History UsefulNotes / TheTroubles

One Sunday -- January 30, 1972 -- the Parachute Regiment, fired on man in Londonderry whom they thought was a nail bomber (he later admitted he was picking up a smoking object but denied it was a nail bomb). IRA gunmen fired on the Army who shot back, killing eleven more and wounding several others, one of whom later died from injuries. This was "Bloody Sunday", the DarkestHour of the conflict and a black eye to the face of the British Armed Forces.[[note]]But only ''one'' of the three Irish Bloody Sundays, and only one of the ''two'' that involve British forces opening fire on civilians [[/note]] The tragedy led to a surge in popular support, at home and abroad, for the IRA. Prior to this whole sections of Derry declared themselves "free", rejecting British rule and attacking any official representative that dared trespass, murdering 27 people in Londonderry in the year before Bloody Sunday (out of over 100 killed in the wider conflict), incensing Irish Unionists who considered Bloody Sunday justified retribution against the IRA. The Army later used tanks to destroy the "No Go" areas and restore law and order. Money started flowing in from American donors. The communist bloc, seeing [[UsefulNotes/ColdWar an opportunity to harm Western interests and destabilize a critical American ally]], began funding other republican groups. Later, in revenge for the US bombing of Tripoli (launched from British bases), UsefulNotes/MuammarGaddafi greatly increased his already substantial backing for the IRA (notorious for sponsoring numerous European and Middle Eastern terrorist groups such as Action Direct, the Red Brigades, ETA etc).\\

Violence increased through TheSeventies with the British government continually releasing IRA prisoners in a disastrous attempt at appeasement (as they had in 1919-21). By the late 70s they abandoned this policy and sought military victory, halving the number of murders in 1977 and reducing it to double figures the next year for the first time in nearly a decade. By TheEighties the violence had been reduced to a fraction of what it had been, reaching a low of 57 in the mid- eighties (as opposed to over 400 in 1972). Elements of the security forces colluded with loyalists, allowing them to kill the actual IRA rather than just random Catholics/Nationalists. In a spectacular own goal the IRA demanded an investigation into such activities but with the security forces' informers within the Loyalists arrested the number of Nationalists killed by them tripled, outkilling the IRA for the first time in the 90s. Many of the controversial features of UsefulNotes/TheWarOnTerror -- the renditions, the torture, the detentions without charge or trial, and the like -- saw their bloody precursors here. Gradually, both sides became more extreme. Some branches of the IRA now began to target civilians on the British mainland, and loyalists, aided by a branch of MI5 known as the FRU began a pogrom, killing suspected IRA member in retaliation for IRA murders. Riots were common, and a Berlin-style system of walls and checkpoints was enforced in Belfast and Derry to keep the feuding communities apart. The IRA became ever more brazen, killing Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma, naval war hero and mentor to (and great-uncle of) Prince Charles, on his fishing boat off the coast of County Sligo in 1979 (and it's something of a ShootTheShaggyDog story -- Mountbatten was ''favorable'' to the Irish cause[[note]]In 2007, Irish State papers revealed he had gone so far as to offer his services to the Irish ambassador in London, as an intermediary in 1972; this wasn't public knowledge at the time of his death.[[/note]]), and nearly doing in UsefulNotes/MargaretThatcher, then in Brighton for a 1984 Tory convention (though with five deaths). The Loyalists paid them back in kind, killing over 40 people in a single day of bomb attacks in Dublin and Monaghan\\

* The infamously badly-researched ''WesternAnimation/CaptainPlanetAndThePlaneteers'' episode "If It's Doomsday, This Must Be Belfast". Dialogue example: a Catholic saying "[[CriticalResearchFailure Fenian Prods]]". Look it up on Website/YouTube. For obvious reasons anyone who grew up during The Troubles finds it ''[[SoBadItsGood amazing]]''.

In Ireland ([[UsefulNotes/{{Ireland}} both]] [[UsefulNotes/NorthernIreland sides]]) and UsefulNotes/{{Britain}}, it is considered extremely offensive, when using this term, to ''not'' speak of it with a capital "T". You say "the troubles"; they say '''[[DeadlyEuphemism the Troubles]]'''. At its peak, you could get shot for walking down the street holding the wrong flag. Hell, flag or no flag, you could be beaten by goons with crowbars just for getting on a bus. We're not kidding. And there are still many parts of Northern Ireland that blatantly display either the Union Jack or the Irish Tricolour, and have its colours on bunting and painted on their kerbs. It ended in 1998 with the IRA signing the Good Friday Agreement ending their campaign, abandoned by their backers such as Colonel Gaddafi's Libya after the end of the Cold War, riddled with informants and outkilled by the Loyalists.

By the early 1990s, public opinion on both sides had soured on the continued strife. What is widely believed to be TheLastStraw was the second Warrington bombing on 20 February 1993. IRA-supported terrorists exploded two bombs in Warrington, Cheshire, England. The only fatalities were two children. Although there were some loyalist reprisals in the immediate aftermath, by that point both sides had decided enough was enough and it was time to end the war, the IRA having lost their backers in Libya after the end of the Cold War, riddled with informants (the head of their "internal security", tasked with killing informers was actually himself an informer) and outkilled by the Loyalists by the 90s.\\

Not to be confused with the [[UsefulNotes/TheIrishRevolution even more violent all-island fighting of 1919-1923]], also sometimes called the "Troubles" but more properly known as the War of Independence, seen in such films as ''Film/MichaelCollins'', ''Film/TheWindThatShakesTheBarley'' and ''Ryan's Daughter'' -- a fairly popular setting in its own right. It was this conflict that resulted in the creation of the Irish Free State which eventually became the Republic of Ireland. The Irish National Army is from that period too.

Due to large numbers of Irish immigrants and their descendants in the USA (about ten times as much as there are back in the Emerald Isle), the American media often saw the Troubles through a slightly green-tinted lens. As such, while seldom explicit, the image of the [[YourTerroristsAreOurFreedomFighters noble Irish freedom fighter]] struggling against the stuffy (and occasionally [[EatsBabies baby]]-[[Literature/AModestProposal eating]]) British establishment does unfortunately pervade some films. The 9/11 attacks changed things radically as terrorism became taboo worldwide.

The Troubles are pretty much over now (or so we hope), with the IRA having effectively ceased to function, although there are still occasional flareups, and sectarian violence, largely unrelated to the conflict, still rears its ugly head. The legacy remains, though -- a recent proposal by a commission to pay the nearest relatives of ''all'' casualties a compensation of £12,000 led to outrage. Also, a lot of former IRA men are now involved in drug rings, partly because smuggling guns during that period turned out to be rather good training for drug running. (Drugs are ''easier'' to smuggle than guns--it's easier to disguise/hide chemicals and plant material than carefully calibrated hunks of metal.)

Up until TheSixties, Belfast had a wide latitude which it often abused. Anti-Catholic gerrymandering was common. The great shipyards of Belfast, such as Harland and Wolff, were closed to Catholics[[note]] In a pretty despicable attempt to avert an EnemyMine situation, when rumours began about [[RedScare trade-unionising the shipyard workers]], both Catholic and Protestant, the Unionist leadership ''and'' the Catholic church leadership torpedoed the attempt for different reasons - the Unionists out of fear of organised working Catholics, and the Church out of fear that trade unionism would lead to socialism - probably a classic case of trying to stop Belfast's working men realizing [[WeAreStrugglingTogether they were struggling together.]] This resulted in Catholic workers being laid off and the shipyards becoming a Protestant/Unionist stronghold.[[/note]] and inequality in allocation of council housing and healthcare was institutionalized. This had long been a source of official disapproval from London, and UsefulNotes/HaroldWilson, then Prime Minister of the Union, pressed his Northern Irish counterpart, Terrence O'Neill, to cut back on discrimination during a 1964 visit. O'Neill gave him some pleasant words and made some token moves toward reform. But even these inspired Protestant fury, and progress was very slow. O'Neill's government collapsed under loyalist wrath, and a weaker government under James Chichester-Clarke was formed, which was too timid to push forward with reform, forcing Wilson to give an ultimatum: get going, or else. Whether Britain's intervention is more a case of political pragmatism or genuine concern depends on one's views. Irish Protestants and Unionists in the Irish Free Stare actually suffered far worse discrimination but had been reduced to only 3% of the population\\

It is a reasonably popular setting for media (as it was one of the extremely few industrialized places in the world that saw white Christians with Gaelic and Anglo-Saxon names going full partisan against each other) and a good place to source WesternTerrorists from, even today. That British security services got into some shady dealings in order to save innocent lives, factual or fictional (e.g., collusion with loyalist paramilitaries, internment, murder, bombing, framing of innocent victims, black propaganda, political assassination, a shoot-to-kill policy, raiding of homes, the jury-less Diplock Court system[[note]]Though this was originally instituted to keep blatantly biased juries from acquitting guilty people and convicting innocent people on the basis of religious/political beliefs[[/note]], tear gas, surveillance, "[[Main/ColdBloodedTorture]] enhanced interrogation" via the "five techniques"[[note]]which the UK Supreme Court only acknowledged as torture ''in 2021''[[/note]], forced deportation, and kidnappings) adds to the potential drama. Expect knee-capping and bad Irish accents.

It is a reasonably popular setting for media (as it was one of the extremely few industrialized places in the world that saw white Christians with Gaelic and Anglo-Saxon names going full partisan against each other) and a good place to source WesternTerrorists from, even today. That British security services got into some shady dealings in order to save innocent lives, factual or fictional (e.g., collusion with loyalist paramilitaries, internment, murder, bombing, framing of innocent victims, black propaganda, political assassination, a shoot-to-kill policy, raiding of homes, the jury-less Diplock Court system[[note]]Though this was originally instituted to keep blatantly biased juries from acquitting guilty people and convicting innocent people on the basis of religious/political beliefs[[/note]], tear gas, surveillance, torture, forced deportation, and kidnappings) adds to the potential drama. Expect knee-capping and bad Irish accents.

* ''Film/{{Ronin}}'': When Seamus O'Rourke is killed and the briefcase lost by the Irish faction, it leads to an IRA ceasefire.

In 1969, the Catholics formed an active civil rights movement, partly inspired by [[UsefulNotes/CivilRightsMovement that which occurred years earlier]] just across UsefulNotes/ThePond. At the same time, a loyalist [[BrotherhoodOfFunnyHats fraternal order]] called "Apprentice Boys of Derry" planned a counter-march [[{{Troll}} on the same day and route as that by the civil rights activists]]. This went as well as expected -- the former, ordered not to march, [[{{Determinator}} marched anyway]], and were attacked by loyalist police. The Orange Order marches were also attacked by Irish Nationalists. There followed some of the most shocking scenes of PoliceBrutality ever seen in the UK, especially from [[TheDreaded the infamous B-Specials]], a part-time adjunct to the regular police force whom an Irish Nationalist defined as "the rock all IRA efforts in Northern Ireland foundered on". Enraged, the Catholics went into hyperdrive, marching and protesting... and being attacked again and again. However many Unionists saw the Civil Rights Movement as an IRA front, pointing out it was started at the suggestion of the IRA's leader, they exclusively campaigned for Nationalist causes, contained many IRA members and campaigned for the release of IRA but not Loyalist prisoners and never campaigned against IRA violence. In response, and likely due to prodding from an indignant London, Belfast promised wide reforms... which led to even more loyalist belligerence. At the beginning of August, there was a serious three-way riot between both sides and the police in the center of Belfast. MP J. Enoch "Rivers of Blood" Powell even suggested deporting the entire Catholic population to the Republic. Appalled, Wilson and then Home Secretary UsefulNotes/JamesCallaghan took the decision (without consulting the Cabinet) to send in the British Army to restore order in return for the abolition of the B-Specials and serious reform. It is a myth that they were not aware of the dangers (they estimated that it would take at least a decade before they pulled out), and some historians have called the decision to send in the Army "Jim Callaghan's finest hour."\\

In 1969, the Catholics formed an active civil rights movement, partly inspired by [[UsefulNotes/CivilRightsMovement that which occurred years earlier]] just across UsefulNotes/ThePond. At the same time, a loyalist [[BrotherhoodOfFunnyHats fraternal order]] called "Apprentice Boys of Derry" planned a counter-march [[{{Troll}} on the same day and route as that by the civil rights activists]]. This went as well as expected -- the former, ordered not to march, [[{{Determinator}} marched anyway]], and were attacked by loyalist police. There followed some of the most shocking scenes of PoliceBrutality ever seen in the UK, especially from [[TheDreaded the infamous B-Specials]], a part-time adjunct to the regular police force whom an Irish Nationalist defined as "the rock all IRA efforts in Northern Ireland foundered on". Enraged, the Catholics went into hyperdrive, marching and protesting... and being attacked again and again. However many Unionists saw the Civil Rights Movement as an IRA front, pointing out it was started at the suggestion of the IRA's leader, they exclusively campaigned for Nationalist causes, contained many IRA members and campaigned for the release of IRA but not Loyalist prisoners and never campaigned against IRA violence. In response, and likely due to prodding from an indignant London, Belfast promised wide reforms... which led to even more loyalist belligerence. At the beginning of August, there was a serious three-way riot between both sides and the police in the center of Belfast. MP J. Enoch "Rivers of Blood" Powell even suggested deporting the entire Catholic population to the Republic. Appalled, Wilson and then Home Secretary UsefulNotes/JamesCallaghan took the decision (without consulting the Cabinet) to send in the British Army to restore order in return for the abolition of the B-Specials and serious reform. It is a myth that they were not aware of the dangers (they estimated that it would take at least a decade before they pulled out), and some historians have called the decision to send in the Army "Jim Callaghan's finest hour."\\

In 1969, the Catholics formed an active civil rights movement, partly inspired by [[UsefulNotes/CivilRightsMovement that which occurred years earlier]] just across UsefulNotes/ThePond. At the same time, a loyalist [[BrotherhoodOfFunnyHats fraternal order]] called "Apprentice Boys of Derry" planned a counter-march [[{{Troll}} on the same day and route as that by the civil rights activists]]. This went as well as expected -- the former, ordered not to march, [[{{Determinator}} marched anyway]], and were attacked by loyalist police. There followed some of the most shocking scenes of PoliceBrutality ever seen in the UK, especially from [[TheDreaded the infamous B-Specials]], a part-time adjunct to the regular police force whom an Irish Nationalist defined as "the rock all IRA efforts in Northern Ireland foundered on". Enraged, the Catholics went into hyperdrive, marching and protesting... and being attacked again and again. However many Unionists saw the Civil Rights Movement as an IRA front, pointing out they exclusively campaigned for Nationalist causes, contained many IRA members and campaigned for the release of IRA prisoners but never campaigned against IRA violence. In response, and likely due to prodding from an indignant London, Belfast promised wide reforms... which led to even more loyalist belligerence. At the beginning of August, there was a serious three-way riot between both sides and the police in the center of Belfast. MP J. Enoch "Rivers of Blood" Powell even suggested deporting the entire Catholic population to the Republic. Appalled, Wilson and then Home Secretary UsefulNotes/JamesCallaghan took the decision (without consulting the Cabinet) to send in the British Army to restore order in return for the abolition of the B-Specials and serious reform. It is a myth that they were not aware of the dangers (they estimated that it would take at least a decade before they pulled out), and some historians have called the decision to send in the Army "Jim Callaghan's finest hour."\\

In 1969, the Catholics formed an active civil rights movement, partly inspired by [[UsefulNotes/CivilRightsMovement that which occurred years earlier]] just across UsefulNotes/ThePond. At the same time, a loyalist [[BrotherhoodOfFunnyHats fraternal order]] called "Apprentice Boys of Derry" planned a counter-march [[{{Troll}} on the same day and route as that by the civil rights activists]]. This went as well as expected -- the former, ordered not to march, [[{{Determinator}} marched anyway]], and were attacked by loyalist police. There followed some of the most shocking scenes of PoliceBrutality ever seen in the UK, especially from [[TheDreaded the infamous B-Specials]], an unpaid and part-time adjunct to the regular police force. Enraged, the Catholics went into hyperdrive, marching and protesting... and being attacked again and again. However many Unionists saw the Civil Rights Movement as an IRA front, pointing out they exclusively campaigned for Nationalist causes, contained many IRA members and campaigned for the release of IRA prisoners but never campaigned against IRA violence. In response, and likely due to prodding from an indignant London, Belfast promised wide reforms... which led to even more loyalist belligerence. At the beginning of August, there was a serious three-way riot between both sides and the police in the center of Belfast. MP J. Enoch "Rivers of Blood" Powell even suggested deporting the entire Catholic population to the Republic. Appalled, Wilson and then Home Secretary UsefulNotes/JamesCallaghan took the decision (without consulting the Cabinet) to send in the British Army to restore order in return for the abolition of the B-Specials and serious reform. It is a myth that they were not aware of the dangers (they estimated that it would take at least a decade before they pulled out), and some historians have called the decision to send in the Army "Jim Callaghan's finest hour."\\

Alas, this caused more harm than good. The IRA, then just a small faction, spread untrue (at the time) rumors that the Army was colluding with loyalists, whilst loyalist paramilitaries feared losing their "privileges". For more extreme republicans, [[OccupiersOutOfOurCountry their very presence was unforgivable]]. In August 1971, in response to increasing violence from partisans, the British government launched Operation Demetrius, where anyone suspected of being in the IRA would be arrested and interned without trial. Also interned were people belonging to any group considered a threat to the regime, such as civil rights marchers, trade unionists and communists. This caused predictable protests, along with further violence and distrust for the government among the Catholic/nationalist populace.\\

One Sunday -- January 30, 1972 -- the Parachute Regiment, fired on man in Londonderry whom they thought was a nail bomber (he later admitted he was picking up a smoking object but denied it was a nail bomb). IRA gunmen fired on the Army who shot back, killing eleven more and wounding several others, one of whom later died from injuries. This was "Bloody Sunday", the DarkestHour of the conflict and a black eye to the face of the British Armed Forces.[[note]]But only ''one'' of the three Irish Bloody Sundays, and only one of the ''two'' that involve British forces opening fire on civilians [[/note]] The tragedy led to a surge in popular support, at home and abroad, for the IRA. Prior to this whole sections of Derry declared themselves "free", rejecting British rule and attacking any official representative that dared trespass, murdering 27 people in the year before Bloody Sunday, incensing Irish Unionists who considered Bloody Sunday justified retribution against the IRA. The Army use tanks to destroy the "No Go" areas and restore law and order. Money started flowing in from American donors. The communist bloc, seeing [[UsefulNotes/ColdWar an opportunity to harm Western interests and destabilize a critical American ally]], began funding other republican groups. Later, in revenge for the US bombing of Tripoli (launched from British bases), UsefulNotes/MuammarGaddafi greatly increased his already substantial backing for the IRA (notorious for sponsoring numerous European and Middle Eastern terrorist groups such as Action Direct, the Red Brigades, ETA etc).\\

Violence increased through TheSeventies with the British government continually releasing IRA prisoners in a disastrous attempt at appeasement (as they had in 1919-21). By the late 70s they abandoned this policy and sought military victory, halving the number of murders in 1977 and reducing it to double figures the next year for the first time in nearly a decade. By TheEighties the violence had been reduced to a fraction of what it had been, reaching a low of 57 in the mid- eighties (as opposed to over 400 in 1972). Elements of the security forces colluded with loyalists, allowing them to kill the actual IRA rather than just random Catholics/Nationalists. In a spectacular own goal the IRA demanded an investigation into such activities but with the security forces' informers within the Loyalists arrested the number of Nationalists killed by them tripled. Many of the controversial features of UsefulNotes/TheWarOnTerror -- the renditions, the torture, the detentions without charge or trial, and the like -- saw their bloody precursors here. Gradually, both sides became more extreme. Some branches of the IRA now began to target civilians on the British mainland, and loyalists, aided by a branch of MI5 known as the FRU began a pogrom, killing suspected IRA member in retaliation for IRA murders. Riots were common, and a Berlin-style system of walls and checkpoints was enforced in Belfast and Derry to keep the feuding communities apart. The IRA became ever more brazen, killing Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma, naval war hero and mentor to (and great-uncle of) Prince Charles, on his fishing boat off the coast of County Sligo in 1979 (and it's something of a ShootTheShaggyDog story -- Mountbatten was ''favorable'' to the Irish cause[[note]]In 2007, Irish State papers revealed he had gone so far as to offer his services to the Irish ambassador in London, as an intermediary in 1972; this wasn't public knowledge at the time of his death.[[/note]]), and nearly doing in UsefulNotes/MargaretThatcher, then in Brighton for a 1984 Tory convention (though with five deaths). The Loyalists paid them back in kind, killing over 40 people in a single day of bomb attacks in Dublin and Monaghan\\

By the early 1990s, public opinion on both sides had soured on the continued strife. What is widely believed to be TheLastStraw was the second Warrington bombing on 20 February 1993. IRA-supported terrorists exploded two bombs in Warrington, Cheshire, England. The only fatalities were two children. Although there were some loyalist reprisals in the immediate aftermath, by that point both sides had decided enough was enough and it was time to end the war, the IRA having lost their backers in Libya after the end of the Cold War, riddled with informants and outkilled by the Loyalists.\\

The Troubles has its roots in UsefulNotes/TheIrishRevolution. At the end of the aforementioned war, the United Kingdom decided to divide Ireland between an independent state for the predominantly Roman Catholic south and a constituency of the Union for the six Protestant-dominated counties to the north, even as this proved unpopular to either side, which wanted ''the entirety of Ireland'' for their respective political entities. For the next forty years, the loyalists alone ruled Northern Ireland, while the Catholic minority was largely excluded from public life by snobbery, poverty and bigotry - and of course plain old electoral shenanigans like gerrymandering. The Union government, happy to be finally shorn of UsefulNotes/TheIrishQuestion, washed its hands of the affair, and this system persisted for years. Irish Unionists and Protestants in the Irish Free State faced much worse discrimination but by the 60s had been reduced to only 3% of the population.\\

One Sunday -- January 30, 1972 -- the Parachute Regiment, fired on man in Londonderry whom they thought was a nail bomber (he later admitted he was picking up a smoking object but denied it was a nail bomb). IRA gunmen fired on the Army who shot back, killing eleven more and wounding several others, one of whom later died from injuries. This was "Bloody Sunday", the DarkestHour of the conflict and a black eye to the face of the British Armed Forces.[[note]]But only ''one'' of the three Irish Bloody Sundays, and only one of the ''two'' that involve British forces opening fire on civilians [[/note]] The tragedy led to a surge in popular support, at home and abroad, for the IRA. Prior to this whole sections of Derry declared themselves "free", rejecting British rule and attacking any official representative that dared trespass, murdering 27 people in the year before Bloody Sunday, incensing Irish Unionists who considered Bloody Sunday justified retribution against the IRA. Money started flowing in from American donors. The communist bloc, seeing [[UsefulNotes/ColdWar an opportunity to harm Western interests and destabilize a critical American ally]], began funding other republican groups. Later, in revenge for the US bombing of Tripoli (launched from British bases), UsefulNotes/MuammarGaddafi greatly increased his already substantial backing for the IRA (notorious for sponsoring numerous European and Middle Eastern terrorist groups such as Action Direct, the Red Brigades, ETA etc).\\

Violence increased through TheSeventies and TheEighties, with IRA bombings and shootouts with the British being a common feature. Faced with escalating violence, crackdowns became more severe -- tanks were used to occupy free Derry, while elements of security forces colluded with loyalists. Many of the controversial features of UsefulNotes/TheWarOnTerror -- the renditions, the torture, the detentions without charge or trial, and the like -- saw their bloody precursors here. Gradually, both sides became more extreme. Some branches of the IRA now began to target civilians on the British mainland, and loyalists, aided by a branch of MI5 known as the FRU began a pogrom, killing suspected IRA member in retaliation for IRA murders. Riots were common, and a Berlin-style system of walls and checkpoints was enforced in Belfast and Derry to keep the feuding communities apart. The IRA became ever more brazen, killing Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma, naval war hero and mentor to (and great-uncle of) Prince Charles, on his fishing boat off the coast of County Sligo in 1979 (and it's something of a ShootTheShaggyDog story -- Mountbatten was ''favorable'' to the Irish cause[[note]]In 2007, Irish State papers revealed he had gone so far as to offer his services to the Irish ambassador in London, as an intermediary in 1972; this wasn't public knowledge at the time of his death.[[/note]]), and nearly doing in UsefulNotes/MargaretThatcher, then in Brighton for a 1984 Tory convention (though with five deaths). The Loyalists paid them back in kind, killing over 40 people in a single day of bomb attacks in Dublin and Monaghan\\

The Good Friday Agreement was signed at Stormont in 1998, and a devolved Northern Irish administration was established, where republicans and unionists could settle their differences at the ballot box. British troops left Ireland, leaving behind the 19th Light Brigade, which has no operative role. The IRA formally declared an end to its armed campaign in 2005, having decommissioned its weapons in that same year. The UsefulNotes/TonyBlair cabinet agreed to hold an inquiry into Bloody Sunday. The largest and costliest investigation in British legal history, it delivered its final verdict in 2010, declaring that the paratroopers defied orders in entering republican patches of Londonderry and acted unlawfully in opening fire. However it also established beyond doubt that there were numerous armed IRA members in the Bogside, several of who admitted firing on the soldiers. UsefulNotes/DavidCameron delivered a formal apology on behalf of the British government, to applause from Republican crowds in Derry.Unionists by contrast consider Bloody Sunday to have been given undue attention in comparison to many more terrorist murders both before and after and propose a blanket amnesty for the security forces actions' during the Troubles.[[/folder]]

One Sunday -- January 30, 1972 -- the Parachute Regiment, fired on man in Londonderry whom they thought was a nail bomber (he later admitted he was picking up a smoking object but denied it was a nail bomb). IRA gunmen fired on the Army who shot back, killing eleven more and wounding several others, one of whom later died from injuries. This was "Bloody Sunday", the DarkestHour of the conflict and a black eye to the face of the British Armed Forces.[[note]]But only ''one'' of the three Irish Bloody Sundays, and only one of the ''two'' that involve British forces opening fire on civilians [[/note]] The tragedy led to a surge in popular support, at home and abroad, for the IRA. Prior to this whole sections of Derry declared themselves "free", rejecting British rule and attacking any official representative that dared trespass, murdering 27 people in the year before Bloody Sunday, incensing Irish Unionists who considered Bloody Sunday justified retribution against the IRA. Money started flowing in from American donors. The communist bloc, seeing [[UsefulNotes/ColdWar an opportunity to harm Western interests and destabilize a critical American ally]], began funding other republican groups. Later, in revenge for the US bombing of Tripoli (launched from British bases), UsefulNotes/MuammarGaddafi joined in the fray.\\

Violence increased through TheSeventies and TheEighties, with IRA bombings and shootouts with the British being a common feature. Faced with escalating violence, crackdowns became more severe -- tanks were used to occupy free Derry, while elements of security forces colluded with loyalists. Many of the controversial features of UsefulNotes/TheWarOnTerror -- the renditions, the torture, the detentions without charge or trial, and the like -- saw their bloody precursors here. Gradually, both sides became more extreme. Some branches of the IRA now began to target civilians on the British mainland, and loyalists, aided by a branch of MI5 known as the FRU began a pogrom, killing suspected IRA member in retaliation for IRA murders. Riots were common, and a Berlin-style system of walls and checkpoints was enforced in Belfast and Derry to keep the feuding communities apart. The IRA became ever more brazen, killing Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma, naval war hero and mentor to (and great-uncle of) Prince Charles, on his fishing boat off the coast of County Sligo in 1979 (and it's something of a ShootTheShaggyDog story -- Mountbatten was ''favorable'' to the Irish cause[[note]]In 2007, Irish State papers revealed he had gone so far as to offer his services to the Irish ambassador in London, as an intermediary in 1972; this wasn't public knowledge at the time of his death.[[/note]]), and nearly doing in UsefulNotes/MargaretThatcher, then in Brighton for a 1984 Tory convention (though with five deaths).\\

The Good Friday Agreement was signed at Stormont in 1998, and a devolved Northern Irish administration was established, where republicans and unionists could settle their differences at the ballot box. British troops left Ireland, leaving behind the 19th Light Brigade, which has no operative role. The IRA formally declared an end to its armed campaign in 2005, having decommissioned its weapons in that same year. The UsefulNotes/TonyBlair cabinet agreed to hold an inquiry into Bloody Sunday. The largest and costliest investigation in British legal history, it delivered its final verdict in 2010, declaring that the paratroopers defied orders in entering republican patches of Londonderry and acted unlawfully in opening fire. However it also established beyond doubt that there were numerous armed IRA members in the Bogside, several of who admitted firing on the soldiers. UsefulNotes/DavidCameron delivered a formal apology on behalf of the British government, to applause from Republican crowds in Derry.[[/folder]]

In Ireland ([[UsefulNotes/{{Ireland}} both]] [[UsefulNotes/NorthernIreland sides]]) and UsefulNotes/{{Britain}}, it is considered extremely offensive, when using this term, to ''not'' speak of it with a capital "T". You say "the troubles"; they say '''[[DeadlyEuphemism the Troubles]]'''. At its peak, you could get shot for walking down the street holding the wrong flag. Hell, flag or no flag, you could be beaten by goons with crowbars just for getting on a bus. We're not kidding. And there are still many parts of Northern Ireland that blatantly display either the Union Jack or the Irish Tricolour, and have its colours on bunting and painted on their kerbs.

Lasting between 1968 and 1998, the Troubles refers to a period of low-intensity but constant war in UsefulNotes/NorthernIreland, which sometimes overflowed into Great Britain, the Republic of Ireland, and occasionally continental Europe. This was a time when the Irish Republicans, mostly Roman Catholic and of native Irish descent, fought paramilitary Ulster Loyalists, mostly Protestant (i.e., Church of Ireland, Presbyterian and Methodist) and descended from British colonists, and the armed forces of the British government, over which country Northern Ireland should belong to, with the former favoring the Republic of Ireland and the latter the United Kingdom. (The actual citizenry and armed forces of the Republic of Ireland mostly stayed out of it.) The fact that it was Catholics vs. Protestants is remarked on by Creator/TomClancy in one of the ''Jack Ryan'' novels by noting that "Northern Ireland is one of the safest places to be a Jew." Despite that, the actual theological differences between Protestants and Catholics had hardly anything to do with the Troubles, apart from which side you were likely to find them on.

It is a reasonably popular setting for media (as it was one of the extremely few industrialized places in the world that saw white Christians with Gaelic and Anglo-Saxon names going full partisan against each other) and a good place to source WesternTerrorists from, even today. That British security services got into some shady dealings, factual or fictional (e.g., collusion with loyalist paramilitaries, internment, murder, bombing, framing of innocent victims, black propaganda, political assassination, a shoot-to-kill policy, raiding of homes, the jury-less Diplock Court system[[note]]Though this was originally instituted to keep blatantly biased juries from acquitting guilty people and convicting innocent people on the basis of religious/political beliefs[[/note]], tear gas, surveillance, torture, forced deportation, and kidnappings) adds to the potential drama. Expect knee-capping and bad Irish accents.

Due to large numbers of Irish immigrants and their descendants in the USA (about ten times as much as there are back in the Emerald Isle), the American media often saw the Troubles through a slightly green-tinted lens. As such, while seldom explicit, the image of the [[YourTerroristsAreOurFreedomFighters noble Irish freedom fighter]] struggling against the stuffy (and occasionally [[EatsBabies baby]]-[[Literature/AModestProposal eating]]) British establishment does pervade some films.

The Troubles has its roots in UsefulNotes/TheIrishRevolution. At the end of the aforementioned war, the United Kingdom decided to divide Ireland between an independent state for the predominantly Roman Catholic south and a constituency of the Union for the six Protestant-dominated counties to the north, even as this proved unpopular to either side, which wanted ''the entirety of Ireland'' for their respective political entities. For the next forty years, the loyalists alone ruled Northern Ireland, while the Catholic minority was largely excluded from public life by snobbery, poverty and bigotry - and of course plain old electoral shenanigans like gerrymandering. The Union government, happy to be finally shorn of UsefulNotes/TheIrishQuestion, washed its hands of the affair, and this system persisted for years.\\

Up until TheSixties, Belfast had a wide latitude which it often abused. Anti-Catholic gerrymandering was common. The great shipyards of Belfast, such as Harland and Wolff, were closed to Catholics[[note]] In a pretty despicable attempt to avert an EnemyMine situation, when rumours began about [[RedScare trade-unionising the shipyard workers]], both Catholic and Protestant, the Unionist leadership ''and'' the Catholic church leadership torpedoed the attempt for different reasons - the Unionists out of fear of organised working Catholics, and the Church out of fear that trade unionism would lead to socialism - probably a classic case of trying to stop Belfast's working men realizing [[WeAreStrugglingTogether they were struggling together.]] This resulted in Catholic workers being laid off and the shipyards becoming a Protestant/Unionist stronghold.[[/note]] and inequality in allocation of council housing and healthcare was institutionalized. This had long been a source of official disapproval from London, and UsefulNotes/HaroldWilson, then Prime Minister of the Union, pressed his Northern Irish counterpart, Terrence O'Neill, to cut back on discrimination during a 1964 visit. O'Neill gave him some pleasant words and made some token moves toward reform. But even these inspired Protestant fury, and progress was very slow. O'Neill's government collapsed under loyalist wrath, and a weaker government under James Chichester-Clarke was formed, which was too timid to push forward with reform, forcing Wilson to give an ultimatum: get going, or else. Whether Britain's intervention is more a case of political pragmatism or genuine concern depends on one's views.\\

In 1969, the Catholics formed an active civil rights movement, partly inspired by [[UsefulNotes/CivilRightsMovement that which occurred years earlier]] just across UsefulNotes/ThePond. At the same time, a loyalist [[BrotherhoodOfFunnyHats fraternal order]] called "Apprentice Boys of Derry" planned a counter-march [[{{Troll}} on the same day and route as that by the civil rights activists]]. This went as well as expected -- the former, ordered not to march, [[{{Determinator}} marched anyway]], and were attacked by loyalist police. There followed some of the most shocking scenes of PoliceBrutality ever seen in the UK, especially from [[TheDreaded the infamous B-Specials]], an unpaid and part-time adjunct to the regular police force. Enraged, the Catholics went into hyperdrive, marching and protesting... and being attacked again and again. In response, and likely due to prodding from an indignant London, Belfast promised wide reforms... which led to even more loyalist belligerence. At the beginning of August, there was a serious three-way riot between both sides and the police in the center of Belfast. MP J. Enoch "Rivers of Blood" Powell even suggested deporting the entire Catholic population to the Republic. Appalled, Wilson and then Home Secretary UsefulNotes/JamesCallaghan took the decision (without consulting the Cabinet) to send in the British Army to restore order in return for the abolition of the B-Specials and serious reform. It is a myth that they were not aware of the dangers (they estimated that it would take at least a decade before they pulled out), and some historians have called the decision to send in the Army "Jim Callaghan's finest hour."\\

One Sunday -- January 30, 1972 -- the Parachute Regiment, for reasons unclear still, fired on marchers protesting internment in Derry, killing two, causing republican snipers to retaliate with a (missed) shot, causing the panicking paratroopers to fire indiscriminately into the crowd, killing eleven more and wounding several others, one of whom later died from injuries. This was "Bloody Sunday", the DarkestHour of the conflict and a black eye to the face of the British Armed Forces.[[note]]But only ''one'' of the three Irish Bloody Sundays, and only one of the ''two'' that involve British forces opening fire on unarmed civilians [[/note]] The tragedy led to a surge in popular support, at home and abroad, for the IRA. Whole sections of Derry declared themselves "free", rejecting British rule and attacking any official representative that dared trespass. Money started flowing in from American donors. The communist bloc, seeing [[UsefulNotes/ColdWar an opportunity to harm Western interests and destabilize a critical American ally]], began funding other republican groups. Later, in revenge for the US bombing of Tripoli (launched from British bases), UsefulNotes/MuammarGaddafi joined in the fray.\\

Violence increased through TheSeventies and TheEighties, with IRA bombings and shootouts with the British being a common feature. Faced with escalating violence, crackdowns became more severe -- tanks were used to occupy free Derry, while elements of security forces colluded with loyalists. Many of the controversial features of UsefulNotes/TheWarOnTerror -- the renditions, the torture, the detentions without charge or trial, and the like -- saw their bloody precursors here. Gradually, both sides became more extreme. Some branches of the IRA now began to target civilians on the British mainland, and loyalists, aided by a branch of MI5 known as the FRU began a pogrom, killing random Catholic civilians in retaliation for attacks by IRA partisans. Riots were common, and a Berlin-style system of walls and checkpoints was enforced in Belfast and Derry to keep the feuding communities apart. The IRA became ever more brazen, killing Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma, naval war hero and mentor to (and great-uncle of) Prince Charles, on his fishing boat off the coast of County Sligo in 1979 (and it's something of a ShootTheShaggyDog story -- Mountbatten was ''favorable'' to the Irish cause[[note]]In 2007, Irish State papers revealed he had gone so far as to offer his services to the Irish ambassador in London, as an intermediary in 1972; this wasn't public knowledge at the time of his death.[[/note]]), and nearly doing in UsefulNotes/MargaretThatcher, then in Brighton for a 1984 Tory convention (though with five deaths).\\

In 1981, 10 internees went on hunger strike in the Long Kesh internment camp protesting their poor treatment and demanding prisoner-of-war status. Hunger striker Bobby Sands was elected to parliament, and after his death protests and memorials took place throughout the world - particularly in America and former Nazi-occupied countries such as France. In 1985, the Anglo-Irish Agreement gave Dublin a "consultative role" in the government of Northern Ireland, to outrage by the Loyalists and Unionists.\\

By the early 1990s, public opinion on both sides had soured on the continued strife. What is widely believed to be TheLastStraw was the second Warrington bombing on 20 February 1993. IRA-supported terrorists exploded two bombs in Warrington, Cheshire, England. The only fatalities were two children. Although there were some loyalist reprisals in the immediate aftermath, by that point both sides had decided enough was enough and it was time to end the war.\\

The Good Friday Agreement was signed at Stormont in 1998, and a devolved Northern Irish administration was established, where republicans and unionists could settle their differences at the ballot box. British troops left Ireland, leaving behind the 19th Light Brigade, which has no operative role. The IRA formally declared an end to its armed campaign in 2005, having decommissioned its weapons in that same year. The UsefulNotes/TonyBlair cabinet agreed to hold an inquiry into Bloody Sunday. The largest and costliest investigation in British legal history, it delivered its final verdict in 2010, declaring that the paratroopers defied orders in entering republican patches of Derry and acted unlawfully in opening fire. UsefulNotes/DavidCameron delivered a formal apology on behalf of the British government, to applause from Republican crowds in Derry.[[/folder]]

It is likely that, but for want of compromise and moderation on both sides, the Troubles might never have become what they were; like [[UsefulNotes/ArabIsraeliConflict that other long-running dispute people get heated up about to this day]], it treads the fine line between {{tragedy}} and {{farce}}. As the sorry narrative shows, there's clearly a shortage of level heads in the Six Counties -- history records few conflicts guided so much by passion and prejudice and so little by reason ([[BrutalHonesty or to be perfectly blunt:]] [[IdiotPlot almost everyone who counted acted like morons and/or bigots for over half a century]]).\\

* Another reference occurs in ''Fanfic/HarryPotterAndTheNightmaresOfFuturesPast'' wherein Wormtail tricks a cell into attacking Hogwarts during Hary's Third Year (1993-1994).

%%* ''Film/TheCryingGame''

* In 'WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' episode [[Recap/TheSimpsonsS20E1SexPiesAndIdiotScrapes "Sex, Pies and Idiot Scrapes"]], when Springfield celebrates St. Patrick's Day, a group of Nationalist Irish led by the Green Leprechaun encounters a group of Unionist Northern Irish led by the Orange Leprechaun, causing tensions between the two. [[HopeSpot Just when it seems Lisa manages to defuse a riot by having both groups]] sing the Irish Lullaby together, the Leprechauns start fighting each other, leading to a city-wide riot.

* Music/TheRollingStones' "Blinded by Rainbows", which sort of mixed this with ReligionRantSong by asking which side truly had God's approval in the fight.

* Music/PaulMcCartney and Music/{{Wings}}' 1972 single "Give Ireland Back to the Irish". Like John Lennon's "Bloody Sunday" mentioned above, it was diretcly inspired by the Bloody Sunday massacre. Despite being completely banned from UK radio, it reached the Top 20 on the charts there and went all the way to #1 in the Republic of Ireland (no surprise) and Spain (after being bought by Basques).

* See the ''Music/{{Horslips}}'' YMMV page for possible allusions to the Troubles in the work of this noted and influential Irish celtic-rock band.

* [[Music/ThinLizzy Gary Moore]], Irish-born rock-blues guitarist, recorded a powerful song called ''Wild Frontier (Forty Shades of Green)'' about growing up in Belfast in the Troubles.
* Many Irish traditional songs are thinly-disguised allusions to the fight for independence from the British. Music/ThinLizzy's first hit, ''Whiskey in the Jar'' (a traditional Irish folk song), is on the face of it a song about a roguish highwayman whose luck runs out and who is awaiting execution. When you listen closely, it becomes apparent that his holding up and robbing a British Army officer only to be betrayed by a faithless girlfriend is a metaphor for ''something else'' entirely. Folk-rockers [[Music/SteeleyeSpan Steeleye Span]] had a hit with ''All Around My Hat (I will wear the green willow)''. Not just a song about a girl remembering her distant boyfriend by wearing a sprig of willow in her hat, but subtly advertising other loyalties by wearing something growing and green. (And why is the boyfriend "far, far, away"? To get out of reach of the British...)
* ''Music/{{Marillion}}'''s track ''Forgotten Sons'' is a lament for Scottish soldiers killed in Northern Ireland, and a swipe at the politicians responsible for sending them there and the religious divide - also a big thing in Scotland - that sustains the terrorists.
* [[Music/FloggingMolly Flogging Molly]]'s song ''Drunken Lullabies'' is about The Troubles, and the hope that they may come to an end (''may these shadows rise to walk again With lessons truly learned'').
* "That's Just The Way It is" by Music/PhilCollins is intended as an [[ProtestSong anti-war]] [[MoralityBallad ballad]] about the Troubles. Though it can also apply to pretty much [[WarIsHell any war]].

* ''La ballade nord-irlandaise'' ("The North Irish ballad") is 1991 song sung by [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t1Bgs_cvqZI Renaud]], on the tune of ''The water is wide''. He sing about how wars can't last as long as beer, music and friendship will make men sing.

* The Music/{{U2}} song, "Sunday Bloody Sunday" from their album ''Music/WarU2Album''. The most famous live performance of it is on ''Music/RattleAndHum'' when Bono denounced Irish-Americans who ignorantly cheered the bloody partisan violence in Ireland. Music/JohnLennon previously released a song of the same name a decade earlier after the event took place. His song was more confrontational, angrily scolding Brits in Northern Ireland ("you Anglo pigs and Scotties") and telling them to leave.

* ''Series/DerryGirls'': Set in Derry in the early/mid 1990s. One source of humour comes directly from jokes about how inconvenient the bombs being dropped are, but the horror does break through on occasion. Season one closes with a particularly bad bombing breaking through the veneer of normalcy the cast has assumed, while season two closes with celebration at the 1994 ceasefire; and the finale of season 3 revolves around the 1998 Good Friday Agreement.

* ''Series/DerryGirls'': Set in Derry in the early/mid 1990s. One source of humour comes directly from jokes about how inconvenient the bombs being dropped are, but the horror does break through on occasion. Season one closes with a particularly bad bombing breaking through the veneer of normalcy the cast has assumed, while season two closes with celebration at the 1994 ceasefire.

* The above picture comes from ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' episode [[Recap/TheSimpsonsS20E1SexPiesAndIdiotScrapes "Sex, Pies and Idiot Scrapes"]]. When Springfield celebrates St. Patrick's Day, a group of Nationalist Irish led by the Green Leprechaun encounters a group of Unionist Northern Irish led by the Orange Leprechaun, causing tensions between the two. [[HopeSpot Just when it seems Lisa manages to defuse a riot by having both groups]] sing the Irish Lullaby together, the Leprechauns start fighting each other, leading to a city-wide riot.

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[[quoteright:320:[[WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/simpsons_-_irish_2702.jpg]]]]

UsefulNotes/JohnMajor and Sinn Féin, the political wing of the republicans, agreed to a ceasefire in 1994. The USA also decided to act as mediator, to which both sides agreed, with UsefulNotes/BillClinton personally acting as middleman in 1995, to the delight of both sides -- an oft-forgotten (at least in the USA) triumph for his presidency. He helped lay the foundations for an end to the bloodshed. The Troubles might have ended then and there, but it was not to be. London refused to negotiate until the IRA decommissioned (or at least lay down arms), which the IRA flat-out refused to do (because Major's government had a very weak majority, and was dependent on loyalist backing to survive). In 1996, the IRA bombed Canary Wharf in London, breaking the ceasefire. More attacks followed, including a massive blast in Manchester which failed to kill anyone but destroyed the city center. Finally, due in part to political maneuvering by the British (who started separate negotiations with other republican groups) and American intervention, the IRA agreed to disarm.\\

* The Music/{{U2}} song, "Sunday Bloody Sunday" from their album ''Music/WarU2Album''. The most famous live performance of it is on ''Music/RattleAndHum'' when Bono denounced Irish-Americans who ignorantly cheered the bloody partisan violence in Ireland. Music/JohnLennon previously released a song of the same name a decade earlier after the event took place. His song was more confrontational, openly siding with the Irish and supporting the battle for a united Ireland

* Music/PaulMcCartney and Music/{{Wings}}' 1972 single "Give Ireland Back to the Irish". Despite being completely banned from UK radio, it reached the Top 20 on the charts there and went all the way to #1 in the Republic of Ireland (no surprise) and Spain (after being bought by Basques).

* The Music/{{U2}} song, "Sunday Bloody Sunday" from their album ''Music/WarU2Album''. The most famous live performance of it is on ''Music/RattleAndHum'' when Bono denounced Irish-Americans who ignorantly cheered the bloody partisan violence in Ireland. Music/JohnLennon previously released a song of the same name a decade earlier after the event took place.