The Troubles in 15 photos that documented history changing

In the 25 years since the Good Friday Agreement, peace has held in Northern Ireland, but those who lived through the Troubles won’t forget them

August 1969: soldiers and civilians in Northern Ireland during the Troubles (Getty Images)

It is 25 years since political leaders struck the Good Friday Agreement, the landmark peace accord that ended three decades of violence in Northern Ireland, a period known as “the Troubles”.

That dark time in Northern Ireland, involving bombings and shootings that killed 3,600 people, began after the suppression of a civil rights march in Derry in October 1968.

Tensions between nationalist Catholics and unionist Protestants deteriorated into a bloody and brutal battle over whether Northern Ireland should be part of Britain or the Irish Republic.

August 1969: Riot police running from exploding petrol bombs (Getty Images)

The clashes involved Irish republican militants, loyalist paramilitaries and UK troops.

As public fury at the repeated violence and deaths mounted, the IRA (Irish Republican Army) called a ceasefire in 1994, allowing Sinn Fein to join other nationalist and unionist parties in peace talks co-sponsored by the British and Irish governments.

The United States played a key role. Former senator George Mitchell oversaw the delicate multi-party negotiations.

The talks came close to collapse several times, but after a negotiating session that stretched long past deadline, agreement was reached on 10 April 1998 — Good Friday.

The people of Northern Ireland got used to seeing British soldiers in the streets (Getty Images)

The then prime minister Tony Blair said: “Today I hope that the burden of history can at long last start to be lifted from our shoulders.”

The following month, the agreement was ratified by voters in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.

The agreement ended direct UK rule of Northern Ireland and set up a legislature and government with power shared between unionist and nationalist parties.

Civil rights marchers (Getty Images)

Four months after the agreement, IRA dissidents planted a car bomb that killed 29 people in the town of Omagh, the deadliest single attack in Northern Ireland.

Despite more sporadic attacks since then by small splinter groups, the peace has held. But those who lived through The Troubles will never forget some of the scenes they saw.

British soldiers take aim at civil-rights demonstrators in the Falls Road, Belfast (Getty Images)

In the Falls Road curfew in July 1970, the British army sealed off the nationalist area for three days in the search for weapons. Four civilians were killed. Days later, a civil-rights protest was staged.

A British paratrooper takes a youth from the crowd on Bloody Sunday (Getty Images)

Bloody Sunday, on 30 January 1972, when British soldiers opened fire on 26 unarmed civilians in the Bogside area of Derry, was one of the darkest days of the Troubles.

Soldiers killed 14 civilians (Getty Images)

When paratroopers opened fire on a civil-rights march, 13 people were killed instantly, and one died later. At least 15 other people were wounded.

The wrecked headquarters of the Parachute Regiment at Aldershot, bombed by the IRA (Getty Images)

Seven people were killed when an IRA car bomb exploded outside the headquarters of the 16th Parachute Brigade in Aldershot, Hampshire, on 22 February 1972. Nineteen people were also injured in the attack that was retaliation for Bloody Sunday.

Belfast residents queuing up at a checkpoint leading out of the city's shopping area (Getty)

Checkpoints enabled British soldiers to search local shoppers and their bags for weapons or explosives.

The car bombs went off in the rush hour (Getty Images)

On 17 May 1974 three car bombs in Dublin exploded almost simultaneously, in Parnell Street, Talbot Street, and South Leinster Street, killing 23 men, women and children. Three others who had been wounded died over the next few days.

The Brighton bomb wreckage (Getty Images)

On 12 October 1984, an bomb planted by the IRA went off, killing five people in the hotel where Conservative politicians were staying for their party conference. Then prime minister Margaret Thatcher, who had been the target, survived, but trade secretary Norman Tebbit and his wife were injured.

Masked men fire volleys of rifle shots in 1981 over the coffin of hunger-striker Bobby Sands (PA)

In 1981, Bobby Sands, the IRA’s leader in the Maze prison near Belfast, starved himself to death after 66 days of refusing food. At least 100,000 people lined the funeral route. Sands had been protesting against the removal of “special category status” in jail.

Police at the scene of the IRA bomb in Docklands (AFP via Getty Images)

On 11 February 1996 two people were killed when IRA terrorists detonated a large bomb in London’s regenerated Docklands area.

Tony Blair and Bertie Ahern sign the Good Friday Agreement (PA)

In April 1998 Tony Blair and Bertie Ahern hailed the spirit of “Anglo-Irish teamwork” that led to the historic Good Friday Agreement.

Devastation caused by the Omagh bomb in 1998 (AP)

Just four months after the agreement was sealed, on 15 August, 1998, a car bomb exploded in Omagh, co Tyrone, killing 29 people and injuring more than 200 others. The Omagh bombing, carried out by members of the Real IRA, was the deadliest attack of the three-decades-long conflict.