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The Northern Ireland Civil rights movement

When Ireland won independence from Britain in the 1920s, the majority-Protestant community in the north voted to remain a part of the UK as Northern Ireland, and the island was partitioned. At this time, the north’s population was roughly two thirds Protestant and one third Catholic. Despite this majority, the political system was still rigged to give Protestants political control in Catholic areas, on top of their preexisting economic dominance. Districts were gerrymandered, only heads of households and their spouses could vote (disenfranchising many Catholics living in multigenerational households), and some property or business owners (more likely to be Protestant) could vote multiple times. Discrimination in areas such as employment and social housing allocation was also rampant, and Catholic communities felt a strong sense of partiality among the almost-exclusively Protestant police force, known as the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC). Inspired by peaceful civil rights movements in the U.S. and Europe at the time, Northern Ireland’s Civil Rights movement began in the late-1960s with aims of achieving equal rights and status across the community, as well as systemic reforms.

The peaceful protests, including marches and sit-ins, had mixed results, and many were met with hostility by sections of the unionist community and the government. Marches were sometimes attacked by loyalists as they passed through Protestant areas, and many ended in riots between protestors and the police. In August 1969, one such march ended in the Catholic district of the Bogside in Derry, where thousands of residents (most uninvolved in the march) clashed with hundreds of police over three days – eight civilians were then killed as the riots spread across the country. The rioting ended with the arrival of the British Army, who were initially deployed to Northern Ireland as a temporary peacekeeping force. However, this deployment, “Operation Banner”, became the longest continuous deployment in British military history, and many use this to mark the starting point of the Troubles.

Internment, Bloody Sunday, and the rise of the IRA

At first, the British Army was welcomed by Catholic communities, who saw them as a more impartial alternative to the RUC, but support quickly turned following a series of fatal raids and attacks on Catholic civilians. In response, the Irish Republican Army (IRA) and other republican paramilitaries became more active - having acted in a more local, defensive capacity before, they went on the offensive in 1971 by directly targeting the Army, RUC, and loyalist paramilitary members. To try and weaken the IRA and dissuade enlistment, the British government introduced a policy of internment, which was the arrest and detention without trial of those believed to be affiliated with paramilitaries. Almost 2,000 people (around 95 percent Catholic) were interned by 1975. Many of those interned were unaffiliated with paramilitaries, and were often subjected to physical and psychological abuse in an attempt to coerce false confessions.

In Derry in 1972, an anti-internment protest became one of the most significant events of the Troubles. Bloody Sunday occurred when British soldiers opened fire on the crowd and shot 26 civilians, killing 14. Although similar events had occurred in Belfast, the notable media presence at the protest meant images of unarmed civilians being killed by authorities were shared across the world, while hundreds of eyewitness accounts contradicted soldiers’ claims that the victims were armed or violent. Internment’s introduction did not have its intended effect and Bloody Sunday saw a surge in IRA enlistment, while it effectively ended the civil rights movement. In 2010, an official inquiry found that none of those killed on Bloody Sunday posed a threat to security forces, and Prime Minister David Cameron formally apologized on behalf of the British government.

Bombing campaigns and escalation of violence

The early-70s saw violence, bombings, and killings become an almost-daily norm in Northern Ireland. Nearly 500 people were killed in 1972 alone, a large part of which was due to back-and-forth retaliatory bombings, which often had high civilian death tolls. Timed car bombs became synonymous with the conflict, either in the form of explosive-laden cars parked at target locations or as bombs planted under a target’s vehicle (to this day, police and high-profile figures still regularly check under their cars for bombs). In earlier years, there were also bombings with intentionally high civilian death tolls, however this fell out of practice due to public backlash and deadly retaliatory attacks. Bombings also had a severe economic impact, not just through the destruction of property, but also by dissuading public investment, foreign investment, and tourism, which caused already-high unemployment rates to grow as the conflict progressed. Their inconspicuous nature also contributed to the looming threat of violence that hung over Northern Ireland in these decades.

The early-1970s were the peak years of violence, and street gunfights were common before paramilitaries moved from more direct engagements to guerilla tactics, such as sniper attacks, bombings, or ambushes, to mitigate potential casualties on their side. Despite these more targeted attacks, including high-profile assassinations of figures such as Lord Mountbatten (a close relative of the monarchy and prominent military figure) or later assassination attempts against Prime Ministers Thatcher and Major, the majority of those killed in the Troubles were civilians, and paramilitaries from both sides were responsible for over 90 percent of civilian deaths. Belfast alone saw over 1,500 deaths due to the conflict , victims were 10 times more likely to be male than female, and around a third of all killings were of people aged 17-24 years.

Normalization of the conflict

Martial law was never declared, but fortified barracks were built to accommodate the growing security presence, checkpoints were established along the border, and large “peace walls” were erected to separate communities in some areas. Police and army checks at border crossings, on buses, or in some workplaces became a regular occurrence for civilians, however, the focus on tackling paramilitary activity, alongside strained resources and lack of public cooperation meant ordinary policing was often neglected during the Troubles. Because of this, paramilitaries policed their local areas according to their own rules, with punishments ranging from fines or expulsion to severe beatings or shootings (most famously in the knees), or even abductions and executions. During the Troubles, Northern Ireland officially had one of the lowest petty crime rates in Europe, but it is unclear how much of this was influenced by intimidation or due to underreporting.

Eventually, many communities fell under the de facto control of the paramilitaries, who also operated as organized crime outfits. Illegal activities included robbery, smuggling, racketeering, and fraud, in the pursuit of both financial gain and community control. Protection rackets particularly affected the wider community, and fees ranged from 10 pounds per month for small businesses to thousands per month for large construction companies or multinationals – this practice was widespread, and continues today, but its full extent is unknown as the majority went unreported. Republican paramilitaries also received financial support from abroad, including the Irish diaspora in the U.S., and even from Libyan ruler Muamar Gaddafi, while loyalists had greater control of the drug market (the IRA took an official stance against drug trafficking, but many members were still involved). Some estimates suggest illegal activity cost the Northern Ireland economy over 100 million pounds per year, while the IRA raised upwards of eight million pounds in some years. This income was not only used to procure weapons and explosives but also to pay wages (around 20 pounds per week for lower ranked members in the 1970s) and provide for prisoners’ families. High unemployment rates among young men (particularly Catholics) was a contributing factor to many of them enlisting in paramilitary organizations, which, again, was reflected in their higher death toll during the conflict.

Hunger strikes and a change in politics

By the 1980s, a series of republican prison protests had added a new dimension to the Troubles. The withdrawal of “prisoner of war” status for paramilitary members resulted in; blanket protests, where prisoners refused to wear criminal uniforms; dirty protests, where prisoners refused to shower and smeared excrement on the cell walls (also to protest guard violence); and two hunger strikes in 1980 and 1981. The 1981 hunger strike made global headlines and was viewed as a standoff between prisoners and Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, who refused to concede to their demands. 23 prisoners, led by Bobby Sands, took part in the 1981 hunger strike, and 10 of these, aged 23-29, died of starvation before concessions were made and the strike was ended.

These deaths were treated as something of a victory by parts of the British press, but the dead became martyrs to the Republican cause, with over 100,000 people attending the funeral of Bobby Sands alone. There was also an uptick in paramilitary recruitment and activity in the years that followed, and the IRA tried to assassinate Margaret Thatcher in retaliation. Before he died, Sands was put forward as a candidate in a by-election in April, which he then won, making him an elected member of the British Parliament. Sands’ victory marked the first time in the Troubles where militant Republicans achieved political success, paving the way for Sinn Fein, the political wing of the IRA to take a leading role in regional politics.

Peace Process and the Good Friday Agreement

By the 1990s, public support for paramilitaries was waning and the political pursuit of an end to the conflict gained momentum. Peace talks involved representatives from the nationalist and unionist communities, the British, Irish, and U.S. governments, as well as paramilitary organizations. A ceasefire lasted from 1994 to 1996, before it resumed in 1997, and this has held until today. Parallel to the peace process, high profile cases saw wrongfully convicted prisoners exonerated, police malpractices were publicly exposed, and the Army presence was toned down. However, the 90s did see a resurgence in paramilitary killings, including several mass shootings, murders due to paramilitary infighting and splintering, and a bombing campaign in England that resulted in large areas in London and Manchester being destroyed (Manchester’s was the largest bomb in Britain since WWII).

Nonetheless, talks progressed, and on April 10, 1988, most of the major parties involved agreed to a series of proposals that were then put to the public in referenda on both sides of the Irish border on May 22. This was the Good Friday Agreement, and terms included; the return of government in a power sharing capacity (where executive power is shared by both communities); conditions for future referendums on Irish reunification; protections for civil and political rights; policing reforms; paramilitary dissolution and disarmament; and the early release of paramilitary prisoners. The referenda passed with 71 percent support in Northern Ireland, and 94 percent in the Republic of Ireland. Estimates suggest that, in the north, only 52 percent of Protestant voters voted in favor of the Agreement, while the hardline Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) was the only major party not to sign - this was largely in protest against the early release of paramilitary prisoners. Nonetheless, the Agreement passed, but what should have been the closing chapter of the conflict was then overshadowed by the Omagh Bombing in August, which was carried out by IRA separatists who opposed the Agreement. This attack killed 29 civilians, injured some 300 others, and was the deadliest incident of the Troubles.

Domestic and international legacy

The decades that followed have seen a significant decrease in violence. Many of the barriers (literal and metaphorical) that hindered everyday life in Northern Ireland have been removed and the Irish border is now open. There has also been an increase in public investment, cross-community projects, cross-border economic cooperation, and tourism. Society has seen greater integration between Catholics and Protestant communities in everyday life, in schools, workplaces, sports clubs, and more, while mixed-background relationships are now a non-issue for most. Paramilitaries are still active in organized crime and community control, albeit on a much smaller scale, while killings and politically motivated attacks are much rarer than before.

The provisions of the Agreement were not implemented immediately, and there were many aspects of power sharing and demilitarization that took years of further negotiation, but it is generally viewed as a lasting success story. However, power sharing and political stability have been persistent issues, with Northern Ireland operating without a government for a combined eight of the 25 years that followed. In this time, the more moderate SDLP (nationalist) and UUP (unionist) parties, whose leaders were considered leading architects of the Good Friday Agreement, were replaced by the more hardline Sinn Fein and DUP as the dominant parties in their respective communities. For a short period, the positions of First Minister and Deputy First Minister were respectively held by Ian Paisley, the most prominent loyalist figure of the Troubles, and Martin McGuinness, a former IRA leader, which marked a significant breakthrough in cross-party cooperation, although scandals and infighting have seen relations soured since McGuinness stepped down in 2017.

Internationally, the Troubles has had a far-reaching impact in many areas. While its death toll is much lower than other 20th century conflicts, the Troubles stands out as it took place in one of the world’s richest countries during a time of unprecedented peace and prosperity. The strategies developed by British intelligence during the Troubles would inform counterterrorism practices globally in the 21st century, particularly in the War on Terror. Following Brexit, the Irish border became the largest issue during UK-EU negotiations, as it is the only land border between the two, however, the return of a hard border with checkpoints would have threatened the Good Friday Agreement. Ultimately, a de facto trade border was established in the Irish Sea and Northern Ireland remains in both the UK and the EU single market, although this is contentious among many unionists who perceived it as a threat to the union with Britain. In the 2020s, Sinn Fein become the most popular party on both sides of the border for a period, while the 2021 census showed the north's population had more people identifying as Catholic than Protestant for the first time ever - this led to calls for a reunification referendum, however, it is generally believed this would be unsuccessful as concerns over economic or healthcare impacts would override ideological desires for many voters.