The Troubles: The Past and Future of Northern Ireland

In 1998, the Good Friday Agreement ended a 30-year period of violence in the north of Ireland known as “the Troubles,” but the difficult legacy of that era still overshadows politics in Ireland north and south to this day.

Historian Jennifer Paxton explores the origins of the Troubles in the partition of Ireland into the nationalist, majority-Catholic Republic of Ireland and the Unionist, majority-Protestant province of Northern Ireland resulting from the Irish War of Independence.

She examines the movement for Catholic civil rights that was inspired by the work of Martin Luther King, Jr., and the descent into violence that followed the deployment of British troops to the province. After several decades of terrorist actions on both sides of the divide, peace was finally achieved due to a combination of top-secret, highly controversial negotiations between the British and Irish governments and the paramilitary organizations. She also discusses the impact of Brexit on Northern Ireland and the prospects for Irish unity now that the United Kingdom’s territory has its first-ever nationalist first minister.

Paxton is the director of the University Honors Program, associate dean of undergraduate studies, and clinical associate professor in the Department of History at The Catholic University of America.

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