Northern Ireland History 1968-1998 (Geographic Name)

A rage for order : poetry of the Northern Ireland Troubles, 1992: p. xv (Northern Ireland's Troubles which began in 1968) p. xvi (the Troubles)

Dorney, J. The Northern Ireland Conflict 1968-1998 : an overview, 2015, via The Irish story website, viewed Feb. 13, 2017 (The Northern Ireland conflict was a thirty year bout of political violence, low intensity armed conflict and political deadlock within the six north-eastern counties of Ireland that formed part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland; 'The Troubles'; The IRA called a ceasefire in 1994, followed shortly afterwards by the loyalist groups, leading to multi-party talks about the future of Northern Ireland. The conflict was formally ended with the Belfast or Good Friday Agreement of 1998; The conflict in Northern Ireland was generally referred to in Ireland during its course as 'The Troubles' - a euphemistic folk name that had also been applied to earlier bouts of political violence; The violence never reached the most common currently agreed threshold of a 'war' - over 1,000 deaths in a year. Nevertheless its impact on society in Northern Ireland - an enclave with a population of about 1.5 million - was considerable, with over 3,500 killed and up to 50,000 injured over a thirty year period)

The Troubles, via BBC History website, viewed Feb. 13, 2017 (The Troubles refers to a violent thirty-year conflict framed by a civil rights march in Londonderry on 5 October 1968 and the the Good Friday Agreement on 10 April 1998. At the heart of the conflict lay the constitutional status of Northern Ireland. The goal of the unionist and overwhelmingly Protestant majority was to remain part of the United Kingdom. The goal of the nationalist and republican, almost exclusively Catholic, minority was to become part of the Republic of Ireland. This was a territorial conflict, not a religious one. At its heart lay two mutually exclusive visions of national identity and national belonging. The principal difference between 1968 and 1998 is that the people and organisations pursuing these rival futures eventually resolved to do so through peaceful and democratic means)

Wall Street Journal online, April 14, 2016: (article "The return of the Irish Troubles" dated Sept. 22, 2015)