Henry II oversees an Anglo Norman invasion of Ireland, establishing an English presence for the first time

James II lands in Ireland and supported by a catholic army reigns from Dublin

The Act of Union creates the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland

First recorded sectarian riots in Belfast

Extensive failure of the potato crop which is repeated the following year

Irish potato blight is discovered leading to country-wide famine

Irish Republican Brotherhood is founded in Dublin; the Fenian Brotherhood in America

Two Irish nationalist organisations merge to become the Sinn Féin League

The ‘Easter Uprising’ in Dublin by the republican Irish Volunteers and Citizen Army is suppressed by British Forces

Eamon de Valera elected President of Sinn Fein. The Irish Volunteers becomes known as the Irish Republican Army.

Start of Irish War of Independence

Anglo-Irish Peace Treaty signed establishing the Irish Free State which the 6 counties of Northern Ireland opted out of.

Start of the Irish Civil War between the Irish Free State and opponents of the 1921 Peace Treaty

Irish Civil War ends in the defeat of the anti-Treaty supporters

Éamon de Valera leaves Sinn Fein and establishes the Fianna Fáil political party

IRA declare war on Britain with a bombing campaign in English cities

UK and France declare war on Germany and the Second World War begins. Ireland remains neutral.

Lord Mountbatten, Viceroy of India, announces the establishment of Pakistan and the independence of India

Ireland formally becomes the Republic of Ireland, independent of the United Kingdom and it’s Commonwealth

The IRA splits into the Official IRA and the Provisional IRA

Internment without trial introduced in Northern Ireland and leads to violence, death and a campaign of civil disobedience

On ‘Bloody Sunday’, British soldiers kill 14 Catholic civil rights protestors in Derry, Northern Ireland

British Home Secretary holds secret talks with the Provisional IRA

The Sunningdale Agreement establishes a power-sharing Northern Ireland Assembly and a cross-border Council

Secret talks between the Provisional IRA and representatives of the British Government.

Internment without trial ends in Northern Ireland

Provisional IRA car bomb kills Christopher Ewart-Biggs, the British Ambassador to Ireland, in Dublin

Margaret Thatcher, Conservative Party, elected British Prime Minister

Provisional IRA bomb kills 4 people aboard a fishing boat off Mullaghmore, County Sligo

Provisional IRA bombs kills 18 British soldiers at Warrenpoint in County Down, Northern Ireland

Bobby Sands, IRA prisoner in Northern Ireland, dies while on hunger strike

Provisional IRA bomb kills 5 at the Conservative Party Conference in Brighton, England

Anglo Irish Agreement signed in Hillsborough, Northern Ireland giving the Irish Government an advisory role in the North

Provisional IRA bomb kills 11 at a Remembrance Service in Enniskillen, Northern Ireland

Margaret Thatcher, the British Prime Minister, resigns and is replaced by John Major

British & Irish Governments issue the Downing Street Declaration giving Northern Ireland the right of self-determination

Provisional IRA call a cease-fire followed in October by the Loyalists

Bill Clinton, President of the USA, visits Northern Ireland and later the Republic

Provisional IRA bomb kills 2 at Canary Wharf in London and ends their 17 month cease-fire

Tony Blair, Labour Party, elected British Prime Minister

Bertie Ahern, Fianna Fáil, elected Irish Premier

Provisional IRA call a second ceasefire

Real IRA is formed from disaffected members of the IRA objecting to the ceasefire and involvement in the peace process

Real IRA bomb kills 29 in Omagh, Northern Ireland

The ‘Good Friday’ Agreement or Belfast Agreement establishes a devolved Northern Ireland Assembly

George W Bush becomes President of the USA

Terrorist attacks in New York and Washington kill nearly 3,000

IRA announces the end of its military campaign and decommissions its weapons

The St Andrews Agreement provides for the restoration of the Northern Ireland Assembly

Sinn Fein and the Democratic Unionist Party form a power-sharing Northern Ireland government

The Independent Monitoring Commission declares the IRA’s army council is now redundant

Real IRA kill 2 soldiers at the Massareene Army Base; Continunity IRA kill a police officer in Craigavon, both Northern Ireland

The UDA, Northern Ireland’s largest loyalist paramilitary organisation, formally declare they have decommissioned all their weapons

HM Queen Elizabeth II and HRH Duke of Edinburgh visit Ireland, the first by a British head of state to the Republic