page_title: History of Belfast
section_title: Conflict in Belfast 1920–1922
hierarchical_section_title: History of Belfast / Conflict in Belfast 1920–1922
caption_attribution_description: English: Harp and crown emblem of the RUC
context_page_description: The history of Belfast as a settlement goes back to the Iron Age, but its status as a major urban centre dates to the 18th century. Belfast today is the capital of Northern Ireland. Belfast was throughout its modern history a major commercial and industrial centre, but the late 20th century saw a decline in its traditional industries, particularly shipbuilding. The city's history has been marked by violent conflict between Catholics and Protestants which has caused many working class areas of the city to be split into Catholic and Protestant areas. In recent years the city has been relatively peaceful and major redevelopment has occurred, especially in the inner city and dock areas.
context_section_description: The periods immediately before and after partition were marked by major sectarian violence in Belfast as some areas more dominated by one of the two communities. While occurring simultaneously with the Irish War of Independence, the unrest in Northern Ireland had an identity all of its own, with much of the violence happening independently of events in the South. Unlike the rest of Ireland, where the war was largely fought between the IRA and Crown forces, around 90% of the 465 deaths in Belfast were civilian on civilian. Violence occurred in the form sectarian assassinations and reprisals on random victims. Open, armed clashes between Catholic and Protestants often occurred in the city streets. This particular round of conflict originated in Derry in June 1920 when Catholics burned Protestant homes in the Bogside area of the city after Protestants burned Catholic homes in the Waterside. The Ulster Volunteer Force was revamped to respond to the threat using machine guns to fire randomly into the Catholic Bogside, resulting in several deaths.
  On 21 July 1920, rioting broke out in Belfast, starting in the shipyards and spreading to residential areas. The violence was partly in response to the IRA killing of a northern RIC police officer Gerald Smyth, in Cork, and also because of competition over jobs due to the high unemployment rates. Protestant Loyalists marched on the Harland and Wolff shipyards in Belfast and forced over 11,000 Catholic and left-wing Protestant workers from their jobs. The sectarian rioting that followed resulted in about 20 deaths in just three days. Both Catholics and Protestants were expelled from their homes by the other side, sometimes by fire. The further IRA assassination of an RIC Detective Swanzy in nearby Lisburn on 22 August prompted another round of clashes, in which 33 people died in 10 days.  The year 1921 saw three major flare ups in Belfast. Just before the truce that formally ended the Irish War of Independence, Belfast suffered a day of violence known at the time as 'Belfast's Bloody Sunday'. An IRA ambush of an armoured police truck on Raglan Street killed one RIC man, injured two more and destroyed their armoured car. This sparked ferocious fighting in west Belfast on the following day, Sunday 10 July, in which 16 civilians (eleven Catholics and five Protestants) lost their lives and 161 houses were destroyed. Gun battles raged all day along the sectarian 'boundary' between the Falls and Shankill Roads; rival gunmen used rifles, machine guns and hand grenades. Four more would die over the following two days  The second spike in violence happened from 29 August to 1 September, in which twenty people were killed. The third eruption was in November, when more than thirty died in response to the IRA bombing city trams taking Protestant workers to the shipyards, killing seven people.
  King George V offered to open Northern Ireland's parliament on 22 June 1921. The king made this decision hoping to quell the continual violence that raged in places like Belfast and Derry. Prime Minister David Lloyd George saw the occasion as an opportunity to include Sinn Féin. When the King arrived, Belfast was awash with British flags, royal portraits and cheering throngs. George V addressed a gathering of Unionists and their wives in Belfast City Hall (Nationalists vowed not to attend). In his speech, the King expressed his hope that his presence in Ireland would help put an end to strife of the people regardless of "their race or creed". He went on to implore all the Irish to forgive and live with each other in peace and harmony. The King later privately remarked that he was very glad he came to Northern Ireland though many of his advisors were against the idea. The day after the monarch's departure, the IRA blew up a train carriage carrying the King's cavalry escort en route to Dublin, killing 4 men and 80 horses. A truce (which was to become the end of the war) was then agreed and came into effect on 11 July 1921, opening negotiations between Irish Republicans and the British government.
  Negotiations 
caption: Royal Ulster Constabulary emblem
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