Northern Ireland has suffered from three decades of violence between the Catholic-Republican and Protestant-Unionist communities that ended the Good Friday Agreement signed 23 years ago.
The Protestant majority of the British province advocated remaining part of the United Kingdom, while the Catholics wanted reunification with the Republic of Ireland.
The following is a summary of the conflict, known as “The Troubles”, in which more than 3,500 people died.
– The beginning –
Violence erupts in 1968 when police forcefully repress a peaceful republican demonstration in Londonderry, the only town in the province with a Catholic majority.
The situation spirals out of control: protests and clashes start to happen frequently with the police and the Protestant community.
Londonderry and Belfast join the violence; the army is mobilized in the streets of the province.
– The IRA appears –
In 1970, the Irish Republican Provisional Army (IRA), an armed group, begins a campaign of bombings against the military.
On the other side, the protestant paramilitary groups respond, which ends up creating a wall between the two communities.
Tensions mount after the violent repression of a demonstration on 30 January 1972 in Londonderry. The “Bloody Sunday”, as the date has become known to history, left 14 protesters dead, victims of gunfire by British paratroopers.
– Administration from London –
In March 1972, the Parliament of Northern Ireland was dissolved and London regained direct control of the province’s administration.
In 1974, the IRA expands the campaign of bombings in British territory, with artifacts in pubs in Guildford, Woolwich and Birmingham. The attacks kill 30 people.
In addition, the organization targets well-known figures and in 1979 kills Lord Louis Mountbatten, cousin of Queen Elizabeth II, by blowing up the victim’s vessel.
On the same day, the IRA ambushes the army and kills 18 British soldiers.
– Hunger strikes, bombs –
A turning point occurs in 1981, when inmate Bobby Sands and nine IRA colleagues die on a hunger strike in a Belfast penitentiary, a protest initiated to request the status of political prisoners.
The deaths provoke a movement of sympathy around the world for the republican cause.
In 1982, the IRA’s political arm, the Sinn Fein party, won the first seats in the Northern Irish Assembly. The following year, Gerry Adams takes over the leadership of the party.
The IRA continued its violent actions and, in 1984, attacked the center of power with a bomb on the Grand Hotel in Brighton, where Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and several ministers were staying for the Conservative Party congress. Five people died.
In 1992 and 1993, two major attacks on the City of London’s financial district left four dead and caused serious damage.
– Peace initiatives –
Conservative Prime Minister Edward Heath tried in 1973 to establish a coalition government between Catholics and Protestants.
Thatcher signs a new Anglo-Irish agreement in 1985, with a major concession: she admits that the Republic of Ireland must have a voice in Northern Irish affairs.
In the mid-1990s, peace efforts are stalled again and the IRA ends the ceasefire. In 1996, the group places bombs in London and Manchester that kill two people and cause great damage.
– The framework of Good Friday –
In July 1997, after Labor Tony Blair becomes prime minister and the IRA decrees a new ceasefire, Sinn Fein is invited to the negotiating table.
After lengthy negotiations, on 10 April 1998 the Good Friday Agreement was signed between London, Dublin and the Northern Irish political parties, with the blessing of the IRA.
Northern Ireland regains autonomy, with a coalition government between Protestants and Catholics.
– The Greatest Atrocity: Omagh –
Four months after the deal, an IRA splinter group, the Authentic IRA, commits the biggest massacre of the conflict by detonating a bomb on a market day in the northern Irish city of Omagh: 29 people died in the action, including women and children.
The attack did not overturn the peace agreement. The Northern Irish expressed their disgust at the attack and reinforced the agreement.
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