"The Troubles" in Northern Ireland

“The Troubles”

Terrorism, Civil War and Peace in Northern Ireland

Timeline

• 1886-1912: Three Home Rule bills – all defeated • 1905: Sinn Fein (political party) formed • 1913: Ulster Volunteer Force formed • 24-29 April 1916: Easter Rising and Irish Republican Army ( IRA ) formed • May 1916: Easter Rising rebels executed • December 1916: Irish Free State Treaty ( partition ) • 1922: Irish Civil War • 21 December 1948: Creation of Republic of Ireland

“The Troubles” Timeline • Jan 1967: N. Ireland Civil Rights Association Formed • 1968: Civil Rights Protests • Dec 1969: IRA splits into Official IRA (Marxist) and Provisional IRA (hard-line) • 1971: Internments and protests • 30 Jan 1972: Bloody Sunday • 1972: Direct Rule imposed. (N. Ireland gov’t suspended) • 29 Nov 1974: Prevention of Terrorism Act • 1980s: Hunger Strikes and Blanket Men • 15 Dec 1993: Downing Street Declaration • 1996: Peace Talks (ultimately failed) • 10 Apr 1998: Belfast (Good Friday) Agreement • 8 May 2007: Home Rule returned to Northern Ireland Milltown Cemetery Attack

16 March 2008 “Bloody Sunday” by U2 Drummer Mullen said of the song in 1983: “We're into the politics of people, we're not into politics. Like you talk about Northern Ireland, 'Sunday Bloody Sunday,' people sort of think, 'Oh, that time when 13 Catholics were shot by British soldiers'; that's not what the song is about. That's an incident, the most famous incident in Northern Ireland and it's the strongest way of saying, 'How long? How long do we have to put up with this?' I don't care who's who - Catholics, Protestants, whatever. You know people are dying every single day through bitterness and hate, and we're saying why? What's the point?”