This timeline lists known examples of paramilitary and politically motivated violence related to the Troubles in Northern Ireland, between 1980 and 1984. These chronologies are regularly updated as new information becomes available. We welcome information about errors or incidents not listed here. In these timelines the term “civilian” refers to an individual with no known or established political or paramilitary affiliations.

1980
January 3rd: An off duty RUC reservist is shot in Newtonbutler, County Fermanagh by IRA gunmen.
January 17th: A Provisional IRA firebomb explodes on a passenger train in Dunmurry, near Belfast, killing three people.
April 13th: A 53-year-old Catholic woman is shot by a British soldier while driving towards a British checkpoint in County Tyrone. The soldier responsible is later imprisoned for manslaughter.
April 17th: A former UDR member is shot and killed by the IRA at his home in Newtonbutler, County Fermanagh.
June 7th: Provisional IRA volunteers shoot dead an off duty UDR soldier at his shop in Newtonbutler.
July 7th: Two Republic of Ireland police officers are shot dead by Irish National Liberation Army members during a bank robbery in Loughglynn.
August 9th: A 21-year-old Catholic civilians is shot and fatally injured by a rubber bullet in Belfast.
August 14th: British soldiers shoot dead a 24-year-old Catholic civilian during an attempted burglary in Cookstown, County Tyrone.
December 27th: A Protestant woman dies three weeks after being accidentally hit by fire from a Provisional IRA sniper.

January 21st: Norman Stronge, an 86-year-old former speaker of the Northern Ireland parliament, and his son James Stronge, also a Unionist politician, are murdered by IRA gunmen at their home in County Armagh.
February 6th: The Provisional IRA bombs the Nellie M, a British coal ship, while at anchor in Lough Foyle in the far north.
April 25th: Paul Whitters, a 15-year-old Catholic, is shot and killed by a rubber bullet near his home in Derry.
May 13th: Julie Livingstone, 14, is shot and fatally injured by a British rubber bullet in Belfast.
May 19th: A roadside bomb planted by the Provisional IRA in Bessbrook, County Armagh, kills five British soldiers.
May 22nd: A Catholic civilian, Henry Duffy, is shot by a rubber bullet in Bogside, Derry, and later dies in hospital.
May 22nd: Carol Anne Kelly, a 12-year-old Catholic girl from Belfast, becomes the fourth fatality from rubber bullets in the space of a month.
June 5th: An off duty UDR member is shot dead in County Fermanagh while delivering coal.
July 17th: The Provisional IRA’s South Armagh faction attacks a British Army post in Glasdrumman, killing one soldier.
July 31st: A Catholic civilian, 36-year-old Peter Doherty, is killed by a plastic bullet in Belfast. In Strabane, County Tyrone, a former RUC officer is killed by Provisional IRA volunteers.
August 2nd: Two RUC officers are killed by a Provisional IRA land mine while on patrol near Loughmacrory, County Tyrone.
August 9th: A 41-year-old Catholic civilian, Peter McGuinness, is killed by a plastic bullet in Belfast. Six people have now been killed by supposedly non-lethal projectiles in 1981 alone.
October 10th: Two people are killed and 39 injured by an IRA bomb planted near Chelsea Barracks in London.
October 26th: The Provisional IRA plants a bomb in a hamburger bar in Oxford Street, London. The bomb explodes while a police officer was attempting to defuse it; he is killed by the blast.
November 11th: An off duty UDR member dies after being gunned down in Lisnaskea, County Fermanagh.
November 14th: The Reverend Robert Bradford, the Unionist MP for Belfast South, is shot dead by the Provisional IRA while meeting with his constituents.
November 19th: An off duty UDR member is shot and killed in Ballycolman, County Tyrone, by IRA gunmen.
November 25th: A 24-year-old Catholic civilian, Angela D’Arcy, is shot dead by an off duty British soldier while walking in Enniskillen. The soldier, who was drunk, was later given seven years in prison for manslaughter.

1982
February 23rd: The Provisional IRA bombs another British coal ship, the St Bedan, while at anchor near Derry. 
April 19th: Stephen McConomy, an 11-year-old Catholic boy, dies after being hit by a British Army rubber bullet in Bogside, Derry.
April 20th: The Provisional IRA detonates bombs in six different locations across Northern Ireland, killing two civilians and injuring several others.
April 30th: A British Army patrol is targeted by IRA land mines near Belleek, County Fermanagh, killing a 21-year-old soldier.
May 12th: A former UDR soldier is shot and killed by the Provisional IRA in Strabane, County Tyrone.
June 15th: An off duty UDR member is shot dead by the Provisional IRA in Strabane, County Tyrone.
July 20th: The Provisional IRA plants two bombs in London, killing 11 people and injuring dozens. A car bomb detonated in Hyde Park during the Changing of the Guard killed four soldiers and several horses. In Regent’s Park a bomb exploded under a bandstand, killing seven members of a military band.
October 1st: An off duty RUC officer is killed by an IRA sniper on his way to work near Cookstown, County Tyrone.
November 9th: A Provisional IRA booby trap explodes beneath the car of an off duty RUC officer, killing him and a female civilian.
December 6th: A bomb planted by the Irish National Liberation Army explodes in the Droppin Well nightclub in Ballykelly, County Londonderry. It kills 17 people, 11 of them off-duty British soldiers.

February 19th: A Protestant postman is shot dead while delivering mail in County Fermanagh. The killing is a case of mistaken identity.
May 26th: A RUC officer is shot dead by the INLA outside his base in Cookstown, County Tyrone.
August 13th: Two INLA volunteers, both in their 20s, attempt to ambush a RUC patrol in Dungannon but are both shot and killed.
August 23rd: An off duty UDR soldier is shot and killed in Strabane by Provisional IRA gunmen.
September 19th: A 61-year-old Protestant woman dies, two months after being injured by a Provisional IRA booby trap near Cookstown, County Tyrone.
November 4th: The INLA bombs a bar in Strabane, County Tyrone, injuring a young barman.
December 4th: Two young Provisional IRA volunteers are shot and killed by an undercover British soldier near Coalisland, County Tyrone.
December 10th: The IRA explode a large bomb at the Royal Artillery Barracks in Woolwich, London, injuring five soldiers.
December 7th: Edgar Graham, a young Unionist politician, is shot in the head and killed by a Provisional IRA gunman at Queen’s University Belfast.
December 17th: Acting without official orders, members of the Provisional IRA detonate a car bomb outside Harrods department store in London, killing six and injuring 90. Three of the dead are civilians aged in their 20s, one an American citizen.

1984
February 21st: Two Provisional IRA members and a British soldier are killed in a gunfight in County Antrim.
April 8th: Mary Travers, a 22-year-old teacher, is shot and killed by Provisional IRA gunmen while leaving a Catholic church in Belfast. Her father, their intended target, was also wounded.
May 18th: Three off duty British soldiers are killed when IRA volunteers attach a booby trap to their car in Enniskillen.
July 13th: A Provisional IRA volunteer is shot and killed by British soldiers during an attempt to firebomb a factory in Ardboe, County Tyrone.
August 12th: A 22-year-old Catholic civilian, Sean Downes, is killed by a plastic bullet fired by the RUC during a protest march in Belfast.
September 7th: Republican gunmen raid a timber yard in Dungannong and shoot dead an off duty UDR member and a Protestant civilian.
October 12th: The Provisional IRA detonate a time bomb at the Grand Hotel in Brighton, England, during a Conservative Party conference. Five people are killed including a British MP. The intended target of the bomb, British prime minister Margaret Thatcher, is unhurt.