hated figure amongst the Irish nationalist community in Northern Ireland following the 1981 Hunger Strikes and for her general uncompromising stand on Irish republicanism

bull PIRA man Patrick Magee stayed at the Brighton Hotel from the 14-17 September 1984 planting a 20-lb bomb under his bath

bull Thatcher was staying at the Brighton Hotel for a political conference and was still up at 254AM on 12 October when the bomb was detonated The bomb decimated her bathroom but left the bedroom and sitting room of her suite largely unscathed

bull The PIRA statement to Thatcher afterwards was ldquoToday we were unlucky But remember we only have to be lucky once You will have to be lucky alwaysrdquo

Loughgall Ambush 8 May 1987

The SAS Strikes

bull A botched attack on Loughgall Villagersquos RUC Police Base in which the PIRA drove a backhoe into the fortified base and ran away to detonate the bomb that was inside of the backhoe went wrong as the SAS the British Special Forces had prior knowledge of the attack and quickly dispatched the 8 PIRA members involved

bull Although the RUC base was wrecked and bombed there were no RUC or SAS casualties and it was the PIRArsquos greatest loss of life in a single incident during the Troubles

British Army Lynx Shootdown 20 March 1994

The PIRA Shoots Down a Helicopter

bull Using the previously mentioned Barrack-Buster homemade mortar PIRA insurgents were able to fire on a British helicopter that was in the process of landing whilst hiding behind a hay bail from around 150 yards out

bull The helicopter was hit with the mortar shell around 100 feet above the ground but the pilot was able to successfully crash-land the helicopter and escape before its propane tanks exploded There were no casualties but the attack was a major propaganda coup for the PIRA

1996 Manchester Bombing

The PIRA Destroys Manchester

bull On Saturday 15 June 1996 the PIRA sent in telephoned warnings and 90 minutes later detonated a 3300lb fertilizer-based truck bomb in the heart of Manchester City Centre the biggest bomb detonated in Great Britain during peacetime The bomb killed nobody due to previous warnings but led to 212 non-fatal injuries and essentially destroyed Manchester City Centre leaving approximately 700 million pounds ($12bn) worth of damage in its wake

Omagh Bombing 1998

Last Great Deadly Attack of the Troubles

bull Perpetrated by a Provisional IRA splinter group that was rejecting the peace process calling themselves the ldquoReal IRArdquo the 510lb fertilizer-based bomb was placed on main street in the town of Omagh Northern Ireland Warnings were called in approximately 30 minutes before the bombing but they were inaccurate and police ended up moving more civilians towards the bomb which ended up killing 29 people and causing over 300 non-fatal injuries This was the highest death toll from a single incident during the Troubles

bull It received universal outrage and was condemned even by the PIRA and its political wing Sinn Fein It spurred on the Northern Ireland peace process and the RIRA apologized and called a ceasefire several days after

The Good Friday Agreement and Northern Ireland Peace Process

Beginningsbull Following the 1981 Hunger Strikes Irish republicans began to

increasingly look towards politics rather than violence as a means of achieving their aims Sinn Fein gaelic for ldquoWe Ourselvesrdquo was a fiercely Irish Republican political party which led by the Machiavellian former PIRA leader and Maze inmate Gerry Adams began to push for a more peaceful solution to the Troubles in Northern Ireland

bull It became apparent by the late 1990s that although the PIRA was not losing a war against the British establishment it would be impossible to truly lsquowin the fightrsquo through violence and that any further terrorism would serve not to achieve any real political aim but only to prolong and continue suffering and violence in Northern Ireland and that politics was a much better way of achieving Republican aims

Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein former PIRA Belfast Brigade OC

Good Friday Agreement 1998

bull The Peace Process began in 1994 and included intermittent terrorist ceasefires and political negotiations between the major Irish republican and British unionist parties and culminated on April 10 1998 when the Good Friday Agreement was signed

PM Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern Sign the GFA

GFA Mandatesbull That Northern Ireland was to remain British until a majority of people in Northern

Ireland and the southern Republic of Ireland wanted otherwise bull The creation of an entirely new far less sectarian and religiously diverse Northern

Irish local governmentbull The decommissioning of arms from terrorist groups on both the unionist and

nationalist side of the political divide (ultimately successful all arms decommissioned by 2005)

bull Mutual respect and civil rights between Catholics and Protestants bull The reduction and eventual elimination of British troops in Northern Ireland

(ultimately successful all troops withdrawn by 2005)bull Eventual early prison release for all individuals imprisoned for terrorist offenses as

long as they were apart of a terrorist group that was decommissioning in accordance with the GFA

bull Disbandment of the RUC police service and the installation of the new Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) which was required to be at least 50 Catholic

Northern Ireland Today

Still Conflict But No Warbull Since the complete decommissioning of the arms and

disbandment of the PIRA INLA UDAUFF and UVF due to the Good Friday Agreement there is nowhere near the amount of violence in Northern Ireland or Belfast as there was 20 years ago There are no more weekly bombings and riots and no more British troops patrolling Catholic areas in armored vehicles

bull Despite this there are still occasional riots and clashes with the PSNI several times a year specifically on dates of great historical significance to the Catholic or Protestant communities and there is still a deep distrust and even hatred between many Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland although that continues to change with time

Catholic Slum of Ardoyne Belfast July 2011

Splinter Groups

bull Many former PIRA or UDA terrorists have now taken to organized crime for purely profiteering purposes but are no longer involved in substantial violence or any political-based terrorism

bull Splinter groups such as the Real IRA and Continuity IRA in Catholic communities and the Orange Volunteers and Red Hand Commandos in Protestant communities still conduct occasional violence towards Police and civilians in Northern Ireland but are all rather small poorly armed and poorly funded groups that pose nowhere near the threat that terrorist groups in the 80s and 90s did in Northern Ireland

Herersquos To A Brighter Future in Northern Ireland

Works Citedbull httpwwwbbccoukhistorytroublesbull httpcainulstacukbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiProvisional_Irish_Republican_Armybull httpenwikipediaorgwikiThe_Troublesbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiUlster_Defence_Associationbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiUlster_Volunteer_Forcebull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_National_Liberation_Armybull ldquoA Secret History of the IRArdquo by Ed Moloney ndashWW Norton amp Company Reprint 2003bull ldquoVoices From The Grave Two Menrsquos War in Irelandrdquo by Ed Moloney ndash Public Affairs 2010bull ldquoFifty Dead Men Walkingrdquo by Martin McGartland ndash John Blake 2009bull httpwwwinfopleasecomspotnorthireland1htmlbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_Civil_Warbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_War_of_Independencebull httpenwikipediaorgwiki1981_Irish_hunger_strikebull httpenwikipediaorgwikiDirectory_of_the_Northern_Ireland_Troublesbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiGood_Friday_Agreementbull httpswwwmi5govukhomethe-threatsterrorismnorthern-irelandrepublican-terrorist-groupshtmlbull httpswwwmi5govukhomethe-threatsterrorismnorthern-irelandprovisional-irish-republican-army-

pirahtmlbull httpnewsbbccoukhienglishstaticnorthern_irelandunderstandingeventshunger_strikestm

  • The Troubles
  • Brief Overview
  • 30 Years of Conflict
  • Slide 4
  • Background
  • The Irish War of Independence
  • Slide 7
  • Anglo-Irish Treaty (signed 6 December 1921)
  • Irish Civil War
  • 1922-1966 Ireland
  • The Civil Rights Movement
  • Slide 12
  • Slide 13
  • Objectives of the Civil Rights Movement
  • The 1969 Northern Ireland Riots ndashThe Troubles Begin
  • Culmination of Tension
  • No-Go Areas
  • No-Go Areas (2)
  • Early 1970sndash The Rise of the Provisional IRA
  • The IRA Split
  • Rise of the UVF and Loyalist Terror Groups
  • Beginnings
  • UVF Statement 21 May 1964
  • The Paramilitaries
  • Irish RepublicansCatholics
  • The Provisional IRA
  • IRA Statement Late 80s
  • Statistics
  • RecruitmentFunding
  • Weaponry
  • Weaponry (2)
  • Slide 32
  • Mortars and IEDs
  • EOD Officer Approaches PIRA Car Bomb
  • The Barrack Buster
  • Vigilantism
  • Slide 37
  • Slide 38
  • Policy on Informants
  • Terrorist Activities
  • Terrorist Activities (continued)
  • The INLA
  • Statistics (2)
  • Ideology
  • Terrorist Activities (2)
  • Internal Feuds
  • Slide 47
  • British LoyalistsProtestants
  • The UDAUFF
  • Former UFF Member
  • Statistics (3)
  • Ideology (2)
  • Terrorist Activities (3)
  • Slide 54
  • Organized Crime
  • The UVF
  • Statistics (4)
  • Ideology (3)
  • Terrorist Activities (4)
  • The Shankhill Butchers
  • Weaponry (3)
  • Slide 62
  • Organized Crime (2)
  • Major Incidents 1969-1998
  • Bloody Sunday 30 January 1972
  • Massacre on the Bogside
  • Bloody Friday 21 July 1972
  • A City Under Siege
  • Dublin and Monaghan Bombings 17 May 1974
  • Deadliest Attack of the Troubles
  • Warrenpoint Ambush 27 August 1979
  • Roadside IEDs
  • Summer of 1981 Irish Hunger Strikes
  • A Defining Moment for the Republican Cause
  • The Five Demands
  • Previous Protests
  • Dirty Protesters
  • Thatcherrsquos Response
  • Ten Strikers Die
  • Bobby Sands
  • Reaction to Sandsrsquo Death
  • Conclusion
  • 1983 The Maze Prison Escape
  • The ldquoGreat Escaperdquo
  • 12 October 1984 Brighton Hotel Bombing
  • The PIRA Nearly Gets Thatcher
  • Loughgall Ambush 8 May 1987
  • The SAS Strikes
  • British Army Lynx Shootdown 20 March 1994
  • The PIRA Shoots Down a Helicopter
  • 1996 Manchester Bombing
  • The PIRA Destroys Manchester
  • Omagh Bombing 1998
  • Last Great Deadly Attack of the Troubles
  • The Good Friday Agreement and Northern Ireland Peace Process
  • Beginnings (2)
  • Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein former PIRA Belfast Brigade OC
  • Good Friday Agreement 1998
  • PM Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern Sign the GFA
  • GFA Mandates
  • Northern Ireland Today
  • Still Conflict But No War
  • Catholic Slum of Ardoyne Belfast July 2011
  • Splinter Groups
  • Herersquos To A Brighter Future in Northern Ireland
  • Works Cited
Page 74: The Troubles, 1969-1998

1983 The Maze Prison Escape

The ldquoGreat Escaperdquo

bull Using smuggled-in guns and knives 38 PIRA prisoners who had been convicted of offenses ranging from murder to causing explosions escaped from one of the most high-security prisons in Europe They completely took over the H7 prison block and took their prison guards hostage before escaping in a food supply truck Several prison guards were shot and stabbed but only one died of a heart attack during the escape

bull Fifteen escapees were recaptured the first day with four more captured over the next two days following the breakout The remaining 19 were transported to PIRA strongholds and given the option to either rejoin the IRArsquos cause or be transported to the United States to live under a new identity

12 October 1984 Brighton Hotel Bombing

The PIRA Nearly Gets Thatcherbull Margaret Thatcher the highly controversial far-right British PM from

1979-1990 had become a tremendously hated figure amongst the Irish nationalist community in Northern Ireland following the 1981 Hunger Strikes and for her general uncompromising stand on Irish republicanism

bull PIRA man Patrick Magee stayed at the Brighton Hotel from the 14-17 September 1984 planting a 20-lb bomb under his bath

bull Thatcher was staying at the Brighton Hotel for a political conference and was still up at 254AM on 12 October when the bomb was detonated The bomb decimated her bathroom but left the bedroom and sitting room of her suite largely unscathed

bull The PIRA statement to Thatcher afterwards was ldquoToday we were unlucky But remember we only have to be lucky once You will have to be lucky alwaysrdquo

Loughgall Ambush 8 May 1987

The SAS Strikes

bull A botched attack on Loughgall Villagersquos RUC Police Base in which the PIRA drove a backhoe into the fortified base and ran away to detonate the bomb that was inside of the backhoe went wrong as the SAS the British Special Forces had prior knowledge of the attack and quickly dispatched the 8 PIRA members involved

bull Although the RUC base was wrecked and bombed there were no RUC or SAS casualties and it was the PIRArsquos greatest loss of life in a single incident during the Troubles

British Army Lynx Shootdown 20 March 1994

The PIRA Shoots Down a Helicopter

bull Using the previously mentioned Barrack-Buster homemade mortar PIRA insurgents were able to fire on a British helicopter that was in the process of landing whilst hiding behind a hay bail from around 150 yards out

bull The helicopter was hit with the mortar shell around 100 feet above the ground but the pilot was able to successfully crash-land the helicopter and escape before its propane tanks exploded There were no casualties but the attack was a major propaganda coup for the PIRA

1996 Manchester Bombing

The PIRA Destroys Manchester

bull On Saturday 15 June 1996 the PIRA sent in telephoned warnings and 90 minutes later detonated a 3300lb fertilizer-based truck bomb in the heart of Manchester City Centre the biggest bomb detonated in Great Britain during peacetime The bomb killed nobody due to previous warnings but led to 212 non-fatal injuries and essentially destroyed Manchester City Centre leaving approximately 700 million pounds ($12bn) worth of damage in its wake

Omagh Bombing 1998

Last Great Deadly Attack of the Troubles

bull Perpetrated by a Provisional IRA splinter group that was rejecting the peace process calling themselves the ldquoReal IRArdquo the 510lb fertilizer-based bomb was placed on main street in the town of Omagh Northern Ireland Warnings were called in approximately 30 minutes before the bombing but they were inaccurate and police ended up moving more civilians towards the bomb which ended up killing 29 people and causing over 300 non-fatal injuries This was the highest death toll from a single incident during the Troubles

bull It received universal outrage and was condemned even by the PIRA and its political wing Sinn Fein It spurred on the Northern Ireland peace process and the RIRA apologized and called a ceasefire several days after

The Good Friday Agreement and Northern Ireland Peace Process

Beginningsbull Following the 1981 Hunger Strikes Irish republicans began to

increasingly look towards politics rather than violence as a means of achieving their aims Sinn Fein gaelic for ldquoWe Ourselvesrdquo was a fiercely Irish Republican political party which led by the Machiavellian former PIRA leader and Maze inmate Gerry Adams began to push for a more peaceful solution to the Troubles in Northern Ireland

bull It became apparent by the late 1990s that although the PIRA was not losing a war against the British establishment it would be impossible to truly lsquowin the fightrsquo through violence and that any further terrorism would serve not to achieve any real political aim but only to prolong and continue suffering and violence in Northern Ireland and that politics was a much better way of achieving Republican aims

Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein former PIRA Belfast Brigade OC

Good Friday Agreement 1998

bull The Peace Process began in 1994 and included intermittent terrorist ceasefires and political negotiations between the major Irish republican and British unionist parties and culminated on April 10 1998 when the Good Friday Agreement was signed

PM Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern Sign the GFA

GFA Mandatesbull That Northern Ireland was to remain British until a majority of people in Northern

Ireland and the southern Republic of Ireland wanted otherwise bull The creation of an entirely new far less sectarian and religiously diverse Northern

Irish local governmentbull The decommissioning of arms from terrorist groups on both the unionist and

nationalist side of the political divide (ultimately successful all arms decommissioned by 2005)

bull Mutual respect and civil rights between Catholics and Protestants bull The reduction and eventual elimination of British troops in Northern Ireland

(ultimately successful all troops withdrawn by 2005)bull Eventual early prison release for all individuals imprisoned for terrorist offenses as

long as they were apart of a terrorist group that was decommissioning in accordance with the GFA

bull Disbandment of the RUC police service and the installation of the new Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) which was required to be at least 50 Catholic

Northern Ireland Today

Still Conflict But No Warbull Since the complete decommissioning of the arms and

disbandment of the PIRA INLA UDAUFF and UVF due to the Good Friday Agreement there is nowhere near the amount of violence in Northern Ireland or Belfast as there was 20 years ago There are no more weekly bombings and riots and no more British troops patrolling Catholic areas in armored vehicles

bull Despite this there are still occasional riots and clashes with the PSNI several times a year specifically on dates of great historical significance to the Catholic or Protestant communities and there is still a deep distrust and even hatred between many Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland although that continues to change with time

Catholic Slum of Ardoyne Belfast July 2011

Splinter Groups

bull Many former PIRA or UDA terrorists have now taken to organized crime for purely profiteering purposes but are no longer involved in substantial violence or any political-based terrorism

bull Splinter groups such as the Real IRA and Continuity IRA in Catholic communities and the Orange Volunteers and Red Hand Commandos in Protestant communities still conduct occasional violence towards Police and civilians in Northern Ireland but are all rather small poorly armed and poorly funded groups that pose nowhere near the threat that terrorist groups in the 80s and 90s did in Northern Ireland

Herersquos To A Brighter Future in Northern Ireland

Works Citedbull httpwwwbbccoukhistorytroublesbull httpcainulstacukbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiProvisional_Irish_Republican_Armybull httpenwikipediaorgwikiThe_Troublesbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiUlster_Defence_Associationbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiUlster_Volunteer_Forcebull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_National_Liberation_Armybull ldquoA Secret History of the IRArdquo by Ed Moloney ndashWW Norton amp Company Reprint 2003bull ldquoVoices From The Grave Two Menrsquos War in Irelandrdquo by Ed Moloney ndash Public Affairs 2010bull ldquoFifty Dead Men Walkingrdquo by Martin McGartland ndash John Blake 2009bull httpwwwinfopleasecomspotnorthireland1htmlbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_Civil_Warbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_War_of_Independencebull httpenwikipediaorgwiki1981_Irish_hunger_strikebull httpenwikipediaorgwikiDirectory_of_the_Northern_Ireland_Troublesbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiGood_Friday_Agreementbull httpswwwmi5govukhomethe-threatsterrorismnorthern-irelandrepublican-terrorist-groupshtmlbull httpswwwmi5govukhomethe-threatsterrorismnorthern-irelandprovisional-irish-republican-army-

pirahtmlbull httpnewsbbccoukhienglishstaticnorthern_irelandunderstandingeventshunger_strikestm

  • The Troubles
  • Brief Overview
  • 30 Years of Conflict
  • Slide 4
  • Background
  • The Irish War of Independence
  • Slide 7
  • Anglo-Irish Treaty (signed 6 December 1921)
  • Irish Civil War
  • 1922-1966 Ireland
  • The Civil Rights Movement
  • Slide 12
  • Slide 13
  • Objectives of the Civil Rights Movement
  • The 1969 Northern Ireland Riots ndashThe Troubles Begin
  • Culmination of Tension
  • No-Go Areas
  • No-Go Areas (2)
  • Early 1970sndash The Rise of the Provisional IRA
  • The IRA Split
  • Rise of the UVF and Loyalist Terror Groups
  • Beginnings
  • UVF Statement 21 May 1964
  • The Paramilitaries
  • Irish RepublicansCatholics
  • The Provisional IRA
  • IRA Statement Late 80s
  • Statistics
  • RecruitmentFunding
  • Weaponry
  • Weaponry (2)
  • Slide 32
  • Mortars and IEDs
  • EOD Officer Approaches PIRA Car Bomb
  • The Barrack Buster
  • Vigilantism
  • Slide 37
  • Slide 38
  • Policy on Informants
  • Terrorist Activities
  • Terrorist Activities (continued)
  • The INLA
  • Statistics (2)
  • Ideology
  • Terrorist Activities (2)
  • Internal Feuds
  • Slide 47
  • British LoyalistsProtestants
  • The UDAUFF
  • Former UFF Member
  • Statistics (3)
  • Ideology (2)
  • Terrorist Activities (3)
  • Slide 54
  • Organized Crime
  • The UVF
  • Statistics (4)
  • Ideology (3)
  • Terrorist Activities (4)
  • The Shankhill Butchers
  • Weaponry (3)
  • Slide 62
  • Organized Crime (2)
  • Major Incidents 1969-1998
  • Bloody Sunday 30 January 1972
  • Massacre on the Bogside
  • Bloody Friday 21 July 1972
  • A City Under Siege
  • Dublin and Monaghan Bombings 17 May 1974
  • Deadliest Attack of the Troubles
  • Warrenpoint Ambush 27 August 1979
  • Roadside IEDs
  • Summer of 1981 Irish Hunger Strikes
  • A Defining Moment for the Republican Cause
  • The Five Demands
  • Previous Protests
  • Dirty Protesters
  • Thatcherrsquos Response
  • Ten Strikers Die
  • Bobby Sands
  • Reaction to Sandsrsquo Death
  • Conclusion
  • 1983 The Maze Prison Escape
  • The ldquoGreat Escaperdquo
  • 12 October 1984 Brighton Hotel Bombing
  • The PIRA Nearly Gets Thatcher
  • Loughgall Ambush 8 May 1987
  • The SAS Strikes
  • British Army Lynx Shootdown 20 March 1994
  • The PIRA Shoots Down a Helicopter
  • 1996 Manchester Bombing
  • The PIRA Destroys Manchester
  • Omagh Bombing 1998
  • Last Great Deadly Attack of the Troubles
  • The Good Friday Agreement and Northern Ireland Peace Process
  • Beginnings (2)
  • Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein former PIRA Belfast Brigade OC
  • Good Friday Agreement 1998
  • PM Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern Sign the GFA
  • GFA Mandates
  • Northern Ireland Today
  • Still Conflict But No War
  • Catholic Slum of Ardoyne Belfast July 2011
  • Splinter Groups
  • Herersquos To A Brighter Future in Northern Ireland
  • Works Cited
Page 75: The Troubles, 1969-1998

The ldquoGreat Escaperdquo

bull Using smuggled-in guns and knives 38 PIRA prisoners who had been convicted of offenses ranging from murder to causing explosions escaped from one of the most high-security prisons in Europe They completely took over the H7 prison block and took their prison guards hostage before escaping in a food supply truck Several prison guards were shot and stabbed but only one died of a heart attack during the escape

bull Fifteen escapees were recaptured the first day with four more captured over the next two days following the breakout The remaining 19 were transported to PIRA strongholds and given the option to either rejoin the IRArsquos cause or be transported to the United States to live under a new identity

12 October 1984 Brighton Hotel Bombing

The PIRA Nearly Gets Thatcherbull Margaret Thatcher the highly controversial far-right British PM from

1979-1990 had become a tremendously hated figure amongst the Irish nationalist community in Northern Ireland following the 1981 Hunger Strikes and for her general uncompromising stand on Irish republicanism

bull PIRA man Patrick Magee stayed at the Brighton Hotel from the 14-17 September 1984 planting a 20-lb bomb under his bath

bull Thatcher was staying at the Brighton Hotel for a political conference and was still up at 254AM on 12 October when the bomb was detonated The bomb decimated her bathroom but left the bedroom and sitting room of her suite largely unscathed

bull The PIRA statement to Thatcher afterwards was ldquoToday we were unlucky But remember we only have to be lucky once You will have to be lucky alwaysrdquo

Loughgall Ambush 8 May 1987

The SAS Strikes

bull A botched attack on Loughgall Villagersquos RUC Police Base in which the PIRA drove a backhoe into the fortified base and ran away to detonate the bomb that was inside of the backhoe went wrong as the SAS the British Special Forces had prior knowledge of the attack and quickly dispatched the 8 PIRA members involved

bull Although the RUC base was wrecked and bombed there were no RUC or SAS casualties and it was the PIRArsquos greatest loss of life in a single incident during the Troubles

British Army Lynx Shootdown 20 March 1994

The PIRA Shoots Down a Helicopter

bull Using the previously mentioned Barrack-Buster homemade mortar PIRA insurgents were able to fire on a British helicopter that was in the process of landing whilst hiding behind a hay bail from around 150 yards out

bull The helicopter was hit with the mortar shell around 100 feet above the ground but the pilot was able to successfully crash-land the helicopter and escape before its propane tanks exploded There were no casualties but the attack was a major propaganda coup for the PIRA

1996 Manchester Bombing

The PIRA Destroys Manchester

bull On Saturday 15 June 1996 the PIRA sent in telephoned warnings and 90 minutes later detonated a 3300lb fertilizer-based truck bomb in the heart of Manchester City Centre the biggest bomb detonated in Great Britain during peacetime The bomb killed nobody due to previous warnings but led to 212 non-fatal injuries and essentially destroyed Manchester City Centre leaving approximately 700 million pounds ($12bn) worth of damage in its wake

Omagh Bombing 1998

Last Great Deadly Attack of the Troubles

bull Perpetrated by a Provisional IRA splinter group that was rejecting the peace process calling themselves the ldquoReal IRArdquo the 510lb fertilizer-based bomb was placed on main street in the town of Omagh Northern Ireland Warnings were called in approximately 30 minutes before the bombing but they were inaccurate and police ended up moving more civilians towards the bomb which ended up killing 29 people and causing over 300 non-fatal injuries This was the highest death toll from a single incident during the Troubles

bull It received universal outrage and was condemned even by the PIRA and its political wing Sinn Fein It spurred on the Northern Ireland peace process and the RIRA apologized and called a ceasefire several days after

The Good Friday Agreement and Northern Ireland Peace Process

Beginningsbull Following the 1981 Hunger Strikes Irish republicans began to

increasingly look towards politics rather than violence as a means of achieving their aims Sinn Fein gaelic for ldquoWe Ourselvesrdquo was a fiercely Irish Republican political party which led by the Machiavellian former PIRA leader and Maze inmate Gerry Adams began to push for a more peaceful solution to the Troubles in Northern Ireland

bull It became apparent by the late 1990s that although the PIRA was not losing a war against the British establishment it would be impossible to truly lsquowin the fightrsquo through violence and that any further terrorism would serve not to achieve any real political aim but only to prolong and continue suffering and violence in Northern Ireland and that politics was a much better way of achieving Republican aims

Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein former PIRA Belfast Brigade OC

Good Friday Agreement 1998

bull The Peace Process began in 1994 and included intermittent terrorist ceasefires and political negotiations between the major Irish republican and British unionist parties and culminated on April 10 1998 when the Good Friday Agreement was signed

PM Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern Sign the GFA

GFA Mandatesbull That Northern Ireland was to remain British until a majority of people in Northern

Ireland and the southern Republic of Ireland wanted otherwise bull The creation of an entirely new far less sectarian and religiously diverse Northern

Irish local governmentbull The decommissioning of arms from terrorist groups on both the unionist and

nationalist side of the political divide (ultimately successful all arms decommissioned by 2005)

bull Mutual respect and civil rights between Catholics and Protestants bull The reduction and eventual elimination of British troops in Northern Ireland

(ultimately successful all troops withdrawn by 2005)bull Eventual early prison release for all individuals imprisoned for terrorist offenses as

long as they were apart of a terrorist group that was decommissioning in accordance with the GFA

bull Disbandment of the RUC police service and the installation of the new Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) which was required to be at least 50 Catholic

Northern Ireland Today

Still Conflict But No Warbull Since the complete decommissioning of the arms and

disbandment of the PIRA INLA UDAUFF and UVF due to the Good Friday Agreement there is nowhere near the amount of violence in Northern Ireland or Belfast as there was 20 years ago There are no more weekly bombings and riots and no more British troops patrolling Catholic areas in armored vehicles

bull Despite this there are still occasional riots and clashes with the PSNI several times a year specifically on dates of great historical significance to the Catholic or Protestant communities and there is still a deep distrust and even hatred between many Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland although that continues to change with time

Catholic Slum of Ardoyne Belfast July 2011

Splinter Groups

bull Many former PIRA or UDA terrorists have now taken to organized crime for purely profiteering purposes but are no longer involved in substantial violence or any political-based terrorism

bull Splinter groups such as the Real IRA and Continuity IRA in Catholic communities and the Orange Volunteers and Red Hand Commandos in Protestant communities still conduct occasional violence towards Police and civilians in Northern Ireland but are all rather small poorly armed and poorly funded groups that pose nowhere near the threat that terrorist groups in the 80s and 90s did in Northern Ireland

Herersquos To A Brighter Future in Northern Ireland

Works Citedbull httpwwwbbccoukhistorytroublesbull httpcainulstacukbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiProvisional_Irish_Republican_Armybull httpenwikipediaorgwikiThe_Troublesbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiUlster_Defence_Associationbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiUlster_Volunteer_Forcebull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_National_Liberation_Armybull ldquoA Secret History of the IRArdquo by Ed Moloney ndashWW Norton amp Company Reprint 2003bull ldquoVoices From The Grave Two Menrsquos War in Irelandrdquo by Ed Moloney ndash Public Affairs 2010bull ldquoFifty Dead Men Walkingrdquo by Martin McGartland ndash John Blake 2009bull httpwwwinfopleasecomspotnorthireland1htmlbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_Civil_Warbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_War_of_Independencebull httpenwikipediaorgwiki1981_Irish_hunger_strikebull httpenwikipediaorgwikiDirectory_of_the_Northern_Ireland_Troublesbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiGood_Friday_Agreementbull httpswwwmi5govukhomethe-threatsterrorismnorthern-irelandrepublican-terrorist-groupshtmlbull httpswwwmi5govukhomethe-threatsterrorismnorthern-irelandprovisional-irish-republican-army-

pirahtmlbull httpnewsbbccoukhienglishstaticnorthern_irelandunderstandingeventshunger_strikestm

  • The Troubles
  • Brief Overview
  • 30 Years of Conflict
  • Slide 4
  • Background
  • The Irish War of Independence
  • Slide 7
  • Anglo-Irish Treaty (signed 6 December 1921)
  • Irish Civil War
  • 1922-1966 Ireland
  • The Civil Rights Movement
  • Slide 12
  • Slide 13
  • Objectives of the Civil Rights Movement
  • The 1969 Northern Ireland Riots ndashThe Troubles Begin
  • Culmination of Tension
  • No-Go Areas
  • No-Go Areas (2)
  • Early 1970sndash The Rise of the Provisional IRA
  • The IRA Split
  • Rise of the UVF and Loyalist Terror Groups
  • Beginnings
  • UVF Statement 21 May 1964
  • The Paramilitaries
  • Irish RepublicansCatholics
  • The Provisional IRA
  • IRA Statement Late 80s
  • Statistics
  • RecruitmentFunding
  • Weaponry
  • Weaponry (2)
  • Slide 32
  • Mortars and IEDs
  • EOD Officer Approaches PIRA Car Bomb
  • The Barrack Buster
  • Vigilantism
  • Slide 37
  • Slide 38
  • Policy on Informants
  • Terrorist Activities
  • Terrorist Activities (continued)
  • The INLA
  • Statistics (2)
  • Ideology
  • Terrorist Activities (2)
  • Internal Feuds
  • Slide 47
  • British LoyalistsProtestants
  • The UDAUFF
  • Former UFF Member
  • Statistics (3)
  • Ideology (2)
  • Terrorist Activities (3)
  • Slide 54
  • Organized Crime
  • The UVF
  • Statistics (4)
  • Ideology (3)
  • Terrorist Activities (4)
  • The Shankhill Butchers
  • Weaponry (3)
  • Slide 62
  • Organized Crime (2)
  • Major Incidents 1969-1998
  • Bloody Sunday 30 January 1972
  • Massacre on the Bogside
  • Bloody Friday 21 July 1972
  • A City Under Siege
  • Dublin and Monaghan Bombings 17 May 1974
  • Deadliest Attack of the Troubles
  • Warrenpoint Ambush 27 August 1979
  • Roadside IEDs
  • Summer of 1981 Irish Hunger Strikes
  • A Defining Moment for the Republican Cause
  • The Five Demands
  • Previous Protests
  • Dirty Protesters
  • Thatcherrsquos Response
  • Ten Strikers Die
  • Bobby Sands
  • Reaction to Sandsrsquo Death
  • Conclusion
  • 1983 The Maze Prison Escape
  • The ldquoGreat Escaperdquo
  • 12 October 1984 Brighton Hotel Bombing
  • The PIRA Nearly Gets Thatcher
  • Loughgall Ambush 8 May 1987
  • The SAS Strikes
  • British Army Lynx Shootdown 20 March 1994
  • The PIRA Shoots Down a Helicopter
  • 1996 Manchester Bombing
  • The PIRA Destroys Manchester
  • Omagh Bombing 1998
  • Last Great Deadly Attack of the Troubles
  • The Good Friday Agreement and Northern Ireland Peace Process
  • Beginnings (2)
  • Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein former PIRA Belfast Brigade OC
  • Good Friday Agreement 1998
  • PM Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern Sign the GFA
  • GFA Mandates
  • Northern Ireland Today
  • Still Conflict But No War
  • Catholic Slum of Ardoyne Belfast July 2011
  • Splinter Groups
  • Herersquos To A Brighter Future in Northern Ireland
  • Works Cited
Page 76: The Troubles, 1969-1998

12 October 1984 Brighton Hotel Bombing

The PIRA Nearly Gets Thatcherbull Margaret Thatcher the highly controversial far-right British PM from

1979-1990 had become a tremendously hated figure amongst the Irish nationalist community in Northern Ireland following the 1981 Hunger Strikes and for her general uncompromising stand on Irish republicanism

bull PIRA man Patrick Magee stayed at the Brighton Hotel from the 14-17 September 1984 planting a 20-lb bomb under his bath

bull Thatcher was staying at the Brighton Hotel for a political conference and was still up at 254AM on 12 October when the bomb was detonated The bomb decimated her bathroom but left the bedroom and sitting room of her suite largely unscathed

bull The PIRA statement to Thatcher afterwards was ldquoToday we were unlucky But remember we only have to be lucky once You will have to be lucky alwaysrdquo

Loughgall Ambush 8 May 1987

The SAS Strikes

bull A botched attack on Loughgall Villagersquos RUC Police Base in which the PIRA drove a backhoe into the fortified base and ran away to detonate the bomb that was inside of the backhoe went wrong as the SAS the British Special Forces had prior knowledge of the attack and quickly dispatched the 8 PIRA members involved

bull Although the RUC base was wrecked and bombed there were no RUC or SAS casualties and it was the PIRArsquos greatest loss of life in a single incident during the Troubles

British Army Lynx Shootdown 20 March 1994

The PIRA Shoots Down a Helicopter

bull Using the previously mentioned Barrack-Buster homemade mortar PIRA insurgents were able to fire on a British helicopter that was in the process of landing whilst hiding behind a hay bail from around 150 yards out

bull The helicopter was hit with the mortar shell around 100 feet above the ground but the pilot was able to successfully crash-land the helicopter and escape before its propane tanks exploded There were no casualties but the attack was a major propaganda coup for the PIRA

1996 Manchester Bombing

The PIRA Destroys Manchester

bull On Saturday 15 June 1996 the PIRA sent in telephoned warnings and 90 minutes later detonated a 3300lb fertilizer-based truck bomb in the heart of Manchester City Centre the biggest bomb detonated in Great Britain during peacetime The bomb killed nobody due to previous warnings but led to 212 non-fatal injuries and essentially destroyed Manchester City Centre leaving approximately 700 million pounds ($12bn) worth of damage in its wake

Omagh Bombing 1998

Last Great Deadly Attack of the Troubles

bull Perpetrated by a Provisional IRA splinter group that was rejecting the peace process calling themselves the ldquoReal IRArdquo the 510lb fertilizer-based bomb was placed on main street in the town of Omagh Northern Ireland Warnings were called in approximately 30 minutes before the bombing but they were inaccurate and police ended up moving more civilians towards the bomb which ended up killing 29 people and causing over 300 non-fatal injuries This was the highest death toll from a single incident during the Troubles

bull It received universal outrage and was condemned even by the PIRA and its political wing Sinn Fein It spurred on the Northern Ireland peace process and the RIRA apologized and called a ceasefire several days after

The Good Friday Agreement and Northern Ireland Peace Process

Beginningsbull Following the 1981 Hunger Strikes Irish republicans began to

increasingly look towards politics rather than violence as a means of achieving their aims Sinn Fein gaelic for ldquoWe Ourselvesrdquo was a fiercely Irish Republican political party which led by the Machiavellian former PIRA leader and Maze inmate Gerry Adams began to push for a more peaceful solution to the Troubles in Northern Ireland

bull It became apparent by the late 1990s that although the PIRA was not losing a war against the British establishment it would be impossible to truly lsquowin the fightrsquo through violence and that any further terrorism would serve not to achieve any real political aim but only to prolong and continue suffering and violence in Northern Ireland and that politics was a much better way of achieving Republican aims

Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein former PIRA Belfast Brigade OC

Good Friday Agreement 1998

bull The Peace Process began in 1994 and included intermittent terrorist ceasefires and political negotiations between the major Irish republican and British unionist parties and culminated on April 10 1998 when the Good Friday Agreement was signed

PM Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern Sign the GFA

GFA Mandatesbull That Northern Ireland was to remain British until a majority of people in Northern

Ireland and the southern Republic of Ireland wanted otherwise bull The creation of an entirely new far less sectarian and religiously diverse Northern

Irish local governmentbull The decommissioning of arms from terrorist groups on both the unionist and

nationalist side of the political divide (ultimately successful all arms decommissioned by 2005)

bull Mutual respect and civil rights between Catholics and Protestants bull The reduction and eventual elimination of British troops in Northern Ireland

(ultimately successful all troops withdrawn by 2005)bull Eventual early prison release for all individuals imprisoned for terrorist offenses as

long as they were apart of a terrorist group that was decommissioning in accordance with the GFA

bull Disbandment of the RUC police service and the installation of the new Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) which was required to be at least 50 Catholic

Northern Ireland Today

Still Conflict But No Warbull Since the complete decommissioning of the arms and

disbandment of the PIRA INLA UDAUFF and UVF due to the Good Friday Agreement there is nowhere near the amount of violence in Northern Ireland or Belfast as there was 20 years ago There are no more weekly bombings and riots and no more British troops patrolling Catholic areas in armored vehicles

bull Despite this there are still occasional riots and clashes with the PSNI several times a year specifically on dates of great historical significance to the Catholic or Protestant communities and there is still a deep distrust and even hatred between many Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland although that continues to change with time

Catholic Slum of Ardoyne Belfast July 2011

Splinter Groups

bull Many former PIRA or UDA terrorists have now taken to organized crime for purely profiteering purposes but are no longer involved in substantial violence or any political-based terrorism

bull Splinter groups such as the Real IRA and Continuity IRA in Catholic communities and the Orange Volunteers and Red Hand Commandos in Protestant communities still conduct occasional violence towards Police and civilians in Northern Ireland but are all rather small poorly armed and poorly funded groups that pose nowhere near the threat that terrorist groups in the 80s and 90s did in Northern Ireland

Herersquos To A Brighter Future in Northern Ireland

Works Citedbull httpwwwbbccoukhistorytroublesbull httpcainulstacukbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiProvisional_Irish_Republican_Armybull httpenwikipediaorgwikiThe_Troublesbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiUlster_Defence_Associationbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiUlster_Volunteer_Forcebull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_National_Liberation_Armybull ldquoA Secret History of the IRArdquo by Ed Moloney ndashWW Norton amp Company Reprint 2003bull ldquoVoices From The Grave Two Menrsquos War in Irelandrdquo by Ed Moloney ndash Public Affairs 2010bull ldquoFifty Dead Men Walkingrdquo by Martin McGartland ndash John Blake 2009bull httpwwwinfopleasecomspotnorthireland1htmlbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_Civil_Warbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_War_of_Independencebull httpenwikipediaorgwiki1981_Irish_hunger_strikebull httpenwikipediaorgwikiDirectory_of_the_Northern_Ireland_Troublesbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiGood_Friday_Agreementbull httpswwwmi5govukhomethe-threatsterrorismnorthern-irelandrepublican-terrorist-groupshtmlbull httpswwwmi5govukhomethe-threatsterrorismnorthern-irelandprovisional-irish-republican-army-

pirahtmlbull httpnewsbbccoukhienglishstaticnorthern_irelandunderstandingeventshunger_strikestm

  • The Troubles
  • Brief Overview
  • 30 Years of Conflict
  • Slide 4
  • Background
  • The Irish War of Independence
  • Slide 7
  • Anglo-Irish Treaty (signed 6 December 1921)
  • Irish Civil War
  • 1922-1966 Ireland
  • The Civil Rights Movement
  • Slide 12
  • Slide 13
  • Objectives of the Civil Rights Movement
  • The 1969 Northern Ireland Riots ndashThe Troubles Begin
  • Culmination of Tension
  • No-Go Areas
  • No-Go Areas (2)
  • Early 1970sndash The Rise of the Provisional IRA
  • The IRA Split
  • Rise of the UVF and Loyalist Terror Groups
  • Beginnings
  • UVF Statement 21 May 1964
  • The Paramilitaries
  • Irish RepublicansCatholics
  • The Provisional IRA
  • IRA Statement Late 80s
  • Statistics
  • RecruitmentFunding
  • Weaponry
  • Weaponry (2)
  • Slide 32
  • Mortars and IEDs
  • EOD Officer Approaches PIRA Car Bomb
  • The Barrack Buster
  • Vigilantism
  • Slide 37
  • Slide 38
  • Policy on Informants
  • Terrorist Activities
  • Terrorist Activities (continued)
  • The INLA
  • Statistics (2)
  • Ideology
  • Terrorist Activities (2)
  • Internal Feuds
  • Slide 47
  • British LoyalistsProtestants
  • The UDAUFF
  • Former UFF Member
  • Statistics (3)
  • Ideology (2)
  • Terrorist Activities (3)
  • Slide 54
  • Organized Crime
  • The UVF
  • Statistics (4)
  • Ideology (3)
  • Terrorist Activities (4)
  • The Shankhill Butchers
  • Weaponry (3)
  • Slide 62
  • Organized Crime (2)
  • Major Incidents 1969-1998
  • Bloody Sunday 30 January 1972
  • Massacre on the Bogside
  • Bloody Friday 21 July 1972
  • A City Under Siege
  • Dublin and Monaghan Bombings 17 May 1974
  • Deadliest Attack of the Troubles
  • Warrenpoint Ambush 27 August 1979
  • Roadside IEDs
  • Summer of 1981 Irish Hunger Strikes
  • A Defining Moment for the Republican Cause
  • The Five Demands
  • Previous Protests
  • Dirty Protesters
  • Thatcherrsquos Response
  • Ten Strikers Die
  • Bobby Sands
  • Reaction to Sandsrsquo Death
  • Conclusion
  • 1983 The Maze Prison Escape
  • The ldquoGreat Escaperdquo
  • 12 October 1984 Brighton Hotel Bombing
  • The PIRA Nearly Gets Thatcher
  • Loughgall Ambush 8 May 1987
  • The SAS Strikes
  • British Army Lynx Shootdown 20 March 1994
  • The PIRA Shoots Down a Helicopter
  • 1996 Manchester Bombing
  • The PIRA Destroys Manchester
  • Omagh Bombing 1998
  • Last Great Deadly Attack of the Troubles
  • The Good Friday Agreement and Northern Ireland Peace Process
  • Beginnings (2)
  • Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein former PIRA Belfast Brigade OC
  • Good Friday Agreement 1998
  • PM Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern Sign the GFA
  • GFA Mandates
  • Northern Ireland Today
  • Still Conflict But No War
  • Catholic Slum of Ardoyne Belfast July 2011
  • Splinter Groups
  • Herersquos To A Brighter Future in Northern Ireland
  • Works Cited
Page 77: The Troubles, 1969-1998

The PIRA Nearly Gets Thatcherbull Margaret Thatcher the highly controversial far-right British PM from

1979-1990 had become a tremendously hated figure amongst the Irish nationalist community in Northern Ireland following the 1981 Hunger Strikes and for her general uncompromising stand on Irish republicanism

bull PIRA man Patrick Magee stayed at the Brighton Hotel from the 14-17 September 1984 planting a 20-lb bomb under his bath

bull Thatcher was staying at the Brighton Hotel for a political conference and was still up at 254AM on 12 October when the bomb was detonated The bomb decimated her bathroom but left the bedroom and sitting room of her suite largely unscathed

bull The PIRA statement to Thatcher afterwards was ldquoToday we were unlucky But remember we only have to be lucky once You will have to be lucky alwaysrdquo

Loughgall Ambush 8 May 1987

The SAS Strikes

bull A botched attack on Loughgall Villagersquos RUC Police Base in which the PIRA drove a backhoe into the fortified base and ran away to detonate the bomb that was inside of the backhoe went wrong as the SAS the British Special Forces had prior knowledge of the attack and quickly dispatched the 8 PIRA members involved

bull Although the RUC base was wrecked and bombed there were no RUC or SAS casualties and it was the PIRArsquos greatest loss of life in a single incident during the Troubles

British Army Lynx Shootdown 20 March 1994

The PIRA Shoots Down a Helicopter

bull Using the previously mentioned Barrack-Buster homemade mortar PIRA insurgents were able to fire on a British helicopter that was in the process of landing whilst hiding behind a hay bail from around 150 yards out

bull The helicopter was hit with the mortar shell around 100 feet above the ground but the pilot was able to successfully crash-land the helicopter and escape before its propane tanks exploded There were no casualties but the attack was a major propaganda coup for the PIRA

1996 Manchester Bombing

The PIRA Destroys Manchester

bull On Saturday 15 June 1996 the PIRA sent in telephoned warnings and 90 minutes later detonated a 3300lb fertilizer-based truck bomb in the heart of Manchester City Centre the biggest bomb detonated in Great Britain during peacetime The bomb killed nobody due to previous warnings but led to 212 non-fatal injuries and essentially destroyed Manchester City Centre leaving approximately 700 million pounds ($12bn) worth of damage in its wake

Omagh Bombing 1998

Last Great Deadly Attack of the Troubles

bull Perpetrated by a Provisional IRA splinter group that was rejecting the peace process calling themselves the ldquoReal IRArdquo the 510lb fertilizer-based bomb was placed on main street in the town of Omagh Northern Ireland Warnings were called in approximately 30 minutes before the bombing but they were inaccurate and police ended up moving more civilians towards the bomb which ended up killing 29 people and causing over 300 non-fatal injuries This was the highest death toll from a single incident during the Troubles

bull It received universal outrage and was condemned even by the PIRA and its political wing Sinn Fein It spurred on the Northern Ireland peace process and the RIRA apologized and called a ceasefire several days after

The Good Friday Agreement and Northern Ireland Peace Process

Beginningsbull Following the 1981 Hunger Strikes Irish republicans began to

increasingly look towards politics rather than violence as a means of achieving their aims Sinn Fein gaelic for ldquoWe Ourselvesrdquo was a fiercely Irish Republican political party which led by the Machiavellian former PIRA leader and Maze inmate Gerry Adams began to push for a more peaceful solution to the Troubles in Northern Ireland

bull It became apparent by the late 1990s that although the PIRA was not losing a war against the British establishment it would be impossible to truly lsquowin the fightrsquo through violence and that any further terrorism would serve not to achieve any real political aim but only to prolong and continue suffering and violence in Northern Ireland and that politics was a much better way of achieving Republican aims

Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein former PIRA Belfast Brigade OC

Good Friday Agreement 1998

bull The Peace Process began in 1994 and included intermittent terrorist ceasefires and political negotiations between the major Irish republican and British unionist parties and culminated on April 10 1998 when the Good Friday Agreement was signed

PM Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern Sign the GFA

GFA Mandatesbull That Northern Ireland was to remain British until a majority of people in Northern

Ireland and the southern Republic of Ireland wanted otherwise bull The creation of an entirely new far less sectarian and religiously diverse Northern

Irish local governmentbull The decommissioning of arms from terrorist groups on both the unionist and

nationalist side of the political divide (ultimately successful all arms decommissioned by 2005)

bull Mutual respect and civil rights between Catholics and Protestants bull The reduction and eventual elimination of British troops in Northern Ireland

(ultimately successful all troops withdrawn by 2005)bull Eventual early prison release for all individuals imprisoned for terrorist offenses as

long as they were apart of a terrorist group that was decommissioning in accordance with the GFA

bull Disbandment of the RUC police service and the installation of the new Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) which was required to be at least 50 Catholic

Northern Ireland Today

Still Conflict But No Warbull Since the complete decommissioning of the arms and

disbandment of the PIRA INLA UDAUFF and UVF due to the Good Friday Agreement there is nowhere near the amount of violence in Northern Ireland or Belfast as there was 20 years ago There are no more weekly bombings and riots and no more British troops patrolling Catholic areas in armored vehicles

bull Despite this there are still occasional riots and clashes with the PSNI several times a year specifically on dates of great historical significance to the Catholic or Protestant communities and there is still a deep distrust and even hatred between many Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland although that continues to change with time

Catholic Slum of Ardoyne Belfast July 2011

Splinter Groups

bull Many former PIRA or UDA terrorists have now taken to organized crime for purely profiteering purposes but are no longer involved in substantial violence or any political-based terrorism

bull Splinter groups such as the Real IRA and Continuity IRA in Catholic communities and the Orange Volunteers and Red Hand Commandos in Protestant communities still conduct occasional violence towards Police and civilians in Northern Ireland but are all rather small poorly armed and poorly funded groups that pose nowhere near the threat that terrorist groups in the 80s and 90s did in Northern Ireland

Herersquos To A Brighter Future in Northern Ireland

Works Citedbull httpwwwbbccoukhistorytroublesbull httpcainulstacukbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiProvisional_Irish_Republican_Armybull httpenwikipediaorgwikiThe_Troublesbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiUlster_Defence_Associationbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiUlster_Volunteer_Forcebull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_National_Liberation_Armybull ldquoA Secret History of the IRArdquo by Ed Moloney ndashWW Norton amp Company Reprint 2003bull ldquoVoices From The Grave Two Menrsquos War in Irelandrdquo by Ed Moloney ndash Public Affairs 2010bull ldquoFifty Dead Men Walkingrdquo by Martin McGartland ndash John Blake 2009bull httpwwwinfopleasecomspotnorthireland1htmlbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_Civil_Warbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_War_of_Independencebull httpenwikipediaorgwiki1981_Irish_hunger_strikebull httpenwikipediaorgwikiDirectory_of_the_Northern_Ireland_Troublesbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiGood_Friday_Agreementbull httpswwwmi5govukhomethe-threatsterrorismnorthern-irelandrepublican-terrorist-groupshtmlbull httpswwwmi5govukhomethe-threatsterrorismnorthern-irelandprovisional-irish-republican-army-

pirahtmlbull httpnewsbbccoukhienglishstaticnorthern_irelandunderstandingeventshunger_strikestm

  • The Troubles
  • Brief Overview
  • 30 Years of Conflict
  • Slide 4
  • Background
  • The Irish War of Independence
  • Slide 7
  • Anglo-Irish Treaty (signed 6 December 1921)
  • Irish Civil War
  • 1922-1966 Ireland
  • The Civil Rights Movement
  • Slide 12
  • Slide 13
  • Objectives of the Civil Rights Movement
  • The 1969 Northern Ireland Riots ndashThe Troubles Begin
  • Culmination of Tension
  • No-Go Areas
  • No-Go Areas (2)
  • Early 1970sndash The Rise of the Provisional IRA
  • The IRA Split
  • Rise of the UVF and Loyalist Terror Groups
  • Beginnings
  • UVF Statement 21 May 1964
  • The Paramilitaries
  • Irish RepublicansCatholics
  • The Provisional IRA
  • IRA Statement Late 80s
  • Statistics
  • RecruitmentFunding
  • Weaponry
  • Weaponry (2)
  • Slide 32
  • Mortars and IEDs
  • EOD Officer Approaches PIRA Car Bomb
  • The Barrack Buster
  • Vigilantism
  • Slide 37
  • Slide 38
  • Policy on Informants
  • Terrorist Activities
  • Terrorist Activities (continued)
  • The INLA
  • Statistics (2)
  • Ideology
  • Terrorist Activities (2)
  • Internal Feuds
  • Slide 47
  • British LoyalistsProtestants
  • The UDAUFF
  • Former UFF Member
  • Statistics (3)
  • Ideology (2)
  • Terrorist Activities (3)
  • Slide 54
  • Organized Crime
  • The UVF
  • Statistics (4)
  • Ideology (3)
  • Terrorist Activities (4)
  • The Shankhill Butchers
  • Weaponry (3)
  • Slide 62
  • Organized Crime (2)
  • Major Incidents 1969-1998
  • Bloody Sunday 30 January 1972
  • Massacre on the Bogside
  • Bloody Friday 21 July 1972
  • A City Under Siege
  • Dublin and Monaghan Bombings 17 May 1974
  • Deadliest Attack of the Troubles
  • Warrenpoint Ambush 27 August 1979
  • Roadside IEDs
  • Summer of 1981 Irish Hunger Strikes
  • A Defining Moment for the Republican Cause
  • The Five Demands
  • Previous Protests
  • Dirty Protesters
  • Thatcherrsquos Response
  • Ten Strikers Die
  • Bobby Sands
  • Reaction to Sandsrsquo Death
  • Conclusion
  • 1983 The Maze Prison Escape
  • The ldquoGreat Escaperdquo
  • 12 October 1984 Brighton Hotel Bombing
  • The PIRA Nearly Gets Thatcher
  • Loughgall Ambush 8 May 1987
  • The SAS Strikes
  • British Army Lynx Shootdown 20 March 1994
  • The PIRA Shoots Down a Helicopter
  • 1996 Manchester Bombing
  • The PIRA Destroys Manchester
  • Omagh Bombing 1998
  • Last Great Deadly Attack of the Troubles
  • The Good Friday Agreement and Northern Ireland Peace Process
  • Beginnings (2)
  • Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein former PIRA Belfast Brigade OC
  • Good Friday Agreement 1998
  • PM Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern Sign the GFA
  • GFA Mandates
  • Northern Ireland Today
  • Still Conflict But No War
  • Catholic Slum of Ardoyne Belfast July 2011
  • Splinter Groups
  • Herersquos To A Brighter Future in Northern Ireland
  • Works Cited
Page 78: The Troubles, 1969-1998

Loughgall Ambush 8 May 1987

The SAS Strikes

bull A botched attack on Loughgall Villagersquos RUC Police Base in which the PIRA drove a backhoe into the fortified base and ran away to detonate the bomb that was inside of the backhoe went wrong as the SAS the British Special Forces had prior knowledge of the attack and quickly dispatched the 8 PIRA members involved

bull Although the RUC base was wrecked and bombed there were no RUC or SAS casualties and it was the PIRArsquos greatest loss of life in a single incident during the Troubles

British Army Lynx Shootdown 20 March 1994

The PIRA Shoots Down a Helicopter

bull Using the previously mentioned Barrack-Buster homemade mortar PIRA insurgents were able to fire on a British helicopter that was in the process of landing whilst hiding behind a hay bail from around 150 yards out

bull The helicopter was hit with the mortar shell around 100 feet above the ground but the pilot was able to successfully crash-land the helicopter and escape before its propane tanks exploded There were no casualties but the attack was a major propaganda coup for the PIRA

1996 Manchester Bombing

The PIRA Destroys Manchester

bull On Saturday 15 June 1996 the PIRA sent in telephoned warnings and 90 minutes later detonated a 3300lb fertilizer-based truck bomb in the heart of Manchester City Centre the biggest bomb detonated in Great Britain during peacetime The bomb killed nobody due to previous warnings but led to 212 non-fatal injuries and essentially destroyed Manchester City Centre leaving approximately 700 million pounds ($12bn) worth of damage in its wake

Omagh Bombing 1998

Last Great Deadly Attack of the Troubles

bull Perpetrated by a Provisional IRA splinter group that was rejecting the peace process calling themselves the ldquoReal IRArdquo the 510lb fertilizer-based bomb was placed on main street in the town of Omagh Northern Ireland Warnings were called in approximately 30 minutes before the bombing but they were inaccurate and police ended up moving more civilians towards the bomb which ended up killing 29 people and causing over 300 non-fatal injuries This was the highest death toll from a single incident during the Troubles

bull It received universal outrage and was condemned even by the PIRA and its political wing Sinn Fein It spurred on the Northern Ireland peace process and the RIRA apologized and called a ceasefire several days after

The Good Friday Agreement and Northern Ireland Peace Process

Beginningsbull Following the 1981 Hunger Strikes Irish republicans began to

increasingly look towards politics rather than violence as a means of achieving their aims Sinn Fein gaelic for ldquoWe Ourselvesrdquo was a fiercely Irish Republican political party which led by the Machiavellian former PIRA leader and Maze inmate Gerry Adams began to push for a more peaceful solution to the Troubles in Northern Ireland

bull It became apparent by the late 1990s that although the PIRA was not losing a war against the British establishment it would be impossible to truly lsquowin the fightrsquo through violence and that any further terrorism would serve not to achieve any real political aim but only to prolong and continue suffering and violence in Northern Ireland and that politics was a much better way of achieving Republican aims

Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein former PIRA Belfast Brigade OC

Good Friday Agreement 1998

bull The Peace Process began in 1994 and included intermittent terrorist ceasefires and political negotiations between the major Irish republican and British unionist parties and culminated on April 10 1998 when the Good Friday Agreement was signed

PM Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern Sign the GFA

GFA Mandatesbull That Northern Ireland was to remain British until a majority of people in Northern

Ireland and the southern Republic of Ireland wanted otherwise bull The creation of an entirely new far less sectarian and religiously diverse Northern

Irish local governmentbull The decommissioning of arms from terrorist groups on both the unionist and

nationalist side of the political divide (ultimately successful all arms decommissioned by 2005)

bull Mutual respect and civil rights between Catholics and Protestants bull The reduction and eventual elimination of British troops in Northern Ireland

(ultimately successful all troops withdrawn by 2005)bull Eventual early prison release for all individuals imprisoned for terrorist offenses as

long as they were apart of a terrorist group that was decommissioning in accordance with the GFA

bull Disbandment of the RUC police service and the installation of the new Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) which was required to be at least 50 Catholic

Northern Ireland Today

Still Conflict But No Warbull Since the complete decommissioning of the arms and

disbandment of the PIRA INLA UDAUFF and UVF due to the Good Friday Agreement there is nowhere near the amount of violence in Northern Ireland or Belfast as there was 20 years ago There are no more weekly bombings and riots and no more British troops patrolling Catholic areas in armored vehicles

bull Despite this there are still occasional riots and clashes with the PSNI several times a year specifically on dates of great historical significance to the Catholic or Protestant communities and there is still a deep distrust and even hatred between many Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland although that continues to change with time

Catholic Slum of Ardoyne Belfast July 2011

Splinter Groups

bull Many former PIRA or UDA terrorists have now taken to organized crime for purely profiteering purposes but are no longer involved in substantial violence or any political-based terrorism

bull Splinter groups such as the Real IRA and Continuity IRA in Catholic communities and the Orange Volunteers and Red Hand Commandos in Protestant communities still conduct occasional violence towards Police and civilians in Northern Ireland but are all rather small poorly armed and poorly funded groups that pose nowhere near the threat that terrorist groups in the 80s and 90s did in Northern Ireland

Herersquos To A Brighter Future in Northern Ireland

Works Citedbull httpwwwbbccoukhistorytroublesbull httpcainulstacukbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiProvisional_Irish_Republican_Armybull httpenwikipediaorgwikiThe_Troublesbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiUlster_Defence_Associationbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiUlster_Volunteer_Forcebull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_National_Liberation_Armybull ldquoA Secret History of the IRArdquo by Ed Moloney ndashWW Norton amp Company Reprint 2003bull ldquoVoices From The Grave Two Menrsquos War in Irelandrdquo by Ed Moloney ndash Public Affairs 2010bull ldquoFifty Dead Men Walkingrdquo by Martin McGartland ndash John Blake 2009bull httpwwwinfopleasecomspotnorthireland1htmlbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_Civil_Warbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_War_of_Independencebull httpenwikipediaorgwiki1981_Irish_hunger_strikebull httpenwikipediaorgwikiDirectory_of_the_Northern_Ireland_Troublesbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiGood_Friday_Agreementbull httpswwwmi5govukhomethe-threatsterrorismnorthern-irelandrepublican-terrorist-groupshtmlbull httpswwwmi5govukhomethe-threatsterrorismnorthern-irelandprovisional-irish-republican-army-

pirahtmlbull httpnewsbbccoukhienglishstaticnorthern_irelandunderstandingeventshunger_strikestm

  • The Troubles
  • Brief Overview
  • 30 Years of Conflict
  • Slide 4
  • Background
  • The Irish War of Independence
  • Slide 7
  • Anglo-Irish Treaty (signed 6 December 1921)
  • Irish Civil War
  • 1922-1966 Ireland
  • The Civil Rights Movement
  • Slide 12
  • Slide 13
  • Objectives of the Civil Rights Movement
  • The 1969 Northern Ireland Riots ndashThe Troubles Begin
  • Culmination of Tension
  • No-Go Areas
  • No-Go Areas (2)
  • Early 1970sndash The Rise of the Provisional IRA
  • The IRA Split
  • Rise of the UVF and Loyalist Terror Groups
  • Beginnings
  • UVF Statement 21 May 1964
  • The Paramilitaries
  • Irish RepublicansCatholics
  • The Provisional IRA
  • IRA Statement Late 80s
  • Statistics
  • RecruitmentFunding
  • Weaponry
  • Weaponry (2)
  • Slide 32
  • Mortars and IEDs
  • EOD Officer Approaches PIRA Car Bomb
  • The Barrack Buster
  • Vigilantism
  • Slide 37
  • Slide 38
  • Policy on Informants
  • Terrorist Activities
  • Terrorist Activities (continued)
  • The INLA
  • Statistics (2)
  • Ideology
  • Terrorist Activities (2)
  • Internal Feuds
  • Slide 47
  • British LoyalistsProtestants
  • The UDAUFF
  • Former UFF Member
  • Statistics (3)
  • Ideology (2)
  • Terrorist Activities (3)
  • Slide 54
  • Organized Crime
  • The UVF
  • Statistics (4)
  • Ideology (3)
  • Terrorist Activities (4)
  • The Shankhill Butchers
  • Weaponry (3)
  • Slide 62
  • Organized Crime (2)
  • Major Incidents 1969-1998
  • Bloody Sunday 30 January 1972
  • Massacre on the Bogside
  • Bloody Friday 21 July 1972
  • A City Under Siege
  • Dublin and Monaghan Bombings 17 May 1974
  • Deadliest Attack of the Troubles
  • Warrenpoint Ambush 27 August 1979
  • Roadside IEDs
  • Summer of 1981 Irish Hunger Strikes
  • A Defining Moment for the Republican Cause
  • The Five Demands
  • Previous Protests
  • Dirty Protesters
  • Thatcherrsquos Response
  • Ten Strikers Die
  • Bobby Sands
  • Reaction to Sandsrsquo Death
  • Conclusion
  • 1983 The Maze Prison Escape
  • The ldquoGreat Escaperdquo
  • 12 October 1984 Brighton Hotel Bombing
  • The PIRA Nearly Gets Thatcher
  • Loughgall Ambush 8 May 1987
  • The SAS Strikes
  • British Army Lynx Shootdown 20 March 1994
  • The PIRA Shoots Down a Helicopter
  • 1996 Manchester Bombing
  • The PIRA Destroys Manchester
  • Omagh Bombing 1998
  • Last Great Deadly Attack of the Troubles
  • The Good Friday Agreement and Northern Ireland Peace Process
  • Beginnings (2)
  • Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein former PIRA Belfast Brigade OC
  • Good Friday Agreement 1998
  • PM Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern Sign the GFA
  • GFA Mandates
  • Northern Ireland Today
  • Still Conflict But No War
  • Catholic Slum of Ardoyne Belfast July 2011
  • Splinter Groups
  • Herersquos To A Brighter Future in Northern Ireland
  • Works Cited
Page 79: The Troubles, 1969-1998

The SAS Strikes

bull A botched attack on Loughgall Villagersquos RUC Police Base in which the PIRA drove a backhoe into the fortified base and ran away to detonate the bomb that was inside of the backhoe went wrong as the SAS the British Special Forces had prior knowledge of the attack and quickly dispatched the 8 PIRA members involved

bull Although the RUC base was wrecked and bombed there were no RUC or SAS casualties and it was the PIRArsquos greatest loss of life in a single incident during the Troubles

British Army Lynx Shootdown 20 March 1994

The PIRA Shoots Down a Helicopter

bull Using the previously mentioned Barrack-Buster homemade mortar PIRA insurgents were able to fire on a British helicopter that was in the process of landing whilst hiding behind a hay bail from around 150 yards out

bull The helicopter was hit with the mortar shell around 100 feet above the ground but the pilot was able to successfully crash-land the helicopter and escape before its propane tanks exploded There were no casualties but the attack was a major propaganda coup for the PIRA

1996 Manchester Bombing

The PIRA Destroys Manchester

bull On Saturday 15 June 1996 the PIRA sent in telephoned warnings and 90 minutes later detonated a 3300lb fertilizer-based truck bomb in the heart of Manchester City Centre the biggest bomb detonated in Great Britain during peacetime The bomb killed nobody due to previous warnings but led to 212 non-fatal injuries and essentially destroyed Manchester City Centre leaving approximately 700 million pounds ($12bn) worth of damage in its wake

Omagh Bombing 1998

Last Great Deadly Attack of the Troubles

bull Perpetrated by a Provisional IRA splinter group that was rejecting the peace process calling themselves the ldquoReal IRArdquo the 510lb fertilizer-based bomb was placed on main street in the town of Omagh Northern Ireland Warnings were called in approximately 30 minutes before the bombing but they were inaccurate and police ended up moving more civilians towards the bomb which ended up killing 29 people and causing over 300 non-fatal injuries This was the highest death toll from a single incident during the Troubles

bull It received universal outrage and was condemned even by the PIRA and its political wing Sinn Fein It spurred on the Northern Ireland peace process and the RIRA apologized and called a ceasefire several days after

The Good Friday Agreement and Northern Ireland Peace Process

Beginningsbull Following the 1981 Hunger Strikes Irish republicans began to

increasingly look towards politics rather than violence as a means of achieving their aims Sinn Fein gaelic for ldquoWe Ourselvesrdquo was a fiercely Irish Republican political party which led by the Machiavellian former PIRA leader and Maze inmate Gerry Adams began to push for a more peaceful solution to the Troubles in Northern Ireland

bull It became apparent by the late 1990s that although the PIRA was not losing a war against the British establishment it would be impossible to truly lsquowin the fightrsquo through violence and that any further terrorism would serve not to achieve any real political aim but only to prolong and continue suffering and violence in Northern Ireland and that politics was a much better way of achieving Republican aims

Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein former PIRA Belfast Brigade OC

Good Friday Agreement 1998

bull The Peace Process began in 1994 and included intermittent terrorist ceasefires and political negotiations between the major Irish republican and British unionist parties and culminated on April 10 1998 when the Good Friday Agreement was signed

PM Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern Sign the GFA

GFA Mandatesbull That Northern Ireland was to remain British until a majority of people in Northern

Ireland and the southern Republic of Ireland wanted otherwise bull The creation of an entirely new far less sectarian and religiously diverse Northern

Irish local governmentbull The decommissioning of arms from terrorist groups on both the unionist and

nationalist side of the political divide (ultimately successful all arms decommissioned by 2005)

bull Mutual respect and civil rights between Catholics and Protestants bull The reduction and eventual elimination of British troops in Northern Ireland

(ultimately successful all troops withdrawn by 2005)bull Eventual early prison release for all individuals imprisoned for terrorist offenses as

long as they were apart of a terrorist group that was decommissioning in accordance with the GFA

bull Disbandment of the RUC police service and the installation of the new Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) which was required to be at least 50 Catholic

Northern Ireland Today

Still Conflict But No Warbull Since the complete decommissioning of the arms and

disbandment of the PIRA INLA UDAUFF and UVF due to the Good Friday Agreement there is nowhere near the amount of violence in Northern Ireland or Belfast as there was 20 years ago There are no more weekly bombings and riots and no more British troops patrolling Catholic areas in armored vehicles

bull Despite this there are still occasional riots and clashes with the PSNI several times a year specifically on dates of great historical significance to the Catholic or Protestant communities and there is still a deep distrust and even hatred between many Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland although that continues to change with time

Catholic Slum of Ardoyne Belfast July 2011

Splinter Groups

bull Many former PIRA or UDA terrorists have now taken to organized crime for purely profiteering purposes but are no longer involved in substantial violence or any political-based terrorism

bull Splinter groups such as the Real IRA and Continuity IRA in Catholic communities and the Orange Volunteers and Red Hand Commandos in Protestant communities still conduct occasional violence towards Police and civilians in Northern Ireland but are all rather small poorly armed and poorly funded groups that pose nowhere near the threat that terrorist groups in the 80s and 90s did in Northern Ireland

Herersquos To A Brighter Future in Northern Ireland

Works Citedbull httpwwwbbccoukhistorytroublesbull httpcainulstacukbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiProvisional_Irish_Republican_Armybull httpenwikipediaorgwikiThe_Troublesbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiUlster_Defence_Associationbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiUlster_Volunteer_Forcebull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_National_Liberation_Armybull ldquoA Secret History of the IRArdquo by Ed Moloney ndashWW Norton amp Company Reprint 2003bull ldquoVoices From The Grave Two Menrsquos War in Irelandrdquo by Ed Moloney ndash Public Affairs 2010bull ldquoFifty Dead Men Walkingrdquo by Martin McGartland ndash John Blake 2009bull httpwwwinfopleasecomspotnorthireland1htmlbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_Civil_Warbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_War_of_Independencebull httpenwikipediaorgwiki1981_Irish_hunger_strikebull httpenwikipediaorgwikiDirectory_of_the_Northern_Ireland_Troublesbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiGood_Friday_Agreementbull httpswwwmi5govukhomethe-threatsterrorismnorthern-irelandrepublican-terrorist-groupshtmlbull httpswwwmi5govukhomethe-threatsterrorismnorthern-irelandprovisional-irish-republican-army-

pirahtmlbull httpnewsbbccoukhienglishstaticnorthern_irelandunderstandingeventshunger_strikestm

  • The Troubles
  • Brief Overview
  • 30 Years of Conflict
  • Slide 4
  • Background
  • The Irish War of Independence
  • Slide 7
  • Anglo-Irish Treaty (signed 6 December 1921)
  • Irish Civil War
  • 1922-1966 Ireland
  • The Civil Rights Movement
  • Slide 12
  • Slide 13
  • Objectives of the Civil Rights Movement
  • The 1969 Northern Ireland Riots ndashThe Troubles Begin
  • Culmination of Tension
  • No-Go Areas
  • No-Go Areas (2)
  • Early 1970sndash The Rise of the Provisional IRA
  • The IRA Split
  • Rise of the UVF and Loyalist Terror Groups
  • Beginnings
  • UVF Statement 21 May 1964
  • The Paramilitaries
  • Irish RepublicansCatholics
  • The Provisional IRA
  • IRA Statement Late 80s
  • Statistics
  • RecruitmentFunding
  • Weaponry
  • Weaponry (2)
  • Slide 32
  • Mortars and IEDs
  • EOD Officer Approaches PIRA Car Bomb
  • The Barrack Buster
  • Vigilantism
  • Slide 37
  • Slide 38
  • Policy on Informants
  • Terrorist Activities
  • Terrorist Activities (continued)
  • The INLA
  • Statistics (2)
  • Ideology
  • Terrorist Activities (2)
  • Internal Feuds
  • Slide 47
  • British LoyalistsProtestants
  • The UDAUFF
  • Former UFF Member
  • Statistics (3)
  • Ideology (2)
  • Terrorist Activities (3)
  • Slide 54
  • Organized Crime
  • The UVF
  • Statistics (4)
  • Ideology (3)
  • Terrorist Activities (4)
  • The Shankhill Butchers
  • Weaponry (3)
  • Slide 62
  • Organized Crime (2)
  • Major Incidents 1969-1998
  • Bloody Sunday 30 January 1972
  • Massacre on the Bogside
  • Bloody Friday 21 July 1972
  • A City Under Siege
  • Dublin and Monaghan Bombings 17 May 1974
  • Deadliest Attack of the Troubles
  • Warrenpoint Ambush 27 August 1979
  • Roadside IEDs
  • Summer of 1981 Irish Hunger Strikes
  • A Defining Moment for the Republican Cause
  • The Five Demands
  • Previous Protests
  • Dirty Protesters
  • Thatcherrsquos Response
  • Ten Strikers Die
  • Bobby Sands
  • Reaction to Sandsrsquo Death
  • Conclusion
  • 1983 The Maze Prison Escape
  • The ldquoGreat Escaperdquo
  • 12 October 1984 Brighton Hotel Bombing
  • The PIRA Nearly Gets Thatcher
  • Loughgall Ambush 8 May 1987
  • The SAS Strikes
  • British Army Lynx Shootdown 20 March 1994
  • The PIRA Shoots Down a Helicopter
  • 1996 Manchester Bombing
  • The PIRA Destroys Manchester
  • Omagh Bombing 1998
  • Last Great Deadly Attack of the Troubles
  • The Good Friday Agreement and Northern Ireland Peace Process
  • Beginnings (2)
  • Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein former PIRA Belfast Brigade OC
  • Good Friday Agreement 1998
  • PM Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern Sign the GFA
  • GFA Mandates
  • Northern Ireland Today
  • Still Conflict But No War
  • Catholic Slum of Ardoyne Belfast July 2011
  • Splinter Groups
  • Herersquos To A Brighter Future in Northern Ireland
  • Works Cited
Page 80: The Troubles, 1969-1998

British Army Lynx Shootdown 20 March 1994

The PIRA Shoots Down a Helicopter

bull Using the previously mentioned Barrack-Buster homemade mortar PIRA insurgents were able to fire on a British helicopter that was in the process of landing whilst hiding behind a hay bail from around 150 yards out

bull The helicopter was hit with the mortar shell around 100 feet above the ground but the pilot was able to successfully crash-land the helicopter and escape before its propane tanks exploded There were no casualties but the attack was a major propaganda coup for the PIRA

1996 Manchester Bombing

The PIRA Destroys Manchester

bull On Saturday 15 June 1996 the PIRA sent in telephoned warnings and 90 minutes later detonated a 3300lb fertilizer-based truck bomb in the heart of Manchester City Centre the biggest bomb detonated in Great Britain during peacetime The bomb killed nobody due to previous warnings but led to 212 non-fatal injuries and essentially destroyed Manchester City Centre leaving approximately 700 million pounds ($12bn) worth of damage in its wake

Omagh Bombing 1998

Last Great Deadly Attack of the Troubles

bull Perpetrated by a Provisional IRA splinter group that was rejecting the peace process calling themselves the ldquoReal IRArdquo the 510lb fertilizer-based bomb was placed on main street in the town of Omagh Northern Ireland Warnings were called in approximately 30 minutes before the bombing but they were inaccurate and police ended up moving more civilians towards the bomb which ended up killing 29 people and causing over 300 non-fatal injuries This was the highest death toll from a single incident during the Troubles

bull It received universal outrage and was condemned even by the PIRA and its political wing Sinn Fein It spurred on the Northern Ireland peace process and the RIRA apologized and called a ceasefire several days after

The Good Friday Agreement and Northern Ireland Peace Process

Beginningsbull Following the 1981 Hunger Strikes Irish republicans began to

increasingly look towards politics rather than violence as a means of achieving their aims Sinn Fein gaelic for ldquoWe Ourselvesrdquo was a fiercely Irish Republican political party which led by the Machiavellian former PIRA leader and Maze inmate Gerry Adams began to push for a more peaceful solution to the Troubles in Northern Ireland

bull It became apparent by the late 1990s that although the PIRA was not losing a war against the British establishment it would be impossible to truly lsquowin the fightrsquo through violence and that any further terrorism would serve not to achieve any real political aim but only to prolong and continue suffering and violence in Northern Ireland and that politics was a much better way of achieving Republican aims

Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein former PIRA Belfast Brigade OC

Good Friday Agreement 1998

bull The Peace Process began in 1994 and included intermittent terrorist ceasefires and political negotiations between the major Irish republican and British unionist parties and culminated on April 10 1998 when the Good Friday Agreement was signed

PM Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern Sign the GFA

GFA Mandatesbull That Northern Ireland was to remain British until a majority of people in Northern

Ireland and the southern Republic of Ireland wanted otherwise bull The creation of an entirely new far less sectarian and religiously diverse Northern

Irish local governmentbull The decommissioning of arms from terrorist groups on both the unionist and

nationalist side of the political divide (ultimately successful all arms decommissioned by 2005)

bull Mutual respect and civil rights between Catholics and Protestants bull The reduction and eventual elimination of British troops in Northern Ireland

(ultimately successful all troops withdrawn by 2005)bull Eventual early prison release for all individuals imprisoned for terrorist offenses as

long as they were apart of a terrorist group that was decommissioning in accordance with the GFA

bull Disbandment of the RUC police service and the installation of the new Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) which was required to be at least 50 Catholic

Northern Ireland Today

Still Conflict But No Warbull Since the complete decommissioning of the arms and

disbandment of the PIRA INLA UDAUFF and UVF due to the Good Friday Agreement there is nowhere near the amount of violence in Northern Ireland or Belfast as there was 20 years ago There are no more weekly bombings and riots and no more British troops patrolling Catholic areas in armored vehicles

bull Despite this there are still occasional riots and clashes with the PSNI several times a year specifically on dates of great historical significance to the Catholic or Protestant communities and there is still a deep distrust and even hatred between many Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland although that continues to change with time

Catholic Slum of Ardoyne Belfast July 2011

Splinter Groups

bull Many former PIRA or UDA terrorists have now taken to organized crime for purely profiteering purposes but are no longer involved in substantial violence or any political-based terrorism

bull Splinter groups such as the Real IRA and Continuity IRA in Catholic communities and the Orange Volunteers and Red Hand Commandos in Protestant communities still conduct occasional violence towards Police and civilians in Northern Ireland but are all rather small poorly armed and poorly funded groups that pose nowhere near the threat that terrorist groups in the 80s and 90s did in Northern Ireland

Herersquos To A Brighter Future in Northern Ireland

Works Citedbull httpwwwbbccoukhistorytroublesbull httpcainulstacukbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiProvisional_Irish_Republican_Armybull httpenwikipediaorgwikiThe_Troublesbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiUlster_Defence_Associationbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiUlster_Volunteer_Forcebull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_National_Liberation_Armybull ldquoA Secret History of the IRArdquo by Ed Moloney ndashWW Norton amp Company Reprint 2003bull ldquoVoices From The Grave Two Menrsquos War in Irelandrdquo by Ed Moloney ndash Public Affairs 2010bull ldquoFifty Dead Men Walkingrdquo by Martin McGartland ndash John Blake 2009bull httpwwwinfopleasecomspotnorthireland1htmlbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_Civil_Warbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_War_of_Independencebull httpenwikipediaorgwiki1981_Irish_hunger_strikebull httpenwikipediaorgwikiDirectory_of_the_Northern_Ireland_Troublesbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiGood_Friday_Agreementbull httpswwwmi5govukhomethe-threatsterrorismnorthern-irelandrepublican-terrorist-groupshtmlbull httpswwwmi5govukhomethe-threatsterrorismnorthern-irelandprovisional-irish-republican-army-

pirahtmlbull httpnewsbbccoukhienglishstaticnorthern_irelandunderstandingeventshunger_strikestm

  • The Troubles
  • Brief Overview
  • 30 Years of Conflict
  • Slide 4
  • Background
  • The Irish War of Independence
  • Slide 7
  • Anglo-Irish Treaty (signed 6 December 1921)
  • Irish Civil War
  • 1922-1966 Ireland
  • The Civil Rights Movement
  • Slide 12
  • Slide 13
  • Objectives of the Civil Rights Movement
  • The 1969 Northern Ireland Riots ndashThe Troubles Begin
  • Culmination of Tension
  • No-Go Areas
  • No-Go Areas (2)
  • Early 1970sndash The Rise of the Provisional IRA
  • The IRA Split
  • Rise of the UVF and Loyalist Terror Groups
  • Beginnings
  • UVF Statement 21 May 1964
  • The Paramilitaries
  • Irish RepublicansCatholics
  • The Provisional IRA
  • IRA Statement Late 80s
  • Statistics
  • RecruitmentFunding
  • Weaponry
  • Weaponry (2)
  • Slide 32
  • Mortars and IEDs
  • EOD Officer Approaches PIRA Car Bomb
  • The Barrack Buster
  • Vigilantism
  • Slide 37
  • Slide 38
  • Policy on Informants
  • Terrorist Activities
  • Terrorist Activities (continued)
  • The INLA
  • Statistics (2)
  • Ideology
  • Terrorist Activities (2)
  • Internal Feuds
  • Slide 47
  • British LoyalistsProtestants
  • The UDAUFF
  • Former UFF Member
  • Statistics (3)
  • Ideology (2)
  • Terrorist Activities (3)
  • Slide 54
  • Organized Crime
  • The UVF
  • Statistics (4)
  • Ideology (3)
  • Terrorist Activities (4)
  • The Shankhill Butchers
  • Weaponry (3)
  • Slide 62
  • Organized Crime (2)
  • Major Incidents 1969-1998
  • Bloody Sunday 30 January 1972
  • Massacre on the Bogside
  • Bloody Friday 21 July 1972
  • A City Under Siege
  • Dublin and Monaghan Bombings 17 May 1974
  • Deadliest Attack of the Troubles
  • Warrenpoint Ambush 27 August 1979
  • Roadside IEDs
  • Summer of 1981 Irish Hunger Strikes
  • A Defining Moment for the Republican Cause
  • The Five Demands
  • Previous Protests
  • Dirty Protesters
  • Thatcherrsquos Response
  • Ten Strikers Die
  • Bobby Sands
  • Reaction to Sandsrsquo Death
  • Conclusion
  • 1983 The Maze Prison Escape
  • The ldquoGreat Escaperdquo
  • 12 October 1984 Brighton Hotel Bombing
  • The PIRA Nearly Gets Thatcher
  • Loughgall Ambush 8 May 1987
  • The SAS Strikes
  • British Army Lynx Shootdown 20 March 1994
  • The PIRA Shoots Down a Helicopter
  • 1996 Manchester Bombing
  • The PIRA Destroys Manchester
  • Omagh Bombing 1998
  • Last Great Deadly Attack of the Troubles
  • The Good Friday Agreement and Northern Ireland Peace Process
  • Beginnings (2)
  • Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein former PIRA Belfast Brigade OC
  • Good Friday Agreement 1998
  • PM Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern Sign the GFA
  • GFA Mandates
  • Northern Ireland Today
  • Still Conflict But No War
  • Catholic Slum of Ardoyne Belfast July 2011
  • Splinter Groups
  • Herersquos To A Brighter Future in Northern Ireland
  • Works Cited
Page 81: The Troubles, 1969-1998

The PIRA Shoots Down a Helicopter

bull Using the previously mentioned Barrack-Buster homemade mortar PIRA insurgents were able to fire on a British helicopter that was in the process of landing whilst hiding behind a hay bail from around 150 yards out

bull The helicopter was hit with the mortar shell around 100 feet above the ground but the pilot was able to successfully crash-land the helicopter and escape before its propane tanks exploded There were no casualties but the attack was a major propaganda coup for the PIRA

1996 Manchester Bombing

The PIRA Destroys Manchester

bull On Saturday 15 June 1996 the PIRA sent in telephoned warnings and 90 minutes later detonated a 3300lb fertilizer-based truck bomb in the heart of Manchester City Centre the biggest bomb detonated in Great Britain during peacetime The bomb killed nobody due to previous warnings but led to 212 non-fatal injuries and essentially destroyed Manchester City Centre leaving approximately 700 million pounds ($12bn) worth of damage in its wake

Omagh Bombing 1998

Last Great Deadly Attack of the Troubles

bull Perpetrated by a Provisional IRA splinter group that was rejecting the peace process calling themselves the ldquoReal IRArdquo the 510lb fertilizer-based bomb was placed on main street in the town of Omagh Northern Ireland Warnings were called in approximately 30 minutes before the bombing but they were inaccurate and police ended up moving more civilians towards the bomb which ended up killing 29 people and causing over 300 non-fatal injuries This was the highest death toll from a single incident during the Troubles

bull It received universal outrage and was condemned even by the PIRA and its political wing Sinn Fein It spurred on the Northern Ireland peace process and the RIRA apologized and called a ceasefire several days after

The Good Friday Agreement and Northern Ireland Peace Process

Beginningsbull Following the 1981 Hunger Strikes Irish republicans began to

increasingly look towards politics rather than violence as a means of achieving their aims Sinn Fein gaelic for ldquoWe Ourselvesrdquo was a fiercely Irish Republican political party which led by the Machiavellian former PIRA leader and Maze inmate Gerry Adams began to push for a more peaceful solution to the Troubles in Northern Ireland

bull It became apparent by the late 1990s that although the PIRA was not losing a war against the British establishment it would be impossible to truly lsquowin the fightrsquo through violence and that any further terrorism would serve not to achieve any real political aim but only to prolong and continue suffering and violence in Northern Ireland and that politics was a much better way of achieving Republican aims

Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein former PIRA Belfast Brigade OC

Good Friday Agreement 1998

bull The Peace Process began in 1994 and included intermittent terrorist ceasefires and political negotiations between the major Irish republican and British unionist parties and culminated on April 10 1998 when the Good Friday Agreement was signed

PM Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern Sign the GFA

GFA Mandatesbull That Northern Ireland was to remain British until a majority of people in Northern

Ireland and the southern Republic of Ireland wanted otherwise bull The creation of an entirely new far less sectarian and religiously diverse Northern

Irish local governmentbull The decommissioning of arms from terrorist groups on both the unionist and

nationalist side of the political divide (ultimately successful all arms decommissioned by 2005)

bull Mutual respect and civil rights between Catholics and Protestants bull The reduction and eventual elimination of British troops in Northern Ireland

(ultimately successful all troops withdrawn by 2005)bull Eventual early prison release for all individuals imprisoned for terrorist offenses as

long as they were apart of a terrorist group that was decommissioning in accordance with the GFA

bull Disbandment of the RUC police service and the installation of the new Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) which was required to be at least 50 Catholic

Northern Ireland Today

Still Conflict But No Warbull Since the complete decommissioning of the arms and

disbandment of the PIRA INLA UDAUFF and UVF due to the Good Friday Agreement there is nowhere near the amount of violence in Northern Ireland or Belfast as there was 20 years ago There are no more weekly bombings and riots and no more British troops patrolling Catholic areas in armored vehicles

bull Despite this there are still occasional riots and clashes with the PSNI several times a year specifically on dates of great historical significance to the Catholic or Protestant communities and there is still a deep distrust and even hatred between many Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland although that continues to change with time

Catholic Slum of Ardoyne Belfast July 2011

Splinter Groups

bull Many former PIRA or UDA terrorists have now taken to organized crime for purely profiteering purposes but are no longer involved in substantial violence or any political-based terrorism

bull Splinter groups such as the Real IRA and Continuity IRA in Catholic communities and the Orange Volunteers and Red Hand Commandos in Protestant communities still conduct occasional violence towards Police and civilians in Northern Ireland but are all rather small poorly armed and poorly funded groups that pose nowhere near the threat that terrorist groups in the 80s and 90s did in Northern Ireland

Herersquos To A Brighter Future in Northern Ireland

Works Citedbull httpwwwbbccoukhistorytroublesbull httpcainulstacukbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiProvisional_Irish_Republican_Armybull httpenwikipediaorgwikiThe_Troublesbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiUlster_Defence_Associationbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiUlster_Volunteer_Forcebull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_National_Liberation_Armybull ldquoA Secret History of the IRArdquo by Ed Moloney ndashWW Norton amp Company Reprint 2003bull ldquoVoices From The Grave Two Menrsquos War in Irelandrdquo by Ed Moloney ndash Public Affairs 2010bull ldquoFifty Dead Men Walkingrdquo by Martin McGartland ndash John Blake 2009bull httpwwwinfopleasecomspotnorthireland1htmlbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_Civil_Warbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_War_of_Independencebull httpenwikipediaorgwiki1981_Irish_hunger_strikebull httpenwikipediaorgwikiDirectory_of_the_Northern_Ireland_Troublesbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiGood_Friday_Agreementbull httpswwwmi5govukhomethe-threatsterrorismnorthern-irelandrepublican-terrorist-groupshtmlbull httpswwwmi5govukhomethe-threatsterrorismnorthern-irelandprovisional-irish-republican-army-

pirahtmlbull httpnewsbbccoukhienglishstaticnorthern_irelandunderstandingeventshunger_strikestm

  • The Troubles
  • Brief Overview
  • 30 Years of Conflict
  • Slide 4
  • Background
  • The Irish War of Independence
  • Slide 7
  • Anglo-Irish Treaty (signed 6 December 1921)
  • Irish Civil War
  • 1922-1966 Ireland
  • The Civil Rights Movement
  • Slide 12
  • Slide 13
  • Objectives of the Civil Rights Movement
  • The 1969 Northern Ireland Riots ndashThe Troubles Begin
  • Culmination of Tension
  • No-Go Areas
  • No-Go Areas (2)
  • Early 1970sndash The Rise of the Provisional IRA
  • The IRA Split
  • Rise of the UVF and Loyalist Terror Groups
  • Beginnings
  • UVF Statement 21 May 1964
  • The Paramilitaries
  • Irish RepublicansCatholics
  • The Provisional IRA
  • IRA Statement Late 80s
  • Statistics
  • RecruitmentFunding
  • Weaponry
  • Weaponry (2)
  • Slide 32
  • Mortars and IEDs
  • EOD Officer Approaches PIRA Car Bomb
  • The Barrack Buster
  • Vigilantism
  • Slide 37
  • Slide 38
  • Policy on Informants
  • Terrorist Activities
  • Terrorist Activities (continued)
  • The INLA
  • Statistics (2)
  • Ideology
  • Terrorist Activities (2)
  • Internal Feuds
  • Slide 47
  • British LoyalistsProtestants
  • The UDAUFF
  • Former UFF Member
  • Statistics (3)
  • Ideology (2)
  • Terrorist Activities (3)
  • Slide 54
  • Organized Crime
  • The UVF
  • Statistics (4)
  • Ideology (3)
  • Terrorist Activities (4)
  • The Shankhill Butchers
  • Weaponry (3)
  • Slide 62
  • Organized Crime (2)
  • Major Incidents 1969-1998
  • Bloody Sunday 30 January 1972
  • Massacre on the Bogside
  • Bloody Friday 21 July 1972
  • A City Under Siege
  • Dublin and Monaghan Bombings 17 May 1974
  • Deadliest Attack of the Troubles
  • Warrenpoint Ambush 27 August 1979
  • Roadside IEDs
  • Summer of 1981 Irish Hunger Strikes
  • A Defining Moment for the Republican Cause
  • The Five Demands
  • Previous Protests
  • Dirty Protesters
  • Thatcherrsquos Response
  • Ten Strikers Die
  • Bobby Sands
  • Reaction to Sandsrsquo Death
  • Conclusion
  • 1983 The Maze Prison Escape
  • The ldquoGreat Escaperdquo
  • 12 October 1984 Brighton Hotel Bombing
  • The PIRA Nearly Gets Thatcher
  • Loughgall Ambush 8 May 1987
  • The SAS Strikes
  • British Army Lynx Shootdown 20 March 1994
  • The PIRA Shoots Down a Helicopter
  • 1996 Manchester Bombing
  • The PIRA Destroys Manchester
  • Omagh Bombing 1998
  • Last Great Deadly Attack of the Troubles
  • The Good Friday Agreement and Northern Ireland Peace Process
  • Beginnings (2)
  • Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein former PIRA Belfast Brigade OC
  • Good Friday Agreement 1998
  • PM Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern Sign the GFA
  • GFA Mandates
  • Northern Ireland Today
  • Still Conflict But No War
  • Catholic Slum of Ardoyne Belfast July 2011
  • Splinter Groups
  • Herersquos To A Brighter Future in Northern Ireland
  • Works Cited
Page 82: The Troubles, 1969-1998

1996 Manchester Bombing

The PIRA Destroys Manchester

bull On Saturday 15 June 1996 the PIRA sent in telephoned warnings and 90 minutes later detonated a 3300lb fertilizer-based truck bomb in the heart of Manchester City Centre the biggest bomb detonated in Great Britain during peacetime The bomb killed nobody due to previous warnings but led to 212 non-fatal injuries and essentially destroyed Manchester City Centre leaving approximately 700 million pounds ($12bn) worth of damage in its wake

Omagh Bombing 1998

Last Great Deadly Attack of the Troubles

bull Perpetrated by a Provisional IRA splinter group that was rejecting the peace process calling themselves the ldquoReal IRArdquo the 510lb fertilizer-based bomb was placed on main street in the town of Omagh Northern Ireland Warnings were called in approximately 30 minutes before the bombing but they were inaccurate and police ended up moving more civilians towards the bomb which ended up killing 29 people and causing over 300 non-fatal injuries This was the highest death toll from a single incident during the Troubles

bull It received universal outrage and was condemned even by the PIRA and its political wing Sinn Fein It spurred on the Northern Ireland peace process and the RIRA apologized and called a ceasefire several days after

The Good Friday Agreement and Northern Ireland Peace Process

Beginningsbull Following the 1981 Hunger Strikes Irish republicans began to

increasingly look towards politics rather than violence as a means of achieving their aims Sinn Fein gaelic for ldquoWe Ourselvesrdquo was a fiercely Irish Republican political party which led by the Machiavellian former PIRA leader and Maze inmate Gerry Adams began to push for a more peaceful solution to the Troubles in Northern Ireland

bull It became apparent by the late 1990s that although the PIRA was not losing a war against the British establishment it would be impossible to truly lsquowin the fightrsquo through violence and that any further terrorism would serve not to achieve any real political aim but only to prolong and continue suffering and violence in Northern Ireland and that politics was a much better way of achieving Republican aims

Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein former PIRA Belfast Brigade OC

Good Friday Agreement 1998

bull The Peace Process began in 1994 and included intermittent terrorist ceasefires and political negotiations between the major Irish republican and British unionist parties and culminated on April 10 1998 when the Good Friday Agreement was signed

PM Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern Sign the GFA

GFA Mandatesbull That Northern Ireland was to remain British until a majority of people in Northern

Ireland and the southern Republic of Ireland wanted otherwise bull The creation of an entirely new far less sectarian and religiously diverse Northern

Irish local governmentbull The decommissioning of arms from terrorist groups on both the unionist and

nationalist side of the political divide (ultimately successful all arms decommissioned by 2005)

bull Mutual respect and civil rights between Catholics and Protestants bull The reduction and eventual elimination of British troops in Northern Ireland

(ultimately successful all troops withdrawn by 2005)bull Eventual early prison release for all individuals imprisoned for terrorist offenses as

long as they were apart of a terrorist group that was decommissioning in accordance with the GFA

bull Disbandment of the RUC police service and the installation of the new Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) which was required to be at least 50 Catholic

Northern Ireland Today

Still Conflict But No Warbull Since the complete decommissioning of the arms and

disbandment of the PIRA INLA UDAUFF and UVF due to the Good Friday Agreement there is nowhere near the amount of violence in Northern Ireland or Belfast as there was 20 years ago There are no more weekly bombings and riots and no more British troops patrolling Catholic areas in armored vehicles

bull Despite this there are still occasional riots and clashes with the PSNI several times a year specifically on dates of great historical significance to the Catholic or Protestant communities and there is still a deep distrust and even hatred between many Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland although that continues to change with time

Catholic Slum of Ardoyne Belfast July 2011

Splinter Groups

bull Many former PIRA or UDA terrorists have now taken to organized crime for purely profiteering purposes but are no longer involved in substantial violence or any political-based terrorism

bull Splinter groups such as the Real IRA and Continuity IRA in Catholic communities and the Orange Volunteers and Red Hand Commandos in Protestant communities still conduct occasional violence towards Police and civilians in Northern Ireland but are all rather small poorly armed and poorly funded groups that pose nowhere near the threat that terrorist groups in the 80s and 90s did in Northern Ireland

Herersquos To A Brighter Future in Northern Ireland

Works Citedbull httpwwwbbccoukhistorytroublesbull httpcainulstacukbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiProvisional_Irish_Republican_Armybull httpenwikipediaorgwikiThe_Troublesbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiUlster_Defence_Associationbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiUlster_Volunteer_Forcebull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_National_Liberation_Armybull ldquoA Secret History of the IRArdquo by Ed Moloney ndashWW Norton amp Company Reprint 2003bull ldquoVoices From The Grave Two Menrsquos War in Irelandrdquo by Ed Moloney ndash Public Affairs 2010bull ldquoFifty Dead Men Walkingrdquo by Martin McGartland ndash John Blake 2009bull httpwwwinfopleasecomspotnorthireland1htmlbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_Civil_Warbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_War_of_Independencebull httpenwikipediaorgwiki1981_Irish_hunger_strikebull httpenwikipediaorgwikiDirectory_of_the_Northern_Ireland_Troublesbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiGood_Friday_Agreementbull httpswwwmi5govukhomethe-threatsterrorismnorthern-irelandrepublican-terrorist-groupshtmlbull httpswwwmi5govukhomethe-threatsterrorismnorthern-irelandprovisional-irish-republican-army-

pirahtmlbull httpnewsbbccoukhienglishstaticnorthern_irelandunderstandingeventshunger_strikestm

  • The Troubles
  • Brief Overview
  • 30 Years of Conflict
  • Slide 4
  • Background
  • The Irish War of Independence
  • Slide 7
  • Anglo-Irish Treaty (signed 6 December 1921)
  • Irish Civil War
  • 1922-1966 Ireland
  • The Civil Rights Movement
  • Slide 12
  • Slide 13
  • Objectives of the Civil Rights Movement
  • The 1969 Northern Ireland Riots ndashThe Troubles Begin
  • Culmination of Tension
  • No-Go Areas
  • No-Go Areas (2)
  • Early 1970sndash The Rise of the Provisional IRA
  • The IRA Split
  • Rise of the UVF and Loyalist Terror Groups
  • Beginnings
  • UVF Statement 21 May 1964
  • The Paramilitaries
  • Irish RepublicansCatholics
  • The Provisional IRA
  • IRA Statement Late 80s
  • Statistics
  • RecruitmentFunding
  • Weaponry
  • Weaponry (2)
  • Slide 32
  • Mortars and IEDs
  • EOD Officer Approaches PIRA Car Bomb
  • The Barrack Buster
  • Vigilantism
  • Slide 37
  • Slide 38
  • Policy on Informants
  • Terrorist Activities
  • Terrorist Activities (continued)
  • The INLA
  • Statistics (2)
  • Ideology
  • Terrorist Activities (2)
  • Internal Feuds
  • Slide 47
  • British LoyalistsProtestants
  • The UDAUFF
  • Former UFF Member
  • Statistics (3)
  • Ideology (2)
  • Terrorist Activities (3)
  • Slide 54
  • Organized Crime
  • The UVF
  • Statistics (4)
  • Ideology (3)
  • Terrorist Activities (4)
  • The Shankhill Butchers
  • Weaponry (3)
  • Slide 62
  • Organized Crime (2)
  • Major Incidents 1969-1998
  • Bloody Sunday 30 January 1972
  • Massacre on the Bogside
  • Bloody Friday 21 July 1972
  • A City Under Siege
  • Dublin and Monaghan Bombings 17 May 1974
  • Deadliest Attack of the Troubles
  • Warrenpoint Ambush 27 August 1979
  • Roadside IEDs
  • Summer of 1981 Irish Hunger Strikes
  • A Defining Moment for the Republican Cause
  • The Five Demands
  • Previous Protests
  • Dirty Protesters
  • Thatcherrsquos Response
  • Ten Strikers Die
  • Bobby Sands
  • Reaction to Sandsrsquo Death
  • Conclusion
  • 1983 The Maze Prison Escape
  • The ldquoGreat Escaperdquo
  • 12 October 1984 Brighton Hotel Bombing
  • The PIRA Nearly Gets Thatcher
  • Loughgall Ambush 8 May 1987
  • The SAS Strikes
  • British Army Lynx Shootdown 20 March 1994
  • The PIRA Shoots Down a Helicopter
  • 1996 Manchester Bombing
  • The PIRA Destroys Manchester
  • Omagh Bombing 1998
  • Last Great Deadly Attack of the Troubles
  • The Good Friday Agreement and Northern Ireland Peace Process
  • Beginnings (2)
  • Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein former PIRA Belfast Brigade OC
  • Good Friday Agreement 1998
  • PM Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern Sign the GFA
  • GFA Mandates
  • Northern Ireland Today
  • Still Conflict But No War
  • Catholic Slum of Ardoyne Belfast July 2011
  • Splinter Groups
  • Herersquos To A Brighter Future in Northern Ireland
  • Works Cited
Page 83: The Troubles, 1969-1998

The PIRA Destroys Manchester

bull On Saturday 15 June 1996 the PIRA sent in telephoned warnings and 90 minutes later detonated a 3300lb fertilizer-based truck bomb in the heart of Manchester City Centre the biggest bomb detonated in Great Britain during peacetime The bomb killed nobody due to previous warnings but led to 212 non-fatal injuries and essentially destroyed Manchester City Centre leaving approximately 700 million pounds ($12bn) worth of damage in its wake

Omagh Bombing 1998

Last Great Deadly Attack of the Troubles

bull Perpetrated by a Provisional IRA splinter group that was rejecting the peace process calling themselves the ldquoReal IRArdquo the 510lb fertilizer-based bomb was placed on main street in the town of Omagh Northern Ireland Warnings were called in approximately 30 minutes before the bombing but they were inaccurate and police ended up moving more civilians towards the bomb which ended up killing 29 people and causing over 300 non-fatal injuries This was the highest death toll from a single incident during the Troubles

bull It received universal outrage and was condemned even by the PIRA and its political wing Sinn Fein It spurred on the Northern Ireland peace process and the RIRA apologized and called a ceasefire several days after

The Good Friday Agreement and Northern Ireland Peace Process

Beginningsbull Following the 1981 Hunger Strikes Irish republicans began to

increasingly look towards politics rather than violence as a means of achieving their aims Sinn Fein gaelic for ldquoWe Ourselvesrdquo was a fiercely Irish Republican political party which led by the Machiavellian former PIRA leader and Maze inmate Gerry Adams began to push for a more peaceful solution to the Troubles in Northern Ireland

bull It became apparent by the late 1990s that although the PIRA was not losing a war against the British establishment it would be impossible to truly lsquowin the fightrsquo through violence and that any further terrorism would serve not to achieve any real political aim but only to prolong and continue suffering and violence in Northern Ireland and that politics was a much better way of achieving Republican aims

Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein former PIRA Belfast Brigade OC

Good Friday Agreement 1998

bull The Peace Process began in 1994 and included intermittent terrorist ceasefires and political negotiations between the major Irish republican and British unionist parties and culminated on April 10 1998 when the Good Friday Agreement was signed

PM Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern Sign the GFA

GFA Mandatesbull That Northern Ireland was to remain British until a majority of people in Northern

Ireland and the southern Republic of Ireland wanted otherwise bull The creation of an entirely new far less sectarian and religiously diverse Northern

Irish local governmentbull The decommissioning of arms from terrorist groups on both the unionist and

nationalist side of the political divide (ultimately successful all arms decommissioned by 2005)

bull Mutual respect and civil rights between Catholics and Protestants bull The reduction and eventual elimination of British troops in Northern Ireland

(ultimately successful all troops withdrawn by 2005)bull Eventual early prison release for all individuals imprisoned for terrorist offenses as

long as they were apart of a terrorist group that was decommissioning in accordance with the GFA

bull Disbandment of the RUC police service and the installation of the new Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) which was required to be at least 50 Catholic

Northern Ireland Today

Still Conflict But No Warbull Since the complete decommissioning of the arms and

disbandment of the PIRA INLA UDAUFF and UVF due to the Good Friday Agreement there is nowhere near the amount of violence in Northern Ireland or Belfast as there was 20 years ago There are no more weekly bombings and riots and no more British troops patrolling Catholic areas in armored vehicles

bull Despite this there are still occasional riots and clashes with the PSNI several times a year specifically on dates of great historical significance to the Catholic or Protestant communities and there is still a deep distrust and even hatred between many Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland although that continues to change with time

Catholic Slum of Ardoyne Belfast July 2011

Splinter Groups

bull Many former PIRA or UDA terrorists have now taken to organized crime for purely profiteering purposes but are no longer involved in substantial violence or any political-based terrorism

bull Splinter groups such as the Real IRA and Continuity IRA in Catholic communities and the Orange Volunteers and Red Hand Commandos in Protestant communities still conduct occasional violence towards Police and civilians in Northern Ireland but are all rather small poorly armed and poorly funded groups that pose nowhere near the threat that terrorist groups in the 80s and 90s did in Northern Ireland

Herersquos To A Brighter Future in Northern Ireland

Works Citedbull httpwwwbbccoukhistorytroublesbull httpcainulstacukbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiProvisional_Irish_Republican_Armybull httpenwikipediaorgwikiThe_Troublesbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiUlster_Defence_Associationbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiUlster_Volunteer_Forcebull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_National_Liberation_Armybull ldquoA Secret History of the IRArdquo by Ed Moloney ndashWW Norton amp Company Reprint 2003bull ldquoVoices From The Grave Two Menrsquos War in Irelandrdquo by Ed Moloney ndash Public Affairs 2010bull ldquoFifty Dead Men Walkingrdquo by Martin McGartland ndash John Blake 2009bull httpwwwinfopleasecomspotnorthireland1htmlbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_Civil_Warbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_War_of_Independencebull httpenwikipediaorgwiki1981_Irish_hunger_strikebull httpenwikipediaorgwikiDirectory_of_the_Northern_Ireland_Troublesbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiGood_Friday_Agreementbull httpswwwmi5govukhomethe-threatsterrorismnorthern-irelandrepublican-terrorist-groupshtmlbull httpswwwmi5govukhomethe-threatsterrorismnorthern-irelandprovisional-irish-republican-army-

pirahtmlbull httpnewsbbccoukhienglishstaticnorthern_irelandunderstandingeventshunger_strikestm

  • The Troubles
  • Brief Overview
  • 30 Years of Conflict
  • Slide 4
  • Background
  • The Irish War of Independence
  • Slide 7
  • Anglo-Irish Treaty (signed 6 December 1921)
  • Irish Civil War
  • 1922-1966 Ireland
  • The Civil Rights Movement
  • Slide 12
  • Slide 13
  • Objectives of the Civil Rights Movement
  • The 1969 Northern Ireland Riots ndashThe Troubles Begin
  • Culmination of Tension
  • No-Go Areas
  • No-Go Areas (2)
  • Early 1970sndash The Rise of the Provisional IRA
  • The IRA Split
  • Rise of the UVF and Loyalist Terror Groups
  • Beginnings
  • UVF Statement 21 May 1964
  • The Paramilitaries
  • Irish RepublicansCatholics
  • The Provisional IRA
  • IRA Statement Late 80s
  • Statistics
  • RecruitmentFunding
  • Weaponry
  • Weaponry (2)
  • Slide 32
  • Mortars and IEDs
  • EOD Officer Approaches PIRA Car Bomb
  • The Barrack Buster
  • Vigilantism
  • Slide 37
  • Slide 38
  • Policy on Informants
  • Terrorist Activities
  • Terrorist Activities (continued)
  • The INLA
  • Statistics (2)
  • Ideology
  • Terrorist Activities (2)
  • Internal Feuds
  • Slide 47
  • British LoyalistsProtestants
  • The UDAUFF
  • Former UFF Member
  • Statistics (3)
  • Ideology (2)
  • Terrorist Activities (3)
  • Slide 54
  • Organized Crime
  • The UVF
  • Statistics (4)
  • Ideology (3)
  • Terrorist Activities (4)
  • The Shankhill Butchers
  • Weaponry (3)
  • Slide 62
  • Organized Crime (2)
  • Major Incidents 1969-1998
  • Bloody Sunday 30 January 1972
  • Massacre on the Bogside
  • Bloody Friday 21 July 1972
  • A City Under Siege
  • Dublin and Monaghan Bombings 17 May 1974
  • Deadliest Attack of the Troubles
  • Warrenpoint Ambush 27 August 1979
  • Roadside IEDs
  • Summer of 1981 Irish Hunger Strikes
  • A Defining Moment for the Republican Cause
  • The Five Demands
  • Previous Protests
  • Dirty Protesters
  • Thatcherrsquos Response
  • Ten Strikers Die
  • Bobby Sands
  • Reaction to Sandsrsquo Death
  • Conclusion
  • 1983 The Maze Prison Escape
  • The ldquoGreat Escaperdquo
  • 12 October 1984 Brighton Hotel Bombing
  • The PIRA Nearly Gets Thatcher
  • Loughgall Ambush 8 May 1987
  • The SAS Strikes
  • British Army Lynx Shootdown 20 March 1994
  • The PIRA Shoots Down a Helicopter
  • 1996 Manchester Bombing
  • The PIRA Destroys Manchester
  • Omagh Bombing 1998
  • Last Great Deadly Attack of the Troubles
  • The Good Friday Agreement and Northern Ireland Peace Process
  • Beginnings (2)
  • Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein former PIRA Belfast Brigade OC
  • Good Friday Agreement 1998
  • PM Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern Sign the GFA
  • GFA Mandates
  • Northern Ireland Today
  • Still Conflict But No War
  • Catholic Slum of Ardoyne Belfast July 2011
  • Splinter Groups
  • Herersquos To A Brighter Future in Northern Ireland
  • Works Cited
Page 84: The Troubles, 1969-1998

Omagh Bombing 1998

Last Great Deadly Attack of the Troubles

bull Perpetrated by a Provisional IRA splinter group that was rejecting the peace process calling themselves the ldquoReal IRArdquo the 510lb fertilizer-based bomb was placed on main street in the town of Omagh Northern Ireland Warnings were called in approximately 30 minutes before the bombing but they were inaccurate and police ended up moving more civilians towards the bomb which ended up killing 29 people and causing over 300 non-fatal injuries This was the highest death toll from a single incident during the Troubles

bull It received universal outrage and was condemned even by the PIRA and its political wing Sinn Fein It spurred on the Northern Ireland peace process and the RIRA apologized and called a ceasefire several days after

The Good Friday Agreement and Northern Ireland Peace Process

Beginningsbull Following the 1981 Hunger Strikes Irish republicans began to

increasingly look towards politics rather than violence as a means of achieving their aims Sinn Fein gaelic for ldquoWe Ourselvesrdquo was a fiercely Irish Republican political party which led by the Machiavellian former PIRA leader and Maze inmate Gerry Adams began to push for a more peaceful solution to the Troubles in Northern Ireland

bull It became apparent by the late 1990s that although the PIRA was not losing a war against the British establishment it would be impossible to truly lsquowin the fightrsquo through violence and that any further terrorism would serve not to achieve any real political aim but only to prolong and continue suffering and violence in Northern Ireland and that politics was a much better way of achieving Republican aims

Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein former PIRA Belfast Brigade OC

Good Friday Agreement 1998

bull The Peace Process began in 1994 and included intermittent terrorist ceasefires and political negotiations between the major Irish republican and British unionist parties and culminated on April 10 1998 when the Good Friday Agreement was signed

PM Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern Sign the GFA

GFA Mandatesbull That Northern Ireland was to remain British until a majority of people in Northern

Ireland and the southern Republic of Ireland wanted otherwise bull The creation of an entirely new far less sectarian and religiously diverse Northern

Irish local governmentbull The decommissioning of arms from terrorist groups on both the unionist and

nationalist side of the political divide (ultimately successful all arms decommissioned by 2005)

bull Mutual respect and civil rights between Catholics and Protestants bull The reduction and eventual elimination of British troops in Northern Ireland

(ultimately successful all troops withdrawn by 2005)bull Eventual early prison release for all individuals imprisoned for terrorist offenses as

long as they were apart of a terrorist group that was decommissioning in accordance with the GFA

bull Disbandment of the RUC police service and the installation of the new Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) which was required to be at least 50 Catholic

Northern Ireland Today

Still Conflict But No Warbull Since the complete decommissioning of the arms and

disbandment of the PIRA INLA UDAUFF and UVF due to the Good Friday Agreement there is nowhere near the amount of violence in Northern Ireland or Belfast as there was 20 years ago There are no more weekly bombings and riots and no more British troops patrolling Catholic areas in armored vehicles

bull Despite this there are still occasional riots and clashes with the PSNI several times a year specifically on dates of great historical significance to the Catholic or Protestant communities and there is still a deep distrust and even hatred between many Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland although that continues to change with time

Catholic Slum of Ardoyne Belfast July 2011

Splinter Groups

bull Many former PIRA or UDA terrorists have now taken to organized crime for purely profiteering purposes but are no longer involved in substantial violence or any political-based terrorism

bull Splinter groups such as the Real IRA and Continuity IRA in Catholic communities and the Orange Volunteers and Red Hand Commandos in Protestant communities still conduct occasional violence towards Police and civilians in Northern Ireland but are all rather small poorly armed and poorly funded groups that pose nowhere near the threat that terrorist groups in the 80s and 90s did in Northern Ireland

Herersquos To A Brighter Future in Northern Ireland

Works Citedbull httpwwwbbccoukhistorytroublesbull httpcainulstacukbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiProvisional_Irish_Republican_Armybull httpenwikipediaorgwikiThe_Troublesbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiUlster_Defence_Associationbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiUlster_Volunteer_Forcebull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_National_Liberation_Armybull ldquoA Secret History of the IRArdquo by Ed Moloney ndashWW Norton amp Company Reprint 2003bull ldquoVoices From The Grave Two Menrsquos War in Irelandrdquo by Ed Moloney ndash Public Affairs 2010bull ldquoFifty Dead Men Walkingrdquo by Martin McGartland ndash John Blake 2009bull httpwwwinfopleasecomspotnorthireland1htmlbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_Civil_Warbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_War_of_Independencebull httpenwikipediaorgwiki1981_Irish_hunger_strikebull httpenwikipediaorgwikiDirectory_of_the_Northern_Ireland_Troublesbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiGood_Friday_Agreementbull httpswwwmi5govukhomethe-threatsterrorismnorthern-irelandrepublican-terrorist-groupshtmlbull httpswwwmi5govukhomethe-threatsterrorismnorthern-irelandprovisional-irish-republican-army-

pirahtmlbull httpnewsbbccoukhienglishstaticnorthern_irelandunderstandingeventshunger_strikestm

  • The Troubles
  • Brief Overview
  • 30 Years of Conflict
  • Slide 4
  • Background
  • The Irish War of Independence
  • Slide 7
  • Anglo-Irish Treaty (signed 6 December 1921)
  • Irish Civil War
  • 1922-1966 Ireland
  • The Civil Rights Movement
  • Slide 12
  • Slide 13
  • Objectives of the Civil Rights Movement
  • The 1969 Northern Ireland Riots ndashThe Troubles Begin
  • Culmination of Tension
  • No-Go Areas
  • No-Go Areas (2)
  • Early 1970sndash The Rise of the Provisional IRA
  • The IRA Split
  • Rise of the UVF and Loyalist Terror Groups
  • Beginnings
  • UVF Statement 21 May 1964
  • The Paramilitaries
  • Irish RepublicansCatholics
  • The Provisional IRA
  • IRA Statement Late 80s
  • Statistics
  • RecruitmentFunding
  • Weaponry
  • Weaponry (2)
  • Slide 32
  • Mortars and IEDs
  • EOD Officer Approaches PIRA Car Bomb
  • The Barrack Buster
  • Vigilantism
  • Slide 37
  • Slide 38
  • Policy on Informants
  • Terrorist Activities
  • Terrorist Activities (continued)
  • The INLA
  • Statistics (2)
  • Ideology
  • Terrorist Activities (2)
  • Internal Feuds
  • Slide 47
  • British LoyalistsProtestants
  • The UDAUFF
  • Former UFF Member
  • Statistics (3)
  • Ideology (2)
  • Terrorist Activities (3)
  • Slide 54
  • Organized Crime
  • The UVF
  • Statistics (4)
  • Ideology (3)
  • Terrorist Activities (4)
  • The Shankhill Butchers
  • Weaponry (3)
  • Slide 62
  • Organized Crime (2)
  • Major Incidents 1969-1998
  • Bloody Sunday 30 January 1972
  • Massacre on the Bogside
  • Bloody Friday 21 July 1972
  • A City Under Siege
  • Dublin and Monaghan Bombings 17 May 1974
  • Deadliest Attack of the Troubles
  • Warrenpoint Ambush 27 August 1979
  • Roadside IEDs
  • Summer of 1981 Irish Hunger Strikes
  • A Defining Moment for the Republican Cause
  • The Five Demands
  • Previous Protests
  • Dirty Protesters
  • Thatcherrsquos Response
  • Ten Strikers Die
  • Bobby Sands
  • Reaction to Sandsrsquo Death
  • Conclusion
  • 1983 The Maze Prison Escape
  • The ldquoGreat Escaperdquo
  • 12 October 1984 Brighton Hotel Bombing
  • The PIRA Nearly Gets Thatcher
  • Loughgall Ambush 8 May 1987
  • The SAS Strikes
  • British Army Lynx Shootdown 20 March 1994
  • The PIRA Shoots Down a Helicopter
  • 1996 Manchester Bombing
  • The PIRA Destroys Manchester
  • Omagh Bombing 1998
  • Last Great Deadly Attack of the Troubles
  • The Good Friday Agreement and Northern Ireland Peace Process
  • Beginnings (2)
  • Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein former PIRA Belfast Brigade OC
  • Good Friday Agreement 1998
  • PM Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern Sign the GFA
  • GFA Mandates
  • Northern Ireland Today
  • Still Conflict But No War
  • Catholic Slum of Ardoyne Belfast July 2011
  • Splinter Groups
  • Herersquos To A Brighter Future in Northern Ireland
  • Works Cited
Page 85: The Troubles, 1969-1998

Last Great Deadly Attack of the Troubles

bull Perpetrated by a Provisional IRA splinter group that was rejecting the peace process calling themselves the ldquoReal IRArdquo the 510lb fertilizer-based bomb was placed on main street in the town of Omagh Northern Ireland Warnings were called in approximately 30 minutes before the bombing but they were inaccurate and police ended up moving more civilians towards the bomb which ended up killing 29 people and causing over 300 non-fatal injuries This was the highest death toll from a single incident during the Troubles

bull It received universal outrage and was condemned even by the PIRA and its political wing Sinn Fein It spurred on the Northern Ireland peace process and the RIRA apologized and called a ceasefire several days after

The Good Friday Agreement and Northern Ireland Peace Process

Beginningsbull Following the 1981 Hunger Strikes Irish republicans began to

increasingly look towards politics rather than violence as a means of achieving their aims Sinn Fein gaelic for ldquoWe Ourselvesrdquo was a fiercely Irish Republican political party which led by the Machiavellian former PIRA leader and Maze inmate Gerry Adams began to push for a more peaceful solution to the Troubles in Northern Ireland

bull It became apparent by the late 1990s that although the PIRA was not losing a war against the British establishment it would be impossible to truly lsquowin the fightrsquo through violence and that any further terrorism would serve not to achieve any real political aim but only to prolong and continue suffering and violence in Northern Ireland and that politics was a much better way of achieving Republican aims

Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein former PIRA Belfast Brigade OC

Good Friday Agreement 1998

bull The Peace Process began in 1994 and included intermittent terrorist ceasefires and political negotiations between the major Irish republican and British unionist parties and culminated on April 10 1998 when the Good Friday Agreement was signed

PM Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern Sign the GFA

GFA Mandatesbull That Northern Ireland was to remain British until a majority of people in Northern

Ireland and the southern Republic of Ireland wanted otherwise bull The creation of an entirely new far less sectarian and religiously diverse Northern

Irish local governmentbull The decommissioning of arms from terrorist groups on both the unionist and

nationalist side of the political divide (ultimately successful all arms decommissioned by 2005)

bull Mutual respect and civil rights between Catholics and Protestants bull The reduction and eventual elimination of British troops in Northern Ireland

(ultimately successful all troops withdrawn by 2005)bull Eventual early prison release for all individuals imprisoned for terrorist offenses as

long as they were apart of a terrorist group that was decommissioning in accordance with the GFA

bull Disbandment of the RUC police service and the installation of the new Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) which was required to be at least 50 Catholic

Northern Ireland Today

Still Conflict But No Warbull Since the complete decommissioning of the arms and

disbandment of the PIRA INLA UDAUFF and UVF due to the Good Friday Agreement there is nowhere near the amount of violence in Northern Ireland or Belfast as there was 20 years ago There are no more weekly bombings and riots and no more British troops patrolling Catholic areas in armored vehicles

bull Despite this there are still occasional riots and clashes with the PSNI several times a year specifically on dates of great historical significance to the Catholic or Protestant communities and there is still a deep distrust and even hatred between many Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland although that continues to change with time

Catholic Slum of Ardoyne Belfast July 2011

Splinter Groups

bull Many former PIRA or UDA terrorists have now taken to organized crime for purely profiteering purposes but are no longer involved in substantial violence or any political-based terrorism

bull Splinter groups such as the Real IRA and Continuity IRA in Catholic communities and the Orange Volunteers and Red Hand Commandos in Protestant communities still conduct occasional violence towards Police and civilians in Northern Ireland but are all rather small poorly armed and poorly funded groups that pose nowhere near the threat that terrorist groups in the 80s and 90s did in Northern Ireland

Herersquos To A Brighter Future in Northern Ireland

Works Citedbull httpwwwbbccoukhistorytroublesbull httpcainulstacukbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiProvisional_Irish_Republican_Armybull httpenwikipediaorgwikiThe_Troublesbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiUlster_Defence_Associationbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiUlster_Volunteer_Forcebull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_National_Liberation_Armybull ldquoA Secret History of the IRArdquo by Ed Moloney ndashWW Norton amp Company Reprint 2003bull ldquoVoices From The Grave Two Menrsquos War in Irelandrdquo by Ed Moloney ndash Public Affairs 2010bull ldquoFifty Dead Men Walkingrdquo by Martin McGartland ndash John Blake 2009bull httpwwwinfopleasecomspotnorthireland1htmlbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_Civil_Warbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_War_of_Independencebull httpenwikipediaorgwiki1981_Irish_hunger_strikebull httpenwikipediaorgwikiDirectory_of_the_Northern_Ireland_Troublesbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiGood_Friday_Agreementbull httpswwwmi5govukhomethe-threatsterrorismnorthern-irelandrepublican-terrorist-groupshtmlbull httpswwwmi5govukhomethe-threatsterrorismnorthern-irelandprovisional-irish-republican-army-

pirahtmlbull httpnewsbbccoukhienglishstaticnorthern_irelandunderstandingeventshunger_strikestm

  • The Troubles
  • Brief Overview
  • 30 Years of Conflict
  • Slide 4
  • Background
  • The Irish War of Independence
  • Slide 7
  • Anglo-Irish Treaty (signed 6 December 1921)
  • Irish Civil War
  • 1922-1966 Ireland
  • The Civil Rights Movement
  • Slide 12
  • Slide 13
  • Objectives of the Civil Rights Movement
  • The 1969 Northern Ireland Riots ndashThe Troubles Begin
  • Culmination of Tension
  • No-Go Areas
  • No-Go Areas (2)
  • Early 1970sndash The Rise of the Provisional IRA
  • The IRA Split
  • Rise of the UVF and Loyalist Terror Groups
  • Beginnings
  • UVF Statement 21 May 1964
  • The Paramilitaries
  • Irish RepublicansCatholics
  • The Provisional IRA
  • IRA Statement Late 80s
  • Statistics
  • RecruitmentFunding
  • Weaponry
  • Weaponry (2)
  • Slide 32
  • Mortars and IEDs
  • EOD Officer Approaches PIRA Car Bomb
  • The Barrack Buster
  • Vigilantism
  • Slide 37
  • Slide 38
  • Policy on Informants
  • Terrorist Activities
  • Terrorist Activities (continued)
  • The INLA
  • Statistics (2)
  • Ideology
  • Terrorist Activities (2)
  • Internal Feuds
  • Slide 47
  • British LoyalistsProtestants
  • The UDAUFF
  • Former UFF Member
  • Statistics (3)
  • Ideology (2)
  • Terrorist Activities (3)
  • Slide 54
  • Organized Crime
  • The UVF
  • Statistics (4)
  • Ideology (3)
  • Terrorist Activities (4)
  • The Shankhill Butchers
  • Weaponry (3)
  • Slide 62
  • Organized Crime (2)
  • Major Incidents 1969-1998
  • Bloody Sunday 30 January 1972
  • Massacre on the Bogside
  • Bloody Friday 21 July 1972
  • A City Under Siege
  • Dublin and Monaghan Bombings 17 May 1974
  • Deadliest Attack of the Troubles
  • Warrenpoint Ambush 27 August 1979
  • Roadside IEDs
  • Summer of 1981 Irish Hunger Strikes
  • A Defining Moment for the Republican Cause
  • The Five Demands
  • Previous Protests
  • Dirty Protesters
  • Thatcherrsquos Response
  • Ten Strikers Die
  • Bobby Sands
  • Reaction to Sandsrsquo Death
  • Conclusion
  • 1983 The Maze Prison Escape
  • The ldquoGreat Escaperdquo
  • 12 October 1984 Brighton Hotel Bombing
  • The PIRA Nearly Gets Thatcher
  • Loughgall Ambush 8 May 1987
  • The SAS Strikes
  • British Army Lynx Shootdown 20 March 1994
  • The PIRA Shoots Down a Helicopter
  • 1996 Manchester Bombing
  • The PIRA Destroys Manchester
  • Omagh Bombing 1998
  • Last Great Deadly Attack of the Troubles
  • The Good Friday Agreement and Northern Ireland Peace Process
  • Beginnings (2)
  • Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein former PIRA Belfast Brigade OC
  • Good Friday Agreement 1998
  • PM Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern Sign the GFA
  • GFA Mandates
  • Northern Ireland Today
  • Still Conflict But No War
  • Catholic Slum of Ardoyne Belfast July 2011
  • Splinter Groups
  • Herersquos To A Brighter Future in Northern Ireland
  • Works Cited
Page 86: The Troubles, 1969-1998

The Good Friday Agreement and Northern Ireland Peace Process

Beginningsbull Following the 1981 Hunger Strikes Irish republicans began to

increasingly look towards politics rather than violence as a means of achieving their aims Sinn Fein gaelic for ldquoWe Ourselvesrdquo was a fiercely Irish Republican political party which led by the Machiavellian former PIRA leader and Maze inmate Gerry Adams began to push for a more peaceful solution to the Troubles in Northern Ireland

bull It became apparent by the late 1990s that although the PIRA was not losing a war against the British establishment it would be impossible to truly lsquowin the fightrsquo through violence and that any further terrorism would serve not to achieve any real political aim but only to prolong and continue suffering and violence in Northern Ireland and that politics was a much better way of achieving Republican aims

Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein former PIRA Belfast Brigade OC

Good Friday Agreement 1998

bull The Peace Process began in 1994 and included intermittent terrorist ceasefires and political negotiations between the major Irish republican and British unionist parties and culminated on April 10 1998 when the Good Friday Agreement was signed

PM Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern Sign the GFA

GFA Mandatesbull That Northern Ireland was to remain British until a majority of people in Northern

Ireland and the southern Republic of Ireland wanted otherwise bull The creation of an entirely new far less sectarian and religiously diverse Northern

Irish local governmentbull The decommissioning of arms from terrorist groups on both the unionist and

nationalist side of the political divide (ultimately successful all arms decommissioned by 2005)

bull Mutual respect and civil rights between Catholics and Protestants bull The reduction and eventual elimination of British troops in Northern Ireland

(ultimately successful all troops withdrawn by 2005)bull Eventual early prison release for all individuals imprisoned for terrorist offenses as

long as they were apart of a terrorist group that was decommissioning in accordance with the GFA

bull Disbandment of the RUC police service and the installation of the new Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) which was required to be at least 50 Catholic

Northern Ireland Today

Still Conflict But No Warbull Since the complete decommissioning of the arms and

disbandment of the PIRA INLA UDAUFF and UVF due to the Good Friday Agreement there is nowhere near the amount of violence in Northern Ireland or Belfast as there was 20 years ago There are no more weekly bombings and riots and no more British troops patrolling Catholic areas in armored vehicles

bull Despite this there are still occasional riots and clashes with the PSNI several times a year specifically on dates of great historical significance to the Catholic or Protestant communities and there is still a deep distrust and even hatred between many Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland although that continues to change with time

Catholic Slum of Ardoyne Belfast July 2011

Splinter Groups

bull Many former PIRA or UDA terrorists have now taken to organized crime for purely profiteering purposes but are no longer involved in substantial violence or any political-based terrorism

bull Splinter groups such as the Real IRA and Continuity IRA in Catholic communities and the Orange Volunteers and Red Hand Commandos in Protestant communities still conduct occasional violence towards Police and civilians in Northern Ireland but are all rather small poorly armed and poorly funded groups that pose nowhere near the threat that terrorist groups in the 80s and 90s did in Northern Ireland

Herersquos To A Brighter Future in Northern Ireland

Works Citedbull httpwwwbbccoukhistorytroublesbull httpcainulstacukbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiProvisional_Irish_Republican_Armybull httpenwikipediaorgwikiThe_Troublesbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiUlster_Defence_Associationbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiUlster_Volunteer_Forcebull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_National_Liberation_Armybull ldquoA Secret History of the IRArdquo by Ed Moloney ndashWW Norton amp Company Reprint 2003bull ldquoVoices From The Grave Two Menrsquos War in Irelandrdquo by Ed Moloney ndash Public Affairs 2010bull ldquoFifty Dead Men Walkingrdquo by Martin McGartland ndash John Blake 2009bull httpwwwinfopleasecomspotnorthireland1htmlbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_Civil_Warbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_War_of_Independencebull httpenwikipediaorgwiki1981_Irish_hunger_strikebull httpenwikipediaorgwikiDirectory_of_the_Northern_Ireland_Troublesbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiGood_Friday_Agreementbull httpswwwmi5govukhomethe-threatsterrorismnorthern-irelandrepublican-terrorist-groupshtmlbull httpswwwmi5govukhomethe-threatsterrorismnorthern-irelandprovisional-irish-republican-army-

pirahtmlbull httpnewsbbccoukhienglishstaticnorthern_irelandunderstandingeventshunger_strikestm

  • The Troubles
  • Brief Overview
  • 30 Years of Conflict
  • Slide 4
  • Background
  • The Irish War of Independence
  • Slide 7
  • Anglo-Irish Treaty (signed 6 December 1921)
  • Irish Civil War
  • 1922-1966 Ireland
  • The Civil Rights Movement
  • Slide 12
  • Slide 13
  • Objectives of the Civil Rights Movement
  • The 1969 Northern Ireland Riots ndashThe Troubles Begin
  • Culmination of Tension
  • No-Go Areas
  • No-Go Areas (2)
  • Early 1970sndash The Rise of the Provisional IRA
  • The IRA Split
  • Rise of the UVF and Loyalist Terror Groups
  • Beginnings
  • UVF Statement 21 May 1964
  • The Paramilitaries
  • Irish RepublicansCatholics
  • The Provisional IRA
  • IRA Statement Late 80s
  • Statistics
  • RecruitmentFunding
  • Weaponry
  • Weaponry (2)
  • Slide 32
  • Mortars and IEDs
  • EOD Officer Approaches PIRA Car Bomb
  • The Barrack Buster
  • Vigilantism
  • Slide 37
  • Slide 38
  • Policy on Informants
  • Terrorist Activities
  • Terrorist Activities (continued)
  • The INLA
  • Statistics (2)
  • Ideology
  • Terrorist Activities (2)
  • Internal Feuds
  • Slide 47
  • British LoyalistsProtestants
  • The UDAUFF
  • Former UFF Member
  • Statistics (3)
  • Ideology (2)
  • Terrorist Activities (3)
  • Slide 54
  • Organized Crime
  • The UVF
  • Statistics (4)
  • Ideology (3)
  • Terrorist Activities (4)
  • The Shankhill Butchers
  • Weaponry (3)
  • Slide 62
  • Organized Crime (2)
  • Major Incidents 1969-1998
  • Bloody Sunday 30 January 1972
  • Massacre on the Bogside
  • Bloody Friday 21 July 1972
  • A City Under Siege
  • Dublin and Monaghan Bombings 17 May 1974
  • Deadliest Attack of the Troubles
  • Warrenpoint Ambush 27 August 1979
  • Roadside IEDs
  • Summer of 1981 Irish Hunger Strikes
  • A Defining Moment for the Republican Cause
  • The Five Demands
  • Previous Protests
  • Dirty Protesters
  • Thatcherrsquos Response
  • Ten Strikers Die
  • Bobby Sands
  • Reaction to Sandsrsquo Death
  • Conclusion
  • 1983 The Maze Prison Escape
  • The ldquoGreat Escaperdquo
  • 12 October 1984 Brighton Hotel Bombing
  • The PIRA Nearly Gets Thatcher
  • Loughgall Ambush 8 May 1987
  • The SAS Strikes
  • British Army Lynx Shootdown 20 March 1994
  • The PIRA Shoots Down a Helicopter
  • 1996 Manchester Bombing
  • The PIRA Destroys Manchester
  • Omagh Bombing 1998
  • Last Great Deadly Attack of the Troubles
  • The Good Friday Agreement and Northern Ireland Peace Process
  • Beginnings (2)
  • Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein former PIRA Belfast Brigade OC
  • Good Friday Agreement 1998
  • PM Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern Sign the GFA
  • GFA Mandates
  • Northern Ireland Today
  • Still Conflict But No War
  • Catholic Slum of Ardoyne Belfast July 2011
  • Splinter Groups
  • Herersquos To A Brighter Future in Northern Ireland
  • Works Cited
Page 87: The Troubles, 1969-1998

Beginningsbull Following the 1981 Hunger Strikes Irish republicans began to

increasingly look towards politics rather than violence as a means of achieving their aims Sinn Fein gaelic for ldquoWe Ourselvesrdquo was a fiercely Irish Republican political party which led by the Machiavellian former PIRA leader and Maze inmate Gerry Adams began to push for a more peaceful solution to the Troubles in Northern Ireland

bull It became apparent by the late 1990s that although the PIRA was not losing a war against the British establishment it would be impossible to truly lsquowin the fightrsquo through violence and that any further terrorism would serve not to achieve any real political aim but only to prolong and continue suffering and violence in Northern Ireland and that politics was a much better way of achieving Republican aims

Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein former PIRA Belfast Brigade OC

Good Friday Agreement 1998

bull The Peace Process began in 1994 and included intermittent terrorist ceasefires and political negotiations between the major Irish republican and British unionist parties and culminated on April 10 1998 when the Good Friday Agreement was signed

PM Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern Sign the GFA

GFA Mandatesbull That Northern Ireland was to remain British until a majority of people in Northern

Ireland and the southern Republic of Ireland wanted otherwise bull The creation of an entirely new far less sectarian and religiously diverse Northern

Irish local governmentbull The decommissioning of arms from terrorist groups on both the unionist and

nationalist side of the political divide (ultimately successful all arms decommissioned by 2005)

bull Mutual respect and civil rights between Catholics and Protestants bull The reduction and eventual elimination of British troops in Northern Ireland

(ultimately successful all troops withdrawn by 2005)bull Eventual early prison release for all individuals imprisoned for terrorist offenses as

long as they were apart of a terrorist group that was decommissioning in accordance with the GFA

bull Disbandment of the RUC police service and the installation of the new Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) which was required to be at least 50 Catholic

Northern Ireland Today

Still Conflict But No Warbull Since the complete decommissioning of the arms and

disbandment of the PIRA INLA UDAUFF and UVF due to the Good Friday Agreement there is nowhere near the amount of violence in Northern Ireland or Belfast as there was 20 years ago There are no more weekly bombings and riots and no more British troops patrolling Catholic areas in armored vehicles

bull Despite this there are still occasional riots and clashes with the PSNI several times a year specifically on dates of great historical significance to the Catholic or Protestant communities and there is still a deep distrust and even hatred between many Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland although that continues to change with time

Catholic Slum of Ardoyne Belfast July 2011

Splinter Groups

bull Many former PIRA or UDA terrorists have now taken to organized crime for purely profiteering purposes but are no longer involved in substantial violence or any political-based terrorism

bull Splinter groups such as the Real IRA and Continuity IRA in Catholic communities and the Orange Volunteers and Red Hand Commandos in Protestant communities still conduct occasional violence towards Police and civilians in Northern Ireland but are all rather small poorly armed and poorly funded groups that pose nowhere near the threat that terrorist groups in the 80s and 90s did in Northern Ireland

Herersquos To A Brighter Future in Northern Ireland

Works Citedbull httpwwwbbccoukhistorytroublesbull httpcainulstacukbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiProvisional_Irish_Republican_Armybull httpenwikipediaorgwikiThe_Troublesbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiUlster_Defence_Associationbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiUlster_Volunteer_Forcebull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_National_Liberation_Armybull ldquoA Secret History of the IRArdquo by Ed Moloney ndashWW Norton amp Company Reprint 2003bull ldquoVoices From The Grave Two Menrsquos War in Irelandrdquo by Ed Moloney ndash Public Affairs 2010bull ldquoFifty Dead Men Walkingrdquo by Martin McGartland ndash John Blake 2009bull httpwwwinfopleasecomspotnorthireland1htmlbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_Civil_Warbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_War_of_Independencebull httpenwikipediaorgwiki1981_Irish_hunger_strikebull httpenwikipediaorgwikiDirectory_of_the_Northern_Ireland_Troublesbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiGood_Friday_Agreementbull httpswwwmi5govukhomethe-threatsterrorismnorthern-irelandrepublican-terrorist-groupshtmlbull httpswwwmi5govukhomethe-threatsterrorismnorthern-irelandprovisional-irish-republican-army-

pirahtmlbull httpnewsbbccoukhienglishstaticnorthern_irelandunderstandingeventshunger_strikestm

  • The Troubles
  • Brief Overview
  • 30 Years of Conflict
  • Slide 4
  • Background
  • The Irish War of Independence
  • Slide 7
  • Anglo-Irish Treaty (signed 6 December 1921)
  • Irish Civil War
  • 1922-1966 Ireland
  • The Civil Rights Movement
  • Slide 12
  • Slide 13
  • Objectives of the Civil Rights Movement
  • The 1969 Northern Ireland Riots ndashThe Troubles Begin
  • Culmination of Tension
  • No-Go Areas
  • No-Go Areas (2)
  • Early 1970sndash The Rise of the Provisional IRA
  • The IRA Split
  • Rise of the UVF and Loyalist Terror Groups
  • Beginnings
  • UVF Statement 21 May 1964
  • The Paramilitaries
  • Irish RepublicansCatholics
  • The Provisional IRA
  • IRA Statement Late 80s
  • Statistics
  • RecruitmentFunding
  • Weaponry
  • Weaponry (2)
  • Slide 32
  • Mortars and IEDs
  • EOD Officer Approaches PIRA Car Bomb
  • The Barrack Buster
  • Vigilantism
  • Slide 37
  • Slide 38
  • Policy on Informants
  • Terrorist Activities
  • Terrorist Activities (continued)
  • The INLA
  • Statistics (2)
  • Ideology
  • Terrorist Activities (2)
  • Internal Feuds
  • Slide 47
  • British LoyalistsProtestants
  • The UDAUFF
  • Former UFF Member
  • Statistics (3)
  • Ideology (2)
  • Terrorist Activities (3)
  • Slide 54
  • Organized Crime
  • The UVF
  • Statistics (4)
  • Ideology (3)
  • Terrorist Activities (4)
  • The Shankhill Butchers
  • Weaponry (3)
  • Slide 62
  • Organized Crime (2)
  • Major Incidents 1969-1998
  • Bloody Sunday 30 January 1972
  • Massacre on the Bogside
  • Bloody Friday 21 July 1972
  • A City Under Siege
  • Dublin and Monaghan Bombings 17 May 1974
  • Deadliest Attack of the Troubles
  • Warrenpoint Ambush 27 August 1979
  • Roadside IEDs
  • Summer of 1981 Irish Hunger Strikes
  • A Defining Moment for the Republican Cause
  • The Five Demands
  • Previous Protests
  • Dirty Protesters
  • Thatcherrsquos Response
  • Ten Strikers Die
  • Bobby Sands
  • Reaction to Sandsrsquo Death
  • Conclusion
  • 1983 The Maze Prison Escape
  • The ldquoGreat Escaperdquo
  • 12 October 1984 Brighton Hotel Bombing
  • The PIRA Nearly Gets Thatcher
  • Loughgall Ambush 8 May 1987
  • The SAS Strikes
  • British Army Lynx Shootdown 20 March 1994
  • The PIRA Shoots Down a Helicopter
  • 1996 Manchester Bombing
  • The PIRA Destroys Manchester
  • Omagh Bombing 1998
  • Last Great Deadly Attack of the Troubles
  • The Good Friday Agreement and Northern Ireland Peace Process
  • Beginnings (2)
  • Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein former PIRA Belfast Brigade OC
  • Good Friday Agreement 1998
  • PM Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern Sign the GFA
  • GFA Mandates
  • Northern Ireland Today
  • Still Conflict But No War
  • Catholic Slum of Ardoyne Belfast July 2011
  • Splinter Groups
  • Herersquos To A Brighter Future in Northern Ireland
  • Works Cited
Page 88: The Troubles, 1969-1998

Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein former PIRA Belfast Brigade OC

Good Friday Agreement 1998

bull The Peace Process began in 1994 and included intermittent terrorist ceasefires and political negotiations between the major Irish republican and British unionist parties and culminated on April 10 1998 when the Good Friday Agreement was signed

PM Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern Sign the GFA

GFA Mandatesbull That Northern Ireland was to remain British until a majority of people in Northern

Ireland and the southern Republic of Ireland wanted otherwise bull The creation of an entirely new far less sectarian and religiously diverse Northern

Irish local governmentbull The decommissioning of arms from terrorist groups on both the unionist and

nationalist side of the political divide (ultimately successful all arms decommissioned by 2005)

bull Mutual respect and civil rights between Catholics and Protestants bull The reduction and eventual elimination of British troops in Northern Ireland

(ultimately successful all troops withdrawn by 2005)bull Eventual early prison release for all individuals imprisoned for terrorist offenses as

long as they were apart of a terrorist group that was decommissioning in accordance with the GFA

bull Disbandment of the RUC police service and the installation of the new Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) which was required to be at least 50 Catholic

Northern Ireland Today

Still Conflict But No Warbull Since the complete decommissioning of the arms and

disbandment of the PIRA INLA UDAUFF and UVF due to the Good Friday Agreement there is nowhere near the amount of violence in Northern Ireland or Belfast as there was 20 years ago There are no more weekly bombings and riots and no more British troops patrolling Catholic areas in armored vehicles

bull Despite this there are still occasional riots and clashes with the PSNI several times a year specifically on dates of great historical significance to the Catholic or Protestant communities and there is still a deep distrust and even hatred between many Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland although that continues to change with time

Catholic Slum of Ardoyne Belfast July 2011

Splinter Groups

bull Many former PIRA or UDA terrorists have now taken to organized crime for purely profiteering purposes but are no longer involved in substantial violence or any political-based terrorism

bull Splinter groups such as the Real IRA and Continuity IRA in Catholic communities and the Orange Volunteers and Red Hand Commandos in Protestant communities still conduct occasional violence towards Police and civilians in Northern Ireland but are all rather small poorly armed and poorly funded groups that pose nowhere near the threat that terrorist groups in the 80s and 90s did in Northern Ireland

Herersquos To A Brighter Future in Northern Ireland

Works Citedbull httpwwwbbccoukhistorytroublesbull httpcainulstacukbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiProvisional_Irish_Republican_Armybull httpenwikipediaorgwikiThe_Troublesbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiUlster_Defence_Associationbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiUlster_Volunteer_Forcebull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_National_Liberation_Armybull ldquoA Secret History of the IRArdquo by Ed Moloney ndashWW Norton amp Company Reprint 2003bull ldquoVoices From The Grave Two Menrsquos War in Irelandrdquo by Ed Moloney ndash Public Affairs 2010bull ldquoFifty Dead Men Walkingrdquo by Martin McGartland ndash John Blake 2009bull httpwwwinfopleasecomspotnorthireland1htmlbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_Civil_Warbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_War_of_Independencebull httpenwikipediaorgwiki1981_Irish_hunger_strikebull httpenwikipediaorgwikiDirectory_of_the_Northern_Ireland_Troublesbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiGood_Friday_Agreementbull httpswwwmi5govukhomethe-threatsterrorismnorthern-irelandrepublican-terrorist-groupshtmlbull httpswwwmi5govukhomethe-threatsterrorismnorthern-irelandprovisional-irish-republican-army-

pirahtmlbull httpnewsbbccoukhienglishstaticnorthern_irelandunderstandingeventshunger_strikestm

  • The Troubles
  • Brief Overview
  • 30 Years of Conflict
  • Slide 4
  • Background
  • The Irish War of Independence
  • Slide 7
  • Anglo-Irish Treaty (signed 6 December 1921)
  • Irish Civil War
  • 1922-1966 Ireland
  • The Civil Rights Movement
  • Slide 12
  • Slide 13
  • Objectives of the Civil Rights Movement
  • The 1969 Northern Ireland Riots ndashThe Troubles Begin
  • Culmination of Tension
  • No-Go Areas
  • No-Go Areas (2)
  • Early 1970sndash The Rise of the Provisional IRA
  • The IRA Split
  • Rise of the UVF and Loyalist Terror Groups
  • Beginnings
  • UVF Statement 21 May 1964
  • The Paramilitaries
  • Irish RepublicansCatholics
  • The Provisional IRA
  • IRA Statement Late 80s
  • Statistics
  • RecruitmentFunding
  • Weaponry
  • Weaponry (2)
  • Slide 32
  • Mortars and IEDs
  • EOD Officer Approaches PIRA Car Bomb
  • The Barrack Buster
  • Vigilantism
  • Slide 37
  • Slide 38
  • Policy on Informants
  • Terrorist Activities
  • Terrorist Activities (continued)
  • The INLA
  • Statistics (2)
  • Ideology
  • Terrorist Activities (2)
  • Internal Feuds
  • Slide 47
  • British LoyalistsProtestants
  • The UDAUFF
  • Former UFF Member
  • Statistics (3)
  • Ideology (2)
  • Terrorist Activities (3)
  • Slide 54
  • Organized Crime
  • The UVF
  • Statistics (4)
  • Ideology (3)
  • Terrorist Activities (4)
  • The Shankhill Butchers
  • Weaponry (3)
  • Slide 62
  • Organized Crime (2)
  • Major Incidents 1969-1998
  • Bloody Sunday 30 January 1972
  • Massacre on the Bogside
  • Bloody Friday 21 July 1972
  • A City Under Siege
  • Dublin and Monaghan Bombings 17 May 1974
  • Deadliest Attack of the Troubles
  • Warrenpoint Ambush 27 August 1979
  • Roadside IEDs
  • Summer of 1981 Irish Hunger Strikes
  • A Defining Moment for the Republican Cause
  • The Five Demands
  • Previous Protests
  • Dirty Protesters
  • Thatcherrsquos Response
  • Ten Strikers Die
  • Bobby Sands
  • Reaction to Sandsrsquo Death
  • Conclusion
  • 1983 The Maze Prison Escape
  • The ldquoGreat Escaperdquo
  • 12 October 1984 Brighton Hotel Bombing
  • The PIRA Nearly Gets Thatcher
  • Loughgall Ambush 8 May 1987
  • The SAS Strikes
  • British Army Lynx Shootdown 20 March 1994
  • The PIRA Shoots Down a Helicopter
  • 1996 Manchester Bombing
  • The PIRA Destroys Manchester
  • Omagh Bombing 1998
  • Last Great Deadly Attack of the Troubles
  • The Good Friday Agreement and Northern Ireland Peace Process
  • Beginnings (2)
  • Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein former PIRA Belfast Brigade OC
  • Good Friday Agreement 1998
  • PM Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern Sign the GFA
  • GFA Mandates
  • Northern Ireland Today
  • Still Conflict But No War
  • Catholic Slum of Ardoyne Belfast July 2011
  • Splinter Groups
  • Herersquos To A Brighter Future in Northern Ireland
  • Works Cited
Page 89: The Troubles, 1969-1998

Good Friday Agreement 1998

bull The Peace Process began in 1994 and included intermittent terrorist ceasefires and political negotiations between the major Irish republican and British unionist parties and culminated on April 10 1998 when the Good Friday Agreement was signed

PM Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern Sign the GFA

GFA Mandatesbull That Northern Ireland was to remain British until a majority of people in Northern

Ireland and the southern Republic of Ireland wanted otherwise bull The creation of an entirely new far less sectarian and religiously diverse Northern

Irish local governmentbull The decommissioning of arms from terrorist groups on both the unionist and

nationalist side of the political divide (ultimately successful all arms decommissioned by 2005)

bull Mutual respect and civil rights between Catholics and Protestants bull The reduction and eventual elimination of British troops in Northern Ireland

(ultimately successful all troops withdrawn by 2005)bull Eventual early prison release for all individuals imprisoned for terrorist offenses as

long as they were apart of a terrorist group that was decommissioning in accordance with the GFA

bull Disbandment of the RUC police service and the installation of the new Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) which was required to be at least 50 Catholic

Northern Ireland Today

Still Conflict But No Warbull Since the complete decommissioning of the arms and

disbandment of the PIRA INLA UDAUFF and UVF due to the Good Friday Agreement there is nowhere near the amount of violence in Northern Ireland or Belfast as there was 20 years ago There are no more weekly bombings and riots and no more British troops patrolling Catholic areas in armored vehicles

bull Despite this there are still occasional riots and clashes with the PSNI several times a year specifically on dates of great historical significance to the Catholic or Protestant communities and there is still a deep distrust and even hatred between many Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland although that continues to change with time

Catholic Slum of Ardoyne Belfast July 2011

Splinter Groups

bull Many former PIRA or UDA terrorists have now taken to organized crime for purely profiteering purposes but are no longer involved in substantial violence or any political-based terrorism

bull Splinter groups such as the Real IRA and Continuity IRA in Catholic communities and the Orange Volunteers and Red Hand Commandos in Protestant communities still conduct occasional violence towards Police and civilians in Northern Ireland but are all rather small poorly armed and poorly funded groups that pose nowhere near the threat that terrorist groups in the 80s and 90s did in Northern Ireland

Herersquos To A Brighter Future in Northern Ireland

Works Citedbull httpwwwbbccoukhistorytroublesbull httpcainulstacukbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiProvisional_Irish_Republican_Armybull httpenwikipediaorgwikiThe_Troublesbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiUlster_Defence_Associationbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiUlster_Volunteer_Forcebull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_National_Liberation_Armybull ldquoA Secret History of the IRArdquo by Ed Moloney ndashWW Norton amp Company Reprint 2003bull ldquoVoices From The Grave Two Menrsquos War in Irelandrdquo by Ed Moloney ndash Public Affairs 2010bull ldquoFifty Dead Men Walkingrdquo by Martin McGartland ndash John Blake 2009bull httpwwwinfopleasecomspotnorthireland1htmlbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_Civil_Warbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_War_of_Independencebull httpenwikipediaorgwiki1981_Irish_hunger_strikebull httpenwikipediaorgwikiDirectory_of_the_Northern_Ireland_Troublesbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiGood_Friday_Agreementbull httpswwwmi5govukhomethe-threatsterrorismnorthern-irelandrepublican-terrorist-groupshtmlbull httpswwwmi5govukhomethe-threatsterrorismnorthern-irelandprovisional-irish-republican-army-

pirahtmlbull httpnewsbbccoukhienglishstaticnorthern_irelandunderstandingeventshunger_strikestm

  • The Troubles
  • Brief Overview
  • 30 Years of Conflict
  • Slide 4
  • Background
  • The Irish War of Independence
  • Slide 7
  • Anglo-Irish Treaty (signed 6 December 1921)
  • Irish Civil War
  • 1922-1966 Ireland
  • The Civil Rights Movement
  • Slide 12
  • Slide 13
  • Objectives of the Civil Rights Movement
  • The 1969 Northern Ireland Riots ndashThe Troubles Begin
  • Culmination of Tension
  • No-Go Areas
  • No-Go Areas (2)
  • Early 1970sndash The Rise of the Provisional IRA
  • The IRA Split
  • Rise of the UVF and Loyalist Terror Groups
  • Beginnings
  • UVF Statement 21 May 1964
  • The Paramilitaries
  • Irish RepublicansCatholics
  • The Provisional IRA
  • IRA Statement Late 80s
  • Statistics
  • RecruitmentFunding
  • Weaponry
  • Weaponry (2)
  • Slide 32
  • Mortars and IEDs
  • EOD Officer Approaches PIRA Car Bomb
  • The Barrack Buster
  • Vigilantism
  • Slide 37
  • Slide 38
  • Policy on Informants
  • Terrorist Activities
  • Terrorist Activities (continued)
  • The INLA
  • Statistics (2)
  • Ideology
  • Terrorist Activities (2)
  • Internal Feuds
  • Slide 47
  • British LoyalistsProtestants
  • The UDAUFF
  • Former UFF Member
  • Statistics (3)
  • Ideology (2)
  • Terrorist Activities (3)
  • Slide 54
  • Organized Crime
  • The UVF
  • Statistics (4)
  • Ideology (3)
  • Terrorist Activities (4)
  • The Shankhill Butchers
  • Weaponry (3)
  • Slide 62
  • Organized Crime (2)
  • Major Incidents 1969-1998
  • Bloody Sunday 30 January 1972
  • Massacre on the Bogside
  • Bloody Friday 21 July 1972
  • A City Under Siege
  • Dublin and Monaghan Bombings 17 May 1974
  • Deadliest Attack of the Troubles
  • Warrenpoint Ambush 27 August 1979
  • Roadside IEDs
  • Summer of 1981 Irish Hunger Strikes
  • A Defining Moment for the Republican Cause
  • The Five Demands
  • Previous Protests
  • Dirty Protesters
  • Thatcherrsquos Response
  • Ten Strikers Die
  • Bobby Sands
  • Reaction to Sandsrsquo Death
  • Conclusion
  • 1983 The Maze Prison Escape
  • The ldquoGreat Escaperdquo
  • 12 October 1984 Brighton Hotel Bombing
  • The PIRA Nearly Gets Thatcher
  • Loughgall Ambush 8 May 1987
  • The SAS Strikes
  • British Army Lynx Shootdown 20 March 1994
  • The PIRA Shoots Down a Helicopter
  • 1996 Manchester Bombing
  • The PIRA Destroys Manchester
  • Omagh Bombing 1998
  • Last Great Deadly Attack of the Troubles
  • The Good Friday Agreement and Northern Ireland Peace Process
  • Beginnings (2)
  • Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein former PIRA Belfast Brigade OC
  • Good Friday Agreement 1998
  • PM Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern Sign the GFA
  • GFA Mandates
  • Northern Ireland Today
  • Still Conflict But No War
  • Catholic Slum of Ardoyne Belfast July 2011
  • Splinter Groups
  • Herersquos To A Brighter Future in Northern Ireland
  • Works Cited
Page 90: The Troubles, 1969-1998

PM Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern Sign the GFA

GFA Mandatesbull That Northern Ireland was to remain British until a majority of people in Northern

Ireland and the southern Republic of Ireland wanted otherwise bull The creation of an entirely new far less sectarian and religiously diverse Northern

Irish local governmentbull The decommissioning of arms from terrorist groups on both the unionist and

nationalist side of the political divide (ultimately successful all arms decommissioned by 2005)

bull Mutual respect and civil rights between Catholics and Protestants bull The reduction and eventual elimination of British troops in Northern Ireland

(ultimately successful all troops withdrawn by 2005)bull Eventual early prison release for all individuals imprisoned for terrorist offenses as

long as they were apart of a terrorist group that was decommissioning in accordance with the GFA

bull Disbandment of the RUC police service and the installation of the new Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) which was required to be at least 50 Catholic

Northern Ireland Today

Still Conflict But No Warbull Since the complete decommissioning of the arms and

disbandment of the PIRA INLA UDAUFF and UVF due to the Good Friday Agreement there is nowhere near the amount of violence in Northern Ireland or Belfast as there was 20 years ago There are no more weekly bombings and riots and no more British troops patrolling Catholic areas in armored vehicles

bull Despite this there are still occasional riots and clashes with the PSNI several times a year specifically on dates of great historical significance to the Catholic or Protestant communities and there is still a deep distrust and even hatred between many Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland although that continues to change with time

Catholic Slum of Ardoyne Belfast July 2011

Splinter Groups

bull Many former PIRA or UDA terrorists have now taken to organized crime for purely profiteering purposes but are no longer involved in substantial violence or any political-based terrorism

bull Splinter groups such as the Real IRA and Continuity IRA in Catholic communities and the Orange Volunteers and Red Hand Commandos in Protestant communities still conduct occasional violence towards Police and civilians in Northern Ireland but are all rather small poorly armed and poorly funded groups that pose nowhere near the threat that terrorist groups in the 80s and 90s did in Northern Ireland

Herersquos To A Brighter Future in Northern Ireland

Works Citedbull httpwwwbbccoukhistorytroublesbull httpcainulstacukbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiProvisional_Irish_Republican_Armybull httpenwikipediaorgwikiThe_Troublesbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiUlster_Defence_Associationbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiUlster_Volunteer_Forcebull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_National_Liberation_Armybull ldquoA Secret History of the IRArdquo by Ed Moloney ndashWW Norton amp Company Reprint 2003bull ldquoVoices From The Grave Two Menrsquos War in Irelandrdquo by Ed Moloney ndash Public Affairs 2010bull ldquoFifty Dead Men Walkingrdquo by Martin McGartland ndash John Blake 2009bull httpwwwinfopleasecomspotnorthireland1htmlbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_Civil_Warbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_War_of_Independencebull httpenwikipediaorgwiki1981_Irish_hunger_strikebull httpenwikipediaorgwikiDirectory_of_the_Northern_Ireland_Troublesbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiGood_Friday_Agreementbull httpswwwmi5govukhomethe-threatsterrorismnorthern-irelandrepublican-terrorist-groupshtmlbull httpswwwmi5govukhomethe-threatsterrorismnorthern-irelandprovisional-irish-republican-army-

pirahtmlbull httpnewsbbccoukhienglishstaticnorthern_irelandunderstandingeventshunger_strikestm

  • The Troubles
  • Brief Overview
  • 30 Years of Conflict
  • Slide 4
  • Background
  • The Irish War of Independence
  • Slide 7
  • Anglo-Irish Treaty (signed 6 December 1921)
  • Irish Civil War
  • 1922-1966 Ireland
  • The Civil Rights Movement
  • Slide 12
  • Slide 13
  • Objectives of the Civil Rights Movement
  • The 1969 Northern Ireland Riots ndashThe Troubles Begin
  • Culmination of Tension
  • No-Go Areas
  • No-Go Areas (2)
  • Early 1970sndash The Rise of the Provisional IRA
  • The IRA Split
  • Rise of the UVF and Loyalist Terror Groups
  • Beginnings
  • UVF Statement 21 May 1964
  • The Paramilitaries
  • Irish RepublicansCatholics
  • The Provisional IRA
  • IRA Statement Late 80s
  • Statistics
  • RecruitmentFunding
  • Weaponry
  • Weaponry (2)
  • Slide 32
  • Mortars and IEDs
  • EOD Officer Approaches PIRA Car Bomb
  • The Barrack Buster
  • Vigilantism
  • Slide 37
  • Slide 38
  • Policy on Informants
  • Terrorist Activities
  • Terrorist Activities (continued)
  • The INLA
  • Statistics (2)
  • Ideology
  • Terrorist Activities (2)
  • Internal Feuds
  • Slide 47
  • British LoyalistsProtestants
  • The UDAUFF
  • Former UFF Member
  • Statistics (3)
  • Ideology (2)
  • Terrorist Activities (3)
  • Slide 54
  • Organized Crime
  • The UVF
  • Statistics (4)
  • Ideology (3)
  • Terrorist Activities (4)
  • The Shankhill Butchers
  • Weaponry (3)
  • Slide 62
  • Organized Crime (2)
  • Major Incidents 1969-1998
  • Bloody Sunday 30 January 1972
  • Massacre on the Bogside
  • Bloody Friday 21 July 1972
  • A City Under Siege
  • Dublin and Monaghan Bombings 17 May 1974
  • Deadliest Attack of the Troubles
  • Warrenpoint Ambush 27 August 1979
  • Roadside IEDs
  • Summer of 1981 Irish Hunger Strikes
  • A Defining Moment for the Republican Cause
  • The Five Demands
  • Previous Protests
  • Dirty Protesters
  • Thatcherrsquos Response
  • Ten Strikers Die
  • Bobby Sands
  • Reaction to Sandsrsquo Death
  • Conclusion
  • 1983 The Maze Prison Escape
  • The ldquoGreat Escaperdquo
  • 12 October 1984 Brighton Hotel Bombing
  • The PIRA Nearly Gets Thatcher
  • Loughgall Ambush 8 May 1987
  • The SAS Strikes
  • British Army Lynx Shootdown 20 March 1994
  • The PIRA Shoots Down a Helicopter
  • 1996 Manchester Bombing
  • The PIRA Destroys Manchester
  • Omagh Bombing 1998
  • Last Great Deadly Attack of the Troubles
  • The Good Friday Agreement and Northern Ireland Peace Process
  • Beginnings (2)
  • Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein former PIRA Belfast Brigade OC
  • Good Friday Agreement 1998
  • PM Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern Sign the GFA
  • GFA Mandates
  • Northern Ireland Today
  • Still Conflict But No War
  • Catholic Slum of Ardoyne Belfast July 2011
  • Splinter Groups
  • Herersquos To A Brighter Future in Northern Ireland
  • Works Cited
Page 91: The Troubles, 1969-1998

GFA Mandatesbull That Northern Ireland was to remain British until a majority of people in Northern

Ireland and the southern Republic of Ireland wanted otherwise bull The creation of an entirely new far less sectarian and religiously diverse Northern

Irish local governmentbull The decommissioning of arms from terrorist groups on both the unionist and

nationalist side of the political divide (ultimately successful all arms decommissioned by 2005)

bull Mutual respect and civil rights between Catholics and Protestants bull The reduction and eventual elimination of British troops in Northern Ireland

(ultimately successful all troops withdrawn by 2005)bull Eventual early prison release for all individuals imprisoned for terrorist offenses as

long as they were apart of a terrorist group that was decommissioning in accordance with the GFA

bull Disbandment of the RUC police service and the installation of the new Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) which was required to be at least 50 Catholic

Northern Ireland Today

Still Conflict But No Warbull Since the complete decommissioning of the arms and

disbandment of the PIRA INLA UDAUFF and UVF due to the Good Friday Agreement there is nowhere near the amount of violence in Northern Ireland or Belfast as there was 20 years ago There are no more weekly bombings and riots and no more British troops patrolling Catholic areas in armored vehicles

bull Despite this there are still occasional riots and clashes with the PSNI several times a year specifically on dates of great historical significance to the Catholic or Protestant communities and there is still a deep distrust and even hatred between many Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland although that continues to change with time

Catholic Slum of Ardoyne Belfast July 2011

Splinter Groups

bull Many former PIRA or UDA terrorists have now taken to organized crime for purely profiteering purposes but are no longer involved in substantial violence or any political-based terrorism

bull Splinter groups such as the Real IRA and Continuity IRA in Catholic communities and the Orange Volunteers and Red Hand Commandos in Protestant communities still conduct occasional violence towards Police and civilians in Northern Ireland but are all rather small poorly armed and poorly funded groups that pose nowhere near the threat that terrorist groups in the 80s and 90s did in Northern Ireland

Herersquos To A Brighter Future in Northern Ireland

Works Citedbull httpwwwbbccoukhistorytroublesbull httpcainulstacukbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiProvisional_Irish_Republican_Armybull httpenwikipediaorgwikiThe_Troublesbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiUlster_Defence_Associationbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiUlster_Volunteer_Forcebull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_National_Liberation_Armybull ldquoA Secret History of the IRArdquo by Ed Moloney ndashWW Norton amp Company Reprint 2003bull ldquoVoices From The Grave Two Menrsquos War in Irelandrdquo by Ed Moloney ndash Public Affairs 2010bull ldquoFifty Dead Men Walkingrdquo by Martin McGartland ndash John Blake 2009bull httpwwwinfopleasecomspotnorthireland1htmlbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_Civil_Warbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_War_of_Independencebull httpenwikipediaorgwiki1981_Irish_hunger_strikebull httpenwikipediaorgwikiDirectory_of_the_Northern_Ireland_Troublesbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiGood_Friday_Agreementbull httpswwwmi5govukhomethe-threatsterrorismnorthern-irelandrepublican-terrorist-groupshtmlbull httpswwwmi5govukhomethe-threatsterrorismnorthern-irelandprovisional-irish-republican-army-

pirahtmlbull httpnewsbbccoukhienglishstaticnorthern_irelandunderstandingeventshunger_strikestm

  • The Troubles
  • Brief Overview
  • 30 Years of Conflict
  • Slide 4
  • Background
  • The Irish War of Independence
  • Slide 7
  • Anglo-Irish Treaty (signed 6 December 1921)
  • Irish Civil War
  • 1922-1966 Ireland
  • The Civil Rights Movement
  • Slide 12
  • Slide 13
  • Objectives of the Civil Rights Movement
  • The 1969 Northern Ireland Riots ndashThe Troubles Begin
  • Culmination of Tension
  • No-Go Areas
  • No-Go Areas (2)
  • Early 1970sndash The Rise of the Provisional IRA
  • The IRA Split
  • Rise of the UVF and Loyalist Terror Groups
  • Beginnings
  • UVF Statement 21 May 1964
  • The Paramilitaries
  • Irish RepublicansCatholics
  • The Provisional IRA
  • IRA Statement Late 80s
  • Statistics
  • RecruitmentFunding
  • Weaponry
  • Weaponry (2)
  • Slide 32
  • Mortars and IEDs
  • EOD Officer Approaches PIRA Car Bomb
  • The Barrack Buster
  • Vigilantism
  • Slide 37
  • Slide 38
  • Policy on Informants
  • Terrorist Activities
  • Terrorist Activities (continued)
  • The INLA
  • Statistics (2)
  • Ideology
  • Terrorist Activities (2)
  • Internal Feuds
  • Slide 47
  • British LoyalistsProtestants
  • The UDAUFF
  • Former UFF Member
  • Statistics (3)
  • Ideology (2)
  • Terrorist Activities (3)
  • Slide 54
  • Organized Crime
  • The UVF
  • Statistics (4)
  • Ideology (3)
  • Terrorist Activities (4)
  • The Shankhill Butchers
  • Weaponry (3)
  • Slide 62
  • Organized Crime (2)
  • Major Incidents 1969-1998
  • Bloody Sunday 30 January 1972
  • Massacre on the Bogside
  • Bloody Friday 21 July 1972
  • A City Under Siege
  • Dublin and Monaghan Bombings 17 May 1974
  • Deadliest Attack of the Troubles
  • Warrenpoint Ambush 27 August 1979
  • Roadside IEDs
  • Summer of 1981 Irish Hunger Strikes
  • A Defining Moment for the Republican Cause
  • The Five Demands
  • Previous Protests
  • Dirty Protesters
  • Thatcherrsquos Response
  • Ten Strikers Die
  • Bobby Sands
  • Reaction to Sandsrsquo Death
  • Conclusion
  • 1983 The Maze Prison Escape
  • The ldquoGreat Escaperdquo
  • 12 October 1984 Brighton Hotel Bombing
  • The PIRA Nearly Gets Thatcher
  • Loughgall Ambush 8 May 1987
  • The SAS Strikes
  • British Army Lynx Shootdown 20 March 1994
  • The PIRA Shoots Down a Helicopter
  • 1996 Manchester Bombing
  • The PIRA Destroys Manchester
  • Omagh Bombing 1998
  • Last Great Deadly Attack of the Troubles
  • The Good Friday Agreement and Northern Ireland Peace Process
  • Beginnings (2)
  • Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein former PIRA Belfast Brigade OC
  • Good Friday Agreement 1998
  • PM Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern Sign the GFA
  • GFA Mandates
  • Northern Ireland Today
  • Still Conflict But No War
  • Catholic Slum of Ardoyne Belfast July 2011
  • Splinter Groups
  • Herersquos To A Brighter Future in Northern Ireland
  • Works Cited
Page 92: The Troubles, 1969-1998

Northern Ireland Today

Still Conflict But No Warbull Since the complete decommissioning of the arms and

disbandment of the PIRA INLA UDAUFF and UVF due to the Good Friday Agreement there is nowhere near the amount of violence in Northern Ireland or Belfast as there was 20 years ago There are no more weekly bombings and riots and no more British troops patrolling Catholic areas in armored vehicles

bull Despite this there are still occasional riots and clashes with the PSNI several times a year specifically on dates of great historical significance to the Catholic or Protestant communities and there is still a deep distrust and even hatred between many Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland although that continues to change with time

Catholic Slum of Ardoyne Belfast July 2011

Splinter Groups

bull Many former PIRA or UDA terrorists have now taken to organized crime for purely profiteering purposes but are no longer involved in substantial violence or any political-based terrorism

bull Splinter groups such as the Real IRA and Continuity IRA in Catholic communities and the Orange Volunteers and Red Hand Commandos in Protestant communities still conduct occasional violence towards Police and civilians in Northern Ireland but are all rather small poorly armed and poorly funded groups that pose nowhere near the threat that terrorist groups in the 80s and 90s did in Northern Ireland

Herersquos To A Brighter Future in Northern Ireland

Works Citedbull httpwwwbbccoukhistorytroublesbull httpcainulstacukbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiProvisional_Irish_Republican_Armybull httpenwikipediaorgwikiThe_Troublesbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiUlster_Defence_Associationbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiUlster_Volunteer_Forcebull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_National_Liberation_Armybull ldquoA Secret History of the IRArdquo by Ed Moloney ndashWW Norton amp Company Reprint 2003bull ldquoVoices From The Grave Two Menrsquos War in Irelandrdquo by Ed Moloney ndash Public Affairs 2010bull ldquoFifty Dead Men Walkingrdquo by Martin McGartland ndash John Blake 2009bull httpwwwinfopleasecomspotnorthireland1htmlbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_Civil_Warbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_War_of_Independencebull httpenwikipediaorgwiki1981_Irish_hunger_strikebull httpenwikipediaorgwikiDirectory_of_the_Northern_Ireland_Troublesbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiGood_Friday_Agreementbull httpswwwmi5govukhomethe-threatsterrorismnorthern-irelandrepublican-terrorist-groupshtmlbull httpswwwmi5govukhomethe-threatsterrorismnorthern-irelandprovisional-irish-republican-army-

pirahtmlbull httpnewsbbccoukhienglishstaticnorthern_irelandunderstandingeventshunger_strikestm

  • The Troubles
  • Brief Overview
  • 30 Years of Conflict
  • Slide 4
  • Background
  • The Irish War of Independence
  • Slide 7
  • Anglo-Irish Treaty (signed 6 December 1921)
  • Irish Civil War
  • 1922-1966 Ireland
  • The Civil Rights Movement
  • Slide 12
  • Slide 13
  • Objectives of the Civil Rights Movement
  • The 1969 Northern Ireland Riots ndashThe Troubles Begin
  • Culmination of Tension
  • No-Go Areas
  • No-Go Areas (2)
  • Early 1970sndash The Rise of the Provisional IRA
  • The IRA Split
  • Rise of the UVF and Loyalist Terror Groups
  • Beginnings
  • UVF Statement 21 May 1964
  • The Paramilitaries
  • Irish RepublicansCatholics
  • The Provisional IRA
  • IRA Statement Late 80s
  • Statistics
  • RecruitmentFunding
  • Weaponry
  • Weaponry (2)
  • Slide 32
  • Mortars and IEDs
  • EOD Officer Approaches PIRA Car Bomb
  • The Barrack Buster
  • Vigilantism
  • Slide 37
  • Slide 38
  • Policy on Informants
  • Terrorist Activities
  • Terrorist Activities (continued)
  • The INLA
  • Statistics (2)
  • Ideology
  • Terrorist Activities (2)
  • Internal Feuds
  • Slide 47
  • British LoyalistsProtestants
  • The UDAUFF
  • Former UFF Member
  • Statistics (3)
  • Ideology (2)
  • Terrorist Activities (3)
  • Slide 54
  • Organized Crime
  • The UVF
  • Statistics (4)
  • Ideology (3)
  • Terrorist Activities (4)
  • The Shankhill Butchers
  • Weaponry (3)
  • Slide 62
  • Organized Crime (2)
  • Major Incidents 1969-1998
  • Bloody Sunday 30 January 1972
  • Massacre on the Bogside
  • Bloody Friday 21 July 1972
  • A City Under Siege
  • Dublin and Monaghan Bombings 17 May 1974
  • Deadliest Attack of the Troubles
  • Warrenpoint Ambush 27 August 1979
  • Roadside IEDs
  • Summer of 1981 Irish Hunger Strikes
  • A Defining Moment for the Republican Cause
  • The Five Demands
  • Previous Protests
  • Dirty Protesters
  • Thatcherrsquos Response
  • Ten Strikers Die
  • Bobby Sands
  • Reaction to Sandsrsquo Death
  • Conclusion
  • 1983 The Maze Prison Escape
  • The ldquoGreat Escaperdquo
  • 12 October 1984 Brighton Hotel Bombing
  • The PIRA Nearly Gets Thatcher
  • Loughgall Ambush 8 May 1987
  • The SAS Strikes
  • British Army Lynx Shootdown 20 March 1994
  • The PIRA Shoots Down a Helicopter
  • 1996 Manchester Bombing
  • The PIRA Destroys Manchester
  • Omagh Bombing 1998
  • Last Great Deadly Attack of the Troubles
  • The Good Friday Agreement and Northern Ireland Peace Process
  • Beginnings (2)
  • Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein former PIRA Belfast Brigade OC
  • Good Friday Agreement 1998
  • PM Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern Sign the GFA
  • GFA Mandates
  • Northern Ireland Today
  • Still Conflict But No War
  • Catholic Slum of Ardoyne Belfast July 2011
  • Splinter Groups
  • Herersquos To A Brighter Future in Northern Ireland
  • Works Cited
Page 93: The Troubles, 1969-1998

Still Conflict But No Warbull Since the complete decommissioning of the arms and

disbandment of the PIRA INLA UDAUFF and UVF due to the Good Friday Agreement there is nowhere near the amount of violence in Northern Ireland or Belfast as there was 20 years ago There are no more weekly bombings and riots and no more British troops patrolling Catholic areas in armored vehicles

bull Despite this there are still occasional riots and clashes with the PSNI several times a year specifically on dates of great historical significance to the Catholic or Protestant communities and there is still a deep distrust and even hatred between many Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland although that continues to change with time

Catholic Slum of Ardoyne Belfast July 2011

Splinter Groups

bull Many former PIRA or UDA terrorists have now taken to organized crime for purely profiteering purposes but are no longer involved in substantial violence or any political-based terrorism

bull Splinter groups such as the Real IRA and Continuity IRA in Catholic communities and the Orange Volunteers and Red Hand Commandos in Protestant communities still conduct occasional violence towards Police and civilians in Northern Ireland but are all rather small poorly armed and poorly funded groups that pose nowhere near the threat that terrorist groups in the 80s and 90s did in Northern Ireland

Herersquos To A Brighter Future in Northern Ireland

Works Citedbull httpwwwbbccoukhistorytroublesbull httpcainulstacukbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiProvisional_Irish_Republican_Armybull httpenwikipediaorgwikiThe_Troublesbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiUlster_Defence_Associationbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiUlster_Volunteer_Forcebull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_National_Liberation_Armybull ldquoA Secret History of the IRArdquo by Ed Moloney ndashWW Norton amp Company Reprint 2003bull ldquoVoices From The Grave Two Menrsquos War in Irelandrdquo by Ed Moloney ndash Public Affairs 2010bull ldquoFifty Dead Men Walkingrdquo by Martin McGartland ndash John Blake 2009bull httpwwwinfopleasecomspotnorthireland1htmlbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_Civil_Warbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_War_of_Independencebull httpenwikipediaorgwiki1981_Irish_hunger_strikebull httpenwikipediaorgwikiDirectory_of_the_Northern_Ireland_Troublesbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiGood_Friday_Agreementbull httpswwwmi5govukhomethe-threatsterrorismnorthern-irelandrepublican-terrorist-groupshtmlbull httpswwwmi5govukhomethe-threatsterrorismnorthern-irelandprovisional-irish-republican-army-

pirahtmlbull httpnewsbbccoukhienglishstaticnorthern_irelandunderstandingeventshunger_strikestm

  • The Troubles
  • Brief Overview
  • 30 Years of Conflict
  • Slide 4
  • Background
  • The Irish War of Independence
  • Slide 7
  • Anglo-Irish Treaty (signed 6 December 1921)
  • Irish Civil War
  • 1922-1966 Ireland
  • The Civil Rights Movement
  • Slide 12
  • Slide 13
  • Objectives of the Civil Rights Movement
  • The 1969 Northern Ireland Riots ndashThe Troubles Begin
  • Culmination of Tension
  • No-Go Areas
  • No-Go Areas (2)
  • Early 1970sndash The Rise of the Provisional IRA
  • The IRA Split
  • Rise of the UVF and Loyalist Terror Groups
  • Beginnings
  • UVF Statement 21 May 1964
  • The Paramilitaries
  • Irish RepublicansCatholics
  • The Provisional IRA
  • IRA Statement Late 80s
  • Statistics
  • RecruitmentFunding
  • Weaponry
  • Weaponry (2)
  • Slide 32
  • Mortars and IEDs
  • EOD Officer Approaches PIRA Car Bomb
  • The Barrack Buster
  • Vigilantism
  • Slide 37
  • Slide 38
  • Policy on Informants
  • Terrorist Activities
  • Terrorist Activities (continued)
  • The INLA
  • Statistics (2)
  • Ideology
  • Terrorist Activities (2)
  • Internal Feuds
  • Slide 47
  • British LoyalistsProtestants
  • The UDAUFF
  • Former UFF Member
  • Statistics (3)
  • Ideology (2)
  • Terrorist Activities (3)
  • Slide 54
  • Organized Crime
  • The UVF
  • Statistics (4)
  • Ideology (3)
  • Terrorist Activities (4)
  • The Shankhill Butchers
  • Weaponry (3)
  • Slide 62
  • Organized Crime (2)
  • Major Incidents 1969-1998
  • Bloody Sunday 30 January 1972
  • Massacre on the Bogside
  • Bloody Friday 21 July 1972
  • A City Under Siege
  • Dublin and Monaghan Bombings 17 May 1974
  • Deadliest Attack of the Troubles
  • Warrenpoint Ambush 27 August 1979
  • Roadside IEDs
  • Summer of 1981 Irish Hunger Strikes
  • A Defining Moment for the Republican Cause
  • The Five Demands
  • Previous Protests
  • Dirty Protesters
  • Thatcherrsquos Response
  • Ten Strikers Die
  • Bobby Sands
  • Reaction to Sandsrsquo Death
  • Conclusion
  • 1983 The Maze Prison Escape
  • The ldquoGreat Escaperdquo
  • 12 October 1984 Brighton Hotel Bombing
  • The PIRA Nearly Gets Thatcher
  • Loughgall Ambush 8 May 1987
  • The SAS Strikes
  • British Army Lynx Shootdown 20 March 1994
  • The PIRA Shoots Down a Helicopter
  • 1996 Manchester Bombing
  • The PIRA Destroys Manchester
  • Omagh Bombing 1998
  • Last Great Deadly Attack of the Troubles
  • The Good Friday Agreement and Northern Ireland Peace Process
  • Beginnings (2)
  • Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein former PIRA Belfast Brigade OC
  • Good Friday Agreement 1998
  • PM Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern Sign the GFA
  • GFA Mandates
  • Northern Ireland Today
  • Still Conflict But No War
  • Catholic Slum of Ardoyne Belfast July 2011
  • Splinter Groups
  • Herersquos To A Brighter Future in Northern Ireland
  • Works Cited
Page 94: The Troubles, 1969-1998

Catholic Slum of Ardoyne Belfast July 2011

Splinter Groups

bull Many former PIRA or UDA terrorists have now taken to organized crime for purely profiteering purposes but are no longer involved in substantial violence or any political-based terrorism

bull Splinter groups such as the Real IRA and Continuity IRA in Catholic communities and the Orange Volunteers and Red Hand Commandos in Protestant communities still conduct occasional violence towards Police and civilians in Northern Ireland but are all rather small poorly armed and poorly funded groups that pose nowhere near the threat that terrorist groups in the 80s and 90s did in Northern Ireland

Herersquos To A Brighter Future in Northern Ireland

Works Citedbull httpwwwbbccoukhistorytroublesbull httpcainulstacukbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiProvisional_Irish_Republican_Armybull httpenwikipediaorgwikiThe_Troublesbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiUlster_Defence_Associationbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiUlster_Volunteer_Forcebull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_National_Liberation_Armybull ldquoA Secret History of the IRArdquo by Ed Moloney ndashWW Norton amp Company Reprint 2003bull ldquoVoices From The Grave Two Menrsquos War in Irelandrdquo by Ed Moloney ndash Public Affairs 2010bull ldquoFifty Dead Men Walkingrdquo by Martin McGartland ndash John Blake 2009bull httpwwwinfopleasecomspotnorthireland1htmlbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_Civil_Warbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_War_of_Independencebull httpenwikipediaorgwiki1981_Irish_hunger_strikebull httpenwikipediaorgwikiDirectory_of_the_Northern_Ireland_Troublesbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiGood_Friday_Agreementbull httpswwwmi5govukhomethe-threatsterrorismnorthern-irelandrepublican-terrorist-groupshtmlbull httpswwwmi5govukhomethe-threatsterrorismnorthern-irelandprovisional-irish-republican-army-

pirahtmlbull httpnewsbbccoukhienglishstaticnorthern_irelandunderstandingeventshunger_strikestm

  • The Troubles
  • Brief Overview
  • 30 Years of Conflict
  • Slide 4
  • Background
  • The Irish War of Independence
  • Slide 7
  • Anglo-Irish Treaty (signed 6 December 1921)
  • Irish Civil War
  • 1922-1966 Ireland
  • The Civil Rights Movement
  • Slide 12
  • Slide 13
  • Objectives of the Civil Rights Movement
  • The 1969 Northern Ireland Riots ndashThe Troubles Begin
  • Culmination of Tension
  • No-Go Areas
  • No-Go Areas (2)
  • Early 1970sndash The Rise of the Provisional IRA
  • The IRA Split
  • Rise of the UVF and Loyalist Terror Groups
  • Beginnings
  • UVF Statement 21 May 1964
  • The Paramilitaries
  • Irish RepublicansCatholics
  • The Provisional IRA
  • IRA Statement Late 80s
  • Statistics
  • RecruitmentFunding
  • Weaponry
  • Weaponry (2)
  • Slide 32
  • Mortars and IEDs
  • EOD Officer Approaches PIRA Car Bomb
  • The Barrack Buster
  • Vigilantism
  • Slide 37
  • Slide 38
  • Policy on Informants
  • Terrorist Activities
  • Terrorist Activities (continued)
  • The INLA
  • Statistics (2)
  • Ideology
  • Terrorist Activities (2)
  • Internal Feuds
  • Slide 47
  • British LoyalistsProtestants
  • The UDAUFF
  • Former UFF Member
  • Statistics (3)
  • Ideology (2)
  • Terrorist Activities (3)
  • Slide 54
  • Organized Crime
  • The UVF
  • Statistics (4)
  • Ideology (3)
  • Terrorist Activities (4)
  • The Shankhill Butchers
  • Weaponry (3)
  • Slide 62
  • Organized Crime (2)
  • Major Incidents 1969-1998
  • Bloody Sunday 30 January 1972
  • Massacre on the Bogside
  • Bloody Friday 21 July 1972
  • A City Under Siege
  • Dublin and Monaghan Bombings 17 May 1974
  • Deadliest Attack of the Troubles
  • Warrenpoint Ambush 27 August 1979
  • Roadside IEDs
  • Summer of 1981 Irish Hunger Strikes
  • A Defining Moment for the Republican Cause
  • The Five Demands
  • Previous Protests
  • Dirty Protesters
  • Thatcherrsquos Response
  • Ten Strikers Die
  • Bobby Sands
  • Reaction to Sandsrsquo Death
  • Conclusion
  • 1983 The Maze Prison Escape
  • The ldquoGreat Escaperdquo
  • 12 October 1984 Brighton Hotel Bombing
  • The PIRA Nearly Gets Thatcher
  • Loughgall Ambush 8 May 1987
  • The SAS Strikes
  • British Army Lynx Shootdown 20 March 1994
  • The PIRA Shoots Down a Helicopter
  • 1996 Manchester Bombing
  • The PIRA Destroys Manchester
  • Omagh Bombing 1998
  • Last Great Deadly Attack of the Troubles
  • The Good Friday Agreement and Northern Ireland Peace Process
  • Beginnings (2)
  • Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein former PIRA Belfast Brigade OC
  • Good Friday Agreement 1998
  • PM Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern Sign the GFA
  • GFA Mandates
  • Northern Ireland Today
  • Still Conflict But No War
  • Catholic Slum of Ardoyne Belfast July 2011
  • Splinter Groups
  • Herersquos To A Brighter Future in Northern Ireland
  • Works Cited
Page 95: The Troubles, 1969-1998

Splinter Groups

bull Many former PIRA or UDA terrorists have now taken to organized crime for purely profiteering purposes but are no longer involved in substantial violence or any political-based terrorism

bull Splinter groups such as the Real IRA and Continuity IRA in Catholic communities and the Orange Volunteers and Red Hand Commandos in Protestant communities still conduct occasional violence towards Police and civilians in Northern Ireland but are all rather small poorly armed and poorly funded groups that pose nowhere near the threat that terrorist groups in the 80s and 90s did in Northern Ireland

Herersquos To A Brighter Future in Northern Ireland

Works Citedbull httpwwwbbccoukhistorytroublesbull httpcainulstacukbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiProvisional_Irish_Republican_Armybull httpenwikipediaorgwikiThe_Troublesbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiUlster_Defence_Associationbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiUlster_Volunteer_Forcebull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_National_Liberation_Armybull ldquoA Secret History of the IRArdquo by Ed Moloney ndashWW Norton amp Company Reprint 2003bull ldquoVoices From The Grave Two Menrsquos War in Irelandrdquo by Ed Moloney ndash Public Affairs 2010bull ldquoFifty Dead Men Walkingrdquo by Martin McGartland ndash John Blake 2009bull httpwwwinfopleasecomspotnorthireland1htmlbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_Civil_Warbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_War_of_Independencebull httpenwikipediaorgwiki1981_Irish_hunger_strikebull httpenwikipediaorgwikiDirectory_of_the_Northern_Ireland_Troublesbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiGood_Friday_Agreementbull httpswwwmi5govukhomethe-threatsterrorismnorthern-irelandrepublican-terrorist-groupshtmlbull httpswwwmi5govukhomethe-threatsterrorismnorthern-irelandprovisional-irish-republican-army-

pirahtmlbull httpnewsbbccoukhienglishstaticnorthern_irelandunderstandingeventshunger_strikestm

  • The Troubles
  • Brief Overview
  • 30 Years of Conflict
  • Slide 4
  • Background
  • The Irish War of Independence
  • Slide 7
  • Anglo-Irish Treaty (signed 6 December 1921)
  • Irish Civil War
  • 1922-1966 Ireland
  • The Civil Rights Movement
  • Slide 12
  • Slide 13
  • Objectives of the Civil Rights Movement
  • The 1969 Northern Ireland Riots ndashThe Troubles Begin
  • Culmination of Tension
  • No-Go Areas
  • No-Go Areas (2)
  • Early 1970sndash The Rise of the Provisional IRA
  • The IRA Split
  • Rise of the UVF and Loyalist Terror Groups
  • Beginnings
  • UVF Statement 21 May 1964
  • The Paramilitaries
  • Irish RepublicansCatholics
  • The Provisional IRA
  • IRA Statement Late 80s
  • Statistics
  • RecruitmentFunding
  • Weaponry
  • Weaponry (2)
  • Slide 32
  • Mortars and IEDs
  • EOD Officer Approaches PIRA Car Bomb
  • The Barrack Buster
  • Vigilantism
  • Slide 37
  • Slide 38
  • Policy on Informants
  • Terrorist Activities
  • Terrorist Activities (continued)
  • The INLA
  • Statistics (2)
  • Ideology
  • Terrorist Activities (2)
  • Internal Feuds
  • Slide 47
  • British LoyalistsProtestants
  • The UDAUFF
  • Former UFF Member
  • Statistics (3)
  • Ideology (2)
  • Terrorist Activities (3)
  • Slide 54
  • Organized Crime
  • The UVF
  • Statistics (4)
  • Ideology (3)
  • Terrorist Activities (4)
  • The Shankhill Butchers
  • Weaponry (3)
  • Slide 62
  • Organized Crime (2)
  • Major Incidents 1969-1998
  • Bloody Sunday 30 January 1972
  • Massacre on the Bogside
  • Bloody Friday 21 July 1972
  • A City Under Siege
  • Dublin and Monaghan Bombings 17 May 1974
  • Deadliest Attack of the Troubles
  • Warrenpoint Ambush 27 August 1979
  • Roadside IEDs
  • Summer of 1981 Irish Hunger Strikes
  • A Defining Moment for the Republican Cause
  • The Five Demands
  • Previous Protests
  • Dirty Protesters
  • Thatcherrsquos Response
  • Ten Strikers Die
  • Bobby Sands
  • Reaction to Sandsrsquo Death
  • Conclusion
  • 1983 The Maze Prison Escape
  • The ldquoGreat Escaperdquo
  • 12 October 1984 Brighton Hotel Bombing
  • The PIRA Nearly Gets Thatcher
  • Loughgall Ambush 8 May 1987
  • The SAS Strikes
  • British Army Lynx Shootdown 20 March 1994
  • The PIRA Shoots Down a Helicopter
  • 1996 Manchester Bombing
  • The PIRA Destroys Manchester
  • Omagh Bombing 1998
  • Last Great Deadly Attack of the Troubles
  • The Good Friday Agreement and Northern Ireland Peace Process
  • Beginnings (2)
  • Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein former PIRA Belfast Brigade OC
  • Good Friday Agreement 1998
  • PM Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern Sign the GFA
  • GFA Mandates
  • Northern Ireland Today
  • Still Conflict But No War
  • Catholic Slum of Ardoyne Belfast July 2011
  • Splinter Groups
  • Herersquos To A Brighter Future in Northern Ireland
  • Works Cited
Page 96: The Troubles, 1969-1998

Herersquos To A Brighter Future in Northern Ireland

Works Citedbull httpwwwbbccoukhistorytroublesbull httpcainulstacukbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiProvisional_Irish_Republican_Armybull httpenwikipediaorgwikiThe_Troublesbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiUlster_Defence_Associationbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiUlster_Volunteer_Forcebull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_National_Liberation_Armybull ldquoA Secret History of the IRArdquo by Ed Moloney ndashWW Norton amp Company Reprint 2003bull ldquoVoices From The Grave Two Menrsquos War in Irelandrdquo by Ed Moloney ndash Public Affairs 2010bull ldquoFifty Dead Men Walkingrdquo by Martin McGartland ndash John Blake 2009bull httpwwwinfopleasecomspotnorthireland1htmlbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_Civil_Warbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_War_of_Independencebull httpenwikipediaorgwiki1981_Irish_hunger_strikebull httpenwikipediaorgwikiDirectory_of_the_Northern_Ireland_Troublesbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiGood_Friday_Agreementbull httpswwwmi5govukhomethe-threatsterrorismnorthern-irelandrepublican-terrorist-groupshtmlbull httpswwwmi5govukhomethe-threatsterrorismnorthern-irelandprovisional-irish-republican-army-

pirahtmlbull httpnewsbbccoukhienglishstaticnorthern_irelandunderstandingeventshunger_strikestm

  • The Troubles
  • Brief Overview
  • 30 Years of Conflict
  • Slide 4
  • Background
  • The Irish War of Independence
  • Slide 7
  • Anglo-Irish Treaty (signed 6 December 1921)
  • Irish Civil War
  • 1922-1966 Ireland
  • The Civil Rights Movement
  • Slide 12
  • Slide 13
  • Objectives of the Civil Rights Movement
  • The 1969 Northern Ireland Riots ndashThe Troubles Begin
  • Culmination of Tension
  • No-Go Areas
  • No-Go Areas (2)
  • Early 1970sndash The Rise of the Provisional IRA
  • The IRA Split
  • Rise of the UVF and Loyalist Terror Groups
  • Beginnings
  • UVF Statement 21 May 1964
  • The Paramilitaries
  • Irish RepublicansCatholics
  • The Provisional IRA
  • IRA Statement Late 80s
  • Statistics
  • RecruitmentFunding
  • Weaponry
  • Weaponry (2)
  • Slide 32
  • Mortars and IEDs
  • EOD Officer Approaches PIRA Car Bomb
  • The Barrack Buster
  • Vigilantism
  • Slide 37
  • Slide 38
  • Policy on Informants
  • Terrorist Activities
  • Terrorist Activities (continued)
  • The INLA
  • Statistics (2)
  • Ideology
  • Terrorist Activities (2)
  • Internal Feuds
  • Slide 47
  • British LoyalistsProtestants
  • The UDAUFF
  • Former UFF Member
  • Statistics (3)
  • Ideology (2)
  • Terrorist Activities (3)
  • Slide 54
  • Organized Crime
  • The UVF
  • Statistics (4)
  • Ideology (3)
  • Terrorist Activities (4)
  • The Shankhill Butchers
  • Weaponry (3)
  • Slide 62
  • Organized Crime (2)
  • Major Incidents 1969-1998
  • Bloody Sunday 30 January 1972
  • Massacre on the Bogside
  • Bloody Friday 21 July 1972
  • A City Under Siege
  • Dublin and Monaghan Bombings 17 May 1974
  • Deadliest Attack of the Troubles
  • Warrenpoint Ambush 27 August 1979
  • Roadside IEDs
  • Summer of 1981 Irish Hunger Strikes
  • A Defining Moment for the Republican Cause
  • The Five Demands
  • Previous Protests
  • Dirty Protesters
  • Thatcherrsquos Response
  • Ten Strikers Die
  • Bobby Sands
  • Reaction to Sandsrsquo Death
  • Conclusion
  • 1983 The Maze Prison Escape
  • The ldquoGreat Escaperdquo
  • 12 October 1984 Brighton Hotel Bombing
  • The PIRA Nearly Gets Thatcher
  • Loughgall Ambush 8 May 1987
  • The SAS Strikes
  • British Army Lynx Shootdown 20 March 1994
  • The PIRA Shoots Down a Helicopter
  • 1996 Manchester Bombing
  • The PIRA Destroys Manchester
  • Omagh Bombing 1998
  • Last Great Deadly Attack of the Troubles
  • The Good Friday Agreement and Northern Ireland Peace Process
  • Beginnings (2)
  • Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein former PIRA Belfast Brigade OC
  • Good Friday Agreement 1998
  • PM Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern Sign the GFA
  • GFA Mandates
  • Northern Ireland Today
  • Still Conflict But No War
  • Catholic Slum of Ardoyne Belfast July 2011
  • Splinter Groups
  • Herersquos To A Brighter Future in Northern Ireland
  • Works Cited
Page 97: The Troubles, 1969-1998

Works Citedbull httpwwwbbccoukhistorytroublesbull httpcainulstacukbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiProvisional_Irish_Republican_Armybull httpenwikipediaorgwikiThe_Troublesbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiUlster_Defence_Associationbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiUlster_Volunteer_Forcebull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_National_Liberation_Armybull ldquoA Secret History of the IRArdquo by Ed Moloney ndashWW Norton amp Company Reprint 2003bull ldquoVoices From The Grave Two Menrsquos War in Irelandrdquo by Ed Moloney ndash Public Affairs 2010bull ldquoFifty Dead Men Walkingrdquo by Martin McGartland ndash John Blake 2009bull httpwwwinfopleasecomspotnorthireland1htmlbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_Civil_Warbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiIrish_War_of_Independencebull httpenwikipediaorgwiki1981_Irish_hunger_strikebull httpenwikipediaorgwikiDirectory_of_the_Northern_Ireland_Troublesbull httpenwikipediaorgwikiGood_Friday_Agreementbull httpswwwmi5govukhomethe-threatsterrorismnorthern-irelandrepublican-terrorist-groupshtmlbull httpswwwmi5govukhomethe-threatsterrorismnorthern-irelandprovisional-irish-republican-army-

pirahtmlbull httpnewsbbccoukhienglishstaticnorthern_irelandunderstandingeventshunger_strikestm

  • The Troubles
  • Brief Overview
  • 30 Years of Conflict
  • Slide 4
  • Background
  • The Irish War of Independence
  • Slide 7
  • Anglo-Irish Treaty (signed 6 December 1921)
  • Irish Civil War
  • 1922-1966 Ireland
  • The Civil Rights Movement
  • Slide 12
  • Slide 13
  • Objectives of the Civil Rights Movement
  • The 1969 Northern Ireland Riots ndashThe Troubles Begin
  • Culmination of Tension
  • No-Go Areas
  • No-Go Areas (2)
  • Early 1970sndash The Rise of the Provisional IRA
  • The IRA Split
  • Rise of the UVF and Loyalist Terror Groups
  • Beginnings
  • UVF Statement 21 May 1964
  • The Paramilitaries
  • Irish RepublicansCatholics
  • The Provisional IRA
  • IRA Statement Late 80s
  • Statistics
  • RecruitmentFunding
  • Weaponry
  • Weaponry (2)
  • Slide 32
  • Mortars and IEDs
  • EOD Officer Approaches PIRA Car Bomb
  • The Barrack Buster
  • Vigilantism
  • Slide 37
  • Slide 38
  • Policy on Informants
  • Terrorist Activities
  • Terrorist Activities (continued)
  • The INLA
  • Statistics (2)
  • Ideology
  • Terrorist Activities (2)
  • Internal Feuds
  • Slide 47
  • British LoyalistsProtestants
  • The UDAUFF
  • Former UFF Member
  • Statistics (3)
  • Ideology (2)
  • Terrorist Activities (3)
  • Slide 54
  • Organized Crime
  • The UVF
  • Statistics (4)
  • Ideology (3)
  • Terrorist Activities (4)
  • The Shankhill Butchers
  • Weaponry (3)
  • Slide 62
  • Organized Crime (2)
  • Major Incidents 1969-1998
  • Bloody Sunday 30 January 1972
  • Massacre on the Bogside
  • Bloody Friday 21 July 1972
  • A City Under Siege
  • Dublin and Monaghan Bombings 17 May 1974
  • Deadliest Attack of the Troubles
  • Warrenpoint Ambush 27 August 1979
  • Roadside IEDs
  • Summer of 1981 Irish Hunger Strikes
  • A Defining Moment for the Republican Cause
  • The Five Demands
  • Previous Protests
  • Dirty Protesters
  • Thatcherrsquos Response
  • Ten Strikers Die
  • Bobby Sands
  • Reaction to Sandsrsquo Death
  • Conclusion
  • 1983 The Maze Prison Escape
  • The ldquoGreat Escaperdquo
  • 12 October 1984 Brighton Hotel Bombing
  • The PIRA Nearly Gets Thatcher
  • Loughgall Ambush 8 May 1987
  • The SAS Strikes
  • British Army Lynx Shootdown 20 March 1994
  • The PIRA Shoots Down a Helicopter
  • 1996 Manchester Bombing
  • The PIRA Destroys Manchester
  • Omagh Bombing 1998
  • Last Great Deadly Attack of the Troubles
  • The Good Friday Agreement and Northern Ireland Peace Process
  • Beginnings (2)
  • Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein former PIRA Belfast Brigade OC
  • Good Friday Agreement 1998
  • PM Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern Sign the GFA
  • GFA Mandates
  • Northern Ireland Today
  • Still Conflict But No War
  • Catholic Slum of Ardoyne Belfast July 2011
  • Splinter Groups
  • Herersquos To A Brighter Future in Northern Ireland
  • Works Cited