On This Day: British troops sent to Northern Ireland

AUGUST 14, 1969: British troops were sent to Northern Ireland on this day in 1969 – marking the beginning of a bloody 30-year period known as The Troubles.

The province’s Protestant loyalist Prime Minister, Major James Chichester-Clark, wanted UK mainland forces to calm deadly rioting by Catholic nationalists.

The soldiers were initially greeted with cheers in Londonderry’s Bogside, whose residents distrusted the overwhelmingly Protestant Royal Ulster Constabulary police.

But their welcome was short lived due to the Army’s heavy-handedness, and because the British Government had reneged on a promise to remove its troops within days.

Catholics increasingly viewed Westminster with suspicion and saw the troops as tools of the hated Stormont government, which they claimed suppressed their civil rights.

It played into the hands of those hoping to rebuild the Irish Republican Army into a powerful guerrilla force capable of uniting all of Ireland under Dublin control.

At the same time, James Lynch, the Taoiseach – or prime minister – of the Republic of Ireland, called for UN Peacekeepers to be sent in to the disputed province.

He ordered his army to the border, which had been in place since the 1922 partition following the Irish War of Independence after seven centuries of British rule.

Northern Ireland’s Protestants, who make up 60% of the population and tend to consider themselves British, feared an invasion by forces from the Catholic South.

The resulting tension prompted the two communities in the North to arm themselves and violence soon escalated.

In 1972 – the year the Westminster government took direct rule and suspended Stormont – 479 people were killed during attacks, including a series of bombings.

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The 30,000 troops sent to Northern Ireland were frequent targets of the Provisional IRA, which split from the old organisation that fought the Irish War of Independence.

But, in spite of the terror costing 502 soldiers’ lives during The Troubles, British servicemen soon became and remained a common presence on almost every street.

British Pathé footage from the period shows Belfast schoolchildren barely glancing at a squadron of heavily armed men.

But their presence was noticed – and hated – by many in the Catholic community.

The 1971 Bloody Sunday fatal shooting of 14 unarmed Nationalist protesters by troops in Londonderry was among flashpoints that helped recruit IRA members.

Catholics were also angered by the early internment without trial of paramilitary suspects and later by the British response to hunger strikes over prison conditions.

IRA attacks, which spread to the UK mainland, prompted retaliations – often on Catholic civilians - by loyalist paramilitary groups such as the Ulster Volunteer Force.

A turning point came following the IRA’s 1987 Remembrance Day bombing in Enniskillen, which killed 11 people at the town’s war memorial.

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The slaughter of so many civilians disgusted many Catholics who had previously backed the Provos’ bloody quest for a united Ireland.

In response, republican politicians, notably Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams, increasingly sought a negotiated end to the conflict.

At the same time, the British Army realised they could not defeat the IRA, whose “long war” was boosted by huge stockpiles of Libyan arms.

During the 1990s, following two IRA ceasefires – with a resumption of violence in between – a peace process finally began.

The 1998 Good Friday Agreement, which was ratified by referendums in both Northern Ireland and the Republic, formally ended The Troubles.

It reintroduced the Stormont Government – but on a power-sharing basis – and led to the IRA decommissioning arms, disbandment of the RUC and withdrawal of troops.

The British Army, whose death toll accounted for a seventh of The Troubles’ 3,500 victims, has now reduced its presence to 1,500 non-operational troops.

Today, Northern Ireland is largely peaceful, although sectarian violence has continued to flare up during the Protestant summer marching season.

Also, republican small splinter groups, such as the Continuity IRA, have staged a number of small attacks.