This is the first comprehensive history of Northern Ireland for over 15 years. Founded upon the partition of Ireland in 1920, Northern Ireland experienced 50 years of nervous peace under the rule of a devolved government in Belfast. This government was representative only of the Protestant unionist community and discriminated freely against the minority nationalists. The Protestant fortress held firm until the emergence of the Northern Ireland Civil Rights movement in the late 1960s, following which the province subsided into the civil unrest widely known as 'The Troubles'. For nearly 30 years, Northern Ireland has been a headline item in the world's newspapers and on its television screens.