I.

Introduction

Northern Ireland Conflict, internal war in Northern Ireland that commenced in response to the civil rights marches of 1968-1969 and that led to the deaths of more than 3,500 people. The term often used in Ireland and the United Kingdom to describe this conflict was the Troubles. This term was originally used to describe the disturbances and violence of 1919-1923 (the Irish war of independence and subsequent civil war; see Irish Revolution). With the onset of violence and unrest in Northern Ireland, the term quickly came back into use. The period of the Troubles is usually thought to have begun in 1969 and to have ended with the paramilitary cease-fires of 1994, with a definitive symbolic closure in the Good Friday Agreement of 1998. Although conflict and intermittent violence continued, longtime foes in Northern Ireland joined to form a power-sharing government in 2007.