Political violence in the Troubles: 1969-1971

This timeline chronicles known examples of paramilitary and politically motivated violence during the Troubles, between 1969 and 1971. This chronologies are regularly updated as new information becomes available. We welcome information about errors or incidents not listed here. The term “civilian” is used for individuals or victims with no known or established political or paramilitary affiliations.

1969
January 4th: Around 300 Loyalists, including several off duty ‘B-Specials’, attack civil rights demonstrators at Burntollet Bridge. Dozens of marchers, including Bernadette Devlin, are injured by stones, clubs and nails.
March 30th: Loyalists detonate a bomb at an electricity station near Belfast, the first explosion of the Troubles. This marks the start of a two month Loyalist campaign of bombing water and electricity facilities, in the hope that these attacks would be blamed on Republicans.
April 19th: Samuel Devenny, a Catholic from Bogside, is severely beaten in his home by RUC officers. He dies from his injuries three months later.
July 12th: Orange Order parades trigger days of riots in Belfast, Derry and elsewhere.
July 14th: A 67-year-old Catholic civilian, Francis McCloskey, dies after being struck on the head by batons during an RUC push in Dungiven, County Derry. McCloskey’s death is considered by many to be the first of the Troubles.
August 2nd: Patrick Corry, a 61-year-old Catholic, is beaten around the head by RUC officers during rioting in Belfast. He dies four months later.
August 13th: Three Catholics are shot and killed by RUC officers during riots in Dungannon.
August 14th-17th: Eight people are killed and more than 130 injured by gunfire during Nationalist riots across Northern Ireland. A Catholic man, John Gallagher, becomes the first civilian to be shot dead during the Troubles. David Linton is the first Protestant shooting victim, while 15-year-old Gerard McAuley is the first IRA volunteer to be shot and killed. Also among the dead are Patrick Rooney, a nine-year-old boy, and Hugh McCabe, a Catholic soldier in the British Army.
September 8th: John Todd, a Catholic from Belfast, is shot dead during rioting in the city.
October: For several weeks the UVF detonates several bombs in locations across the Republic of Ireland, including police stations, infrastructure and political monuments.
October 11th: During riots and unrest in the Loyalist area of Shankill in Belfast, British soldiers shoot dead two Protestant civilians. Loyalists also shoot dead a policeman, Victor Arbuckle, the first of more than 300 RUC officers to die in the Troubles.
October 21st: A Loyalist paramilitary volunteer, Thomas McDowell, is killed when a bomb he was carrying detonates prematurely in County Donegal. McDowell is the first person killed by an explosion during the Troubles.

1970
March 31st: Riots and violence erupts in the Springfield Road area of Belfast following an Orange Order parade. The British Army suppresses the rioters with CS gas but dozens of soldiers and civilians are injured.
June 26th: Three Provisional IRA members are killed while assembling a bomb in Creggan, County Derry. Two young sisters, aged nine and four, are also killed in the blast.
June 27th: Five Loyalists and a Catholic IRA member are killed in street violence and gun battles across Belfast. The youngest, Alexander Gould, is 18.
July 3rd: The British Army imposes a curfew in the Falls district of Belfast after gun battles with Official IRA personnel. Four civilians, three of them Catholics, are shot dead by British troops; another 60 are injured.
July 31st: A 19-year-old Catholic is shot dead by a British soldier during street violence in Belfast.
August 2nd: Security forces use rubber bullets for the first time in Northern Ireland.
August 12th: Two RUC officers die in Crossmaglen, County Armagh, after opening an abandoned car booby-trapped by the IRA.
September 4th: An IRA member is killed in Belfast when a bomb he was carrying was accidentally detonated.
September 30th: A civilian is executed in his home in the Shankill area of Belfast by Loyalists.
November 16th: Two Catholics are executed in Belfast by the IRA, in retaliation for criminal activity.
December 23rd: A 65-year-old Protestant civilian is shot dead at home by unknown assailants.

1971
January 27th: IRA gunmen execute a 28-year-old Catholic man in Belfast.
February 6th: Robert Curtis, 20, becomes the first British soldier to die during the Troubles in Northern Ireland. Curtis and two Catholic men are shot dead during gunfighting in Belfast.
February 7th: A Protestant man is found shot dead in Ballyhill.
February 9th: A Provisional IRA landmine kills five workers near a radio transmitter in County Tyrone. Their landrover was mistaken for an army vehicle.
February 15th: A British soldier is shot and killed by an IRA sniper while on patrol in western Belfast.
February 26th: Two RUC officers are killed in a gun battle with IRA operatives in western Belfast.
February 28th: An 18-year-old British Army soldier is suffocated by the contents of a fire extinguisher, after his vehicle was firebombed in Bogside.
March 6th: A 21-year-old Catholic man is shot dead by British soldiers during rioting in the Lower Falls area of Belfast.
March 8th: IRA member Charles Hughes is executed in Belfast as part of an internecine feud.
March 10th: Provisional IRA members kidnap three off-duty British soldiers from a Belfast bar and murder them at Squire’s Hill.
April 24th: Two small boats attached to British naval vessel HMS Hecate are stolen by IRA members and blown up off the coast of Baltimore, Republic of Ireland.
May 8th: Isabella McKeague, 67, dies in a house fire after Loyalists firebomb an adjacent shop.
May 15th: IRA volunteers and British soldiers engage in gun battles in Belfast. An IRA member is killed and two British soldiers are wounded.
May 22nd: A British soldier is killed by an Official IRA sniper while patrolling in Belfast.
May 25th: An IRA bomb is thrown into a British Army base in Belfast, killing one soldier and injuring 27 others. The dead man, Sergeant Michael Willetts, is awarded the George Cross for using his body to shield civilians from the blast.
July 4th: An Official IRA member is critically injured after a bomb detonates prematurely in the Republic of Ireland. He dies two days later.
July 8th: Two Catholic men are shot dead by British soldiers during rioting in Bogside.
July 12th: A British soldier is shot and killed by an IRA sniper in Lower Falls, Belfast.
July 14th: A British Army patrol is ambushed by three IRA volunteers in south-western Belfast. A British soldier is killed by machine gun fire.
August 7th: British soldiers open fire on a civilian driving past their base in Belfast, killing him. The soldiers mistook the backfiring of his car for gunfire.
August 8th: An IRA sniper shoots dead a British soldier while on patrol in Ardoyne, Belfast.
August 9th: The British Army commences Operation Demetrius, arresting and detaining 342 suspected paramilitaries, most of them Catholics. Violence during this operation results in 24 deaths: 14 Catholic civilians, six Protestant civilians, two British soldiers and two Provisional IRA volunteers. The youngest victim, Desmond Healey, is 14.
August 18th: Eamon McDevitt, a deaf Catholic civilian, is shot dead by the British Army in Strabane.
August 23rd: Two British soldiers are shot and killed by IRA snipers in western Belfast.
September 3rd: IRA men fire on British soldiers in Belfast and a ricochet hits and kills 17-month-old Angela Gallagher. The IRA later apologises for her death. A UDR soldier is also killed by the IRA in County Fermanagh.
September 4th: A British soldier, aged 18, is killed by an IRA land mind in County Down.
September 6th: Annette McGavigan, a 14-year-old Catholic girl, becomes the 100th civilian fatality of the Troubles when she is shot in the head by a British soldier. McGavigan features in a prominent mural in Derry.
September 9th: A British soldier is killed in Drumankelly while attempting to disarm an IRA bomb.
September 13th: A Loyalist volunteer, aged 21, is critically injured when a bomb explodes prematurely in Belfast. He dies one month later.
September 14th: A British soldier is killed by an IRA sniper in Creggan, Derry. Another is shot dead by the IRA in County Tyrone, while a third is shot on Falls Road, Belfast and dies the following day.
September 15th: A Catholic civilian is shot by a British Army sniper in Derry.
September 16th: A Protestant civilian is found murdered in Belfast, probably killed by Loyalists.
September 17th: A British Army soldier is shot and killed by an IRA sniper in Ardoyne, Belfast.
September 18th: A 20-year-old RUC officer is shot dead by IRA gunmen while patrolling in central Strabane, County Tyrone. Another RUC officer is also shot and wounded.
September 23rd: Rose Curry, 18, and Gerard O’Hare, 17, are killed when a bomb explodes prematurely at an Official IRA location.
September 29th: A bomb attack on a Protestant pub in Shankill Road, Belfast kills two men and injures 27 others. The pub was filled with football supporters at the time.
October 1st: A British Army soldier is shot dead while patrolling in Ardoyne, Belfast.
October 2nd: A 19-year-old member of the IRA is killed when a bomb explodes prematurely in Country Antrim.
October 3rd: A Catholic civilian on his way to work is killed during a gun battle between British soldiers and the IRA in Falls Road. This fighting broke a ceasefire between the two groups.
October 4th: The Official IRA bombs a British Army post in Belfast, killing a 22-year-old soldier in the Scots Guards.
October 9th: The UVF bombs the Fiddler’s House bar in Belfast, killing one man and injuring others.
October 11th: A British soldier dies after being shot while patrolling in Derry in late September.
October 15th: Two RUC officers are shot dead by IRA gunmen while parked near Twaddell Avenue in Belfast. A British soldier is also shot by the IRA in Belfast and dies two days later.
October 16th: A British Army soldier is killed by an IRA sniper during rioting in Bogside.
October 17th: A British soldier is killed by an IRA gunman while on foot patrol in Belfast. A Catholic civilian is also shot dead by British soldiers.
October 23rd: Five people are killed by the British Army: three men in Newry and two women in Belfast. All are presumed to be IRA members. Another man, a Catholic civilian, is shot during an attack on British soldiers in Belfast; he dies two days later.
October 24th: An IRA member, aged 19, is shot dead by RUC officers while attempting to bomb a nightclub in Belfast.
October 26th: The IRA abduct a Protestant man, Robert McFarland. He is found bound, gagged and shot through the head in East Belfast.
October 27th: Four men are killed in three separate incidents. Two British soldiers die after the IRA bomb their post in Derry. Another British soldier is killed in Kinawley, after his vehicle hits an IRA land mine. An RUC officer is shot dead by an IRA sniper in Country Antrim.
October 28th: A British soldier is shot while patrolling Stockman’s Lane in Belfast. He dies three days later.
October 29th: The British Army shoot dead a man standing in the doorway of his home in Ardoyne. Another is shot nearby and dies two days later. An RUC officer is killed when the IRA bombs his station in Belfast.
October 30th: A British soldier, aged 22, is killed by an IRA bomb in Belfast.
November 1st: Two RUC officers are killed by the IRA in Belfast.
November 2nd: The IRA bombs a pub and shops near an RUC station in Belfast. Two men and a woman are killed. The IRA also bomb a government office in Belfast and the Belfast-Dublin railway line.
November 4th: A 51-year-old Belfast woman, Emma Groves, is shot in the face by a rubber bullet fired into her window by a British soldier. Groves is blinded in the attack. She goes on to lead a campaign against the use of rubber and plastic bullets.
November 24th: Provisional IRA gunmen attack British soldiers near Strabane. A stray gunshot kills a female Catholic civilian, aged 27.
December 4th: UVF operatives explode a bomb in McGurk’s Bar in Belfast, killing 15 people and injuring others. The bar was frequented by Catholics and known Republicans.
December 8th: A Catholic man serving with the UDR is shot dead in his Belfast home by the IRA.
December 10th: Two off duty UDR soldiers are shot dead by the Provisional IRA while driving to work near Strabane, County Tyrone.
December 11th: The IRA detonates a bomb at a furniture company in Shankill Road, a Loyalist area of Belfast. The blast kills four civilians, two of them babies sharing a pram
December 12th: John Barnhill, an Ulster Unionist senator, is shot and killed by the Official IRA near his Strabane home. Barnhill was the first politician to be murdered during the Troubles.
December 14th: The British Army shoot dead 16-year-old Martin McShane outside a youth centre in County Tyrone.
December 16th: The IRA shot and kill a 22-year-old British soldier in the Lower Falls area of Belfast.
December 18th: Three IRA volunteers are killed when the bomb they are carrying explodes in County Derry. In Belfast, the UVF bombs a pub, killing a 16-year-old civilian.
December 20th: Margaret McCorry, 20, is killed by gunfire during an IRA attack on a British position in Belfast.
December 21st: An IRA volunteer, aged 23, is shot and killed after being stopped by British soldiers in Ardoyne, Belfast. A Catholic publican is also killed while attempting to remove an IRA bomb from his bar.
December 29th: Richard Ham, a 20-year-old British soldier, is killed by the IRA while patrolling in Derry.
December 30th: An IRA volunteer is killed in Dublin when a bomb prematurely explodes.