191-634: The 1981 Irish hunger strike was the culmination of a five-year protest during the Troubles by Irish republican prisoners in Northern Ireland . The protest began as the blanket protest in 1976 when the British government withdrew Special Category Status (prisoner of war rather than criminal status) for convicted paramilitary prisoners. In 1978, the dispute escalated into the dirty protest , where prisoners refused to leave their cells to wash and covered
382-623: A United Nations peacekeeping force to be deployed and said that Irish Army field hospitals were being set up at the border in County Donegal near Derry. Lynch added that Irish re-unification would be the only permanent solution. Some interpreted the speech as a threat of military intervention. After the riots, Lynch ordered the Irish Army to plan for a possible humanitarian intervention in Northern Ireland. The plan, Exercise Armageddon ,
573-688: A by-election . According to McKaliskey, it was already intended that Sands should win Maguire's seat. She later told how Frank was going to make his first speech in Westminster announcing his resignation. There was debate among nationalists and republicans regarding who should contest the election: Austin Currie of the Social Democratic and Labour Party expressed an interest, as did McAliskey and Maguire's brother Noel. After negotiations, they agreed not to split
764-419: A defense contractor which was involved in the development of packet switching , used for ARPANET , and which developed the first computer modem in 1963. Military operations and training have included different scenarios a soldier might encounter with morals and different ethics. In one military operation soldiers are frequently asked to engage in combat, humanitarian, and stabilization roles. These increase
955-587: A landmine in Newry ; a police officer was shot outside a pub; Reservist Colin Dunlop was shot in the Royal Victoria Hospital , the conflict's first Mormon casualty; Further hunger striker deaths were met with further street violence; following the death of O'Hara, for example, the police were attacked, and a man was killed by a plastic bullet . The IRA killed 13 policemen, 13 soldiers—including five members of
1146-434: A sand table , map, cloth model, or computer simulation exercise. These allow commanders to manipulate models through possible scenarios in military planning. This is also called warfare simulation, or in some instances a virtual battlefield , and in the past has been described as "wargames". Such examples of modern military wargames include DARWARS , a serious game developed since 2003 by DARPA with BBN Technologies ,
1337-538: A " low-intensity conflict ", the Troubles were a political and nationalistic struggle fuelled by historical events, with a strong ethnic and sectarian dimension, fought over the status of Northern Ireland . Unionists and loyalists , who for historical reasons were mostly Ulster Protestants , wanted Northern Ireland to remain within the United Kingdom . Irish nationalists and republicans , who were mostly Irish Catholics , wanted Northern Ireland to leave
1528-544: A "healthy and harmonious society" in the north. She summarised the government's philosophy in a speech before leaving: Once again we have a hunger-strike at the Maze Prison in the quest for what they call political status. There is no such thing as political murder, political bombing or political violence. There is only criminal murder, criminal bombing and criminal violence. We will not compromise on this. There will be no political status. However, she also seems to have not held
1719-517: A British High Court judge, and Lord Farnham , were burned out by the IRA, and in Belfast, the night before his burial, there were seven shooting incidents and an explosion. Two days later, Constable Stephen Vallely died when an RPG hit his Land Rover; he was the first RUC to be killed in a rocket attack. Attacks on security forces continued and became more intense when there was a burial. Soldiers were killed by
1910-555: A block of flats in a nationalist district, killing a nine-year-old boy named Patrick Rooney. RUC officers opened fire on rioters in Armagh, Dungannon, and Coalisland. During the riots, on 13 August, Taoiseach Jack Lynch made a television address . He condemned the RUC and said that the Irish Government "can no longer stand by and see innocent people injured and perhaps worse". He called for
2101-574: A change tactics upon Thatcher. The four days before McDonnell does saw intense negotiations. Duddy telephoned Tom, his contact in the shady areas of government when communication lines open, at 2230. This was to advise the British that the prisoners would likely be responding in the next few hours. His next call to Tom—at 0230 the following day—lasted two and a half hours. Duddy attempted to gain as much information on British tactics as he could. The issue of clothing seemed most easily resolvable. By 0500, Duddy had
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#17330939752092292-563: A coma and on the brink of death, the government appeared to concede the essence of the prisoners' five demands. The republicans were unsure whether the British position of refusing to negotiate could itself be a negotiating position, although this was emphatically denied by the Northern Ireland Office. The situation escalated on 15 December when 23 more prisoners joined the Maze strike. McKenna was by now gravely ill, and McKearney close behind;
2483-499: A comatose state for around 48 hours, so it is possible that the government thought it had some hours still to negotiate in. Joe McDonnell died the same early morning as the statement was released, a couple of hours before it was read to the prisoners by the Governor and a civil servant. The external leadership heard of the death on the radio. The prisoners were dismayed at what they saw as government hypocrisy. After weeks of being told that
2674-488: A contingency, or general warfare. The use of military exercises and war games can be found to date back to as early as the early 19th century, wherein it was the officers of the Prussian Army who created the contemporary, tactical form of wargames that have since been more widely used and developed by other military conglomerations throughout the world. Non-tactical forms of wargames have existed for much longer, however, in
2865-450: A disproportionate majority and abolished proportional representation in favour of first past the post voting. This resulted in control by unionists of areas such as Derry City, Fermanagh, and Tyrone, where they were actually a minority of voters. The two sides' positions became strictly defined following this period. From a unionist perspective, Northern Ireland's nationalists were inherently disloyal and determined to force unionists into
3056-422: A fair amount of information to take back to the leadership. Morrison took the news into the Maze; Tom phoned Duddy later that afternoon, seeking information on the IRA's likely view. Twenty-four hours and eight lengthy phone calls later, on the evening of 6 July, Atkins, Thatcher, the senior civil servant Philip Woodfield and others met to discuss these reports. Atkins could not afford to appear soft, but in view of
3247-565: A few years. There is little agreement on the exact date of the start of the Troubles. Different writers have suggested different dates. These include the formation of the modern Ulster Volunteer Force in 1966, the civil rights march in Derry on 5 October 1968, the beginning of the ' Battle of the Bogside ' on 12 August 1969, or the deployment of British troops on 14 August 1969. The Northern Ireland Troubles (Legacy and Reconciliation) Act 2023, passed by
3438-502: A field exercise or fleet exercise, the two sides in the simulated battle are typically called "red" (simulating the enemy forces ) and "blue", to avoid naming a particular adversary. This naming convention originates with the inventors of the table-top war-game (the " Kriegsspiel "), the Prussian Georg von Reisswitz ; their army wore Prussian blue , so friendly forces were depicted by the color blue. Several different armed forces of
3629-556: A government office which by 1925 had prepared 56 boxes of files to argue its case for large areas of Northern Ireland to be transferred to the Free State. Northern Ireland remained a part of the United Kingdom, albeit under a separate system of government whereby it was given its own parliament and devolved government . While this arrangement met the desires of unionists to remain part of the United Kingdom, nationalists largely viewed
3820-453: A house in Caledon, County Tyrone . The local council had allocated the house to an unmarried 19-year-old Protestant (Emily Beattie, the secretary of a local UUP politician) instead of either of two large Catholic families with children. RUC officers – one of whom was Beattie's brother – forcibly removed the activists. Two days before the protest, the two Catholic families who had been squatting in
4011-568: A meeting with Sands, but he refused unless representatives of the IRA and Sinn Féin could attend, and this the Maze authorities could not allow. Labour MP Roy Mason also visited Sands in order to tell him that when he died, he would get no sympathy or recognition from the British labour movement. This appears to have alienated moderate Catholics, however. With Sands close to death, the government's position remained unchanged, with Secretary of State for Northern Ireland Humphrey Atkins stating that "if Mr Sands persisted in his wish to commit suicide, that
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#17330939752094202-456: A moral hazard because of the narrow scope of the alliance, while joint military exercises outside of an alliance (which are extremely rare) usually lead to conflict escalation. Exercises in the 20th and 21st centuries have often been identified by a unique code name , such as Cobra Gold , in the same manner as military contingency operations and combat operations like Operation Phantom Fury . Military exercises are sometimes used as cover for
4393-637: A number of activists in the National H-Block/Armagh Committee. These included a UFF gun attack which badly injured McAliskey and her husband, the assassination of Miriam Daly by the UDA while her house was under military observation, and, of the Irish Independence Party , John Turnley 's death at the hands of the UVF . With the three-year anniversary of the dirty protest approaching in 1979,
4584-495: A number of clashes between prison officers and prisoners leaving their cells to wash and " slop out " (empty their chamber pots), this escalated into the dirty protest, where prisoners refused to wash and smeared their excrement on the walls of their cells. The scholar Begoña Aretxaga has suggested that, unlike the hunger strike which followed, "the Dirty Protest had no precedent in the political culture". The protest soon spread to
4775-689: A number of events in these years to explain the upsurge in violence. One such incident was the Falls Curfew in July 1970, when 3,000 troops imposed a curfew on the nationalist Lower Falls area of Belfast, firing more than 1,500 rounds of ammunition in gun battles with the Official IRA and killing four people. Another was the introduction of internment without trial in 1971 (of 350 initial detainees, none were Protestants). Moreover, due to poor intelligence, very few of those interned were actually republican activists at
4966-573: A number of pro-hunger strike independent candidates also won seats. The British government passed the Representation of the People Act 1981 to prevent another prisoner from contesting the second by-election in Fermanagh and South Tyrone, which was due to take place following the death of Sands. On 4 July, the prisoners stated they were not asking for preferential treatment, saying, "we would warmly welcome
5157-566: A pea as they had put '130 on the plate and now there are only 129'." The author and researcher Ed Moloney has argued, on Sands's strategy, that it meant that "if any hunger striker died, the moral pressure on those who followed to continue through to the end was huge. The fast also guaranteed that if there were deaths, the North would be pitched into a crisis every fortnight or so until the end. As an instrument for destabilizing political life in Ireland, it
5348-461: A planned ambush. When the march reached Derry City, it was again attacked. The marchers claimed that police did nothing to protect them and that some officers helped the attackers. That night, RUC officers went on a rampage in the Bogside area of Derry, attacking Catholic homes, attacking and threatening residents, and hurling sectarian abuse. Residents then sealed off the Bogside with barricades to keep
5539-421: A practical method of importation but another act of resistance against the prison regime. Cavities for the Maze prisoners included rectal, throat and nasal passages, as well as within foreskins and navels. One prisoner became known as "The Suitcase" on account of how much he could carry inside him, while another set a record with 40 comms under his foreskin. The long-term effect of the change of prisoner strategy and
5730-554: A proscribed anti-internment rally in Derry on 30 January 1972 (a fourteenth man died of his injuries some months later), while fifteen other civilians were wounded. The march had been organised by the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association (NICRA). The soldiers involved were members of the 1st Battalion, Parachute Regiment , also known as "1 Para". Military exercise A military exercise , training exercise , maneuver ( manoeuvre ), or war game
5921-447: A public meeting. Other republicans believed that her standing would be a diversion from the military campaign, and the Maze prisoners released a statement emphasising that, in their collective opinion, only physical force could remove the British. Although McAliskey had stood solely on prisoner's rights ticket , there was no intention of turning the popular support the campaign had exposed into an organised movement at that time. However,
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6112-501: A stand-alone event for headquarters staff only with heavy emphasis on simulated events. Historical names for the field exercise, or the full-scale rehearsal of military maneuvers as practice for warfare in the military services of the British Commonwealth include "schemes", while those of the military services United States are known as Field Training Exercises (FTX), or, in the case of naval forces, Fleet Exercises (FLEETEX). In
6303-435: A statement saying that the British government had failed to resolve the crisis and declared their intention of "hunger striking once more". The prisoners gradually wound down the dirty protest, requesting baths and shaving and allowing themselves to be moved to new cell blocks. The blanket protest continued. The seven volunteers who had recently ended their hunger strike publicly announced their support for another, although Sands
6494-642: A statement. Solidarity leader Lech Walesa praised Sands, in Oslo —where Queen Elizabeth II was touring—pro-IRA graffiti appeared, and in India, opposition MPs stood for a minute's silence. A street outside the embassy in Tehran was renamed from Churchill Street to Khiyaban–E Bobby Sands, and members of the Iranian embassy in London attended Sands's funeral. Over the course of the strikes,
6685-533: A student civil rights group, People's Democracy , was formed in Belfast. In late November, O'Neill promised the civil rights movement some concessions, but these were seen as too little by nationalists and too much by loyalists. On 1 January 1969, People's Democracy began a four-day march from Belfast to Derry, which was repeatedly harassed and attacked by loyalists. At Burntollet Bridge , the marchers were attacked by about 200 loyalists, including some off-duty police officers, armed with iron bars, bricks, and bottles in
6876-406: A united Ireland. This threat was seen as justifying preferential treatment of unionists in housing, employment, and other fields. The prevalence of larger families and thus the potential for a more rapid population growth among Catholics was seen as a threat. Unionist governments ignored Edward Carson 's warning in 1921 that alienating Catholics would make Northern Ireland inherently unstable. After
7067-598: A warning to the next Irish government to "move on the prisoners' demands". There were also local elections in Northern Ireland on 20 May , although Sinn Féin did not contest them. Some smaller groups and independents who supported the hunger strikers gained seats, such as the Irish Independence Party with 21 seats, while the IRSP (the INLA's political wing) and People's Democracy (a Trotskyist group) gained two seats each, and
7258-530: A way of publicly reprimanding those who deserved it. By fasting—possibly to death—on the doorstep of his master, the hunger striker enforced a claim against the other until either the latter gave in or the faster died. This tradition carried on even into the Christian era, and there are documented cases of early Irish saints fasting against God. The tradition of Troscad —fasting against an opponent—and Cealachan —gaining justice through fasting—became codified in
7449-518: Is a custom, An old and foolish custom, that if a man Be wronged, or think that he is wronged, and starve Upon another’s threshold till he die, The common people, for all time to come, Will raise a heavy cry against that threshold, Even though it be the King’s. The use of a hunger strike as a means of protest in Ireland is a tradition dating to pre-Christian times. This was not ascetic , but rather
7640-411: Is crime is crime, it is not political". In the blaze of the world's cameras, several intermediaries visited Sands in an attempt to negotiate an end. These included three Irish MEPs , Síle de Valera —granddaughter of Éamon de Valera — Neil Blaney and John O'Connell , as well as Pope John Paul II 's personal envoy John Magee . Several European Commission of Human Rights (ECHR) officials also sought
7831-478: Is struck with unbearable anxiety. But I have considered all the arguments and tried every means to avoid what has become the unavoidable: it has been forced upon me and my comrades by four-and-a-half years of stark inhumanity ... I ate the statutory weekly bit of fruit last night. As fate had it, it was an orange, and the final irony, it was bitter. Sands organised the strike along lines which made his death—and several more—was effectively inevitable. Unlike in
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8022-416: Is the employment of military resources in training for military operations . Military exercises are conducted to explore the effects of warfare or test tactics and strategies without actual combat . They also ensure the combat readiness of garrisoned or deployable forces prior to deployment from a home base. While both war games and military exercises aim to simulate real conditions and scenarios for
8213-539: Is typically the relationships between visual aspects of the simulation that aid in the assessment of the problems that are simulated within war games, like geographic locations and positionings that would be difficult to discern or analyze at full-scale and for complex environments. Military exercises involving multiple branches of the same military are known as joint exercises , while military exercises involving two or more countries are known as combined , coalition , bilateral , or multilateral exercises , depending on
8404-462: Is used in the simulation of war games to provide a quantifiable method of deduction. However, it is rare that a war game is depended upon for quantitative results, and the use of war games is more often found in situations where qualitative factors of the simulated scenario are needed to be determined. The actual use of war games and the results that they can provide are limited by possibilities. War games cannot be used to achieve predictive results, as
8595-657: The Acts of Union 1800 (which came into force on 1 January 1801), a new political framework was formed with the abolition of the Irish Parliament and incorporation of Ireland into the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland . The result was a closer tie between Anglicans and the formerly republican Presbyterians as part of a "loyal" Protestant community. Although Catholic emancipation was achieved in 1829, largely eliminating official discrimination against Roman Catholics (then around 75% of Ireland's population), Dissenters, and Jews,
8786-761: The FLNC 's armed struggle. The French Communist Party praised the strikers in a statement to the embassy, and in New York City , the consulate said they dare not fly the union flag for fear it would be stolen and burnt in protest, while in Milan , the Red Brigades firebombed a British Leyland showroom. In France "ignorant and uninformed students, as Wharton describes them—chanted " L'IRA conquérir ", while in Italy, 5,000 students burnt union flags; they were, comments Wharton, "blessed with
8977-651: The Irish Parliament in the Act of Explanation (1665) "our royal father of blessed memory had been forced, during the late troubles, to make with the Irish subjects of that our kingdom" (Irish Parliament 1665, § 2). The term was used to describe the Irish revolutionary period in the early twentieth century. It was subsequently adopted to refer to the escalating violence in Northern Ireland after 1969. In 1609, Scottish and English settlers, known as planters , were given land escheated from
9168-620: The Irish Republican Army survived the Irish Civil War . This would come to have a major impact on Northern Ireland. Although the IRA was proscribed on both sides of the new Irish border , it remained ideologically committed to overthrowing both the Northern Ireland and the Free State governments by force of arms to unify Ireland. The government of Northern Ireland passed the Special Powers Act in 1922, giving sweeping powers to
9359-634: The National Volunteers , supporting the war effort, and some of them joining Irish regiments of the New British Army . Many of those who stayed were radical nationalists, among them Irish Republican Brotherhood infiltrators. From these ranks came those who launched the Easter Rising in Dublin in 1916, led by Patrick Pearse and James Connolly . Two-and-a-half years after the executions of sixteen of
9550-598: The Repeal Association 's campaign to repeal the 1801 Union failed. In the late 19th century, the Home Rule movement was created and served to define the divide between most nationalists (usually Catholics) who sought the restoration of an Irish Parliament, and most unionists (usually Protestants) who were afraid of being a minority under a Catholic-dominated Irish Parliament and who tended to support continuing union with Great Britain. Unionists and Home Rule advocates were
9741-573: The Restoration in 1660, the English Act of free and general pardon, indemnity and oblivion starts with "The King's most excellent Majesty, taking into his gracious and serious consideration the long and great troubles ..."; as does the similar act in Scotland: "The king's most excellent majesty, considering that by the late troubles diverse of his subjects ..." (Scottish Parliament 1662); and by
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#17330939752099932-614: The Second French Empire in the Franco-Prussian War (1870–71) is sometimes partly credited to the training of Prussian officers with the wargame Kriegsspiel , which was invented around 1811 and gained popularity with many officers in the Prussian army. These first wargames were played with dice which represented "friction", or the intrusion of less than ideal circumstances during a real war (including morale , meteorology ,
10123-621: The Secretary of State for Northern Ireland in the Wilson ministry , announced that paramilitary prisoners would no longer be entitled to Special Category Status. This was part of Britain's long-term strategy of criminalisation in the north, the intention being to alter perceptions of the conflict from a colonial war to that of a campaign against, effectively, criminal gangs. The policy was not imposed retroactively and only affected those convicted of offences after 1 March 1976. Long Kesh prisoners remained in
10314-509: The UDR —and five civilians. The seven months were one of the bloodiest periods of the Troubles, with a total of 61 people killed, 34 of them civilians. Prison officers became a favoured target by the IRA: Eighteen had been killed in the run-up to and duration of the first hunger strike, including two Prison governors , including Albert Mills in 1978. This was the republican movement's means of upping
10505-611: The Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) and Ulster Defence Association (UDA); British state security forces such as the British Army and RUC; and political activists. The security forces of the Republic of Ireland played a smaller role. Republicans carried out a guerrilla campaign against British forces as well as a bombing campaign against infrastructural, commercial, and political targets. Loyalists attacked republicans/nationalists and
10696-524: The armed struggle . It began to attract attention when Tomás Ó Fiaich , the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Armagh , visited the prison and condemned the conditions there. O'Fiaich subsequently told the press, "I was shocked at the inhuman conditions prevailing in H-Blocks ... The stench and filth in some of the cells, with the remains of rotten food and human excreta scattered around the walls
10887-545: The fog of war , etc.). 21st century militaries still use wargames to simulate future wars and model their reaction. According to Manuel de Landa , after World War II the Command, Control and Communications (C ) was transferred from the military staff to the RAND Corporation , the first think tank . Around the mid to late 20th century, computer simulated war games were created to replace traditional war gaming methods with
11078-608: The security forces 10%. The Northern Ireland peace process led to paramilitary ceasefires and talks between the main political parties, which resulted in the Good Friday Agreement of 1998. This Agreement restored self-government to Northern Ireland on the basis of " power-sharing " and it included acceptance of the principle of consent , commitment to civil and political rights , parity of esteem , police reform , paramilitary disarmament and early release of paramilitary prisoners. There has been sporadic violence since
11269-707: The 20th century by both the British and Irish Free State —was not introduced until 1971. Internees were originally held in disused RAF base in County Down , called Long Kesh. Later renamed HM Prison Maze , it was run along the lines of a prisoner of war camp, complete, says the author Thomas Hennessey, "with imagery reminiscent of Second World War POW camps surrounded by barbed wire, watchtowers and Nissen huts ". Internees lived in dormitories and disciplined themselves with military-style command structures, drilled with dummy guns made from wood, and held lectures on guerrilla warfare and politics. Convicted prisoners were refused
11460-407: The 32 Irish counties. In Ulster , particularly in the six counties which became Northern Ireland , Sinn Féin fared relatively poorly in the 1918 election, and unionists won a majority. The Government of Ireland Act 1920 partitioned the island of Ireland into two separate jurisdictions, Southern Ireland and Northern Ireland, both devolved regions of the United Kingdom. This partition of Ireland
11651-640: The 8th century Senchas Már . In the 20th century, there had been hunger strikes by Irish republican prisoners since 1917, twelve men died on hunger strike prior to the 1981 strikes: Thomas Ashe (1917), Terence MacSwiney (1920), Michael Fitzgerald (1920), Joe Murphy (1920), Joseph Whitty (1923), Andy O'Sullivan (1923), Denny Barry (1923) (see 1923 Irish hunger strikes ), Tony D'Arcy (1940), Jack McNeela (1940), Seán McCaughey (1946), Michael Gaughan (1974), and Frank Stagg (1976). Although The Troubles had been ongoing since 1969, internment —which had been used several times in Ireland during
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#173309397520911842-410: The 8th saw the same group meet. This time, Atkins suggested resending the earlier proposal but emphasising that in the event of non-acceptance, "the British government would immediately issue an alternative statement". By 0210, McDonnell had gone into a coma, which, at that point, the republican leadership was not aware of, although the government was. Previous prisoners had not died until they had been in
12033-559: The Agreement, including punishment attacks , loyalist gangs' control of major organised crime rackets (e.g., drugs supply, community coercion and violence, intimidation), and violent crime linked to dissident republican groups . The word "troubles" has been used as a synonym for violent conflict for centuries. It was used to describe the 17th-century Wars of the Three Kingdoms by all three national parliaments. For example, after
12224-467: The British Army started construction of the first "peace wall". It was the first of many such walls across Northern Ireland, and still stands today. After the riots, the Hunt Committee was set up to examine the RUC. It published its report on 12 October, recommending that the RUC become an unarmed force and the B Specials be disbanded. That night, loyalists took to the streets of Belfast in protest at
12415-637: The British government faced increasing international opposition. In France, the Foreign Minister Claude Cheysson talked of the strikers' "supreme sacrifice", and threatened to boycott the Royal wedding that July; in response the British Ambassador, Reginald Hibbert , pointed out that it was no different to how the French government treated demands for Corsican independence when it was backed by
12606-473: The British were "taking a big risk here, dealing with us, because that alone is a huge story—'you shouldn’t talk to these people', and here you are, flying somebody over". Kenneth Stowe —at the time Permanent Under-Secretary of State of the NIO—later said that she was "fully aware" of the necessity in negotiating with Sinn Féin if one wished to settle Northern Irish affairs. According to Thatcher's biographer, Charles Moore , Adams and McGuinness wanted to bring
12797-513: The H-Blocks". The IRA denied responsibility. Violence was not confined to the IRA. Other incidents included the shooting and wounding of UDA councillor Sam Millar at home on Shankill Road by the INLA. There were retaliatory UDA killings in Belfast; an RUC officer was blown up by a car bomb , and a woman in Derry was assassinated while collecting census forms door to door. The IRA released a statement that attacks on security services would increase. The first paramilitary victim following Sands's death
12988-443: The IRA firing party that had volleyed over the coffin, and this led to rioting when the crowd stopped them. Walker argues this was a tactical decision by the government, and "gave the authorities a chance to demonstrate that there would be no let up in their battle against the IRA—not in jail, not on the streets and not at funerals". Black flags were flown from nationalist homes: these were intended to express both grief and anger towards
13179-403: The IRA into believing the prisoners' demands had been granted. He said the British government deliberately created a state of confusion among the hunger strikers by moving McKenna, who was close to death, to a hospital outside the prison. He said this had the effect of creating uncertainty within his colleagues, who would not know if he was about to die or had died. Walker's source argues that this
13370-418: The IRA split into the 'Provisional' and 'Official' factions. While the older IRA had embraced non-violent civil agitation, the new Provisional IRA was determined to wage "armed struggle" against British rule in Northern Ireland. The new IRA was willing to take on the role of "defenders of the Catholic community", rather than seeking working-class ecumenical unity across both communities. Nationalists point to
13561-414: The IRA, and British soldiers were sent to guard installations. Unionist support for O'Neill waned, and on 28 April he resigned as prime minister. On 19 April, there were clashes between NICRA marchers, the RUC, and loyalists in the Bogside. RUC officers entered the house of Samuel Devenny (42), an uninvolved Catholic civilian, and beat him along with two of his teenage daughters and a family friend. One of
13752-521: The IRA. As a result, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) threatened to release a statement condemning her government for brinkmanship and requesting that civil servants be allowed openly into the Maze to negotiate. The government was also under increased pressure from senior police echelons and military commanders to take a more conciliatory approach, sufficient for Atkins to urge
13943-525: The Irish Catholic ability to rent. With Irish Catholics allowed to buy land and enter trades from which they had formerly been banned, tensions arose resulting in the Protestant " Peep o' Day Boys " and Catholic " Defenders ". This created polarisation between the communities and a dramatic reduction in reformers among Protestants, many of whom had been growing more receptive to democratic reform. Following
14134-584: The Irish Republican movement". This back-channel line of communication between the IRA Army Council and the higher echelons of the British government was "painstakingly created" in 1972 and involved many of the same individuals for the next 20 years. It was known about by the Prime Minister and overseen by MI6 . However, it was complicated by the fact that when the talks with Whitelaw had been exposed in
14325-487: The Parliament of the United Kingdom, defined the start of the Troubles as 1 January 1966 for the purposes of the act. In March and April 1966, Irish nationalists/republicans held parades throughout Ireland to mark the 50th anniversary of the Easter Rising . On 8 March, a group of Irish republicans dynamited Nelson's Pillar in Dublin. At the time, the IRA was weak and not engaged in armed action, but some unionists warned it
14516-421: The RUC and attacks on RUC bases. In Belfast, loyalists responded by invading nationalist districts, burning houses and businesses. There were gun battles between nationalists and the RUC and between nationalists and loyalists. A group of about 30 IRA members was involved in the fighting in Belfast. The RUC deployed Shorland armoured cars mounted with heavy Browning machine guns . The Shorlands twice opened fire on
14707-461: The RUC had directed it be taken from the Maze to his place of burial, Bellaghy . The police considered any other route—which would have to march past protestant areas—too dangerous for both security forces and civilians. As such it was decided to give Hughes a police convoy, although the Chief Constable, Jack Hermon , was "less certain than one would like" of the exact statutory powers under which
14898-592: The Rising's leaders, the separatist Sinn Féin party won the December 1918 general election in Ireland with 47% of the vote and a majority of seats, and set up the 1919 First Dáil (Irish Parliament) in Dublin. Their victory was aided by the threat of conscription for First World War service . The Irish War for Independence followed, leading to eventual independence in 1922 for the Irish Free State , which comprised 26 of
15089-742: The Roman Catholic Church. In 1912, unionists led by Edward Carson signed the Ulster Covenant and pledged to resist Home Rule by force if necessary. To this end, they formed the paramilitary Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF). In response, nationalists led by Eoin MacNeill formed the Irish Volunteers in 1913, whose goal was to oppose the UVF and ensure enactment of the Third Home Rule Bill in
15280-560: The U.S. and " IVAN " representing the Soviet Union. Early game theory included only zero-sum games , which means that when one player won, the other automatically lost. The prisoner's dilemma , which models the situation of two prisoners in which each one is given the choice to betray or not the other, gave three alternatives to the game: This model gave the basis for the massive retaliation nuclear doctrine. The zero-sum fallacy and cooperative games would be theorized only later, while
15471-448: The UPV) attacked some of the marches and held counter-demonstrations in a bid to get the marches banned. Because of the lack of police reaction to the attacks, nationalists saw the RUC, which was almost wholly Protestant, as backing the loyalists and allowing the attacks to occur. On 5 October 1968, a civil rights march in Derry was banned by the Northern Ireland government. When marchers defied
15662-478: The UVF issued a statement declaring "war" against the IRA and anyone helping it. The UVF fatally shot a Catholic civilian, John Scullion, as he walked home on 27 May. A month later it shot three Catholic civilians as they left a pub, killing Peter Ward, a Catholic from the Falls Road . Shortly after, the UVF was proscribed by the Northern Ireland government. The UVF is still considered a terrorist organization by
15853-614: The United Kingdom and join a united Ireland . Despite the division between Protestants and Catholics , it was not primarily a religious war . The conflict began during a campaign by the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association to end discrimination against the Catholic-nationalist minority by the Protestant-unionist government and local authorities. The government attempted to suppress
16044-540: The United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland. In the mid-1960s, a non-violent civil rights campaign began in Northern Ireland. It comprised groups such as the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association (NICRA), the Campaign for Social Justice , the Derry Citizens' Action Committee , and People's Democracy , whose stated goals were: Some suspected and accused NICRA of being a republican front-group whose ultimate goal
16235-460: The actions taken (Defense Ethics Program, Department of National Defense, 2012). These simulations involve crude living conditions, sleep deprivations, time limit, and either lack or ambiguous amount of information. A subset of simulated exercises is the Table Top Exercise (TTX), typically limited to senior personnel stepping through the decision-making processes they would employ in a crisis,
16426-471: The ambiguity of a role one may encounter and challenge of ethics. This will also lead the military personnel to have to make a difficult call in challenging circumstances. Even in difficult situations and conditions, military personnel still has to follow rules and regulations such as: 1) when the right thing to do is not immediately clear; 2) when two or more important principles or values support different actions, and 3) when some harm will result, regardless of
16617-486: The ante against a relatively soft target. Former IRA prisoner Richard O'Rawe has argued that, from the perspective of the prisoners, prison staff waged a campaign of violence against them, including beatings and testicular squeezings. By late April, with Sands on the verge of death, the British government was making plans to deal with the popular consequences. Atkins briefed Thatcher that not only were thousands expected to turn out for Sands's funeral, but large-scale rioting
16808-407: The ban, RUC officers surrounded the marchers and beat them indiscriminately and without provocation. More than 100 people were injured, including a number of nationalist politicians. The incident was filmed by television news crews and shown around the world. It caused outrage among Catholics and nationalists, sparking two days of rioting in Derry between nationalists and the RUC. A few days later,
16999-563: The behaviour of the military, close liaison between the NIO and Belfast community and church leaders, with the Irish government, and the attitude of the United States. In Dublin, the Irish Taoiseach , Charles Haughey recommended the British continue the strategy of "a good mixture of ingenuity, subtlety and sensitivity" that had served them the previous year. On 4 February, the prisoners issued
17190-524: The build up to an actual invasion, as in the cases of the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia and the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine , or it can provoke opponents at peace to perceive it as such, as in the case of Able Archer 83 . A Command Post Exercise (CPX) typically focuses on the battle readiness of staffs such as a particular Unified Combatant Command or one of its components at any level. It may run in parallel with an FTX or its equivalent, or as
17381-535: The buildings damaged were occupied by Catholics. Between July and 1 September 505 Catholic and 315 Protestant families were forced to flee their homes. The Irish Army set up refugee camps in the Republic near the border (see Gormanston Camp ). Nationalists initially welcomed the British Army, as they did not trust the RUC. On 9 September, the Northern Ireland Joint Security Committee met at Stormont Castle and decided that A peace line
17572-538: The burning of Thatcher-style effigies . Vigils were held with paramilitaries attending in some cases, and in Dublin, Gardaí were attacked with petrol bombs. In Lisbon on 7 May, a crowd of several hundred marched on the British Embassy and were addressed by a Sinn Féin speaker, while in Reykjavík , a demonstration outside the embassy condemned Britain for having "savagely attacked the ranks of Irish Freedom Fighters" in
17763-630: The civil rights movement and opposed his policies. At the same time, a loyalist group calling itself the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) emerged in the Shankill area of Belfast. It was led by Gusty Spence , a former British soldier. Many of its members were also members of the UCDC and UPV. In April and May 1966, the UVF petrol bombed a number of Catholic homes, schools, and businesses. A firebomb killed an elderly Protestant widow, Matilda Gould. On 21 May,
17954-446: The conditions they dwelt in. It also undermined morale, both in the Maze and on the outside. The situation changed with the arrival of Brendan Hughes in the H Block; Hughes, supported by Sands, advocated coming out of cells, not just to improve their own existence but, more importantly, to allow them to take advantage of the opportunities visits presented for smuggling. The Adams/Hughes stratagem also made prison protests more sustainable in
18145-416: The creation of temporary no-go areas . More than 3,500 people were killed in the conflict, of whom 52% were civilians , 32% were members of the British security forces, and 16% were members of paramilitary groups. Responsibility for deaths were divided between republican paramilitaries (60%), loyalists (30%), and security forces (10%). Civilian casualties were caused by: loyalists 48%, republicans 39%, and
18336-496: The daughters was beaten unconscious as she lay recovering from surgery. Devenny suffered a heart attack and died on 17 July from his injuries. On 13 July, RUC officers beat another Catholic civilian, Francis McCloskey (67), during clashes in Dungiven . He died of his injuries the next day. On 12 August, the loyalist Apprentice Boys of Derry were allowed to march along the edge of the Bogside. Taunts and missiles were exchanged between
18527-441: The decision to save McKenna's life and end the strike after 53 days on 18 December. Conversely, more recently, Hughes has stated that that the reason he called it off was purely to save McKenna's life, and explicitly not because he expected British concessions or a prisoners' victory. Sands believed that the strikers "were beat [ sic ] by a few lousy hours". The final British offer made no promises but gave assurances that
18718-538: The dirty protests had now lasted nearly three years, and morale inside was felt to be dangerously low. One ex-blanketman recalled that "the more experienced men spoke for the rest of us when they said they were nearly at the end of their tether". Shortly after this, a "Smashing H-Block" conference took place in West Belfast in October 1979. Over 600 people, from many republican or left wing organisations attended. This led to
18909-407: The early 1920s, there were occasional incidents of sectarian unrest in Northern Ireland. These included severe rioting in Belfast in the 1930s and 1950s, and the IRA's brief Northern Campaign in the 1940s and Border Campaign between 1956 and 1962, which did not enjoy broad popular support among nationalists. After the IRA called off its campaign in 1962, Northern Ireland became relatively stable for
19100-506: The early 1970s was the McGurk's Bar bombing by the UVF in 1971. The violence peaked in 1972, when nearly 500 people, just over half of them civilians, were killed, the worst year in the entire conflict. By the end of 1971, 29 barricades were in place in Derry , blocking access to what was known as Free Derry ; 16 of these were impassable even to the British Army's one-ton armoured vehicles. Many of
19291-462: The end of the 1980 hunger strike, and were still available on the outbreak of the next. Indeed, soon after her election, Thatcher spoke to President Jimmy Carter on the telephone in which she stated that her preferred strategy was through "patient and persistent negotiation". Publicly, however, it was a different story. In December 1980, the NIO's PUM, John Blelloch emphasised to a republican contact that there could be no question of negotiations while
19482-535: The event of British or unionist refusal. The outbreak of the First World War in 1914, and Ireland's involvement in the war , temporarily averted possible civil war in Ireland and delayed the resolution of the question of Irish independence. Home Rule, although passed in the British Parliament with Royal Assent , was suspended for the duration of the war. The Irish Volunteers split, with a majority, known as
19673-464: The external leadership could expect to get a message in, a reply out and a second message back in in a single day". Even before Sands's death, pro-prisoner violence was occurring. British businessman Geoffrey Armstrong of British Leyland was giving a speech to the Dublin Junior Chamber of Commerce when three balaclavad men shot him in the legs while shouting, "this action is in support of
19864-499: The eyesight of both had deteriorated. By now—following "intense" and "highly secret" negotiations involving the Irish Government , also the British had clarified their position in a thirty-page document detailing a proposed settlement, which touched on many of the demands, although without conceding any. With the document in transit to Belfast, Hughes—having already been informed that free association and their own clothing had been granted, which he deemed 'close' to what they wanted—took
20055-423: The first strike, the prisoners joined one at a time and at staggered intervals; Sands started first and was, therefore, almost certain to die, and die first. This was intended to arouse maximum public support and exert maximum pressure on Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher , which the republican movement initially struggled to generate. The Sunday Sands began his strike, 3,500 people marched through West Belfast; this
20246-480: The force did so. Hermon's priority for the future was that—however many more funerals there might be—the IRA would not be in control. Both McCreesh's and O'Hara's funerals were accompanied by paramilitary colour parties, speeches and other trappings. The former passed without incident, but O'Hara's descended into rioting. Next to die, McDonnell's funeral experienced some of the worst violence yet. The British Army, through an airborne observation post, attempted to arrest
20437-401: The formation of the broad-based National H-Block/Armagh Committee on a platform of support for the "Five Demands", and included seasoned activists such as McAliskey, Eamonn McCann and Miriam Daly . The period leading up to the hunger strike saw assassinations by both republicans and loyalists . The IRA shot and killed a number of prison officers, while loyalist paramilitaries shot and killed
20628-485: The forms of tabletop games such as chess and Go . The modern use of military exercises grew out of the military need to study warfare and to reenact old battles for learning purposes. During the age of Kabinettskriege (Cabinet wars), Frederick the Great , King of Prussia from 1740 to 1786, "put together his armies as a well-oiled clockwork mechanism whose components were robot -like warriors. No individual initiative
20819-495: The foundation of the republican Society of the United Irishmen by Presbyterians, Catholics, and liberal Anglicans, and the resulting failed Irish Rebellion of 1798 , sectarian violence between Catholics and Protestants continued. The Orange Order (founded 1795), with its stated goal of upholding the Protestant faith and loyalty to the heirs of William of Orange , dates from this period and remains active to this day. With
21010-425: The funeral of Francis Hughes, which took place "not without some controversy", argues Hennessey. The Times 's Northern Ireland correspondent Chris Ryder described an "undignified chase" across South Belfast after his body was handed over to his family. The family, and the wider republican movement, wanted the remains to be taken via the Falls Road and Toomebridge —where receptions had been laid on—whereas
21201-569: The goal of optimizing and speeding up the process and making it possible to analyze more complex scenarios with greater ease. In 1958, the Naval War college installed a computer war game system where their traditional war gaming activities were held. The system was called the Navy Electronic Warfare System, and cost over $ 10 million to install. The change from traditional war gaming methods to electronic computer simulated ones meant that
21392-438: The government "will, subject to the overriding requirements of security, keep prison conditions—and that includes clothing, work, association, education, training and remission—under continuing review". By January 1981, it became clear that the prisoners' demands had not been conceded. The republican movement—"unconvincingly", argues Kelly—blamed Britain, insisting that Thatcher had reneged on her promises. Instead, for example, of
21583-495: The government and police to intern suspects without trial and to administer corporal punishment such as flogging to re-establish or preserve law and order. The Act continued to be used against nationalists long after the violence of this period had come to an end. Various unionist militias were also incorporated into state structures, including the Ulster Special Constabulary , which Allen Feldman argues "emulated
21774-539: The government would not talk to them, they managed to send in an NIO official hours after McDonnell's death. The prisoners were insisting on open negotiations by the end of July. When pressed on this by the Dublin government, the British response was that "we have always understood the Irish Government to be opposed to all forms of negotiation with subversive organisations ... [so] that is not possible". In Ireland, there were demonstrations in many towns, including
21965-691: The government, but they also contained an implicit threat towards those deemed the strikers' opponents. Despite Thatcher's oft-repeated mantra that she "did not talk to terrorists", historians are aware that the British government had been negotiating with elements of the IRA since 1972 when the first ceasefire was being arranged between Willie Whitelaw and a delegation including Martin McGuinness , Gerry Adams and IRA Chief-of-Staff Seán Mac Stíofáin . The same occurred with church-backed talks in 1974–1975. Historians and political observers are also aware that "behind closed doors she did authorize discussions with
22156-399: The house next door were removed by police. Currie had brought their grievance to the local council and to Stormont, but had been told to leave. The incident invigorated the civil rights movement. On 24 August 1968, the civil rights movement held its first civil rights march from Coalisland to Dungannon . Many more marches were held over the following year. Loyalists (especially members of
22347-446: The hunger strike to an end but required something to take back to the republican movement which demonstrated British good faith. Moore says that Thatcher allowed Adams to receive some further concessions while rejecting the fundamental premise of status. According to Adams, it was the government who "opened up contact", but then closed it the moment the first hunger strike was called off. However, lines of communication remained open after
22538-452: The huts, but new intake arrived at eight newly-built cellular "H-Blocks", so called due to their layout. Following internment, both IRA violence and recruitment escalated. IRA volunteer Kieran Nugent had been interned in Long Kesh in 1974, but when he was arrested and convicted in 1976, he faced a very different prison regime. On 14 September, he was the first Republican to be convicted since
22729-463: The introduction of the Five Demands for all prisoners". Until the late 1970s, the blanket protest was effectively a passive one. Because the prisoners would not wear uniforms, they could not come out of their cells, even for masses or visits. The problem with this all-or-nothing "macho" strategy is that it made communicating with the outside world much harder, and it was difficult to get word out about
22920-409: The justness of our cause a number of our comrades, beginning today with Bobby Sands, will hunger-strike to the death unless the British government abandons its criminalization policy and meets our demand for political status. I am standing on the threshold of another trembling world. May God have mercy on my soul. My heart is very sore because I know that I have broken my poor mother's heart, and my home
23111-484: The late 1960s to 1998. Also known internationally as the Northern Ireland conflict , it began in the late 1960s and is usually deemed to have ended with the Good Friday Agreement of 1998. Although the Troubles mostly took place in Northern Ireland, at times violence spilled over into parts of the Republic of Ireland , England, and mainland Europe. Sometimes described as an " asymmetric " or " irregular " war or
23302-428: The long term. It also improved internal and external communications, the weaknesses of which had been exposed in the first hunger strike, when Sands and Hughes could not meet, and there was little up-to-date information being shared. Internally, prisoners in one wing could generally shout to another wing, especially at night. Other methods they developed were creative, such as tying items onto a blanket-thread string, tying
23493-561: The loyalists and nationalist residents. After being bombarded with stones and petrol bombs from nationalists, the RUC, backed by loyalists, tried to storm the Bogside. The RUC used CS gas , armoured vehicles, and water cannons, but were kept at bay by hundreds of nationalists. The continuous fighting, which became known as the Battle of the Bogside , lasted for three days. In response to events in Derry, nationalists held protests at RUC bases in Belfast and elsewhere. Some of these led to clashes with
23684-646: The main political factions in late 19th- and early 20th-century Ireland. By the second decade of the 20th century, Home Rule, or limited Irish self-government, was on the brink of being conceded due to the agitation of the Irish Parliamentary Party . In response to the campaign for Home Rule which started in the 1870s, unionists, mostly Protestant and largely concentrated in Ulster, had resisted both self-government and independence for Ireland, fearing for their future in an overwhelmingly Catholic country dominated by
23875-588: The nationalist or republican " no-go areas " were controlled by one of the two factions of the Irish Republican Army ;– the Provisional IRA and Official IRA . There are several reasons offered for why violence escalated in these years. Unionists say the main reason was the formation of the Provisional IRA and Official IRA, particularly the former. These two groups were formed when
24066-493: The nationalist vote by contesting the election. This was unpopular in the SDLP, whose ex-leader Gerry Fitt —until 1978, the party's only MP and now a Unity MP—criticised the SDLP for abstaining, and Currie himself later said he was "extremely angry and frustrated" not to have been chosen as his party's candidate. Sands thus stood as an Anti H-Block candidate and had a clear run against Ulster Unionist Party candidate Harry West . Sands
24257-615: The native Irish in the Plantation of Ulster . Coupled with Protestant immigration to "unplanted" areas of Ulster , particularly Antrim and Down , this resulted in conflict between the native Catholics and the "planters", leading in turn to two bloody religious conflicts known as the Irish Confederate Wars (1641–1653) and the Williamite war (1689–1691), both of which resulted in Protestant victories. Anglican dominance in Ireland
24448-400: The nature of the relationship between the countries and the number of them involved. These exercises allow for better coordination between militaries and observation of enemy tactics, and serve as a visible show of strength and cooperation for the participating countries. According to a 2021 study, joint military exercises within well-defined alliances usually deter adversaries without producing
24639-404: The nature of war and the scenarios that war games aim to simulate are not deterministic. Therefore, war games are primarily used to consider multiple possible outcomes of any given decision, or number of decisions, made in the simulated scenario. These possible outcomes are analyzed and compared, and cause-and-effect relationships are typically sought for the unknown factors within the simulation. It
24830-562: The new MP. It also alarmed the unionist community, to whom Sands was merely a convicted terrorist. An Enniskillen councillor protested that Fermanagh unionists were "astounded" that the Catholic community elected Sands as they did. Harry West said afterwards, "now we know the types of people who are living among us". The Anti-H Block cause received a profile boost: now that a British MP might starve to death, Bowyer Bell says, "the international media began to arrive". The New York Times described
25021-506: The north and an illegal and illegitimate process in the south. Local elections in the south were contested, but although there were increasing calls for this approach to be expanded to the north, the most recent attempt—in November 1980—was voted down at the party's Ard Fheis . The death of Sands necessitated another by-election in Fermanagh and South Tyrone. This time the Anti-H Block candidate
25212-478: The opening up of lines of communication in 1978 was that, three years later, the world now had a thorough, if a third party, knowledge of conditions inside the Maze, due to the volume of information that had previously come out. David Beresford , a Northern Ireland correspondent for The Guardian in 1981, researched the methods the prisoners used to collect equipment, in view of the fact that H Blocks had been designed to constrain prisoners' communications. Although
25403-446: The other end to a button, and then "shooting the button" across the corridor under cell doors. External communication was maintained via prison visits. These allowed the prisoners to send out letters and receive items from the outside, such as ball point refills, cigarette papers—for both smoking and writing on—tobacco, and quartz crystal radios . For smuggling goods and letters, the prisoners' mouths and body cavities provided not just
25594-419: The outcome of possible war time decisions. War games, however, can be much smaller than full-scale military operations, do not typically include the use of functional military equipment, and decisions and actions are carried out by artificial players to simulate possible decisions and actions within an artificial scenario which usually represents a model of a real-world scenario. Additionally, mathematical modeling
25785-441: The partition of Ireland as an illegal and arbitrary division of the island against the will of the majority of its people. They argued that the Northern Ireland state was neither legitimate nor democratic, but created with a deliberately gerrymandered unionist majority. Catholics initially composed about 35% of its population. A total of 557 people, mostly Catholics, were killed in political or sectarian violence from 1920 to 1922 in
25976-534: The police out, creating " Free Derry ", which was briefly a no-go area for the security forces. In March and April 1969, loyalists bombed water and electricity installations in Northern Ireland, blaming them on the dormant IRA and elements of the civil rights movement. Some attacks left much of Belfast without power and water. Loyalists hoped the bombings would force O'Neill to resign and bring an end to any concessions to nationalists. There were six bombings between 30 March and 26 April. All were widely blamed on
26167-498: The prison, refused food. The date was deliberately chosen as the fifth anniversary of the withdrawal of status. A statement from the prisoners was issued by Danny Morrison , Sinn Féin's publicity director: We have asserted that we are political prisoners and everything about our country, our arrests, interrogations, trials, and prison conditions, show that we are politically motivated and not motivated by selfish reasons or for selfish ends. As further demonstration of our selflessness and
26358-676: The prisoners had the final say on who visited them—they had to send their VOs to the Governor—they were generally expected to accept the recommendations of the Army Council, which was interested in maximising the number of couriers available. If possible, these couriers—nearly all of them women—would also be family or friends of the prisoner. They brought and received comms. These were tiny letters, written on cigarette papers and wrapped in clingfilm during transportation, either internally or under clothing: "The system became so efficient that on occasion
26549-468: The prisoners presented a proposal for a hunger strike to the external leadership. Although this was rejected—former prisoner Laurence McKeown has said this proposal was "unknown to most prisoners"—the external leadership "conceded, reluctantly" that they had no alternative proposal. In June 1980, the European Court of Human Rights rejected a claim by the prisoners that their treatment during imprisonment
26740-443: The prisoners themselves responsible for their actions, and even regret, at their forthcoming deaths: I cannot interfere with the hunger strike; we do not force feed. If those people continue with the hunger strike it will have no effect whatsoever. It will just take their own lives for which I will be profoundly sorry because I think it is a ridiculous thing to do, that it is a ridiculous way to try to go about." Ten days later, Sands
26931-635: The protests. The police, the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC), were overwhelmingly Protestant and known for sectarianism and police brutality . The campaign was also violently opposed by Ulster loyalists, who believed it was a front for republican political activity. Increasing tensions led to the August 1969 riots and the deployment of British troops , in what became the British Army 's longest operation. " Peace walls " were built in some areas to keep
27122-436: The purpose of preparing and analyzing those scenarios, the distinction between a war game and a military exercise is determined, primarily, by the involvement of actual military forces within the simulation, or lack thereof. Military exercises focus on the simulation of real, full-scale military operations in controlled hostile conditions in attempts to reproduce war time decisions and activities for training purposes or to analyze
27313-581: The question of the demands. However, the end result was that At the end of the meeting Atkins explained, and Father Magee accepted, that the Secretary of State could not see him again because to do so would risk creating the impression that some form of negotiation was going on. There was no question of negotiation, and Atkins would need to continue to make that quite clear. Thatcher continued, in public, to maintain her stance that "you can't compromise with violence". Meeting Protestant religious leaders, though, she
27504-649: The relationship between the Army and the local population following the Army assistance with flood relief in August 1970, the Falls Curfew and a situation that was described at the time as "an inflamed sectarian one, which is being deliberately exploited by the IRA and other extremists" meant that relations between the Catholic population and the British Army rapidly deteriorated. From 1970 to 1972, an explosion of political violence occurred in Northern Ireland. The deadliest attack in
27695-411: The report. During violence in the Shankill , UVF members shot dead RUC officer Victor Arbuckle. He was the first RUC officer to be killed during the Troubles. In October and December 1969, the UVF carried out a number of small bombings in the Republic of Ireland. Despite the British government's attempt to do "nothing that would suggest partiality to one section of the community" and the improvement of
27886-619: The result as "a stunning blow to the Protestant establishment of Northern Ireland" and that it "cast into doubt the view often expressed by politicians in London that the IRA is supported only by a fringe of the Catholic voters". For its part, the Irish Times also reported the election as "a serious embarrassment to the British Government" and a "body blow "for those who claimed that most Nationalists would not support paramilitary organisation". The Times , meanwhile, concentrated on whether it
28077-534: The right to their own clothes, which the prisoners believed had been conceded them, it became clear that they would have to wear prison-issued clothes until they could demonstrate full compliance with the regime. Sands saw this as "a demand for capitulation rather than a step-by-step approach", argues O'Dochartaigh, and began pressuring the external leadership to authorise another hunger strike. The investigative author R. K. Walker has reported one member of British Intelligence as believing that The British government duped
28268-739: The route of his funeral, which was conducted with full IRA military honours. Margaret Thatcher showed no sympathy for his death, telling the House of Commons that "Mr. Sands was a convicted criminal. He chose to take his own life. It was a choice that his organisation did not allow to many of its victims." The Troubles 1980s 1990s see also: The Troubles in Ireland See also: The Troubles in Britain and Europe The Troubles ( Irish : Na Trioblóidí ) were an ethno-nationalist conflict in Northern Ireland that lasted for about 30 years from
28459-542: The safety of the state was at risk. On the death of Doherty, the Dáil's national flag was lowered to half mast as was traditional on the death of a sitting member; he had lasted, at 73 days, the longest yet. When, on 5 May, Sands died in the prison hospital on the 66th day of his hunger strike, Humphrey Atkins issued a statement saying that Sands had committed suicide "under the instructions of those who felt it useful to their cause that he should die". More than 100,000 people lined
28650-712: The same ignorance as their French counterparts". Approximately one thousand people attended a public mass in New York's St Patrick's Cathedral by Cardinal Cooke calling for reconciliation, while also in the city Longshoremen boycotted British ships. In London, the Queen was also harassed by a banner protesting Sands's "murder" when she opened Wood Green Shopping Centre in North London in May. However, The Washington Post supported Thatcher's position, agreeing with her in an editorial that
28841-517: The same nation training together are described as having a joint exercise. Those involving forces of multiple nations are described as having a combined exercise or coalition exercise. These are called a bilateral exercise if based on security agreements between two nations, or a multilateral exercise if the agreement is between multiple nations. Other types of exercise include the Tactical Exercise Without Troops (TEWT), also known as
29032-419: The same rights as internees until July 1972, when Special Category Status was introduced following a hunger strike by 40 Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) prisoners led by the veteran republican Billy McKee . Special Category, or political status meant prisoners were treated similarly to prisoners of war; for example, not having to wear prison uniforms or do prison work. On 1 March 1976, Merlyn Rees ,
29223-483: The settlement of the five demands. The British government, while offering extensive prison reform, refused to acknowledge political status. The women's strike lasted 19 days, finishing on 19 December. Twenty-six women remained on the dirty protest at Armagh Token three-day fasts broke out sporadically in Belfast Prison . In a war of nerves between the IRA leadership and the government, with McKenna lapsing in and out of
29414-593: The six counties that would become Northern Ireland, both during and after the Irish War of Independence. The result was communal strife between Catholics and Protestants, with some historians describing this violence, especially that in Belfast , as a pogrom , although historian Peter Hart argues that the term is not appropriate given the reciprocity of violence in Northern Ireland. (see The Troubles in Ulster (1920–1922) and Bloody Sunday (1921) ). A marginalised remnant of
29605-543: The state's fusion of repressive and ideological apparatuses". In 1920, in local elections held under proportional representation , nationalists had won control over many local governments, including the County Councils of Fermanagh and Tyrone, and the Londonderry Borough Council governing Derry City . In response, in 1922 the new unionist government re-drew the electoral boundaries to give its supporters
29796-473: The strike was ongoing. When Northern Ireland Office (NIO) officials did meet, on occasion, with republicans, these were generally called "exercises in clarification" rather than negotiations. This was so as not to send the wrong message to observers, particularly to unionist leaders. Even so, John Molyneux , leader of the UUP, wondered if the British understood they would "have difficulty" in persuading people that this
29987-599: The strike. These were Mairéad Farrell (age 23), Mary Doyle (24) and Mairéad Nugent (21); Farrell stated that the intention was to "create an additional source of pressure on the authorities". In four days, their average weight loss was 9 pounds (4.1 kg). They were moved to a single clean cell 2 days after beginning and were in a stable condition. In the Maze, the seven men were in the prison hospital where they were weak but generally stable, except for McKenna and McKearney, who were sinking faster than their comrades. They remained defiant, however, and refused to accept less than
30178-507: The tabloids, he had banned further direct communications. Thomas Hennessey has argued that the Prime Minister's "hand was literally all over the 'deal'" accepted by Hughes in December 1979, and the speed with which the government were able to present a working hypothesis to Brendan Hughes in the Maze—regardless of its acceptability—told the republican movement that the British were, in fact, willing and able to negotiate. Morrison admitted that
30369-599: The time pressure—McDonnell was by now close to collapse—he suggested to Thatcher that "we should communicate to the PIRA overnight a draft statement" addressing the five demands. Work, for example, would constitute light-weight, domestic tasks or studying for Open University , while association would be dealt with by local supervisory officers. Thatcher edited the draft to reduce its conciliatory tone, signalling that while they might soften their approach to uniform, work and association were not included. Another meeting just past midnight on
30560-462: The time, but some internees became increasingly radicalised as a result of their experiences. In August 1971, ten civilians were shot dead in the Ballymurphy massacre in Belfast. They were innocent and the killings were unjustified, according to a 2021 coroner's inquest. Nine victims were shot by the British Army. Bloody Sunday was the shooting dead of thirteen unarmed men by the British Army at
30751-613: The treaty was given less priority by the new Dublin government led by W. T. Cosgrave , and was quietly dropped. As counties Fermanagh and Tyrone and border areas of Londonderry , Armagh , and Down were mainly nationalist, the Irish Boundary Commission could reduce Northern Ireland to four counties or fewer. In October 1922, the Irish Free State government established the North-Eastern Boundary Bureau,
30942-417: The two communities apart. Some Catholics initially welcomed the British Army as a more neutral force than the RUC, but soon came to see it as hostile and biased, particularly after Bloody Sunday in 1972. The main participants in the Troubles were republican paramilitaries such as the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) and the Irish National Liberation Army (INLA); loyalist paramilitaries such as
31133-411: The value and accuracy of a war game simulation was less dependent on skill and individual experiences, and more dependent on quantitative data and complicated analysis methods. Von Neumann was employed by the RAND Corporation, and his game theory was used in wargames to model nuclear dissuasion during the Cold War . Thus, the U.S. nuclear strategy was defined using wargames, " SAM " representing
31324-405: The walls of their cells with excrement. In 1980, seven prisoners participated in the first hunger strike , which ended after 53 days. The second hunger strike took place in 1981 and was a showdown between the prisoners and the Prime Minister , Margaret Thatcher . One hunger striker, Bobby Sands , was elected as a member of parliament during the strike, prompting media interest from around
31515-540: The wider Catholic community in what they described as retaliation. At times, there were bouts of sectarian tit-for-tat violence, as well as feuds within and between paramilitary groups. The British security forces undertook policing and counterinsurgency , primarily against republicans. There were incidents of collusion between British state forces and loyalist paramilitaries (see Stevens Inquiries ). The Troubles also involved numerous riots, mass protests, and acts of civil disobedience , and led to increased segregation and
31706-473: The withdrawal of status. As such he was required to wear a prison uniform as every other, non-political, prisoner did. Nugent refused, telling the warder, "if you want me to wear a uniform, you'll have to nail it to my back", and wore a blanket in its place. This began the blanket protest, in which IRA and Irish National Liberation Army (INLA) prisoners refused to wear prison uniforms and either went naked or fashioned garments from prison blankets. In 1978, after
31897-400: The women's prison at Armagh , where not just faeces and urine, but menstrual blood, coated cell walls. These protests aimed to re-establish the political status expected by as prisoners of war , and were encapsulated in what became known as the "Five Demands": Initially, the dirty protest did not attract a great deal of attention, and even the IRA regarded it as a side issue in the context of
32088-401: The world. The strike was called off after ten prisoners had starved themselves to death, including Sands, whose funeral was attended by 100,000 people. The strike radicalised Irish nationalist politics and was the driving force that enabled Sinn Féin to become a mainstream political party. He has chosen death: Refusing to eat or drink, that he may bring Disgrace upon me; for there
32279-714: Was Owen Carron , Sands's election agent . Held on the day Devine died, Carron won the by-election with an increased number of votes. The increasing electability of republican candidates worried the Irish government. Anti-H Block candidates won over 40,000 first preference votes at the 1981 Irish general election , and elected two prisoners to the Dáil , Paddy Agnew to Louth and hunger striker Kieran Doherty in Cavan-Monaghan . Neither took their seat. Joe McDonnell narrowly missed election in Sligo–Leitrim . The election victories of Doherty and Agnew denied power to Charles Haughey's outgoing Fianna Fáil government, which lost their narrow majority. Adams saw these results primarily as
32470-413: Was Constable Peter Ellis, who was shot by the IRA on 6 May in New Lodge . The following day James Power, INLA, was blown up by his organisation's own bomb near his home in the Markets area . The Lost Lives project has calculated that around 50 people lost their lives in the period between the death of Sands and the taking off of Devlin. Following Hughes's death, the Irish country homes of James Comyn ,
32661-412: Was a Pyrrhic victory for the government, as it heightened the resolve of the prisoners in the event of another hunger strike. Prison authorities began to supply the prisoners with officially issued civilian clothing, as had been announced. The Secretary of State , Humphrey Atkins , had already begun preparations for dealing with a second hunger strike based on the lessons of the first one. These included
32852-445: Was about to be revived to launch another campaign against Northern Ireland. In April 1966, loyalists led by Ian Paisley , a Protestant fundamentalist preacher, founded the Ulster Constitution Defence Committee (UCDC). It set up a paramilitary-style wing called the Ulster Protestant Volunteers (UPV) to oust Terence O'Neill , Prime Minister of Northern Ireland . Although O'Neill was a unionist, they viewed him as being too 'soft' on
33043-604: Was against the Convention on Human Rights on the grounds that the dirty protest was self-inflicted. On 27 October 1980, republican prisoners in the Maze began a hunger strike. One hundred and forty-eight prisoners volunteered to be part of the strike, but a total of seven were selected to match the number of men who signed the Easter 1916 Proclamation of the Republic . The group consisted of IRA members Brendan Hughes , Tommy McKearney , Raymond McCartney , Tom McFeely , Sean McKenna, Leo Green, and INLA member John Nixon. On 1 December, three prisoners in Armagh Women's Prison joined
33234-415: Was all the talks amounted to. But hence the British talked to republicans through third parties, such as members of the religious community, rather than Sands or Hughes directly. For example, the Pope's envoy, John Magee, met with Atkins as he did Sands; again, Atkins emphasised that this did not constitute negotiation. To Magee, Sands appeared to understand this, stating that he merely wanted "satisfaction" on
33425-403: Was allowed to Frederick's soldiers; their only role was to cooperate in the creation of walls of projectiles through synchronized firepower." This was in the pursuit of a more effective army, and such practices made it easier to look at war from a top-down perspective. Disciplined troops should respond predictably, allowing study to be confined to maneuvers and command . Prussia 's victory over
33616-410: Was allowed to stand under the Criminal Law Act 1967 which allowed convicted criminals to be elected. The election took place on 9 April, and following a high-profile campaign, Sands was elected to the British House of Commons with 30,492 votes to West's 29,046, amounting to over 52% of the vote. The result "gravely alarmed" the government, which almost immediately began looking at ways of disqualifying
33807-405: Was almost unbearable. In two of them I was unable to speak for fear of vomiting." In 1979, former MP Bernadette McAliskey stood in the election for the European Parliament on a platform of support for the protesting prisoners, and won just under 34,000 votes, even though Sinn Féin had called for a boycott of the election, and on one occasion, Martin McGuinness heckled her with a megaphone during
33998-442: Was beyond historical comparison." On 5 March, Thatcher flew to Belfast for a lightning visit, in an attempt to reassure the protestant community of the government's continuing commitment to the Union . She denied it was a response to the latest hunger strike, saying "it ought to be as natural for the Prime Minister to visit this part of the United Kingdom as for her ... to visit Lancashire or Kent", and that she wished to build
34189-437: Was compared to 10,000 marchers four months previously. Edward Daly , Bishop of Derry , condemned the return to hunger strike as being not "morally justified" while Sands held journalists' interviews from his bed. Food was given to Sands every day, although this was refused. One of Sands's fellow prisoners reported how food would sit there all day, and when it was taken away at night, the warders "would accuse Bobby of having eaten
34380-422: Was confirmed when the Parliament of Northern Ireland exercised its right in December 1922 under the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921 to opt out of the newly established Irish Free State. A part of the treaty signed in 1922 mandated that a boundary commission would sit to decide where the frontier of the northern state would be in relation to its southern neighbour. After the Irish Civil War of 1922–1923, this part of
34571-418: Was ensured by the passage of the Penal Laws that curtailed the religious, legal, and political rights of anyone (including both Catholics and Protestant Dissenters, such as Presbyterians ) who did not conform to the state church, the Anglican Church of Ireland . As the Penal Laws started to be phased out in the latter part of the 18th century, there was more competition for land, as restrictions were lifted on
34762-404: Was expected. The RUC's main priority was to prevent demonstrators from entering Protestant areas, which were already being spoken of as defended by Protestant paramilitaries. Although Sands's funeral—attended by around 100,000 people—on 7 May passed off peacefully, that night, violence broke out across Belfast; security forces were attacked with acid and petrol bombs . Ten thousand people attended
34953-559: Was his choice. The Government would not force medical treatment upon him." Sands died in the early hours of 5th May 1981; Hughes was two weeks behind him and the next two a week behind Hughes. Small scale rioting broke out almost immediately, particularly in the interface area of New Barnsley . The Gaelic Athletic Association was condemned by an Irish Republican Socialist Party councillor for banning ant-H Block activity on its premises. Sinn Féin had traditionally abstained from electoral politics, seeing it as reinforcing colonial rule in
35144-457: Was joined by Francis Hughes . On the 22nd, Raymond McCreesh and Patsy O'Hara began their fasts. The British strategy, at first, was to wait it out and allow time to collapse the strike as it had done in 1980. In the meantime, though, "the strike was quickly overtaken by other events" outside Belfast. On the same day Thatcher visited the north, Independent Republican "unity" MP for Fermanagh and South Tyrone Frank Maguire died, resulting in
35335-408: Was not negotiating. In the event, Thatcher turned the suggestion down in case it looked as though the ECHR were her emissaries. Privately, contact between the NIO and contacts of the republican leadership continued. In early June 1981, communications were sufficiently advanced for there to be "a rich crop of rumours" circulating in the British press as to whether Thatcher was, in fact, negotiating with
35526-447: Was possible to remove Sands from office, and noted that, in any case, "even if he is allowed to keep his seat, he is likely to be dead of starvation soon". Sands' election victory raised hopes that a settlement could be negotiated, but Thatcher stood firm in refusing to give concessions to the hunger strikers. She stated, "we are not prepared to consider special category status for certain groups of people serving sentences for crime. Crime
35717-491: Was prepared to admit that, whatever the public view of the IRA, there was "a lot" of sympathy for their ideals among Catholics. By May, Atkins was enjoining upon Thatcher a policy of responding positively to external proposals—such as from the EHCR— which would also prevent the government from being "sucked into any kind of negotiation". O'Fiaich also believed more input from the ECHR would be useful, and that he and Father Crilly could join them; but again, O'Fiaich emphasised that he
35908-509: Was rejected and remained classified for thirty years. On 14–15 August, British troops were deployed in Operation Banner in Derry and Belfast to restore order, but did not try to enter the Bogside, bringing a temporary end to the riots. Ten people had been killed, among them Rooney (the first child killed by police during the conflict), and 745 had been injured, including 154 who suffered gunshot wounds. 154 homes and other buildings were demolished and over 400 needed repairs, of which 83% of
36099-403: Was still concerned at this point that the external leadership might veto a strike. The leadership did not, in fact, and desperately sent in comms attempting to dissuade Sands from another hunger strike. But Sands intended to "send a clear signal to his own superiors that he 'meant business'". The second hunger strike began on 1 March, when Bobby Sands , the IRA's former officer commanding (OC) in
36290-413: Was to be established to separate physically the Falls and the Shankill communities. Initially this would take the form of a temporary barbed wire fence which would be manned by the Army and the Police ... It was agreed that there should be no question of the peace line becoming permanent although it was acknowledged that the barriers might have to be strengthened in some locations. On 10 September,
36481-418: Was to unite Ireland. Although republicans and some members of the IRA (then led by Cathal Goulding and pursuing a non-violent agenda) helped to create and drive the movement, they did not control it and were not a dominant faction within it. On 20 June 1968, civil rights activists, including nationalist Member of Parliament (MP) Austin Currie , protested against housing discrimination by squatting in
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