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Northern Ireland

In 1969 two members of the Royal Green Jackets man a street barricade in Belfast during their first tour of duty in Northern Ireland.

In 1969 two members of the Royal Green Jackets man a street barricade in Belfast during their first tour of duty in Northern Ireland.
©Imperial War Museum TR32962

The partition of Ireland in 1921 and the subsequent Irish Civil War did not mean the end to clashes over Ulster. Despite losing the Irish Civil War, the Irish Republic Army (IRA) maintained that only a united Ireland free from British rule was acceptable.

Related documents

British campaigns

Cabinet Conclusion 10. IRA Outrages. 5 July 1939 (PDF, 9.318MB)

Cross-border campaign 1953-62

Cabinet Conclusion 1. Irish Republic. 18 August 1955 (PDF, 2.567MB)

Cabinet Conclusion 7. Irish Republic. 26 August 1955 (PDF, 2.261MB)

Cabinet Conclusion 3. Irish Republic. 9 July 1957 (PDF, 1.187MB)

Civil rights movement

Cabinet Conclusion 5. Northern Ireland. 30 July 1969 (PDF, 2.427MB)

Cabinet Conclusion 3. Northern Ireland. 15 July 1971 (PDF, 1.573MB)

Arrival of British troops

Cabinet Conclusions. Northern Ireland. 20 August 1969 (PDF, 0.516MB)

Cabinet Conclusion 2. Northern Ireland. 4 September 1969 (PDF, 1.765MB)

Bloody Sunday

Cabinet Conclusion 4. Northern Ireland. 2 March 1972 (PDF, 1.797MB)

Cabinet Conclusions. Northern Ireland. 7 March 1972 (PDF, 0.494MB)

Cabinet Conclusion 3. Northern Ireland. 23 March 1972 (PDF, 1.105MB)

Operation Motorman

Cabinet Conclusions. Northern Ireland. 7 March 1972 (PDF, 0.494MB)

Cabinet Conclusion 4. Northern Ireland. 15 June 1972 (PDF, 1.236MB)

Cabinet Conclusion 5. Northern Ireland. 6 July 1972 (PDF, 2.281MB)

Cabinet Conclusion 3. Northern Ireland. 27 July 1972 (PDF, 1.422MB)

Cabinet Conclusion 3. Northern Ireland. 1 August 1972 (PDF, 1.435MB)

Search using Irish Republican Army (IRA) Sunningdale Agreement

Further reading

Coogan, T.P., The IRA. Revised & updated edition (London: HarperCollins, 2000)
Hart, P., "Operations abroad": the IRA in Britain, 1919-23 (English Historical Review, 115 (460), pp. 71-102, 2000)
Smith, M.L.R. & Neumann, P.R., Motorman's Long Journey : Changing the Strategic Setting in Northern Ireland (Contemporary British History, 19 (4), pp. 413-435, 2005)
Wood, I.S., The IRA's border campaign 1956-1962 (Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 1999)

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