The Troubles: a timeline

1968: the North’s civil rights movement is born, as Catholics protest against their mistreatment at the hands of a predominantly Protestant political establishment. Among their complaints are the manipulation (“gerrymandering”) of constituency boundaries to ensure unionist majorities.

August 1969: a loyalist parade passing through a nationalist area of Derry sparks two days of rioting, known as the Battle of the Bogside (above). As violence spreads through the North, British troops are sent as ...