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Revision as of 15:14, 22 January 2002 by Verloren (talk | contribs) (tidy)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)The Troubles is a neutral term for the period of violence from the late sixties to the mid ninties involving various factions in Northern Ireland Northern Ireland. The neutrality of the term comes from an avoidance of any identification of a sole cause of the complex issues that are involved there, as this would inevitably be partisan. They are generally taken as beginning in the late 1960's and have claimed some 3,000 - 4,000 lives from all sides since then.
In general terms, the confilict was between Unionists (also known as "loyalists"), who want the province to remain in the United Kingdom, and Nationalists who wish the province to become part of a united Ireland. Generaly speaking (but not in all cases) Unionists are part of the Protestant majority of Northern Ireland, while Nationalist are usually Catholic. Catholics thought they were being treated unfairly and pressed for wide reforms, while Protestants were wary of sharing power with Catholics and often did not want to compromise.
Violence was carried out by various groups, including the Provisional Irish Republican Army (also known as the IRA or "The Provos"), the British Government, the UVF, the UDA, the RUC and their various splinter-groups and factions. This is pathetic, the nature of such violence and the relations of the various groups and their motives and tactics needs to be charted in detail
Bloody Sunday was one of the early events during The Troubles.
Currently, the governments of Ireland and the United Kingdom are working together closely and peacefully to seek a solution and have been doing so for some time. There is no simple solution to The Troubles and it can only be hoped that the current paramilitary ceasefire holds and that relative peace is maintained in Northern Ireland for the sake of all its inhabitants.
It is widely held by many in both Britian and Northern Ireland that The Troubles came to an end in the mid-nineties with the various paramilitary cease-fires that were established. The period that came after The Troubles was the Nothern Ireland peace process.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Northern_Ireland/flash/0,6189,344683,00.html