Editing The Troubles

{{Infobox military conflict|conflict=The Troubles|date=1966-1998|Location=[[Northern Ireland]], sporadic conflict elsewhere|status=An end to most violence with the [[Good Friday Agreement]]|combatants_header=Belligerents|combatant1='''Irish Republicans'''|combatant1a=Miltary Organizations<br>[[Anti-Treaty Irish Republican Army]] (until 1969)<br>[[Saor Éire]] (1967-1970)<br>[[Provisional Irish Republican Army]] (from 1969)<br>[[Official Irish Republican Army]] (1969-1972)<br>[[Irish National Liberation Army]] (from 1974)<br>[[Continuity Irish Republican Army]] (from 1986)<br>[[Irish People's Liberation Organization]] (1986-1992)<br>[[Real Irish Republican Army]] (from 1997)|combatant1b=Political Organizations<br>[[Anti-Treaty Sinn Féin]] (until 1969)<br>[[Nationalist Party]] (Until 1977)<br>[[Republican Labour Party]] (until 1974)<br>[[National Democratic Party]] (until 1970)<br>[[People's Democracy]] (1968-1996)<br>[[Provisional Sinn Féin]] (from 1970)<br>[[Official Sinn Féin]] (from 1970, later called Sinn Féin-Workers Party or Worker's Party)<br>[[Nothern Ireland Civil Rights Association]] (1969-1972)<br> [[Social Democratic and Labour Party]] (from 1970)<br> [[Irish Republican Socialist Party]] (from 1974)<br>[[Irish Independence Party]] (1977-1985)<br>[[Republican Sinn Féin]] (from 1986)<br>[[Republican Socialist Collective]] (1986-1992)<br>[[32 County Sovereignity Movement]] (from 1997)|combatant1c=Material Support and Training<br>[[NORAID]] (from 1969)<br>[[Palestine Liberation Organization]] (1970s-1980s)<br>[[Libyan Arab Jamahiriya]] (1972-1973/1980s)<br>[[Union of Soviet Socialist Republics]] (sporadically from 1972)<br>[[Euskadi Ta Askatasuna]] (from 1974)<br>[[Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia]] (limited)|combatant1d=Poltical Support<br>Most global Socialist and national liberation movements|combatant2='''British and Unionist Forces'''|combatant2a=Military Organizations<br>[[British Armed Forces]]<br>[[Royal Ulster Constabulary]]<br>[[Ulster Volunteer Force]] (until 1994)<br>[[Ulster Protestant Volunteers]] (until-1969)<br>[[Red Hand Commando]] (1970-1994)<br>[[Ulster Defence Association]] (1971-1994)<br>[[Ulster Loyalist Central Co-ordinating Committee]] (1974-1976 from 1991)<br>[[Ulster Resistance]] (from 1986)<br>[[Ulster Independence Movement]] (from 1988)<br>[[Loyalist Volunteer Force]] (from 1996)|combatant2b=Political Organizations=<br>[[Ulster Unionist Party]]<br>[[Conservative and Unionist Party]]<br>[[Ulster Unionist Labour Association]]<br>[[Protestant Unionist Party]] (until 1971)<br>[[Democratic Unionist Party]] (from 1971)<br>[[Vanguard Unionist Progressive Party]] (1972-1978)<br>[[Volunteer Political Party]] (1974)<br>[[Unionist Party of Northern Ireland]] (1974-1981)<br>[[United Ulster Unionist Party]] (1975-1984)<br>[[Ulster Independence Party]] (1977-1982)<br>[[New Ulster Political Research Group]] (1978-1981)<br>[[Progressive Unionist Party]] (from 1979)<br>[[Ulster Popular Unionist Party]] (from 1980)<br>[[Ulster Democratic Party]] (from 1981 originally Ulster Loyalist Democratic Party)<br>[[UK Unionist Party]] (from 1995)|combatant2c=Material Support<br>[[Union of South Africa]]<br>[[Arkan's Tigers]]|combatant2d=Political Support<br>Most Western imperialist states and reactionaries.}}'''The Troubles''' was a conflict between [[Irish Republican]] organizations and the [[British Army]] and its [[Unionist]] paramilitary supporters in [[Northern Ireland]].  

The conflict was characterized by bombings and assassinations by militant groups, barricades and self governing of certain areas of the North such as [[Free Derry|Free Derry,]]<nowiki/>as well as sectarian violence committed against innocent civilians, primarily by [[Protestant]] unionist groups against [[Irish Catholic]] civilians.

After the end of the civil war in 1649 and the execution of Charles I, [[Oliver Cromwell]] emerged as the dominant political figure in England. He led an invasion of Ireland with the goal of destroying the rebellion and crushing Catholic dissent. The massacres committed by his army are widely recognized as genocide. After the invasion the development of Protestant plantations increased.<ref name=":0" />

In 1762 the [[Whiteboys]], and agrarian Catholic organization began to resist oppression of the Irish peasantry.<ref name=":0" />

The enlightenment led to the growth of [[Liberalism]], [[Republicanism]], and [[Proto-socialism]], setting the stage for the United Irishmen rising of 1798.<ref name=":0" />

In 1796 Wolfe Tone attempted to land on Ireland with a French fleet, but was unsuccessful. In 1797, with an uprising imminent, martial law was imposed.<ref name=":0" />

In 1856 [[James Stephens]], a former Young Irelander, travelled back to Ireland and founded the [[Phoenix Society]] with [[Jeremiah O'Donovan Rossa]] to promote Irish Republican ideals.<ref name=":1" />  

In 1858 the revolutionary organization and secret society the [[Irish Republican Brotherhood]] was founded. The organization looked for support from Irish emigrants abroad, the the [[Fenian Brotherhood]] being formed as a parallel group in the [[United States of America]].<ref name=":1" />

In 1866 Fenians in the United States attempted to invade [[Canada]], then a British colony in an attempt to force Britain out of Ireland. In 1867 another rebellion was planned, but after an attempt to procure weapons failed, with organizer of the rebellion [[Thomas Kelly]] being arrested.<ref name=":1" />

From this point the IRB's strategy changed to one of attacks against specific targets, often by bombings, with most within England itself. This included a bombing at Clerkenwell Prison, which killed 12 in an attempt to free a Republican prisoner.<ref name=":1" />

In 1879 the [[Land War]] began. It was a period of unrest among the Irish peasantry due to economic downturn and poor harvests in combination with rent by absentee landlords. [[Michael Davitt]] organized the [[Irish National League]] and persuaded Charles Stewart Parnell to become it's president.<ref name=":1" />

In the late 1880s and early 1890s a campaign to slander and discredit Parnell began, first with allegations of his support for the assassinations by the Invincibles and later by wide press coverage of his affair with [[Katharine O'Shea]]. Home Rule politicians began to lose elections and Parnell died in 1891.<ref name=":1" />

A third Home Rule bill was introduced in the House of Commons in 1912, leading Unionist leader [[Edward Carson]] mobilize Unionist support in Ulster, founding the militant [[Ulster Volunteer Force]] in 1913 and formulating a plan to establish a separate Protestant Unionist government in Ulster in the event of Home Rule for Ireland. The Home Rule bill passed the House of Commons but failed in the House of Lords.<ref name=":1" />

In response to the forming of the UVF, Irish Republicans and supporters of Home Rule founded in [[Irish Volunteers]] in November 1913. The UVF began transporting arms to Ireland for their uses in 1914.<ref name=":1" />

Another Home Rule Bill was proposed in parliament, this time being passed in the House of Commons but being delayed in the House of Lords. It eventually passed in September, but at that point Britain had entered into the [[First World War]] and delayed the implementation of the act.<ref name=":1" />

The [[Easter Rising]] began on April 24, 1916, with the Irish Volunteers, Irish Citizen Army, IRB, among others taking part. It was defeated on April 29 with most of the leaders being executed shortly after. After the brutal suppression of the uprising the British government offered to introduce home rule in the South of Ireland in an attempt to gain public support. the Irish Parliamentary Party took this deal, but it would prove unpopular.<ref name=":1" />

In 1918 Sinn Féin leaders including Eamon De Valera being arrested. Later that year Sinn Féin won 73 seats in parliament in the general election. These candidates would not take their seats in parliament and instead formed the first Dáil Éireann in January 1919. [[Cathal Brugha]] was elected acting president of the Dáil.<ref name=":1" />

In a precursor to the troubles, sectarian rioting erupted in Derry and on July 21, 1920 in Belfast a woman was murdered, beginning a period of conflict referred to as the Troubles. By 1922 this conflict resulted in 501 deaths.<ref name=":1" />

[[James Craig]] became the foremost figure in Unionism in 1921. In July of that year a truce was agreed to, with Irish Republican leaders [[Michael Collins]] and Arthur Griffith traveling to London for negotiations. The [[Treaty of Peace between Great Britain and Ireland]], commonly referred to as the Anglo-Irish Treaty was signed. The treaty was controversial due to it not creating an independent Irish Republic, but instead a free state within the British Empire, as well as the fact that 6 counties in the North remained under the direct control of Britain.<ref name=":1" />

The Irish Civil War took place over 1922 and 1923, and resulted in almost 2000 deaths. During the war Michael Collins, then Commander in Chief of the Free State Army and Chairman of the Provisional Government of the Irish Free State, was assassinated, though it is possible he was killed by friendly fire by his own guards. After anti-treaty IRA leader [[Liam Lynch]] was killed in battle on April 10, 1923, Eamon De Valera, then leader of the anti-treaty movement, called a ceasefire, turning over their weapons and officially ending the war on May 24.<ref name=":1" />

Pro-treaty Sinn Féin reorganized into [[Cumann na nGaedheal]] later in 1923, while Anti-Treaty Sinn Féin split between pro-electoralist factions led by Eamon De Valera, who left to form [[Fianna Fáil]], which quickly became a prominent political party, surpassing Sinn Féin by a large margin the the 1927 election.<ref name=":1" />

In 1932 Fianna Fáil was the largest political party and formed a government in the Dáil, and in the next year Cumann na nGaedheal and several other conservative parties formed [[Fine Gael]]. These two parties have made up the majority in Irish politics to this day.<ref name=":1" />

In 1948 the [[The Republic of Ireland Act 1948]] was passed, declaring Ireland a republic. The Republic of Ireland left the [[Commonwealth of Nations]] after this.<ref name=":1" />

On December 11 1956 the IRA launched the [[The Campaign of Resistance to British Occupation]], commonly called the Border Campaign. By the end of it 8 IRA members and 4 Republican supporters of the IRA were killed, along with 6 [[Royal Ulster Constabulary]] officers. The most well known event of the Border Campaign took place on January 1 1957, when [[Sean South]] and [[Fergal O'Hanlon]] were killed in a raid on the Brookeborough Barracks. Internment of IRA members and supporters was implemented on both sides of the border. The campaign ended in 1962.<ref name=":1" />

Ever since the establishment of a Protestant majority in Northern Ireland Catholics had faced discrimination and poverty. By the 1960s Catholic and Protestant communities throughout Northern Ireland were heavily segregated, Catholics faced high unemployment and housing discrimination and gerrymandering to benefit Unionists was rampant.<ref>{{Citation|author=The Campaign for Social Justice in Northern Ireland|year=1965|title=Londonderry: One Man, No vote|title-url=https://en.prolewiki.org/wiki/Library:Londonderry:_One_Man,_No_Vote}}</ref> In 1964 the [[The Campaign for Social Justice in Northern Ireland]] was founded.<ref name=":1" />

In 1966 Irish Republicans bombed and destroyed [[Nelson's Pillar]] in Dublin, a statue of British admiral [[Horatio Nelson]]. The same year [[Ian Paisley]], a fundamentalist Protestant preacher and staunch Unionist founded the Ulster Protestant Volunteers. In May the [[Ulster Volunteer Force]], named after Edward Carson's organization, was formed. They threatened "All known IRA men will be executed mercilessly and without hesitation. The UVF committed a series of murders against Irish Catholic civilians. The formation of the UVF marked the beginning of the Troubles.<ref name=":1" />

The two organizations were politically broad, serving as an umbrella group for Republicans opposed to the treaty, including Socialists and Communists as well as more conservative Catholic nationalists, with Communist figures like Cathal Goulding, Seán Garland and Seamus Costello being leading members, as traditionalist Republicans like Sean Russel and reactionaries like Seamus O'Donovan.<ref>{{Web citation|author=Lawrence William White|newspaper=Dictionary of Irish Biography|title=Goulding, Cathal|url=https://www.dib.ie/biography/goulding-cathal-a3552}}</ref><ref>{{Citation|author=Seamus Costello|year=2018|title=Revolutionary Works: Seamus Costello|title-url=https://en.prolewiki.org/wiki/Library:Revolutionary_Works:_Seamus_Costello#Epilogue-Seamus_Costello:_One_of_the_Greatest_Leaders_in_800_Years|chapter=Epilogue-Seamus Costello: One of the Greatest Leaders in 800 Years|section=Commanded Active Service Unit}}</ref><ref name=":2">{{Web citation|author=MÍCHEÁL MAC DONNCHA|newspaper=An Poblacht|title=Seán Russell and the IRA of the 1940s|date=2020-08-13|url=https://www.anphoblacht.com/contents/27898}}</ref><ref>{{Web citation|author=Marie Coleman|newspaper=Dictionary of Irish Biography|title=O'Donovan, James Laurence (‘Jim’, ‘Seamus’)|url=https://www.dib.ie/biography/odonovan-james-laurence-jim-seamus-a6715}}</ref><ref name=":3">{{Web citation|newspaper=The Workers Party|title=A first-hand account of the IRA Border Campaign|url=https://workersparty.ie/a-first-hand-account-of-the-ira-border-campaign/}}</ref>

It was involved in several armed campaigns including the Irish Civil War between 1922 and 1923, a Sabotage Campaign commonly called the S-plan between 1939 and 1942, a campaign in the north between 1940 and 1942 and the IRA Border Campaign between from 1956 to 1962. It also fought against the Fascist Blueshirts, a group made up of Irish Free State veterans who opposed the IRA's efforts to reunite Ireland. The Anti-Treaty IRA faced repression within Ireland itself, with various laws designed to crush it being established and several IRA volunteers being executed at this time, with Anti-Treaty Sinn Féin at the same time being harshly campaigned against by most mainstream political elements.<ref name=":2" /><ref>{{Web citation|newspaper=Irish Times|title=Showing Blueshirts in their true colours|date=2001-01-12|url=https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/showing-blueshirts-in-their-true-colours-1.269175}}</ref><ref name=":3" />

The beginning of the Troubles was the declaration of war against the Anti-Treaty IRA in 1966. The Anti-Treaty IRA was involved in the conflict from 1966 to 1969, though at this time the militant Republican movement had little popular support and few weapons and volunteers. In 1969 the Anti-Treaty IRA and in 1970 Anti-Treaty Sinn Féin split between the Official movement the Provisional movement over the issue of abstentionism.<ref name=":6">{{Web citation|author=MÍCHEÁL MAC DONNCHA|newspaper=An Poblacht|title=The Republican Movement split of 1969/1970|date=2020-01-09|url=https://www.anphoblacht.com/contents/27727}}</ref>  

''See main article: [[Saor Éire]]''

Unlike other Republican groups involved in the troubles, Saor Éire mainly operated within the Republic of Ireland, commiting several bank robberies, including one which killed a Garda officer.<ref name=":5" />

In 1971 Saor Éire leading member [[Peter Graham]] was murdered in Dublin during a period of infighting within the organization, begining the decline of the organization. In 1975 after another member, [[Larry White]] was killed, likely by members of the Official Irish Republican Army. Saor Éire disbanded later that year.<ref name=":5" /><ref>{{Web citation|author=Paul Cullen|newspaper=The Irish Times|title=Family of murdered republican calls for removal of Minister's assistant|date=2011-06-25|url=https://www.irishtimes.com/news/family-of-murdered-republican-calls-for-removal-of-minister-s-assistant-1.606206}}</ref>

The Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association was the main force in the fight for civil rights for Northern Irish Catholics, who had faced discrimination, gerrymandering and unemployment. The NICRA was inspired by civil rights groups in the United States, with many similar aims and methods in their protests. It was formed April 9, 1967 <ref name=":7">{{Citation|author=We Shall Overcome".... The History of the Struggle for Civil Rights in Northern Ireland 1968-1978 (Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association)|year=1978|title=Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association|title-url=https://en.prolewiki.org/wiki/Library:%22We_Shall_Overcome%22...._The_History_of_the_Struggle_for_Civil_Rights_in_Northern_Ireland_1968-1978#%22Rights_Must_Wait%22_Says_SDLP}}</ref>

People's Democracy was a left-wing group within the larger civil rights movement in Ulster. It was formed by students at [[Queen's University]] in Belfast on October 9,1968 after earlier that day a civil rights protest was blocked by Unionist counter-protesters led by Ian Paisley.<ref name=":8">{{Web citation|newspaper=CAIN|title=Abstracts on Organisations - 'P'

PD organized various peaceful protests and faced serious repression at the hands of police and Unionist counter protesters, both of whom attacked protesters.<ref name=":10" />

The group had a broad range of left-wing ideologies within it including Marxism-Leninism, Trotskyism and Anarchism.<ref>{{Citation|author=Paul Arthur|year=1974|title=The People's Democracy 1968-73|title-url=https://cain.ulster.ac.uk/events/pdmarch/arthur74.htm|chapter=2: March 1969 - September 1969. In Search of a Role|chapter-url=https://cain.ulster.ac.uk/events/pdmarch/arthur74b.htm#chap2|quote=In deciding to march to Dublin at Easter the organisers may have considered it an opportunity to pull the various left-wing strands together and thus demonstrate that the sects of the left could be united by the experience of direct action. (The 22 March Movement, which played a leading role in the struggles in France in May 1968, illustrated this type of solidarity: '. . they were an activist group containing every branch of political radicalism - anarchist, Marxist, Trotskyist, anarchist-Marxist - without compromising either their revolutionary efficacy or their individualistic this was so it appears to have been low on their list of priorities.}}</ref><ref name=":10" />

The Provisional Irish Republican Army and Provisional Sinn Féin was the larger of the two groups to emerge from the Republican Movement Split of 1969/1970. Throughout they were the dominant grouping in Irish Republican politics in the North, and Provisional Sinn Féin is one of the major forces in Irish and Northern Irish politics today.<ref>{{Web citation|author=RONAN BURTENSHAW, MARY LOU MCDONALD|newspaper=Jacobin|title=Sinn Féin Leader Mary Lou McDonald: “We’ll Build a Truly United Ireland”|date=2023-03-21|url=https://jacobin.com/2023/03/sinn-fein-ireland-mary-lou-macdonald-reunification}}</ref>

The Provisional movement always had Socialist elements, though they were less pronounced than the Officials. In 1977 the Provisional movement began to connect the class struggle in the whole of Ireland to the national liberation movement,<ref name=":9">{{Citation|author=Seamus Costello|year=2018|title=Revolutionary Works: Seamus Costello|title-url=https://en.prolewiki.org/wiki/Library:Revolutionary_Works:_Seamus_Costello#top|chapter=Seamus Costello: One of the Greatest Leaders in 800 Years|chapter-url=https://en.prolewiki.org/wiki/Library:Revolutionary_Works:_Seamus_Costello#Epilogue-Seamus_Costello:_One_of_the_Greatest_Leaders_in_800_Years|section=A Peace-Maker During Splits}}</ref> and around this time the term 'Socialist' began being used in official documents. The Provisional movement and the national liberation movement in Ireland as a whole was supported by global liberation  and Socialist movements and in turn the Provisionals supported them.<ref>{{Citation|author=Agnès Maillot|year=2005|title=Comrades in Arms: Sinn Féin and Basque Separatism|title-url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/30001516}}</ref>  

The Official Irish Republican Army and Official Sinn Féin was the smaller of the two factions emerging after the 1969/1970 split. In addition to opposing the practice of abstentionism of the rest of the Republican movement the Official movement was staunchly Marxist-Leninist.<ref name=":6" />

The militant wing of the organization, the Official IRA, engaged in armed attacks against the British military until their ceasefire in 1972 after an attempted bombing of Aldershot military barracks killed civilians. Despite the ceasefire the Officials continued sporadic attacks on British soldiers for a number of years, as well as a persistent campaign against the Irish National Liberation Army, which had split from the Official IRA due to the ceasefire.<ref>{{Web citation|author=Martin Melaugh|newspaper=CAIN|title=A Chronology of the Conflict - 1972|url=https://cain.ulster.ac.uk/othelem/chron/ch72.htm}}</ref>

The Social Democratic and Labour Party was founded in 1970 by Gerry Fitt, who was then a leading member of the Republican Labour Party and who was subsequently expelled from the party. It was founded as a Republican nationalist party with Social Democratic and some Socialist principles. The party opposed internment but was not in favor of the IRA armed struggle.<ref>{{Web citation|newspaper=CAIN|title=SDLP|url=https://cain.ulster.ac.uk/othelem/organ/sorgan.htm#sdlp}}</ref>

The party began to move away from Socialism and its more left-wing Social Democratic principles in the late 1970s, particularly shown by the expulsion of [[Paddy Devlin]] for his criticism of the party's political shift in 1977 and Gerry Fitt's resignation from the party in 1979, opposing its move away from Socialism.

In the late 1970s the party became the second most prominent Republican political party, winning large shares of the Stormont elections, UK Parliament elections, EU elections and local elections in Northern Ireland. The party still is prominent in Irish Republican and Northern Irish politics today.

The Irish National Liberation Army and Irish Republican Socialist Party were formed in the years after the Official IRA ceasefire, when, after Seamus Costello advocated for a return to the armed struggle he was expelled from both the Official IRA and Official Sinn Féin. Like the Official movement, the INLA and IRSP were Marxist-Leninist organizations, but differing from the Officials they remained staunchly committed to armed action being the only way to achieve a United Ireland and a Socialist Republic.<ref>{{Citation|author=Seamus Costello|year=2018|title=Revolutionary Works: Seamus Costello|title-url=https://en.prolewiki.org/wiki/Library:Revolutionary_Works:_Seamus_Costello}}</ref>

Republican Sinn Féin is a staunchly Socialist and Abstentionist organization which affirms its commitment to the armed struggle in Ireland. It also opposed global Western imperialism and supports national liberation movements around the world.<ref>{{Web citation|newspaper=Republican Sinn Fein|title=About Us|url=https://republicansinnfein.org/about-us/|quote="We believe in the establishment of a reign of social justice based on Irish Republican Socialist principles in accordance with the Democratic Programme and the 1916 Proclamation."