The Troubles · War Crimes & Atrocities
The Troubles was defined by atrocity — the deliberate killing of civilians by all sides. Republican paramilitaries bombed pubs, shops, and ceremonies; loyalist paramilitaries assassinated Catholics, sometimes at random and sometimes, it is alleged, in collusion with the state; and the security forces themselves killed unarmed civilians, most infamously on Bloody Sunday. About half of the more than 3,500 dead were civilians, and the struggle to reckon with these killings continues to shape Northern Ireland today.
14+
deaths
Victims: Unarmed civil-rights marchers in Derry(Thirteen people were killed on the day and a fourteenth died later of his wounds; all were unarmed, as the 2010 Saville Inquiry conclusively established.)
34+
deaths
Victims: Civilians in Dublin and Monaghan, Republic of Ireland(Thirty-three people and an unborn child were killed by a coordinated series of no-warning car bombs — the highest death toll of any single day in the Troubles.)
10+
deaths
Victims: Protestant textile workers in South Armagh(Ten Protestant workmen were lined up and shot dead beside their minibus; one survived despite being shot many times.)
16+
deaths
Victims: Civilians in a Belfast fish shop and a Derry pub(An IRA bomb on the Shankill Road killed ten (including one of the bombers); a week later loyalist gunmen killed eight in a 'revenge' attack on a pub at Greysteel.)