History UsefulNotes / TheTroubles

* "Invisible Sun" by Music/ThePolice.

* ''Film/TheCryingGame''

* Ken Loach's film ''Film/HiddenAgenda''.

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 '''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" is the DeadlyEuphemism for 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.

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 '''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.

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 latter, 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."\\

* ''ComicBook/PunkRockJesus'': Jesus's bodyguard Thomas grew up in the Troubles, and was a ChildSoldier for the IRA.

* ''ComicBook/PunkRockJesus'': Thomas grew up in the Troubles, and it's where he learned his fighting skills.

* Despite being set nearly a century before UsefulNotes/TheTroubles even began, the book (and subsequent MiniSeries) ''Literature/{{Scarlett}}'' also makes reference to the tensions between the British and Irish--Scarlett goes to Ireland to visit her father's relatives, only to see them frequently clash with their British landlords, and for her to be viewed as a CategoryTraitor for beginning a relationship with one, who is indeed an EvilBrit (which readers/viewers are supposed to realize just by virtue of his accent) with nothing but contempt for the Irish people and in the MiniSeries, is even [[AdaptationalVillainy worse]], having forced a young peasant girl to be his SexSlave.

* In the ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' episode "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS3E12TheHighGround The High Ground]]," Data mentions that [[TheGreatPoliticsMessUp Ireland was reunited in 2024 as a result of a successful terrorist campaign]], a line that resulted in this being a BannedEpisode in the UK and Ireland for many years. Additionally, the episode's plot centers around a thinly-veiled allegory for the Troubles, in which a planet's civil war has one side using terrorism in its fight for independence from the other side. The conflict is portrayed as GreyAndGrayMorality.

Lasting between 1968 and 1998, the Troubles refers to a period of low-intensity but constant war in Northern Ireland, 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.

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 was any groups of people 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.\\

In 1981, 10 hunger strikers 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 it was time to end the war.\\

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. The Union government, happy to be finally shorn of UsefulNotes/TheIrishQuestion, washed its hands of the affair, and this system persisted for years.\\

* An episode of ''Series/{{Life On Mars|2006}}'' had apparent IRA bombings, although Sam Tyler was sure they weren't by the IRA because of his modern knowledge.

And then Brexit happened and led to both a flareup of political protest in Northern Ireland explicitly along sectarian lines (Unionists are ''very'' unhappy with what they deem "a border in the Irish Sea") and a seemingly endless political crisis in the Northern Ireland Executive (the power-sharing local government that was one of the results of the Good Friday Agreement) in part due to Brexit, in part due to [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renewable_Heat_Incentive_scandal an unrelated scandal]] involving Arlene Foster (leader of the DUP until 2021 and First Minister of Northern Ireland) and in part due to the faceplanting of the DUP, whose participation in Thereas May's minority government did not make Unionists very happy and who now rank lower in the polls than Sinn Fein, which would not only mark the first time since 1922 that the same party polled the highest on both sides of the Irish Border but also the first time in the history of Northern Ireland that a nationalist party would gain a plurality of seats - which would, by convention, make them entitled to the post of First Minister, even if the Deputy First Minister post (thus far held by SF) has virtually identical powers, the ''symbolism'' is seen as very undesirable by many Unionists.

The Troubles are pretty much over now, 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.)

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), and nearly doing in UsefulNotes/MargaretThatcher, then in Brighton for a 1984 Tory convention (though with five deaths).\\

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 convicting innocents 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.

The Troubles are pretty much over now, 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.

* ''Film/TheCryingGame''. Come for The Troubles, stay for AllThereIsToKnowAboutTheCryingGame. Or vice versa.

* The Music/{{U2}} song, "Sunday Bloody Sunday" from their album ''Music/{{War}}''. 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.

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, detention without 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), and nearly doing in UsefulNotes/MargaretThatcher, then in Brighton for a 1984 Tory convention (though with five deaths).\\