Operation Banner

Operation Banner
Part of the Troubles and the dissident Irish republican campaign

Two British Army soldiers at a checkpoint near Newry, Northern Ireland, 1988
Date14 August 1969 – 31 July 2007
(37 years, 11 months, 2 weeks and 3 days)
Location
Result

Stalemate[1][2]

Belligerents

British Armed Forces

Royal Ulster Constabulary
Irish republican paramilitaries Ulster loyalist paramilitaries
Commanders and leaders
Sean MacStiofain
Seamus Costello
Gerard Steenson
Cathal Goulding
Gusty Spence
Johnny Adair
Billy Wright
Strength
21,000 British soldiers[3]
6,500 UDR[4]
Total: c. 40,500
Casualties and losses
  • 722 deaths from paramilitary attacks
  • 719 deaths from other causes
  • 6,100 injured
[5]
PIRA 97 killed by British Army
INLA 5 killed by British Army
IPLO 1 killed by British Army
1 OIRA killed by British Army[6]
UVF 7 killed by British Army
UDA 7 killed by British Army[6]

Operation Banner was the operational name for the British Armed Forces' operation in Northern Ireland from 1969 to 2007, as part of the Troubles. It was the longest continuous deployment in British military history.[7][8] The British Army was initially deployed, at the request of the unionist government of Northern Ireland, in response to the August 1969 riots. Its role was to support the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) and to assert the authority of the British government in Northern Ireland. This involved counter-insurgency and supporting the police in carrying out internal security duties such as guarding key points, mounting checkpoints and patrols, carrying out raids and searches, riot control and bomb disposal. More than 300,000 soldiers served in Operation Banner.[9] At the peak of the operation in the 1970s, about 21,000 British troops were deployed, most of them from Great Britain. As part of the operation, a new locally-recruited regiment was also formed: the Ulster Defence Regiment (UDR).

The Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) waged a guerrilla campaign against the British military from 1970 to 1997. Catholics welcomed the troops when they first arrived, because they saw the RUC as sectarian,[10] but Catholic hostility to the British military's deployment grew after incidents such as the Falls Curfew (1970), Operation Demetrius (1971) and Bloody Sunday (1972). In their efforts to defeat the IRA, there were incidents of collusion between British soldiers and Ulster loyalist paramilitaries. From the late 1970s the British government adopted a policy of "Ulsterisation", which meant giving a greater role to local forces: the UDR and RUC. After the Good Friday Agreement in 1998, the operation was gradually scaled down, most military facilities were removed and the vast majority of British troops were withdrawn.

According to the Ministry of Defence, 1,441 serving British military personnel died in Operation Banner;[11] 722 of whom were killed in paramilitary attacks,[11] and 719 of whom died as a result of other causes.[11] It suffered its greatest loss of life in the Warrenpoint ambush of 1979.

  1. ^ Taylor, Peter, (1997), Behind the mask: The IRA and Sinn Féin, Chapter 21: Stalemate, pp. 246–261. ISBN 978-1575000619
  2. ^ "Army paper says IRA not defeated". BBC News. 6 July 2007. Retrieved 21 March 2008.
  3. ^ "The Troubles left a legacy like no other army deployment". Sky News. 14 March 2019. Retrieved 1 June 2019.
  4. ^ "House of Commons Debate". Hansard. 13 February 1992. Retrieved 1 June 2019.
  5. ^ Operation Banner Deaths; retrieved 26 May 2014.
  6. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference suttonindex was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  7. ^ Sanders, Andrew. Times of Trouble: Britain's War in Northern Ireland. Edinburgh University Press, 2012. p. 109
  8. ^ "The Troubles: How 1969 violence led to Army's longest campaign". BBC News, 14 August 2019.
  9. ^ Armed Forces mark 50 years since the start of operations in Northern Ireland. Ministry of Defence, 14 August 2019.
  10. ^ "1969: British troops sent into Northern Ireland". On This Day. BBC News. 14 August 1969. Retrieved 12 January 2018.
  11. ^ a b c "UK Armed Forces Operational deaths post World War II" (PDF). Ministry of Defence. 26 March 2015. Retrieved 10 March 2019.