Foreword
During the second half of the twentieth century, Northern Ireland became a global hotspot of unrest and bloodshed. Killings, bombings, and military crackdowns were near-daily events, as religious and political differences pitted neighbor against neighbor, Catholic against Protestant, pro-England unionist against pro-independence republican. The modern-day roots of the conflict began in 1921, when 26 of the 32 counties of the island of Ireland gained their independence after centuries of British control. Six northern counties in the Province of Ulster, centered around the strategically important shipbuilding port of Belfast, remained a self-governing part of Great Britain, however.For the next few decades,…
