11 Facts About The Troubles

1.

The Troubles were an ethno-nationalist conflict in Northern Ireland that lasted about 30 years from the late 1960s to 1998.

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2.

Main participants in the Troubles were republican paramilitaries such as the Provisional Irish Republican Army and the Irish National Liberation Army ; loyalist paramilitaries such as the Ulster Volunteer Force and Ulster Defence Association ; British state security forces such as the British Army and RUC; and political activists.

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3.

The Troubles involved numerous riots, mass protests and acts of civil disobedience, and led to increased segregation and the creation of temporary no-go areas.

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4.

The Troubles were brought to an uneasy end by a peace process that included the declaration of ceasefires by most paramilitary organisations, the complete decommissioning of the IRA's weapons, the reform of the police, and the withdrawal of the British Army from the streets and sensitive Irish border areas such as South Armagh and County Fermanagh, as agreed by the signatories to the Belfast Agreement .

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5.

The Troubles condemned the RUC and said that the Irish Government "can no longer stand by and see innocent people injured and perhaps worse".

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6.

The Troubles called for a United Nations peacekeeping force to be deployed and said that Irish Army field hospitals were being set up at the border in County Donegal near Derry.

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7.

The Troubles was the first RUC officer to be killed during the Troubles.

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8.

Agreement proved elusive and the Troubles continued throughout the 1970s, 1980s, and the 1990s within a context of political deadlock.

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9.

The Troubles wrote in 1971 that Britain had "responsibility without power" there, and secretly met with the IRA that year while leader of the opposition; his government in late 1974 and early 1975 again met with the IRA to negotiate a ceasefire.

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10.

The Troubles wrote in 2006 that "Neither then nor since has public opinion in Ireland realised how close to disaster our whole island came during the last two years of Harold Wilson's premiership", and in 2008 said that the Republic "was more at risk then than at any time since our formation".

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11.

The Department of Health has looked at a report written in 2007 by Mike Tomlinson of Queen's University, which asserted that the legacy of the Troubles has played a substantial role in the current rate of suicide in Northern Ireland.

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