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NORTHERN IRELAND IS facing into a very difficult year of commemorations as it marks the 50-year anniversary of the bloodiest year of The Troubles.
The eruption of violence was unleashed when Bloody Sunday took place at the end of January and by the end of the year over 470 people had been killed, the majority of whom were civilians.
As well as the major events outlined in the timeline below, numerous killings and violent incidents took place throughout the year, often occurring several times per week and per day.
Here is a non-exhaustive timeline of some of the events likely to be remembered and spoken about this year.
17 January 1972: Seven republican internees escape from the Maidstone prison ship in Belfast lough.
22 January 1972: British Army soldiers fire rubber bullets and use tear gas on an anti-internment march at Magilligan strand in Derry. Several thousand people take part in the demonstration.
Bloody Sunday, 30 January 1972: 13 demonstrators are shot dead by British Army soldiers from the 1st Parachute regiment during a civil rights march in Derry. A 14th victim dies several months later after having been shot by a paratrooper.
Taoiseach Jack Lynch recalls Ireland’s ambassador to the UK and declares 2 February a national day of mourning.
2 February 1972: The funerals of 11 of the victims of Bloody Sunday take place in Derry. Prayer services are held across Ireland to coincide with the funerals.
Tens of thousands of people march to the British Embassy in Dublin. The protesters carry 13 coffins and black flags. The embassy is attacked with stones and bottles and then burnt to the ground.
22 February 1972: Seven people (six civilians and an army chaplain) are killed after the Official IRA detonates a bomb outside the headquarters of the British Army’s 16th Parachute Brigade in Aldershot, England.
24 February 1972: Northern Ireland’s Minister of State for Home Affairs, John Taylor, is seriously wounded in an Official IRA assassination attempt in Armagh.
4 March 1972: Two Catholic civilians are killed and over 130 people injured as The Abercorn Restaurant in Belfast is bombed. The IRA are believed to have been involved but do not claim responsibility.
20 March 1972: Six people, including two policemen and a member of the Ulster Defence Regiment (a regiment of the British Army), are killed after the IRA dentonates a bomb on Belfast’s Donegall Street. Approximately 100 other people are injured.
24 March 1972: British Prime Minister Edward Heath announces the suspension of the Northern Ireland government and implements direct rule from Westminster.
6 April 1972: The Scarman Report into the causes of violence during the summer of 1969 is published. It finds that the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) had been seriously at fault on a number of occasions.
15 April 1972: Official IRA leader Joe McCann is killed by British soldiers close to his home.
19 April 1972: The Widgery tribunal of inquiry into events of Bloody Sunday exonerates the British Army because the demonstration had been illegal. The findings cause outrage – it becomes known as the “Widgery Whitewash” – and it leads to a 26 year campaign for a new independent inquiry.
22 April 1972: 11 year-old Catholic boy, Francis Rowntree, is killed by a ‘rubber bullet’ fired by the British Army. This was the first death to result from the use of the rubber bullets in Northern Ireland.
14 May 1972: A 13-year old Catholic girl was shot dead by loyalist paramilitaries in Ballymurphy, Belfast.
21 May 1972: The Official IRA kills British Army soldier William Best, who was originally from Derry. The shooting of the 19-year old provokes anger and over 200 people attend a protest the following day.
26 May 1972: The government in the Republic establishes the Special Criminal Court to allow for non-jury trials.
3 June 1972: A Protestant demonstration in Derry, against the creation of “no-go” areas in the city, ends in violence.
13–15 June 1972: The Provisional IRA proposes a ceasefire. The SDLP act as intermediaries and submit it to the British government, which accepts the terms. The ceasefire comes into effect on 26 June.
7 July 1972: Provisional IRA leaders hold secret talks with British government officials, including Northern Ireland Secretary of State William Whitelaw, in London. The talks fail.
9 July 1972: The ceasefire ends after a confrontation between British Army soldiers and Catholics who had been intimidated into leaving their homes by loyalist paramilitaries.
Five Catholic civilians are shot dead by the British Army in the Ballymurphy area of Belfast.
Bloody Friday, 21 July 1972: 22 IRA bombs explode in the space of 75 minutes, killing nine people and seriously injuring approximately 130 others. There are also numerous hoax warnings which add to the chaos.
31 July 1972: The British Army enters and dismantles the ‘no-go’ areas of Belfast and Derry in ‘Operation Motorman’. It is the biggest British military operation since the 1956 Suez crisis.
The IRA exploded three car bombs in Claudy, Co Derry, killing nine people.
7 August 1972: Seven people are killed in separate incidents across Northern Ireland.
22 August 1972: Nine people, including three IRA members and five Catholic civilians, are killed after an IRA bomb explodes prematurely at a customs post in Newry, Co Down.
26 August 1972: Six people are killed in three incidents across Northern Ireland.
10 September 1972: Three British soldiers are killed and four injured in an IRA landmine attack near Dungannon, Co Tyrone.
14 September 1972: Two people are killed and one mortally wounded as the loyalist Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) bomb the Imperial Hotel in Belfast.
25 September 1972: The Darlington conference on the future of Northern Ireland opens in England. The SDLP refuses to attend because of the operation of internment.
27 September 1972: Five people are killed in separate incidents across Northern Ireland. One of the victims is 19-year-old catholic civilian Daniel Rooney, who was shot dead by an undercover member of the British Army.
30 September 1972: Six people are killed in separate incidents in Belfast.
6 October 1972: Sinn Féin’s headquarters in Dublin is closed down by Gardaí under the Offences Against the State Act.
12 October 1972: Armed robbers steal £67,000 from the AIB branch on Dublin’s Grafton Street, in the largest such theft in Ireland at the time. Two brothers, Kenneth and Keith Littlejohn, are convicted of the robbery in July 1973. At their trial, the Littlejohns claim they worked for the British Secret Intelligence Service (MI6).
16-17 October 1972: Two loyalist Ulster Defence Association (UDA) members are killed after being run over by British Army vehicles during riots in East Belfast. The UDA declares that the British Army and government are now its enemies. UDA members open fire on the British army in several areas of Belfast.
24 October 1972: Two Catholic men are found dead on a farm near Newtownbutler, Co Fermanagh. The so-called ‘pitchfork killings’ are initially believed to have been carried out by loyalists. However, it is later revealed that the men were killed by British Army soldiers. Three soldiers are jailed for the killings in 1981.
31 October 1972: Two Catholic children (aged four and six) are killed by a loyalist Ulster Freedom Fighters (UFF) car bomb on Belfast’s Ship Street. Two other people are killed in separate incidents in Belfast.
19 November 1972: IRA leader Seán MacStiofáin is arrested in Dublin. On 25 November he is sentenced to six months imprisonment for membership of an illegal organisation.
26 November 1972: Dozens of people are hospitalised after a bomb is exploded outside a cinema in Dublin city centre. A report later finds that the bombing was likely carried out by republican subversives in response to a government “crackdown on the IRA and their associates”.
28 November 1972: Four people are killed in separate incidents in Derry and Fermanagh.
1 December 1972: Two people are killed and 127 other are injured after two car bombs are denotated in Dublin city centre. No organisation claims responsibility for the attack and blame initially falls on the IRA. However, much later, suspicion falls on the Ulster Volunteer Force.
The Dáil is debating the Offences Against the State (Amendment) Bill as the explosions take place. The amendment aims to give the State much greater powers against the IRA – it allows for suspected members of paramilitary groups to be sentenced on the word of a Garda superintendent.
Following the explosions Fine Gael drops its opposition to the bill and the amendment is passed.
7 December 1972: Widowed mother of 10 Jean McConville is kidnapped and murdered by the Provisional IRA. She is secretly buried in Co Louth after being accused by the IRA of passing information to British forces. The exact date of the kidnapping and murder is unclear, but it is believed to be 7 December.
20 December 1972: Five civilians are shot dead during a loyalist paramilitary gun attack in the Waterside area of Derry.
The Diplock Commission recommends establishing non-jury trials in Northern Ireland and giving soldiers powers to arrest and detain suspects. The recommendations are included in the 1973 Emergency Powers Act.
28 December 1972: Two children (aged 15 and 16) are killed in a loyalist bomb attack in the village of Belturbet, Co Cavan. Loyalists also explode bombs in Clones, Co Monaghan, and Pettigo, on the border between Donegal and Fermanagh.
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People will now look back on these events with a new perspective.
The younger generation won’t have experienced being dragged into British airport security and grilled at 14 just because you were Irish.
@Patrick Corr: Probably for the best? A new perspective may not carry the memories & prejudices of the previous generation. All of us of a certain age carry them. Even our government, while impotent at the time, seem happy to throw the past into the debate at every given opportunity. A new perspective would be very welcome.
@Patrick Corr: I worked in Cardiff in the late 90′s and early 00′s so I flew into Cardiff airport every Monday morning and without fail I was stopped and questioned by Welsh Police. I had to answer loads of questions including where I was staying and they even checked the hotel to see if I was really there.
@Tony Harris: Thankfully times have moved on. That experience for me was the mid 90′s. Not that long ago really, but yet it seems like long time ago.
People these days don’t have to worry or be on edge when they travel. But they were stressful times.
@Derek Lyster: I experienced the same on a regular basis any time I travelled to the UK. As a young person it was a frightening experience.
@Patrick Corr: I worked in an Irish pub in London during the summer of 94 and I remember bombs going off in Finchley and people shouting abuse in the door of the pub at us, it turned out that it was some Palestinian outfit targetting the Isreali’s from what I remember but back then I always felt that the Irish were singled out for extra attention.
@Derek Lyster: Wasnt a certain FF backbench TD who later went onto become our Minister for Justice, arrested under the Prevention of Terrorism Act, while travelling back from London in the 1980′s and held for a number of hours.
The TD was released but it was obvious at the time, the Brits were flexing their muscles and making a political point, a spat between Thatcher and Haughey at the time, but it demonstrated what lengths the British would go to when they wanted something and how they also viewed the Irish as weak, or at least those in power in Dublin.
@Patrick Corr: I remember Bristol Airport. One security line for ‘Ireland’ where you got a grilling & one line for everywhere else.
@DK Donnelly: I remember coming off the boat in Liverpool the morning after the canary wharf bombing being met with heavily armed police with guns pointing at us an armoured car if I remember correctly. Luckily for them we were all seasoned truck drivers who understood the PTA rules and our rights. We broke their hearts for 2 hours laughing at them and demeaning then. We told the officers in charge the reason they never caught the IRA was they were always looking in the wrong places. I have very little respect for armed UK police since. They are thugs for the most part.
It’s mad that less than 20 years after the official IRA were blowing up civilians Fine Gael went into government with Democratic Left, which of course were previously SF the workers party and before that Official Sinn Fein, the political wing of official IRA. Fine Gael had no issue going into government with ex IRA politicians like Pronsias De Rossa and Joe Sherlock who served time for IRA activities.
@Richie56: That’s what you got from this?
@Richie56: Something that the current politicians will not like to admit and is not convenient for them to be reminded of.
@P Mc G: It is still a valid point. Albeit not exactly relevant to the article.
@Richie56: In your own words: “…….. ex IRA………”.
@Richie56: A point which conveniently F.G. fail to mention. In the last FG/ Labour government, some so called Labour Ministers had a sudden loss of memory. Remember New Agenda .
It really brings home how far we’ve come and what a shame it is that the GFA is being jeopardised by sonsense at the moment.
@Vonvonic: nonsense
@Vonvonic: ?. Do explain!
@Tony Harris: What?
@Vonvonic: apologies, I read it again with my glasses on!
@Vonvonic: Please explain what is nonsense?
@Donal Desmond: Really? OK. In this case; it’s “an instance of absurd action” ie Brexit. Do you want me to tell you what ansurd means or will you be OK?
@Vonvonic: absurd ffs
@Vonvonic: The debate is concerning the troubles? . Brexit is a different subject. If it helps why I put a question mark , perhaps you should respond to to the events of that time .
@Donal Desmond: The GFA has everything to do with the troubles and Brexit has put it in jeopardy. Are you really this much of an eejit?
@Vonvonic: The GFA has certainly everything to do With Brexit, ,as for getting personal it shows your ignorance of the topic that is being debated. Perhaps you could enlighten me of your views on the so called troubles.
@Donal Desmond: I don’t really see why I should but here; I grew up in a Republican family with a certain view of what was going on in Nothern Ireland. I don’t remember the 70s but I certainly remember the 80s and the 70s was a constant topic of conversation in my family. I suppose I would have been anti British at the time. I went to university in England in the early 90s and it opened my mind. I was treated fantastically there and it changed my opinion fundamentally. I now believe that the troubles were an horrific result of generations of conflict and hatred, between two fundamentally decent groups of people.After Omagh everyone in my family gave up our SF membership, not that we held SF in any way responsible but we wanted to wash our hands of it. I think the GFA was one of the great political achievements of my lifetime. I’m still a republican and believe a united ireland will come but I don’t believe conflict is the way to go about it. Prior to Brexit, Anglo Irish relations were at an all time high. Brexit was an ill conceived flight of fancy which will have many repercussions, the most significant of which, in my mind, is the jeopardy in which it has put the GFA and our relationship with our neighbours. OK?
@Tony Harris: unionism is leveraging Brexit as it fears demographic change & democracy. Clear?
Horrendous
@Gavin Tobin: I can clearly remember watching the news on RTE on ‘Bloody Friday’ and seeing the emergency services moving what was a human torso from the footpath. Pretty awful and sobering stuff. Some poor shopper or worker on the way home. Horrendous indeed…
@William Tallon: a lot of innocents murdered from both sides by both sides difference is one side had the assistance from the state and the state also carried out a lot of murders without the assistance of paramilitaries.
@William Tallon: I can remember Dublin/ Monaghan bombings . Horrendous yes .. just like Bloody Firday. Only difference is the way both are portrayed.
@Mona Murphy: Both sides? only both, What role did the British play in the conflict – neutral referees keeping the peace between those mad Irish tribes?
oh how ungrateful we Irish are, for never accepting the British were merely here to save us from ourselves.
@Donal Desmond: I was just around the corner in Marlborough Street when a bomb went off in Sackville Place in January 1973 killing a bus conductor. Two bus conductors had been killed the previous month by a bomb outside Liberty Hall. Being young and reckless I ran around to see what had happened. A Guard quickly moved us away. I saw several people with bloody faces, which made what you saw on the news every evening far more real. I was walking home from work when the bombs went off in Dublin in 1974. I had reached the North Strand when the one in Talbot Street exploded. Frightening times so I can only imagine what it was like up North.
What is very scary 50 years on is how Sinn Féin’s rise in political polls. Their political leaders along with help from Opus Dei were the fuel that kept the killings going and the people in both countries on this Island faced global discrimination, not just in the 3 other countries that make of the UK. The Catholic Church and Boston College [IRA members recorded messages and admit to what roll they played during the reign of terrorism politely called The Troubles, which the College is the caretaker of, none of these records can be released until all members are dead] hold too many secrets from the past that if they spoke out honestly the people of Ireland and Northern Ireland would be better equipped to heal the wounds of the past in my humble opinion. My Irish family are from both sides.
@Scot Tanner Buchholz: Think you would want to check Oliver J Flanagan who wore a Nazi Blueshirt uniform into the Dail. The apple did not fall far from the tree when his son wanted to commerate a terrorist organisation called the Black and Tans / RIC .
@Scot Tanner Buchholz: Scotty boy – The ‘Troubles’ was a term the British used and still use for the period 1916-22 because they refuse to admit there was an Irish War of independence.
When the British sent troops back to the north of Ireland in 1969 and a second round in the Independence war kicked off, they again refused to accept the uprising was a war of independence, or even a natural consequence of their failed Partition decision of 1921. Dublin, like London couldn’t tolerate the conflict being seen or described as a continuation of 1916-22 because that would be to admit its failure and inability to deal with the British and its refusal to do the right thing, so Dublin also bought into the sanitised term ‘Troubles’.
As for the Boston tapes Scotty. The real reason the tapes are closed to the public until after their owners have deceased, is because to make them public before hand will leave them open to prosecution. Unfortunately, that’s the situation in the absence of a true – truth and reconciliation process which all British governments have opposed.
Ya see Scotty, whatever you might think about the Boston tapes, you and I will never, ever, see or hear confessions from the real war lords in suits and who sat behind desks in Belfast and London. No confessions from them, just knighthoods!
@Scot Tanner Buchholz: What is scary is that British nationalism is on the rise. The flag s h a gging unionists in the six counties are joined by those in Britain. They are in power.
@Donal Desmond: and don’t forget that SF pay homage every year to the Nazi Sean Russell
@Scot Tanner Buchholz: massive discrimination against the nationalist population started the troubles without the IRA they would have been wiped out
@Angela McCarthy: so so true
Can you please pull into the search bay madam is what I remember when my mum crossed the border.
Thé British Government and the DUP need to reflect on these statistics of violence as they play frivolously with the Good Friday Agreement.
Fair comments no longer apply on the Journal.ie?
What a painful read. May we never return to those days. Never again, please never again.
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