Editing Belfast (section)

=== The Troubles ===
{{Main|The Troubles}}
For reasons that [[Irish nationalism|nationalists]] and [[Unionism in Ireland|unionists]] dispute,<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Roche |first1=Patrick |title=The Northern Ireland Question: Perspectives on Nationalism and Unionism |last2=Brian Barton |publisher=Wordzworth Publishing |year=2020 |isbn=978-1-78324-145-3 }}</ref> the public protests of the late 1960s soon gave way to communal violence (in which as many as 60,000 people were intimidated from their homes)<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last1=Shirlow |first1=Peter |title=Belfast: Segregation, Violence and the City |last2=Murtagh |first2=Brendan |publisher=Pluto |year=2006 |isbn=978-0-7453-2480-7 |location=London |pages= }}</ref>{{rp|70}} and to [[Ulster loyalism|loyalist]] and [[Irish republicanism|republican]] [[Paramilitary|paramilitarism]]. Introduced onto the streets in August 1969, the [[Operation Banner|British Army]] committed to the longest continuous deployment in its history, [[Operation Banner]]. Beginning in 1970 with the [[Falls Curfew|Falls curfew]], and followed in 1971 by [[Operation Demetrius|internment]], this included [[counterinsurgency]] measures directed chiefly at the [[Provisional Irish Republican Army]]. The PIRA characterised their operations, including the bombing of Belfast's commercial centre, as a struggle against British occupation.<ref>Holland, Jack (1999). ''Hope Against History: The Course of Terrorist trouble in Northern Ireland''. [[Henry Holt and Company]]. {{ISBN|978-0-8050-6087-4 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=CAIN: Background Essay on the Northern Ireland Conflict |url=https://cain.ulster.ac.uk/othelem/landon.htm |access-date=26 May 2021 |website=cain.ulster.ac.uk |archive-date=8 May 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210508154443/https://cain.ulster.ac.uk/othelem/landon.htm |url-status=live }}</ref>

Preceded by loyalist and republican ceasefires, the 1998 [[Good Friday Agreement|"Good Friday" Belfast Agreement]] returned a new [[Power sharing|power-sharing]] [[Northern Ireland Assembly|legislative assembly]] and [[Northern Ireland Executive|executive]] to Stormont.<ref>{{Cite web |date=21 January 2019 |title=20 years on: What was agreed in the Good Friday Agreement? |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/good-friday-agreement-what-it-northern-ireland-belfast-1998-sinn-fein-troubles-a8278156.html |access-date=26 May 2021 |website=The Independent |archive-date=22 September 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200922211443/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/good-friday-agreement-what-it-northern-ireland-belfast-1998-sinn-fein-troubles-a8278156.html |url-status=live }}</ref> In the intervening years in Belfast, some 20,000 people had been injured, and 1,500 killed.<ref name=":0" />{{rp|73}}<ref>{{cite news |date=11 April 2001 |title=Sutton Index of Deaths |url=http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/sutton/search.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110927075228/http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/sutton/search.html |archive-date=27 September 2011 |access-date=9 July 2013 |publisher=CAIN |quote=Search for Belfast in "Text Search of Description (and key words)" }}</ref>

Eighty-five percent of the conflict-related deaths had occurred within 1,000 metres of the communal [[Interface area|interfaces]], largely in the north and west of the city.<ref name=":0" />{{rp|73}} The security barriers erected at these interfaces are an enduring physical legacy of the Troubles.<ref name=":1">{{Citation |last=Bryan |first=Dominic |title=Titanic Town: Living in a Lndscape of Conflict |date=2012 |url=https://pure.qub.ac.uk/en/publications/titanic-town-living-in-a-lndscape-of-conflict |work=Belfast 400: People Place and History |pages=317–353 |editor-last=Connolly |editor-first=Sean |access-date=17 January 2024 |place=Liverpool |publisher=Liverpool University Press (BHS) |isbn=978-1-84631-636-4 }}</ref> The 14 neighbourhoods they separate are among the 20 most deprived [[Ward (electoral subdivision)|wards]] in Northern Ireland.<ref>{{Cite web |title=A history of the peace walls in Belfast |url=https://www.theweek.co.uk/northern-ireland/952591/a-history-of-the-peace-walls-in-belfast |access-date=22 June 2021 |website=The Week UK |date=21 April 2021 |archive-date=11 July 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210711192824/https://www.theweek.co.uk/northern-ireland/952591/a-history-of-the-peace-walls-in-belfast |url-status=live }}</ref> In May 2013, the [[Northern Ireland Executive]] committed to the removal of all peace lines by mutual consent.<ref>{{cite web |date=31 July 2017 |title=Department of Justice Interface Programme – Department of Justice |url=https://www.justice-ni.gov.uk/articles/department-justice-interface-programme |access-date=13 April 2019 |website=Justice |archive-date=31 May 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190531115700/https://www.justice-ni.gov.uk/articles/department-justice-interface-programme |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Cathy Gormley-Heenan, Duncan Morrow and Jonny Byrne |title=Removing Peace Walls and Public Policy Brief (1): the challenge of definition and design |publisher=Northern Ireland Assembly |year=2015 }}</ref> The target date of 2023 was passed with only a small number dismantled.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Leebody |first=Christopher |date=9 December 2020 |title=Belfast interface residents remain divided over peace walls |work=belfasttelegraph |url=https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/northern-ireland/belfast-interface-residents-remain-divided-over-peace-walls-39846514.html |access-date=22 June 2021 |issn=0307-1235 |archive-date=11 July 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210711194325/https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/northern-ireland/belfast-interface-residents-remain-divided-over-peace-walls-39846514.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Carroll |first=Rory |last2= |first2= |date=7 April 2023 |title=Belfast's peace walls: potent symbols of division are dwindling – but slowly |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/apr/07/belfasts-peace-walls-potent-symbols-of-division-are-dwindling-but-slowly |access-date=16 January 2024 |work=The Guardian |issn=0261-3077 }}</ref>

The more affluent districts escaped the worst of the violence, but the city centre was a major target. This was especially so during the first phase of the PIRA campaign in the early 1970s, when the organisation hoped to secure quick political results through maximum destruction.<ref name=":1" />{{rp|331–332}} Including [[car bomb]]s and incendiaries, between 1969 and 1977 the city experienced 2,280 explosions.<ref name=":16" />{{rp|58}} In addition to the death and injury caused, they accelerated the loss of the city's Victorian fabric.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Patton |first=Marcus |title=Central Belfast, A Historical Gazetteer |publisher=Ulster Architectural Heritage Society |year=1993 |isbn=0-900457-44-9 |location=Belfast |pages=xii }}</ref>