Ulsterisation

Ulsterisation refers to a British Government strategy on the 1970s to pacify Northern Ireland during the conflict known as the The Troubles. The strategy was to disengage the British Army as much as possible from security duties in Northern Ireland and replace them with members of the locally recruited Royal Ulster Constabulary and [[Ulster Defence Regiment]. The objective of this policy was to confine the conflict to Northern Ireland (often incorrectly called Ulster) as it was judged that the political impact of killings of British soldiers by the Provisional IRA was great

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The 1981 Irish Hunger Strike was a campaign by Irish republican prisoners in Northern Ireland for the British government to grant them political status. It was a seminal event in modern Irish history. It radicalised nationalist politics, and was the midwife to Sinn Féin as a serious political force, which ultimately led to it overtaking the SDLP as the main nationalist party in Northern Ireland. 1981 Irish Hunger Strike - Background. The process which led up to Hunger Strikes began in 1976. As part ...

Including:

• 1981 Irish Hunger Strike - Background
• 1981 Irish Hunger Strike - First Hunger Strike
• 1981 Irish Hunger Strike - Second Hunger Strike
• 1981 Irish Hunger Strike - Consequences
• 1981 Irish Hunger Strike - Commemorations
• 1981 Irish Hunger Strike - Resources

Read more here: » 1981 Irish Hunger Strike: Encyclopedia - 1981 Irish Hunger Strike

The History of Ireland is the story of a large island in the north-west of Europe and is heavily influenced by the concurrent History of Britain, its larger neighbour to the east. The first humans inhabited Ireland from around 7500 BC and were later responsible for major Neolithic sites such as Newgrange. Following the arrival of St. Patrick and other Christian missionaries in the mid-fifth century, a syncretized form of Christianity subsumed the indigenous pagan religion by A.D. 600. This led to a golden age of monastic Irish writing and ar ...

Including:

• History of Ireland - Early history: 8000 BC–AD 400
• History of Ireland - Early Christian Ireland 400–800
• History of Ireland - Early medieval era 800–1166
• History of Ireland - Later Medieval Ireland
• History of Ireland - The Coming of the Normans 1167–1185
• History of Ireland - The Lordship of Ireland 1185–1254
• History of Ireland - Gaelic Resurgence Norman Decline 1254–1360
• History of Ireland - Reformation 1536–1654 and Protestant Ascendancy 1654–1801
• History of Ireland - Re-conquest and rebellion
• History of Ireland - Civil Wars and Penal Laws
• History of Ireland - Colonial Ireland
• History of Ireland - Union with Great Britain 1801-1922
• History of Ireland - Home Rule Easter 1916 and the War of Independence
• History of Ireland - Free State/Republic 1922-present
• History of Ireland - Northern Ireland
• History of Ireland - Footnotes

Read more here: » History of Ireland: Encyclopedia - History of Ireland

In 1800, after the Irish Rebellion of 1798, the British and the Irish parliaments (the latter controversially, as massive bribery was involved) enacted the Act of Union, which merged Ireland and the Kingdom of Great Britain (itself a union of England and Scotland, created almost 100 years earlier), to create the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Part of the deal for the union was that Catholic Emancipation wo ...

See also:

History of Ireland, History of Ireland - Early history: 8000 BC–AD 400, History of Ireland - Early Christian Ireland 400–800, History of Ireland - Early medieval era 800–1166, History of Ireland - Later Medieval Ireland, History of Ireland - The Coming of the Normans 1167–1185, History of Ireland - The Lordship of Ireland 1185–1254, History of Ireland - Gaelic Resurgence Norman Decline 1254–1360, History of Ireland - Reformation 1536–1654 and Protestant Ascendancy 1654–1801, History of Ireland - Re-conquest and rebellion, History of Ireland - Civil Wars and Penal Laws, History of Ireland - Colonial Ireland, History of Ireland - Union with Great Britain 1801-1922, History of Ireland - Home Rule Easter 1916 and the War of Independence, History of Ireland - Free State/Republic 1922-present, History of Ireland - Northern Ireland, History of Ireland - Footnotes

Read more here: » History of Ireland: Encyclopedia II - History of Ireland - Union with Great Britain 1801-1922

1971: First British soldier on security duties, Gunner Curtis, killed by the IRA in current campaign in North Belfast. Three unarmed British soldiers abducted while off duty in Belfast and subsequently shot. IRA suspected but responsibility never admitted. 1971: Mother of ten, Jean McConville, is abducted and killed by the Provisional IRA, allegedly for informing the British Army of IRA activities, although her family contend that she was killed for comforting a wounded British soldier. The IRA would deny any involveme ...

See also:

Provisional Irish Republican Army, Provisional Irish Republican Army - Origins, Provisional Irish Republican Army - Organisation, Provisional Irish Republican Army - Weaponry and operations, Provisional Irish Republican Army - Categorisation, Provisional Irish Republican Army - Strength and support, Provisional Irish Republican Army - Activities, Provisional Irish Republican Army - The Belfast Agreement, Provisional Irish Republican Army - End of the armed campaign, Provisional Irish Republican Army - Notable events, Provisional Irish Republican Army - P. O'Neill, Provisional Irish Republican Army - Infiltration, Provisional Irish Republican Army - Footnotes

Read more here: » Provisional Irish Republican Army: Encyclopedia II - Provisional Irish Republican Army - Notable events

IRA and INLA prisoners (the first was Ciarán Nugent) began the blanket protest in which prisoners would refuse to wear prison uniform and either went naked or fashioned garments from prison blankets. In 1978, after a number of attacks on prisoners leaving their cells to "slop out" (i.e. empty their chamber pots) this escalated into the dirty protest, where prisoners not granted political status refused to wash and smeared the walls of their cells with excrement. These protests aimed to re-establish their privileges by securing what were kno ...

See also:

1981 Irish Hunger Strike, 1981 Irish Hunger Strike - Background, 1981 Irish Hunger Strike - First Hunger Strike, 1981 Irish Hunger Strike - Second Hunger Strike, 1981 Irish Hunger Strike - Consequences, 1981 Irish Hunger Strike - Commemorations, 1981 Irish Hunger Strike - Resources

Read more here: » 1981 Irish Hunger Strike: Encyclopedia II - 1981 Irish Hunger Strike - First Hunger Strike

According to the CAIN research project at the University of Ulster, the Provisional IRA was responsible for the deaths of 1,706 people during the Troubles up to 2001. This figure represents 48.4 percent of the total fatalities in the conflict. 497 of these casualties were civilians, 638 of the casualties were from the British Army (183 from the Ulster Defence Regiment and 455 from other regiments). Another 271 of the casualties were members of the Royal Ulster Constabulary. Of its victims, 340 were Northern Irish Catholics, 794 were Northern ...

See also:

Provisional Irish Republican Army, Provisional Irish Republican Army - Origins, Provisional Irish Republican Army - Organisation, Provisional Irish Republican Army - Weaponry and operations, Provisional Irish Republican Army - Categorisation, Provisional Irish Republican Army - Strength and support, Provisional Irish Republican Army - Activities, Provisional Irish Republican Army - The Belfast Agreement, Provisional Irish Republican Army - End of the armed campaign, Provisional Irish Republican Army - Notable events, Provisional Irish Republican Army - P. O'Neill, Provisional Irish Republican Army - Infiltration, Provisional Irish Republican Army - Footnotes

Read more here: » Provisional Irish Republican Army: Encyclopedia II - Provisional Irish Republican Army - Activities

The IRA ceasefire in 1997 formed part of a process that led to the 1998 Belfast (Good Friday) Agreement. The Agreement has among its aims that all paramilitary groups in Northern Ireland cease their activities and disarm by May 2000. This is one of many Agreement aims that have yet to be realised. Calls from Sinn Féin have led the IRA to commence disarming in a process that has been overviewed by Canadian General John de Chastelain's decommissioning body in October 2001. However, following the collapse of the Stormont power-sharing g ...

See also:

Provisional Irish Republican Army, Provisional Irish Republican Army - Origins, Provisional Irish Republican Army - Organisation, Provisional Irish Republican Army - Weaponry and operations, Provisional Irish Republican Army - Categorisation, Provisional Irish Republican Army - Strength and support, Provisional Irish Republican Army - Activities, Provisional Irish Republican Army - The Belfast Agreement, Provisional Irish Republican Army - End of the armed campaign, Provisional Irish Republican Army - Notable events, Provisional Irish Republican Army - P. O'Neill, Provisional Irish Republican Army - Infiltration, Provisional Irish Republican Army - Footnotes

Read more here: » Provisional Irish Republican Army: Encyclopedia II - Provisional Irish Republican Army - The Belfast Agreement

On July 28, 2005, the Provisional IRA Army Council announced an end to its armed campaign. In a statement read by Séanna Breathnach, the organization stated that it has instructed its members to dump all weapons and not to engage in "any other activities whatsoever" apart from assisting “the development of purely political and democratic programmes through exclusively peaceful means". Furthermore, the organization authorised its representatives to engage immediately with the Independent International Commission on Decommissioning (IICD) to verifiably put its arms beyond use "in a way which will ...

See also:

Provisional Irish Republican Army, Provisional Irish Republican Army - Origins, Provisional Irish Republican Army - Organisation, Provisional Irish Republican Army - Weaponry and operations, Provisional Irish Republican Army - Categorisation, Provisional Irish Republican Army - Strength and support, Provisional Irish Republican Army - Activities, Provisional Irish Republican Army - The Belfast Agreement, Provisional Irish Republican Army - End of the armed campaign, Provisional Irish Republican Army - Notable events, Provisional Irish Republican Army - P. O'Neill, Provisional Irish Republican Army - Infiltration, Provisional Irish Republican Army - Footnotes

Read more here: » Provisional Irish Republican Army: Encyclopedia II - Provisional Irish Republican Army - End of the armed campaign

In the early days of the Troubles from around 1969-71, the IRA was very poorly armed, having available only a handful of old fashioned weapons left over from the IRA's Border campaign of the 1950s. Such weapons included Lee-Enfield rifles, Webley revolvers, and Thompson submachine guns. Their explosives were primarily gelignite - a commercial explosive which they either bought or stole from civilian sources. In the first years of the conflict, the Provisionals' main activity was providing firepower to defend nationalist areas against attacks ...

See also:

Provisional Irish Republican Army, Provisional Irish Republican Army - Origins, Provisional Irish Republican Army - Organisation, Provisional Irish Republican Army - Weaponry and operations, Provisional Irish Republican Army - Categorisation, Provisional Irish Republican Army - Strength and support, Provisional Irish Republican Army - Activities, Provisional Irish Republican Army - The Belfast Agreement, Provisional Irish Republican Army - End of the armed campaign, Provisional Irish Republican Army - Notable events, Provisional Irish Republican Army - P. O'Neill, Provisional Irish Republican Army - Infiltration, Provisional Irish Republican Army - Footnotes

Read more here: » Provisional Irish Republican Army: Encyclopedia II - Provisional Irish Republican Army - Weaponry and operations

The Provisional IRA has several hundred members, as well as tens of thousands of civilian sympathisers in Ireland, mostly in Ulster. In 2005, Irish Minister for Justice Michael McDowell told the Dáil that the organization had "between 1,000 and 1,500" active members [2]. However, the movement's appeal was hurt badly by more notorious bombings widely perceived as atrocities, such as the killing of civilians attending a Remembrance Day ceremony at the cenotaph in Enniskillen in 1987 (the IRA maintain that their target was a contingent ...

See also:

Provisional Irish Republican Army, Provisional Irish Republican Army - Origins, Provisional Irish Republican Army - Organisation, Provisional Irish Republican Army - Weaponry and operations, Provisional Irish Republican Army - Categorisation, Provisional Irish Republican Army - Strength and support, Provisional Irish Republican Army - Activities, Provisional Irish Republican Army - The Belfast Agreement, Provisional Irish Republican Army - End of the armed campaign, Provisional Irish Republican Army - Notable events, Provisional Irish Republican Army - P. O'Neill, Provisional Irish Republican Army - Infiltration, Provisional Irish Republican Army - Footnotes

Read more here: » Provisional Irish Republican Army: Encyclopedia II - Provisional Irish Republican Army - Strength and support

The IRA has often been infiltrated by British Intelligence agents, and in the past some IRA members have been informers. IRA members suspected of being informants were usually executed after an IRA 'court-martial'. In May 2003 a number of newspapers named Freddie Scappaticci as the alleged identity of the British Force Research Unit's most senior informer within the Provisional IRA, code-named Steakknife, who is thought to have been head of the Provisional IRA's internal security force, charged with rooting out and executing informers. Scappaticci denies that th ...

See also:

Provisional Irish Republican Army, Provisional Irish Republican Army - Origins, Provisional Irish Republican Army - Organisation, Provisional Irish Republican Army - Weaponry and operations, Provisional Irish Republican Army - Categorisation, Provisional Irish Republican Army - Strength and support, Provisional Irish Republican Army - Activities, Provisional Irish Republican Army - The Belfast Agreement, Provisional Irish Republican Army - End of the armed campaign, Provisional Irish Republican Army - Notable events, Provisional Irish Republican Army - P. O'Neill, Provisional Irish Republican Army - Infiltration, Provisional Irish Republican Army - Footnotes

Read more here: » Provisional Irish Republican Army: Encyclopedia II - Provisional Irish Republican Army - Infiltration

The PIRA traditionally uses a well-known signature in its public statements, which are all issued under the pseudonymous name of "P. O'Neill" of the "Irish Republican Publicity Bureau, Dublin". According to Ruairí Ó Brádaigh, it was Seán Mac Stiofáin, as chief of staff of the Provisionals, who invented the name. However, under his usage, the name was written and pronounced according to Irish orthography and pronunciation as "P. Ó Néill". Ó Brádaigh also maintains that there is no particular significance to the name, thus discounting claims that it is a reference to Sir Phe ...

See also:

Provisional Irish Republican Army, Provisional Irish Republican Army - Origins, Provisional Irish Republican Army - Organisation, Provisional Irish Republican Army - Weaponry and operations, Provisional Irish Republican Army - Categorisation, Provisional Irish Republican Army - Strength and support, Provisional Irish Republican Army - Activities, Provisional Irish Republican Army - The Belfast Agreement, Provisional Irish Republican Army - End of the armed campaign, Provisional Irish Republican Army - Notable events, Provisional Irish Republican Army - P. O'Neill, Provisional Irish Republican Army - Infiltration, Provisional Irish Republican Army - Footnotes

Read more here: » Provisional Irish Republican Army: Encyclopedia II - Provisional Irish Republican Army - P. O'Neill

Main Article Early Modern Ireland 1536-1691 The Reformation, before which, in 1536, Henry VIII broke with Papal authority, fundamentally changed Ireland. While Henry VIII broke English Catholicism from Rome, his son Edward VI of England moved further, breaking with Papal doctrine completely. While the English, the Welsh and, later, the Scots accepted Protestantism, the Irish remained Catholic. This fact determined their relationship with the British state for the next four hundred years, as the Reformation coincided with a dete ...

See also:

History of Ireland, History of Ireland - Early history: 8000 BC–AD 400, History of Ireland - Early Christian Ireland 400–800, History of Ireland - Early medieval era 800–1166, History of Ireland - Later Medieval Ireland, History of Ireland - The Coming of the Normans 1167–1185, History of Ireland - The Lordship of Ireland 1185–1254, History of Ireland - Gaelic Resurgence Norman Decline 1254–1360, History of Ireland - Reformation 1536–1654 and Protestant Ascendancy 1654–1801, History of Ireland - Re-conquest and rebellion, History of Ireland - Civil Wars and Penal Laws, History of Ireland - Colonial Ireland, History of Ireland - Union with Great Britain 1801-1922, History of Ireland - Home Rule Easter 1916 and the War of Independence, History of Ireland - Free State/Republic 1922-present, History of Ireland - Northern Ireland, History of Ireland - Footnotes

Read more here: » History of Ireland: Encyclopedia II - History of Ireland - Reformation 1536–1654 and Protestant Ascendancy 1654–1801

What little is known of pre-Christian Ireland comes from a few references in Roman writings, Irish poetry and myth, and archaeology. The earliest inhabitants of Ireland, people of a mid-Stone Age, or Mesolithic, culture, arrived sometime after 8000 BC, when the climate had become more hospitable following the retreat of the polar icecaps. About three or four millennia later, agriculture was introduced from the continent, leading to the establishment of a high Neolithic culture, characterized by the appearance of huge stone monuments, many of ...

See also:

History of Ireland, History of Ireland - Early history: 8000 BC–AD 400, History of Ireland - Early Christian Ireland 400–800, History of Ireland - Early medieval era 800–1166, History of Ireland - Later Medieval Ireland, History of Ireland - The Coming of the Normans 1167–1185, History of Ireland - The Lordship of Ireland 1185–1254, History of Ireland - Gaelic Resurgence Norman Decline 1254–1360, History of Ireland - Reformation 1536–1654 and Protestant Ascendancy 1654–1801, History of Ireland - Re-conquest and rebellion, History of Ireland - Civil Wars and Penal Laws, History of Ireland - Colonial Ireland, History of Ireland - Union with Great Britain 1801-1922, History of Ireland - Home Rule Easter 1916 and the War of Independence, History of Ireland - Free State/Republic 1922-present, History of Ireland - Northern Ireland, History of Ireland - Footnotes

Read more here: » History of Ireland: Encyclopedia II - History of Ireland - Early history: 8000 BC–AD 400

The people of Hartford, Connecticut, dedicated a monument to Bobby Sands and the other hunger strikers in 1997. The monument stands in a traffic circle known as "Bobby Sands Circle", at the bottom of Maple Avenue near Goodwin Park. The Iranian government named a street in Tehran after Bobby Sands. (It was formerly Winston Churchill Street.) It runs alongside the British embassy. The events of the strike are the basis for the 1996 film Some ...

See also:

1981 Irish Hunger Strike, 1981 Irish Hunger Strike - Background, 1981 Irish Hunger Strike - First Hunger Strike, 1981 Irish Hunger Strike - Second Hunger Strike, 1981 Irish Hunger Strike - Consequences, 1981 Irish Hunger Strike - Commemorations, 1981 Irish Hunger Strike - Resources

Read more here: » 1981 Irish Hunger Strike: Encyclopedia II - 1981 Irish Hunger Strike - Commemorations

The Hunger Strike heralded an upsurge of violence after the comparatively quiet years of the late 1970s, with widespread civil disorder in Northern Ireland and serious unrest in the Republic, including rioting outside the British Embassy in Dublin. (Many may have either hoped for or feared a repeat of 1972, when after Bloody Sunday the embassy was burned out by protestors.) There was extensive international condemnation of Britain's handling of the hunger strikes. It resulted in a new surge of IRA activity, with the group obtaining many more ...

See also:

1981 Irish Hunger Strike, 1981 Irish Hunger Strike - Background, 1981 Irish Hunger Strike - First Hunger Strike, 1981 Irish Hunger Strike - Second Hunger Strike, 1981 Irish Hunger Strike - Consequences, 1981 Irish Hunger Strike - Commemorations, 1981 Irish Hunger Strike - Resources

Read more here: » 1981 Irish Hunger Strike: Encyclopedia II - 1981 Irish Hunger Strike - Consequences

After a few weeks it emerged that the British government were simply intending to give the prisoners the right to wear civilian-style clothing supplied by the prison, and had duped the hunger-strikers in the belief that no new hunger-strike would occur. On March 1, 1981, under the new IRA Officer Commanding in Long Kesh, Bobby Sands, a second hunger strike began, with Sands himself the first to refuse food. The political atmosphere outside the prisons became electric, all over Ireland, ...

See also:

1981 Irish Hunger Strike, 1981 Irish Hunger Strike - Background, 1981 Irish Hunger Strike - First Hunger Strike, 1981 Irish Hunger Strike - Second Hunger Strike, 1981 Irish Hunger Strike - Consequences, 1981 Irish Hunger Strike - Commemorations, 1981 Irish Hunger Strike - Resources

Read more here: » 1981 Irish Hunger Strike: Encyclopedia II - 1981 Irish Hunger Strike - Second Hunger Strike

The middle centuries of the first millennium AD marked great changes in Ireland. Niall Noigiallach (died c.450/455) laid the basis for the Uí Néill dynasty's hegemony over much of western, northern and central Ireland. Politically, the former emphasis on tribal affiliation had been replaced by the 700's by that of patrilinial and dynastic background. Many formerly powerful kingdoms and peoples disappeared. Irish pirates struck all over the coast of western Britain in the same way that the Vikings would later attack Ireland. Some of ...

See also:

History of Ireland, History of Ireland - Early history: 8000 BC–AD 400, History of Ireland - Early Christian Ireland 400–800, History of Ireland - Early medieval era 800–1166, History of Ireland - Later Medieval Ireland, History of Ireland - The Coming of the Normans 1167–1185, History of Ireland - The Lordship of Ireland 1185–1254, History of Ireland - Gaelic Resurgence Norman Decline 1254–1360, History of Ireland - Reformation 1536–1654 and Protestant Ascendancy 1654–1801, History of Ireland - Re-conquest and rebellion, History of Ireland - Civil Wars and Penal Laws, History of Ireland - Colonial Ireland, History of Ireland - Union with Great Britain 1801-1922, History of Ireland - Home Rule Easter 1916 and the War of Independence, History of Ireland - Free State/Republic 1922-present, History of Ireland - Northern Ireland, History of Ireland - Footnotes

Read more here: » History of Ireland: Encyclopedia II - History of Ireland - Early Christian Ireland 400–800

Main article Early Medieval Ireland 800-1166 The first recorded Viking raid in Irish history occurred in 795 when Vikings from Norway looted the island of Lambay, located off the Dublin coast. Early Viking raids were generally small in scale and quick. These early raids interrupted the golden age of Christian Irish culture starting the beginning of two hundred years of intermittent warfare, with waves of Viking raiders plundering monasteries and towns throughout Irelan ...

See also:

History of Ireland, History of Ireland - Early history: 8000 BC–AD 400, History of Ireland - Early Christian Ireland 400–800, History of Ireland - Early medieval era 800–1166, History of Ireland - Later Medieval Ireland, History of Ireland - The Coming of the Normans 1167–1185, History of Ireland - The Lordship of Ireland 1185–1254, History of Ireland - Gaelic Resurgence Norman Decline 1254–1360, History of Ireland - Reformation 1536–1654 and Protestant Ascendancy 1654–1801, History of Ireland - Re-conquest and rebellion, History of Ireland - Civil Wars and Penal Laws, History of Ireland - Colonial Ireland, History of Ireland - Union with Great Britain 1801-1922, History of Ireland - Home Rule Easter 1916 and the War of Independence, History of Ireland - Free State/Republic 1922-present, History of Ireland - Northern Ireland, History of Ireland - Footnotes

Read more here: » History of Ireland: Encyclopedia II - History of Ireland - Early medieval era 800–1166