by Ed Moloney
New Sinn Fein leadership dominated by Adams allies.
Peace process begins with talks between Gerry Adams and Father Alex Reid.
1983
deaths 87
total 2597 Gerry Adams elected MP for West Belfast; Sinn Fein tops 100,000 votes in British general election.
Adams succeeds Ruairi O Bradaigh as President of Sinn Fein as old guard is vanquished.
Ivor Bell forced to quit as Chief of Staff after he is arrested.
Kevin McKenna succeeds him.
Major IRA jail escape: 38 inmates break out of Long Kesh/Maze.
1984
deaths 72
total 2669 Libyan Intelligence Service negotiates arms and cash deal with IRA Army Council.
Failure of rebellion against Adams leadership by Ivor Bell and Belfast Brigade staff over resources devoted to elections fails.
Army Council plans Irish ‘Tet’ offensive.
1985
deaths 58
total 2727 Anglo-Irish Agreement signed giving Dublin a consultative say in Northern Ireland’s affairs.
Libyan arms shipments begin.
Adams publicly seeks talks with SDLP leader John Hume.
He also calls for a united Nationalist approach to North.
1986
deaths 66
total 2793 Father Reid first approaches Charles Haughey for peace talks on behalf of Gerry Adams.
IRA drops abstentionism and lifts ban on taking seats in the Dail at first General Army Convention held since 1970. Sinn Fein follow suit at ard-fheis – number of delegates nearly doubles for this one meeting.
McGuinness briefs IRA Executive and IRA field commanders about large arms shipments, saying more is on the way.
Brendan Hughes is released from jail and rejoins IRA.
1987
deaths 106
total 2899 Charles Haughey becomes Taoiseach after Fianna Fail returns to power.
East Tyrone IRA unit wiped out in SAS ambush at Loughgall.
Eksund intercepted off Brittany coast with 150 tonnes of Libyan weaponry, betrayed by IRA informer.
1988
deaths 105
total 3004 Hume–Adams talks begin but conclude with no agreement.
Secret contacts between Hume and Adams resume immediately afterwards.
IRA attempt to kill British Foreign Secretary Sir Geoffrey Howe in Brussels apparently betrayed.
Gibraltar bombing ends with three IRA deaths amidst suspicion of betrayal.
Republican leaders deny IRA ceasefire on the agenda of SDLP talks.
1989
deaths 81
total 3085 Sinn Fein criticism of botched IRA operations intensifies.
Major IRA informer Joe Fenton killed before he can be fully interrogated. Brendan Hughes, then in charge of spy-catcher unit, suspects Fenton was killed to protect other spies.
New NI Secretary Peter Brooke raises possibility of talks with Sinn Fein.
1990
deaths 84
total 3169 Peter Brooke said Britain had ‘no selfish strategic or economic interest’ in staying in NI. Martin
McGuinness proposes formal Christmas ceasefire, the first official cessation since 1975.
1991
deaths 102
total 3271 Margaret Thatcher resigns as British prime minister.
First drafts of joint government declaration on NI, otherwise known as Hume–Adams Document, drafted.
1992
deaths 91
total 3362 Hume–Adams Document agreed but leaves blank a date for British withdrawal.
1993
deaths 90
total 3452 Hume–Adams contacts publicly revealed for first time.
Irish prime minister Albert Reynolds negotiates separate document with British, called Downing Street Declaration.
Shankill bomb kills nine Protestants and one IRA man.
Loyalist violence claims 16 lives.
1994
deaths 69
total 3521 IRA Army Council votes 5–1 with one abstention for four-month ceasefire.
Army Council extends ceasefire until April 1995.
1995
deaths 9
total 3530 British harden demand for IRA decommissioning before Sinn Fein gets into talks.
US politician George Mitchell heads decommissioning inquiry.
Martin McGuinness suggests voluntary self-decommissioning.
1996
deaths 22
total 3552 Army Council votes 7–0 to end ceasefire.
Huge truck bomb kills two and causes £100 million sterling damage at Canary Wharf, London.
IRA campaign confined to England.
Adams survives IRA Convention when dissidents fail to capture Army Council but suffers setbacks.
1997
deaths 21
total 3573 British general election called; Tony Blair becomes British prime minister and Bertie Ahern is the new Irish Taoiseach.
Four days before controversial Garvaghy Orange march Army Council votes 7–0 for second ceasefire.
IRA Executive and Army Council clash over ceasefire decision; dissidents defeated at Convention; Real IRA formed.
All-party talks start at Stormont. Sinn Fein attend and subscribe to Mitchell principles of non-violence.
1998
deaths 57
total 3630 Good Friday Agreement negotiated.
IRA Convention lifts abstentionist ban on taking seats in Stormont parliament.
After two attempts, Sinn Fein ard-fheis endorses Good Friday Agreement and lifts ban on taking seats at Stormont.
1999
deaths 6
total 3636 Army Council agrees to locate the bodies of ‘disappeared’.
Eamon Molloy’s body returned but not that of Jean McConville.
Power-sharing government set up, Martin McGuinness and Bairbre de Brun are the two Sinn Fein ministers, for Education and Health respectively.
2000
deaths 19
total 3655 Army Council agrees in principle to initiate a process to put all its weapons ‘beyond use’ and in the interim agrees to international inspection of two arms dumps.
Last IRA and Loyalist paramilitary prisoners released.
2001
deaths 16
total 3671 IRA agrees on methods to decommission IRA weapons.
11 September attacks in New York and Washington kill nearly 3,000 and Bush administration declares war on terrorism.
IRA decommissions unspecified amount of weaponry.
Police Service of Northern Ireland replaces RUC.
Assembly and Executive restored; David Trimble is first minister, Mark Durkan of the SDLP is his deputy.
2002
deaths 10
total 3681 Sinn Fein win five seats to Irish parliament; party has three seats at Westminster.
Assembly and Executive suspended by NI Secretary John Reid.
2003
deaths 11
total 3692 Freddie Scappaticci, former head of IRA’s internal security unit exposed as a British agent.
Remains of Jean McConville discovered on County Down beach.
Postponed Assembly election takes place with Sinn Fein and DUP emerging as largest parties.
2004
deaths 3
total 3695 Adams denies on Irish TV that he was ever an IRA member.
Irish Justice minister Michael McDowell alleges Sinn Fein funded by IRA.
Sinn Fein’s Bairbre de Brun wins John Hume’s seat in European parliament.
Joe Cahill dies.
Talks aimed at reaching a settlement begin at Leeds Castle, Kent.
Political talks aimed at restoring power-sharing government founder over demand for photographs of IRA decommissioning. £26.5 million stolen from Northern Bank cash centre in Belfast.
2005
deaths 8
total 3703 Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern says Sinn Fein leaders knew of planned Northern Ban
k robbery while they were in peace talks with him.
Belfast man Robert McCartney beaten and stabbed to death by IRA gang.
Independent Monitoring Commission says leading Sinn Fein figures also serve in key IRA leadership positions.
Former IRA prison public relations officer Richard O’Rawe publishes account of hunger strike alleging IRA leadership sabotaged deal to ensure election of Owen Carron.
White House decides not to invite NI politicians to St Patrick’s Day celebrations, in snub of Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams.
Adams calls on IRA to pursue goals through only political means.
IRA statement announces end to armed campaign against Britain; IRA ex-prisoner Seanna Walsh reads statement on DVD.
IRA completes weapons decommissioning, witnessed by two clerics.
2006
deaths 6
(to 12/10)
total 3709 British and Irish governments restore Assembly and set November deadline for final deal.
Conference at St Andrews, Scotland, agrees outline deal for restoration of Assembly and Executive.
Sinn Fein to recognise PSNI.
Ian Paisley becomes first minister and Martin McGuinness his deputy.
2007 David Ervine dies after heart attack and stroke.
2008 Brendan Hughes dies in hospital.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Adams, Gerry, Before the Dawn: An Autobiography, London: Heinemann, 1996, and New York: William Morrow, 1997
Beresford, David, Ten Men Dead: The Story of the 1981 Irish Hunger Strike, London: Grafton Books, 1987
Coogan, Tim Pat, Michael Collins: A Biography, London: Hutchinson, 1990
—, Michael Collins: The Man Who Made Ireland, London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2002
—, Ireland in the Twentieth Century, London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004
Deutsch, Richard, and Vivien Magowan, Northern Ireland 1968–73: A Chronology of Events, Belfast: Blackstaff Press, 1974
Dillon, Martin, The Dirty War, London: Hutchinson, 1988
—, The Shankill Butchers: A Case Study in Mass Murder, London: Hutchinson, 1989
Elliott, Sidney, and W. D. Flackes, Northern Ireland: A Political Directory, 1968–1999, Belfast: Blackstaff Press, 1999
Farrell, Michael, Northern Ireland: The Orange State, London: Pluto Press, 1976
Holland, Jack, The American Connection: US Guns, Money and Influence in Northern Ireland, Dublin: Poolbeg Press, 1989
Hopkinson, Michael, The Irish War of Independence, Dublin: Gill and Macmillan, 2004
Kelley, Kevin, The Longest War: Northern Ireland and the IRA, Dingle, Co. Kerry: Brandon Books, 1983
McArdle, Dorothy, The Irish Republic, Dublin: Wolfhound Press, 1999
McDermott, Peter, Northern Divisions: The Old IRA and the Belfast Pogroms 1920–1922, Belfast: Beyond the Pale, 2001
McDonald, Henry, and Jim Cusack, UVF: The Endgame, Dublin: Poolbeg, 2008
McGuffin, John, Internment, Dublin: Anvil Books, 1973
McKittrick, David, Seamus Kelters, Brian Feeney, and Chris Thornton, Lost Lives, Edinburgh: Mainstream Publishing, 1999
Miller, David W., Queen’s Rebels: Ulster Loyalism in Historical Perspective, Dublin: Gill and Macmillan, 1978
Moloney, Ed, A Secret History of the IRA, Harmondsworth: Penguin, 2007
—, Paisley: From Demagogue to Democrat?, Dublin: Poolbeg Press, 2008
Moloney, Ed, and Anthony McIntyre, The Security Department: IRA Counter Intelligence in a 30-year War Against the British, Georgetown University, Washington DC, April 2006; unpublished
Nelson, Sarah, Ulster’s Uncertain Defenders, Belfast: Appletree Press, 1984
O’Malley, Padraig, Biting at the Grave: The Irish Hunger Strikes and the Politics of Despair, Boston: Beacon Press, 1990
O’Rawe, Richard, Blanketmen: An Untold Story of the H-Block Hunger Strike, Dublin: New Island, 2005
Reilly, Frances, Suffer the Little Children, London: Orion Books, 2009
Sharrock, David, and Mark Devenport, Man of War, Man of Peace? The Unauthorised Biography of Gerry Adams, London: Macmillan, 1997
Stewart, A. T. Q., The Ulster Crisis: Resistance to Home Rule 1912–1914, London: Faber and Faber, 1967
Taylor, Peter, Provos: The IRA and Sinn Fein, London: Bloomsbury, 1998
—, Loyalists, London: Bloomsbury, 2000
White, Robert W., Provisional Irish Republicans: An Oral and Interpretative History, Santa Barbara, Ca.: Greenwood Press, 1993
—, Ruairi O Bradaigh: The Life and Politics of an Irish Revolutionary, Bloomington, In.: Indiana University Press, 2006
PAMPHLETS, AND POLITICAL AND OFFICIAL PUBLICATIONS
Common Sense (UDA, 1987)
Hansard
Inquest documents in death of Patrick Crawford [redacted], Public Records Office of Northern Ireland
The Lagan Enclave, Ballymacarrett Research Group, 1987
Murder in Ballymacarrett: The Untold Story, East Belfast Historical and Cultural Society, 2003
Operation Banner: An Analysis of Military Operations in Northern Ireland, London: Ministry of Defence, July 2006
Principles of Loyalism, Progressive Unionist Party internal discussion paper, 1 November 2002
PSNI Ombudsman report, August 2006
Scarman Report
Sharing Responsibility (PUP, 1979)
WEBSITES
http://www.amnesty.org/en/news-and-updates/news/perus-ex-president-convicted-landmark-case-20090407
http://buckalecrobinson.rushlightmagazine.com
http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/events/bfriday/events.htm
http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/publicrecords/1972/index.html#210672
http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/publicrecords/1973/prem15_1689_1.jpg
http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/sutton
http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/written_answers/1994/mar/15/military-reaction-force
http://www.irishecho.com/search/searchstory.cfm?id=8371&issueid=174
http://www.parliament.the-stationery-office.com/pa/cm199798/cmselect/cmniaf/316ii/nis208.htm
http://thepensivequill.am
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/ira/readings/america.htm
NEWSPAPERS AND MAGAZINES
Belfast News Letter
Belfast Telegraph
Combat (UVF magazine; later the Purple Standard)
Daily Ireland
Daily Mail
Daily Telegraph
Guardian
Independent
Irish Independent
Irish News
Irish Times
An Phoblacht–Republican News
Sunday Mirror
The Sunday Times
Washington Post
INDEX
9/11 attacks on New York and Washington, 1, 2
Abercorn restaurant bombing, 1
Aberdeen, 1
Adair, Johnny, 1, 2
Adams, Colette (née McArdle), 1, 2, 3
Adams, Davy, 1
Adams, Gerry, junior, plates, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37n, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44n, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66
Before the Dawn, 1
‘Brownie’ articles, 1, 2, 3, 4
Adams, Gerry, senior, 1, 2, 3, 4
Adams, Paddy, 1
Aden, 1, 2
Ahern, Bertie, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
Ahern, Dermot, 1
Albert Street, Belfast, 1, 2
Albertbridge Road, Belfast, 1, 2, 3
Alliance Party, 1, 2
American Consulate, Belfast, 1
American Revolution, 1, 2n
Americans for a New Irish Agenda, 1n
Anderson, Sean, 1
Anderson and McAuley (department store), 1
Andersonstown, Belfast, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9
Andrews, Irene, 1n
Anglo-Irish Agreement (1985), 1, 2, 3, 4, 5,
6
Anglo-Irish Treaty (1921), 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8
Anglo-Irish War (1919–21), 1, 2, 3, 4
Anthony, Geordie, 1
Antrim, County, 1, 2, 3, 4n, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11
Antrim Road, Belfast, 1, 2
Apprentice Boys of Derry, 1, 2
Ardboe, 1
Ardoyne, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8n, 9, 10
Argentina, 1
Armagh, County, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18;
see also South Armagh
Armagh City football team, 1
Armagh jail, 1
Armstrong, Gerry, 1
Ashe, Thomas, 1
Asquith, Lord, 1
Atkins, Humphrey, 1, 2, 3
B Specials, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11;
see also Ulster Special Constabulary
Balcombe Street gang, 1
Balkan Street, Belfast, 1, 2
Ballylumford power station, 1
Ballymacarett Research Group, 1
Ballymena, 1, 2
Ballymurphy, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6n, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12
Banbridge, 1
Bangor, 1
Bann, River, 1, 2
Barnes, Joe, 1, 2, 3, 4
Bates, Robert ‘Basher’, plate, 1, 2, 3
Battery Bar, 1
Bayardo Bar, Belfast, 1, 2n
Beal na mBlath, Cork, 1
Beechmount, 1, 2