Understanding the Troubles: A Visitor’s Guide to Northern Ireland’s History

The Troubles are the defining event of modern Northern Ireland. Between 1968 and 1998 — though the roots stretch back centuries and the aftershocks continue today — a conflict over national identity, civil rights, and political power killed more than 3,500 people, injured tens of thousands, and shaped every aspect of life in this part of the world.

If you visit Northern Ireland, you will encounter the Troubles. Not in the form of violence — Northern Ireland today is a safe, welcoming place — but in murals on gable walls, in peace walls still standing between communities, in memorials on street corners, in the architecture of rebuilt city centres, and in the conversations of people who lived through it. Understanding the broad outline of what happened and why is not just respectful — it makes the visit richer and the people you meet more comprehensible.

This is not an academic history. It’s a visitor’s guide: enough context to understand what you’re seeing, and direction to the places where the history can be experienced directly.

The Background: How It Started

The Partition of Ireland (1920–1921)

The island of Ireland was partitioned in 1920–1921, following the Irish War of Independence. Twenty-six counties in the south became the Irish Free State (later the Republic of Ireland). Six counties in the northeast — Antrim, Armagh, Down, Fermanagh, Londonderry, and Tyrone — remained part of the United Kingdom as Northern Ireland.

The border was drawn to ensure a Protestant/Unionist majority in the new Northern Ireland. Unionists — predominantly Protestant, identifying as British — wanted to remain part of the UK. Nationalists — predominantly Catholic, identifying as Irish — wanted a united Ireland. The partition left a significant Nationalist minority (about one-third of the population) within Northern Ireland.

This wasn’t a religious war, though religion mapped closely onto political identity. The division was about national identity, political allegiance, and power. Were you British or Irish? Did you want to be governed from London or Dublin? These questions, unanswered by partition, generated the tensions that would eventually explode.

Discrimination and Civil Rights (1920s–1968)

For nearly fifty years, Northern Ireland was governed by the Unionist-dominated Stormont Parliament. During this period, the Catholic/Nationalist minority experienced systematic discrimination in housing, employment, and electoral representation. Gerrymandering — the manipulation of electoral boundaries — ensured Unionist control even in areas with Nationalist majorities. Derry/Londonderry was the most egregious example: a city with a Catholic majority governed by a Unionist council through carefully drawn ward boundaries.

By the late 1960s, inspired by the American civil rights movement, a new generation of Nationalists began demanding reform. The Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association (NICRA), founded in 1967, organised marches demanding an end to discrimination in housing and voting, and an end to the Special Powers Act (which gave the government sweeping emergency powers).

These were civil rights demands, not calls for a united Ireland. But they were met with hostility by the Unionist establishment and, increasingly, with violence from loyalist groups and the police (the Royal Ulster Constabulary, which was overwhelmingly Protestant).

The Troubles: Key Events

1968–1969: The Eruption

The civil rights marches of 1968–1969 were the spark. A march in Derry on 5 October 1968 was batoned off the streets by the RUC, with footage broadcast on international television. The violence radicalised both sides.

In August 1969, sectarian riots in Belfast and Derry escalated beyond the capacity of local forces to control. Catholic areas came under attack. The British Army was deployed to Northern Ireland, initially welcomed by Catholics as protection from Loyalist and police violence. That welcome did not last.

Bloody Sunday (30 January 1972)

The event that more than any other defined the Troubles in the public imagination. During a civil rights march in Derry’s Bogside, soldiers of the British Army’s Parachute Regiment shot 26 unarmed civilians, killing thirteen (a fourteenth died later). The victims were marchers and bystanders. No soldiers were injured.

The initial British inquiry (the Widgery Tribunal) largely exonerated the soldiers. It took nearly four decades — and the Saville Inquiry, which reported in 2010 — for the British government to acknowledge that the killings were “unjustified and unjustifiable.” The Prime Minister, David Cameron, apologised on behalf of the state.

Bloody Sunday radicalised a generation. IRA recruitment surged. The conflict intensified dramatically.

Internment and Direct Rule

In August 1971, the Northern Ireland government introduced internment without trial — the mass arrest and detention of suspected IRA members. The policy was counterproductive: almost all those arrested were Nationalist/Catholic, many had no connection to the IRA, and the brutality of the internment process (including allegations of torture) alienated the Catholic community further.

In March 1972, the British government suspended the Northern Ireland Parliament and imposed Direct Rule from Westminster. Stormont would not sit again as a functioning legislature for decades.

The Worst Years (1971–1976)

The early-to-mid 1970s were the most violent period. Bombings, shootings, and sectarian murders became daily occurrences. The IRA waged a bombing campaign against commercial and military targets. Loyalist paramilitaries — primarily the UVF and UDA — carried out sectarian assassinations of Catholic civilians. The British Army conducted operations, raids, and patrols that were often perceived as partisan.

Key events included:

• Bloody Friday (21 July 1972): The IRA detonated 22 bombs across Belfast in 75 minutes, killing nine people.
• The Dublin and Monaghan Bombings (17 May 1974): Loyalist car bombs killed 33 people in the Republic of Ireland — the single deadliest day of the Troubles.
• The La Mon Hotel Bombing (17 February 1978): An IRA firebomb killed twelve people at a dinner dance.

These are just fragments. The full toll — year after year of killings, bombings, funerals, and fear — is almost incomprehensible when compressed into a list. Every event listed had individual human stories: families destroyed, communities terrorised, lives ended or permanently altered.

The Hunger Strikes (1981)

In 1981, Republican prisoners in the Maze Prison (also known as Long Kesh) went on hunger strike to demand political status — recognition that they were political prisoners, not criminals. The British government, under Margaret Thatcher, refused.

Ten men died, the most prominent being Bobby Sands, who was elected as a Member of Parliament while on hunger strike. His death on 5 May 1981, after 66 days without food, provoked international attention and widespread protests. The hunger strikes transformed Sinn Féin from a marginal political force into a significant electoral party, beginning the political strategy that would eventually lead to the peace process.

The Long Stalemate (1980s–1990s)

The 1980s and early 1990s were characterised by continued violence but a growing recognition on all sides that military victory was impossible. The IRA could not bomb Britain out of Northern Ireland. The British Army could not defeat the IRA. Loyalist paramilitaries could not terrorise the Nationalist community into submission.

Behind the scenes, talks began — between the British government and the IRA, between the Irish and British governments, and between political parties. These secret and semi-public contacts laid the groundwork for what followed.

Key events of this period:

• The Brighton Bombing (1984): IRA bomb at the Conservative Party conference nearly killed Prime Minister Thatcher.
• The Enniskillen Bombing (1987): IRA bomb at a Remembrance Day ceremony killed eleven civilians, prompting widespread revulsion.
• The Shankill Road Bombing (1993): IRA bomb in a fish shop killed nine Protestant civilians and one of the bombers. A week later, loyalist gunmen killed eight people in a pub in Greysteel in retaliation.

The Peace Process

Ceasefires and Talks (1994–1998)

In August 1994, the IRA declared a ceasefire. Loyalist paramilitaries followed in October. The ceasefires were fragile — the IRA broke theirs in February 1996 with the Canary Wharf bombing in London — but the direction was clear. By July 1997, the IRA ceasefire was restored, and multi-party talks began in earnest.

The Good Friday Agreement (10 April 1998)

The Good Friday Agreement (also called the Belfast Agreement) was signed on 10 April 1998 after two years of negotiations. It remains the foundation of the peace settlement.

Key provisions:

• Power-sharing government: A Northern Ireland Assembly and Executive in which Unionist and Nationalist parties share power.
• North-South institutions: Bodies linking Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland on cross-border issues.
• Constitutional change: The Republic of Ireland amended its constitutional claim to Northern Ireland. The UK affirmed that Northern Ireland’s status would be determined by the consent of its people.
• Rights and equality: Commitments to human rights, policing reform, prisoner release, and decommissioning of paramilitary weapons.
• Identity: Recognition that people in Northern Ireland could identify as British, Irish, or both, and hold citizenship accordingly.

The Agreement was approved by 71% of voters in Northern Ireland in a referendum. It did not end all violence — dissident republican groups continue to pose a sporadic threat — but it effectively ended the Troubles as a large-scale conflict.

Since 1998

The peace process has been imperfect. The Assembly has been suspended multiple times over political disputes. Sectarian tensions persist in some areas. Interface areas — where Catholic and Protestant communities meet — remain flashpoints, particularly during the marching season (summer). The peace walls, built during the Troubles to separate communities, mostly still stand.

But the transformation is real. Belfast and Derry, once bywords for urban conflict, are now vibrant, largely safe cities that attract tourists, investment, and new residents. A generation has grown up without the daily violence that their parents endured. The challenge now is addressing the legacy — the unsolved killings, the trauma, the persistent segregation — while building a shared future.

Places to Visit

Belfast

The Political Murals (Falls Road and Shankill Road): The most visible expression of the Troubles. Our guide to Belfast’s street art and murals covers these in detail. Walking between the Falls (Republican) and Shankill (Loyalist) roads, passing through the peace wall gate, is perhaps the most powerful single experience a visitor can have in understanding the conflict.

Black Cab Tours: Several operators offer guided taxi tours of the mural areas and key Troubles sites, with drivers who often have personal experience of the conflict. These are highly recommended — the context and personal stories add layers that walking alone doesn’t provide. Tours typically last 90 minutes to 2 hours.

The Peace Walls: Physical barriers — some up to 25 feet high — separating Catholic and Protestant communities. The longest runs along the Cupar Way between the Falls and Shankill. Gates in the walls close at night. Visitors can sign the wall, which is covered in messages of peace from around the world. The walls are sobering — they were built as temporary structures during the Troubles and most remain standing.

Crumlin Road Gaol: A Victorian prison that held political prisoners from both sides during the Troubles. Now a museum, with guided tours covering the building’s history, the conditions, and the tunnel connecting it to the courthouse across the road. The execution chamber and the cells where Republican and Loyalist prisoners were held on separate wings bring the reality of the conflict into sharp focus.

The Linen Hall Library: Houses the Northern Ireland Political Collection — the most comprehensive archive of material relating to the Troubles, including political publications, posters, and ephemera from all sides. Free to visit. The collection is extraordinary in its scope and its even-handedness.

Derry/Londonderry

The Bogside: The Catholic neighbourhood below the city walls where many of the Troubles’ most significant events occurred. The Bogside murals — painted by a group known as “The Bogside Artists” — depict key events: Bloody Sunday, the Battle of the Bogside, the hunger strikes. Unlike Belfast’s murals, which are scattered across different streets, the Bogside murals form a concentrated, sequential narrative along Rossville Street.

The Museum of Free Derry: Located in the Bogside, this museum tells the story of the civil rights movement, the Battle of the Bogside, internment, and Bloody Sunday through personal testimonies, photographs, and artefacts. It’s a small museum with a powerful impact. The blood-stained clothing of Bloody Sunday victims and the personal effects of those killed make the events painfully concrete.

The City Walls: Derry’s 17th-century walls — the most complete city walls in Ireland — offer views down into the Bogside and across the city. Walking the walls provides a physical understanding of the geography that shaped the conflict: the walled, historically Protestant city centre and the Catholic Bogside below.

See our Derry/Londonderry city guide for more on the city beyond its Troubles history.

Other Sites

The Maze/Long Kesh: The prison site where the hunger strikes occurred. The site is largely derelict and not currently accessible to visitors in a formal sense, though plans for a peace centre have been debated for years. The site remains politically sensitive.

Omagh: A quiet County Tyrone town scarred by the deadliest single bombing of the Troubles — 29 people killed by the Real IRA on 15 August 1998, four months after the Good Friday Agreement. A memorial garden stands in the town centre.

How to Approach This History

Be respectful. The Troubles ended within living memory. Many people in Northern Ireland lost family members, friends, or neighbours. Some carry physical and psychological injuries. This is not abstract history — it is lived experience.

Listen. If someone shares their story, listen. Don’t compare, don’t judge, don’t debate. Northern Ireland’s conflict does not have simple good guys and bad guys, and attempts to impose that framework will offend someone.

Terminology matters. “Derry” or “Londonderry”? “The north of Ireland” or “Northern Ireland”? “The Troubles” or “the conflict”? Language is political here in ways that outsiders may not immediately grasp. The safest approach: use whatever term the person you’re speaking with uses. This guide uses both names where relevant.

It’s safe. Northern Ireland is a safe place to visit. The peace process has held for over 25 years. Normal tourist precautions apply, as in any European destination. Don’t let the history discourage you from visiting — let it enrich the visit.

Don’t reduce Northern Ireland to its conflict. The Troubles are a crucial part of understanding this place, but they are not the whole story. Northern Ireland is also the Giant’s Causeway, the Mourne Mountains, a world-class food scene, extraordinary music, and some of the warmest, funniest, most welcoming people you’ll meet anywhere. The conflict shaped this place, but it does not define it.