Trespasses

The term “the Troubles” refers to a period of conflict that deeply affected the social and political landscape of Northern Ireland during the end of the 20th century. The Troubles lasted roughly 30 years, beginning in the late 1960s and ending with the Good Friday Agreement in 1998. The sectarian conflict divided Northern Ireland’s population along religious and political lines. Most Catholics saw themselves as Irish and wanted independence from British control while the majority of Protestants considered themselves British and wished to remain part of the United Kingdom. Those seeking an independent Ireland were known as republicans, and their opponents were known as loyalists. The roots of the Troubles stretch back centuries due to England’s involvement in Irish history. Since the 1500s, Ireland was under British rule, and Britain’s exploitative colonizing practices sowed animosity between the mostly Catholic Irish people and Protestant settlers. In 1920, the British Parliament passed the Government of Ireland Act, which divided Ireland in two: “Majority-Catholic Ireland gained its independence, and Northern Ireland, billed as ‘a Protestant state for Protestant people,’ remained part of the United Kingdom” (Blakemore, Erin. “What Were the Troubles that Ravaged Northern Ireland?” National Geographic, 2022). From the beginning, Northern Ireland was plagued by sectarian violence, and systemic inequality limited Catholics’ economic and political freedoms.

In 1968 and 1969, Catholics held peaceful protests and were met with brutality from police and from Protestant civilians, marking the start of the Troubles. The ensuing sectarian violence lasted for decades. In August 1969, a loyalist march was attacked by Catholics, and British troops were sent to Derry. This days-long riot became known as the Battle of the Bogside. During the 1960s and 1970s, paramilitary organizations grew, including the Irish Republican Army and the loyalist Ulster Defence Association and Ulster Volunteer Force. These paramilitary forces utilized guerilla warfare tactics and were responsible for bombings, street fights, and assassinations. On January 30, 1972, the event known as Bloody Sunday deepened the conflict when 15,000 republican protesters marched in Derry and clashed with loyalists and British soldiers. The troops killed 13 protesters, intensifying the furor and violence on the streets of Northern Ireland. As a result, Britain instituted direct rule in March 1972.

After several failed negotiations, the Troubles officially ended on April 10, 1998, with the signing of the Good Friday Agreement. The treaty granted Northern Ireland its own legislative and executive branches while retaining it as part of the United Kingdom. The three decades of sectarian conflict took a grave toll: “Nearly 4,000 people were killed and more than 47,000 injured throughout the 30-year struggle, most of them young adults” (Blakemore). Decades later, neighborhoods remain segregated in cities like Belfast, where the novel is set, and the ongoing tension between Catholics and Protestants still breaks into violence. The political and religious divisions that erupted during the Troubles were centuries in the making and linger to this day.