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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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Im saving my penneys for the next crash. No point looking at a house until then
@Irish Political GIF:
Good for you but you will probably need to save the full price. There was lots of people who wanted to buy when the prices collapsed the last time but no one could get a loan.
I’ve noticed the 100 bags are getting smaller alright. Id safely say the good old greedy boom times are back!
@Irish Political GIF: Well that’s how the vulture capitalists do it. to bail out governments like FG. then cause a bigger problem by fire selling ireland. instead of public works scheme and waiting untill thing get better.
@P.J. Nolan: I bought in 2009 as we weren’t approved for a mortgage in 2006 – thank god for that ! Got house for half the price
The gov propaganda machine is out in full force this morning, a whole list of articles on gov giveaways and what their gonna do, followed by the leprechaun economics state finance figures!
@Adrian: how is the central bank report on facts and global guesstimates the Irish governments propaganda machine?
@Adrian: have you stepped outside the door recently. Gone shopping in town? Driven on the roads. The economy is booming and it’s not a credit fuelled boom. Wake up, go out and get a job and stop moaning. You losers (all 10 of you) have lost your chance.
@Adrian: You’re tin foil hat seems a lot title loose there fella.
@Darren Norris: It certainly is leprechaun economics if they are including aircraft leasing and other such distortions in their economy growth forecasts. This article does not make that clear.
@Adrian: I thought the government propaganda machine was clothed down….sorry.
@joe: depends Where you are,Waterford is not showing any signs of any recovery.
@Adrian: There’s a lot of jobs out there, shame theyre poverty jobs, i.e 9 euro an hour
The top 10% is spending most of it…….
@Peadar Ó Gréacháin: be a bit worrying if they didn’t
@Darren Norris: You missed his point!
The good times are back. Bank has offered me an increased overdraft. My credit card company will give me a much higher limit, scarily high and mortgage broker told me I can get a buy to let mortgage loan on an interest only basis.
Now for a massive credit bubble.
And I declined the Bank OD offer, held to my credit card limit and told the mortgage broker there was no value to be obtained in now investing in buy to lets.
Not all of us will cave in to the blandishments of credit.
Down with the creditocracy.
@Michael Lang: Yup. The banks are out there putting guns to people’s heads, making them borrow what they don’t have, AGAIN.
@Michael Lang: IF people borrow then they should be smart enough to know the risks.. Part of the property bubble at the moment is the fact 25,000 homeowners are not vacated and have not paid any mortgage in over 2 years.
Dont borrow….you are not being forced into it.
@Michael Lang: credit card companies are banned from increasing limits, or writing to tell you that you can increase your limit…
I’d love to hear from David McWilliams. Smart man couldn’t have got it more spot on the last time.
@David Smith: “David McWilliams’ brilliant survey of Ireland today is a celebration of success. He takes us to Deckland, that suburban state of mind where you’ll find the Kells Angels, those out-of-town commuters who are the cutting edge of the new prosperity. He introduces the HiCos – Hiberno-Cosmopolitans – the elite whose distance from Deckland is measured in their cool sophistication, their ability to feel at home equally on the Boulevard Saint-Michel and on Hill 16. “The Pope’s Children” is an antidote to the endless pessimism of the Commentariat, official Ireland’s gloomy opinion mongers, forever seeing a glass half empty that is in fact three-quarters full. There is a vast surge of ambition, new money, optimism and hope out there. That’s the real story: “The Pope’s Children” tells it – and tells it with style.”
The Blurb from his 2005 book, as cut and pasted from Amazon.
@David Smith: he did. But so will I the economy will crash. There i said it, now I’m an economic genius because it will definitely happen. It’s easy to predict certainties. This is how economic cycles work!
@Fifty Shades of Sé: Which he was caught for plagiarizing
In the words of Tommy Tiernan if you can’t spend money in the good times then THEY’RE NOT THE GOOD TIMES
@League of shadows: hoard in the good times, spend in the bad times. EG: house prices etc….
@League of shadows: They’re the ‘in preparation for the bad times’ times
Most of which is no doubt based on credit. Loan now, pay back later – what could possibly go wrong?
@Shakka1244: as the UK faces a massive consumer credit crisis for car loans, home makeovers and luxury purchases.
The creditocracy depends on consumers to borrow and to borrow deeply.
@Shakka1244: I don’t think there’s near as much personal credit as there was back in the boom. But I would question the numbers used in the report. 103bn is not near the same value as 103bn back in 2008. Groceries may have fallen in price due to efficiencies and cheaper methods of packaging but everything else is going up it seems! So we have not yet reached 2008 level despite the report. Maybe credit will get us there though ;)
Isn’t there a higher population contributing to the spending now than in 2008 with higher prices overall?
@Jointheclubtoo: shhh, your not supposed to know that, you’re ruining it!
@Jointheclubtoo: and don’t mention the quadrupled national debt in the last 10 years!
Click bait headline that draws attention to the least credible part of the report. Typical copy & paste reporting really. Mr Brennan if you want to ever be a credible journalist yourself how about dissecting the information a little.
Example: the high watermark is based on an absolute monetary value! Ridiculous to suggest that €103bn is the same today as it was in 2008 with inflation and currency debasement that’s happened since. The euro is simply not worth as much as it was in real terms (and comparing the rates is useless as all the major currencies have fallen in lock-step). One needs to analyse the relationship of currency to the price of goods themselves. I guess thats beyond the Journalist wannabes on the journal and more for the likes of the FT.
So we have not reached 2008 level.
So around €25,000 each. I don’t feel so bad about my spending now.
Come home @Dave_Doyle, the boom is back.
@Pat Bateman: the tiger is roaring
Looks like they only stopped short of declaring us all multi millionaires! Plus a new way of forecasting house completions! Followed by the inevitable threats to their utopian forecasting, Trump, Brexit, (basically anyone else but the Irish gov and central bank, what state bankruptcy!!???)
Funny that,I’m a nurse and I’m still struggling
@Kevin Slater: Why would being a nurse make any difference? All my life nurses have complained about their salaries with strikes and work to rule being regular events.
Yep, it’s seems people have gone mad again, we’ve clearly learned nothing and the odd thing is the complete ignorance of where we were. Just recently it’s been admitted the mortgage arrears crisis has not changed. If we were to believe the horrendous stories regarding personal debt, you have to ask have people suddenly found pots of gold? Have they had massive wage increases, have indeed people had their debts mysteriously wiped? I refuse to believe legacy debts have been cleared in such a short amount of time.
What a load of tripe.
Unless everyone is online.
Retail is on its knees in this country.
I’ve never known it to be this bad.
All credit too
All we need now if FF back at the wheel. Sure what could go wrong?
I think this is just an attempt by the gov and the central bank to try and get people to spend more money so they can get their hands on it through all their various taxes. Their water tax didn’t work, and there is only so far they can increase all the different insurance prices, they need to find other ways to get their hands on people’s money and trying to fool the people into thinking the boom times are back is a way they can do that. So their story is great times but they’re telling us they have to be careful and prudent because they don’t want the teachers etc protesting for higher pay at the same time! It’s an idiotic country we’re living in, run by an idiotic gov.
have your say