Timeline of the Troubles

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. 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.