Conflict
The border region of Ireland and Northern Ireland has been the site of violence and conflict at various times in the last century. The partition of Ireland and the creation of Northern Ireland contributed to inflamed hostilities between communities on both sides of the border.
The Twenties Troubles
There were high levels of violence in the early 1920s as suspicion and mistrust between communities festered. Between June 1920 and July 1922, over 600 people were killed in Northern Ireland, more than half of whom were Catholic. During this period, around 7,500 Catholic workers were also expelled from workplaces such as the Belfast shipyards and other Protestant-dominated industries.
The Border Campaign
In an attempt to reunite Ireland and force the British government from Northern Ireland, the Irish Republican Army (IRA) targeted military and infrastructure units along the border between 1956 and 1962, known as the Border Campaign or Operation Harvest. The Border Campaign was a political and military failure for the IRA.
Civil Rights and the ‘Troubles’
From the formation of the Government of Northern Ireland in 1921, Catholics and nationalists complained that unionist politicians manipulated electoral boundaries to maintain control of all levels of government, a practice known as gerrymandering. Calls for an end to gerrymandering peaked during the emergence of a civil rights campaign
in the late 1960s, but backlash to this movement reinforced divisions. As tensions escalated and the ‘Troubles’ broke out, military infrastructure and security checkpoints along the border increased, and many cross-border roads were restricted or permanently closed.
The demands of the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association, June 1969.
