| 12.1968 |
O’Neill sacks
his Minister for Home Affairs, William Craig, for heavy-handed policing
and for criticizing the government’s reformist policies. |
| 09.12.1968 |
O’Neill’s
‘Ulster stands at the crossroads’ speech on television. He promises that
reforms already undertaken would not be reverse. "What kind of Ulster do
you want? A happy and respected province, in good standing with the rest
of the United Kingdom? Or a place continually torn apart by riots and
demonstrations, and regarded by the rest of Britain as a political outcast."
NICRA calls off its demonstrations, People’s Democracy continues with its
New Year’s Day march from Belfast to Londonderry. |
| 01.1969 |
After the
Burntollet attack, some police run amok in Derry city centre attacking
shoppers, singing sectarian songs and breaking windows. |
| 02.1969 |
O’Neill calls
an election in the deteriorating security situation but fails to get the
clear mandate he was seeking. Paisley stands against him in his Bannside
seat and he wins only narrowly. |
| spring 1969 |
UPV play the
role of the IRA by planting bombs around the economic infrastructure in
order to provoke a loyalist backlash. |
| 05.1969 |
Terence O’Neill
resigns to be replaced by his cousin, Major Chichester-Clark. One week
later the Shankill Defence Association is created. |
| 12.08.1969 |
Apprentice
Boys of Derry ignore a police ban on their march in the city centre. In
the ensuing violence and stoning the RUC baton charge the Bogside. NICRA
and People’s Democracy arrange 12 confrontational marches leading to two
days of serious rioting and violence across the province. |
| 13.08.1969 |
Troops under
GOC "a limited operation .. to restore law and order". |
| 14.08.1969 |
Army is mobilised
to replace the RUC in Londonderry. |
| 15.08.1969 |
First troops
deployed in Belfast. |
| 1969 |
Last few months
of 1969 deemed to be quiet. MPs were generally accepted on their patrols.
Some barricades were taken down in Belfast and there was talk of reform.
The Catholic population viewed this with cynicism as Unionist Stormont
was still there and reforms would take years to implement. |
| 13.01.1970 |
First bombing
of private property and of a Catholic target by loyalists of a shop in
the Ardoyne. |
| 03.1970 |
Paisley starts
to distance himself from the more militant members of the UPV, expelling
McKeague from the Willowfield division. |
| 04.1970 |
GOC states
that petrol bombers will be "liable to be shot". PIRA retaliate by saying
they will shoot soldiers, and the UVF by stating they would shoot a Catholic
for every soldier shot by them.
The B Special
Constabulary is stood down. |
| 06.1970 |
General election
brings a Conservative Government. Home Secretary Reginald Maudling, said
by army officers to have no idea, never going out. |
| 07.1970 |
Large-scale
army search operation in the Lower Falls (OIRA area) escalates into gun
battles choked with CS gas and an area curfew, turning many against the
Army. The end of any pro-Army sentiment in West Belfast. |
| 09.1970 |
Army confirmed
in a limited police support role. Army appoints a Commander Land Forces
to deal with operational matters and leave the GOC to deal with politics.
First appointee Maj Gen Anthony Farrar-Hockley. |
| 11.1970 |
Farrar-Hockley
announces the army faces "a long haul ahead and [is] nearer to the threshold
of a harder operation," the first army admission of the possibility of
a prolonge IRA campaign of terror. |
| ?01.1970 |
CLF names
five 'community spokesman' as IRA leaders on the basis of planned operations
by them. THey go ahead with attacks culminating in the shooting dead of
Gunner Curtis, aged 20, 94 Regt RA, the first soldier killed in the civil
power aid role. |
| 03.1971 |
Brian Faulkner
becomes Prime Minister. |
| 06.1971 |
SDLP formed
from the majority of the Nationalist Party, National Democratic Party and
Republican Labour Party. |
| 09.08.1971 |
Internment
begins with a swoop across Belfast by the Army to pick up 450 people whose
names were listed on outdated RUC intelligence. |
| 09.1971 |
Creation of
the Democratic Unionist Party. A few senior unionists defect. |
| e.o.1971 |
Protestant
vigilante groups come together under the umbrella of the UDA against the
threat of a 'sell-out' in the aftermath of Direct Rule. |
| 17.01.1972 |
Tactics in
Londonderry change with an army memorandum stressing the necessity for
as low key operations as possible in Creggan and Bogside, to keep the city
out of the headlines. |
| 30.01.1972 |
Bloody Sunday. |
| 24.03.1972 |
Direct Rule
imposed, Stormont prorogued. |
| 04.1972 |
In a BBC interview
Secretary of State Whitelaw announces he will not sanction military invasion
of the Creggan or Bogside. |
| 22.06.1972 |
IRA Bureau
in Dublin announce a suspension of operations from 27th if reciprocated
by Crown Forces. Uneasy Protestants, under the coordination of the UDA,
begin to erect permanent barricades. |
| 03.07.1972 |
Stand-off
between Army and 8 000 UDA men over the errecting of a permanent barricade
in Woodvale (Ainsworth Avenue standoff) defused after CLF talks to leaders. |
| ?10.07.1972 |
Ceasefire
ends after 13 days in incident over the occupation of deserted houses.
Talks had
been taking place between the Provisional leadership and Secretary of State
WIlliam Whitelaw in the Chelsea home of the Northern Ireland Minister of
State Paul Channon. |
| 21.07.1972 |
IRA bombing
campaign moves into a higher gear, highlighted by Bloody Friday when twenty-two
bombs detonate within one hour, in a one-mile radius of the city centre. |
| 07.1972 |
In the aftermath
of Bloody Friday, NIO gives the go-ahead for Operation Motorman, to reclaim
the 'No Go' areas. Seven additional battalions are flown into Aldergrove
over 36 hours in flights landing every five minutes. |
| 1973 |
Emergency
Provisions Act is legislated. Includes the creation of Diplock Courts. |
| 03.1973 |
Border referendum
produces stinging endorsement of the Union. |
| 05.02.1973 |
First loyalists
(2xUFF) are interned without trial. LAW/Vanguard call a two-day strike. |
| 05.1973 |
Local elections:
contested by DUP and Vanguard Unionist Political Party. |
| 11.1973 |
Detention
of Terrorists Order. |
| 01.01.1974 |
Northern
Ireland Executive takes power-sharing office. |
| 04.04.1974 |
Secretary
of State Merlyn Rees announces the lifting of bans on Sinn Fein and UVF
to encourage the more moderate elements on both sides. |
| 14.05.1974 |
Ulster Workers'
Council announce a strike to bring down the Executive. |
| 17.05.1974 |
Pub bombs
in Dublin and Monaghan kill 28. UDA and UVF deny involvement; the bombings
are in fact UVF working alone. |
| 08.1974 |
Provisional
IRA move their bombing campaign to the mainland, bombing pubs in Guildford
and Woolwich,
24.11.1974
21 die in two pub bombings in Birmingham. |
| 11.1974 |
Prevention
of Terrorism act passed by a Labour government, including the legislation
for exclusion orders. |
| 11.1974 |
After a mission
to explain loyalism to Col Gaddaffi the UDA spilts between east and west
Belfast, between supporters of Harding, McCullough and McClatchy, and Tyrie,
Tucker, Little and Smith. Andy Tyrie wins in the struggle for power with
Harding Smith. Shortly after, Harding is shot by rivals. |
| 03.1975 |
The simmering
rivalries and feud between UDA and UVF reach their peak with a number of
death threats and assassinations of each other’s members. |
| 09.1976 |
Roy Mason
becomes Secretary of State. After initial rounds of talks prove futile
he committs himself to focus on law and order and economic regeneration,
engaging in Ulsterisation, replacing British Army forces with locally-recruited
UDR regiments and giving the RUC the leading role in policing. |
| 27.11.1977 |
Vanguard is dissolved after merger talks with Official Unionists. |
| 15.12.1978 |
The Glover
Report, a secret Army assessment of future terrorist trends, is leaked
to the press. |
| 03.1979 |
Provisionals
show their post-ceasefire reorganisation is effective by planting 49 bombs
in 22 towns over 2 days. |
| 05.1979 |
Conservative
government takes office; Jim Prior becomes Secretary of State, introducing
‘rolling devolution’. |
| 02.11.1986 |
Divisive Sinn
Fein Ard Feis. President McGuinness: "Our position is clear and it will
never, never, never change. The war against British rule must continue
until freedom is achieved." 2nd November 1986 - the decisive split in Sinn
Fein
Ruarigh O
Bradagh - Sinn Fein president reaffirms the SF principles of non-participation,
no compromise to get to the end. Vote to recofnise the Dublin parliament
- RSF later linked with CAC/INRA.
From "we are
right and everyone else is wrong" to one of engagement. Initially confounded
by IRA at the Cenotaph Enniskillen 11.11.1989. |
| 06.01.1988 |
A bomb of
previously unknown design is discovered under the car of UDA leader Andy
Tyrie. The IRA deny planting it and it is claimed by the Loyalist People’s
Action Group, a cover name for anti-Tyrie factions in the UDA. He resigns
as leader five days later, failing to win a confidence vote from the Inner
Council. |
| 23.10.1993 |
Shankill bomb
kills 9, none the intended UDA targets above Frizell’s Fish shop. |
| 24.03.1995 |
Government
announces it was halting all routine army patrols in Belfast for the first
time in 25 years. |