Chronology of the years of violence: Ulster killings

1966: Loyalist gang kills three people in Belfast.

1971: Three teenage off-duty Scottish soldiers shot by the IRA in north Belfast; there is an upsurge of violence after the introduction of internment in 1971; 15 Catholics killed in a loyalist explosion at McGurk's bar in north Belfast.

1972: Bloody Sunday in Londonderry, 13 civilians shot dead by paratroops; seven killed at the Parachute Regiment base in Aldershot, Hampshire, by an 'official' IRA bomb; eight killed by an IRA bomb in the village of Claudy in Co Londonderry.

There is a crescendo of violence in July 1972, with 96 people killed in one month; nine killed by the IRA in the Bloody Friday bombings in Belfast; nine die in an IRA explosion at a customs post near Newry, Co Down.

In May, a sustained campaign of assassinations by loyalists begins, including torture killings and bombings of Catholic pubs.

1974: Nine soldiers and three civilians die in the M62 coach bombing by IRA; loyalist bombs in Dublin and Monaghan kill more than 30 people; six die in loyalist bombing of the Rose & Crown bar in Belfast; IRA bombs two Birmingham pubs, leaving 21 killed and 162 injured.

1975: Loyalist attack on the Miami showband in Co Armagh: three band members and two loyalists killed in premature blast; five Protestants killed in an IRA attack on Tullyvallen Orange Hall in Co Armagh; 12 people die in a day of loyalist bombings.

1975-77: The loyalist 'Shankill Butchers' gang kills more than a dozen Catholics in Belfast.

1976: Five Catholics killed by loyalists in Armagh; the following day republicans kill 10 Protestants; the IRA assassinate Christopher Ewart-Biggs, the British ambassador in Dublin.

1978: Twelve Protestants killed in IRA bombing of La Mon House hotel, near Belfast.

1979: Lord Mountbatten assassinated by IRA in the Irish Republic; on the same day, 18 paratroopers are killed by IRA bombs at Warrenpoint in Co Down.

1981: Ten republicans die in hunger strikes.

1982: Six killed by the Royal Ulster Constabulary in Co Armagh, in what is later known as the 'Stalker affair' shootings; the INLA kills 11 soldiers and six civilians in a bomb attack on a discotheque.

1983: Three Protestant churchgoers killed in an INLA attack on an Armagh mission hall; five die in IRA bombing at Harrods.

1984: Five die in IRA attack on Brighton hotel during the Conservative Party conference.

1985: Nine RUC officers killed in an IRA mortar attack at Newry, Co Down.

1987: INLA feud leaves 12 activists dead; eight IRA members and a civilian killed in an SAS ambush on an IRA bombing team at Loughgall, Co Armagh - it is the IRA's greatest loss during the Troubles; 11 Protestants killed in an IRA bomb attack on Remembrance Day in Enniskillen.

1988: Three IRA members killed by the SAS in Gibraltar; loyalist gunman kills three at their funeral in Belfast; two Army corporals lynched and killed at the subsequent funeral; Army loses 14 off-duty soldiers in two bombings in Lisburn & Tyrone.

1989: Eleven Army bandsmen killed by an IRA bomb in Deal, Kent.

1990: First 'human bomb' incidents: five soldiers and a civilian killed at Londonderry.

1991: Two Army orderlies killed in IRA bombing of the military wing of Musgrave Park Hospital, Belfast; four Protestants killed in one night by the IRA, five-week-old baby wounded.

1992: Eight Protestant workers killed by an IRA bomb at Teebane, Co Tyrone; RUC officer kills three people at the Belfast office of Sinn Fein, then commits suicide; five Catholics killed in a loyalist gun attack on a Belfast betting shop.