How the Troubles began

Voice over: This is the Falls Road in Belfast. And this is the Shankhill Road. These two areas are just a few streets away from each other, and yet there is a border running between them. This vast wall stands on the first peace line in Northern Ireland. First Built nearly 50 years ago as a temporary barrier to divide two communities, there is a still a wall standing here today - a physical symbol of the deep divisions within Northern Ireland.

Northern Ireland was formed in 1921, when Ireland seceded from the UK, six of Ireland’s 32 counties remained as part of the United Kingdom. The governance of these counties has been contested ever since, sparking the bloody 30-year conflict known as the Troubles.

In this four-part series, we’ll be taking a look at the history of the Troubles, and why the scars of this conflict remain. But first of all, let’s take a look back to see what marked out the six counties of Northern Ireland in the first place.

Religious tension in the north of Ireland dates back hundreds of years, and some of this can be traced to the plantation of Ulster. At the end of the 16th century, an Irish alliance rose up to fight against English rule – and a lot of the unrest took place in the province of Ulster. At the end of the Nine Years' war in 1603, James VI & I, King of Scotland & England, set out to colonise and subdue the north of Ireland.

Craig Murray: "He sought to undertake an official plantation of Ulster to ensure its loyalty and to stop uprisings happening ever again. In this, he planted mainly lowland Scots and some from the north of England into six of the nine counties of Ulster. 

Earlier in 1603 that had been private plantation by Presbyterians Scots in the counties of Down and then Antrim. But the actual official policy starts in 1609 and it's really there to secure this part of the country in a way that will make it not be able to rise in rebellion again."

Voice over: Over the next century, Europe was engulfed in religious wars. James II – the Catholic King of England, Scotland and Ireland - was overthrown by protestant William of Orange in 1688. A few years later, James’s supporters – the Jacobites – attempted to restore James to the throne. Supported by French forces, the Irish Jacobites fought the Williamites in Ireland, backed by the Grand Alliance. The fighting culminated in two major battles, the Battle of the Boyne and  the Battle of Aughrim.

Craig Murray: "The Battle of the Boyne in 1690, although not a decisive battle, was very significant. A year later, in 1691, at the Battle of Aughrim, the Jacobite forces of James are actually destroyed and he is defeated. Aughrim itself, although the less well known, is by far the most strategically important of the two battles, but the Boyne has a much larger geopolitical effect. And even today still William of Orange is a figure we see, particularly during the loyalist marching season, which culminates on the 12th of July."

Voice over: Religious conflict, as with much of Europe, was causing great divisions within Northern Ireland. But another struggle was also continuing to grow: the fight for independence from British rule. In 1845, a potato famine broke out across Ireland. The famine reinforced to a lot of Irish people that although they were now part of the UK, they were not considered equal. As Irish people starved, the British continued to export food for profit. Over a million people died. The famine sparked rebellion and new calls for independence. Over the 19th century, there were multiple bills proposed for Home Rule. The first was proposed and failed in 1886. The third attempt passed in 1914, but was put on hold due to the First World War. Irish republicans decided to take action. They staged a rebellion over Easter week in 1916.

Craig Murray: "The Easter Rising is planned as far back as 1914 by Patrick Pierce of the Irish Republican Brotherhood. There are a number of other groups involved, one of which will go on to become the IRA in 1919. For a week there is a great deal of violence and there are a high level of casualties. This is eventually put down by the British Army. Now, whether or not this would have gone away afterwards changed dramatically in the way that the British sought to deal with the leaders of the uprising. Many of them were actually executed by firing squad. And things such as the conscription policy that the British tried to introduce in Ireland, again, hardened Republicanism and eventually Sinn Féin, a party that was formed back in 1905, which had been a nationalist party not linked with armed or violent republicanism becomes a Republican Party. It wins the 1918 general election and instantly declares an independent Ireland."

Voice over: But support for the union remained strong in the North, leading to the Irish War for Independence, largely fought between the IRA and the British government. In 1920, Home Rule was finally granted and Ireland was partitioned. It was meant to be a temporary solution to end the war, but the government in the south never formed, and the war continued until a ceasefire in 1921 and the Anglo-Irish Treaty, which granted Ireland a limited independence. The south became a Free State, but still had to take an oath to the King. This agreement was not entirely popular, leading to a bloody civil war between those who were pro-Treaty and those against. In 1923, the pro-Treaty Free State forces prevailed, cementing the Anglo-Irish Treaty and the two-state solution, with a region in the North remaining part of Britain. 

The border had been drawn around six counties in Ulster. In some places the border was drawn directly through the middle of towns and villages. Ulster contained nine counties; the three that were excluded were Donegal, Monaghan and Cavan. This was devised by Unionists, so as to ensure a protestant majority in the new state. But, although the six counties had a protestant majority politically, there was a substantial Catholic population across the region. Voting was manipulated to advantage the unionists.

Craig Murray: "In many senses, the only people you could vote for sometimes were unionists, or there would often be no point in putting up a candidate from a nationalist party because it wouldn't be enough of a vote for them to actually carry any win through. There were actually other things, such as gerrymandering was used as well, most starkly in the city of Derry/Londonderry, which was an overwhelmingly nationalist community, but it continued to retain unionist populations where the boundaries were drawn up.
Not only was gerrymandering an issue, also if you were not the rate payer or the rent payer on a house, even if you were of voting age, you can vote in local elections which further discriminated against working people.

Access to jobs was another area where the nationalist community often seemed to be prejudiced against, such as the big shipbuilding works in Belfast would have an overwhelmingly Protestant workforce. But this is actually a hotly contested issue in the sense that if you didn't have relatives working in one of these factories, no matter if you were protestant, you would often be prejudiced against as well. And then on top of that, women found it very hard to get roles in some of these jobs as well."

Voice over: It was in this environment, with Catholic residents consistently seen to be disadvantaged, that the civil rights movement grew among the nationalist communities. 

Kathleen O'Hanlon: "There was no promotion, if you're a Catholic, you didn't get it, you just didn't get promotion. The Imperial Civil Service - if you worked in England, then you would get a promotion. But if you were in the Northern Ireland Civil Service, there were people who weren't as experienced as you who were promoted over you. Housing was another thing. That was the start of the civil rights movement. There was a young single girl got a house where a Catholic family didn't get it, you know. I never met many and never mixed, never had any protestant friends until I started nursing really. But it's still there. The hatred. Deep hatred, it's dreadful."

Craig Murray: "Communities and attitudes became deeply polarised through nearly 30 years of conflict in Northern Ireland. Many of the events that took place during this time are hotly contested. Moreover, they are highly disputed as well. Often starkly and highly diverse versions of events exist on both sides, and many people will never come to a point of agreement on what happened on certain days at certain times."

Voice over: Throughout the late sixties, tension was rising. In 1969, at the annual Apprentice Boys of Derry March, violence erupted. The route of the march passed through the predominantly Catholic Bogside area of Derry/Londonderry, resulting in violent clashes between the marchers and residents.

Craig Murray: "Several days of rioting ensued and the police became involved. Weapons were fired, batton-round guns were used. Stones were thrown and bits of the Bogside were shut off to the police. When the police moved into the Bogside, loyalist groups moved in behind them. This was probably not the police's intention, but it galvanized opinion within the nationalist Republican community. At the same sense, violence broke out in other parts of Northern Ireland as well. And people were burned out of homes in both loyalist and republican communities. And the Troubles at this point really begins in Northern Ireland."

Voice over: In 1969, the IRA split and a break-away group who called themselves the Provisional IRA formed. Divisions in the IRA had been growing through the 1960s. In 1962, the new IRA chief of staff, Cathal Goulding, sought to move the IRA in a different direction, he keen that the movement becomes political in its outlook rather than one that relied on armed struggle, which to traditional Republicans is seen as a betrayal of their cause, who see their task as the defence of the nationalist community, and the expulsion of the British from Ireland. 

Loyalist paramilitaries such as the Red Hand Commando, the Ulster Defence Association (UDA), and the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF), also grew in numbers. Ian Paisley was a Presbyterian minister who established himself as an outspoken leader within Unionism, leading marches throughout the 1960s and 70s. As the rival groups grew, tensions rose. Over these decades, violent attacks and bombings increased in frequency, and barricades went up to separate the two communities.
  
The Provisional IRA escalated their armed campaign against the British and Northern Irish security forces. Many nationalists saw the Provisional IRA as defenders of their community, and loyalists saw them as dangerous insurgents. In reaction to this violence, the British Army were deployed on the streets in Operation Banner. They were called in to support the RUC, and protect infrastructure and civilians. But ultimately, their presence served to escalate the situation.

Craig Murray: "We’ve come up to IWM’s conservation studio to have a look at this weapon here which is a baton round gun which was used by the British army and the Royal Ulster Constabulary in riot control situations. This type of weapon could fire a variety of ammunition, from CS gas canisters, but more usually rubber bullets and more latterly plastic bullets. The British Army was deployed in Northern Ireland in 1969 at the behest of the then Prime Minister and it changed the relationship with Northern Ireland and the rest of the United Kingdom, where now the British government itself took a more active role because the army were very much within their control.

Initially, in some areas they were seen as being protective and helpful of the nationalist Catholic community. But as the situation developed in Northern Ireland and the army's role became more intense, they were no longer seen as a neutral actor. Although seen as an effective form of crowd control if used correctly, the bullets could in themselves be fatal. There were a number of fatalities caused by rubber and more latterly the plastic bullets, which were at the time thought to be less lethal, but turned out to be no less so. This was often seen as a fairly heavy-handed approach, and nationalist communities often saw that they were the ones more targeted by British soldiers with these particular weapons than those in loyalist communities."

Voice over: In 1970, the Ulster Defence Regiment was formed, becoming the largest regiment in the British Army.

Craig Murray: "They consisted of people who came from Northern Ireland. They didn't go home. They didn't have tours of duty. They came from the community from which they defended. Although there was a drive to include Catholics in the recruitment and some did join, it largely was unsuccessful because of pressure in nationalist and republican communities to join them, and also because the force was seen, as with the Royal Constabulary, the police force, to be overwhelmingly protestant and was viewed from a nationalist Republican standpoint as being a tool of the oppressor, if you will. The UDR did draw controversy. There were accusations from republicans of collusion with loyalist paramilitaries, some of which may have been true, others may have been overstated. Even within the loyalist community, many of them didn't see them as friends either. For others, others saw them as neutral. So the position was difficult and it was dangerous and it certainly was controversial at times."

Terence Friend: "I think that was the hardest thing any of us had to deal with - the fact this was a United Kingdom city. And yet you were there, as though you were in the middle of a war zone. It was a war zone. It was a war zone. There was a lot of violence and a lot of anger. You had all that debris from the first riots, all the burnt-out streets and things. The ones that were friendly were very friendly. But the ones that weren’t were the exact opposite. You got stoned, and bottled, and petrol bombed and all the rest of it in a protestant area just as much as you did in the catholic one. You really were piggy in the middle."

Voice over: The British Army arriving in NI faced a difficult challenge. In their efforts to supress the IRA, hostility from the Catholic community grew towards the British Army. And this was severely aggravated by the introduction of the Falls Curfew in July 1970. What started off as a search for weapons in a Catholic, nationalist area, resulted in clashes between local residents throwing petrol bombs, and British soldiers firing CS gas. In response to this clash, the entire area was sealed off and a curfew was imposed. Large amounts of weapons were seized by the British troops, but in the process of the operation, four civilians were killed and dozens others injured. The same month, in the House of Commons, the UK Home Secretary declared, "We are now at war with the IRA."

The following year, the policy of internment sparked further anger. Operation Demetrius involved the imprisonment without trial of suspected IRA members. The British Army conducted sweeps and arrested more than 340 people from Catholic and nationalist backgrounds. But due to faulty intelligence, many of these people in fact had no connection to armed republicanism. The treatment of some of those arrested was later categorised as torture.

Craig Murray: "We're standing in front of a cabinet here in the galleries, and in here we have a poster which is a protest against the Northern Irish government's policy of internment in 1971. These initial sweeps caused four days of rioting in which over 20 people died. Posters like these would have appeared on walls, on lampposts, etc. in Northern Ireland at the time as a protest against what was felt to be an unjust policy targeted against the nationalist community. Indeed, loyalists would not be subject to the same internment without trial until 1973."

Voice over: The backlash to internment was strong. It sparked a lot of violence, a recruitment boost for the IRA, and a deepening of divisions between the loyalists and nationalists.

Craig Murray: "1972 was the worst year of violence in Northern Ireland. But from the couple of years before that, the violence had been escalating. Northern Ireland was starting to appear on the news regular at night and civilians bore the brunt of it as far as casualties were concerned."

Voice over: There seemed at this point to be no resolution in sight, but the worst was still to come. 
The presence of the British Army and the growth of the paramilitaries all ramped up the violence of the Troubles. The IRA had already split but their strategy was about to entirely change. As the violence increased and spread beyond northern Irish borders, the road to peace would not be easy.