The Troubles

The Troubles was a conflict in Northern Ireland that lasted roughly from the late 1960s to the Good Friday Agreement of 1998. It was fought chiefly between unionists and loyalists, who were mostly Protestant and wished to remain part of the United Kingdom, and nationalists and republicans, who were mostly Catholic and sought a united Ireland. It grew out of the civil rights movement's protests against discrimination in housing, jobs and voting, and it escalated after street clashes and the deployment of British troops in 1969. Paramilitary groups on both sides, such as the Provisional IRA and the Ulster Volunteer Force, as well as the British security forces, were involved in killings and bombings, and more than three thousand people died. The 1998 agreement created power-sharing institutions, though tensions have continued.

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