The Troubles were a period of conflict in Northern Ireland involving republican and loyalist paramilitaries, the British security forces and civilians. They are usually dated from the late 1960s to the Good Friday Agreement of 1998. However, sporadic violence has occurred since that time, with those involved often being referred to as dissident republicans and loyalists. The Troubles, sometimes known internationally as the Northern Ireland conflict, claimed roughly 3500 lives.

Prior to 1960 Since partition, the IRA had started a number of operations in Northern Ireland designed at bringing about their goal of a United Ireland. The intensity of this activity increased towards the end of 1941, where the IRA decided to step up its campaign of attacks in Northern Ireland.CAIN: Chronology of Key Events in Irish History, 1800 to 1967; section 1941 and onwards, cain.ulst.ac.uk. Retrieved 13 April 2018. In response to this activity the Unionist authorities under John Miller Andrews introduced internment and using provisions of the Emergency Powers Act, instituted increasingly restrictive policies in Northern Ireland. This pattern of paramilitary violence, followed by increasingly restrictive measures on the behalf of the authorities came to define the run-up to the Troubles.

1960–1969 Since 1964, civil rights activists had been protesting against the discrimination against Catholics and Irish nationalists by the Ulster Protestant and unionist government of Northern Ireland. The civil rights movement called for: 'one man, one vote'; the end to gerrymandered electoral boundaries; the end to discrimination in employment and in the allocation of public housing; repeal of the Special Powers Act; and the disbanding of the Ulster Special Constabulary.

1966 AprilLoyalists led by Ian Paisley, a Protestant preacher, founded the Ulster Constitution Defence Committee (UCDC) to oppose the civil rights movement. It set up a paramilitary-style wing called the Ulster Protestant Volunteers (UPV). 21 MayA loyalist group calling itself the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) issued a statement declaring war on the Irish Republican Army (IRA). The group claimed to be composed of "heavily armed Protestants dedicated to this cause".See Nelson, Sarah. "Ulster's Uncertain Defenders: Protestant Political Paramilitary and Community Groups and the Northern Ireland Conflict", p. 61, Belfast: Appletree Press, 1984. At the time, the IRA was not engaged in armed action, and Irish nationalists were marking the 50th anniversary of the Easter Rising. Some unionists warned "that a revival of the IRA was imminent". May–JuneThe UVF carried out three attacks on Catholics in Belfast. In the first, a Protestant civilian (Matilda Gould) died when UVF members tried to firebomb the Catholic-owned pub beside her house but accidentally struck her home. In the second, a Catholic civilian (John Patrick Scullion) was shot dead as he walked home. In the third, the UVF opened fire on three Catholic civilians as they left a pub, killing one, Peter Ward, and wounding the other two.

1968 20 JuneCivil rights activists (including Stormont MP Austin Currie) protested against discrimination in the allocation of housing by illegally occupying a house in Caledon, County Tyrone. An unmarried Protestant woman (the secretary of a local Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) politician) had been given the house ahead of Catholic families with children. The protesters were forcibly removed by the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC).A Chronology of the Conflict – 1968. CAIN Web Service 24 AugustNorthern Ireland's first civil rights march was held. Many more marches would be held over the following year. Loyalists attacked some of the marches and organized counter-demonstrations to get the marches banned. 5 OctoberA Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association march was to take place in Derry. When the loyalist Apprentice Boys announced its intention to hold a march at the same place and time, the Government banned all marches taking place that day. When civil rights activists defied the ban, RUC officers surrounded the marchers and beat them indiscriminately and without provocation. Over 100 people were injured, including a number of MPs. This sparked two days of serious rioting in Derry between Republicans and the RUC. 8 OctoberAbout 2,000 students from Queen's University Belfast tried to march to Belfast City Hall in protest against police brutality on 5 October in Derry. The march was blocked by loyalists led by Ian Paisley. After the demonstration, a student civil rights group—People's Democracy—was formed.

1969–1970

1969 4 JanuaryA People's Democracy march between Belfast and Derry was repeatedly attacked by loyalists. At Burntollet it was ambushed by 200 loyalists and off-duty police (RUC) officers armed with iron bars, bricks and bottles. The marchers claimed that police did little to protect them. When the march arrived in Derry it was broken up by the RUC, which sparked serious rioting between Irish nationalists and the RUC.A Chronology of the Conflict – January 1969 CAIN Web Service That night, RUC officers went on a rampage in the Bogside area of Derry; attacking Catholic homes, attacking and threatening residents, and hurling sectarian abuse.Bowes Egan and Vincent McCormack. Burntollet. L.R.S. Publishers, 1969. Reproduced on CAIN. Retrieved 12 June 2013. Residents then sealed off the Bogside with barricades to keep the police out, creating "Free Derry". March–AprilThe loyalists intended to bring down the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) Prime Minister of Northern Ireland, Terence O'Neill, who had promised some concessions to the civil rights movement. To this end, Members of the loyalist UVF and UPV bombed water and electricity installations in Northern Ireland, in deceitful false flag attacks, blaming them on the dormant IRA and on elements of the civil rights movement. There were six bombings and all were widely blamed on the IRA. As a response, British soldiers were sent to guard installations. Despite this, Loyalist-Unionist support for O'Neill continued to wane, and on 28 April he resigned as Prime Minister.A Chronology of the Conflict – April 1969 CAIN Web Service 17 AprilPeople's Democracy activist Bernadette Devlin was the youngest woman ever elected to Westminster, a record which stood until Mhairi Black's election in 2015. 19 AprilDuring clashes with civil rights marchers in Derry, RUC officers entered the house of an uninvolved Catholic civilian, Samuel Devenny, and beat him, along with two of his daughters. One of the daughters was beaten unconscious as she lay recovering from surgery.Police Ombudsman statement on Devenny investigation (4 October 2001). Conflict Archive on the Internet (CAIN). Devenny suffered a heart attack and died on 17 July from his injuries. 13 JulyDuring clashes with nationalists throwing stones at an Orange Hall in Dungiven, RUC officers beat Francis McCloskey, a Catholic civilian (aged 67). He died of his injuries the next day. Some consider this the first death of the Troubles.A Chronology of the Conflict – July 1969 CAIN Web Service 5 AugustThe UVF planted their first bomb in the Republic of Ireland, damaging the RTÉ Television Centre in Dublin. 12–14 AugustBattle of the Bogside – during an Apprentice Boys march, serious rioting erupted in Derry between Irish nationalists and the RUC. RUC officers, backed by loyalists, entered the nationalist Bogside in armoured cars and tried to suppress the riot by using CS gas, water cannon and eventually firearms. The almost continuous rioting lasted for two days.A Chronology of the Conflict – August 1969 CAIN Web Service. Retrieved 10 October 2015. 14–17 AugustNorthern Ireland riots of August 1969 – in response to events in Derry, Irish nationalists held protests throughout Northern Ireland. Some of these became violent. In Belfast, loyalists responded by attacking nationalist districts. Rioting also erupted in Newry, Armagh, Crossmaglen, Dungannon, Coalisland and Dungiven. Six Catholics and two Protestants were shot dead and at least 133 were treated for gunshot wounds. Scores of houses and businesses were burnt out, most of them owned by Catholics. Thousands of families, mostly Catholics, were forced to flee their homes and refugee camps were set up in the Republic. This led to more people being displaced, with both Catholic & Protestant families leaving mixed estates & moving to estates that had either fellow Catholics or fellow Protestants in them making Belfast even more segregated between Catholic & Protestant. Protestants also moved from parts of Derry City, marking a similar divide in Derry as well as Belfast. This became the largest involuntary movement of a population in Europe since the end of the Second World War in 1945.Scarman Tribunal The British Army was deployed on the streets of Northern Ireland, which marked the beginning of Operation Banner. 11 OctoberThree people were shot dead during street violence in the loyalist Shankill area of Belfast. Two were Protestant civilians (George Dickie and Herbert Hawe) shot by the British Army and one was an RUC officer (Victor Arbuckle) shot by the UVF. Arbuckle was the first RUC officer to be killed in the Troubles. The loyalists "had taken to the streets in protest at the Hunt Report, which recommended the disbandment of the B Specials and disarming of the RUC".A Chronology of the Conflict – October 1969 CAIN Web Service. Retrieved 10 October 2015. October–DecemberThe UVF detonated bombs in the Republic of Ireland. In Dublin it detonated a car bomb near the Garda Síochána central detective bureau."Irish tighten security after Dublin bombing", The Lewiston Daily Sun, 29 December 1969. It also bombed a power station at Ballyshannon, a Wolfe Tone memorial in Bodenstown, and the O'Connell Monument in Dublin. DecemberA split formed in the Irish Republican Army, creating what was to become the Official IRA and Provisional IRA.

1970–1979 1970