Tag: Good Friday Agreement

Loyalist paramilitaries:
An overview

UFF mural on a gable end in Sandy Row, Belfast

In the Troubles loyalists killed 990 people; 708 simply because they were Catholics.1 The question is “Why?” Main Groupings The two most important and longest-established loyalist terrorist groups are: Ulster Volunteer Force founded in 1966, the fiftieth anniversary of the…

Significant Commas in Irish History

As well as teaching about Irish history, I teach English language and grammar, especially the written variety, which a lot of the time seems to mean teaching commas: where to put one, where not to put one, and why it…

My top books on Irish history

There are a lot of books on Irish history, and the current Decade of Commemoration has prompted a flood of new ones. Here’s my choice of a few of those that have been around for a while but are still…

The Good Friday Agreement

To mark Good Friday, here’s a piece on the build-up to the Belfast Agreement, better known as the Good Friday Agreement after the day it was concluded. Background Events that took place over a long period before 1994 had prepared…