‘Troubles, the’

Concise Oxford Companion to Irish Literature, The, January, 2000 by ROBERT WELCH

‘Troubles, the’, a term commonly used to refer to two separate but related periods of crisis in modern Irish history, the first being the years of the Anglo-Irish War and the Civil War from the Easter Rising of 1916 to the ceasefire of 1923; the second being of much longer duration, from the outbreak of violence in Northern Ireland in 1968 following civil-rights demonstrations to the Good Friday Agreement of 1998.

At the heart of both conflicts lies the question, still unresolved, as to the form or forms the State or States of Ireland should take which would be representative of the differing cultural identities and religious convictions of the people of Ireland, North and South.