The Troubles

The Troubles
Date 1966-1998 Location Status An end to most violence with the Good Friday Agreement
Belligrents
Irish Republicans	British and Unionist Forces
Miltary Organizations Anti-Treaty Irish Republican Army (until 1969) Saor Éire (1967-1970) Provisional Irish Republican Army (from 1969) Official Irish Republican Army (1969-1972) Irish National Liberation Army (from 1974) Continuity Irish Republican Army (from 1986) Irish People's Liberation Organization (1986-1992) Real Irish Republican Army (from 1997)	Military Organizations British Armed Forces Royal Ulster Constabulary Ulster Volunteer Force (1966-1994) Ulster Protestant Volunteers (1966-1969) Red Hand Commando (1970-1994) Ulster Defence Association (1971-1994) Ulster Resistance (from 1986) Loyalist Volunteer Force (from 1996)
Political Organizations Anti-Treaty Sinn Féin (until 1969) Provisional Sinn Féin (from 1969) Official Sinn Féin (from 1969, later called Sinn Féin-Workers Party or Worker's Party) Nothern Ireland Civil Rights Association (1969-1972) Irish Republican Socialist Party (from 1974) Republican Sinn Féin (from 1986) Republican Socialist Collective (1986-1992) 32 County Sovereignity Movement (from 1997)	Political Organizations= Ulster Unionist Party Conservative and Unionist Party Progressive Unionist Party (from 1979)
Material Support and Training NORAID (from 1969) Palestine Liberation Organization (1970s-1980s) Libyan Arab Jamahiriya (1972-1973/1980s) Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (sporadically from 1972)Euskadi Ta Askatasuna (from 1974) Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (limited)	Material Support Union of South Africa Arkan's Tigers
Poltical Support Most global Socialist and national liberation movements	Political Support Most Western imperialist states and reactionaries.

The Troubles was a conflict between Irish Republican organizations and the British Army and its Unionist paramilitary supporters.

It lasted from the founding of the Ulster Volunteer Force in 1966 to the Good Friday Agreement signed on May 22, 1998. It grew in intensity at several points, particularly during the start of the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Movement and the Battle of the Bogside in 1969, the Bloody Sunday massacre in 1972 and the deaths of 10 Irish Republican political prisoners on hunger strike in 1981.

The conflict was characterized by bombings and assassinations by militant groups, as well as sectarian violence committed against innocent civilians, primarily by Protestant unionist groups against Irish Catholic civilians.