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The Troubles were an ethno-nationalist conflict in Northern Ireland that lasted about 30 years from the late 1960s to 1998. Also known internationally as the Northern Ireland conflict, it is sometimes described as an "irregular war" or "low-level war". The conflict began in the late 1960s and is usually deemed to have ended with the Good Friday Agreement of 1998. Although the Troubles mostly took place in Northern Ireland, at times violence spilled over into parts of the Republic of Ireland, England, and mainland Europe.
Gerard Adams is an Irish republican politician who was the president of Sinn Féin between 13 November 1983 and 10 February 2018, and served as a Teachta Dála (TD) for Louth from 2011 to 2020. From 1983 to 1992 and from 1997 to 2011, he followed the policy of abstentionism as a Member of Parliament (MP) of the British Parliament for the Belfast West constituency.
The Birmingham pub bombings were carried out on 21 November 1974, when bombs exploded in two public houses in Birmingham, England, killing 21 people and injuring 182 others.
An Phoblacht is a formerly weekly, and currently monthly newspaper published by Sinn Féin in Ireland. From early 2018 onwards, An Phoblacht has moved to a magazine format while remaining an online news platform. Editorially the paper takes a left-wing, Irish republican position and was supportive of the Northern Ireland peace process. Along with covering Irish political and trade union issues the newspaper frequently featured interviews with celebrities, musicians, artists, intellectuals and international activists. The paper sells an average of up to 15,000 copies every week. During the 1981 Irish hunger strike its sales soared to over 70,000 per week.
Daniel Gerard Morrison is a former Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) member, Irish author and activist who played a crucial role in public events during the Troubles in Northern Ireland. An Irish republican, Morrison is also a former Sinn Féin publicity director and editor of Republican News and An Phoblacht. He is the secretary of the Bobby Sands Trust and current chairman of Féile an Phobail, the largest community arts festival in Ireland.
Jean McConville was a woman from Belfast, Northern Ireland, who was kidnapped and murdered by the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) and secretly buried in County Louth in the Republic of Ireland in 1972 after being accused by the IRA of passing information to British forces.
Free Derry was a self-declared autonomous Irish nationalist area of Derry, Northern Ireland, that existed between 1969 and 1972, during the Troubles. It emerged during the Northern Ireland civil rights movement, which sought to end discrimination against the Irish Catholic/nationalist minority by the Protestant/unionist government. The civil rights movement highlighted the sectarianism and police brutality of the overwhelmingly Protestant police force, the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC). The area, which included the mainly-Catholic Bogside and Creggan neighbourhoods, was first secured by community activists on 5 January 1969 following an incursion into the Bogside by RUC officers. Residents built barricades and carried clubs and similar arms to prevent the RUC from entering. Its name was taken from a sign painted on a gable wall in the Bogside which read, "You are now entering Free Derry". For six days the area was a no-go area, after which the residents took down the barricades and RUC patrols resumed. Tensions remained high over the following months.
Freddie Scappaticci was a Northern Irish volunteer in the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA), and a leading member of its Internal Security Unit. In 2003, it was reported that Scappaticci had been working for British intelligence, their highest-ranking agent in the IRA, and was known by the codename "Stakeknife". Scappaticci always denied any involvement with British intelligence.
Séanna Walsh or Séanna Breathnach is a Sinn Féin member of Belfast City Council and a former volunteer in the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA).
From 1969 until 1997, the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) conducted an armed paramilitary campaign primarily in Northern Ireland and England, aimed at ending British rule in Northern Ireland in order to create a united Ireland.
Dolours Price was a Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) volunteer.
The Troubles were a period of conflict in Northern Ireland involving republican and loyalist paramilitaries, the British security forces, and civil rights groups. They are usually dated from the late 1960s through to the Good Friday Agreement of 1998. However, sporadic violence continued after this point. Those that continued violence past this point are referred to as "dissident republicans and loyalists". The Troubles, internationally known as the Northern Ireland conflict, claimed roughly 3500 lives.
Operation Banner was the operational name for the British Armed Forces' operation in Northern Ireland from 1969 to 2007, as part of the Troubles. It was the longest continuous deployment in British military history. The British Army was initially deployed, at the request of the unionist government of Northern Ireland, in response to the August 1969 riots. Its role was to support the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) and to assert the authority of the British government in Northern Ireland. This involved counter-insurgency and supporting the police in carrying out internal security duties such as guarding key points, mounting checkpoints and patrols, carrying out raids and searches, riot control and bomb disposal. More than 300,000 soldiers served in Operation Banner. At the peak of the operation in the 1970s, about 21,000 British troops were deployed, most of them from Great Britain. As part of the operation, a new locally-recruited regiment was also formed: the Ulster Defence Regiment (UDR).
Peter Keeley, who uses the pseudonym Kevin Fulton, is a British agent from Newry, Northern Ireland, who allegedly spied on the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) for MI5. He is believed to be in London, where he is suing the Crown, claiming his military handlers cut off their connections and financial aid to him. In 2004, he reportedly sued the Andersonstown News, an Irish republican news outlet in Belfast, for revealing his identity as well as publishing his photograph. The result of that suit has not been made public.
Toby Harnden is an Anglo-American author and journalist who was awarded the Orwell Prize for Books in 2012. He is the author of First Casualty: The Untold Story of the CIA Mission to Avenge 9/11, published by Little, Brown in September, 2021. He spent almost 25 years working for British newspapers, mainly as a foreign correspondent. From 2013 until 2018, he was Washington bureau chief of The Sunday Times. He previously spent 17 years at The Daily Telegraph, based in London, Belfast, Washington, Jerusalem and Baghdad, finishing as US Editor from 2006 to 2011. The book’s title is a reference to paramilitary officer Johnny Micheal Spann, a member of the CIA’s Team Alpha, whose eight members became the first Americans behind enemy lines in Afghanistan following the 9/11 attacks of 2001. He is the author of two previous books: Bandit Country: The IRA & South Armagh (1999) and Dead Men Risen: The Welsh Guards and the Defining Story of Britain's War in Afghanistan (2011). He was reporter and presenter of the BBC Panorama Special programme Broken by Battle about suicide and PTSD among British soldiers, broadcast in 2013.
Redemption Song: An Irish Reporter Inside the Obama Campaign, is a book by Niall Stanage about the 2008 presidential election campaign of Barack Obama.
The dissident Irish republican campaign began at the end of the Troubles, a 30-year political conflict in Northern Ireland. Since the Provisional Irish Republican Army called a ceasefire and ended its campaign in 1997, breakaway groups opposed to the ceasefire and to the peace agreements have continued a low-level armed campaign against the security forces in Northern Ireland. The main paramilitaries involved are the Real IRA, Continuity IRA and formerly Óglaigh na hÉireann. They have targeted the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) and the British Army in gun and bomb attacks as well as with mortars and rockets. They have also carried out bombings that are meant to cause disruption. However, their campaign has not been as intensive as the Provisional IRA's, and political support for groups such as the Real IRA is "tending towards zero".
Trina Y. Vargo is the founder and President of the US-Ireland Alliance, a non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to educating Americans about Ireland and strengthening the relationship on the basis of education, culture and business. Vargo created the organization in 1998. In that capacity, she created the George J. Mitchell Scholarship program, recognized as one of the most prestigious scholarships for study abroad for young Americans. She also created an annual event in Hollywood, Oscar Wilde: Honoring the Irish in Film. The event celebrates the contributions of the Irish in Film.
The Disappeared are people believed to have been abducted, murdered and secretly buried in Northern Ireland, the large majority of which occurred during the Troubles. The Independent Commission for the Location of Victims' Remains (ICLVR) is in charge of locating the remaining bodies, and was led by forensic archaeologist John McIlwaine.
Heidi Hazell was a German citizen murdered by the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA.) The investigation into her murder was reopened in March 2015. The victim's family and the German Federal Attorney have argued that the Good Friday Agreement, which imposes limitations on retrospective criminal proceedings being filed against paramilitaries who committed crimes during The Troubles, may not be binding. This argument is made on the basis that the Geneva Convention would supersede the Good Friday Agreement in a situation where a civilian non-combatant like Hazell was killed by a paramilitary, thereby demanding prosecution as a war crime. The murder of Hazell, a German citizen, also took place in Germany and the country is not legally bound by the agreement between the United Kingdom and Ireland.
References
- ↑ Niall Stanage biodata, guardian.co.uk; accessed 31 March 2015.
- ↑ Profile, nytimes.com; accessed 31 March 2015.
- ↑ Profile, seh.ox.ac.uk; accessed 31 March 2015.
- ↑ Niall Stanage profile, niallstanage.com; accessed 31 March 2015.
- ↑ "The Stand".
- ↑ Niall Stanage, The Guardian, 9 June 2006, theguardian.com; accessed 31 March 2015.
- ↑ Redemption Song: An Irish Reporter Inside the Obama Campaign, politico.com; accessed 31 March 2015.
